Democrats Panic Over Arizona Election Audit

Even questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election invites derision and risks of being branded a tin-hatted kook.  The Arizona State Senate understands this better than anyone. When they voted to conduct an election audit, Democrats and the media banded together to blaspheme Republicans. 

The high-stakes ballot audit is the most extensive in the aftermath of a tightly-contested presidential national election determined by the narrowest of margins.  Four states, including Arizona, were decided by 34,000 votes or less.  Biden won them all.  He needed every one to reach 270 electoral votes.

Democrats have concocted a 2020 election soufflé' with ingredients of outrage, contempt and censorship for any claims of election fraud.  If the Arizona audit uncovers any election breach, it would let all the air out of Democrats lightly baked thesis that allegations of fraud are baseless and irresponsible. 

However, Democrats have never had any qualms about accusing Republicans of election chicanery.         

Democrats labeled Trump an illegitimate president after 2016, citing Russian collusion, a thoroughly discredited charge. The last thing Democrats want is to have that sobriquet hung around the neck of Joe Biden.  They will spare no costs and employ every legal tactic to quash the process.

The Republican-controlled Senate took 2 1/2 months to slog through the courts, battling the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors,  before it was granted the right to issue subpoenas for election materials n Arizona's largest county, which includes Phoenix.   

Each step of the way, Maricopa has fought to sabotage the recount, abetted by Democrat heavyweights in Arizona.  Republicans forced the issue by taking the matter to court after the supervisors ignored requests for ballots and tabulators.  Officials refused to budge even after they were held in contempt.  

A judge's decision paves the way for a "detailed" review of the country's ballots to include "testing the machines, scanning ballots, performing a full hand count, and checking any IT breaches."  All of Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots cast in the election will be recounted.

In a last ditch effort to curtail the recount, Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, the lone Democrat on the board, and the Arizona Democrat Party filed a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing it was a violation of state law.  A ruling is expected this week.  

For perspective, the total ballots cast in the presidential election in Arizona was 3.3 million. Thus Maricopa County accounted for 63% of the votes.  Joe Biden won Maricopa County by 45,109 votes, enabling him to take Arizona by the thinnest of margins, 10,457 votes.

Arizona was one of several states in 2020 that experienced long, puzzling delays in counting ballots.  On the Friday after the Tuesday election, the state still had 300,000 ballots outstanding.  At that time, Biden enjoyed a 29,861-vote lead in Arizona after Trump held an early advantage for in-person ballots.

In 2016, Trump carried Maricopa by 44,454 votes and racked up larger margins in rural Arizona.  Democrats marshaled their forces in Maricopa for an all out push for mail-in balloting in 2020, an effort that produced a Biden victory, only the second Democrat to win the state since 1948.

More than 2.6 million votes were cast in early balloting, the majority of those were mail-in ballots.  Maricopa saw records for both mail-in ballots and early voting.  The counting of those ballots did not begin until October 31, just days before the November 3 in-person voting.

Now that the Arizona Senate recount is underway, Democrats have trained their biggest legal guns on the auditors, a Florida-based firm Cyber Ninjas, hired by Senate President Karen Fann and Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

The Democrat lawyers claim the CEO of the cyber security firm appeared to have promoted election conspiracy theories from a now-deleted Twitter account. The CEO, Doug Logan, has reportedly been an active supporter of the "Stop The Steal" movement, according to the recently filed suit. 

The credibility of Cyber Ninjas may just be a canard for Democrats, who have engaged Hillary Clinton's consigliere, Perkins Coie, a high-powered Washington, D.C. firm. This is the outfit responsible for the discredited Steele Dossier used in an ill-fated attempt to remove Trump from office.

The Democratic Party funding vehicle for the legal attack on the auditors is a "charitable" organization, Protect Democracy Project (PDP), which has employed three law firms to derail the recount, including Perkins Coie.  With a $12.4 million war chest and 72 staff members, PDP can afford the legal muscle.

Although charitable organizations are supposed to be "non-partisan," PDP was founded to oppose the policies of President Trump.  The outfit's president and executive director is Ian Bassin, who served as associate White House counsel for President Obama from 2009-2011. 

The New York Times and its ideological twin The Washington Post began debunking any suggestion of election fraud with frothy indignation the moment Biden was declared the winner.  The papers huffed that any fraud would have been on such a small scale, it wouldn't have effected the outcome.

Former Attorney General William Barr echoed the same theme, declaring last year that the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of "widespread" voter fraud. Democrats have consistently pointed to the Republican AG's statement to buttress their arguments and silence critics.

There is just one obvious problem with these assurances.  They concede a little election fraud is nothing to sweat.  No one should care. Shouldn't American elections be free of any tomfoolery?  Or does it only matter if a Republican wins the presidency?  This is the stuff of banana republics.  

That's why the Arizona effort should be supported by Democrats as well as Republicans.  If the election was pure as the driven snow, then the recount will give Democrats the perfect weapon to bludgeon GOP claims about fraud.  It makes one wonder why Democrats are so opposed to the recount.  

A Reflection: The America I Knew No Longer Exists

One evening I dozed off, comforted in the fact I was part of a majority of citizens who held our country in high esteem.  We were proud of our identity as Americans.  The next morning I found to my chagrin that Americans were ashamed of our country, our flag, our anthem, our history and our shared values.  

The timeframe may be exaggerated, but the mutation evolved in a single generation, a mere nano-second in the prolonged history of our country.  Previous generations felt this way, too, about change. Unlike past attitudinal shifts, this seems a permanent.

My angst isn't about whatever Woke means.  When the gender of a plastic toy, Mr. Potato Head, earns a headline, I shake my head and laugh about the sad lives of those who give a rats about such nonsense.  No this is more sinister, scarier and strikes at the root of what it is to be an American. 

Pride in country is the glue that binds Americans.  People of all ethnicities, colors, religious beliefs and genders once found common ground in American symbols and values, even if we disagreed on everything else. In famines, world wars, pandemics, political crisis, Americans rallied together. 

Nothing remotely like that exists today.  Disunity is stoked daily by the news media, politicians, activists, movies, television and educators.  We are a nation at war with ourselves because we have nothing in common.  Our values, history and social norms are vilified instead of celebrated.  

Take American history as a prime example.  The New York Times, a sower of discord and disinformation, is fronting a new version of American history, named The 1619 Project.  This distorted account of the country's history frames slavery and white supremacy as the founder's goal.  

This deceptive trope, dismissed by historians as misleading and chocked with unverifiable claims, is being made available to public schools in the form of curriculums.  Kids are being spoon fed a narrative that America's defining moment was the arrival of slaves in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia.

In the Times alternative version of history, America's current institutions, attitudes, economic and social structures are the result of slavery.  It even blames slavery for suburban traffic congestion and for the prevalence of obesity and diabetes.  White folks are villains through the Times' prism.  

This theme was echoed recently by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a Biden appointee.  In a speech delivered to the U.S. General Assembly, she told delegates "the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles." 

This narrative about a racist-founded America has been simmering for decades, long before Project 1619.  What is different is that it has metastasized into accepted mainstream doctrine.  Historical scholarship is an inconvenient truth, disregarded in favor of a new, darker American catechism.   

Rewriting history is not unique to present day America.  One of the Nazi regime's first strategies was to contort the country's history after German suffered a humiliating defeat in World War I. Hitler's propaganda exploited the ordinary German's post-war, self-loathing to write a false reality of history.  

The essence of the Nazi propaganda method was repetition. This anti-American theme oozes through every communications form: books, speeches, social media, slogans, graffiti. The result is dethronement of reason and the elevation of emotion.  Feelings, not facts, matter.  

Daily pervasive misinterpretation of American history is not benign.  It engenders a seething hatred of America, which manifests itself in many ways. Those who refuse to stand for the national anthem, preferring to take a knee, are embolden because blasphemy of country carries no economic penalty.   

There are other manifestations of this poisonous paradigm.  College professors teach America's history is replete with killing people (wars), colonialism and white supremacy.  Rioters, Capitol insurrectionists and looters address their grievances with America through violence, chillingly similar to Nazism.        

Patriotism is no longer fashionable.  The latest Gallup Poll found that 63% of Americans are either extremely or very proud of their country, the lowest level of patriotism since the research group began asking the questions in 2001.  Among 18-to-34-year-olds, only four in 10 are proud of America.

Even American exceptionalism, once a banner of national pride, is ridiculed by elitists and politicians. New York Magazine labeled it a "dangerous myth," thus disparaging our unique form of government, national credo, history, promotion of democratic ideals and willingness to die for those precepts.

America, like every country, has its imperfections.  But anyone who has traveled the world can attest Americans are blessed to live in the world's most free, multi-racial, prosperous society.  Since most Americans never venture outside the country, they lack perspective on how the rest of the world lives.  

That fact helps explain this American alienation. Nevertheless, it does not justify it.

Americans no longer cherish their freedoms, including religious worship.  When a government can shut down churches and limit attendance, it violates a core principle enshrined in our Constitution. Even in a pandemic, it is unAmerican.  Issuing health advice is the role of democratic governments. 

Shuttering churches is right out of the playbook of the Communist Party in China.  Yet few flinched when it was mandated.  Religious freedom also means people should not be forced to change their core values or beliefs to conform to the prevailing cultural norms or government policies.     

Most worrisome is how many Americans remain silent. They are lulled by their belief the pendulum of history will inevitably swing the opposite way to restore values, customs and traditions that have defined America.  That is the optimistic view, a hallmark of being American.  But is it realistic today?

America is suffering from truth decay.  Major influencers are aligned behind an orchestrated effort to denigrate the country by blurring the line between facts and opinion, between right and wrong.  To what end, you ask?  Nothing less than the destruction of American institutions and transcendent ideals.

Once those crumble, the country itself implodes.  People no longer trust any institution, including the police.  An atmosphere of distrust creates a tinderbox  environment, ripe for exploitation by anarchists and political despots.  Citizens willing surrender their rights in hopes of stability and safety.  

I make no apologies for the somber, pessimistic tone.  However, I refuse to allow this to happen without raising the alarm.  America is on the brink, teetering between authoritarian socialism and democracy. Those who want to stifle dissent and reorder our democracy are counting on your silence.

How will you answer the call when America desperately needs voices of freedom?

Mr. President: Jim Crow Does Not Live In Georgia

The most powerful word in the English language is racist.  Tag a new law with that epithet and watch the stampede to convict.  Forget defending the legislation or relying on facts to spare supporters from a public pillorying.  A thunder clap of outrage will drown-out fair analysis in favor of political pandering.  

President Joe Biden cratered to a tiny minority of divisive racial activists and hurled a charge of Jim Crowism after Georgia's legislature approved changes in the state's election laws.  The offensive term Jim Crow refers to racial segregation policies of decades past, promulgated by Southern Democrats. 

"This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century.  It must end," Mr. Biden huffed in a statement.  He added the Georgia election changes are "an atrocity" and warned the Department of Justice is "taking a look" at the measure.  His condemnation inflamed racial division and was a thinly veiled threat to Georgia.

Corporations piled on after they were bullied by well organized activist groups.  Coca Cola, Delta, American Airlines and Apple are just a few of the business behemoths who upbraided the legislature for daring to alter election laws in their own state.  These limousine liberals are cowardly Woke lackeys.    

The complicit media, paced by that paragon of journalistic pugilism CBS News, lobbied companies to punish Georgia for caring about election integrity.  Faux writers at CBS tweeted an article citing "three ways companies can help fight Georgia's new voting law." Today this passes for unbiased reporting.

The coup-de-gras was applied when Major League Baseball jerked the All-Star Game from Atlanta to punish those mean racists. Commissioner Rob Manfred, a dunderhead of a leader, harrumphed that his millionaire owners oppose "restrictions at the ballot box." That'll show those dumb crackers.

The kerfuffle was stoked by lies, deliberate misinformation and media malfeasance.  Few if any of the participants in the finger-wagging, self-righteousness executive suites actually read the bill.  How can you tell?  Their responses and public-posturing were detached from the reality of the Georgia law.

At the eye of this racial hurricane is the media anointed Uinifier-in-Chief. Perhaps, someone should suggest Mr. Biden read the 98-page Election Protection Act before leveling salacious accusations. That might be asking too much, since he rarely engages publicly except to parrot a prepared script. 

The president butchered the facts so badly even the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post winced. The paper's fact-checkers awarded Mr. Biden "four pinnochios" for this remarks about the legislation. The Post reserves four long-noses for what it claims "whoppers." Translation: big fat lies.   

"One could understand a flub in a news conference," the Post noted. "But then this same claim popped up in an official presidential statements.  Not a single expert we consulted who has studied the law understood why Biden made this claim" the newspaper's fact-checkers wrote.  

Here's a summary of The Washington Post's assessment of election law changes approved by the Republican-dominated Georgia legislature:

• Nothing in the new law changes early voting hours.  The law did make changes to expand the opportunities for early voting, not limit them.
• The bill does not limit in-person voting, but the new law gives election officials the opportunity to extend the hours longer than regular business hours.
• The bill prohibits people from soliciting votes of those in line by offering money or gifts, including but not limited to food and water.  It does not prohibit a poll worker from making available, self-service water.
• The law does not eliminate absentee ballot drop boxes for ballots.  Last election, drop boxes were set up in unsecured, outdoor locations.  Ballot boxes now must be secured inside buildings.  

In the bill, there are provisions to shrink the period for early voting from 78 days before an election, instead of 180-days instated last year as a concession to Coronavirus. But the act expands both the hours and the days on which polls are open for early voting, including Saturdays.  

The law also creates a hotline where Georgians can report illegal election activities and voter suppression. Other changes include around-the-clock surveillance of drop boxes; ballots printed on security paper; and, verification of voter identities.

That last item, voter identification, always throws Democratic Party partisans into a tizzy. However, the new law allows voters to use driver's licenses, state issued identifications or the last four digits of their Social Security number.  There is no legitimate way to claim that suppresses voting.

To do so, requires reverse racial discrimination. Americans are required to have an ID to  rent an apartment, open a bank account, enter a federal building, drive a car, apply for food stamps, purchase alcohol or cigarettes, apply for unemployment, receive Medicaid, fly on an airplane or get married.

Are activists suggesting African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities don't need an ID because they do none of those things? Talk about racial profiling. Georgia, like many states including Texas, issues free identifications to those without driver's licenses.  Voting is as easy as buying beer.

That raises the question: Why is the president so upset if the new law actually makes voting more accessible in many respects?  The answer should be obvious.  Mr. Biden and his Democrat cronies do not want states mucking around with voter integrity.  They prefer the chaos of the last election.   

That's why Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her gaggle of Democrat bobbleheads have teed up new federally mandated voting rules as their top priority.  Democrats' agenda is to dictate balloting laws, despite the Elections Clause in the Constitution, which delegates primary authority to states.

The racial ruckus in Georgia is a warning to states.  Don't monkey with election laws.  Democrats and their media puppets will segregate you from the rest of the country and trump up racial charges to smear your state and inflict economic harm.  Jim Crow is alive and well and living in Washington. 

America's Invisible Victims: Addicted Babies

The figures are heartbreaking.  An estimated 32,000 babies were born in 2014 with an opioid addiction. These tiny, often underweight newborns, endure tremors, convulsions, breathing problems and a host of other horrific symptoms.  Tragically, their suffering may last up to six months after birth.

This an epidemic spiraling out of control.  Since 2004, the number of newborns with these dreadful problems has jumped nearly five-fold (433%), according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Every 15 minutes in America a new opioid addicted infant enters the world.

This data reflects state statistics reported to the CDC though 2014. The CDC admits its data collection is not uniform and case definitions and state monitoring are often inconsistent. As a result, there has been no official data published in the last six years, a distressing reflection of the lack of national concern.     

The medical term for these addicted infants is Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Babies experience  withdrawal from drugs, most commonly opioids, they were exposed to in the womb. Most babies exhibit symptoms 24 to 48 years after birth, reports Stanford Children's Health.

Some infants, however, may not show withdrawal symptoms until 5-to-10 days after birth, complicating diagnosis and treatment.  Infants are often undernourished and may need IV fluids to remain hydrated. A tangle of tubes and monitors snake through their hospital cribs, a heart-wrenching sight.

A number of these little ones need medications to treat their withdrawal symptoms.  Once signs of withdrawal subside, the amount of medicine is slowly decreased.  This helps wean babies from the drug introduced into their bloodstreams by their mothers. 

The pain and agony of these stricken newborns is unimaginable. Treatments vary and the long-term effects often include delayed mental development.  No cure exists, but it can be prevented if the mother stops using drugs before pregnancy or as soon as she learns she is pregnant.

Overall abuse of opioids, both prescription and non-prescription, is soaring. In 2019, 50,000 people died  from opioid-involved overdoses. The addiction to heroine and fentanyl, both classified as opioids, impacted 625,000 Americans in 2017.  Prescription opioid abuse effected 1.7 million people. 

The runaway use of opioids by all Americans helps explain why so many mothers are giving birth to NAS infants.  As a consequence, hospital expenses to treat these infants are climbing at an alarming rate.  

The National Institute for Children's Health reports a seven-fold increase in neonatal intensive care stays for these afflicted babies. Rates of opioid use disorder at delivery more than quadrupled during 1999-2014, according to the CDC.  This is the most recent data available.

Hospital costs for treating this misfortunate babies are exploding. Since 2004, the annual hospital expenses for treating these infants has risen from $90.9 million to $563 million in 2014, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse. That a 524% increase in costs. 

The dramatic hike is a result of  the extended hospitalization for NAS infants.  The average length of a hospital stay for a baby with NAS is 16.9 days, compared 3.1 days for a healthy newborn.  The hospital costs, calculated in 2014 dollars, are $66,700 for the neonatal care for one infant.  

For decades, child welfare agencies and neonatal care units separated the mother from their infants.  It was a form of punishment for their callous disregard for their baby's health.  However, treatment is evolving and new studies suggests that separation may be counterproductive.

"Babies need their mothers," says John McCarthy, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California (Davis), who has worked 40 years with pregnant women undergoing drug treatment. He adds mothers can help minimize withdrawal for babies exposed to opioids.

In San Antonio, the epicenter of NAS in Texas, a partnership between University of Texas Health's School of Nursing and local nonprofit Crosspoint, Inc., shows promise for uniting mother and baby in a home-treatment setting. Babies stay with mothers who are undergoing treatment for their addiction.  

'It's very traumatic to have a child taken away," says Lisa Cleveland, associate professor of the UT Health School of Nursing who spearheaded the partnership with Crosspoint. "The idea is to stop the cycle of trauma."    

Casa Mia opened in 2018 with 20 beds and within a few months was fully occupied.  There is now a waiting list and Crosspoint and UT Health's School of Nursing are raising more than $3 million to break ground this year on a Women's Wellness Campus to double the number of beds at Casa Mia. 

The expansion will include on-site nursery for newborns as well as private rooms for the mother and baby once the child is discharged. In addition, there will be a primary care clinic plus programs for behavioral health, parenting and more, according to an article in San Antonio magazine. 

This approach is gaining momentum in several cities across the country.  Public-private partnerships are preferred to government solutions. Removing the stigma from drug addicted mothers will facilitate better outcomes for both baby and mom.

But to stem the tide of opioid addicted babies, the key is early intervention and increased awareness of the medical issues caused by drug use before-and-after pregnancy.  Treating the problem after the fact is costly and is too late for the newborns who suffer unbearable side effects.

When you read about the trillions of dollars being spent in Washington, examine the details closely. See if politicians really care about these babies. Where is the funding to help build new facilities such as Casa Mia? Or to promote public service campaigns about drugs and pregnancy?  Or early intervention?

These questions demand answers not pathetic sympathy and emotional platitudes. No one is standing up for these innocents who are unable to cry out for help.  It is a disheartening commentary about the priorities of the political class.  We the people must demand more be done.