We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Is anything happening?

Just curious.

37 comments to Is anything happening?

  • The Chinese have effectively killed the largest IPO ever, that of the company that runs Alipay.

    I imagine that may be why the Yuan has just collpased 🙂

  • Mr Ed

    From what little I can discern, certain States not yet declared have stopped counting votes and ballots are emerging from warehousea by the hundred thousand, i.e. The steal is on in plain sight.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    That sounds like a consequential piece of news, francisT, though I must confess I had to look up exactly what an IPO was. This story will be ignored in the West, of course.

  • Natalie Solent (Essex)

    Mr Ed,

    So I see. I wonder if they (“they” being the Democrat-Old Media-New Media triumvirate) realise how much their little “Civic Integrity” advisory messages on tweets encourage people to distrust them more.

  • Ferox

    On Fox News, North Carolina has not yet been declared for Trump. They list the counted votes at 94%, however if you look county by county they all list 100% of votes as being counted.

    I assume that the difference is mail-in votes. That is around 330,000 votes to count. Trump leads by a little over 100,000.

    Can the Democrat machine crank out 250,000 ballots in the next day or so? And can they do that without being too obvious about the scam?

  • John

    It’s looking like the 2018 mid-terms again. Trump is leading in 5 states but the dems are working overtime to find sufficient postal votes to flip any two.

    Getting ACB onto the Suoreme Court might price highly consequential in the coming days/weeks as Democrat states try to extend their counting deadlines backed up by Obama appointed Federal judges.

  • bobby b

    It’s the nightmare scenario.

    Trump is ahead. But now votes will trickle in and be counted over the next ten days. I have no doubt that more mailed-in votes belong to Biden than to Trump. How many? ??

    We ran an election in Iraq that worked well. One 24-hour period of voting, in person only, with ink markers on hands to avoid fraud. We didn’t worry that such requirements disenfranchised those without their own camel to bring them to town. People found their way into town if they wanted to vote.

    We will still have a divided Congress – R Senate, D House. So, no matter who wins, there will be no legislation – just Executive Orders. Ten years ago, I would have called that “stalemate”, but Exec Orders seem to have grown in their scope and power.

    If Biden wins, he won’t have a compliant Senate, meaning he will be severely constrained in his nomination of judges. That’s our biggest win. (That, and “no packing the Supreme Court”, of course – he needs the Senate to do that.)

    So now the lawsuits start, and we’ll see the fight to make ACB recuse herself from any possible USSC cases that make it that far.

  • John

    Bobby,

    Is the senate safe? I thought the Georgia seats were still to be decided. I hope I’m wrong.

  • bobby b

    John:

    I think so. The uncalled races are leaning R. Georgia will go to runoff of the top two – but the results were – #1 D, with 32%, #2 R, with 26%, #3 R, with 20%, #4 D, with 7%, and #3 has conceded and asked his supporters to go to #2, which ought to be enough.

    (But – the runoff campaign is going to be lit – with every D and R donor throwing money that way, as it might well determine the Senate.)

    Note to big-L Libertarians: State of Oregon voted to legalize “the possession of small amounts of harder street drugs including but not limited to heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine.” Wash DC voted to legalize ‘shrooms. Montana, New Jersey and Arizona legalized pot. The entire raison d’être of the American Libertarian movement had a good night.

    Portland, Oregon isn’t going to get saner.

  • Most important news of the day by far is a remaster of Bloodrayne & Bloodrayne 2 will be coming out soon 😆

  • On the assumption that no-one will ‘find’ any large uncounted bundles of pro-Trump votes (and that my hasty glance at the Electoral College votes counted them up correctly 🙂 ), I assume the issue is whether Trump’s less-than-1% reported lead in Michigan can be taken from him – the updating totals are drawing closer. The Pennsylvania authorities are clearly all-in for finding Biden votes, but they have to find enough to overturn a 12% lead. Flipping Georgia would suffice for Biden instead of Michigan, but Trump has a larger lead there and the authorities are less helpful to harvesters. Trump also has a larger lead in North Carolina, which in any case has one-too-few EC votes to serve Biden on its own.

    IIRC Michigan is where the 2016 recount (nominally by the Greens IIRC) found a ballot box in a very pro-Hillary area that had reported 306 votes but only contained some 50 ballots. The check was then called off before further such embarrassments could emerge. I anticipate litigation and other recount efforts.

    By all means advise this ignorant Brit if he has missed anything.

  • Paul Marks

    Mr Ed was correct.

    No real suspense – just watching (helplessly) as, for example, 138 thousand votes are “found” for Mr Biden in Michigan (at least they were not alphabetical order).

    Michigan was also the State where the Secret Police (the corrupt scum of the FBI) got some desperate people to “plan” (i.e. wildly talk) of abducting the Governor. The Secret Police (undercover) suggested the plan to them – and then arrested them for talking about it, the Secret Police did this so they could then claim they had heroically foiled an evil plot by “Trump supporters”. The people involved were NOT “Trump supporters” – but the mainstream media followed the same line as the Secret Police.

    The failure of President Donald John Trump to clear out the “Justice” Department (including the corrupt scum of the FBI) on January 20th 2017, doomed his Presidency from the start.

    The Secret Police have been openly “waiting for Biden” so they can help impose the totalitarianism they have long craved.

  • Paul Marks

    South Dakota also voted to legalise cannabis bobby b – as the law was not enforced anyway, it was pointless.

    With President Biden, really President Harris, in place the Senate will fall in line (regardless of whether the Democrats formally have a majority or not) – remember the RINO Senators.

    The whole election farce has been grimly predictale.

    The Western World is finished.

    Now will come the time of Agenda 21, Agenda 2030 – “Sustainable Development” (“Green” totalitarianism), “Stakeholder Capitalism” – FASCISM, the coming together of Big Business and Big Government in order to exterminate free competition (especially by small business) and exterminate the general freedom of ordinary people.

    “Build Back Better!”

    Congratulations to Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum – “Stakeholder Capitalism”) – the new President of the United States, he was already Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

  • neonsnake

    Is anything happening?

    Well, someone pulled up outside Parliament in what I am assured by those in the know is most definitely not a tank, but a “self-propelled gun” – apparently the difference is something to do with trajectory and ballistics – to insist that gyms stay open through Lockdown The Revenge.

    As far as I’m aware, that’s the only thing of interest going on in the world today…

  • Mr Ed

    And the US Attorney for Connecticut John Durham hasn’t AFAIK, dropped any indictments today, despite the election being over, or perhaps some people are still voting… (late and often).

  • Mr Ed

    The rioting by Marxists seems to have almost entirely stopped across the USA, as if someone had turned off a tap. Is this central planning in action?

  • Mr Ed (November 5, 2020 at 7:15 am), Scott Adams suggests it is because even those directing the rioters aren’t sure quite what is going to happen next – so they’re not sure what to do.

    I report his opinion FWIW.

  • Martin

    I suspect the dems will pinch the election. But Trump has done well enough to ensure Trumpism/populism is the future programme for the GOP. The Trump base simply won’t get round never Trumpers. If the GOP reverts back to Bush-McCain-Romney style neoconservative corporate capitalist 2008 era republicanism, they won’t win again.

    Just compare how many black/Latin votes Trump got versus John McCain!

  • The Pedant-General

    “those in the know is most definitely not a tank”

    Yup: That’s an Abbott – it’s basically an armoured personnel carrier with an artillery piece stuck on the top.
    It’s very lightly armoured and primarily designed for indirect fire hence not a “tank”.

    Trajectory and Ballistics are basically the same thing: the point is that this thing can lob a shell over a hill at something it can’t see – in this case out to about 10 miles – as long as there is a) someone who can see the target and the fall of shot and b) it (or someone else) knows where it is and can therefore calculate the bearing, elevation and charge settings (the trajectory) to get the shell from A to B. A main battle tank almost never does this.

  • Paul Marks

    Yes Mr Ed – John Dunham and other such Republicans have proved to be loyal to THE SYSTEM.

    A totally corrupt and evil SYSTEM – they are no better than the “Lincoln Project”.

    For example the FBI has known about the crimes of the Bidens (massive bribe taking, sex crimes – and all the rest of it) for years, and has COVERED THEM UP.

    People like Joseph “Joe” Biden are part of the SYSTEM – so they can do whatever they like (commit any crime) that is the view of pro SYSTEM “Republicans”.

  • Mr Ed

    Meanwhile Airbnb have updated their terms, and oddly:

    The updated Terms will go into effect for existing users on January 20, 2021.

  • Shlomo Maistre

    “Note to big-L Libertarians: State of Oregon voted to legalize “the possession of small amounts of harder street drugs including but not limited to heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine.” Wash DC voted to legalize ‘shrooms. Montana, New Jersey and Arizona legalized pot. The entire raison d’être of the American Libertarian movement had a good night.”

    The Libertarian Movement has cost Trump many states, including the State of Wisconsin, and thus possibly the election. If you think the American Libertarian movement had a good night, then you have no idea what the Democrats are, what they represent, and what they are going to do to the United States of America.

  • bobby b

    Shlomo Maistre: If you thought I was saying anything good, or even neutral, about the American Libertarian Party, then I was unclear, and apologize.

  • Fraser Orr

    @Martin
    I suspect the dems will pinch the election. But Trump has done well enough to ensure Trumpism/populism is the future programme for the GOP. The Trump base simply won’t get round never Trumpers. If the GOP reverts back to Bush-McCain-Romney style neoconservative corporate capitalist 2008 era republicanism, they won’t win again.

    I think two things about this:

    1. Four years is enough to end Americanism entirely. We have had the American Century (and the British Century before that), now we are set up for the Chinese century. At his best Biden would be utterly incapable of dealing with the Chinese (remember this is the man who has been wrong on literally ever foreign policy decision for the past fifty years), and Biden is far from his best. And were that all it would be bad, but it is also clear that Biden is DEEPLY compromised by the Chinese. There can be little doubt that they have a lot of dirt on him, and can hold him hostage to it.

    Really, if that doesn’t terrify you, you aren’t paying attention. The election of Biden is the end of American hegemony. It is that serious. My recommendation is that you learn to speak Mandarin.

    2. I just want to point out that the Republicans have not yet secured the Senate. It could come down to the two runoff races in Georgia. Can you imagine what those races are going to be like. I’m going to bet that ten billion dollars are spent on those races, and they will be the most vitriolic dangerous races in history.

    Finally, I have a question for our resident lawyer bobby if he is up for extending his free law school from previous threads. My question is this — if it is demonstrated that election judges were excluded from polling places, and that there are strong indications of dubious activities — though they would be very hard to prove (if for example, late ballots or ballots of unknown provenance, got mixed in with the rest), even if the court finds that that law has been broken, is there any remedy available for the injured party? Or is it just — yeah, bad stuff happened, but not much we can do about it now.

  • Shlomo Maistre

    The election of Biden is the end of American hegemony. It is that serious. My recommendation is that you learn to speak Mandarin.

    Correct.

    The world is in for quite a treat when China takes control of the South China Sea.

  • Mr Ed

    bobby b

    It seems to me that the American Libertarian Party would prefer that they and all Americans be ruled by Biden, Harris, Pelosi and Schumer than to compromise themselves by voting for Mr Trump.

    But at least they would have made their point.

    Lenin’s ‘Infantile disorder’ on show.

  • bobby b

    The American Libertarian Party has one issue – drugs – and they used that issue once again to the extreme prejudice of actual libertarian thought by draining support from the first guy to ever champion deregulation and lower taxes.

    They have completely devalued the word libertarian over here. Say “libertarian” to the typical American, and all it means to them is “oh, the drugs people.”

    I’m tired of explaining “small l versus big L” to people.

  • Martin

    With apologies to Mussolini, I suspect the Libertarian Party platform could be summed up as: Everything about the drugs, nothing except the drugs, nothing against the drugs

  • Mr Ed

    Let us hope that the final say in the US elections is delivered by a 5-4 US Supreme Court with Roberts CJ in the minority, and Justice Clarence Thomas giving the reasoned opinion.

  • bobby b

    “Or is it just — yeah, bad stuff happened, but not much we can do about it now.”

    This, unless we’re dealing with ballots that have been sequestered after counting. And, mostly, we’re not.

    I do know that, under some circumstances where a state can’t defend the system under which its election was held, its electoral votes can be refused by the Electoral College. But that’s about the extent of my election-law knowledge. I don’t know the mechanism for doing so, nor even who does it.

  • Fraser Orr

    @Mr Ed
    Let us hope that the final say in the US elections is delivered by a 5-4 US Supreme Court with Roberts CJ in the minority, and Justice Clarence Thomas giving the reasoned opinion.

    Unlikely. It seems obvious that the plan is, for those states run by democrats, that the plan is to keep counting until they get the “right” answer. And it does seem like there is no actual legal remedy available.

    That there is fraud here is self evident. California, Texas, Florida and New York all finished counting by 10pm. There is no reason at all for these still undeclared states to take that long. But the goal is to stretch it out until they can manufacture enough votes to get the right answer. Nevada is still not done even though it has less people than a medium sized city in Florida.

    But at the end of the day, you or I can rant about it, but we can’t do anything about it, Trump’s legal team doesn’t have much they can do either. And three months from now nobody will remember. It is an effective, if mendacious strategy.

  • Fraser Orr

    So I just listened to an analysis of the case with regards to PA before the USSC, and I thought it was interesting. Basically the case is this:

    1. In “Republican Party of PA vs Boockvar” the PA GOP party asked the USSC to expidite a case to consider the unconstitutionality of a PA Supreme court ruling regarding the rules concerning absentee ballots. The expitidion was denied, but the underlying case is still pending

    2. What is particularly significant is that three conservative justices in the response to the motion made it clear that they thought that the underlying case had considerably merit, but that there was not time to consider it before the actual election. (If I were one of the justices I think I’d want to hope that the case would become moot.)

    3. The relevant PA statute clearly states that all mail in ballots must be received at the office of the county board of elections by 8pm on the election day, not postmarked, but received in the office (that being the specific wording of the statute.) Moreover the provision is explicitly called out as non severable (that is to say, the court can’t throw out one part without throwing out the whole act.)

    4. The PA Supreme court decided that a different rule should be applied that what the legislature defined in the statute.

    5. The constitution clearly states that it is the legislatures of the states that get to decide the rules of the election.

    6. Therefore the PA Supreme court ruling exceeded their authority, and is therefore void.

    7. This means one of two things:
    a. that all mail in votes received AFTER 8pm at the county board of elections (that is to say, physically present in the office) are invalid and must be thrown out, by ignoring the PA Court ruling, and enforcing the law as written.

    b. The whole law is deemed invalid (due to the severability clause) meaning that ALL the provisions greatly liberalizing mail in voting in PA would be kicked, and far more of the mail in ballots tossed.

    8. Either way, based on the count data, if the law were enforced as written, Trump would clearly have won PA a couple of days ago. It is worth pointing out that the hard date/time in the law was put there SPECIFICALLY to prevent the current situation.

    So what does all that mean? It means that there is a clear rock solid legal theory for tossing the “keep counting until you get the right results” ballots, that the supreme court has that case before them, and that at least three of the justices (Barrett was not involved in the original expedite request, but presumably would be in the substantive case) have strongly signaled the merits. And also, if all these “late” ballots were tossed, the President would clearly win PA.

    So that raises a few questions:
    1. Will Chief Justice Roberts reject certiorari because he is a big bed wetter?
    2. Has PA maintained records to enforce such a ruling (and are they running them through the shredder as we speak)?
    3. If the Supreme Court, including Justice Barrett turned over the election to Trump, WTF is going to happen in our streets?

    FWIW, the Dems are doing the whole “keep counting until you get the right answer” several other places, so this all might be moot, but it is interesting nonetheless.

  • bobby b

    But, Fraser, are the questionable ballots still segregated from the mass of ballots? If not, there’s no remedy beyond some penalty against the officials in charge.

  • Shlomo Maistre

    But, Fraser, are the questionable ballots still segregated from the mass of ballots? If not, there’s no remedy beyond some penalty against the officials in charge.

    Fraser knows more than me, but I will chime in with something.

    Some of the “questionable” ballots in a select instance were segregated based on a strictly defined court order (I think in PA, as I recall reading) but it only applied prospectively after most of the questionable ballots had already been counted and tabulated already, if I remember correctly (and if my source was even accurate, which is a HUGE if these days and unfortunately I forget where I read it so this may not be true at all).

    But it’s impossible to know which ballots are “questionable” and which are not – this is the nature of voter fraud. So what % of the “questionable” ballots were segregated is impossible to determine even if it happened in one or two selected instances according to strictly defined court order.

    As far as I’m concerned, every single ballot in the country is a questionable ballot.

  • Fraser Orr

    @Shlomo Maistre
    Fraser knows more than me…

    I find that extremely unlikely 🙂

    But AFAIK there is a legal obligation to maintain a paper trail so that each ballot can in fact be traced back to its origin. Now did they do that? If they did is the paper trail currently going in the shredder? I don’t know. I do know there are specific anecdotes of poll workers deliberately mixing ballots into other ballots. If they just flouted the law completely, will anyone suffer any consequences? More likely a promotion and a gold medal, but who knows?

  • bobby b

    “But AFAIK there is a legal obligation to maintain a paper trail so that each ballot can in fact be traced back to its origin.”

    That’s the problem – this is specifically and intentionally not true.

    Think of the mechanics of “vote by mail.” You fill out a ballot document with no identifying data. You place it inside of an envelope, and you sign the outside of the envelope. You place that envelope, along with whatever identification data your jurisdiction demands, inside another envelope. You mail it in.

    Upon arrival, the outside envelope is opened. The docs are checked to make sure you’re registered (or at least on some resident list) and the inside envelope supposedly has its signature checked against your recorded signature. (Not so in some jurisdictions anymore.) At that point, the inside envelope is opened, and the completely anonymous ballot is dumped into the pile – no longer traceable in any way. Thus, the American icon of the “secret ballot.” There is no traceability.

    So, this was a completed crime the day the various jurisdictions instigated systems that allowed for ballots to be submitted without regard to who is a proper voter.

    There’s no way to go back (in most jurisdictions) and pull out votes that we now know came from improper sources. We might now know that 20,000 non-proper votes were accepted in New Mexico. We have no way to tell who those votes were for.

    The only exceptions are in those states where someone initiated a lawsuit prior to the day the votes were opened, and got into court quickly enough and got a judge to order that those specific ballot forms should be set aside into a separate pile and kept together with their identifying documents. They were still counted – but in those instances, we retain the ability to pull those specific illegal votes out and subtract them from the count if we prove they’re improper.

    Every other improper ballot is a done deal. The only remaining remedy would be to kick that state out of the Electoral College’s counting later, and that’s never going to happen.

    So, I’d not take much comfort in the legal fight over votes. Barn doors, horses, etc.

  • bobby b

    Fraser Orr
    November 7, 2020 at 12:55 am

    “I don’t know. I do know there are specific anecdotes of poll workers deliberately mixing ballots into other ballots.”

    This is what’s happening in some of the states where a judge had previously ruled that certain ballots be segregated until the case could come to complete court attention.

    Allegedly, some poll workers violated those court orders and failed to segregate the ballots in question, and instead dumped them into the pile. Once they did that, there is no longer any election remedy available for those possibly-improper votes. The judge could punish those workers and those departments for contempt – violating the court order – but the votes would be in, and counted, and done.

    If you have workers willing to throw themselves on the grenade, it’s the perfect crime. There’s no fix.