From: AlleyCat <katt@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,can.politics,alt.politics.trump,alt.politics.liberalism,alt.politics.democrats,alt.politics.usa.republican
Subject: Conservatives Oppose Mail In Ballots. Except When THEY Cast Them - Because We Believe In One Man, One Vote... Not One Illegal Man a 1000 Votes
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2024 15:41:50 -0500
Organization: AlleyCat Computing, Inc.
Sooo convenient, how they always have an excuse for illegal behaviour.
When a fact checker's "verdict" is "missing context", that means it's probably and MOSTLY true.
=====
A Video of A Man Dropping Ballots Off In Gwinnett County, Pretty Much Proves Ballot Harvesting in an ILLEGAL Way
Social media users are sharing a video dated 2020 of an individual dropping off multiple ballots at a drop box in
Gwinnett County, Georgia that they say proves ballot fraud is occurring.
However, there is no evidence the video shows voter fraud...
(it also DOESN'T show proof that they were "legal" ballots. Here's that "can not prove a negative bullshit)
... election officials told Reuters it is legal for individuals to submit ballots on behalf of others in certain
circumstances. The Georgia State Election Board dismissed claims of illegal activity in similar videos it
investigated.
(but, did they KNOW that that's what this man was doling... 'submitting ballots on behalf of others"... LEGALLY?)
A tweet that received 257 likes at the time of writing includes a video of a man dropping off several ballots at a drop
box (here) with the caption "Ballot harvesting is 100% legal here. They want you to believe Mules are dropping ballots
for a family. Unless this man has 20+ adult children it's 100% FRAUD. He takes a picture to get paid!"
(I'm not going to bother going through every "apologetic" bullshit submission, as there IS enough doubt to sow the
seeds that this is probably being done illegally)
Another Facebook post from January with the same video received 2,300 views at the time of writing (here).
The video is from the 2020 election at a voting drop box in Gwinnett County in Georgia, said Joe Sorenson, a
spokesperson for the Gwinnett County Government.
The tweet makes a reference to "mules", a term made popular by the documentary "2,000 mules" directed by conservative
commentator Dines D'Souza that claims widespread fraud was carried out during the 2020 presidential election. A
previous Reuters Fact Check addressing why the documentary does not provide verifiable evidence to prove there was
widespread ballot harvesting in the 2020 election can be seen (here).
The documentary has led to other, broader claims that "ballot harvesting" with the intent to cause widespread voter
fraud is happening across the country, which Reuters Fact Check also addressed (here).
In Gwinnett County, absentee ballots can be dropped by an elector's family member, caregiver or other resident living
in the same household. Employees at jails or other detention centers can also drop off ballots on behalf of voters they
have custody of (here).
Sorenson said that in Georgia, although there are certain constraints on who can drop off ballots for another person,
there is no limit on the number of ballots an individual can drop off for other people.
The Georgia State Election Board investigated three similar videos from Gwinnett County drop boxes. Investigators found
that in all three videos, the individuals were legally dropping off ballots for family members. The ballot harvesting
claims were dismissed by the Georgia State Election Board in May this year (here) (video.com/695911723).
News reports on the dismissal can be seen (here), (here), (here).
The individual featured in one of these three videos is now suing the creators of "2,000 Mules" for wrongfully accusing
him of ballot harvesting after the documentary featured him without permission (here), (here).
The video currently being circulated on social media was not one of the ones being investigated by the State of
Georgia, but is a security video that was likely released as one of the many open records request the county received,
said Sorenson. There are additional checks in place before absentee ballots are approved by the county office to
prevent voter fraud, Sorensen added.
A Reuters explainer on how and why voter fraud is exceedingly rare in U.S. elections can be seen (here).
VERDICT
Missing context.
WHEN A FACT CHECKER'S "VERDICT" IS "MISSING CONTEXT", THAT MEANS IT'S PROBABLY AND MOSTLY TRUE.
A video circulating online claiming to prove ballot harvesting is occurring is from 2020 in Gwinnett
County, Georgia and there is no evidence it shows something illegal taking place. It is legal in Georgia to drop off
ballots on behalf of other people in certain circumstances. The Georgia State Election Board dismissed three similar
cases of ballot harvesting in Gwynne County after investigating the videos in May 2022.
Again... they don't know, EITHER, that he was doing something illegal... you just can't prove from a video that it was.
=====
Canada:
'Worst In The World': Here Are All The Rankings In Which Canada Is Now Last
Most Unaffordable Housing, Highest Cell phone Bills And Worst Rate of Acute Care Beds, To Name A Few
If you spend any time on social media, it's likely that you've seen this
graphic compiled by columnist Stephen Laurens that assembles 11 international
indices which feature Canada near the top spot. "Canada is broken? I don't
think so. Neither does the world," reads a caption.
Next time someone rants on how about how "broken" Canada is; or how badly we
are doing on the international stage... share some facts.
Numbers don't lie, Felicia.
https://archive.is/o/Unfurl/https://twitter.com/DIGuideBradley/status/1554545079314010112
Naturally, it only tells a partial picture. While Canada may dominate abstract
indices such as "quality of life" and "peace," there are plenty of far more
empirical indicators in which we measurably rank as among the worst in the
developed world.
There's plenty to like about Canada, but below is a not-at-all comprehensive
list of all the ways in which we are indeed very broken.
WE HAVE THE MOST UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE OECD
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is essentially a
club of the world's 38 most developed countries. And when these 38 are ranked
against each other for housing unaffordability, Canada emerges as the clear
champion. OECD analysts rank affordability by comparing average home prices to
average incomes, and according to their latest quarterly rankings Canada was
No. 1 for salaries that were most out of whack with the cost of a home.
Housing by price to income ratio for the second quarter of 2022. That's Canada
on the extreme right.
https://archive.is/Unfurl/840da40d6fa3b7fef6fcccdfc1637d24e0786760.web
WE HAVE THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE WIRELESS COSTS
Every year, the Finnish telecom analyst Freewheel ranks the world's most
expensive countries for wireless services. And last year, Canada once again
dominated. Across several metrics, Canada was found to be the most expensive
place in the world for mobile data. Analysts found that it would cost the
average Canadian the equivalent of at least 100 Euros to obtain a cell phone
plan with at least 100 gigabytes of mobile data. Across much of the EU, that
kind of cell phone plan could be had for less than 40 Euros.
https://archive.is/Unfurl/822bcfe750687b1ef6288ee7df5606fd15629289.web
Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile
data as companies in France or Ireland.
Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile
data as companies in France or Ireland. Photo by Freewheel
WE HAVE THE LOWEST RATE OF ACUTE CARE BEDS AMONG PEER COUNTRIES
Canada's health system was particularly walloped by COVID-19 due to the simple
fact that most of our hospitals are at the breaking point even in good times.
Multiple times during the pandemic, provinces were forced into shutdown by
rates of COVID that had barely been noticed in better-prepared countries. A
ranking by the Canadian Institute for Health Information provides one clue as
to why. When ranked against peer countries, Canada's rate of per-capita acute
care beds was in last place, albeit tied with Sweden. Canada has two acute care
beds for every 1,000 people, against 3.1 in France and six in Germany.
TWO OF THE PLANET'S "BUBBLIEST" REAL ESTATE MARKETS ARE IN CANADA
For at least 15 years now, Canada has been a regular contender on rankings of
overheated housing markets. And the latest UBS index of world cities with
"bubbly" real estate markets is no exception. In their 2021 index, Toronto was
second only to Frankfurt in terms of bubble risk, while Vancouver ranked sixth.
Aside from Germany, Canada was the only country that saw two of its cities in
the top ten.
https://archive.is/Unfurl/1961e904e18e8cb533ff42c2eae7beb611827bd4.web
Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble
risks," and they're both in Canada.
Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble
risks," and they're both in Canada. Photo by UBS Global Real Estate Bubble
Index 2021
WE RACKED UP COVID DEBT FASTER THAN ANYONE ELSE
The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the most feverish global accumulation of debt
in the history of human civilization. So it's rather remarkable that amidst
this international monsoon of debt, Canada still managed to out-debt everyone
else. Last year, analysts at Bloomberg tracked each country's rate of public
and private debt accumulated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada came in with an overall debt burden equivalent to 352 per cent of GDP.
While a handful of countries (Japan, France and Hong Kong) came out of the
pandemic with higher overall debt burdens, Canada outranked all of them when it
came to how quickly that debt had been accumulated.
Containers on rail cars waiting to be shipped east by rail at the Port of
Vancouver Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by (Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG)
https://archive.is/Unfurl/5b7e25218f55d343b998db94c6748b57312dafaf.web
THE PORT OF VANCOUVER IS (ALMOST) THE MOST INEFFICIENT IN THE WORLD
Last year - just as the global supply chain crisis got going - the World Bank
decided to rank the performance of the world's 370 major ports. Authors weighed
factors such as how long the ports kept ships waiting, and how long crews took
to unload a vessel. And when everything was added together, the Port of
Vancouver ranked 368 out of 370. The only places with worse scores were the
Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. And it's not like our other
ports are much better. If Vancouver is too gummed up, you can always sail north
to Prince Rupert, which ranks 339 out of 370.
https://archive.is/Unfurl/ac861be6fb2f37d1463e7670c232b5cd548d5395.web
Take that, Los Angeles and Long Beach. Photo by World Bank Group
Queues at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Photo by Peter J.
Thompson/National Post
https://archive.is/Unfurl/b32f7be38081069e5e696a0029996f6f3adaa760.web
TORONTO PEARSON IS THE WORLD'S MOST-DELAYED AIRPORT
Flight delays are another category in which basically the entire world is
feeling the pinch. And yet, Canada still managed to outdo all of them. Last
month, CNN used data from the website Flight Aware to figure out which airports
were seeing the highest rates of flight delays. In the number one spot was
Toronto Pearson, with 52 per cent of all flights out of the airport
experiencing some kind of delay. And it was a commanding lead; the second-place
finisher, Frankfurt, only managed to see 45.4 per cent of its flights delayed.
Toronto was also a contender in flight cancellations; with 6.9 per cent of its
scheduled flights never getting off the ground, it ranked fourth worst in the
world.
WE'RE ONE OF THE WORLD'S WORST ECONOMIES FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT
A 2020 study out of the University of Calgary tracked foreign investment flows
into a cross-section of developed countries between 2015 and 2019. Virtually
every country on the list saw a surge in foreign cash during that period;
Ireland topped out the ranking thanks to its foreign investment climbing by
more than 115 per cent. Only four countries actually saw a reduction in foreign
investment: Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada. A report by the Business
Council of Canada noticed the same trend. "Canada is the second-worst in the
OECD on openness to foreign direct investment," it concluded.
https://archive.is/Unfurl/222c5fba154990485338650dcb55e413d85e080c.web
WE DRIVE THE MOST FUEL-INEFFICIENT VEHICLES IN THE WORLD
In 2019, the International Energy Agency examined the fuel economy of the
world's private car fleets. On almost every measure, Canada led the pack in
driving unnecessarily huge, gas-guzzling vehicles. Per kilometer driven, the
average Canadian burned more fuel and emitted more carbon dioxide than anyone
else. Canadian cars were also the largest and (second only to the U.S.) the
heaviest. While it would be convenient to blame this on Canada being a sparse,
cold country with lots of heavy industry, our ranking was well beyond plenty of
other countries where that was similarly the case.