Election Challenges, Protests, Conspiracy Theories, and Moral Panics

[GMDino]

The GOP should change their symbol from an Elephant to some some of invertebrate.  Snail might work.  Slow and leaves a trail of slime behind it wherever it goes.

Kevin McCarthy went from saying "there is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party to "I don't even know what [QAnon] is" in the span of six months pic.twitter.com/Hr9cwSHhxd

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 4, 2021

 

[hollodero]

'I don't know what QAnon is.' These people really are without shame.

[*Nately120*]

(02-04-2021, 12:59 PM)hollodero Wrote: 'I don't know what QAnon is.' These people really are without shame.

TEACHER - Billy, are you sure you didn't poop your pants?
BILLY - Poop?  What is poop?  I'm not even wearing pants.  I don't know what pants are.  This is a witch hunt! A storm is going to come and prove that I'm totally not sitting here in poop-filled pants. You'll be sued so hard.

[Au165]

Prosecutors in Fulton County Georgia have opened a criminal investigation into Trump's phone call with the secretary of state trying to overturn the election.

[*jason*]

(02-10-2021, 03:44 PM)Au165 Wrote: Prosecutors in Fulton County Georgia have opened a criminal investigation into Trump's phone call with the secretary of state trying to overturn the election.

Should be pretty open and shut... We all heard it. But I'm sure it'll be another "perfect phone call".

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(02-10-2021, 11:24 PM)jason Wrote: Should be pretty open and shut... We all heard it. But I'm sure it'll be another "perfect phone call".

Keep an eye out for the "procedure" defense. Call Trump to testify . . . that way he can call it another perjury trap. It's like when Charles Barkley claimed he was misquoted . . . in his autobiography.

[GMDino]

Another republican/q anon  member who projected their own sins on others...

Former GOP candidate Ben Gibson was arrested in Louisiana on four counts of pornography involving juveniles.

Gibson has pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that President Trump is working to take down a network of Satanic pedophiles.https://t.co/9YELEW4WKl

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) February 14, 2021

 

[BigPapaKain]

(02-15-2021, 09:53 PM)GMDino Wrote: Another republican/q anon  member who projected their own sins on others...

Former GOP candidate Ben Gibson was arrested in Louisiana on four counts of pornography involving juveniles.

Gibson has pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that President Trump is working to take down a network of Satanic pedophiles.https://t.co/9YELEW4WKl

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) February 14, 2021

 

Gaslight.

Obstruct. 

PROJECT

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(02-15-2021, 09:53 PM)GMDino Wrote: Another republican/q anon  member who projected their own sins on others...

Former GOP candidate Ben Gibson was arrested in Louisiana on four counts of pornography involving juveniles.

Gibson has pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that President Trump is working to take down a network of Satanic pedophiles.https://t.co/9YELEW4WKl

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) February 14, 2021

 

Yeah, no way you'll be able to find a major Dem scandal.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761858659/democratic-fundraiser-ed-buck-is-arrested-after-a-third-man-ods-in-bucks-apartme

Extreme partisanship is not something to be proud of.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(02-15-2021, 11:31 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Yeah, no way you'll be able to find a major Dem scandal.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761858659/democratic-fundraiser-ed-buck-is-arrested-after-a-third-man-ods-in-bucks-apartme

Extreme partisanship is not something to be proud of.

Neither is lack of self awareness.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(02-15-2021, 11:57 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Neither is lack of self awareness.

Oh my, the first cut is the deepest.   
Feel free to expound on your attempted insult though.  

[GMDino]

(02-15-2021, 11:57 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Neither is lack of self awareness.

Did I miss where that guy (two years ago) was claiming republicans were all dealing drugs and that Biden was sent to break up the drug ring? 

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(02-16-2021, 12:13 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Oh my, the first cut is the deepest.   
Feel free to expound on your attempted insult though.  

Just about any time that someone comes in with a link or a report about a Republican doing something wrong, the only thing you ever seem to add is trying to deflect or change the topic with whataboutism about the Left, even though you claim to never vote Republican. I admit to being a life long Independent that leans Left and only because the Right terrifies me far more than the Left appeals to me.

If you disagree, then please show where someone linked a negative report about someone from the Left and you countered with a whataboutism link exposing something similar about someone on the Right.

[Belsnickel]

(02-16-2021, 07:24 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Just about any time that someone comes in with a link or a report about a Republican doing something wrong, the only thing you ever seem to add is trying to deflect or change the topic with whataboutism about the Left, even though you claim to never vote Republican. I admit to being a life long Independent that leans Left and only because the Right terrifies me far more than the Left appeals to me.

If you disagree, then please show where someone linked a negative report about someone from the Left and you countered with a whataboutism link exposing something similar about someone on the Right.

It's not really anyone that gets the treatment from SSF. Sure, he does it to some other people. But Dino and Dill get special treatment from him.

[GMDino]

(02-16-2021, 08:21 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: It's not really anyone that gets the treatment from SSF. Sure, he does it to some other people. But Dino and Dill get special treatment from him.

It does give me a reason to clear my alerts here every day....

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(02-16-2021, 07:24 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Just about any time that someone comes in with a link or a report about a Republican doing something wrong, the only thing you ever seem to add is trying to deflect or change the topic with whataboutism about the Left, even though you claim to never vote Republican. I admit to being a life long Independent that leans Left and only because the Right terrifies me far more than the Left appeals to me.

If you disagree, then please show where someone linked a negative report about someone from the Left and you countered with a whataboutism link exposing something similar about someone on the Right.

Certain people here are highly partisan.  Only one very right leaning partisan person posts here with any regularity, and he is instantly swarmed by people, correctly, calling him out.  The only person who routinely calls out the very left leaning partisans is me.  I dislike extreme partisanship and will expose it.

But my point still stands, if this one GOP member is indicative of the GOP, what does Ed Buck represent for the Democrats?  Dino's example is a "former candidate", Buck was a major, major, Dem player.  See why this game is stupid?

(02-16-2021, 08:21 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: It's not really anyone that gets the treatment from SSF. Sure, he does it to some other people. But Dino and Dill get special treatment from him.

Pretty much, yeah, as explained above.

[Dill]

(02-16-2021, 11:44 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Certain people here are highly partisan.  Only one very right leaning partisan person posts here with any regularity, and he is instantly swarmed by people, correctly, calling him out.  The only person who routinely calls out the very left leaning partisans is me.  I dislike extreme partisanship and will expose it.

Yes, you are the only "independent" who routinely "calls out" left-leaning partisans while assuming "extreme partisanship" is what the other guy does.

Vinyl noted the irony.

But as I've often reminded you, "calling out" and "exposing" are not quite the same thing.

The former is more the lazy, unsupported assertion characteristic of "extreme partisanship,"

the latter requires evidence-based analysis that goes deeper than "both sides do it."

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(02-16-2021, 12:51 PM)Dill Wrote: Yes, you are the only "independent" who routinely "calls out" left-leaning partisans while assuming "extreme partisanship" is what the other guy does.

If the other guy is you or Dino, sure.

Quote:Vinyl noted the irony.

No, he noted a pattern, I just illuminate the reason for it.

Quote:But as I've often reminded you, "calling out" and "exposing" are not quite the same thing.

The former is more the lazy, unsupported assertion characteristic of "extreme partisanship,"

the latter requires evidence-based analysis that goes deeper than "both sides do it."

Spare me your tired pedantry, Dill.  The reason conversations with you take the turn they do is because you are utterly blind to anything outside the scope of your preferred argument.  You are also highly selective, one might say willfully blind, to the conduct by others that you decry in me.  This is why it's very difficult to lend any credence to your positions as one can to those of hollodero, Bel, Bmore, Vas Def, AU and others.  I'll leave it at this since you decided to make a post about me personally, so I felt responding in kind was warranted.  I'll not be continuing.

[Dill]

(02-16-2021, 01:00 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: If the other guy is you or Dino, sure.

No, he noted a pattern, I just illuminate the reason for it.

Spare me your tired pedantry, Dill.  The reason conversations with you take the turn they do is because you are utterly blind to anything outside the scope of your preferred argument.  You are also highly selective, one might say willfully blind, to the conduct by others that you decry in me.  This is why it's very difficult to lend any credence to your positions as one can to those of hollodero, Bel, Bmore, Vas Def, AU and others.  I'll leave it at this since you decided to make a post about me personally, so I felt responding in kind was warranted.  I'll not be continuing.

LOL my challenging unsupported claims doesn't make me "utterly blind to anything outside the scope of [my] preferred argument." Especially when my challenges explicitly address what is outside the scope of my preferred argument.

Conversations with me take "the turn they do" because when I ask you to support positions you take with something more than your say so--"tired pedantry" as you put it--you turn to ad hominem. When I remark the incivility, you accuse me of condescension.

So that is the conduct I "decry" in you, but don't "see" in others' posts--"hollodero, Bel, Bmore, Vas Def, AU"--because it is not there. Just as they don't don't see it in my posts.

So once again, you are just making unsupported value judgments based upon no actual examples.

[GMDino]

Just a little update on Trump's call to Georgia officials.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Recording-reveals-details-of-Trump-call-to-16018856.php


As per usual he made outlandish claims with no proof...but claimed he had great proof that he still has not shown.

Quote:President Donald Trump encouraged Georgia's chief elections investigator in a December phone call to uncover "dishonesty" in her investigation of absentee ballot signatures in an effort to reverse his defeat against Joe Biden in the state, according to a recording of the call released this week by the Georgia secretary of state's office.

"The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me," Trump told Frances Watson, the chief investigator for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to the recording. "They know I won, won by hundreds of thousands of votes. It wasn't close."



He added, "When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised." Later on the call, he said, "You have the most important job in the country right now."

The Washington Post reported on the substance of Trump's Dec. 23 call in January, describing him saying that Watson should "find the fraud" and that she would be a "national hero," based on an account from Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, whom Watson briefed on his comments.


In fact, he did not use those precise words.

Rather, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize Fulton County, where she would find "dishonesty," he said.

He also said, "whatever you can do, Frances, it would be - it's a great thing. It's an important thing for the country. So important. You've no idea. So important. And I very much appreciate it."

When The Post first reported on the call, state officials said they did not believe that a recording existed. Officials located the recording on a trash folder on Watson's device while responding to a public records request, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal process.

Watson has not responded to requests for comment. The Post originally withheld her name because of the risk of threats and harassment directed at election officials.

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The recording was first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.

At the time Trump called her, Watson was leading an audit of mail ballot signatures in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta. Legal experts have said the president's outreach - and another call he placed directly to Raffensperger on Jan. 2 - may have amounted to obstruction of a criminal investigation.

The Fulton County district attorney's office has launched a probe into the efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the results in Georgia.

On the call, Watson sounds surprised and flattered to find herself on the telephone with the U.S. president - but also careful to reveal little about the investigation she was conducting in partnership with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
"Well, Mr. President, I appreciate your comments," she said. "And I can assure you that our team and the GBI, that we're only interested in the truth and finding, you know, finding the information that's based on the facts."

She added: "I know that you're a very, very busy, very important man. And I'm very honored that you called. Quite, quite frankly, I'm shocked that you that you would take time to do that. But I am very appreciative."

Trump said he called on the suggestion of his chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows - who had returned from a visit to Georgia the previous day to see the signature investigation in action.

Raffensperger had called for the audit after Trump and his allies claimed without evidence that thousands of absentee ballots with forged signatures on their envelopes had been improperly accepted by local election officials.

In November, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Raffensperger directly to inquire about the feasibility of rechecking ballot signatures and discarding all absentee ballots in counties with high mismatching rates, Raffensperger told The Washington Post last year. Graham denied that he was trying to toss votes, saying he was merely seeking information to better understand how the state verified mail ballots. It would be impossible to discard the ballots associated with individual ballot envelopes, as they are separated early in the tabulation process to protect voter privacy.

On the call with Watson, Trump urged her to check the envelope signatures against older signatures on file rather than a current file - an apparent attempt to inflate the numbers of nonmatching signatures.

In Georgia and Florida in 2018, thousands of eligible voters saw their ballots rejected because officials checked their signatures against one on file that was older, and the voters' signatures had evolved in the intervening time.

"I hope you're going back two years as opposed to just checking, you know, one against the other because that would just be sort of a signature check that didn't mean anything," Trump said. "But if you go back two years, and if you can get to Fulton, you're going to find things that are going to be unbelievable, the dishonesty that we've heard from, just good sources, really good sources."

"But Fulton is the mother lode, you know, as the expression goes. Fulton County," he added.

Trump also urged Watson to continue investigating past the Christmas holiday "because, you know, we have the date, which is a very important date" - an apparent reference to Jan. 6, the day a joint session of Congress was scheduled to formalize the electoral college results.

Trump was fixated on that date as a last opportunity to overturn the election results, encouraging thousands of his supporters to descend on Washington and protest the vote. The ensuing storming of the U.S. Capitol left five people dead, including one police officer. Dozens of officers were injured. In the aftermath of the violence, Congress formally recognized President Biden's win that night.