It’s Cassandra Again

374 thoughts on “It’s Cassandra Again”

1. But it might have been clean. Even my friends on the right in Kansas were sure this amendment made it possible to completely forbid all sorts of abortion, including medically needed. The snowjob on this was amazing and nothing was correct. (And MILLIONS were spent from out of state.)

   I suspect this is the BIG point.

   Have they given actual numbers, or only percents?
   I can see folks refraining from voting, too.

   1. They did give numbers. I saw the page on a friend’s message, but I no longer can find it.

      1. Remember what happened in Virginia. GOP voters didn’t just stay home in 2018, Dems spent like Hunter Biden fresh off the government teat. It worked for one election cycle. Of course they would try it again in another state. And I would be willing to bet that Kansas isn’t the only place they are trying it on.

         Being politically active, locally, is annoying. So is keeping an eye on the local toddlers in adult suits. But leaving them alone to mess with the levers of power is always a bad idea.

         1. and they didnt spend like that in VA in 2021/22 except in certain districts, and they lost it…

      2. K, I found numbers, I really need to have this site better bookmarked.
         https://ballotpedia.org/Kansas_No_State_Constitutional_Right_to_Abortion_and_Legislative_Power_to_Regulate_Abortion_Amendment_(August_2022)

         Popping over to the dem and rep primary votes, a total of 396,985 votes were cast.

         …. there were 542,341 votes cast against the amendment?

         That doesn’t look right, clicking through to source….

         K, official Kansas site says the primaries had a total of 726,958 votes cast, and the amendment had 919,809, with 542,373 against.

         There were a fewer thousand fewer people who did not vote on the state-wide Senate seats, but did vote on the amendment, as the total who voted for the amendment.

         This… sounds somewhat familiar.

         Seattle has a history of a bunch of ballots that are only filled out for one issue showing up, too. It’s part of how they get such a remarkable response-rate when it’s nearly impossible to get them to take your name off of every single place you’ve ever rented. (Husband got a ballot four years after we moved to Texas.)

         1. People not recorded as a party only voted on the amendment.

            1. If they weren’t already declared, they could declare for a party on site and vote in that primary.

               That’s a lot of folks who didn’t….

            2. You’re right about the turn-out being quite incredible, BTW.

               https://sos.ks.gov/elections/elections-statistics.html

               That’s about 50% of all registered voters, at a primary.

               For comparison, the 2020 presidential had about a 60% turnout.

               1. Dave In Florida, who’s a regular over at Ace’s site, might have some info on all of this if asked nicely.

                  No other ballot measures on the ballot, unfortunately. So you can’t check to see whether there was another measure that got ignored by all of the people who voted on the abortion measure.

                  1. Unfortunately I believe Dave in Florida has passed on. There was a note in the Ace sidebar a few weeks ago.

         2. I personally think polls should be purged every two years, and require everyone to re-register from scratch.

            Is it really too much to ask for people who want a say in government, to get up and periodically register to continue that say? It should be really easy: every even year, register!

            1. Nah, if it was yearly, it’d be too much work and they’d make exploitable loopholes.

            2. Every four years at most, and no absentee/mail-in ballots except for unusual circumstances, said circumstances specifically not to include “But it’s so convenient!”. Military, foreign assignment, physically unable to get to a polling place (with a medical certification), or similar. Valid ID at the polling place, or “Sayonara, sucker”. And remove all “motor voter” laws!

               1. Every last bit of this, twice over!

                  Even purple-finger+fingerprint ID checks, if needs must! (That might actually be a good countermeasure against mail-in ballot fraud, too. If the print on the ballot does not sync with the voter whose name is on the envelope, then toss it out like a bottle of hooch from a Temperance Union meeting: with force, vigor, and extreme prejudice!)

                  1. The purple finger – if it works in Afghanistan, it should work equally well here . . .

         3. Given the politics, is it even remotely credible that a majority of pro-choice voters would not even bother to cast a vote against Trump, or a Trump backed candidate?

            Can anyone legitimately argue that the pro-abortion lobby is majority pro-Trump, or even majority tolerant of him?

            1. Still poking at it, calculating the percentages of turnout that’d be needed, making the baseless assumption that none of the independents in July declared a party on election day to vote in the primaries, and that all votes on the amendment but not on a senator were also basically unaffiliated/libertarian.

               467k/850k R, 55%
               259k/495k D, 52%
               192k/582k unaffiliated/libertarian 33%.

               Someone might be able to get a break down of results by county vs party registrations by county and get better information, too.

               1. Thank you for taking the time to do this sort of number crunching. I’m afraid I don’t have the coherence anymore to do it myself.

                  1. It’s between doing the kids’ math, so it keeps me in number mode. 😉

   2. I also heard on the radio last night that, since this was a non-national election, the turnout was low. Would higher turnout have been better? It’s hard to say — there are many confounding variables — but I can’t help but wonder why issues like this couldn’t have waited until November.

      1. The turnout was very, very high.

         1. Democrats are criminals and fraudsters, and have been, in the cities at least, since the 18th century…Most States have very weak election laws and, as we saw in 2020, Judges appointed by politicians to look the other way…Speaking as an attorney familiar with election law and cases, I can’t see any way to peacefully fix this system, in which the parties systematically rig any election that might elect a troublesome outsider…And mail-in voting has only made it worse, since now the crooks in the Post Office can steal your vote, use the info to cast a different vote, and you have no remedy…It happened to someone in our neighborhood, who had her opened ballot returned to her after the election…

            1. I think you meant “since the 19th century”. The Democrat Party didn’t exist until the late 1820s, when the existing Democrat-Republican Party broke up. But I agree with you about the issues.

      2. I had honestly figured that it was this, plus poor wording, and probably a little fraud, and my first guess was that a lot of folks who voted in primaries flat didn’t vote on the amendment….

         But the numbers show the opposite, and MASSIVELY so.
         https://ent.sos.ks.gov/kssos_ent.html

         That sounds like it needs to be looked at.

2. It’s a-me! Mario Cassandra!

3. Agreed – but alas, I too have no idea of the ‘how’ in doing so. I’m just a retired schmuck in the mid west and I don’t have any influence, connections or know of anyone who does. However, I can pass on the message and hope it resonates with someone who does have influence or connections. The spreading of this message can also (hopefully) be the call to others and increase the calls for accountability.

   With that, I’m off to post at some other places and will also talk this idea up at a local ‘gun show’ I will be at over the weekend. Let’s go – Team Heads On Pikes (gotta get a t-shirt).

4. I will “leave it as an exercise for the reader” but do Dominion Vote-stealing machines have backup power for a full election? It is certainly possible to induce power outage WITHOUT any shots fired or explosive charges.

   1. Hmmm

5. Robert Barnes talked about this and he put it up to the MASSIVE, misleading media campaign convincing people that the amendment would outlaw all abortions, period. Which is not the majority opinion. He foresees that the prolife movement in Kansas will come back with something much more clearly worded and that they will wind up with something that bans abortion after the heartbeat becomes detectable, baring extreme circumstances (life of the mother, rape. Incest. That sort of thing ) which is the majority opinion.

   1. Yes. Note I’m not even vaguely worried about the amendment itself. NOTE what I said, that Catholic Priests were maybe justified in hesitating, because it could open the door to enshrining abortion in law. The amendment was a loose cannon.
      What worries me is that it’s part of a campaign to steal and “fix” 2022.

      1. Right. It’s considered a feasibility test case.

      2. Count on it…commies don’t believe in losing gracefully, the insist on winning at all costs…

         1. They don’t win gracefully either.

         2. They win ugly, too. It’s just that they lose even uglier.
            ———————————
            “The tax collector died ugly.”

   2. Attempting to convince the rubes that the R party will completely outlaw abortion is something the D party has been waiving like a bloody shirt since Roe was first decided (in a ham fisted, poorly worded decision). They also do this with Social Security and most other government benefits. This is a very old tactic that they’ve been using in every election cycle since they invented the “right” to an abortion ex nihilo.

      One other thing I’d like to point out is that “life of the mother” is a very, very rare condition amounting to very tiny percentages and numbers. When the life of the mother is in danger, doctors attempt to save the infant’s life as well if at all humanly possible. This is not an abortion. This is life saving surgery. An abortion is the deliberate killing of an unborn infant. The deliberate killing is the point.

      1. I know. I was there. They told Dan either Robert or I would die and they couldn’t tell him which.
         We both survived, but it was a miracle.

      2. I was trying to figure out the why of the 22 week figure, and came up with this.

         Any baby born or delivered (vaginally or cesarean) earlier than 37 weeks is considered premature, with various levels of complications. If born after week 28, the baby has a good chance of surviving and not having any life threatening, or life-long complications. 21 weeks is currently the youngest any child has been born and survived. Any born prior to 26 weeks will likely have serious, life threatening, or life-long, complications.

         What does this mean? Well, it does mean that there’s little reason to abort a child to save the life of a mother after it’s possible to deliver them alive, unless it is impossible to deliver either vaginally or surgically. (I don’t know any circumstances were that to occur, unless maybe the mother is a major hemophiliac?) It means the child can live without being biologically tethered to the mother.

         Oh, and we had a friend in church who had a child born very prematurely, with half his skull not formed properly. (Kid had to wear a helmet until he was five.) Doctors had the mother in the operating room prepping for a c-section, she was already unconscious), and tossed a form in front of him for him to choose which they could save, the mother, or the child. Poor guy’s brain just shut down. He couldn’t choose, and he said the form just kept growing bigger, and bigger, until he passed out. By the time he came to, they’d already finished up and managed to save both.

         1. Now a days it’s 24 weeks they’ll probably be fine.

            1. And I believe that a hemophiliac mother would make medical history… 😉

               1. It’s possible, but a hemophiliac mother needs a hemophiliac father and a hemophiliac-carrying mother for it to happen.

                  And now that I think about it, a pregnant hemophiliac is almost certainly going to be giving birth with a heavy dose of platelet transfusions ….

                  1. I actually did know that it’s not impossible, just highly improbable statistically. I suspect a pregnant hemophiliac giving birth, with both (or even one) surviving, would have been essentially impossible prior to modern medicine, or at a minimum reliable and safe transfusions, and even now would be extremely iffy, with the most likely result being two funeral candidates.

                     1. For sure.

                  2. Red-heads. Natural red-heads don’t clot all that well. Add in higher-than-average blood pressure from the effort of labor, the usual tearing and so on, and there’s a high chance that a red-headed mother will need some platelets or a transfusion. Natural blonds can also have the problem, but we red-heads are infamous for it.

                     1. Now that I did not know; thanks for the info. As a blond (well, graying, but…) I never noticed any special clotting problem (and I’m (in)famous for self-damage while working with both metal and wood), but I’m not really surprised; I suspect there are more unknown linkages in genetics than anyone imagines, including geneticists.

      3. Roe was an abomination, since there was no case or controversy since she had already given birth…The “reasoning” was farcical…

         1. Right the case in question was moot as the child existed. Thus the Supreme Court did something it allegedly never does (nor is supposed to do) which is rule on a hypothetical case this case then being hypothetical as the issue in question had been resolved for the plaintiff. Roe v. Wade was lousy jurisprudence from the get go. And Casey (which made abortion on demand the standard) was just piling on.

         2. Farcical might be an understatement. Democrats should have wanted Roe overturned. It was that bad. And stupid.

      4. One of their favorite tricks is trying to conflate abortion– deliberate killing of the child– with medically indicated actions that can result in the death of the child.

         As I’ve repeatedly pointed out, the later (re)definition is so extreme that the Catholic Church would be defined as supporting abortion.

         1. Like conflating stem cells with embryonic stem cells, and if you’re against the latter, you must be against the former.

            1. And then defining the rules for “stem cell therapies” so that only embryonic ones are practically allowed for use.

               1. While the only stem cell therapy that works (I won’t say all the time for everything) is adult stem cells, preferably your own, and embryonic stem cells give you cancer. (Again, I won’t say all the time.)

                  1. And then they run scary podcasts about Horrible Things When Stem Cells Were Used On My Mom’s Nasty Burn.

                     (I listen to iheart radio a lot, they push their podcasts when they can’t get paying ads, and from the scary voiceover I would suspect it’s more “failure to treat elderly lady who got burnt before it went septic” than the therapy, but I digress– frequently.)

6. The old Star Wars quote applied: “I have a bad feeling about this….”

   All I can say is, when dealing with people determined to be malicious, if you have a feeling something’s off, it probably is. Proving it, though – that’s always the hard part, and how they get away with so much.

   1. Because they ARE insane, and seeing them clearly makes you have to talk about insane things.
      

      1. That. It’s actually something that comes up over and over on the raisedbynarcissists Reddit – that narcs force you to do things so insane and pointlessly humiliating, that when you try to tell people about being abused, they think you’re crazy instead. And the narc is such a saint for taking care of you when you’re obviously – ahem – not right in the head….

         1. Because narcissists carry the story in their head where they are always the hero, no matter what. Sometimes a tragic hero, when inevitable bad things occur- but those are never their own fault. Every action, everything happening around them is part of their heroic story. Every other human being is not a person, even children and family, are but tools to further their story of greatness. And if they ever feel that you’ve hurt them, you must be punished whatever the cost.

            Humility, empathy, true friendships and love are utterly alien to them. It is a truly pitiable existence. For all that they might be monsters in human form, they live terribly lonely lives.

            That said, if you ever find one you should ensure that no part of your life is connected to them if at all possible. The narcissists are persistent and pestilent storms on the sea of social life.

            1. That last is much, much easier said than done. And one reason any children I might raise would only be adopted ones. There’s too much crazy on both sides of the family tree.

               1. Indeed, much easier said than done. And I get you on the adoption front. No judgement. There are enough orphans in the world that need good families to care for them that I would never discourage someone from choosing to raise them with love and care.

         2. Several months ago, I saw a graphic talking about how you can know you are being gaslit. I couldn’t help but notice that every single item applied to the Democratic Party. Every. One.

            Eric Flint once asked “If corporations are people, what kind of people are they?” and he answered his own question (with a bit of reasoning) as “sociopaths”. I was not in a position to do so, but I wanted to say this in reply: “Do you know why corporations are sociopaths? It’s because corporations take on the character of their leaders, and sociopaths naturally rise to the top. What makes you think something similar doesn’t happen in government bureaucracies?”

            One of the problems we have is that the Republican Party — indeed, one of my biggest complaints with the Republicans is that they are spineless — is that, the Republican Party, being the Party where The Coalition of People Who Want To Be Left Alone can sit, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, with the Coalition of People Who Only Sort Of Want To Control Your Life, is almost necessarily going to be spineless, compared to the Party That Seeks Power No Matter What And Wants To Control EVERY ASPECT Of Your Life.

            And yes, I, too, have no answers as to what’s the best way to counter it. It’s hard to see the crazy, and even when you see it, you see that it’s so crazy, that you can’t help but wonder: “am I the crazy one?”

            (Which, off on a tangent, reminds me of the old Complex Analyst conundrum: “Is i the square root of negative one, or am I the square root of negative one?”)

   2. Expecting perfidy from leftists with respect to following the rules and acting with the spirit of the law is just common sense. This is one of the very reasons that normal, decent folk do not like to get into politics. They will lie, cheat, and steal if the slightest opportunity presents itself. None of that matters to them if they win. Recall the “binders full of women” and “he didn’t win, did he?” They admit this in public when they believe themselves beyond reproach, and in private with their close confederates and lackies.

   3. It’s not so much proving it.
      They aren’t exactly subtle.
      It’s that a large percentage of people genuinely do not want to know, and are actively avoiding what is right in front of their face.

      It’s only a hypothesis, but I believe this percentage varies widely based upon external factors and the trust level within society.
      Between the years lost, the riots (that we’re now being told were a figment of our imaginations), the flagrant theft of the 2020 elections, and the current regime’s determination to impoverish the citizenry…
      I think they’re kicking a powder keg.
      If you give the polls even a glimmer of credibility, over half of respondents are willing to tell a complete stranger that the election was stolen (as does a supermajority of Republicans), and a full third are declaring the necessity of taking arms against the government.

      Gaslighting works. Until it doesn’t. Then things get interesting.

      1. I remember the rioting being Mostly Peaceful, but I don’t remember anyone saying they were figments of the imagination.

         Yet.

         1. “Demonstrations” or “protests” is what I saw.

            Pushback on “riot” etc.

   4. The part about proving it is why this whole thing has me feeling extremely pessimistic, combined with your comment below about how they make you look like the actual crazy one. I’m not sure anything unusual was afoot myself either but if Sarah really is right here, well… Nothing good will come of continuing these thoughts so I’m stopping here.

      1. Deep breaths. And maybe find a kitten or puppy to pet. Or at least something lovely to look at.

         Don’t let them get to you. Despair kills.

         1. ….Internet Kitty Memes are culture-wide therapy?

            1. Let’s hope. 🙂

         2. Not even my floofs are really helping right now, sorry…

            1. Oof. offers hug

            2. I too am beset by black dog.

               1. The black dog visited this morning (0130-0330). I managed to shoo it away for now.

                  1. You’re doing better than me, then…

                  2. A black dog visited nearby the other day. He was followed by a policeman, hunting for clues. Or goblins. Or something. Seemed like a good dog, though, for all that ebony black fur.

   5. never tell me the odds

7. It did not help that this was how the amendment was worded:

   Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the
   state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.

   I’m sure the intent was to sound like abortion would still be available in cases of rape or maternal health, but the way it actually reads is that there is no carveouts at all. That if the legislature wanted to, it could put in a blanket ban that specifically excludes rape or maternal health as reasons to get an abortion. “Laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy” doesn’t have to mean rape is an exception to a ban; logically, it could just as easily mean that abortion could be allowed except in the case of rape. Of course, I’m willing to bet my former Constitutional Law professor had something to do with drafting the language; he got remanded by a judge recently to take some civil procedure classes because he’s so terrible at the actual practice of law.

   My suggestions: first, this should have been two separate amendments, one against state funding of abortions, and the second on returning matters of abortion availability back to the legislature. Over half of the abortions performed in Kansas are on out-of- state women; there is no reason Kansas citizens should pay for them, regardless of any arguments on abortion’s morality.

   Second, at least until artificial wombs become a practical reality, there will be no political consensus for banning abortions in case of rape or maternal health. We might as well accept it, and frankly, those cases are rare enough that they’re only ever used as a camel’s nose in the tent. So for take two on getting these amendments passed, just be explicit. “The Kansas legislature may pass laws regarding an abortion; however the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy in cases of rape or life-threatening medical condition is explicitly reserved.” (And yes, I deliberately said “terminate a pregnancy”; when artificial wombs do become practical, that means only the pregnancy can be ended, not the life of the fetus.)

   1. Again, I don’t have even the slightest issue with the amendment being defeated. It’s the push behind it, and the use of the defeat afterwards.

      And Amy would you PLEASE email me at the heated email? I want to tell you something that maybe you need to know, relating to babies. (Nothing bad, and it’s for “after”)

   2. Life threatening medical condition?
      “I’m depressed. If I am forced to carry this to term, I might commit suicide.”
      Life threatening enough for a judge? You bet.

      1. I don’t disagree. Hell, I’d like to see every woman who’s had an abortion in jail for conspiracy to commit murder. But Roe v. Wade wasn’t overturned in a day, and getting state bans on elective abortions will take time. Salami tactics — slice by slice — work. They’re how we’ve gotten this far. Now is not the time to give up on them and insist on everything or nothing.

      2. The other “life threatening” is that sometimes an abused woman or girl says, “he said he’d kill me if I don’t get an abortion, or he’ll beat me until I miscarry because he doesn’t want to pay child support.” Those could be solved without resorting to abortion, IF the laws were carried out as they ought to be, not as they are. And if the victims would get help, but that’s a different argument.

   3. ^^^ THIS. The wording – and the messaging – were both bad.

      The messaging for the amendment should have been “The right to abortion rests solely on a decision by SCOKS. Just like SCOTUS, those UNELECTED judges can change their minds at any time. Return these decision to your ELECTED Representatives in the Legislature!”

      Messaging is vital. Just before the primary here, the daughter was being bombarded by texts about one candidate hiring a drag queen for her child’s birthday party. That was centered around “drag queen” – and like me, she has no problem with someone being a drag queen. I went a few rounds with her to get it through that it was NOT the fact of a drag queen being there – it was the sexualization of a child’s event.

      The message there should have been “Would you have hired a pole dancer to entertain at your child’s birthday party? Then why would you think that Candidate was correct to hire a drag queen to entertain at her child’s party?”

      (The same form should be used for the fights over taking children to a drag bar event. Properly equating taking children to the local topless bar and taking them to the local drag bar.)

   4. I recall Frank Herbert basically using a concept in his books that nothing beats a human uterus for gestating human beings. That was the means in the Dune series, and in Helstrom’s Hive.

      1. Oh I seriously doubt technology will get to point in my lifetime that it’s better for the fetus to be gestated outside of a uterus. But the technology doesn’t have to be that good to be be better for the fetus to be transferred to an artificial womb than to remain in vitro in a 10 year old rape victim, or a woman who needs chemo for an aggressive cancer, or whatever else is in the parade of horribles that get trotted out as “proof” that abortion is a good and necessary thing.

         1. Or in the case of a certain Miles Vorkosigan.

      2. That is also the source of serious body horror in the last two Dune books and Helstrom’s Hive. His logic was good, but the implications are horrific and not completely shied away from in any of them.

      3. There was serious body horror related to both if you don’t skim. He might be right, but it was horrific.

         1. Absolutely. The ultimate turning a human being into a machine, a thing.

8. I find it odd that a few comics I follow take such a left-wing view. I think Bizzaro has always been left-wing, but still very funny. And then there’s Fowl Language. Which is usually about a duck family raising their kids, and funny. But occasionally throws out a post like this: https://www.facebook.com/FowlLanguageComics/posts/pfbid0319BSBgXdwSrZxdS8xDucxnHrBRysn1ss2UAzDEWefYkLvQpypse5BhAUbsuDD1EPl

   If I had lived in Kansas, I might have responded to the comment by saying, “I have a uterus, you don’t. You do not get to tell me how to vote.” (Both sentences are accurate. They also have little to do with each other.)

   1. Link to the full comic (Without the telling people in Kansas how to vote in their own election comment.)
      https://tinyview.com/fowl-language/2022/08/01/tyranny?fbclid=IwAR2UjS_8eUXDeIaLtEhy-P_5-ss1p2chu9-IS4JC1jdSJL4BYFdUsum6Qew

9. Look, BGE said, and he’s right, there will be no FAMINE in the US.

   There will be no famine in the US without government action.

   If they are emboldened enough to steal the House (I’ve assumed the Senate like the WH is gone forever, but the House is harder to steal… that has to be done retail, not wholesale) then they are emboldened enough to starve the Red states by use of government force.

   1. It’s happened before, even.

      1. yep. They’re going to try. But that WOULD wake us up.

         1. Let’s hope, if they try, people do wake up.

      2. “This page has been blocked by an extension.”

         Wish I knew what extension it was so I could set an exception for Accordingtohoyt….

         1. Never mind. Found it!

            1. It was DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, in case anybody’s interested.

               1. Yeah, when I installed DDG I looked at that, checked into it, and said “No, thank you”. Well, a bit more forcefully, involving invocation of the Nether Region… 🙂

10. Not completely on-topic, but definitely related, is the latest drop by Samson, a rapper very respected by many in the black community. This is based on the left’s attempt to outlaw firearm ownership, and is pretty salty:

    I post this just to let y’all know that the left not only hasn’t seized total control of many of the minority communities they presume they own, what partial control they have is slipping away…

    1. Love it. Reposted it on my FB page.

11. Over 20 million dollars came into our state from other places. The advertising against the amendment was constant for at least three or four weeks. And the wording of the amendment was bad.
    I don’t think this will affect November at all.

    1. They ALWAYS say the wording is bad. ALWAYS. There is no way to speak, etc….
       It will. It give the left COVER for the massive fraud.

    2. Bad wording isn’t always a deal-breaker. Last year, the PA GOP put forth an amendment to severely restrict the Governor’s power to declare and enforce emergency measures after Wolf went full-on Petty Tyrant with his COVID response. The Dems were able to alter the wording of the amendment to almost completely change the intended meaning of the amendment but not what a “yes” or “no” vote would actually mean, i.e. they tried to get the voters to think they were voting for stripping the Governor of his emergency authority when in fact they’d be voting to let him keep it. GOP got wind of the hijinks, got the word out far and wide, and the Governor still got smacked down HARD despite the Dems’ best efforts.

       1. Oh, yeah. That went far and wide very quickly. A huge majority in PA read that amendment veeeeery carefully. I voted in that election.

12. I fear that the fix is in no matter what. Even if the Dems run a “clean” election (which is about as likely as me being asked out by a Swedish bikini model), roughly half the population won’t accept the results as legitimate.

    I was talking with my next-door neighbor (who is, based on the admittedly-few times we’ve spoken, firmly in the Left’s camp) a few weeks back, and we both agree that after 2016 and the subsequent four years of “Russiagate” and “Russian collusion!”, and 2020 and the allegations of fraud, neither side will accept that their opponent actually won fairly. The integrity of elections in this country, or at least the perception of fair and honest elections, has been severely damaged if not totally destroyed.

    1. We got to stop with this “half the country” bullshit. They are not half the country. They’re probably not even one quarter of the country. We are the majority. They count on us believing that we have half the country against us.

       1. THIS. They are AT MOST 20% and that counts a lot of custard heads

          1. Yeah. The worst are more likely under 10%. Just 8% of Twatter is hard left, from a study about a year ago that I can’t find just now. The admitted socialists and communists are part of this, I believe. And they put out something like 80% of all political twats. The D party caters to the hard left of Twatter.

             Other than the active hard left, there are the passive believers that I’m guessing account for maybe another 10% at most. The rest that vote D do so because they always have, because all the people on TV say the R party is full of evilracisssexisscishetclimatdenying bad dudes so full of hatey-hate that if you let them so much as speak they will corrupt you with their evibadhatey-hateness. These people don’t really care about anything politically, but they “know” the D party is the right one for them.

             Then you’ve got the undecideds. The politically homeless, the “a plague on both their houses” people, the weirdos, the suspicious, the crazies… And the few normal people that can’t be bothered to pick a party.

             The rest of the country is conservative of various flavours. From the “I’m only here because the left has gone NUTS,” to the “Communists heads belong on pikes. Preferably lining the roads to the State Capitols,” to the tiny government folks. The 2nd Amendment people, the religious conservatives, the actual TEA party people (as opposed to the fake ones), and the Reagan conservatives.

             The fake right is the RINOs. The Establishment squishies. The McConnels, the Grahams, the Cheneys, the Romneys, and so on. The ones that belong on the left, vote for leftist things, have their hearts set on the left… but can’t get elected as leftists, so they campaign in cowboy hats and denim shirts, talk about lowering taxes, getting tough on crime, and all sorts of conservative sounding things before heading to their offices once they’ve won and forgetting about all that stuff for a few years. These are not the right. These are the left but the squishy, soft left that are stuck campaigning in red districts.

       2. They are noisy enough to be half the country though.

          1. The most wacked–out 5% make 95% of the noise.
             ———————————
             It’s dark here. You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

13. It’s too easy to find ballots in the trunks of cars. The mechanical lever macine, with the proper design and the proper chain of custody, is the most secure method available. Its one weakness is that it can’t handle ranked-choice voting well–and that’s a feature, not a bug, because when there are many candidates and runoff elections it’s sometimes more important to know whom to vote against rather than whom to maybe vote for.

    1. So. No ballots “found” after close of election. See, easy.

       1. This. Which is how it SHOULD have ALWAYS been.

       2. Nor pallets full of ballots ‘found’ at 2 AM on Election Night. No ‘stopping the count’ and then finding that the vote numbers changed radically while the counting was ‘stopped’. No Sooper Seekrit Vote MisCounting Computers running proprietary software that no court or legislature can examine, or test for validity.

          NO MORE!!
          ———————————
          Elections are far too important to be left up to a bunch of uncontrolled voters. The Party MUST exercise oversight and management to prevent mere voters from electing the wrong candidates!

          1. THIS

          2. Even ignoring the general fraud issues, the mere act of running PROPRIETARY FREAKING VOTING SOFTWARE is something that ought to result in public executions.

             1. THIS

       3. But harder to enforce. Get the counts off the machines early–including the count of total voters–and publish it immediately.

          Unlike electronics, the proper functioning of a mechanical machine can be verified visually. The counters can be non-resettable. The settings can be visible through wired glass sealed with epoxy loaded with holographic glitter, photographed in advance.

          The tape-printing machine sounds good, but paper is still easy to manipulate.

          We agree on chain of custody. But the mechanical system makes the chain of custody easier to protect.

          1. Holographic glitter-bomb in the seal? That’s so dastardly I love it!

    2. Nope, the MOST secure method is the machine that, while tabulating the results mechanically, prints out a paper version of the vote for the voter to review and acknowledge that it is in fact his vote, which paper ballot then gets deposited in a lock box in full view of all observers. Said lock box is the official vote, should any recounts be required.

       1. What I wish they would do, actually. So that one can be absolutely certain that there were no shenanigans at the polling place.

       2. Chain of custody. Poll watchers must never be excluded. Signature and id verification. Inky fingers! And consequences for failing the public trust.

          1. Said consequences not to involve being slapped on the wrist and “kicked upstairs”. Kicked down the stairs, multiple flights, OTOH…

14. From my knothole on the the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro, I saw a lot comments and complaints about pro-amendment signs being stolen or vandalized. I drove past vandalized signs pro-amendment signs almost every day, usually with red or black spray paint.

    It is entirely possible for the election to have been clean. Our state has, I think, some of the crooked or corruptible voting machines, but on a single issue like this, with the relatively small population numbers in Kansas, it would be hard to hide a large margin of victory tipped by Dominion-esque games. It could happen…could have happened on this vote…but it would also have been a risky move.

    The thing to understand on all this is that Kansas has struggled for a long time dealing with all the external political interests inserting themselves, with the backing of huge dark money from Leftist interests. I don’t think we’re alone in that problem. It’s difficult for the locals in a small, mostly rural state to coordinate and fundraise against the behemoths funneling money in to flip an issue or political office, if they’re inclined to do so.

    For a long time, Kansans (and other similar states) could coast by on the notion that the Left doesn’t really care enough about what happens in our state to try to meddle in our politics. It is, of course, a naivety we can clearly no longer afford to indulge in.

    A few elections ago, longtime GOP Senator Pat Roberts was running for re-election. Democrat voters in the state picked some faceless cannon fodder to go against Roberts, who had been one of our Senators for five or six terms by that point. There was little doubt that Roberts would win.

    But the national DNC decided Roberts might be vulnerable. So they propped up this supposed “independent” candidate to throw his hat into the ring…then talked their own Democrat, a guy Kansas Democrats voted for in the primaries to represent them, to step down so that the independent guy the DNC inserted would have a better chance against Roberts. The DNC flat-out screwed over their own voters for the chance to knock off Roberts. Then they funneled a crap-ton of money into the independent’s campaign. Fortunately, for what it’s worth, Roberts won.

    The lesson we need to learn is that elections in small states can definitely be bought. This ballot issue in Kansas saw one of the many, many PACs that ran scare tactic ads for the abortion folks, had spent a million dollars more than the entire pro-amendment campaign. So the cash for ads and campaigning to muddy the waters and confuse or intimidate voters was, in all likelihood, orders of magnitude more than what the Kansans who were pushing the amendment could generate on their own. And because the issue dealt with abortion, there was plenty of cash in the abortion industry coffers to fund an assault on Kansas voters’ rights.

    They probably didn’t need to cheat to get what they got.

    Even though Kansas is a decidedly red state, its urban areas have population densities that challenge the smaller populations of conservative/libertarian voters spread out across the rest of the state. The Left has all the money they need for whenever they decide to intervene in our politics or social structure. They also wrangled a bizarre method for selecting state supreme court justices…who are nominated by the state bar instead of the governor…which has led to the kind of permaned, Leftist supreme court the national DNC would drool over. Hoping to change the “abortion is a right” through our court system is wishful thinking as long as the state bar can handpick the kinds of justices who would, for instance, throw a fundraiser for a Democrat gubernatorial candidate…in THEIR OWN HOME! (What conflict of interest?) Sheesh.

    That the media coordinated their message about Kansas’ amendment isn’t surprising. They needed a kicking dog on abortion and win or lose, they got Kansas to fit the bill.

    1. I’d forgotten about that campaign (Roberts)

15. There’s a good chance I’m wrong, but here it is anyway:

    Abortion was chosen as a rally point because it’s important to the loudest faction of the dems. Everything about it failed to gather support for them, but that won’t change their tactics unless another faction gets louder and/or is willing to send money to the party.

    Dominion machines may have been used as a test to see if the dems could repeat the 2020 fraud. That’s pure speculation.

    Most likely avenue of fraud is corrupt election officials and offices. It was a big part of the 2020 election as well and with focus on suspicious voting hardware and software, corrupt officials will become much more crucial to dem success.

    1. That’s harder in small precincts. Shiny machines, though? Yeah.

16. When you don’t know what to do about the evil, or even if you do, turn to the One who does. Verse 6 below has been my constant prayer since 2008. That and for them to fall into their own traps and people to recognize the evil and reject them.

    Psa 58:3-8 KJV 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

    6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

    7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

    And I am encouraged by this:

    2Ti 3:8-9 KJV 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

    Prayer box(closet), soap box, ballot box, money box—so we can avoid the use of the ammo box, Lord willing.

    So do what you can. Do everything you can. But trust the Lord in all things.

    Oh, and Sarah don’t think of yourself as Cassandra, be a Deborah.

17. The vote in Kansas very closely matches the national polls on how the average American feels about a ban on abortion. That is, a majority believes it is a personal and private decision in the first trimester.
    And many traditional conservatives are very unhappy with the neo non conservatives who are pushing the Roman Catholic agenda here. Note that every single “justice” who voted to overturn Roe is a Papist. If yoy want to look for a conspiracy, look to the bloody handed male Church of Rome for your conspiracy. My 93 year old Republican since birth mother is pro choice because she remembers when Catholics made it impossible for married women to get birth control in Massachusetts, pre Griswold. And old Clarence, the failed priest, wants to revisit Griswold and overturn that. And has said so.

    1. THERE WAS NO BAN.
       Also quelle surprise you believe POLLS.

       1. Also quelle surprise you believe POLLS

          She believes anti Catholic bigotry so…

          1. She’s from the VAX church. So, rival religion, you know. Mask and Vax, and she’s holy.

             1. Are the members of the VAX church followers of DEC? Do they consider Data General heretical?
                (date himself horribly, and runs)

                1. Truly “dizzy bus” folks.

                   VAX Alpha or VAX VMS? (GRIN) My first full-time IT gig involved a bunch of VAX.

                2. I am the very model of a Modern Data General? Can’t find the lyric to the take-off version.

                   It’s Xerox and Wang that were the heretics, but only to the British VAX vacuum cleaners adherents.

                3. I needed that.
                   Even if using VMS risked ‘COBOL fingers’.

          2. believing that Rome is evil and hates and fears women isn’t bigotry, its common sense.

             1. No. It’s a great bit of insanity and stupid shit you were taught, chick.

                1. I am kinda tickled, though– not only are we horrible pagans who worship Mary, but we hate women, too!

                   1. Because we don’t let women prostitute themselves and/or kill their kids.
                      That’s pure evil right there. Straight up. No kidding. /s

                      1. The folks with woman-run, woman-staffed communities are the folks who hate women.

                         Uh huh.

                   2. And historically stomped hard on witch hunting and Jew hunting…

                      1. Let women refuse to marry without being killed for it….

                         1. Yeah, those evil Catrholics…

                2. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!

             2. There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing. – Sheen

             3. No, it’s brainwashed stupidity. And I say that as a protestant. As is believing the current anti-pope actually in any way represents Catholics any more than our turnip in the oval office represents America.

             4. Good heavens, so to speak. I am distrustful of ALL “organized” religion and even I realize that is.. well, it smells like what I flush. The Catholic Church might well have issues, but THAT isn’t one of them. Oy gevalt.

          3. She doesn’t mention her daughters; I wonder how they feel about things.

    2. The “average American,” assuming such exists, has absolutely no relationship to the “average Kansan.” Pretending differently just reveals a complete lack of understanding how the world works. As for your anti-Catholic ranting, you just make yourself look idiotic (well, more idiotic…).

       1. She’s been doing that a good long while.

          1. Reads like a 163X novel character too often

       2. I will state, for the record, that I am NOT average save for perhaps one or things by purest random chance. For many, I am above average. For a few, FAR above. BUT ALSO, for many I am below average, and for a few FAR below. As for which is which, well, ox slow, but ox still NOT damnfool enough to tell everyone!

    3. Ah, yes, the ever popular “EEEEEEEVIL PAPISTS!” line… even though religion had absolutely sweet fuck-all to do with the decision.

       Or at least nothing to do with it for those who aren’t religiously supporting government controlling the masses.

       1. Funny, it’s always the eeeevil Catholics, and none of the Protestant denominations, that get blamed for expressing doubts about unlimited abortion. As if there weren’t Protestants and non-believers who disagreed with the idea of the Federal Government determining reproductive policy.

          1. I have mentioned that I don’t have a problem with Catholics, I have a problem with the Catholic Clergy Hierarchy. (And no, they haven’t ex-communicated me, yet.)

             1. The Catholics right now all have the same problem.

             2. Well, y’all are always invited over to the Orthodox Church, where we cross ourselves correctly… 😀

             3. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/francis-first-anti-pope-centuries-frontpagemagcom/

                1. nods

                   FakePope Frankie is Fake. This is just one more institution that the leftists have overrun expecting its members to blindly follow the leaders of said institution. Silly commies.

          2. And there are plenty of atheists nowadays who have noticed and been horrified by how utterly ghoulish the aborters have become, even if they in theory are pro-choice.

    4. Shoot, I was brought up Southern Baptist, in the South, and I didn’t hear that sort of prejudice.
       But then, Dad was probably an Odd, and taught us anyone who believed in Jesus, of any flavor, was OK, plus Jews and Muslims (as “People of the Book”).

    5. I’m just loving the implied assertion that whatever religion Sotomayor believes in, it isn’t Catholicism. I completely agree!

       1. Same as Biden, amirite?

          1. And Pelosi.

    6. My mother and close friend were medically raped by the vaxxers, Mx Valeria Offaucci. “Bend over and get stuffed with unwanted genetic material or no life-saving medical care for you!”

       And that was not the Papists. That was you happy-dappy abortionists acting as handmaidens to the male corporate pharma-facists.

       So please. Do not try to pee on my leg and tell me it is raining.

       1. After reading her calm and well-though-out post (pardon me while I choke), I was about to reply when I decided to read the responses. Glad I did, since apparently she/he/it has shown up here before, with the same sort of crap, and others, especially overgrownhobbit, addreesed it better and more thoroughly that I could have. Thanks, all; reverting to “read” mode now… 🙂

    7. While the Roman Catholics may be the largest and most visible group who oppose elective abortions for personal or social convenience, they are absolutely not the only ones.

       1. We’re the biggest group with a formal explanation of “no, and here’s why, and here’s what’s going to happen if folks do it anyways, and here’s the binding authority if you call yourself one of us.”

          It’s notable how much of the stuff that was laughed at for the predictions came to pass already.

    8. Bull. My community is 95% PROTESTANT. And the rejoicing over the fall of wade was pretty close to universal. Please actually get away from the polls and go talk to real human beings who are not just your immediate family.

18. Dick Cheney has come out with a campaign ad for his darling Lizard.
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/04/dc-dick-begs-wyoming-voters-to-support-dc-liz/

    In it he makes it quite clear that Donald Trump Will Be Stopped and that the Jan. 6 kangaroo court is all about that.

    They plan to use any and all methods to end Trump and, probably more importantly, end anyone who gets in their way. We already know that they consider anyone who disagrees with them an insurrectionist.

    But lest we forget, they have been painting Republicans with the Worse than Hitler brush since the fall of Berlin. So we need to remember it ISN’T about Trump. They will do the same to DeSantis, to Winsome Sears, to anyone else their opposition puts up for office.

    Trump is just the biggest nail sticking up for them to hammer down. But hammer they will.

    If their plans succeed I fully expect that famine will be the least of our worries. For one thing, it takes too long to kill off enough hoarders and wreckers.

    1. Famine is just the result of how inept they are.

       1. I think famine may have been the result of ineptitude heretofore, however, there hasn’t been a time before when TPTB actively sought to eliminate a large percentage of the population.

          Subjugate, enslave, rule, quash, yes. Keep the undesirables from breeding, yes. But actually killing off large numbers of regular folks seems to be a bold new step for them. Famine will not even come close to working fast enough to get the numbers down to where they think they want them.

          1. This I know. But it will work like a bucket of cold water on the asleep.

    2. It just shows that they really don’t understand just who they’re facing. If they try to hammer us down, they’ll rapidly find that we hammer back.

       1. They haven’t figured that out, yet.

       2. And when we pull the hammer back we next squeeze the trigger. That’s what has them scared the most.

          1. As Schwarzkopf)?) said pre-Gulf War I, the enemy should NOT wonder “what might happen” but “What happened?” (And NOT be given a chance to figure it out short of unconditional surrender. )

             1. I found the following text online or in someone’s post right after the Nov 2020 fraud and found it to be true. The worst part is “they” don’t know what real fear will be when we are pushed too far. Unfortunately, I think we are close….I hope if or likely when such a time comes that we all STAND and face our fears. Remember, Courage is Contagious! Here is the text that I hope you find inspiring (sorry it’s not religious though)….

                The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of “Men who wanted to be left Alone”.

                They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love.

                They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it.

                They know, that the moment they fight back, the lives as they have lived them, are over.

                The moment the “Men who wanted to be left Alone” are forced to fight back, it is a small form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. . . .

                Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these “Men who wanted to be left Alone”, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at the Left’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy . . . . but it will fall upon deaf ears.

                1. And this is why I pray still and yet that we’ll get through this without or with minimal violence.
                   I distrust those trying to urge us to fight when most of the country isn’t even aware there’ anything wrong. BUT if they won’t let our votes count– is there another way out of this short of G-d’s direct intervention? (Which mind you might happen.)

                   1. It is important to distrust all who urge us to fight (especially the Ra y Ep pes types and their assorted cohorts/agitators/entrappers from the Fraudulent boy Investigators). I think we all pray that these people will come to their senses as they soon will realize their gig is up (when they see a populist supermajority is against them) and surrender. However, by that point, they will be backed into a corner and either escape to their New Zealand bunkers or escalate their tyranny suddenly to the break-out of violence (instead of their present planned slow-motion train wreck and doomed attempt to control and to build things back better).

                      Unfortunately, the history of mankind always sees the same result of elites driving the people to the breaking point. There is an endless list of such events…. French Rev., Amer. Rev, Russia Rev. To deny history (as they do) is to surely repeat it. I think when things get that bad (i.e. the breaking point), we should all STAND. If not us, who will? I am old enough and have lived a full life and will be willing at that point to water Jefferson’s Tree so my children won’t ever have too.

                      1. I have a sense of their escaping, but alas, I get feelings of the future, not certainties.

                      2. This. If it must come, take us and spare the young.

                         1. Add to that the childless curmudgeons, should extreme circumstances come to pass. Be so kind as to let us old menfolk be first. Children still need their parents. Even when they have children of their own.

                            1. Hugs.

                            2. Tis an honorable gesture, sir. It may indeed be up to you to go first. However, as much as I would like to see my grandchildren’s children, I would be better off standing up to see that my grandchildren’s children have freedom.

                               If I don’t live to see it, so be it. But heaven help me if I refuse to do the necessary out of fear or weakness. If the choice comes to me I sincerely hope I am equal to the task.

                               If we make enough of a ruckus maybe we can scare them off though and no one gets hurt.

                            3. Everyone should take to heart the unofficial USCG motto: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back” Although unstated in so many words, that was the credo of most of the military, prior to the recent Great Awakening.

                         2. I’ve been reading up on various parts of the history of NE Asia, and the many, many uprisings and general badness over the centuries there.

                            …Us older and cranky Odd types can often take an awful lot of fresh young enemy idiots with us, historically. So there is that.

                            1. Sirs. Remember that the left and their minions plus rhino elite (rhinos minions have already left to m a g a ) have no honor and likely courage either. I look forward to standing with you if it becomes necessary. Their minions don’t think much so that is our advantage. Take the moral high ground always but play the game to win. If not, I’d like to shake your hand (no fist bumps or masks ever for me again) on the train car to FEMA Camp Bravo.

                            2. A friend, Michael Longcor, sings a song about an old soldier (maybe in the ECW or Napoleonic wars period) being put upon for being old by a young fighter. The old man demurs, the young one challenges.
                               They fight, the young one dies.
                               The punch line is “old soldiers get to be that way by being very good.”

                            4. Yep. I like that one too.

                               “My arm and wrist are tempered steel,
                               “While yours are forming clay;
                               “I killed my first before your birth-
                               “I’ll kill you if you stay…..”

    3. Yes, it doesn’t even have to be a good candidate (for the country). They would do the same to Mittens Romney, Lizard Cheney, or Soy Boy Kinzinger if (may God preserve us from this calamity) one of them were to be nominated.

       The one skill that you MUST master to be a successful Leftist is not being being able to turn on a dime – but being able to turn on a pinhead. (Double meaning there…)

       1. Yes they will do so to any R candidates. They actually had people believing that Mayonnaise Mitt would ban TAMPONS of all things if he got into office.

          Poor Lizard apparently has no idea how they will turn on her if she runs for anything remotely resembling a republican ticket.

          You’d think her Dad’s past experiences with the demonization of Republicans would have given him a clue. But he is evidently as stupid as he is warmongering. It really is true that you can’t convince someone of something that their paycheck depends upon them not believing.

       2. Like anyone will be able to find a dime….

    4. As far as I’m concerned, Dick Cheney is a war criminal.

       1. If there is one thing we should have learned from Trump it was that the US does not have to default to war to defend our interests in the world and you can project might and power without proxy wars of any kind.

          And since that great revelation to me, I would have to say Dick Cheney and his ilk are indeed war criminals because I am quite sure they already KNEW this and we’re in it for the money.

    5. I like the way that his darling daughter is begging for what amounts to fraud in order to not be buried in the primary. Such an honest group…

19. I’m a minority, or maybe I read the wording too fast, but the Kansas amendment seemed perfectly clear to me. I couldn’t understand the number of folks on Twitter complaining about it.
    I will offer another bit. Seems that all the pro-Trump candidates in Arizona won their primaries, to the disgruntlmement of True Conservatives. It’s being spun as, “Well, if Arizona had enough fraud to steal the election in 2020, how come all these people won now?” Even a comment about, “the totals changing in their favor in the middle of the night.” The thought that either the D’s are pulling the, “make sure the candidates we think we can beat win their primaries,” shtick, or, “they’ll really be watching us this time let’s save the good stuff for November,” doesn’t occur to them.

    1. Note that the Democrats don’t mind losing a few battles if they can win the major campaign like November. Take for instance the recent elections in Virginia. Youngkin won “a close race” over McCaulife but the machines were Dominion. Maybe they intentionally made it close so the republican voters will think the machines are not rigged. However Youngkin was selected anyway and maybe he really won by an even bigger margin and they just wanted it to seem. Close? perhaps He was selected because of his affiliations with the Carlyle group who seems connectedness somehow to Dominion I believe. Rigged elections have consequences and can never be trusted again until the election houses are fumigated from their infestation.

       1. strange way of saying “burned to the ground and salted”

          1. Hey just trying to be an author here using with eloquent descriptive language. But cockroaches run away and the house is saved after the fumigation. LOL I hope we can save the house!

20. I think the sign theft in Kansas is most likely due to the confusing language of the measure on the ballot. The measure’s wording was a mess, to the point that even a trained lawyer would have trouble figuring it out. In that sort of situation, voters are going to try and rely on other factors – like political signs. But if all of the pro- side’s signs are missing, it becomes much harder for that side to reduce the measure to something easily explainable. That makes it more likely that voters will misunderstand the measure when they vote.

    Doesn’t mean no widespread cheating. But the two aren’t necessarily linked given the measure’s awful wording.

    On another note, polls are now reporting that the Senate might be a tough fight for the Republicans to take control this coming election.

    Also, as one might expect, the 9th Circuit is dragging it’s feet on any case that might be effected by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association decision.

    1. I TOLD you. they will now say that the abortion vote in Kansas meant that the nation REALLY wants abortion free for all, and will re-elect democrats. I just TOLD you.
       The polls will shift to cover that.

       1. I won’t argue with that. I even heard a Planned Nonparenthood spokesthing on the radio yesterday saying as much. I just think there’s a simple non-fraud explanation for the signage theft

          My comment on the Senate poll numbers reportage would be in line with your theory, though. Which is why I brought it up.

          1. Sign thefts have been a normal part of campaigning by Democrats for the last 20 years…. to the point in 2008 / 2012 here in TX we were making jokes about putting out campaign signs and checking with the game wardens to see if that violated the rules about hunting over bait.

             1. All signs for Republican candidates should come with sandbags and barbed wire.

                Y’all gonna have to supply your own claymores. 😛

             2. Democrats will steal or deface opposition campaign signs in the bluest of blue Democrat redoubts. Basically anywhere they think they can get away with it. So I put zero weight on sign theft having any deeper meaning at all.

                1. It was A LOT more than usual, from what I hear. Like…. systematic.

    2. Most people also had absolutely NO clue how flimsy the “right to abortion” bullshit is.
       But I’m not with you on the sign theft. This was above and beyond normal.
       They needed this vote to go for them, to use as a cover.

21. IF your voting precinct allows mail in balloting, you MUST get into the office that receives those envelopes; and you must, before they are opened, call the return addressee and verify that they actually sent in the envelope with the ballot. That is step 1. Any ballot received without a return address MUST be destroyed, not “reviewed” and registered. Any ballot not attested to by the return addressee MUST be destroyed, not “reviewed” and registered. If that’s not done, then your precinct’s votes must be rendered null and void. ALL of the ballots should be destroyed and either nobody votes, or everyone votes in person. I’ll leave how you choose to destroy those questionable ballots up to you. Oh, and if anyone opposes that, you need to remove them from their position(s) immediately. So you’ll need court injunctions to do that. Once those envelopes are opened, there’s no way to tell if they were cast fraudulently or not.

    1. Absolutely. I live in a “voter fraud by mail” state, and I hate the fact that there is NO WAY to prove that my completed ballot was actually counted, and that it was a legal vote (once it is separated from the envelope).

       1. Trot your happy ass down to the poll and vote in person. Tear up the fraud-by-mail ballot right in front of them and throw it in the trash. That’s what I do.
          ———————————
          Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

          1. There is no place to vote in person in my state. None. Not a single one. Can’t be done. Best I can do is drop my ballot in the big metal box outside city hall instead of entrusting it to the mail.

             Wife and daughter both vote opposite to me and have both been out of state for the entire primary voting window. Son entirely disdains voting. All three had ballots sitting at home waiting for me to fill them out in any way I please. And I’m stupid/honest enough not to have done it. How many people out there don’t have those scruples?

             1. Oregon, yes?

                They did that comprehensively, starting in 2000, well before I got here.

                Iraq did their in-person, purple finger voting in 2005.

                1. I don’t know about “Ing”, Oregon isn’t the only state that has vote by fraud mail. California, Washington, and Colorado, do too. I’m in Oregon. That is what we (hubby, son, mom, me) do, is take the ballots directly to the box at the county election offices (generally a night or so before VS election Tuesday). We are not entrusting them to our mail. Our mail, put in blue box at post office, collected, goes to Portland for sorting, before being brought back to Lane County Elections. Trust mail? No. Nope. No.

          2. ….and, be informed when you arrive, that you already voted, even though you’ve got your mail-in, in hand.

             (Same issue with the call-them-up plan, by the way– a false registration. This already gets used in some states, look for the stories of folks calling up to ask where their ballot is and being informed they’d moved, or had already returned it.)

             1. I’d be filing a complaint. Taking it to the news. Make a stink. No “alleged fraud” about it. They’d better come up with the signed envelope, with absolute proof said ballot made it to my house. Former they might, might, have, won’t be my signature, but … latter lot harder for them to do.

          3. Why not vote both?

             1. Because elections are fucked up enough with the enemy cheating. Don’t make it worse.

                If our side is ever caught cheating they get to point at us and crow, “See, everybody does it!” They’d use one bad vote from our side to excuse the millions of fraudulent votes on theirs.

                Do not go there.
                ———————————
                Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

22. I see the ominous potential of this. If the media pushes polls that seem to show a Democrat surge, then when they cheat like mad and get their candidates elected, the “mushy middle” will shake their heads and say: “Well, they won.” The mushy middle types all wore masks for the past two years, of course. They don’t like the collapse of America but they won’t do anything about it.

    The real question is, how big is the mushy middle? I think we might watch the dam break at last. If the dam doesn’t break and the red wave is stopped, we’re in for a very serious time. I feel the need to go into the garden and do some weeding. Sigh.

    1. yep. Precisely.

23. The way I see it is the fix has been in for a while and they let Roe versus Wade go because it was just time, and they had a better option, a legion of employers willing to make any medical mandate as policy, a solid 30ish% of the population devoted to every word, deed, and ideology the progressive (Democrat, socialist, whatever) vanguard advances on any given day, along with the loyalty of the tech industry namely Google, Facebook, and Twitter that freely brag of the ability to affect another 20% of the population’s decision making to a given direction.
    Knowing that the oppositions strong suit is individualist motivation, it becomes easy to make manipulation appear as plausible proper outcomes

    1. I really doubt it’s 30% of the population or anything even close.

    2. Despite all the control of education, the media, and mass entertainment, the fact that they the best they can do with the polls slanted so far the truth slides completely off is around 43-48% should be concerning to them. As Sarah said, even 30% is laughable.

       The shenanigans that have been caught in public in the last few years are bad enough that even the determinedly anti-political are having politics shoved in their faces so much that they cannot avoid it. That even former democrats are realizing the massive charge to the left has left them behind.

       Thus, the cheat has got to be BIG. They’ll lose, and lose hard if they don’t.

24. Somewhat long (1hr 20min), but a discussion about the current DNC outlook.

25. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: after 2020 they’ve got are measure – or at least they believe they do. They were nervous at first (see all the barbed wire and the inauguration that resembled something out of the third world) but they’ve been getting less frightened and more euphoric every day.

    I can almost see the wheels turning in their minds: all the masking nonsense, shutting down places of worship, tanking the economy and effecting the largest wealth transfer in history while tossing them a few pittance, persecuting border patrol riders because of how they were holding their reins while ignoring an invasion, weeping and wailing over ‘kids in cages’ while turning a blind eye to human trafficking – SURELY the people won’t accept it.

    And yet the people did. Or enough of them did anyway.

    And now: monkeypox? MONKEYPOX??? One wonders how they can say this without laughing.

    They think the people of the USA are no longer in any sense the people who founded this country. The blood of the founders has all been bled away, with the last of it bled out in the desert. The spirit was on display with “Let’s Roll” on Flight 93, but that spirit has been spent, what’s left is only the faint and confused echo heard early 2021, and utterly smacked down.

    They think they’ve got our measure, so the question is: are we going to prove them wrong?

    1. but they’ve been getting less frightened and more euphoric every day.

       …..riiight

       1. They’re actually in an utter panic, but it looks like bravado from a certain angle.

          1. I want to believe you, but I’m not seeing it.

             Or to quote a Youtuber’s observation: they might be afraid, but they’re not afraid of us.

             (they’re afraid because they know deep down that the road they’re on leads to ruin, but the ones at the top are insulated enough that they won’t feel it, and the ones nearer the bottom are so caught up in crowd/group pressure they’re willing to fool themselves.

             I almost think that’s the reason so many on the mushy middle hated Trump so much and were so insistent that everything would be ‘back to normal’ as soon as Dumper Trumper Bunker Boy was out of office/imprisoned: cowardice. They didn’t want to look at the evil going on and how the institutions turned a blind eye to it. They didn’t want to see how deep the rot went, so it was easier to just blame the interloper rather than understand Trump was simply a response – and an extremely moderate response at that – to real evil in high places. Because confronting that evil – or even admitting it existed – was too hard and too frightening, so they transferred their fear onto Trump.

             And they’ll keep lying to themselves and accepting the narrative, hoping ‘normal’ might come back.)

             1. Or to quote a Youtuber’s observation: they might be afraid, but they’re not afraid of us.

                Anyone can create a youtube channel, no matter how oblivious they might be to the world around them.

                1. I didn’t want to take credit for an observation that wasn’t mine.

                   The Youtuber goes by the handle of The Distributist, and if you want to see real doom and gloom, check him out: he makes me look like happiness and sunshine and ridiculous optimism.

                   1. Have heard the name.

                      he makes me look like happiness and sunshine and ridiculous optimism

                      TL;DR: an oblivious loser-fetishist.

    2. Yeah, you’ll wear the mask.
       You’ll eat the bugs.
       You’ll take our propaganda and proclaim it truth.

       I’m altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further.

       Spoiler: He does alter it further. He always does.

       1. Not sure just who you’re talking to, but I have to tell you, pretty much no hillbillies here in east Tennessee (hell, in ALL of Tennessee) will do any of that. Ain’t gonna happen.

          1. Again, he’s standing above and judging us, for not living up to his standards.
             He’s done this before. I’m torn between “Bonehead” and “One of them.”

             1. Definitely a bonehead, and I don’t even approach aspiring to those standards on my best days, so sorry if I come off as judging you, it’s chiefly myself and those around me.

                1. Despair is a sin, Bob. Trust me on this one. There are at least THREE people on this blog alone that are depressive by natural bent who cling to, not perky smiling optimism, but realistic evaluation of the world. We get the doomgloom vibe. We cling to that realistic view of the world with bleeding fingers sometimes.

                   Back in 2009, post housing bubble crash, and 2013, post YGBSM election part deux, things were looking pretty grim. 2016 was not the last dying gasp of a culture on the brink. 2020 was the frantic desperation of a culture that knows it is in decline. There’s only so crazy one can get and live. That hard limit is no longer theoretical.

                   When Sarah says “We win, they lose,” that isn’t Pollyanna bubble headed optimism. That’s the acceptance that what can’t go on, won’t. The leftist/Marxist culture is in decline. Why do you think they are charging so hard left these days? Democrat institutions roll left and die. Then they hope another institution not as far along the decomposition curve will pick them up. Over and over until they themselves die.

                   There will be casualties on our side. There will be suffering ahead yet. They can still, and are still, damaging the country and the institutions that uphold it. You don’t have to tell us that things are bad. We know this. And the things we know are just the tip of the iceberg. There are worse things than you know of being covered up right the very moment. Count on that. Because it has been true of the left all my life, and I have not seen evidence of that behavior changing, save for the worse.

                   Yet even with all of that, we are not a defeated people. No matter how they attempt to browbeat and demean us, they do this for their own benefit alone. 2016 proved how vulnerable they are. It wasn’t called the FU election for naught. The genie is out of the bottle there.

                   Now it is not one man alone, but thousands. Even millions. They don’t worry in their heart of hearts only about the Bad Orange Man. DeSantis. Sears. Youngkin. Moore. Many others. These are not establishment weenies like McConnel, Romney, Cheney, et al.

                   Now is not the time to grow wobbly, friends.

                   1. This. I want to point out I AM a severe depressive. And figuring out how they were going to use this vote which is not about what they think — not even remotely — threw me for a down spin.
                      BUT I’m not willing to right us out. AND we might still get through without major violence. I don’t see how, but thank heavens I’m not in charge.

                      1. Your lips to Himself’s ears. Nobody sane wants a civil war. I still believe we will get through without one. Rioting, violence? The riot cities still exist. You know the ones. Have they backed off their stupid leftist policies yet?

                         Not that I’ve heard. Thus the violence and rioting by the usual suspects is a given. But civil war? Nah. Not seeing it yet. For all that the other side wants their excuse, they haven’t managed it yet.

                         Time will tell if I’m right or not. But prayers never hurt. I will continue praying too.

                         1. Have they backed off their stupid leftist policies yet?

                            Not completely, but there are signs. San Francisco recalled Commie Boudin. LA is probably going to recall Gascon. Seattle elected a (nominally) Republican city attorney, and the police have actually been out clearing homeless encampments. Downtown Portland was empty of Antifa types when I was there a couple of months ago.

                            1. The thing to remember is this is worldwide. The central control planned economy world order is falling the world over.
                               The water is going to be very very rough. Hold on to the sides of the boat.

                            2. That is indeed wonderful news. Baby steps in the right direction. May such a direction continue, for the sake of the residents still suffering in such place.s

                            3. The above list doesn’t count the actions of Florida, Texas, and Arizona, governors of sending bus loads “if we can’t shove them back across the boarder, send them to Sanctuary Cities where it will H U R T”. How many bus loads before D.C. and NY started screeching for help? Now all 3 of the governors above are saying “Oh. Heck no. If we couldn’t get help. You can’t. Shut the border down, now!” or words to that effect. Might have been more along the lines. “How do You Like It?” but more politically correct.

                      2. The “swamp”, the insiders who currently run the system, saw their game exposed and badly disrupted by one weird haircut guy.

                         Bigly.

                         But the bag is now empty of cats. And folks are aware that winning is both possible, and -fun-.

                         Yup, their next desperate plays are going to cause wreckage.

                         Theirs.

                         It’s going to suck. Accept it. Embrace it. Because you can manage the suck. They can’t. Not as long as they get involved in it. Dont allow them to isolate. “We are all in this together!”. And us Odd folks are the chaos riders. Fear the chaos? We already are the chaos. We are just currently …. quiet.

                         Never quit. Because quitters neither win nor live.

                         The Odds are with us. Heh.

                         1. The odds are good. But the goods are odd. 😉

                            1. Oooh, I like that! In fact, I’m stealing it! Or at least saving it for later. 🙂

                            2. It’s what used to be said about engineering schools, for marriage minded women.
                               AND yours truly went odder, into mathematicians, so…
                               (Younger son “Us engineers DO things. Mathematicians are more like “sit back, play with numbers and dream of G-d.” — and that’s when the dinner table fight started.)

                            3. 🙂 Hope you won…and I’m an engineer.

                            4. Neither won. They love each other madly. Younger son was ALWAYS daddy’s boy to the point Dan had to quit a job making crazy money when Marsh was 6, because all the kid did was cry and not eat when dad was away, and dad was away five days a week.
                               BUT that argument is for the ages. Though to be fair, mostly Dan laughs.

                            5. Sorry to miss that dinner table fight. I could have joined either side. Or both. Or just kept stirring the pot with bipartisan snark.

                            6. That’s MY role.

                            7. Ah. I’ll step aside then. 😎

                   2. Waves One of those depressed types. Hanging in there Because.

                      (Spite is a very useful emotion. It can give you the strength to keep going until things get better, if only so you win one over the bad guys. Spite gives the tenacity to say, “Nope, not dying today.”)

                      Because if you can keep your head long enough, and make sure your enemies don’t… when the dust settles, you just might get lucky.

          2. You can put South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota on the list of states who’s citizens won’t play along. They, for the most part, didn’t play along with COVID madness. There will be even less cooperation going forward is my guess.

             There is great disgruntlement in the wind.

    3. I’m reminded of Gene Wolfe’s Return to the Whorl when the hero on a quest travels through a city-state ruled over by a tyrannical government and everyone expects him to solve the problem for them and get rid of the tyrant.

       The hero takes one look around and says ‘no,’ he is just going to extradite himself and his friends from their problem in the city and move on in his main quest.

       Don’t have time to look up the actual quote from the book, but it’s basically: if you people are so weak, selfish and cowardly you need a tyrant to protect you from each other and yourselves, and you’re willing to pay his taxes to fund that tyrant’s efforts to do so, then you deserve him, and if I were to get rid of him for you, you’d just have someone worse in his place as soon as I was gone. Solve your own problems.

       The moral: people get the government they deserve.

       We got exactly ONE miracle in 2016. I doubt we get another.

       1. DUDE.
          The rest of us have been fighting every step of the way. Yes, we pray for miracles too.
          I’m glad you’re up there judging us. We’re adding your name to our very tiny lists…. (Well they’re 6 point type.)

          1. Make no mistake: I’m kicking myself first and foremost.

          2. As long as it’s the lists of people to be left ruthlessly alone, I won’t complain.

26. “What can I do about it?”

    Step 1: go ye to the TrueTheVote.org website and see what they have going in your state.
    Step 1a: Contact them about joining anything they do have.
    Step 1b: Contact them about starting one if they don’t.

    Step 2: See if there are any similar organizations in your state. Judicial Watch does things in this area. See Steps 1a and 1b.

    Step 3: Using either of them as a starting point, find out your local election laws. Pay particular attention to the laws governing voting by mail, absentee, etc. Also the qualifications and process for selecting poll watchers.

    Step 4: Contact your local political party of choice and see if they need any poll workers, greeters, etc. Volunteer to be one. Gawd knows here in DFW the Republicans can use them and never have enough.

    1. Regarding step 4: If you’re an honest person and your local party leadership is complicit with corrupt elections, prepare to either be rejected, or assigned to a “safe” precinct where no funny business is likely to happen. I’m not sure what to do in that case – maybe make note of your rejection and see if your precinct has poll watchers, and whether they’re actually watching?

       1. That also applies to Step 3, BTW.

       2. On the other hand, if enough honest workers show up, surely they couldn’t send all of them out to nowhere, and only run the big sports with the few crooks they’ve got?

27. Darn, I was hoping this time it was going to come up Hercules, Hector, or Odysseus this time. Given the metaphorical resemblance of DC to the Augean stable, Hercules might be ideal. Perseus would have been acceptable, too, given the metaphorical resemblance of the Establishment to Medusa.

28. A few wires low, some voltage high…. Learning might occur.

29. I said back in December of 2020 that they were going to fraud the hell out of the midterms in 2022 because they barely got 50/50 in the senate and a narrow lead in the house. They’ve had two years to plan how to increase the margin. I said then and I’ll say it again now, when Brandon’s numbers are lower than a pregnant snake’s belly, when they gain seats in an off election (which almost never happens), you know that they never plan to let your vote count again.

    1. I did too.

30. Why didn’t the amendment make it possible to forbid all abortion? It’s been established that the federal constitution says nothing about abortion; if the Kansas measure had passed, the Kansas supreme court decision that said that Section 1 of the Kansas constitution guaranteed a right to bodily integrity would have been set aside, and the legality of abortion would have been entirely up to Kansas legislators.

    You can say, “Well, we trust the legislators not to pass that kind of law,” but then you could just as well trust the legislators not to disarm the people, or not to interfere with freedom of the press, or not to pass bills of attainder. And yet we don’t trust them; we have constitutional provisions that say “No! Bad! Don’t touch that!”

    1. It’s against the law to commit murder. Except for those Democrats deem non-persons.

       1. So do you want the law to forbid all abortions, without exception? And did you support the Kansas proposition because you believed that it would enable the legislature to do so?

          1. He does not live in KS.
             He’s talking from a biblical perspective, which is what he normally does.
             And why not consider it murder? Murder also has exemptions. Like self-defense. Or life-saving. Oh, yeah, and trespassing, but that best have some really careful definitions around.
             The point is, what we have as an epistemological construct is destroying society. “you’re human if mommy says so” is not a REASONABLE definition of human.
             And if at some point humans aren’t humans because others say so, why should the government care about the individual?
             Why is my humanity up for grabs on ANYONE’s opinion?
             I think considering it murder doesn’t fit either, but it’s time to bring it all out and frigging debate it, don’t you think?
             It was in Classical Values many years ago — and I challenge you to tell me Classical Values wasn’t a libertarian blog — that we realized what we have is “If mommy says so” standard, and that THAT is not tenable.
             It’s not my business to declare what’s tenable. But people definitely SHOULD discuss it, instead of shoving it to the back of the shelf and clutching spurious air-like-constructions.

             1. Sarah, the other thing is that murder, like abortion, has an intent component. That’s why we have morons like John Legend trying to claim miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies and removing a dead baby after the miscarriage as “abortions” that will also be banned.

                1. Yeah. Having been in one of those situations, abortion being legal didn’t help when idiot doctor wanted it to happen “naturally” (and therefore almost killed me. It’s a bad thing to have someone decompose inside you, okay?)
                   That’s not an abortion. Neither is ectopic, because the child can’t survive, anymore than the mother. And miscarriages… very much depends on intent. I mean, I didn’t know I was pregnant with younger son. I might have done something that theoretically caused a miscarriage (none of those are guaranteed, hence surgical abortions existing) but I’d have done so not knowing he was there. Like shooting into a dark room, where someone is lurking.

                   1. Miscarriage cannot be defined as abortion if an article I read a couple of decades ago was correct, (and IIRC it was in a medical journal with no ax to grind), that more pregnancies end in spontaneous miscarriage in the first month than get to term, and the mother never even knows it happened. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but (again IIRC) the fetuses had serious defects. And no, I don’t know/remember how that was determined at such an early stage. Food for thought.

                      1. It might have been very wrong, but yes. As a serial miscarrier, it’s not the same.

                      2. At one point I went digging– I wanted to know how on earth they GOT a stat on “miscarried before she knew she was pregnant” — and the estimate of spontaneous miscarriage in the first trimester was based off of early IVF failure-to-implant rates.

                         From there, it just kept getting copied, and rough-estimated, and carried forward.

                         Since IVF is, of course, going to disproportionately sample couples that have serious issues with conceiving at all and over-sample women with implantation issues…..

                         1. Aha! OK, thanks for digging into this, and for clarifying something I remembered not-too-well. As with most “well-known facts” it seems to be a mix of true, partly true and either WAG, taken out of context or true but neither particularly relevant to the issue nor unexpected.

                            1. You’re welcome, and correct.
                               :wry: Believe me, you remembered it COMPLETELY ACCURATELY…. :wanders off grumbling, followed by soap-box:

                            2. Yep, like “you don’t use most of your brain.”

                            3. In cases such as this I believe accuracy is at best overrated, like accurately remembering how phlogiston works, or the density of the lumeniferous ether…

                               “you don’t use most of your brain.” Well, to be fair that is accurate for quite a few. And in some cases “most” could be replaced with “any”. 🙂

          2. Now define “abortion”. Hint: a miscarriage is not an abortion, because an abortion is intentional, where you want a dead baby and no other outcome.

          3. Just cool yer jets mister. You got a thing for infanticide, take it up with lawmakers, not randos on the interwebs.

             No one owes you anything, including a response to weird non-sequitors.

    2. Because the court decision can also be overturned on a dime, while the law would have to be passed by people that in THEORY respond to voters.
       Think about it a moment. It will come to you.
       What you’re arguing is that a king is better, because he is doing what you want. Why put it in the hands of legislators who might not?
       Is that sane?

       1. You seem to be saying that there is no difference between having a right protected by the arbitrary decree of a king, and having a right protected by a constitution as interpreted by judges. If that were actually the case, then what was the point of the War of Independence and the Constitutional Convention?

          As for response to voters, it appears that the question was submitted to voters, and they decided to agree with the judges. So it seems the decision has been made, not merely by people who in theory respond to the voters, but by the actual voters. Are you saying that the voters were misinformed and so their votes don’t count?

          Constitutional law has often been a mess. But the United States has it, and other Western countries generally seem not to; they run to provisions that say that such and such right is guaranteed within the limits set by the national legislature. I think the American approach, with all its flaws, has been better.

          1. Because if you follow the link, you’ll see the declaration of the judges is utterly crazy cakes. It’s nothing to do with constitution of KS. It’s a repetition of language from the declaration of independence, which is being interpreted to give a right to abortion.
             If that interpretation is right, then the federal government can apply it too.
             I’m saying the judge in that case was acting as a king, had paid no attention at all to the document (FAR worse than Roe) and to support that is to support the right of judges to declare themselves kings and find whatever they want in any document.
             Thank you, I’d rather have elected representatives who are responsible to the people traipse into such grounds. (And even then EOs are bullshit.)

          2. Because you LIKE the decision, you are saying the judge has the right to “find” bodily autonomy in “Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and are blind to the fact another judge might put emphasis on LIFE.

          3. You seem to be saying that there is no difference between having a right protected by the arbitrary decree of a king, and having a right protected by a constitution as interpreted by judges.

             No, she’s pointing out that is what YOU are aruging.

             Just your “king” is in black robes. So long as he does what you want.

             1. Quibbling a bit… Actually, think of this more as what rights you have – and what rights you don’t have – is being decided by a “Council of Nobles.” The judges in Kansas are going to follow the ideology held by the powers that be in the Kansas State Bar Association. There isn’t even a recall available to change the makeup of that; only Dick the Butcher’s solution.

    3. There is no “bodily integrity” Go read NEO. This is based on “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. It’s not a flimsy decision. It’s not even there. It’s bullshit on toast.

       1. And if bodily integrity were truly the standard, it would apply to embryos too. “A baby’s body, a baby’s chance to live.”

          And baby girls already carry eggs. “Keep your butchery off her ovaries.”

          But the point of this discussion is integrity of elections, and being in favor of letting voters choose. Which the Dems do not believe in, even for their own party faithful.

31. Perhaps a dissenting opinion. I won’t deny that the dems will cheat in the next election, they cheat in every election and have for hundreds of years. What I dissent from is the inevitability of civil war. Too many people seem to be relishing the thought. I lived just outside Belfast when I was young and lost my home overnight when the troubles started up again. I won’t claim I’m the only one here who has experienced the effects of a civil war, but I very well might be. It’s a bad thing, perhaps the worst thing humans can do and since we’re also looking here in the US at what might be a religious war too, well. Yeah.

    Why do we think they’re be a civil war? Whose interest is served by making people think that? The left can cheat all they want, but the full scale changes they want can ONLY be gotten as the outcome of a civil war. That war has to be something they can plausibly deny starting. they need the right to start it. So, whose interest is being served? Why are we being manipulated to be angry and uneasy all the time? Why do we know the things that we know? The left want a civil war and too many on the “right” are just endless war pigs like Chaney.

    My answer to all this is CS Lewis’ in That Hideous Strength, which seems to be turning out to be the prophetic book of this century. Perhaps we can learn from that and simply get on with our lives the best we can.

    Lastly, For those who think the rural areas will skate whilst the urban areas implode, read about the Holodomor and how that worked out. You say you’re armed, true, but they’ll be armed too and fire don’t care.

    They want a civil war, we shouldn’t give them one.

    1. I don’t relish a civil war. (I also do think it will be brief and incredibly violent.)
       I do think at this point it’s the ONLY way they stop. And if it’s going to happen, I’d rather sooner than later.
       BUT I don’t relish it, and I don’t hope for it. I pray every day we turn this corner without it.
       I think they intend to do the full scale changes and ignore us utterly, though.
       And then what?
       It’s entirely possible that riots are enough to make them run. Riots aren’t civil war.
       I am however very mindful of the fact that we don’t have a lever, we have a button.
       Like you, I pray it doesn’t happen.
       Seeing them pre-rig elections though makes one wonder.

       1. I’m afraid you are right about war Sarah.

          Very afraid.

          May God bless these United States.

          1. And I continue praying we’ll be spared. Miracles are not out of the question.

       2. To be fair,I wasn’t thinking of you. I’m thinking of all the people who think the civil war is winnable and look forward to it. Many seem to post here. They think that being in the back country and having guns will allow them to flourish. They lack knowledge and imagination.

          If there’s a civil war, I doubt it will be short. Once the genie comes out of the bottle, he’ll never go in again. A civil war would mean the true end of America. Perhaps something better could be built but I doubt it. I also doubt we’ll have one, if for no other reason that I do believe in the good sense of the bulk of Americans. The internet’s a sewer and makes us all feel bad.

          I seem to be the community optimist, or perhaps just the village idiot. Not a place I usually find myself given my ground State that every silver lining has a cloud. Non turbetur cor vestrum. Creditis in Deum, et in me credite.

          1. I hope you are correct. But I also hope we can prevail without it.

          2. Some people want a new civil war for the same reason why sightseers figured they’d go watch the war get rolled up at Bull Run.

             Several very long and very bloody years later…

             Also, some people want a civil war because they don’t live in the US.

             I’m still of the opinion that it can be avoided. But only time will tell.

             1. I hope and pray (every day) that it can be avoided. I don’t see or sense a path at this point.

          3. “To be fair,I wasn’t thinking of you. I’m thinking of all the people who think the civil war is winnable and look forward to it. Many seem to post here. They think that being in the back country and having guns will allow them to flourish. They lack knowledge and imagination.”
             .
             .
             No sane person wants a civil war. No civil war is winnable, it’s just who survives. Most people don’t understand we are already in a low level civil war and the causalities are going to get much higher than they are today.

             1. We were in a cold civil war for decades

             2. But winning does require survival.

          4. Any war is winnable. Define a realistic and decisive victory. Work implacably and relentlessly towards victory, with toral comittment and no holds barred. Never quit. Give the opposition opportunities to quit at lower cost. Never quit. Lather rinse repeat. Vanquish.

             That is how dinky little countries and movements beat Great powers. Reliably. History is full of examples.

             It’s that ” define victory” that has to come before ” Never quit”.

             “Their language will only be spoken in Hell” is a default Victory condition. There are valid alternatives. But “crush their will and ability” better be in there somewhere.

             If you draw that sword, you better cut down your foe. Nothing else really matters.

       3. One of the first thing they are going to do is to unleash those 80,000 new IRS agents (with all the guns and ammo that have been purchased for them) on political opponents in order to terrorize and punish those opponents. Anyone who has ever donated to a non-leftist approved cause, or has ever spoken up against leftist orthodox, will be targeted in ways that will make what Lois Lerner and friends did minor league.

       4. One possible, theoretical, not without pain an suffering way:

          The crazy gets too big, too fast. Too many people see it for what it is. At this point, I think live human sacrifices to Moloch on Capitol Hill would turn off a significant number of folks, for example.

          When things get too crazy, more and more people wake up to the fact that the left has gone completely off the rails. We’ve seen it with Candace Owen and others like her. Some simply start to question… and the answers lead them quickly away from the democrat party.

          Others are shocked awake, like the Hollywood actors and directors that realized how red Hollywood really was, and how the Communists and the Soviet Union was so embedded there. When the left goes too far, they lose people.

          After the Hollywood blacklists and the McCarthy hearings they backed off. Now, they can’t. They will lose the hard left, the crazy wing of the Democrat party- and they can’t win without the crazies. Not even with cheating that makes 2020 look puny in comparison.

          As the left bleeds people, it splinters. Factions denounce each other. Some try to sneak into the Republican party. Some succeed. The MAGA folks of the R party should be very aware of this, because they’re already there. Don’t be fooled by Lindsay Graham and his ilk. They are not our friends.

          Honestly, this is a very low percentage bet. We’re still going to hurt. The economy won’t bounce back like 2017 because it can’t, not as quickly, not as well. But, with proper care and attention, it will rebound. And honestly, that would be the best thing that could happen to the beleaguered Democrats that are left at that point.

          1. Correction: After McCarthy, they didn’t so much back off as solidify their hold and get quieter. Things heated up again in the late sixties and seventies, but they died down during the 80s a bit more in comparison. Mandatory minimum sentences helped, I think.

          2. As the left bleeds people, it splinters.

             It gets ever more lefty, by a process analogous to evaporative cooling. ESR described this years ago, and it came up on Bret Weinstein’s podcast yesterday as well.

    2. “Perhaps we can learn from that and simply get on with our lives the best we can.”

       They have already made it crystal clear that the only lives we will be allowed is as slaves until they kill us. Slavery is a choice you are free to make.

32. I’d absolutely love for you to be wrong in this, Sarah. But I was optimistic in 2020 and you weren’t so there it is. I will pray and work.

33. If we hanged them all on Persion gallows (i.e., “30′ pine enemas”), it wouldn’t cure the problem.

    Since America kicked prayer and the 10 Commandments out of schools, we’ve seen the rot spreading. This may not be the cause but rather a concurrent symptom; but the results are painfully clear:

    And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

    1. “…and God granted them all things for which they had striven,
       And the heart of a beast in the place of a man’s heart was given. . . .”

       1. Sadly, yes…

34. I would be ‘for’ a system which would allow people to make their votes for issues and candidates public! Why not! Why not have a great revel in order to keep the voting system honest.

    1. because it’s dangerous, and more prone to manipulation than what we have.

       1. “What do you mean you want a secret vote? Are you against ‘the common good’?”

          and

          “The defendant at the Bar is hereby convicted of Treason for illegally and violently voting for [candidate or proposition unpopular with the current regime] and thus trying to overthrow the Government. They and their family are sentenced to death and their property remanded to the State.”

       2. ‘you are what you stand for’

          I am for truth, beauty, and goodness!

    2. Why not? Because you might not want to make it easy for HR to fire you because you “voted wrong”.

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36. I have been seeing elected democrats bragging that they are going to steal the midterms. I’ve been seeing them on television shows and on the internet. And they add that there is nothing the sheeple can do about it.

    1. I’ll just drop this here. I’m not advocating for violence against anyone; but some mobs of angry peasants aren’t as sophisticated as to use ropes or bullets. This is, in fact, why I hope we don’t see a SHTF time before at the earliest 2058…

       https://crossroadsbible.net/2019/03/15/hamans-gallows/

37. c4c

38. Back in the 1980s, I worked for a company that did public opinion research, mostly political, and was fairly honest about it. We as interviewers were carefully trained to ask questions in such a manner that they did not bias the response. I know, complete elimination of bias is likely impossible, but a good faith effort to try can go a long way. At any rate, every once in a while, we would nevertheless conduct a poll which had bias built in to the questions, and was apparently designed by the client to tell them what they wanted to hear more than to accurately measure the public’s opinion. One of these was a survey of opinions on abortion, which had such a built in pro-life bias it was an embarrassment to conduct. Given this, I can’t say that all hands are clean when it comes to using questionable means to influence public opinion. But the wymyns-health-is-so-important-that-crisis-pregnancy-centers-are-evil death cult has the dirtier ones by far.

    Then there is the deliberately obfuscatory wording of propositions constructed to bamboozle the public so that a yes vote means no and a no vote means yes. I’m not saying this is one of them, but the more plainly and clearly a proposal is written in the first place, the less damage even a massive PR campaign can do.

39. Damn it. I live and work in Leavenworth. I had a lengthy reply about the Kansas vote that WordPress swallowed. I’m not going to try and reconstruct it. With one small exception.

    There was a discussion above about Dominion voting machines, so I talked to my state representative. He tells me each county does their own contracting for election machines, so multiple companies are likely to be involved.

    1. Multiple companies meaning the likelihood of fraud is lower, not higher.

       1. Yes. But I’d feel better if I knew they weren’t all controlled by the same people.
          This stuff should be out in the open.

          1. That’s why we need a new constitutional amendment. Only Humans are guaranteed constitutional rights. Corporations are not living beings and have no rights given to them by God only such rights delegated or given to them by human shareholders. This would include the right to privacy and would make it illegal to hide any shareholders name. That way you could do a little data mining with a nice computer and find out the name of the 100 families who own the world. Of course all shareholders would be individually liable for a corporations malfeasance (think Pfizer kill shot or JP Morgan insider trading etc.) in proportion to their individual ownership of said corporation. I think that would solve a lot quickly!

             1. Citizens United is not an aberration of 1A law, but the central and specific purpose of the first.

                All that stuff about not having your novel censored is just a nice bonus.

                1. As for Citizens United, to let the anonymous corporations speak is fine as long as we know WHO is behind those corporations. That’s why corporations should have no constitutional rights but only the rights of the shareholders. It’s called piercing the corporate “veil” which protects shareholders from liability. Without that veil, the corporations will be more subject to Shareholders. It will turn corporations into more like partnerships or LLCs legally but the benefit would be knowing who owns the company and how many shares each owns. Then. The elite could not just be puppeteers but would be revealed. That is why my proposed amendment is sound.

                   1. “It’s called piercing the corporate “veil” which protects shareholders from liability.”

                      The corporate veil also protects shareholders from having eco-loons show up outside their homes if they don’t vote for ESG business practices. And once you’ve pierced it, it’s likely to render the corporation as a legal construct useless.

                      1. THIS.

                      2. Perfect. Then we would have family owned businesses again. Case closed

                         1. And by Family you mean the mob.

                            1. Well does anyone else have any bright ideas as how to expose and disgrace the puppet masters? The international corporations act as lawless worldwide entities moving from country to country with their anonymous money and capital. The reap and sow what THEY want and the people be damned as far as they care.

                            2. Why on earth should we sign on to your desire to act in a lawless manner just because you claim there are lawless groups?

                               Which, I will note, you identify as families that own companies– and which you state your desired lawlessness will replace with… :checks notes: … family owned business?

                            3. Do we need to bring out Sir Thomas Moore to explain?

                               “William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

                               Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

                               William Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”

                               Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

                            4. Probably.

                               AFter all, he is-

                               :puts on sunglasses:

                               A Man for All Seasons.

                            5. Yes. Remove the ability for Corporations to Own / Operate internationally.

                               I’m not sure on the specifics, but the ability to operate a business from overseas / across the border should be immensely curtailed.

                            6. Hey dude. I’m a corporation. WHY shouldn’t I be able to sell my books abroad?
                               There are ways to stop the crazy. Don’t let government feed it. Stopping small businesses from operating is NOT the way.

                            7. You do not ‘operate’ over here, your products get sold here. Selling through a local distributor is always possible. (yes, its not as efficient, I know).

                               But the .. disassociation of the corporation from the people it serves, does not do anyone any favours.

                               Like politics, I’m always looking for the way to make it as local as possible.

                            8. They’re not supposed to serve. They’re supposed to SELL.
                               The problem is the government and corps in bed with each other.

                            9. Would individuals have this right?

                               And if so, why should they lose it when they join together to hire professional management?

                         2. Perfect? The older members of the family get to tyrannize and the familyless are out in the cold? A curious definition of perfect there.

                      3. Perfect. Then we would have family owned businesses again. Case closed

                         1. Well, no, you actually wouldn’t. SpaceX, for example, wouldn’t exist without the ability to incorporate.

                         2. And only oligarchs would have the resources to survive the lawsuits about product liability and other things, leaving all the other small businesses out to dry. I sure as h-ck wouldn’t start a business knowing that one lawsuit would leaven me and my family destitute in perpetuity, homeless, and without hope of ever getting out of debt.

                            Or you end up with a guild system, which keeps prices high, reduces variety and options, and locks competition and innovation out of whatever field it controls (academic is the best-known current guild).

                            There are major problems with the large corporations, yes. Corporate activism, especially when now required by the .gov, is a nightmare. Eliminating all the protections and positive elements of incorporation is not the best answer.

                            1. Don’t forget the medical guild and the legal guild.

                               The medical guild has ruined doctors who disagreed with the government’s medical bureaucrats about COVID19 and the not-a-vaxx injections.

                               The legal guild is currently trying to expel every member who has represented a conservative interest — especially if they won.
                               ———————————
                               If a business tries something and it doesn’t work, they either stop doing it or they will go broke. If the government tries something that doesn’t work, they just keep shoveling our money into it forever.

             2. This would include the right to privacy and would make it illegal to hide any shareholders name.

                What business is it of yours what I own, or do not?

                Why the ever loving heck would I want to make it easier for random crazies to find people and do violence?

                1. Yes. In this way you would find out that 90.% of shares all the worlds corporations are all owned by the same people. Rockefeller’s Rothschild Warburgs Windsor’s. Etc. this would be a great reveal of who owns the world. Who cares if an individual owns 0.00000000001% of Microsoft when one of those people owns 40% of all their shell investment holding shell companies like Blackrock or State Street and banks like JP Morgan and Bank of England! We would really know who the puppeteers are then and the lampposts would fill much easier!

                   1. Problems:
                      1) Still not your right to know what I own.
                      2) My third cousin twice removed owns a farm in Kansas; I’ve nothing to do with him and don’t even know WHERE it is.
                      3) Killing people because you think their family owns stuff is evil.

40. This is a Good Thing.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/election-director-resigns-after-comprehensive-failure-on-primary-day-in-arizona-county-rnc_4644667.html

    1. Yep. I live in Pinal County, and that was a fustercluck of epic proportions. The county recorder took over as elections director, and she is fully qualified to fix it; I’ve dealt with her.

41. Doesn’t matter if you talk to your Representatives, the “elephant” in the room (or in this case at the top in the state) is crushing any talk of vote miscounts as heresy. Any representative that mentions machine problems may lose their campaign funds- some were already conveniently redistricted. We have paper ballots and chain of custody to go with, but there are also some questionable machines. Even our tiny county of 7,000 has a zuck paid for tabulator – used only for the mail-in ballots. If the abortion issue can’t kick the election into blue territory, bidet may start a war. . .

    1. Wars only work if we fall for them and follow THEM. If it comes and we resist, what does that do to their cause?

       1. Will we resist? People still wear masks, though more seem to be waking up. Besides, the body count is a plus for Dems and they could step up the citizenship for service as a program for illegal immigrants. Getting rid of dissident Americans that resist is also a plus?

          1. WHO wears masks? Here in safe harbor city it’s almost a diagnostic of mental illness.

             1. health care workers and some other random people.

                1. okay, health care workers, sure, if forced. And other people whose companies are cray cray. The others? CRAZY

                   1. they just believe the MSM about how Covid is such a danger and now there’s monkeypox and bla bla bla… seriously.

                      1. So, insane.
                         Or tbf elderly or European or both. I can’t shake my mom from this certainty.

                   2. There are a bunch here in BC, but Canadians believe their MSM…

          2. Maybe you should try moving out of, what, Seattle?

             Even in the crazier areas of Des Moines, they haven’t been masking in significant numbers for at least a year– you could go look at the Iowa State fair pictures from last year, where they had to do major cropping to get even half of a small sample of folks wearing them.

             And THAT is WITH people hammering about how it’s “nice” to wear them.

42. When they ban the snek…

    https://i0.wp.com/www.imao.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/g4o34iax51a71.jpg?w=584&ssl=1

    1. 🙂 🙂 🙂

    2. 

       (stop after jpg)

       1. Are you talking about Orwell’s boot or walking barefoot in 5e kids playroom! Lol. Like it! Much more modern than that coiled snake flag!

          1. It’s from IMHO, who knows.

       2. Oooooh, Danish Caltrops. Ow! OW!

43. You can’t vote your way out of socialism. I’m sure everyone knows the couplet that goes along with that and I won’t repeat it here. But I disagree that abortion is their sacrament, or perhaps it’s not their ONLY sacrament. Democracy is their sacrament. They believe a majority vote trumps any individual right. “For the greater good.” It is no wonder they are so enamored of China.
    But we aren’t Chinese, conditioned to obedience to autocratic bureaucracy by thousands of years of acceptance of it. We are fractious and still believe in our inalienable rights, majority vote be damned.
    Bloodless revolutions are possible but only when enough people are sick to death -literally, willing to die if it comes to it- of their ruling class such that nobody will stand to defend them. History shows this requires a full generation or more living under this ridiculousness before that level of determination happens. Otherwise, the people are all waiting around for someone to show up and make good on all the promises and rescue them from the consequences of their stupidity.
    So y’all stop with the normalcy bias. A Republic has never once in all of history been saved once it has reached the Empire stage and begun the collapse phase. There will be no reversal, only a transition to something else. Again history shows that’s some flavor of tyranny but that’s not written in stone, so preventing that, or splitting up the Empire so that it doesn’t happen in at least OUR portion of it, is likely the best of the options available to us.
    I won’t go gently into their good night. I aim to misbehave.

    1. Separation isn’t possible. They don’t want that, and anyway, most of the people who are in their areas are not of them.
       Sorry. Not possible.
       And I think you might be misreading me, if you think I have normalcy bias

    2. Democracy is their sacrament. They believe a majority vote trumps any individual right.

       ….no, they absolutely do not.

       Democracy is only Good when it does what they want. If it gets the Wrong result, then toss it out.

       They find the appeal to “everybody says”, with them getting to choose the “Everybody”, to be useful.

       1. THIS. Their only sacrament is “power for me”, and anyone who thioks the current crop of socialists/communists listens to anything other than their own power lust is dreaming. The people are irrelevant.

44. Folks, remember. Joe Biden can F up his own breathing. They know that, yet the Donks chose -him-.

    If -anyone- will bring down a century of Marxist progress, it will be Joe Biden.

    Be of good cheer.

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46. I’ll tell you how I would go about stopping the steal, if you’re so inclined:
    First track some of the “mules” as revealed in “2000 Mules.” Find the places where all the fake ballots are made.
    Then suggest somewhere that it might be nice if “BLM riots” happened at those locations…

    1. No, no, no, it’s ‘BLM Mostly Peaceful Protests’ with just a little arson and vandalism on the side.
       ———————————
       If you use violence and brutality to bring about social change, your cause will be taken over by violent brutes.

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