Election Denialism Is a Dead End

President Trump isn’t going to step down

Photo by Tom Radetzki on Unsplash

A bunch of lefties who should know better, encouraged in part by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, are parading around the internet, beating the drum about the popular vote being stolen.

Taylor Lorenz has a good run down of the virality of these conspiracies in the Facebook/Threads/Meta universe. Trust me on this, they were everywhere last week. The only thing different with the 2024 version of the “stolen election” claims is that notable Democrats have steered clear. 

It started with people not understanding that all votes aren’t immediately counted, leading to the 20 million missing votes theory. Hell, millions of those votes were/are in California. And they will get counted.

• “People are finding the vote they cast was DELETED and NOT COUNTED”, says a guy on Xitter.

Okay, name two people who cast legit ballots meeting that description. Provide source information.  I’ll wait.

• I am seeing reports that Elon used Starlink to alter the election, he knew four hours before the winner was announced. Through an app he developed that’s why Trump kept saying we don’t need any more votes…., says another guy on Xitter.

By all means, please respond (he hasn’t) to the people who asked you to provide a link to any of those reports.

And another

• Yup.... and now I'm seeing scores of people posting videos talking about how their mail-in ballots were never tabulated…said a never Trumper from New Hampshire

And another

• Surely, things just didn't seem right. This could be a very big scandal.  It's being said that Elon Musk's StarLink satellite Internet software was hooked up to the voting tabulation machines in California and swing states. Why? Seems like they told Trump behind doors that he didn't have to worry about the votes. But Trump wasn't smart enough to keep that information himself.

If you want to see a thorough debunking of the internet twaddling about the election being stolen, https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1855661403987914768.html

No jurisdiction outsources ballot tabulation; they have their own equipment as listed here. https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_methods_and_equipment_by_state 

Tabulators are not connected to the internet during counting, though after completion and removal of data cards, may transmit unofficial counts in a few jurisdictions. https://apnews.com/article/elections-2024-voting-machines-conspiracy-theories-1aec4eec87eaaea4158825cb3f4bda27#

Then there’s good old fashioned denialism:

• Trump is CONSTITUTIONALLY DISQUALIFIED from taking office, and people better realize it before it's too late.

• Here’s a video produced by “Led by Donkeys” out of the U.K. that puts down the timeline of how Musk used X to get Donald Trump elected. I would save it because I don’t think it will be up for long.

And Alex Jones’ Infowars desperation (for more clicks):

• Coup Alert! Democrat Deep State Is Planning to Install Harris in Presidency Before Trump’s Inauguration, Then Trump Will Be Conveniently Assassinated, Next False Flags Terror Attacks Will Provide Cover For Martial Law to Be Declared — Must-Watch/Share

More to the point, Democrat Kamala Harris lost. Donald J Trump won, and had long enough coattails it’s likely the news administration will have a trifecta.

For those in the back: Say some actual, verifiable evidence emerges. What then? Given the pace at which our judicial system operates, there wouldn’t be any charges prior to inauguration day. And you’d need some kind of proof that whatever foul deeds occurred had direction from the top of the ticket. Good luck there.

It might be possible to prosecute some enablers at the state level. Someday.

President Trump isn’t going to step down. And he’ll be surrounded by enough ambulance chasers to keep any rogue congressional delegations outside the building. There will be troops ordered to shoot protestors who might endanger his security (or hurt his feelings).

I’ve never understood election deniers, starting with the MAGAts and including today’s attention-seeking denizens of the internet. Unless you can prove nefariousness prior to any vote taking place, there’s damn little that can be accomplished by whining about the results.

I do understand why some people are unhappy with the results of the 2024 general election. There are a million things that can and should be done by those of us who agree Trump was the wrong choice, even with Project 2025’s prescriptions looming. 

Lots of people are flogging those ideas. The only one that’s truly bad is giving up.

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Monday News You Should Read

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‘Frustrating’ fights, ‘spurious’ denials: Oversight panel says sheriff won’t turn over death records (Gift link)  by Kelly Davis and Jeff McDonald at the Union-Tribune

• Since Martinez was sworn in as San Diego County sheriff early last year, she has repeatedly rejected a recommendation from CLERB to body-scan everyone entering jail as a way to keep drugs out. In July, she instead agreed to conduct random screenings using metal detectors and drug sniffing dogs, rather than the more thorough scans used to examine people being booked into custody that can see foreign objects internally.

• The sheriff has also insisted that the review board has no jurisdiction over the office itself, only the sworn deputies on her staff, and has resisted releasing documents related to internal investigations into jail deaths, as CLERB has recommended.

• As a candidate, Martinez promised to make public reports by the sheriff’s Critical Incident Review Board, but she instead has been releasing only brief summaries of the internal investigations. CLERB’s then-executive officer Paul Parker told her in a letter last year that her decision would “clearly result in less comprehensive and less transparent publicly accessible information.”

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San Diego sheriff is raising millions from people in jail — but details are scant on revenue and spending (Gift Link) by Jeff McDonald at the Union-Tribune

• The San Diego Sheriff’s Office is not alone in relying on welfare funds to pay other expenses.

• A study published earlier this year by the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy nonprofit based in Massachusetts, found that corrections officials all over the country have misused money meant to benefit people in custody.

• “In virtually every state, incarcerated people and their families subsidize the operation of prisons and jails when they pay for phone calls and commissary items, or make deposits into their loved ones’ accounts,” said the report.

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The Party Should Throw Them a Party - A proposal for how to build a more durable Democratic coalition by Neil Resnikoff

• What I am proposing is a complement to existing anti-Trump efforts. Even if my proposal were implemented at scale, we would still need conventional political campaigns, new sources of political media, and aggressive organizing efforts. Community centers can support all of these efforts and in turn be supported by them.

• To take one example: Even as liberals and the left pursue an in-person, relationship-building strategy, they must avoid ceding the digital information environment to the right. Ryan Cooper is correct when he argues that Democrats must construct their own media ecosystem. But this ecosystem would not serve as an alternative to my community centers proposal; instead, the two could exist in symbiosis with one another. Left-leaning media outlets could drive new patrons to the community centers, and the community centers could introduce their existing patrons to left-leaning media outlets.

• The next four years—perhaps the next generation or so—will be a fight for democracy on all fronts. There will be plenty of opportunities to agitate and organize. All I’m suggesting is that we may also need to host a bingo night or two.