As we crawl toward the finish line of the US Presidential race I think two things are pretty obvious.
First, there is no way on God’s Green Earth that the Federal Supreme Court is going to chuck out tens of thousands of Biden votes in Pennsylvania just because they arrived days late. Sure, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, with a 5-2 Democrat majority and a history of corruption, played with the law passed by the State House and Senate around mail-voting by arbitarily changing the allowable time to three days. They didn’t do this by saying the original law was unconstitutional, they just did it because they thought they could. Their own state constitution does not agree: it’s in the hands of legislators only. Seems clear cut, but I can’t see SCOTUS having the balls to reject the Penn Supremes and boot so many votes.
Second is to say “so what”. The city of Philidelphia is another Democrat Machine site of old, like Chicago at its peak. You can read about it here, with a focus on one character in particular, Ozzie Myers, in How Philadelphia Elections Work.
Among the candidates he was paid to get elected are three as-yet-unnamed judges sitting on the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. That’s where President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has to go…
Heh. They can generate as many votes as needed. Once the envelopes are opened, it’s over. There is simply no way to recover from that. Re-counts are a waste of time. Which is why it’s always essential to stop the “counting” before the Democrats have the numbers.
But I don’t think even that city can produce a 50,000 state-wide margin for Biden.
Which brings me to this article in the Chicago Tribune from 2000, selected because the author is now rather a big gun in the US MSM journalist world. Take it away Jake Tapper.
More than 180,000 Americans — 180,111 to be exact — cast ballots in Florida on Nov. 7 only to have them discarded, never counted. That was about 335 times the number of votes (537) by which George W. Bush led Al Gore in Florida at the time the U.S. Supreme Courtstopped the state’s court-ordered recount, thus allotting Florida’s electoral votes to Bush and making him president.
Awwww – and you thought it was only Trump and his supporters who loved this shit? In fact I recall that all this conspiracy theory crap extended right through to September 11, 2001.
It’s a review of a book by Tapper, Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency. The same guy currently urging people, from his throne at CNN, to just accept the results and get down with President Biden.
For healing.
I also loved this.
Note that none of these people have suffered in their careers for being conspiracy theorists – because their arguments were in favour of the Democrats.
None other than Mitch McConnell – as sober and courtly a gentleman as even the prissiest Trump hater could appreciate – brought all this history up the other day:
More recently, weeks after the media had ‘called’ President Bush’s re-election in 2004, Democrats baselessly disputed Ohio’s electors and delayed the process in Congress. The 2016 election saw recounts or legal challenges in several states.
More broadly, let’s have no lectures about how the President should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election. And who insinuated this one would be illegitimate, too, if they lost again.
Let’s have no lectures on this subject from that contingent.
In late August, Secretary Hillary Clinton said, quote, ‘Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances… I think this is going to drag out, and… he will win if we don’t give an inch.’
That same month, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader both stated, quote, ‘[President Trump] needs to cheat to win.’
In October, when Speaker Pelosi was shopping some conspiracy theory about the Postal Service, she recklessly said, quote, ‘I have no doubt that the president… will lie, cheat, and steal, to win this election.’
Does this sound like a chorus that has any credibility to say a few legal challenges from President Trump represent some kind of crisis?
As far as Pennsylvania is concerned I think the nationwide Red Wave to the GOP that saw them retain the Senate and increase their power in the House, shows up again in that state, where GOP House candidates ran 117,000 more votes than their Democrat opponents. And given that’s the case, you just have to accept that those GOP voters also could not bring themselves to vote for Trump.
In short: yes, there was voter fraud in the primary city of Philadelphia, probably thousands of votes. There is every election. But it’s not enough fraud.
No Minister 
Tom … balanced post. The danger is that all the incendiary rhetoric from Trump and Trumpers may lead to the likes pf the ‘Proud Boys’ et al taking it upon themselves to disrupt/prevent the Inauguration … it is reported that Trump is considering not attending the inauguration citing his belief the election was stolen. If true that could be the catalyst for widespread unrest.
There are only 10,000 votes in Pennsylvania that arrived after 3 November (though posted no later than 3 November). If they were all disallowed it is not enough to change the result.
Tom, it is time for you to accept that Biden has won the Presidency, having won beyond doubt Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. And he will get Georgia and Arizona.
Your posts on voter fraud are about as valid as your posts on Covid. And no doubt if you focussed on it, climate change,
You’re not much of a reader, Wayne, Your choice of dinner, Vet?, from November 9.
Yes, I did read the entire post. While you have what I regard as a proforma statement that you don’t expect the courts to act, the majority of the post is about how the Democrats have fraudulently stolen the election. You seem to strongly believe that, even though there is no evidence of such. The post is a dog whistle.
That is why I said it is time to accept Biden has legitimately won, and not trot out all your conspiracy theories.
It is the same style of argument you have used on Covid.
Just to give balance to Tom’s posts. RED and BLUE
https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
“A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.”
Not fraud. Legal shenanigans which will have no effect on the result.
“[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote.
What I think is happening is that the Republicans are trying to steal the election. So in Republican controlled states, hand recounts are being required, knowing they cannot be completed within the relevant time. That means the state returning officer can’t certify the election. The Republican controlled state legislature then appoints the electors to the College of Electors. These will all be Trump Republican loyalists who will vote for Trump in the College of Electors.
I am not sure how many states are this category, but it is certainly Georgia, and I think Michigan and Wisconsin. The move against the Georgia Secretary of State was the opening move in this strategy. This strategy probably won’t work in Pennsylvania or Arizona, having Democrat controlled legislatures. And it won’t work if the hand counts are completed in time.
If this (and other manoeuvres) resulted in Trump being elected, we would know the US is no longer a true democracy, but would be more like Belarus, Malaysia or Turkey. A partial democracy at best.
It would have both domestic and international implications. There would be a break down of civil order on a vastly greater scale than BLM. It would be a civil war but the US would become a very disorder state, with likely hundreds being killed in the civil unrest. At the international level NATO would become non operational as would Five Eyes.
Hopefully none of this will happen, but it is no longer a completely implausible scenario.
Would not be a civil war!
Actually Pennsylvania and Arizona do have Republican controlled legislatures, so if all the 5 relevant states acted in concert and choose Republican Electors to the College of Electors, then Trump would.
The riots and demonstrations that would then ensue would greater than any ever seen in the US. The basic legitimacy of the Presidency would be in question. The level of civil dissent would be immense.
Thanks, that’s interesting. It’s clear that these meritless court cases are propaganda theatre aimed at duping people into believing the election results can’t be trusted, but I’ve been wondering what the purpose of doing that is – just sore losers? That’s a lot of trouble to go to just to salve hurt feelings. Your comments here suggest the campaign does actually have a purpose, and not a good one.
Really?
Why are the media referring to Joe Biden as “President Elect” when this isn’t true until the election results are certified which wont happen until December?
Could this be propaganda to try and shutdown investigation into what is clearly a very dodgy election?
Why is it that people who rocked up to a polling place, verified their identity before voting have overwhelmingly gone for Donald Trump whereas the mail in ballots of dubious provinance have gone for Joe Biden in some precincts 100% so?
And other tricky questions people don\t want answered
Why are the media referring to Joe Biden as “President Elect”…?
Because that’s what they do every election, eg when they were referring to Trump as “President Elect” in Nov 2016. Did you have a problem with it then? I don’t recall you complaining about it.
Why is it that people who rocked up to a polling place, verified their identity before voting have overwhelmingly gone for Donald Trump whereas the mail in ballots of dubious provinance have gone for Joe Biden in some precincts 100% so?
Your opinion of the provenance of mail-in votes is worth as much as opinions generally are, ie nothing. As to the question, various reasons.
Democrats tend to do more postal voting in every presidential election, including the ones won by Republican candidates.
Trump engaged in lengthy scaremongering about postal voting, so it’s hardly surprising his supporters didn’t favour it. Biden encouraged his voters to use postal voting, so it’s hardly surprising his supporters did favour it.
Trump supporters think Covid is fake news spread by the Lizard People, so have no qualms about being in crowded spaces like polling stations. Democrats tend to have more of a rational sense of caution, so preferred postal voting.
Republican administrations put lots of effort into making it more difficult for urban dwellers in general and plebs in particular to vote. Faced with the prospect of standing all day in a queue for the one polling station in their region while White people in affluent rural areas got to just stroll on in to theirs, it would have made sense to many of those plebs to postal vote.
No doubt there are others, but enough – you’re just making yourself look ridiculous.
My spelling and grammar mistakes are due to me doing the comments on an IPhone. Hopefully my intent is clear enough.