The Ongoing 2020 Election: Maricopa County Recount

[Edge-]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...248_story.html

And the Secretary of State wants to replace all the machines involved in the recount, costing millions of dollars.

Why?

Because nobody knows what the fuck Cyber Ninjas may have done to them. There's no clear chain of custody documentation, and election officials/observers were not allowed to remain with the machines to ensure their security.

I thought Republicans hated wasteful spending, but I guess it's ok if it means they can pursue insane conspiracy theories like ballots with bamboo fibers and looking for secret watermarks hand-placed on them by Trump with blacklights.

[PhaelixWW]

The Trump Collarary to Hanlon's Razor:

Never assume malice when stupidity is suffice to explain, except when Trump is involved. Then it's both.

No need for a corollary, Hanlon's razor holds: stupidity alone is not enough to explain Trump.

[Masark]

And the Secretary of State wants to replace all the machines involved in the recount, costing millions of dollars.

Why?

Because nobody knows what the fuck Cyber Ninjas may have done to them. There's no clear chain of custody documentation, and election officials/observers were not allowed to remain with the machines to ensure their security.

"I've cleared your network of invading agents. It is clean."

"It's not going to be clean until we've burned it to ash and replaced it."

[Powerogue]

Guess this is how they intend to "just find the votes."

We have a party opposed to democracy.

[Breccia]

Once again it's time for Guess the Speaker!

Where the ballots were being stored, it was not a facility that was suitable for storage, because everything was exposed to heat and also humidity because of the method of cooling in the building.

Any time you’re doing any process like this, the idea of having to start and stop, that interruption, we were already concerned that there were a lot of procedures that were changing and errors that were happening, and I think this increases the chance for those errors.

They don’t know what they’re doing and they didn’t have a clue how long it was going to take them to do this. They’re not following best practices. In fact they’re doing a lot of things that make no sense if you’re trying to get a valid result.

There’s really nothing going on here that gives any confidence that they’re going to produce a report that is valid. They’re not going to produce results that are going to be able to be replicated. Their goal here is to continue to disrupt, to undermine voter confidence in our processes, and that’s going to have an impact on future elections in terms of voter confidence, and that tends to reduce voter turnout.

"Wait, Cyber Ninjas didn't count on heat in an election in Arizona? Isn't that like not counting on the water when filming Aquaman?"

It's AZ SecState Hobbs, yes.

It appears Randy Pullen, which incidentally is the name you give yourself in solo porn video, led Cyber Ninjas to take the ballots which they think are on bamboo for some reason, and just transfer them from "it's a dry heat" to "my ice cream isn't melting" without any safety measures or precautions. Add that to the growing list of things done, by the people intentionally hired to recount ballots, that would cause more damage than doing literally nothing.

75% plus still uncounted, by the way. As a reminder, they're being paid by unknown sources and using volunteers (so, yeah, that money's being pocketed) while behind schedule. I cannot fathom a way in which rushed, untrained, unprofessional workers get useful results when the official pros (who already did this twice) found nothing.

This is a scam. But it continues to be praised by Trump, as recently as yesterday. Therfore any Trump supporter is assumed to be in favor of this scam until they personally, specifically, and directly condemn it.

[cubby]

"Wait, Cyber Ninjas didn't count on heat in an election in Arizona? Isn't that like not counting on the water when filming Aquaman?"

It's AZ SecState Hobbs, yes.

It appears Randy Pullen, which incidentally is the name you give yourself in solo porn video, led Cyber Ninjas to take the ballots which they think are on bamboo for some reason, and just transfer them from "it's a dry heat" to "my ice cream isn't melting" without any safety measures or precautions. Add that to the growing list of things done, by the people intentionally hired to recount ballots, that would cause more damage than doing literally nothing.

75% plus still uncounted, by the way. As a reminder, they're being paid by unknown sources and using volunteers (so, yeah, that money's being pocketed) while behind schedule. I cannot fathom a way in which rushed, untrained, unprofessional workers get useful results when the official pros (who already did this twice) found nothing.

This is a scam. But it continues to be praised by Trump, as recently as yesterday. Therfore any Trump supporter is assumed to be in favor of this scam until they personally, specifically, and directly condemn it.

Arizona's Secretary of State 'stripped' of duties after criticizing election audit.

Hobbs labeled the entire audit "a political stunt," adding that it is "dangerous to people's safety and to the integrity of our democracy."

After publicly expressing "grave concerns" over Arizona's audit of the 2020 election results, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) was "stripped" of her ability to "defend election lawsuits" by the state's Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, reported Arizona's ABC 15 on Tuesday. The duty was transferred "exclusively" to Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) through the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

Democrats say the move is retaliation against Hobbs' defense of Arizona voters in "lawsuits filed by the State Republican Party and others challenging Arizona's election results," per ABC 15. "It can't be just a coincidence" that Republicans are blocking a "vocal critic of the audit," writes Elvia Díaz for azcentral.com. Democratic State Rep. Randy Friese reportedly called the move "troubling," "disturbing," and "quite nefarious."

Furthermore, the Appropriations Committee removed Hobb's "oversight of the Capitol Museum," ABC 15 reports, after Hobbs angered state lawmakers when she "flew a gay pride flag from the building's balcony" in 2019.

Not to be overly dramatic, but this is precisely how democracy dies. The changes going into or already in effect mean that if the 2020 election had happened now, the state legislatures could decide Trump won, despite all evidence to the contrary, and anoint him.

[Breccia]

Not to be overly dramatic, but this is precisely how democracy dies.

Hmm. Pointed out the laws that Cyber Ninjas was objectively breaking, and immediately fired. Well, I guess the voters of Arizona will just have to accept their state voting for them, no matter what they, as voters, provably demonstrate. Still leaves a few other states where democracy is in place.

[Attackrabbit]

This whole thing is both amazingly funny and amazingly terrifying :s Once the republicans pull it off (because c'mon you know it's gonna happen no matter how ridiculous any claims they make are) and annoint themselves rulers forever I'm sure BoJo (or whichever interchangeable idiot is running the UK at the time) will be right in there with an even more hilariously fucked up attempt to crush the will of the people

[Breccia]

Sometimes jokes write themselves.

Cyber Ninjas subcontracted, which makes sense, with a tech company to help with the recount. They've been on the job since day one up until this morning. They just told the AZ state senate they're giving up the contract and leaving. No public reason has been given as to why, but I suspect that, if the problem was "we're not being paid" they'd have sued instead of leaving. Therefore, until I am directly contradicted on the matter, I say they left because the whole thing was a shitshow, and they just realized it wasn't worth it.

"Okay, but what's the joke?"

The company's name is "Wake".

Cyber Ninjas has a replacement, which I'm pretty sure means that's yet another slowdown.

I wonder, will the AZ Senate also stripe Wake of their powers, like they did with the SecState?

[Edge-]

https://www.businessinsider.com/ariz...n-video-2021-5

In which AZ Republican Senator Karen Fann claims that this audit is "transparent" because OAN has exclusive control over the livestreams, while asserting that they're a credible news organization and taking umbrage that others don't share that opinion.

In a just world people should be going to jail over this gross mishandling of ballots, the violation of rules requiring ballots be stored securely, and the fact that the AZ Republicans chose a clown show of a company with no auditing experience and an owner who is a conspiracy theory nutter.

But sadly we don't live in a just world, we live in an unjust world where lunatics manage to maintain power because they have a lunatic, rabid, violent base that "reasonable" conservatives are too afraid to cross lest their lives and the lives of their family be put in jeopardy.

[Breccia]

OAN has exclusive control

Okay then, problem solved. I'm sure they won't contest the subpoenas when AZ law enforcement takes all their records. Also, I'm sure they won't complain when AZ law enforcement does to their records and equipment what Cyber Ninjas did to AZ's ballots and voting machines.

[Krakan]

https://www.businessinsider.com/ariz...n-video-2021-5

In which AZ Republican Senator Karen Fann claims that this audit is "transparent" because OAN has exclusive control over the livestreams, while asserting that they're a credible news organization and taking umbrage that others don't share that opinion.

In a just world people should be going to jail over this gross mishandling of ballots, the violation of rules requiring ballots be stored securely, and the fact that the AZ Republicans chose a clown show of a company with no auditing experience and an owner who is a conspiracy theory nutter.

But sadly we don't live in a just world, we live in an unjust world where lunatics manage to maintain power because they have a lunatic, rabid, violent base that "reasonable" conservatives are too afraid to cross lest their lives and the lives of their family be put in jeopardy.

I mean...and not to come off as trolling but as an acute point. You also have those who don't really care who governs anymore and simply want to watch a circus.

[postman1782]

I mean...and not to come off as trolling but as an acute point. You also have those who don't really care who governs anymore and simply want to watch a circus.

No, these dumbasses running the audit and claiming there is election fraud, actually do believe there is fraud. Hell, there are people claiming that there are thousands of ballots that are fake, even though, literally nothing has come from the audit itself.

I have been watching a lot of Tiktoks from ignorant Trump supporters claiming they are going to overturn Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, even though they literally have no evidence, and even most of those already had audits and recounts they have already done.

There are even some saying that Trump will be back in office by July 4th, some say August, and some September, even though most of the dates they have claimed were going to flip the election have come and passed already. And even if they find fraud, which they won't, that still doesn't mean that Trump gets the presidency, that fat fuck will never see the whitehouse again.

[Edge-]

You also have those who don't really care who governs anymore and simply want to watch a circus.

No, you have people who deeply care about who governs and don't care if they have to lie and/or cheat in order to get their way despite fairly losing elections. Also known as "Republicans".

Don't carry water for them.

[Breccia]

There are even some saying that Trump will be back in office by July 4th

Man, that "Trump is still in charge just you wait" deadlines keep getting pushed back.

Of course, these people will claim they were vindicated should Cyber Ninjas "find fraud". No, they won't wait for those reports to be confirmed or for them to stand up in court.

*ahem*

And as I recently posted in another thread, I can't wait to reply "well Ukraine intentionally used Team Trump to spread lies, which is illegal, and there's actually proof" when that investigation concludes. They can accept both, or neither. Either way, Biden is still President.

[Edge-]

Man, that "Trump is still in charge just you wait" deadlines keep getting pushed back.

The year is 2063: DONALD TRUMP IS STILL SECRETLY RUNNING THINGS AND IS BEING KEPT ALIVE BY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS AND THE BLOOD OF COMMUNISTS, AND ONE DAY HE WILL FINALLY RID THE WOLD OF THE DEEP STATE AND THE CABAL OF SATANIC PEDOPHILE CANNIBALS! - Republicans, most likely.

[postman1782]

Man, that "Trump is still in charge just you wait" deadlines keep getting pushed back.

Of course, these people will claim they were vindicated should Cyber Ninjas "find fraud". No, they won't wait for those reports to be confirmed or for them to stand up in court.

*ahem*

And as I recently posted in another thread, I can't wait to reply "well Ukraine intentionally used Team Trump to spread lies, which is illegal, and there's actually proof" when that investigation concludes. They can accept both, or neither. Either way, Biden is still President.

Yep, I have even seen a lot of hashtags in Tiktok saying Trump2021, something that is not even possible. But yes, I have seen a lot of stuff. Including what you said, saying that Biden isn't in control, or that he can't go to the Pentagon, that Biden is dead and someone else is Weekend at Bernieing him somehow, even some claiming that he and Harris are already in Gitmo, somehow.

Yeah, sometimes when I am scrolling through these videos, I somehow get caught on the weird side of Tiktok making fun of these "creators" for being so fucking stupid.

[Edge-]

Harris are already in Gitmo, somehow.

I thought it was Chief Justice Roberts that was spirited away to Gitmo, because apparently this crowd has problems with object-permanence and the fact that Roberts hadn't done anything publicly for a few weeks was enough for them to think he'd been imprisoned or killed.

Seriously, the object permanence issue they have is a big one. That's usually something people master by the time they're toddlers, but apparently they've learning to regress to our pre-verbal mental state while still maintaining their ability to form words. It's why we hear things like, "BAMBOO BALLOTS!" being shouted.

[postman1782]

I thought it was Chief Justice Roberts that was spirited away to Gitmo, because apparently this crowd has problems with object-permanence and the fact that Roberts hadn't done anything publicly for a few weeks was enough for them to think he'd been imprisoned or killed.

Seriously, the object permanence issue they have is a big one. That's usually something people master by the time they're toddlers, but apparently they've learning to regress to our pre-verbal mental state while still maintaining their ability to form words. It's why we hear things like, "BAMBOO BALLOTS!" being shouted.

Don't forget the fucking chickens, after they shredded the ballots and gave them to the chickens, and then they cooked the chickens to hide the evidence.

[Edge-]

Don't forget the fucking chickens, after they shredded the ballots and gave them to the chickens, and then they cooked the chickens to hide the evidence.

Chickens are to shredded ballots what pigs are to human corpses, apparently.

It would be funnier if this wasn't an actual serious thing that could have consequences, or wasn't something that was seriously believed by millions of Americans. It sure as shit is making me revisit some of my views on how effective a Democracy can be.