Quo Vadis GOP?

[DGuller]

I wouldn't be surprised if both Pauls are more than just incidental useful idiots for Russians.  Paulites has been spreading RT propaganda as if it were a gospel long before Russian involvement in US politics became an open secret.  At the very least the Russians may be advising Pauls on how to be more useful and more idiotic.

[viper37]

Mike Lindell admits to hiding GOP official facing FBI probe in a "safe house"[/quote]

Is the GOP Mesa County official hiding in a pillow fort as the FBI revs up their investigation into her actions?

The infamous pillow salesman-turned-2020 election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell claimed to be harboring a Colorado election official, who is on the FBI's radar for allegedly leaking confidential election information, in a "safe house."

The MyPillow CEO made the admission during a broadcast on his FrankSpeech website Thursday night, claiming that Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was being secretly held somewhere in Texas — that is, until a member of his own cyber team leaked her apparent whereabouts.

The news of Lindell hiding Mesa County clerk Tina Peters comes on the heels of his "cyber symposium" in South Dakota, where Peters gave a speech claiming that her office had been raided.

Vice News reported Thursday that Peters is "accused of helping facilitate a leak of highly sensitive election data," including passwords to confidential systems, stemming from her belief that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump. Peters didn't return Salon's numerous requests for comment on Friday.

[...]

[Valmy]

Colorado? Biden won that state by a blowout.

[grumbler]

Colorado? Biden won that state by a blowout.

But, if Colorado's election data can be proven to have been leaked, then it raises doubt abut other states.  And Tina Peters can prove it was leaked, because she leaked it.  That was after the election, but that's beside the point; DATA WAS LEAKED.

[Syt]

https://wskg.org/news/hearings-in-pas-election-investigation-begin-this-week-senate-president-says/

Hearings In PA's Election 'Investigation' Begin This Week, Senate President Says

HARRISBURG, PA (WSKG) — The top Republican in Pennsylvania's Senate said Monday that hearings will begin this week as he committed to carrying out a "full forensic investigation" of the state's 2020 presidential election.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Centre) said he has communicated with former President Donald Trump, whose baseless claims about election fraud have propelled loyalists to pursue audits, reviews or other examinations of ballots and voting machines in battleground states where Democrat Joe Biden defeated him.

"I think he's comfortable with where we're heading and so we're going to continue that work," Corman said on the conservative Wendy Bell Radio program streamed online Monday.

Amid clashes over how to conduct it and how to pay for it, Corman on Friday removed the rank-and-file state senator, Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), who had been the figurehead in the push for an Arizona-style audit of Pennsylvania's 2020 presidential election. He then tapped Sen. Cris Dush (R-Cameron) to not only replace Mastriano, but to take his place as chair of the obscure Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee.

Sen. Cris Dush, tapped to replace Sen. Doug Mastriano, will begin holding hearings this week, Corman said. Dush and Mastriano both traveled to Phoenix in June to see the audit there up close.

Corman maintains the Senate's aim is not to turn Trump's defeat into victory, but to "getting to the bottom of everything that went on" and to "find any flaws in the system that could have been exploited."

"We as the oversight body of elections have to ensure that people feel confident that elections were done fairly," Corman said on the radio program. "I don't think, I know they don't feel confident in that now, and we need to provide that stability moving forward and if our work leads to someone else taking that work into a court of law, and changing those results, then so be it."

A special Senate committee already investigated the 2020 election. That effort focused on future contests and did not attempt to prove baseless allegations of voter fraud. After months of work, that body released a report suggesting a litany of election code changes that ultimately were vetoed by Governor Tom Wolf.

Penn State Harrisburg Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration Dan Mallinson said the GOP is using support for new election investigations as a tool to attract Trump supporters.

"I think Republicans are trying to figure out how to keep these voters engaged and keep them coming back," Mallinson said. "And so in the short term, the anger about losing the 2020 Election seems like something that may motivate those folks to come out."

That strategy, he said, is worrying not only because it might be unsustainable for Republicans in the long term, but because of how it can undermine the country's democratic underpinnings.

"If that's what you're going to continue to leverage, then you have to continue to leverage grievance and I feel like that just leads to a very dark place," Mallinson continued. "You're no longer debating real policy, but you're trying to fire people up with grievance."

In recent days and months, Trump allies have held up Corman as an obstacle, even drawing Trump's wrath on Twitter in June, saying Corman "is fighting as though he were a Radical Left Democrat." Democrats, meanwhile, say Corman is too cowardly to stand up to right-wing conspiracy theories about the election.

One question Corman's office has been unable to answer is how to pay for an Arizona-style audit without private donations.

Senate GOP officials are concerned about the legality of funding the undertaking with private money, Corman's office said.

But in Arizona, Trump backers reported raising more than $5.7 million for the widely discredited and partisan election audit sponsored by Senate Republicans there.

If Pennsylvania's Senate Republicans need money, they may already have it sitting around: the Republican-controlled Legislature has long sat on reserves of more than $100 million, and the Senate alone last year reported $66 million in its reserve account.

Another question is how an Arizona-style audit will stand up to legal challenges like the one hinted at by Attorney General Josh Shapiro and places like Philadelphia County. Corman seemed to acknowledge them in explaining how the Senate GOP might approach the effort.

"We have to make sure legally we're on the right spot to make sure we can absorb a challenge, which we will get," Corman said.

While Corman and some other Republican senators might avoid repeating Trump's baseless election claims, they continue to perpetuate the idea that Democrats cheated and blame Democrats — not Trump — for sowing doubt in the election.

They routinely distorted the actions of state judges and officials as "unconstitutional" or "illegal" in settling legal disputes and questions over Pennsylvania's fledgling mail-in voting law in the weeks before November's election.

On Monday, Corman repeatedly singled out Gov. Tom Wolf's former top elections official, at one point saying she "didn't allow" observers to see the counting of absentee ballots in Philadelphia.

However, the Trump campaign's own court complaint, witnesses and lawyers acknowledged that its watchers were able to see the processing of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia, which was also livestreamed on video.

The Trump campaign's complaint was that Philadelphia election officials did not allow their watchers close enough to election workers to see writing on the ballot envelopes. There is, however, no such requirement in state law, courts found.

Still, Corman seemed to acknowledge some criticism of how Arizona Senate Republicans had selected contractors.

They selected a cybersecurity firm that had no prior experience in elections, never submitted a formal bid for the work and had an owner who had tweeted support for conspiracy theories claiming Biden's victory was illegitimate.

"We want credibility to what we are doing, and I think it's important that we get people involved that don't have ties to anybody, right? That are professional, that will do the job so that we can stand behind the results," Corman said.

[Sheilbh]

Struck by that, I think, Alabama rally, where Trump was (lightly) booed for recommending people get the vaccine.

[The Minsky Moment]

The irony is that the quick release of effective COVID vaccines is one of the few genuine achievements for which his administration can take some credit

[PDH]

The irony is that the quick release of effective COVID vaccines is one of the few genuine achievements for which his administration can take some credit

His followers don't want results, they want outrageous promises that are never fulfilled.

[Syt]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: "Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I'm going in with 20 strong men and I'm gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed."

[Jacob]

Who are the "they" who can leave or be removed?

[Valmy]

Who are the "they" who can leave or be removed?

I mean they are elected officials. I thought he was going to tell likeminded people to mobilize politically but instead I guess illegally disbanding them is this gentleman's strategy.

I mean why not just do that now? You don't have to be governor to do illegal things.

[Jacob]

Oh, so it's "we are going to kick out those non-crazy school board members who don't leave because of harassment from crazy anti-vax and Trumpist types." Got it.

[Sheilbh]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: "Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I'm going in with 20 strong men and I'm gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed."

The actual video is so much worse - and we talked about fascism in Jake's thread. That is what fascism looks like as far as I can see.

[grumbler]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: "Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I'm going in with 20 strong men and I'm gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed."

The actual video is so much worse - and we talked about fascism in Jake's thread. That is what fascism looks like as far as I can see.

Listen to the video without visuals, and imagine he's speaking in Italian, and you'll think that's Mussolini.

[Berkut]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: "Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I'm going in with 20 strong men and I'm gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed."

The actual video is so much worse - and we talked about fascism in Jake's thread. That is what fascism looks like as far as I can see.

Listen to the video without visuals, and imagine he's speaking in Italian, and you'll think that's Mussolini.

This should come as no surprise to anyone.

I said this on January 7th. The import of what happened on the 6th is NOT about what happened on the 6th, but where the next step will be once that is tolerated.

This isn't any kind of mystery. It has happened before, and there is no reason at all it cannot happen again, and it is happening right now.

If this yahoo marched into a school board and tried to physically remove board members, the import of THAT won't be nearly as interesting (or terrifying) as the *next* think someone will do once they see that THAT is tolerated.