My Published Opinion Piece

[FairBol]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this....feel free to move if necessary. 

I just got word that a recent op-ed that I wrote has been published in my major local newspaper, the "Connecticut Post".  Said paper reaches about 53,866 residents of southwestern Connecticut daily.  Anyway, my article was on the possibility of "shenanigans" in the race for governor of Connecticut....I'm questioning some things that don't seem to make sense. 

Connecticut Post Article

Sour grapes? Perhaps....but as I said in my piece, I feel that "something is rotten in Denmark" ("Hamlet", William Shakespeare)

[FairBol]

And yes, I'll probably get some "hate mail" on this one, LOL. 

[MasterJedi]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

[Badger]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

[Comrade Funk]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

[Joe Biden 2024]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

[FairBol]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

If you actually read the piece, I think you'll find my concerns reasonable, at least.  Please tell me why the "wet ballots" excuse (given to explain long delays in counting on election night)..."holds water".  

(As I pointed out in the article, several cities reported their initial numbers very late on election night.  The CT Secretary of the State, who supervises the counts, said this was due to "wet ballots".  Wait a second....were not all of the polls located indoors?

"Things that make you go 'hmmm....' (C&C Music Factory) )

[Crumpets]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

Inb4 "you mean like 'Russia stole the election'?"

[FairBol]

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LOL, great point, Crumpets!

[Pyro]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

If you actually read the piece, I think you'll find my concerns reasonable, at least.  Please tell me why the "wet ballots" excuse (given to explain long delays in counting on election night)..."holds water". 

(As I pointed out in the article, several cities reported their initial numbers very late on election night.  The CT Secretary of the State, who supervises the counts, said this was due to "wet ballots".  Wait a second....were not all of the polls located indoors?

"Things that make you go 'hmmm....' (C&C Music Factory) )

There isn't some conspiracy. It was pouring and voters were standing/walking outside.
Wet hands + Ballot = Wet Ballot.

It serves as a case for hand counting the vote, if anything.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I mean, fringe dope sh-t usually has a much better chance of being published in this era of "fair and balanced," but congratulations nonetheless.

[Koharu]

Wow. The claims your op-ed make are inflammatory and ridiculous. Your friends told you people were able to vote without showing ID? Were they working as election judges/inspectors or were they just watching other people? If the latter, they likely just didn't see the ID being looked at. You have it on "good authority" that students were being bussed to incorrect locations? Or were they being bussed to the precinct location for their dorm/school/apartment? What is your "good authority?" Also, insinuating that there have been votes changed in other states when there is no proof of that is beyond the pale.

While I could understand a paper being willing to publish a letter that said they writer thought there were inconscistencies and such, publishing even an "op ed" like this without any verification is absolutely ridiculous. It makes me sad that you would be willing to submit something that makes such claims based only on your "gut" feelings and tenuous information. Shame on you and shame on this paper.

Edit: Hey, let's not tell people to commit suicide, okay? That's disgusting. This article may be reprehensible, but it means the writer needs time to learn and grow, which death curtails.

[SATW]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

[SATW]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

There's a long history of this from the political fringes. Around a dozen Democrats, all of them from safe districts, voted to invalidate Ohio's electoral votes as recently as 2004. But we no longer live in a country where there is symmetry in this regard. The systemic refusal to accept the results of elections that we've seen from Trump, Rick Scott, Bruce Poliquin, and many other Republicans who refused to accept their losses last month really is without precedent in our lifetimes, and it's trickling down to rubes on the street such as the not-so-esteemed creator of this thread. People are genuinely fearful about how Trump would handle a loss in 2020, and for good reason.

I never said there was or wasn't symmetry. I'm referring to some democrat voters calling for the disbanding of the senate, the electoral college and even SCOTUS (in its current form)  because they lose elections.

Yes, this is a smaller subset of Dem voters, but some users on this forum take every random republican and make it into a representation of all republicans.

[Virginiá]

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Are you really this biased? Are you aware at all of what Republicans have been doing across the country with their gerrymandered majorities? It would take me an hour or more to write a post about everything the NCGOP has done to try and consolidate power at any costs, including ending judicial primaries just for 2018 to try and get Democrats to split the vote, among over a half dozen other changes to try and game the Supreme Court election this cycle. Or what about Georgia's attempts at redrawing the maps mid-decade just to shore up seats they were afraid of losing? That sounds like a party willing to do whatever it needs to win. I mean, what is the point of even holding elections if you're just going to redraw the maps every time you think you might lose some seats? Or what about the PAGOP seriously considering impeaching every Democratic Supreme Court justice because their brazenly gerrymandered Congressional map was redrawn? Or what about West Virginia Republican seizing on a spending scandal originally from a Republican to impeach the entire WVSC, so they could stack the bench with conservatives? Or what about Kansas trying to defund the judicial branch because their Supreme Court kept trying to force them to actually fund k12 education services. Or what about the Wisconsin GOP's current scheming to strip Evers of power even before he's sworn in? Or what about a wave of Republican-backed voter list purges that include hundreds of thousands of people who haven't moved or died yet are removed erroneously anyway? Or what about any number of SCOTUS decisions that conveniently seem to benefit the GOP in elections? Or what about McConnell's theft of a Supreme Court seat and 100+ lower court seats? It goes on and on and on like this.

Contrary to what you believe, your people are not the good guys in this story. They are the ones hostile to the judiciary, elections and basically any check on their power.

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Conservatives say this about every election we have. Mysterious groups are always busing voters across state or district lines in grand schemes that conveniently, no one can ever get proof of. It's always hearsay. You guys are always hearing rumors and believing them immediately yet never coming across any hard proof.

The reason for that is because it's not happening. You guys have indulged these rumors for so long that they have taken on a life of their own, and probably any time a conservative goes to vote and sees a bus nearby, this becomes what you heard - "reports of voters being bused in," or if the information you came upon was not completely fabricated out of thin air in the first place.

I really hate it when people like you do this crap. You sow doubt with no proof, helping ruin faith in our elections over absolutely nothing but your wildly inaccurate gut feelings.

[ON Progressive]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

[Slander and/or Libel]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

There's a long history of this from the political fringes. Around a dozen Democrats, all of them from safe districts, voted to invalidate Ohio's electoral votes as recently as 2004. But we no longer live in a country where there is symmetry in this regard. The systemic refusal to accept the results of elections that we've seen from Trump, Rick Scott, Bruce Poliquin, and many other Republicans who refused to accept their losses last month really is without precedent in our lifetimes, and it's trickling down to rubes on the street such as the not-so-esteemed creator of this thread. People are genuinely fearful about how Trump would handle a loss in 2020, and for good reason.

I never said there was or wasn't symmetry. I'm referring to some democrat voters calling for the disbanding of the senate, the electoral college and even SCOTUS (in its current form)  because they lose elections.

Yes, this is a smaller subset of Dem voters, but some users on this forum take every random republican and make it into a representation of all republicans.

Those are structural and political preferences with rationales behind them that you can agree with or disagree with. Perhaps they're fringe, but that speaks only to where the center of opinion is, not to the legitimacy of those opinions. And they're most certainly not unfounded conspiracy theories like this article.

[Progressive Pessimist]

You should be happy that Stefanowski kept it as close as he did. I don't think anyone saw such a small margin of victory for Lamont coming. Take a page from us Democrats, this is how we cheer ourselves up in states where we consistently lose by small margins.

[SATW]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

There's a long history of this from the political fringes. Around a dozen Democrats, all of them from safe districts, voted to invalidate Ohio's electoral votes as recently as 2004. But we no longer live in a country where there is symmetry in this regard. The systemic refusal to accept the results of elections that we've seen from Trump, Rick Scott, Bruce Poliquin, and many other Republicans who refused to accept their losses last month really is without precedent in our lifetimes, and it's trickling down to rubes on the street such as the not-so-esteemed creator of this thread. People are genuinely fearful about how Trump would handle a loss in 2020, and for good reason.

I never said there was or wasn't symmetry. I'm referring to some democrat voters calling for the disbanding of the senate, the electoral college and even SCOTUS (in its current form)  because they lose elections.

Yes, this is a smaller subset of Dem voters, but some users on this forum take every random republican and make it into a representation of all republicans.

Those are structural and political preferences with rationales behind them that you can agree with or disagree with. Perhaps they're fringe, but that speaks only to where the center of opinion is, not to the legitimacy of those opinions. And they're most certainly not unfounded conspiracy theories like this article.

Leftists calling for eliminating the senate because they lose is just as pathetic as random conservatives seeing voter fraud everywhere.

It doesn't have to be a conspiracy theory for it to be pathetic or evidence of being sore losers.

[Slander and/or Libel]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

There's a long history of this from the political fringes. Around a dozen Democrats, all of them from safe districts, voted to invalidate Ohio's electoral votes as recently as 2004. But we no longer live in a country where there is symmetry in this regard. The systemic refusal to accept the results of elections that we've seen from Trump, Rick Scott, Bruce Poliquin, and many other Republicans who refused to accept their losses last month really is without precedent in our lifetimes, and it's trickling down to rubes on the street such as the not-so-esteemed creator of this thread. People are genuinely fearful about how Trump would handle a loss in 2020, and for good reason.

I never said there was or wasn't symmetry. I'm referring to some democrat voters calling for the disbanding of the senate, the electoral college and even SCOTUS (in its current form)  because they lose elections.

Yes, this is a smaller subset of Dem voters, but some users on this forum take every random republican and make it into a representation of all republicans.

Those are structural and political preferences with rationales behind them that you can agree with or disagree with. Perhaps they're fringe, but that speaks only to where the center of opinion is, not to the legitimacy of those opinions. And they're most certainly not unfounded conspiracy theories like this article.

Leftists calling for eliminating the senate because they lose is just as pathetic as random conservatives seeing voter fraud everywhere.

It doesn't have to be a conspiracy theory for it to be pathetic or evidence of being sore losers.

The Senate is by its definition anti-democratic, small d. There are perfectly good and defensible reasons to call for its abolition as such.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

There's a long history of this from the political fringes. Around a dozen Democrats, all of them from safe districts, voted to invalidate Ohio's electoral votes as recently as 2004. But we no longer live in a country where there is symmetry in this regard. The systemic refusal to accept the results of elections that we've seen from Trump, Rick Scott, Bruce Poliquin, and many other Republicans who refused to accept their losses last month really is without precedent in our lifetimes, and it's trickling down to rubes on the street such as the not-so-esteemed creator of this thread. People are genuinely fearful about how Trump would handle a loss in 2020, and for good reason.

What loss did Rick Scott not accept?

[FairBol]

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"Reprehensible"? "Beneath contempt"? "Garbage"? Ahem.....

https://wtic.radio.com/articles/democratic-official-stamford-charged-ballot-fraud

Perhaps you should take a look at that news article.  Once again, I prove the nay-sayers wrong.  

[RINO Tom]

Is it an innate thing in the conservative mind to go to conspiracy theories about why they lose?

You do realize that the left does this as well? Or do you only care about one side's problems?

Not relating to THIS topic, really, but MasterJedi's political transformation since he joined this place is really something.

[FairBol]

And for those who won't, or somehow can't, read the article....allow me. 

:: puts on reading glasses (for effect) ::

Ahem.....

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I know, I know...."it happened in 2015, not last year!" To quote Hillary Clinton, "what difference does (that) make"? This establishes a pattern, and proves that not only have Democrats done this kind of thing before, they could/would do it again.  And just to point out, investigators often look at personal history when trying to nail down a criminal suspect....what history do they have of similar actions, and would they have the opportunity/capability to engage in such actions again? I think I can now safely say that state Democrats have both. 

[FairBol]

And BTW, before people get into the whole "this person is a piece of trash, he doesn't know what he's talking about" BS....let me just say that if you hate/are going to hate me, be my guest....I really don't give a shiznit. 

"You gonna hate me, then hate me....what can I do?" -- Nas, "Hate Me Now"