LONDON: A British couple have thanked their lucky stars after a garage
full of bin bags left to them by a neighbour yielded a trove of Star
Wars toys worth £400,000 (16 million baht).
The couple, from Stourbridge in central England, were initially
unsure what to make of the jumble of dolls and spacecraft their
neighbour had spent decades collecting, the Times newspaper reported Thursday.
Their son called in an auctioneer, who found a treasure trove of Star
Wars memorabilia including action figures still pristine in their
sealed packaging.
"A lot of them were a bit damp because of how they've been stored but
generally it's the best Star Wars collection I've ever seen," Chris
Aston of Aston's Auctioneers, told the Times.
"We had a huge amount of interest from all over the world and were
always expecting the sale to do very well," Aston said of the auction.
Going under the hammer was a Star Destroyer Commander, one of only
two known examples still to be in its original packaging, which sold
for £32,500 including fees, the Times said.
A Palitoy Jawa still in its packaging -- and believed to be one of only 10 in existence -- fetched £27,280 with fees.
A set of eight figures from "Return of the Jedi" that cost only £1.59 each when they were bought new in the 1980s, went for £1,400.
From Storm Trooper helmets to R2D2's eye, memorabilia from one of the
world's biggest movie franchises can fetch eye-watering sums at
auctions.
In 2015, a Luke Skywalker doll, which hit the market in 1978 as a
children's toy, sold for $25,000 (767,000 baht) at an auction organised
by Sotheby's and eBay.
Aston said the Stourbridge couple would be "thrilled" with the unexpected windfall.
"I don't know if they have any specific plans but it must feel like they've won the lottery," he said.
The biggest loser in this election? Confidence in the voting process
Despite Joe Biden’s confidence
in “the story this election is telling us” and the assumption that he’s
going to win, the 2020 presidential election is still dragging on.
Georgia is going to a recount and the potential for court challenges is
still brewing in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona. I honestly don’t know
if Donald Trump can pull one last, giant rabbit out of his hat here,
but we’re obviously just going to have to be patient for a while longer
while making sure that Republican officials are watching the process
closely.
It’s that “process” that I wanted to talk about today. I was looking at one breathless report from the Associated Press
while having coffee this morning and was struck by how desperately many
MSM outlets seem to be to bat down any questions about how fairly,
accurately and legally the counting is being handled. At this point,
they’re attacking Republican objections to perceived irregularities more
stridently than they are the President himself. Words such as
“baseless” and “unproven” are dominating the headlines this weekend. And
reporters are more interested in which Republicans are going along with
Trump or gainsaying him than the underlying questions being raised.
President
Donald Trump’s wild and unsupported claims of voter fraud have emerged
as a high-stakes Republican loyalty test that illustrates the tug of war
likely to define the future of the GOP whether he wins or loses the
presidency.
There is a pervasive sense among current and former
GOP officials that the president’s behavior is irresponsible if not
dangerous, but a divide has emerged between those influential
Republicans willing to call him out publicly and those who aren’t.
Driving
their calculus is an open acknowledgment that Trump’s
better-than-expected showing on Election Day ensures that he will remain
the Republican Party’s most powerful voice for years to come even if he
loses.
Each individual claim of irregularities in
handling the mountain of mail-in ballots currently being counted will
need to be examined closely by observers from both parties. But at this
point, the stream of questions and accusations arising in nearly every
battleground state has turned into a tsunami. How does anyone expect the
nation’s confidence in the outcome of this process to remain intact? Ed
Morrissey already pointed out
how a variety of technical issues and, frankly, administrative
incompetence in several states turned this mail-in voting fiasco into a
disaster. But I think it runs deeper than that.
We were already
becoming increasingly aware that the opportunity for voter fraud was
more common than the mainstream media will ever admit, even if we don’t
know precisely how much is going on. Dead people were found voting in New York City and Florida
after early voting began, and that’s just the ones that were caught.
Yet those are outside, criminal actors and we have ways of at least
attempting to detect them and prosecuting the guilty parties.
What’s
become far more of a concern is the way we handle ballots and the
process of people casting their votes, be it in person on election day,
at early voting polling stations, or, most importantly, through mail-in
ballots. I think it’s high time we took a fresh look at the very real
human beings involved in ensuring this critical task is completed
honestly and efficiently. It’s long been a running joke in political
punditry that our polling places are generally staffed by “blue-haired
ladies” who might not be the most technically savvy people to assist
voters with modern electronic voting devices. But the reality is that
every stage of the voting process relies heavily on an army of fallible
and potentially even corruptible human beings, many of whom are unpaid
volunteers. I’m sure many are there because of a sense of public duty
and a desire to serve. But others may not be.
When the vast
majority of voting is done in person, whether it be through older
“lever” machines or the newer optical scanners, confidence in the
integrity of the system can remain fairly high. As long as you are the
person showing up to fill in the ovals and blanks on a ballot and you
feed it into the machine yourself, the chances for malicious
interference appear to be minimal if the machinery is functioning
properly. If there are any questions as to how your ballot is filled
out, they can be directly addressed at that time with you partaking in
the process. And in previous elections, the number of absentee or
mail-in ballots was generally too low to tip the outcome of all but the
closest of races.
This year has obviously been different. Every
one of those paper ballots that were either sent through the mail or
dropped off in a collection bin has to eventually arrive at a Board of
Elections center. At that point, a human being has to open the envelope,
remove the ballot and inspect it for processing. We’ve watched videos
of workers with felt pens in hand, marking various things on ballots
before either accepting or rejecting them. Sometimes that’s part of the
normal, required process. But what if someone is “filling in the blanks”
themselves? In other places, we didn’t even get to observe the process
because people were taping pizza boxes to the windows so the processing could take place hidden away from the prying eyes of the public.
I’m
sorry, but after seeing all of this malarkey unfolding before our eyes,
how solid should anyone’s confidence be that the workers and volunteers
carrying out this critical duty haven’t been infiltrated by bad actors
that are looking to nudge the results in a razor-close race in their
preferred direction? Yes, most states allow for “poll watchers” from
each party to monitor the activity, but one person with two good eyes
can’t be everywhere at once.
With all of this in mind, I’m fairly
sure the process itself may turn out to be the biggest loser of the 2020
election and we should be able to fix this. First of all, massive
mail-in voting should not become the new normal until there is a more
automated and transparent way to handle paper ballots developed. And how
difficult would it be to have live video and audio recordings made at
each ballot-counting center and available for review during potential
court challenges after the race is finished? We live in an era where
half the country has Ring video surveillance on their porches. It
couldn’t be that much of a hurdle to overcome. Other possibilities
abound. But something definitely needs to change, no matter what
approach we settle on.
This morning the media called the election for Joe Biden, and already they’re demanding President Trump concede the race.
Which is all kinds of ironic coming from the people who applauded like clapping seals when Stacey Abrams refused to concede.
These are also the same people who, to this day, let Hillary Clinton claim that the 2016 election was stolen from her.
But now they’re furious that Trump won’t concede?
LOL! Get stuffed.
The truth is, between pending lawsuits and challenges, the election is not officially over. It isn’t the media that declares a winner. And until these challenges are dealt with, the states in question can’t declare the winner either.
So why should Trump concede?
Well, we know why the media wants him to.
Trust me, they aren’t outraged over Trump calling out the mail-in ballot shenanigans because they actually believe there’s “no evidence.” They’re outraged because the last thing they want is any sort of examination into these shenanigans.
That’s why they’re eager for President Trump’s concession speech. Because the instant he concedes, all examination stops.
But at this point, there is far more evidence of cheating and fraud in 2020 than there ever was for Russian interference in 2016. And that’s kinda the point. The media is running cover for widespread fraud. And so long as President Trump keeps up the fight, the harder it will be to hide the truth.
So while the media can’t officially declare Joe Biden the winner, they absolutely can cement the narrative.
And that is exactly what they’re doing right now – not because Biden actually officially won, but because saying it enough will cement it into the American psyche.
The news media doesn’t report the news; it creates a simulation.
Claiming Biden has been “declared” the winner will make Trump look like a “sore loser” and a “threat to our democracy” for refusing to concede.
See how it works?
As Jesse Kelly always says, “None of what you see is real.”
(I’m sure Jesse would be saying that today had Twitter not suspended him on Monday.)
The election isn’t over yet. Biden is not the President-elect yet.
But the media is going to do everything it can to drill that dishonest narrative into our heads.
Now I’m going to say something that will probably piss you off.
I have a sinking suspicion the challenges and lawsuits will amount to nothing. In the end, I think Biden will officially be declared the winner. Too many powerful people are far too invested in defeating Trump. Given that, I just don’t see this coming to a favorable end.
I also think most Republicans in the Senate and some in the House will be the most susceptible to the media’s simulation. The narrative will set like concrete in their minds. The truth is, a lot of them are more than happy to severe any ties to the President for their own benefit. As a result, Trump will be out there flapping in the wind all by himself without the support from members of his own party.
In fact, I think of all those who will demand Trump concede, the loudest voices will be from among the Senate Republicans.
I want to be wrong.
I hope I am wrong.
But from where I’m sitting right now, I don’t have a lot of confidence that I’ll end up being wrong.
After enduring four years of corporate media and congressional Democrats peddling lies, half-truths, and false narratives, Donald Trump voters will never believe a Joe Biden victory was lawfully achieved. While there is no short-term fix to that fallout, if our republic is to survive and flourish, there must be a reckoning by elected officials and journalists and a course correction—no matter whom is declared the winner of 2020.
Since Tuesday’s election, America has witnessed some strange happenings in the voting tallies. Equally bizarre is the unbelievable phenomena we are witnessing of down-ballot Republicans riding Trump’s coattails to victory, with the president himself allegedly defrocked at the finish line.
Then there is the evidenceof up to 6,000 illegal votes cast in Nevada, and credibleevidenceof fraud in Michigan andPennsylvania. Social media is flush with many more serious-sounding claims of voter fraud, but separating rumors from the real concerning charges is difficult.
The process will continue weeks, maybe even months, with recounts and court battles. If Biden “wins,” at the end of the day, Democrat politicians and their blinded Republican colleagues, in hand with the media, will assure Americans of the legitimacy of the process. (If Trump ekes out a victory, of course, all that will change). The media will “debunk” or “fact check” away the fraud and state officials will “investigate” then issue bureaucratic reports refuting charges of voter fraud.
When that time comes, half of America will disregard their every word. Trump supporters saw the play; they know the script and the actors, and they have already panned corporate media’s productions.
Trump’s backers lived through four years of false claims of “Russia collusion,” and while leftist media and many Americans remain in the dark about SpyGate, enough on the right know the reality that they won’t trust anything Democrats or the legacy press say about election fraud. Why should they?
Those well-versed in the SpyGate know that Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff lied about Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, and the press gave him a free pass and instead attacked Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, whose memorandum on FISA abuse first exposed the country to the FBI’s corruption in targeting the Trump campaign. They know the special counsel was a sham, that Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report conclusively established the Obama-Biden administration spied on the Trump campaign. And they know corporate media still refuses to acknowledge that simple truth.
SpyGate connoisseurs also know the spying and lying was not isolated. They know both career and political appointees in the FBI and DOJ, as well as other agencies, held strong anti-Trump sentiments and targeted Trump and his staff. They also know the impeachment of Trump was a hoax; that there was no whistleblower and that Democrats concocted the scandal to get rid of Trump. And they know the MSM happily provided an assist.
If Trump’s enemies will go to such great lengths to oust him at the end of his first term, does anyone really think his foes wouldn’t fix an election to avoid four more years of Trump as commander-in-chief?
This reality is devastating, and here I mean not only the devastation of a fixed election, but the equally catastrophic consequence of a government and a press lacking in credibility.
The weaponizing of the intelligence and law enforcement communities to take down Trump has rendered the government untrustworthy. The corporate media’s complicity in the scheme left a corrupt government without a check and the populace without a beacon.
Assurances now, from these sources, mean nothing. No number of press conferences by battle-ground states’ secretaries of state will assuage Trump voters. No amount of ink will make the media believable now on the question of voter fraud. And that is distressing, because Americans want to know—need to know—if there was fraud.
But it is unlikely we will ever know the truth because of the difficulty in proving widespread voter fraud—and the greater difficulty in believing anything we are told by the government and the media.
As pointed out here not long ago at RedState, it was announced earlier today that there are maybe as many as 200,000 ballots remaining to be counted across all of Pennsylvania – another 100,000 ballots that were “mailed-in”, and another 100,000 ballots that are “provisional” ballots.
Virtually all of Pennsylvania’s mail and absentee ballots have been counted, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State said Friday, but the process of tallying as many as 100,000 provisional ballots has just begun.
These provisional ballots are very different from the “mail-in” ballots which were such a source of controversy as massive numbers were counted over the past 3 days in Pennsylvania’s highly populated counties in and around Philadelphia. Knowing that those counties are overwhelmingly Democrat by voter registration, it was inevitable that given the huge number of mail-in ballots requested and returned in Pennsylvania this year, the counting of those ballots in the heavy Democrat counties of Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia would substantially erode the in-person vote totals that had given Pres. Trump a significant lead as of the end of the day on Tuesday.
With nearly all those mail-in ballots now having been counted — supposedly — and included in the statewide vote total, Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania by 15,000 votes.
“Provisional” ballots are cast when a voter’s eligibility to vote in-person is in question. For example, if a voter requested a mail-in ballot but did not receive one, or lost a ballot or the envelope it needed to be enclosed in to be counted, the person could go to their normal precinct polling location and request to vote a provisional ballot on Election Day.
In addition, voters who tracked their mail-in votes online, and discovered that their ballot was rejected because of a technical defect, could go to the polls and cast a provisional ballot.
Before county workers can count provisional ballots as valid votes, they have to investigate each one to ensure the person submitting it is a registered voter and eligible to vote, and didn’t vote already. That information then has to be documented in a state web portal that allows the voter to see if their vote was counted. The process must be completed within seven days of an election. But the process can be time-consuming
“It took our county a day and a half to do a little over 8,000 mail ballots in June,” Jeff Greenburg, regional director at the National Vote at Home Institute and a former Mercer County elections director, said, “It took us two and a half days to do 650 provisionals, because of the labor intensive work that’s required.”
Where a substantial number of mail-in ballots were requested, received, and voted – such as in the populous counties around Philadelphia — the likelihood that there may be a substantial number of “provisional” ballots is reduced – the “mail-in” ballot has already been accepted.
So the “provisional” ballots are more likely to come from areas that had a lower return rate of “mail-in” ballots, or where there were known problems with the delivery of “mail-in” ballots ahead of the election.
As of Friday morning, 56 of the state’s 67 counties reported about 85,000 provisional ballots cast based on only a partial count, a Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson said. House Speaker Bryan Cutler told reporters Friday he’s told the number could top 100,000.
The fact that the 100,000 provisional ballots are spread out across the state creates a significant possibility they could break in favor of Pres. Trump. There are dozens of Pennsylvania counties where his margin of victory over Joe Biden exceeded 40%. If most of the “provisional” ballots are scattered among all the counties across the state, and there is no concentration of a significant number of ballots in the 5-6 counties where Biden had a substantial margin of victory, the 15,000 vote deficit that now exists could be easily overcome. If 100,000 is a close approximation, he would need them to break in the range of 58-42 to have a solid chance of overcoming the deficit.
In addition to the “provisional ballots”, the press reports mention that there may be as many as another 100,000 “mail-in” ballots remaining to be counted. These are likely ballots received by elections officials after the 8:00 pm Tuesday deadline that is set forth in the Pennsylvania statute, but which was extended for three days by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in its controversial decision prior to the election – a decision now subject to an appeal in the Supreme Court. Prior to the election, the Pennsylvania Secretary of State agreed to segregate such late-arriving “mail-in” ballots until after the Supreme Court has had a chance to consider whether it would hear the challenge to what the Pennsylvania Court had done. Now that the counting of timely received “mail-in” ballots has been completed, the counties will turn to counting the “untimely” mailed-in ballots.
With only a 15,000 vote margin to overcome and the unpredictability of how the provisional and untimely mailed-in ballots will end up breaking, the contest in Pennsylvania appears to be far from settled.
Stalin is alleged by some to have said: "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes."
No
matter who said it, the quote is an excellent definition of tyranny. It
is also, apparently, an accurate appraisal of what occurred in America
in the hours and days after polling places closed on the evening of
Nov. 3rd. Yet Democrats, who’ve spent the last four years
incessantly telling us that the Russians stole the 2016 presidential
election from Hillary Clinton, have abruptly pivoted and now claim our
election process is utterly meddle-proof, a thing of peerless integrity.
Even as they were stealing the 2020 election from Donald Trump…and
roughly half of American voters.
But
steal it they apparently have. For some time now, I have warned of the
pending end of America as we knew it. Sadly, that day has arrived. The
republic is finished. Yes, I know Republicans did much better overall
than they were projected to by the “experts.” Republicans did not lose
control of the Senate, though they came close to doing so. Shockingly to
the pundits, they actually picked up a number of seats in the House.
Maybe, in 2024, if we have the right candidate (Trump again?), we
can…blah, blah, blah.
Unfortunately, that’s all so much wishful thinking. This
was the presidential election we had to have to save the nation. That
is why the now-radical Democrats pulled out all the stops to win it,
even engaging in blatant cheating and corruption.
If Biden channels his inner Obama and decides to skip the legislative
process and grant immunity to 20 million illegal aliens by executive
fiat, it is game over. No conservative will ever be elected president
again. Period. That observation has nothing to do with racism, it’s just
a simple fact. The already rapid change in the electorate can be
clearly seen in the formerly red states such as Colorado, Texas,
Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina that have turned “purple” or blue.
We are entering an era of one-party government, at least in terms of
national elections. We will soon be the world’s biggest banana republic.
Moreover, Biden recently vowed to recommit the U.S. to the Paris
Climate Accord on “Day One”
of his presidency, and is in favor of most aspects of the Green New
Deal, guaranteeing that the American economy will collapse like a bad
popover. He will also revive the Iran Nuclear Deal…guaranteeing Iran a
viable nuclear weapon in the near future.
This
didn’t just happen. This was a long-planned, well thought out scheme.
It started with the radical left’s 1960s vow to embark on the “long march through the institutions.”
They have all those institutions now. Academia, media, the
entertainment industry/Hollywood, Big Religion, Big Business, and now
Big Tech. Then came the coronavirus, or COVID-1984 as I have previously called it. Progressives used the virus itself
as a kind of Trojan horse. With the assistance of the aforementioned
institutions, Democratic governors, mayors and health officials
successfully instituted mask mandates and lockdowns and instilled fear
and terror into the American populace. They then urged everyone to vote
by mail, if they cared about their friends, families and fellow
citizens. “Stay home, stay safe.” Because, you know, “Staying apart will
bring us closer together.” In turn, the unprecedented number of mail-in
ballots allowed Joe Biden, Trojan horse #2, to stay in his basement for
seven months and still become president of the United States. (Until
Kamala Harris takes over).
If
the vote counts are accurate, which I don’t for a minute believe, then a
remarkable thing happened: Americans chose an incompetent, incoherent,
and nearly senile old man who despises their nation as founded, backs
BLM and Antifa, champions abortion, supports policies that will
necessarily lead to economic ruin, and who is essentially a wholly-owned
subsidiary of China-- over a patriot with an unmatched economic record
who has kept his promises and kept America safe and out of wars for his
entire term in office. If we are that far gone today, no conservative
could ever win in the future anyway, whether illegal aliens were granted
immunity or not.
On the other hand, if corruption on a vast scale has occurred, and leftists get away with it this
time, they are always going to get away with it, particularly since
they will have gained even more power and control. I have recently heard
many conservatives say they will never vote again, as it is pointless
and therefore not worth it if their votes aren’t going to be counted
anyway. I understand their feelings of disenfranchisement, but this,
too, plays right into Democrats' hands and assures one-party rule for
perpetuity.
Joe Biden recently said, ”We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization
in the history of American politics.” The media ignored his statement.
Turns out, he was not only boasting, but telling the truth, something he
is usually loath to do.
“The
Swamp” is almost unimaginably vast, fetid and deep. Leftists have
successfully trampled on the Constitution. They have broken the system,
broken many Americans…broken America.
In
1787, while coming out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional
Convention, a lady asked Ben Franklin if citizens were being handed a
republic or a monarchy. Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep
it.”
Michigan GOP Identifies Software “Glitch” in Voting System – One County Had 6,000 Wrongly Assigned Biden Votes Corrected To Trump When Fixed
According to the Michigan GOP Chair: Dozens of Michigan counties used the same Dominion voting software that caused 6,000 votes in one county to switch from Trump to Biden. When corrected, the votes were reassigned to Trump.
Press Conference:
Additionally, it appears all of the key states like Nevada, Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania use the same Dominion software.
Amid a nation that is teetering on the edge of something very dangerous, this type of rhetoric from the Joe Biden campaign adds a particularly explosive fuel to the issue.
Two thoughts: First, this outlook is quite simply the mindset of the group who is determined to take over control of the United States Government.
Second, this outlook is not unique to a singular campaign spokesperson:
*David Plouffe was the campaign manager for Barack Obama.
U.S.—Angered at President Donald Trump's apparent loss, the president's psychotic supporters took to the streets to drive to work and go about their lives as normal.
Crowds of Trump supporters were seen just kinda doing the same old thing they always do, not burning down any buildings or assaulting anyone or tipping over statues. The deranged, dangerous followers of the fascist ruler got in their cars and flooded the streets, but they were just driving to work, because life goes on.
Some got out of their cars and marched, but they were just marching into their offices and onto construction sites, the ones where they work, because they have jobs and their whole lives don't hinge on who is or isn't in the White House.
"Look at how insane these Trump supporters are!" screamed one commentator on CNN. "They are flooding our streets and going to work like usual! AHHHHHHHH!!!"
At publishing time, they were seen going into people's homes and private property, though they were their own homes, because they were just going home for the evening to hang out with their families and maybe watch some TV.
A Dark Moment for Democracy Affirms the Need for the Second Amendment
Businesses in major American cities like New York, Los
Angeles, and Washington D.C. erected plywood barricades for fear of
election day violence. To observers in other countries, the picture of
boarded up businesses looked like they came from the third world. To
historians, the pictures looked like they were taken from a country
descending into tyranny.
We
all know who these barriers were built to defend against. They weren’t
built to defend against Tea Partiers. They weren’t built to defend
against Proud Boys. They were built to defend against Antifa and Black
Lives Matter, groups who Joe Biden has repeatedly refused to condemn
despite their coordinated violence and property destruction.
Shortly
before the election, Biden tweeted that he would ban “assault weapons,”
implement “universal background checks,” and enact other allegedly
“common sense” gun reform laws.
If he proves the
victor, and the Democrats win one run-off race in Georgia, America will
see an unprecedented assault on the Second Amendment. A Biden Department
of Justice would try to bankrupt gun manufacturers in court. And gun
confiscation would be on the table, given that Biden has promised to put
Beto O’Rourke, who famously said “Hell yes, we are going to take your
AR-15s,” in charge of his administration’s gun policies.
Fortunately,
over the last six months gun sales – especially to first-time
gun-buyers – have shattered all historic records. This is because for
hundreds of thousands of Americans, 2020 has settled the gun control
arguments they hear so often in the media. The question “what could
anyone need an AR-15 for?” has been answered by images of store owners
standing guard against a mob with that gun as their neighbor’s
businesses burned to the ground.
The argument that “people should rely on the police
for protection,” has been countered by the reality that in major
American cities our elected officials pro-actively refuse to allow the
police the enforce the law. This wasn’t a matter of the police getting
there moments too late. What we saw was elected officials refusing to
allow the police to enforce the law because they agreed with the
political aims of the violent mob.
As these mobs march
through the street, they shout “this is what democracy looks like!” But
anyone who has taken more than an hour’s study of world history knows
that violent mobs marching with the approval of a political party that
aims to disarm its citizens is what fascism looks like. What communism
looks like. What tyranny looks like.
Our founding
fathers placed the right to keep and bear arms second, just after the
right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, in the Bill of Rights
because they studied enough history to know what tyrannical governments
can and will do to an unarmed populace. Because of their wisdom, America
never descended into the totalitarian horrors experienced by our
counterparts in Russia, Germany, France, and China.
The
Second Amendment is not, of course, the sole reason why America has
been exceptional in this regard. Our separation of powers, checks and
balances, emphasis on federalism and decentralization, combined with a
citizenry that prided itself in temperance, prudence, hard work, and
fear of G-d all taken together have been a bulwark against tyranny.
Unfortunately, however, as has long been the case in other countries,
there is now a powerful force working its way through our government
that sees all of these civic institutions and virtuous dispositions as
problems that must be eradicated along the road to a utopia.
Unless President Trump’s legal challenges
succeed in exposing sufficient fraud to swing the election back his way,
the question of whether America will have divided government or
single-part control will hinge on Georgia’s Senate run-offs. If either
Democratic candidate wins, then the Democrats will control all three
branches of government. From that will flow much else, especially the
security of American’s Second Amendment rights.
But
ultimately, our rights do not come from the federal government. They
come from G-d, and if not secured by the government must be preserved by
a vigilant citizenry. It would be far easier for a Biden administration
to inhibit gun sales than for a gun czar Beto O’Rourke to actually make
good on his promise to confiscate them. Still, with so much hanging in
the balance, and Americans having seen that their government might not
just fail to protect them, but actually help facilitate violence and
destruction for political purposes, I believe the one certain project we
can make at this time is that gun sales between today and January 20,
2021 will reach unprecedented levels.
Yesterday Washington Post Congressional reporter Erica Werner tweeted out a thread of a Democrat caucus conference call that is a barn-burner. As I was reading it, the Talking Heads’ song “Burning Down the House” got stuck in my head.
Despite the mail-in-ballot cheating that is pushing the demented oldster over the top, the Democrat House majority took a shellacking in this election. And the poor Dems just can’t wrap their heads around what went wrong.
What went wrong is Pelosi spent the last two years burning down the House. She tossed aside what few moderate Democrats remained in order to cozy up to the radical socialist “Squad.”
And while burning down the House in favor of the Squad seemed a good idea to Nancy, it turns out voters aren’t too keen on the Lipstick Marxists.
Spanberger on the Dem caucus call: We lost races we shouldn’t have lost. Defund police almost cost me my race bc of an attack ad. Don’t say socialism ever again. Need to get back to basics. (Is yelling.)
If we run this race again we will get fucking torn apart again in 2022, Spanberger says
Pelosi comes back on and says she disagrees, they won the House and presidency
We have a mandate! Pelosi says before getting off the call
Also earlier in the call Debbie Mucarsel-Powell who lost her race was crying , and mentioned how people can’t pronounce her name, and said stop being negative on Twitter
Jeffries comes back on to tell people to stop leaking and that reporters aren’t your friends!
Jayapal is telling Jeffries to find the leakers!
It just keeps going as Pascrell now calling out Schumer. Pelosi’s done an amazing job … but where’s Schumer in all of this? Says Pelosi has one hand tied behind her back
Rashida Tlaib saying before we make painful statements we need to wait and see how the numbers come down, feels like I’m being asked to be quiet and we need to appeal to certain people, and that’s not right
Tlaib: They called Obama worse, they called him a Muslim, a socialist, you can blame these words but if it wasn’t on BLM would’ve been something else
The end is in sight for this Dem caucus call that started more than two hours ago. Jeffries said 7-8 mbrs in queue and then will wrap up. Anyways I have to go help with kids zoom piano lessons so leaving it here
One more random detail is that Earl Blumenauer said marijuana was the big winner of the election citing successful ballot initiatives in various places
And what I wrote about then seems to have aged quite well:
The more these women talk, the more horrified Americans are by what they say. Shoving them into the spotlight and giving them a platform from which to utter their hateful rhetoric is a tremendously bad idea. Yet here we are.
Now, it doesn’t surprise anyone outside of DC and New York that Republicans picked up seats. Nancy burning down the House for the benefit of four radical Leftists with a lot of Twitter followers was going to turn off the Normals.
Can you believe Nancy told these angry Dems that they had a mandate?
A mandate?
They lost seats. If they had a mandate, they would have gained seats.
Does Nancy even live in the real world?
In the end the Democrats will probably have the thinnest majority since FDR. And the blame for burning down the House can be laid directly at Nancy Pelosi’s grizzled feet.
She tried to harness the social media popularity of the Squad and the Squad, like Frankenstein’s Monster, turned against her.
All those suburban voters who handed the Democrats the majority in 2018 weren’t as enamored with the Lipstick Marxists as Nancy was. And Tuesday, they let her know it.
I don’t blame the Democrats for being angry. But they could’ve done something other than waste a year investigating Trump while sucking up to the Squad. They could’ve put the interests of their constituents above the ResistanceLOL. But they didn’t do any of that.
