by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
The Louisiana legislature is perilously close to crowning Secretary of State (SOS) Nancy Landry as the indisputable queen of elections in Louisiana. If Rep. Mike Johnson’s HB 856 wins final passage in the House, Landry will be vested with unprecedented and unchecked powers on election matters, including whether Louisiana’s anticipated new $100 million machine based voting system will be reliable and secure. This is a dangerous thing in a free republic whose survival as such depends upon the equal distribution of power among the branches of government and vigorous checks and balances. Excessive concentration of power in one person or agency is a recipe for corruption, poisonous to public policy, and fatal to liberty. What kind of election system we will have is no exception to this rule.
Johnson’s Bill in original form simply clarified that the SOS is “responsible for the maintenance and repair of new voting systems.” So innocuous, in fact, that few paid any attention to the Bill until it got to final vote on the Senate floor, where Republican Sen.
Mike Reese stuffed it with numerous amendments vesting Landry with unprecedented power. Specifically:
** The Bill in current form greatly diminishes legislative oversight over the SOS and her selection of our new voting system,
** Eliminates entirely the requirement of attorney general review and approval of any new voting system proposed by the SOS,
** Eliminates the express requirement that any proposed new voting system be examined and tested for security by independent forensic experts,
** Eliminates the requirement that a computer expert be on the final evaluation committee, dispenses with the requirement of public hearings during the selection process by eliminating the standard Administrative Procedure Act,
** And makes the choice of hand-marked, secure paper ballots for voting subject to “legislative appropriation.”
In other words, if the legislature doesn’t appropriate the money for a hand-marked system, Louisiana will have a purely machine based voting system by default. This appears to be precisely what the SOS wants.
The pending changes to Louisiana law contemplated by HB 856 are so devastating to public transparency and accountability that the author of the current law, former Senator Sharon Hewitt, has weighed in on it. “The third party testing is a huge issue”, Hewitt said. “The elimination of the APA (Administrative Procedure Act) is also a big issue. The APA process is routine for all agencies and gives the legislative committees oversight and requires public hearings. The SOS is eliminating this step.” Hewitt expresses other serious concerns about the amendments at @sharonhewitt, her X page.
Alex Haldeman, the world’s foremost election security expert who hacked into a Dominion voting machine during a recent federal trial in Georgia, testified several years ago before the Louisiana Voting System Commission (LVSC). Haldeman was crystal clear that all electronic voting systems are vulnerable to undetected manipulation and are attractive targets for sophisticated criminal hackers. (Haldeman recommends a secure, hand-marked paper ballot system except for any voter who is physically incapable of hand-marking a ballot.)
Under this stark reality, it is particularly unwise to eliminate from the selection process traditional legislative oversight, existing checks and balances, independent forensic testing by experts, and open public hearings before deciding upon something so consequential as a new voting system. It is our hope and our belief that the Senate body did not fully understand the implications of the Bill before voting on it and that the Louisiana House will reject HB 856 in its entirety, without compromise.
Louisiana citizens are watching.
J. Christopher Alexander, Louisiana Citizen Advocacy Group www.lacag.org
The post This Does Not Sound Good: Louisiana Bill Will Gut Legislative Oversight over Election Process appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
Credit: Twitter/Vivek Ramaswamy)
The Gateway Pundit reported in 2023 that BuzzFeed News, best known for publishing the fake, Hillary Clinton-funded Russia dossier in January 2017, shortly before Trump’s Inauguration, shut down.
The fake news outlet was sued for publishing the Russia dossier.
In 2022, it was reported that BuzzFeed was losing $10 million a year.
BuzzFeed News is part of the larger BuzzFeed organization, and the shuttering came as the struggling outlet sought to slash 15% of its workforce or 180 employees.
BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti said at the time, “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization.”
According to a May Securities and Exchange Commission filing, former Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy purchased an activist stake in BuzzFeed.
The Daily Caller reports:
Ramaswamy purchased a 7.7% stake consisting of 2.7 million shares between March 14 and May 21 at costs ranging from $1.47 to $2.51 per share, according to the filing. The businessman asserted in the filing that he feels the company’s shares are “undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportunity.”
Ramaswamy “will seek to engage in a dialogue with the Issuer’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) and/or management about numerous operational and strategic opportunities to maximize shareholder value, including a shift in the Company’s strategy,” according to the filing.
“Stay tuned,” Ramaswamy told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Since March, he has purchased nearly 3M shares of the failing social platform, making him the fourth-largest shareholder.
News of Ramaswamy’s investment sent Buzzfeed’s share price higher by 25% as of Wednesday.
The post May SEC Filing Shows Vivek Ramaswamy Has Purchased an Activist Stake In BuzzFeed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
Screenshot: KTVU
Safeway has announced that it is removing self-checkout from certain California stores due to increasing theft.
The changes will predominantly be in the Bay Area, specifically Oakland. Several stores in San Francisco and Emeryville have already had the kiosks removed.
“Operational changes have been made at select stores throughout the Bay Area given the increasing amount of theft,” Safeway said in a statement provided to local station KTVU.
The statement continued, “Self-checkout kiosks have been removed at a few stores. Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft so we can ensure the well-being of our employees and foster a welcoming environment for our customers.”
The report added:
The Safeway on Pleasant Valley Road in Oakland removed them earlier this month.
There’s just a big empty space where the self-checkout kiosks used to be.
There are also marks on the floor where the machines used to sit.
In their place is a display of soda cans.
Democrat State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas has introduced legislation to curtail the amount of theft at self-checkouts.
Instead of getting tough on thieves, Smallwood-Cuevas’ bill will require stores to have a minimum staffing level of one worker for every two self-checkout machines.
“Lone workers have become easy targets of theft and violence and they’re too often forced to stock merchandise, operate checkout, cater to customers, all while trying to monitor their stores for retail theft,” she told the station.
The post Grocery Store Chain Confirms Its Removing Self-Checkout from Certain California Stores Due to Increasing Theft appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
Donald Trump has said he will give “very serious consideration” to the idea of pardoning WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Trump made the comments during an interview with podcaster Tim Pool before his speech at the Libertarian National Convention.
“Well, I’m going to talk about that today, and we’re going to give it very serious consideration,” Trump said.
BREAKING: Trump just stunned the world on Tim Pool, saying he will consider pardoning WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange once he’s President
WE ARE WINNING
pic.twitter.com/z4hJPxM0RM
— George (@BehizyTweets) May 28, 2024
Assange is currently fighting extradition to the US, where he faces espionage charges carrying a maximum 175-year sentence for obtaining and publishing classified information on his organization, WikiLeaks.
Trump’s comments were welcomed by Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, who told The Sydney Morning Herald: “I think we are reaching a critical point in the fight to free Julian. All presidential candidates have made statements on Julian’s freedom in the past two months.”
“It’s time this scandalous prosecution is brought to an end and, with the help of the Australian government, Julian is brought home to be with his family,” he added.
Back in 2021, Trump told conservative commentator Candace Owens that he came “very close” to pardoning Assange at the end of his last administration.
“You have two sides of it: In one case, you have sort of a spy deal going on, and then another case, you have somebody that’s exposing real corruption,” he said at the time.”I won’t say which one, but I feel a little bit more strongly about one than the other….but I could have done it.”
Trump explains to Candace Owens why he started the prosecution of Assange and didn’t pardon Assange/Snowden. pic.twitter.com/EknNzx4A4n
— V (@Vedthalegend) December 22, 2021
“I will say you have people on both sides of that issue. Good people on both sides, and you have some bad people on one side. But I decided to let that one ride, let the courts work it out. And I guess the courts are actually doing that.”
During his speech at the Libertarian Party convention over the weekend, Trump also pledged to commute the sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
“If you vote for me, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht,” he declared. “He’s already served 11 years, we’re gonna get him home.”
The post Donald Trump Says He Will Give ‘Serious Consideration’ to Pardoning Julian Assange appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
It’s been nearly four years since Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election after several days of locked rooms, late-night ballot deliveries, and triple-counting ballots.
On November 18, 2020, The Gateway Pundit first posted the impossible numbers that swung the election to Old Joe.
Mysterious late-night ballot drops in every battleground state swung the election to Joe Biden. And subsequent ballot drops in perfect ratios of ballots to Trump and Biden solidified the results.
Wisconsin:
Michigan:
Georgia:
Every 2020 battleground state followed this same pattern.
The Gateway Pundit called this phenomenon the “Drop and Roll.”
No election expert has ever explained this because they cannot explain it without raising the likely possibility of fraud.
Following the election, The Gateway Pundit published several reports on how the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and the American people.
The numbers don’t lie.
The election was stolen.
On November 18, 2020, just days after the election, TGP put our findings in an easy-to-follow video titled “The Drop and Roll.”
We are reposting it so you can enjoy it again.
Please pass it on!
This video has over 3.6 million views so far on Rumble.
And here is the video on YouTube — although people are having trouble seeing it for some reason. The YouTube video is hidden from the public (It’s Google after all!) and has 284,000 views.
The information for this video can be found at The Gateway Pundit.
Please pass this on!
The post NEVER FORGET: Not a Single Election Expert Has Been Able to Explain the “Drop and Roll” Phenomenon that Flipped the 2020 Election Late at Night to Joe Biden appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
