An Echo of QAnon

Ronna McDaniel's vague accusations of irregularities are annoying. If she has complaints, she should state them clearly! 

The campaigns have appointed observers of the vote-counting process. Self-appointed observers busting through the doors are trespassing and need to be bounced by security personnel. 

I think McDaniel's statement shows the effect of QAnon on Republican rhetoric. Keep the accusations mysterious, vague, and ominous. She seems to think that being asked to provide specific accusations shows a perverse mentality in the questioner, like being asked to provide clinical descriptions of pedophilia. Nevertheless, lawyers can only really work with specific allegations. It is irresponsible to remain vague:

McDaniel said the party had discovered the same software was being used in dozens of other counties across the state, but did not provide any evidence such an issue had cropped up elsewhere. She referenced a glitch in a separate county that wrongly decided a local race but was also corrected, but likewise did not allege any specific instances of fraud in the county, which Biden carried by 14 points.

She repeatedly accused the leaders of Democratic-run counties of booting Republican observers from watching votes be counted, referencing chaos at a Detroit convention center being used to tally votes, and called the Democratic secretary of state "dishonest" for contending an equal number of Democratic and Republican poll watchers had been asked to leave due to a lack of space.

And she accused a Detroit election worker telling colleagues to change the date on mail-in ballots, allegations that were refuted in court this week.

On Fox News, she described “hundreds of witnesses who talk about being disenfranchised and being removed from counting centers as election workers cheered as they were removed,” saying the party had been filing lawsuits and alleging that such moves were “systematic.”

“The fact that we were there has allowed us to show what happens when person after person in Detroit was removed. If you left to go to the bathroom you weren't allowed back in. I'm not hearing this from reports or hearsay or the internet,” she argued. “I know these people.”

Complacent

It may be that the Trumpies believed their own propaganda, and became complacent. I like this analysis:

Observing the US elections from Europe with a very cynical eye (and getting even less sleep than your journalists), I get the impression that the Trump team made a miscalculation in its cynical and well-prepared attempt to steal the election: they set the stage perfectly by pre-emptively badmouthing mail-in votes in their communication, encouraging their own voters to turn out in person, and barring pre-election ballot counts; but they must have expected a slower count. Both their court action and their Brooks Brothers Riot 2.0 (which I was expecting with 100% certainty) came too late to prevent the flips; in Detroit’s case, too late to prevent Biden’s lead from moving well past recount territory. From the communication of election boards, I also get the impression that this miscalculation was because they didn’t consider the effect of their rhetoric on the election boards themselves: no one wants to be at the centre of a media storm like in Florida 2000, so people did everything to speed up the count.

Stop Counting!

NOW!!!!

Notable. Eminem Endorsed Biden/Harris

Maybe it was enough to win Michigan for Biden?

I Will Go Down With This Ship!

The Golden Moth

I've wondered, what is the Golden Moth in "Breaking Bad," and what does it represent? Both "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" appear to be influenced by the works of surreal artist Salvador Dalí, so I looked at Dalí's various bugs to see if there were any hints. Sure enough, the surreal film "Un Chien Andalou" (1929) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí features what is probably the first film appearance of the ominous, squeaking Death's-Head Hawkmoth. Breaking Bad's Golden Moth appears to be an abstracted silhouette of the Death's-Head Hawkmoth. Without the skull-face, the Golden Moth is only slightly-less potent as a symbol of death. The Death's-Head Hawkmoth has proved to be popular with filmmakers, and appears, for example, in the cover art for the 1991 film, "The Silence of the Lambs."

Feeling the Joementum

Suck it up, Buttercup.

Saddle Up

With his loose but widely-predicted call to end the counting of legitimate ballots in Pennsylvania, Trump sent out a clarion call for civil war. You want a fight? You got one.

“It’s Fake News!” Cries The Emperor

“Halloween lasts forever!”

How Will You Vote?

Annual Visit to the Top of my Roof

The theme this year is ash. The roof is covered in ashes. You can’t burn down multiple forests in all directions without some impact. First rain will be a mess.

The Eleventh Month

Luck Running Out

In the U.S., There is a Maddening Lack of Uniformity on Voting Rules

Each state goes their own way:

Amber Pflughoeft beamed with pride as she filled out her ballot for the first time last month. A 20-year-old who'd been fighting bone cancer for a decade, she was fascinated with politics, her mother Tiffany Pflughoeft remembered. And after spending the last midterm election in the hospital following a bone marrow transplant, she was determined to vote this year. But just a few days after she mailed in her ballot, Amber's condition took a sudden turn for the worse. She went back to the hospital and died in late September. Now, her ballot will be thrown out under Wisconsin election law.

Journey To Tree Top Sacramento On My Birthday