TRUMP TODAY JULY 1, 2017
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER


VOTING RIGHTS UNDER TRUMP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trumps-voting-commission-asked-states-to-hand-over-election-data-theyre-pushing-back/2017/06/30/cd8f812a-5dce-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html?utm_term=.f8a810493fa0
National
Trump’s voting commission asked states to hand over election data. Some are pushing back.
By Mark Berman and David Weigel July 1 at 9:21 AM

Photograph -- Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, shown in 2016. (Dave Kaup/Reuters)

President Trump’s voting commission stumbled into public view this week, issuing a sweeping request for nationwide voter data that drew sharp condemnation from election experts and resistance from more than two dozen states that said they cannot or will not hand over all of the data.

The immediate backlash marked the first significant attention to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity since Trump started it last month and followed through on a vow to pursue his own unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud is rampant and cost him the popular vote in the presidential election. The White House has said the commission will embark upon a “thorough review of registration and voting issues in federal elections,” but experts and voting rights advocates have pilloried Trump for his claims of widespread fraud, which studies and state officials alike have not found. They say that they fear the commission will be used to restrict voting.

Those worries intensified this week after the commission sent letters to 50 states and the District on Wednesday asking for a trove of information, including names, dates of birth, voting histories and, if possible, party identifications. The letters also asked for evidence of voter fraud, convictions for election-related crimes and recommendations for preventing voter intimidation — all within 16 days.

[Trump’s voter-fraud commission wants to know voting history, party ID and address of every voter in the U.S.]

While the Trump administration has said it is just requesting public information, the letters met with swift — and sometimes defiant — rejection. By Friday, 25 states were partially or entirely refusing to provide the requested information; some said state laws prohibit releasing certain details about voters, while others refused to provide any information because of the commission’s makeup and backstory.

Play Video 1:42
What we know about Trump’s voter fraud commission
President Trump signed an executive order on May 11, initiating an investigation into voter suppression and election fraud. Here’s what we know so far. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
“This entire commission is based on the specious and false notion that there was widespread voter fraud last November,” Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said in a statement. “At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression.”

California, a state Trump singled out for “serious voter fraud,” also refused to participate. Alex Padilla, the California secretary of state, said providing data “would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud.”

[White House launches a commission to study voter fraud and suppression]

Vice President Pence, who is chairman of the commission, hosted a conference call with the group’s members Wednesday morning, three weeks before they are scheduled to have their first meeting in Washington. During the call, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the vice chairman, told the other members about the letters.

A spokesman for Pence defended the letters, noting they seek information that is available publicly under state laws.

“The commission very clearly is requesting publicly available data in accordance with each state’s laws in an effort to increase the integrity of our election system,” Jarrod Agen, the spokesman, said in a statement. “The commission’s goal is to protect and preserve the principle of one person, one vote because the integrity of the vote is the foundation of our democracy.”

On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted: “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”

The request for records drew a new round of scrutiny to Kobach, a candidate for governor of Kansas in 2018 and an intellectual and political leader among conservatives who want to crack down on illegal immigration and the perceived threat of voter fraud.

In 2009, announcing his first bid for secretary of state, Kobach said that registration fraud by the defunct community organizing group ACORN made Americans wonder whether “the next election’s going to be stolen.” In office, Kobach aggressively pursued cases of potential fraud and promoted the “Crosscheck” system to see whether voters had registered in multiple states. But he frequently lost in court, as judges warned that measures meant to keep noncitizens off the rolls were ensnaring too many legitimate voters.

“It looks like they’re putting together a database of who people voted for,” said Jason Kander, a former Missouri secretary of state who runs the nonprofit group Let America Vote. “Democrat, Republican, independent, everybody should be outraged by that. This is from the same people, from Kris Kobach to Donald Trump, who’ve tried to make it harder for people to vote, and this seems like a step in the process. If the Obama administration had asked for this, Kris Kobach would be holding a press conference outside the Capitol to denounce it.”

[Analysis | Kris Kobach says he can’t comply with Kris Kobach’s voter data request]

The idea of collecting all national voter data for an audit has traveled through conservative circles for years. True the Vote, a group that promoted the fear that bogus voter registrations led to stolen votes in the 2008 election, also advanced the theory that millions of illegal votes denied Trump a popular mandate.

True the Vote itself has struggled to keep up momentum from the Obama era. Catherine Engelbrecht, the group’s president, told supporters in a video message last week that True the Vote was not getting the donations necessary to meet its ambitions. The dream of a grass-roots national voter audit was simply not going to happen.

“We have gathered 2016 voter rolls; we’ve gathered information from thousands of resources,” Engelbrecht said. “For us, it’s never been about the headlines, or the promised presidential commissions, or the make-believe Russian hackers.”

Two Democratic members of the commission said in interviews Friday that they were surprised by the backlash to the requests this week.

“We didn’t think there’d be this heartburn over it,” said Arkansas lobbyist David Dunn. “We were asking for information that, in most states, is considered public.”

In West Virginia, Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes said that he is confused by the angry reaction from some states.

“The request that went out is asking for public information, not any confidential information,” he said. “If you want to make a match, you want to make sure you have enough data to avoid a false positive. In previous data matches, you might be Mark D. Rhodes on your driver’s license and Mark Douglas Rhodes on your voter registration, and you’ve got a problem.”

Experts described the request as unprecedented in scope, a recipe for potential voter suppression and troubling for the privacy issues it raises.

“This is an attempt on a grand scale to purport to match voter rolls with other information in an apparent effort to try and show that the voter rolls are inaccurate and use that as a pretext to pass legislation that will make it harder for people to register to vote,” said Rick Hasen, an election-law expert at the University of California at Irvine.

Hasen said he has “no confidence” in whatever results the committee produces. He said the commission and its request create a number of concerns, including that it is an election group created by one candidate for office — Trump, who already is campaigning for reelection — and headed by Pence, another political candidate.

“It’s just a recipe for a biased and unfair report,” Hasen said. “And it’s completely different from the way that every other post-election commission has been done.”

Justin Levitt, an elections expert at Loyola Law School, pointed to the request about voters’ party affiliations, which he said violates the federal Privacy Act of 1974. Critics also said that because of varying state laws, the commission won’t be able to make an apples-to-apples comparison with the data it collects, which could undermine its eventual conclusions.

The most acute worry Friday was about what the group’s expected report in 2018 will recommend.

“It could end up leading to trying to create a justification for more state laws that restrict voting in very serious and what are proven to be unlawful ways,” said Vanita Gupta, who headed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration. “And that’s through all kinds of cuts, through restrictive voter ID laws, through cuts in early voting [and] same day registration.”

Experts also expressed concerns about Trump’s appointment of Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official and a longtime voter integrity advocate, to the commission. Gupta said that he, like Kobach, has “had a single-minded agenda to diminish voter participation and to fight voting rights, and to make voting harder.”

Kobach’s office did not respond to requests for comment; other members defended the letters.

“You meet people who say: I don’t want to vote, because my vote doesn’t count,” said Dunn, the Arkansas lobbyist. “This commission has been broad-brush painted — and maybe rightly so — as some kind of voter suppression. But I don’t feel like that’s what I’m part of.”

[Trump’s pick to investigate voter fraud is freaking out voting rights activists]

On Friday, as states said they would not participate, White House deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called that pushback a “political stunt.”

The White House bristled Friday at states refusing to cooperate with the commission.

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“I think that that is mostly political stunt,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said when asked about the pushback. “This is a commission that’s asking for publicly available data and the fact that these governors wouldn’t be willing to turn that over — this is something that has been part of the commission’s discussion, which has bipartisan support and none of the members raised any concern whatsoever.”

Other states have said that they do plan to hand over information, albeit less than the broad sweep outlined in the letters. Wisconsin’s elections commission administrator said that the state would give the public information for the standard $12,500 fee, but was not allowed to release other details such as dates of birth. Ohio Secretary of State Jon A. Husted, a Republican, said his state would be handing over most of the requested information — noting that it is publicly available — though he said they would not provide portions of Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers because those are not.

Husted said in an interview Friday that his office had conducted reviews after previous elections, saying that these investigations have determined that “voter fraud exists, it’s rare and we hold people accountable when we catch them.”

Earlier this year, Husted announced that his office found 82 noncitizens of the United States who illegally voted in a recent Ohio election. According to his office, more than 5.6 million people cast ballots in last November’s general election.

Jenna Johnson and Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.



TRUMP’S REACH INTO OUR VOTING DATA

STATES’ RIGHTS AT WORK. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, REPUBLICANS? IN HIS TWEET BELOW, TRUMP STATES THAT MAYBE THESE STATES “HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE.” BY THE WAY, ANOTHER REPORT SAID THAT IT IS 29 STATES REBELLING ON THIS. IN ADDITION, THE ILLUSTRIOUS COMMISSION DEMANDED THE RESULTS IN TWO WEEKS. RIDICULOUS. LET’S SEND THIS ONE TO THE SUPREME COURT, TOO. THIS ARTICLE DOESN’T MENTION THE WORST POSSIBLE USE OF THIS KIND OF INFORMATION – A “BIG BROTHER FILE” THAT IS USABLE TO PROVIDE AN “ENEMIES LIST.” I UNDERSTAND RICHARD NIXON HAD AN “ENEMIES LIST.” THE ENEMY IS CLEARLY THE FAR RIGHT IN MY VIEW OF THE WORLD.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-20-states-reject-voter-fraud-commissions-request-for-data/
CBS/AP July 1, 2017, 10:26 AM
More than 20 states reject “voter fraud” commission's request for data

More than 20 states on Friday refused to fully cooperate with the request for data on voters by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Some of the nation's most populous states, including California and New York, are refusing to comply. But even some conservative states that voted for President Trump, such as Texas, say they can provide only partial responses based on what is legally allowed under state law.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told CBS News his state will not hand over sensitive voter files to the White House.

"This is an outrageous violation of citizens privacy rights," McAuliffe said.

Given the mishmash of information Mr. Trump's commission will receive, it's unclear how useful it will be or what the commission will do with it. Mr. Trump established the commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 elections, but Democrats have blasted it as a biased panel that is merely looking for ways to suppress the vote.

In a tweet Saturday morning, Mr. Trump questioned why states were not complying with what he called "the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL."

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
9:07 AM - 1 Jul 2017
14,743 14,743 Retweets 46,981 46,981 likes

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White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders blasted the decision by some governors and secretaries of state not to comply.

"I think that that's mostly about a political stunt," she told reporters at a White House briefing.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said in a statement Friday that he had not received the request for information from the Trump commission, but another secretary of state had forwarded the correspondence to him. In a federal court case after a contentious U.S. Senate primary in Mississippi in 2014, a group called True the Vote sued Mississippi seeking similar information about voters, and Hosemann fought that request and won.

States refuse to comply with voter fraud investigation
Play VIDEO
States refuse to comply with voter fraud investigation

Hosemann said if he receives a request from the Trump commission, "My reply would be: They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from." Hosemann also said: "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, tweeted Friday that his state would not comply with the commission's request for a list of the names, party affiliations, addresses and voting histories of all voters, if state laws allow it to be public.

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Andrew Cuomo ✔ @NYGovCuomo
NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/29/534901343/white-house-panel-asks-states-for-their-voter-rolls …
12:12 PM - 30 Jun 2017

Photo published for White House Panel Asks States For Their Voter Rolls
White House Panel Asks States For Their Voter Rolls

The panel looking into voter fraud allegations wants names, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded) and elections voted in since 2006 for every registered voter in the country.
npr.org
5,795 5,795 Retweets 14,258 14,258 likes

McAuliffe said there is no evidence of voter fraud in the state.

"We will not let Donald Trump and right wing extremists use this as some covert plan to get data to make it harder for people to vote," McAuliffe said. "We won't stand for it."

On Wednesday the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter giving secretaries of state about two weeks to provide about a dozen points of voter data. That also would include dates of birth, the last four digits of voters' Social Security numbers and any information about felony convictions and military status.

Other Democratic officials are also refusing to comply, saying the request invades privacy and is based on false claims of fraud. The secretaries of state in California and Kentucky, all Democrats, said they will not share the requested information.

Mr. Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton but has alleged, without evidence, that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally.

Trump "voter fraud" commission seeking voter data from all states
Play VIDEO
Trump "voter fraud" commission seeking voter data from all states

In addition to the voter information, the letter asks state officials for suggestions on improving election integrity and to share any evidence of fraud and election-related crimes in their states. The data will help the commission "fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting," vice chairman and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach wrote.

The California and Virginia officials said attention would be better spent upgrading aging voting systems or focusing on Russia's alleged election meddling. Mr. Trump has alleged "serious voter fraud" in both states.

"California's participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud," Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement. Clinton won California by about 3 million votes.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes expressed similar sentiments, reports CBS Lexington affiliate WKYT-TV. A statement released by her office said, "The president created his election commission based on the false notion that 'voter fraud' is a widespread issue – it is not. Indeed, despite bipartisan objections and a lack of authority, the President has repeatedly spread the lie that three to five million illegal votes were cast in the last election. Kentucky will not aid a commission that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country."

Wisconsin's elections administrator, Michael Haas, said in a statement Friday that a voters' "name, address and voting history are public," but the state does not collect information about political preference or gender, and Wisconsin law does not permit the state to release a voter's date of birth, driver's license number or Social Security number. Should the commission want the public information, Haas said it'll have to pay the $12,500 fee for the statewide voter file.

Oklahoma, too, said that its voter roll is public, and an Oklahoma State Election Board spokesman said that the commission could have "a copy of the same database that anyone could get from us," according to NewsOK. Oklahoma will not release even partial Social Security numbers, however.

Georgia will also provide only publicly available voter information, not private information.

The panel is seeking "public information and publicly available data" from every state and the District of Columbia, said Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Vice President Mike Pence, who is chairing the commission. Lotter described the intent of the request as "fact-finding" and said there were no objections to it by anyone on the 10-member commission, which includes four Democrats.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said he's not sure whether he will share the data because of privacy concerns. Vermont's top election official, Democrat Jim Condos, said it goes beyond what the state can publicly disclose.

In Missouri, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said he is happy to "offer our support in the collective effort to enhance the American people's confidence in the integrity of the system." Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, said he'll provide what state law allows.

Other states have not yet decided whether to comply with the commission's request. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who is running for governor, is still considering the request, Cincinnati.com reported.



THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES CONCERN HANS VON SPAKOVSKY: WHO HE IS AND WHY HE IS SO WIDELY DISTRUSTED, LEADING ONE TO SPECULATE, “WHY, THEN, DID TRUMP PICK HIM, AND WHAT POWERS WILL HE HAVE?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/06/30/trumps-pick-to-investigate-voter-fraud-is-freaking-out-voting-rights-activists/?utm_term=.53bd7a0bbfda
Trump’s pick to investigate voter fraud is freaking out voting rights activists
By Alex Horton and Gregory S. Schneider June 30 at 5:46 PM

Photograph -- Full committee hearing on the nomination Hans von Spakovsky to be a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission. (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

President Trump on Thursday appointed a divisive conservative voting rights expert to spearhead the White House’s search into allegations of widespread fraud in the 2016 presidential election.

The appointment of Hans von Spakovsky has reignited debate over the legitimacy of claims that include unsubstantiated accusations from Trump that “millions of people” voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. Von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official, sparked legal battles over voting laws during the George W. Bush administration.

Von Spakovsky, 58, will join the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, though it remains unclear what role he will take. The White House’s Thursday night announcement, which included several other administration posts, did not provide further details. The announcement did not include any biographical information about von Spakovsky, either.

He said in an interview Friday that he does not enter this role with the assumption that voter fraud is a nationwide epidemic.


“I think the answer to that is what we hope to find out,” he told The Washington Post. “What I would say is that I think it’s a danger to the way our democratic system works anytime people are either kept out of the polls or their vote is stolen through fraud.”

[Trump’s voting commission asked states to hand over election data. Some are pushing back.]

For more than a decade, von Spakovsky has been a polarizing figure in voting rights circles, with conservatives championing his efforts to tighten regulations and shore up voter roll inconsistencies. His critics point to a career in which decisions have led to disenfranchisement among poor and minority groups.

“I think there are number of people who have been active in promoting false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud and using that as a pretext to argue for stricter voting and registration rules,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine. “And von Spakovsky’s at the top of the list.”

After von Spakovsky’s appointment was announced, Hasen wrote on his blog that it was “a big middle finger” from Trump to people “serious about fixing problems with our elections.”

Brian Schoeneman, who replaced von Spakovsky on the Fairfax Electoral Board in Virginia after he was not reappointed in 2012, defended von Spakovsky as committed to voter integrity and said he is not pursuing an extremist agenda.

“We do nobody any good when we ignore the fact that voter fraud does exist, and Hans has been trying to make the point that it does exist,” Schoeneman said.

In May, Trump’s executive order created the commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the presidential election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud that would substantiate Trump’s claim that as many as 3 to 5 million votes were cast illegally.

The appointment is the second opportunity for von Spakovsky to take part in shaping election and voting policy from the executive branch. Congressional Democrats blocked his nomination to the Federal Election Commission in 2008 following accusations of partisanship and voter rights suppression in his role at the Justice Department from 2002 to 2005, where he was counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Von Spakovsky’s nomination at the FEC stretched for two years as Democrats painted a picture of an official who steamrolled the recommendations of career Justice lawyers. He overruled colleagues to approve a Georgia law in 2005 requiring that people present photo identification to vote, which some of his colleagues said would disproportionately impact African American voters. He also led unsuccessful suits to purge voter rolls in Missouri.

He currently heads the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, where he is also a senior legal fellow.

Conservative voting experts have championed von Spakovsky’s appointment and view him as a central figure in rebuilding voting process integrity.

“He knows more about this than just about anyone in the country,” said J. Christian Adams, a longtime friend and colleague of von Spakovsky’s at the Justice Department, and now president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

“It’s going to be fun watching all the liars smear him” and “reacting like Pavlov’s dog” at his appointment, added Adams. “Who would be for bad voting rolls? Why are they afraid of improving the system?”

Voting rights activists are concerned von Spakovsky’s appointment is a sign that the commission will stoke fears of systemic voter fraud to strip poor and minority voters of dwindling abilities to cast their votes.

“I can’t recall in recent time an effort to comb and pull together individualized voter data in the way this commission seeks,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonprofit civil rights group, said Friday.

“The only purpose behind the commission’s efforts is to encourage state officials to take action and purge voter rolls,” she said.

Voting rights advocates have also expressed concern that von Spakovsky is teaming up with another controversial figure, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was appointed as the vice chairman of the commission.

“Kris Kobach and Hans von Spakovsky have had a single-minded agenda to diminish voter participation and to fight voting rights, and to make voting harder,” said Vanita Gupta, who headed the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration. “I think you just cannot ignore the composition of the folks on this commission.”

Gupta, who is now president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the commission’s makeup is “deeply alarming.” Her tweet Thursday was the latest salvo in her criticism of Trump’s commission — and in her acrimonious relationship with von Spakovsky.

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Vanita Gupta @vanitaguptaCR
I rest my case.

Hans A. Von Spakovsky of Virginia to be a Member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
11:57 PM - 29 Jun 2017
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Von Spakovsky wrote in the Daily Signal in November that she exceeded limits of appointees acting in a formal capacity without Senate confirmation.

The son of an immigrant family, von Spakovsky’s account of their journey to the United States is a dramatic story of post-war Europe. His father fled the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war in 1919 and entered Finland.

His father met his future wife, a German who escaped the Soviet siege of Breslau, in a refugee camp in the U.S.-occupied zone following World War II. His family later settled in Alabama.

“I grew up in a household where I was told just how precious our democracy was here and just how fortunate we are to have it,” von Spakovsky said.

When he was a boy, he said, his parents always took him along with them to vote.

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“It imbued in me the belief that I had a duty to vote and that if I didn’t vote, I was betraying all the people in countries around the world who can’t do that. It just gave me a real interest in working to make sure we have a fair process,” he said.

Von Spakovsky is a longtime commentator. In a Fox News column published Wednesday, von Spakovsky championed the Supreme Court’s partial upholding of Trump’s travel ban, calling it a big victory for the administration.

It appeared to be a departure from von Spakovsky’s earlier beliefs that America has a role in the world to accept refugees, like his parents.

“America is a nation where we believe in liberty and freedom, and for more than 200 years it has generously welcomed those who were fleeing tyranny, oppression, and darkness,” he wrote for the National Review in 2013.

Mark Berman contributed to this report.

53 Comments

Alex Horton is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post and a former Army infantryman. Follow @AlexHortonTX

Greg covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was the Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also been a reporter for the Post covering aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry. Follow @SchneiderG



SLATE ON TRUMP’S ASPIRATIONAL LIES. IT MAY BE A TOUCH PARANOID, BUT IT DOES MAKE SENSE TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THOUGHTS PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO VOICE WHEN THEY CLAIM TO BE “JOKING,” OR “PLAYING THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE.” WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF THEIR MIND? ON A DARK NIGHT THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. THIS IS THE SORT OF THING THAT IS INVOLVED IN THE “FREUDIAN SLIP.”

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, LOOK AT PEOPLE’S FACE AND BODY LANGUAGE WHEN THEY TALK. THIS IS JUST A GOOD RULE OF LIFE. DID THEY LOOK AWAY AS THEY SAID IT? DID THEY HAVE A LITTLE SMIRK ON THEIR FACE?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/06/30/the_best_movies_coming_to_netflix_hbo_amazon_and_hulu_in_july.html
The Truth About Donald Trump’s Lies
Debunking them as lies misses the point. They’re aspirational. They signal what might become reality.
By Jamelle Bouie
NOV. 29 2016 4:41 PM

Photograph -- Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during the third U.S. presidential debate on Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.

“The essential characteristic of fascist propaganda was never its lies, for this is something more or less common to propaganda everywhere and of every time,” wrote the late political theorist Hannah Arendt in her 1945 essay “The Seeds of a Fascist International.” “The essential thing was that they exploited the age-old Occidental prejudice which confuses reality with truth, and made that ‘true’ which until then could only be stated as a lie.”

Jamelle Bouie
JAMELLE BOUIE
Jamelle Bouie is Slate’s chief political correspondent.

Put in plain language, fascists didn’t lie to obscure the truth; they lied to signal what would eventually become truth. Or to use Arendt’s analogy, “It is as though one were to debate with a potential murderer as to whether his future victim were dead or alive, completely forgetting that man can kill and that the murderer, by killing the person in question, could promptly provide proof of the correctness of this statement.”

Americans aren’t living under a fascist government, but they have elected a president with an unusual relationship to the truth. Even when they lie, most politicians care about the truth. It’s why they lie, why they try not to get caught. But Donald Trump doesn’t appear to see a difference between truth and lies. He lies as a matter of habit about matters large and small. His lies are often obvious: easily disproved by available information. For a strong example, look to Twitter. “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” tweeted the president-elect on Monday. This charge is groundless. False. Frankfurt-ian bullshit. There is no evidence of “illegal voting,” no evidence of the mass fraud necessary to give Hillary Clinton a significant lead in the national popular vote.

But, following Arendt, debunking Trump’s lie as a lie misses the point of his lying. Since 2013, when the Supreme Court struck key provisions from the Voting Rights Act, GOP lawmakers in states across the country have pushed and pursued strict laws for voter identification and voter suppression. Republicans in Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin (among others) have tried to burden voters with cumbersome requirements, convoluted procedures, closed precincts*, and reduced time for voting. In each case, Republicans began their push with broad accusations of voter fraud influenced by figures like conservative activist Hans von Spakovsky, a key architect of ID laws and other methods of voter suppression. “We call this restoring confidence in government,” said Thom Tillis, then-speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, in support of a strict voter ID law. “There is some evidence of voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason or doing this. There are a lot of people who are just concerned with the potential risk of fraud.”

As president, Trump will have the power to take harsh action on voting rights and access. His Department of Justice, for example, could decline enforcement of much of the Voting Rights Act, freeing Republican-led states to enact strict and restrictive voting laws. Under Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general and a longtime opponent of broad and inclusive voting rights, that outcome looks likely. Trump could follow inaction with efforts to combat alleged voter fraud through investigation into voting rights and voter registration groups, and coordination of voter purges (trimming the rolls of registered voters). Trump’s top candidate for the Department of Homeland Security, Kris Kobach, has proposed as much, adapting his draconian policies as Kansas secretary of state for the nation at large.

Other voting skeptics in the Trump administration include chief adviser Stephen Bannon, who according to the New York Times, once questioned the value of universal suffrage, suggesting that only “property owners should be allowed to vote.” When told that this would exclude many black Americans, Bannon allegedly said, “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

When Trump decries imaginary fraud in the presidential election, is he lying for its own sake? Is he lying to assuage his ego after losing the popular vote (in an election that he nonetheless won)? Or is he lying to clear the path for a federal assault on voting rights? Is he sowing the ground for a time when that lie—our elections are “rigged”—is the reality?

It is important to combat Trump’s lies with the truth: to dispute, debunk, and show the public the facts of the matter. At the same time, we should also stay attuned to the aims of Trump’s dishonesty, whether he’s obscuring a larger scandal—the president-elect’s “illegal voting” tweet came as the New York Times published a massive story on his influence-peddling and his disturbing quantity of conflicts of interest around the globe—or signaling priorities for his followers and surrogates. To that point, Trump’s tweet Tuesday morning isn’t a lie, but it fits the dynamic at hand. “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag—if they do, there must be consequences—perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” wrote the president-elect on Twitter.

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I still wake up each morning thinking it can't really be true that Donald Trump will be president of the United States in less than eight weeks. I mean, he's…he's—he's a willfully ignorant crackpot. He's a ridiculous game show host. More...

To revoke citizenship for burning the flag—that is, for dissent—is to violate the Constitution and stomp on the principles of this country. Pundits and observers will parse this message for meaning. Does it reflect Trump’s impulsive mind? Is it some tactical distraction? Does it reveal priorities?

Whatever the answer, whatever the fruits of this Trump-inflected Kremlinology, just remember Arendt’s warning: These lies and fantasies can become reality, if we are not vigilant.



ABOUT “CLOSED PRECINCTS”* -- this is given above as one of the dodgy practices done to discourage voting, and if people have no transportation or they have to get to work in an hour, they probably won’t call to find out what other places are available, or drive on to find them, so that’s probably pretty effective, and a fraud that is “deniable.” There was one case in Jacksonville in the news because road work was conveniently begun the day of the election. Darn those potholes!

http://wpde.com/news/local/closed-precincts-cause-problems-in-florence-county
Closed precincts cause problems in Florence County
by Tonya Brown|
Tuesday, June 12th 2012

“Officials closed the Olanta, High Hill, McAllister Mill and Leo precincts in lower Florence County because there were no contested races left after the South Carolina Supreme Court's decision to remove dozens of candidates from the ballots statewide who hadn't turned in proper paperwork.

That meant many races came down to just one candidate for the primary, so that candidate automatically moves on to the general election.”



DONALD TRUMP IS FIGHTING THE WORLD AGAIN. I’VE NEVER SEEN MIKA IN ACTION, AND HAD TO LOOK HER UP TO KNOW WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE, BUT I LIKE HER ALREADY! SEE HIS COMMENT ABOUT THE 20 SOME STATES REFUSING INFORMATION FROM THE “VERY DISTINGUISHED” VOTER FRAUD PANEL. LOOK AT THE LIST OF THINGS THAT TRUMP WANTS THEM TO GIVE EVERYTHING BUT MOTHER’S MAIDEN NAME ON EVERY VOTER IN THE NATION. SOUNDS LIKE A VERY FLIMSY LIE TO ME, AND THE MOST LIKELY NEED FOR THAT INFORMATION IS ACTUALLY TO IDENTIFY VOTERS TO INVESTIGATE FOR SOME NEFARIOUS REASON, AND/OR PERHAPS SIMPLY TO PITCH THEM A LITTLE WOO. BEING A CON ARTIST IS ONE OF TRUMP’S FAVORITE THINGS TO DO. DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS HERE? I DON’T THINK SO! THERE ARE TIMES WHEN SUSPICION ISN’T REALLY PARANOID. IT’S JUST INTELLIGENT.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-kicks-of-fourth-of-july-weekend-by-bashing-dumb-as-a-rock-mika-independent-states/
Trump kicks off Fourth of July weekend by bashing "dumb as a rock Mika" Brzezinski
By KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS July 1, 2017, 10:41 AM

Photograph -- President-elect Donald Trump arrives at the the main clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., November 19, 2016. REUTERS

President Trump -- amid a struggling health care debate on Capitol Hill and ongoing tensions with North Korea -- began Independence Day weekend with a series of tweets bashing "dumb as a rock" MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski and suggesting that states refusing to hand over voter information to his voter fraud commission might have something to "hide."

From his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, Mr. Trump began tweeting at 8:44 a.m., first wishing a "Happy Canada Day" to Canadian prime minister and "new found friend" Justin Trudeau.

But from there, the tweets took a harsher tone. Even as aides like White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complain the media isn't focusing on policy, the president continued his tirade against "crazy" Joe Scarborough and "dumb as a rock" Brzezinski. The president ignited a firestorm on Thursday when he insulted the host's intelligence and appearance.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!
9:20 AM - 1 Jul 2017
16,579 16,579 Retweets 62,649 62,649 likes

As more-than-20-states-reject-voter-fraud-commissions-request-for-data, president's voter fraud commission, Mr. Trump suggested those states might be trying to hide something. The commission is seeking the name, party affiliation, voting history, last four Social Security numbers and address of voters in all states.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?
9:07 AM - 1 Jul 2017
20,036 20,036 Retweets 64,375 64,375 likes

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The president also suggested MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren was fired because she "refused" to go along with "'Trump hate.'" Van Susteren had been with the cable channel for less than six months.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Word is that @Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'
8:59 AM - 1 Jul 2017
13,336 13,336 Retweets 48,230 48,230 likes

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Mr. Trump also lashed out at other media outlets, saying he was "extremely pleased" CNN was exposed as "garbage." Three CNN employees resigned this week after the network retracted a single-source story claiming a Russian bank with close ties to a Trump associate was under Senate investigation. Mr. Trump regularly calls CNN "fake news," along with other outlets.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It's about time!
9:12 AM - 1 Jul 2017
25,931 25,931 Retweets 88,416 88,416 likes

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The president will return from Bedminster briefly Saturday evening for a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., before returning to his private resort until Monday.

The tweets about Brezezinski distracted from conversations about health care and recent visits by foreign leaders. South Korean President Moon Jae-in spent two days in Washington to discuss trade and the North Korean nuclear missile threat with Mr. Trump. The president has avoided multiple questions from the press about his tweets lashing out against the "Morning Joe" co-hosts.



I’M SURE WE HAVEN’T HEARD THE LAST OF THE VOTER FRAUD COMMISSION. I’LL CLIP ALL THAT I SEE FOR THE DAILY BLOG.