Part VII: Red Wave that Wasn't - 2022 (Steps 564-647)

Part VII: “Red Wave” that Wasn’t – 2022.

(Steps #564 – 647.) 

__________ 

 

“I find the people strangely fantasized,

 Possessed with rumours, full of idle dreams,

 Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear.”  

William Shakespeare

__________

The red wave proves to be a dribble.

  

IN THIS SECTION we continue to follow the trials and tribulations of the election deniers who afflict the Republican Party like clouds of stink bugs.  

(I don’t mean for that to be dehumanizing; “stink bugs” just sounds funny.)

___ 

 

Looking back, we know that as the 2022 midterms neared, right-wing, QAnon-style excitement built. Rejected-President Trump, who predicted a red wave in in 2018, and a “landslide” win in 2020, was, of course, predicting a “red wave” in November 2022. Once again, we pick up our numbering, where we left off in Part VI – with steps toward Truth that even the MAGA faithful can follow. 

He has been lying to you, MAGA friends and neighbors. He has been stoking your anger, convincing you that civil war must follow if he loses in November. The evidence is clear. He lost in 2020, the election deniers in 2022 got torched, and no one should ever trust Donald J. Trump. 

Not even Melania. Especially her.

564. 11/8-9/2022 (Election Night): As always, the blogger is perusing returns as they are posted. The hours tick past. 8, 9, 10 p.m. In New Hampshire, Sen. Maggie Hassan scores an easy win, 53.4% to 44.6%, and holds onto a seat in the U.S. Senate that Republicans believed they would grab. 

Her opponent, Donald Bolduc, an election denier endorsed by Donald J. Trump, slowly sinks below the not-very-red waves. 

 

A really terrible night for at least one terrible man. 

565. As the results continue to come in, the former president is growing restive. On Truth Social, he posts: 

 

Let the lying and whining begin!

  

In at least one key race, where “the people will not stand for it,” it didn’t take days to find out who would win. The Democratic choice for governor in Pennsylvania routs Douglas Mastriano, another candidate endorsed by Mr. Trump. Trump had assured voters that Mastriano was his boy, that there was “no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for Election Integrity.” Josh Shapiro thumps Mastriano by fourteen points. 

565. This blogger might be a liberal, but he loves the U.S. Constitution as much as, if not more than, any self-proclaimed “patriot” in MAGA-style cap. He was happy to see two Georgia Republicans win reelection. Both Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stood up against Trump when he tried to get them to say votes were stolen in 2020 in their state. 

566-568. With results rolling in nationally, it became clear something unexpected was taking place. Democrats were winning a good share of competitive races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump-endorsed candidates for top offices were being trounced. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Maine won by 12 points. In Maryland, the Republican candidate, Dan Cox, another election denier, lost by 23 points. It didn’t help when the outgoing Republican governor refused to campaign with Cox, and called him a “whack job.” By midnight, it also seemed likely that John Fetterman, running for an open seat in the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, would knock out Mehmet Oz, another one of Trump’s boys. 

569. In Georgia, where Kemp (a man Trump had called on voters to defeat in the GOP primary) won by eight points, Herschel Walker, his fellow Republican, anointed by the former president himself, couldn’t get traction. Senator Ralph Warnock edged him out. (Since neither man seemed likely to reach the 50% threshold, according to Georgia law, a run-off election on December 6 would be required.) 

Walker’s hopes of victory were dented when it was revealed he once threatened to shoot a girlfriend in the head. 

(Warnock would prevail in the special election, and will serve until 2028.) 

 

In fact, as the hours passed – midnight – 1 a.m. – 2 a.m. – and I finally tried to go to sleep – back up at 3 a.m. to check the latest results – I couldn’t help but notice. It was a really terrible night for one terrible man. 

Donald J. Trump. 

 

Across the country, sanity triumphed.

November 11, 2022: The “idle dreams” of Republicans of the red-baseball-cap-variety have been dashed. The “red tsunami” they fantasized about crashing over Biden & Co. in the midterms, came and went. Nary a sandcastle was disturbed. 

570. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (once labeled “Half Whitmer” by the Man-Child Trump) cruised to a second term. She defeated Tudor Dixon, a Trump-anointed election denier, by 11 points.

 

571-573. Other Trump-backed dopes went down with whimpers, and sighs, and moans. Democratic candidates for secretary of state in Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico faced Trump-backed deniers who dreamed of controlling future elections, as part of their jobs. (Motto: “Trump 2024 – This Time He Can’t Possibly Lose.”) None of Trump’s choices had a chance. In Michigan, Jocelyn Benson won a second term by 13 points. In Minnesota, Steve Simon won by 9. Maggie Toulouse Oliver thumped Trump’s pick in New Mexico, 54.4% to 42.8%. 

Oliver’s opponent, Audrey Trujillo, had parroted the former president’s “Stolen Election” line during her campaign. “The core of a strong nation is free and fair elections, which we don’t have anymore – Republican or Democrat,” she warned. Like any denier, Trujillo made plain. She would not concede if she lost – unless in a landslide. “Definitely, if it’s a close race, we will definitely not concede [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] and make sure we contest it,” she promised. “But if it’s a blowout, and [Oliver] totally wins then yes, definitely I would concede and respect that.” 

A blowout it was!

 

574. In Nevada, there was good news for normal Republicans, with Joe Lombardo winning the governorship. Sadly, for the MAGA crowd, during the campaign Lombardo was asked if he believed Donald had been cheated out of a win two years ago. No, he said, adding that Trump’s rhetoric “bothers me.” 

575-576. In Michigan and elsewhere, sanity triumphed. Normal Republicans, like Gov. Mike DeWine in Ohio and Gov. Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, cruised to victory. Neither resorted to coining childish nicknames for foes. 

577. You probably missed it, but Gov. Sununu, who easily won a fourth term, mocked Trump at the Gridiron Dinner this past April. “He’s f***ing crazy,” Sununu joked, adding that if Trump were ever committed to a mental institution, “he ain’t getting out.” 

578. Republicans do gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but by a slender voting margin. So that’s cool. Then again, in New York, Republican George Santos wins a seat in Congress, which makes for endless mockery. Santos soon proves to be one of the greatest liars in American political history. 

(We know now that Santos will go on to be charged with 23 felonies, including credit card theft. And get kicked out of Congress! And plead guilty, and be looking at a long stint in the slammer.) 

 

579. In Wisconsin, yet another election denier, Tim Michels, promised, if elected, that the GOP would never lose another election once he took charge. Wisconsin voters decided that sounded ominous and incumbent Gov. Tony Evers scored a 3-point win. Michels did concede graciously in the face of a narrow defeat. “Unfortunately, the math doesn’t add up,” he told a gathering of supporters on Election Night. “I just called Governor Evers, I wish the Evers family well.” 

(Normal behavior. A bit of hope.) 

 

“I had the privilege to concede this race.”

580. I think one of my favorite moments from these midterms may have come in the wake of a loss for our side. After Tim Ryan, who earned my vote for a seat in the U.S. Senate, was defeated, he stood up and swallowed the bitter pill without a grimace. He didn’t complain about “rigged” mail-in voting – which Ohio uses extensively. Said Ryan, with wife Andrea wiping away tears at his side:

 

As someone who was the Democratic nominee, I had the privilege to concede this race to J.D. Vance. Because the way this country operates is that you lose an election, you concede. You respect the will of the people. We can’t have a system where if you win, it’s a legitimate election, and if you lose, someone stole it. That is not how we can move forward in the United States. 

  

581. As for Republicans, generally, who had planned to celebrate the “red hurricane” smashup of Biden and friends, they were left casting about for someone to blame. Rupert Murdoch, the Emperor of Fox News, had finally had his fill of Trump and the rope-a-dope losers he backed. 

The New York Post, also owned by Emperor Rupert, ran this front page story the day after the election: 

  

582. In a similar vein, Gov. DeWine had landed near the top of Trump’s Shitlist after the January 6, 2021, attack in Washington D.C. As the Associated Press reported at the time, DeWine blamed the president for the violence. He said Trump “poured gas on the fire.”

 

The president’s continued refusal to accept the election results, without producing any credible evidence of a rigged election, “has started a fire that has threatened to burn down our democracy,” DeWine said.

 

“This incendiary speech yesterday, the one he gave preceding the march that he gave to the protesters, served only to fan those flames, encouraging the mob behavior that ensued.”

 

DeWine went on to label the actions of the Trump-loving rioters shameful. “All Americans must denounce them, even those Americans who feel, incorrectly, that Donald Trump won.” 

 

583. John Husted, Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor, who had served two terms as Ohio Secretary of State, expressed equal disdain. In his previous office he had had oversight of state elections as one of his duties. “The presidential election of 2020 was not stolen,” he explained. 

If you weren’t paying attention, after DeWine blamed Trump for the January 6 riot, the soon-to-be-ex-president hinted darkly that the governor needed to be “primaried” in 2022. Ohio voters paid no heed, neither in the primary nor the general election. DeWine won a second term, prevailing by 26 points. 

 

584. BLOGGER’S NOTE: Here in Ohio, my wife and I could have voted by mail had we desired. We’re retired and had all day, so we doddered off to the polls and performed our civic duty. More than a million Ohioans asked for mail-in ballots, and at least 850,000 turned them in. Another 550,000 voted in-person early. 

And this kind of system continues to work. 

 

585. The fat guy down at Mar-a-Lago isn’t taking the news well, as one election denier after another goes down in blazing defeat. When in doubt, don’t wait for proof of election fraud. Demand a new election! 

Trump thumps the denier drum on Truth Social: “Idiot, and possibly corrupt, officials have lost control of the tainted Election in Arizona,” he screams. Then he adds an all-caps howl: “MACHINES BROKEN IN REPUBLICAN AREAS. A NEW ELECTION MUST BE CALLED FOR IMMEDIATELY.” 

 

586. November 15, 2022: We know election deniers won a number of lower-profile races in almost every state. But that has much to do with how grotesquely gerrymandered most districts are. In Wisconsin, Derrick Van Orden, a retired Navy SEAL who was at the Capitol when rioters stormed the building, did capture a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s not crazy though, having written that he did not go into the building that fateful day. He said he left Capitol grounds after watching “what should have been an exercise of free speech devolve into one of the most tragic incidents in the history of the nation [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].” 

(True, that, sir.) 

 

“This is about truth vs. lies.” 

587. As for Kari Lake, that lady is definitely crazy. One of Donald’s favorite deniers (someone described her as “Trump with better makeup”), the GOP candidate for Arizona governor made it clear during her campaign that she intended to keep up a drumbeat of attacks on the free press when she won. 

“I’ll be your worst nightmare,” she warned reporters. 

(Reporters help expose corruption that politicians try to hide.) 

 

Now we know. One of the last election deniers to stare down the inevitability of math, a final batch of ballots in Maricopa County has been tallied. Lake did well with the drop, but still came up 17,000 votes short. 

The screaming you now hear, out of Phoenix, is Ms. Lake telling everyone who will listen that the voting was rigged. 

588. By Republican officials. 

(We know now: Lake will spend the next two years on an odyssey through the courts, vainly trying to prove she’s the real governor of Arizona. Judges keep telling her that she’s not.) 

Kari Lake and her battle flag.

 

589. Lake, of course, is not the only Republican loser in Arizona to explode, and say voting was rigged. Mark Finchem began squealing about “shenanigans that are obviously happening and have happened,” almost as soon as initial results started coming in. Democrats, he hinted darkly, were hard at work “in the back room with ballots” in Pima and Maricopa counties. He didn’t explain why an election board in Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county, headed by a longtime Republican activist, would let Democrats come into a “back room with ballots” and cheat. 

(In MAGA Land, you don’t have to make sense.) 

 

590. The head of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors was blunt. “This isn’t about partisan politics,” Bill Gates said. “It’s not about conservative versus liberal. This is about truth versus lies.” 

591. We should also note that at that time, Finchem trailed by a whopping 122,000 votes, but made clear, he was not about to concede. 

(We have shown that recounts rarely turn up even a hundred missed votes.)

Finchem also claimed he won. (He didn't.)

 

592. What kind of extremist kook is this guy – and how does that help explain his loss? Finchem, a self-proclaimed member of the right-wing Oath Keepers, was photographed outside the Capitol Building during the January 6 attack, while many other members of the group were beating hell out of police and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.” Since then, he has steadfastly refused to say that Biden was fairly elected. Naturally, Trump backed him completely. Finchem, Trump said, was “a patriot who has fought for our country right from his earliest movements in government. Mark was willing to say what few others had the courage to say.” 

Yeah. 

593. Because Mark had that rare capacity for lying, and believing his own lies. Thankfully, he was rejected by 53% of the voters. 

 

Mr. Blogger promises! 

The race for Arizona Attorney General is closer, with Abraham Hamadeh, another Trump endorsee, and another denier, trailing by only 3,087 votes, with 95% of 2.5 million counted. So the deniers have faint hope; and we can expect an automatic recount, either way – which is as it should be in races so tight. 

If there’s “rigging,” as Krazy Kari insists, it should be easy to find. But there isn’t, and it won’t be. 

 

594. When all the votes are counted after the election, Hamadeh finds himself trailing by 511. Not content to wait for a recount – which is automatic – he files in court, asking to be declared victor. The judge lets the case go to trial, and then rules against. 

“The bottom line is you just haven’t proven your case,” he told Hamadeh’s lawyers.  

595. When the statewide recount is finally complete, Hamadeh still loses, although by only 280 votes. 

So, yes, recounts prove mistakes are made. They don’t prove (so far) that rigging is a big deal. Mr. Blogger promises! If he finds a recount that proves an election was fixed, he will shout the news to the hills and valleys and even down the prairie dog holes he saw recently out West.

 

596. Indeed, he keeps checking because he likes facts. A total of 2,509,338 votes were cast in the race Hamadeh lost (to Democrat Kris Mayes), So the error rate ends up being 1 vote per 10,863 cast. And if you like conspiracy theories about Democrats cheating every time there’s a vote – including what kind of pizza a group of friends wants to order for delivery – this recount nails the coffin lid a little tighter. A total of 623 more votes were recorded in the recount than in the machine count; but 500 came from Pinal County, where Republican officials were in charge.  

597. In another blow to the fantasies of the MAGA faithful, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly thumped another denier, and will return to Washington D.C. for a second term. When I checked back to see how he was doing, as the last votes were tallied, Kelly had an insurmountable 125,000-vote lead over Blake Masters, another “patriot” who thinks Donald Trump deserves to be sitting in the White House right now. 

598. The news for deniers in Nevada wasn’t much better. First-time Democratic candidate Cisco Aguilar turned back a bid by Jim Marchant, organizer of the “America First” movement, a man beloved by all the dopey QAnon folks, to become Secretary of State. Again, the race was tight, with Aguilar winning by 23,000 votes. But no recount in any race that this  blogger has found, save the full state recount in Georgia, has closed a gap of more than a few hundred votes. 

599. In Michigan, Proposal 22-2 also passed, with 60% in favor, closing the door on Team Trump’s dream of stealing Michigan’s electoral votes in 2024. 

That measure,

 

Amends the Michigan Constitution to create early voting and right to sign an affidavit as an alternative to showing photo ID to vote. Requires state-funded return postage and drop boxes for absentee ballots. Clarifies that the state canvassers board has a nondiscretionary duty to certify results.

 

600. In other words, if Michigan voters pick a president next time around – as they did in 2020, when Biden won the state by 154,000 votes – no canvassing board can just ignore the totals and refuse to certify results. 

That was part of Team Trump’s plan in the last presidential race. (See: Part II, Steps #119-121, and Part III, Step #181.) 

 

The guy who called the Nineteenth Amendment a mistake. 

In a race to represent Michigan, in the Third Congressional District, Democrats captured a seat previously held by Peter Meijer. He was one of ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump the second time the House of Representative voted for impeachment. Naturally, the former president targeted Meijer and all the other lawmakers who crossed him, backing Joe Gibbs in the GOP primary. 

601. Gibbs, a denier who said he thought it was a mistake to grant women the suffrage, did win. In the general election, however, he was wiped out, with tens of thousands of women proudly voting against him. 

602. In defeat, Gibbs wallowed in self-pity, just like his hero, Donald “Whiner” J. Trump. Gibbs blamed the Republican “Machine,” for his loss. He cried over how the “media” and “the wealthiest liberals” from New York and California donated money to support his opponent, Hillary Scholten. Gibbs went on to hint that because “precinct-level returns per candidate in Kent County” went dark after midnight on Election Night, his campaign was unable to track “local anomalies,” an “unacceptable situation at a time when people are losing faith in the security of our elections.” 

603. Yeah, they’re losing faith because of fools like Gibbs. 

604. And Trump. 

605. Gibbs claimed his campaign pitted “Crazy vs. Normal,” imagining he was the “Normal.” He failed to explain how Meijer won the same seat in 2020, by a 53%-47% margin – over Scholten.

Gibbs only wanted to turn the clock back a century.
To roll back progress for women.

  

606-608. November 23, 2022: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a congressional committee may get its hands on Trump’s tax records (which he fought for years to keep out of reach). Trump had previously lost a case in a federal district court, and a second case in a court of appeals. Now, Trump decided the best way to “Make America Great Again,” would be to question the motives of the nine justices. “The Supreme Court has lost its honor,” he howled on Truth Social. 

What Trump had lost were three more legal battles. 

 

Also known as: Normal behavior in a democracy.

609. November 24, 2022: Donald Trump’s nemesis, Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has won another six-year term. She defeated the former president’s hand-picked candidate, Kelly Tshibaka. Tshibaka went on to declare her defeat a result of election “shenanigans,” such as more people preferring Murkowski over her. 

610. Mike Lindell, the Trump-loving CEO of MyPillow is sanctioned again in court for filing a supposed voter fraud suit. The judge describes it as a “fishing expedition,” one in which no fish were netted. 

611. December 5, 2022: Still unable to admit he got toasted in the 2020 election, still unable to show any evidence in court to prove he deserves a second term – right now – Donald Trump offers up a unique remedy for his pain. On Truth Social, Donald suggests the following course of action, to rectify the error Americans made in giving Joe Biden seven million more votes: F**k the voters! 

And f**k the Founding Fathers, and the f**king horses they rode in on. To Philadelphia, I mean. 

He wrote:

 

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” 

(We decided that deserved to be in large font.) 

 

You read that right. F**k the U.S. Constitution! 

(Come on, MAGA types – you can’t miss the danger here!)

 

612. In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court throws out a case filed by eight Trump-friendly voters. They had claimed that Dominion Voting Systems and Facebook illegally “influenced or interfered” with the 2020 election. So, another challenge to the results of the 2020 election landed in the courthouse dumpster, not worth the cost in ink and paper required to print it. 

 

December 7: Even toddlers know that Trump is running for president again, like COVID, which won’t go away. And you may have heard he wants to terminate the U.S. Constitution. (See above.) 

613. While sane Americans condemned Trump’s latest threats, one unscrupulous member of Congress, Rep. Paul Gosar, heard the siren song of fascism and found himself seduced. Then both Trump and Gosar realized they might need to deny they supported what they said they supported. 

First, let’s take a look at exactly what Trump posted on his website Truth Social last Saturday:

 

So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Elections Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!

 

My liberal peepers tell me that the word “termination” does appear, and using my stellar reading skills, I see Trump did insist all rules, “even those found in the Constitution” may be swept aside when necessary. 

 
My eyes prove correct. Even if I squint.

The Founding Fathers, he claims, would not have “condoned” his loss (by seven million votes) to Joseph Biden. 

The results of the 2020 election should be “OUT,” and the “RIGHTFUL WINNER” should be declared.  

614. As for Rep. Gosar, a man who has clearly spent too much time baking his brain in the Arizona desert, he reposted Trump’s screed, commenting in response: “Unprecedented fraud requires unprecedented cure.” 

Then Gosar lost his nerve – because he’s not only a dimwit, but a sneak, and a coward – and deleted his tweet. 

# 615: This is a big one: 

615. As for what the Founding Fathers had to say about “terminating” the results of fair elections, we will leave it up to the former president, Congressman Gosar, and all their obtuse fans, to peruse the U.S. Constitution in search of wisdom. 

(This is where the people in the MAGA cult become dangerous to the rest of us.) 

(And, in the end, to themselves.) 

(Note: The Constitution protects us all.) 

 

Seventeen fresh felonies for Team Trump! 

616. While Gosar and Trump were busy talking about trashing the Constitution, a jury in New York decided the Trump Organization was guilty of seventeen counts of felony tax fraud. Trump wasn’t charged in that case. He simply founded the crooked company – and along with his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and daughter Ivanka, helped run it – so that no one who has watched the Trumps in action should have been surprised. A fine of $1.6 million is likely – peanuts to the former president. Still, even Trump fans might admit, seventeen felonies for one business are quite a lot.  

(Add the Trump Organization to the Team Trump “Wall of Shame.” 

(Hey, Trump University is up there, too.) 

 

617. December 9: Have we mentioned “election fraud” recently? The bugaboo Trump and Trump fans obsess about? Well, we finally have a serious case to report, this one involving voter suppression. 

NPR explains the scam:

 

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman robocalled roughly 85,000 voters across Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio in the summer of 2020, falsely telling them that voting by mail would risk “giving your private information to the man.”

 

Prosecutors say the pair were targeting neighborhoods known to have a high percentage of Black voters.

 

The robocaller, who claimed to be with a non-existent group called “the 1599 project,” falsely said that voters’ information would go into a database accessible to police, debt collectors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would use the information to impose vaccine mandates.

 

Trump fans will no doubt be thrilled to learn that…wait, WTF??? ... the two Trump fans pled guilty last October! They have now been sentenced to spend five hundred hours registering real voters, and don ankle bracelets for six months. 

(Burkman and Wohl also make the Team Trump “Wall of Shame.”) 

 

“We would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.” 

618. December 10: The right-wing fringe is having a devil of a time accepting electoral defeats – whether they be the red wave that wasn’t in 2018, or the thumping Trump got in 2020, or the other red wave that wasn’t last month. 

At a gathering of haters on Saturday, Gavin Wax, the president of the New York Young Republicans Club, offered up thoughts on how the right could finally start winning. Or maybe copy a page from the 1933 Nazi playbook. “We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena,” he told a black-tie crowd. “In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets.” 

“This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power,” Wax added. 

619. Actually, what we understand is math. Also: Candidates that matter. In 2020, for example, our side managed to hold control of the U.S. Senate, because the right put up candidates like poor, pitiful Herschel Walker. 

620. And, Mr. Wax, if you want to win elections, stop hobnobbing with white supremacists, like Peter Brimelow, who attended your gala, and no doubt approved of your call to battle in the streets. 

 

621. Then get rid of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. At this same gala, Rep. Greene suggested that if she and Steve Bannon, the pardoned fraudster, had been in charge on January 6, 2021, the attack on the nation’s capital would have succeeded. “I will tell you something,” Greene told happy guests. “If Steve Bannon and I organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.” 

Yep. 

I am totally not voting for people who want to win elections by cracking fellow Americans’ heads in the streets, or shooting them dead. 

 

Sore losers in Trumpistan.

622. Unfortunately, election deniers are like zombies, who like to feast on human brains, and can be nearly impossible to kill. Down in Arizona, where old people go to retire and shrivel like prunes in the sun, the 2022 midterm deniers were demanding recounts, and possibly gunfire as solution to defeat. 

Mark Finchem, who dreamed of becoming Arizona’s next Secretary of State, and running future elections, decided his race had to have been rigged. In a Twitter rant, he insisted, “the results from the machines defy all math.” 

What really defied all math was Finchem’s feeble understanding of subtraction. The math in his case was entirely clear. 

 

     Vote totals: 

Adrian Fontes:           1,320,619

Mark Finchem            1,200,411

                                                              _____________ 

Margin of victory:         120,208 

 

623. Still, Mr. Finchem looked like a model citizen compared to fellow Republican Keith Douglas Casey, who ran for a seat in Congress from Texas. Three times, Casey has run, in an effort to unseat the Republican incumbent, Rep. Randy Weber. Three times Casey has been creamed in the primaries – last time losing by, cough, cough, eighty points. 

Copying a page – or maybe an entire chapter from the Donald Trump Election Denier’s Handbook – Casey claimed that Weber and Gov. Gregg Abbott, also a Republican, had conspired to cheat him of a win. 

624. A recount obviously wasn’t going to help, so Casey decided to start telling people he was going to kill Weber, instead. 

 

625. December 13: In a Colorado race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, more than 327,000 votes are cast. Lauren Boebert prevails by 550 votes; but in a contest so tight, state law makes a recount mandatory. Adam Frisch, her Democratic opponent, knowing how accurate vote counts are, concedes before the recount even begins. As it turns out, he gains one vote, and Boebert loses three. 

(No signs of serious voter fraud to be found.)

Boebert won. The election was close but fair.
Also, she loves people who joined in the January 6, 2021 attack.

 

626. December 14, 2022: We learn today that back in January 2021, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) had a few undemocratic instincts he wanted to share with President Trump. On January 17, with Trump set to leave office in three days, Rep. Norman had a thought on how Donald could secure a second term. 

It was time to text White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows:

 

“Mark [Norman wrote], in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of ... no return ... in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!” 

 

He meant “martial law,” of course – but whatever he meant, he was really calling for a coup. So let’s be clear. 

As of October 11, 2024, when I do my final edit on this post: 

1,438  days

have passed since the last presidential election. 

(No significant voter fraud has ever been proven in court.) 

 

POINT OF ORDER: We should also remind our loyal readers (if any) that in April 2023, Fox News was forced to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit, having claimed, without a smidge of evidence, that Dominion helped rig the vote. 

Or, to put it in simple terms: Norman was ready to watch Trump declare martial law, and overturn the results of a fair vote. 

627. Norman made multiple statements in the wake of the 2020 election, leading supporters to believe Biden and the Democrats had to have cheated. Then he justified his refusal to accept the final electoral vote, saying “tens of millions” of Americans believed the vote was unfair. This had everything to do with the fact that they listened to a steady diet of lies on Fox. And because they listened to people like Trump – and Rep. Idiot – help spread and validate those lies. 

If you have time, and a fondness for incredible stupidity, you can read hundreds of comments about the “Stolen Election” made by Norman and 164 Republican members of Congress, who voted to challenge the final electoral count on January 6, 2021. 

 

“A war is coming for you.” 

628. As for Joshua Russell, he is unlikely to enjoy his Christmas, even if someone does get him a set of Trump’s new digital trading cards – featuring pictures of a heroic-looking … Donald J. Trump. 

 

With only a few days of shopping left before the holiday, Russell has been arrested and charged with sending death threats to an unnamed Arizona official, because he didn’t like the way voting turned out in 2020. Or 2022. Watching one Trump-backed candidate after another get stomped last month, Russell called the unnamed official a “traitor,” for failing to clean up the imaginary corruption. Then he added: “We will not endure your crimes on America another day. You’ve been busted, over and over again.” 

“A war is coming for you. The entire nation is coming for you,” he promised. Now he’s spending the holidays in jail. The suspect, who hails from Bucyrus, Ohio, could be facing twenty years in prison. 

 

629. December 21: Today, we learn that Katherine Friess, a Team Trump lawyer who may have information relevant to efforts to steal the 2020 election, has been dodging a subpoena for months. 

As Bloomberg News has reported,

 

Over the past four months, the plaintiffs’ attorneys tried six addresses in three states to serve the subpoena on Trump lawyer Katherine Friess, with no luck, court papers show. They messaged five email addresses, receiving notice that one email was repeatedly opened but never getting a response. A lawyer who represented Friess in another case wouldn’t accept service on her behalf.

 

(The blogger can’t even find a picture of Friess on the internet.)

 

 

At any rate, if anyone knows Katherine, tell her that “the rule of law” is looking for her and she should check her emails or answer her phone. 

630. In a lengthy report, Politico notes that Friess had extensive contacts with many of the key players involved in the wide-ranging plot to overturn 2020 election results. Eventually, she had to send several emails, asking to be paid for her work. The Trump campaign cut her a check for $905, which she grumbled was “$15,000 short.” 

 

631. Since Team Trump is always looking for voter fraud, and finding nothing but dust bunnies under Democrats’ beds, we should take note of the “fine work” of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Some weeks back, he touted his success in rounding up twenty illegal voters. To this point, at some expense, Team Ron has secured one (1) conviction. Unfortunately, Team Ron has had to drop three (3) cases, because the supposed criminals hadn’t committed fraud. Most of those arrested had been issued voter registration cards by officials of the State of Florida. 

Which Ron runs. 

 

632. When I check the website for the conservative Heritage Foundation on August 9, 2023, I see that Florida, to that point, has racked up eight (8) convictions for voter fraud since 2020. 

Yes, almost enough for a baseball team! 

For comparison’s sake: In an average year 10 people are killed in Florida, and 40 injured by lightning strikes. 

And this: In 2022, Florida had 16 shark attacks – down compared to an average of 22 per year. 

 

“Lawsuits without factual basis or any cognizable legal theory.” 

December 23, 2022: By  now, we understand that election deniers are as thick as cacti in Arizona, with Kari Lake, defeated gubernatorial candidate leading the silly, denying crew. As you may remember, Ms. Lake warmed up during the primaries – by accusing other Republicans of cheating her out of… 

…a win? 

Then she triumphed in the primary, and wasn’t embarrassed at all. 

Well, you will surely not be surprised to learn that when she loses in the general election, she claims the vote was rigged again. On Election Night, in November, trailing by thousands of votes, she tweeted: “Arizonans know BS when they see it.” 

(That’s why she lost.) 

 

In that contest, a total of 2.5 million Arizonans went to the polls, but Kari came up short by 17,116 votes. Unwilling to accept defeat, she called for Republican officials in Maricopa County, by far the most populous county in the state, to be jailed. “These people are crooks,” she insisted. “They need to be locked up.” 

(If this sounds familiar, keep in mind, that someone has described Ms. Lake as “Trump in heels.”) 

633. Alas, outgoing Governor Doug Ducey brushed aside her claims of cheating, and congratulated Katie Hobbs, the Democratic winner. Ducey offered Hobbs full support during the transition from one administration to another. Also known as: Normal behavior in a democracy. 

 

634. December 24: If nothing else, we learn today that Kari Lake is not going to take defeat lying down, or standing on her head. Addressing a gathering of her followers, the failed and furious candidate cites various Founding Fathers and says their blood is coursing through her and their veins! “They were fed up with tyrants,” she cries, “and they weren’t going to take it anymore. I think we’re right there, right now, aren’t we?” 

Only we’re not. No one needs to start shooting redcoats.

 

Lake has the right to gather any evidence of voter fraud she can find and take a case to the courts and prove her points. And she does. She files a lawsuit to have election results overturned. 

635-636. First, the judge in her case dismisses eight counts in her lawsuit, even before the case goes to trial. That leaves Lake with two counts to prove. The judge hears her out and rules against her once more. 

637-645. As we will learn over the next two years, Kari embarks on an election-denying odyssey through state and federal courts. She climbs the legal ladder, and takes her lawsuit to the Arizona Court of Appeals. She loses once more. Well, there’s always the Arizona Supreme Court. They deny six of the seven claims Ms. Lake has made and send one back to court for trial. 

She goes to trial and loses again. 

She appeals her new loss and losses again. 

Lake files so many lawsuits, and loses so often, it’s hard for even this diligent blogger to keep track. In just one of her many defeats, the Arizona Supreme Court sanctions her and her lawyers. Then there’s the time a federal court sanctions Ms. Lake, and her misfit legal team, for making “false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions” in court. And there’s the other time a federal judge orders Lake and her legal team to reimburse the State of Arizona, to offset $122,000 in costs spent responding to another “frivolous” lawsuit. 

Kari keeps filing suits and keeps getting spanked. After she drags Katie Hobbs, the victor in the race for governor, into court, another judge rules against her, and orders Lake to pay $33,000 to Hobbs for legal expenses. She challenges the way signatures were checked in Maricopa County, and an Arizona court rejects her complaint. And that’s but a sampling of all her courtroom defeats. 

 

646-647. Kari wasn’t the only fool who could file a case – or ten. Mark Finchem, who lost the race to be Arizona’s next secretary of state, was even bolder. He came up 120,000 votes short, but still filed a challenge in the Arizona courts. 

His first case got tossed. So he kept on suing for redress, and judges kept smacking him down. Finally, he and his lawyer chalked up another in a chain of courtroom defeats and got sanctioned for good measure. Adrian Fontes, who won the job of Arizona secretary of state, instead, likened Finchem’s final suit to “a politically motivated weaponization of the legal process meant to perpetuate the dangerous narrative that our elections are unreliable, our elected leaders are corrupt, and our democracy is broken.” 

The judge agreed, writing, “The court finds that this lawsuit was groundless and not brought in good faith.” Finchem and his attorney, Daniel McAuley III, were ordered to reimburse Fontes for $47,706 in legal fees. 

Finchem still wasn’t Arizona Secretary of State, and now he and McAuley were poorer, and no wiser.

 

Kari Lake, right, with the Orange Dumpling, left.

  

Lesson from Cervantes: 

Let us revisit the words of the great Spanish writer. “Experience … neither lies nor deceives,” Cervantes once wrote. 

So what does experience show? 

Significant voter fraud is about as common as Trumps volunteering to serve in the U.S. military during times of war. 

(Which is never.) 

 

Blogger’s recap 2022: 

Suppose you were a diehard Trump fan. If so, the year had been grim, with a litany of legal defeats. 

Election deniers by the dozens got smoked at the polls – insisted they won – and then got blown out of court. 

Another 365 days passed. Donald Trump continued to insist he had been cheated out of victory two years before. 

He even suggested terminating the U.S. Constitution and said he should be “reinstated” as president. 

As for cases of significant voter fraud proven in court, we can total them up and post the number: 

ZERO.

 

Really, my Dear MAGA friends: It’s that simple. The Orange Dumpling from Mar-a-Lago is lying to you, and playing you for suckers. He’s lying to you the same way we know he has lied to all three of his wives.