dailysignal--2020-12-01--Identity Politics Ushers in Guilt Without Vice, Innocence Without Virtue

Georgetown University political theorist Joshua Mitchell has written that rare book that captures the state of our souls and describes our situation with clarity , astuteness , and spiritual depth .
“ American Awakening : Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time ” ( Encounter ) is a book that expertly combines classical political philosophy with penetrating cultural diagnosis in a manner that holds up a revealing mirror to the great afflictions of our time .
At the same time , Mitchell admirably avoids narrow partisanship and undue polemics .
His book deserves to be compared to such memorable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Opium of the Intellectuals ” ( 1955 ) , Philip Rieff ’ s “ The Triumph of the Therapeutic ” ( 1966 ) , and Allan Bloom ’ s “ The Closing of the American Mind ” ( 1987 ) —enduring works that combined theoretical penetration with analyses of our civilizational crisis .
Mitchell ’ s subject is , in the words of his subtitle , “ identity politics and other afflictions of our time.
” Readers expecting either accommodation to the regnant civil religion of “ transgression and innocence ” or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mitchell aims higher .
With impressive lucidity , he painstakingly examines a new secular religion that is profoundly indebted to Christianity while having “ no place for the God who judges or the God who forgives.
” Such an approach , he shows , is necessarily cruel , dogmatic , indiscriminate , and unforgiving .
The partisans of identity politics reject both the Christian understanding of original sin—the observable fact that no human beings are born without sin and all stand in need of forgiveness and redemption—as well as what Mitchell suggestively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the confidence that individuals endowed with free will and conscience are moral agents who , with the appropriate education and encouragement , can make their way responsibly in the world .
The theoreticians of identity politics derive from Christianity a belief in an “ invisible spiritual economy , ” but they understand that economy through a doctrinaire conception of transgression and innocence tied to visible groups who are guilty or innocent not because of what they have done but because of who they are .
White , heterosexual men , even “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the language of Scripture—the poor , the addicted—are said to be essentially , ontologically guilty .
Blacks , women , and persons who identify with the ever-expanding ideological construction called LGBTQ+ are by definition innocent , and forever so , or so it is claimed .
As Mitchell shows , the permanently guilty must resort to “ virtue signaling ” of the most demeaning sort if they are to avoid “ cancellation ” or other rituals associated with public humiliation .
Not only God but also forgiveness and the whole economy of mutual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this “ identity-politics accounting scheme.
” Identity politics claims to be egalitarian , but in truth it radically separates human beings in a manner only previously seen in the totalitarian ideologies and regimes of the 20th century .
Identity politics sees no struggle between good and evil in every human heart , as in the classical and Christian understanding of free will , conscience , and moral responsibility .
It has no place for the drama of human existence .
Like the totalitarians of old , in numerous institutions in civil society , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pronounce who is absolutely guilty—and who is innocent and pure—with a monstrous self-assurance based on the visible signs of evil and injustice ( e.g.
, whiteness and “ heteronormativity ” ) .
Such a world—at once racialist and ideological—becomes a perverse spiritual despotism dominated by tyrannical ideological clichés that allow the woke to dispense with “ the guilty ” with remarkable impunity and cruelty .
The old Christian anthropology cohered naturally with the requirements of liberal competence and civic responsibility since in a “ mixed world of purity and stain , ” imperfect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ build a world together , ” doing their best to respect one another as persons made in God ’ s image .
Identity politics inexorably leads to soft or not-so-soft despotism , as the ontologically guilty are swept away and those who “ cover themselves with the fig leaf of innocence ” become the beneficiaries of an omnicompetent ( and arbitrary ) state that “ allocate [ s ] resources to the innocents and to their causes.
” Civic responsibility and moral accountability thus have no place in the ideological schemes put forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Such a regime—and we are indeed in the process of creating a radically new political order—is at once anti-Christian ( or anti-biblical ) and profoundly anti-liberal .
And it wars with every aspect of our moral and civic inheritance .
Mitchell thus intimates that religious believers , partisans of liberal competence , and conservative defenders of our moral and cultural inheritance put aside their differences and come together to defend the conception of liberty and responsibility , under God , that properly undergirds a free society .
This is the old American synthesis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It is open to men and women of all races since it alone affirms “ common humanity.
” There is in truth no viable alternative that can sustain liberty and human dignity in a free republic .
Identity politics creates an atmosphere of division and disdain with more than its share of Orwell ’ s ritualistic “ Two Minutes Hate ” from his novel “ 1984.
” No one is truly protected from new rounds of repudiation and cancellation .
New purge trials undoubtedly await those who play with ideological fire since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drop of a pin .
Mitchell shows with great sensitivity that black Americans are among the principal victims of this new ideological dispensation : The “ innocent ” are always to be treated as “ victims , ” as persons bereft of moral and political agency .
Drawing on the insights of the Christian and conservative intellectual and community activist Robert Woodson , who is black , Mitchell demonstrates how this newly dominant narrative hurts the most vulnerable by erasing all the “ remarkable models of self-help ” in black communities .
Gone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of black entrepreneurs and mutual aid societies during the most brutal racial repression and slavery.
” Black intellectuals such as Woodson are treated as the enemy precisely because they defend a Christian view of sin and responsibility , an authentically liberal notion of civic competence and self-help , and proper pride in the capacity of black Americans to be self-governing citizens in the most capacious sense of that term .
Look , Mitchell says , at what has happened to Booker T. Washington , whose message of determination and self-help is central to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wracked by crime , violence , and despair .
Washington , once a hero to black and white Americans alike , has become more or less a non-person , dismissed out of hand by the guardians of ideological correctness .
This , too , hurts “ the least among us ” and substitutes permanent grievance for the faith in one ’ s God-given gifts that allows a common world to be built and to flourish .
There is no shortage of memorable gems in Mitchell ’ s inviting and challenging book .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ bipolarity ” of the young , torn between unreasonable expectations that they can change the world and fear of the most humanizing face-to-face encounters with other human beings .
He ably chronicles the numerous “ substitutes , ” as he calls them , that we late moderns turn to—drugs of all sorts , among them—to find happiness divorced from competence and responsibility .
In doing so , Mitchell redeems political philosophy as the truly “ architectonic science , ” as Aristotle famously called it , the one that knows the city and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the final words of “ American Awakening , ” Mitchell reminds us , in light of the coronavirus , that the “ prudent wish to protect ” lives has nothing to do with creating “ a world freed from the curse of death , ” an essentially utopian aim that infantilizes free men and women by aiming to create a world without risk or responsibility , with no higher or nobler goal than self-preservation .
It is a world where we defer in a supine way to self-described “ experts ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential ” pursuits .
Mitchell has written an anti-totalitarian classic in the guise of a critique of identity politics ( although his book very powerfully provides that service , too ) .
The essential lesson is clear : There is no liberty , human dignity , or moral and civic responsibility without a clear recognition that “ the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being , ” in the inestimable worlds of the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn .
To deny that elementary moral fact is to negate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ succumb to the ideological lie at the heart of every totalitarian regime and ideology .
Mitchell ’ s welcome book shows us precisely what is at stake , and not a minute too soon .
This article first appeared in RealClearBooks .

Georgetown University political theorist Joshua Mitchell has written that rare book that captures the state of our souls and describes our situation with clarity, astuteness, and spiritual depth.
“American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time” (Encounter) is a book that expertly combines classical political philosophy with penetrating cultural diagnosis in a manner that holds up a revealing mirror to the great afflictions of our time. At the same time, Mitchell admirably avoids narrow partisanship and undue polemics.
His book deserves to be compared to such memorable achievements as Raymond Aron’s “The Opium of the Intellectuals” (1955), Philip Rieff’s “The Triumph of the Therapeutic” (1966), and Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind” (1987)—enduring works that combined theoretical penetration with analyses of our civilizational crisis.
Mitchell’s subject is, in the words of his subtitle, “identity politics and other afflictions of our time.” Readers expecting either accommodation to the regnant civil religion of “transgression and innocence” or an angry ideological screed should look elsewhere. Mitchell aims higher.
With impressive lucidity, he painstakingly examines a new secular religion that is profoundly indebted to Christianity while having “no place for the God who judges or the God who forgives.” Such an approach, he shows, is necessarily cruel, dogmatic, indiscriminate, and unforgiving.
The partisans of identity politics reject both the Christian understanding of original sin—the observable fact that no human beings are born without sin and all stand in need of forgiveness and redemption—as well as what Mitchell suggestively calls “liberal competence.”
This is the confidence that individuals endowed with free will and conscience are moral agents who, with the appropriate education and encouragement, can make their way responsibly in the world.
The theoreticians of identity politics derive from Christianity a belief in an “invisible spiritual economy,” but they understand that economy through a doctrinaire conception of transgression and innocence tied to visible groups who are guilty or innocent not because of what they have done but because of who they are.
White, heterosexual men, even “the least among” them, to echo the language of Scripture—the poor, the addicted—are said to be essentially, ontologically guilty. Blacks, women, and persons who identify with the ever-expanding ideological construction called LGBTQ+ are by definition innocent, and forever so, or so it is claimed.
As Mitchell shows, the permanently guilty must resort to “virtue signaling” of the most demeaning sort if they are to avoid “cancellation” or other rituals associated with public humiliation. Not only God but also forgiveness and the whole economy of mutual reconciliation and accountability are thus absent from this “identity-politics accounting scheme.”
Identity politics claims to be egalitarian, but in truth it radically separates human beings in a manner only previously seen in the totalitarian ideologies and regimes of the 20th century.
Identity politics sees no struggle between good and evil in every human heart, as in the classical and Christian understanding of free will, conscience, and moral responsibility. It has no place for the drama of human existence.
Like the totalitarians of old, in numerous institutions in civil society, especially our universities, the new ideologues pronounce who is absolutely guilty—and who is innocent and pure—with a monstrous self-assurance based on the visible signs of evil and injustice (e.g., whiteness and “heteronormativity”).
Such a world—at once racialist and ideological—becomes a perverse spiritual despotism dominated by tyrannical ideological clichés that allow the woke to dispense with “the guilty” with remarkable impunity and cruelty.
The old Christian anthropology cohered naturally with the requirements of liberal competence and civic responsibility since in a “mixed world of purity and stain,” imperfect human beings had to strive to “build a world together,” doing their best to respect one another as persons made in God’s image.
Identity politics inexorably leads to soft or not-so-soft despotism, as the ontologically guilty are swept away and those who “cover themselves with the fig leaf of innocence” become the beneficiaries of an omnicompetent (and arbitrary) state that “allocate[s] resources to the innocents and to their causes.”
Civic responsibility and moral accountability thus have no place in the ideological schemes put forward by the denizens of identity politics. Such a regime—and we are indeed in the process of creating a radically new political order—is at once anti-Christian (or anti-biblical) and profoundly anti-liberal. And it wars with every aspect of our moral and civic inheritance.
Mitchell thus intimates that religious believers, partisans of liberal competence, and conservative defenders of our moral and cultural inheritance put aside their differences and come together to defend the conception of liberty and responsibility, under God, that properly undergirds a free society.
This is the old American synthesis, and it remains eminently worth defending. It is open to men and women of all races since it alone affirms “common humanity.” There is in truth no viable alternative that can sustain liberty and human dignity in a free republic.
Identity politics creates an atmosphere of division and disdain with more than its share of Orwell’s ritualistic “Two Minutes Hate” from his novel “1984.” No one is truly protected from new rounds of repudiation and cancellation. New purge trials undoubtedly await those who play with ideological fire since the innocent can become transgressors at the drop of a pin.
Mitchell shows with great sensitivity that black Americans are among the principal victims of this new ideological dispensation: The “innocent” are always to be treated as “victims,” as persons bereft of moral and political agency.
Drawing on the insights of the Christian and conservative intellectual and community activist Robert Woodson, who is black, Mitchell demonstrates how this newly dominant narrative hurts the most vulnerable by erasing all the “remarkable models of self-help” in black communities.
Gone is the example of those “accomplishments of black entrepreneurs and mutual aid societies during the most brutal racial repression and slavery.”
Black intellectuals such as Woodson are treated as the enemy precisely because they defend a Christian view of sin and responsibility, an authentically liberal notion of civic competence and self-help, and proper pride in the capacity of black Americans to be self-governing citizens in the most capacious sense of that term.
Look, Mitchell says, at what has happened to Booker T. Washington, whose message of determination and self-help is central to the restoration of liberal competence in communities wracked by crime, violence, and despair.
Washington, once a hero to black and white Americans alike, has become more or less a non-person, dismissed out of hand by the guardians of ideological correctness. This, too, hurts “the least among us” and substitutes permanent grievance for the faith in one’s God-given gifts that allows a common world to be built and to flourish.
There is no shortage of memorable gems in Mitchell’s inviting and challenging book. He has choice words to say about the “bipolarity” of the young, torn between unreasonable expectations that they can change the world and fear of the most humanizing face-to-face encounters with other human beings.
He ably chronicles the numerous “substitutes,” as he calls them, that we late moderns turn to—drugs of all sorts, among them—to find happiness divorced from competence and responsibility.
In doing so, Mitchell redeems political philosophy as the truly “architectonic science,” as Aristotle famously called it, the one that knows the city and soul in the most comprehensive way.
In the final words of “American Awakening,” Mitchell reminds us, in light of the coronavirus, that the “prudent wish to protect” lives has nothing to do with creating “a world freed from the curse of death,” an essentially utopian aim that infantilizes free men and women by aiming to create a world without risk or responsibility, with no higher or nobler goal than self-preservation.
It is a world where we defer in a supine way to self-described “experts” and prohibit public worship while permitting allegedly “essential” pursuits.
Mitchell has written an anti-totalitarian classic in the guise of a critique of identity politics (although his book very powerfully provides that service, too).
The essential lesson is clear: There is no liberty, human dignity, or moral and civic responsibility without a clear recognition that “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being,” in the inestimable worlds of the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
To deny that elementary moral fact is to negate the foundations of a free society—and to succumb to the ideological lie at the heart of every totalitarian regime and ideology. Mitchell’s welcome book shows us precisely what is at stake, and not a minute too soon.
This article first appeared in RealClearBooks.


dailysignal--2020-12-01--San Jose Mayor Attends Thanksgiving Party After Telling Citizens to ‘Cancel Big Gatherings This Year

San Jose Mayor Attends Thanksgiving Party After Telling Citizens to ‘Cancel Big Gatherings This Year’

The mayor of San Jose , California , attended a Thanksgiving party with family members who were not part of his own household after telling citizens to “ cancel big gatherings this year.
” “ Cases are spiking , in part because we ’ re letting our guard ( and masks ) down with family & friends , ” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo tweeted Nov. 25 .
“ Let ’ s cancel the big gatherings this year and focus on keeping each other safe.
” The following day , Liccardo celebrated Thanksgiving with an unknown number of guests at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , NBC Bay Area reported .
Liccardo ’ s staff confirmed that the mayor attended the Thanksgiving event but refused to specify how many people and different households were present as well as whether attendees wore masks when they were not eating , the publication reported .
“ This is a private event—not public , ” Jim Reed , Liccardo ’ s chief of staff , repeatedly told NBC Bay Area .
“ We are going to redraw the line between what is personal and what is public because that line has become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ initially told NBC Bay Area that Liccardo would be “ staying home ” on Thanksgiving , then contacted the publication the day after Thanksgiving to say that a spokesperson had “ misspoke ” and that Liccardo went to his parents ’ house for the holiday .
Liccardo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation .
News that Liccardo attended the “ private event ” came the same day that FOX 11 reported that Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl was seen dining outside at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after she voted to ban outdoor dining .
“ She loves Il Forno , has been saddened to see it , like so many restaurants , suffer from a decline in revenue , ” the spokesperson told FOX 11 .
“ She ate there , taking appropriate precautions , and sadly will not dine there again until our Public Health Orders permit.
” Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities for this original @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

The mayor of San Jose, California, attended a Thanksgiving party with family members who were not part of his own household after telling citizens to “cancel big gatherings this year.”
“Cases are spiking, in part because we’re letting our guard (and masks) down with family & friends,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo tweeted Nov. 25. “Let’s cancel the big gatherings this year and focus on keeping each other safe.”
The following day, Liccardo celebrated Thanksgiving with an unknown number of guests at the Saratoga home of his elderly parents, NBC Bay Area reported.
Liccardo’s staff confirmed that the mayor attended the Thanksgiving event but refused to specify how many people and different households were present as well as whether attendees wore masks when they were not eating, the publication reported.
“This is a private event—not public,” Jim Reed, Liccardo’s chief of staff, repeatedly told NBC Bay Area. “We are going to redraw the line between what is personal and what is public because that line has become blurred.”
The mayor’s staff initially told NBC Bay Area that Liccardo would be “staying home” on Thanksgiving, then contacted the publication the day after Thanksgiving to say that a spokesperson had “misspoke” and that Liccardo went to his parents’ house for the holiday.
Cases are spiking, in part because we’re letting our guard (and masks) down with family & friends. Let’s cancel the big gatherings this year and focus on keeping each other safe https://t.co/oHFXb6DZ82 — Sam Liccardo (@sliccardo) November 25, 2020
Liccardo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
News that Liccardo attended the “private event” came the same day that FOX 11 reported that Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl was seen dining outside at a Santa Monica restaurant last week, shortly after she voted to ban outdoor dining.
“She loves Il Forno, has been saddened to see it, like so many restaurants, suffer from a decline in revenue,” the spokesperson told FOX 11. “She ate there, taking appropriate precautions, and sadly will not dine there again until our Public Health Orders permit.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


dailysignal--2020-12-02--4 Takeaways From the Michigan Senate’s Election Fraud Hearing

Election workers and observers presented alarming accounts of voter fraud to the Michigan state Senate on Tuesday , with some calling on lawmakers to act and insisting on an audit of the vote in that state .
The Michigan state Senate Oversight Committee held the hearing , which included testimony from a former senator with expertise on data and technology .
The witness spoke to the committee under oath about voting by dead people , a truck full of ballots coming into the counting center long after the deadline , and vulnerable voting machines .
The focus was entirely on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in downtown Detroit formerly known as the Cobo Center , where Wayne County votes were being counted .
Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ed McBroom , a Republican , suggested there would be future hearings to hear from additional witnesses on the 2020 election .
The Michigan hearing followed similar hearings by state lawmakers in Pennsylvania , which certified former Vice President Joe Biden as having defeated President Donald Trump there by about 80,000 votes , and in Arizona , which certified Biden as the winner by just over 10,000 votes .
In Michigan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exceeded 150,000 votes .
Trump ’ s lawyers did not testify in the Michigan hearing as they did in Pennsylvania and Arizona .
Litigation also continues in several closely contested states .
Major news outlets have projected Biden as the winner , but Trump hasn ’ t conceded .
The Electoral College will make that determination on Dec. 14 .
An email from the office of Michigan Senate committee clerks said a written list of witnesses with accurate spellings of names from the Tuesday hearing would not be made public for several days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hearing : Chris Schornak volunteered with “ Guard the Vote ” after the balloting .
It went through 30,000 of the 172,000 absentee ballots in the city of Detroit .
He said the group found “ 229 of these 30,000 we went through are deceased.
” He added that “ 2,660 of them [ were ] invalid addresses described by vacant lots and burnt-down houses.
” “ What I can say for sure , and swear to you here today , is that overall , 8.9 % of the 30,000 absentee ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigated , just in the city of Detroit , were unqualified , fraudulent ballots that should have been spoiled , ” Schornak said .
He extrapolated about how the 30,000 sample could reflect on all of the absentee votes cast .
“ At the lowest levels , if these percentages carry through , this means of the 172,000 [ absentee votes ] in the city of Detroit , 1,300 of them could be deceased , ” he told the senators .
“ We are investigating it .
And another 15,000 could have fraudulent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lots or [ in ] burnt-down houses.
” Former Michigan state Sen. Pat Colbeck , who has a background in information technology and cybersecurity , having worked for the Defense Department , NASA , and other entities , testified that the numbers do not match up to demonstrate Biden clearly won the state—or at least not by the margin as it stands now .
“ There has been a huge narrative around this whole election that says , No .
1 , it started off saying that there is no voter fraud .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ media to say there is no widespread voter fraud , ” Colbeck said .
“ Then it changed into , there is no widespread voter fraud that could impact the result of the election.
” He said voter fraud “ doesn ’ t have to be rampant to be significant.
” “ If you have voter fraud in just one of our 83 counties , if that county is Wayne County , you ’ ve got an issue , because over 800,000 votes were cast in that county , ” Colbeck said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the margin of difference we are talking about in the election for the president.
” With the Dominion Voting Systems , he added , “ there is a transmittal of fractional vote data.
” “ You guys have done a lot of votes inside the Senate , as I did when I was serving my two terms .
I don ’ t recall any of those vote tallies up on the board having a decimal point .
Do you guys ?
” Colbeck asked his former colleagues .
He also noted from his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ connected to the internet—and potentially prone to hacking .
Dominion has vigorously defended its machines , stating on its website : State Sen. Jeff Irwin , the top Democrat on the committee , objected to his former colleague ’ s testimony .
“ All we ’ ve got here is conjecture and musings by former Sen. Colbeck , ” Irwin said .
Still , Colbeck insisted it falls on the Legislature to act and push for an audit of the balloting .
“ This is a referendum .
There are only two choices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Colbeck said .
“ No .
1 , you believe in principled , constitutional governance , and you believe that chain of custody was broken .
There is significant evidence of election fraud , or—and I ’ m not saying this lightly—there is an attempted coup.
” 3 ) What an Anonymous Dominion Contractor Allegedly Saw A contractor with Dominion Voting Systems—the controversial voting machine company that prompted questions from Democrats before the election and from Republicans after—alleged fraud throughout the counting location at the TCF Center , according to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dominion .
Melissa Carone , an information technology and cybersecurity specialist with PDS Staffing , a talent acquisition firm that she said was working with Dominion , asserted a Dominion employee claimed he had been at a storage place called the “ Chicago warehouse ” after she inquired where he had been .
“ So , it ’ s in Chicago ?
” she recalled asking the Dominion employee , who she said was named “ Samuel.
” “ They said , ‘ No , Melissa , it ’ s in Detroit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ I said , ‘ OK , ’ and I just walked away , ” Carone continued .
“ But there was something very secretive that he was doing .
There was also , they said , a big data loss.
” For the 27 hours Carone was at the location , she said she didn ’ t witness a single ballot for Trump and saw ballots counted multiple times .
“ What I witnessed at the TCF Center was completely fraud .
The whole 27 hours I was there , there were batches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numerous times , being counted eight to 10 times .
I watched this with my own eyes.
” Michigan state Sen. Peter Lucido , the Republican vice chairman of the committee , asked another witness identified as Michael Dubio what time he saw a truck carrying ballots come into the center .
“ Like I said , 3-ish , 4-ish , in that window ” Dubio replied .
“ No , no , no .
I was there from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. , ” Dubio said .
“ They were in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anybody have any earmarkings of who they were , carrying these ballots ?
” Lucido asked .
“ Were they carrying them ?
Were they on a dolly ?
” “ They were on a dolly , ” Dubio answered .
“ Do I know who they were ?
Absolutely not.
” State Sen. Sylvia Santana , a Democrat , was skeptical about the witness .
“ Was there any particular reason you didn ’ t ask for a supervisor to question the ballots coming in on a dolly ?
” Santana asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t think I needed to , because the lead counsel that was supposed to be there was taking tally , and I was standing right next to him .
Patty McMurray , a Republican poll challenger at the TCF Center in Detroit , claimed she saw copies of ballots being made to increase Biden ’ s vote total .
“ Not one of the ballots was a registered military voter , and the ballots looked like they were all the same Xeroxed copies of the ballot , ” she told the committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the board .
There wasn ’ t a single Trump vote .
None of the voters are registered , ” McMurray said .
She said election workers entered names and addresses with phony birthdates that she said “ would override the system and allow them to enter nonregistered voters.
” “ Throughout the day , that ’ s how they would override voters that were neither in the electronic poll book or the supplemental , updated poll book , ” McMurray said .

Election workers and observers presented alarming accounts of voter fraud to the Michigan state Senate on Tuesday, with some calling on lawmakers to act and insisting on an audit of the vote in that state.
The Michigan state Senate Oversight Committee held the hearing, which included testimony from a former senator with expertise on data and technology. The witness spoke to the committee under oath about voting by dead people, a truck full of ballots coming into the counting center long after the deadline, and vulnerable voting machines.
The focus was entirely on the TCF Center, the convention center in downtown Detroit formerly known as the Cobo Center, where Wayne County votes were being counted.
Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ed McBroom, a Republican, suggested there would be future hearings to hear from additional witnesses on the 2020 election.
The Michigan hearing followed similar hearings by state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, which certified former Vice President Joe Biden as having defeated President Donald Trump there by about 80,000 votes, and in Arizona, which certified Biden as the winner by just over 10,000 votes. In Michigan, Biden’s victory over Trump exceeded 150,000 votes.
Trump’s lawyers did not testify in the Michigan hearing as they did in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Litigation also continues in several closely contested states. Major news outlets have projected Biden as the winner, but Trump hasn’t conceded. The Electoral College will make that determination on Dec. 14.
An email from the office of Michigan Senate committee clerks said a written list of witnesses with accurate spellings of names from the Tuesday hearing would not be made public for several days.
Here are four big takeaways from the hearing:
1) Dead Voters and Vacant Addresses?
Chris Schornak volunteered with “Guard the Vote” after the balloting. It went through 30,000 of the 172,000 absentee ballots in the city of Detroit.
He said the group found “229 of these 30,000 we went through are deceased.” He added that “2,660 of them [were] invalid addresses described by vacant lots and burnt-down houses.”
“What I can say for sure, and swear to you here today, is that overall, 8.9% of the 30,000 absentee ballots that we’ve gone through and investigated, just in the city of Detroit, were unqualified, fraudulent ballots that should have been spoiled,” Schornak said.
He extrapolated about how the 30,000 sample could reflect on all of the absentee votes cast.
“At the lowest levels, if these percentages carry through, this means of the 172,000 [absentee votes] in the city of Detroit, 1,300 of them could be deceased,” he told the senators. “We are investigating it. And another 15,000 could have fraudulent addresses, described as living on vacant lots or [in] burnt-down houses.”
2) A ‘Referendum’ With ‘Only 2 Choices’
Former Michigan state Sen. Pat Colbeck, who has a background in information technology and cybersecurity, having worked for the Defense Department, NASA, and other entities, testified that the numbers do not match up to demonstrate Biden clearly won the state—or at least not by the margin as it stands now.
“There has been a huge narrative around this whole election that says, No. 1, it started off saying that there is no voter fraud. Then, the narrative changed in the media to say there is no widespread voter fraud,” Colbeck said. “Then it changed into, there is no widespread voter fraud that could impact the result of the election.”
He said voter fraud “doesn’t have to be rampant to be significant.”
“If you have voter fraud in just one of our 83 counties, if that county is Wayne County, you’ve got an issue, because over 800,000 votes were cast in that county,” Colbeck said. “That’s much more than the margin of difference we are talking about in the election for the president.”
With the Dominion Voting Systems, he added, “there is a transmittal of fractional vote data.”
“You guys have done a lot of votes inside the Senate, as I did when I was serving my two terms. I don’t recall any of those vote tallies up on the board having a decimal point. Do you guys?” Colbeck asked his former colleagues.
He also noted from his own observations that the voting machines were connected to the internet—and potentially prone to hacking.
Every one of those tabulator machines was connected to an ethernet cable. That ethernet cable connected to a router. That router connected to all of the other computers in that network, including up to what is called the local data center, which was managing all the returns for 503 precincts in the city of Detroit. What was further concerning is, I saw an ethernet cable coming from the wall, connecting into one of these routers that was connected to the local data center, which was connected to all the tabulators and adjudicators. That seemed to indicate an outside internet connection.
Dominion has vigorously defended its machines, stating on its website:
According to a Joint Statement by the federal government agency that oversees U.S. election security, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: ‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.’ The government & private sector councils that support this mission called the 2020 election ‘the most secure in American history.’
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, the top Democrat on the committee, objected to his former colleague’s testimony. “All we’ve got here is conjecture and musings by former Sen. Colbeck,” Irwin said.
Still, Colbeck insisted it falls on the Legislature to act and push for an audit of the balloting.
“This is a referendum. There are only two choices for each of you in this context,” Colbeck said. “No. 1, you believe in principled, constitutional governance, and you believe that chain of custody was broken. There is significant evidence of election fraud, or—and I’m not saying this lightly—there is an attempted coup.”
3) What an Anonymous Dominion Contractor Allegedly Saw
A contractor with Dominion Voting Systems—the controversial voting machine company that prompted questions from Democrats before the election and from Republicans after—alleged fraud throughout the counting location at the TCF Center, according to a woman who says her employer works with Dominion.
Melissa Carone, an information technology and cybersecurity specialist with PDS Staffing, a talent acquisition firm that she said was working with Dominion, asserted a Dominion employee claimed he had been at a storage place called the “Chicago warehouse” after she inquired where he had been.
“So, it’s in Chicago?” she recalled asking the Dominion employee, who she said was named “Samuel.”
“They said, ‘No, Melissa, it’s in Detroit. We call it the Chicago warehouse.’ I said, ‘OK,’ and I just walked away,” Carone continued. “But there was something very secretive that he was doing. There was also, they said, a big data loss.”
For the 27 hours Carone was at the location, she said she didn’t witness a single ballot for Trump and saw ballots counted multiple times.
“What I witnessed at the TCF Center was completely fraud. The whole 27 hours I was there, there were batches of ballots run through the tabulating machines numerous times, being counted eight to 10 times. I watched this with my own eyes.”
4) A Truck Full and Xeroxing of Ballots?
Michigan state Sen. Peter Lucido, the Republican vice chairman of the committee, asked another witness identified as Michael Dubio what time he saw a truck carrying ballots come into the center.
“Like I said, 3-ish, 4-ish, in that window” Dubio replied.
“In the afternoon?” Lucido asked.
“No, no, no. I was there from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” Dubio said.
“They were in mail sleeves, you said. Did anybody have any earmarkings of who they were, carrying these ballots?” Lucido asked. “Were they carrying them? Were they on a dolly?”
“They were on a dolly,” Dubio answered. “Do I know who they were? Absolutely not.”
State Sen. Sylvia Santana, a Democrat, was skeptical about the witness.
“Was there any particular reason you didn’t ask for a supervisor to question the ballots coming in on a dolly?” Santana asked.
Dubio said, “I didn’t think I needed to, because the lead counsel that was supposed to be there was taking tally, and I was standing right next to him.
So, I figured he was kind of the person that was overseeing the whole night. That’s what we were told. We were talking directly about, ‘Why are these coming in?’ We all thought it was interesting that all these were coming in so late. … We were definitely perplexed these were coming in so late, as well that they were coming in to be counted.
Patty McMurray, a Republican poll challenger at the TCF Center in Detroit, claimed she saw copies of ballots being made to increase Biden’s vote total.
“Not one of the ballots was a registered military voter, and the ballots looked like they were all the same Xeroxed copies of the ballot,” she told the committee.
“They were all for Biden across the board. There wasn’t a single Trump vote. None of the voters are registered,” McMurray said.
She said election workers entered names and addresses with phony birthdates that she said “would override the system and allow them to enter nonregistered voters.”
“Throughout the day, that’s how they would override voters that were neither in the electronic poll book or the supplemental, updated poll book,” McMurray said.


dailysignal--2020-12-02--More Lockdowns Aren’t Answer to Stopping COVID-19

As infections increase during the “ second wave ” of the coronavirus , too many politicians are knee-jerking to reimpose harsh restrictions such as business shutdowns , curfews , and home confinements .
These types of sweeping and overly restrictive COVID-19 measures cause needless harm , especially for the majority of generally healthy Americans who will experience moderate to no symptoms if they catch the virus .
More effective approaches include doing more to protect vulnerable populations , such as the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions ; getting newly approved rapid at-home tests into the hands of more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be immediately identified and quarantined ; and preparing for a potential vaccine by developing a plan for quick distribution and prioritizing who gets it first .
Shutting down entire states only worsens the economic devastation as well as the health and welfare of otherwise healthy Americans .
The answer to defeating the coronavirus can ’ t be choosing between our health and our economy .
The answer isn ’ t either-or , rather it ’ s both-and .
> > > What ’ s the best way for America to reopen and return @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Commission , a project of The Heritage Foundation , assembled America ’ s top thinkers to figure that out .
So far , it has made more than 260 recommendations .
Learn more here .
Our economic health has an incredible effect on our physical and mental health , and vice versa .
The longer that healthier , lower-risk Americans are out of work , deprived of contact with family and friends , and sheltered at home , the more public health suffers , both physically and mentally .
Governors and local officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ targeted , county-by-county basis , based on virus case numbers and infection rates .
And such actions must be very temporary .
Research shows that areas where state and local officials have allowed places to safely reopen are well on their way to economic recovery .
Meanwhile , in areas with excessive restrictions , including business and school closures , families and children are struggling .
We ’ ve also seen that strict lockdown orders in many European countries haven ’ t prevented a second wave of the virus .
A more effective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testing—figuring out who has the virus and temporarily quarantining them from others as they ride out the illness .
The Food and Drug Administration has just approved COVID-19 self-tests that can be easily conducted at home or work and don ’ t need to be sent off to a lab .
Rapid manufacture and distribution of these kits is now key .
Quickly determining who is infected and who isn ’ t can go a long way toward mitigating the spread of the virus and makes going into businesses , schools , churches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Especially for nursing home and hospital staff who work around vulnerable people , being able to rapid-test each day before going into work will help prevent more breakouts and deaths .
States also must prepare an effective distribution strategy for a potentially soon-to-be-released vaccine .
State public health agencies must prioritize who should receive the vaccine first .
The top of the list should include those with the highest degree of transmission risk and those who may experience the severest consequences of an infection .
That means starting with front-line health care workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ underlying medical conditions .
States also immediately should allow pharmacists to administer the vaccine , just as many already allow them to administer flu and pneumonia vaccines .
Pharmacists are positioned to ensure fast and efficient mass immunization , and that kind of rapid response could prevent millions of additional infections and tens of thousands of additional deaths .
A complete road map to recovery ( found here ) has been created by the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission ; it contains 265 specific , actionable recommendations , including those mentioned above .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ businesses , churches , educational institutions , and community organizations to navigate as safely as possible through the pandemic .
Instead of indiscriminate and ineffective statewide shutdowns , public health measures should be focused on continuing to inform Americans how to reduce their chances of catching and spreading COVID-19 ; doing more to protect the elderly and those with underlying conditions ; distributing rapid at-home tests to determine who may be contagious ; and preparing a strategy for rapid public vaccination once a vaccine is released .
Lockdowns and prohibiting families from visiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holiday season aren ’ t the answers , and there ’ s no reason they should be the go-to tool for our leaders .
It ’ s time that the same politicians who regularly lecture us about “ following the science ” actually look in the mirror and take their own advice .
Following the science and assessing everything that we ’ ve learned in the months since the pandemic first struck will help us to defeat this deadly disease more quickly ; recover our jobs and our economy ; and get us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to some sense of normality again .

As infections increase during the “second wave” of the coronavirus, too many politicians are knee-jerking to reimpose harsh restrictions such as business shutdowns, curfews, and home confinements.
These types of sweeping and overly restrictive COVID-19 measures cause needless harm, especially for the majority of generally healthy Americans who will experience moderate to no symptoms if they catch the virus.
More effective approaches include doing more to protect vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions; getting newly approved rapid at-home tests into the hands of more Americans so those who are infected can be immediately identified and quarantined; and preparing for a potential vaccine by developing a plan for quick distribution and prioritizing who gets it first.
Shutting down entire states only worsens the economic devastation as well as the health and welfare of otherwise healthy Americans. The answer to defeating the coronavirus can’t be choosing between our health and our economy. The answer isn’t either-or, rather it’s both-and.
>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations. Learn more here.
Our economic health has an incredible effect on our physical and mental health, and vice versa. The longer that healthier, lower-risk Americans are out of work, deprived of contact with family and friends, and sheltered at home, the more public health suffers, both physically and mentally.
Governors and local officials need to make shutdown decisions on a targeted, county-by-county basis, based on virus case numbers and infection rates. And such actions must be very temporary.
Research shows that areas where state and local officials have allowed places to safely reopen are well on their way to economic recovery. Meanwhile, in areas with excessive restrictions, including business and school closures, families and children are struggling.
We’ve also seen that strict lockdown orders in many European countries haven’t prevented a second wave of the virus.
A more effective approach to stopping the spread is widespread testing—figuring out who has the virus and temporarily quarantining them from others as they ride out the illness.
The Food and Drug Administration has just approved COVID-19 self-tests that can be easily conducted at home or work and don’t need to be sent off to a lab. Rapid manufacture and distribution of these kits is now key.
Quickly determining who is infected and who isn’t can go a long way toward mitigating the spread of the virus and makes going into businesses, schools, churches, and other facilities much safer.
Especially for nursing home and hospital staff who work around vulnerable people, being able to rapid-test each day before going into work will help prevent more breakouts and deaths.
States also must prepare an effective distribution strategy for a potentially soon-to-be-released vaccine. State public health agencies must prioritize who should receive the vaccine first.
The top of the list should include those with the highest degree of transmission risk and those who may experience the severest consequences of an infection. That means starting with front-line health care workers, the elderly, and those with underlying medical conditions.
States also immediately should allow pharmacists to administer the vaccine, just as many already allow them to administer flu and pneumonia vaccines. Pharmacists are positioned to ensure fast and efficient mass immunization, and that kind of rapid response could prevent millions of additional infections and tens of thousands of additional deaths.
A complete road map to recovery (found here) has been created by the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission; it contains 265 specific, actionable recommendations, including those mentioned above. The road map was developed for governments, businesses, churches, educational institutions, and community organizations to navigate as safely as possible through the pandemic.
Instead of indiscriminate and ineffective statewide shutdowns, public health measures should be focused on continuing to inform Americans how to reduce their chances of catching and spreading COVID-19; doing more to protect the elderly and those with underlying conditions; distributing rapid at-home tests to determine who may be contagious; and preparing a strategy for rapid public vaccination once a vaccine is released.
Lockdowns and prohibiting families from visiting one another in their own homes this holiday season aren’t the answers, and there’s no reason they should be the go-to tool for our leaders.
It’s time that the same politicians who regularly lecture us about “following the science” actually look in the mirror and take their own advice.
Following the science and assessing everything that we’ve learned in the months since the pandemic first struck will help us to defeat this deadly disease more quickly; recover our jobs and our economy; and get us reunited with family and community and back to some sense of normality again.
Originally published by The Washington Times


dailysignal--2020-12-03--Nikki Haley Criticizes Biden’s OMB Pick, Neera Tanden

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized former Vice President Joe Biden ’ s choice of Neera Tanden to serve in his administration .
“ Tanden has shown bad judgment in the past .
She said that @ realDonaldTrump is ‘ part of [ a ] conspiracy against [ the ] US ’ & has a track record of disparaging Rep Senators , ” Haley tweeted Tuesday .
“ There ’ s a saying that ‘ personnel is policy , ’ which is why Biden ’ s nomination of Tanden is deeply concerning , ” Haley tweeted .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Office of Management and Budget for his administration , The Wall Street Journal reported .
Tanden is the leader of a left-leaning think tank , the Center for American Progress .
Tanden served on former President Barack Obama ’ s and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ’ s presidential campaigns as a senior policy advisor , Politico reported .
“ Biden ’ s pick for budget chief is Neera Tanden .
Tanden is one of the architects of ObamaCare , has been described as a Clinton loyalist for her years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years leading a liberal think tank where she oversaw proposals like ‘ Medicare Extra for All , ’ ” Haley also tweeted Tuesday .
Tanden deleted over 1,000 tweets dating as far as Nov. 1 , The New York Post reported .
Some of the erased tweets criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Susan Collins , R-Maine .
Tanden also circulated a baseless theory that Russian hackers caused Clinton ’ s loss to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election , The New York Post reported .
Some of Tanden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Why did he lie about this ?
Because he knows people have intuitive sense Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70K votes in three states , ” Tanden tweeted in 2017 .
Twitter users critical of Haley called her hypocritical , The New York Post reported .
Some noted the former ambassador said Trump ’ s possibility of becoming the 2016 Republican presidential nominee was “ scary.
” Tanden , the Center for American Progress , the Biden transition team and Stand For America , an advocacy group Haley started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Daily Caller News Foundation ’ s request for comment .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities of this original content , please contact [ email protected ]

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized former Vice President Joe Biden’s choice of Neera Tanden to serve in his administration.
“Tanden has shown bad judgment in the past. She said that @realDonaldTrump is ‘part of [a] conspiracy against [the] US’ & has a track record of disparaging Rep Senators,” Haley tweeted Tuesday.
“There’s a saying that ‘personnel is policy,’ which is why Biden’s nomination of Tanden is deeply concerning,” Haley tweeted.
Tanden has shown bad judgment in the past. She said that @realDonaldTrump is “part of [a] conspiracy against [the] US” & has a track record of disparaging Rep Senators. There’s a saying that “personnel is policy,” which is why Biden’s nomination of Tanden is deeply concerning. — Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 1, 2020
Biden picked Tanden to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget for his administration, The Wall Street Journal reported. Tanden is the leader of a left-leaning think tank, the Center for American Progress.
Tanden served on former President Barack Obama’s and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns as a senior policy advisor, Politico reported.
“Biden’s pick for budget chief is Neera Tanden. Tanden is one of the architects of ObamaCare, has been described as a Clinton loyalist for her years of service to Hillary Clinton & spent years leading a liberal think tank where she oversaw proposals like ‘Medicare Extra for All,’” Haley also tweeted Tuesday.
Biden’s pick for budget chief is Neera Tanden. Tanden is one of the architects of ObamaCare, has been described as a Clinton loyalist for her years of service to Hillary Clinton & spent years leading a liberal think tank where she oversaw proposals like “Medicare Extra for All.” — Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 1, 2020
Tanden deleted over 1,000 tweets dating as far as Nov. 1, The New York Post reported. Some of the erased tweets criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Tanden also circulated a baseless theory that Russian hackers caused Clinton’s loss to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, The New York Post reported. Some of Tanden’s tweets weren’t deleted.
“Why did he lie about this? Because he knows people have intuitive sense Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70K votes in three states,” Tanden tweeted in 2017.
Why does he lie about this?Because he knows people have intuitive sense Russians did enough damage to affect more than 70k votes in 3 states https://t.co/VFiptUz6gV — Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 7, 2017
Twitter users critical of Haley called her hypocritical, The New York Post reported. Some noted the former ambassador said Trump’s possibility of becoming the 2016 Republican presidential nominee was “scary.”
Tanden, the Center for American Progress, the Biden transition team and Stand For America, an advocacy group Haley started, didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of this original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


dailysignal--2020-12-03--Election Came Under ‘Coordinated Assault and Siege,’ Trump Says

President Donald Trump told Americans why he has not conceded the election in an unprecedented video message late Wednesday afternoon that he said “ may be the most important speech I ’ ve ever made.
” “ The constitutional process must be allowed to continue , ” Trump said in the speech recorded at the White House as his reelection campaign pursued litigation in several states and state legislatures investigated voter fraud .
“ We are going to defend the honesty of the vote by ensuring every legal ballot is counted and that no illegal ballot is counted , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ projected Nov. 7 that former Vice President Joe Biden had won the Nov. 3 election by garnering more than the necessary 270 electoral votes .
In the past two weeks , state legislative panels in the closely contested states of Pennsylvania ( 20 electoral votes ) , Michigan ( 16 electoral votes ) , and Arizona ( 11 electoral votes ) heard testimony from witnesses who alleged large-scale election fraud .
Concurrently , Trump ’ s legal team is challenging the election results in those three states as well as Georgia ( 16 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , and Wisconsin ( 10 ) .
“ All you have to do is watch the hearings and see for yourself the evidence is overwhelming .
The fraud that we ’ ve collected in recent weeks is overwhelming having to do with our elections , ” Trump said .
The president ’ s remarks , recorded and released without notice to the White House press corps , went for 46 minutes and offered the most detailed case yet for his challenges of the unofficial results .
The Electoral College will pick the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still plenty of time to certify the correct winner of an election , and that ’ s what we are still fighting to do , ” Trump said .
“ But no matter when it happens , when [ witnesses ] see fraud , when they see false votes , and when those votes number far more than is necessary , you can ’ t let another person steal that election from you.
” Trump said that while “ I don ’ t mind if I lose an election , ” he doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stolen .
He said “ our election system … is now under coordinated assault and siege.
” “ Ultimately , I am prepared to accept any accurate election result and I hope that Joe Biden is as well , ” Trump said .
However , he said : “ If we are right about the fraud , Joe Biden can ’ t be president .
We ’ re talking about hundreds of thousands of votes .
We ’ re talking about numbers like nobody has ever seen before.
” Trump complained about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting well before the campaign ’ s final weeks , as well as lack of safeguards against voter fraud .
“ We used to have what was called Election Day .
Now we have election weeks and months , and lots of bad things happened during this ridiculous amount of time , especially when you had to do almost nothing to exercise our greatest privilege , the right to vote , ” Trump said .
The president also spoke more about Biden .
“ My opponent was told to ‘ Stay away , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t need you , we ’ ve got it , ’ ” Trump said .
“ In fact , they were acting like they already knew what the outcome was going to be , they had it covered , and perhaps they did , very sadly for our country .
It was all very , very strange .
”

President Donald Trump told Americans why he has not conceded the election in an unprecedented video message late Wednesday afternoon that he said “may be the most important speech I’ve ever made.”
“The constitutional process must be allowed to continue,” Trump said in the speech recorded at the White House as his reelection campaign pursued litigation in several states and state legislatures investigated voter fraud.
“We are going to defend the honesty of the vote by ensuring every legal ballot is counted and that no illegal ballot is counted,” the president said.
Major media outlets projected Nov. 7 that former Vice President Joe Biden had won the Nov. 3 election by garnering more than the necessary 270 electoral votes.
In the past two weeks, state legislative panels in the closely contested states of Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), Michigan (16 electoral votes), and Arizona (11 electoral votes) heard testimony from witnesses who alleged large-scale election fraud.
Concurrently, Trump’s legal team is challenging the election results in those three states as well as Georgia (16 electoral votes), Nevada (six), and Wisconsin (10).
“All you have to do is watch the hearings and see for yourself the evidence is overwhelming. The fraud that we’ve collected in recent weeks is overwhelming having to do with our elections,” Trump said.
The president’s remarks, recorded and released without notice to the White House press corps, went for 46 minutes and offered the most detailed case yet for his challenges of the unofficial results.
The Electoral College will pick the winner Dec. 14.
“There is still plenty of time to certify the correct winner of an election, and that’s what we are still fighting to do,” Trump said. “But no matter when it happens, when [witnesses] see fraud, when they see false votes, and when those votes number far more than is necessary, you can’t let another person steal that election from you.”
Statement by Donald J. Trump, The President of the United States
Full Video: https://t.co/EHqzsLbbJG pic.twitter.com/Eu4IsLNsKD — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2020
Trump said that while “I don’t mind if I lose an election,” he doesn’t want to see an election stolen.
He said “our election system … is now under coordinated assault and siege.”
“Ultimately, I am prepared to accept any accurate election result and I hope that Joe Biden is as well,” Trump said.
However, he said: “If we are right about the fraud, Joe Biden can’t be president. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of votes. We’re talking about numbers like nobody has ever seen before.”
Trump complained about the risk inherent in mail-in voting and early voting well before the campaign’s final weeks, as well as lack of safeguards against voter fraud.
“We used to have what was called Election Day. Now we have election weeks and months, and lots of bad things happened during this ridiculous amount of time, especially when you had to do almost nothing to exercise our greatest privilege, the right to vote,” Trump said.
The president also spoke more about Biden.
“My opponent was told to ‘Stay away, don’t campaign, we don’t need you, we’ve got it,’” Trump said. “In fact, they were acting like they already knew what the outcome was going to be, they had it covered, and perhaps they did, very sadly for our country. It was all very, very strange.”


dailysignal--2020-12-03--Trump Won His Other Campaign—to Destroy Media Credibility

Convinced that President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection , the media suddenly became less hysterical .
Just like that , the media , at least to some degree , rediscovered concepts such as fairness and perspective , AWOL the last four years .
Two weeks after the election , New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof haltingly , grudgingly , and reluctantly , admitted that yes , Trump was right .
Banning in-person school education to fight COVID-19 was and is bad policy .
> > > What ’ s the best way for America to reopen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coronavirus Recovery Commission , a project of The Heritage Foundation , assembled America ’ s top thinkers to figure that out .
So far , it has made more than 260 recommendations .
Learn more here .
Kristof wrote : “ Some things are true even though President Trump says them .
Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen , and on that he seems to have been largely right .
Schools , especially elementary schools , do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission , and remote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for many low-income children.
” Kristof , of course , could not acknowledge Trump ’ s correct judgement without the “ somethings are true even though Trump says them ” snark .
But remember , this is The New York Times , a paper that has not endorsed a Republican for president since 1956 .
Little steps .
Kristof even took a Trump-like swipe at Democratic-run cities .
And , whether inadvertently or not , he made the case for K-12 vouchers for inner-city kids : The New York Times again , after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vice President Joe Biden , even questioned the science behind a ban on outdoor dining , like most counties in California recently enacted .
In “ Small Gatherings Spread the Virus , but Are They Causing the Surge ?
” the Times wrote : But are dinners and backyard barbecues really the engine driving the current surge of infections ?
The available data do not support that contention , scientists say .
Still , the idea has been repeated so often it has become conventional wisdom , leading to significant restrictions in many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far less certain , saying there is little evidence to suggest that household gatherings were the source of the majority of infections since the summer .
Indeed , it has become much harder to pinpoint any source of any outbreak , now that the virus is so widespread and Americans may be exposed in so many ways .
… A constant drumbeat about the dangers of social gatherings may help to convey the seriousness of the current surge , [ Harvard University infectious disease epidemiologist Julia Marcus ] said .
On the other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has led to draconian policies that don ’ t square with science .
Goodness !
If Pulitzer gave a prize for “ Fair and Balanced Coronavirus Stories in the Post-Trump Era , ” The New York Times might actually deserve this one .
Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein shared the mood of much of the Trump-hating left when he accused Trump of “ homicidal negligence ” in his handling of the coronavirus .
But Dr. Anthony Fauci , postelection , also sounds Trumpian .
On the possibility of further lockdowns , Fauci @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for locking down in the American public , but I believe that we can do it without a lockdown .
I really do .
… You could still get businesses going .
You could still have economic forward thinking while you ’ re doing that .
You don ’ t necessarily have to shut everything down .
Hopefully we won ’ t have to do that .
No “ appetite ” for another lockdown ?
What happened to “ follow the science ” ?
This is yet another tacit admission that , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unintended consequences of shutting down the economy , including increased rates of suicide , depression , homicide , drug abuse , alcoholism , and domestic violence .
Finally , did serial Trump CNN critic Jake Tapper praise , literally praise , and credit Trump for the speed with which drug manufacturers have apparently developed vaccines for COVID-19 ?
Yes , he did .
Tapper said : “ We should take a moment , as we always have when discussing vaccine and Operation Warp Speed , that this is—you know , putting aside all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when it comes to the coronavirus , and there are lots—this is an unmitigated success and we should acknowledge that.
” For four years , major media , along with their Democratic comrades , banded together to bring down Trump .
They appear to have succeeded .
But as to Trump ’ s campaign to expose the media ’ s blatant , often vicious anti-Republican bias so that much of America will never again trust it , Trump won .
Huge .

Convinced that President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the media suddenly became less hysterical. Just like that, the media, at least to some degree, rediscovered concepts such as fairness and perspective, AWOL the last four years.
Two weeks after the election, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof haltingly, grudgingly, and reluctantly, admitted that yes, Trump was right. Banning in-person school education to fight COVID-19 was and is bad policy.
>>> What’s the best way for America to reopen and return to business? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, assembled America’s top thinkers to figure that out. So far, it has made more than 260 recommendations. Learn more here.
Kristof wrote: “Some things are true even though President Trump says them. Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children.”
Kristof, of course, could not acknowledge Trump’s correct judgement without the “somethings are true even though Trump says them” snark. But remember, this is The New York Times, a paper that has not endorsed a Republican for president since 1956. Little steps.
Kristof even took a Trump-like swipe at Democratic-run cities. And, whether inadvertently or not, he made the case for K-12 vouchers for inner-city kids:
So Democrats helped preside over school closures that have devastated millions of families and damaged children’s futures. Cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have closed schools while allowing restaurants to operate. … School closures magnify these inequities, as many private schools remain open and affluent parents are better able to help kids adjust to remote learning. At the same time, low-income children fall even further behind.
The New York Times again, after the media awarded the election to former Vice President Joe Biden, even questioned the science behind a ban on outdoor dining, like most counties in California recently enacted. In “Small Gatherings Spread the Virus, but Are They Causing the Surge?” the Times wrote:
But are dinners and backyard barbecues really the engine driving the current surge of infections? The available data do not support that contention, scientists say. Still, the idea has been repeated so often it has become conventional wisdom, leading to significant restrictions in many states. … But many epidemiologists are far less certain, saying there is little evidence to suggest that household gatherings were the source of the majority of infections since the summer. Indeed, it has become much harder to pinpoint any source of any outbreak, now that the virus is so widespread and Americans may be exposed in so many ways. … A constant drumbeat about the dangers of social gatherings may help to convey the seriousness of the current surge, [Harvard University infectious disease epidemiologist Julia Marcus] said. On the other hand, in some states the misperception has led to draconian policies that don’t square with science.
Goodness! If Pulitzer gave a prize for “Fair and Balanced Coronavirus Stories in the Post-Trump Era,” The New York Times might actually deserve this one.
Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein shared the mood of much of the Trump-hating left when he accused Trump of “homicidal negligence” in his handling of the coronavirus. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, postelection, also sounds Trumpian. On the possibility of further lockdowns, Fauci recently said:
There is no appetite for locking down in the American public, but I believe that we can do it without a lockdown. I really do. … You could still get businesses going. You could still have economic forward thinking while you’re doing that. You don’t necessarily have to shut everything down. Hopefully we won’t have to do that.
No “appetite” for another lockdown? What happened to “follow the science”? This is yet another tacit admission that, as Trump insisted, we must consider the unintended consequences of shutting down the economy, including increased rates of suicide, depression, homicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, and domestic violence.
Finally, did serial Trump CNN critic Jake Tapper praise, literally praise, and credit Trump for the speed with which drug manufacturers have apparently developed vaccines for COVID-19? Yes, he did.
Tapper said: “We should take a moment, as we always have when discussing vaccine and Operation Warp Speed, that this is—you know, putting aside all of the failures of the Trump administration when it comes to the coronavirus, and there are lots—this is an unmitigated success and we should acknowledge that.”
For four years, major media, along with their Democratic comrades, banded together to bring down Trump. They appear to have succeeded. But as to Trump’s campaign to expose the media’s blatant, often vicious anti-Republican bias so that much of America will never again trust it, Trump won. Huge.
Copyright 2020 Laurence A. Elder. Distributed by Creators.com.


dailysignal--2020-12-03--CDC Tells Americans to ‘Stay at Home and Not Travel’ for Christmas

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discouraged Americans from Christmas travel due to the coronavirus pandemic during a telephone press conference Wednesday .
“ We did put out a message to postpone and stay at home [ … ] around Thanksgiving and we ’ re putting out the same message : The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel , ” Dr. Henry Walke , director of the Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases , said in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has guidance concerning travel should people decide to do so , and said the CDC is “ releasing guidance related to consider testing before and after travel ” on Wednesday .
The CDC ’ s guidance discourages travel to avoid the coronavirus , but recommends testing should someone choose to travel , according to the organization ’ s website .
The CDC encouraged people to weigh “ getting tested ” within certain days before and after traveling .
Dr. Cindy Friedman , chief of the Travelers ’ Health Branch at the CDC , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friends weighing whether to travel during the pandemic , according to the transcript .
“ I think it ’ s a good thing that people have options to prevent infection and they can take time now before the Christmas holidays .
We have several weeks to really think about the safest option for them and their family , which we think is to postpone travel .
And then we ’ ve outlined all the other measures that they can take if they do have to travel , ” Friedman said at the briefing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ avoid traveling during Thanksgiving , a Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said over 1.17 million travelers on Sunday went through airport security checkpoints , the most travelers in a single day since mid-March .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities for this original content , email [ email protected ] .

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discouraged Americans from Christmas travel due to the coronavirus pandemic during a telephone press conference Wednesday.
“We did put out a message to postpone and stay at home […] around Thanksgiving and we’re putting out the same message: The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, director of the Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said in the briefing.
Walke said the CDC has guidance concerning travel should people decide to do so, and said the CDC is “releasing guidance related to consider testing before and after travel” on Wednesday.
CDC urges Americans not to travel for Christmas amid fears that holiday gatherings could worsen pandemic https://t.co/eAxPpkyVN6 pic.twitter.com/Pbh48OzRCO — The Hill (@thehill) December 2, 2020
The CDC’s guidance discourages travel to avoid the coronavirus, but recommends testing should someone choose to travel, according to the organization’s website. The CDC encouraged people to weigh “getting tested” within certain days before and after traveling.
Dr. Cindy Friedman, chief of the Travelers’ Health Branch at the CDC, said they have guidance for families and friends weighing whether to travel during the pandemic, according to the transcript.
“I think it’s a good thing that people have options to prevent infection and they can take time now before the Christmas holidays. We have several weeks to really think about the safest option for them and their family, which we think is to postpone travel. And then we’ve outlined all the other measures that they can take if they do have to travel,” Friedman said at the briefing.
Despite CDC guidance urging Americans to avoid traveling during Thanksgiving, a Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said over 1.17 million travelers on Sunday went through airport security checkpoints, the most travelers in a single day since mid-March.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


dailysignal--2020-12-03--Austin Mayor Flies Private to Cabo San Lucas, Films Himself Telling Citizens to ‘Stay Home’

The mayor of Austin , Texas , flew private to Cabo San Lucas , Mexico , where he filmed himself telling citizens to “ stay home.
” Austin Mayor Steve Adler hosted 20 guests at an outdoor wedding and reception for his daughter at a hotel in downtown Austin in early November , the American-Statesman reported .
The following day he boarded a private jet with seven of the wedding guests and flew to Cabo San Lucas , Mexico , for vacation at the family timeshare .
“ We need to stay home if you can , ” Adler said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents .
“ This is not the time to relax .
We are going to be looking really closely .
… We may have to close things down if we are not careful.
” Adler filmed the Facebook video message from Mexico , one night into the trip , the publication reported .
The mayor told the American-Statesman that his family carefully considered how to host the wedding and vacation safely and consulted interim health director Dr. Mark Escott before the wedding .
Guests underwent rapid COVID-19 tests and social distanced , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the guests were “ probably not ” wearing the masks that were distributed .
“ At that point , I am with my family group and people who just tested , ” Adler told the publication .
“ It is not perfect .
Obviously , there are infections that could happen , but I think all of us should be minimizing risks as best we can.
” Escott , the interim health director , said at a press briefing the day after the mayor ’ s party went to Mexico : “ If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restaurant , go out with your family , the people who live in your household , not with family and friends outside your household and start to decrease those travels outside of your home that are not necessary.
” The mayor also told the publication that he did not violate his regulations and his actions were not inconsistent with his message at the time .
Adler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation .
“ Everyday since March , I repeat that being home is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Adler said in a Wednesday statement , according to the American Statesman .
“ Only at our most trying moments , like around Thanksgiving , have I asked people not to travel as part of extra precautions .
It is safest to stay home .
However , we aren ’ t asking people to never venture out .
We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do.
” Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for this original content , email [ email protected ] .

The mayor of Austin, Texas, flew private to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he filmed himself telling citizens to “stay home.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler hosted 20 guests at an outdoor wedding and reception for his daughter at a hotel in downtown Austin in early November, the American-Statesman reported. The following day he boarded a private jet with seven of the wedding guests and flew to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for vacation at the family timeshare.
“We need to stay home if you can,” Adler said in a Facebook video message to Austin residents. “This is not the time to relax. We are going to be looking really closely. … We may have to close things down if we are not careful.”
Adler filmed the Facebook video message from Mexico, one night into the trip, the publication reported.
EXCLUSIVE: Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the public to “stay home if you can…this is not the time to relax” in a Nov. 9 Facebook video. He did not disclose that he was at a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas after flying on a private jet with eight family members and guests. pic.twitter.com/w1uZahGfpM — Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 2, 2020
The mayor told the American-Statesman that his family carefully considered how to host the wedding and vacation safely and consulted interim health director Dr. Mark Escott before the wedding.
Guests underwent rapid COVID-19 tests and social distanced, he told the publication, though he said the guests were “probably not” wearing the masks that were distributed.
“At that point, I am with my family group and people who just tested,” Adler told the publication. “It is not perfect. Obviously, there are infections that could happen, but I think all of us should be minimizing risks as best we can.”
Escott, the interim health director, said at a press briefing the day after the mayor’s party went to Mexico: “If you’re going out to a restaurant, go out with your family, the people who live in your household, not with family and friends outside your household and start to decrease those travels outside of your home that are not necessary.”
The mayor also told the publication that he did not violate his regulations and his actions were not inconsistent with his message at the time. Adler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Everyday since March, I repeat that being home is the safest place for people to be,” Adler said in a Wednesday statement, according to the American Statesman. “Only at our most trying moments, like around Thanksgiving, have I asked people not to travel as part of extra precautions. It is safest to stay home. However, we aren’t asking people to never venture out. We ask everyone to be as safe as possible when they do.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.