Month: January 2021

Assertion: If you watch/listen to/read the main-stream media following the mob assault on Congress on 6 January, it is unlikely that your impression of what President Trump actually said is correct.

I have read the verbatim transcript of the entire speech; It’s 11,400 words long. There are three subjects.  1) His positive achievement over four years on behalf of all Americans. 2) Election results. And 3) the march from the White House to Capitol Hill.  I will not belabor his achievements here.

My intent is to amplify what we have heard about election fraud and to clarify President Trump’s alleged “insurrection.”

ELECTION FRAUD: First, an assumption.  The President used a lot of rounded-off numbers in describing election fraud.  Many of you have probably already seen some of those numbers but my assumption is that they were assembled primarily from hundreds of sworn affidavits provided by the patriots who observed the fraudulent activity and had the fortitude to speak out under risk of being charged with perjury if they lied. In the interest of brevity, I plucked them out of some long, rambling sentences and short paragraphs, hopefully, without losing the context. 

The president said to several thousand supporters at the rally: “In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats, made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before.”

PENNSYLVANIA:  President Trump went on to point out the following….

• Over 8,000 ballots were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 prior to the election.
• Over 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters.
• More than 10,000 votes were counted, even though they were received after Election Day. 
• 25,000 ballots were requested by nursing home residents, all in a single giant batch, indicating an enormous illegal ballot-harvesting operation.
• The day before the election, the State of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out. Yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people.

WISCONSIN: President Trump said……

• Over 170,000 absentee votes were counted in Wisconsin without a valid absentee ballot application.
• In Madison, 17,000 votes were deposited in so-called human drop boxes in complete defiance of cease-and-desist letters from the state legislature. They came in duffle bags.
• According to eyewitness testimony, postal service workers in Wisconsin were also instructed to illegally backdate approximately 100,000 ballots.
• The margin of difference in Biden’s win in Wisconsin was less than 20,000 votes.

GEORGIA: President Trump pointed out…..

• The absentee/mail-in ballot rejection rate was more than 10 times lower than previous levels. In other words, in a year in which more people were voting by mail for the first time, the rejection rate was drastically lower than it had ever been before. If Georgia had merely rejected the same number of unlawful ballots, as in other years, there should have been approximately 45,000 ballots rejected.
• In Fulton County, republican poll Watchers were rejected from the room under the false pretense of a burst water main, which we now know was a total lie. Then election officials, when not being monitored, pulled boxes and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. (many of you saw this on television) and illegally scanned them for nearly two hours totally unsupervised. That coincided with a mysterious vote dump of up to 100,000 votes for Joe Biden, almost none for Trump. That was at 1:34am.
• Over 10,300 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Georgia residents who died in 2020 prior to the election.
• More than 2,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match incarcerated felons in Georgia prison.
• More than 4,500 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who do not appear on the state’s own voter rolls.
• Over 18,000 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who registered to vote using an address listed as vacant, according to the postal service.
• At least 88,000 ballots were cast by people whose registrations were illegally backdated.
• 66,000 votes were cast by individuals under the legal voting age.
• At least 15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state prior to November 3rd election.
• Senator William Ligon, chairman of the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, and highly respected on elections, has written a letter describing his concerns with Dominion in Georgia. He wrote, and I quote, “The Dominion voting machines employed in Fulton County had an astronomical and astounding 93.67% error rate.  In the scanning of ballots requiring a review panel to adjudicate or determine the voter’s interest, in over 106,000 ballots out of a total of 113,000. The source of this astronomical error rate must be identified to determine if these machines were set up or destroyed to allow for a third party to disregard the actual ballot cast by the registered voter.”  Trump commented that the national average for such an error rate is far less than 1 percent.  The letter continues, “There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties in Georgia. For example, in Bibb County, President Trump was reported to have 29, 391 votes at 9:11 PM Eastern time. While simultaneously Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have 17,213. Minutes later, just minutes, at the next update, these vote numbers switched with President Trump going way down to 17,000 and Biden going way up to 29,391. ‘And that was very quick, a 12,000-vote switch, all in Mr. Biden’s favor.’
• Despite all of this, the margin in Georgia was only 11,779 votes.

ARIZONA: President Trump said….

• Over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens.
• 2,000 ballots were returned with no address.
• More than 22,000 ballots were received back by election officials before they were supposedly mailed out.
• 11,600 more ballots and votes were counted than there were actual voters.
• 150,000 people registered in Maya Copa County after the registration deadline.

NEVADA:  President trump continued….

• The accuracy settings on signature verification machines were purposely lowered before they were used to count over 130,000 ballots. 
• There were more than 42,000 double votes in Nevada. 
• 1,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Nevada residents who died in 2020, prior to November 3rd election.
• More than 8,000 votes were cast by individuals who had no address.
• 17,000 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth matched people who were deceased.

MICHIGAN: President Trump pointed out….

• In Wayne County (Detroit), 174,000 ballots were counted without being tied to an actual registered voter. 
• Also, in Wayne County, poll watches observed canvassers re-scanning batches of ballots multiple times.
• In Detroit, turnout was 139 percent of registered voters.
• Four witnesses testified, under penalty of perjury, that after officials in Detroit announced the last votes had been counted, tens of thousands of additional ballots arrived without required envelopes. Every single one was for a Democrat.
• At 6:31am, after voting had ended, Michigan suddenly reported 147,000 votes. An astounding 94 percent went to Joe Biden.

COMMENT:  Following the election, President Trump’s lawyers filed approximately 60 lawsuits alleging massive election fraud. Most were based on sworn affidavits from election workers. All of the lawsuits were thrown out by judges.  Why? 

In our country, when there is reason to believe a crime has been committed, the following sequence of events follows:

• There is an investigation by law enforcement officers; police, sheriff, State Bureaus of Investigation, FBI, Special Councils, etc. 
• Evidence would be gathered and presented to a prosecutor.  
• If the prosecutor was convinced of a crime it would go to a grand jury. If upheld, individuals would be indicted.
• A trial would be convened, and for the first time a judge would become involved.  

Two things happened in this election fraud scenario; 1) There is little information to indicate that any of the governors seriously set out to conduct an investigation.  2) Three weeks after the election US Attorney General Barr stated, “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” 

Because the Trump legal team had no authority to conduct interviews or request warrants to view ballots, the only alternative was for Trump lawyers to take lawsuits directly to the appropriate judge, where they were generally denied because the individuals’ sworn affidavits were considered to be “uncorroborated hearsay”.  No thorough investigation. 

There was another factor in play, time.  It was impossible, between 3 November and 20 January to conclude investigations in suspect states and complete a speedy trial.  Is that a sufficient excuse to do nothing?  I think not.  But it begs the question, if we cannot successfully prosecute election fraud in a timely manner, how can we expect to ever have a free and honest election? 

CONCLUSIONS concerning election fraud:  

• There will not be an investigation emanating from the Biden administration.

Even if there was an investigation, it would take at least a year and a few folks might go to jail, but would it solve the problem?  Probably not. So, what to do?

• Justice resulting from a long investigation might be satisfying but will it solve the problem?  Probably not, and if only10% of President Trump’s above assertions are correct, we need to bring these injustices to an end, forever.
• In fact, we neither need an investigation of the last election, that train left the station, nor do we need to recount votes. 

There is a simple solution.  Voter ID Cards (not voter ID, but a special card); name, photo, expiration date, and an individual voter ID number.  When your card is swiped for in-person voting, a ballot will be printed with all of your data on it.  Absentee ballot applications must include your voter ID number.  Having done that, it is a simple software command that only ballots that have an ID number can be “read” and ballots will be rejected if that ID number has been used during the voting cycle. 

All Congress has to do is be proactive and pass a simple Voter ID Card law. With Voter ID Cards, every alleged voter fraud activity cited by President Trump during his 6 January rally would have been impossible to execute. For a more extensive discussion of Voter ID Cards, see WeThePeopleSpeaking.com, EVERY CITIZEN SHOULD HAVE A VOTER ID CARD, dated 10 December, 2020.

Given the alleged magnitude of fraud in this past election, without Voter ID Cards, not just voter ID, it is unlikely that we will ever have a legal election again.  Next time it will be the Republican’s turn and then it will become a contest to see which political party can out-fraud the other.  You can stick a fork in this country, we will be done.  A cornerstone of our republic, free and honest elections, will be ripped out of the foundation. 

If you agree with this, please send it along to your Representative and Senators.

Break, Break (Army speak for “new subject”):  back to WHAT PRESIDENT TRUMP REALLY SAID AT THE 6 JANUARY RALLY IN WASHINGTON DC.

If your primary source for current events is the main-stream media, you would believe that on 6 January President Trump riled thousands of supporters into a rabid frenzy and said, grab your M-15 and follow me, we are taking down Congress.

Not quite:  I plucked every reference to Capitol Hill out of his speech.  Here is what he actually said….

• “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we’re going to the Capitol,”

• “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women.”

• “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

• “So, let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America.”

• Later, after the rioting began, he tweeted, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, we are the Party of Law & Order, respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you.”  

• A second tweet, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful.”

CONCLUSIONS concerning 6 January riots and follow-on impeachment.

It is obvious from 20/20 hindsight that the rally was a monumental mistake.  The president’s intent to administratively change the outcome of a formal affirmation of the Electoral College victory, was ill-conceived and doomed to failure. 

Since descending on the escalator at Trump Tower five and a half years ago, candidate/President Trump has led hundreds of rallies without a hint of violence by right-wing radicals. My theory is that, with that track-record, the domestic violence intel folks and Capitol Police believed the likelihood of an attack on the Capitol Building was low to none.  Had they been better prepared, perhaps the outcome would have been less tragic. 

One week later, without investigations by House committees and without the opportunity to mount a defense, President Trump was impeached by a House up-or-down vote for “incitement of insurrection.”

Whether or not President Trump should have been impeached by the House goes to the question of intent.  What did he mean by “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”?  I believe it is abundantly clear the president’s words spoken to the thousands of supporters were not intended to promote violence by radical thugs, a very small percentage of the total rally participants.

The impeachment has to do with one thing, Pelosi’s intent.  She is without a doubt the most vengeful, hate filled senior elected official in my long lifetime of following politics.

 As Victor Davis Hanson to eloquently pointed out a few days ago, “From now on, House impeachment will be used by the out-party as a periodic club to wound a first-term president”. 

Bottom line:  While listening to President Biden’s single-subject inauguration speech, I was hopeful that his words would be followed with commensurate actions.  For example, a simple private phone call to Pelosi could have eliminated impeachment and sent a positive message to 74 million Trump supporters.  Instead, the Biden administration’s intent is very clear, they will continue to foster a culture of hate for everything President Trump did for this country. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

Looking four years ahead my sincere hope is that the Biden Administration is successful.  Having said that, I need to define “success”. In the larger context I define success as that which is best for the American people, not some of us, all of us. More specifically, I believe success would be a secure nation, safe communities, a strong military deterrence and sustained economic growth; that is, every sector of the economy grows.

Am I optimistic?  Not yet.  Let’s look at a few of the policies that are likely to be implemented, some of them very soon, and see what we come up with.  Remember the measure is success, i.e., what is best for all Americans. 

IMMIGRATION REFORM:  Biden said, “ I will send an immigration bill to the United States Senate with a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people in America,”  Four things are bothering me.

Eleven million is a number that has been around for years.  Experts tell us the real number is a lot closer to 22 million.  Facts: we don’t know who they are, where they live or how long they have been here.  So, if the number is really over 20 million and Biden says 11 million will become citizens. How does he deal with the number’s discrepancy?

Two, how does he sort out the hard working, law abiding illegals from the gang members, drug dealers criminals and those who have become totally dependent on US social services? 

Three, precedent is a powerful force, especially when it comes to government policy.  It is highly likely that amnesty will become a green light for millions more illegals from around the world to overpower the border and get in line for the second round of amnesty. 

Four, this immigration reform policy shift is not some big humanitarian gesture by the democrats.  It is the finishing touch to a long-standing plan to establish a new identity voting block consisting of tens of millions of newly natualized citizens. 

Is this what is best for America?  If you want to see a different immigration reform plan that will voluntarily identify and locate every illegal immigrant in America, sort out the good ones and deport the criminals, stop the flow of illegals coming here for work, provide a path to citizenship, have the illegals pay taxes and do it all without new federal or state funding or the establishment of a massive/forever bureaucracy; if that appeals to you look at an article entitled IMMIGRATION REFORM PLAN, published August 2020 on WeThePeopleSpeaking.com. 

OPEN BORDERS:  Biden will not call it open borders but there is every reason to believe he will at least revert to the Obama/Biden policy of catch-and-release. Under this policy illegals crossing the border would actually seek out border patrol agents so they could get “processed” and be on their way. 

As I write this, there is a caravan of about 5000 Guatemalans on the way. Why?  They want to be here when amnesty is announced.  Border patrol is anticipating wave after wave of illegals in the coming months.

What do we know about those 5000 who are on the way to our southern border and the tens of thousands who will follow?  We know they will all fall into one or more of the following categories:  Criminals, drug dealers, gang members, Covid-19 carriers, sick, unemployed or children who need free education in Spanish.  And this is good for America?

“SHUT DOWN DEPORTATION FOR THE FIRST 100 DAYS”, Biden says.  Why?  Because the democrats have long campaigned to shut down ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Of the 85,958 illegal aliens removed from the U.S. interior in 2019, more than 75 percent – 64,991 – had criminal convictions. Another 13,498 had pending criminal charges. Using this data, on average, ICE deported 215 criminals per day.  Biden’s 100 -day shut-down will keep 21,500 criminals in our communities who could have been/should have been deported. 

In all likelihood, the 100-day shutdown is just the prelude. Is eliminating ICE, and leaving tens of thousands of criminals off our streets, the best course of action for safety in our communities?

“I WILL INCREASE MINIMUM WAGED TO $15 PER HOUR ACROSS THE COUNTRY.” Biden promises.  I see two down-side issues here. 

One is timing.  Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of COVID-19-impacted small businesses hanging on be a thread.  Increased minimum right now could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and put them off the cliff.

The second issue is the math. The democrat sound-bite is the $15 minimum wage will lift 1 million Americans out of poverty; an admirable goal.  However, many small businesses operate with slim profit margins and cannot tolerate increased wage costs.  Solution, they will cut back on employees and experts predict 1.3 million will lose their jobs.

Additionally, why $15 increase in every state? The highest cost of living state is Hawaii and the lowest is Mississippi. Does it make sense to dictate the same minimum wage for every state? 

So, with this program we help 1 million low-income employees and start paying unemployment to 1.3 million who just got fired.  Is that what is best for America?

CORPORATE TAX RATES:  Biden told CNN “I’d make the changes on the corporate taxes on day one. The reason I’d make the change on corporate taxes is it could raise $1.3 trillion if they just start paying at 28 percent instead of 21 percent.”

Couple points, corporations don’t pay taxes, people do.  A corporate tax is an added cost of producing a product that gets passed on to the consumer.  When the product price goes up the corporation can no longer compete in a global market.  So, they find another way to cut costs; the usual result is less payroll.

That is exactly the formula that sent millions of US manufacturing jobs overseas.  Do we really want to go through that Obama/Biden scenario again?  Is a higher corporate tax rate really what is best for Americans?

“I WILL NOT FUND ONE MORE FOOT OF BORDER WALL,” Biden said last week. Two points:

One, security walls have proven effective for thousands of years.  They work today in Israel.  They work in affluent neighborhoods across this country.  They are working on our southern border today and every foot that is built allow scarce Border Patrol efforts to be focused elsewhere to their greatest advantage. 

Secondly, billions of dollars will reportedly be spent to cancel contracts, rework land leases, deal with 270,000 tons of fencing materials already produced, etc.  Is this the best use of American tax dollars?  Would it make more sense to finish the fencing that is already funded and then, if Biden still believes walls don’t work, cancel future construction?    

OIL INDEPENDENCE:  For decades US Middle East policy has been complicated, delicate and difficult. the proposed solution to every Middle East issue was predicated on consideration of our need for oil imports from the Middle East.

President Trump’s oil independence has allowed us to interact in the Middle East without fear and trepidation that our oil supplies could be cut off or cause gas prices to surge adversely affecting everyone and every business.  Additionally, without oil independence, we were at the mercy of OPEC when it came to pricing oil and gas on the world’s market.

Biden flip-flopped on the issue of fracking to appease Pennsylvania voters so we do not know where he will end up on the subject of fracking.   But we do know he has not waivered on banning “new oil and gas on public lands and waters”.  A couple issues here.

First, in eight western states, 97% of the oil and gas extraction is from federal lands. So, nearly every oil and gas drilling lease comes into play. 

Second, since the federal government owns nearly a half of the land in the eleven Western states, the economic possibilities of Bidens plans “are devastating“, according to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.

 A third point, Biden’s pronouncements on oil and gas production are likely pandering to global warming proponents. But the fact is that reducing production from federal lands, does not reduce consumption, and consequently, does not reduce emissions.

MILITARY READINESS: Under Presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama the military took huge hits in readiness; for example, after eight years of Obama/Biden the US Army had exactly one, yes one, fully combat ready warfighting brigade and scarcely 50% of Air Force/Navy aircraft could get off the ground. 

Here we go again; Biden pledged during the campaign to, “maintain our military superiority,” which they all say, but added “we must do so affordably.” Which is Washington code for huge budget cuts.

Why is US military readiness a big deal? Around the world our friends and enemies are in a constant state of assessing our military readiness for confidence (friends) and to look for vulnerabilities (enemies).  In the world we live in, US military readiness is a barometer for foreign policy development and decision making.

CONCLUSIONS:  My intent was to come to some early conclusions about which way the wind is blowing on early key issues for the Biden Administration and whether they will be “successful”; success being that which is best for the American people and, more specifically, success would be a secure nation, safe communities, a strong military deterrence and sustained economic growth. 

I wish for the best, but at this juncture I am not optimistic.  Stay tuned. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

The moral high-ground: That is what people around the world used to think of when the subject of the United States came up.  It is where we want our leaders to reside but unfortunately it is not the first thing that comes to mind when we think about our politicians.

The moral high-ground is not a place you are just entitled to be; you have to earn your way to that lofty spot through words and deeds.  Additionally, there is a pathway to the moral high-ground and at the bottom of the hill the street sign says, Intellectual Honesty Lane. 

It is also important to point out that residing on the moral high-ground is not limited to we-the-people.  Every organization and institution, no matter how large or small, has a culture associated with it. Stated another way, culture is an organization’s personality.  It could be positive…..selfless, trustworthy, honest, morally stable……, you get the picture.  Or, unfortunately it could be a culture of blame, hate, self-serving, vengeful.  The one thing that is common to all cultures is, “culture is a powerful and pervasive force”.  If that definition is correct and I believe it is because it is mine, then it is a force to be reckoned with.

For the past four years we have been subjected to our organization’s (the United States of America) culture of blame and hate.  That is an ugly place to be.  

The culture of blame has been growing for the past 25 years, is now deeply entrenched in our political structure and has rendered our Congress hopelessly dysfunctional. The culture of hate is a relatively new-comer.

Background: President Obama set out in 2009 to, his words, “transform America.”  Everything seemed to be moving toward the goal, big government with government control, and then Donald Trump happened. 

In the lead-up to the 2016 election Trump told us what he was going to do…..fix immigration, fix the economy (every piece of it}, rebuild the military, make our NATO allies more responsible, stop nuclear development in North Korea, challenge China’s move toward world economic domination,  challenge Iran’s goal of Middle East hegemony, get tough on Russia, cut taxes for everyone, energy independence, Middle East peace, not start any new wars, shut down ISIS, free up small business expansion through deregulation, the list goes on.  And then after elected, he had the audacity to accomplish all of it. 

The political left was shocked when Donald Trump shredded their transformation plans. They hate him for it; not just a little bit but deep seated, blind, illogical hatred. Hatred so intense that if you supported what he was accomplishing for every citizen then their hatred expanded to include you. They denigrated every one of his accomplishments and attacked his character by proclaiming him to be an active racist. The Trump haters moved to a place so dark they could not even see the moral high-ground let alone understand the importance of it.

The hatred was so strong they openly spoke of and planned for his impeachment.  It started immediately after the 2016 election; Vanity Fair headline November14, 2016: “Will Trump Be Impeached?” Vanity Fair December 15, 2016: “Democrats Are Paving the Way to Impeach Donald Trump.” In a Washington Post article, inauguration day, January 20, 2017 “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.” A recent TV montage showed a lineup of main-stream media journalists and/or leading democrat spokespersons every single month from January 2017 through January 2021 make reference to the imperative to impeach President Trump. 

A culture of hate quickly swept across the nation and was embedded in the minds of possibly 75 -100 million citizens.  The principle enabler for this rapid spread of hate was the main-stream media.  Journalists quickly became the extended arm of the democrat party and its leaders.

With that background, let’s turn to the subject at hand, intellectual honesty and the moral high-ground.  When a president has successfully taken on decades-old domestic and world-wide problems and solved them, is it feasible that daily media reporting of the Trump Administration’s actions should be 93% negative continuously for four years?  Can there be any intellectual honesty associated with 93% negativism?  How is it even feasible that 75-100 million people would believe and foster 93% negative reporting?  It can happen and did happen because of a powerful and pervasive culture of hatred.

Beyond my definition,” Culture is a powerful and pervasive force”, I believe that, “In order for it to endure, culture needs to be nourished and reinforced.”  Knowing they can rely on the media to carry their dirty laundry, Trump-haters have bombarded us with their intellectual dishonesty and immorality.  Examples:

Maxine Watters, June 2018, screams to her supporters, “If you see anybody from this Cabinet in a restaurant, in a Department Store, in a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd! You push back on them! You tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” And what did the democrat party and democrat leaders have to say about all that?  Of course, nothing. In many instances like this one, it is good to remember that silence can be construed as consent.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently tweeted that lists of Trump supporters should be, “archived so they could be held accountable for their behavior.” Could anything be more unamerican? Has she no knowledge of Germany in the 1930s or the USSR during the cold war? Without knowledge there is little hope of seeing her on the moral high-ground.

Kamala Harris:  In the wake of deadly fires and looting last summer, Harris asked her five million plus Twitter followers to donate money to bail out the protesters and then commenting in June 2020 that the protesters “should not let up.”  There is a long list of those who received cash for bail including, Jaleel who shot at members of a SWAT Team during the riots in May. He received $75,000 in cash to get out of jail.  Darnika, charged with second degree murder received $100,000 for her release. The list is long.  What was the push-back from her party for this outrageous behavior?  Zero.

 The American people are not impressed by this kind of intellectual flimflam.  Where is the moral high-ground?  And, by the way, did these ladies get their Twitter accounts suspended or even commented on?  Nope!

Biden campaigned on a pledge to reunify the nation and I fully expect him to go on and on about it during his inauguration address.  Any discussion of reunification should begin by defining the existing division but he won’t do that so his arguments may well ring hollow.

Here is what Joe will not say during his speech.  Prior to 2016 conservatives and liberals disagreed about many aspects of US foreign and domestic policy.  Nothing new about that; we have always had the majority of our population slightly left and right of an imaginary center line as well as a few relatively small lunatic fringe elements to the far left and right.

But what immediately emerged in 2016 was an enormous bulge on the left-of-center line consisting of many tens of millions of Trump haters.  They are the “divide” that all liberal politicians talk about but will never admit they are the cause of the divide. The left’s leaders cannot see it because they are the divide; akin to “unable to see the forest for the trees.”  By contrast, where did the conservatives go?  Nowhere, we are still just to the right side of the center line on policy issues. The culture of hatred towards Trump has nothing to do with policy, is it just pure unadulterated, stand-alone hatred. 

So, Mr. Biden how do you go about reuniting the country?  You and your party are all about identity politics.  Democrats know how to divide Americans into identifiable groups and pander to them.  I suggest you use some of that know-how.

President Trump is going away in a few days.  You won.  Forget about Trump; let the historians worry about him.  Without Trump to kick around, the hate culture might begin to dissolve as an up-front-in-your-face daily issue.  Additionally, journalists will hopefully find something more constructive to deal with. You have been saying for months that you want to be the president for all Americans. Unless that is just another campaign sound bite, you need to actually do something about it. 

Seventy-five million Americans voted for President Trump.  Look at them as your newest and most challenging identity group and do the following:

One, keep your antagonistic mouth shut about Trump. You hate every positive, successful policy he championed on behalf of all Americans.  Stop running all the good accomplishments down.  And watch what you say.  Your sound bites are too often wrong and inflammatory.  For example, on the Capitol Hill riot, 6 January, your knee-jerk reaction was to openly charge the president with insurrection.  The immediate follow-on was that “insurrection” became the operative word description for use by the main-stream media.  What happened on that day was tragic, poor judgement on the president’s part but it most certainly was not, “open revolt against a constituted government”, insurrection.

As an aside, calling the Capitol Police racist was not a smart move.  You might want to remove that too-often-used word from your vocabulary going forward or perhaps get some new writers. 

Two, pick up the phone and have a come-to-Jesus conversation with the single most vindictive person in government; Nancy Pelosi.  What is to be gained by a presidential impeachment in his last few days in office?  The answer is a resounding nothing, but there is a lot you can lose.  Her actions on impeachment makes you look weak.  It makes her look like the leader of your party. Everyone knows, even the democrats, you are supposed to be leading and her actions are simply all about revenge. The leading constitutional authorities I have seen on TV since 6 January have been unanimous that the president’s words were not intended to result in a riot on Capitol Hill.   

On impeachment, you have three choices; 1) support it, 2) not say anything or 3) emphatically and clearly tell we-the-people that impeachment is neither necessary nor appropriate. Choices 1 and 2 will be an enormous impediment to gaining the trust and respect of the 75 million Trump supporters.

Three, announce immediately (preferably at your inauguration) that you understand that about 90 million voters, republican, democrat and independents, want answers concerning potential fraud during the election.  Tell us that you understand the importance of honest elections and if there was fraud anywhere it must be rooted out and the system fixed. 

Doing those three things immediately, will send a powerful and positive message to 75 million Trump supports.  Your failure to do so will run the risk of shifting the left’s entire hate-bulge to the right side of the median. 

Mr. President-elect Biden, you are about to ascend to the most challenging and prominent leadership position in the world.  I ask that you keep intellectual honesty and the value of being on the moral high-ground upper-most in your mind and the in the minds of senior leaders who surround you. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

There were several tragic events that took place in Washington DC on Capitol Hill.  Most happened on January 6^th; an additional tragedy may occur later. 

Tragedy number one was the loss of life; one demonstrator shot attempting to breach the Capitol building, one police officer killed by a demonstrator and three died in the Capitol area of “medical emergencies”. 

Tragedy number two:  It is not an unusual occurrence for a demonstration to take place in Washington.  The Capitol Police and Washington Police Department were not prepared for what went down.  Better preparation might have saved lives.

Tragedy number three:  On January 6^th President Trump made an unnecessary speech to thousands of loyalists who assembled from around the country. 

This article is NOT a debate about who should be inaugurated on January 20th.  It is about a much more serious issue so I would ask my Democrat friends to please read on. 

Survey results over the past two months indicate that around 90 million voters believe there was voter fraud during the weeks leading up to and on election day/night. The significance is the magnitude of voters have lost faith in one of our Republic’s most basic rights; free and honest elections.  We have a major national crisis of confidence. 

Those of you who routinely watch certain networks or read certain newspapers, have been told over and over since 4 November that 1) there was absolutely no fraud or 2) there was so little fraud that the overall results could not change. 

In a previous blog I made the following points:  When you tell me, “But it wasn’t enough to make a difference”, that begs the question, are you saying, 1% fraud is OK? Or 5% or 10%?  What “standard” of fraudulent activity is tolerable? Others are saying, “But it is not widespread.”  Is it OK if it is just in five states?  What you are saying is that some cheating is OK and should be overlooked as long as it does not pass some undefined threshold of frequency or quantity. The real answer to “how much fraud is acceptable” is zero. 

Reportedly in six “battleground states”, soon after midnight, with Trump in the lead, vote counting was stopped.  When counting resumed Biden was way ahead. Don’t 90 million Americans deserve and answer as to why that happened?

Reportedly in Pennsylvania, 1.8 million absentee ballots were sent out and 2.5 million came back.  90 million patriots need to know why.

In Wayne County Michigan, there were more votes counted than registered voters. Why?

Trump lost Wisconsin by 20,565 votes. Four witnesses testified that 100,000 ballots were brought in at 4:30 a.m. and counted without any inspection, all for Biden.  Were all four witnesses lying?

An eyewitness testified, “At the Detroit Vote Center vans came in about four in the morning with about 60 boxes of ballots nearly all for Biden”.  Shouldn’t someone look into this?

Back to the tragedy count. Tragedy number four:   In 2024 when we look back to assess the Biden/Harris administration, potentially their greatest failure will have been that they made a conscience decision in the spring of 2021 to do nothing about the fraudulent 2020 election.  By doing nothing, they will have placed the very fabric of our Constitutional Republic in jeopardy.

Can we just sit back and hope the states all get their act together by 2024?  No, because hope is not a process.

What then should be done?  Immediately after the inauguration, President Biden should select a special prosecutor charged to, within six months, identify the voter/election problems.  The objective would NOT be to recount the votes but rather to look under every rock and uncover the fraudulent events that took place in every state.  To do so, as a minimum, find the answers to these questions:

One, define the accuracy of voter registration rolls in every state.

Two, did massive mail-in balloting provide greater opportunities for voter fraud?

Three, does ballot harvesting provide greater opportunities for voter fraud?

Four, was there evidence of ballot stuffing? Ballot stuffing is casting illegal votes or submitting more than one ballot per voter.

Five, was there voter registration fraud?  That is, filling out and submitting a voter registration card for a fictional person, or filling out a voter registration card with the name of a real person but without that person’s consent and forging his or her signature on the card

Six, was there voter impersonation?  Persons claims to be someone else when casting a vote.

Seven, was there fraud by election officials?  For example, manipulation of ballots, such as tossing out ballots or casting ballots in voters’ names. 

Eight, was there absentee ballot voter fraud?  It is a fraud for a person to fill out and turn in an absentee ballot containing false information.

Nine, did state officials, in the days/weeks just before 3 November, illegally change voter-related laws, rules and/or regulations that are, in fact, the constitutionally-based purview of the state legislature?

Finally, the Special Prosecutor must provide recommendations as to how to fix the problems.  Turning over every dirty rock will be a load of work.  But fortunately, there is a simple fix to all of these fraudulent activities.  All we need is for every voter to have a personal Voter ID Card.

Another card? Yes, this is 2021, we all have multiple cards and will get more.  For example, this year we will be required to have a new/special “REAL” ID card to get on an airline flight. Furthermore, I am certain that about 99.99 % of eligible voters have a driver’s license. It you have a driver’s license you can just as easily have a Voter ID Card.  The Voter ID Card will come in to play and make it nearly impossible to participate in the fraudulent activities listed above. 

To jog your memories on Voter ID Cards, see my blog on 10 December 2020, EVERY CITIZEN SHOULD HAVE A VOTER ID CARD.

Conclusions: 

While elections laws and directives are primarily a states-rights issue, I believe a Special Prosecutor will find extensive violations.  Can we fix election fraud with a 2 or 3-page Federal Law?  Yes.  Although the Elections Clause of the Constitution makes states primarily responsible for regulating national elections, it vests ultimate power in Congress. Congress may pass federal laws regulating national elections that automatically displace/preempt any contrary state statutes, or enact its own regulations concerning those aspects of elections that states may not have addressed.

My intent here is to suggest what must be done if we are to successfully protect one of our most basic freedoms, free and fair elections.  Notwithstanding the necessity to investigate and report to the American people, I do not believe the Biden administration will touch election fraud with a ten-foot pole.  Therefore, It will become the most tragic result of the events on Capitol Hill, 6 January, 2020.

Given Biden’s complacency, our only alternative is to press hard for (not just “voter ID”) Voter ID CARDs.  Voter ID can provide some improvement, Voter ID CARDs will fix the fraud in spite of a do-nothing Biden Administration. 

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com