With a cult, it is never enough to prove their thesis is flawed, the hypothesis Null & Void, and their leader totally unworthy of either their trust or devotion. That’s why it’s a cult. Cults are impervious to logic, reason, facts, evidence, and proofs. DJT might be forgiven because he is certifiably and demonstrably nuts, but these acolytes and followers? Hopeless. It’s like those dingbats and their insistence that the Moon Landings were ‘faked.’ When each of their claims is dealt with one-by-one and shown to be not a matter of fakery, but merely oddities that occur because of Natural Phenomena (like the flag on the Moon ‘waving’ as if being blown by a gust of non-existent air), they don’t care and just move onto something else….”How do you explain those shadows?!” I am convinced when humans return to the Moon in the near future and visit some of those old Apollo sites these ‘Deniers’ will insist the photos they take of old NASA gear left behind was either brought up with them and ‘staged’ or ‘faked’ - just like the Original landings. I feel sorry for these idiots. The problem is that they are willing to sacrifice our country for this Master Deceiver. That is the tragedy.
The answer to your question, Lucian, about "what's next," is answered in your own essay:
"On Friday, Trump himself issued a statement claiming that the audit "has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD! Until we know how and why this happened, our Elections will never be secure.'” There it is. T-rump will lie about and totally ignore the result, and go right on claiming fraud. And his worshipers will believe HIM and not the result of the audit the GOP itself conducted. As long as t-Rump is alive, this nightmare will never end.
I'm guessing that their next step is to declare that elections are by definition fraudulent and we shouldn't entrust the country to them. Yes, this is absurd, but given the spinelessness of so many of the supposedly sentient Republicans I'm more than a little worried.
Trump loses votes in a recount and continues his dystopian claims. The audit “has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD! Until we know how and why this happened, our Elections will never be secure.” Black is White, Right is Wrong and still his supporters continue their support. There are just so many intelligent and not so intelligent people whose actions, beliefs and political passions I simply cannot fathom. The Delta variant is raging and the majority of people here are out in public without masks. It's frightening, really frightening.
What I would like to see is Maricopa County suing the State of Arizona, and each of the state senators who voted for this travesty for compensatory damages to cover the cost of this underwhelming fiasco, including the cost of all those voting machines that were irrevocably spoiled and rendered useless due to their partisan and malicious actions. I would also have them sue the company that pretended to do the audit; I was suppose that the only defense that they could possibly raise was that they found more actual Biden votes than Trump votes. How many successive audits do you need to prove the obvious.
The only upside of this shitshow is that it might dissuade others in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and other Republican-leaning states from continuing this travesty. Arizona was the poster child for malicious dumbfuckery, and they got exactly the same result they got the last two times around; but now those responsible for this entirely predictable outcome those responsible ought to be made to pay out-of-pocket for the entire out-of-pocket cost of this mess. There is a tangible thread between what happened in Arizona this week is pretty much on a par with what happened in California ten days ago when Governor Gavin Newsom easily fended off another carnival barker political wannabe, Larry Elder. California voters, by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1, saw through Elder's charade, and voted against him. We here in California do not get our $227 million back; but on a per capita basis of something around five bucks for each of us, the self-confidence we gain from going through this exercise cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
But the Trump cult shambles on, oblivious to the damage they do to themselves and to our country. I read in today's New York Times that in Missouri, with escalating rates of infection from Covid, and the resulting increasing number of deaths, more people are requesting Covid vaccines, but they are doing it in utmost secrecy (with hospitals offering private rooms) where people can be vaccinated without their friends knowing that they are getting the shots. Good grief! If you want to turn the tide toward getting back to normal, I would think that people would want to set the good example; instead, people are hiding, pretending that getting the shot is something shameful, like cross-dressing, or being seen in a church other than the one they are accustomed to. Someone needs to tell these people that their 'so-called' friends are not their friends at all, not if it means disregarding the received message from Fox News that standing with Trump is all-important, regardless of the consequences.
The sad part about all this has been that people are more willing to fight harder when they are in the wrong. It's as if they need to convince themselves, time and again, that they were right the first time, and that any change of mind is a sign of weakness. That's basically what we saw in Nazi Germany, late stage fanaticism that had no justification other than to validate their previous wrongdoing. For that, my inclination would be to double the punishment meted out. It's okay to be wrong, but it's not okay to double down on that wrongdoing, knowing what you then know. We do this all the time in the criminal justice system, encouraging plea agreements with people who know they've done wrong, and are willing to admit it, in contrast with people who insist on going to trial on the flimsiest of exculpatory evidence in the hopes that they might escape the consequences of their own wrongdoing. Juries and judges have no trouble throwing the book at people who act in defiance of the guilty knowledge that they knew exactly what they were doing when they did it. We saw this in the George Floyd murder trial case, where Derek Chauvin's lawyer argued his ridiculous defense that Floyd's death occurred due to some pre-existing medical condition. It's time to call these argument-for-argument's-sake apologists out for being the assholes they are, because they are tiresome, and really dangerous to the rest of us. It's the same with anti-vaxxers. The evidence is against them, and they willingly spread sickness that for some can quickly lead to death. That is also true in a political sense of disseminating false and malicious disinformation that causes the body politic to sicken and die. Indeed, the two are correlatives that need to be stopped in their tracks.
It would be so laughable except that there are people who actually believed that the 'audit' would uncover more votes for Trump and voter fraud. I feel sorry for those people who paid for this farce, because it's pretty obvious they've been hoodwinked.
Even if they are Republicans. Perhaps they should stop drinking that funny colored kool aid, because it definitely isn't helping them.
Hope everyone saw the GA Sec of State recently with really critical info. Basically, a huge number of Republican voters voted for GOP down ticket, but left the presidential choice blank, enough to cost Trump the election by 12000 or so votes.
Remember that phone call where Trump specifically asked the Secretary to find around 12000 votes? By recount, many GOP voters refused to vote for Trump.
We are seeing most of the recounts adding to Joe's victory!
And yet there is one thing certain, 47 million Republicans believe Biden did not win and is not the legitimate President. Now Cyber Ninjas, and anyone who accepts their results, will go into the dark dank cave of those now considered part of the conspiracy and are lying. This bunch is nothing if they aren't 100 percent committed. Just think of that number. We now have a count on just how many deranged and many dangerous people are in our country. That is not a number one can blow off even though certainly it is a minority. But also a lethal minority because this bunch also answered the question as to whether violence is acceptable to overturn the election with a resounding yes. and there really is no proof they will accept if it refutes what they want to believe. And now the Republican senate in Arizona is demanding the computers be checked even though they were NOT ever attached in any way, shape or form to these voting machines. The dimmest of their base demands there be a conspiracy and by God, they are going to give them evidence of one.. Amy possibility of bamboo trails in those computers?
Well, it seems to me that the main point of this was less the audit than the perpetual presence of Trum in the news, good or bad. Here we are writing about Trump, so in his mind, he wins anyway.
It is no longer about finding evidence, it's about fabricating pretexts to suppress the votes of those who do not fit the GOP concept of a "good" voter.
And guess what, the people that that went to all the time and trouble and expense to prove a rigged election are not very happy. They assumed this audit out fit, being owned by a pro Trumper and skeptic like them would come through for them. They never expected an honest audit. So now, what? Why sow doubt on the integrity of the "trusted" audit team: "....Friday, Maricopa County election officials criticized the Cyber Ninjas audit, saying in a Twitter thread that it "did not build trust."
"Good audits built trust. B/c they are conducted by experienced professionals who use well-defined, proven processes which produce reproducible results, good election audits provide quantifiable proof that that reported results match the canvass," a tweet from the county's official account said. "Board members support good audits. Regardless of what ends up in the final report, what Cyber Ninjas & co. conducted was not a good audit."
With a cult, it is never enough to prove their thesis is flawed, the hypothesis Null & Void, and their leader totally unworthy of either their trust or devotion. That’s why it’s a cult. Cults are impervious to logic, reason, facts, evidence, and proofs. DJT might be forgiven because he is certifiably and demonstrably nuts, but these acolytes and followers? Hopeless. It’s like those dingbats and their insistence that the Moon Landings were ‘faked.’ When each of their claims is dealt with one-by-one and shown to be not a matter of fakery, but merely oddities that occur because of Natural Phenomena (like the flag on the Moon ‘waving’ as if being blown by a gust of non-existent air), they don’t care and just move onto something else….”How do you explain those shadows?!” I am convinced when humans return to the Moon in the near future and visit some of those old Apollo sites these ‘Deniers’ will insist the photos they take of old NASA gear left behind was either brought up with them and ‘staged’ or ‘faked’ - just like the Original landings. I feel sorry for these idiots. The problem is that they are willing to sacrifice our country for this Master Deceiver. That is the tragedy.
Like hamsters on a wheel, these rats must like going nowhere;
unfortunately, they bring a lot of unsuspecting fools along
for the ride, disoriented and clueless. The rest of us have to wait
for these rats to stroke out, or at least get winded, or distracted.
Cheese donations now being accepted.
The answer to your question, Lucian, about "what's next," is answered in your own essay:
"On Friday, Trump himself issued a statement claiming that the audit "has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD! Until we know how and why this happened, our Elections will never be secure.'” There it is. T-rump will lie about and totally ignore the result, and go right on claiming fraud. And his worshipers will believe HIM and not the result of the audit the GOP itself conducted. As long as t-Rump is alive, this nightmare will never end.
they are still using this to cast doubt elections in general. they are taking the long view
And how much $$$ did this fiction cost the poor taxpayers of AZ?
I'm guessing that their next step is to declare that elections are by definition fraudulent and we shouldn't entrust the country to them. Yes, this is absurd, but given the spinelessness of so many of the supposedly sentient Republicans I'm more than a little worried.
Bravo, Mr. Truscott, for compiling and analyzing all the data. Viva the conclusions, and may it all conclude soon.
Trump loses votes in a recount and continues his dystopian claims. The audit “has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD! Until we know how and why this happened, our Elections will never be secure.” Black is White, Right is Wrong and still his supporters continue their support. There are just so many intelligent and not so intelligent people whose actions, beliefs and political passions I simply cannot fathom. The Delta variant is raging and the majority of people here are out in public without masks. It's frightening, really frightening.
What I would like to see is Maricopa County suing the State of Arizona, and each of the state senators who voted for this travesty for compensatory damages to cover the cost of this underwhelming fiasco, including the cost of all those voting machines that were irrevocably spoiled and rendered useless due to their partisan and malicious actions. I would also have them sue the company that pretended to do the audit; I was suppose that the only defense that they could possibly raise was that they found more actual Biden votes than Trump votes. How many successive audits do you need to prove the obvious.
The only upside of this shitshow is that it might dissuade others in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and other Republican-leaning states from continuing this travesty. Arizona was the poster child for malicious dumbfuckery, and they got exactly the same result they got the last two times around; but now those responsible for this entirely predictable outcome those responsible ought to be made to pay out-of-pocket for the entire out-of-pocket cost of this mess. There is a tangible thread between what happened in Arizona this week is pretty much on a par with what happened in California ten days ago when Governor Gavin Newsom easily fended off another carnival barker political wannabe, Larry Elder. California voters, by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1, saw through Elder's charade, and voted against him. We here in California do not get our $227 million back; but on a per capita basis of something around five bucks for each of us, the self-confidence we gain from going through this exercise cannot be measured in dollars and cents.
But the Trump cult shambles on, oblivious to the damage they do to themselves and to our country. I read in today's New York Times that in Missouri, with escalating rates of infection from Covid, and the resulting increasing number of deaths, more people are requesting Covid vaccines, but they are doing it in utmost secrecy (with hospitals offering private rooms) where people can be vaccinated without their friends knowing that they are getting the shots. Good grief! If you want to turn the tide toward getting back to normal, I would think that people would want to set the good example; instead, people are hiding, pretending that getting the shot is something shameful, like cross-dressing, or being seen in a church other than the one they are accustomed to. Someone needs to tell these people that their 'so-called' friends are not their friends at all, not if it means disregarding the received message from Fox News that standing with Trump is all-important, regardless of the consequences.
The sad part about all this has been that people are more willing to fight harder when they are in the wrong. It's as if they need to convince themselves, time and again, that they were right the first time, and that any change of mind is a sign of weakness. That's basically what we saw in Nazi Germany, late stage fanaticism that had no justification other than to validate their previous wrongdoing. For that, my inclination would be to double the punishment meted out. It's okay to be wrong, but it's not okay to double down on that wrongdoing, knowing what you then know. We do this all the time in the criminal justice system, encouraging plea agreements with people who know they've done wrong, and are willing to admit it, in contrast with people who insist on going to trial on the flimsiest of exculpatory evidence in the hopes that they might escape the consequences of their own wrongdoing. Juries and judges have no trouble throwing the book at people who act in defiance of the guilty knowledge that they knew exactly what they were doing when they did it. We saw this in the George Floyd murder trial case, where Derek Chauvin's lawyer argued his ridiculous defense that Floyd's death occurred due to some pre-existing medical condition. It's time to call these argument-for-argument's-sake apologists out for being the assholes they are, because they are tiresome, and really dangerous to the rest of us. It's the same with anti-vaxxers. The evidence is against them, and they willingly spread sickness that for some can quickly lead to death. That is also true in a political sense of disseminating false and malicious disinformation that causes the body politic to sicken and die. Indeed, the two are correlatives that need to be stopped in their tracks.
It would be so laughable except that there are people who actually believed that the 'audit' would uncover more votes for Trump and voter fraud. I feel sorry for those people who paid for this farce, because it's pretty obvious they've been hoodwinked.
Even if they are Republicans. Perhaps they should stop drinking that funny colored kool aid, because it definitely isn't helping them.
Hope everyone saw the GA Sec of State recently with really critical info. Basically, a huge number of Republican voters voted for GOP down ticket, but left the presidential choice blank, enough to cost Trump the election by 12000 or so votes.
Remember that phone call where Trump specifically asked the Secretary to find around 12000 votes? By recount, many GOP voters refused to vote for Trump.
We are seeing most of the recounts adding to Joe's victory!
And yet there is one thing certain, 47 million Republicans believe Biden did not win and is not the legitimate President. Now Cyber Ninjas, and anyone who accepts their results, will go into the dark dank cave of those now considered part of the conspiracy and are lying. This bunch is nothing if they aren't 100 percent committed. Just think of that number. We now have a count on just how many deranged and many dangerous people are in our country. That is not a number one can blow off even though certainly it is a minority. But also a lethal minority because this bunch also answered the question as to whether violence is acceptable to overturn the election with a resounding yes. and there really is no proof they will accept if it refutes what they want to believe. And now the Republican senate in Arizona is demanding the computers be checked even though they were NOT ever attached in any way, shape or form to these voting machines. The dimmest of their base demands there be a conspiracy and by God, they are going to give them evidence of one.. Amy possibility of bamboo trails in those computers?
Well, it seems to me that the main point of this was less the audit than the perpetual presence of Trum in the news, good or bad. Here we are writing about Trump, so in his mind, he wins anyway.
It is no longer about finding evidence, it's about fabricating pretexts to suppress the votes of those who do not fit the GOP concept of a "good" voter.
These Trump followers are weasels. I’m not wasting my breath on them!
And guess what, the people that that went to all the time and trouble and expense to prove a rigged election are not very happy. They assumed this audit out fit, being owned by a pro Trumper and skeptic like them would come through for them. They never expected an honest audit. So now, what? Why sow doubt on the integrity of the "trusted" audit team: "....Friday, Maricopa County election officials criticized the Cyber Ninjas audit, saying in a Twitter thread that it "did not build trust."
"Good audits built trust. B/c they are conducted by experienced professionals who use well-defined, proven processes which produce reproducible results, good election audits provide quantifiable proof that that reported results match the canvass," a tweet from the county's official account said. "Board members support good audits. Regardless of what ends up in the final report, what Cyber Ninjas & co. conducted was not a good audit."