Stopping the Trump Steal is not just a 2020 thing as future elections are in jeopardy
The evidence of the strategy to advance future GOP steals is growing
CNN released these Thursday:
(CNN)CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over to the January 6 committee that were sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's inauguration, including more than 150 on January 6.
Meadows' texts, which he selectively provided to the panel, show that even those closest to former President Donald Trump believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time.
Here's a minute-by-minute timeline of the notable text messages that Meadows sent and received on January 5 and January 6, which have been verified by CNN. The texts include messages from former White House officials, Meadows associates and Republican members of Congress, as well as Trump's oldest son. There are also numerous texts from reporters at news organizations such as The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN.
Note: CNN has removed personal information from the texts. Errors in spelling and grammar reflect the messages as they were sent, which in some cases include profanity.
It’s kind of breathtaking reading through the texts that day and all people in the country formerly known as the United States really ought to read them.
Back in the 1990s, to change the focus of the voting public away from actual corruption, the House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, began diverting that attention by launching sham investigations against Democrats, alleging voter fraud was occurring.
The investigations went nowhere without evidence but they achieved their objective, causing more American voters to think elections could be stolen.
There have been a few minor instances of fraud along the way, typically a voter using a dead spouse’s ballot, or some low level mook preying on the ballots of a few neighbors, but not enough to impact elections at the federal level. That was followed by some voting machine issues, mostly about the lack of a solid paper trail to make all ballots verifiable. But again, there was a dearth of evidence that any party had actually taken advantage of that temporary loophole. And by the 20teens, several states had shifted to mail-in balloting, which has proven to be safe, secure, easily verified and has boosted voter turnout because it’s so easy to do without disrupting a productive work day. The pandemic made it far safer for other states to copy those successful methods instead of compelling in-person voting where covid particles could abound in waves.
But was the pandemic a Democratic plot? Nope. Not even close.
Well before the early balloting began, a number of elected Republicans began denouncing the forthcoming vote as fraudulent. Again, no evidence. They were simply betting that one or more of their candidates were headed to certain defeat, and needed to blame the loss on something besides the weaknesses in their guy or gal’s campaign. Voila! Election fraud anew!
In 2020-2022, a real effort to steal a major federal election has been ongoing, with several political mooks like Roger Stone involved who actually did successfully steal one in the 2000 election. 5 justices on the Supreme Court were ultimately responsible for that rigged outcome. Justice is blind to all but the bias of the lesser lights (dim bulbs) in SCOTUS history, but the actual voting processes remain among the most accurate in the world.
Casting doubt on the voting, coupled with the GOP practice of running against Big Gubblemint then creating record-setting deficits by lowering taxes on the wealthiest has made a cottage industry of anti-government and anti-democracy sentiments.
They made Hillary Clinton - convicted of no crime ever and no sex scandals either - the most investigated woman in US history. They’ve made the most oppressed people seem like the most oppressive, using the smoke and mirrors messaging of the PR industry instead of - you guessed it - credible evidence.
When their political solutions began losing favor among citizens, undermining confidence in elections and promoting belief in the most bizarre and impossible schemes became their Plan B. Rather than updating their policy solutions to effective ones, they chose to compete to become the sorest losers in history. Holding every advantage possible, most have been financially well-off white guys claiming they were being picked on because the voting majority wasn’t so easily duped. They’ve supplanted the threat of any tyranny of the majority with the Tyranny of the Loudest Whinority.
Denouncing elections and sponsoring investigations that uncover that (gasp!) nothing illegal occurred are games to them, but dangerous to all democracies. Political games are not confined to one party but the kind of conspiracy sowing that Republicans have unleashed over more than a quarter century has emboldened wannabe theocrats and wannabe fascists to an Imminent Danger status that could turn the US into just another failed state run by the IAA (Incredibly Arrogant Assholes).
But once again, after failing to resurrect JFK Jr for Q-Anon crackpots, after presenting their cases of election fraud to dozens of judges in numerous states - convincing none of them anything illegal occurred - they’ve persisted in launching investigations that exonerate their political foes.
Obama was not spying on Donald Trump. Hillary wasn’t spying on Donald Trump or hiding anything sordid or illegal in her emails. The lawyer for the Democratic National Committee - Michael Sussman - did not lie to the FBI. Vladimir Putin’s government did use a number of schemes that benefited the campaign of Donald Trump in 2016. Crackpot theories just can’t replace the visible evidence in any justice system that’s more than halfway fair.
There’s also no War on Christmas when shopkeepers decide to be fair and inclusive with a greeting of Happy Holidays. The Loudest Whinority hasn’t been right once in recent memory. As in Nada, Zero, Zip.
Meanwhile a Georgia investigation begun by Georgia Republicans continues to present information to a grand jury about Trump’s efforts to overturn the majority votes in 2020. And the bipartisan Congressional Committee investigating the January 6 Insurrection effort is about to present public hearings on all the verifiable evidence it has uncovered, while trying to compel the testimony of Trump Administration mooks who’ve been breaking the law by rejecting Congressional subpoenas in the worst coverup effort since Watergate. Criminal acts coupled with incompetence remain a losing strategy that the Loudest Whinority just can’t sell.
Sadly, they don’t need to sell it. The Eastman memo lays out their strategy to dismiss the 2020 election results that’s aimed at our courts.
And worse, many mooks like the shyster Cleta Mitchell are busy in a group they hilariously call the ‘Election Integrity Network’ which plans to disrupt all future vote counts or cause fraudulent vote counts to occur favoring Republican candidates no matter how actual voters vote.
A second GOP ‘election integrity’ group they ironically and brazenly call the ‘Amistad Project’ (as the Amistad was a slave ship) is targeting local district attorney races in multiple states to stack the prosecution with pro-Republican DAs. If they succeed, a slew of fresh phony investigations will have the reverse effect, undermining the integrity of elections with fresh-sown doubts about the results. Any way to dismiss actual votes or discourage people from voting at all is clearly their aim.
Pressuring polling directors and precinct workers plus seeding the justice system with DAs ready to promote GOP challenges is unprecedented. It’s designed to quash voting, as they know increased participation currently favors Democratic candidates, so it’s just one more weapon in their arsenal as they try to cheat their way to victory.
I think it essential to deploy a Rubber/Glue defense because it has proven true repeatedly. Whatever a Republican lawmaker claims a Democrat is doing is actually what that Republican is guilty of. Too many times, Republicans have cried ‘wolf’ and not a single sheep is missing. Only the truth is.
P.S. Republicans have put pro democracy forces in a bind: If they prosecute anyone, including Trump, and fail to convict, then they're giving future law breakers a blueprint. Same thing happens if they fail to prosecute. Catch-22, if you will.