thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Georgia Secretary of State Defends Election Systems, Says Office Investigating Third-Party Voter Reg

Georgia Secretary of State Defends Election Systems, Says Office Investigating Third-Party Voter Registration Organizations

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling discussed the elections and lawsuits in a press conference on Monday .
Both men asserted that the latest recount will confirm the election results , that the lawsuits made baseless claims , and that the upcoming runoff elections are their focus .
Raffensperger announced that the latest recount is scheduled to be completed by midnight on Wednesday .
He added that his office will be releasing the recount results online .
“ That is the great thing about our paper ballot system : it is auditable , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the confidence that the outcomes are correct .
Once this recount is complete , everyone in Georgia will be able to have even more confidence in the results of our elections .
Despite the massive amounts of misinformation that is being spread by dishonest actors .
There are those who exploit the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims , half-truths , misinformation – and frankly , they are misleading the President as well , apparently.
” Raffensperger referenced the two lawsuits in place by attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ process , we will – as we always have been – we will continue to investigate credible claims of illegal voting and violation of state election law .
There are currently over 250 open cases from 2020 , and we have 23 investigators.
” Raffensperger mentioned that his office is investigating reports that absentee voters outnumbered ballot envelopes in Fulton County , Gwinnett County , and Cobb County .
Additionally , Raffensperger announced that his office is investigating third party groups that are working to register voters in Georgia .
The secretary of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballot applications to people who haven ’ t lived there since 1994 ; Vote Forward attempted to register a dead Alabama woman to vote in Georgia ; The New Georgia Project sent voter registration applications to New York City ; and New Voter Registration Georgia told college students that they can change their address to Georgia and then change it back after the election .
A spokesperson for America Votes stated in an email that they relied on a list of registered voters maintained by Raffensperger .
“ Voting in Georgia when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a felony , ” stated Raffensperger .
“ And encouraging college students to commit felonies with no regard for what that might mean for them is despicable.
” Raffensperger denounced individuals and groups encouraging voters to boycott the upcoming runoff elections .
“ Your right to vote is sacred .
Don ’ t let someone con you out of it .
Everyone in my office is doing their job – we will continue to follow the law , and we will continue to follow the process.
” Sterling asserted that the recount result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mentioned that there were 940,000 absentee ballots in their system so far – 84,000 needing verification , and 1,040 verified and sent to the counties .
Sterling also clarified that there weren ’ t any issues with Dominion Voting Systems ( Dominion ) in Fulton County .
He explained that the systems crashed on Sunday because the county workers ignored instructions on proper machine usage .
Sterling clarified that there were no “ server wipes ” that occurred .
He explained that Fulton County stoked rumors by failing to explain their mistake to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ current criticisms of Dominion within lawsuits as “ insanity , fever dreams , made-up , internet cabal.
” Sterling claimed that the hand recount conducted several weeks prior served as proof that no vote switching occurred .
“ It ’ s like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole .
Every time we knock down one , there ’ s a new crazy [ that pops up ] .
” Sterling dismissed the idea of paper-only ballots , stating that the vote counting would still be underway because the population is immense .
He shared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are safer and more efficient than all other elections systems .
“ I can guarantee you that this is the most secure election in the state of Georgia.
” Watch the full remarks by Raffensperger and Sterling here .
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling discussed the elections and lawsuits in a press conference on Monday. Both men asserted that the latest recount will confirm the election results, that the lawsuits made baseless claims, and that the upcoming runoff elections are their focus.
Raffensperger announced that the latest recount is scheduled to be completed by midnight on Wednesday. He added that his office will be releasing the recount results online.
“That is the great thing about our paper ballot system: it is auditable, it is recountable, and can provide voters the confidence that the outcomes are correct. Once this recount is complete, everyone in Georgia will be able to have even more confidence in the results of our elections. Despite the massive amounts of misinformation that is being spread by dishonest actors. There are those who exploit the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation – and frankly, they are misleading the President as well, apparently.”
Raffensperger referenced the two lawsuits in place by attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell.
“As we move forward in the process, we will – as we always have been – we will continue to investigate credible claims of illegal voting and violation of state election law. There are currently over 250 open cases from 2020, and we have 23 investigators.”
Raffensperger mentioned that his office is investigating reports that absentee voters outnumbered ballot envelopes in Fulton County, Gwinnett County, and Cobb County.
Additionally, Raffensperger announced that his office is investigating third party groups that are working to register voters in Georgia.
The secretary of state claimed that America Votes sent absentee ballot applications to people who haven’t lived there since 1994; Vote Forward attempted to register a dead Alabama woman to vote in Georgia; The New Georgia Project sent voter registration applications to New York City; and New Voter Registration Georgia told college students that they can change their address to Georgia and then change it back after the election.
A spokesperson for America Votes stated in an email that they relied on a list of registered voters maintained by Raffensperger.
“Voting in Georgia when you are not a resident of Georgia is a felony,” stated Raffensperger. “And encouraging college students to commit felonies with no regard for what that might mean for them is despicable.”
Raffensperger denounced individuals and groups encouraging voters to boycott the upcoming runoff elections.
“Your right to vote is sacred. Don’t let someone con you out of it. Everyone in my office is doing their job – we will continue to follow the law, and we will continue to follow the process.”
Sterling asserted that the recount result will be the certified result. He mentioned that there were 940,000 absentee ballots in their system so far – 84,000 needing verification, and 1,040 verified and sent to the counties.
Sterling also clarified that there weren’t any issues with Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) in Fulton County. He explained that the systems crashed on Sunday because the county workers ignored instructions on proper machine usage.
Sterling clarified that there were no “server wipes” that occurred. He explained that Fulton County stoked rumors by failing to explain their mistake to the press.
Additionally, Sterling denounced current criticisms of Dominion within lawsuits as “insanity, fever dreams, made-up, internet cabal.”
Sterling claimed that the hand recount conducted several weeks prior served as proof that no vote switching occurred.
“It’s like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole. Every time we knock down one, there’s a new crazy [that pops up].”
Sterling dismissed the idea of paper-only ballots, stating that the vote counting would still be underway because the population is immense. He shared that Georgia’s electronic voting systems are safer and more efficient than all other elections systems.
“I can guarantee you that this is the most secure election in the state of Georgia.”
Watch the full remarks by Raffensperger and Sterling here.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Trump Campaign Estimates 38K to 45K Illegal Absentee Ballots Cast in Georgia Election

The Trump Campaign alleged that between 38,000 and over 45,000 illegal absentee ballot votes were cast in Georgia .
According to their estimations , the campaign requested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger do a complete audit on the absentee ballot envelope signatures .
The letter marked the campaign ’ s fifth petition filed to Raffensperger .
“ It is not possible for you to accurately certify the results in the presidential race from the November 3 , 2020 election until and unless there is a thorough audit of the Signatures , which we have now requested four times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” stated the letter .
The letter included an analysis that showed the mail-in ballot rejection rates decreased significantly from the 2018 midterms to the 2020 primaries and general election .
According to the campaign ’ s independent analysis from a data expert , the rejection rate in 2018 was nearly 3.5 percent .
In the 2020 primary election the rejection rate was about 1 percent , and in the 2020 general election rejection rate dropped to about .35 percent .
The campaign applied rejection rates from 2018 to the number of mail-in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
From there , they estimated that anywhere from about 38,000 to 45,000 ballots should have been rejected .
The letter noted that just under 5,000 ballots were rejected this year .
The letter then refuted Raffensperger ’ s previous claim that rejection rates for 2020 were in line with those in 2018 .
It pointed out that Raffensperger used the number of ballots mailed out to justify its claims , not the number of ballots cast – a 20 percent difference .
It added that Raffensperger ’ s listed numbers of mail-in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s primary and general elections were incorrect .
“ At the very least , these discrepancies raise serious concerns regarding the quality of data your office is using to make decisions , especially regarding your conclusions as to the correct number of votes cast in the presidential election , ” stated the letter .
Neither of the audits undertaken by the state included a signature verification of absentee ballots .
Included with the letter were all previous letters from the campaign , an email to Raffensperger ’ s General Counsel about counties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a legal brief with affidavits calling into question absentee ballots cast in the election .
Democratic candidate Joe Biden currently leads President Donald Trump by over 12,000 votes .
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .

The Trump Campaign alleged that between 38,000 and over 45,000 illegal absentee ballot votes were cast in Georgia. According to their estimations, the campaign requested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger do a complete audit on the absentee ballot envelope signatures.
The letter marked the campaign’s fifth petition filed to Raffensperger.
“It is not possible for you to accurately certify the results in the presidential race from the November 3, 2020 election until and unless there is a thorough audit of the Signatures, which we have now requested four times in writing prior to this request,” stated the letter.
The letter included an analysis that showed the mail-in ballot rejection rates decreased significantly from the 2018 midterms to the 2020 primaries and general election. According to the campaign’s independent analysis from a data expert, the rejection rate in 2018 was nearly 3.5 percent. In the 2020 primary election the rejection rate was about 1 percent, and in the 2020 general election rejection rate dropped to about .35 percent.
The campaign applied rejection rates from 2018 to the number of mail-in ballots accepted in the 2020 general election. From there, they estimated that anywhere from about 38,000 to 45,000 ballots should have been rejected. The letter noted that just under 5,000 ballots were rejected this year.
The letter then refuted Raffensperger’s previous claim that rejection rates for 2020 were in line with those in 2018. It pointed out that Raffensperger used the number of ballots mailed out to justify its claims, not the number of ballots cast – a 20 percent difference. It added that Raffensperger’s listed numbers of mail-in ballots cast and rejected for this year’s primary and general elections were incorrect.
“At the very least, these discrepancies raise serious concerns regarding the quality of data your office is using to make decisions, especially regarding your conclusions as to the correct number of votes cast in the presidential election,” stated the letter.
Neither of the audits undertaken by the state included a signature verification of absentee ballots.
Included with the letter were all previous letters from the campaign, an email to Raffensperger’s General Counsel about counties failing to conduct signature verification, and a legal brief with affidavits calling into question absentee ballots cast in the election.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden currently leads President Donald Trump by over 12,000 votes.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Dominion Server Crashed in Fulton County, Delaying Recount Results

On Sunday , the recount was delayed in Fulton County after a crash occurred in Dominion Voting System servers .
The delay halted recount operations for several hours .
“ Technicians from Dominion have been dispatched to resolve the issue , ” stated Fulton County Officials .
“ The Georgia Secretary of State ’ s office has been alerted to the issue and is aware of efforts to resolve the problem.
” During a press conference the following day , Georgia Secretary of State Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling told reporters that the crash was due to human error .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fulton County .
There was a Dominion server that crashed because Fulton County literally ignored the basic instructions and the directions of the vendor on this one .
They were given what was called an express server , to do L & A – logic and accuracy testing – on the machines for tomorrow ’ s elections.
” According to Sterling , the elections officials decided that they would use the express server for the recount instead of the proper central server .
He stated that tabulators must be set up differently for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots , provisional ballots , early voting ballots , and absentee ballots .
Sterling added that the Dominion representative warned the workers that it would overload the system .
However , the workers purportedly ignored the representative and the secretary of state ’ s office .
The Georgia Star News recently reported that a Dominion technician representative for Fulton County was Kamala Harris ’ s photographer for years , and worked as her presidential campaign photographer last year .
During the initial vote counting , Fulton County also had to rescan ballots after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t reflect the totals received .
The recount resumed Monday morning .
According to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during Monday ’ s press conference , the recount is expected to be finished by Wednesday at midnight .
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .
Photo “ Fulton County Election Count ” by Gabriel Sterling .

On Sunday, the recount was delayed in Fulton County after a crash occurred in Dominion Voting System servers. The delay halted recount operations for several hours.
“Technicians from Dominion have been dispatched to resolve the issue,” stated Fulton County Officials. “The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has been alerted to the issue and is aware of efforts to resolve the problem.”
During a press conference the following day, Georgia Secretary of State Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling told reporters that the crash was due to human error.
“There were no Dominion issues in Fulton County. There was a Dominion server that crashed because Fulton County literally ignored the basic instructions and the directions of the vendor on this one. They were given what was called an express server, to do L&A – logic and accuracy testing – on the machines for tomorrow’s elections.”
According to Sterling, the elections officials decided that they would use the express server for the recount instead of the proper central server. He stated that tabulators must be set up differently for each type of ballot – Election Day ballots, provisional ballots, early voting ballots, and absentee ballots. Sterling added that the Dominion representative warned the workers that it would overload the system. However, the workers purportedly ignored the representative and the secretary of state’s office.
The Georgia Star News recently reported that a Dominion technician representative for Fulton County was Kamala Harris’s photographer for years, and worked as her presidential campaign photographer last year.
During the initial vote counting, Fulton County also had to rescan ballots after the number of scanned ballots didn’t reflect the totals received.
The recount resumed Monday morning. According to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during Monday’s press conference, the recount is expected to be finished by Wednesday at midnight.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fulton County Election Count” by Gabriel Sterling.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Attorney Lin Wood: Trump Will Be Inaugurated Based on Voter Fraud in Dominion Voting Machines

Attorney Lin Wood stated that the investigations into election fraud would clear the path for President Donald Trump to be inaugurated come January .
In an interview with The John Fredericks Show , Wood shared details of his Sunday night court victory .
Initially , the court impounded all Dominion machines throughout Georgia .
The court has since changed its order to reflect that only three counties would have their machines impounded .
“ Dominion originated in Venezuela .
It ’ s a Canadian company .
It ’ s servers were used in Barcelona and in Frankfurt .
There ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overwhelming evidence that foreign countries , including China were involved in interfering with our elections.
” Wood stated that President Donald Trump knows what he is doing in these legal battles against the current election results .
He claimed that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp , Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger , and members of the media were involved in conspiring to interfere with the election results .
Wood added that Raffensperger ’ s involvement was the reason that he hasn ’ t been open to a forensic investigation of the machines .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hides nothing .
The secretary of state is taking every action he can through lawyers to try to prevent an inspection of these machines .
He has something to hide.
” The attorney asserted that a slew of Republicans and government officials were involved as well , though he didn ’ t name any other individuals .
According to Wood , his experts will analyze the hard drives of the Dominion voting machines .
He claimed that some of the fraud involved the machines being rigged to apply an algorithm weighting Democratic candidate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Donald Trump ’ s .
Included within Wood ’ s affidavits is a testimony from a purported former aid of Hugo Chavez .
The filing stated that the individual witnessed how Chavez created and operated voting systems that would manipulate the election in his favor .
“ At the end of the day , it ’ s not going to be the courts that decide this , it ’ s not going to be legislators that decide this .
While they may be the procedural tools , this election is going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s going to be decided by ‘ We the People.
’ We the people voted for Donald Trump , and we ’ re going to make sure our vote counts , we ’ re not going to have it stolen by a bunch of criminals and foreign actors.
” Wood added that the lawsuit from attorney Sidney Powell would present overwhelming proof of mass voter fraud .
Voting machines from Cobb County , Gwinnett County , and Cherokee County won ’ t be erased until they undergo an independent , forensic investigation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office has until Wednesday at 5 pm EST to file a brief and supporting evidence countering the judge ’ s order .
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .

Attorney Lin Wood stated that the investigations into election fraud would clear the path for President Donald Trump to be inaugurated come January.
In an interview with The John Fredericks Show, Wood shared details of his Sunday night court victory. Initially, the court impounded all Dominion machines throughout Georgia. The court has since changed its order to reflect that only three counties would have their machines impounded.
“Dominion originated in Venezuela. It’s a Canadian company. It’s servers were used in Barcelona and in Frankfurt. There’s no question that there will be overwhelming evidence that foreign countries, including China were involved in interfering with our elections.”
Wood stated that President Donald Trump knows what he is doing in these legal battles against the current election results. He claimed that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and members of the media were involved in conspiring to interfere with the election results.
Wood added that Raffensperger’s involvement was the reason that he hasn’t been open to a forensic investigation of the machines.
“He who has nothing to hide, hides nothing. The secretary of state is taking every action he can through lawyers to try to prevent an inspection of these machines. He has something to hide.”
The attorney asserted that a slew of Republicans and government officials were involved as well, though he didn’t name any other individuals.
According to Wood, his experts will analyze the hard drives of the Dominion voting machines. He claimed that some of the fraud involved the machines being rigged to apply an algorithm weighting Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s votes heavier than President Donald Trump’s.
Included within Wood’s affidavits is a testimony from a purported former aid of Hugo Chavez. The filing stated that the individual witnessed how Chavez created and operated voting systems that would manipulate the election in his favor.
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to be the courts that decide this, it’s not going to be legislators that decide this. While they may be the procedural tools, this election is going to be decided where it should: it’s going to be decided by ‘We the People.’ We the people voted for Donald Trump, and we’re going to make sure our vote counts, we’re not going to have it stolen by a bunch of criminals and foreign actors.”
Wood added that the lawsuit from attorney Sidney Powell would present overwhelming proof of mass voter fraud.
Voting machines from Cobb County, Gwinnett County, and Cherokee County won’t be erased until they undergo an independent, forensic investigation. The secretary of state’s office has until Wednesday at 5 pm EST to file a brief and supporting evidence countering the judge’s order.
Listen to the full interview:
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--New Ethnic Studies Requirement Seeks to Turn Minneapolis Students into ‘Agents of Change’

The Minneapolis Board of Education hopes its new ethnic studies requirement will help students develop “ skills to become agents of change ” and create a learning environment “ that leads to action.
” Starting with the class of 2025 , all Minneapolis students “ must earn a passing grade in an ethnic studies course , ” according to a resolution passed by the school board earlier this month .
“ It ’ s our responsibility to provide this opportunity for deep examination of power structures in our society along with identifying ways and developing skills to become agents of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The amended graduation requirements define an ethnic studies course as one that includes the “ explicit exploration of identity and intersectionality , ” prioritizes “ the history and culture of historically marginalized groups , ” discusses “ the history and current role of race , racism , and anti-racist work , ” and creates “ interdisciplinary learning that leads to action.
” School board member Kimberly Caprini said she is “ looking forward to the conversation about how we can modify ethnic studies for middle school and elementary-age students , ” according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I think by doing that we will definitely be in a better position to change the trajectory of racism in this country , the acceptance of differences , the understanding of different cultures and just being more respectful of each other and celebrating each other ’ s culture , ” she said .
Kim Ellison , chair of the school board , noted that state Rep. Fue Lee has introduced a bill in the Minnesota House to require ethnic studies in all public schools statewide .
Vice Chair Jenny Arneson said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to add credits , it means we are raising the priority level of this in our district.
” It ’ s “ important for us to recognize that our history and our understanding of history has been rooted in white supremacy for a long , long time in the United States , certainly , and elsewhere , ” said school board member Nelson Inz .
“ I think to some extent it ’ s disappointing that we have to create a separate space for ethnic studies , ” he added , later suggesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are “ embedded in white supremacy.
” Inz applauded the “ progressive nature of our social studies curriculum in Minneapolis Public Schools.
” Superintendent Ed Graff said Minneapolis schools have to abide by state standards that are “ perhaps not necessarily current in today ’ s world and do take on a very Euro-centric kind of mindset and approach.
” “ As we all know , the educational racism and injustice in America is there , and unfortunately , it will be there for some time , ” added board member Siad Ali @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ethnic studies will be given “ the maximum resources.
” The resolution to create an ethnic studies graduation requirement passed unanimously .

by Anthony Gockowski
The Minneapolis Board of Education hopes its new ethnic studies requirement will help students develop “skills to become agents of change” and create a learning environment “that leads to action.”
Starting with the class of 2025, all Minneapolis students “must earn a passing grade in an ethnic studies course,” according to a resolution passed by the school board earlier this month.
“It’s our responsibility to provide this opportunity for deep examination of power structures in our society along with identifying ways and developing skills to become agents of change,” states the resolution.
The amended graduation requirements define an ethnic studies course as one that includes the “explicit exploration of identity and intersectionality,” prioritizes “the history and culture of historically marginalized groups,” discusses “the history and current role of race, racism, and anti-racist work,” and creates “interdisciplinary learning that leads to action.”
School board member Kimberly Caprini said she is “looking forward to the conversation about how we can modify ethnic studies for middle school and elementary-age students,” according to a video of the Nov. 10 meeting.
“I think by doing that we will definitely be in a better position to change the trajectory of racism in this country, the acceptance of differences, the understanding of different cultures and just being more respectful of each other and celebrating each other’s culture,” she said.
Kim Ellison, chair of the school board, noted that state Rep. Fue Lee has introduced a bill in the Minnesota House to require ethnic studies in all public schools statewide.
Vice Chair Jenny Arneson said that “when we take the step to add credits, it means we are raising the priority level of this in our district.”
It’s “important for us to recognize that our history and our understanding of history has been rooted in white supremacy for a long, long time in the United States, certainly, and elsewhere,” said school board member Nelson Inz.
“I think to some extent it’s disappointing that we have to create a separate space for ethnic studies,” he added, later suggesting that the state’s educational standards are “embedded in white supremacy.”
Inz applauded the “progressive nature of our social studies curriculum in Minneapolis Public Schools.”
Superintendent Ed Graff said Minneapolis schools have to abide by state standards that are “perhaps not necessarily current in today’s world and do take on a very Euro-centric kind of mindset and approach.”
“As we all know, the educational racism and injustice in America is there, and unfortunately, it will be there for some time,” added board member Siad Ali, asking Graff to assure him that ethnic studies will be given “the maximum resources.”
The resolution to create an ethnic studies graduation requirement passed unanimously.
– – –
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Commentary: In Georgia, Weak Republican Politicians Pave the Way to Their Own Demise

If he [ Trump ] continues to disillusion voters … by saying that the elections were rigged and that your vote doesn ’ t matter , this could have severe consequences for the administration in trying to keep those two seats Republican , ” pollster-pundit and alleged Republican Frank Luntz said on “ Squawk Box.
” In this stern admonition Luntz indicates what he considers to be the greatest danger facing Republicans in the runoff race for the two Senate seats in Georgia on January 5 .
Luntz ’ s warning puts his own spin on what purports to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But Luntz ’ s comments do not seem to be especially convincing .
Why would I think that because Trump has refused to concede openly and emphatically ( when there is no need for him to do that now or ever ) , Republican candidates in Georgia ’ s senatorial races will be taking a severe hit ?
It seems that at least some Republicans will not support candidates who are not standing foursquare behind Trump in his raging electoral battles .
Georgia Senator David Perdue suggested that Trump should throw in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Karl Rove .
Perdue later partly retracted by indicating that he ’ s still with Trump and would welcome his support .
Moreover , since the president is about to go down to Georgia to campaign for Perdue and Kelly Loeffler , the connection between him and the Republican candidates will be made even more obvious .
Since 75 percent of Republicans , according to Newsweek , believe the election abounded in fraud , why shouldn ’ t Trump loudly proclaim the same view ?
The people who think the election was as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us , in any case , will not be voting Republican .
They are more likely to be in the Democratic camp and are already rejoicing over Biden ’ s good fortune .
Further , two-thirds of Republican respondents in a Politico poll taken last week said they would support Trump if he entered the presidential race for 2024 .
If Trump already enjoys that level of support for a future presidential race , it ’ s hard to see how his complaints about the recent presidential election could hurt Republicans in Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a Republican victory on January 3 , and it is the one that Luntz leaves out of his remarks .
Unless the mail-in ballots and the likelihood of fraud can be stopped , there may be no victory for either Loeffler or Perdue .
About 800,000 mail-in ballot requests have already been submitted ; and Georgia ’ s secretary of state and election board have voted to extend the use of round-the-clock drop boxes for completed ballots .
The use of drop boxes was supposed to expire by late December , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make them available even longer .
Mail-in voting has been made as convenient as possible ; and Georgia ’ s Republican administration has chosen this course for an obvious reason .
Both Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are quintessential Southern Republicans , who quake in terror when black race hustlers like Stacey Abrams call them “ racists.
” They have therefore given in to a weird demand , one that makes it almost impossible to throw out ballots with mismatched signatures .
Three election officials must be consulted under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kemp and the Democrats ) before a ballot is rejected .
This may account for the fact that the rejection rate for faulty ballots in this month ’ s election was less than a tenth of what it was in 2016 .
Abrams and other black activists , who pushed for this measure know how to intimidate guilt-ridden , wimpy Republicans .
Although Kemp has promised that stricter standards will be applied for the runoff races , it may be foolish to bet on that happening .
Being stuck with Kemp and Raffensperger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an even greater problem for the Right than fraudulent ballots .
Stacey Abrams and Reverend Raphael Warnock , a Democratic candidate for the Senate , hardly warm my heart .
But one knows where one stands with such adversaries .
When Warnock tells us that “ racism is the pre-existing condition ” among white Americans or when Abrams rails against “ systemic racism , ” it is clear these figures are not on my side .
But one can ’ t state with the same certainty that Kemp and Raffensperger are the friends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politicians do not show the same iron will and sense of self-identity as do those who are using them .
On November 20 , Kemp and Raffensperger pleased CNN and MSNBC when they perhaps prematurely certified Biden had won the Georgia presidential race .
Days later they were backed into allowing another recount .
Meanwhile evidence has surfaced , which the Amistad Project has brought forth , that 200,000 “ mishandled ” ballots had been mixed in with the official totals ( in which Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 12,670 votes ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have differed if Stacey Abrams , not Kemp , had become governor of Georgia in 2018 , and if a Democratic presidential candidate were complaining about fraud in her state ?
Only an idiot could believe that Abrams would act as timidly as her Republican opponents or would have made deals that were disadvantageous to the Left .
Paul Edward Gottfried is the editor of Chronicles .
An American paleoconservative philosopher , historian , and columnist , Gottfried is a former Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown , Pennsylvania @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Photo “ Georgia Capitol ” by Ken Lund CC2.0 .

by Paul Gottfried
If he [Trump] continues to disillusion voters … by saying that the elections were rigged and that your vote doesn’t matter, this could have severe consequences for the administration in trying to keep those two seats Republican,” pollster-pundit and alleged Republican Frank Luntz said on “Squawk Box.”
In this stern admonition Luntz indicates what he considers to be the greatest danger facing Republicans in the runoff race for the two Senate seats in Georgia on January 5. Luntz’s warning puts his own spin on what purports to be an objective analysis of the forthcoming election. But Luntz’s comments do not seem to be especially convincing. Why would I think that because Trump has refused to concede openly and emphatically (when there is no need for him to do that now or ever), Republican candidates in Georgia’s senatorial races will be taking a severe hit?
It seems that at least some Republicans will not support candidates who are not standing foursquare behind Trump in his raging electoral battles. Georgia Senator David Perdue suggested that Trump should throw in the towel while talking to Republican moderate Karl Rove. Perdue later partly retracted by indicating that he’s still with Trump and would welcome his support. Moreover, since the president is about to go down to Georgia to campaign for Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the connection between him and the Republican candidates will be made even more obvious.
Since 75 percent of Republicans, according to Newsweek, believe the election abounded in fraud, why shouldn’t Trump loudly proclaim the same view? The people who think the election was as perfect as election officials have been telling us, in any case, will not be voting Republican. They are more likely to be in the Democratic camp and are already rejoicing over Biden’s good fortune. Further, two-thirds of Republican respondents in a Politico poll taken last week said they would support Trump if he entered the presidential race for 2024. If Trump already enjoys that level of support for a future presidential race, it’s hard to see how his complaints about the recent presidential election could hurt Republicans in Georgia.
But there is one ominous obstacle to a Republican victory on January 3, and it is the one that Luntz leaves out of his remarks. Unless the mail-in ballots and the likelihood of fraud can be stopped, there may be no victory for either Loeffler or Perdue. About 800,000 mail-in ballot requests have already been submitted; and Georgia’s secretary of state and election board have voted to extend the use of round-the-clock drop boxes for completed ballots. The use of drop boxes was supposed to expire by late December, but the Republican government has taken steps to make them available even longer. Mail-in voting has been made as convenient as possible; and Georgia’s Republican administration has chosen this course for an obvious reason. Both Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are quintessential Southern Republicans, who quake in terror when black race hustlers like Stacey Abrams call them “racists.” They have therefore given in to a weird demand, one that makes it almost impossible to throw out ballots with mismatched signatures.
Three election officials must be consulted under the consent decree (ironed out between Kemp and the Democrats) before a ballot is rejected. This may account for the fact that the rejection rate for faulty ballots in this month’s election was less than a tenth of what it was in 2016. Abrams and other black activists, who pushed for this measure know how to intimidate guilt-ridden, wimpy Republicans. Although Kemp has promised that stricter standards will be applied for the runoff races, it may be foolish to bet on that happening.
Being stuck with Kemp and Raffensperger as one’s allies may pose an even greater problem for the Right than fraudulent ballots. Stacey Abrams and Reverend Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for the Senate, hardly warm my heart. But one knows where one stands with such adversaries. When Warnock tells us that “racism is the pre-existing condition” among white Americans or when Abrams rails against “systemic racism,” it is clear these figures are not on my side. But one can’t state with the same certainty that Kemp and Raffensperger are the friends of Stacey’s opponents. These politicians do not show the same iron will and sense of self-identity as do those who are using them.
On November 20, Kemp and Raffensperger pleased CNN and MSNBC when they perhaps prematurely certified Biden had won the Georgia presidential race. Days later they were backed into allowing another recount. Meanwhile evidence has surfaced, which the Amistad Project has brought forth, that 200,000 “mishandled” ballots had been mixed in with the official totals (in which Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 12,670 votes). Might we assume that responses would have differed if Stacey Abrams, not Kemp, had become governor of Georgia in 2018, and if a Democratic presidential candidate were complaining about fraud in her state? Only an idiot could believe that Abrams would act as timidly as her Republican opponents or would have made deals that were disadvantageous to the Left.
– – –
Paul Edward Gottfried is the editor of Chronicles. An American paleoconservative philosopher, historian, and columnist, Gottfried is a former Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, as well as a Guggenheim recipient.
Photo “Georgia Capitol” by Ken Lund CC2.0.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Mayors Push State Lawmakers to Pass Community Stabilization Plan

City leaders in Michigan are asking state legislators to adopt policy changes that will prevent 24 cities currently collecting local income taxes from losing up to $ 250 million next year .
Several mayors held a virtual press conference Monday organized by the Michigan Municipal League ( MML ) , asking the GOP-led legislature to approve a plan with three components .
• Extend the exemption to the Open Meetings Act to allow local governmental bodies to continue to meet remotely beyond the end of 2020 .
• Allow local cities one opportunity to collect local income taxes from workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work remotely during the pandemic .
• Amend the relationship between the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A COVID-19 and government restrictions on businesses have driven thousands of stores out of business , likely reducing property values and property tax revenues .
The plan would address “ unintended interactions ” between the Headlee Amendment , which limits taxes , and Proposal A , a 1994 tax and school-finance overhaul .
The plan would allow millage rates to adjust up and down depending on the relationship between property values and general inflation .
A millage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For parcels that do not change ownership , the maximum charter tax rates won ’ t increase by more than inflation .
The second part would change the rollback formula so that taxing authorities would benefit from property sales ’ deferred growth , Tony Minghine , MML deputy executive director and chief operating officer , told The Center Square .
This would remove the “ popped up ” values from the Headlee millage rollback calculation , which currently negates growth .
“ The idea wasn ’ t that you ’ d never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Minghine said .
“ The idea was that there ’ s this deferral of this growth , so you ’ d ‘ catch up ’ at some point .
But because of how they constructed the rollback construction post-Proposal A , that was essentially negated in the math.
” Michigan State University Municipal Finance Professor Eric Scorsone warned that cities entered the COVID-19 pandemic carrying baggage from the Great Recession .
For example , Detroit didn ’ t declare bankruptcy until 2013 from the 2008 recession .
Similarly , Scorsone said local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from internet technology to cleaning costs .
“ I think 2021 and 2022 are going to be some of the toughest times facing municipal governments , certainly since the Great Recession , perhaps even worse because there are long-term implications from this pandemic , which we ’ re only now beginning to really understand and will only become clear over the next few years , ” Scorsone said .
The state is still looking at a $ 1 billion budget deficit in the fiscal 2022 year , which may result in revenue-sharing cuts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in cuts to police , fire and park departments , Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said .
“ For us , the… scale of the deficit is still yet-to-be-determined since people will still be filing their income taxes [ for several weeks ] , ” Bliss said .
Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square .
A graduate of Hillsdale College , his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org .
Photo “ Grand Rapids ” by Rachel Kramer CC2.0 .

by Scott McClallen
City leaders in Michigan are asking state legislators to adopt policy changes that will prevent 24 cities currently collecting local income taxes from losing up to $250 million next year.
Several mayors held a virtual press conference Monday organized by the Michigan Municipal League (MML), asking the GOP-led legislature to approve a plan with three components.
Extend the exemption to the Open Meetings Act to allow local governmental bodies to continue to meet remotely beyond the end of 2020.
Allow local cities one opportunity to collect local income taxes from workers employed within the city but forced to work remotely during the pandemic.
Amend the relationship between the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A
COVID-19 and government restrictions on businesses have driven thousands of stores out of business, likely reducing property values and property tax revenues.
The plan would address “unintended interactions” between the Headlee Amendment, which limits taxes, and Proposal A, a 1994 tax and school-finance overhaul.
The plan would allow millage rates to adjust up and down depending on the relationship between property values and general inflation.
A millage rate could never increase above charter limits.
For parcels that do not change ownership, the maximum charter tax rates won’t increase by more than inflation.
The second part would change the rollback formula so that taxing authorities would benefit from property sales’ deferred growth, Tony Minghine, MML deputy executive director and chief operating officer, told The Center Square.
This would remove the “popped up” values from the Headlee millage rollback calculation, which currently negates growth.
“The idea wasn’t that you’d never get the benefit of the growth,” Minghine said. “The idea was that there’s this deferral of this growth, so you’d ‘catch up’ at some point. But because of how they constructed the rollback construction post-Proposal A, that was essentially negated in the math.”
Michigan State University Municipal Finance Professor Eric Scorsone warned that cities entered the COVID-19 pandemic carrying baggage from the Great Recession.
For example, Detroit didn’t declare bankruptcy until 2013 from the 2008 recession.
Similarly, Scorsone said local governments are looking at higher costs ranging from internet technology to cleaning costs.
“I think 2021 and 2022 are going to be some of the toughest times facing municipal governments, certainly since the Great Recession, perhaps even worse because there are long-term implications from this pandemic, which we’re only now beginning to really understand and will only become clear over the next few years,” Scorsone said.
The state is still looking at a $1 billion budget deficit in the fiscal 2022 year, which may result in revenue-sharing cuts to local governments.
That could result in cuts to police, fire and park departments, Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said.
“For us, the… scale of the deficit is still yet-to-be-determined since people will still be filing their income taxes [for several weeks],” Bliss said.
– – –
Scott McClallen is a staff writer covering Michigan and Minnesota for The Center Square. A graduate of Hillsdale College, his work has appeared on Forbes.com and FEE.org.
Photo “Grand Rapids” by Rachel Kramer CC2.0.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Pandemic, Unrest, Stimulus, Election Year Driving an Ammunition Shortage

Bullets are flying off the shelves again , like after Barack Obama ’ s two presidential election wins .
But gun shop owner Bob Marcus said the cause is not just traditional fear of what a Democratic administration might do .
“ This is nothing like Obama or Sandy Hook .
It is sort of the perfect storm with the pandemic , stimulus money , and an election year , ” Marcus said .
“ Throw in lawlessness in the streets for good measure .
Of course , people want what they can ’ t get.
” In an email @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ VCDL ] said , “ Ammunition manufacturers customarily have a pretty good handle on how much of each type of ammunition they are going to sell annually .
Knowing this , they tool up and crank out x rounds of .22 LR .
They then retool and make y rounds of 9mm , then z rounds of .223 , etc .
The perfect storm has thrown a monkey wrench into those calculations and the industry is trying desperately to catch up to the exploding demand.
” According to the VCDL , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislation , COVID-19 limiting ammunition manufacturing capacity , and an increasing amount of first-time gun owners .
“ Even components for reloading are in short supply , ” the VCDL email said .
Marcus owns Bob ’ s Guns in Norfolk .
In October , he told The Star that he was seeing record gun sales that started with an incoming Democrat-controlled General Assembly .
“ There were threats of the so-called assault weapons ban , and other restrictions , so it continued through January , February , and into March.
” Marcus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that was finished , Covid-19 kicked in.
” As stimulus checks came in , people spent that money on guns .
On Monday , Marcus told The Virginia Star that many stores were price gouging ammunition customers .
Marcus said he wasn ’ t doing that , but that manufacturers were raising their prices , forcing him to pass the increase along to his customers .
Marcus said , “ Ammo is extremely tight .
We are selling every box that we get .
We ’ re just not getting enough of it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t expect to see any relief from that well into the second quarter of next year , if then.
” Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network .
Email tips to [ email protected ] .

Bullets are flying off the shelves again, like after Barack Obama’s two presidential election wins. But gun shop owner Bob Marcus said the cause is not just traditional fear of what a Democratic administration might do.
“This is nothing like Obama or Sandy Hook. It is sort of the perfect storm with the pandemic, stimulus money, and an election year,” Marcus said. “Throw in lawlessness in the streets for good measure. Of course, people want what they can’t get.”
In an email blast, the Virginia Citizens Defense League [VCDL] said, “Ammunition manufacturers customarily have a pretty good handle on how much of each type of ammunition they are going to sell annually. Knowing this, they tool up and crank out x rounds of .22 LR. They then retool and make y rounds of 9mm, then z rounds of .223, etc. The perfect storm has thrown a monkey wrench into those calculations and the industry is trying desperately to catch up to the exploding demand.”
According to the VCDL, the ammunition shortage is due to increasing firearms legislation, COVID-19 limiting ammunition manufacturing capacity, and an increasing amount of first-time gun owners. “Even components for reloading are in short supply,” the VCDL email said.
Marcus owns Bob’s Guns in Norfolk. In October, he told The Star that he was seeing record gun sales that started with an incoming Democrat-controlled General Assembly. “There were threats of the so-called assault weapons ban, and other restrictions, so it continued through January, February, and into March.” Marcus added, “Just as soon as that was finished, Covid-19 kicked in.” As stimulus checks came in, people spent that money on guns.
On Monday, Marcus told The Virginia Star that many stores were price gouging ammunition customers. Marcus said he wasn’t doing that, but that manufacturers were raising their prices, forcing him to pass the increase along to his customers.
Marcus said, “Ammo is extremely tight. We are selling every box that we get. We’re just not getting enough of it to satisfy our customers, and we don’t expect to see any relief from that well into the second quarter of next year, if then.”
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--GOP Reps File Impeachment Articles Against Gov. DeWine

Ohio lawmakers officially filed articles of impeachment against Gov .
Mike DeWine on Monday , prompting him to slam the move in a press conference the same day .
The articles were drafted in August as a response to DeWine ’ s handling of the coronavirus pandemic .
They were primarily sponsored by Ohio Rep. John Becker ( R-Union Township ) and co-sponsored by Reps. Candice Keller ( R-Middletown ) , Paul Zeltwanger ( R-Glenford ) and A. Nino Vitale ( R-Champaign ) .
In a statement to the media , Becker went after DeWine not only for coronavirus restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a presidential election .
“ Governor DeWine ’ s mismanagement , malfeasance , misfeasance , abuse of power , and other crimes include , but are not limited to , meddling in the conduct of a presidential primary election , arbitrarily closing and placing curfews on certain businesses , while allowing other businesses to remain open , ” Becker said , according to local media .
“ He weaponized the Ohio Bureau of Workers ’ Compensation to bully and harass businesses and the people ; to enforce a statewide mask mandate and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ making Ohio a hostile work environment.
” The Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp ( R-Lima ) said he opposed the impeachment when Becker first pitched it in August , calling it at the time an “ imprudent attempt ” to escalate disagreement with DeWine to a “ state constitutional crisis , ” Cincinnati.com reports .
“ Even serious policy disagreements do not rise to the level of impeachment under our constitution , ” Cupp said in a statement .
DeWine also responded to the news of the official filing of the articles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he would like for the articles ’ sponsors to listen to nurses .
“ I ’ d like for them to watch what we just watched , ” DeWine said , referencing the health officials that participated in the conference .
“ I ’ d like for them to go in and to talk to some nurses who are frontline nurses , who are dealing with people who are dying.
” DeWine also said he wanted the sponsors to talk to people who had lost family members as a result of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this foolishness has got to stop .
I ’ m not talking about most of Ohio — just a small number of people who just continue , for whatever reason , to think that this and act as if this is some big joke and this is all some fantasy…There ’ s a small number of people out there making a lot of noise , and I just wish they ’ d go spend some time talking to somebody who suffered through this , somebody who sees this suffering every day.
” Ohio @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impeachment process and which representatives support removing the governor at impeachdewine.com , which is sponsored by Becker .
Read the articles of impeachment here .
Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Ohio Star .
Follow her on Twitter at @ JordynPair .

Ohio lawmakers officially filed articles of impeachment against Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday, prompting him to slam the move in a press conference the same day.
The articles were drafted in August as a response to DeWine’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. They were primarily sponsored by Ohio Rep. John Becker (R-Union Township) and co-sponsored by Reps. Candice Keller (R-Middletown), Paul Zeltwanger (R-Glenford) and A. Nino Vitale (R-Champaign).
In a statement to the media, Becker went after DeWine not only for coronavirus restrictions, but for “meddling” in a presidential election.
“Governor DeWine’s mismanagement, malfeasance, misfeasance, abuse of power, and other crimes include, but are not limited to, meddling in the conduct of a presidential primary election, arbitrarily closing and placing curfews on certain businesses, while allowing other businesses to remain open,” Becker said, according to local media. “He weaponized the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to bully and harass businesses and the people; to enforce a statewide mask mandate and other controversial measures of dubious ‘value,’ making Ohio a hostile work environment.”
The Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) said he opposed the impeachment when Becker first pitched it in August, calling it at the time an “imprudent attempt” to escalate disagreement with DeWine to a “state constitutional crisis,” Cincinnati.com reports.
“Even serious policy disagreements do not rise to the level of impeachment under our constitution,” Cupp said in a statement.
DeWine also responded to the news of the official filing of the articles during a Monday press conference, saying that he would like for the articles’ sponsors to listen to nurses.
“I’d like for them to watch what we just watched,” DeWine said, referencing the health officials that participated in the conference. “I’d like for them to go in and to talk to some nurses who are frontline nurses, who are dealing with people who are dying.”
DeWine also said he wanted the sponsors to talk to people who had lost family members as a result of the pandemic.
“At some point, this foolishness has got to stop. I’m not talking about most of Ohio — just a small number of people who just continue, for whatever reason, to think that this and act as if this is some big joke and this is all some fantasy…There’s a small number of people out there making a lot of noise, and I just wish they’d go spend some time talking to somebody who suffered through this, somebody who sees this suffering every day.”
Ohio residents can find out more about the impeachment process and which representatives support removing the governor at impeachdewine.com, which is sponsored by Becker.
Read the articles of impeachment here.
Watch Governor DeWine’s press briefing:
– – –
Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Ohio Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Mayor John Cooper Announces Detective John Drake as New Metro Nashville Police Chief

Veteran Detective and Interim Chief John Drake has been selected as Metro Nashville Police Department ’ s new chief , Mayor John Cooper announced Monday at a press conference .
Cooper posted a video of the press conference , available here .
Drake , 56 , is a Nashville native who began his MNPD career in 1988 and has served in a number of jobs throughout the department , the city said in a press release here .
Drake began his service in the Patrol Division , before being assigned to the Vice Division ’ s Narcotics Unit , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has a passion for youths , he transferred to the Police Athletic League , where he started a basketball program for children .
That program grew to more than 1,300 participants in less than five years .
“ I will lead with my heart by being open and accessible to the community while connecting with people , ” Drake said .
“ At the same time , I want our officers to know that I care deeply about them , and will work to build more wellness programs and other services to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Andrew Jackson Lodge No .
5 of the Fraternal Order of Police , the local chapter , tweeted , “ Congratulations to the newly appointed @ MNPDNashville Chief of Police John Drake !
” Drake spoke of new initiatives that have been implemented since he was named interim chief in August to combat violent crime and create stronger partnerships at the neighborhood level .
“ I believe in change , in fact , I embrace change , which will be grounded in collaboration and community-based strategies , ” Drake said .
Drake said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s diversity through a revamped Recruitment Unit , reducing violent crime and engaging communities to help officers improve quality of life .
He also will use plainclothes officers in a crisis intervention team to meet mental health needs ; they will work with mental health experts to “ better serve our vulnerable communities.
” Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years ’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes .
Photo “ John Drake ” by Mayor John Cooper .

Veteran Detective and Interim Chief John Drake has been selected as Metro Nashville Police Department’s new chief, Mayor John Cooper announced Monday at a press conference.
Cooper posted a video of the press conference, available here.
Drake, 56, is a Nashville native who began his MNPD career in 1988 and has served in a number of jobs throughout the department, the city said in a press release here.
Drake began his service in the Patrol Division, before being assigned to the Vice Division’s Narcotics Unit, according to his official biography. Since he has a passion for youths, he transferred to the Police Athletic League, where he started a basketball program for children. That program grew to more than 1,300 participants in less than five years.
“I will lead with my heart by being open and accessible to the community while connecting with people,” Drake said. “At the same time, I want our officers to know that I care deeply about them, and will work to build more wellness programs and other services to help officers flourish in their careers.”
The Andrew Jackson Lodge No. 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the local chapter, tweeted, “Congratulations to the newly appointed @MNPDNashville Chief of Police John Drake!”
Congratulations to the newly appointed @MNPDNashville Chief of Police John Drake! https://t.co/A1skqqMWdG pic.twitter.com/Ezq40tI02o — Andrew Jackson Lodge #5 FOP (@LODGE5FOP) November 30, 2020
Drake spoke of new initiatives that have been implemented since he was named interim chief in August to combat violent crime and create stronger partnerships at the neighborhood level.
“I believe in change, in fact, I embrace change, which will be grounded in collaboration and community-based strategies,” Drake said.
Drake said his priorities include increasing the department’s diversity through a revamped Recruitment Unit, reducing violent crime and engaging communities to help officers improve quality of life. He also will use plainclothes officers in a crisis intervention team to meet mental health needs; they will work with mental health experts to “better serve our vulnerable communities.”
– – –
Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “John Drake” by Mayor John Cooper.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Georgia Senate Government Oversight Committee to Hold Meeting Investigating Election Integrity

Georgia State Senate leadership within the Government Oversight Committee will convene later this week to review the elections processes .
In its press release , the committee stated that they found it “ appropriate ” to review the standing election processes and guidance , “ to ensure the integrity of Georgia ’ s voting process.
” Those present at the meeting will include Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller ( R-GA-Gainesville ) , Majority Leader Mike Dugan ( R-GA-Carrollton ) , Majority Whip Steve Gooch ( R-GA-Dahlonega ) , Majority Caucus Chairman John F. Kennedy ( R-Ga-Macon ) , Majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , and Majority Caucus Secretary Dean Burke ( R-GA-Bainbridge ) .
In an interview with The Georgia Star News , Senator Bruce Thompson ( R-GA-White ) shared that a group of conservative senators pushed for this meeting to convene based on evidence they ’ ve received following the election .
“ I think there ’ s an opportunity to look at several different things , like mail-in ballots that have shown up with evidence of individuals that are deceased , ” Thompson said .
“ I think we have the opportunity to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] , tracked back to addresses that they don ’ t live at.
” Thompson added that a full investigation was necessary to discover whether the evidence indicated widespread voter fraud .
“ Well , when you have smoke , there ’ s fire – and you don ’ t know for sure until you investigate .
[ This meeting ] lets us look at the evidence versus hearsay or rumors , and we can find out if there ’ s a widespread event , ” he said .
“ I believe there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believes this is widespread.
” Thompson affirmed that this meeting will review this past general election to inform any necessary further action for the upcoming runoff election .
He added that the Senate race is especially important because of how the outcome will shape the nation .
“ You lose these two seats and you alter American history forever , ” he said .
The committee will meet at the State Capitol on Thursday at 10 a.m. EST .
Those interested in viewing the meeting may tune into the livestream .
Corinne Murdock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .

Georgia State Senate leadership within the Government Oversight Committee will convene later this week to review the elections processes.
In its press release, the committee stated that they found it “appropriate” to review the standing election processes and guidance, “to ensure the integrity of Georgia’s voting process.”
Those present at the meeting will include Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller (R-GA-Gainesville), Majority Leader Mike Dugan (R-GA-Carrollton), Majority Whip Steve Gooch (R-GA-Dahlonega), Majority Caucus Chairman John F. Kennedy (R-Ga-Macon), Majority Caucus Vice Chairman Larry Walker (R-GA-Perry), and Majority Caucus Secretary Dean Burke (R-GA-Bainbridge).
In an interview with The Georgia Star News, Senator Bruce Thompson (R-GA-White) shared that a group of conservative senators pushed for this meeting to convene based on evidence they’ve received following the election.
“I think there’s an opportunity to look at several different things, like mail-in ballots that have shown up with evidence of individuals that are deceased,” Thompson said. “I think we have the opportunity to explore evidence of individuals [who voted], tracked back to addresses that they don’t live at.”
Thompson added that a full investigation was necessary to discover whether the evidence indicated widespread voter fraud.
“Well, when you have smoke, there’s fire – and you don’t know for sure until you investigate. [This meeting] lets us look at the evidence versus hearsay or rumors, and we can find out if there’s a widespread event,” he said. “I believe there’s a contingency out there that believes this is widespread.”
Thompson affirmed that this meeting will review this past general election to inform any necessary further action for the upcoming runoff election. He added that the Senate race is especially important because of how the outcome will shape the nation.
“You lose these two seats and you alter American history forever,” he said.
The committee will meet at the State Capitol on Thursday at 10 a.m. EST. Those interested in viewing the meeting may tune into the livestream.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-01--Pandemic, Unrest, Stimulus, Election Year Driving Virginia’s Ammunition Shortage


thetennesseestar--2020-12-02--New Georgia Lawsuit Claims Over 20K Ballots Were Cast by Voters Who Don’t Meet Residency Requirement

New Georgia Lawsuit Claims Over 20K Ballots Were Cast by Voters Who Don’t Meet Residency Requirements

A new lawsuit claimed that over 20,000 ballots were cast in Georgia by voters who don ’ t meet residency requirements .
The suit included data analysis from the Voter Integrity Project ( VIP ) and an affidavit from the Census Bureau Deputy Director for Data Benjamin Overholt .
Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by over 12,600 votes – less than the number of votes that the lawsuit flagged as potentially fraudulent .
According to VIP ’ s data , an estimated 20,312 votes were cast by individuals who no longer met Georgia ’ s residency requirements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ d either filed an out of state National Change of Address ( NCOA ) or subsequent voter registration preceding the general election .
In addition to Georgia , VIP noted that the other contested states had potentially thousands of ballots cast by individuals who no longer met residency requirements .
Their team flagged over 5,700 votes in Arizona , over 13,000 in Michigan , over 8,400 in Nevada , over 14,300 in Pennsylvania , and over 6,800 in Wisconsin .
The lawsuit cited Georgia ’ s Code which states that an individual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in another state or undertake certain measures indicative of changing residence .
It also claimed that there was a significant lack of signature verification for absentee ballots .
The lawsuit cited lowered rejection rates discovered through an analysis expert comparing previous elections to this year ’ s general election , with further explanation provided in an attached affidavit .
The affidavit came from Overholt , an M.S .
and Ph.D. in Applied Statistics and Research Methods and a previous election results analyst for the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Secretary of State ( SOS ) Brad Raffensperger provided “ misleading ” and “ flawed ” information when claiming that it increased absentee ballot rejections based on signature matching .
He explained that Raffensperger ’ s office applied different standards between elections to calculate its rejection rates .
“ For the 2020 Primary Election , the SOS Analysis divided total rejection by Accepted ballots only , ” he said .
“ For the 2020 General Election , the SOS Analysis divided the number of Rejected ballots by the total of all Accepted , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employed in this analysis ) .
That was correct , but the SOS Analysis for the 2018 General Election minimized the percentage and maximized it for the 2020 Primary Election.
” Overholt added that there were further anomalies with the Georgia elections , including nearly 500,000 more votes cast than ballots on record in the state datafile .
As reported previously , VIP ’ s findings were requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) .
VIP ’ s founder , Matt Braynard , has been called to present his findings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fraud in contested states .
Braynard appeared at the Arizona court case on Monday .
The Georgia Star News contacted Braynard to offer further clarification on his data as presented within this lawsuit .
Braynard didn ’ t issue a response by press time .
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network .
Follow her latest on Twitter , or email tips to [ email protected ] .

A new lawsuit claimed that over 20,000 ballots were cast in Georgia by voters who don’t meet residency requirements. The suit included data analysis from the Voter Integrity Project (VIP) and an affidavit from the Census Bureau Deputy Director for Data Benjamin Overholt.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by over 12,600 votes – less than the number of votes that the lawsuit flagged as potentially fraudulent.
According to VIP’s data, an estimated 20,312 votes were cast by individuals who no longer met Georgia’s residency requirements. The voters were flagged because they’d either filed an out of state National Change of Address (NCOA) or subsequent voter registration preceding the general election.
In addition to Georgia, VIP noted that the other contested states had potentially thousands of ballots cast by individuals who no longer met residency requirements. Their team flagged over 5,700 votes in Arizona, over 13,000 in Michigan, over 8,400 in Nevada, over 14,300 in Pennsylvania, and over 6,800 in Wisconsin.
The lawsuit cited Georgia’s Code which states that an individual loses residency if they register to vote in another state or undertake certain measures indicative of changing residence. It also claimed that there was a significant lack of signature verification for absentee ballots. The lawsuit cited lowered rejection rates discovered through an analysis expert comparing previous elections to this year’s general election, with further explanation provided in an attached affidavit.
The affidavit came from Overholt, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Statistics and Research Methods and a previous election results analyst for the Voting Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
Overholt claimed that Secretary of State (SOS) Brad Raffensperger provided “misleading” and “flawed” information when claiming that it increased absentee ballot rejections based on signature matching. He explained that Raffensperger’s office applied different standards between elections to calculate its rejection rates.
“For the 2020 Primary Election, the SOS Analysis divided total rejection by Accepted ballots only,” he said. “For the 2020 General Election, the SOS Analysis divided the number of Rejected ballots by the total of all Accepted, Rejected and Spoiled ballots (the method employed in this analysis). That was correct, but the SOS Analysis for the 2018 General Election minimized the percentage and maximized it for the 2020 Primary Election.”
Overholt added that there were further anomalies with the Georgia elections, including nearly 500,000 more votes cast than ballots on record in the state datafile.
As reported previously, VIP’s findings were requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). VIP’s founder, Matt Braynard, has been called to present his findings in multiple ongoing court cases investigating voter fraud in contested states. Braynard appeared at the Arizona court case on Monday.
The Georgia Star News contacted Braynard to offer further clarification on his data as presented within this lawsuit. Braynard didn’t issue a response by press time.
– – –
Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].


thetennesseestar--2020-12-02--Commentary: Gearing Up for Round Three of the Great Trump War

The halftime scorecard in the Great Trump War is much more ambiguous than the premature jubilating of the Trump-hating media would indicate .
Let us consider that this war began amid peals of side-splitting laughter as the Trump family came down the escalator of Trump Tower in June 2015 and Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination .
The astonishment on Election Night in 2016 quickly gave way to # TheResistance and “ scorched earth.
” Dispossessed Clintonites presumptuously took for themselves the names of the heroic Catholic and communist resistors to the Nazi occupation of France @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia against Nazi invasion .
Thus did the insanely affected morality of those whom Trump legitimately defeated in the 2016 election raise its hoary head .
As we now know , though the unconscionable dilatoriness of special counsel John Durham has prevented its formulation to date in appropriate charges , the intelligence community and the FBI were compromised by being drawn into anti-Trump political skulduggery prompted by the Clinton campaign which continued past the election .
When the Trump-Russia collusion scam was finally exposed as the outrage that it was , the national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 95 percent hostile to Trump , uttered not a word of remorse and pivoted to the most asinine impeachment charge in American history , led by the two most mendacious figures in the modern history of the U.S. Congress , Representatives Jerry Nadler ( D-N.J. ) and Adam Schiff ( D-Calif. ) .
Despite having the Mueller special counsel inquiry and the impeachment proceedings riveted on his back for over three years , President Trump has had the most successful first term in history except for Lincoln , FDR , and Richard Nixon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slashed oil imports , and—by cutting the taxes of 83 percent of taxpayers and all corporations , deregulating and eliminating illegal cheap labor competition , and renegotiating uneven trade arrangements—Trump created more positions to fill in the economy than there were unemployed .
For the first time anywhere , the income of the lower economic 20 percent was rising more quickly than the top 10 percent .
He delivered the country from the Green Terror without sacrificing the environment , revived the concept of nuclear non-proliferation for irresponsible states ( Iran and North @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with authentic constitutionalists and not authoritarian social tinkerers , shaped up NATO and the U.S. Armed Forces , responsibly alerted the world to the proportions of the Chinese challenge , and has made greater progress on Middle East peace than anyone since President Carter at Camp David in 1978 .
His reelection was almost a sure thing , as the Democratic Party elders , fearful of being obliterated if self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders ( I-Vt. ) were nominated , resuscitated Joe Biden , rejected in the early primaries , and carried him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As happens in wars , the tide of luck turned when a powerful ally frisked up to the side of the quavering and enfeebled Democratic Party—the COVID-19 pandemic .
President Trump had the right attitude about the virus when he preached resistance rather than fear , and emphasized avoidance of economic disaster and of total submission through prolonged shutdown .
Unfortunately , and as is also not infrequently the case with him , his message was not well transmitted and was easily portrayed by his ubiquitous media enemies as flippancy , callousness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the able Vice President Mike Pence , who was the chairman of the committee to mobilize the response to the virus and insisted on taking the daily press briefings himself .
These turned into unseemly and often disgraceful exhibitions of insolence by media provocateurs .
History will record the negligence of state governors , New York ’ s Andrew Cuomo in particular , in failing to protect and isolate the elderly .
And it will record that President Trump swiftly remedied the terrible insufficiency of public health emergency response resources bequeathed to him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to eliminate those shortages very quickly , had the best economic performance of any advanced country , and accelerated the normal timetable for development of a vaccine by at least two years .
Trump ’ s problem was that he set out to displace the entire political establishment that he and approximately half of Americans held responsible for at least 20 years of preceding presidential incompetence : endless , fruitless Middle East wars , the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression , increasing poverty and violent crime , and steady exploitation by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while the United States was being out-distanced by China .
The media were among his first targets and they responded with overwhelming and almost psychotic hostility and with the totalitarian prejudice of the social media corporate leaders .
This and the endless sniggering of the Hollywood and sports idiocracy and the defection of Wall Street—never long on political astuteness or courage—crowned by a mighty COVID-covered change in election rules that produced a transfusion of hundreds of thousands of mailed and harvested ballots in a few areas of five key states ( four governed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night and the most dubious of circumstances , may have delivered Biden , who left campaigning to his media benefactors .
That struggle is not over .
Trump ’ s policies were endorsed in the country—Trump gained in African American votes by 50 percent and Hispanic votes by 100 percent .
The Republicans may hold the Senate and have made unexpected gains in the House and throughout the country in state legislatures .
We see already from Biden ’ s prospective cabinet nominees that it is a ragtag team of retreads identified with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There is Tony Blinken , for secretary of state , still babbling nonsense about the Kremlin ’ s influence on Trump ; a homeland security director who wants to reopen the borders ; and the bedraggled imposter John Kerry readying himself to crucify America ’ s energy industry to prevent a warming of the globe that there is no evidence is actually occurring .
The cowardly riffraff of NeverTrumpism have been partly emboldened to come out from under the rocks in the hope of reviving the McCain-Romney-Bush cooperative loser school of opposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ post-Reagan days of coasting slowly downwards from the summit where he left America at the victorious end of the Cold War .
We see the return of the authors of the dissolving redlines , the failures against ISIS , the donors of a blank check to nuclear military power for Iran and North Korea , all ostensibly headed by an amiable but faltering political wheel force who has never shown any aptitude to lead and has faced in every direction on every public issue for 50 years and , in the words of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gates , has been wrong on every strategic issue throughout his career .
He will be expected to deliver for the mainly black racist urban guerrillas who ransacked Democrat-governed cities across the country all summer .
Suddenly Barack Obama is back , dismissing Hispanic Americans and , with his wife , repeating ancient slurs about Trump ’ s racism .
If Biden does win , it will be a tainted election , a gridlocked Congress , and unless Biden jettisons the far-Left and engages in full-scale cooperation with the Republican leaders in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be a disastrous administration : the worst of Biden with none of the glib faux woke style of Obama .
It will be a shambles and a “ Gong Show.
” The Republicans are Trump ’ s party now and he has enabled it to encroach upon the traditional black , Hispanic , and working-class base of the Democrats .
He ’ s by far the most popular as well as the most unpopular political leader in the country , and the only one for whom scores of thousands of people will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rain for an opportunity to hear him in person .
Six months of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will generate vertiginous nostalgia for Donald Trump .
Then will come the third and final round of the Great Trump War .
Conrad Black has been one of Canada ’ s most prominent financiers for 40 years , and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world as owner of the British telegraph newspapers , the Fairfax newspapers in Australia , the Jerusalem Post , Chicago Sun-Times and scores of smaller newspapers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daily newspapers in Canada .
He is the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon , one-volume histories of the United States and Canada , and most recently of Donald J. Trump : A President Like No Other .
He is a member of the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour .
Photo “ Trump Supporters ” by Elvert Barnes .
CC BY-SA 2.0 .

by Conrad Black
The halftime scorecard in the Great Trump War is much more ambiguous than the premature jubilating of the Trump-hating media would indicate. Let us consider that this war began amid peals of side-splitting laughter as the Trump family came down the escalator of Trump Tower in June 2015 and Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. The astonishment on Election Night in 2016 quickly gave way to #TheResistance and “scorched earth.”
Dispossessed Clintonites presumptuously took for themselves the names of the heroic Catholic and communist resistors to the Nazi occupation of France and of the gallant defenders of Soviet Russia against Nazi invasion. Thus did the insanely affected morality of those whom Trump legitimately defeated in the 2016 election raise its hoary head.
As we now know, though the unconscionable dilatoriness of special counsel John Durham has prevented its formulation to date in appropriate charges, the intelligence community and the FBI were compromised by being drawn into anti-Trump political skulduggery prompted by the Clinton campaign which continued past the election.
When the Trump-Russia collusion scam was finally exposed as the outrage that it was, the national political media, which has steadily been 95 percent hostile to Trump, uttered not a word of remorse and pivoted to the most asinine impeachment charge in American history, led by the two most mendacious figures in the modern history of the U.S. Congress, Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-N.J.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Despite having the Mueller special counsel inquiry and the impeachment proceedings riveted on his back for over three years, President Trump has had the most successful first term in history except for Lincoln, FDR, and Richard Nixon. He effectively ended illegal immigration, slashed oil imports, and—by cutting the taxes of 83 percent of taxpayers and all corporations, deregulating and eliminating illegal cheap labor competition, and renegotiating uneven trade arrangements—Trump created more positions to fill in the economy than there were unemployed. For the first time anywhere, the income of the lower economic 20 percent was rising more quickly than the top 10 percent.
He delivered the country from the Green Terror without sacrificing the environment, revived the concept of nuclear non-proliferation for irresponsible states (Iran and North Korea), filled the federal bench with authentic constitutionalists and not authoritarian social tinkerers, shaped up NATO and the U.S. Armed Forces, responsibly alerted the world to the proportions of the Chinese challenge, and has made greater progress on Middle East peace than anyone since President Carter at Camp David in 1978. His reelection was almost a sure thing, as the Democratic Party elders, fearful of being obliterated if self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were nominated, resuscitated Joe Biden, rejected in the early primaries, and carried him across the finish line to the nomination.
As happens in wars, the tide of luck turned when a powerful ally frisked up to the side of the quavering and enfeebled Democratic Party—the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Trump had the right attitude about the virus when he preached resistance rather than fear, and emphasized avoidance of economic disaster and of total submission through prolonged shutdown. Unfortunately, and as is also not infrequently the case with him, his message was not well transmitted and was easily portrayed by his ubiquitous media enemies as flippancy, callousness, and incompetence. He shouldered aside the able Vice President Mike Pence, who was the chairman of the committee to mobilize the response to the virus and insisted on taking the daily press briefings himself. These turned into unseemly and often disgraceful exhibitions of insolence by media provocateurs.
History will record the negligence of state governors, New York’s Andrew Cuomo in particular, in failing to protect and isolate the elderly. And it will record that President Trump swiftly remedied the terrible insufficiency of public health emergency response resources bequeathed to him by Obama and Biden, mobilized industry to eliminate those shortages very quickly, had the best economic performance of any advanced country, and accelerated the normal timetable for development of a vaccine by at least two years.
Trump’s problem was that he set out to displace the entire political establishment that he and approximately half of Americans held responsible for at least 20 years of preceding presidential incompetence: endless, fruitless Middle East wars, the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression, increasing poverty and violent crime, and steady exploitation by unfair trading partners and freeloading allies, while the United States was being out-distanced by China.
The media were among his first targets and they responded with overwhelming and almost psychotic hostility and with the totalitarian prejudice of the social media corporate leaders. This and the endless sniggering of the Hollywood and sports idiocracy and the defection of Wall Street—never long on political astuteness or courage—crowned by a mighty COVID-covered change in election rules that produced a transfusion of hundreds of thousands of mailed and harvested ballots in a few areas of five key states (four governed by Democrats) in the dead of night and the most dubious of circumstances, may have delivered Biden, who left campaigning to his media benefactors.
That struggle is not over. Trump’s policies were endorsed in the country—Trump gained in African American votes by 50 percent and Hispanic votes by 100 percent. The Republicans may hold the Senate and have made unexpected gains in the House and throughout the country in state legislatures.
We see already from Biden’s prospective cabinet nominees that it is a ragtag team of retreads identified with the innumerable failures of the Obama regime.
There is Tony Blinken, for secretary of state, still babbling nonsense about the Kremlin’s influence on Trump; a homeland security director who wants to reopen the borders; and the bedraggled imposter John Kerry readying himself to crucify America’s energy industry to prevent a warming of the globe that there is no evidence is actually occurring.
The cowardly riffraff of NeverTrumpism have been partly emboldened to come out from under the rocks in the hope of reviving the McCain-Romney-Bush cooperative loser school of opposition, and get back to the easy post-Reagan days of coasting slowly downwards from the summit where he left America at the victorious end of the Cold War.
We see the return of the authors of the dissolving redlines, the failures against ISIS, the donors of a blank check to nuclear military power for Iran and North Korea, all ostensibly headed by an amiable but faltering political wheel force who has never shown any aptitude to lead and has faced in every direction on every public issue for 50 years and, in the words of bipartisan defense secretary and CIA director Robert Gates, has been wrong on every strategic issue throughout his career. He will be expected to deliver for the mainly black racist urban guerrillas who ransacked Democrat-governed cities across the country all summer.
Suddenly Barack Obama is back, dismissing Hispanic Americans and, with his wife, repeating ancient slurs about Trump’s racism.
If Biden does win, it will be a tainted election, a gridlocked Congress, and unless Biden jettisons the far-Left and engages in full-scale cooperation with the Republican leaders in the Congress to produce intelligent legislation, it will be a disastrous administration: the worst of Biden with none of the glib faux woke style of Obama. It will be a shambles and a “Gong Show.”
The Republicans are Trump’s party now and he has enabled it to encroach upon the traditional black, Hispanic, and working-class base of the Democrats. He’s by far the most popular as well as the most unpopular political leader in the country, and the only one for whom scores of thousands of people will stand for hours in the cold and rain for an opportunity to hear him in person.
Six months of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will generate vertiginous nostalgia for Donald Trump. Then will come the third and final round of the Great Trump War.
– – –
Conrad Black has been one of Canada’s most prominent financiers for 40 years, and was one of the leading newspaper publishers in the world as owner of the British telegraph newspapers, the Fairfax newspapers in Australia, the Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times and scores of smaller newspapers in the U.S., and most of the daily newspapers in Canada. He is the author of authoritative biographies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, one-volume histories of the United States and Canada, and most recently of Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other. He is a member of the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour.
Photo “Trump Supporters” by Elvert Barnes. CC BY-SA 2.0.


thetennesseestar--2020-12-02--Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Trump’s Push to Exclude Illegal Aliens from Census Data

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear oral arguments regarding President Donald Trump ’ s push to exclude illegal aliens from U.S. Census Bureau data .
A Trump victory in the case could alter a state ’ s population and potentially change its balance of power in the House of Representatives , senior counsel for the Brennan Center , a left-wing group , Thomas Wolf told CNN .
“ These numbers will determine how seats in Congress are split up over the next 10 years which will determine the political power that communities will have for the next decade , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fair share of the $ 1.5 trillion that is annually distributed by the federal government , ” Wolf told CNN .
The Supreme Court ’ s decision to hear arguments on the case mark the second time the legal body has reviewed a Trump census policy , according to CNN .
The court rejected the president ’ s effort to add a citizenship question to the annual census in September 2019 , CNN reported .
Trump issued a new mandate in July that illegal immigrants would not be counted in the census tabulation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ determine a state ’ s number of representatives , among other things , according to CNN .
The president was set to receive a complete census count in addition to one that didn ’ t include illegal aliens , but the administration was sued by American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) and the policy was blocked , CNN reported .
The ACLU argued that “ more than two centuries all point to a single conclusion : the Constitution requires counting all persons in each state in the apportionment base — including undocumented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jake Dima is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation .

by Jake Dima
The Supreme Court on Monday will hear oral arguments regarding President Donald Trump’s push to exclude illegal aliens from U.S. Census Bureau data.
A Trump victory in the case could alter a state’s population and potentially change its balance of power in the House of Representatives, senior counsel for the Brennan Center, a left-wing group, Thomas Wolf told CNN.
“These numbers will determine how seats in Congress are split up over the next 10 years which will determine the political power that communities will have for the next decade, and will determine whether they receive their fair share of the $1.5 trillion that is annually distributed by the federal government,” Wolf told CNN.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments on the case mark the second time the legal body has reviewed a Trump census policy, according to CNN. The court rejected the president’s effort to add a citizenship question to the annual census in September 2019, CNN reported.
Trump issued a new mandate in July that illegal immigrants would not be counted in the census tabulation, which occurs every 10 years to determine a state’s number of representatives, among other things, according to CNN. The president was set to receive a complete census count in addition to one that didn’t include illegal aliens, but the administration was sued by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the policy was blocked, CNN reported.
The ACLU argued that “more than two centuries all point to a single conclusion: the Constitution requires counting all persons in each state in the apportionment base — including undocumented immigrants,” according to CNN.
– – –
Jake Dima is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.