Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Michael T. Griffith]

Humm, seems like someone has forgotten about the debunked conspiracy theories that leading Democrats floated, e.g., the gigantic Trump-Russia collusion hoax, the claim that Russians helped Trump steal the 2016 election, the claim that Republicans stole the 2018 Georgia election for governor, and the claim that Republicans stole the 2004 election from John Kerry by manipulating voting machines.

And let's not forget the more recent crazy conspiracy claims floated by Democrats, such as the claim that Trump orchestrated the January 6, 2021 riot, that there would be no more elections if Trump won in 2024, that Republicans are trying to keep women from voting, etc., etc.

[John Corbett]

Humm, seems like someone has forgotten about the debunked conspiracy theories that leading Democrats floated, e.g., the gigantic Trump-Russia collusion hoax, the claim that Russians helped Trump steal the 2016 election, the claim that Republicans stole the 2018 Georgia election for governor, and the claim that Republicans stole the 2004 election from John Kerry by manipulating voting machines.

And let's not forget the more recent crazy conspiracy claims floated by Democrats, such as the claim that Trump orchestrated the January 6, 2021 riot, that there would be no more elections if Trump won in 2024, that Republicans are trying to keep women from voting, etc., etc.

The one that stands out to me most is the 2004 election. For those who don't remember, it came down to Ohio just as the 2000 election came down to Florida, although it wasn't nearly as close. The claim was made that the voting machines had been rigged to steal votes for Bush. At the time, I was a poll worker and I knew how ludicrous that was. By law, each polling place is required to have two Democrats and two Republicans working. If there aren't two workers from each party available, an independent can be plugged in to work that slot. In our rural precinct, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by a 9 to 2 margin, so I was allowed to take one of the Democrat positions at our polling place. I learned a lot about how the process worked.

For starters, every county has its own method of voting, so a statewide manipulation of the vote is impossible. Our county used push button electronic machines. At the time, Columbus where I lived and worked for over 30 years still used the old mechanical voting machines, some of which were literally over 100 years old. Other counties used paper ballots and others used punch cards. Every county board was required to consist of two Democrats and two Republicans and jointly they would work together to ensure the integrity of the process. To claim the voting process was rigged to favor Bush was to accuse the Democrat county board members of being asleep at the switch. For example, the push button voting machines our county used were nothing more than generic counters with a slot assigned to each candidate or ballot issue. By Ohio law, the position each candidate appears on the ballot or machine has to be rotated so each candidate appears an equal number of times in each position. If there were five candidates for President, both the major and minor party candidates had to be placed an even number times in each of the five slots. A template was placed over each machine to indicate to the voter which candidate each slot was assigned to. The bi-partisan county boards worked together to set up and test the machines to ensure they were accurately recording the votes. It would require collusion among the board members to rig any voting machine to fraudulently record votes to favor one candidate or another. That is why i scoffed at allegations the election in Ohio was stolen for Bush. He won the state by about 120,000 votes. It is not remotely possible that the Republicans could have stolen that many votes for Bush.

Likewise, I am equally skeptical of Republicans who claim the Diebold voting machines were rigged to steal that state for Biden. Diebold is the same company that made the voting machines we used in Ohio. They were probably different models of machines than we had in 2004, but I assume Georgia had the same sort of safeguards we had in Ohio to ensure election integrity.

It is hardly a new phenomenon for the losing side in a close election to claim the other side cheated and stole the election. There are still Republicans to this day who think Dick Daley stole the 1960 election for JFK. While stories about vote stealing in Cook County, IL are well known, it is also true the Republicans in Lake County which comprises the northern Chicago suburbs engaged in the same sort of practices. Because Cook County was so much larger than Lake County, Democrats were just able to cheat on a larger scale than the Republicans. The truth is that even if Nixon had carried Illinois, he would have still lost the electoral college. The election hinged on three large states that were not declared until the wee hours of the following morning, Illinois, Texas, and Missouri. Nixon had to win all three to win the election. He didn't win any of them.

[Andrew Mason]

I am not sure who resurrected this zombie thread or why but I'd like to thank them. It has been quite entertaining.

Looks like you did.

I love reading the old posts attacking critics of Fauci and the CDC in the early days of the pandemic. We were told to trust the science and we now know the scientists were lying their a**es off to us. The virus was from a lab leak in Wuhan.

We know that how, exactly? Let’s look at the evidence:

The origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains a subject of ongoing scientific and intelligence investigation, with two primary hypotheses: a natural zoonotic spillover from animals or an accidental laboratory-associated incident. Most peer-reviewed genomic and epidemiological analyses point toward a natural wildlife origin, while government inquiries note the plausibility of a research-related spillover given the regional context of coronavirus studies.

Natural Zoonotic Origin Hypothesis:
This theory proposes that the virus evolved in wildlife—likely originating in bats—and jumped to humans, potentially via an intermediate host animal.

Geographical and Genetic Clustering: Early human cases in December 2019 spatially clustered tightly around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.

Environmental Sampling: Environmental swabs taken from the market—specifically from cages, drains, and carts associated with the live wildlife trade—tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

Genomic Diversity: Analyses published in Science indicated that multiple early viral lineages (Lineage A and B) were present at the market, mirroring patterns seen in past zoonotic outbreaks like SARS-CoV-1.

Evolutionary Precedent: Close genetic relatives of the virus class (sarbecoviruses) circulate widely in horseshoe bats across Southeast Asia.

Laboratory-Associated Origin Hypothesis.
This theory proposes that the pandemic started due to a mishap, such as a field collection leak or infection of a worker during the handling or study of a natural virus at a research facility in Wuhan.

Proximity to Research:. Wuhan is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a major center for coronavirus surveillance and research.Retrospective Illness Reports: Intelligence and congressional reports noted unverified or retrospective accounts of researchers falling ill with respiratory symptoms in the fall of 2019.

Gain-of-Function Context:. Proponents of this view point out that researchers in the region previously collaborated on collecting and studying high-risk bat coronaviruses, raising questions about pre-pandemic biosafety conditions.
Counter-Evidence & Analysis: Most scientific evaluations state there is no proof of deliberate genetic engineering or creation as a bioweapon. Furthermore, the intact presence of the furin cleavage site in early patient samples argues against standard laboratory cell-culture adaptation, which typically causes mutations or deletions in that specific site.

Almost everything Fauci was telling us publicly was the opposite of what he knew to be true.

Wearing your CT hat today, John?

[John Corbett]

Looks like you did.
We know that how, exactly? Let’s look at the evidence:
Wearing your CT hat today, John?

Fauci's own diary contradicts what he was saying publicly. And don't tell me that was an invasion of his privacy. When he put it on a government server, he forfeited his claim to privacy. it became a matter of public record.

Fauci was the highest paid public employee in the history of the US and is and was a total piece of sh*t.