Wendy Bell's BS Continues (Yes, I have To Keep Correcting Wendy Bell's Voter Fraud Lies)

We have a lot of material to cover today so let's get on with it.

This was the top of Wendy Bell's BS board yesterday:

The funny thing is that Wendy gets this close getting it right about the Trump plan. If only she'd replaced the word "fraud" with "security" she'd be absolutely 100% correct.

I can't believe I still have to write this but the "false narrative" here is that the election was anything but free and fair.

Who says so?

The Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee for starters. They released a statement on November 12, 2020 (when Trump was still legally occupying the Oval Office. This was a committee in his administration) that started with:

The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.

The statement goes on to say how, at that point, each states' election officials are "reviewing and double checking the entire process prior to finalizing the result."

Down the page a bit they say: 

There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. [Bolding in original.]

This was Trump's own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Then there was this from Trump's own Attorney General, William Barr a few days later on December 1, 2020:

Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.

Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

In another interview he said:

“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr told me. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit.”

From that same Atlantic article, there was this:

Barr also looked into allegations that voting machines across the country were rigged to switch Trump votes to Biden votes. He received two briefings from cybersecurity experts at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. “We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit,” Barr told me, noting that even if the machines somehow changed the count, it would show up when they were recounted by hand. “It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy.”

 Again, this was Trump's own Attorney General.

Then there were the court cases. For example this one in Pennsylvania. Judge Matthew Brann (an Obama-appointed Federalist Society type of Republican) wrote in Donald Trump for President v Kathy Brockvar:

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.

No compelling legal arguments and (more importantly for this blog post) no factual proof of rampant corruption.

Then there's this from The NYTimes. (Published November 10, 2020):

The New York Times contacted the offices of the top election officials in every state [between 11/9 and 11/10] to ask whether they suspected or had evidence of illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly to The Times. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state; none reported any major voting issues.

Statewide officials in Texas did not respond to repeated inquiries. But a spokeswoman for the top elections official in Harris County, the largest county in Texas with a population greater than many states, said that there were only a few minor issues and that “we had a very seamless election.”

There's much more evidence like this, Wendy. I've laid out evidence from Trump's own IC, his own AG, and a GOP Judge.

Where's your evidence of "obvious voter fraud" Wendy?

There isn't any.

You got bupkes. You know that, right?

Here, let me fix your BS for you:

There. That's better.

That is the plan, Wendy. Isn't it?

President Joe Biden Speaks To The Nation On The Anniversary of January 6.

The White House has the transcript.

Some highlights:

For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.

But they failed.  They failed.

And on this day of remembrance, we must make sure that such an attack never, never happens again.

And:

And here is the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.  He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.

He can’t accept he lost, even though that’s what 93 United States senators, his own Attorney General, his own Vice President, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said: He lost.

That’s what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward.

He has done what no president in American history — the history of this country — has ever, ever done: He refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the American people.

Truth.

It Was One Year Ago, Today (Trump's Coup Attempt)

We'll start here:

Rep. Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, says former Pres. Trump is "clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again." https://t.co/zo7wSq6hc1 pic.twitter.com/Q8v97iEqcY

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 2, 2022

And the transcript from ABC News:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is his failure to make that statement criminal negligence?

CHENEY: You know, I think that there are a number of -- as the chairman said, potential criminal statutes at issue here, but I think that there’s absolutely no question that it was a dereliction of duty. And I think one of the things the committee needs to look at is we’re looking at a legislative purpose is whether we need enhanced penalties for that kind of dereliction of duty.

But I think it's also important for the American people to understand how dangerous Donald Trump was. We know as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television, to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that.

We know members of his family, we know his daughter. We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.

Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.

It was an attempted coup and these are some of the local insurgents (by way of the Insurrection Index): 

• Samuel Lazar - charged with:

  Assaulting, Resisting or Impeding Certain Officers Obstruction of Law Enforcement During Civil Disorder Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Ground.

  This guy:

  
  
  

  Is that Samuel Lazar standing next to Doug Mastriano, State Senator from Pennsylvania? (Yes, it is.)
  

  For the record, Mastriano denies knowing who Samuel Lazar.

• Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano

He was on the grounds (and lied about it later).

Trump mentioned him specifically in that phone call to the DOJ (and lied about it later).

The US Senate issued a report calling for further investigation into his actions.

• Representative Scott Kelly
  

  Trump also mentioned him specifically in that phone call to the DOJ.

   He's also mentioned in that US Senate report calling for further investigation into his actions.

It was an attempted coup one year ago today.

Investigate the attempted coup, investiate those who planned the attempted coup, those who funded the attempted coup, and anyone else who participated in anyway in the attempted coup.

If they broke the law, prosecute them for treason. 

If they currently hold public office, they are unfit for their current positions and should never ever be allowed anywhere near public office ever again.

They are traitors.

It Was A Coup Attempt. And Rep Perry And PA State Sen. Mastriano Were Involved

Here:

And here:

What Peter Navarro described was a coup. 

Representative Scott Perry has taken this oath  on the first new day of each Congress:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

He's done this each odd-numbered year since 2013.

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano took this oath when he assumed office in 2019:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.

And yet, as we know, each was mentioned in that DOJ phone call and each was named in the Senate Report urging House investigators looking into their spreading of 2020 election misinformation.

In the report itself there's this:

Mastriano’s letter raised a litany of false and debunked claims of widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania, which Mastriano had previously aired at a November 25, 2020 “hearing” at a hotel in Gettysburg featuring Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis and a phone call from Trump himself. Mastriano would later assume a lead role in the “Stop the Steal” movement, spending thousands of dollars from his campaign account to charter buses to Washington for Trump’s January 6, 2021 “Save America Rally.” He and his wife took part in the January 6 insurrection, with video footage confirming that they passed through breached barricades and police lines at the U.S. Capitol. To date, no footage has emerged showing Mastriano in the Capitol itself, but his presence on the Capitol grounds and his involvement in funding travel to Washington have prompted calls for his resignation. (p. 26)

Then there was that Trump/DOJ phone call.

Scott and Mastriano were a big part of spreading the 2020 election fraud lie that the mob that stormed The Capitol believed.

Doug even watched the storming of The Capitol from the Capitol grounds (and lied about it later).

It was a coup - Trump's attempted coup - and they're involved. They took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Each man broke their oath.

Investigate them and if necessary prosecute.

Meanwhile, Outside

From the scientists at NOAA:

The global average temperature over the land and ocean surfaces for November 2021 was 0.91°C (1.64°F) above the 20th century average of 12.9°C (55.2°F), the fourth highest for November since global temperature records began in 1880. The 10 warmest Novembers have occurred since 2004. November 2021 also marks the 45th consecutive November and the 443rd consecutive month with temperatures, at least nominally, above the 20th century average.

And now the chart:

This is still happening outside.

The science says so.

January 6 Is Coming Round Again - A Reminder

Today is January 4, 2022. That's only a couple of days away from the one-year anniversary of Trump's coup attempt.

There are a few things we should keep in mind as we revisit that day.

Like what?

Like this from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

An investigation by U.S. Senate Democrats has singled out two Pennsylvania Republicans — U.S. Rep. Scott Perry and state Sen. Doug Mastriano — as key figures who used false and debunked theories to pressure the country’s top law enforcement officials to investigate the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

A report on its findings urges House investigators to look more deeply into what role Perry and Mastriano may have played in fomenting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. It names them as two of three key allies of former President Donald Trump who aided his efforts to subvert the election results and have “notable” connections to the insurrection.

“These ties warrant further investigation to better place Trump’s efforts to enlist [the Department of Justice] in his efforts to overturn the presidential election in context with the January 6 insurrection,” says the 394-page report released Thursday by Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Or this from Politico: 

A Senate Democratic report released Thursday places Rep. Scott Perry at the center of efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results, urging other congressional investigators to further probe his involvement in the runup to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Or this from CNN:

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano went out of his way to help advance former President Donald Trump's election lies: He spearheaded a "hearing" at a hotel in Gettysburg a few weeks after the 2020 election, where Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani made false claims about election fraud. He chartered buses to ferry his supporters to Washington on January 6. And he was briefly in charge of the Pennsylvania state Senate's partisan "audit" of the 2020 election.

Now Mastriano's role behind the scenes helping Trump try to overturn his loss to Joe Biden is under renewed scrutiny after a Democrat-led Senate Judiciary report released last week revealed his correspondence with the Justice Department spreading debunked claims of fraud. Mastriano is one of three under-the-radar figures the report singles out for further investigation for their efforts helping Trump try to subvert the election.

 

Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, introduced Trump to a top DOJ official who was open to election conspiracy theories. Attorney Cleta Mitchell helped Trump try to convince Georgia's secretary of state to "find" enough votes for him to win. And Mastriano pushed his fraud claims to the No. 2 Justice official while Trump was trying to convince then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to publicly say there was fraud in the election, according to the report.

And this from Huffingtonpost: 

A Republican state senator who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 appears in videos and images that contradict his claims that he never breached police lines and left the area before violence broke out.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, whose campaign spent thousands on buses to ferry supporters to D.C. for the rally that led to the attack, said after the riot that he did not enter the Capitol, walk on its steps or go beyond police lines; and that he left the area with his wife “when it was apparent that this was no longer a peaceful protest.” He released a statement at the time condemning the violence and calling for those who broke the law to be prosecuted.

But in videos analyzed by members of the online “Sedition Hunters” community and posted on social media over the weekend, Mastriano and his wife appeared to be in a crowd as it breached a police line. Mastriano was wearing one of his campaign hats and a dark-green scarf on the day.

The video shows people moving forward as a man picks up and throws away the police barricades. Another image shows the couple on the northwest lawn.

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano and Congressman Scott Perry are, in different but overlapping ways, involved in the Trump coup.

Investigate and, if necessary, prosecute their actions.

I Wonder If PA State Senator Doug Mastriano Is Getting Nervous (Maybe Someone Should Ask Him?)

I mean, look at this from ABC News:

They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.

Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.

In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them.

So, Senator, are you worried that you might be mentioned when the committee starts to reveal its findings?

You were there outside The Capitol building during at the insurrection, weren't you?

Yes, Senator, you were.

Donald Trump mentioned you specifically while trying to pressure the DOJ to overturn the election he lost during that now-infamous phone call, isn't that right?

Yes Senator, he did.

ABC says that the committee is planning on public hearings and:

In the hearings, which could start in the coming weeks, the committee wants to “bring the people who conducted the elections to Washington and tell their story,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Their testimony, he said, will further debunk Trump’s claims of election fraud.

The committee has interviewed several election officials in battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, about Trump’s pressure campaign. In some cases, staff have traveled to those states to gather more information.

Senator, what do you think the chances are that some election official from Pennsylvania (where you're a State Senator and where you've been shown to be a part of Trump's pressure campaign) is going to mention you by name?

I'm thinking the chances are pretty good.

Are you nervous that your name will come up in a public hearing investigating Trump's attempted coup?

Didn't Steve Bannon (who's under criminal indictment for Contempt of Congress) declare in public that the effort to invalidate Biden's win start at the Gettysburg conference you hosted?

Yes Senator, he did.

Again, doncha think your name will come up in one or more of these public discussions?

Again, I'm thinking the chances are pretty good.

Then there's this from ABC:

The panel also is focusing on the preparations for the Jan. 6 rally near the White House where Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell” — and how the rioters may have planned to block the electoral count if they had been able to get their hands on the electoral ballots.

They need to amplify to the public, Thompson said, “that it was an organized effort to change the outcome of the election by bringing people to Washington ... and ultimately if all else failed, weaponize the people who came by sending them to the Capitol.”

Weren't you on the list of "Invited Speakers and Special Guests" for that rally?

Yes Senator, you were.

Didn't you charter a number of buses to bring Trump supporters to that rally as well?

Yes Senator, you did.

Senator, how deeply involved are you in Donald Trump's attempted coup?

Considering how the January 6 Committee is going public soon with hearings/reports, I am guessing we'll find out pretty soon.

Wendy Bell's Biggest Lies of 2021

We see that Wendy Bell has posted her list of the biggest lies of 2021.

In response, I'd like to post my list of Wendy's biggest lies of 2021.

I counted (yes, I did) and found that out of the 246 blogposts this year, 102 of them had Wendy's name in the title.

She tended to lie on a small number of health topics - but she lied a repeatedly on each.

For example:

VAERS

VAERS stands for "Vaccine Adverse Reporting System" and is, according to its website, "a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines." It collects reports of adverse reactions people may have to any vaccine they may have taken. Again according to its website:

VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to CDC and FDA. VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine.[Emphasis added.]

And this is where Wendy repeatedly gets into trouble. What Wendy does is to cite VAERS data as solid evidence for the supposed danger of the Covid vaccines. She carefully omits the Disclaimer the CDC/FDA has put in place. It reads in part:

While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.

Something Wendy never, ever, does. 

For instance:

• March 10, 2021
• May 25, 2021
• June 1, 2021 
• June 2, 2021
• June 16, 2021
• July 13, 2021
• September 8, 2021
• October 19, 2021 
• November 9, 2021
• December 10, 2021 
  

IVERMECTIN IN INDIA

This is what the CDC has to say about the use of Ivermectin to treat Covid:

Ivermectin is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved prescription medication used to treat certain infections caused by internal and external parasites. When used as prescribed for approved indications, it is generally safe and well tolerated.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, ivermectin dispensing by retail pharmacies has increased, as has use of veterinary formulations available over the counter but not intended for human use. FDA has cautioned about the potential risks of use for prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by FDA for prevention or treatment of COVID-19. The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel has also determined that there are currently insufficient data to recommend ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19.

And yet, non expert Wendy Bell touted its use repeatedly this year. Her supporting "data" is from the Uttar Pradesh in India. Too bad the medical authorities in India have removed Ivermectin from their list of approved drugs to treat Covid-19.

Why?

This is why:

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Task Force on Covid-19 have dropped the use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drugs from their revised guidelines for the treatment of the infection.

The decision was taken after experts found that these drugs have little to no effect on Covid-related mortality or clinical recovery of the patient.

Will Wendy Bell be telling her adorings of this? She spread the Ivermectin story many times:

• September 18, 2021
• October 7, 2021
• October 11, 2021
• October 22, 2021
  

I could keep going but the thought of spending one more minute on this project pains me to no end.

The sad sad part of this story is that despite all of the above, Wendy Bell, who spreads medical misinformation to her adoring fan base, putting them at greater risk for hospitalization and dying, will be continuing it all next year.

Maybe, if I am lucky, I will have caught someone with the truth before they started believing Wendy's misinformation. 

Maybe. If I am lucky.

In the meantime, Wendy Bell is The Angel of Death.

Satire! Science! Satire Science! (Wendy Bell Has THIN SKIN!)

The latest from the chuckle-sneers over at Breaking Burgh:

Researchers in the field of dermatology are publishing their amazing finding of the thinnest known human skin which they discovered on the body of former Pittsburgh news reporter and current shock jock, Wendy Bell. Using advanced laser interferometry techniques, they were able to determine down the nano-meter how thin Bell’s dermal layers are.

“It appears that Ms. Bell’s skin is only a couple of cells thick, which is truly remarkable from a biological perspective.”

They conducted the research after receiving tips from the Pittsburgh blogging community that Bell – who recently quit Facebook ostensibly due to censorship but in actuality because she cannot cope with the fact that nobody wants to listen to her rantings anymore – might be a subject worth studying. The scientists were confident it would be worthwhile given previous research indicating a connection between extraordinarily thin skin and behaviors Bell exhibited.

"Pittsburgh blogging community," you say. And who might that be, more or less, exactly?

Because I am certainly a member of the "Pittsburgh blogging community" (what was once referred to as "The Burghosphere"), and because I have certainly spent more than my fair share of time blogging about Wendy the thin-skinned Angel of Death, I think it would be safe to assume that they were pointing at me when they wrote that.

Ahhh.

Recognition. What a heady brew!

I'll leave it to Sue over at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents to rack up actual blog achievements = and an impressive list it is - Congratulations, Sue!

Still I'm more than happy to be kinda sorta obliquely referred to in a Pittsburgh-based satirical blog. 

O frabjous day!

A Very Special Guest Blogpost: "Wendy Bell Is My Biggest Fan!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, @JoninPgh has a very interesting story to tell y'inz.

Jon now has the floor:

As I was getting ready to leave work today, I logged on to see what was going on with Twitter. I saw I had a DM from Dayvoe of 2 Political Junkies. Dayvoe and I have become Twitter friends over the last year or so while we monitor Wendy Bell and Pennsylvania politics. It has been a long trip and once Covid is over we’ll meet in person for some laughs.

I took a glance at what he sent and it looked like he found a Wendy Bell parody page.

I figured I’d take a closer look at it when I got home….until I saw the picture of Wendy. 

My jaw dropped.

I clicked on the link still thinking it was a parody page but, to my surprise, it took me to Wendy’s “Resources” page where she posts links to her Covid misinformation sources. And there it was. That crazy picture of Wendy holding a Covid award.

This is where it got weird…..

I messaged back to Dayvoe:

 

I was so confused and laughing out loud at the same time. I knew it was my handiwork but I couldn’t remember what prompted me to make it. I hurriedly scrolled through my Twitter feed to find it. I found it and laughed even more. Dayvoe often sends a link to his latest blog post in the morning and I post it to Twitter. Because Twitter doesn’t generate a picture when I post the link, I always try to find (or make) a funny picture to go with it. Lo and behold, I had created the picture for one of Dayvoe’s 2PJ blog posts! 

"Congratulations are due to Wendy Bell & PA State Senator Doug Mastriano (among many many others): The more you push people away from the vaccines and more of them will get sick & some of those will (it is very sad to say this) die."

2 Political Junkies: https://t.co/FxKZOD1HI9 pic.twitter.com/3JYydy7qSo

— JON (@JonInPGH) December 8, 2021

I thought my little Microsoft Paint creation was too funny because in my head, Wendy won the Covid Angel of Death award.

LOL. I crack myself up.

Dayvoe and I were like:

On the way home, I was like:

• Wendy Bell stole my picture?
  
• Why did Wendy steal that picture that clearly was making fun of her?
• Should I be flattered?
• Was Wendy flattered???

I know Wendy reads my post, I just didn’t think she would ever steal from them! 

Wendy, I’m available for freelance work if you want anything else. DM me if you do and I’ll fire up Paint. Until then, I’ll just relish the fact that you’re my biggest fan.

Wendy Bell, the Angel of Death, is my biggest fan.

 Well, there it is.

Rep. Scott Perry Must Be Subpoenaed - York DIspatch Editorial Board

I was curious to learn how Representative Scott Perry (R-Pa) was seen in his own district - or at least by the local news in that district.

What I found today is telling:

The attempted insurrection on Jan. 6 “isn’t just the biggest political event of 2021,” writes The Washington Post’s politics reporter Amber Phillips. “It’s the biggest political event of the decade, and it probably belongs in the first paragraph of America’s entire history.”

And smack in the middle of it is Rep. Scott Perry.

The Carroll Township Republican was an early and energetic proponent of the Big Lie; the fiction that former President Donald Trump won reelection despite substantial popular vote and Electoral College defeats — even if that meant disenfranchising his own constituents.

And so on. 

Finally:

The House select committee must bring him swiftly and compellingly back to reality by issuing, and insisting on compliance with, congressional subpoenas.

This isn't the first time the York Dispatch Editorial Board has criticized Perry.

October 11, 2021

If Scott Perry truly believes the false claims he spouted about election fraud following last November's presidential election, he has fallen into a conspiracy theory rabbit hole and needs to resign from Congress.

If Perry doesn't believe those claims he repeated for months, he's deliberately lying to his constituents to garner favor with a man who lost a free and fair election, and he needs to resign from Congress.

Either way, it's time for him to go.

And:

Scott Perry's role in keeping alive the baseless claims that Trump somehow won an election he so fairly and honestly lost is becoming clearer all the time. He's one of only a handful of members of Congress named in the Senate report and the only one whose actions warrant being singled out for further investigation into his actions to pressure the Department of Justice to overturn the results of the election, along with state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams.

Hmm.

Shouldn't Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano be worried? Not necessarily about the York Dispatch editorial board, but about how close Scott Perry is to being subpoenaed/exposed.

Whenever you dig into either man's interaction with Trump's attempted coup, you'll find the other.

They're paired in this. Investigate one, you must investigate the other. Both must be investigated and held accountable.

Ladies And Gentlemen, Wendy Bell (The Angel of Death) Has Left The Building

Yes, that's right. Wendy Bell snowflaked before our eyes and has left Facebook.

Why, you ask?

Here's why (from her Facebook page):

I'm DONE.

 

I'm done being silenced. I'm done being censored. I'm done with the shadow banning. I'm done with "fact checkers" who check no facts and are too cowardly to debate my daily research.

 

This is NOT Freedom of Speech.

 

This is NOT America.

Hey, I think Wendy Bell called me a coward! How mature.

BTW, many thanks to Jon who caught the video:

Local woman takes to her backyard to come to grips with the fact that people just aren’t into her little Facebook videos anymore.

Just kidding. Wendy Bell blames Facebook for her failures.

Shoutout to Susan for letting me know I missed this video earlier! pic.twitter.com/cy4mb6j6d5

— JON (@JonInPGH) December 26, 2021

Her rant seems to allude to this kerfuffle between John Stossel and Facebook so I might not be among the cowards she mentions. But since she does describe those cowards as "too cowardly to debate my daily research," I might just be.

As far as that goes, Wendy did invite me to be on her show (offered me a weekly spot! With the possibility of getting sponsored!!) and yes, I did turn it down.

The story can be found here.

For my part I am not really that sorry if my blogposts triggered Wendy to retreat from Facebook. The smaller her platform, the fewer people will hear her misinformation. Let's hope that that leads to fewer Covid hospitalizations.

And as far as debate her daily research? What does she think these are?

• Message to Wendy Bell - Donald Trump Just Contradicted ALL Of Your Anti-Vaccine Arguments 
• Wendy Bell Is STILL Putting Her Audience At Risk Of Covid.
• Wendy Bell Misinforms. Again.

And those are just from this December! Does she not realize that this is a debate? One that she refuses to participate in, to be true. Granted it's not daily but there's a lot of factual data there that Wendy simply does not respond to - so which one of us is actively avoiding this debate between us?

You'll forgive me, O gentle reader, for not focusing 100% of my time on Western PA's Angel of Death. I've been spending a little more time recently on Donald Trump's attempted coup and how deeply two Pennsylvania politicians (State Senator Doug Mastriano and Representative Scott Perry) are entwined in it. In the grand scheme of things, that's a little more important than a once award-winning journalist who's now gone whole scale batshit Trumper anti-vaxx crazy.

Now, here's the question: Is this Freedom of Speech?

Wendy Bell seems to think that any sort of criticism/fact-checking of her broadcasts somehow infringes on her freedoms.

That's not how this works, Wendy. That's not how any of this works.

Wendy, you say that the VAERS data proves the vaccines are unsafe. You have the freedom to assert that. On the other hand, I also have the freedom to assert that every time you do that, you're saying something that simply isn't true.

The difference between your assertion and mine is that I have the facts on my side (as spelled out in the VAERS disclaimer).

None of this is an encroachment on your freedom of speech. You've simply been corrected in public, poor thing.

And as John Stossel himself declared at the top of that NYPost piece:

Facebook is a private company, so it can censor whomever it wants.

On the other hand, thin-skinned Wendy took her ball and went home and called those fact-checking her cowards.

I'll give the last word to someone who actually knows what they're talking about:

Uh-oh! Somebody's mad about how quickly she became irrelevant once folks realized watching someone lose their grip on reality in real time is more sad than entertaining. This woman used to win Emmys! Now she's reduced to standing on soap boxes on street corners to get a crowd. https://t.co/WJHdAQtgOa

— Tony NormanPG (@Tony_NormanPG) December 27, 2021

Message to Wendy Bell - Donald Trump Just Contradicted ALL Of Your Anti-Vaccine Arguments

Hey, Wendy! Have you seen this?

(Again, Wendy's blocked me from commenting on her FB page as well as blocked me from her twitter account. Can someone please forward this to her?)

Donald Trump: 'The Vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind' 'All three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, J&J) are very good' 'The vaccines work - If you take the vaccine you are protected' 'People aren't dying when they take the vaccine' pic.twitter.com/fU8q1sdMda

— Popper (@Kukicat7) December 22, 2021

Starting at 0:35 in this interview with Candace Owens, Donald Trump says this:

DT: The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.

We would've had a 1917 - remember the Spanish Flu? Killed perhaps one hundred million people.

Actually it ended the First World War because the soldiers were - lot of people don't know that - the soldiers got so sick. It was a terrible thing. There were no vaccines. There was no anything.

I came up with a vaccine - with three vaccines. All are very very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take five to 12 years.

CO: And yet more people have died under Covid this year, by the way under Joe Biden than under you and more people took the vaccine this year. So people are questioning how

DT: No the vaccines work but some people aren't taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine.

It's still their choice. If you take the vaccine you're protected. The results of the vaccine are very good. And if you do get it, it's a very minor form.

People aren't dying when they take the vaccine.

Trump gets the date of the so-called "Spanish Flu" (it was 1918 rather than 1917) and we can quibble over how much it contributed to the end of WWI but most everything else he says about the vaccine (for which, of course, he took credit) is true.

How does that line up, Wendy, with what you've been saying about the vaccines?

For example, your BS Board of 12/6 has this blazed across the top:

But didn't Donald Trump say that it was "one of the greatest achievements of mankind"?

So who's right, Wendy. You or Donald Trump?

Or how's about this? On 11/22 this was written on your BS board:

And yet didn't Donald Trump say, "People aren't dying when they take the vaccine"?

So who's right here, Wendy? You or Donald Trump?

And then on 10/27 your BS looked like this:

And yet didn't Donald Trump say, "If you take the vaccine you're protected. The results of the vaccine are very good. And if you do get it, it's a very minor form"?

So who's right, Wendy? You or Donald Trump?

Um, Wendy? That sinking feeling you're feeling right now is due to fact that the sand upon which you built your house of vaccine misinformation has been shifted by Donald Trump.

You can't both lionize him and criticize the vaccines he's praising for saving/protecting lives (indeed, he's taking credit for them!).

I mean you could but then you'd be a yuge hypocrite, amirite?

When DO We Start Worrying About Wendy Bell's Mental Health?

Yes, I know. I asked this once before. 

But take a look at Wendy, from yesterday, doubling down on the "shoot on sight" rant that got her fired from KDKA Radio more than a year ago.

Take a look:

Nothing but peace and joy at @WendyBellPgh world headquarters this 🎄holiday season🎄…oh and doubling down on your burning desire to have peaceful protesters shot.

Happy holidays! pic.twitter.com/locnDLmySh

— JON (@JonInPGH) December 22, 2021

This is how Wendy gaslighted to her adorings:

I said, during this summer of love, when antifa and Black Lives Matter and any other ne'er-do-well wanted to join the fray, to come up to the people on the street sitting at sidewalk cafes and take their food and [drink] their drinks and force them to raise for Black Lives Matter and even kiss their feet.

Disgusting.

Who decided to march across the United States and tear down historical statues. To deface property. To try to effortlessly rewrite our history. Who threatened to rappel down the faces of George Washington and the other presidents at Mount Rushmore and put dynamite in the eye sockets and implode the faces of  history.

And I said, all it takes is one park ranger, one person to stand up and say "Not a chance!" and use force and fight back.

Because all we saw, all summer long, was this being allowed.

Let's stop there and try to align Wendy's rant with, well, reality. This is why I worry for Wendy Bell's mental health. Her toxic politics have severely skewed her understanding of reality.

Let's start with the date of the video: It was posted on June 26, 2020.

Remember the date.

She says that her "shoot on sight" rant was in response to, in her example, BLM protestors harassing sidewalk diners.

Like what happened in Pittsburgh.

 However, this was September 5, 2020, a little more than 2 months after Wendy's rant.

And the part about the fist raising part?

That was in DC on August 24, almost exactly 2 months after Wendy's rant.

And that feet kissing part?

I couldn't find any trace of it. The only thing even close is this.

Reuters had a fact check posted a few weeks before Wendy's rant, BTW:

The author of the video, who refers to himself as “Smooth Sánchez” on his social media profiles, has publicly suggested this video was intended as “satire” and “comedy”, clearly implied in tweets (visible here: archive.vn/65YRy , archive.vn/xqq6A , and archive.vn/xeqmL ).  In one tweet  ( archive.vn/emQtj ) he writes that “I’m The Creator of This Vid” and, “Comedy  ..... I Was Trolling” (“trolling” is a popular term defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “the act of leaving an insulting message on the internet in order to annoy someone” ( here ). He confirmed to Reuters that he is not a member of BLM, and he was "just trolling".

Good research job, Wendy! Doesn't Brock check your homework? If you don't, you really should as your boat is hitched to hers. If you already do, you really need to do a better job of screening teh crazie.

How much does Wendy's politics skew her understanding of reality? What's the right time to worry about her mental health?

Then there's this part when she complained about how those BLM/antifa/ne'er-do-wells:

...threatened to rappel down the faces of George Washington and the other presidents at Mount Rushmore and put dynamite in the eye sockets and implode the faces of  history.

Dynamite in the eye sockets of Washington on Mt Rushmore? When did this happen?

It didn't. While there were protests that summer at Mount Rushmore, no one was threatening to rappel down his face and put dynamite in Washington's eye sockets.

In any event, the protests were during the first week of July and thus after Wendy's "shoot on sight" rant.

Is this how Wendy remembers that summer? Or, has she twisted her reality around in such a way so as to justify the event that, let's be honest, must've done a huge amount of damage to her reputation and finances.

Ego damage control?

When do we worry about the state of Wendy Bell's mental health?

No, Rep. Scott Perry, You're Wrong. The Committee Is Legit

Remember yesterday?

That blogpost centered around the request the January 6 Committee made to Rep Scott Perry (R-PA) to come in for a voluntary chat.

And this was Perry's response:

(1/2) I stand with immense respect for our Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Americans I represent who know that this entity is illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives.

— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) December 21, 2021

Um, Scott? The "entity" as you call it is the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol" and was established by this legislation.

And it's very legitimate.

How do I know?

Well, it shows up in this legal opinion - unchallenged.

(BTW - This was the dismissal of a lawsuit that the disgraced Donald Trump filed to stop the Select Committee from investigating him.)

From the opinion:

On June 30, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 503, creating the Select Committee. ECF No. 5, Pl. Mot., Ex. 3, H.R. 503, § 3, 117th Cong. (2021). H.R. 503 empowers the Select Committee to (1) “investigate the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to” the January 6 attack; (2) “identify, review, and evaluate the causes of and the lessons learned from” the attack; and (3) “issue a final report to the House containing such findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures . . . as it may deem necessary.”

And if you were to read the entire opinion, you'd find that describes pretty clearly that the Select Committee has the authority to gather information.

For example the opinion states:

The Select Committee is authorized “to require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, and documents as it considers necessary.”

Uh-oh.

The opinion also quotes Rule XI of the Rules of the House:

Subpoenas for documents or testimony may be issued to any person or entity, whether governmental, public, or private, within the United States, including, but not limited to, the President, and the Vice President, whether current or former, in a personal or official capacity, as well as the White House, the Office of the President, the Executive Office of the President, and any individual currently or formerly employed in the White House, Office of the President, or Executive Office of the President.

That's a double uh-oh for you, my friend.

The Committee is legitimate, Scott. The request for information is legitimate, Scott.

Eventually, you're going to have to talk to them and give them the information they're requesting.

But if there's some sort of obstacle between having you testify (because you're in the House of Representatives) that sort of obstacle would not be in place, say, for a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, would it?

How long before The Committee asks to speak to Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano?

Trump specifically mentioned him in that phone call to DOJ when he was looking to get help overturning the election he lost, wasn't he?

What say you, State Senator Mastriano? When do you think they'll knock on your door?

Representative Scott Perry's In The News - And Not In A Good Way (Is Doug Mastriano Worried?)

From the NYTimes:

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is seeking testimony and documents from Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the first public step the panel has taken to try to get information from any of the Republican members of Congress deeply involved in President Donald J. Trump’s effort to stay in power.

The committee sent a letter on Monday to Mr. Perry, the incoming chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, asking for him to meet with its investigators and voluntarily turn over his communications during the buildup to the riot.

To date, the panel has been reluctant to issue subpoenas for information from sitting members of Congress, citing the deference and respect lawmakers in the chamber are supposed to show one another. But Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the panel, has pledged to take such a step if needed.

You can read the letter here. 

From the letter:

We have received evidence from multiple witnesses that you had an important role in the efforts to install Mr. Clark as acting Attorney General. Acting Attorney General Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue have provided evidence regarding these issues, and we have received evidence that others who worked with Mr. Clark were aware of these plans. We are also aware that you had multiple text and other communications with President Trump’s former Chief of Staff regarding Mr. Clark—and we also have evidence indicating that in that time frame you sent communications to the former Chief of Staff using the encrypted Signal app. Mr. Clark has informed us that he plans to invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in anticipation of a deposition to be conducted by the Committee. When Mr. Clark decided to invoke his 5th Amendment rights, he understood that we planned to pose questions addressing his interactions with you, among a host of other topics.

From The Times:

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Mr. Perry, a member of Congress since 2013, compiled a dossier of voter fraud allegations and coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general, who was resisting Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, with a more compliant official.

And who was there with him?

For that, let's go back to The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A report on its findings released Thursday urged House investigators to look more deeply into what role Perry and Mastriano may have played in fomenting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. It named them as two of three key allies of former President Donald Trump who aided his efforts to subvert the election results and have “notable” connections to the insurrection. The third Trump ally mentioned is attorney Cleta Mitchell.

The 394-page report from Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee showed how Perry and Mastriano directly contacted the Justice Department’s second-ranking official, Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Donoghue, to reinforce Trump’s baseless claims about the election, and urge the department to investigate debunked accusations.

There it is.  Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano.

State Senator Mastriano, now that Representative Perry's been asked to meet with (and furnish documents to) the January 6 Committee, are you at all worried that your name will come up?

Perhaps you should be.

And now that we've learned that Rep Perry communicated with Mark Meadows via an encrypted app, can I ask whether you have that app?

Wendy Bell Is STILL Putting Her Audience At Risk Of Covid.

Look at Friday's BS Board:

Yes, Wendy. All facts do matter. All of them, as you said.

Too bad you're not furnishing your adorings with all of (or even enough of ) the facts. You're focusing on the number of cases when the important numbers are hospitalizations and deaths. (But I suspect you knew that.)

Let's start with the Cleveland Browns, since you started there as well.  

This is from the teams' statement regarding this week's game:

Although we are unable to disclose specifics, we are fortunate that every member of our organization who has recently tested positive was vaccinated, the majority of which are currently asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms.

See that, Wendy? Vaccinated and currently asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms. Key fact that you omitted.

Now let's take a look at the reality of Covid life in Ohio by way of the hospitalization and mortality figures from our western neighbor. 

Since 1/1/2021 (as of 12/18/2021):

Total hospitalizations: 47,058 of which only about 5.6% (2,652) were fully vaccinated.

Total deaths: 13,973 of which only about 4.6% (646) were fully vaccinated.

You'll note however, that these numbers go back January 1 and at that point only about 2.6% of the population of Ohio (181k out of 6.9 million) had been vaccinated. Taking that into account it's easy to assume that the current mortality rate for the vaccinated in Ohio is lower than 4.6%.

Those facts matter too, Wendy. But you already knew that. 

That's why you omitted them from your bullshit board.

But let's broaden the picture. How do the rates of death differ between those who are vaccinated vs those who aren't?

And to answer that Wendy, you should look at this:

To understand how the pandemic is evolving, it’s crucial to know how death rates from COVID-19 are affected by vaccination status. The death rate is a key metric that can accurately show us how effective vaccines are against severe forms of the disease. This may change over time when there are changes in the prevalence of COVID-19, and because of factors such as waning immunity, new strains of the virus, and the use of boosters.

On this page, we explain why it is essential to look at death rates by vaccination status rather than the absolute number of deaths among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

On that page you'll see (as of 12/18/2021) this chart: 

See that big hump of a red line, Wendy? That represents the mortality rate (per 100,000 people) for those who are unvaccinated. And see those other lines all huddled way farther down? Those represent the mortality rates of those who are vaccinated.

(Please note that this data stops at October 2, well before the Omicron variant hit.)

On that last day the mortality rate of all those vaccinated was 0.82 per 100,000 people. And of those unvaccinated? 5 per 100,000 people. About 6 times higher, isn't it?

Those facts matter too, Wendy. But I suspect you knew this as well - and that's why you decided not to inform the adorings of them.

But let's accept that your politics has skewed your skepticism to the point that you jettison any info (correct as it may, in reality, be) from anything other than a "commonsense conservative" source.

Ok then. How does Texas grab you?

Get a gander (take a look see, feast your eyes on, etc) at this report, dated November 8, 2021, straight out the redder than red state of Texas - The Texas Department of State Health Services, specifically.

The report is titled:

COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status.

So it's right up our alley.

Page 2 of the report:, 

Key Findings

1 From September 4 through October 1, 2021:

• Unvaccinated people were 13 times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people.
• Unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to experience COVID-19-associated death than fully vaccinated people.

And the next "key finding" is:

Vaccination had a strong protective effect on infections and deaths among people of all ages. The protective impact on infections was consistent across adult age groups and even greater in people ages 12 to 17 years. The protective impact on COVID-19 deaths, which was high for all age groups, varied more widely. In the September time frame, unvaccinated people in their 40s were 55 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared with fully vaccinated people of the same age. Unvaccinated people aged 75 years and older were 12 times more likely to die than their vaccinated counterparts.

Those are facts from Texas, Wendy. How did you miss them? They matter, too. Doncha think?

And here are some more facts (from this report out of Red-State Texas) that you never ever seem to communicate to your unshakably admiring admirers:

Vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the COVID-19 pandemic. All authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the US are highly effective at protecting people from getting sick or severely ill with COVID-19, including those infected with Delta and other known variants. COVID-19 vaccination can also reduce the spread of disease overall, helping to keep communities safe. 

Because no vaccines are 100 percent effective, it is expected that some fully vaccinated people will get sick with COVID-19, and that number will increase as more people get vaccinated. Vaccine effectiveness can also be affected by an individual’s own immune system, like how well they respond to the vaccine when it is given and how much their immunity wanes over time. [Emphasis added.]

If you told them the truth, Wendy, you'd be doing your part to protect your fans' health and well being.

But you're not.

And so by misleading them with an incomplete picture of reality, you're putting their lives at risk. Some of them will get sick and some of those who get sick may (very sad to say) die.

All because they believed your bullshit, Wendy.

Wendy Bell, The Angel of Death.

Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry - DEEPLY Embedded In Overturning The Election Trump Lost

Scott Perry, made into the fourth (fourth!) paragraph of this story at the NYTimes. His name comes up sooner than all the others in the Seditious Six.

The story starts with a vignette about (as The Times called him) "Richard P. Donoghue, a top Justice Department official in the waning days of the Trump administration" who saw an unknown number on his Caller ID:

Mr. Trump had been handing out Mr. Donoghue’s cellphone number so that people could pass on rumors of election fraud. Who could be calling him now?

It turned out to be a member of Congress: Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, who began pressing the president’s case. Mr. Perry said he had compiled a dossier of voter fraud allegations that the department needed to vet. Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department lawyer who had found favor with Mr. Trump, could “do something” about the president’s claims, Mr. Perry said, even if others in the department would not.

The message was delivered by an obscure lawmaker who was doing Mr. Trump’s bidding. Justice Department officials viewed it as outrageous political pressure from a White House that had become consumed by conspiracy theories.

It was also one example of how a half-dozen right-wing members of Congress became key foot soldiers in Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn the election, according to dozens of interviews and a review of hundreds of pages of congressional testimony about the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry, key foot soldier in Trump's attempted coup. 

There's more:

Mr. Perry, a former Army helicopter pilot who is close to Mr. Jordan and Mr. Meadows, acted as a de facto sergeant. He coordinated many of the efforts to keep Mr. Trump in office, including a plan to replace the acting attorney general with a more compliant official. His colleagues call him General Perry.

 Perhaps because he retired from the Army as a Brigadier General.

And then:

On Nov. 9, two days after The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Biden, crisis meetings were underway at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.

Mr. Perry and Mr. Jordan huddled with senior White House officials, including Mr. Meadows; Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser; Bill Stepien, the campaign manager; and Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary.

According to two people familiar with the meetings, which have not been previously reported, the group settled on a strategy that would become a blueprint for Mr. Trump’s supporters in Congress: Hammer home the idea that the election was tainted, announce legal actions being taken by the campaign, and bolster the case with allegations of fraud.

And Scott Perry was there at the start of it all - barely a week after the 2020 election.

What else do we know about Scott Perry?

Well, he was named by Donald Trump in that (by now infamous) DOJ phone call.

PA State Senator Doug Mastriano was also named in that call, as we all know by now.

Did you know they both studied at the US Army War College?

Mastriano graduated with a Master's in Strategic Studies in 2010 and Perry also graduated with a Master's in Strategic Studies but in 2012.

In fact, Mastriano's bio states:

He completed his career as a Professor of the U.S. Army War College (PAWC), Carlisle, PA, and taught Strategic Studies at the Master Degree level to the next generation of senior leaders.

Wait. So was Scott Perry one of his Doug Mastriano's students? Am I reading this right?

Small world, huh?

When will Scott Perry (and Doug Mastriano) be subpoenaed to testify before Congress?

Ex-Military Intelligence Officers From The Army, You Say?

 Let's start with this piece from Reuters:

During the Afghan and Iraq wars, the careers of two military officers often intersected. Army General Michael Flynn and an Army Reserve colonel named Phil Waldron worked together on secret projects in both countries, Waldron said. When Flynn was appointed to run the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012, Waldron said he worked at the DIA’s clandestine service.

Flynn was an intel expert. Waldron’s specialty was psychological operations, or PSYOPs – targeting foreign adversaries, as an Army field manual describes, “to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately, the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.”

Now the two military veterans, along with at least two other retired and reserve officers, are engaged in a new mission, this time with a domestic target: They are central to the far-right effort to persuade Americans that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

Reuters then proffers a few names:

• Flynn, Trump’s first National Security Advisor in 2017, who was involved in pushing the most dramatic of conspiracy claims. He urged the president to deploy the military to overturn the election in December 2020, then went on a public speaking campaign sowing doubts about the vote and urging states to conduct their own reviews.
• Waldron, who insists Trump won. He gained attention last week when the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 riot revealed it was in possession of a PowerPoint presentation he’d shown to U.S. lawmakers outlining methods for overturning the election. Earlier, he lobbied state officials and spoke on rightwing media about his stolen-election theories. Waldron said Flynn drafted him to go public, saying, “No one else can do it. It needs to be done, so go ahead and do it!”
• [Ivan] Raiklin, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who has known Flynn since 2014, when he said they both worked on military intelligence matters. Raiklin is an attorney and a leading promoter of the “Pence card” theory – in which Vice President Mike Pence purportedly could have blocked the January 6 certification by Congress of Biden’s victory.
• Seth Keshel, a former Army captain who worked in intelligence and who claimed to have developed statistical models that prove the 2020 election results were fraudulent. After the election, Keshel told Reuters he contacted Flynn on LinkedIn and they began collaborating. Keshel in August released an analysis which he claimed showed Trump won seven states that went to Biden. Trump embraced the claim, saying the report came from a “highly respected Army intelligence captain.”

And then:

Though they haven’t worked together on every particular, the four have intersected in their efforts, with Flynn the common denominator. Raiklin has said he worked with Flynn. Keshel said he reached out to the general to share his concerns, and the two worked together in the weeks after the election. Waldron said Flynn pushed him to go public with his research.

But here's where it gets (even more) interesting:

Three weeks after the election, Giuliani and his associates pushed a new strategy: attempting to persuade conservative state legislatures to simply disregard the election results and declare Trump the winner of their states’ Electoral College votes. The Constitution, Trump’s team argued, granted this power.

With Pennsylvania a focus, Flynn dispatched Waldron to a state Senate hearing held by Republican lawmakers there. [Emphasis added.]

Um, tell us more!

On November 25, wearing a blue jacket, blue shirt, striped tie and blue COVID mask, Waldron appeared in person at the Pennsylvania Senate hearing to air his fraud claims. He cited his military credentials. “I’m a retired Army colonel, 30 years,” he said. Then he claimed all the voting machine technology in the United States could be hacked.

And:

At the end of the hearing, President Trump joined in on the speaker phone. “I’ve been watching the hearing on OAN,” the far-right television news channel, Trump said. “I’m in the Oval Office right now, and it’s very interesting to see what’s going on.”

Waldron said he visited the White House later that day with Giuliani and others. “That was great!” he said Trump told them.

The White House focus turned to pushing Republican-led legislatures in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia to replace Biden electors with those for Trump. “That whole strategy started from that Pennsylvania hearing,” Waldron said.

Guess who's hearing that was?

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano's hearing. That's who.

You can read all about the hearing's misinformation here.

By the way, did you know that Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano is also retired from the Army and was also in military intelligence?

From his own bio:

Doug was commissioned in the U.S. Army in 1986 and served on the Iron Curtain with the 2^nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in West Germany. While serving along the East German and Czechoslovakian borders, he witnessed the end of the Cold War and thereafter deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm (1991) to liberate Kuwait. His regiment led the attack against Saddam’s elite Republican Guard forces. Doug went on to serve in Washington, DC, the 3rd Infantry Division and US Army Europe.  After 9/11, Mastriano was the lead planner for the operation to invade Iraq via Turkey.  He served four years with NATO and deployed three times to Afghanistan.  Mastriano was the director of NATO’s Joint Intelligence Center in Afghanistan, leading 80 people from 18 nations.[Emphasis added.]

So, according to Reuters, Flynn dispatched Waldron to a Pennsylvania State Senate hearing - and the only thing they missed was that the hearing itself was organized by Doug Mastriano.

So Senator Mastriano: How well do you know Mike Flynn? Phil Waldron? Ivan Raiklin? Seth Keshel?

How deeply embedded are you in that team of retired US Army officers all with (like you) experience in military intelligence?