|
|
Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Another resident of The Villages in Florida has been accused of voter fraud in the 2020 election.*A fourth resident of The Villages has been accused of casting multiple ballots in the 2020 election.
*The Villages is a well-known senior retirement community in Florida known for its residents' vocal support of Trump.
*Charles Franklin Barnes, arrested Tuesday, is facing charges for allegedly voting twice.
A retiree at The Villages, the senior retirement community in Florida known for its Trump-supporting resident, was arrested Tuesday and accused of casting multiple ballots during the 2020 election, according to Sumter County Sheriff's arrest records.
Charles Franklin Barnes, 64, faces a third-degree felony charge in connection with the alleged voter fraud, the records state.
Barnes was registered to vote in both Florida and Connecticut, his home state, WKMG reported. He was not registered to a political party, the outlet also reported.
Barnes was released on a $2,000 bail Tuesday night, according to the sheriff's records.
Barnes is the fourth resident of The Villages to be accused of voter fraud — Jay Ketcik, Joan Halstead, and John Rider are facing the same charge, Insider reported in December.
The Villages became nationally known for its residents' vocal support of Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Retirees there donated more than half a million dollars to his campaign, Insider previously reported.
The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.After 2020, Trump backers forged election docs in three states.Groups of Republicans in three states signed their names to forged documents, pretended they were real, and sent them to government agencies.It was on Dec. 14, 2020, when Wisconsin electors met in the state capitol for an official ceremony in which the state formally assigned its electors for the electoral college. There wasn't anything unusual about this: On the same day, every state did this, with Trump electors being assigned in states won by the GOP ticket, and Biden electors being assigned in states won by the Democratic ticket.
But as we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the process in the Badger State became a little messier: While the actual electors were being assigned inside the state capitol in Madison, a group of Wisconsin Republicans quietly held a separate, fake ceremony — in the same capitol, at the same time — to cast electoral votes for Trump, despite his defeat in the state.
They then proceeded to forge the official paperwork and sent it to, among others, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Archivist, as if the materials were legitimate. They were not.
Politico reported:
As Trump's team pushed its discredited voter fraud narrative, the National Archives received forged certificates of ascertainment declaring him and then-Vice President Mike Pence the winners of both Michigan and Arizona and their electors after the 2020 election. Public records requests show the secretaries of state for those states sent those certificates to the Jan. 6 panel, along with correspondence between the National Archives and state officials about the documents.
First, were these efforts legal? Groups of Republicans in three states signed their names to forged documents, pretended they were real, and sent them to government agencies. I'm not an attorney and can't speak with any authority on whether this constituted fraud, but I'll be eager to learn what legal experts have to say about the schemes.
Second, did these GOP groups have any outside help? The materials out of Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, were practically identical, with matching formatting and fonts. Was this an amazing coincidence or was there some kind of behind-the-scenes coordination? If so, who played an organizing role?
And third, exactly how many states featured pro-Trump Republicans creating forged election materials? We previously knew of one; now we know of three.
Trump lost 25 states in 2020. How many of them included election opponents willing to send fake documents to government offices?The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Mark Meadows' wife appears to use invalid address on 2 voter forms.Debra Meadows, the wife of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, signed two voter registration forms in 2020 that used an invalid address in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, where the New Yorker reported that neither she nor her husband have ever resided. The forms with the North Carolina address were provided by North Carolina's State Board of Elections.
The two forms, a voter registration application form and a "one stop" early voting application form completed in September 2020, list the same North Carolina address that is being investigated by North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigations. North Carolina's State Board of Elections is also assisting with the investigation.
Both were signed by Debra Meadows, and the forms display notices warning that "fraudulently or falsely completing this form is a class 1 felony."
Both show a registration date of September 19, 2020, one day before the Meadows listed a move-in date into the Macon County address in question, which is, according to the New Yorker, a "fourteen-by-sixty-two-foot mobile home" with a rusting roof. North Carolina law requires voters to have resided at their listed address at least 30 days prior to an election. The forms were first reported by the Washington Post.
Another form, an absentee ballot request for Mark Meadows to cast a North Carolina vote from an Alexandria, Virginia, address, also uses the same North Carolina address. This request was filled out by Debra Meadows but signed by Mark Meadows, according to the state board of elections.
Debra Meadows returned her husband's absentee ballot and voted early in person on October 26, 2020 in North Carolina, even though the only home the Meadows owned or resided in at the time appeared to be in Virginia.
The investigation into potential voter fraud began after the New Yorker first reported that Meadows had registered to vote in 2020 with the address of the mobile home, which he reportedly neither lived in nor owned. Mark Meadows sold a North Carolina residence in March 2020 and had no residence in the state, according to the Washington Post.
Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman and former President Trump's last chief of staff, supported baseless claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 elections. During the runup to the elections, he regularly expressed concern about the possibility of mail-in voting abuses.The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Another Trump admin official accused of voting irregularity.Matt Mowers voted in one 2016 primary, moved, re-registered, and then voted again in another primary in the same election cycle. That’s not allowed.In light of the Trump administration’s many failures and scandals, it might be tempting to think veterans of the Republican team would avoid the political spotlight, at least for a while. But as it turns out, that’s not the case: A surprising number of Trump administration officials are hoping to parlay their service into careers in elected office.
Take Matt Mowers, for example, who worked in Trump’s State Department and is now running for Congress in New Hampshire. But like his former boss, Mowers appears to have a controversy that might be tough to explain away.
The Associated Press reported overnight that the Republican candidate appears to have voted twice in 2016, “potentially violating federal voting law” in the process.
Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign in the pivotal early voting state. Four months later, after Christie’s bid fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey’s Republican presidential primary, using his parents’ address to re-register in his home state, documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.
In other words, Mowers effectively took two bites at the apple: He voted in one 2016 primary, moved, re-registered, and then voted again in another primary in the same election.
That’s not allowed. The AP report added that federal law that prohibits “voting more than once” in “any general, special, or primary election.” That includes casting a ballot in separate jurisdictions “for an election to the same candidacy or office.”The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Republicans who questioned the 2020 results are bringing back an old norm: Admiting defeat.WASHINGTON — The losers of this year’s midterm elections are winning praise for doing something that would be entirely unremarkable in another era — admitting defeat.
From Maine to Michigan, Senate to state legislature, Republican to Democrat, most high-profile candidates who fell short in the 2022 midterm elections are offering quick concessions and gracious congratulations to their opponents. And that includes candidates who earned endorsements from former President Donald Trump by embracing his false claims that elections are rigged against Republicans.
“I know it’s a low bar, I really do, but: I am heartened by the number of defeated Republicans who are conceding and congratulating their opponents,” tweeted Josh Chafetz, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.
Of course, dozens of Republican candidates who questioned the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election won on Tuesday and will end up in Congress, including Ohio’s J.D. Vance, who won a Senate seat. And some like Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake haven't seen their races called yet and have hinted at invoking baseless claims of fraud.
But most of those who lost ended up not following Trump’s playbook.
Democracy watchers are breathing a sigh of relief, especially since many feared Trump had set a precedent that Republicans might use to deny ever losing another election.
“Democracy depends on losers acknowledging the legitimacy of their defeat,” said Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth political scientist who co-founded Bright Line Watch, a watchdog group that monitors the status of American democracy. “Donald Trump and the denialism that has spread through the GOP have shredded that norm. That’s why it’s heartening to see candidates conceding — we need to celebrate these acts of grace.”
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who won Trump’s endorsement and his GOP primary with it by saying things like “we cannot move on” from the 2020 election, extended an olive branch while conceding the Pennsylvania Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman.
“We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done,” Oz said Wednesday. “I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator.”The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
Revealed: Trump campaign buried research about 2020 election outcome when it didn't fit the scriptDonald Trump’s 2020 campaign commissioned an outside research firm to prove electoral fraud claims, but its work never saw the light of day after no evidence was found to support those claims, the Washington Post reported in an exclusive story today.
The campaign hired Berkeley Research Group to study the 2020 results in six states “looking for fraud and irregularities to highlight in public and in the courts,” the Post reported. That study, for which the Trump campaign paid more than $600,000, was conducted in the final weeks of December 2020.
The Trump campaign “never released the findings because the firm disputed many of his theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election, according to four people familiar with the matter,” the Post reported.
Its sources indicated that it had been a serious undertaking.
“They looked at everything: change of addresses, illegal immigrants, ballot harvesting, people voting twice, machines being tampered with, ballots that were sent to vacant addresses that were returned and voted,” said a person familiar with the work who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private research and meetings. “Literally anything you could think of. Voter turnout anomalies, date of birth anomalies, whether dead people voted. If there was anything under the sun that could be thought of, they looked at it.”
The Berkeley Research Group tested at least a dozen hypotheses that Trump’s team presented, the Post reported.
"None of these were significant enough,” one person familiar with the study said. “Just like any election, there are always errors, omissions and irregularities. It was nowhere close enough to what they wanted to prove, and it actually went in both directions.”The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Dominion’s historic defamation case against Fox News will go to trial, judge rules, in major decision dismantling key Fox defenses.Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial in mid-April, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, in a major decision that dismantled several of the right-wing network’s key defenses.
The judge’s decision is a painful setback for Fox News and sets the stage for an agonizing, weekslong trial, where the network’s highest-ranking executives and most prominent hosts could be called to the stand to testify about the 2020 election lies that were promoted on its air.
Both sides had asked Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis for a pretrial ruling in their favor, declaring them the winner. After thousands of pages of filings and exhibits, and a series of courtroom clashes, Davis decided the case should go to trial. But one question jurors won’t need to weigh, he concluded, was whether Fox’s claims about Dominion were true or false.
“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote.
Unless there is an out-of-court settlement — which is always possible — Davis’ ruling means jurors will need to decide whether Fox News defamed Dominion by repeatedly promoting false claims that the voting technology company rigged the 2020 presidential election by flipping millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Dominion wants $1.6 billion in damages.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on April 13 in Wilmington, Delaware.
Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, deny all wrongdoing. They’ve argued that their conspiracy theory-filled broadcasts after the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment, because their on-air reporters were merely reporting on “newsworthy allegations.”
“This case is and always has been about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement after the ruling. “Fox will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.”
In his 130-page ruling, Davis dismantled several of Fox News’ potential trial defenses, dealing a significant blow to the network. On the whole, these findings from Davis take away several key arguments that Fox could’ve presented to the jury, making it harder for them to prevail at trial.
Davis ruled that Fox News can’t invoke the “neutral report privilege,” which protects journalists who neutrally pass along newsworthy allegations in an unbiased fashion. Dominion had argued that Fox News hosts essentially took a side while covering the fallout of the 2020 election, by throwing their weight behind the false idea that the results were illegitimate, and Dominion was to blame.
“The evidence does not support that (Fox News) conducted good-faith, disinterested reporting,” Davis wrote. “(Fox News’) failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested.”
The judge also blocked Fox News from using the “fair report privilege” with the jury. That legal doctrine protects journalists who report on what is being said at official proceedings, like congressional hearings, or on allegations being levied in court filings, like in a civil lawsuit.
Davis pointed out that the timeline of Fox’s on-air statements didn’t sync up with the lawsuits, many filed by pro-Trump lawyers like Sidney Powell, that sought to overturn the 2020 election.
“Most of the contested statements were made before any lawsuit had been filed in court,” Davis wrote, adding that out of the nearly 20 broadcasts on Fox’s networks that Dominion claims damaged their reputation, “only one broadcast at issue even mentioned Ms. Powell’s lawsuit.”
The judge gave Dominion a boost by determining that the on-air statements at the heart of the litigation were either factual assertions or “mixed opinion,” which might make it harder for Fox to defend itself in front of the jury. Fox had asked Davis to rule that the statements were “pure opinion,” and therefore couldn’t be defamatory under the First Amendment.
“The context supports the position that the statements were not pure opinion when they were made by newscasters holding themselves out to be sources of accurate information,” Davis wrote.
Davis additionally wrote in his ruling that even if the statements were opinion, Fox News would not be protected under the Constitution, given that they appeared to “charge Dominion with the serious crime of election fraud.”
“Accusations of criminal activity, even in the form of opinion, are not constitutionally protected,” Davis wrote.
The voting technology firm cheered these parts of Davis’ ruling in a statement on Friday.
“We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial,” a Dominion spokesperson said in a statement.
The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Fox News $787.5 Million Settlement and Embarrassing Disclosures: The Cost of Airing a Lie.In settling with Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News has avoided an excruciating, drawn-out trial in which its founding chief, Rupert Murdoch, its top managers and its biggest stars would have had to face hostile grilling on an embarrassing question: Why did they allow a virulent and defamatory conspiracy theory about the 2020 election to spread across the network when so many of them knew it to be false?
But the $787.5 million settlement agreement — among the largest defamation settlements in history — and Fox’s courthouse statement recognizing that the court had found “certain claims about Dominion” aired on its programming “to be false” — at the very least amount to a rare, high-profile acknowledgment of informational wrongdoing by a powerhouse in conservative media and America’s most popular cable network.
“Money is accountability,” Stephen Shackelford, a Dominion lawyer, said outside the courthouse, “and we got that today from Fox.”The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|
Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 1/4/2010 Posts: 11,151 Location: on a hill in the hollow
|
.Trump secretly hired two firms for more than $1.35 million to find 2020 voter fraud — they couldn’t.The Washington Post revealed that behind the scenes, former President Donald Trump hired a law firm at $750,000 to find voter fraud in the 2020 election. They found nothing.
The 2020 election is becoming the most investigated election in history, and each time it confirms that there was no widespread voter fraud and Trump lost.
Special counsel Jack Smith and his team at the Justice Department questioned the founder of the firm about his work disproving Trump's claims.
"Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were 'all false,'" the Post said, quoting the lawyer. Block previously ran for governor in Rhode Island as a Republican.
“No substantive voter fraud was uncovered in my investigations looking for it, nor was I able to confirm any of the outside claims of voter fraud that I was asked to look at,” he said. “Every fraud claim I was asked to investigate was false.”
He also confessed he was subpoenaed by Smith's office and met with the prosecutors, but he wouldn't reveal what he said. He explained that he sent his findings disputing the voter fraud in late 2020. It means that Trump had even more information and evidence proving that his claims were false.The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
Sydney J. Harris
|
|
|