All the details about a new Beatles documentary are here.
BONUS
Longtime Elvis drummer Ronnie Tutt died earlier this week.
Author: This Just In... From Franklin, WI
MEDIA WILL IGNORE AUDIT FINDINGS OF SERIOUS ELECTION PROBLEMS IN WI
I worked for the WI State Senate for 15 years. During that time I learned that the WI Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) has an impeccable reputation, the best of its kind in the country. They could find a needle in a thousand haystacks.
Today the LAB issued an audit following the completion of its evaluation of elections administration issues. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) is responsible for ensuring compliance with state and federal election laws.
Media outlets like the leftist Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will emphasize that the November 2020 presidential election in WI was, for the most part, safe and secure. They will scoff at several findings that the election system suffered from flaws that need correction. The LAB made 30 recommendations on solutions.
Here are some findings direct from the final audit report:
TRAINING: We found that WEC’s administrative rules for training municipal clerks have not been updated since June 2016 and contain outdated provisions.
1,349 municipal clerks (82.5 percent) reported having completed all required training; and 287 municipal clerks (17.5 percent) did not report having completed all required training.
76 clerks (63.3 percent) reported having each completed, on average, 6.0 hours of training from January 1, 2020, through November 3, 2020, including 71 clerks who reported having completed the initial training; and 44 clerks (36.7 percent) did not report having completed any training from January 1, 2020, through November 3, 2020. Some of these clerks may have completed training but did not report it, and some may have begun working as clerks after November 3, 2020.
DUPLICATE VOTING: Duplicate voter registration records can be identified with additional sets of criteria not currently used by WisVote. We used only the driver’s license and state identification card numbers to identify potentially duplicate records for all individuals who voted absentee in the November 2020 General Election. We identified 70 records in which either driver’s license or state identification card numbers matched the numbers in 70 separate records. We provided WEC’s staff with a list of these 140 total records for their review because the criteria WEC’s staff use to identify potentially duplicate records would not have discovered these records.
We found that the names and dates of birth of the individuals associated with 24 of the 70 voter registration records that we identified by using our criteria matched similar information in 24 other records. This suggests that the 24 individuals associated with these records had two active voter registration records. We analyzed absentee ballot data provided by WEC’s staff and found that these data indicated 4 of the 24 individuals may have voted twice by absentee ballot during the November 2020 General Election. We provided WEC’s staff with the names of these 24 individuals, including the 4 individuals who may have voted twice.
DECEASED INDIVIDUAL: We obtained data from WEC’s staff on all 33,473 potential matches between the information provided by DHS and the personally identifiable information in voter registration records from January 1, 2020, through November 3, 2020. These data indicated whether clerks had acted on the potential matches as of mid-April 2021. If a clerk does not act on a potential match for a given individual, WEC’s staff are uncertain if a clerk determined whether an individual is still alive and, therefore, whether the voter registration record is accurate. As shown in Table 3, the data indicated that clerks had acted on the potential matches for 20,908 individuals (62.5 percent), but that clerks in 1,199 municipalities had made no determinations on the potential matches for 12,565 individuals (37.5 percent)
If an individual submits an absentee ballot but dies before Election Day, statutes require that the absentee ballot not be counted if local election officials are aware of the death. Identifying deceased individuals in time to ensure that their absentee ballots are not counted is sometimes challenging because of the amount of time required for DHS to be notified of the deaths, for DHS to prepare the applicable data, and for the monthly data exchange with WisVote to occur. We found that it took clerks a median time of 7 days from when they were informed about a potential match to when they determined that an individual was deceased or alive; and 56 days from when individuals died to when they determined that an individual was deceased or alive. We reviewed the voting records of the 20,614 individuals who clerks determined were deceased and the 12,565 individuals for whom clerks made no determinations. The available information indicates that 11 individuals who died before November 3, 2020, likely voted in the General Election.
INDIVIDUALS SERVING FELONY SENTENCES: Statutes prohibit individuals convicted of felonies from voting until they have completed their sentences, including parole and extended supervision, or completed probation. DOC is statutorily required on a continuous basis to provide WEC with the names and addresses of individuals who have been convicted of felonies and whose civil rights have not been restored, as well as the dates DOC expects these civil rights to be restored…the data indicated that clerks had acted on the potential matches for 1,435 individuals (63.6 percent), and it took a median time of five days to act on these matches. Clerks in 296 municipalities had made no determinations on the potential matches for 821 individuals (36.4 percent).
We reviewed the voting records of the 1,115 individuals whom clerks determined had ongoing felony sentences and the 821 individuals for whom clerks made no determinations. We found that the available data indicate that eight individuals with ongoing felony sentences may have voted in the November 2020 General Election.
ABSENTEE BALLOTS: We physically reviewed 14,710 certificates in the 29 municipalities, where a total of 470,028 absentee ballots were cast in the November 2020 General Election. Our review of the 14,710 certificates found that 1,022 certificates (6.9 percent) in 28 municipalities had partial witness addresses because they did not have one or more components of a witness address, such as a street name, municipality, state, and zip code, including 799 certificates (5.4 percent) that did not have a zip code and 364 certificates (2.5 percent) that did not have a state; 15 certificates (0.1 percent) in 10 municipalities did not have a witness address in its entirety; 8 certificates (less than 0.1 percent) in 7 municipalities did not have a witness signature; and 3 certificates (less than 0.1 percent) in 2 municipalities did not have a voter’s signature.
Statutes require municipal clerks to write their initials on certificates in certain situations, including when individuals request absentee ballots in person at clerk offices. These initials indicate that clerks verified the identification provided by these individuals when they requested absentee ballots. Statutes indicate that a ballot must not be counted if the accompanying certificate is not initialed by a clerk, when such initials are required.
During our review of the 14,710 certificates, we found that less than 1.0 percent of all certificates we reviewed in four municipalities contained clerk initials. Clerks at these municipalities indicated that they did not initial certificates for multiple reasons, including because the individuals who requested the ballots were registered and eligible to receive them; the clerks printed the names and addresses of the individuals on the certificates to signify the individuals were eligible to receive the ballots; and the clerks initialed the ballots rather than the certificates. We question whether the clerks in these four municipalities consistently complied with the statutory requirement for them to initial certificates in certain situations.
INDEFINITELY CONFINED INDIVIDUALS : Statutes allow individuals to sign statements indicating they are indefinitely confined because of age, physical illness, or infirmity, or because they are disabled for an indefinite period. Such individuals are not required to provide proof of their identification in order to receive absentee ballots. Instead, statutes allow them to submit signed statements from witnesses who observed them voting their ballots. These statements must contain the names and addresses of the individuals and verify the accuracy of this information.
220,404 indefinitely confined individuals voted in the November 2020 General Election, including 169,901 individuals (77.1 percent) who first indicated in 2020 that they were indefinitely confined. We found that 1,001 individuals first indicated for the November 2020 General Election that they were indefinitely confined but, in fact, voted at the polls on November 3, 2020.
The entire audit report is here.
Today’s highly interesting read (10/22/21): Mandate Resisters Are the Real Heroes
Today’s read is from Rev. Michael P. Orsi, parochial vicar at St. Agnes Parish in Naples, Florida. He is host of “Action for Life TV,” a weekly cable television series devoted to pro-life issues. Here’s an excerpt:
Among those who are most hesitant about the vaccines — and most vocal in their skepticism — are medical professionals themselves.
Suddenly, those who recently were hailed as heroes find themselves criticized and shunned, even mocked and belittled.
We’re seeing a profoundly negative effect on the social and moral fabric of our country, on our sense of community, driving wedges between people, alienating friends and family members.
And you can be sure there are plenty of people, who are willing to do the devil’s work, who won’t “let a crisis go to waste,” as it’s been said. In fact, Satan is having a field day right now.
Read the entire column here.
Suburban soccer snob
Thursday night I was assigned to time the WIAA playoff game at South Stadium between Milwaukee Carmen and Heritage Christian (located in New Berlin). Remember it had rained most of the day.
As I was about to make my way up to the press box a woman who was a Heritage Christian fan, I’d say in her late 30’s to early 40’s approached me rather than the clearly marked Event Staff personnel. She was calm, pleasant, soft-spoken. Let me paraphrase our conversation.
WOMAN: All the (metal stadium) seats are wet.
(Pause)
WOMAN: Are we expected to sit on wet seats?
ME: We have no control over the weather.
WOMAN: Don’t you have any paper towels?
ME: You have to remember. This is an MPS facility, a nice facility. But we don’t have any paper towels.
WOMAN: Would there be any in the women’s room?
ME: I’m not privy to what’s inside the women’s room.
WOMAN: I wonder if I checked…can I go there and check?
ME: Of course you can but I think you’d be out of luck. There are towel dispensers attached to the wall in the men’s room, but no paper towels.
WOMAN: Oh, and $6 to attend a soccer game??? (Fans usually get in free during the regular season).
ME: That’s right. This is a WIAA tournament so the WIAA is in charge and they require $6 admission. That’s statewide. Every playoff game in Wisconsin charges admission.
She shrugged her shoulders and walked away. No ‘thank you’ or ‘have a good night.’
When I got to the press box I relayed my story to my colleagues and said the woman basically indicted an entire suburb. Suburbia in general.
I thought I had seen or heard everything at the ballpark all these years. I was wrong.
Elvis’ drummer Ronnie Tutt has died
Surely you’ve read the 2,466-page Biden budget bill
Because if you did you’d realize the outrageously obscene amount of spending and preposterous proposals that are jammed into the massive document.
OK. You can stop laughing now. I can hear you guffawing all the way to my house.
Fortunately the Republican Study Committee chaired by Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana combed through the entire mess and unearthed a complete disaster.
Here are just a few of the radical ideas being pushed:
Perpetuates labor shortage: Continues welfare benefits without work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents at a time where there are 10.1 million job openings—more openings than there are people looking for work.
Commissions a climate police: Democrats stuffed $8 billion into the bill to commission a cabal of federally funded climate police called the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) who will conduct progressive activism on taxpayers’ dime.
Includes new incentives for illegal immigration: Illegal immigrants will be eligible to take advantage of Democrats’ new ‘free’ college entitlement as well be eligible for additional student aid and the enhanced child tax credit.
Includes legislative hull for Biden’s vaccine mandate: Increases OSHA penalties on businesses that fail to implement the mandate up to $700,000 per violation and includes $2.6 billion in funding for the Department of Labor to increase enforcement of these penalties .
Pushes Democrats’ wasteful and confusing school lunch agenda: $643 million for, among other things, “procuring…culturally appropriate foods.”
Furthers radical abortion agenda: Does not include the Hyde amendment and would mandate taxpayers pay for abortions.
Drives up costs on Americans’ utility bills: Issues a punitive methane tax and includes a tax on natural gas up to $1,500 per ton that could cost the American economy up to $9.1 billion and cost 90,000 Americans their jobs.
Grants amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants: House Democrats have included in their reconciliation bill a plan to grant amnesty to around 8 million illegal immigrants at a cost of around $100 billion over ten years that would largely be spent on welfare and other entitlements. Trillions more would be spent long term on their Social Security and Medicare.
Increases taxes on Americans at every income level: $2 trillion in tax hikes will fall on those making under $400,000 per year, contrary to what the White House says. Individuals at all income levels will be affected.
Again, this is just a small, partial list.
UPDATE: Franklin hypocrites
Masks for thee but not for me.
Previously on This Just In…
The update:
COVID tyrants like Franklin’s medical advisory team, District Administrator Judy Mueller, and most, if not all members of the Franklin school board worship at the altar of liar and flip-flopper Anthony Fauci.
So they preach that we need to don masks. Oh, and we might want to stay away from outdoor events, like football games, because we’d put ourselves and/or others at risk. What do these pontificators do? They attend large outdoor events, sans masks.
Last month on CNN Fauci was asked about football games: “But when you look at crowds like that, do you approve of that? Or is that just not smart?”
Fauci responded, “No, I don’t think it’s smart. I think when you’re dealing particularly — you know, outdoors is always better than indoors, but even when you have such a congregant setting of people close together, first, you should be vaccinated. And when you do have congregant settings, particularly indoors, you should be wearing a mask.”
How dangerous are these football games? NBC News recently checked it out.
University of Florida epidemiologist Cindy Prins, Ph.D., who tracks coronavirus trends nationwide, was interviewed for the NBC report.
She was also interviewed for a University of Florida news release.
“I’m not seeing a lot of COVID ramifications,” she said. “When we see these full stadiums, it makes people feel nervous because we’ve been avoiding crowds for such a long time. But some of these outdoor events really are not the super spreader events that people have worried they’re going to be.”
Why aren’t cases spiking after football weekends?
“There are a lot of factors. One is that people are outdoors, and we know now that being outside comes with a much lower risk of transmission. I would also say that when you are seated in a stadium, the people who are the riskiest are the ones that are immediately around you — they may be the people that you came with. They’re the people on either side of you, maybe the folks in front of or in back of you, but it’s really a limited area. Another factor, especially in Florida: We’re still in pretty high heat and humidity, and COVID doesn’t linger as long in that heavy air.”
Could that change for cooler, drier games?
“It’s possible. We don’t know to what extent the humidity cuts down on real person-to-person transmission. But even though I think the humidity may be helping, it doesn’t necessarily mean that colder, drier weather is going to make people get COVID at these games.”
Once again, the so-called ‘experts’ are debunked. They need to let people make their own choices (like Golden and school board member Sepersky did at that football game) and live their lives.
Today’s highly interesting read (10/21/21): Making kids wear masks in school is torture, not safety
AP photo taken in NY.
Today’s read is from the Editorial Board of the NY Post. Here’s a brief excerpt:
And let’s be clear: Forcing them to wear masks all day in school, sometimes at recess, is torture. Saying that even vaccinated kids must continue to wear masks in school, as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday, is torture.
Doctors and psychologists are just beginning to study the effects of mask-wearing on kids, but the early signs aren’t good.
Read the entire column here.
You’ve never seen fall colors like this before
Peak fall color has arrived and in many parts of northern Wisconsin has gone.
For much of southern Wisconsin, most vibrant fall colors don’t typically show up until around the third week of October. That means now.
Still time to witness the beauty of fall. You could take a nice stroll, or do a drive-by.
But this is the best way to take it all in.
Today’s highly interesting read (10/20/21): Men, Or Boys? Reflections on a vanishing ideal
Today’s read is from David Black, a prize-winning novelist, journalist, screenwriter, television producer, and a scholar-in-residence at Kirkland House, Harvard. Here’s an excerpt:
“The minute your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee?” asks Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. In living memory, there was a time when knickerbocker’d young men looked forward to the day when they could wear long pants. It was a sign they had become a man.
The other night, though, I went to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Hudson, New York City’s Sixth Borough. Half the adult males were wearing shorts.
The last time I was at the Metropolitan Opera, what looked like more than half the male audience was dressed not just in casual clothes, but sloppy casual clothes. These included shorts, sweatpants or, worse, pajama bottoms, one of which had rocket ships on it—a prepubescent boy’s pattern. This was in the Orchestra section. I saw few suits and ties and fewer tuxedoes.
When I started traveling in planes in the late 1960s, most men still wore suits and ties for the flight. This may sound like a traditional complaint of the older generation finding the younger generation wanting, and it is, but it’s also a regret for something fundamental that is being lost—has been lost—in our culture: the differentiation among ages.
What has happened to the male gender?
Read the entire column here.
