"Needs To Be Quashed Immediately": Michigan Clerk Files Criminal Complaint Against Resident Who Mocked Mail-In Voting

"Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A Michigan clerk appears to have taken a determined stand against lawn commode voting. The problem is not that Barb Byrum, the clerk of Ingham County is entirely humorless.

Rather, she appears legally clueless in a complaint filed against a Mason, Michigan resident who put a toilet on their lawn with a sign that reads, “Place mail in ballots here.” 

Byrum could have denounced it as scatological, but instead declared it unlawful on the basis of an absurd theory that people would mistake the toilet for a polling place or mailbox. However, the Democratic clerk vowed to “quash” anyone mocking the election in this way.

Byrum insisted that “It is a felony to take illegal possession of an absentee ballot. Elections in this country are to be taken seriously and there are many people who are voting by mail for the first time this election.”

In so saying, Byrum succeeded in looking even more crazed than the residents with a toilet on their lawn.

The relevant provision appears to be:

(f) A person other than an absent voter; a person whose job it is to handle mail before, during, or after being transported by a public postal service, express mail service, parcel post service, or common carrier, but only during the normal course of his or her employment; a clerk or assistant of the clerk; a member of the immediate family of the absent voter including father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild; or a person residing in the absent voter’s household shall not do any of the following:

  (i) Possess an absent voter ballot mailed or delivered to another person, regardless of whether the ballot has been voted.

  (ii) Return, solicit to return, or agree to return an absent voter ballot to the clerk of a city, township, village, or school district.

This of course is a toilet and a joke.  If a voter actually thought he or she was voting by lawn commode, would we really want that person participating in an election?

If the resident is joking, it is not solicitation to return.  Moreover, Byrum is using this ridiculous interpretation to effectively punish a voter for engaging in political speech.  The picture shows that next to the toilet is a sign reading “Recall Whitmer.” This is clearly political speech protesting the massive increase in mail-in voting that has many citizens (and President Donald Trump) complaining over possible fraud.   So Byrum responds with a criminal referral that seems retaliatory and harassing in character.

Byrum also comes across as a petty tyrant in proclaiming:

“This kind of behavior needs to be quashed immediately. They are making a mockery of our elections. I’m not going to stand idly by and watch it happen.”

That comment seems so over-the-top that I double checked sources to confirm that she said it.

Byrum appears to view her office as empowering her to “quash . . . mockery” like some humor police. The mockery in this story is using a felony crime to threaten political critics.

This is why Einstein said “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Spotify Employees Demanding Editorial Oversight Over Joe Rogan

"A group of Spotify staffers are now reportedly pushing to introduce direct editing oversight over The Joe Rogan Experience — before the episodes go live. That includes content flags, trigger warnings, references to fact-checked information, or simply refusing to publish an episode at all.

The demands follow a string of controversial comments by Joe Rogan, who was lured to Spotify in a massive, $100 million deal. Rogan’s appeal to millions of listeners is his unfiltered and irreverent approach, though that style isn’t sitting well with an activist group of Spotify staffers who say he needs to be reined in.

Earlier this month, Digital Music News first reported that multiple podcast episodes were missing following a migration to Spotify’s platform. That included controversial interviews with the likes of Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gavin McInnes. Also missing are episodes featuring right-wing figures like Owen Benjamin, Stefan Molyneux, and Charles C. Johnson.

But despite the glaring omissions, Spotify staffers are now stepping up their demands to control more of Rogan’s content. Vice first reported that Spotify employees have conducted more than ten meetings to discuss possible changes. Those discussions included proposals for the outright removal of additional podcast episodes.

Of particular focus in an earlier conversation featuring author Abigail Shrier, who wrote Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Shrier’s opinions on the matter drew howls of protest from certain Spotify staffers, who demanded its removal — though the episode is still available on the Spotify platform.

Now, Digital Music News has learned that the protesting employee group is stepping up its demands to control Rogan’s work.

Part of the rationale is that Spotify already exerts control over content like playlists, even those created by outside curators.  So why not extend that oversight to podcasts as well?

This has reportedly gone all the way to the top, though Spotify CEO Daniel Ek appears to be pushing back. From a business standpoint, the reason is fairly obvious: Rogan’s audience likes his direct, unedited style, and could quickly abandon the comedian-podcaster if he’s edited. That might explain why the Shrier podcast is still live, though a strange development emerged earlier today.

In completely uncharacteristic fashion, Joe Rogan issued a public apology for comments made during his recent interview with Douglas Murray.

In the episode, Rogan alleged that left-wing activists had intentionally set wildfires in states like Oregon, a claim refuted by the FBI and other officials.

“I actually love Portland, it’s one of my favorite places to perform,” Rogan said.  “Most of the people there are very nice. But there’s a madness going on there — you want to talk about the madness of crowds, that exemplifies that right now.  They’ve arrested people for lighting forest fires up there, they’ve arrested left-wing people for lightning these forest fires. Air quote ‘activists,’ this stuff isn’t widely being reported.”

Earlier today, Rogan issued a mea culpa: “I need to make an apology and a retraction,” Rogan said on Instagram. “I said something on the podcast with Douglas Murray about people getting arrested for lighting fires, and I got duped. It’s wrong.”

Whether that apology was made under pressure from Spotify is unclear, though Spotify staffers want to edit comments like that before they get published. That would include simply cutting the section out, or issuing a warning and link to other information — similar to the oversight employed by Twitter and Facebook.

Of course, that level of oversight could create a serious rift between Rogan and Spotify. Beyond that, it could constitute a breach of contract, which would give Rogan an exit from the deal after delivering a handful of episodes.

Either way, this marriage looks troubled — just days after the honeymoon."

I will go out on a limb with a prediction; businesses that allow this behavior among employees will have a short and challenging run. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, And Her Replacement — Manhattan Contrarian

Ginsburg should not have been confirmed, nor should any nominee who is unwilling to limit the US Constitution to the language of the document. Interpreting the US Constitution beyond its actual words is the usurpation of individual rights and the deposit of those rights to the government. The entire basis of the US Constitution was a compact between the people to give up specific declared rights in exchange for a defined amount of security. Taking additional rights from the people without amendment of the US Constitution is theft of rights without color of constitution or law. This should be considered the highest crime possible in our constitutional system. There is nothing more damaging since it is challenging to amend the Constitution, and one group or party engaging in this unconstitutional behavior can damage all the people of the United States permanently. 

It is a moral failing to place party above country, that is what Ginsburg did. 

I suggest this is an impeachable offense but then the politically benefiting party would never agree to impeach or convict. 

Ginsburg was possibly the worst Supreme Court Justice because she was so reliably willing to engage in unconstitutional behavior to achieve the Democratic Party's goals.

The Enemies of Mideast Peace

The Dems are incompetent, venal, narcissists. Calling them wrong is an error by two orders of magnitude. The Dem "experts" are not; they lack real-world experience in areas necessary to understand human nature, and they are true believers in the progressive cult, which demands they incorrectly "understand" human nature, which means they cannot get the answers to these questions correct. 

Electing Dems ensures we will continue to have difficulty and problems in domestic and foreign policy. Stop now. 

Portland Neighbors Frustrated After Police Take 90 Minutes Responding To Hostage Situation Involving 12-Year-Old

The police are understaffed, overworked, and suffering. There are few, if any, people who want this job, so where will Potlandia find a replacement for the retirees, quits, and injured? They won't. So, expect serious criminals to move in and set up operations. Expect small-time local thugs to step up their game, which means light rail after dark is too dangerous to ride. Expect the petty youth criminals to step up their game, which means everything not nailed down is about to be "liberated." Looting is good for Portlandians, doncha know. 

Leftists Trash Portland

Police stand by meekly because the Mayor Ted Worthless Wheeler won't allow them to use riot tactics on the rioters. Worthless is part of the problem here and should be charged with state and federal crimes related to the damages and allowing his Democratic Party militant faction (BLM/Klantifa) to run murderous. 

As I've said on many a time, we moved out of the city because we could see that it was likely to fall prey to destructive far-left crime. The politicians and the people of Portlandia seem to want violence and destruction. They have created and unleashed a monster. Perhaps if they had some classical training, they would have known better. The Art of War, Aesop's Fables, The Bible, and other books designed to instill a common sense and an understanding of how realpolitik operates might have come in handy, but progressives are immune from understanding that human nature is real and immutable.

The progressive believes that humans are blank slates that can be molded to whatever the progressive desires with a little help from their academic friends. Oddly, every time the progressive try this Triple Lindy of human social engineering, they fail miserably. The result is the destruction of cities, and people, most commonly the poor and the minority communities. 

I will keep doing what I can but Portlandia's downtown is dead and will not recover for decades. Even if Porltlandians were to elect ration politicians as mayor and city counsel members, it would only be partially effective. The business lost will mostly not be coming back, and other businesses will be willing to take the risk of locating in downtown Portlandia for decades. Why take that most insane risk when you know the consequences? 

I expect that even the larger businesses will leave the downtown core over the next few years. Who would want to locate in such a dangerous area with such a nonexistent police force? 

What are the likely consequences of the feckless policies of Worthless Wheeler? The downtown Portland will simply cease to be a place where middle America comes to do business, shop, or dine. It is Detroit am der Willamette. 

Portlandia will suffer a massive loss of revenue in part because businesses will close and not be replaced. In part, it will lose revenue because the workers will work from home. Many, if not most, do not live in the city of Portland or will move out of the city and into the surrounding suburbs once they understand that working from home allows them to live much further from downtown and reap the benefits of lower tax rates, lower property taxes, and other benefits. 

The next few years will likely see a massive movement of people around the metro area, causing serious problems concerning city revenues. The upside is transit in Portland is dead. Light rail never carried more than about 1.5% of all daily trips in the metro area, and bus-only handled something less than 2% of trips in the metro area. Together they were little more than a rounding error for daily trips, at least as many trips were taken on skateboards, and other similar types of transportation. Bicycles account for twice as many daily trips as does all public transit. 

Get rid of it and cut those costs. But the city cannot, it is part of its strategy to force the people to live in a highly dense Manhattan-style city. This is a joke but the politicians never will give up on it no matter how silly it is. 

The consequences of the economic decline of Portlandia will be the infarction of the city and state pension system, which will implode the state's budget. 

COVID, the lockdowns, the tyranny and incompetence of the politicians, the riots, and more will all go down in history as the reason for the fall of the city of Portland. 

Goodnight Portland. 

Please vote Biden for Senate? He is running for President when he is not napping in his basement.

Climate Change Apocalypse: "Permanently Immunized From Falsification" — Manhattan Contrarian

The video below is a year old, but you should watch it for the historical context, not the 2020 data, which it does not contain. 

Climate modelers who are not scientists have convinced Slow Joe to believe their fraudulent climate alarmism. Climate alarmism is likely one of the most damaging mass fraud ever perpetrated and will need to be addressed soon. I suggest that we beef up our federal fraud laws and prepare to investigate these professional fraudsters. 

Biden is too slow to realize he has been duped. The interns running his campaign are too naive to realize the fraud. This is a sad state of affairs. 

If you wish to read up on other damaging mass frauds, I suggest you read: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds: All Volumes. I am always amused when I speak with someone who does not believe that mass frauds like this could happen. Not only could they happen, but they do routinely.