We have previously discussed the calls of figures like Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse to investigate Ginni Thomas, the wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. I have expressed great concern over the calling of a spouse of a sitting justice who is among millions of Americans who believed that the 2020 election was stolen. I am not among them, but Thomas has every right to that belief and to advocate for actions in light of that belief. Yet, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee thrilled many on the left by demanding that she appear and answer for her advocacy.
Now the media is breathlessly reporting that “Ginni Thomas tells Jan. 6 panel she still believes false election fraud claims,” as if it were a public confession of a reactionary resisting reeducation. On CNN, anchor Jake Tapper declared to viewers that Thomas has not changed her mind and remains “untethered from all of the facts and evidence.”
One can seriously question whether that is news, but it is certainly satisfying as a congressional committee pulls in the spouse of a conservative justice to grill her for four hours on being a MAGA Republican who called for challenges to the 2020 election. None of the media even raised the question of whether such interviews could be viewed as harassment or pressure on a member of the Supreme Court. I understand that the Committee made this news by pursuing Thomas, but a balanced treatment would have at least raised the question of why she has been singled out over her advocacy.
Select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) left the voluntary interview with the Committee to report, according to Politico, “she still believes false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.”
Ok, so what? Millions of people hold the same view. They have a right to hold that view, even if we do not believe that they have compelling support for it. For those of us who disagree, we can continue to voice an opposing view, but Thomas and others are unconvinced. (Notably, there is another controversy today of YouTube demonetizing a video showing Democrats calling the 2016 election stolen). There was never any evidence that Thomas participated in any violence and had simply encouraged White House and other officials to challenge the election.
A well-known Republican activist and Trump supporter, Thomas encouraged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to pursue legal and legislative challenges to what she viewed as a stolen election. The reason that Ginni Thomas’ messages were seized is not because she was a key figure in the investigation but that the Commission has demanded any messages that deal with such challenges or the rally — a scope that has been criticized as overbroad. Congress then leaked the messages and the media did the rest.
There is no evidence that Ginni Thomas ever encouraged violence or was even present at the Capitol during the riot. Thomas said that she attended the Ellipse rally on Jan. 6 but left early, before Trump spoke, and never went to the Capitol.
The challenge to the 2020 election was no surprise. Indeed, not long after the election, I wrote about that possibility in what I called the “Death Star strategy.” It is not a crime to plan such a challenge, even without good cause. It was the same course taken by Democrats without any outcry from the media in challenging Republican presidents.
When Sen. Barbara Boxer launched her own challenge to President Bush on this law, Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised her challenge as “witnessing Democracy at work. This isn’t as some of our Republican colleagues have referred to it, sadly, as frivolous. This debate is fundamental to our democracy.” Joining her in that challenge of George W. Bush was Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who now chairs the committee looking into the Jan. 6th Committee. (Fellow Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sought to challenge Trump’s certification in 2016).
Yet, various media outlets were quick to report that Thomas remains unreformed and unapologetic in holding these opposing views. The satisfaction in forcing the wife of Clarence Thomas to appear for hours of examination is deeply disturbing. Thomas is hated by the left and that hatred seemed to drive much of this effort.
If there was a single piece of evidence showing that Ginni Thomas engaged in violence or called for violence, it might be a different question (though others who engaged in such crimes were not called to account before the Select Committee). The only evidence, however, was that this longtime Republican advocate engaged in political advocacy in opposing the certification. Her position in these emails was consistent with her public positions.
Yet, reporter Jamie Gangel went to CNN and reported, while Thomas cooperated, “Chairman Bennie Thompson has also told reporters that she still believes the election was stolen, Jake. So after everything we know, Ginni Thomas is still an election denier.” Tapper responded “That’s just wild. I mean, that’s just untethered from all of the facts and evidence.”
What’s “wild” is that coverage has taken on a reeducation element that it is now news that the wife of a jurist is unrepentant and unreformed.
“One can seriously question whether that is news, but it is certainly satisfying as a congressional committee pulls in the spouse of a conservative justice to grill her for four hours on being a MAGA Republican who called for challenges to the 2020 election.”
Well to be fair, Thomas not only expressed those sentiments in her texts, she also openly speculated about the prospects of putting high level democrats on ‘barges off of Gitmo’…, certainly a level of rhetoric far surpassing the norm.
Also, to equate the level of R challenge to previous D challenges is just a surreal comparison, Jon Turley. Several of Trump’s legal team lost their rights to practice for the lies they told in court. Never has there been the lack of acceptance to the results of an election than there has been on the Trump side. This is a widely acknowledged fact.. Add to that Trump’s attempted coup and we’ve definitely entered uncharted territory…, so a basic comparison to previous D legal activity around an election is clearly disingenuous. Both sidesism doesn’t apply here.
It’s important to mention this since you tend to lean heavily on abstraction and reductionism in your opinion editorials on political topics. In this instance it serves to shield the wife of a SCOTUS judge, and it can’t help but cross conflict of interest lines. Thomas deserves all the scrutiny she’s getting.
The January 6th “insurrection” was an absolutely foolish thing to do. Only the Brave Masked Wonderful Warriors of Antifa ™ and BLM can cause mayhem with no repercussions because they are fighting for “social justice”, right? And January 6th was an “insurrection” with no weapons or amazingly little damage compared to righteous anger demonstrated during the Summer of St. George (peace be unto him).
I guess Ginni Thomas testimony shows she is a “nazi” too.
antonio
Antonio,
There were weapons used in the Jan 6 insurrection. The definition of weapons is not exclusively about firearms. Anything used as a weapon to cause destruction or harm to an individual IS a weapon. Bear mace, flagpoles, riot barriers thrown, sticks, law enforcement’s own batons, shields, helmets, etc, etc, are all considered weapons under federal law. There were even firearms discovered nearby and that is just form people who were apprehended. We don’t know about the ones who got away. It’s pretty clear that groups like the proud boys, and the oath keepers were intent on much more than just mere disruption. They were ready to use weapons if things wen their way.
There was a lot of damage and theft during the Jan 6 insurrection. Rampant violence against law enforcement was also present.
Dumb.
Almost anything can be considered a lethal weapon including arms and legs.
No, a weapon is an object independent of your body used to inflict injury or cause death when used in such a manner. They did use weapons to assault law enforcement.
ever tried to swing a flagpole?
Anything can be described as a weapon. Hands have been ruled as deadly weapons.
4 people died. All protestors. 1 shot and killed by a Capitol police officer, 1 beaten by a black female officer with a baton or stick while the woman lay on the ground. 2 were likely killed by a percussion grenade.
No capital police officers were killed by protestors You have made up a lot of stories, but the evidence provided proves you wrong. In fact evidence almost always proves you wrong.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111617/Fernando-Rodrigues-jailed-Judge-rules-martial-arts-fighters-hands-feet-deadly-weapons.html
@svelaz
So does that mean you will condemn the Brave Masked Wonderful Warriors of Antifa ™ and BLM for the approximately 2 billion in damages in the summer of 2020?
HOLDING MY BREATH…
Of course, you won’t do so, you’ll just call me a slur. Just remember I am Hispanic; a member of a recognized victim group and thus cannot be one of the evil names that s@@tlibs love to throw around.
Wonder how how many feds were there instigators?
Don’t worry I was nowhere near the Capitol on Janaury 6th, so you don’t get to doxx me.
Trump was a man of many faults which I admit (that’s more than leftists will do regarding their own; leftists never punch left) but remember he is only the BEGINNING. Just wait until the next Trump comes along with better political skills and more discipline.
Look at Hungary, Sweden, Italy…
A DIVORCE IS COMING FROM THIS ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. You can have your multicult cesspool.
antonio
“There were weapons used in the Jan 6 insurrection. The definition of weapons is not exclusively about firearms.”
No, but if you are going to participate in a real, honest-to-God “insurrection” you had better not forget to bring your guns. The way some people continue to deliberately misuse that
word says a lot about their character, doesn’t it?
“no weapons” is false. Scores of people have been charged with J6 weapons violations, and some have already been convicted of J6 weapons violations. Just do a text search on “weapon” to identify them here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases
There is no question that there were significant irregularities in this election. Statistics alone with regards to the way votes came in is more than a strong indication that something was wrong. In case after case, complaints were ignored, and various entities (courts) refused to even hear presented evidence. Election integrity in the U. S. will continue to be a huge problem. Mail-in voting will always provide numerous ways and methods to cheat, and should be banned with the possible exception of overseas based military. Not requiring voting ID’s, and proof of identity will again open avenues for cheating. This has been happening for decades in various (the majority) of precincts, and will continue in those that have not changed their rules. It is up to the states to remedy this situation, and unfortunately, it just won’t happen in a number of those offending states.
Until an investigation into the election procedures of the 2020 election is conducted, we cannot know if it was stolen or not. What matters most is determining the extent of cheating that occurred to prevent it from happening again even if it would not change the final results.
“Until an investigation into the election procedures of the 2020 election is conducted, we cannot know if it was stolen or not.”
True. Also true is the fact that the people who claim to believe that the election was clean and fair (many of them represented here, it seems) will do anything and everything in their power to prevent any such investigation form ever happening. Point out to them that people with facts and evidence on their side never, ever run away from debate and they will just snarl at you and call you a “denier”.
So. Did she float or not?
Nope.
Professor Turley ends with, “What’s ‘wild’ is that [media] coverage has taken on a reeducation element that it is now news that the wife of a jurist is unrepentant and unreformed.”
I am so Sick. And. Tired. of media thrashing this issue (resistance to 2020 election results), over and over, into mash. I find it amusing that media has not applied the same standard to Hillary Clinton or Stacey Abrams, who continue to this day to declare that their “wins” were stolen from them.
Ginny Thomas may still believe that the election was stolen. Unfortunately that belief is similar to that of flat earth believers who continue to insist that the earth is indeed flat despite the gargantuan amount of evidence to the contrary. This is not just merely a personal belief. It’s a symptom true willful ignorance. For example in Arizona has spent millions of dollars and countless audits and analyses of the claims of voter fraud that allegedly occurred. Courts, audits by Trump supporters, multiple hand counts, and AG investigations all came to the same conclusion. Evidence of massive voter fraud does NOT exist.
What keeps these folks into the cult-like belief is that the evidence they “know” is proof of their belief is that there is no evidence. The absence of evidence IS the evidence that something fraudulent occurred because they “know” fraud occurred. It’s the same mentality that allows someone to belief in God without physical evidence that God exists they simply “know”. It is the same sort of mentality that is prevalent in cults. David Koresh succeeded in making others believe his claims without questioning them and this is what Trump does. Trump couldn’t be wrong because he’s never been wrong about his voter fraud claims and that is with no evidence to back it up. It’s a nasty vicious cycle of circular logic that entraps the weak minded and the stupidly gullible. Unfortunately Ginny Thomas is one of these and it is not too far fetched to assume Justice Thomas is too.
Turley is an enabler sympathetic to these people. He’s a law professor and he isn’t analyzing the simple fact that the evidence for the claim that the election was “stolen” simply doesn’t exist and the only “evidence” they have is the lack of…evidence.
Ginny Thomas should just tell them all to go screw.
There are many legitimate complaints of the 2020 election. I never saw any “proof” of stolen or false votes but there are many questions I do yet have that have been unanswered. I think the response by An Old Guy above neatly encapsulates those concerns. Frankly I would like to see us go back to a single voting “day” which is a national holiday, starts at 12:01 AM on Election Day in Maine when all voting centers open “nationwide” and lasts until 11:59 PM in Hawaii when all voting centers close (nationwide”. All votes in person with Voter ID (Also required in all of Europe now and India). Absentee votes only for foreign deployed Military. If you are unavailable on Election Day then that is simply unfortunate.
And yet, Democrats continue to believe the false claims of the Russiagate hoax, “untethered from all of the facts and evidence.” We are in the stage of history where, thanks to the Postmodernist fallacy, all truth is subjective, and the Jan. 6th committee is demonstrating that every day. They ask all the questions, no rebuttal allowed; they decide who talks, no opposition allowed. This is raw power without any justice whatsoever, and the outcome is predetermined. There is no longer any higher objective Truth – we now have a world where only might makes right. Politicians like Schiff spend 100% of their time in office going after the other party — he has no other purpose within the Democratic party other than official pit bull. When humans no longer strive for Truth, and instead, strive only for power, we have Hobbes’s war of “all against all.”
“ Thomas said that she attended the Ellipse rally on Jan. 6 but left early, before Trump spoke, and never went to the Capitol.”
She WAS there and that in itself matters because the whole purpose of the rally was to rile up the crowd and “encourage” them to march to the capitol and disrupt the electoral count. She was part of it and being the wife of the only SCOTUS justice to dissent on the ruling determining Trump’s claims of executive privilege revealed a disturbing conflict of interest. Justice Alito recently complained about the criticism that the court is being seen as illegitimate yet here is one of the many examples why it is.
There’s no question Ginny Thomas talks to her husband about he belief that the election was stolen. Obviously she’s passionate and determined in her belief and there is no doubt that she airs her ire and frustration to her husband. This is why it’s important that Justice Thomas recuse himself from any cases involving Jan 6 issues. He’’s clearly not going to be seen as impartial. Let’s remember that justices are supposed to AVOID any hint of partiality. He would be seen the same way many see judge Cannon and her obvious preferential treatment of Trump. She’s become a laughingstock in the legal community for her awful rulings and borderline incompetent attempts at helping Tump’s lawyers do their jobs.
This might interest you:
January 6 Clearinghouse Congressional Hearings, Government Documents, Court Cases, Academic Research
https://www.justsecurity.org/77022/january-6-clearinghouse/
The fact that a wife of a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court – making decisions affecting all of our lives and accountable to no one – is completely delusional is significant. It is also significant that at least one of his former clerks, John Eastman, is equally delusional.
Even Turley concedes she is delusional, but says she is entitled to her beliefs as millions of delusional citizens are. I would say America is entitled to have someone other than Clarence on the court.
Syfy: EVERFYONE is entitled to an opinion.
But not their own “facts.”
A flat-earther isn’t voicing an opinion. They’re denying the fact that the earth isn’t flat.
and it’s none of your damned business if they do.
In my opinion, the earth is flat in my neighborhood (as I grab a beer from the fridge and sit down at the keyboard). For every epsilon there is a delta such that within epsilon of any point on the surface of the earth, the difference in height is less than than delta. QED
Curves can be locally approximated by lines, but they’re still distinct.
Everyone is entitled to use whatever influence they have on those in government.
What they are not entitled to do is BUY it.
I keep trying to remind those on the right ranting about Hunter – Hunter is not the issue.
Hunter is just another poor little rich kid leading a disasterous hedonistic life, that ultimately is its own punishment.
The BIG problem is not with Hunter – it is With Joe. The problem is that he OBVIOUSLY was for sale.
I do not give a flying fig if Ginny Thomas goes on a sex strike if Clarence does not vote as she wishes.
I do not care what Paul Pelosi Tells Nancy each night.
Typical left wing nut nonsense.
What you are saying is FALSE. Supreme court justices, most judges, most politicians have spouses, have close family.
Those people may or may not exert some influence. There is nothing that can be done about it. Nor should there be.
Hunter Biden would be a failed drug addicted, sex addicted failure of a son living off of claims of influence – and mostly it would not matter.
If Joe Biden was not involved. If it was true that Joe did not know anything about his sons business dealings. If it was true that Hunter was not holding 10 for the big guy.
As to Mr. Eastman, the election certification plan that you attribute to him was devised By Lawrence Tribe for Hillary Clinton.
Any claim you make regarding Eastman redounds to the greatest constitutional scholar of the left in the modern era.
America is entitled to the rule of law.
The impediment to that is the left, not the right.
I do not agree with Thomas on some issues. But on many many other issues he is the most sane voice on the court and the most constitutionally correct.
The most consequential flaw in Thomas’s judicial views – is shared by nearly every justice since the founding – he can not find any meaning to the 9th amendment. Real originalism requires that every word in the constitution have meaning.
Whatever opinion one has on the 2020 election, what is obvious is that the election process has never been subjected to careful scrutiny, either by the courts or the media, although some journalists, notably Molly Hemingway, have sought to examine the claims that the election was “rigged.”
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rigged-mollie-hemingway/1139396959
The widespread use of mail-in ballots invited questions about the integrity of the electoral process, which is why most countries limit mail-in voting, including France and Britain. The use of unsupervised ‘drop-boxes’ and ‘vote harvesting’ — both practices banned in the EU and the UK — also invited questions regarding chain of custody. The continued counting of ballots after election day raised further questions, especially when there was no control on the mailing date of the ballot. . . . and on and on, from extraordinary high turnouts to the use of voting machines which the Democrats had warned could be tampered with prior to 2016.
Then there was the systematic suppression of information on Hunter Biden’s laptop, the suppression of information on line, and other instances in which information was controlled to the advantage of one party, not to mention post-electoral polls which suggested that had voters had access to information that was suppressed, they would have not have cast their ballots for the Democratic candidate.
And there were the massive interference by private money, including the takeover of electoral functions, and the refusal to follow state laws by unelected electoral commissions . . .
What is “wild” is not that Ginni Thomas believes the election was stolen but that anybody could believe the election it was ‘free and fair’ in the sense we demand that elections in places like Ukraine be run or that it was without serious problems which should have been investigated thoroughly in order to reassure those like Ginni Thomas that the process had indeed been without faults or flaws unless they are ideologically blinkered or vehemently partisan, especially after Democrats had rejected the 2016 election and had created a “resistance” to the duly elected president, a term used to describe partisan movements not “loyal oppositions” in representative systems. In effect, by doing so, those who objected to Trump’s election “broke” the system and forfeited the trust of their political opponents and the millions of people who had voted for him. 2016 was the first time in my experience (which goes back to the fifties) in which one party refused to accept the results of the election and instead sought to subvert the duly elected president, and we are still suffering from the consequences of their decision to do so.
It is not Ginnni Thomas who should be under investigation; it is the leaders of that “resistance” who vowed to overthrow a president elected in a free and fair election by any means at their disposal and to assure his defeat in 2020 by hook or by crook.
Well said. DEscribes everything.
No it doesn’t. The answer is simple: Trump is a narcissist. He was predicted to lose by every poll. He decided well before Election Day to claim a “landslide victory” that was stolen by fraud. This is documented in Woodward’s excellent book: “Rage”, which was published in September, 2020, 2 months before the election, and is based on first-hand interviews. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 because most Americans see him for as a blowhard, braggadocious spoiled little rich boy who never grew up, who lies constantly, who nurtures an image of being fabulously wealthy, who cheats on his taxes, his wives, in business dealings, and who has taken bankruptcy 6 times. He was terrible at being POTUS: trashed the successful economy he inherited, started a trade war with China that resulted in shortages of computer chips and consumer goods, botched the pandemic, resulting in unnecessary deaths and illnesses, and alienated our EU and NATO allies which emboldened Putin into believing that he could invade Ukraine without consequence. He made a terrible deal with the Taliban: turned loose 5,000 of them, drew down our troops from 14,000 to 2,500, and didn’t even involve our allies in negotiations with the Taliban, so they just gave up. Unemployment was 10% when he left office. He only got into office in 2016 by cheating–his campaign fed insider polling information to Russian hackers who used it in a targeted campaign to smear Hillary Clinton. That’s cheating–something Trump has done his entire life.
It really stretches credibility to believe that the majority of Americans wanted his “presidency” to continue another 4 years. He never got above a 50% approval rating–which is a record for low approval ratings. That’s why an historic number of voters turned out in 2020 to vote him out of office.
“Trump is a narcissist”
All politicians are narcissists
“He was predicted to lose by every poll.”
Both in 2016 and 2020. The poll error in 2020 was 6%
“He decided well before Election Day to claim a “landslide victory” that was stolen by fraud.”
Democrats had also decided before the election to claim fraud if they lost.
I know you have memory holed that but Clinton was loudly and publicly telling Biden not to concede.
I would further note that strongly suggests that neither Clinton nor democrats beleived the 2020 polls.
“This is documented in Woodward’s excellent book: “Rage””
So what it is a book. Ann Coutler writes books to – do you take those as established facts ?
“is based on first-hand interviews.”
The collusion delusion is based on accounts by people who purportedly knew.
Are you saying people never lie to reporters ?
“Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 because most Americans see him for as a blowhard, braggadocious spoiled little rich boy who never grew up, who lies constantly, who nurtures an image of being fabulously wealthy, who cheats on his taxes, his wives, in business dealings, and who has taken bankruptcy 6 times.”
That is your analysis. You get to speak for yourself not the country.
And it is not like I can not come up with an equally long list of Biden’s flaws.
Jesus Christ was not on the ballot in 2020.
“He was terrible at being POTUS”
Demonstrably false.
“trashed the successful economy he inherited”
GDP at the end of 2016 was a bit over 17T, at the end of 2020 it was 20T
GDP at the end of 2008 was 14T, So GDP grew about as much in 4yr of Trump as 8yr of Obama.
“started a trade war with China that resulted in shortages of computer chips and consumer goods”
You are actually going to try to argue that China is a good actor ? As we fret over whether they attack Taiwan ?
BTW China supplies 10% of the global semiconductor market. Taiwan supplies 40%.
What consumer goods were we short of ?
“botched the pandemic, resulting in unnecessary deaths and illnesses”
Trump Covid – 12 months. 300K deaths. No vaccine.
Biden Covid – 22 monts, 750K deaths, with a vaccine. Current death rate 13K/month
“and alienated our EU and NATO allies”
Trump told NATO and the EU to get their act together to end their stupid and self destructive energy policies and to focus on their own self interests or countries like Russia and China would eat them for lunch.
Trump was right.
From Reagan through to Biden, there is only one president that has not started any new military conflicts – Trump.
Russia did not invade Ukraine while Trump was president.
Putin was “emboldened” by
A weak president – Biden
With absymal energy policies which gave Putin massively greater leverage.
Who stupidly was provoking Russia by threatening to bring Ukraine into NATO.
“which emboldened Putin into believing that he could invade Ukraine without consequence.”
Correct – Biden’s weakness and poor policies emboldend Putin.
Putin has invaded his neighbors during every presidency in the 21st century EXCEPT Trump’s.
“He made a terrible deal with the Taliban: turned loose 5,000 of them, drew down our troops from 14,000 to 2,500, and didn’t even involve our allies in negotiations with the Taliban, so they just gave up”
We should have been out of Afghanistan 10 years ago.
We had one legitimate goal in Afghanistan – to depose the Taliban for their participation in acts of war against the US.
That was accomplished in less than 90 days. After that we engaged in stupid nation building that Bush had explicitly run against as a presidential candidate. Bush should have left afghanistant near immediate, Obama should have left near immediately
Trump should have left near immediately.
There was no reason to be in afghanistan. You rant about the deal, or troop levels or the afghan government.
Each of those is irrelevant. The Afghans had the ability to negotiate with the Taliban. They also had the military capability to CRUSH the Taliban.
The afghani people chose the taliban. Either actively or by not fighting for freedom. That is on them.
Biden botched the US withdraw. But to his credit he did leave.
“Unemployment was 10% when he left office.”
Nope, 6%
” He only got into office in 2016 by cheating–his campaign fed insider polling information to Russian hackers who used it in a targeted campaign to smear Hillary Clinton. That’s cheating–something Trump has done his entire life.”
False.
But it is true that Clinton manufactured the collusion delusion.
It is true that Biden was only elected because states used Covid to ignore their own election laws.
It is true that Biden only got elected because the media and Big Tech supressed True stories about his corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere.
It is true that Biden only got elected because Zuckerberg used half a billion dollars to buy control of elections in 6 key locations, and took over the machinery of government elections and used it to drive a government run GOTV effort that targeted 99% democrats.
“It really stretches credibility to believe that the majority of Americans wanted his “presidency” to continue another 4 years. He never got above a 50% approval rating–which is a record for low approval ratings. That’s why an historic number of voters turned out in 2020 to vote him out of office.”
Americans did not want a recession either, they did not want 9% inflation, they did not want mask mandates, and vaccine mandates,
they did not want a weakening economy, they did not want a seive at the southern border.
They do want a wall.
They do want Voter ID.
They do want a strong economy.
They do want affordable energy.
They do not want half a trillion in student loan bailouts.
Biden’s current approval rating is as low as Trump’s lowest level.
Biden’s approval rating is STAYING in the toilet – despite a fawning press.
Biden is fighting valiantly to displace James Buchanon as the worst US president ever.
.Wonderful. This response can act as a FAQ for all those hit pieces based on lies and stupidity. We should thank John and Natasha for outlining these issues.
Natacha provided many statements used by the ignorant left while John corrected the errors.
Good job, both of you.
Indeed
Ah, that myth again.
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/05/22/its-confirmation-bias-stupid/
Years back, France dumped mail in voting. They felt it was too corrupt.
Independent Bob: Agreed. -And maybe fingerprint required at the polls-electronically attached to actual electronic vote, like a “sign-in” access to the ballot? -And proxy voting likewise authenticated.
We have the technology, just not the effort or care to make it a priority…
The further voting moves into the electronic age while unnecessarily accommodating individual desires, the more fraud will exist.
S. Meyer: Absolutely correct. The movement or removal of a single numerical digit (whether intentional or negligent) can throw an entire election.
S. Meyer,
I agree.
That is why I support the use of a valid picture ID to be presented when voting.
Hello Upstate Farmer: While I agree with you in intent, I believe state-of-the-art electronic technology today far outpaces the ability to immediately detect false/phony ID, even with government-issued pictures. We even admit the problem with “fake passports.” True, hand-held scanners used by poll workers–once and IF we upgraded everyone’s ID with embedded technology, could cut down on some of this –similar to when they used to embed authentic video movies and DVDs from bootlegged copies, etc. But the relative number of persons with fake ID- I would think- is small in comparison to other efforts, like mail-in votes and computer/electronic manipulations.
An Old Guy,
Great post.
Support voter ID laws.
“the wife of a jurist is unrepentant and unreformed”
You spelled “uninformed” wrong
I don’t think so. Unreformed is the word, I do believe. They want her to change her ways. The witch hunt continues unabated.
I know what you are trying to say with your snide comment. It is you who is trying to put words into Jonathan Turley’s piece. Gini Thomas is not “uninformed;” she is “unreformed” (good for her). The word “unreformed” is spelled absolutely correctly.
“There is no evidence that Ginni Thomas ever encouraged violence”
Telling a violent mob of people that an innocent person stole something from the crowd that the innocent person did not steal is inherently encouraging violence.
Can’t help the whataboutism because you obviously have had mud in your ears and sand in your eyes over the last six years.
1) Ms. Thomas did not speak to the crowd on Jan. 6.
2) ‘Falsely’ claiming that someone stole something is not equivalent to encouraging violence against that person.
3) There were at least 500K people at the rally in DC on Ja. 6, only a few hundred entered the Capitol and not all of these were violent.
Stp exaggerating!
Without wild and irresponsible exaggerations the left would have no case.
One thing to remember is that Ginni’s husband was the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision to put Dubya in office, and that decision led to more arch conservatives like Ginni and Clarence being appointed to the court. So the fact that Clarence has this highly partisan stuff in his household suggests his political decisions are highly partisan.
But we really knew that already from reading his decisions.
hough: When people like you use words like “highly partisan” to describe only the other side, one has to laugh at your naivete. Nice try.
One thing to remember is that Ginni’s husband was the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision to put Dubya in office
I know a person is uninformed of the salient facts, when all they do is attack the person, and not offer an opinion on the subject.
hough, exactly what about the 2000 decision got the law, or constitution wrong. From memory, SCOTUS declared wildly dissimilar standards used across the State, violated voters equal protection rights. SCOTUS also asked the Florida Supreme court to submit back to SCOTUS exactly where in the Florida Constitution, did the Court find the power to order a state wide recount no one asked for. Quite a feat for an appellate court to issue and order with not case before them.
One thing to remember is that Ginni’s husband was the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision to put Dubya in office,
🤔 What, like Thomas was the VP of the court and he only voted to break a tie? Or, was he just 1 of 5?
and that decision led to more arch conservatives like Ginni and Clarence being appointed to the court.
You may want to recalibrate your lexicon, because “Arch Conservative” is not the negative you think it is. If you look at the antonyms of it, you’ll find words that describe the controlling, far left-wing of the Democratic party.
archconservative noun
a person whose political beliefs are centered on tradition and keeping things the way they are archconservatives refused to accept the new law
Synonyms for archconservative
conservative, paleoconservative, reactionary, right-winger, rightist, Tory, traditionalist
Words Related to archconservative
right, right-wing, conformist, neocon, neoconservative, diehard, standpatter, bourbon, Colonel Blimp, fuddy-duddy, square, stuffed shirt
Near Antonyms for archconservative
extremist, radical, red, revolutionary, revolutionist, reformer, reformist
Antonyms for archconservative
leftist, left-winger, lefty, liberal, progressive
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/archconservative
In ‘my’ USA, there would have been a legitimate investigation, not of the January 6th events which on inspection were obviously a political event that went awry, but instead, of the claims of President Trump. An investigation where instead of every media report adding the word ‘false’ ahead of his claims, there would have been a keen interest in finding out the truth.
Were fake votes added to in to be counted? If so, you can count them over and over again smug in the knowledge the tabulation will come up the same each time. But if a suitcases of voted were added in, then what? Yes, I voted for Trump, but I want to know the truth, either way. Wisconsin? Serious questions. Pennsylvania? Michigan? AZ? Then too. The same for. Until then, I’m forced to support the orange one – again – because in the back of my mind I’ll forever wonder this, what if the guy is right?
After all . . .
He decried the Russia, Russia, Russia thing Clinton invented . . . he was proved right.
He decried FBI spying on his campaign . . . he was proved right.
He decried the election results . . . and the wagons were circled to deny him this, too.
The truth won’t make Biden any less my President because what’s done is done, but I want to know so the dirty tricks stop right there. Never again.
Germany is about to redo an election. Why ?
Because some polls ran out of paper ballots had to wait for replacements – unlike in too many places in the US the German’s did not just photocopy blanks, and in doing so destroy an important fraud detection and prevention measure.
Because some polls stayed open later than they were supposed to because they had long lines.
German – and all european elections are conducted following standards that not a single US state meets. They did so during Covid.
And when there is a problem there solution is to DO THE ELECTION OVER.
Forget the credible allegations of fraud. The 2020 election was the most abysmally conducted ever. There is not a state in this country,
not a major city, probably not a minor city where the number of ballots counted is not several percent higher than the number of voters who voted.
It is likely that in most places this is just error and bad record keeping.
But error and bad record keeping made fraud possible.
The AZ audit found that by just about every measurable standard the AZ election was crap. Out of 2M ballots audited only a bit over 1M did not have some error. I am not talking about mistakes by voters. I am talking no chain of custody. Photocopied ballot, Bad registration on the printing. and on and on. Each and every one of these could be indications of fraud. Or they can be careless errors on the part of election officials. It does not matter. Error’s on the part of election officials make it harder, even impossible to detect fraud.
There is almost nowhere else in the world that does mailin voting. The world – including the US learned more than a century ago that the requirements for secret ballots were critical to eliminating election fraud.
These are the requirements for secret ballots”
1 an official ballot being printed at public expense,
2 on which the names of the nominated candidates of all parties and all proposals appear,
3 being distributed only at the polling place and
4 being marked in secret.
This is the most potent anti-election fraud scheme there is.
The US has the WORST voting systems of any developed country and is acticely seeking to make them worse still.
While secret balloting is the gold standard – and there are many other things that should be added to that to further secure voting.
If we are willing to accept certain types of election fraud – husbands (or wives) coercing there spouses vote, parents or children influencing each others votes, and on.
We can have mailin voting that is otherwise secure. But we can not just say – we are going to allow mailin voting, here is how to get a ballot.
I am not a big fan of voter registration. With a proper strong voter ID system you can eliminate voter registration.
But if you are going to have voter registration and you are going to use it for mailin voting. The records must be excellent. The voter registration records in the US are garbage. atleast 10% of voter registration records are for non-existent voters.
If you have a system like mailin voting that requires voter registration records – they must be far far better.
We also have absentee voting, early voting – aparently in some states late voting, we have states that allow you to spoil your own vote and revote. And ones that do not. But we do not have any state that accurately does either. In all likelyhood if someone legally votes more than once, because they wish to change (spoil) their prior vote, Both ballots will get counted. If they can not legally do so – both ballots will get counted.
The more different ways you allow for voting, the exponentially harder fraud detection and prevention gets.
The brennan center likes to say that Fraud in election is incredibly low. That is partly true. If you see an election result that is 60/30 the odds are that there is almost no fraud. Candidates that are getting trounced by their opponent know they are going to lose and so does everyone else.
If you could somehow manage to insert 30% more ballots without getting detected – people would just know that there was fraud – no evidence would be needed. The odds of election fraud increase with several factors. Mailin voting is one. Multiple methods of voting is another. Crappy voter registration records is another. But the most fundimental anti-fraud measure is a high likelyhood of being caught. The closer an election is the greater the incentive for candidates, their campaigns. even outside actors to engage in fraud.
One of the simplest effective antifraud measures is to require a significant margin of victory or have a snap runnoff. 1% is good, 2% is better, ….
But the larger the margin of victory you require the more frequently you will have runnoffs.
In 2020 possibly 10% of house seats were decided by less than 1% of the vote. That is a gigantic blinky caution sign indicating a high probability of fraud.
Again I am not trying to dictate precisely how to conduct an election. There are many choices and I have personal preferences.
But the problem with elections in the US today is that the are highly error ridden, they are complex, Security is circumvented – purportedly for convenience at every step of the way. This is a gigantic flashing yellow light that should be telling us we are headed for trouble.
I was reminded recently – that not only did Clinton and the democrats never accept the results of the 2016 election,
But prior to election day – DEMOCRATS were warning of large scale election fraud by Trump. Clinton was telling Biden and all democrats – not to concede if they lost. There is absolutely no claim about the pour quality and likely problems in the 2020 election that democrats were not publicly fretting in 2020 prior to the election.
There is absolutely nothing at all that should be illegal about not accepting the results of an election.
Our election officials have the legal and moral requirement to persuade us that the election was near perfect.
Cabdidates and others have the absolute right to challenge the results.
There does have to be a cost for claiming fraud and being proven wrong.
That cost is simple – people do not like sore losers.
The fact that Trump would win a 2024 rematch if held today is proof that Trump voters and many many others are not convinced that Trump was wrong about the fraud in the 2020 election. If people really were convinced – Trump would not be able to run again. No one would support him.
The duty to convince us that the election was honest – rests with election officials. The Burden is with them.
And the solution is what the germans are doing – if the outcome of an election is not clear and convincing – DO IT AGAIN.
The quicker the better. Do it as fast as humanly possible. Do not give the candidates much time to restart their campaigns.
Do not give the fraudsters time to restart their operations.
I would note that even on the normal election – time is the enemy of credibility. Aside from their other flaws. mailin voting. significant absentee voting. early voting. all make voting easier. They also make it less trustworthy. as do long delays in counting.
Voting need not take time. Fraud does.
Think about how angry conservative Americans are getting.
The witch hunt continues and lives are damaged.
The lefties are opening the door to epic payback.
Probably illegal, certainly wrong, but we’ll earned.
youtube.com/watch?v=2lTOcJsKTXw&ab_channel=SouthChinaMorningPost
“I am not among them but Thomas has every right to that belief”
Why, because it is a religious belief? Other sorts of beliefs need to have some basis.
We make fun of people who think the world is flat. And rightly so.
A mass of people believing something without evidence is simply a cult.
That’s a great point. Turley is focusing on whether Ginny Thomas encouraged violence while ignoring the fact that she was PARTICIPATING in an effort to overturn the election that was deemed legitimate and fair according to Trump’s own AG.
Even if that evidence is not allowed to be heard, or inspected in any way? Talk about cults!
I think that Chaney being primaried out a few weeks ago took out whatever steam was left in this bogus committee. How long before the committee decides it was all racist – the last play in the Democrat’s playbook for any and everything. Disgraceful.
How anyone can Not question the validity, is untethered from all facts and evidence. Just because the bought judges etc. refuse to look at the evidence, doesn’t mean there is an absence of evidence. And that includes the SC. All of the never before voting practices that took place, video evidence, and literally more votes than registered voters, have got to at least raise eyebrows. Of course, they won’t need to cheat with all the illegal people crossing the free flowing border are allowed to vote. That is a cheat within itself.
“ How anyone can Not question the validity, is untethered from all facts and evidence. Just because the bought judges etc. refuse to look at the evidence, doesn’t mean there is an absence of evidence.”
Judges don’t refuse to look at evidence. They “refused” to look at evidence because there was no evidence to present. It’s the responsibility of those making the claim in court to present evidence for the judge to consider. Many Trump campaign lawyers when pressed by judges about evidence they have admitted in court that they did not have evidence of their claims. So naturally a judges cannot rule based on a lack of evidence. To this day nobody have been able to provide any CREDIBLE evidence that the massive amounts of voter fraud alleged to have occurred did indeed occur. So what is left is making the assumption that the fraud DID occur because the lack of evidence IS the evidence. It’s like using the same crock of $hit that Trump tried to use when claiming he declassified the top secret documents he illegally possessed by just thinking about it and magically they are all declassified. He has no evidence to back it up, but the lack of evidence is evidence that he did.