How Representative Guy Reschenthaler Pushed The Big Lie That The Election Was Stolen!

From NBC News:

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has released a detailed examination of the social media accounts of Republican House members who voted to overturn the 2020 election results to analyze what role they might have played in inciting the deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Like former President [Donald] Trump, any elected member of Congress who aided and abetted the insurrection or incited the attack seriously threatened our democratic government," Lofgren wrote in the prologue to her 1,939 page “social media review.”

"They would have betrayed their oath of office and would be implicated in the same constitutional provision cited in the article of impeachment" against Trump following the Capitol riot, she continued.

You can find the report here. 

Guess what? In the Pennsylvania section of the report we can find our very own Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA). And in that section, we can see how Guy pushed the lie.

On November 4 at 8:28 pm, he posted this on Facebook:

Don’t let the media or the Biden campaign fool you. President Trump has a solid lead in Pennsylvania. He will win the state and the election.

The link is to a video of Guy speaking on Newsmax (of course) and the report quotes him as saying:

The mainstream media was so fast to declare this race for Joe Biden. Given the unrest we’ve had all summer, this is setting up civil unrest, violent protest, and looting. And the people that are to be blamed are the media who set up a false narrative that Joe Biden won this election.

This was before the the media had actually declared a winner. That would happen, depending on the news source, a few days later.

At that point, Guy was already planting the "false narrative that Joe Biden won this election." 

On November 10, Guy tweeted this. It's yet another interview Guy did on Newsmax (of course):

Voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election and it's our duty to bring it to light. 

If we don't take this to the courts and hold the guilty parties responsible, we are going to severely hurt the integrity of all future elections in this country.

It's interesting that he mentions "the courts" in that tweet because on November 11, Guy retweeted another Newsmax tweet (of course) where, after being asked about the Dominion Voting Machines switching ballots, he said:

Let's look at Pennsylvania right off the bat. We know that there is voter fraud that occurred. Now, how much is a question that'll be fought out in the courts. But statewide you had our Attorney General and our Governor basically guarantee a Biden victory, saying when all the votes are counted Biden will win.

We also know that in my district alone, ballots were sent into my district that were already pre-filled out straight Democrat voting line.

Can I point out that Guy himself effectively guaranteed an election victory for Trump on November 4?

In any case the story of the filled out ballots was from a few weeks before the election. KDKA reported at the end of October about what happened in Guy's district. They reported that both those ballots (as there were only two) were sent to registered Democrats.

This evidence, by the way, made it to court in a lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. It did not end well for the Trump campaign, as Matthew Brann (a Federalist Society conservative, in case you were curious) wrote in his decision:

In other words, Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens.

That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence.

The campaign appealed this decision and was rebuffed at the end of November:

A federal appeals court on Friday dealt the Trump campaign's effort to change the outcome of the presidential election another blow, writing in a scathing opinion that the campaign's lawsuit lacked proof and its allegations in Pennsylvania "have no merit."

The three-judge panel for the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals denied the campaign's effort to refile its lawsuit, saying its allegations had already been rejected by multiple state judges in Pennsylvania and the latest attempt to revive them could not be spun into a winning theory.

"Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here," wrote Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, for the panel.

"The Campaign never alleges that any ballot was fraudulent or cast by an illegal voter," wrote Bibas. "It never alleges that any defendant treated the Trump campaign or its votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or its votes. Calling something discrimination does not make it so. The Second Amended Complaint still suffers from these core defects, so granting leave to amend would have been futile." [Emphasis added.]

What was Guy saying about how the level of voter fraud will be argued out in the courts? 

So, no voter fraud.

But back to Guy pushing the big lie. On November 17, he posted this on Facebook. This time it's an interview Guy had on Fox "News" and the report quotes him as saying:

We’ve gotta do something about this narrative that there was no fraud. We know that’s not true. There was fraud. We’ve got over 1,00 affidavits saying there was fraud. So it’s important to show the American that there is some fraud in our election system.

There's only one problem with what Guy said: there was no fraud. Calling something "fraud" does not make it so.

This is Guy pushing the big lie - the lie that fueled the attack on the Capitol.

And Now That It's March 5...

...and nothing happened yesterday.

No QAnon/Proud Boys/Three Percenters uprising at The Capitol.

Donald Trump still isn't President.

Joe Biden is.

Get over it.

MARCH 4! It's MARCH 4th!

Is today the day? 

Is today the day that Donald Trump returns to DC, triumphantly (re?)seizes power and is inaugurated at the real inauguration as 19th president?

Or will nothing like that happen and our QAnon/Trumper friends and neighbors will have to explain away the day as not-The Storm?

Meanwhile, NBC is reporting:

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent a joint intelligence bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies late Tuesday warning that some domestic groups have "discussed plans to take control of the U.S. Capitol and remove Democratic lawmakers on or about" March 4, according to a senior law enforcement official who described the document to NBC News.

And:

[The bulletin] also states that domestic violent extremists have a continued "perception of election fraud and other conspiracy theories associated with the presidential transition, which may contribute to (Domestic Violent Extremists) mobilizing to violence with little or no warning." 

Know who's been spreading that false perception of election fraud? 

Yea, you know it. Donald Trump this past weekend at CPAC:

Throughout his speech, Trump dug into his election grievances, accusing Democrats of using the deadly COVID-19 pandemic to “cheat” the election, and repeatedly hammered the Supreme Court for not intervening and overturning the results.

“This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it,” Trump said, which led the crowd to loudly chant, “You won, you won," to which Trump responded, “We did.”

“They rejected it,” Trump continued, attacking the High Court. “They should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done to our country. They didn't have the guts or the courage to make the right decision.”

 What patriotism!

Back to the NBC reporting:

On Wednesday, the U.S. House abruptly scrapped plans to meet Thursday and began finishing its work for the week given the threat of violence.

And yet how many Republicans have you heard these past few weeks whining about how the Democrats have failed to reach out to them in the spirit of unity? 

As my good friend Sean Parnell said, "If you don't denounce it, you've endorsed it."

So we'll see how many Republicans have denounced this right-wing pro-Trump domestic terrorism.

Countdown to March 4 (Tomorrow's The Day!)

From ABC News:

The United States Capitol Police said it has beefed up security on Capitol Hill this week due to "concerning information and intelligence" related to March 4, the date that far-right conspiracy theorists believe former President Donald Trump will return to power.

And:

The threats appear to stem from QAnon, the umbrella term for a set of disproven and discredited internet conspiracy theories that allege the world is run by a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles. Followers of the fringe movement believe that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen from Trump, who has pushed baseless claims of voter fraud along with his allies.

Then there's this from Forbes: 

The acting House Sergeant at Arms has informed members of Congress that authorities do not expect violence in Washington on Thursday, the day that QAnon followers believe former President Donald Trump will assume his second term in what is the latest deranged conspiracy theory claiming Trump will either retake power or somehow has secretly remained president.

However:

Trump won’t reassume office on Thursday as QAnon supporters hope for, so they’ll more than likely pick yet another date. March 20 is being floated as the next date QAnon followers have their eyes set on.  

The Great Reset of the date has begun, according to Vice:

National Guard troops have been deployed, Congressional warnings have been issued, and hotel prices have been jacked up. But a predicted QAnon celebration to mark the return of former President Donald Trump to the White House next week is now being labeled by influencers within the conspiracy movement as a disinformation campaign by the fake news media.

For weeks, QAnon followers have been hyping March 4 as the date when Trump would return as the rightful president of the U.S. But in the last couple of days, virtually all the major QAnon figures and influencers have reversed course and dismissed the date, calling it a false flag event created entirely by the mainstream media to “make the whole movement look dumb.”

Gee, I don't know. That whole "the world is run by a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles" does that job all by itself.

But the reset has been burbling up for a few weeks:

A QAnon influencer yesterday denounced the March 4 conspiracy theory -- which has taken hold among much of the QAnon community since Biden's inauguration -- calling it "planned disinfo" & "nonsense theories." https://t.co/4BgfXgVR75 pic.twitter.com/L7fXiItrKe

— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) February 11, 2021

This whole thing could be, on the part of QAnon influencers (and not Q, themself, as they have been silent since December) simply CYA.

Vice goes on:

While the efforts by Q influencers to dismiss the March 4 date as a media concoction will likely appease some, when March 4 comes and goes without Trump’s return, there will be a group of QAnon believers who might see it as the final straw. 

But rather than simply disavowing the movement, they have already been talking about taking things into their own hands, suggesting they don’t fully believe Trump will return on March 4.

A number of QAnon followers on social media channels and message boards have spoken about engaging in “civil war” and “going rogue” in the wake of the March 4 deadline.

Oh, goody.

Countdown to March 4 (QAnon and That 1871 Legislation)

Yesterday, we started looking at the latest aspect of the QAnon crazie - that part of "the plan" where Donald Trump is actually inaugurated on March 4.

In that blogpost we touched on legislation, passed in 1871, that's at the core of teh QAnon crazie.

In the event you're looking for a deeper explanation, there's this interview from KIRO in Seattle, Washington with that state's former Attorney General Rob McKenna (who, by the way, is a Republican):

Former state Attorney General Rob McKenna looked into the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871, which established D.C. as a corporation, and he says it does not completely subvert the Constitution.

“What a relief, right? It did not,” McKenna said. “It simply repealed the individual charters of the city of Washington and the city of Georgetown and established a new territorial government for the entire District of Columbia. By doing this, they created a single municipal government or municipal corporation, as municipalities are typically called.”

And:

Now, as a consequence of this 1871 act, there are people who sincerely believe that whatever happened under the Constitution after that act is null and void.

“Right, because they claim that the act of 1871 didn’t just create a municipal corporation, it turned the quote ‘United States into a corporation,’ which apparently is secretly controlled by international bankers, and we’re actually owned by foreign entities as a result of that,” McKenna said. “But it means that any enactments after that date are not actually valid.”

Including the 20th Amendment which (among other things) moves the date of the end of each administration back from March 4 to January 20.

Ergo, the QAnon belief that March 4 is the day Trump rides back into DC, reestablishes freedom, drains the swamp, and executes all those pizzagate pedophiles in the Demoncrat party.

Here's the thing. IF that 1871 legislation invalidated everything after it (which it didn't but go with me here) and if all the Constitutional Amendments after that date are invalid (again, they're NOT) what other amendments do these QAnon-ers believe are invalid?

Here's a few:

• 16th Amendment - The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
• 19th Amendment -  The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
• 24th Amendment -  The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Before we proceed, let's talk about what a "poll tax" was. Here you go:

Begun in the 1890s as a legal way to keep African Americans from voting in southern states, poll taxes were essentially a voting fee. Eligible voters were required to pay their poll tax before they could cast a ballot. A “grandfather clause” excused some poor whites from payment if they had an ancestor who voted before the Civil War, but there were no exemptions for African Americans.

So what have we got for the QAnon/Sovereign Citizen crowd if all the constitutional amendments after 1871 are invalid?

• Federal income tax? Nope. Gone. Privatize it all.
  
• The ladies' right to vote? Nope. Can't trust 'em. PMS makes 'em crazy.
  
• An cheap easy (and legal) way to keep, um, those other people from voting in our elections.
  

Ohmigod, sloppy three-part blowjob for the disgruntled old whiteguy constituency!

No wonder they've got a hard-on over March 4.

But again, what are they going to do on March 5 when none of their plans come to fruition?

Countdown To March 4 (A QAnon Story)

Hey, you know what's gonna happen on March 4?

Most likely nothing out of the ordinary (however "ordinary" is defined these days). I can't say "nothing" because something will happen on March 4 - but it'll be our usual crappy post-Trump stuff. More than likely it'll be the same sort of stuff that'll happen on March 3 or March 5.

The important question here, however, is: What do the Q-Trumpers think will happen on March 4?

This:

After more than three years of Donald Trump not taking down satanic pedophiles and the "deep state" working against him, losing the election, then failing to order mass executions at Joe Biden's inauguration, followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are now claiming March 4 as the next significant date for the movement.

Supporters of the radical conspiracy now believe that March 4 will be the day that Trump will still somehow be sworn in as president, seemingly undeterred by the January 20 ceremony, after which Biden entered the White House, and all their other predictions since late 2017 having failed.

And: 

These QAnon followers, lifting beliefs from the sovereign citizen movement, now think the U.S. was secretly turned into a corporation in 1871 and all other presidents after Ulysses S. Grant have been illegitimate. They claim Trump will become the 19th president when he is reinstated on March 4.

March 4 was the date of presidential inaugurations until the 20th Amendment was ratified in 1933, moving future ceremonies to January 20 to shorten the lame-duck period. The year 1933 is also when sovereign citizens believe the U.S. went bankrupt after the nation was taken off the gold standard.

If this were true, I wonder if these Uber-patriots understand that Ronald Reagan would then be an illegitimate president. For that matter, so would George W Bush. 

I wonder if these Uber-patriots ever question why Sen Barry Goldwater failed to make this case when he told the Republican National Convention in 1964 "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!" The convention had just nominated him to be their (illegitimate?) presidential candidate.

So if everything that happened post-1871 is illegitimate, then the 20th Amendment is also illegitimate.

We'll have to wait and see what happens on the 4, I suppose.

What will the Q-Trumpers say on March 5, when Joe Biden is still president?

500,000

Yesterday, The White House acknowledged 500,000 Covid-19 deaths in this country with this moment of silence:

Last August, the previous President acknowledged Covid-19 deaths with this moment of cruelty: