Justice Clarence Thomas Is the Unlikely Cannabis Supporter on the Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas Is the Unlikely Cannabis Supporter on the Supreme Court
But federal marijuana decriminalization will still have to wait on Congress for action
By David S. Cohen
June 28, 2021
Marijuana legalization has an interesting advocate at the Supreme Court: Justice Clarence Thomas. Today, once again, Justice Thomas indicated his support for cutting back federal laws that criminalize pot. You might think this is good news since Justice Thomas is one of the most conservative Justices on the Court, therefore surely more liberal Justices would agree. But, unfortunately for the movement, his zeal to rethink how this country criminalizes weed has, so far, no other supporters on the Court.
The case today involved a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado that, even though it was operating completely legally within the state of Colorado, could not take advantage of federal tax breaks for businesses because the federal government considers it to run an illegal drug business. The dispensary challenged the tax provision, claiming that the federal government cannot prohibit medical marijuana in a state, like Colorado, that makes it legal.
This morning the Court decided not to hear this case, leaving the dispensary without the benefit. (Had they decided to take it on, and maybe even ruled in the dispensary’s favor, any lawful business would have been able to take advantage of the tax break — something advocates have been demanding for years.) Without explaining itself, the Court presumably was relying on a 2005 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could continue to criminalize and regulate local use and production of medical marijuana. The Court’s ruling was based on the concept that Congress can only legislate with respect to national problems, not local ones. The two California women who had grown pot for their own use in that case argued that their medical marijuana was not a national issue — it was just for them and thus purely local. The Court rejected this argument on the basis that the federal government had a strong interest in locking down the entire national market for marijuana, and that even though medical marijuana was legal in California, Congress could still criminalize it under federal law in its quest to stop illegal drugs everywhere.
That decision was 6-3, with Justice Thomas dissenting along with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Those two Justices are no longer on the Court, but you may have thought that, 16 years after the 2005 case with dozens of states now legalizing marijuana for medical (37 states) and/or recreational purposes (18 states), Justice Thomas may have found others who support his position that the federal government needs to relax how it treats marijuana.
However, based on what the Court did today, it seems he has yet to find any allies. The Court’s decision not to hear this case was, as it almost always is, unsigned and without explanation. Justice Thomas wrote a separate opinion (available here if you scroll to page 28) that no other Justice joined. In that separate opinion, Justice Thomas called out the federal government for its “half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.” What he is referring to is the fact that the Attorney General has refused to reclassify marijuana to permit use in states where it is legal and other parts of federal law, such as the tax code in this case, continue to treat it as illegal. Yet, Congress has refused to allow federal dollars to be spent enforcing federal marijuana laws in states where it is legal for medicinal purposes, and the Department of Justice has a policy against interfering with state legalization.
To Justice Thomas, this confusing patchwork of federal approaches to state legalization undermines the 2005 Supreme Court decision. That decision was based on a comprehensive nationwide approach by the federal government to prohibit pot in all forms. But now, with the federal government picking and choosing what to do in the face of the state legalization movement, Justice Thomas argued that the justification for federal intervention in this area no longer exists. “Suffice it to say,” he wrote, “the Federal Government’s current approach to marijuana bears little resemblance to the watertight nationwide prohibition that a closely divided Court found necessary to justify the Government’s blanket prohibition in [2005].”
These are encouraging words for anyone who thinks the federal government is overreaching in the way it continues to prohibit and regulate marijuana, especially in the states where laws have been relaxed. However, as exciting at it is to have a Justice of the Supreme Court write these words, until Justice Thomas gains support from other Justices, federal marijuana liberalization is going to have to come from the Attorney General or Congress not the Supreme Court.
BLM kidnappers hold politician hostage for 2 hours, force her to sign list of demands
I hope these kidnappers get prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
This is yet one more reason why I think it should be legal for drivers to run over people who deliberately and illegally block traffic.
Activists block Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins until she agrees to demands
Confrontation turns tense as protesters push Jenkins to sign a list of demands.
By Liz Navratil
June 29, 2021
Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins and Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday condemned the tactics of protesters who shouted at Jenkins and blocked her from leaving an event in Loring Park until she agreed to a list of their demands.
A 23-minute video showing a portion of their lengthy confrontation Sunday circulated on social media. Throughout the video, protesters rattled off demands — some of which Jenkins quickly agreed to, and some of which she pushed back on, insisting she needed to represent the people who live in her ward.
In the end, Jenkins signed a list of demands agreeing, among other things, to “leave George Floyd Square alone,” support the creation of a civilian-led commission to oversee police, and call for the mayor’s resignation. After she signed, people agreed to step away, clearing the way for the car she was riding in to drive off.
The encounter comes at a tense time, when re-election campaigns are escalating and residents are making conflicting demands as the city debates how to transform policing following George Floyd’s death. Over the past year, some elected officials have raised concerns about the tactics protesters are using.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Jenkins said she was “verbally attacked, berated and held ‘hostage’ against my will by a large group of angry protesters.”
She added: “Every citizen of this City has a right to bring forward their concerns, but no citizen has the right to detain and coerce anyone to do anything, that includes elected officials.”
Frey echoed that sentiment Tuesday afternoon.
“Holding people for hours against their will until they make a statement under duress is completely unacceptable,” he said. “It’s wrong.”
Activist D.J. Hooker, who posted the video to social media, said in an interview that the encounter lasted approximately two hours. He said he approached Jenkins after a Taking Back Pride event decrying police brutality. The event, according to a posting on social media, sought to prioritize the voices of people who are Black, transgender or queer. Jenkins was the first transgender woman of color elected to public office in a major U.S. city.
Hooker said he approached Jenkins to raise concerns about community groups contracted with the city to de-escalate tensions.
Hooker said he grew frustrated when Jenkins told him she didn’t have control over them and she wouldn’t commit to leaving George Floyd Square alone, so he said they would hold a peaceful protest outside her house. Hooker said he and Jenkins argued and someone jumped between them.
Hooker said Jenkins began walking away and he yelled, “Oh, you’re gonna call the cops on me knowing … what the cops have done to George Floyd, what the cops have done to Dolal Idd and Winston Smith and Daunte Wright.”
The video posted to social media begins with Hooker narrating and shows Jenkins sitting in the passenger seat of a white car, as people stand on three sides of it. A white post is behind the car.
Jenkins, who is on the phone, tells someone it might be “three days before I get out of here.”
Jenkins then sits quietly, her hands pressed together as Hooker expresses frustration that city officials haven’t done more to reduce police brutality.
Hooker begins reading off the list of demands, one by one. He asks if she will pledge her support for the creation of an elected, civilian commission to oversee police, for reopening cases in police killings, for dropping charges against protesters and releasing information about Smith’s death. Each time, Jenkins says yes.
Hooker then asks her to pledge her support “for Jacob Frey’s immediate resignation.” Jenkins laughs, shakes her head side to side and, after additional prompting from protesters, eventually says, “Jacob Frey resign.”
Hooker then asks her to “leave George Floyd Square alone. Period.”
Jenkins responds: “Don’t do my job, is that what you’re asking me to do?”
The two begin talking over each other, and Jenkins adds: “I was elected to represent that neighborhood, so what you’re asking me to do is to not do my job.”
Several people in the crowd begin shouting. Jenkins rolls up her window, saying she won’t sign anything, and people in the crowd continue to shout over each other.
A couple minutes later, Jenkins rolls down her window, and Hooker repeats the demand to leave the square alone.
“Fine, I’ll leave George Floyd Square alone,” Jenkins said. “I will not do my job.”
Eventually the person in the driver’s seat says this isn’t a negotiation. Someone in the crowd says they’re not asking, “we’re demanding,” and tells the person to “do your job and drive.” The driver raises their middle finger. Jenkins pushes the driver’s arm down, grabs the piece of paper with the demands and signs it. Protesters then ask her to print her name and date it.
Jenkins said she didn’t run to deal with situations like that.
“I ran to represent people. That’s what I did,” Jenkins says to the crowd. “You stand up and do that one day.”
A short bit later, people moved out of the way, and the car drove away.
Hooker said in an interview that they confronted Jenkins because they were tired of elected leaders making promises on policing and not following through. He said he would be surprised if Jenkins followed through on the document she signed.
Motorcyclist Who Identifies As Bicyclist Sets Cycling World Record (satire)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipvesqJP1e4
Professors declare correct grammar is racist
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17695
Profs declare correct grammar is racist, no such thing as standard English at symposium
Towson University hosted a virtual symposium to discuss anti-racist teaching practices.
One professor argued that “correct grammar” and “standard language” only “reinforce master narratives of English.”
By Ethan Khaldarov
June 25, 2021
Speakers at Towson University’s virtual “Antiracist Pedagogy Symposium” criticized university writing curriculum and programs for being racist and perpetuating Whiteness.
The event occurred on June 17.
April Baker-Bell, associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University, argued that idea of Standard English among teachers is used to maintain racist assumptions about “Black language.”
Bell stated it is evident that “anti-Blackness that is used to diminish black language of Black students in classrooms is not separate from the rampant and deliberate anti-black racism and violence inflicted upon black people in society.”
“Teacher attitudes include assumptions that Black students are somehow linguistically, morally, and intellectually inferior because they communicate in Black language,” said Bell.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania English professor Cristina Sánchez-Martín stated that her efforts are designed to contribute to “undoing Whiteness” in university students’ writing.
“The repeated references to ‘correct grammar’ and ‘standard language’ reinforce master narratives of English only as White and monolingualism and a deficit view of multilingualism,” said Sánchez-Martín.
S.F. spends more than $60K per tent at homeless sites. Now it’s being asked for another $15 million for the program.
S.F. spends more than $60K per tent at homeless sites. Now it’s being asked for another $15 million for the program.
By Trisha Thadani
June 24, 2021
San Francisco’s homelessness department is pushing to continue an expensive tent encampment program that it says is crucial for keeping people off the sidewalks, despite its high price tag of more than $60,000 per tent, per year.
The city has six so-called “safe sleeping villages,” where homeless people sleep in tents and also receive three meals a day, around-the-clock security, bathrooms and showers. The city created these sites during the pandemic to quickly get people off crowded sidewalks and into a place where they can socially distance and access basic services.
The program currently costs $18.2 million for about 260 tents. Unlike the city’s homeless hotel program, the tent villages are not eligible for federal reimbursement. Some of the sites have been run by nonprofits Urban Alchemy, Dolores Street Community Services and Larkin Street Youth Services.
The department is now asking the city for $15 million in the upcoming fiscal year for a similar number of tents, which amounts to about $57,000 per tent per year. If the funding is approved, San Francisco will pay about twice the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment for people to sleep in tents for the second year in a row.
The department plans to close some sites this year, but said it will look for new ones to replace them. Officials said they plan to significantly ramp down the program in fiscal year 2022-2023, when it expects to need $5 million to fund the program.
Several supervisors said at a Wednesday budget hearing that the cost must be re-examined, especially as the city winds down its COVID-19 emergency response.
“It is a big deal to have showers and bathrooms, and I don’t dispute that,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen said at Wednesday’s Budget and Finance Appropriations Committee meeting. “But the cost just doesn’t make any sense.”
Gigi Whitley, the homeless department’s deputy director of administration and finance, said the bulk of the costs at the sites come from the 24-hour security, three meals a day, and the rented shower and bathroom facilities.
Whitley said she hopes the department can control costs as it takes over the program from the city’s COVID-19 Command Center.
The tent program is entirely paid for through Proposition C, a 2018 business tax measure that collects money for homeless services. The cost accounts for only a fraction of the more-than $1 billion that the city expects to spend on homelessness over the next two years, mostly due to Prop. C.
Still, Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said it seemed like an “exorbitant” amount for a program that would be phased out as the COVID-19 emergency comes to an end.
The discussion comes as the city prepares to wind down its homeless hotel program, which is currently sheltering about 2,000 people. While the homeless department has promised that every hotel resident will be offered a housing placement, the city is still grappling with a tight housing market and limited shelter options for the thousands on its streets.
Shireen McSpadden, director of the department, said group shelters are still not allowed to operate at full capacity, despite Breed lifting all other COVID-19 restrictions on June 15.
The department said it is still “reviewing” federal shelter health guidelines and waiting on state public health guidance to “finalize the local shelter reopening plan and timeline.” The capacity reductions are significant: For example, there are currently only 91 guests allowed at the 200-bed Navigation Center on the Embarcadero, the department said.
Because of the shelter limitations and the upcoming closure of some hotels, McSpadden said she feels “strongly” that the city should maintain the tent program at its current level.
“We need it as just another tool in our toolkit as we bring people out of the hotels,” she said.
The board’s Budget and Finance Committee will decide whether to approve the proposal next week, before the entire budget moves to the full board for a vote. Then it will return to the mayor for her approval at the end of the summer.
Supervisor Matt Haney, chair of the committee, was also critical of the program’s cost Wednesday. He said the committee will decide next week whether it wants to reduce the money given to the tent sites and “instead direct the funds to other, more cost-effective investments to get people off the streets.”
Another school district ditches honors classes in the name of ‘equity and inclusion’
Another school district ditches honors classes in the name of ‘equity and inclusion’
By Dave Huber
June 26, 2021
Another school board has decided that honors classes will have to be done away with … in the name of “equity and inclusion.”
According to The Globe and Mail, the Vancouver School Board declared its math and science honors courses “do not comply” with the district’s goal of “ensuring that all students can participate in every aspect of the curriculum.”
The district said in a statement that its revised curriculum requires “an inclusive model of education” so “all students will be able to participate in the curriculum fulsomely.”
Yeah, I had to look that last word up too. This is what educationists do when they enact a sketchy policy — stack it with flowery lingo to make it more palatable.
Parents were angry that they were made aware of the board’s decision just last month, which was long after students had decided which secondary school to attend. As it is, only two of the district’s 18 secondary schools had even offered the advanced courses.
A spokesman for Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside said because of this “limited” number of locations, “not all students […] have an equal opportunity to enroll” in these accelerated classes. Instead, advanced students can “complete their own grade-level work […] and then work ahead into a higher grade level” (but only if there’s enough space). Or, they can apply to a “mini-school,” a “school within a school” which have specialized offerings “ranging from academics to the arts to hockey to leadership.”
The University of British Columbia’s Jennifer Katz, a Vancouver district consultant who favors abolition of fast-track courses, poo-pooed parents’ concerns about gifted students not “fitting in,” saying such a belief is “part of racism and systemic racism.”
Programs and courses such as those for honors kids are “’almost always’ made up of ‘middle- and upper-class kids whose parents have had them tutored for who knows how many years,’” Katz said. She added that teachers should be teaching to students’ ability levels so that those “of different abilities can work on the same assignment but with more advanced inquiry for some.”
But Katz’s UBC peer Owen Lo said the move to ditch honors classes is “radical, oversimplified and irresponsible.” And here’s where he nails it:
He said teachers are currently working with students from a variety of racial and linguistic backgrounds, as well as with students with ADHD and autism.
“Then, all of a sudden, you’re also adding students with advanced learning needs in the classroom. It’s a very reasonable thing that a teacher will actually sacrifice first the student with advanced learning needs. … When you don’t give them enough challenged curriculum, how do they have a growth mindset? They don’t grow.”
I know exactly to what Lo is referring. Over a decade ago, Delaware had the “brilliant” idea that every public school student, regardless of academic ability, would have to take at least two consecutive years of a foreign language in order to graduate from high school. Up until this point, foreign languages were electives.
The effect of the mandate, which started in 2011, was immediate. Whereas before my classes were composed of students who had demonstrated proficiency in their English classes, now they were a mix of such kids and special education students who didn’t know a noun from a verb. Appeals for separate classes based on (English course) performance went unheeded. The response from administrators was like that of Katz’s: Teachers were expected to teach to each student’s ability.
In classes totaling more than 30 students, that is.
Before the mandate in my level-one Spanish course, I would cover subjects like stem-changing and reflexive verbs, the differences between “ser” and “estar,” and even using the past tense. By the time I retired, just five years after the state requirement, I was unable to get to any of these topics. Indeed, I had to spend a lot of time, especially at the beginning of the school year, (re)teaching the basic parts of English speech.
Contrary to the illusion that Katz and those like her believe, the reality of Vancouver/Delaware-style mandates is that high and low-ability students suffer. The former get bored from the (to them) remedial instruction, and the latter get frustrated by their inability to grasp even basic concepts.
A further reality is that teachers will cater to the latter because their grade distributions will look better. Honors students will get the good grades regardless, so teachers focus on making sure the grades of lower-ability students are acceptable to administrators.
YouTuber harvest hollow talks again about me recommending the movie “Drop Dead Fred” to her
Start at 19:09. Watch until 21:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYD9PHdG7ys
Previous post on this:
https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2021/05/09/youtuber-harvest-hollow/
YouTuber harvest hollow has just watched the 1991 movie “Drop Dead Fred” based on my recommendation
She talks about it from 8:14 to 10:15
then some more from 29:37 to 29:44
and then some more from 49:01 to 49:16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-mbNzmjPY
Rick Beato says “Never Gonna Let You Go” by Sérgio Mendes is “The Most COMPLEX Pop Song of All Time”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRxTW8GxT8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ_NAXaiI2Q
Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty Episode 1
Video description:
Swift, great grand-daughter of the late Flower, now leads the Whiskers with the help of long-term partner Brea. Today her thirteenth litter is due to emerge. Things aren’t so rosy for Flint Lockwood, matriarch of the Hakuna Matata gang.
Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty follows the compelling, heart-string tugging saga of three matriarchs, all of whom are descendants of the legendary meerkat Flower. Neighbors and rivals are forced to compete in order to ensure the survival of their families in an environment that is undergoing a great deal of change: the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_VmIzInSMw
Video: Juneteenth crowd blocks ambulance as it tries to get to gunshot victims in Oakland, CA
Video at https://www.bitchute.com/video/D2QQWfHY1NyV/
When People Don’t Want an Audit – They Are Hiding Something
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/reminder-people-dont-want-audit-hiding-something/
When People Don’t Want an Audit – They Are Hiding Something
By Joe Hoft
June 21, 2021
The only people who fight to prevent an audit of their operation are people who have something to hide.
I have been involved in hundreds of audits around the world. I’ve performed audits across the US, in Canada, the UK, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Argentina, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
I’ve performed operational audits, IT-related audits, financial audits, and fraud audits.
I’ve reported on processes, financials, IT, and operational activities, some of which were very good and some that were not.
In all the audits I’ve participated in I have never seen the ‘auditee’ (the person who owns the process or financials) complain the way the Democrats do in response to the audit going on in Maricopa County.
I’ve never had auditees select their own auditors and have them perform their audits to show everything was working fine before I performed my audit, like the Board of Supervisors did in Maricopa County.
(In this case, the selected auditors reviewed a couple of audit machines and said they were working fine and because of this, they claimed the entire 2020 election was fine. They didn’t look at a single ballot – 2.1 million ballots and they didn’t look at one.)
I’ve never seen an auditee complain to the media about the audit that I was performing.
I’ve never had an auditee beg me not to perform an audit of their shop.
I’ve never had an auditee threaten a lawsuit if I performed an audit.
I’ve never had a politician push his fellow politicians and agencies to stop an audit.
Nope, never had any of this happen.
In Fulton County, Georgia, five sequential batches of absentee votes each appeared with the exact same vote count of 392 for Biden, 96 for President Donald Trump, and 3 for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, a count that state officials admitted was a statistical impossibility
In Fulton County, Georgia, five sequential batches of absentee votes each appeared with the exact same vote count of 392 for Biden, 96 for President Donald Trump, and 3 for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, a count that state officials admitted was a statistical impossibility.
Sources:
In Maricopa County, Arizona, 52 ballots all came from the same two-bedroom home
Maricopa Audit Liaison Says They Need to Investigate Anomalies — Like 52 Ballots Submitted From a Two-Bedroom Home
By Cassandra Fairbanks
June 19, 2021
Former Arizona Secretary of State and current senate liaison for the Maricopa County audit, Ken Bennett, has said that they need to investigate anomalies such as 52 ballots that came from a single two-bedroom home.
Bennett was giving an update on the next steps in the audit during an interview with John Fredricks on the Outside The Beltway podcast.
Additionally, Bennett stated that the Maricopa Board of Supervisors is refusing to provide information related to the routers used and administrative passwords for the tabulation machines.
Bennett explained that they are going through the envelopes to make sure that each one has a valid signature and that the person is a resident of Maricopa County. Ballots with unsigned envelopes are not permitted to be counted under the election laws.
“So, if the signatures don’t match or the signatures aren’t there, what happens?” Fredricks asked.
“Well, then part of our report would say that Maricopa County opened X numbers of thousands of envelopes and counted the ballots inside those envelopes that never should have been opened,” Bennett explained.
During the final minute of the interview, Bennett was asked to wrap up what people can expect to see from the audit in the next couple of weeks.
“There is still checking of voter registration anomalies,” he explained before citing “fifty two people voting from a two-bedroom home somewhere, or people voting twice, or dead people voting.”
“There’s going to be a few to several weeks of that type of investigation, and then there will probably be a few to several weeks of putting the whole report together,” he added. “The report’s going to be massive.”
What Difference Does Proving a Stolen Election Make? All the Difference in the World
What Difference Does Proving a Stolen Election Make? All the Difference in the World
By Wayne Allyn Root
June 20, 2021
Remember that famous Hillary Clinton line about Benghazi? She asked, “What difference does it make?” She meant it’s over; it’s old news; why rehash it now? Nothing will change. Of course, that was convenient for Clinton and former President Barack Obama. They lied, and heroes died at Benghazi. The last thing Clinton or Obama wanted was an investigation.
Democrats are saying the same thing now about the 2020 election. They say: “What difference does it make? Donald Trump lost. It’s over. The election is certified. Joe Biden is the president. Nothing will change. You’re all wasting your time.” Again, that’s pretty convenient.
We are a nation of laws. That’s what made America the greatest nation in world history. Without laws, investigations, arrests and convictions, we might as well be Haiti, or Cuba, or Venezuela, or Zimbabwe, or Mexico or any other lawless socialist hellhole around the world. Where people live in misery and malaise, with no rights, while the government, despots and ruthless criminals do whatever they want to the people.
We are America. We can’t let that happen. We must investigate and pursue justice, no matter where it leads.
Forensic audits will uncover the truth. And the truth will set us free. The truth will prove — even to Democrats and dummies (I know, I repeat myself) — that we were right. Trump was cheated. The election was rigged and stolen. Trump is the real president. Biden is not the rightful president of the United States.
You can feel it. The tide has turned. We are so close to proving Arizona and Georgia were stolen. Some legislators from other states want to plan forensic audits. Soon all the dominoes will fall.
Proving the election was stolen will make all the difference in the world. Of course, Democrats and the fake news media frauds know that. That’s precisely what they’re so afraid of. They’re scared to death the truth is about to come out.
And yes, they’re scared to death because they don’t know where this will lead; they don’t know what the citizens will do once they realize the election was rigged and stolen.
Democrats will say it’s too late. They will argue: “Nothing can be done. Stolen election or not, Biden is president, end of story. Tough luck.” I’m not an elections lawyer or a constitutional scholar. I’ll leave the question of whether Trump can be reinstated as president up to legal experts.
But I know this: Bad things will happen to the Democrats if it’s proven they stole the election. All hell will break loose. Democrats are in a world of trouble, and they know it.
On the minor scale, here’s some of the things I could imagine happening next:
Once we can prove the election was stolen, Democrats are finished. This is like when a famous business mogul and philanthropist is found to be a criminal who stole everyone’s money. Ask Bernie Madoff. Everyone hates you for the rest of all time. You can never walk out of your home again. You can’t show your face in public. People scream “shame” at you wherever you go. Your legacy is destroyed forever.
Lawsuits will fly. Legal fees will cripple the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. Donations will dry up.
Biden will be the lame duck of all lame ducks. He will never pass another piece of legislation. He won’t be able to leave the White House. He might as well be a convicted criminal. The White House will be his prison cell.
Republicans will win a landslide in 2022. The GOP will control both houses of Congress. Even voters who don’t like Trump will feel guilty that his presidency was stolen. Trump will be a lock to win back the presidency in 2024.
That’s all separate from massive protests, million-man-marches on Washington, unrest, civil disobedience and the prospect of 74 million Trump voters withholding taxes to bring the Biden government to its knees and force Biden’s resignation.
And then there are the criminal charges. Thousands of Democrats were involved, in multiple states, in the greatest theft in America’s history. I call this treason. That’s life in prison, or worse. This won’t end well for Democrats.
So, now you know why they’re panicking. Wouldn’t you?
So, yes, proving the election was stolen is the whole ball of wax. It’s the whole kitchen sink. It changes both the history and the future of America.
God bless the forensic audits. And God help the Democrats when the American people see proof the election was stolen.
Democrats wage war against family farmers and small business owners
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-6019bbf1969016cbd2749b213ba47a08
As tax changes loom, farmers worry about the next generation
By Tim Grant
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Michael Kovach got into the farming business 13 years ago with the purchase of a 107-acre farm in Mercer County after retiring from the oil and gas industry at 39.
“I’ve worked too hard on this piece of ground to really even consider the thought of it turning into anything other than what it is and getting better than what it is,” said Mr. Kovach, 52, owner of Walnut Hill Farm in Sharpsville.
He has two full-time employees who help him raise grass-fed livestock such as Angus cattle, lambs and chickens, which are sold direct to consumers at the farm. His wife, Karen, runs the farm stand.
Mr. Kovach bought the farm hoping to one day pass the mantle of ownership to his daughter, who is 17. Now he and and other family farmers across the state worry how changes in the tax law could impact their plans to transfer their farms from one generation to the next.
President Joe Biden has proposed tax changes in order to pay for the American Families Plan, which provides government benefits and tax breaks for middle- and lower-income people.
The proposal that’s garnered the highest profile in the business community has been Mr. Biden’s plan to raise the 21% corporate tax rate that has been in place since 2018. He’s proposed changing it to 28%, which is targeted at the largest corporations, some of which effectively pay no income tax on billions in revenue.
Small-business owners are most concerned about increased taxes on capital gains — profits on the sale of assets — and on inherited wealth. Mr. Biden’s plan calls for nearly doubling the top tax rate on capital gains and eliminating a significant tax benefit on appreciated assets known as the “step-up in basis.” The combined tax rate increase could add up to 61% on inherited wealth.
For example, if someone dies after starting a business decades ago that’s now worth $100 million, under the current tax law, the business would pass to family members with no capital gains tax because the cost basis of the business is stepped-up to its current value at death.
Under Mr. Biden’s plan, the heirs would immediately owe a capital gains tax of $42.96 million based on the capital gains rate of 39.6%, plus the net investment income tax of 3.8%, minus the $1 million estate tax exemption. The proposal would reduce the estate tax exemption from $11.7 million to $1 million.
If the estate tax remains unchanged, the family would also pay an estate tax of 40% on $57.04 million of the remaining assets. Including exemptions, the estate tax would amount to $18.13 million.
The combined federal estate tax and capital gains tax liability would total $61.1 million on the heirs’ original $100 million inheritance. That’s without including state capital gains and estate taxes.
“That’s a really important thing if I’m the daughter of a business owner and I want to inherit stock in my family’s company,” said Elizabeth “Li” Connolly, a partner at the Connolly Steel accounting firm in Avalon. “Me, as a regular person, could be theoretically not targeted by this, but it’s going to affect everyone in a negative way.”
Dividend payouts and stock buybacks
The tax proposal most closely tied to the larger economic recovery is the corporate tax hike that could go from 21% to as much as 28%, although negotiations are ongoing, and media sources have reported Mr. Biden floating the idea of a minimum corporate tax of 15%.
Prior to the corporate rate being reduced in 2018 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, corporations paid a tax rate as high as 35%.
Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity said she has met with small-business leaders across the state who are interested in expanding their companies but are holding back due to the uncertainty of tax changes.
Pennsylvania has 1.1 million small businesses, which Ms. Garrity said make up 99.6% of all businesses in the state.
She said owners of farms in rural Pennsylvania are particularly worried about a capital gains tax hike.
More than 8% of U.S. adults have at least $1 million in assets, according to the Global Wealth Report 2020 by Credit Suisse. That comes out to slightly more than 20 million Americans.
The Pennsylvania Farmers Union has 300 members, all of whom are owners of family farms. The national farmers organization has 200,000 members.
“Some of these farmers have had these farms in their families for generations, and now, if they go to pass on the farm to the next generation, anything over $1 million they would have to pay that capital gains tax on it,” Ms. Garrity said.
Farm operator households usually have more wealth than the average U.S. household because they own significant capital assets, such as farmland and equipment necessary to run a farm. In 2019, the average farm household had $1,042,855 in wealth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gus Faucher, chief economist at Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group, said the bank is waiting to have a better sense of what’s likely to get through Congress before incorporating the tax increases into its forecast.
But on the surface, he said, it’s not likely to have a significant impact on economic growth.
“We saw very little change in growth when the corporate income tax cuts were passed under the Trump administration in 2017,” Mr. Faucher said. “There was a modest growth pickup in business fixed investment following passage of the tax cuts, but that faded in 2019.
“Mostly the impact of the corporate income tax cut was to increase dividend payouts to shareholders and boost stock prices, with little impact on the real economy. Therefore, I would expect a very small negative economic impact from the proposed Biden tax cuts.”
‘Tax is a price’
A tax increase of a few percentage points can be absorbed by most profitable companies.
“If they know what the tax rate is, over a period of months they will adjust to it,” said Robert Fragasso, chairman and CEO of Fragasso Financial Advisors, Downtown. “They will adjust just like we do in our homes and our personal finances. We adjust to changes in pricing. Tax is a price. It’s part of what corporations pay to do business.
“You could argue that corporations spend too much money on this or that or pay people too much at the top,” he said. “That’s just financial management. But taxes in and of themselves is neither good nor bad. It’s how they are applied to the business. I’m not advocating for higher taxes. But we do have to pay for what we’re spending.”
Mr. Fragasso, whose company manages nearly $2 billion for clients, said lawmakers could get a false impression of how much corporations are making without taking into consideration that profitability varies from year to year, and responsible company managers put money aside for unforeseen events that will impact their future.
“That’s what we do,” he said. “A legislator could look at us and say, ‘Tax them more because they are a rich company’ when in fact we set it aside for the future to hedge the unexpected or to use to grow the company and create more employment.”
Ms. Connolly noted that nothing is carved in stone yet.
“Over the years, I don’t get worked up about anything until I see it signed into law because there’s going to be a lot of changes,” she said.
“Everything right now is still speculation because there’s going to be a lot of negotiation as part of this.”
Six white female academics have posed as scholars of color in recent years
Six white female academics have posed as scholars of color in recent years
By Jennifer Kabbany
June 17, 2021
ANALYSIS: If being a woman of color is so oppressive and exhausting, as BIPOC scholars constantly claim, why are so many white female scholars pretending to be people of color?
Inside Higher Ed has an article out this week regarding a mysterious anonymous report floating around Queen’s University in Canada that alleges some faculty are faking being indigenous.
While employees at the school debate to what degree the claims are true, if at all, tucked inside the article is a summary of all the white academics who have pretended to be scholars of color over the years.
They’ve done so, as reporter Colleen Flaherty put it, “presumably to increase their clout in certain disciplines or access resources available to historically underrepresented groups, or both.” She reported:
Just last month, The New York Times Magazine published an incriminating look into long-standing allegations that Andrea Smith, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside, is not Cherokee. Smith didn’t respond to the Times or to a request for comment Monday, but she’s always maintained that she is Cherokee.
Before that, within the last year alone, neuroscientist BethAnn McLaughlin admitted to pretending to be a Hopi scientist on Twitter, and historian Jessica Krug was outed as pretending to be Afro-Latinx. Historian Kelly Kean Sharp resigned suddenly after it was revealed she isn’t really Chicana, and Ph.D. candidate CV Vitolo-Haddad apologized for claiming various nonwhite identities.
… Even before all that, among others, there was Rachel Dolezal, who pretended to be Black while teaching African American studies at Eastern Washington University and leading her local NAACP chapter.
The College Fix has reported on most of these examples over the years. Here is our reporting on McLaughlin, Krug, Sharp, Vitolo-Haddad and Dolezal.
But what popped out from this Inside Higher Ed report was seeing all the examples in a row like that and realizing — gosh, there are a lot of white female scholars who have pretended to be scholars of color in recent years.
Why is that?
As Flaherty had suggested, “presumably to increase their clout in certain disciplines or access resources available to historically underrepresented groups, or both.”
In other words, there ARE perks to being a scholar of color in today’s day and age.
So much for systemic racism and white privilege!
In California, the left is eating itself – excessive regulations are making it very difficult for the state’s legal sellers of recreational marijuana
This is hilarious. Instead of reducing the excessive regulations, the government is planning to spend $100 million to help business owners deal with the regulations.
In addition, seven different environmental organizations have complained about the effects of legal marijuana on the environment.
In California, the left is eating itself.
As a libertarian, I am in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, and I am against excessive regulation of businesses. The fact that California wants to spend this $100 million, instead of reducing the excessive regulations, is hilarious.
Here’s the article:
California offers $100 million to rescue its struggling legal marijuana industry
By Patrick McGreevy
June 14, 2021
SACRAMENTO —
The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100-million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use.
Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money, which was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to be provided as grants to cities and counties to help cannabis businesses transition from provisional to regular licenses.
“California voters approved Proposition 64 five years ago and entrusted the Legislature with creating a legal, well-regulated cannabis market,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), the chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. “We have yet to reach that goal.”
Many cannabis growers, retailers and manufacturers have struggled to make the transition from a provisional, temporary license to a permanent one renewed on an annual basis — a process that requires a costly, complicated and time-consuming review of the negative environmental effects involved in a business and a plan for reducing those harms.
As a result, about 82% of the state’s cannabis licensees still held provisional licenses as of April, according to the governor’s office.
The funds, including $22 million earmarked for L.A., would help cities hire experts and staff to assist businesses in completing the environmental studies and transitioning the licenses to “help legitimate businesses succeed,” Ting said.
The grant program is endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said in a letter to legislators that the money is “essential in supporting a well-regulated, equitable, and sustainable cannabis market.”
Separately, the governor wants to give cannabis businesses a six-month extension beyond a Jan. 1 deadline to transition from provisional licenses by complying with mandates of the California Environmental Quality Act. That extension, which faces opposition for delaying promised environmental safeguards, was not included in the state budget bill approved Monday and is still being negotiated with lawmakers.
The governor’s proposal to extend provisional licenses has drawn objections from a coalition of seven environmental groups including Sierra Club California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy.
They said in a letter to Newsom that the proposal allowing the extension of provisional licenses and interim alternatives to CEQA rules goes against what voters were promised and is “wholly inadequate to protect local communities and the environment.”
At the same time, industry officials say the governor’s proposals do not go far enough in helping businesses struggling to stay open with provisional licenses while meeting what they see as burdensome rules under the state’s environmental regulations.
“It is a significant amount of money, but I don’t know that it actually answers the problem of provisional licenses making it through CEQA analysis in a timely manner to get an annual license,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Assn.
He said delays in cities adopting rules, their limited staffing and lack of resources by cannabis firms mean some face two to four years to get through the licensing process. Many would face the prospect of shutting down, at least temporarily, if they don’t get a regular license by current state deadlines, Kiloh said.
California voters paved the way for state licensing of cannabis stores, farms, distributors and testing when they approved Proposition 64 in 2016. State officials initially expected to license as many as 6,000 cannabis shops in the first few years, but permits have been issued only for 1,086 retail and delivery firms.
In 2019, industry officials estimated there were nearly three times as many unlicensed businesses as ones with state permits. Although some industry leaders believe enforcement has reduced the number of illegal pot shops, a study in September by USC researchers estimated unlicensed retailers still outnumbered those that were licensed.
Supporters of legalization blame the discrepancy on problems that they say include high taxes on licensed businesses, burdensome regulations and the decision of about three-quarters of cities in California not to allow cannabis retailers in their jurisdictions.
The bill approved by the Legislature on Monday includes $100 million and identifies 17 cities and counties earmarked to receive grants, including Los Angeles, which would get the largest grant. Other cities that will get grants include Long Beach, San Francisco, Oakland, Commerce, Adelanto and Desert Hot Springs.
Originally, pot businesses were supposed to transfer from temporary licenses to regular annual licenses by 2019, but many businesses were unable to comply in time, so the state allowed provisional licenses until Jan. 1, 2020, and then extended the deadline again to Jan. 1, 2022.
A key requirement to convert from a provisional license is to conduct a CEQA review to indicate how pot farms and other cannabis businesses will affect the surrounding water, air, plants and wildlife, and to propose ways to mitigate any harms.
However, Kiloh said, some cities are just setting up ordinances and staffing to process licenses, meaning many businesses cannot meet the looming deadline.
Each cannabis grower must provide evidence that they met the requirements for environmental review. If their city and county do not provide the required document, the applicants must prepare one, which often means hiring environmental consultants.
A bill by state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) would have allowed the state to extend provisional licenses six years until 2028, but she shelved it after it drew opposition from the coalition of environmental groups.
The groups sent a letter to lawmakers saying that the bill “does not provide adequate environmental protection.”
The governor’s proposal, which is being considered by lawmakers, would allow the extension of existing provisional licenses by six months.
Environmentalists still hope the budget trailer bill can be changed to address their concerns, according to Pamela Flick, California program director of Defenders of Wildlife.
The group “opposes the proposed trailer bill language because it needs stronger environmental protections consistent with the original commitments made in Proposition 64, in which the voters intended meaningful and timely compliance” with environmental laws, Flick said.
The Newsom administration is warning of dire consequences if pot businesses are not given more time to get a regular license.
“Absent this extension, it is possible that a significant number of these licensees could fall out of the legal cannabis system, significantly curtailing the state’s efforts to facilitate the transition to a legal and well-regulated market,” the administration warned in its budget proposal.
The $100 million would go to local agencies with the most provisional licenses for growing, manufacturing, distribution, testing and retail operations. Some of the money can be used by cities offering equity funding to cannabis businesses owned by people of color.
Lawmakers welcomed the budget proposal from Newsom, who has an interest in seeing the legal market succeed because he was a leading proponent of Proposition 64.
“Gov. Newsom is dedicated to the success of the legal cannabis industry in California,” said Nicole Elliott, the governor’s senior advisor on cannabis. “The purpose of this one-time $100 million in grant funding is to aid locals and provisional licensees, many of which are small businesses, legacy operators and equity applicants, in more expeditiously migrating to annual licensure.”
Garcetti said in his letter that it will help Los Angeles “in creating a robust CEQA compliance program and comprehensive assistance programs to aid licensees in meeting annual licensure requirements.”
However, industry officials note the money will go to a small fraction of California cities, and only those that have already decided to allow cannabis businesses.
“It’s not incentivizing localities who have cannabis bans to get their ordinances up and running,” said Kiloh, owner of the Higher Path cannabis store in Sherman Oaks.
“The real problem is CEQA analysis is a very arduous process,” he added. “I think it would be good to have more reform of the licensing system instead of just putting money to it.”
Socialist-Themed Vegan Food Company Lays Off Workers Without Notice Or Severance (This same left-wing company had previously tried to stop its employees from forming a union)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-evil-foods-layoffs_n_60c653fbe4b0402a2c033cf3
Socialist-Themed Vegan Food Company Lays Off Workers Without Notice Or Severance
Workers at No Evil Foods’ North Carolina plant were furious at the news, according to audio of the layoff announcement.
By Dave Jamieson
June 13, 2021
A self-described socially conscious vegan food manufacturer laid off its entire production staff in North Carolina on Friday, infuriating workers who said the lack of notice and severance pay was out of step with the company’s stated values.
Audio of the layoff announcement at No Evil Foods provided to HuffPost by a source captured stunned workers shouting back at company leaders who delivered the news.
“So we get fired so you can stay alive?” one worker said to the company’s chief executive, Mike Woliansky, as Woliansky explained that the facility will be shut down.
Several workers reacted with disbelief after the company’s human resources chief, Drew Pollick, explained they would be paid for Friday’s work but nothing beyond that because “we’re out of money.”
Workers were heard yelling “screw all of y’all” and ”F*** you!”
“You can’t tell me there’s absolutely no money,” one said.
“They got a better deal ― the ones that f***ed up,” added one worker, in apparent reference to the company’s leadership.
No Evil Foods, which is based in Weaverville, north of Asheville, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Woliansky said in the meeting that No Evil Foods was counting on a new infusion of cash that recently fell through. He said the pandemic presented a number of challenges for the company, and that leaders had decided to move to a co-manufacturing model, rather than have its own dedicated facility.
“The reality of the situation is the company has essentially run out of money, and we’re now really forced to make some really big, really difficult changes,” he said in the audio obtained by HuffPost. “It’s coming down to whether or not there will be a No Evil at all.”
Mike Rapier, one of the workers who spoke up during the meeting, said in an interview with HuffPost that the company’s leaders deserved all the backtalk. No Evil Foods describes itself as a purpose-driven food manufacturer, seeking to address “food insecurity, economic justice, and climate change” through plant-based options. Some of its products make cheeky nods to socialism, like the chicken-free Comrade Cluck.
Rapier said company leaders often spoke about the workforce as a family. That’s why Rapier, a production employee, expected more than a recommendation letter and a leaflet about an upcoming job fair.
“We would have big monthly meetings about core values and family and respect and save-the-world,” said Rapier, who added that he did not make the audio recording. “They preached all of this stuff, but then when it came down to it … they were very, very cutthroat.”
Companies generally are not required to provide severance pay unless a contract requires it. Sometimes employers are required to give 60 days notice or more under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or similar state laws, but the mass layoff at No Evil Foods appears to be small enough so that the law does not apply.
Rapier estimated that there were between 30 and 50 workers laid off on Friday, though he said others had been let go earlier in the year. The layoffs were first reported by Insider.
This is not the first time workers have accused No Evil Foods of not meeting its socially conscious image. The company pushed back hard against a union drive last year, holding captive-audience meetings and urging workers to vote down the effort with the United Food and Commercial Workers union. When audio of those meetings were posted to the internet, the company made legal efforts to have them removed.
The company fired two workers involved in the organizing effort, claiming they had violated the facility’s social-distancing rules. The two workers, Jon Reynolds and Cortne Roche, accused the company of illegal retaliation, and the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel pursued a complaint. As Jacobin recently reported, No Evil Foods settled those claims by paying $20,000 to Reynolds and $22,500 to Roche.
Rapier said he really enjoyed working at No Evil Foods. He eats meat and didn’t buy into the plant-based-foods mission of the company, but he considered it a solid job and liked his co-workers. He left Ace Hardware a year ago to work at No Evil Foods.
According to Rapier, the company had recently invested in equipment that did not suit its production well, leading to frequent shutdowns. He said he had a feeling business was not going well. Still, Rapier said, given the mission of No Evil Foods, he assumed the company would try to give workers a softer landing.
“They talked the talk but they didn’t walk the walk with regard to their philosophy. They just dumped us,” he said. “This kind of upheaval is not right, the way they went about this.”
Rapier, 59, said his health insurance through No Evil Foods ended immediately Friday, and he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to find coverage he can afford. As for his next work plans, Rapier said he plans to go to that job fair.
I think it’s great the BLM founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors bought four homes with the money that she earned from her book sales and speaking fees. Although she called herself a “Marxist,” her actions prove that she is actually a capitalist. Actions speak louder than words.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is one of the founders of Black Lives Matter. She recently bought four homes with the money that she earned from her book sales and speaking fees. Although she called herself a “Marxist,” her actions prove that she is actually a capitalist. Actions speak louder than words.
In this video, Khan-Cullors says:
“We are trained Marxists”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EvOyW5vIdg
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels says:
“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”
Source: http://activistmanifesto.org/assets/original-communist-manifesto.pdf
Actions speak louder than words. Khan-Cullors says that she is a Marxist. But her actions prove the exact opposite. Her actions prove that she is very much in favor of private property.
I’m glad Khan-Cullors bought those homes. As I’ve said many times before, communism is so horrible that even the people who claim to be in favor of it never actually move to communist countries. Khan-Cullors’s purchase of these four homes proves that she is very much against communism, no matter what words may come out of her mouth.
Why a Judge Has Georgia Vote Fraud on His Mind: ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed
Why a Judge Has Georgia Vote Fraud on His Mind: ‘Pristine’ Biden Ballots That Looked Xeroxed
By Paul Sperry
June 8, 2021
When Fulton County, Ga., poll manager Suzi Voyles sorted through a large stack of mail-in ballots last November, she noticed an alarmingly odd pattern of uniformity in the markings for Joseph R. Biden. One after another, the absentee votes contained perfectly filled-in ovals for Biden — except that each of the darkened bubbles featured an identical white void inside them in the shape of a tiny crescent, indicating they’d been marked with toner ink instead of a pen or pencil.
Adding to suspicions, she noticed that all of the ballots were printed on different stock paper than the others she handled as part of a statewide hand recount of the razor-thin Nov. 3 presidential election. And none was folded or creased, as she typically observed in mail-in ballots that had been removed from envelopes.
In short, the Biden votes looked like they’d been duplicated by a copying machine.
“All of them were strangely pristine,” said Voyles, who said she’d never seen anything like it in her 20 years monitoring elections in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta.
She wasn’t alone. At least three other poll workers observed the same thing in stacks of absentee ballots for Biden processed by the county, and they have joined Voyles in swearing under penalty of perjury that they looked fake.
Now election watchdogs have used their affidavits to help convince a state judge to unseal all of the 147,000 mail-in ballots counted in Fulton and allow a closer inspection of the suspicious Biden ballots for evidence of counterfeiting. They argue that potentially tens of thousands may have been manufactured in a race that Biden won by just 12,000 votes thanks to a late surge of mail-in ballots counted after election monitors were shooed from State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
“We have what is almost surely major absentee-ballot fraud in Fulton County involving 10,000 to 20,000 probably false ballots,” said Garland Favorito, the lead petitioner in the case and a certified poll watcher who runs VoterGa.org, one of the leading advocates for election integrity in the state.
Georgia poll watchers’ concerns about Biden ballots appearing photocopied led to watchdog inspection. Three poll watchers have sworn under penalty of perjury that the ballots looked fake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSp1F7DNBZU
Georgia poll watchers’ concerns about Biden ballots appearing photocopied led to watchdog inspection
Three poll watchers have sworn under penalty of perjury that the ballots looked fake.
By Joseph Weber
June 9, 2021
Concerns from a polling manager in Georgia’s Fulton County about the unusual uniformity of mail-in ballots is the basis for the court-delayed inspection effort that is expected to resume in the coming weeks.
Polling manager Suzi Voyles says that when counting absentee ballots for the 2020 presidential election, thousands of them, perhaps tens of thousands, for then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appeared to have been photocopied.
Voyles’ observation and similar ones from at least three other poll workers prompted them to come forward and swear under penalty of perjury that the ballots looked fake.
Election watchdogs have used their affidavits to help convince a state judge to unseal all of the 147,000 mail-in ballots counted in Fulton and allow a closer inspection of the suspicious Biden ballots for evidence of counterfeiting, The Epoch Times reports Tuesday.
Voyles also said she noticed that all of the ballots were printed on paper different from others she handled as part of a statewide hand recount of the presidential election.
She also said none were purportedly folded or creased, as she typically observed in mail-in ballots that had been removed from envelopes.
“All of them were strangely pristine,” said Voyles, who for 20 years has monitored elections in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta.
The watchdogs suspect as many as tens of thousands of the ballots may have been manufactured in a race that Biden won by just 12,000 votes, in large part because of the late surge in mail-in ballots counted after election monitors were asked to leave State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
“We have what is almost surely major absentee-ballot fraud in Fulton County involving 10,000 to 20,000 probably false ballots,” Garland Favorito, the lead petitioner in the case and a certified poll watcher who runs VoterGa.org, told The Epoch Times.
He and other petitioners were ordered to meet at a warehouse May 28 to settle the terms of the inspection of the absentee ballots. But the day before the scheduled meeting, the county filed a motion to dismiss the case, delaying the inspection indefinitely.
Favorito said the sides will be in court June 21 to resolve the motions. He expects talks over the logistics of the inspection to resume after the Fourth of July holiday, according to The Times.
Election Workers Set to Be Deposed in Georgia Ballot Case
https://www.theepochtimes.com/election-workers-set-to-be-deposed-in-georgia-ballot-case_3850941.html
Election Workers Set to Be Deposed in Georgia Ballot Case
By Zachary Stieber
June 9, 2021
Several election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, are scheduled to be deposed in the coming days in a lawsuit that alleges thousands of fraudulent ballots were scanned in Atlanta on election night in 2020.
Ruby Freeman, her daughter Wandrea Moss, Caryn Ficklin, and Keisha Dixon were served with notices to appear for depositions in the case, according to court records.
Freeman and Moss were two of the workers in the absentee ballot counting room at State Farm Arena, when ballots were processed for some time on Nov. 3, 2020, with no observers, including no state election monitor.
Freeman is scheduled to be deposed on June 11. She was advised to bring a thumb drive containing images of all communications she made between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, regarding the presidential election, according to a court document obtained by The Epoch Times. The communications include messages sent by cellphones, through email, on Snapchat, and over Facebook.
She was also told to bring all electronic devices she utilized during the same timeframe.
Moss, who was given similar orders, is slated to appear on June 10.
Dixon helped register voters while Ficklin works for the county.
Robert Cheeley, who is representing some of the plaintiffs in the case, asked for the depositions. Cheeley didn’t respond to repeated requests by The Epoch Times for comment, including a message left at his office with a secretary.
A Fulton County spokesperson declined to comment.
“Our position is that that’s premature. We want to get to the inspection and then we’ll figure out who we want to depose,” Garland Favorito, an election observer who is one of the petitioners, told people in an online chat over the weekend.
“I think it would nail down some of the issues, some of the things that are still unanswered at State Farm Arena. I think that’s [Cheeley’s] intent.”
Petitioners in the case asserted in December 2020 that election workers failed to comply with state laws governing the treatment of absentee ballots. That failure “created two classes that had two different standards” when it came to mail-in ballots, they alleged.
A county official told news outlets and people in a ballot counting room at roughly 11 p.m. on election night that counting was done for the evening, but workers soon resumed processing ballots. Republican observers said they left because of the announcement and a state election monitor was absent for 82 minutes, according to Gabriel Sterling, an official with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
Sterling later said there was “managerial sloppiness” and “chain of custody” issues in the county, although county officials insisted nothing untoward happened.
Petitioners received low-resolution images of ballots in the case, but have more recently sought images that are at a quality of 600 dots per inch or higher. Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero agreed to the request last month, but postponed the taking of new images after county agencies filed motions to dismiss the case.
A hearing on the motions will take place on June 21.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 