Davin News Server

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.