Donald Trump Loses In Pennsylvania. Again.

 From the AP:

A federal judge issued a scathing order Saturday dismissing the Trump campaign’s futile effort to block the certification of votes in Pennsylvania, shooting down claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots.

You can read the opinion here (and I suggest you do). 

Back to the AP:

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his order that Trump had asked the court to disenfranchise almost 7 million voters.

“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,” Brann wrote, so much that the court would have no option but to stop the certification even though it would impact so many people. “That has not happened.”

Let's take a deeper look at that section of the opinion - it's the opening of the Introduction:

In this action, the Trump Campaign and the Individual Plaintiffs (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) seek to discard millions of votes legally cast by Pennsylvanians from all corners – from Greene County to Pike County, and everywhere in between. 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. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more. At bottom, Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Therefore, I grant Defendants’ motions and dismiss Plaintiffs’ action with prejudice.

For those who are curious as to what it means to dismiss a case "with prejudice," it means: 

When a lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice, the court is saying that it has made a final determination on the merits of the case, and that the plaintiff is therefore forbidden from filing another lawsuit based on the same grounds.

And in case my non-attorney research is wrong, here it is from ABC News:

The judge, a Barack Obama appointee, dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the Trump campaign cannot resubmit the case. The defeat levels a blow to the most high-profile case brought by the president in his multi-state effort to challenge the results of the Nov. 3 election.

Let's not be so quick to dismiss him as an "Obama appointee" however. Take a look:

Brann, who is active in Republican politics in Pennsylvania, faced the most challenging questioning of the hourlong hearing at which five candidates for federal judgeships and a spot on the U.S. Sentencing Commission were considered. 

Citing Brann's involvement with the state Republican Party, the National Rifle Association and the conservative legal organization the Federalist Society, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called him "probably the most Republican judicial nominee from the Obama White House."

There's more (I'm adding this just in case your MAGA uncle starts ranting about the Demonrat judge in Pennsylvania who's keeping Trump from fulfilling God's purpose of at least two terms:

Yep. Judge Brann is a Republican. He was nominated by Obama as part of a bipartisan agreement between PA's Senators (Casey & Toomey) in which they each got a pick, and both were unanimously confirmed via a voice vote. Brann was Toomey's pick: https://t.co/WXgUlvVZFC https://t.co/KM9yQA9Etc

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) November 22, 2020

And now, look at what's happenned. Senator Pat Toomey finally pulls the trigger: 

With today’s decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a longtime conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign’s lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania.

This ruling follows a series of procedural losses for President Trump’s campaign. On Friday, the state of Georgia certified the victory of Joe Biden after a hand recount of paper ballots confirmed the conclusion of the initial electronic count. Michigan lawmakers rejected the apparent attempt by President Trump to thwart the will of Michigan voters and select an illegitimate slate of electoral college electors. These developments, together with the outcomes in the rest of the nation, confirm that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and will become the 46th President of the United States.

I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country. Unsurprisingly, I have significant policy disagreements with the President-elect. However, as I have done throughout my career, I will seek to work across the aisle with him and his administration, especially on those areas where we may agree, such as continuing our efforts to combat COVID-19, breaking down barriers to expanding trade, supporting the men and women of our armed forces, and keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.

Of course Toomey is not running for reelection in 2022 so he's got little to lose politically.

Which is good news, I suppose, because:

Thanks Mark. It’s all a continuation of the never ending Witch Hunt. Judge Brann, who would not even allow us to present our case or evidence, is a product of Senator Pat “No Tariffs” Toomey of Pennsylvania, no friend of mine, & Obama - No wonder. 900,000 Fraudulent Votes! https://t.co/17rk2KsUPs

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2020

Again, no evidence of 900,000 fraudulent votes in PA. If there was evidence of such fraud it would have been presented in court.

And it wasn't.

 

Wendy, Wendy, Wendy. What Are You Doing?

 On her Facebook Page, Wendy Bell posted this:

I posted this as a comment:

Not sure where you're going with this, Wendy.

 

Biden won Georgia by 12,670 votes.

Biden won Michigan by 155,629 votes.

Biden won Wisconsin by 20,608 votes.

Biden won Pennsylvania by 80,996 votes.

 

Are you saying that Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh et al are now going to overturn the will of the people? To disenfranchise all those votes? On what grounds? No evidence of widespread voter fraud has been presented in any court - certainly not enough to overturn the tens of thousand votes needed to give the electoral votes from those four states to Trump.

 

Biden won the election. President-elect Joe Biden will be taking the Oath of Office in January. Trump's concession is long over due. The longer he waits the more damage he's doing to the nation and to the GOP.

 

Even the CONSERVATIVE Washington Examiner says it's time for Trump to concede.

 

It's over. Biden won. Checkmate.

Looking back at her posting, I am not sure Wendy understands the concept of "checkmate."

Be that as it may, as you can tell from my comment I think it's safe to infer that Wendy thinks that those newly reassigned justices will do Trump's bidding and reassign those errant electoral votes to their rightful owner: Donald Trump.

Regardless of the will of the people in those states.

Then there's this comment of mine:

Also Wendy, Trump as head of the Executive Branch has no authority to make these Judicial Branch assignments. Trump didn't do it.

 

From 28 USC 42:

The Chief Justice of the United States and the associate justices of the Supreme Court shall from time to time be allotted as circuit justices among the circuits by order of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice may make such allotments in vacation.

You'll note that "in vacation" means between legislative terms.

 

You really need get your facts straight BEFORE posting to your audience. How many of them RIGHT NOW think that Trump did this just because you said so?

 

Do you feel any responsibility to make sure you have your facts right?

Sadly, Wendy Bell represents a large and vocal segment of the once respectable Republican Party. I can't say I ever agreed with much of what the GOP stood for but whatever credibility it had is long gone in the face of Trumpism.

Senator Mitt Romney on Donald Trump. How Many Other Republicans Will Follow Suit?

The Senator from Utah tweeted:

pic.twitter.com/S3kFsIRGmi

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 20, 2020

The text:

Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.

But this is Donald Trump we're talking here. Give it a day. I am sure he'll do something more undemocratic. 

How many Republicans are brave enough to follow suit? It's difficult to imagine any more than a few.

What say you, Senator Toomey? You're not running for re-election in 2022. That gives you a modicum of freedom from the GOP MAGA hordes, doesn't it? When can we expect you to stand up for what's right?

While we're waiting, here's some Keith Olbermann:

Wendy Bell - Putting The Public Health At Risk. Again

On her Facebook Page, Wendy Bell posted this:

Pennsylvania is now under a universal masking order.

 

The secretary of health says people are required to wear masks indoors and outdoors when they are with others who are not members of their household.

 

Further, she expects law enforcement and business owners to enforce her orders.

 

Do you think masks work?

Wendy, what's the point of asking your adoring fans whether they think masks work?

They do. Masks work. The scientific data support the use of masks to protect the public from spreading the virus. This is a fact. It's not a matter of opinion. A person watching your living room broadcasts with a different opinion does not change that fact.

From the CDC:

SARS-CoV-2 infection is transmitted predominately by respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe. CDC recommends community use of masks, specifically non-valved multi-layer cloth masks, to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets (“source control”), which is especially relevant for asymptomatic or presymptomatic infected wearers who feel well and may be unaware of their infectiousness to others, and who are estimated to account for more than 50% of transmissions. Masks also help reduce inhalation of these droplets by the wearer (“filtration for personal protection”). The community benefit of masking for SARS-CoV-2 control is due to the combination of these effects; individual prevention benefit increases with increasing numbers of people using masks consistently and correctly.

So a mask protects in two ways:

• Source control  - the mask filters the virus in transmission from an infected person (including those who don't know they're infected) to someone else.
  
• Filtration for personal protection - the mask filters the virus in transmission to an uninfected person.

But is there a downside to maskwearing? For example, what does the science say about the build-up of CO2 when wearing a mask?

From the American Lung Association: 

Do Masks Cause Low Oxygen Levels?

Absolutely not. We wear masks all day long in the hospital. The masks are designed to be breathed through and there is no evidence that low oxygen levels occur.

And if you want to read a study that says the same, here's one. From the paper's "Discussion" section:

Although we did not measure changes in tidal volume or minute ventilation, this data find that gas exchange is not significantly affected by the use of surgical mask, even in subjects with severe lung impairment.

And: 

It is important to inform the public that the discomfort associated with mask use should not lead to unsubstantiated safety concerns as this may attenuate the application of a practice proven to improve public health. As growing evidence indicates that asymptomatic individuals can fuel the spread of COVID-19,12 universal mask use needs to be vigorously enforced in community settings, particularly now that we are facing a pandemic with minimal proven therapeutic interventions. We believe our data will help mitigate fears about the health risks of surgical mask use and improve public confidence for more widespread acceptance and use.

So that's settled, right?

But seriously Wendy. Why are you even questioning this?

Every time you do this, you're undermining the credibility of the science - thus putting the public health at risk.

Every time you do this, you're putting more people are at risk of getting very very sick. And some of those people may die.

Wendy Bell - The Angel of Death.

Some More Election Result Numbers (PA 2020 vs MI, PA, WI 2016)

In Pennsylvania, according to the AP:

Biden: 3,445,548 votes

Trump: 3,363,951 votes

That's a difference of 81,597 in Pennsylvania.

Last go around (2016) three states from the so-called "blue wall" (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) voted for Trump over Clinton by these differences:

Michigan: 10,704 more votes for Trump

Pennsylvania: 44,292 more votes for Trump

Wisconsin: 22,748 more votes for Trump

That's a combined tally of 77,744.

So what do we have here?

So far Biden has won more votes in Pennsylvania, a must-get "pivot point" state, than Trump won in those three states combined.

This was not a close election, folks.

And it's time for Trump to concede.

Hasn't Sean Parnell Conceded Yet?

From the AP results (Google "Presidential Election Results" and use the pull down menus to get the election results for the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania):

Conor Lamb: 219,858

Sean Parnell: 211,272

Fifteen days after the election and Representative Lamb is still ahead by about 8600 votes. This late in the process, Sean, where are you going to find 8600 votes?

Sean, it's time for you to concede.

Follow-Up On Those Current Numbers From Last Week (Biden, Lamb, Trump, Parnell)

This is to update the numbers I posted last week. 

Covid deaths US: 244,810 (or about 74.59 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,953 (or about 29.13 per 100,000)

Had the good ole US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 95,604 Covid deaths here in The States instead of 244,810. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, about 149,000 US Citizens would still be alive. We have to assume that all those 149,000 (or so) deaths were therefore preventable were it not for the incompetence and corruption of Donald Trump.

"It is what it is." said Trump.

Fuck Donald Trump. When will he be indicted for mass murder? Negligent homicide?

On to the election results. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

The AP is updating its numbers and they look even worse for Donald Trump. This was not a close election. No amount of stalling, denying or frivolous lawsuiting will change that.

Joe Biden is currently 5,637,779 votes ahead of Donald Trump.  (November 12, it was 5,113,258).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

Locally, the numbers are on a similar track in PA. From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,423,976 (Nov 12 it was 3,386,380)

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,354,836 (Nov 12, it was 3,333,161)

Joe Biden is currently 69,140  votes ahead of Donald Trump (Nov 12, it was 53,219).

Fuck Donald Trump. It's time for him to concede.

And, if there is any justice in the world, Trump should be perp-walked out of DC immediately after Biden's inauguration. Perhaps to NYC to face tax-evasion charges. Perhaps to The Hague to be charged with crimes against humanity.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede the Lamb-Parnell race. Here are the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 221,112 (Nov 12, it was 218,185)

Sean Parnell: 211,256 (Nov 12, it was 208,074)

Conor Lamb is currently 13,038 votes ahead of Sean Parnell (Nov 12, it was 10,011).

Sean, it's time for you to concede. Where are you going to find those 13k votes? I'd DM this question to you via twitter but you've blocked me from your twitter feed. Why did you do that, by the way? You blocked me after I tweeted that question when you were "only" about 10,000 votes behind.

It's Friday, So Wendy Bell's Looking To Undermine PA's Election Credibility. (Spoilers: She's Wrong. Again.)

On her Facebook page Wendy Bell posted this:

In a February 2019 audit of Pennsylvania elections boards, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found officials in 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties reported accepting gifts, meals or trips from firms competing to sell new voting machines to counties ahead of the 2020 election.

 

Later that year in December, DePasquale also released the results of a sweeping audit of Pennsylvania's registry of electors, examining the voter registrations of more than 8 million registered voters in the state.

 

The results were staggering.

 

DePasquale found:

-24,408 cases where the same driver’s license number was listed in more than one voter record

-13,913 potential duplicate birth certificates

-6,876 potential date of birth inaccuracies

-2,230 cases in which voters were born AFTER they registered to vote, and

-2,991 records of potentially deceased voters, including 1800 people over age 110.

Two issues here. The February 2019 reporting on those gifts and then the December 2019 report on the voter records.

Presumably, Wendy wants her audience to infer large-scale voter fraud going on and is using the above to prove it. Guess what? It doesn't.

But let's look at the gifts, first. From the Auditor General's statement:

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today said officials in 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties reported accepting gifts, meals or trips from firms competing to sell new voting machines to counties ahead of the 2020 election.

So far, so good. But which counties were they? And how did they vote in the 2020 election?

• Berks County - Went to Trump by about 16,000 votes.
  
• Bucks County - Went to Biden by about 16,000 votes.
• Butler County - Went to Trump by about 33,000 votes.
• Cambria County - Went to Trump by about 27,000 votes.
  
• Cameron County - Went to Trump by about 1,100 votes.
• Clearfield County - Went to Trump by about 29,000 votes.
• Clinton County - Went to Trump by about 36,000 votes.
• Delaware County - Went to Biden by about 88,000 votes.
• Elk County - Went to Trump by about 8,000 votes.
  
• Forest County - Went to Trump by about 1,100 votes.
• Lycoming County - Went to Trump by about 25,000 votes.
• Luzerne County - Went to Trump by about 22,000 votes.
• Northumberland County - Went to Trump by about 16,000 votes.
• Potter County - Went to Trump by about 1,500 votes.
• Warren County - Went to Trump by about 8,000 votes.
• Washington County - Went to Trump by about 27,000 votes.
• Westmoreland County - Went to Trump by about 57,000 votes.
• York County - Went to Trump by about 58,000 votes.

So is Wendy Bell really thinking that by pointing out the gifts made to the election officials in the above 18 counties (where 17 of them went overwhelmingly to Trump), she's effectively undermining the credibility of the Biden win?

That's just crazy. Right?

Then there's the December 2019 report.

For all of the details Wendy includes, she leaves one part out. I'll let Todd Defeo of the conservative news source, The Center Square summarize:

An audit of the state’s voter registration system uncovered “potentially bad data and sloppy record-keeping,” but stopped short of saying the results revealed any inappropriate voting. [Emphasis added.]

Huh. So both pieces of info that Wendy Bell supplied as evidence to question the credibility of President-Elect Biden's win over Donald Trump do nothing to actually support her conclusion.

Did she even bother to do the research on this?

Any comments, Wendy?

Current Numbers (Trump, Lamb, Parnell, and Covid-19)

Covid deaths US: 239,590 (or about 72.47 per 100,000) 

Covid deaths Canada: 10,685 (or about 28.2 per 100,000)

Had the US of A treated the virus as effectively as Canada, we'd be looking at about 93,200 Covid deaths here in The States. Had we treated the virus as effectively as Canada, 146,000 US Citizens would still be alive.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden: 77,170,769 

Current votes for Donald Trump:72,057,511

Joe Biden is currently 5,113,258 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election.

Fuck Donald Trump.

From the AP:

Current votes for Joe Biden in PA: 3,386,380

Current votes for Donald Trump in PA: 3,333,161

Joe Biden is currently 53,219 votes ahead of Donald Trump. This was not a close election in PA. And even if he were to win his lawsuits in PA, he would still not win Pennsylvania

Fuck Donald Trump.

A side note, GOP candidate for PA-17 has yet to concede that race. Here's the AP's numbers:

Conor Lamb: 218,185

Sean Parnell: 208,074

Conor Lamb is currently 10,011 votes ahead of Sean Parnell.

It's time for Donald Trump and Sean Parnell to concede their respective races. 

PS - When I say "Fuck Donald Trump" I do not mean that literally (unless you're looking for that sweet sweet Stormy Daniels payoff). It's not a command or even a suggestion for you to actually have sex with Donald Trump. I just wanted to make that clear.

Of Course, Wendy's Lying.

On her Facebook page yesterday, Wendy Bell posted:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate Evan McMullin tweeted that a list should be made to target those who back President Trump's call for investigating the election. Now, Jake Tapper of CNN suggested that Trump staffers who support the president in his legal and electoral fight should be blacklisted from further employment in politics. 

 

With this kind of rhetoric do you feel the democratic party and Joe Biden will be able to "bring the country together"?

 

Is there anything that could be done to "heal" the nation or are we fractured right now?

This is a lie. Here's what Representative Ocasio-Cortez actually tweeted:

Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 6, 2020

The "list" isn't actually a thing, as you can see. Ocasio-Cortez is looking to hold to account those current Trump supporters who in the future will try to deny their complicity and not, as Wendy is falsely asserting, those who simply "back President Trump's call for investigating the election."

 
The same can be said for what Representative McMullin tweeted:

We should keep and publish a list of everyone who assists Trump’s frivolous and dangerous attacks on the election. Name and shame forever.

— Evan McMullin 🇺🇸 (@EvanMcMullin) November 6, 2020

Those who "assist Trump's frivolous and dangerous attacks on the election" is not the same as "investigate", Wendy. You get the difference, right?

Then there's Jake Tapper. This is what he tweeted:

2/ I mean, I don’t expect the ride-or-die crew to listen to me, but ...

“So, it says here on your resume that you drove a sex offender to testify at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, north of the Tacony-Palmyra bridge...”

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 9, 2020

Wow. How did Wendy go from that to "blacklist(ing) from further employment in politics" anyone who "support(s) the president in his legal and electoral fight"??

 

There are those who still support Trump's (now lost) bid for re-election. Then there are those who are actively undermining the democratic principles upon which this republic was founded - the rule of law, fair elections with peaceful transfer of power afterwards - by demanding the election be scrapped simply because they say (without evidence) that it's not being fair to their losing candidate.

Those are the folks we're talking about, Wendy.

 

You're still defending the guy who bragged about being a pussy grabber, right?

You're still defending the guy who ordered the tear gassing of peaceful protestors for a church front photo-op, right?

You're still defending the guy who threatened to jail his political opponents, right?

You're still defending the guy who's been lying to the nation for years, right?

 

Just want to make sure we're both on the same page.

Wendy Bell Turns The Conspiracy Theory Volume Up To 11.

But before we can point out Wendy's latest departure from reality, we need to talk about Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney.

Who is Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney?

You can read his bio here though missing there are some very important parts missing from the official Air Force bio.

Let's go one by one.

In 2010 a Lt Col in the Army, one Terry Lakin, was court-martialed and later found guilty on four counts of disobeying orders. The reason he disobeyed?

He didn't think that President Barack Obama was born in the US and so therefore couldn't be President and Commander-in-Chief. As such Larkin didn't have to follow his orders. Hence the court-martial as they don't take kindly to officers refusing orders.

At some point, Lt. Gen. McInerney filed an affidavit supporting Larkin's position saying, in part:

[I]t is my opinion that LTC Lakin’s request for discovery relating to the President’s birth records in Hawaii is absolutely essential to determining not merely his guilt or innocence but to reassuring all military personnel once and for all for this President whether his service as Commander in Chief is Constitutionally proper.

Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney is a birther. 

If that weren't enough, in one interview on Fox, he supported the use of torture (which is a war crime) and smeared the record of Sen. John McCain as a collaborator:

A former Fox News military analyst falsely claimed Thursday that U.S. Senator John McCain was nicknamed "Songbird John" while he was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. The salacious claim alluded to McCain giving up information to the Viet Cong against his country and fellow service members.

Retired vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force turned media pundit Tom McInerney challenged McCain's decision not to vote for CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, stating the enhanced interrogation techniques, or torture, worked on the Arizona Republican and "are effective" overall.

By the way, neither is true. Torture is not effective and McCain was not a collaborator. 

For that last part (about McCain), McInerney was banned from Fox News. Banned. From Fox News.

Why did I compose such an extensive prelude to my point?

This morning, Wendy Bell posted this on her Facebook Page:

According to information provided by retired US Air Force Lt. General Thomas McInerny and Michael Flynn attorney Sidney Powell, the 2020 Presidential election should be investigated for vote fraud.

 

McInerny alleges the DNC used a highly sophisticated intelligence program called Hammer (developed by the CIA after 9/11 to surveil Islamic terrorists) and a software program named Scorecard (adapted by the CIA under the Obama Administration to spy on American citizens, McInerny alleges) to change as many as 3% of mail-in votes in highly contested voting districts.

 

Further, McInerny claims the DNC used Scorecard in the primary election earlier this year to enable Joe Biden to defeat Bernie Sanders and secure the Democrat nomination.

 

If these allegations prove to be true (the FBI is now investigating), do you believe Americans can have faith in the election results claiming a Joe Biden victory?

Birther, torture-supporter, and smearer of John McCain, Tom McInerney was the source of the story that made Wendy Bell breathless.

And what does Christopher Krebs, the Trump-appointed director of the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have to say about this?

Take a look:

To be crystal clear on ⬇️, I’m specifically referring to the Hammer and Scorecard nonsense. It’s just that - nonsense. This is not a real thing, don’t fall for it and think 2x before you share. #Protect2020 https://t.co/f2FpSbRXKy

— Chris Krebs #Protect2020 (@CISAKrebs) November 7, 2020

Wendy, it's nonsense. Trump's own director of cybersecurity says so. Did you ever bother to check? Shouldn't you have? There has to be some fragment of journalist left in you, right?

But wait! There's more. Where did this "Hammer" and "Scorecard" come from?

The Daily Beast has the story:

The election fraud claims center on Dennis Montgomery, a former intelligence contractor and self-proclaimed whistleblower who claims to have created the “Hammer” supercomputer and the “Scorecard” software some Trump fans believe was used to change the votes.

And:

What Trump allies tend to leave out, however, is that Montgomery has a long history of making outlandish claims that fail to come true. As an intelligence contractor at the height of the War on Terror, Montgomery was behind what’s been called “one of the most elaborate and dangerous hoaxes in American history,” churning out allegedly fictitious data that once prompted the Bush administration to consider shooting down airplanes.

And more:

In Dec. 2003, according to a Playboy report, Montgomery claimed he had discovered information in a TV broadcast proving that al Qaeda hijackers were set to hijack planes flying to the United States from Europe and Mexico. 

President Bush himself blocked the flights, ordering them to turn around or stay on the ground. The administration even considered shooting down the planes based on Montgomery’s information, according to the Times.

But according to reports and former employees, Montgomery’s supposed technology was all a hoax. One employee quoted in the Playboy report claimed Montgomery had ordered him to fake a test for U.S. military officials, tricking the officials into believing Montgomery’s software could detect weapons in drone footage.

French intelligence officials, furious that Montgomery’s data had been used to ground French planes, debunked the “technology” and reportedly convinced CIA officials to drop Montgomery, according to the Times.

“We got played,” an ex-intelligence official told the Times in 2011.

Even as he rose in intelligence circles, Montgomery reportedly developed a mammoth blackjack habit, losing $442,000 in one day at casinos, according to Playboy.

There's your story, Wendy. Not only is the source of your story (McInerney) a liar but his source (Montgomery) is a conman and a degenerate gambler.

Do you still think this story's true, Wendy? How is that possible?

Wendy? Don't you find it absolutely exhausting to put so much effort into propping up all these rickety right-wing conspiracy theories with even more rickety conspiracy theories?

V Is For Victory, Elections Have Consequences, The Will Of The People And Son...

People should not be afraid of their government, government should be afraid of their people.

This happened this weekend:

And this: 

And this:

my middle finger is a big fan of u trump pic.twitter.com/US4vwyDsKQ

— Furrious The Blue Wolf (@ThatOneBlueWolf) November 8, 2020

And:

I knew we’d be happy but I didn’t realize we’d be spontaneous dance parties in the street happy. What a moment pic.twitter.com/8NsGheybEU

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) November 8, 2020

Our Harsh National Nightmare

 It's over.

Wendy Bell - A Necessary Facebook Fact-check. ANOTHER ONE

Case in point. Today on her Facebook page, paranoid Wendy posted:

A midnight ballot dump in Michigan. 200,000 votes... all for Joe Biden.

 

Postal workers in Erie, PA, ordered to postmark all late ballots for November 3 and give them to “supervisors.” 

 

A poll watcher kicked out of the hall where votes were being counted after finding evidence (and capturing photo evidence) of dead people voting.

 

(**AND BEFORE FACEBOOK CENSORS THIS POST... there is PROOF OF THESE ALLEGATIONS! Fact check THAT!)

 

Should President Trump demand a recount in all battleground states?

Yes, I am sure there's "proof" of all these allegations, Wendy. I am sure.

I also noticed you didn't post any. 

Huh.

Ok. Let's go see, shall we?

Point one - the "midnight ballot dump" - fact-checked already:

A data input error that briefly showed an unusually large uptick in votes for Joe Biden in Michigan prompted suspicions online and an unfounded claim of voter fraud. The error came down to a typo by a county’s reporting that was quickly corrected.

The story you probably read was from the right-wing conspiracy-theory "news" source The Gateway Pundit. 

This would be the same Gateway Pundit that the conservative Washington Times reported that:

The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website that touted President Trump during his 2016 campaign, ran an unsubstantiated report alleging voter fraud during the race fueled by Russian agitprop referenced in a federal indictment unsealed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office Friday.

Back to this dump of yours. Did you know that the GOP consultant that (the once impeached, now disgraced) Trump retweeted on this story has since corrected himself?

This tweet was taken and share honestly. I have now learned the MI update referenced was a typo in one county.

I have deleted the original tweet. pic.twitter.com/NXQINWDbEH

— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) November 4, 2020

A typo, Wendy. A typo.

Point two - the postmarked ballots in Erie - sourced to Project Veritas.

Wendy, given James O'Keefe's horrendous track record regarding "veritas" do you really think anything on that website can be considered "proof"? I mean hasn't O'Keefe himself been accused of trying to elicit voter fraud? (Spoilers: Yes, he has).

Point three - the ejected poll watcher - this is another Gateway Pundit story.

This "dead people voting in Michigan" story's been replayed numerous times (had you researched this, you'd know). Like here:

The videos purport to show voters who are over 100 years old casting a ballot in Michigan, but they are misleading.

Logically, a company monitoring misinformation, reported that the people shown in the videos “most likely are relatives of the people born in the early 1900s and inherited relatives' names.” Logically also matched the names of the people who are over 100 years old — featured in the videos — to their likely living descendants.

And there's a statement from the Michigan Secretary of State at Buzzfeed as well: 

Ballots of voters who have died are rejected in Michigan, even if the voter cast an absentee ballot and then died before Election Day. On rare occasions, a ballot received for a living voter may be recorded in a way that makes it appear as if the voter is dead. This can be because of voters with similar names, where the ballot is accidentally recorded as voted by John Smith Sr when it was actually voted by John Smith Jr; or because of inaccurately recorded birth dates in the qualified voter file; for example, someone born in 1990 accidentally recorded as born in 1890. In such scenarios, no one ineligible has actually voted, and there is no impact on the outcome of the election. Local clerks can correct the issue when it is brought to their attention.

Wendy, so your "proof" is one already debunked Gateway Pundit story, a story from the seriously discredited Project Veritas and...another questionable Gateway Pundit story that lacks context?

I'll ask it again, Wendy. You were once a respected journalist. In reality, would these three sources ever merit serious consideration for any story? Ever?

And yes, I'd expect Facebook to fact-check you in this page as well.

Wendy Bell Is On The Case! She's Got The SCOOP On PA Voter Fraud!! OMG!!

Except that she isn't and she doesn't.

Today, on her Facebook page, Wendy posted this: 

According to an internal document provided to me by an anonymous whistleblower, the following is a new directive of the PA Department of State regarding ballots mailed in WITHOUT a postmark.

 

"Ballots that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, are PRESUMED (emphasis added) to have been mailed by Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and are valid and must be counted, unless A PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE DEMONSTRATES THAT THE BALLOT WAS MAILED AFTER NOVEMBER 3. (Added emphasis again.)

 

1. What in THE HELL does that even mean? And,

 

2. If PA voters have three days after today to get their ballots in, why would the Department of State need to create a provision mandating that ballots WITHOUT postmarks be considered valid? Isn't creating rules to override other rules a form of vote tampering?

Wow! An "internal document" from a whistle blower who wishes to remain anonymous!

This must be sooo super secret, right? 

I mean it's internal and sourced anonymously, right??

It must be something the Wolf administration doesn't want you to see, right???

(You know where this is going, right????)

You can see the document right here. Take a look at page 4 (of the 4 page super-secret document that anyone can find online). There, you can read this:

Ballots that lack a postmark or other proof of mailing, or for which the postmark or other proof of mailing is illegible, are presumed to have been mailed by Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and are valid and must be counted, unless a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that the ballot was mailed after November 3, 2020.

Look familiar, Wendy? Took me about 10 seconds to find.

Anyway, look at Wendy's #2 paragraph. She's saying (or at least implying) that the voting boards will be treating as valid anything mailed three days after today, asking "isn't this vote tampering?"

Except that when you look at the beginning of this super secret document that anyone can find online, you'll see this:

On October 28, 2020, the Department of State issued guidance related to the segregation of mail-in and civilian absentee ballots received by mail after 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday November 3, 2020 and before 5:00 P.M. on Friday, November 6, 2020.

Ah, Wendy didn't tell you that they're only looking at stuff arriving before Friday at 5. Indeed the document even says that the voting board will not be opening:

Ballots (whenever postmarked) received by mail after 5:00 P.M. on Friday, November 6, 2020.

So, Wendy how many ballots mailed on Friday would arrive by Friday? And what sort of chance is there that something dropped in a mailbox on Thursday arrives by Friday at 5? Or dropped in a mailbox on Wednesday?

Anyway, this is also in that super-secret document:

One authorized representative of each candidate in an election and one representative from each political party shall be permitted to remain in the room in which the ballots are canvassed.

And:

County boards of elections are instructed to maintain separate counts for each of the following categories of ballots: (i) ballots with a postmark on or before November 3, 2020 which are counted; (ii) ballots without a postmark (or with an illegible postmark) which are presumed to have been mailed prior to Election Day and which are counted; and (iii) ballots without a postmark (or with an illegible postmark) which are determined by a preponderance of the evidence to have been mailed after Election Day and which are not counted.

So all the candidates and both parties will know how many of your non/badly-postmarked ballots there are. 

This is Wendy Bell's conspiracy theory today - that the election will be thrown by those many many Pennsylvanians who'll watch tonight's returns, be disappointed with the result, and then fill out their mail-in ballots and rush them out to the Post-Office tomorrow (or maybe Thursday, possibly Friday) hoping they arrive by Friday at 5 with illegible or absent post-marks. And that without Wendy's dogged pursuit of this story, and stunning devotion to delivering the truth to the public, no one would ever have known.

Wendy, you do see how crazie this is, don't you?

P-G Editorial Rebuttal/Fact-check

As we all know by now, yesterday the Post-Gazette posted an abhorrent endorsement of Donald Trump.

You can read it here.

Today, The Pittsburgh Current published a rebuke/fact-check of the P-G abhorrence.

I wrote it.

Donald Trump's Deaths. Donald Trump's Shitshow

On the 220,000+ Covid-19 deaths, Joe Biden said this:

Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.

While Donald Trump's other non-Covid crimes loom large, that one sentence is enough to invalidate this shitshow of a presidency.

Anyone who continues to support/defend this man is forever complicit in those deaths, in that shitshow.

Wendy Bell Was "Censored" For The Wrong Stuff

If you were to look for Wendy Bell's WEDNESDAY MONOLOGUE, you'd find this:

And if you were to click onto the "See Why" link you'd find this:

Wendy, as you can imagine, was pissed.

She viewed it as an unfair technicality. She asserted that she said doctors were paid to falsify death certificates and then said that the fact-check showed it was hospitals instead.

If I had the stomach for more Wendy bullshit, I'd dig into that.

On the other hand, should could just as easily have been fact-checked for this:

At about 7:20 in she dug into the Covid-19 mortality numbers:

Of the 220,000 people listed as Covid-19 deaths in The United States of America, as of last Friday, 88,208 had influenza and pneumonia. They had the flu and they had pneumonia. That's 43%, ladies and gentlemen. 43% of the 220,000. Furthermore, 26,000 and change had adult respiratory distress syndrome. 44,000 and change suffered from hypertension - stress. 23,275 had heart disease. 25,000, ladies and gentlemen, 25,000 died from a heart attack. 

And they're listed as a Covid death.

Did Covid-19 cause that heart attack?

No.

It's that last word that condemns Wendy Bell to being (no matter what she says otherwise) a Covid danger denier.

And I thought we dealt with this 6 weeks or so ago.

This week, she's just regurgitating what she said back in early September:

Did you guys hear it? Shouted across the world yesterday that the CDC says that 94% of people who we think died of COVID did not die from COVID but died and happened to have it at the same time.

Fact-check took a look at this back then:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, clarified what the CDC data mean.

He noted that the 6% figure includes cases where COVID-19 was listed as the only cause of death. “That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of Covid didn’t die of Covid-19. They did,” Fauci said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“So the numbers you’ve been hearing — the 180,000-plus deaths — are real deaths from Covid-19. Let [there] not be any confusion about that,” Fauci said.

Don't you remember this, Wendy? It was even on Good Morning America.

You're misleading your audience about the danger of this virus while misleading them by saying that you're not.

Shame on you.

 

Yes, Donald Trump Cares About YOU And YOUR HEALTH! Of Course He Does. Sure, He Does.

Trump had a rally last night in Omaha:

MASSIVE crowd at President ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩’s rally in Omaha, Nebraska‼️ pic.twitter.com/tRsIGppZFE

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) October 28, 2020

Wanna know what happened after?

This:

Backers of President Donald Trump were left stranded overnight, with several taken to hospital for hypothermia after an Omaha campaign rally ended in chaos.

Hundreds were bussed in to the Eppley Airfield site, leaving their cars in parking lots, but were left wandering up to four miles in the cold after coaches failed to pick them up.

And this:

Medics were on hand to treat those, particularly the elderly, with visible medical issues as they walked out.

"Waterloo Medic 811 en route to Lil' Creighton Code 2 with a 68 y/o male whose initial complaint was possible hypothermia and altered mental status. He is alert and oriented and shivering," Omaha Scanner reported.

"One officer advising 8 to 9 elderly people who are struggling. Separate officer advising they have located an elderly party who is frozen cold unable to move with an altered mental status.

 If this is how he treats his supporters...

Local Virus Denier Wendy Bell Misleads. Again

Why are we not surprised?

Here's what Wendy posted on her FB page this morning:

The results of a just-released Yale University study suggest child care centers that stayed open during the early months of the Chinese virus shutdown did not contribute to the spread of the disease in the United States and that children did not spread the virus to adults. 

 

Researchers looked at responses from 57,335 daycare providers, including those that continued to provide child care and those that did not, during the first three months of the pandemic and found that there were “no differences in COVID-19 outcomes."

 

“The amount of contact they had with child care was completely unrelated to whether or not they got sick with COVID-19 or were hospitalized with COVID-19,” Walter Gilliam, a professor at the Yale Child Care Center and lead author of the study said.

 

With the CDC reporting a survival rate of 99.99% in people ages 0-19, do you think schools should re-open immediately, that kids should play sports without masks, and that we should get back in the business of living as free people?

We'll note, in passing, Wendy's racist naming of the coronavirus. Hey, Wendy! Need any evidence that it's harmful?

Look here:

A recent study shows that rampant use of the “China virus" to refer to the coronavirus, particularly by conservative outlets, had a profound impact on how those in the United States see Asian Americans. 

The research, published in the journal Health Education & Behavior, examined racially charged coronavirus coverage in media and its impact on bias against Asian Americans. While anti-Asian bias had been in steady decline for over a decade, the trend reversed in days after a significant uptick in discriminatory coronavirus speech. The language led to an increased subconscious belief that Asian Americans are “perpetual foreigners,” researchers said. 

 “Research suggests that when people see Asian Americans as being more ‘foreign,’ they are more likely to express hostility toward them and engage in acts of violence and discrimination,” Rucker Johnson, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the study, told NBC Asian America.

Good for you, Wendy. You're now part of that chain of events.

But back to the Yale study. Of course Wendy's framing is incorrect. The study (described here) was about child care programs and yet Wendy is using it to deny the public health danger all the way up to the end of High School. I mean, what child care center has "kids playing sports" with masks??

In any event, had Wendy done her due diligence, she would have found this, from one of the authors of the study:  

The study’s authors caution that their findings do not necessarily apply to teachers who work in schools or other settings with older children. “Adults who work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers typically have a small group of children who stay together all day,” said [lead author Walter Gilliam, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and professor of psychology. ] “Middle schools and high schools may have hundreds of people in a building — and typically, moving from class to class. Those factors alone make K-12 schools very different from child care programs.” [Emphasis added.]

See that, Wendy? The study you're citing to support opening up middle and high schools is not about middle or high schools - the lead author of the study even says so. 

And this misinformation to her many many devotees, Wendy's danger-denial continues.