Recounted Out

 Posted by at 12:09 pm  Politics
Dec 042016
 

I’m afraid there’s some terrible news.  Many of us were clinging to the all too slim hope that the recount effort, undertaken by Jill Stein might flip all three states and spare America the horrors of a Republican Reich, under Resident (NOT President) Drumpfenfarten and Vice-Puke Pence.  Kiss that hope goodbye.

1204recountGreen Party candidate Jill Stein is withdrawing her request for a recount in Pennsylvania.

The Green Party is dropping its court case seeking a statewide recount of Pennsylvania’s Nov. 8 presidential election. It had wanted to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.

The decision came Saturday, two days before a court hearing in the case. Lawyers for the Green Party-backed voters who filed the case say they can’t afford the $1 million bond ordered by the court by Monday at 5 p.m. However, Green Party-backed efforts to analyze election software in scattered precincts are continuing.

The idea that the Green Party can’t put up the bond seems astounding, considering that Stein’s recount fundraising brought in far more than initially requested. However, what the Green Party claimed was needed went steadily up as money came in… [emphasis added]

From <Daily Kos>

Since the Green Party has cancelled the recount, I hope that they reimburse funds that so many donated for that specific purpose.  If Stein just puts the money in her war chest, her motives will surely be questioned, and rightly so.  I think she did this to be remembered as the person who tried to save America from Trump, because she now knows that if the people, who wasted their votes on giving her < 1%,  had voted to protect America from Trump, Clinton would have won.

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  30 Responses to “Recounted Out”

  1. Boy…I was wishing. Hoping. Praying.
    I'm bummed out about the news, your last sentence says it all.

  2. Now, just a gosh darn minute here.  Your news is accurate as far as it goes, but there is more, which I'm sure was not available when you did your research and posted:

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/3/1607039/-Jill-Stein-Changes-Strategy-In-PA-Recount-It-s-NOT-Over

  3. From what I've read, Stein has said from the get-go that any monies leftover would be used by the Green Party:

    If there is extra money in the donation fund — or if Stein’s petition fails to pass muster with the election commissions in any of the states — Martin promised that the money will be used to fund the Green party’s local “campaign schools,” meant to groom local candidates for public service. 

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-will-the-green-party-jill-stein-use-election-recount-donations/

     

    • I hope this isn't just a fund raising stunt.  I'm sorry, but since she partneres with Russia's propaganda network, RT, I haved just lost all respect for her.

  4. THANKS, TOM AND JOANNE!!!  

    I was thinking of wrting something about "Fake News, "and was surprised that it might involve the Philly Inquirer.  At the supermarket, earlier today, I saw the headline on the rag known as th "National Enquirer," that claimed that "Trump was right!" and went on to claim that the CIA had been infiltrated by 45 of "Obama's Muslim spies."  Okay, this is, after all, the "Enquirer," known to most, I sincerely hope, as less than garbage.  But, it is still in print, after decades of publishing excuses for reality!  There are people who spend their MONEY on this crap!  A while later I noticed that the nurse at the assisted living facility that houses my mother-in-law, had a copy of the New York Post, on the dining table, within her office.  Rupert Murdoch, he of FAUX News owns, and publishes this particular rag.  Sorry, alexander Hamilton, I did not make your paper this way, am just "reporting" ownership.  Rupert, the owner of FAUX News, allowed Roger Ailles to turn IT into garbage.  

    The upshot, to my mind, is that with Faux News, and its not quite hominid staff, O'Rielly, and his ilk, people(?) like Hannity, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, their associated Evangelical compatriots, the people of this country, have been fed a steady diet of Fake News, for decades!  Those that have been caught in its thrall, long ago gave up any interest in parsing truth from fiction, may, indeed, have lost said capacity by now. At best they have become innured to the blurring of truth and fiction. So, though Gorge Orwell never claimed to see the future, he did a danmed good job of approximating it!  

    • Mitch, it amazes me how many people that I know well listen the the garbage on faux news and believe it.  Recently, I was at my doctor's office and the tv in the waiting room was on that channel.  I requested the receptionist to change to something I could watch without wanting to stick screw drivers in my eyes and ears.  She could not believe I didn't want to hear their drivel. She did switch, though.

      • When I was in practice, we only ran taped medical education programs on all the TVs in the waiting rooms (there was a sick and a well waiting room).  It avoided conflicts like yours – and didn't put the staff in the compromising position of being asked to change channels.

    • The Enquirer is just pure garbage, only slightly better than Faux Noise.

  5. The last I saw online was a post from Dr. Jill, herself. She said that they were going to try to get precincts counted enough to trigger a statewide recount. I don't know if that is right. I may have misunderstood. Wouldn't be the first time. 

    Hope you got to see the Broncos. We didn't get that game here. ;-(! I don't even know who won my game! I am having a little trouble keeping up with scores today! Maybe after Monday's game, I'll get it figured out, lol!

    • That sounds about right, Vivian.  You say "precincts," and my source said "counties," but, at least in my state, it is counties which determine precincts and which would therefore have records by precinct.  So that is not necessarily inconsistent.  Everything is happening so fast that, while the general thrust of any story may be correct or close, details are likely to get mixed, so you're right to question.

      • In PA, some counties have more than one precinct.

        • Don't they all?  In Colorado we have 64 counties and well over 400 precincts, but after reapportionments, it's the counties who draw the precinct lines, it's the counties who who print the ballots and make sure each precinct's ballots agree with what the residents are actually eligible to vote on, and it's the counties who tabulate the results on a precinct-by-precinct basis.

          • I thought it was the state legislature that draws presinct lines.  Isn't that how they Gerrymander?

            I was thinking there may may be some county where the entire county is a precinct

            • There may well be some county where the entire county is one precinct.  But gerrymandering is done by Congressional District at the state level, and by state legislative district at the state level.  Once those are decided, all the votes for all the precincts in the Congressional District just go into the same pot.  Counties can draw lines for County Commissioner Districts, and municipalities can draw lines for City Council districts, and those are susceptible to gerrymander, but in no state I have lived in are precinct lines anything other than admistrative.  In fact, in Colorado, not all the voters in a particular precinct even need to be in the same Congressional District (or any other level of district).  If they aren't, the election workers have to be vewy, vewy careful to give people the right ballots.  Mail balloting really helps with this.  Before we had mail balloting, my county had precincts where there were as many as four different ballots in one general election, and it could be a nightmare to work.

  6. I really hope her recount is successful!

  7. According to this report, there is also an effort (not connected with the Greens) to force a recount in Florida.  That could be all the more significant since Florida has so many electoral votes — 29 of the 38 needed to change the outcome.

    http://www.palmerreport.com/news/lawsuit-officially-filed-to-force-florida-recount/339/

  8. Jill Stein's hand may have been forced by Republican and Drumpf's favorite mode of attack: lawyer -up to the hilt and drag them in to court, preferably one with a Republican presiding. This would have made the normal procedures far costlier than originally estimated, indeed too costly. If her revised tactics bring in the same result, so be it. Her motives are another question entirely, I think your analysis is quite correct, TomCat, Stein's motives are probably more selfish than she'd like them to appear. In addition, she may also see the writing on the wall for the chances of survival for her own party under Drumpf's dictatorship, so the fight for the Democrats becomes the fight for the Greens as well.

  9. Well that was a rollercoaster of emotions as I read down the article and all the comments – I am very glad that the count goes on and that Jill Stein is prevailing – for whatever reason.  

    It is so worrying that so many people buy into the Enquirer and similar rubbish… I had a conversation lately with a delivery driver all about politics, and he was saying that 'Yes, Trump and Farage are liars – but they ALL are liars, so what does it matter?!' I replied 'Trump and Farage are by far the worst liars – you can offer them recordings of them saying stuff and they still deny it – and a lot of the others may be bad, but no-one is as bad as them, and there are actually politicians who go into politics to help people….  I mean – would you allow a woman that you cared about to be in a closed room with Trump and no-one else?'  He looked furtive… and I said 'If the answer is yes then you should hold your head down in shame for all eternity!'  He looked apologetic and then said  ' No I wouldn't'.

    How DO we get people to actually think when they are so happy to get pre-digested opinions screamed at them from a vile tabloid and never bother to actually think about anything?  It is like that Republican student from the Daily Kos article the other day who was proud to proclaim that she was a 'die-hard Republican' and then worried that the Republican she had voted for would restrict any access she had to healthcare and cut other benefits – as he had said he would before she voted for him!!!  WTF?!

    Please God the recount is successful!

  10. Thanks and hugs for all.

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