Quick Hits
Tab clearing time.
First, because sure, why not? Via KWTX: Monkeypox infection confirmed in North Texas.
Second, this headline for this op/ed caught my eye the other day: Gaslighting for critical race theory . My first thought was that that was an excellent description of what critics are saying about CRT (e.g., that it is teaching white elementary-school children to hate the color of their skin), but then I saw it was in the Washington Examiner and clicked through to find it was the opposite.
Third, CNN fact-checks some claims from the audit in AZ: Fact check: Arizona audit chief baselessly raises suspicion about 74,000 ballots. The whole thing can be summarized as follows: “Tammy Patrick, an elections expert who spent more than a decade working at Maricopa County’s elections department… tweeted of the auditors: “AGAIN: They don’t know what they’re looking at.””
Fourth, Team Trump’s court troubles continue (via WaPo): ‘A propaganda tool’ for Trump: A second federal judge castigates attorneys who filed a lawsuit challenging the 2020 results.
UGh, why did I click through on that after getting the warning… Or better yet, why did you post that link in the first place?
The AZ “auditors'” recent statements — running the ballots through yet another set of machines, suggesting even more outlandish subpoena requests, reviving their idea of a massive door-to-door canvassing effort — make me suspect that they’ve lost a bunch of ballots and know they will get called on it as soon as they have to give the ballots back to Maricopa County.
@mattbernius:
Hahaha. I read it as well. And of course no disingenuous column in that sort of publication would be complete without invoking Orwell. Instead of 1984, the author uses “Politics and the English Language” and doesn’t seem to have a clue that he is engaging in the behavior criticized in the essay.
@mattbernius: Sorry about that 😉
@Kurtz: The irony in that piece is deep. I was going to do an actual write-up but didn’t have time (and, really, what would have been the point?). Somehow the caricature of the author made it all the more ridiculous.
Well, they’re not there to know what they’re looking at, they are there to sow FUD about the democratic process. And in that context they are, unfortunately, succeeding.
@mattbernius: Steven wanted to share the pain, no reason he should suffer alone.
In the early oughts, there was a blogger who fact checked Faux News and other RW punditry. While I can’t remember the blogs name or the blogger’s, except that his first name was Bob. I do remember the tag line, paraphrasing; I read this stuff so you don’t have to.
A service Dr. T is providing our little community.
I read the CRT thing, too. It wasn’t the LOL thing that I’d hoped it would be but did remind me of the benefit postmodernism enabling people to define their own reality. More sad than funny. Almost as sad as the phrase “Oregon governor Nick Kristoff.” (Fish needing bicycles came to mind reading that post for some reason. Hmmm…)
@Michael Cain:
Lost “lost”, ruined and don’t want to admit it “lost” or sold off to the dark web “lost”?
@KM: Because I am a kind and trusting soul, I’ll go with “misplaced” lost. When Maricopa County turned over the ballots, those were in bundles, bundles in boxes, boxes on pallets, pallets shrink-wrapped. The county had information about every bundle/box/pallet. Given the Cyber Ninjas have not shown any sort of organized plan for extracting ballots and returning them to the same bundle/box/pallet, and have moved the whole pile to an alternate location twice, it seems a sure thing that some ballots/bundles/boxes are in the wrong place.
Edit to add — I still think the Ninjas best move at this point is to return everything and issue a report that says, “We found no evidence of any systemic problems with Maricopa County’s results,” then slink away.
On the gaslighting, sometimes I think the Rovian tactic of first cynically accusing the other guy of doing what you are doing has become ingrained. It has become part of their collective subconscious. They appear to do it almost automatically.
@Michael Cain: Wouldn’t a bunch of missing ballots just be proof that Maricopa County was counting non-existent ballots to put Biden over the top?
You clearly don’t have enough right wing relatives texting you. This is just logic! The counting in the audit was live-streamed, it’s clearly true.
@Gustopher:
Or a reason for the DOJ to show up with federal marshals and arrest the Ninjas, the subcontractors, and the volunteers, all for violation of 52 USC 207.
@Michael Cain: Door to door canvassing? Clearly they want to grab our guns and bibles. They better not Ninja knockie at my house.
@Scott O: Fer real. They seem to think only Republican’s can apply 2nd Amendment Solutionsâ„¢ to problems like this.
@Michael Cain: It’s unlikely to happen, but I’d like to see them sued and fined for every lost or spoiled ballot.