What Fresh Hell is This? Monday’s Open Thread

November 16, 2020 12:52 pm EST Tiff Trump Tweets (Open Thread) 1
Trump Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Monday.

It’s been 13 Days since the 2020 Presidential Election, making this Fresh Hell Day 13.

For Fresh Hell Day 13, President Impeached Lame-Duck One-Termer has tweeted 18 times and retweeted 19 times.

8:09 a.m. D.C., time.

1. Bashes the Washington Post for reporting that Legal Team Trump revised a federal lawsuit that challenges the election results in Pennsylvania.

On Sunday the Washington Post reported that One-Termer’s campaign scrapped a major part of a federal lawsuit.

Trump’s attorneys filed a revised version of the lawsuit, removing allegations that election officials violated the Trump campaign’s constitutional rights by limiting the ability of their observers to watch votes being counted.

Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal attorney, have said repeatedly that more than 600,000 votes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh should be invalidated because of this issue.

Trump’s pared-down lawsuit now focuses on allegations that Republicans were illegally disadvantaged because some Democratic-leaning counties allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots. Counties have said this affected only a small number of votes.

Washington Post. 11/15/2020.

The campaigns communication director, Tim Murtaugh is quoted as saying; We are still making the strong argument that 682,479 ballots were counted in secret. Our poll watchers were denied the legal right to meaningful access to vote counting and we still have that claim in our complaint. We have preserved our rights to make these arguments.

Currently, however, language alleging that the campaign’s constitutional rights were violated as a result of the observer issue is no longer part of the suit detailing the formal counts.

Even as the campaign continued filing appeals in other Pennsylvania cases Saturday that became public on Sunday, the withdrawal of one of its most aggressive claims curtails a central part of its effort to fend off the certification of the vote in the state.

The revised filing came on a day when Trump reiterated his intention not to concede the Nov. 3 election to Biden, moments after seeming to acknowledge the results. Biden won the popular vote and was projected the winner of the race, having received 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232. States are still certifying the results.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering a case on the dispute over observers’ access to the vote count. Philadelphia authorities have asked the court to reverse a state appellate court’s order to allow Trump campaign observers to watch the count from six feet away. The Democratic Party filed a brief in support of the city. The Trump campaign alleges that Philadelphia officials kept observers behind a barrier that was too far from the counting activity in a large hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It claims that the officials applied an overly literal reading of a state law that every party and candidate may have a representative in the room while votes are counted.

Washington Post. 11/15/2020.

Jan Wolfe with Reuters posted a thread regarding the revised federal court filing.

He credits the Washington Post with reporting the story first.

Last thread provided by Bradley Moss.

8:13 a.m. D.C., time.
8:14 a.m. D.C., time.
8:15 a.m. D.C., time.

2. No Way!
3. This is Crazy!
4. Most fraudulent Election in History!

Peter Neffenger according to Global Resilience Institute at Northern University has been named as a volunteer for the Biden-Harris transition team.

We are pleased to report that GRI Distinguished Senior Fellow, Admiral Peter Neffenger (USCG Ret.), has joined President-Elect Joe Biden’s Agency Review team under the Department of Homeland Security team. Agency review teams are responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One. Members of the team are highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government. The teams have been crafted to ensure they not only reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration, but reflect the diversity of perspectives crucial for addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges.1

As a volunteer, Admiral Neffenger has joined the team in his personal capacity. In his career, Admiral Neffenger previously served as the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from July 2015 to January 2017. He was also the 29th Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, earning the rank of Vice Admiral.

Global Resilience.northeastern.edu.

Smartmatic.com lists Neffenger as the Chairman of the Board, not president. According to his about page:

Vice Admiral Peter Neffenger (USCG retired) enjoyed a distinguished career in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served as the 29th Vice Commandant until June 2015 when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a position he held until January 2017. He was named one of the 25 most influential business travel executives of 2016 by Business Travel News after he led a complete transformation of TSA.

Vice Admiral Neffenger holds an MPA from Harvard University, an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, an MA in Business Management from Central Michigan University, and a BA from Baldwin Wallace University, from where he recently received an honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Public Service).

He is a two-time recipient of the Department of Homeland Security’s Distinguished Service Medal and is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Northeastern University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Smartmatic.

Smartmatic in 2016, posted this informational YouTube video about the company.

According to their about page, the company was founded in 2000 in the wake of the Florida Presidential Election hanging chads nightmare.

As an approved U.S. Department of Defense vendor and a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security Council for the Election Infrastructure Subsector, Smartmatic does not rely on any single application to secure the integrity of elections. We utilize multiple layers of protection, security measures and control mechanisms throughout our voting systems. We pioneered voting machines that produce voter-verified paper records, a feature that has now become the de facto standard worldwide. From tamper-proof data collection to end-to-end encryption to fully auditable logs, our technology safeguards votes at every step.

Committed to innovation, Smartmatic invests substantial resources in its three R&D centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. We have deployed the world’s most technologically advanced and highly trusted internet voting solution. By using cutting-edge technologies, Smartmatic is making online voting and online ballot delivery a reality to power safe at-home voting and safe absentee voting for military personnel, diplomats and others who are far from home.

Snartmatic.

Detroit Dominion IT worker describes exactly how poll workers inflated Biden vote tallies (Video). 

The Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler on Monday debunked several wild claims made in interviews with Fox News given by One-terms crackpot lawyer former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani.

This claim stems from a single affidavit that was filed by an alleged witness, Melissa Carone, a contract IT worker for Dominion. But Carone, who made a number of voter-fraud claims, does not even leap to the conclusions that Giuliani makes.

In her affidavit, Carone simply says that food was brought in on two vans, but “I never saw any food coming out of the vans, coincidentally it was announced on the news that Michigan had found over 100,000 more ballots — not even two hours after the last van left.” She mentions nothing about out-of-state license plates or ballots being counted.

Kenny on Nov. 13 concluded that Carone’s “allegations are simply not credible.” Yet two days later, Giuliani repeated the claim, as if nothing had transpired in court to undermine it.

Washington Post. 11/16/2020.

8:24 a.m. D.C., time.

5. Thanks Andrew Pollack for his support.

🙄

8:26 a.m. D.C., time.

6. Lies, lies, lies some more, using a tweet he posted on Saturday.

On November 13th, Dominion updated their “facts and rumors” page regarding the 2020 Presidential Election.

1) VOTE DELETION/SWITCHING ASSERTIONS ARE COMPLETELY FALSE.
2) DOMINION IS A NONPARTISAN U.S. COMPANY.
3) THERE WERE NO DOMINION SOFTWARE GLITCHES AND BALLOTS WERE ACCURATELY TABULATED.  THE RESULTS ARE 100% AUDITABLE.
4) NO UNAUTHORIZED OR LAST-MINUTE SOFTWARE UPDATES OCCURRED.
5) THERE ARE NO ISSUES WITH THE USE OF SHARPIE PENS.
6) ASSERTIONS OF VOTER FRAUD CONSPIRACIES ARE 100% FALSE.

Edison Research (ER) has refuted any claims that company data suggests any voting irregularities, including vote switching.  ER President Larry Rosin told The Dispatch Fact Check, “Edison Research created no such report and we are not aware of any voter fraud.”

Claims that 941,000 votes for President Trump in Pennsylvania were deleted are impossible, as Dominion only serves 14 Commonwealth counties.  Collectively, those Counties produced 1.3 million votes representing a voter turnout of 76%.  Fifty-two percent of those votes went to President Trump, which amounts to 676,000 votes the company’s system processed for the President in Pennsylvania.

Dominion has no company ownership relationships with any member of the Pelosi family, the Feinstein family, or the Clinton Global Initiative, Smartmatic, Scytl, or any ties to Venezuela.  Dominion works with all political parties; our customer base and our government outreach practices reflect this nonpartisan approach.

As reported by the Associated Press, “Dominion made a one-time philanthropic commitment at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2014, but the Clinton Foundation has no stake or involvement in Dominion’s operations, the nonprofit confirmed.”  The meeting included bipartisan attendees focused on international democracy-building.

There have been no “raids” of Dominion servers by the U.S. military or otherwise, and Dominion does not have servers in Germany.

No credible reports or evidence of any software issues exist.  Dominion equipment is used by county and state officials to tabulate ballots.  Human errors related to reporting tabulated results have arisen in a few counties, including some using Dominion equipment, but appropriate procedural actions were made by the county to address these errors were made prior to the canvass process.

The Michigan Secretary of State’s office offers a Fact Check Page which debunks false or erroneous claims about voting in Detroit, as well as a user-error incident in Antrim County.
The Georgia Secretary of State has also repeatedly stated throughout the count that “[a]s the work goes on, I want to assure Georgia voters that every legal vote was cast and accurately counted.”

Claims about software updates being done the night before Election Day are 100% false.

Both Spalding County and the Georgia Secretary of State have verified that a) this type of unauthorized update is impossible, and b) the actual logs from equipment under the custody of the county determined an update did NOT happen the night before the election.

Georgia Voting System Implementation Manager Gabe Sterling has independently, and unequivocally, rebutted inaccurate claims made about an update to machines on the eve of the election.  He affirmed in his daily press briefing on November 9 that “nothing was done to the [PollPad] system after [October 31],” when voter files were updated as part of normal procedure.

The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, “if a ballot has issues that impacts its ability to be scanned, it can be hand counted.” The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors assured voters that “sharpies do not invalidate ballots.” Dominion has stated that “Sharpie pens are safe and reliable to use on ballots, and recommended due to their quick-drying ink.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has debunked numerous claims, including claims about the existence of a secret CIA program for vote fraud called Hammer and Scorecard.

All U.S. voting systems must provide assurance that they work accurately and reliably as intended under federal U.S. EAC and state certification and testing requirements.  Election safeguards – from testing and certification of voting systems, to canvassing and auditing – prevent malicious actors from tampering with vote counts and ensure that final vote tallies are accurate.  Read more from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Dominion Voting. 11/13/2020.

8:33 a.m. D.C., time.

7. Strongly stands with…

8:51 a.m. D.C., time.

8. Says he “won the Election!”, earning my favorite Twitter label.

Official sources called this election differently.

He shared in all-caps the same delusion @ 11:55 p.m. D.C., time on Sunday.

9:04 a.m. D.C., time.

9. Says there’s a fake recount happening in Georgia, and wants his team to break the Consent Decree.

On November 13th, 2020, Lin Wood announced via Twitter he was suing the Brad Raffensperger the Secretary State of Georgia.

AP News fact-checked the Georgia voter signature check on Sunday. The claim and fact-check stem from One-Termer Asshat’s tweet from Saturday.

AP News reports the Facts: There is nothing in the consent decree that prevents Georgia election clerks from scrutinizing signatures. The legal settlement signed in March addresses accusations about a lack of statewide standards for judging signatures on absentee ballot envelopes. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said that not only is it entirely possible to match signatures, but that the state requires it.

The decree in question was signed on March 6th, 2020.

This process was spelled out in detail in the consent decree, a legal settlement that was signed March 6.

A lawsuit by the Democratic Party, which led to the agreement, argued that minorities were disproportionately affected when they had their ballots rejected. Among other things, the settlement sets steps for local election officials to notify a voter — by phone, mail or email — in a timely fashion about problems with a signature.

The changes were made by the state election board.

Following state law, Georgia is pursuing a hand tally of votes in the presidential race. Democrat Joe Biden leads Trump by about 14,000 votes in the state. There are no examples of similar recounts that have overturned leads of that magnitude.

The signature issue resurfaced after lawyer L. Lin Wood Jr. filed a federal lawsuit Friday questioning whether the secretary of state had the authority to require the process of signature verification outlined in the agreement.

Wood is known for representing several high-profile clients including security guard Richard Jewell, who was identified as a suspect of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta but later cleared.

AP News. 11/15/2020.

9:06 a.m. D.C., time.

10. Ditch Fox News and watch OANN…

Absolutely Fucking Not GIF from Leonardodicaprio GIFs

9:19 a.m. D.C., time.

11. Coronvirus vaccine wouldn’t be possible without the great Orange Cry-Baby.

NPR reported that on Monday Moderna announced that their coronavirus vaccine “was 94.5% effective in preventing disease, according to an analysis of its clinical trial.” Moderna becomes the second company to say they have had successful clinical trials of a vaccine. Pfizer announced last week their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in clinical trials.

The results for both vaccines come from interim analyses of large clinical studies. In the Moderna study there were 30,000 volunteers. Half got two doses of the vaccine 28 days apart; half got two shots of a placebo on the same schedule.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use the same technology to make their vaccines. It’s based on a molecule known as mRNA, or messenger RNA. That molecule contains genetic instructions for making proteins inside cells.

The Moderna and Pfizer studies were conducted using slightly different protocols. To be counted as a COVID-19 case, participants in the Moderna study had to have at least two symptoms of disease in addition to a positive test for the virus. The Pfizer study required only one symptom. Also, Moderna waited 14 days following the second injection to begin counting cases; Pfizer’s study started counting at seven days.

The vaccines also differ in their storage requirements. Moderna says its vaccine can be safely stored in freezers at about 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius), a temperature easily reached by a home refrigerator freezer. Pfizer’s vaccine required storage in specialized ultracold freezers capable of cooling below minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius). Moderna also says its vaccine will remain potent for up to 30 days at normal refrigerated temperatures, which should ease distribution.

NPR. 11/16/2020.

President-Elect Biden also responded to the news of a hopefully second vaccine candidate.

9:49 a.m. D.C., time.

12. He passively-aggressively attacks the governor of Ohio while he proves he hasn’t ditched Fox News.

10:29 a.m. D.C., time.

13. Shares an interview via Breitbart.

For What It’s Worth:

CNN explains; Voters in four states who had brought longshot lawsuits to disrupt President-elect Joe Biden’s win and went nowhere in court have dropped their cases Monday morning.The cases were short-lived in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania federal courts, and fed into a pro-Trump legal strategy that’s almost certain to fail to block Biden’s presidential win before the Electoral College formalized it.

10:37 a.m. D.C., time.

14. Says Democrats and the Media are attempting to “STEAL” the “Election.”

National Security adviser for One-Termer Robert O’Brien said this morning that:

10:59 a.m. D.C., time.

15. Continues to campaign even though the election cycle is over.

Go Away Be Gone GIF from Goaway GIFs

11:02 a.m. D.C., time.

16. All about the stock market, in all caps.

11:11 a.m. D.C., time.

17. Try’s to distract the U.S., coronavirus case spike, to focus on the world’s spikes.

As the News Blender reported this morning, “Lockdowns have returned, and are curbing some of the worst of the growth in Europe. France, Great Britain, Germany and Ireland have all instituted full or partial lockdowns over the past two weeks and seen reductions in what were drastically rising caseloads.”

CDC U.S., data. 11/15/2020.

For What it’s worth:

11:59 a.m. D.C., time.

18. Rinses and repeats a lie from earlier.

Notthisshitagain Not Again GIF from Notthisshitagain GIFs

This post might be updated.

This is an Open Thread.

Can’t get here fast enough:

We will be decades older in:

About the opinions in this article…

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About Tiff 2558 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.

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