Luke Ford

Dan McClaughlin writes for National Review Nov. 16, 2020:

It’s time to debunk another bogus claim. In looking for fraud or misconduct in an election, we sometimes assume that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” But that too often leads people to assume there must be fire when, on closer inspection, there is not even smoke. Disappointed Trump supporters looking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 vote counts have spread an unfortunate profusion of viral claims since the election pointing to apparently suspicious or inexplicable patterns in the reported vote tallies. As I have previously noted here and here, however, many of these patterns have entirely rational explanations, or are framed in ways that are outright false or misleading. This is not a reason to ignore hard evidence of actual fraud or misconduct in the election. But patterns in the voting are, at most, smoke; and if there is nothing suspicious about the pattern, we should be all the more demanding of proof of fire.

Consider the latest viral claim, from Patrick Basham at Democracy Institute, Matt Vespa at Town Hall, Mike LaChance at Gateway Pundit, and amplified by sources such as Rassmussen Reports, quoting pollster Richard Baris:

How curious that, as Baris notes, “Trump won the largest non-white vote share for a Republican presidential candidate in 60 years. Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton in every major metro area around the country, save for Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia.” Robert Barnes, the foremost election analyst, observes in these “big cities in swing states run by Democrats…the vote even exceeded the number of registered voters.” Trump’s victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were on target until, in the middle of the night, counting was arbitrarily halted. Miraculously, several hundred thousand votes – all for Biden – were mysteriously ‘found’; Trump’s real leads subsequently vanished. (Emphasis added).

The reader is left to believe that Joe Biden did unusually well in these four particular cities compared to 2016. These cities are all in key swing states that flipped narrowly to Biden, all traditionally provide a crucial source of votes to Democrats in their states, and Detroit, Atlanta, and Philadelphia in particular have extremely long-entrenched, notoriously corrupt one-party Democratic governments (Milwaukee may be run by Democrats, but it was only a decade ago that the county executive was Scott Walker). Those three are also, although this is never quite stated out loud, cities dominated by their African-American populations, and Milwaukee is almost 40 percent black. Now, the fact that these are heavily black cities should not blind us to the well-known and well-documented flaws of their governments, but there is certainly at least a whiff of racial appeal in efforts to convince white audiences that these particular cities must have stolen the election. In some quarters, that whiff is more like a reek.

The problem, if you look at the cities themselves, is that the facts do not fit the story. I took a look across the 36 largest U.S. cities outside of California and New York where Biden beat Trump by at least 10,000 votes, as measured by county-wide vote totals (admittedly, some cities cross county lines or have suburban voters within county lines, and Maricopa County, Ariz., has two large cities in a single county). I excluded California and New York only because they are still counting votes so slowly that it is not yet possible to fairly compare their vote totals to 2016. I also excluded four cities where Trump either won or lost by a tiny margin: Colorado Springs, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. That leaves us with a comparison across the major American Democrat-voting cities. Is it true that Joe Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton in 32 out of 36, and overperformed in Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, and Philadelphia? No, it is not. It is emphatically false:

Friend: “Yesterday was a metaphor for Trump’s candidacy and presidency: said some stuff to stir up people, people act/vote based on his rhetoric, he’s completely unprepared, has no one wiling to ruin career for someone who inspired zero loyalty. Then just disavows the whole thing, and watches tv.”

IMPORTANT: this is exact moment the siege of the Capitol building began as the two men in front ripped down a preliminary barrier & rushed officers who were behind a 2nd barrier

They then encouraged others to follow their lead. Officers appeared to be taken completely off guard pic.twitter.com/LE0a01PXBi

— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) January 6, 2021

Steve Sailer: “It turns out that when you have only four cops to hold back a mob, and when two of the four are women, well, for most intents and purposes, you only have two cops.”

Sailer writes:

These kind of mob actions in Madison went on for months in 2011. But they’ve disappeared down the memoryhole because the mob was Democratic. So, therefore, they were the Good Guys, not the Bad Guys. It’s hard to remember facts that contradict The Narrative.

In contrast, the childish LARPers who got into the US Capitol today will of course go down in Narrative infamy, like the Charlottesville LARPers. They were the designated Bad Guys already, so their bad behavior plugs seamlessly into the prefab Narrative.

That’s not fair, but that’s how it works.

By the way, do Democrats now favor the use of facial recognition software for prosecuting the trespassers?

Democrats have objected to facial recognition’s use in prosecuting tens of thousands of BLM looters videotaped doing Undocumented Shopping during the George Floyd mourning process. But perhaps they will now have a change of mind over facial recognition’s utility.

Another question: How much rioting would there have been in D.C. if Trump had won?

We can tell who was the main threat by the behavior of D.C. business owners who boarded up their windows during Election Week until Joe Biden was announced the winner.

From 10-6-18: “Protesters opposed to Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the US Supreme Court swarmed over Washington — massing at the Capitol, disrupting the confirmation vote in the Senate and banging on the Supreme Court building doors when Kavanaugh arrived to be sworn in.”

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* A few hundred losers playing at being revolutionaries going up against losers playing at being cops and then chasing away a few hundred losers playing at being congressmen, all over a loser playing at being president.

* This reminds me of that Jimmy Stewart movie, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. But this is more heartwarming…

* The NYT coverage today went out of its way to call the protesters violent. To some degree they were, but the difference from how BLM and antifa are covered was glaring.

The only solace i take from today’s ridiculous events is that, by and large, the protesters WERE “mostly peaceful”.

It’s bad that they stole stuff and broke some stuff, but at least they didn’t shoot or hurt anyone or set things on fire.

But between the Georgia loss and today’s incitement and the ammo that it hands the left for years to come… Trump is REALLY saddling his supporters with a lot of baggage on his way out.

* Capitol cops don’t really do much in the way of actual policing, so they aren’t stress tested. Anything off the Capitol zone is DC’s problem, the White House is Secret Service’s responsibility, etc.

I predict this woman’s death will not be the spark for rioting; no chain big-box stores will be looted; no bridges across the Potomac will be blocked with barricades; no graffiti will be spray painted onto Federal buildings / monuments; no statues will be tipped over; no churches will be burned, etc. and etc.

The cop who shot her will not be doxxed, no mob will be sent to his / her home to terrorize the family. There will not be an arrest, nor will there be demands for one.

In other words, the MAGA’s will not act like BLM / Antifa, last year’s pampered pets of the progtards.

For this self control, we shall all be punished.

* All the news headlines are reporting something like “Armed Rioting, woman, shot and killed”, making it sound like the rioters shot and killed a woman. You have to read the fine print before you find out it was the cops shooting an un-armed White woman.
If it had been a Black woman shot and killed by cops in a left-wing protest, the headlines would be screaming, “Racist White Cops murder Un-armed Black Woman!”, the whole country would be up-in flames.

* The Guardian has the word “mob” in no fewer than 5 headlines in the UK edition. Surely they’re “protesters”?

Guardian:
“The incident provoked a stream of derisive comments on social media, comparing Trump unfavourably both to the presumptive Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, who visited protesters and to the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz. The hashtag “#bunkerboy” became a trending term on Twitter.

Greg Sargent, who writes the Plum Line blog for the Washington Post, wrote: “President of the United States cowering in fear of delivering a national address while instead issuing deranged tweets from his underground bunker somehow persuades himself that the world is laughing at someone else.”

The activist and author Amy Siskind was equally scathing. “Trump hiding out in a bunker Friday, and shutting off the lights at the White House Sunday – both over a few hundred protesters – will be forever remembered as defining moments of his presidency when he was revealed as a coward, not the strongman he advertised.””

* I keep hearing on the TV that violence doesn’t work. What? The hell it doesn’t. BLM spent the Summer burning and looting every major city in America. They were rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars and more power than any political party in the US. Their adherents caused billions in damage and helped themselves to tens of millions worth of DIY reparations and no one lifted a finger to stop them. Whatever else, violence works an absolute treat.

Oh, and you senators and congressmen, cowboy up a little bit. You were afraid? There was a loud and angry crowd outside and you thought they were going to hurt you? That’s how a store owner in Kenosha felt. That’s how the McCloskys felt. Remember that emotion next time you feel obligated to barge in front of a TV camera to excuse rioting and looting. Next time you feel obligated to tell us you’re proud of Jacob Blake. Next time you get on Twitter and exhort your followers to donate to a fund to pay bail for rioters. You created this monster. You nurtured it, sheltered it, and allowed it to grow. And now it’s come home to eat you. Good luck and go fuck yourselves.

Trump Supporters Storm Capitol Hill (1-6-21) https://t.co/Pyr6G5Aryj

— (((Luke Ford))) (@lukeford) January 6, 2021

America’s leading politicians, media and law enforcement could not care less during the Summer of George when the BLM mob came for ordinary Americans and now I’m supposed to care that the mob has come for the pols who care less about us? Pols got off easy.

00:00 Law enforcement try to corral DC rioters
1:10:00 Fortune 500 companies funding BLM/Antifa terrorism, https://vdare.com/posts/be-brave-do-something-ashley-rae-goldenberg-s-list-of-corporations-that-support-the-riots-and-want-you-dead
1:27:00 Richard Spencer: Everyone missed this attempt coup, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay7PwhLkYB0
1:43:00 Rodney Martin joins
1:48:00 Ricardo joins
3:40:00 Robert Barnes Live from Washington! Viva & Barnes Live Stream, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnevIjvohvQ
3:58:45 Baked Alaska & company storm Capitol Hill

00:00 How a livestreamer can enhance your life, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=136269
04:00 Podcasting
06:00 The typical TV news report
12:00 REM Theory: Part 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8jCyVA1R2A
15:00 An introduction to REM theory, https://radixjournal.com/2021/01/an-introduction-to-rem-theory/
45:00 Introducing LIONELMEDIA.COM (The Most Important Forum Available Today)
54:30 Myth, Symbol, & Religion: An Introduction to REM, https://www.spreaker.com/user/altright/intro-to-rem-v1
56:30 Collective (2019 doco), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_(2019_film)
1:04:00 Gotta love the logic of bioethicists…, https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/12/the-rude-people-who-comment-on-derek-lowes-blog.html
1:06:00 The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia 1880-1939, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=136235
1:11:30 Kamala Harris plagiarizes MLK’s story
1:20:00 Jonathan Bowden, ‘Wyndham Lewis A British Modernist Life’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNuwO_iM4Q
1:28:00 In Our Time: S10/30 Yeats and Irish Politics (April 17 2008)
1:33:00 Lionel Nation: It’s #Georgia. Plain and Simple. For All the Marbles.