The Hypnotherapist And Failed Politician Who Helped Fuel The Never-Ending Hunt For Election Fraud In Wisconsin - TPM – Talking Points Memo

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1415991
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I am beginning to take this very personally. I volunteer at the polls myself (in NYC) and have never encountered any kind of disruption or demonstration. Believe me, given the amount of rules we have to follow, there is absolutely no possibility of any ballot manipulation. I also have faith that those who actually do the counting are all on the up and up. The Big Lie really needs to be put to sleep; sadly, it will simply become another GOP “Zombie Lie” (h/t Dr. Krugman). The only solution is to vote next November. Vote Blue and set this country on a better path.

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How dare people organize around voting. It’s such a fraud!

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This guy sounds like a remarkably typical arrogant nutbar. Apparently supported by his dad through multiple graduate degrees, disregarded advice about whether he was entitled to poliitcal office, not good at organizing. (Yes, the Chicago machine is corrupt; that doesn’t mean anyone who opposes them is automatically well-founded.) Spent a career peddling woo to susceptible people much like him.

Does he have economic anxiety?

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Stone recognized that the organization’s address on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile was in the same building that had once housed Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters, which he felt confirmed his instincts.

I’m not going to read this whole thing, since these kinds of dipshits are as familiar as a species of bird. But taking this sort of coincidence and seeing something sinister in it is a symptom of these people’s near-universal naiveté. They’re not naive in failing to see real corruption; they naively see it everywhere, and for no reason. In both cases you ignore rational evidence and simply believe what you wish, because you need for the world to be simple. I’ve been repeatedly struck at the bottom rungs of the big lie, at the foot soldiers of it, because they believe it. They’re not the cynical enablers, many of them. They figure the Democrats are cheating because they believe, again credulously, that the Democrats are uniquely bad and universally corrupt. The evidence of that corruption must be there, since they are corrupt and do corrupt things. It’s of a piece with taking a gun and walking into a pizza parlor where you believe trafficked children are being held. Deeply, deeply naive, and more empowered every day. Interesting times.

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Why, if you let them organize around voting, then the next thing you know, they’re going to be organizing around other things as well, and that could lead to all kinds of anarchy – volunteer fire departments, civic organizations, even – imagine the horror – free public libraries!

Chaos! Lost profit opportunities! Disaster!

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Voting is communism.

ETA: And bribery is speech.

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“ Hypnotherapists are not licensed in Illinois. But the treatment has gained acceptance. According to the National Institutes of Health, hypnosis been shown to help people manage some painful conditions and deal with anxiety.”

Lots of licensed medical professionals can be certified in clinical hypnosis. Consult dentists, pediatricians, psychotherapists who have been trained through the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

https://www.asch.net/aws/ASCH/pt/sp/about

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There is nothing special or interesting about reactionaries like Stone or the reactionary mind. The reactionary is not only opposed to social, political, and economic change. He denies the reality, the existential validity of change. Change isn’t possible. Perceived change is a trick. Change is an illusion, a fraud, a Satanic lie.

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It certainly seems to speak very loudly, in the cases of certain ex-presidential sons-in-law.

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IIRC Bernie Stone was part of the cabal that tried to make Harold Washington’s mayoralty difficult.

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Was there in 2020, in face of the COVID emergency and the chaos of the Trump presidency, maybe a slight fuzzying of the line that should divide Democratic GOTV efforts from big-city election officials’ preparation for handling an unprecedentedly huge influx of voters? That’s a question that Republicans have a legitimate right to ask, but so far it’s just smoke and no evidence. On the other side, the Republicans’ countless actions to cheat are clear and proven. Robocalls to thwart voters. Electoral list purges. Underfunding elections officials in Democratic districts to deliberately create long lines. Programs funding evangelical churches that openly engage in partisan politics in violation of the rules for tax exempt status.

I might even take the Zuckerbucks critique as borderline legit, at least in principle, if the people raising it were not so obviously working with hypocritical double standards.

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He’s a man who won’t accept “no” for an answer. Someone should check to see if he’s a member of one the prosperity gospel churches.

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I know, right? It’s just freakin’ weird that grants intended to help with overly crowded poll locations mostly went to precincts with overly crowded poll locations and not so much to poll locations that had tumbleweeds blowing through them.

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Excerpt:

Nationally, Maverick has gone from 864th most popular baby boys name in 2000 to 47th most popular last year. Fox believes at least some of this recent rise in popularity can be attributed to the new “Top Gun: Maverick” movie.

“I just think it’s a really cool name period, even without the ‘Top Gun’ reference,” Fox said. “It was starting to rise in popularity when we were thinking about that, but now it’s really popular. But I’m sure the movie didn’t hurt. I’m sure there are plenty of 80s babies like us who were huge Top Gun fans and part of it came from there.”

For 4-year-old Maverick Fox, the “Top Gun”-inspired name could not be more fitting.

“If you look up the name, ‘strong-willed, independent person’ is the meaning,” Fox said. “We ended up going with that name and he’s really proven to be a Maverick, he’s the epitome of a boy. He loves loud things, he loves to go fast, he loves dirt, everything.”

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“There was so much, I don’t want to say ‘fraud,’

Translation: There was no fraud.

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The whole nursing home deal has me wondering whether the supposed partisan tilt of senior citizens will change, as the last of the WWII veterans die, the last of the Korean War veterans are dying fast, and the nursing home residents are predominately Vietnam era or later.

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If you look up the name, it means “cow who got lost and wandered away from the herd.”

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This is absolutely clear. What the Republican operatives are litigating against is plain old everday electioneering by Democrats, which they hope to disallow because it is often effective. Thus leaving the Republicans to win elections through slanted legislation and interference with ordinary election procedures, especially in any area that normally votes Democratic. Since it is obvious we will never rid ourselves of these hyped-up partisans, we should have more initiatives from organizations like the Chicago group to counter Republican partisan influence in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

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I kinda read it as, “I want to say fraud.”

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