Judge Rules: Multiple Simultaneous Election Errors and Mistakes, But No Irrefutable Proof of Purposeful Intent

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

Yes, Judge Peter A Thompson has ruled from the Maricopa Superior Court of Arizona, that success for Mrs. Kari Lake’s lawsuit was contingent upon her being able to prove malicious intent on behalf of the country election officials. [Read 10-page Ruling HERE]

The Maricopa County officials have denied malicious intent and are afforded great benefit of doubt; after all, the election result was duly certified.

Therefore, absent direct evidence of corrupt intent by the election officials, which would require them to make admissions in court, any certified outcome is considered valid.

Additionally, yes there were multiple documented problems with ballots, tabulators and chain-of-custody violations; and yes, there were multiple simultaneous failures which would have impeded accurate voting by the residents of Arizona; however, the Lake campaign could not quantify to a demonstrable certainty, the exact number of votes that were impacted by the simultaneous collapse of voting systems, processes and ballot control standards.

Absent Mrs. Lakes’ ability to scientifically and empirically quantify the exact number of votes impacted, there is no basis for a judgement in favor of the plaintiff.

Lastly, the defendant has requested that Mrs. Lake be punished by the court for attempting to question the certification of the election as validated by her opponent, the court will consider what punishment to impose and proclaim the sanctions after Monday, December 26, 2022.

[Full Ruling Here]

“Plaintiff has no free-standing right to challenge election results based upon what Plaintiff believes – rightly or wrongly – went awry on Election Day. She must, as a matter of law, prove a ground that the legislature has provided as a basis for challenging an election. …

“[O]ne who would contest an election assumes the burden of showing that his case falls within the terms of the statute providing for election contests.” … “It was Plaintiff’s burden to establish each element by clear and convincing evidence. If Plaintiff herself failed to sustain her burden of proof, the matter is decided.” …

“As far as evidence of misconduct is concerned, the Court finds nothing to substantiate Plaintiff’s claim of intentional misconduct.” … “Plaintiff’s own witness testified before this Court that the BOD printer failures were largely the result of unforeseen mechanical failure.” …

“It bears mentioning that election workers themselves were attested to by both Plaintiff’s witnesses and the Defendants’ witnesses as being dedicated to performing their role with integrity. Not perfectly, as no system on this earth is perfect, but more than sufficient to comply with the law and conduct a valid election.”  (LINK)

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The court will now determine what punishment to apply to Mrs Kari Lake.

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It Must Always Be 'Merry Christmas'

posted by Robin M. Itzler at American Thinker

Decades ago, when I was a liberal Democrat, I bought into the fallacy that saying “Merry Christmas” was wrong. But back then, I also thought murdering a baby in the womb was right. As (my husband and) I slowly morphed into Reagan Democrats and then finally abandoned the now Marxist-leaning Democrat party to register as Republicans, I realized that celebrating Christmas is fundamental to the United States remaining a beacon of freedom in the world. Commemorating Christmas guarantees freedom of religion for all Americans.

Think about it. If a nation where about 80 percent of its population is Christian is denied its own religious beliefs (“Merry Christmas” morphing into “Happy Holidays”), what chance do smaller religions such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. have for celebrating their holidays? If woke Marxists can remove the nativity scene from Christmas and replace it with Santa Claus, it’s even easier to remove the Hanukkah menorah and replace it with Liberace’s candelabra.

My story

December approached along with Bill O’Reilly’s nightly commentary about ridiculous liberal attacks on Christmas and how many stores were quickly going along with the woke agenda. The silent majority griped about it, but many grudgingly accepted the woke mandate that “Christmas” was bad, but “holiday” was good. Family and friends said, “Merry Christmas,” but didn’t complain when shopkeepers put the two joyous words in the history bin. These were the days before the Tea Party and MAGA movements, back when some conservatives erroneously believed that, if we just gave in to this madness, maybe those nutty progressives would leave us alone.

At the same time, I noticed that many Southern California stores had started featuring small Hanukkah displays. Having grown up in Bayside, Queens (which was predominantly Jewish in the 1960s), it was nice to see reminders from my childhood.

However, I also noticed something very wrong with most stores’ festive décor and decided to do something about it.

Proudly showcasing my Star of David necklace, I checked out the store’s Hanukkah and Christmas displays. Then standing by the Hanukkah items, I asked to speak to the manager. Invariably, when the managers approached and saw a big smile on my face along with the Star of David, they quickly assumed it would be a friendly conversation. It went something like this:

Me: I want to thank you and (store name) for the small Hanukkah display. Being Jewish, I appreciate that you have it.

Manager: You’re welcome. We want to recognize all the holidays.

Me: But I have a question.

Manager: Yes.

Me: You correctly call the Jewish holiday by its proper name Hanukkah and yet you insult my Christian friends by calling their Christmas “holiday.” This makes no sense to me at all. If it’s “Happy Hanukkah” for Jews, it should be “Merry Christmas” for Christians.

Manager: Well, uh, you know, um, corporate, um, well, you know, instructs us to say, “Happy Holidays.”

Me: They are wrong. As a Jewish woman, I can assure you that recognizing Christmas is as important as recognizing Hanukkah. Please give me the name of your CEO and the corporate address as I plan to write a letter about this. It’s not your fault, as you’re the store manager, but this corporate policy insults all people of faith.

And like a crazy meshuggenah, I wrote those letters to the store’s CEOs. In the few instances when someone responded, it was usually a boilerplate form letter that made little sense unless you believed that Santa Claus was the reason for the season.

And here we are today. Progressive lunacy has given us a society filled with misguided people who think they can pick from hundreds of genders or no gender (when they’re not busy stealing luggage from airport carousels). They want to convince young children that they can medically alter their gender without parental consent, that men have can give birth, that teachers should discuss kinky sexual acts with kindergartners, that one race matters more than another, that biological men wearing skirts are women, that abortion after birth is acceptable, that millions of illegal aliens can waltz into our country, that criminals shouldn’t be arrested and …

E N O U G H !

The attack on our freedom started with words when Marxist progressives demanded that “Merry Christmas” become “Happy Holidays” and I say, “Enough!” As Benjamin Franklin warned: “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”

David Horowitz of the nonprofit David Horowitz Freedom Center wisely urged all us Americans as follows:

“This December, it’s more important than ever that religious Americans honor their traditions and do what they know is right. Because no matter what you believe or how you worship -- it’s a decision you and your loved ones should make for yourselves -- not the government’s decision to make for you.”

Every American Thinker reader can “do something” to promote America’s Judeo-Christian values, the values that, since our nation’s founding, have made the United States a unique and blessed nation. Don’t sit around ranting on social media or nodding in agreement with your favorite evening news hosts. Whether it’s writing letters, making phone calls, or sending email messages to elected officials and corporate CEOs, there is always something we can do to have our conservative patriot voices heard.

From glowing Hanukkah lights to joyous Christmas nativity scenes, conservative patriots must not acquiesce to progressive demands that America abandon its Judeo-Christian foundation. Let’s commit in this New Year that each of us will “do something” to embrace the reason for the season and the reason for the United States of America.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy New Year!

God Bless every reader and God Bless the United States of America.

X22, And we Know, and more- December 24

 

Merry Christmas Eve! (yes, I'm in a better mood). Here's the special gift I got today from TV Line:

It's not the full blown miracle I wanted, but I say making a big wish list among other readers of that site for the 2nd time is pretty close.

Here's tonight's news:

America’s Growing Political Impotence

posted by Robert Weissberg at American Thinker

First-world countries have governments that work. Perhaps imperfectly, and perhaps not in the most economically efficient way, but they successfully fulfill their responsibilities. But what happens when government not only fails to perform as expected, but its execution is inept to the point of being an embarrassment? To invoke an old image, the trains not only fail to run on time, but few move at all and when they do operate, they are accident prone and chronically late while often arriving at the wrong stations.

More is involved than public inconvenience or squandering funds. At some point public confidence is so weakened that the government itself loses legitimacy. And, as legitimacy declines, voters may well consider once unthinkable alternatives. Recall that “making the trains run on time” was the slogan that helped bring Benito Mussolini to power in 1922. This is the politics of exasperation, the belief that something must be done, and that perhaps a new political order is needed. This Is not a good situation for democracy.

Unfortunately, America may be slowly inching to this point where government incompetence undermines its legitimacy. Why support a country run by bumbling fools? This is not just the usual cynicism encapsulated by the comic phrase, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” This is the level of ineffectiveness that makes America a laughingstock to foreigners.   

Consider, for example, how many Americans must feel watching pictures of migrants by the thousands from all over the planet almost effortlessly wading across the Rio Grande and then, with Washington’s approval, relocating to a benefit-filled life anywhere they could travel. Not even the most minimal pretense of legality exists, and who knows how many border crossers have criminal backgrounds?  That many are also drug smugglers or human traffickers compounds our sense of futility. Nor can anybody believe that those entering our nation illegally will, as ordered, eventually report to authorities to be processed legally? This is a sham spectacle where “border guards” resemble airport TSA agents directing arrivals to passport control. Further add how the Biden administration repeatedly announces how the uncontrollable influx is “under control.” Our mighty military, armed with nuclear weapons, is daily outfoxed by impoverished teenagers from El Salvador.

Just as exasperating is the huge increase in shoplifting, much of it going unpunished. Here we watch security camera footage of shoplifters strolling the isles stuffing their booty into plastic bags while “guards” calmly observe the thievery. Apathy is apparently the official corporate policy as if smash and grabbers were just regular customers, albeit non-paying ones. And, in those rare instances where the culprit is apprehended, he almost immediately returns to “work,” all to be repeated dozens of times. Even for those not personally witnessing this unpunished thievery, its existence is conspicuous by the sudden appearance of glass doors in drug stores putting toothpaste and soap under lock and key. This is an epidemic not of stealing per se, but of thievery that nobody bothers to stop, let alone punishes.  

Then there were the massive and widespread “George Floyd” riots of 2020 during which the police largely served as uniformed observers while journalists told TV watchers that despite the arson, gunshots, and mounting death toll, these events were “largely peaceful.” It even became fashionable to celebrate the rioters while our future vice-president contributed financially to quickly bail the rioters out of jail.

Meanwhile, public health “experts” explained that while ordinary Americans should wear masks, practice social distancing, and generally avoid crowds, these social-justice protestors smashing windows for their Gucci handbags enjoyed dispensations from COVID restrictions due to the sanctity of their cause. To rub it in, those asserting that this mayhem was just racially driven looting were condemned as racists responsible for the violence. In this upside-down world, rioters were now the “good guys” and those condemning them were the “bad guys.”

Then there are the homeless encampments that now plague urban landscapes. Especially in California, they are virtually small cities filled with the mentally ill who exhibit little respect for public decency or elementary hygiene. Rat-attracting garbage is everywhere and streets are used as public toilets. These homeless destroy local businesses and turn neighborhoods into “no-go” zones. In San Francisco, luxury downtown hotels have removed all lobby furniture for fear of being overrun by squatters. LA recently counted some 42,000 homeless residents. Of the utmost importance, cities blithely ignore residents’ demands calling for their removal. Instead cities try to cure the problem by even greater spending on everything from substance abuse programs to job training, which, unsurprisingly, only seems to exacerbate the problem.

These examples are hardly exhaustive. There’s the uncontested destruction of public monuments and renaming of schools that honor the Founding Fathers, drag queen shows for toddlers in public libraries, the shouting down of campus speakers who say gender is a biological imperative, communities defunding the police in the midst of a crime wave and on and on.  People are angry but the incompetence continues.

The common element in these tribulations is that each entails failure of a fundamental government responsibility. Controlling the border, preventing crime, stopping riots, and keeping public order are the very raison d être of government. Ditto for protecting our cultural heritage and upholding public morality. Unlike sending a person to the moon, these are not optional responsibilities to be fulfilled only after core obligations are accomplished.

Moreover, the government is fully capable of sustaining a first-world civilization. Ending rampant shoplifting is not rocket science or hugely expensive -- just lock them up. Even the Keystone cops could seal a border or eliminate a homeless encampment and do so cheaply and quickly.  

Paradoxically, this highly visible impotence occurs at a time when America is displaying its bedazzling technical skill. Thanks to the James Webb telescope, we can peer into the beginning of time even as the same TV show might feature videos of feral teenagers pillaging Nordstrom’s jewelry department while “security” haplessly watches.

Even more ironic, as government fails in its most fundamental responsibilities, it embarks on the most Utopian missions such as altering the climate and imposing racial and sexual equality.  A visiting Martian might suspect that these odd priorities reflect mental illness, an inability to separate the Quixotic from the practical here and now. Why not first stop the mentally ill from pooping on the street before building a moon base to explore the cosmos? Who established these bizarre priorities?

The cost of these humiliating government failures far exceeds the wasted money, though the squandering is hardly trivial. More consequential is the humiliating pain from watching the ineptitude. How is one to react after hearing about illegals escaping the Border Patrol by hailing Uber rides to cities in Arizona?  Such discomfort is infuriating and may well set the stage for leaders who put ending the humiliation front and center. The slogan “Make America Great Again” (emphasis added) perfectly captures this exasperation -- at least some crave an America where adults protect toddlers from raucous bare-breasted drag queens. Donald Trump may soon exit politics, but the daily humiliations that gave rise to him are still with us.

Your Home Is The Alamo, Act Like It

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

Perhaps the #1 question I see raised in our discussion is a variation on “what are we going to do about it?”

It is a profoundly understandable question, yet it would take volumes of manuscript and dozens of hours of conversation to adequately answer.  That said, the reason for the complexity of the answer is very simple.

Approximately, 72% of a healthy adult American population took an experimental COVID-19 shot as recommended by, and later demanded by, government.  That’s essentially 3 out of every four Americans.

In a recent poll of the 190,000 followers to CTH on Twitter, we asked did you take the shot?   More than 80% of the respondents said no.

In a national population where approximately 1 out of every 4 declined the shot, the CTH audience consists of a population where 4 out of 5 declined the shot. The CTH audience is essentially the inverse of the national population.  This is a context for looking at the original question.

The proverbial ‘we’ are in agreement as to the scope of the national problem.  However, ‘we’ in the larger context are in the minority.  That doesn’t mean we are powerless, nor does it mean we cannot affect the change we desire. However, that context does structure the nature of the challenge, and form the baseline for any proposal that would be considered an answer.

Again, in general terms, CTH readers are far ahead in understanding the scale of the problem as compared to the general population.  It has been more than a decade since we first outlined the corrupt nature of the Dept of Justice and the specific political activity of the FBI as it was happening.  At the time, people said we were nuts; generally saying we took analysis of how the domestic intelligence state was corrupted by politics, too far.

Well, here we are a decade later and the larger population of the American people are now openly accepting the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community are corrupted by politics.  The very small minority position is now the slightly larger majority position. But it took a decade.

How long did it take the majority to realize ‘ballots’ -vs- ‘votes’ was a real problem?   We have had THREE election cycles decided by ballot collection. The BETA test in California (2018 midterm), the national ballot collection rollout in 2020, and finally the midterm election in 2022.   Five years since the original data showed ‘ballots’ were the election control mechanism, not ‘votes’.  Now, people are awake to the problem, but again it took five years.

Another example:  Take the basic construct of our UniParty political system…

♦The RNC wants money.
♠The DNC wants power.

♦The RNC uses power to get money.
♠The DNC uses money to get power.

♦The donor activity of the RNC drives their ideology.
♠The ideology of the DNC drives their donor activity.

This is the essential difference in the two private corporations’ political business models. It is a very nuanced distinction, but it is a distinction.  Nothing within that system can change until the people who engage in that system admit this is the system.  Right now, less than 10% (my estimation) of the Republican Party followers understand this.

Most self-admitted Republicans think that by changing the head of the RNC, the corporation will adapt a new business model.  The majority of those believers are willing to support an RNC corporation insider like Harmeet Dhillon as the change agent.   The history of the Club does not support this expectation, yet they believe it.

Those whose hold on power depends on deception are always able to find an audience of those willing to be deceived.

Now, the audience of those willing to be deceived is a flexible group in terms of numbers and identities. Even those who have been in that audience for some time may one day walk away from it. What is it that makes folks stay in that audience? What price are they afraid of paying? What deception are they unwilling to let go of?

While we use the word passive to describe this “willingness to continue in deception,” this is not an experience shaded in peaceful lavenders, mint greens and dappled sunlight. This is the deadly passivity of muscles that no longer fire; tiny electrical charges that no longer leap from one synapse to the next.

This is as passivity says: “I won’t begin resisting, because I know that once begun, I must continue. Rather than assert myself and perhaps fail (or get really scared), I will sustain myself where I am trapped. I will muffle my moans so as not to risk exposure, and I will call it self-control. Winston Churchill would have called it cowardice, but I will call it pragmatic caution.”

And within that framework, there’s the answer to the question, “What are we going to do about it?”

The very first step that’s desperately necessary for our survival, is that we become disillusioned–and quickly.

In the interim, if you are one of the 1 in 4 independent-minded Americans, you need to think about your home, the physical surroundings of yourself and your community, as the Alamo.

Fortify your defenses literally in your family.

Then, only if your home is secure, move forward using tactical civics to influence the local election level, city council, school boards, sheriff, judges etc.  Each of these local level engagements should be looked upon as setting perimeter defenses against federal and state intrusion.

Once you are confident in your home and family security, and once you have established the safe perimeter to keep your community guarded, then you expand to the larger state offices, via state legislature, state senate and state governor.

Through this process you are constantly leveraging the majority.   You are not in the minority within your home; and hopefully you will not be in the minority within your county.

If you are stuck in a blue region, retain the disposition of an insurgent.  The rebellion can formulate underground.

You have the better arguments; you believe in freedom. Continued assembly-building will gain the numbers needed to be in the majority.

Keep focused on spreading disillusionment by using the atomic sledgehammer of truth.  The opposition’s arguments are weak, built upon fraud and false pretenses.

Use truth as a weapon by learning the core issues better than the other side.  Read the history of how events unfolded. Learn the hidden constructs behind the motives carried by those who created the events.  Learn their arguments and learn how to deconstruct them.

Then, when you are armed and fully prepared, ask the questions in public that will awaken the audience around you.

Rand Paul Releases His Yearly Festivus Report, and the Grievances Are Aplenty

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

Rand Paul continues to be one of the few sane voices left in the US Senate. Unlike 18 of his GOP colleagues, he lobbied and voted against the just-passed omnibus bill, complete with its expenditures for LGBT “pride centers” and another $45 billion to Ukraine. The overall price tag came in at a whopping $1.7 trillion, with the national debt heading over $31 trillion.

With that setting the stage, it’s only fitting that Paul would release his annual Festivus report a day later, and boy, are the grievances aplenty.

For example, did you know that the federal government spent $140 million in COVID relief funds to build a spa facility? Or that the NIH spent $519,828 using mice to study racial aggression? Or that $175 million was spent to upgrade and expand the DC street car system (when I was there, almost no one used it).

Those things are just a drop in the bucket, of course.

Naturally, the biggest expenditure was the $475 billion the government spent on servicing its debt, which just continues to spiral out of control. The United States also sent $210 million to Jordan for education projects, and for some reason, $50 million was used to boost Tunisia’s travel sector during COVID. Why is that in US interests? That’s a good question and one that will never be sufficiently answered.

The US government is a joke. It’s run by a bunch of self-aggrandizing politicians who treat themselves as heroes for spending other peoples’ money. They then vote themselves raises, completely insulated from the consequences of the policies they push. I’d say their malfeasance is going to crush future generations, but given the continuing inflation crisis, these spending binges are crushing the current ones.

And what did Republicans do upon finally halfway winning an election and retaking the House of Representatives, partly by promising to rein in this insanity? Mitch McConnell and company join with the Democrats to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus that gives Joe Biden everything he wants for the next ten months, neutering the ability of the new GOP congress to govern. Keep in mind that Paul’s report, as bad as it already is, does not include that.

It doesn’t have to be this way, but it is this way because Washington is a bubble that absorbs most who go there. Paul is one of the few who hasn’t succumbed to its siren song. For that, he deserves a lot of credit, and though his Festivus report will fall on deaf ears in congress, he’s still doing good work in putting this stuff out there.

The broader Republican Party doesn’t deserve to win elections. Every two years, they make false promises, insisting that if you just give them power, they’ll use it to push the priorities of their voters. That never happens, though. Instead, it’s business as usual, with massive omnibus bills, gun control bills, and infrastructure bills, among other betrayals. What’s the point of winning if you lose anyway? What’s the point of voting for people who would just as well spit in your face and tell you it’s raining?

No one should give a dime to the Republican Party at this point. Give to individual candidates who have shown that they’ll actually do what they say they’ll do. Other than that, let it burn.

Mitt Romney Tries to Explain the Omnibus Vote, and It'll Leave You Punching Walls

 Bonchie reporting for RedState 

On Thursday, 18 Republican senators joined hands with Democrats to pass yet another massive Omnibus spending bill. This time, it cost US taxpayers $1.7 trillion, setting spending baselines that will now be used for the next two years via continuing resolutions. All of this happened mere weeks before the GOP was set to take over the House of Representatives, meaning that the power of the purse that was just won has been conceded without anything resembling a fight.

Luckily, we have Sen. Mitt Romney around to explain that this wasn’t actually a betrayal of what was promised during the last election. In fact, you are just too stupid to realize that this is actually a good thing.

Romney begins by saying that he’s “convinced that this will cost less money than if we kick the can down the road until next year.” He then cites the fact that the House GOP hasn’t selected a speaker yet to bolster his argument, saying that he’s “not sure they’re going to be able to take on the budget for this as well as the next year.”

In other words, you absolute rubes who voted for Republicans during the last mid-terms can’t be trusted to have your votes actually mean anything. Instead, you must be protected from yourself by having GOP Senators nuke the power of the purse before Republicans even take control. And you should be thankful that Romney and the rest did that for you.

The Utah senator then goes on to point out that even if House Republicans put together a budget, Democrats wouldn’t vote for it. Well, yes Mitt, we know. We are all well aware that Democrats actually keep their promises and hold the line. Why can’t the GOP do the same thing? Why can’t they lead and dictate instead of constantly reacting and bending the knee? Ironically, Romney admits the entire problem in a nutshell with his statement but glosses over it because he’s oblivious at best.

The insults just keep flowing there. Romney asserts, with no evidence whatsoever, that this omnibus bill is preferable to anything that could be produced in conjunction with a GOP-led House. He then claims that the $1.7 trillion omnibus he signed onto isn’t adding to the debt because only entitlement programs add to the debt, which is just a lie.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Romney then does what establishment Republicans always do, which is to suggest that military spending justifies all manner of domestic insanity. That’d be the same military currently instituting a preferred pronouns policy and that hasn’t won a war since the early ’90s. To end the video, he then lists out all the pork he’s bringing home to Utah.

To sum it up, the Republican Party deserves to lose, and parties that deserve to lose rarely win. There is no point in winning elections if the results are the same. The GOP had a chance to stand up here and at least demand the inclusion of funds to secure the border, and they couldn’t even get that done. And in the midst of being fed that turd sandwich, we are told it’s actually smoked brisket. I’ll just end things there before I get myself in trouble.