This is how embarrassing Trump’s ‘fraud’ claims have gotten

[Rideback]

And of course it is a wee bit inconvenient that Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows fraudulently voted in NC in '20 by using an address that was not his residence. He was removed by the NC election board today from the registered voters roll. An investigation is underway by the state. His wife also voted illegally.

[pasayten]

Finally... some of the voter fraud Trump insists on that happened... Oops... Looks like these guys voted for Trump... lol...

Two men from The Villages admit to casting multiple ballots in 2020 election
Amanda Rabines, Orlando Sentinel - 4h ago

Two residents from The Villages confessed to voter fraud charges after filing two ballots in the 2020 presidential election, court records show.

Charles F. Barnes and Jay Ketcik pleaded guilty to casting more than one ballot in an election, a third-degree felony that could have resulted in a maximum five-year prison sentence.

According to the pre-trial intervention documents, the prosecution of Barnes, 64, and Ketcik, 63, will be deferred if they abide by a series of court-ordered requirements set by the office of Ocala-based State Attorney Bill Gladson. Court records show the men will avoid further punishment if they regularly meet with a supervising officer, complete 50 hours of community service and attend a 12-week adult civics class, among a handful of other requirements.

News 6-WKMG first reported the news.

In December, Ketcik, along with Joan Halstead and John Rider, who also reside in The Villages, was arrested on voter fraud charges for casting more than one vote during the 2020 election, according to police affidavits. Halstead, 71, and Rider, 61, are still awaiting trial. Both have pleaded not guilty.

That following month Barnes was arrested and taken to Sumter County Jail with similar charges.

State voter records show Barnes and Rider are not affiliated with a political party in Florida. Ketcik and Halstead are registered Republicans. It is unclear if they knew each other.

Before moving to The Villages, Barnes previously held an address in Connecticut, according to an arrest report.

Ketcik was accused of casting an absentee ballot in Michigan and voting by mail in Florida, an arrest report said. He turned himself in to be booked at the Sumter detention center Dec. 8.

Both men were released from jail after paying a $2,000 bond.

Florida election officials made 75 referrals to law enforcement agencies regarding potential fraud during the 2020 election, according to data from the Florida Secretary of State’s office.

[PAL]

Yes, totally agree. I've been stressing that all along. Analytical and critical thinking, logic skills seem to be lacking.

[Rideback]

Interesting post on how those who follow/believe the conspiracy theories are not lacking in intelligence but they are lacking in the ability to critically think.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science ... 6uEkkzDajE

[realoldtimer]

[pasayten]

Trump abruptly ended NPR Interview'

Former president Donald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NPR on Tuesday after he was pressed on his baseless claims of election fraud and repeated contention that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him.

Trump hung up on “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep nine minutes into what NPR said was scheduled to be a 15-minute interview that was broadcast Wednesday.

After several lines of questioning related to Trump’s widely debunked election claims, Inskeep asked Trump whether he would endorse only Republican candidates this year who are pressing his case that the 2020 contest against Joe Biden was stolen from him.

“Is that an absolute?” Inskeep asked.

Trump responded that the candidates “that are smart” are going to press his case, citing Kari Lake, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona. Lake, a former news anchor, has parroted Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud.

As Inskeep sought to interject, Trump said, “So, Steve, thank you very much. I appreciate it.” He then hung up, prompting Inskeep to protest.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I have one more question,” Inskeep said, adding that he wanted to talk about a court hearing related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

Earlier in the interview, Inskeep had challenged Trump multiple times on his claims of election fraud.

Inskeep asked, for example, why election officials in Arizona had accepted the findings of a Republican-ordered audit that uncovered no issues that would have altered the result of the 2020 presidential race in the state.

“Because they’re RINOs, and frankly, a lot of people are questioning that,” Trump said, referring to the term “Republicans in name only.”

Pressed on why most U.S. senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have not backed his election fraud claims, Trump replied, “Because Mitch McConnell is a loser.”

During the interview, Trump also repeated an argument that Biden could not have won the election because he drew only modest crowds on the campaign trail.

“How come Biden couldn’t attract 20 people for a crowd?” Trump asked. “How come when he went to speak in different locations, nobody came to watch, but all of a sudden, he got 80 million votes? Nobody believes that, Steve. Nobody believes that.”

“If you’ll forgive me, maybe because the election was about you,” Inskeep responded.

Trump also spoke about his views on coronavirus vaccines, claiming a mandate on businesses by the Biden administration “is really hurting our country.”

“A lot of Americans aren’t standing for it, and it’s hurting our country,” Trump said. “It’s hurting our economy very badly.”

Trump said that while he recommends taking vaccines, “I think it has to be an individual choice.”

[pasayten]

[Rideback]

The synthetic monoclonal antibodies are given to people with mild symptoms but who have a physical history that would put them at risk of developing worse symptoms. It must be given intravenously.

Covid doesn't care if you're Rep or Dem, it only cares if you are vulnerable and the Rep's who have not been vaccinated are putting themselves at higher risk of infection, hence the stats that show that we are seeing more deaths related to Covid in '21 than '20 because there is a) more Covid circulating in community spread and b) fewer Rep's than Dems are vaccinated and fewer Rep's than Dems wear masks. In a study I posted earlier of 300,000 people, masks cut CV19 deaths by 53%.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-a ... t-covid-19

[pasayten]

[Fun CH]

So by your logic, you condone and endorse all the groping and inappropriate ear whispering of the current guy to very young girls? That’s disgusting! His dirtbag son is off the charts, so you REALLY don’t want people to start pointing out how horrible he is.

you can point all you want.

Biden's current approval ratings should indicate that Democrats are not afraid to criticize their leadership. And really, that whole nepotism thing with his son, who admitted he was not qualified for that Ukrainian board position, was inappropriate to say the least.


In Trump world, even Republican politicians had better walk in lockstep with him or else be willing to endure a temper tantrum that will be amplified by his base. That 'lockstep' includes perpetuating a lie that every court in the U.S. has in no way validated including the Supreme Court.

Ken, is there any policy or action that Trump did that you are critical of?

Do you believe Trump won the election?

And do you think Trump's children and son-in-law were qualified for the positions they were appointed and the tax dollar money they received?

[Rideback]

Late to the game. I noticed dorankj's comment about how those who have Phd's are the highest percentage of those who don't want to get vaccinated. Google tells me that the survey that came up with that was one run on a FB page, not a scientific survey and it had some interesting political twists, among them that the Phd's did not self identify as being in the medical profession.
Here's an article on that: https://www.wnct.com/news/north-carolin ... ng-ph-d-s/

[pasayten]

Slate
The Defamation Suits That Could Help Put an End to Trump’s Big Lie
Jeremy Stahl 15 hrs ago

Several of the main supporters of Trump’s Big Lie that the Democrats stole the 2020 election were forced to defend their claims under oath earlier this year. Their depositions were part of a defamation lawsuit brought by a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems whose life was completely upended after the defendants falsely claimed that he personally helped steal the election. Despite repeatedly spreading the Big Lie on talk shows and in press conferences, these Trump supporters were, for the most part, unwilling to be liars under oath.

Under penalty of perjury, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and several other supporters of the 2020 election conspiracy theory were finally forced to admit they can’t explain how the election was stolen. In lieu of specific facts and details, each offered new and embarrassing revelations about themselves and their patron, Trump. As a result, they could soon face millions of dollars in damages, as the judge weighs whether the defamation suit should proceed.


What’s clear from the depositions is this: Despite Trump and his allies’ powerful ability to delay, obstruct, and block Congressional investigators, courtrooms actually do work to create transparency and accountability. Of course, they only work when they are allowed to work. That is, courts serve their purpose when cases are allowed to proceed and when all of the basic mechanics of trial courts—sworn depositions, live testimony, discovery, and eventually jury verdicts—are allowed to happen instead of being stalled by appellate judges citing abstract and contentious legal theories (Running down the clock has been a core legal strategy of the Trump and his allies).

These lawsuits also show us something else: While forcing shameless liars to tell the truth under oath doesn’t necessarily affect their ability to spread lies in the future, it does severely limit the platform from which they spread their lies. Most media organizations fear the sort of civil liability suit Giuliani and others now face. And the lawsuits may ultimately result in crippling financial burdens that could cause others to think twice before pushing such damaging lies. Financial penalties may also force these specific liars into perpetually having to find a way to pay off the staggering debts. While it is no substitute for criminal liability, the Dominion employee lawsuit is just beginning to show the power of hitting people in their pocketbooks and forcing them to testify under oath.

Trump and his allies are facing an avalanche of lawsuits. Dominion filed separate defamation lawsuits against Fox News and others who lied and said their voting systems were rigged. A similar lawsuit was filed against Fox News by another voting company. Rep. Eric Swalwell filed suit against possible fomenters of the Jan. 6 insurrection. There is also another defamation lawsuit being brought by a former Apprentice contestant who alleged Trump sexually assaulted her (Trump is scheduled to be deposed soon for this suit). And there is yet another defamation suit by a woman who alleged that Trump raped her that was allowed to progress last month after years in a holding pattern. And finally, there is the long-delayed 2015 lawsuit by anti-Trump protesters who alleged that Trump security guards assaulted them.

The last lawsuit has already proven especially significant. It was in that suit that lawyers for the protestors deposed Trump for four hours. Last week’s deposition was the only time, since late 2015 when he was still just a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, the former president has been forced to respond in-person to questions under oath. The trial is now scheduled for May, the Yahoo News reported on Monday. After a roughly seven-year delay, a New York jury will likely get to hear all four hours of Trump’s testimony.

All of these lawsuits could spell major monetary liability for Trump and his cronies, yes. But separate value lies in the fact that many of these suits are prominent venues to expose and spotlight the lies, corruption, and outright criminality that make up Trump World. Put another way: What the civil cases unearth could limit the election liars ability to expand their platforms. The suits also have the potential to put them in further legal jeopardy— Giuliani, for instance, was reportedly banned from Fox News following these lawsuits. And Conspiracist pillow salesman, Mike Lindell, has been blocked from spreading his own election lies by the network.

To get a sense of the kinds of revelations coming to light in the civil cases, it’s worth looking at the recent depositions in lawsuit of the former Dominion employee, Eric Coomer. In the last few months of 2020 Trump-aligned media outlets and Trump attorneys spread an allegation from a conservative podcast host named Joe Oltmann claiming that Coomer had promised to rig the election for Biden during an “Antifa phone call.” Oltmann alleges he had infiltrated the call months earlier. Here are a small number of those confessions:

Oltmann admitted that he could not name a single person to authenticate the existence of the call at the center of the lawsuit. “Other than yourself, and as you claim, Dr. Coomer, is there anyone that you can say was on the call with certainty?” An attorney for Coomer asked Oltmann. “I mean, I know for certainty that other people were on the call, yes. But I don’t know for certainty the direct identity of those people,” Oltmann stated. Oltmann couldn’t confirm the time and date of the supposed call, and he refused to name the person who connected him on the line, contrary to a court order from the judge. It is safe to say that a jury will reasonably wonder if there ever was a call.

TV host Michelle Malkin—on whose Newsmax program Oltmann first began to widely spread his allegation—could not explain the theory of how Coomer allegedly helped steal the election. “So as you sit here, you cannot cite to the Court one working theory as to how Eric Coomer could have rigged the 2020 presidential election; isn’t that true?” Coomer’s attorney asked after intensive and precise questioning urging Malkin to describe the specifics of “the steal.” “That is true,” Malkin responded.

Powell, the former Trump campaign attorney who spread the falsehood that Coomer had confessed on tape to a plot to rig the election, could not describe how Coomer had done it either. “I can’t say he flipped a switch himself,” Powell conceded. She also couldn’t recall a single thing she had done to verify Oltmann’s allegation aside from watching the Malkin clip. Indeed, she couldn’t describe in any way shape or form any aspect of how the election was stolen from Trump, as she has alleged for months. “There were thousands of stories about voting irregularities on election day. I don’t have any specific recollection of any single one of them,” Powell confessed. She also said, incredibly, that she “didn’t know” whether or not she was being sarcastic when she said, during the infamous hair dye press conference with Giuliani, that Coomer had promised to rig the election on a call before (sarcastically) adding the phrase: “Nothing to worry about here.”

Finally, as other outlets have noted, Giuliani’s deposition included several embarrassing admissions. First we learned about the free work Trump ordered him to do. We also learned about the Trump campaign’s skepticism of Giuliani’s fraud claims, as well as the fact that he got all of his evidence from social media posts. Like other defendants in the suit, Giuliani couldn’t say how the election had been fixed and admitted he had done no independent research into his claim that Coomer had stolen the election before broadcasting it to the world during that embarrassing national press conference. Did you “ask anybody in the campaign, ‘is there any information or research on Dr. Coomer or Dominion?’” Coomer’s attorney asked. “You think I had the time for that?” Giuliani admitted. “Of course, I didn’t have the time for that.”

How bad are these findings, and the potential multi-million dollar consequences, for Oltmann? Very. Just look at his behavior. He’s already failed to show up for one scheduled deposition. He’s alleged that the judge attended an “Antifa rally.” And he’s disobeyed direct court orders to reveal the sources of his access to the “Antifa call” and the details of Coomer’s private Facebook account. Oltmann’s desperation was on full display during a recent radio appearance in which he said: “I want the judge to go to jail. I don’t want the judge to be disbarred, I don’t want the judge to be taken off of the bench, I don’t want to just win on appeal…. I want the judge to be put in jail.”

His public protestations underscore the beauty of these civil cases: They are creating forums for these would-be destroyers of our democracy to face the music, however faint.

While the civil venues are not nearly as efficient as criminal suits that could ensure that the perpetrators of the attack on our democracy are never able to spread their lies again (because they’d be in prison), the suits have shown us that the tools at our disposal are working. More substantively, the suits have already limited the platforms of some of the most dangerous conspiracists around. Add to that the fact that the suits could result in mountains of legal debt and monetary damages that could prove financially crippling to many of the worst offenders. Need evidence of the dire financial straits these defendants now find themselves in? Look no further than Giuliani, who has sunk to recording personalized messages boosting previous critics in exchange for petty change on Cameo. It’s no substitute for criminal charges, but it’s a start.

[pasayten]

So by your logic, you condone and endorse all the groping and inappropriate ear whispering of the current guy to very young girls? That’s disgusting! His dirtbag son is off the charts, so you REALLY don’t want people to start pointing out how horrible he is.

This statement is just an opinion that I do not agree with... and you are once again off topic on the thread... And to talk about the many dirtbags in the Trump family/circle could also be the topics of further threads...

[dorankj]

So by your logic, you condone and endorse all the groping and inappropriate ear whispering of the current guy to very young girls? That’s disgusting! His dirtbag son is off the charts, so you REALLY don’t want people to start pointing out how horrible he is.

[pasayten]

They do both suck... Trumpism hate and division is just more damaging to the country.

This is from a thread asking about Biden, posted by you. Hypocrite much?

Actually I referred to Joe using "both" and then followed with a opinion... Should have stopped at "suck" if really following posting etiquette... lol

[pasayten]

Interesting rule.

Actually no real rules here... except I have put in a few substitutes for swear words as they arise...

[dorankj]

They do both suck... Trumpism hate and division is just more damaging to the country.

This is from a thread asking about Biden, posted by you. Hypocrite much?

[dorankj]

Interesting rule.

[pasayten]

Too bad Ken... This thread is talking about Donald... Your defense of Donald is comparing him to the other guy? Pretty weak... You can start another thread on Joe... Plenty to talk about on both of them...

[dorankj]

https://youtu.be/_H5NJZMDumY

[pasayten]

Yeah... additionally creeped out by his treatment of women "grabbiing" remarks and totally lost respect with his narcissistic personality and disparaging/disrespectful remarks about others. Really just a reality show carnival barker... grifter...

Republicans need to drop Donald Dumpf and bring the party back to its core values of the past.

[dorankj]

Or….you can pay $75-500K for Hunter Biden ‘art’ and access to the White House. For the most popular president in all American history (81 million votes, riiiight) he and his supporters sure seem scared by the last president!

[mister_coffee]

Come on all you Trump supporters... Pony up your $45...
...

Show your loyalty and enthusiasm and pony up even more. $450 sounds like a small price to pay to show your support!

[pasayten]

Come on all you Trump supporters... Pony up your $45...

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-a ... on-1639785

[anonloser]

Lol did you and dorankj just finish high fiving each other to completion with proTrump memes when he mentioned the mean commies were making fun of him on the internet so you came to back him up?