The Race Tightens

Five years after the fact, Trump is on the brink of winning the 2020 election.  Fulton County, Georgia, has admitted that 315,000 ballots were unlawfully certified.  Joe Biden carried the county by a 73% to 26% margin, so most of those votes went into his column.  The margin of victory for the state of Georgia was just shy of 12,000 votes.  Removing the invalid ballots would flip the state to Trump.  It has already been determined that Pennsylvania's new voting law was unconstitutional.  Nixing those invalid ballots would likewise flip that state.  Georgia is worth 16 electoral votes and Pennsylvania is worth 20.  That 36-point shift would drop Biden from 306 to 270 and raise Trump from 232 to 268.  The race is getting close!

Next, it might be time to take a closer look at Maricopa County in Arizona.  Here is a county that has voted Republican in every election since 1952 with the exception of 2020.  That is odd.  Biden carried the state by only 10,500 votes, but the typically Republican County by 45,000 votes.  Perhaps investigate the surge of absentee votes after midnight from Milwaukee in Wisconsin.  Biden carried Wisconsin by only 21,000 votes.  If either of these have issues like Georgia or Pennsylvania, the 2020 election flips.

Does it matter at this point?  Yes.  If our elections are tending toward becoming mere shows, like those in China, North Korea, Russia, and so on, then the country is over.  Once the Deep State can consistently choose the winner (or even just the party nominees), the country is at an end.

The New Conspiracy

Throughout my life, the JFK Assassination has been the subject of speculation and conspiracies.  Over the years, I have bought into some of the conspiracies, discarded them, accepted the Warren Commission's conclusions, and finally shrugged with apathy.  Of course, that happened before I was born.

The shot at Trump a week ago has already spawned speculation and conspiracies.  There is a claim that there were 2 shooters: Thomas Crooks and a man on the water tower.  The photo of the 'man' on the water tower has the same sharp picture quality of most UFO sightings.  Another fellow states that the rifle reports sound different, indicating different guns and/or different locations.  The plentiful reports that Crooks was observed acting suspiciously before the event and spotted on the roof with a rifle well before he fired looks really bad for the Secret Service.  During one press conference, a police officer admitted that the shooter was confronted on the roof, but the officer retreated when the rifle was aimed at him.  What?!  How did that not lead to the immediate evacuation of President Trump?

Then we have the conspiracies.  Some claim Trump arranged the shooting to gain sympathy.  Really?  Others say his ear was cut by glass from a shattered teleprompter.  There is even a theory that the massive computer crash of yesterday was a CIA op to allow them to wipe out evidence that would show they planned the assassination attempt.  Right.  Any regular reader of this blog is aware that I have a low opinion of government and the following quote probably explains the security blunders from last week.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Robert J. Hanlon

After hundreds of events over a period of many years, people get lazy.  Nothing ever happens.  Look how often TSA fails.  How long have people claimed that terrorist are flooding over the southern border (I am among them) and yet no big terrorist attacks.  See.  It doesn't make a difference.  Apathy sets in.  A year ago, maybe just one thing was missed before a rally, but now lots of things are overlooked.

Since Trump survived, this incident won't rise to the level of the JFK Assassination, but it will be the focus of conspiracy theories for the next several years.

Political Incitement

In 2011, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot while attending a rally.  In the immediate aftermath, fingers were pointed at the rhetoric of Sarah Palin.  In a campaign ad aimed at defeating Democrats in the state of Arizona, a crosshair was used for targeting various districts, Giffords' among them.  Clearly, this was Palin calling upon some 'patriot' to gun down the opposition.  Thus, for several months following the shooting, the mainstream media became language police.  Terms like target, tackle, fight, battleground, and the like became unacceptable.  Why?  Because crazy people will take it seriously.  As Giffords was a Democrat, the Republicans were blamed, most especially Republican Sarah Palin.

Let's fast forward to today.  Donald Trump has been vilified by the media as the next coming of Hitler, as a would-be fascist dictator.  After the recent presidential debate, Biden himself said it was time "to put Trump in a bullseye."  The fiery rhetoric against Trump makes Palin's ad campaign from 2011 pale in comparison.  Some pundits have predicted that there would be an assassination attempt on Trump.  It is a common trope that anyone who could time travel would be obligated to kill Hitler.  Well, everyone on the left is claiming that Trump will be as bad as Hitler, so obviously it is reasonable - required even - that he be prevented from becoming president, by whatever means are necessary.  Right?

Though we know nothing of the shooter at this point, it is virtually guaranteed that he will be similar to Jared Loughner, James Hodgkins (shot Republican Congressmen at a baseball practice), or John Hinckley Jr. (shot President Reagan).  Another crazy person who responded to the not so subtle messaging that this or that politician is a threat to the country.

If Sarah Palin's ads were political incitement against Gabby Giffords, then the fiery rhetoric of Democrats at all levels is also political incitement.  Let's dial back the accusations of fascism.  Of course, the Democrats are on the losing side as far as inflation, the border, law & order, and foreign wars.

Trump Won Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that the 2019 law that allowed mail-in ballots was unconstitutional.  Prior to the law's passage, only 300,000 mail-in ballots were submitted.  These would be the standard absentee ballots that required a request from the voter.  After the law, the mail-in total exceeded 2.5 million votes.  Let's look at the 2020 election results.  The following graph is available at The Data Corner.:

Of particular note, 58% of Biden's votes were mailed-in while only 18% of Trump's were.  Reverting to the previous 300,000, but using the same proportion for each candidate, how does that look:

If mail-in ballots are disallowed, Trump wins 62% of the state compared to 37% for Biden.  This same trend goes across the country.  As I noted in a previous post, nearly 60% of Biden's votes were mailed-in vs. a third of Trump's.  Disallow mail-in, Trump wins in a massive landslide.

Of course, it is too late now.  Biden is president and no court will or should reverse the election, flawed or not..  However, this should be a clarion call to the states to get their voting systems in order.  Right now, too many citizens distrust the outcome of our elections.  It does not matter if the concerns are valid or not, only that the citizens are distrustful.  You want a functioning system that does not see more January 6 events, you need to have a system that both sides trust.

Lockdowns Have Gone Too Far

Here is an interesting report out of Pennsylvania.  If two thirds of the cases are at nursing homes and the average age of someone who dies of Covid-19 is 79, why is everyone locked down?  Yes, have the elderly stay home but younger people, especially under 40, should be allowed out.  The shutdown was sold as a way to flatten the curve.  The curve is flattened.  The risk of overwhelming the system has been averted.  Let people go back to work.  Sure, we can wear masks and social distance but if isolation hasn't burned out the virus yet, it isn't a worthwhile tactic.  Maybe in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, where the majority of cases and deaths have occurred, should stick with the lockdown but not the whole country.  This starts to smack of petty tyrants who get high on locking up their citizens.

Speaking of petty tyrants, consider the Texas judge who sentenced a woman to jail because she didn't admit to being 'selfish.'  We're releasing prisoners for fear of the spread in jails and prisons but putting a woman in jail for not accepting court-ordered bankruptcy.  Nice.