Reader’s Links for Aug. 30, 2024

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression. The Substack is a different project in a sense. It is older videos that in the light of subsequent events, look different or of increased importance, Check it out now and again if you like.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

17 Replies to “Reader’s Links for Aug. 30, 2024”

  3. BREAKING: Newly released video shows armed gang of Venezuelan illegals take over apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/walkaway/comments/1f45zq4/breaking_newly_released_video_shows_armed_gang_of/

    Note: This has been simmering, with official news denying it as much as possible – and now people are taking to Reddit to share the info.

    It WILL boil over, if one were to stay withing the same metaphor.

    The sleepy bedroom community of Denver Colorado (a sanctuary city) called Aurora, Colorado (NOT a sanctuary city) is being taken over by TDA, the largest Venezuelan Prison gang, armed with machine guns and so on. TDA has decided to make Aurora its new headquarters and is taking over housing complexes, one by one, and terrorizing long-term residents as well as newly arrived ones.

    This is a true insurrection: or, perhaps, invasion of a foreign a military-like organization that does not obey military rules of engagement carving for itself a territory that is no longer in control of the greater society and openly flaunts its laws, victimizes its citizens and residents. It will lead to domestic war, the scale of which will be determined by how much denial and delay is in direct military action to restore law and order.

    If they can.

    Or even want to.

    • It will end up with the US taking over and kicking them out, it will probably be easier then you think.

  5. The Israeli military has concentrated its attention on terrorist cells in the West Bank in the last several days, taking on Hamas in the town of Jenin and in the Jordan Valley.

    There has long been a Hamas presence in the Palestinian towns of the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority, which is run by the rival Fatah movement, has at times acted against Hamas, but often turns a blind eye or lacks the capacity to take effective action against increasingly well-armed cells.

    https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/08/30/israel-takes-the-fight-to-terrorists-in-the-west-bank/

  6. Mamma Mia! ABBA Demands Trump Stop Playing Their Songs at Rallies

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/08/30/mamma-mia-abba-demands-trump-stop-playing-their-songs-at-rallies/

    Note: I agree. These people have come there because they like Trump: playing ABBA at them will only drive them to vote Dem as it decreases their IQ

    Did I mention the Commies behind the Iron Curtain LOVED ABBA and played it all the time. It is commie music and Trump should protect his fan base from it, not subject them to it.

    • Just a guess, but I suspect that Trump picks a venue and the people who run the event just play uplifting fun tunes everyone knows till Trump takes the stage,

      Having worked in that industry, that’s pretty much how it works. It is very unlikely they have a song list they give the venue.

  8. Rising Democrat Star Gov. Wes Moore Gets Exposed After Falsely Claiming to be Bronze Star Recipient
    thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/rising-democrat-star-gov-wes-moore-gets-exposed/
    Aug. 30, 2024 10:30 am

    Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore has apologized for falsely claiming to be a Bronze Star recipient on a White House fellowship application.

    In an exclusive report, The New York Times reported when Moore was 27 years old and applying for a position in the White House, he embellished his military service record by claiming he was a recipient of the prestigious Bronze Star.

    The New York Times obtained Moore’s application from the Freedom of Information Act.

    In response to the report, Moore claimed he made “an honest mistake” in failing to correct the inaccuracies in his application.

    Moore further stated, “While serving overseas with the Army, I was encouraged to fill out an application for the White House Fellowship by my deputy brigade commander. In fact, he helped me edit it before I sent it in.”

    “At the time, he had recommended me for the Bronze Star. He told me to include the Bronze Star award on my application after confirming with two other senior-level officers that they had also signed off on the commendation,” added Moore.

    Maryland Gov. Wes Moore falsely claimed to be a Bronze Star recipient on White House fellowship application – says it was ‘an honest mistake’ https://t.co/n8kXO63d8J pic.twitter.com/wOwn5ndOPV

    — New York Post (@nypost) August 30, 2024

    Per AP:

    Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday he made “an honest mistake” in failing to correct a White House fellowship application 18 years ago when he wrote he had received a Bronze Star for his military service in Afghanistan though he never ended up receiving it, after the New York Times obtained a copy of the application and reported on it.

    The newspaper, which obtained the document as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, reported that Moore made the claim on the application in 2006 when he was 27.

    In a statement, the governor wrote that he had been encouraged to fill out the application for the fellowship by his deputy brigade commander serving overseas in the Army. At the time, Moore said the deputy brigade commander had recommended him for the Bronze Star — and told him to include the award on his application “after confirming with two other senior-level officers that they had also signed off on the commendation.”

    Toward the end of his deployment, however, Moore said he was disappointed to learn he had not received the Bronze Star. When he returned home, Moore said he was “focused on helping my fellow veterans, a mission I continue to advance as governor.”

    My full statement on my military record: pic.twitter.com/4pfS3YkuJu

    — Governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) August 29, 2024

    The New York Times report comes weeks after Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz was outed after he falsely claimed he carried “weapons of war in war.”

    READ:

    VIDEO: The Debate Is Over — CNN Airs Investigation that Confirms Tim Walz Is Stolen Valor Fraud

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/video-debate-is-cnn-airs-investigation-that-confirms/

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/rising-democrat-star-gov-wes-moore-gets-exposed/

  9. Dramatic Footage: Spanish Police Block Illegal Immigrants by Severing Their Boat in Half
    thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/dramatic-footage-spanish-police-block-illegal-immigrants-severing/
    Aug. 29, 2024 10:20 pm
    Photo of author

    It’s a video making waves across social media.

    Spanish national police on Sunday intercepted a boat carrying migrants attempting to illegally reach Spanish territory in North Africa, actually severing the migrant vessel in a collision, the U.K. Telegraph reported Wednesday.

    And while there were, unbelievably, no serious injuries, the images have caused a storm in cyberspace.

    Watch: Migrant dinghy crushed by Spanish police boat

    The Guardia Civil can be seen chasing the speedboat and trying to block the path when it severs it in half

    Read more https://t.co/5Pi2OAXQEv pic.twitter.com/DbFgnp4Wp1

    — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 28, 2024

    According to The Telegraph, the Spanish boat was part of the country’s Guardia Civil, patrolling the coast off Melilla, a small Spanish enclave bordering Morocco in North Africa.

    It was chasing a boat carrying four passengers and attempting to stop it from reaching ground when the collision occurred.

    According to The Telegraph, those on board the migrant vessel were rescued immediately. Only one required brief hospitalization.

    A spokesman for a party in Spain’s left-wing coalition government called the incident an “intolerable human disaster.”

    Reactions to the video ranged from congratulating the authorities for the undeniably harsh measure to criticizing the extremity of the move.

    “That’s how you stop illegal immigrants from illegally crossing into your country,” declared a social media post published by Turning Point UK, a British offshoot of the conservative American group Turning Point USA.

    Spanish boat police take out a migrant dinghy.

    That’s how you stop illegal migrants from illegally crossing into your country. pic.twitter.com/cICaO6WWRf

    — Turning Point UK (@TPointUK) August 28, 2024

    “Everyone has had enough,” wrote Tommy Robinson, a British conservative political activist.

    Spanish police boat chases down and runs over migrant dinghy sending occupants flying.

    Everyone has had enough. pic.twitter.com/CSPsZbby7b

    — Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 29, 2024

    The migrants’ boat appeared to have originated in Morocco.

    According to the left-wing British publication The Guardian, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights “violent and dangerous.”

    And Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of the group Human Rights Watch, used a social media post to call the police action “dangerously aggressive.”

    A video “appeared to show a Spanish police boat briefly mounting a small dinghy carrying people towards the coast of Spain” — a dangerously aggressive move to stop migrants. https://t.co/UXGtxhlJN0

    — Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 27, 2024

    Moroccan authorities have said they are investigating the encounter, according to The Telegraph.

    Spain has apparently decided there is no need to, the publication reported.

    “Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the only land borders of the European Union with Africa,” The Telegraph noted. “The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/dramatic-footage-spanish-police-block-illegal-immigrants-severing/

  10. FBI Withholds Physical Evidence in Update on Trump Attempted Assassination Investigation
    thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/fbi-withholds-physical-evidence-update-trump-attempted-assassination-2/
    Aug. 30, 2024 8:15 am

    Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission

    FBI Withholds Physical Evidence in Update on Trump Attempted Assassination Investigation

    Republished with permission from AbleChild

    Forty-five days after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a litany of investigative information. While any nibble goes a long way, the information provided has shortcomings insomuch as the FBI still is not being specific about the all-important physical evidence.

    Special Agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, Kevin Rojek, provided remarks during a media call that simply raise more questions. For example, Rojek explains that the “FBI is now in possession of the subject’s autopsy and toxicology reports from the coroner’s office.” Great. When did the FBI obtain the autopsy and toxicology reports from the coroner? Is Rojek referring to the Butler County Coroner or the Allegheny County Medical Examiner? People often confuse these two entities. Specificity would be helpful. It matters.

    Rojek also says that the “autopsy report indicated the subject was pronounced deceased at 6:25p.m. on July 13, 2024, as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head.” This reads just like the Butler County Coroner’s death certificate, not the ME’s autopsy. If this is from the coroner and not the ME, then there are serious problems. The coroner’s report reads “an inquisition taken at 615 Whitestown Road on the 13th day of July…” Nope. The coroner went to the crime scene at midnight on the 13th and was rebuffed and told to return later. The coroner returned at 6 a.m. on the 14th to complete the death investigation. Assuming the FBI told the coroner to return later, then the death investigation report is inaccurate and should be corrected, and Agent Rojek should have explained why the coroner was sent away at midnight.

    Next. Agent Rojek explains that “all reviewable evidence collected from the AGR roof and from the Subject’s body are consistent with the round fired by the Secret Service Sniper.” It is interesting that the FBI would use the word “consistent.” What the public needs to know is whether a projectile was recovered from the subject’s body and was there a rifling match between the projectile and the barrel of a sniper’s weapon? Providing the ballistics report would be helpful. Further, having a look see at the autopsy would also provide important information about which direction the projectile removed from the subject traveled. Specificity.

    Rojek explained that the FBI rendered “the scene safe and following our established evidence gathering procedures, the FBI contacted the Butler County Coroner’s office.” “Evidence gathering?” What evidence was gathered prior to the coroner determining time and cause of death? What evidence was touched, moved or removed by the FBI prior to the coroner arriving at the scene twelve hours after the shooting? Again, knowing why the FBI turned away the coroner at midnight would be helpful. Agent Rojek further explains that “the coroner removed the body from the scene and conducted a death investigation.” The coroner removed the body prior to his investigation? That seems odd. Wouldn’t the body be important in writing crime scene notes? What about photographs of the deceased on the roof?

    Agent Rojek also reports that the “toxicology revealed negative results for alcohol and drugs of abuse.” Really? What about other drugs, like prescribed psychiatric drugs? Did the ME conduct toxicology tests to determine whether the subject had been on one or more prescribed drugs? Too often these tests are not conducted by ME’s. For example, recall that in the case of Nashville mass shooter, Audrey Hale, the ME reported that “Hale’s blood did not reveal any positive findings of toxicological significance.” Later it was reported that Hale had been taking multiple prescribed psychiatric drugs at the time of the shooting. A full toxicology report matters.

    Agent Rojek explains that the FBI “followed all appropriate evidence-gathering procedures and completed the final release of the scene seven days after the attack…which included cleaning the biological material from the AGR roof…” This is a point of contention among law enforcement experts that argue this is not standard procedure for the investigating body to clean a crime scene.

    Nevertheless, while it is helpful to have the FBI finally release some information about its investigation, much of the information released just adds to a list of questions. More than that, though, one must wonder why the complete autopsy has not been released for public review, why the ballistics report has not been released for public review and why there has been no mention of fingerprint and DNA tests completed by the FBI on the alleged shooter?

    It is of interest, too, that there is no mention of the “white van.” Yes, that white van that police found by use of the police K9 unit. According to The Daily Mail reports about the white van, “officers searched the battered white vehicle from which they removed explosives after they were led across fields to its location by their K9 unit.”

    Fox News reported that law enforcement combed through a white van believed to have been used by Thomas Matthew Crooks after he nearly assassinated former President Trump.” Fox further reported that “officers found explosives, including an improvised explosive device, inside the van… emphasized that more than one was found.” The tag on the white van was reportedly from Arizona.

    So. Why is there no mention of this white van by the FBI? More than one explosive device was found inside the van and there is a video of police combing through the van. Why is this van not mentioned by the FBI, even if it is just to say the van had nothing to do with Crooks. Of course, that would be a problem. Dogs sniffed out the van based on Crooks scent. Another automobile with explosives? It sure sounds like more than one subject or at least more than one automobile.

    So, no autopsy, no complete toxicology, no fingerprint or DNA data, and no ballistics report. Oh, and an extra automobile with explosives. Nobody wants to be Johnny Rain Cloud, but the FBI’s “updated” information only raises more questions that need to be addressed…questions that the FBI should have already answered. What’s the problem?

    Be the Voice for the Voiceless

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    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/fbi-withholds-physical-evidence-update-trump-attempted-assassination-2/

  12. How California Became a New Center of Political Corruption
    Ralph Vartabedian
    Updated Thu, 29 August 2024 at 7:21 am GMT-5·8-min read
    Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois. (Getty Images)

    LOS ANGELES — Jose Huizar’s downfall at Los Angeles City Hall was as stunning as his rise to success, a political tragedy that, like many in the land of dreams, has become a familiar one.

    Born to a large family in rural Mexico and raised in poverty near the towering high-rises of downtown Los Angeles, he overcame enormous odds to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University and UCLA law school.

    He returned to his old neighborhood in East Los Angeles to run for the school board and eventually the City Council, where he gained control of the influential committee that approves multimillion-dollar commercial development projects across the city.

    Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

    His spectacular fall — after FBI agents caught him accepting $1.8 million worth of casino chips, luxury hotel stays, a liquor box full of cash and prostitutes from Chinese developers — was cast by federal prosecutors as an epic Hollywood tale. They persuaded a judge in January to sentence him to 13 years in prison on charges of tax evasion and racketeering.

    “He was the King Kong of LA City Hall for many, many years,” Mack E. Jenkins, chief of the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, told the court. “And with his fall, a lot of devastation was left in his wake.”

    This week, when Huizar is scheduled to report to prison, he will become the third recent Los Angeles City Council member to go down on charges of corruption, part of a much larger circle of staff aides, fundraisers, political consultants and real estate developers who have been charged in what federal authorities called an “extraordinary” recent wave of bribery and influence-peddling across California.

    Two other members of the City Council, Mitchell Englander and Mark Ridley-Thomas, were convicted earlier on various corruption charges, as was the former head of the city’s Department of Water and Power. A fourth City Council member, Curren Price, is facing charges of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest.

    Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

    California has a larger population than those states, but the recent wave of cases is attributable to much more than that, federal prosecutors say.

    A heavy concentration of power at Los Angeles City Hall, the receding presence of local news media, a population that often tunes out local politics and a growing Democratic supermajority in state government have all helped insulate officeholders from damage, political analysts said.

    In Los Angeles, Huizar’s influence was even greater than that of most other council members: Not only did his district include downtown Los Angeles, where billions of dollars of foreign investment was transforming the skyline, but he also controlled the Planning and Land Use Management Committee that approves major developments all over the city.

    “When you have that kind of power, pay-to play schemes run amok,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, whose office has led many of the recent prosecutions in Los Angeles. “I wouldn’t call it ordinary what these folks did. It is extraordinary.”

    Huizar, 55, pleaded guilty to racketeering, a charge often used in prosecuting organized crime or street-gang cases. The $1.8 million in bribes he received was twice the amount that recently convicted Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey was charged with accepting.

    In March, a jury convicted Raymond Chan, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor whom prosecutors called the “architect” of the Huizar conspiracy, also on racketeering charges. In all, more than 50 key political figures and executives in Los Angeles and San Francisco have been convicted since 2019. Many more were investigated or resigned after allegations surfaced.

    California also had cases of corruption in the days, now in the distant past, when Republicans held statewide office.

    But political analysts say the Democrats’ present lock on political power leaves little opportunity for Republicans to effectively raise the issue of corruption as a campaign issue.

    “When a political party enjoys that much uncontested power, there’s no penalty for stepping over ethical or legal lines,” said Dan Schnur, a former head of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and a former Republican who is now an independent.

    A two-year-old reform effort to curb some of the extraordinary power conferred to individual council members in Los Angeles has foundered.

    “When you talk about reducing individual council member discretion over land use, there is real pushback,” said Nithya Raman, a council member who sits on the city’s charter reform committee.

    What happened in Los Angeles had been playing out on a smaller scale for years in the small industrial cities of Los Angeles County that have been described as a “corridor of corruption”: South Gate, Bell, Lynwood and Vernon, among others, where civic leaders were prosecuted for taking bribes or tapping into city funds.

    “You have large immigrant populations, largely marginalized communities that do not have the resources to watch their politicians closely,” said Estrada, whose parents emigrated from Guatemala. “I think you have a pretty unique cauldron of factors in Los Angeles and the greater Los Angeles area that allow for these things to happen.”

    The arrival of large-scale investments from China starting in 2011 heightened the risks.

    Over the next half-dozen years, about $26 billion of direct investment from Chinese firms and their billionaire owners arrived in the state.

    Downtown Los Angeles underwent a dramatic revival. New high-rise condos and hotels went up, abandoned warehouses were converted into loft apartments and galleries and expensive restaurants opened.

    The 40-year-old Grand Hotel, a rundown eyesore used until recently by the city as a homeless shelter, was at the center of one investor’s grandiose plan.

    The investor, Wei Huang, a billionaire owner of the development company Shen Zhen New World, bought the hotel in 2010 with plans to convert it into a 77-story tower, the highest in the western United States.

    What he needed was help managing the byzantine political approval process. He found it, federal prosecutors said, with Huizar, who had been elected to the council in 2005.

    Starting in 2013, federal prosecutors said, Huizar took the first of 20 all-expenses paid trips to Las Vegas with Huang, during which he was supplied with about $10,000 worth of casino chips each time.

    Their involvement deepened just before a 2015 election, when Huizar faced allegations from his deputy chief of staff that he had sexually harassed her. Huang, prosecutors said, provided him with $600,000 of collateral for a loan to settle out of court.

    But it was the free casino chips in Las Vegas that would ultimately unravel the arrangement. During one trip to the Cosmopolitan casino in 2016, its security chief, a former FBI agent, spotted Huizar playing a $16,000 pile of chips at a card table. When he asked his identity, he became flustered and walked away, leaving the chips.

    “Who walks away from $16,000 of casino chips?” said Carlos Narro, who was then the chief of the FBI’s public corruption section in Los Angeles, who got a call from the security chief.

    In short order, Narro had the casino’s video of the scene at the card table and flight records. With those, the FBI got court approval for wire taps and searches of Huizar’s text messages and emails.

    Ultimately, the investigation found that Huang had paid roughly $1.8 million to Huizar, but that was only part of a much wider network of corruption, investigators found. The wide-ranging racketeering indictment to which Huizar pleaded guilty also targeted a City Hall aide, a deputy mayor, a lobbyist and a political fundraiser, all of whom were also convicted.

    Huang was also indicted and is now a fugitive, believed to be in China. His company was fined $4 million.

    Also included in the indictment were three other large development projects whose backers, prosecutors said, obtained Huizar’s help in exchange for bribes.

    The scandal was almost inevitable, said Miguel Santana, the former top administrative officer of Los Angeles.

    “The depth of power that a council member has around development in their own districts almost facilitates the level of corruption that took place,” Santana, now president of the California Community Foundation. “That level of power still exists today.”

    San Francisco has had its own round of corruption cases, many of the recent ones surrounding the former Department of Public Works chief, Mohammed Nuru, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to accepting gifts, including a tractor for his ranch outside the city, a Rolex watch and millions of dollars, from various people with business before the city.

    Florence Kong, the owner of a recycling company, pleaded guilty to offering some of the bribes in exchange for city contracts. Zhang Li, a Chinese developer also accused of offering bribes, signed a deferred prosecution agreement.

    Now scheduled to surrender to prison by Saturday, Huizar made a public apology at his sentencing hearing, saying he had long been dedicated to his community. “Shiny things were dangled in front of me, and I could not resist the temptation,” he said in a letter to the judge asking for leniency. “The money, the fancy dinners, luxury flights. It was there for the taking, and I could not say no.”

    Estrada, the U.S. attorney, said that Huizar’s corruption offended him as a Latino.

    “It feels like a real betrayal,” Estrada said. “Because for those of us whose families came from Latin America, and know that system, there’s just rampant corruption there. You come to this country, you have more opportunities, you are offered to be part of a system that is theoretically supposed to operate cleanly.”

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/california-became-center-political-corruption-115654117.html

  13. Foot Locker Flees New York’s Crushing Taxes, Relocates Headquarters to Business-Friendly Florida
    by Jim H?ft Aug. 30, 2024 4:20 pm51 Comments

    Foot Locker announced on Wednesday its decision to relocate its corporate headquarters from New York City to St. Petersburg, Florida.

    The sneaker retail giant cited the Empire State’s exorbitant tax burden and operational costs as primary factors in this strategic shift, according to the New York Post.

    “To better support our strategic progress, increase team member collaboration, and maintain ongoing expense discipline, we made the decision to relocate our headquarters to St. Petersburg,” said CEO Mary Dillon in its second quarter financial results.

    This relocation is just the latest in a series of high-profile exits from New York, as companies flee the state’s oppressive tax regime and increasingly hostile business environment. Foot Locker’s move is not just a blow to New York but also a significant win for Florida.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/foot-locker-flees-new-yorks-crushing-taxes-relocates/

  14. RNC Scores Election Law Victories in These Swing States. Here’s What That Could Mean in November.
    Fred Lucas | August 30, 2024
    |

    (Photo illustration: Homiel/Getty Images)
    Portrait of Fred Lucas

    Fred Lucas
    @FredLucasWH

    Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.” Send an email to Fred.

    The Republican National Committee this week filed election-related lawsuits in Michigan and North Carolina, coming off a Supreme Court victory last week over election procedures in Arizona.

    An RNC initiative called Protect the Vote has filed more than 100 lawsuits across 25 states and recruited more than 150,000 lawyers and volunteer poll watchers across the country.

    “We are defending the law and fighting for commonsense security measures that benefit all Americans—like stopping illegal immigrants from voting, mail ballot safeguards, voter ID measures, stopping leftist dark money, and cleaning the voter rolls,” Gineen Bresso, director of election integrity for the Republican National Committee, told The Daily Signal in a written statement. “We are winning in court and have recruited over 150,000 volunteers for the election. We are protecting the vote for all Americans.”

    The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

    The Democratic National Committee didn’t respond to inquiries for this story.

    Previously, however, the DNC issued statements criticizing Republicans’ litigation and asserting that RNC leadership was chosen by former President Donald Trump to “push lies” about the 2020 election. That leadership would be “anti-democracy” and promote conspiracy theories, the DNC said.

    In August, the Democratic National Committee filed lawsuits opposing Republican-backed election procedures in Arizona and Georgia.

    The Republican National Committee has pending litigation in Georgia, Nevada, and other states where the Nov. 5 presidential election looks close. Here, however, are five states where the GOP has gained major victories.
    1. Arizona and Noncitizen Voting

    The Republican National Committee won a partial victory Aug. 22 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow Arizona to enforce its law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship during voter registration.

    Under the ruling, election officials may reject voter registration forms without proof of citizenship. The high court stayed a federal district court ruling while it awaits a hearing before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    The lower court struck down provisions of Arizona’s law that require an election official to reject a voter registration that doesn’t include proof of U.S. citizenship. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, both Democrats, opted not to defend the state law.

    So the RNC filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court to allow the state to fully enforce the law, which its ruling did.

    “This is a major victory for election integrity that upholds a simple principle: American elections must be decided by American citizens,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a public statement on the high court’s decision.

    Fontes, Arizona’s secretary of state, opposed the court ruling.

    “My concern is that changes to the process should not occur this close to an election, it creates confusion for voters,” Fontes said in a public statement. “We respect the court’s decision and will implement these changes while continuing to protect voter access and make voting a simple process.”

    Earlier this year, Arizona’s election system garnered increased scrutiny when billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “Arizona clearly states that no proof of citizenship is required for federal elections.”

    That’s technically correct, but no other state requires proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections, either. Arizona, however, requires such proof before someone may vote in state and local elections.

    That’s because in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Ariz. Inc. that the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the motor voter law, determined that every state must accept the same standardized voter registration forms for federal elections.

    However, the ruling, written by then-Justice Antonin Scalia, said Arizona’s law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote could apply to state and local elections but not federal ones.

    As a result, Arizona uses two different ballots for state and federal elections. A state resident with documented proof of citizenship may vote using both ballots. A voter without proof of citizenship may still vote for president and Congress.
    2. Stopping Presumptions in Michigan

    The Republican National Committee joined the Michigan Republican Party and Wayne County Republican Committee this week to sue the city of Detroit for not hiring a sufficient number of Republican election inspectors.

    Michigan law requires hiring an equal number of Democrats and Republicans for election roles. But the GOP plaintiffs allege that Detroit has hired seven times as many Democrats as election inspectors.

    The RNC gained a victory in Michigan after suing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, regarding her instructions to local election clerks to presume—rather than verify—the validity of an absentee voter’s signature.

    “In Michigan, we stopped the secretary of state’s illegal instructions to ignore mail ballot safeguards,” the RNC’s Bresso said.

    The RNC teamed with the state Republican Party to argue that the instruction violated the Michigan Constitution, which requires verification of signatures. They won a partial victory in June when state Judge Christopher Yates ruled that Benson’s decision is a presumption that is “a foul under Michigan law.”

    After the ruling, a spokesperson for Benson’s office noted that the judge agreed the secretary of state has authority to implement other ballot rules for the state’s more than 1,500 independent election clerks.

    “Michigan’s clerks have and will continue to carefully review every ballot signature to ensure they agree sufficiently with the signature on file before accepting any ballot,” Benson spokesperson Angela Benander said, according to The Detroit News.

    Going back to 2020, the RNC and the state party teamed to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, to strike down Michigan’s state ban on the process known as ballot harvesting.

    In September 2022, a federal court upheld the ban, which allowed for the tracking of absentee ballots.

    Ballot harvesting is when political operatives distribute or collect large quantities of absentee ballots, prompting concerns of voter intimidation or improper influence.
    3. Poll Watchers in North Carolina

    The Republican National Committee also filed two lawsuits against the North Carolina State Board of Elections in a span of four days in late August.

    One lawsuit alleges the state election board failed to require identification to prove U.S. citizenship, a violation of the 2002 Help America Vote Act. The state and national GOP contend this lapse opens up the opportunity for as many as 225,000 noncitizens to vote.

    The previous week, the RNC sued the Tar Heel State alleging that it failed to check jury questionnaire responses to identify and remove noncitizens from voter registration lists.

    These cases go on after an earlier Republican National Committee victory in North Carolina.

    In a 2022 case, the RNC argued that the State Board of Elections was trying to weaken the rights of poll watchers. It scored a victory that August when the state’s Rules Review Commission rejected restrictions on the election board’s new poll watchers.

    The State Election Board’s rules would have prevented poll watchers from standing too close to voting machines or poll books, and also give election officials the authority to remove poll watchers.

    The following October, Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier sided with the RNC and blocked the rule preventing “at-large,” party-appointed poll watchers from going to different polling locations throughout Election Day.

    The county court, however, also sided with the state board and moved back the date by which ballots must be accepted to Nov. 14, six days after the Nov. 8 election in 2022. The normal deadline of Nov. 11 fell on Veterans Day that year.

    Patrick Gannon, the spokesperson for the State Election Board, told the Carolina Journal: “We are grateful that the judge denied the plaintiffs’ request to shorten the absentee ballot deadline. … The county boards of elections will, of course, abide by the judge’s ruling tweaking the replacement procedure for party observers. That is a polling place management issue that our bipartisan poll workers can be trusted to handle.”
    4. Parity in Wisconsin

    In Wisconsin, the Republican National Committee won a case to enforce the state’s law requiring an equal number of Republican and Democrat poll workers.

    “We successfully fought for poll worker parity and poll watcher protections,” the RNC’s Bresso told The Daily Signal.

    The RNC also notes that it sued after finding the city of Appleton, Wisconsin, didn’t have GOP poll workers to assist in nursing homes. The city agreed to hire Republicans as well as Democrats.

    The RNC also sued to achieve an equal number of election workers from each major party in the Wisconsin cities of Green Bay and Milwaukee.

    State law requires the two major parties to have relatively equal numbers of election workers.

    In September 2022, a state court ruled in favor of the RNC’s challenge of guidance by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The guidance had instructed local election officials to fill in missing information on absentee ballot forms and to witness affidavits.

    Judge Michael Aprahamian ruled that the elections commission “cannot continue to promulgate advice it knows—or should know—violates state law and the intent of the Legislature.”

    Others objected, such as Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, who told The Associated Press: “Historically, voters have not been penalized for minor errors in voting where intent is clear.”
    5. Verifying Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania

    In May, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a mail-in ballot verification case in Pennsylvania that had worked its way through state and federal courts.

    In the 2022 midterm elections, several county election boards in Pennsylvania announced plans not to enforce a law requiring voters to put a date on their mail-in ballots in order for the ballots to be counted.

    The Republican National Committee teamed with the Pennsylvania Republican Party to sue and force those county boards to enforce the law. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court sided with Republicans, prohibiting the counting of undated or misdated ballots.

    In response, several liberal groups sued in federal court to challenge the state law requiring mail-in ballots to be dated before being counted.

    Among them were Pennsylvania branches of national left-leaning organizations such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and Common Cause. They were joined by state-based or local groups such as Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild; the Black Political Empowerment Project; and Make the Road Pennsylvania.

    Last November, a federal district court struck down Pennsylvania’s requirement of dated mail-in ballots.

    But in May, the 2-1 ruling by a 3rd Circuit panel upheld the law.

    Ari Savitzky, the senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project who argued the case, told reporters after the ruling that “voters may be disenfranchised for a minor paperwork error like forgetting to write an irrelevant date on the return envelope of their mail ballot.”

    “We are considering all of our options at this time,” Savitzky said. “And we will not stop fighting for voters.”

    Whatley, the RNC’s chairman, said: “Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this 3rd Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots.”

    https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/08/30/rnc-scores-election-law-victories-in-these-swing-states-heres-what-that-could-mean-in-november/