Honesty in a Highly Polarized Political Climate

I wanted to touch on a number of things today and I will try and keep it as tight and short as possible. Today is January 6, 2021. It is the day after a very important Georgia runoff election for two U.S. senate spots. They are both very close but it looks like a Democrat has won one of those spots and is leading in another in a race that is too close to call. I have a feeling that the unearthing of that second result will take awhile but who knows. There was again proof that irregularities in the election process existed and it is unfortunate that this most important election was not handled really any better than the November election. One would think that the Georgia Secretary of State and all involved would have gone over the top to make sure this runoff election was completely honest and above board. It is obvious at this point that it wasn’t and that is hard to understand. Now the nation will also be questioning that election as well.

My evidence of irregularities in the most recent Georgia runoff election is the fact that the barriers for legal observers were put back so far in Fulton County that it was only after an emergency court order changing the initial setup that observers were then actually able to observe. I saw with my own eyes the before and after video. Before the judge’s order the barriers were only surrounding a giant floor of computers and there was no possible way to see the vast majority of what was going on with people working on those computers. The vast majority of those computers were too far away to be seen and some were even facing away from the close barriers and showing their screens to the side of barriers dozens of feet away. It only takes a five year old mentality to understand that this was done purposely.

Now it took some hours to get this changed and one has no idea what shenanigans were pulled during that time frame. My one question is: ‘how could election officials allow this to happen in our current political climate of uncertainty?’ It makes zero sense and the only viable answer is some people are intent on cheating. I can’t prove anyone was cheating but the door was once again wide open.

So again the results are questionable. I don’t actually know how many of these shenanigans (don’t you love that word?) were pulled last night but Fulton County, Georgia has a population of over one million people (over 25% of the overall population of Georgia) and this one irregularity ought to cause great concern for anyone and everyone interested in free and fair elections.

This brings me to the topic of honesty in politics and most specifically in the election process. I have said elsewhere that when you give people opportunity to cheat it is likely they will. I read a summary of quite an extensive study on cheating. The summary itself was nearly 20 pages long and the conclusions were quite interesting. In essence the study found that people who have a propensity to cheat will most likely cheat and people who don’t usually don’t unless there appears to be some external pressure to do so. The study also strongly suggests that time matters. The more time you give a ‘cheater’ the more likely they are to cheat. Why is this important?

People who wish to do ill to others nearly always position themselves to do so first. For example, it is a well proven fact that pedophiles will often work for years on a set up to get a child under his/her power to take advantage of them. It is a well thought out and sophisticated process. It appears that people who are intent on cheating do similar things. It would not be surprising for a good portion of poll workers to fall into this category. I’m not accusing any single person I am just allowing for human nature to take its natural course. A cheater will position him/herself in place to cheat. Now when the fundamental rules of the game (the counting of the votes) open up to give opportunity for a cheater to cheat then they will. That essentially is what this study proved.

How was opportunity given? When people who want to cheat don’t have someone looking over their shoulder they will most likely cheat. Poll workers counting votes without observers will most likely cheat (those that are cheaters) at that moment. How?

Here are a handful of ways (not an exhaustive list to be sure): 

1) It is well known that signature verification laws were altered or greatly relaxed across the United States. At a time when those signatures are the only way to verify an identity it is ludicrous to relax the rules in that regard. Anyone who has a propensity towards a certain political slant and might be fine with bending the rules would have no problem allowing ballots without proper signature verification laws in place. This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to actually cheat as once those signature sleeves are separated from the ballots there is no way to go back and figure out how people actually voted. At that point you literally only can rely on comparing numbers but the opportunity to cheat in this regard is open to anyone who might even be just a little bit tempted to do so.

2) The Dominion Voting Systems software allows for an adjudicator to alter or change votes at any time. In fact, the software also allows one to input blank ballots and allow the adjudicator the ability to vote for that blank ballot. Since this all happens in small fields on a computer screen it would take someone being able to look over the shoulder of the adjudicator to notice if anything irregular was being done. Again, if someone had the propensity to cheat this would be a perfect place to do so. And, if someone simply decided to change a vote or two on a ballot it would not change the actual number of ballots submitted. How would anyone looking after the fact actually know which ballots were changed and which were not without a complete hand count of the ballots. How often does this occur? Almost never as it is logistically impossible on a wide spread basis. So the likelihood that this type of cheating could stand is very high. Federal law requires that paper ballots be held on to for 22 months post election. Is it actually done. I don’t know but there were reports of ballot shredding en masse. I can’t verify those reports but it makes sense if one is trying to cheat. There truly is no actual recourse for breaking the federal mandate so why not?

3) Time is important. Elections now span weeks of time. The ability to alter things here or there is always higher when time is involved. In our past election time was expanded on both sides of election day which becomes even more problematic. If my guy needs extra votes and I have a propensity to cheat and the law now allows votes to be submitted after the official election should have been over then I would probably find ways to get more votes. It is not unlikely. There are safeties in place but from my own personal research it seems obvious that those safety measures are minimal and quite lax. The opportunity that time opens up for cheating creates the likelihood that it will happen.

4) In our modern culture expedience is more important than integrity and honesty. People who have elevated the political experience and outcome to the highest level of importance have no problem cheating to bring about that outcome. Since we have given multiple opportunities in this election cycle to cheat it makes it even more likely that it would happen.

5) Since we had so many people mail in ballots or drop them off in private ballot boxes then the opportunity to switch out ballots even before they reach an official location is very high. Again, a cheater will find a way to switch those ballots whether or not they work in any official capacity or not. Even U.S. Postal workers have been proven to cheat in this regard and in this past election with so many places around the country using ‘unofficial’ ballot boxes the opportunity to cheat is profoundly high.

Anyhow, these are just a handful of examples of how someone who has a propensity to cheat would have opportunity to do so. One other thing I wanted to cover is how this topic of conversation applies to the media. I don’t want to spend too much time on it but I do think it is important to point out a few things:

1) When the media either doesn’t cover everything equally or stifles the ability for people to get word out about a particular issue then it is essentially taking part in cheating. The media ought to be non biased and share objectively what is happening in our world and culture. This simply is never the case any longer. It is the most obvious truth and to deny it is dishonest.

2) When the media allows false or misleading information to get out it is dishonest and ought to be a punishable offense. For example, on October 28 ABC released a poll that showed V.P. Biden ahead of President Trump by 17 points in the state of Wisconsin. This obviously turned out to be a lie. There is no way possible to get those numbers when the election was razor thin in Wisconsin. What is the purpose behind such obvious lies? There is only one plausible reason and that is to suppress the vote. Obviously there is little or no reason to go to the polls and vote for your guy if there is no way possible that ‘he’ can win. This is voter suppression at its very worst and it is allowed to go on all of the time.

3) When people are stifled (censored) on social media for having a differing opinion other than the common and accepted narrative then this is tantamount to criminal as well. Only one side benefits from this and so it is allowed to continue on. It is dishonest and ought to be changed.

4) Today there were rallies and protests across the nation involving Trump supporters. During the legal and constitutional process of certifying the electoral college votes for all 50 states the capitol building in Washington D.C. was stormed. I don’t know of anyone who was hurt (possibly one person, sadly) but the general media blamed this lawlessness on Trump supporters. But eyewitness accounts say something very very different. The eyewitness accounts tell a story of an organized pre-planned attempt at disrupting what was going on inside of the building not involving Pro Trump supporters. Now I wasn’t there so I cannot say for sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if this were actually true as we saw an identical thing here in Sacramento just a little while ago. A rally turned violent after fake Trump supporters started a run-in with law enforcement. These people were not at the rally and showed up and donned Trump hats and more and then started a riot. Of course this could have easily happened in the U.S. Capital today as well and eyewitnesses seem to corroborate that theory. It is apparent that the mob of Trump supporters followed suit but the likelihood that they started the melee is not high, in my personal opinion. My question that I ask myself is who am I going to trust? Am I going to trust the media that has proven to be dishonest over and over again or am I going to trust individuals on the scene who are personally watching it unfold? I choose the latter personally. In my mind this is just another assault on honesty in reporting and it is appalling to me.

Anyhow, these are just a few thoughts on honesty and politics. I think we have a serious problem on our hands and the only reason I am writing about it right now is I believe we have to all input what we can into the process of trying to figure out how to go forward. There was obvious dishonesty throughout the entire election process and if we want to keep our nation in tact then we need to address these things and make sure they are not ever repeated again. I don’t know specifically how to do this but I know this is how I can personally contribute…whether anyone else agrees or not. My purpose here is not to be a journalist as I am not claiming to have all of the facts. I tend towards thinking about what makes the most sense and then I feel like it is good to share those thoughts. If I am wrong in any way here I am sorry about that but my only purpose is to get people to think about things. If this causes even one person to consider things perhaps a bit differently then I have accomplished the intended goal. Thanks!