Olsen wanted a national system of hand-counted paper ballots, the sources said, a frequent Trump demand some election-security experts say would be less accurate and potentially riskier than the current system of machines with auditable paper trails that almost all cities and states use. (emphasis mine)
That's exactly why they want it.
This whole thing is a fraud. Trump and the Republicans oppose the current system because they can't rig the vote, and they want to switch to one that they can rig.
I'm tending toward the interpretation that what Martin and the rest of the upper echelon of the DNC wanted was a subtle whitewash - one that would acknowledge the rather obvious problems of corporate money and support for genocide, but then spin some fanciful reason that those weren't really problems, so it'd be fine when the DNC, as they fully intend, keep on doing what they've been doing.
But they not only didn't get that - they got a poorly written mish - mash of platitudes and gibberish that looks like it was slapped together, mostly via LLM, at the eleventh hour.
And if they spent most of the time during which they were meant to be drawing it up locked instead in a crippling tug-of-war over what it should or should not say, that'd explain that.
At this point, I'm tending toward the interpretation that Martin and the rest of the DNC upper echelon wanted and expected a report that would, among other things, pretend to address the rather obvious failures of bowing to the self-serving desires of big money donors and at least tacitly supporting the Palestinian genocide, but would then do some sort of fallacious end run that led to the comforting conclusion that that wasn't really a problem, so it would be okay when the DNC, as they fully intend, keep right on doing both of those things.
Either way we can draw the same conclusion about party leadership.
True that. The names may have changed but the policies and strategies are the same now as they have been since at least 2016 - pimp the pro-corporate/pro-zionist "moderates" no matter what the voters want, at least ignore if not actively campaign against the progressives, again no matter what the voters want, and most important of all, don't do anything that might cut into the flow of soft money.
Democrats don’t care if they lose as long as donations keep coming.
Right, but that's exactly why I assumed that the autopsy was accurate and on-point - because it found fault with things the DNC not only was but still is deliberately doing solely to keep the soft money rolling in, and in spite of the fact that those things will likely lead to a loss. That's the reality they don't want the voters to become (more) aware of.
But since it's just a mealy-mouthed whitewash, it seems like they might as well have released it as promised.
I was surprised by how weak and digressive it was.
When they announced their intention to bury it I assumed that meant it was accurate and on point, and they wanted to bury it for exactly that reason.
But instead it almost feels like a whitewash - like the sort of thing the DNC would've ordered specifically to divert from the real problems of support for genocide and subservience to moneyed interests.
Makes me wonder if this is some sort of elaborate fraud - if they didn't just throw this together as a substitute to release in place of the real autopsy.
I prefer movies or anime I've seen so many times that I have them memorized, so my mind follows along effortlessly.
It's sort of like my mind is a toddler, and if I don't plunk it down in front of something familiar that I know it likes, it'll run off and get into god-knows-what and I'll never get a moment's peace.
Exactly what happened is that Trump filed a bogus lawsuit then his crony at the Justice Department arranged for a bogus "settlement" so that Trump could get a slush fund from which to dole out money to other cronies.
It's blatant and overt fraud, and both of them should go to prison.
If the logic is that interference this close to the primaries is a bad thing (which it rather obviously is), then the only sound ruling is that NOBODY - including legislatures - can do so.
If, on the other hand they're going to rule that legislatures can interfere this close to the primaries, then there's no reason why courts can't as well.
But of course, as is the simple truth of this Supreme Court, their ruling isn't based on law, precedent or even logic - it's based solely on what will benefit Trump and the Republicans and their billionaire owners.
That's essentially Cunningham's Law in action - "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to post a question - it's to post the wrong answer."
I already knew how to read when I started first grade, so my introduction to the reality of education was a teacher telling me to "stop showing off" when I raised my hand to volunteer to read out loud.
most of us know instinctively that, in many adult contexts, the word’s connotations are at best ambivalent and at worst outright negative
That's not an accident.
The goal is specifically to stifle and ultimately destroy imagination - to render an individual fit for nothing more than being slotted into an established system.
And the more abusive and broadly destructive the system is - the more it's been warped by a few to their own benefit at the expense of everyone else - the more ruthlessly must imagination be stamped out.
(And conveniently enough, those who manage the system generally don't have to do much of anything to see to it that imagination is crushed. The earlier products of the system, embittered by their own loss, are generally eager to tear the next generation down to their level on their own.)
"Fool me once, well okay. Fool me twice, well okay. Fool me three times, well okay. Fool me......
........
........
Fool me 847,382 times, well okay. Fool me 847,383 times... hey... umm... wait a minute... umm...."