Back in the summer I mentioned on The Mark Steyn Show that "cancel culture" was increasingly literal: It used to mean you got kicked off Twitter or Facebook; then it progressed to losing your job or television show or book contract. By 2020 it had advanced to being denied domain registration on the Internet, credit-card services, bank accounts and other basic necessities of modern life. Now, in a country with more lawyers than the rest of the planet combined, the supposedly "most powerful man on earth" wakes up and finds his counsel just canceled:
Lawyers with Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP submitted a filing late Thursday stating they were withdrawing as counsel in a federal suit seeking to block Pennsylvania from certifying its vote. No reason was given. In a statement issued Friday, the firm confirmed the filing but did not say why it was exiting the case.
Powerline's John Hinderaker reckons the reason is pretty obvious:
Porter Wright is a mid-sized law firm with offices in eight cities across the country. But apparently it lacked the courage to stand up against the Twitter mob. The "Lincoln Project" doxxed the two Porter Wright lawyers who signed the Pennsylvania complaint, tweeting their pictures, addresses and telephone numbers, and encouraging leftists to harass them. Reportedly there also were employees at the law firm who objected to representing President Trump. Porter Wright's abandonment of its client is shameful conduct for which I suspect it will receive little but praise.
[UPDATE: A Powerline reader with knowledge of the situation says that Porter Wright has withdrawn from only one of five suits.]
As John points out, in America everybody from 9/11 plotters to celebrity pedophiles, Boston bombers to Oscar-winning serial rapists gets hotshot law firms and nobody bats an eyelid. But not Donald J Trump, who is apparently unfit for legal representation.
If you like the sound of all that "unity" and "healing", this is what it boils down to - unity in the sense the Soviets meant it: the absence of opposition. And, when they're done with Trump, they're serious about that "Truth & Reconciliation" enemies list. To reiterate a point I've made for months: on free speech and related issues, things are going to head south very fast. I carelessly assumed they'd wait till the inauguration, but it seems "the Office of the President-Elect" is already on the case.
Time is of the essence here, and (as I'm well aware from personal experience) nothing sucks up more time and money in an active suit than bringing new lawyers up to speed - so this is a development with many immediate real-world benefits for the Democrats.
Meanwhile, doxxing counsel right out of the case is cheered on by a media hot for the new totalitarianism:
Yes, Going After Trump's Law Firms is Fair Game - Washington Post
Pressure Mounts on Attorneys Lodging US Election Fraud Claims - Connecticut Law Tribune
No Self-Respecting Lawyer Should Touch Trump's Election-Fraud Claims - The Atlantic
Another Law Firm Bails Out on Trump Campaign - Politico
As Daniel Greenfield observes, "If media didn't think Trump could win, it wouldn't be targeting his lawyers":
1. President Trump has a case. Enough of one for Democrats, and their media and legal allies to be worried.
2. The Democrats have something to hide.
Very true. The trick with any legal case is not to over-complicate it:
Trump won the election fair and square on Tuesday night. Then, with mysterious synchronicity, Democrat-run cities in swing states decided they were closing down for the night - something I've never seen in any free election (Canada, UK, France, Denmark, etc) but which is a relatively common trick in dictatorships and the like. When America woke up on Wednesday morning, those Democrat cities (Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta) had been the beneficiaries of necessary replenishments in the small hours, and were well on their way to delivering the election to Biden with voter turnout and candidate margins that bear no relation to the rest of the country, whether one is speaking of blue states, red states, or purple states lacking such efficient Democrat political machines.
That's where the election was stolen.
Whether you can interest the Supreme Court in such a case is a tricky question: America's crap and embarrassing national elections are, by design, run by counties with a thousand mutually incompatible voting systems. Lack of equal protection is thus baked into the cake, and not just tolerated but celebrated.
But I'm not sure it helps to drag, say, Lord Malloch-Brown into all this. I yield to no one in my contempt for this repulsive creature, and I have a decade-and-a-half-long record to prove it. George Soros was literally his landlord, to whom he paid rent of $120,000, from an annual salary of $125,000: now there's a guy who knows how to budget. Sidney Powell, for whom I have the greatest admiration and who will assuredly still be standing by the President when all other lawyers have joined Porter Wright in stampeding for the exits, tweets:
#Soros no. 2 man #Lord Malloch Brown heads up #Dominion funded by corrupt criminal communist money from #VZ #Cuba w/ #CCP.
Stephen McIntyre, slayer of Michael Mann's hockey stick, cautions:
I think that you should dial back implausible allegations of Venezuela and Cuba which won't hold up. If anyone did anything, it was US Democrats.
That's the point: It's a two-party system; one party won the election, and then the other party stole it. It's Trump vs Biden. Expanding it to Trump vs Soros, the Venezuelans, the Cubans et al ensures the case just becomes this season's Durham Report.
And, as we've yet to receive last season's Durham Report, you know how that's going to go.
Trump has now put Rudy Giuliani in sole charge of his multi-case legal pushback. The President could do a lot worse than fly Steve McIntyre down to Washington as his data analysts.
~Steyn Club members are welcome to weigh in in the comments. But this is not an "open thread", so please stay on point.
We opened The Mark Steyn Club over three years ago, and I'm thrilled by all those SteynOnline supporters across the globe - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Surrey to the Solomon Islands - who've signed up to be a part of it. My only regret is that we didn't launch it eighteen years ago, but better late than never. You can find more information about the Club here - and, if you've a pal who might be partial to this sort of thing, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Oh, and if you're seriously chafing under the prospect of election fraud and attendant litigation without end, there's no better cure than booking a berth on our Third Annual Steyn Cruise sailing the Med next year - and with Conrad Black, Michele Bachmann, John O'Sullivan and Douglas Murray among our shipmates. We'll be attempting some seaboard versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Tales for Our Time, our Sunday Poem and other favorite features. If you're minded to give it a go, don't leave it too late: as with most travel and accommodations, the price is more favorable the earlier you book - and, if the post-election goes south, you'll surely be grateful for a break from Kamala.
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I agree with the premise that the American electorate was defrauded in the 2020 election, and I wholeheartedly agree with Mark's sentiment that the exact amount of voters fraud is a completely moot point. But no one is suggesting something like 72 million votes were faked are they? The fact that legit US voters let Joe Biden get within the 'margin of fraud' is the problem that has to be faced. If so many people actually voted for the democrat ticket then the wonderful US experiment is over anyway.
If you think this is going to stop with anything short of armed revolt, you're kidding yourself. The nation will be gone if Biden is allowed to steal this election
On January 27, 1998, Hillary Clinton, increasingly desperate to protect her husband and herself from political and economic ruin, turned to one of the most effective weapons in a politician's quiver. She went on The Today Show with Matt Lauer (a now defrocked priest of sanctimony) and announced to the world that her husband was the victim of a "vast right wing conspiracy". There may be many names for this weapon but I call it, "casting shade". We all know that this was an utterly untrue and unfair statement but, it had plausibility and I believe if you confronted her with it today, she would righteously insist that it is true.
It is my assessment that the opposition to Donald Trump has been unrelenting in their efforts to "cast shade" on him in any way they can. Assuming a universal posture of disdain and contempt they have derided him as an uncouth, corrupt outsider. They accepted the Steele dossier as absolute truth and used it to get FISA warrants to spy on him and justify the launch of the Moeller investigation. And then, with innate evil genius, they used the investigation to get suborned insiders to illegally leak additional groundless smears to their willing unethical journalists against the duly elected President of the United States. Note, however, that every bit of it was plausible - even the ridiculous Impeachment charade had plausibility.
But now things have turned. I think it is Trump's time to cast shade on his opponents and for Trump, the shade he could cast will not only be plausible but true. It should start with the accusation that Biden is a feckless, incompetent, ageing politician without the stamina to serve as President. That Biden is a corrupt man and a corrupt politician beholden to other people. That Biden is the product of a vast left wing conspiracy that is composed of malign and unprincipled members of the Democrat Party, suborned, corrupt members of the main stream media, and corrupted and partisan deep state elements. And that all of this unholy triumvirate of opposition is getting material support from the outside - from enemies of this country. That they have all conspired to frustrate the will of the people of this country by rigging this election.
I think it is time for Trump to start casting shade. God knows he is due.
@Kate Smythe
You are correct on the status of Governor De Santis's "ruling". However, these anarchist movements have both national and international financial backing, and succeed in democratically controlled states and cities by permission, stated and otherwise tolerated. The implicit message is "Resistance is futile" If one resists, they will pay a price. Because the police have been essentially neutered in many states and cities, and where these groups haven't succeeded, their next natural targets are states, cities and groups who are conservative and also support Trump. The first thing to go, as has been thoroughly discussed in Mark's forum, is the ability of citizens to protect themselves. Willingly laying down their arms for the "well-being of the community" has been done in Australia and Europe, and suggested over the years, for The US. Countries who did this have always paid the price. Recently, witness Covid lockdown abuse in Victoria, AUS, of an elderly lady testing on a park bench.I doubt this pokicy would be succeding so well if the citizens were not so easily dominated. And the same exists here, like in Michigan USA for comparison, and especially the new wasteland of NYC, with mayor Pol Pot at the helm. Yes, we do have the second Amendment, but the protection of the citizens varies from state to state. It's complicated. During this Annus Horribilus, emboldened leftist mayors and governors have looked the other way while the Citizens are persecuted and killed.
Florida, residential state of Donald Trump is a logical next target by these groups, especially after the million-plus organic citizens rally yesterday. Trump supporters were attacked.
Just to add to the optics, my husband advised me this morning that his network of financial gurus had evidence of Antifa putting out the word instructing rioters and murderers to dress in Trump gear in future attacks.
I think the Governor's public policy statement was more of a notice for Antifa and BLM, than for the Citizens of Florida, and also an indirect warning for us to make ready and be prepared for anything.
A police officer tasering a maskless woman at a football game in Ohio - while other spectators moved away or just watched - was one of the more extreme examples of "wanker coppers" this year... so I'm not convinced that weapons act as a deterrent to heavy-handed law enforcement (unless they're Antifa weapons, in which case the officers take-a-knee).
If and when there is more violence from the fascistic left, the media will have played a large part and have blood on their hands too.
Any close election raises the natural question of the general accuracy and integrity of the real counts. This year, our "pandemic" facilitated a great reduction in personal verification of voters - by allowing tens of millions of "absentee" mail-in ballots, which are very hard to verify. SO then it comes down to competition between the cheaters. And the easiest places to cheat are the dense urban and suburban centers, who swing mostly .... Democratic. It is not too hard to recount, but to audit the verification would be a months-long effort, something no one wants to touch. So we will likely be welcoming President Biden, and must struggle for a future result that exceeds the margin of swindle, not just lawyer.
Okay, so seriously now - I'm on the cusp of launching my blog and was planning on using - who else? - WordPress.
If anyone out there in SteynClub Land knows of another platform that has proven itself to be champions of free speech, I will happily take my blog elsewhere. If there isn't, well, I'm just a work-at-home-mom with an opinion and I'll have to take my chances with WP. While holding my nose. What choice do I have?
And that's the position we're all in right now. Mr. Steyn's words about the bazillion dollars wasted on Romney are too true. If Trump loses this thing, I hope to G-d someone tells him he should take his money and use it to nail Big Tech to the wall by creating something to rival it.
One alternative is to still use the WordPress software but do so through a traditional web host rather than the WordPress.com platform. It won't be as user friendly an experience but hosting providers have created tools that make hosting WordPress much easier. I have a website hosted with WP software with a company called Dreamhost that has what they call a "one-click install" for WordPress that includes automatic updates. They also have a thing called DreamPress, which costs a bit more but it approximates the WordPress.com experience. Go Daddy is another web host option that offers simple WordPress installation. Finally, Squarespace is an alternative platform that I've used in the past but I'm not sure what their track record is with regard to de-platforming sites whose content they disagree with. Good luck!
I hope it's okay to continue this on this forum...
I was talking about WordPress.org, not .com. Does the same principle apply? Should I avoid using Bluehost because of their agreements with WP?
I know how to work the back end of WP (I'm a content marketer and blogger, after all) but I never had to set it up myself, hence my questions and my gratitude to the moderators at SteynOnline if they let this through.
The set up you mentioned with Bluehost should be okay. I believe that Conservative Tree House was using the WordPress.com platform, which operates in a manner similar to other social media sites as far as terms of service is concerned. If you're using WP on a web host there shouldn't be any business transacted (as far as I know) with the WordPress commercial entity.
Thanks so much, I appreciate it.
And again, thanks to the mods at STO for allowing this not-100%-on-topic conversation.
"Trump won the election fair and square on Tuesday night."
This means millions of postal votes must have been fraudulent .Where is your evidence , please ?
A Down Under club member and decades long friend of the U.S.
Trump didn't lose by millions in the Electoral College, that's the thing. The so-called "popular vote" is meaningless.
To win this, Trump shouldn't be the only one challenging this. A wave of lawsuits regarding how this election was handled need to be done by multiple entities and on multiple fronts.
The fact that so many in media seem unwilling to grasp and accept the fact of electoral fraud should be the final piece of evidence that they are an obsolete institution. They are no longer interested even in the biggest news, only in sucking up to the progressive elite.
On the road ahead, we must help friends and neighbours see that relying on mainstream media is a form of disinformation. Fortunately, those media will supply us with so many examples, it is more a matter of diligence than creativity.
"On the road ahead, we must help friends and neighbours see that relying on mainstream media is a form of disinformation." Heck, it's the prime example of disinformation. I pick and choose my sources of news and commentary very wisely, and a key aspect of that involves ignoring the major media. If something of urgency and importance to me is happening I pick local news over national news every time. If the people behind the news in major media companies have anything in common, it's the desire to secure their place in an elite and increasingly insecure industry. The media have found out that sucking up to the progressive elite is a sure fire way to insure that they have a chair when the music stops. Going in the other direction offers a far less secure and far more treacherous path.
Sal Tessio, Being a courtier always pays better than being a ranger. The problem before us is that too many people still don't know that when they listen to the MSM, they are listening to courtiers, not rangers. Unless we are discussing palace gossip, that's NOT the way to find out what's really going on.
Average Americans are likely to find themselves with fewer traditional rights and more exotic ones than in the past. Put simply: Free pot but not free thought. The good news is that ordinary people can help friends and neighbours find news sources that are telling us the things we need to know that the government would just as soon we didn't. And that's going to become so much more important very soon, no matter what happens with the US election.
"Free pot but not free thought."
That was a great way to put it, Denyse. Again, one of those things one wishes one had said. A side benefit of being a member here is reading the comments of so many people who are so articulate. What a pleasure.
Mark - Narrow legal arguments, even if correct, won't win. This is not a court case - it's an election. Yes, it's being fought in court. But it's still just an election.
Elections are won by the voters. The court needs to see technically correct legal arguments, coupled with 73 million outraged Trump voters. That's what wins. You have to be right on the law, coupled with outrage.
That's what Sidney Powell is doing. She's motivating the voters. She's toast in court without the voters backing her up. Pie charts are meaningless without emotion backing them.
In the recent Q&A, Mark emphasised - re everyone from NASCAR to Chick-fil-A - the fact that "they HATE you". Wouldn't 70,000,000 voters simultaneously cancelling their FOX subscriptions tomorrow send a message? Tucker Carlson et al would survive - and thrive.
In terms of messaging, VDH suggested Trump appoint a czar to coordinate daily political, legal and data updates (similar to Covid press briefings). It would be worthwhile imo just to see the exploding heads on the Left: there are already renewed threats with regards to invoking the 25th Amendment.
Isn't it a little early to be thinking of retiring/firing Joe Biden??
Mark: I don't know what you think of the pro Trump "Conservative Treehouse" AKA "The Last Refuge" but it Is a very informative site and provides an excellent comments section. Lou Dobbs, Sidney Powell etc have referenced some of their articles so it has made a significant contribution to the fight.
They received this notice from platform provider WordPress one week after the election but just announced it today to its readers and subscribers:
"...given the incompatibility between your site's content and our terms, you need to find a new hosting provider and must migrate the site by Wednesday, December 2nd."
CTH replied, " It means CTH is being (deplatformed) kicked-off the WordPress website hosting platform because the content of our research and discussion does not align with the ideology of those who define what is acceptable speech and what is not."
"What was our violation? After ten years of brutally honest discussion, opinion, deep research and crowdsourcing work -with undeniable citations on the events we outline- there is no cited violation of any term of service because CTH has never violated one."
It's obvious now that not only will the social media tyrants not back off now that they believe they have finally squashed Trump's MAGA movement and successfully censored countless Conservative voices during the election, they and their other political partners in Big Tech have combined their resources to crush whatever is left.
After, I learned about CTH's deplatforming, I wondered if your site will soon receive a similar announcement. I recall you explained some details about your site platform but unfortunately I can't recall the details. Wish I'd saved the explanation. Do you feel relatively secure on this site. I know you have to be very diligent to avoid violating legal issues etc. but I hope we won't soon read about pending problems with your Steynoline site.
I just noticed Mark's retweet of James Todaro's tweet of the CTH "deplatforming."
It would be helpful if there is a non woke multi billionaire (or two) somewhere in America that is willing to invest in alternative news and platforming services for Conservatives and others.
It seems like an excellent time and opportunity to funnel 73 million Americans and hopefully others into your business. But they had better be willing to offer freedom of speech, real and accurate news and informative no holds barred political commentary etc.. This might mean just partnering with the Newsmax and OAN investors in order to expand on their accomplishments to create a more formidable and very appealing alternative to the dying and boring fake news.
Also, negotiate a deal for a "Mark Steyn show" type inclusion. The possibilities are limitless. Negotiating with the cable and satellite companies to include your network in their services might be a problem.
Note--I found a March 1, 2017 article by CTH that praised Mark's humor and large following and politically criticized some of those involved in the cancellation of his show.
To paraphrase something Mark has said and written on multiple occasions over the past few months, "If Trump loses things will get very bad, very fast." Indeed. I'm quite familiar with WordPress due to my interest in blogging going back to the early 2000s. It was originally released as an Open Source project but has now morphed into a Platform. Although WordPress is still available as a standalone package of software that can be hosted on any web server, it's a total pain in the arse to maintain the thing that way. So initially the Platform approach seemed like a great idea. Alas, for every platform there is also the possibility of being de-platformed. Another point Mark has made over the years is that we're being killed by convenience on the internet. Whether it's running podcasts thru Apple, publishing on Facebook, uploading videos to YouTube or utilizing WordPress's platform, there is a definite price to be paid for the convenience of platforms. But of course it's folks on the right who pay that price more than anyone it seems. It's been a very smart move by Mark to consolidate his activity here while eschewing the major platforms. Republicans, Conservatives and Freedom loving Americans should take note of Mark's approach and do likewise!
Good advice Sal and thanks for the info.
Mark,
As you sometimes say America might as well go back to the British Empire. I wonder if, in a way, the red states are returning to an imperial model of government. I hear more echoes for a new lockdown because a new lockdown means a new unrestricted stimulus (beware this time there will be permanent benefits) the primary goal of which will be to bailout the blue states. As an imperial analogy, we can say the blue states have every intention of making the red states, in effect, their colonies whereby the red states will exist to provide resources and wealth to the blue states' decadence in return for, well what exactly? Protection? Diversity? Wise rule? Is America undergoing some kind of reverse colonialism where some heretofore equal states devolve to colony type status? The elimination of the electoral college might be a start.
Every bit of logic points us to only one conclusion: Trump won. The statistical analysis of the way votes came in after counting was 'paused' in three crucial states, the precincts where votes exceeded registered voters, the tardiness in calling (on 3 Nov.) states T had clearly won, the clamor for counts to be halted and ballots with problems to be counted, the list goes on and on...But the phrasing adopted in the WP and NYT today is the clearest evidence. The new meme is that no one in history of presidential elections has ever received as many votes as B. Here's the thing: No one in any presidential election has ever received as many votes as T, the winner, did in 2020. More votes would have had to be found for B, and they were. (And that was after all the pre-election lawyer maneuvering by B promoters still could not suppress T voters.)//Before the election there were rumors that print media not exactly promoters of B were told to get on board or at least be more critical of T lest they lose access to B after he won. It is a sordid mess. The question is how many Americans are going to continue in their mode of 'oh, it will be alright' (it won't) and 'the Congress will balance things out (it can't) or Republicans will hold the Senate (not a chance without exposing what happened on 3 Nov.)?
About the only positive I can take from this is to take notes about how not to let your country go down the drain. As I have commented before, what we are seeing has been at least 50 years in the making. You cannot undo that damage in a couple of rallies or challenges in the high court.
If they can stop the President from getting legal representation, it will be child's play to prevent the same for some schlub on the street with a few dog whistling tweets. Also Mark knows how unpleasant and expensive it is to try and get some semblance of "justice" through the courts. Soon the left will have bottomless pockets when it comes to dragging people through that system and the right will just get worn down and defunded as it goes through one useless long drawn out fight after another and maybe occasionally getting a laughable win.
Sadly, our great republic is circling the bowl. It causes me great sadness.
Via Ace of Spades, it seems the deplatforming is picking up speed.
I think you're somewhat behind the curve on the present situation, Mark. As I said repeatedly before the presidential election, Trump would win narrowly and then the battle would move quickly to the courts and the streets. This is exactly what has happened, with Saturday's MAGA march on liberal Washington and the physical/intellectual overshadowing of the liberal institutional militia forces there by our own democratic forces a clear indicator of the national and state urban confrontations yet to come - and our success in these too.
In my pre-election comments here I also notified you and everyone else on here that there would be an individual choice to be made by everyone in the situation that I forecast would happen, and has now actually happened. Are we willing to do whatever is democratically appropriate and necessary, physically as well as intellectually, to defend democracy and us, the demos? Or not? We have democratic legitimacy; our enemies do not because they are anti-democrats. We are the pro-democracy forces mobilising against the anti-democratic liberal institutional dictatorships. And we should frame it this way - us the demos versus liberal institutional diktats, dictators and dictatorships - rather than merely Trump vs Biden. What do you say?
i spent nearly a year working for two fairly famous criminal defense attorneys. The list of devils they defended (not always successfully) is long and the crimes were hair raising. I also have spent time with them at lawyer conferences where they are celebrated and fawned over. On one long car journey I had to shut them both up, "if you think I'm spending the next six hours as you compare and try to one-up each other with crimes and where body parts were found, pull over and let me out now."
They both believe lawyers should refuse to represent DJT on "principle".
Your story captures the hypocrisy very neatly, A.
This is REALLY chilling. So, a white shoe law firm is retained by the sitting President of The United States and is easily badgered into withdrawing legal services by the political opponents of their client? And instead of holding said opponents accountable for their illegal and appalling behavior, they are rewarded? Everyone of that firm's law partners should be disbarred. Trump has had EVERY barricade and hurdle put up in his path the last 4 years by the media, FBI, House investigation teams and even some who served on his staff in the White House and he has triumphed through it all. But I don't see how he gets through this. Based on past performance it's not smart to bet against this guy. Perhaps he prevails again. Our society must start to hold individuals accountable for the destructive behavior that has been going on not only this year but for the last 4 years. It's not a left versus right thing. It's a moral imperative if we are to survive. Even if Trump survives this it doesn't look like the future is bright. Regardless of the outcome it appears we are in for more of the same. Behavior that is punished tends to decrease in frequency. Behavior that is rewarded tends to increase in frequency. If you are riding the tiger you better not dismount.
Have been emotionally fluctuating between extremes of despondency and hopefulness over the elections' outcomes, from presidential on down.
We've always heard that if America were to fall, it would do so from within. If these thefts (at various levels) hold up, it seems like we can say that it's already happened.
I absolutely empathize with your fluctuations from despondency to hopefulness. Only by God's grace am I not in a fretful state of despair. People have often said in elections past that people should get a taste of what they are voting for from the Left, then the Republicans would be elected en masse to come in and clean up the mess. That strategy has always been idiotic to me. I will admit though that I have wished all of these clueless people who think covid lockdowns and green new deals represent the general welfare would get to fully taste their folly. The cost is just too horrendous and the clueless always seem to remain impenetrably so no matter what evidence is set right in front of them.
I'm not sure anything has been as plainly exposed in 2020 as the fact that social media is actually a weapon of the left in the war against anything and everything that the right (or what's left of it) holds dear. It's clear that Twitter's censorship of posts which started with posts related to Covid was merely a beta test ahead of the election, to the point where now nearly every post made by President Trump is tagged as "disputed" information. Really? What on the internet is not disputed? Similar to Twitter, YouTube adds "contextual" information alongside the description of any video upload where the title refers to either Covid or the election. In fact, such context was added to the live stream of last Friday's update on Operation Warp Speed, not referring to Covid but to the fact that the AP had called the election for Joe Biden. It should be clear to people now that it's not enough to Walk Away from the Democrat party. It's time to Walk Away from the Big Tech giants since it's plain to see that Big Tech only wants contributions from the right as a means to monitor and assist in the doxing of people they disagree with.
On another note, I have some thoughts regarding Trump's law firm exiting the case in PA. I used to work for one of those global bazillion dollar consulting firms who no one ever got fired for hiring and I tend to think that many so-called prestigious law firms operate in a similar manner. They talk a big game, sending in their A-Team when the potential client calls and has some pressing problem that needs solving. But when push comes to shove the bulk of the work is done by underpaid staff billed out at exorbitant rates. So perhaps it's good riddance to Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP. I think that the President is better off with a rag tag team of true believers than a team of hired guns that brings a word salad of names to the table but no spine. What's that famous Texas saying? All hat, no cattle!
Mark-John updated his original post that you link to. I may have had a hand in getting him that info. It's an important update as it's true.
As they say of the Masters golf tournament (which I have been watching most of the day), you can't win it on the first day, but you can lose it. So SloJo could never win the presidency, but he could lose it. You stay in your Codger Cave, "Big Guy", we've got this. There was Dr. Jill always at his side, doing her best Edger Bergen imitation (which wasn't all that good), prompting him with sensible answers when his were insensate. The Democrat Media Complex simply ignored his ignorant ramblings; all the better to replace him, dear man. Which is why KAH-ma-la also lurked in the shadows: so as not to be too obvious about "a Harris administration...with Joe Biden". Count how many times she's referred to as the "next President of the United States"--not least by her own husband.
They knew they had the votes. I mean, had the votes, as many as they needed, in dead drops and car trunks in all the major cities. "You want a landslide, boss, or will a tickler do?" I'm not a big believer in heroes, but we'll need a few. Besides the 73-ish million of us. I wonder if Justice Alito just gave us a clue?
Well, we can all rest easy now that Guiliani is in charge of the whole legal thing. Why can't voters file a class action lawsuit against the state of PA? Aren't Trump voters really the aggrieved party here? There's enough evidence to suggest voting irregularities, if not fraud, so why can't they sue for having their rights trampled on? The right to vote by American citizens in free and fair elections is the cornerstone of our democracy. Maybe I'm being naive, but it seems an end-run might be the best way to go rather than Trump tackling it himself.
Don't count Rudy out. He successfully prosecuted John Gotti (and friends) under RICO statutes that no other federal prosecutor could wrap their minds around. Giuliani is also fiercely loyal to Trump and loyalty is a precious thing right now that, as we saw with the law firm that exited the case, money cannot buy.
Looks as if America is far down the leftist tyranny road, and the usual suspects among our garbage elite are confident normal Americans can be subjugated.
Gradually and then suddenly, as Mark has warned for some time.
VDH mentions the insidious total-take-over by the left of *everything* - citing the MSM example of Fox News - in an interview today*, and alludes to the possible internet censorship of dissenting blogs and email groups. (*American Thought Leaders - The Epoch Times: US Election 2020 and Trump's prospects.)
On media and world leaders calling the election and setting public opinion in favour of the so-called President-elect, he notes the pressure being applied where it matters (when time is of the essence): "Let's see if the Supreme Court is going to stop me [Biden], because instead of adjudicating a constitutional question, let's see if they have the guts to overthrow a presidency that's already in power, de facto."
PS. Great to have the combination of excellent written *and* audio post-mortem election analysis at SteynOnline. The last "wireless" might come in handy, in addition to the last photocopier.
Biden borrowed that "office-of-the-President-elect" podium thing from Obama, who tried the same stunt in 2008-9. Obama exaggerated his position, to try to negate the actions of the outgoing presidency in 2008, and abused his office, seeking to undermine an incoming administration, before it had even started, in 2016.
One could be forgiven for imagining that the political battlefield in the United States may be flat, but that it has a pronounced angle to it.
I think there are a lot of very bright lawyers involved now and I think Daniel Greenfield's assessment is right. The goal posts from the Fictitious Office-Elect are changing quite rapidly so they must be quite nervous. It went very quickly from 'there's no fraud' to 'there's no widespread fraud' pretty quickly. A few of Trump's people have gotten some of the critical messages out to the public, one I saw today on FOX asked the rather testy anchor how many dead people voting is an acceptable number of dead people voting. I agree with you Mark, that they need to keep it simple.
Something else I thought was interesting that I saw on Twitter was someone who commented that if the Democrats really thought they won and it was a done deal, why are stores still boarded up? There's something to that as well.
"I think there are a lot of very bright lawyers involved now..." Yes, and they're likely to be loyal as well. In the shark infested waters of the swamp loyalty is right up there with legal skill as a priceless trait. And if this case is so plainly a dud, then why aren't Democrats glad to see it argued in court so Trump and his team can look like fools? My sense is that even if Trump's cases ultimately fail they will likely expose information that the Dems and their enablers do not want to see the light of day.
BTW Mark, you are much easier on the ear than Glenn Greenwald.
Last Thursday, Kim Strassel's column in the WSJ explained very clearly that the gaming of the 2020 election goes back two years. Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced, as her first act:
"Mrs. Pelosi unveiled a 600-plus page bill devoted to "election reform." Some of the legislation was aimed at weaponizing campaign-finance law, giving Democrats more power to control political speech and to intimidate opponents. But the bill was equally focused on empowering the federal government to dictate how states conduct elections—with new rules designed to water down ballot integrity and to corral huge new tranches of Democratic voters.
"The bill would require states to offer early voting. They also would have to allow Election Day and online voter registration, diluting the accuracy of voting rolls. H.R. 1 would make states register voters automatically from government databases, including federal welfare recipients. Colleges and universities were designated as voter-registration hubs, and 16-year-olds would be registered to vote two years in advance. The bill would require "no fault" absentee ballots, allowing anyone to vote by mail, for any reason. It envisioned prepaid postage for federal absentee ballots. It would cripple most state voter-ID laws. It left in place the "ballot harvesting" rules that let paid activists canvass neighborhoods to hoover up absentee votes."
Since Nancy only controlled one house of congress, they had to implement their scheme in other ways. The Corona virus gave the Democrats their opening and they executed their plan brilliantly. Democrats and liberal activist groups filed lawsuit that, when decided in their favor, forced states to mail out ballots to everyone, scrapped absentee-ballot witness requirements, set up curbside voting and drop-off boxes, and condoned ballot harvesting. Judges in Pennsylvania disregarded statutory deadlines for receipt of votes.
The question now is, was all this Constitutional? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's actions clearly weren't, in the eyes of Samuel Alito. But I doubt John Roberts has the cojones to admit he erred in acquiescing in it a few weeks ago, when he joined the three liberals in a 4-4 stand off.
Patrick, you are very generous in writing that "John Roberts ..... admit he erred..".
My view is that Roberts has made a play to replace the Director of the FBI as power behind the Presidency, by crippling Trump's campaign whilst he was still in the position so to do. Comey's interference in the 2016 election was driven by the FBI's policy of keeping the presidential cojones in their own jar. Comey fumbled the, er, balls, giving Roberts the once in a lifetime opportunity to be America's Prince Regent for life.
I hear that The Ukraine is unwilling to certify the US Presidential Election, but for $2bn and a cabinet post, they are willing to reconsider.
But it's a "soft" $2bn. They would be happy with $1.5bn and the cabinet post.
The state legislatures are in charge of sending the electors to DC to vote December 14th. All of the contested states have Republican legislatures. They do not have to send Trump electors, they merely have to acknowledge the failure of their state to hold a fair election by not certifying a winner of their EC votes. With no candidate receiving 270 electoral votes it goes to the US House where Trump wins 26-24.
The nation's founders foresaw nearly everything. It is, after all, a representative republic... if we can keep it.
If the election goes to the US House, Nancy Pelosi will choose the next president. I think she's unlikely to select Trump.
"...Nancy Pelosi will choose the next president."
Not so, the Speaker is powerless to do so. Each state's house delegation gets one vote. So California's 53 house members get one vote to count for Biden. However, the majority of state delegations are majority Republican.
In the House each state delegation gets one vote. The Rs have 26 states
I did not know that! I feel relieved, maybe slightly hopeful.
This is the best news Trump could have received. Sidney Powell is a legal rock star! D.C., anti-Trump politicians, the media, slimey world leaders, corporations, and all swamp dwellers are needing to stock up on depends and t.p, while they search for uncompromised lawyers to represent them. They stole the entire US Constitution from every American who cast a legal vote. This is treason at the highest level.
It was gowever, only a matter of time before this occurred as successfully as it did. The next two weeks should be interesting for Biden, as everyone's going to have to explain to him why be can't go play in his new office.
Query: with all of the affluent attorneys in the Republican party, why aren't any of them offering to do legal work for free to help with this fight? They owe their downballot victories to Trump, who fought for them and America without compensation. They should let the voter off of the hook this go round.
"Query: with all of the affluent attorneys in the Republican party, why aren't any of them offering to do legal work for free to help with this fight?" Sure there are plenty of "affluent" Republican attorney's, but how many of them have an ounce of guts? I say only the one's who are coming to Trump's aid in his (and our) time of need.
I knew this would be a rhetorical question almost as soon as I placed the period after the d. But I'm with Mark about the Republicans. They make me sick to look at them. Trump exposed them as the laziest, sorriest bunch of smelly ticks I've ever witnessed. The only way they could ever get my vote again is if they stand up now. Otherwise, they need to be replaced, that is if ever we have a legislature again that isn't part of China.
I don't know that you need to get into the actual mechanics of what happened. In any functional. healthy democracy votes that turn up after voting day get disqualified. It's beyond absurd that you can be counting "new" ballots a day after the election, much less weeks afterwards. The only reasonable solution is to take the count as it appeared midnight election day and declare the winner based on it.
So the Porter Wright firm pulled off the internal sabotage of jumping into the case, then abandoning ship and wishing the President well for lost time he can't afford. I thought before you were a bit quick to slam the law firm of Jones Day based on what sounded like the usual anonymous sources for the usual lying press. Maybe Jones Day is no better, but maybe they are the ones who will jump into the extra court work that Porter Wright is now leaving behind. I do wish, though, that I was hearing less about lawyers and courts and much much more about the state legislatures, which have Republican-control in every state that currently matters. Those legislatures need to reject the fraud of their corrupt local election hacks and instead name their own slate of electoral college Trump electors as Article II of the Constitution provides. The Courts aren't going to stop the fraud if the state legislatures decide to sit it out.
Hey, Mark. It occurred to me that there are over 70 million Trump voters. We don't have to worry about being 'cancelled' because we have enormous power to cancel the left. Our buying power is huge and our ability to 'cancel' is huge, including junk from China, fake news, social media, etc. We don't need any of it and they need us. In addition, we need a pro-Trump, MAGA PAC to which every Trump supporter could contribute $100/yr That would provide a war fund of over 7.2 billion dollars to use to clean up elections in all red states, recruit and support state and national candidates, help support a Trump news network, etc., and the Trump campaign has tons of info about supporters to use to keep everyone informed. I'm an attorney myself and the main thing attorneys like is money. They need to have their reputations protected and they are now by the deep state. We could publish lists of lib hacks to be avoided and they would smarten up fast. We have power and soon they won't. If they want to destroy their cities let them. MAGA forever!!!!
More and more, I find myself thinking that the US is becoming the USSR with better technology.
Gareth, I do contemplate it with some gloom. When Mrs. W. visited a college friend in communist Hungary back in the mid-60s (a longer story), the family, after listening to Radio Free Europe in the evening, would carefully move the radio dial to another frequency, lest authorities enter their flat and notice. They didn't have to worry about "cookies" back then.
I've just read that WordPress, the world's largest website and blog-hosting service, is "deplatforming" the Conservative Treehouse on short notice for "incompatibility between your site's content and our terms."
"Content"... they're not even bothering to obfuscate the reasons.
Brian: Thanks for the heads up. I was just looking at Wordpress for the possible hosting and development of my own website. This is truly a world turned on its head, and we can't trust anything anymore. At some point I would that sanity, common sense and humanity prevail again. While I blame the left for Much of the evil and depravity, I blame the right for complacency. A passive onlooker is equally guilty in the presence of wrong-doing .
Also, with more self-destructive notions, G.
"I blame the right for complacency. A passive onlooker is equally guilty in the presence of wrong-doing."
In terms of the citizenry, I sometimes wonder. I think that because those on the right are not going to go around smashing windows and looting and harassing people outside their homes (nor should they!), they feel that all they can do is vote.
And now even that doesn't help, apparently.
I often grapple with this. What am I really doing about all of this? I mean, other than leave comments. I live across the ocean, I can't even go to a Trump rally. When Sean Connery came up in comments right after his death, I mentioned the one Connery movie I actually saw: The Untouchables. One of his big lines as Malone is:
WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO?
And I ask myself: What are you prepared to do? What, as a working mom on a tight budget, can I do? And the answer is...I don't know. Which I guess on one hand makes me a passive onlooker. On the other hand, I'm not. I don't have the answers. Which I guess is at least better than pretending there are no questions.
I return to my JFK "give it peacefully or we'll take it violently" threat.
Gerry Adams' IRA/Sinn Fein strategy was "ballot and bullet". This is the default leftist strategy.
The DNC has been using the violence of its provisional wing, Antifa/BLM in tandem with ballot rigging, to wage war on conservatives, aided by the social media cartel.
Eventually, and probably in short order, the logic of this will become clear to conservatives. If this is all a charade, and lawful voting does not work we will either have one-party rule by a kelptocracy or we will have escalating localized and random violence.
One hopes that the judiciary understands that this is an existential threat to the country.
As per a popular (anonymous) comment at Powerline: "Our political system cannot survive mob rule. We are headed towards anarchy, which will devolve into a Leftist Authoritarianism."
But there's the sense that cancel culture and mob anarchy - or even the threat thereof - have been enough to ensure the desired outcome of "unity". (Not unlike Islamic intimidation in the cause of "diversity".)
And then there's the Governor of Florida's ruling this week that the owners of businesses, should they experience the threat of looting or harm by Antifa, BLM, or other leftist mobs, have the right to use deadly force to protect themselves and their businesses. At first glance this might be an alarming thought to those citizens of other countries who've disarmed themselves, but when the Left is backing anarchy, it's comforting to put potential criminals on notice that if they harm or loot or shoot, we will shoot hem right back, and we are trained and do carry. So many U.S. laws have been successfully watered down by the left and their myriad of idiots over the years. Gun-grabbing Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi have deep ties and investments in the election-stealing software, and we will see how deep this goes. This is truly an opportunity for the revival of the individual if we have courage and stand our ground. George Soros should see his evil plans go up in smoke.
"... the right to use deadly force to protect themselves and their businesses."
What surprises me, Jan, is that this isn't self-evidently the case according to your Second Amendment - and especially so in situations where policing no longer exists.
I appreciate the self-defence aspect of being armed in a society where everyone else is. What I don't "get"
is the Second Amendment as it pertains to comments by Terry and Perry: If Trump doesn't succeed, that's presumably where things are headed, yes?
"And then there's the Governor of Florida's ruling this week that the owners of businesses, should they experience the threat of looting or harm by Antifa, BLM, or other leftist mobs, have the right to use deadly force to protect themselves and their businesses. "
Unfortunately, Jan, it's not a "ruling"; it's draft legislation. Here are the first two paragraphs of an article from the Chicago Tribune on November 11:
"TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Gov. Ron DeSantis has drafted 'anti-mob' legislation that would expand Florida's Stand Your Ground law — a move that critics say will allow armed citizens to shoot suspected looters or anyone engaged in 'criminal mischief' that disrupts a business.
"Lawyers say it's just one of the many troubling aspects of the draft bill being pushed by the Republican governor in response to police-brutality protests that erupted across Florida and the United States this summer."
The rest of the fairly detailed article is dominated by clucking from usual (partisan) suspects, including the ACLU. For example:
"Melba Pearson, a civil-rights attorney and former deputy director of Florida's American Civil Liberties Union, said the bill is 'designed to tamp down on First Amendment rights of protesters.' She said even the title, 'anti-mob,' is misleading — Florida did not have large-scale clashes between police and protesters like other states.
"'These are not mobs running around the street. People are using their First Amendment rights. This is a democracy, lest some in Tallahassee forget,' said Pearson, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor."
That's the sort of thing one tends to hear from the ACLU and the Left more generally: "It's not a problem. So why the fuss?" The notion of getting out ahead of a problem -- such as legislating against sanctuary cities before that plague arrives -- reliably eludes them. (Except it probably **doesn't** elude them, in fact.)
Speaking of the concept of applying "deadly force" to mob activities, Jared Taylor did an excellent article on this at American Renaissance in 2015: "We Used to Shoot Looters." It was in the wake of the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore, and it gives a good historical review.
Kate - the reply botton wasn't working for some reason, so please see my reply to you above. Cheers!
Excellent article but I think it doesn't hurt to follow the breadcrumbs of corruption and lay it all out there for the American voter and world to see how we've been steamrolled and show what's been going on while we were busy listening to "Russia" and wasting time on the conclusion of the Muller Report and the Durham report and wondering when the Iowa Caucus would finalize their tally and reports were ever coming out about Hunter Biden taking millions from the Chinese Communists. No, it was all an effing joke on us and as one of my fellow commenters asked: can I have some more vanilla wafers with my Banana Republic Sundae?
Well, folks, Mark is warning us of a rough ride ahead. It is hard to believe, yet it is fact that three MAJOR institutions in the country are allies against the President and his 72 million supporters. I write of: the leadership at the DOJ, FBI, CIA, the mainstream media, and Big Tech (especially Facebook and Twitter). An up-and-coming fourth: the Soros-funded local District Attorney and Attorneys General who turn the law upside down.
Where you would have had support from objective institutions, what can you count on now?
The next argument will be" sure...it was stolen, but the social upheaval from fighting this will be too costly. Give up the fight for the sake of the country. We can find workarounds afterward by reaching across the isle. ". Since that is always the fall back Republican position...it will come naturally. That is not how nations are created but definitely how they die.
Dennis Prayer thinks that the cheating and theft of the election from Trump comes from the Left's "moral imperative" to deny a racist bigoted white supremacist from regaining the White House. This helps describe how individual voters voted twice across state lines, local officials and election personnel willingly defrauded their fellow citizens. At higher levels i think it becomes power and hatred....The later buttressing the former. Would Prager steal an election from a real tyrant? "Yes" he said. The lesson is in the perception.
It's not surprising to hear the same people who said - without embarrassment or shame - that they hoped Trump would die when he contracted Covid, that they are entirely comfortable with election fraud backed-up by a media coup to displace him from office.
Christiane Amanpour no doubt sees the "moral imperative" to co-opt Kristallnacht in the fight against Orange Hitler. As Glenn Greenwald tweeted: "Weimar Jews and the Holocaust that followed have become fun little playthings - media toys - for journalists to casually toss around, use and exploit to make themselves feel way more important than they are and to elevate fear. This is repugnant and offensive,"
I quote often from David Horowitz's book "The Art of Political War" because it's still so relevant today even though it was published 20 years ago. In it, he discusses the Democrats' various strategies to undermine Republicans, and how the GOP always fall prey to their machinations. One of these strategies that has been amped up during the Trump presidency is calling Trump or conservatives who support his policies names like Nazi, white supremacists, or fascist. But they get away with it and have been for decades in part because Republicans and conservatives have never really called them on it or turned the tables, for that matter.
Horowitz writes of George Stephanopoulos, former Clinton White House communications director and strategist discussing an open congressional seat: "It's Nazi time", Clinton remarked to Stephanopolous, which meant it was time to get back campaigning against Republicans". And he enumerated many more instances of such unfounded accusations and incendiary name-calling. Howrowitz said Clinton told super-consultant, Dick Morris while campaigning against Bob Dole, "You have to understand that Bob Dole is EVIL, what he wants is EVIL". That says it all regarding the Left's mindless adherence to their ideology which takes precedence over logic, reason and or even basic human decency.
The 'moral imperative' argument of the left has actually been documented. The WSJ, for one, ran post-election articles in 2012 about people who destroyed their spouse's ballot (instead of mailing it) because their spouse was voting for Romney and other voting crimes, such as a nun who admitted to voting twice in Ohio. It was meant to be a lighthearted piece and was anything but...
Didn't intimidation of witnesses and legal counsel used to be a thing before the new Age of Woke Democracy?
Again, I say, after watching Obama neuter the press....
"Hunter who?" The response to the very last honest question asked by any media drone during the Biden administration...assuming there is anyone that can get close enough to Biden to ask a question...
Eight years of TLC treatment for O could only lead to disaster. An entire cohort of young voters grew up thinking O was the best president ever because there was no serious criticism ever from media and any tepid criticism was couched in terms of 'well this or that president did much worse' (the WSJ favorite ploy) and it was never, ever acceptable to lampoon O. The time-honored tradition of joking about our presidents, etc. was absent for eight years. It could only lead to trouble. And it did. So that young cohort -- and add to it the cohort that only pays attention every four years, could easily be persuaded T was a monster. What's amazing is that there are enough of us who love freedom and free speech and pay attention day after day so that we would fight -- and continue to fight -- for T, the man who understands why freedom is the only thing.