!chuds

This will probably blow up here in a few hours. It may not, don't really care.

Also we need an Elvis marsey

JUST IN - U.S. Supreme Court on 5-4 vote allows federal agents to cut razor wire Texas installed on US-Mexico border — AP

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 22, 2024

I don’t agree with Nikki Haley on everything, but we agree on this much: She is not Nancy Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/hjNgmcrwAP

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 21, 2024

Looking past why voting machines are generally a bad idea anyway

Georgia voting machines have been known to be vulnerable to hacking since 2018

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/how-hack-elections-georgia-electronic-voting-machines/K4s5F935330BS6fGDm3CVI

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/02/are-voting-machines-too-vulnerable-hacking-georgia-having-that-debate

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/14/wireless-modems-could-endanger-midterms-00061769

and they still havent fixed them

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/expert-report-fuels-election-doubts-georgia-waits-update-voting-softwa-rcna89566

bc of that prominent people on both sides of the isle are skeptical of the results

https://apnews.com/article/trump-georgia-fraud-defendants-201d73d2a6b165d06230961af9f21b61

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/politics/trump-fulton-county-georgia-immunity/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/28/magazine/stacey-abrams-election-georgia.html

Whats going on there? Are the elections people to busy drinking moonshine and driving fast through the woods to hire decent cybersecurity people? Georgia on it's way to frick up the 2024 election:

P.S. I am not implying that there is anything wrong with Dominion voting machines.

https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe

!chuds

Election Fraud Is Rare. Except, Maybe, in Bridgeport, Conn.

Voters say that campaigns in Connecticut's largest city routinely rely on absentee ballots — collected illegally — to win elections. Now, the city faces a mayoral primary redo.

Two months ago, Joe Ganim received the most votes in the race for mayor of Bridgeport, Conn. This week, the city will vote again --- to decide if he should even be the Democratic candidate.

The unlikely and confusing situation arose after a judge ruled that there was enough evidence of misconduct in the Democratic primary in September to throw its result --- a victory by Mayor Ganim --- into doubt. The judge pointed to videos showing "partisans" repeatedly stuffing absentee ballots into drop boxes.

The footage provided a particularly lurid illustration of ballot tampering, though experts say election fraud is rare in the United States and often accidental when it occurs.

But in Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, ballot manipulation has undermined elections for years.

In interviews and in court testimony, residents of the city's low-income housing complexes described people sweeping through their apartment buildings, often pressuring them to apply for absentee ballots they were not legally entitled to.

Sometimes, residents say, campaigners fill out the applications or return the ballots for them --- all of which is illegal.

"Bridgeport has a very long, tortured history of absentee ballot abuse," said Bill Bloss, a lawyer who persuaded the judge to order the fall primary to be rerun.

"It's not a secret," he added. "It has been going on for years."

Last June, the State Election Enforcement Commission found evidence of criminality in the 2019 Democratic primary for mayor. In 2022, a judge ordered a Democratic primary for state representative to be rerun amid an allegation of ballot fraud.

In 2018, Bridgeport was forced to hold three primaries for City Council. The first was invalidated over a miscounted absentee ballot; the second was voided by the State Supreme Court in part because a police officer had improperly collected absentee ballots.

Similar episodes have been documented back to the 1980s, though political observers say they cannot remember how the tradition of ballot manipulation initially took hold. Such manipulation has led to forgery charges, fines and even bans on participating in campaigns.

"It is just simply part of the electoral strategy political culture in Bridgeport," Mr. Bloss said. "The perception is that you can win elections in Bridgeport by harvesting absentee ballots. And so, they do it."

In both the 2019 and 2023 races for mayor, the beneficiary of questionable acts in the initial Democratic primary vote was Mayor Ganim, the incumbent, who once spent seven years in prison on federal corruption charges, then regained the mayor's post in 2015.

In both of the recent primaries, Mayor Ganim came up short among voters who voted in person but overwhelmed his opponent in the absentee ballot count.

"It is routine here," said State Senator Marilyn Moore, whose district includes parts of Bridgeport and who lost to Mayor Ganim in 2019. She added: "People just accept it. Like, 'It's just Bridgeport.'"

In a radio interview last month, Mayor Ganim took responsibility for his supporters' mishandling of absentee ballots in the fall. He said he had not known about it, and called it a "black eye" for the city. He declined to comment for this article.

The rules for absentee ballots differ from state to state. In recent years, there have been efforts to expand their use as a way to encourage voter participation. There have also been campaigns to restrict absentee ballots as a way to prevent fraud or other misconduct, though some such efforts have been criticized as racially discriminatory.

In Connecticut, only certain voters qualify to vote by absentee ballot, such as people who will be out of town on Election Day. Other legitimate reasons include a physical disability or military service.

Most voters are supposed to fill out their own applications for a ballot, complete it themselves --- without influence or oversight --- and return it to the city. (A few trusted people, like immediate family members, are allowed to return it on their behalf.) But campaigners may not collect ballots and return them for others, a practice referred to as "ballot harvesting."

A far greater percentage of voters in Bridgeport use absentee ballots than in many other Connecticut communities, according to the Connecticut Mirror. In the 2023 primaries, almost 23 percent of Bridgeport's votes were absentee ballots, compared with about 15 percent in Hartford and under 5 percent in New Haven.

In 2019, three voters sued Mayor Ganim, city election officials and others. About a dozen voters testified that someone else had filled out at least part of their absentee ballot application for them, or submitted a fraudulent application. Others testified that absentee ballots never came or had just shown up in the mail, even if they hadn't applied. Others said they did not vote, but the town clerk had a record of their ballots.

One woman testified that she had been paid $15 an hour by Mayor Ganim's campaign to circulate ballot applications. She said she received personal checks from the mayor.

Bridgeport Generation Now Votes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout, helped the three voters with the lawsuit. The organization canvassed and found vulnerable residents --- those who were older, disabled or not fluent in English --- who said they had been targeted by campaigners to vote by absentee ballot.

"They stay, they have you vote, they tell you who to vote for and then they take your ballot and leave," Callie Gale Heilmann, the group's co-director, said in an interview.

Some voters refer to the people who come through as "absentee ballot queens."

"They come all the time," Caroline Askew, who lived in public housing, testified in the 2019 case. "They come every election. Before every election. They come after hours, after management is gone or on the weekend."

Kadeem Graham, another voter, testified that a City Council member, Alfredo Castillo, filled out most of an absentee ballot application for him, checked in repeatedly to see if the ballot arrived, then returned and took it.

"I told him that I had not filled out anything on the ballot at all or anything," Mr. Graham testified. "He just asked me to sign my name on one of the papers and told me he got it."

"That was the last I saw of the ballot," he added. "I handed it to him and then that was it. I'm --- I'm not sure what happened."

Mr. Castillo, a Democrat, did not respond to a request for comment. He is one of three people whom the state election board recommended for criminal charges in connection with the 2019 primary.

Vanessa Liles, 51, a community organizer and one of the plaintiffs in the 2019 lawsuit, said in an interview that some voters felt intimidated. Others just don't know their rights.

"It's essentially stealing votes," she said. "Where absentee ballot was looking to make the vote more expansive, the process that's used in Bridgeport was really constricting people's right to vote."

But Tony Barr, the founder and chairman of Bridgeport's New Movement Party, argues that helping voters is just common sense.

On a recent afternoon, he was sitting in a car outside the P.T. Barnum Apartments, a subsidized housing complex, after helping residents apply for absentee ballots.

He said he comes back to see if the ballot has arrived, and typically checks back in to see if the residents have voted. He also brings stamps, just in case. Often, the ballot is still there.

Mr. Barr said that he sometimes takes older people out for a fast food meal after they drop off their ballots. "It's not that they're being voter suppressed --- it's that they're just lazy," he said.

He added, "People don't get up off of their behinds unless they're getting something for free."

Activists and elected officials in Bridgeport say there has been little effort from the governor, legislators or other state leaders to fix the election issues.

"If the leaders of this state can't show they're responsible for making sure that democracy works everywhere in the state, then we're looking at a very serious problem," said Kim McLaughlin, 69, a community organizer.

Some speculate that Democratic leaders have little interest in rocking the boat.

"No one wins an election statewide if they don't win Bridgeport," Mr. Barr said. He added: "Why do you think they haven't come out to speak negatively about Bridgeport? Because they need it."

Gov. Ned Lamont, a second-term Democrat, declined to comment. His office referred questions to the secretary of the state's office, which appointed a single Bridgeport election monitor in the general election --- well after many absentee ballots had been sent out.

For the new primary on Tuesday --- in which Mayor Ganim and his opponent, John Gomes, will face each other again --- the secretary of the state appointed two monitors.

The judge who ordered the primary redo, William Clark, did not have the authority to postpone the general election in November, which Mayor Ganim won.

If Mayor Ganim wins the second primary, it's not entirely clear what will happen; he has not been sworn into office for a new term. Mr. Gomes, who successfully challenged the first primary outcome, said he would not force a new contest.

Stephanie Thomas, the secretary of the state, attributed the lack of state intervention in Bridgeport to the "clunkiness" of government and the limited powers of the executive branch. She said legislators should pass laws providing more oversight, and voters need to know their rights and speak up if they see malfeasance.

Tawanda White, a P.T. Barnum resident, has voted absentee in the past --- even though, she said, she was perfectly able to vote in person.

People came by her apartment with an application and stamps to help her send it in.

Ms. White, 54, is fed up with the entire process. In a recent election, she sent in a blank ballot, a protest against what she sees as the corrupt process --- and the lack of investment in the community.

"Whether we vote or don't vote, we're still screwed," she said, sitting on her sofa on a recent Saturday afternoon. She added: "They need our vote just to get where they need to be. And then when they get it, what do they do? Nothing."

Gracchi Brothers, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar. Are we watching the beginning of the end in our lifetime, or is the system robust enough to let complete r-slurs keep "saving" America from the last guy in charge.

Or better yet, is anyone even really making a difference at all while in the presidency, and we keep getting worked up and dooooming over nothing?

What an awesome use of the Presidents time!

!macacos

>Breaking with longstanding tradition, Biden won't appear on New Hampshire's primary ballot

https://news.yahoo.com/breaking-100-years-tradition-biden-211252713.html

>New Hampshire law mandates it hold the first primary, and legislators in the Republican-run state refused to break with tradition. The state's attorney general is accusing the DNC of voter suppression and sent the organization a cease-and-desist letter last week that threatened further legal action.

STRONGLY WORDED LETTER. SLIM LOCAL MAJORITY IS HAPPENING

https://news.yahoo.com/hampshire-official-threatens-democratic-party-205833399.html

>The DNC has said that it will not award delegates based on the results of the New Hampshire primary, meaning the Democrat who wins the January primary won't move any closer to winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

Only if the Demonrat nomination miraculously ends up close. Otherwise, the Satanists will divide the vote in half as a coverup

I had this timeline so much.

Redditards are r-slurred

President Trump: "Tonight, I am also making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny. As your president, I will never allow the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency." pic.twitter.com/pg2z5M1VkO

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 18, 2024

>The only way to ensure that people can vote for who they want is for us to prevent them from voting for who we don't like.

-Every collectivist ever

Now it's time for some actual unironic quotes from this seditious sack of shit...

Steven Greenhouse:

https://x.com/greenhousenyt/status/774690246982262789

>The US supreme court is facing a crisis of legitimacy

You're right. Replace Roberts and the 3 leftoid Judges for treason.

>There's a growing sense among Americans that the Roberts court with its 6-3 hard-right supermajority is irrevocably broken

Demonrat judges are evil. Don't care.

>Some of us white, Jewish journ*lists have also gotten a sense of Trump's backers from their many anti-Semitic tweets"

Those are called Neo-Nazis sweety. They call Trump, Zion Don. They call Ron DeSantis, Ron DeShabbos. They hate Republicans too

!chuds in shambles

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- New documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government reveal that the federal government flagged terms like "MAGA" and "TRUMP" for financial institutions if Americans used those phrases when completing transactions. Individuals who shopped at stores like Cabela's or Peepee's Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a bible, may also have had their transactions flagged. This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans' private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the FBI's respect for fundamental civil liberties.

In light of these revelations, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has requested transcribed interviews from Peter Sullivan, Senior Private Sector Partner for Outreach in the Strategic Partner Engagement Section of the FBI, and Noah Bishoff, former Director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Excerpts of the Letter to Noah Bishoff:

"The Committee and Select Subcommittee have obtained documents indicating that following January 6, 2021, FinCEN distributed materials to financial institutions that, among other things, outline the 'typologies' of various persons of interest and provide financial institutions with suggested search terms and Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) for identifying transactions on behalf of federal law enforcement. These materials included a document recommending the use of generic terms like 'TRUMP' and 'MAGA' to 'search Zelle payment messages' as well as a 'prior FinCEN analysis' of 'Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators.' According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of 'extremism' indicators that include 'transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,' or 'the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.' In other words, FinCEN urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression.

"In addition, the Committee and Select Subcommittee have obtained documents showing that FinCEN distributed slides, prepared by a financial institution, explaining how other financial institutions can use MCC codes to detect customers whose transactions may reflect 'potential active shooters, [and] who may include dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists ("Lone Wolves").' For example, the slides instruct financial institutions to query for transactions using certain MCC codes such as '3484: Small Arms,' '5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies,' and the keywords 'Cabela's,' and 'Peepee's Sporting Goods,' among several others. Despite these transactions having no apparent criminal nexus---and, in fact, relate to Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights---FinCEN seems to have adopted a characterization of these Americans as potential threat actors. This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans' private transactions is alarming and raises serious doubts about FinCEN's respect for fundamental civil liberties.

"As the former Director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division, you engaged regularly with financial institutions following the events of January 6, 2021, including the distribution of material about how financial institutions could use private customer information to assist federal law enforcement. As such, your testimony will aid our oversight. In particular, your testimony will help to inform the Committee and Select Subcommittee about federal law enforcement's mass accumulation and use of Americans' private information without legal process; FinCEN's protocols, if any, to safeguard Americans' privacy and constitutional rights in the receipt and use of such information; and FinCEN's general engagement with the private sector on law-enforcement matters."

Read the full letter to Director Wray here.

Read the full letter to Noah Bishoff here.

>fat white woman, ugly as sin, living in a low cost POD (shed) with a BIPOC

>i fricking despise modern women

>This white woman would rather live with a poor BIPOC than a financially stable white man who owns a house. I hope his ten inch peepee and "owning your parents" was worth living like a pig in a barn, c*nt.

>Bet she said no to a whole lot of good guys that don't live in a storage box hole like some vermin.

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by a psychology lecturer challenging a UC Santa Cruz requirement that applicants for faculty jobs describe how they would promote diversity on campus.

John Haltigan, formerly an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, said he did not seek a professorship at Santa Cruz because his views would have made his application futile. But U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of San Jose said Haltigan can't show he was harmed by the requirement without applying for a position.

!nonchuds

Link to actually ABC report

Course no /r/politics thread, wonder why

edit: nvm found it

funny picture

related r/neoliberal cope: Don't count Biden out: January polls are historically unreliable

Sistas discussssss