XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism, rec.arts.tv   
   XPost: alt.survival, talk.politics.misc, soc.culture.russia   
   From: deathfortreason@gmail.com   
      
   Donald Trump has set a pretty high bar for himself when it comes to wild   
   rants. And yet, over the weekend in a speech to Turning Point Action in   
   Arizona, he managed to outdo himself.   
   Words -- or at least my words -- can't do it justice. So, here's the former   
   President of the United States:   
   "The county has, for whatever reason, also refused to produce the network   
   routers. We want the routers, Sonny, Wendy, we got to get those routers,   
   please. The routers. Come on, Kelly, we can get those routers. Those routers.   
   You know what? We're so beyond the routers, there's so many fraudulent votes   
   without the routers. But if you got those routers, what that will show, and   
   they don't want to give up the routers. They don't want to give them. They   
   are fighting like hell. Why are these commissioners fighting not to give the   
   routers?"   
      
   Yup. Literally unhinged. I mean, he says the word "routers" 11 times in that   
   rant.   
      
   What, you ask, is he talking about?   
      
   Well, as part of the ongoing audit of the vote in Maricopa County (Arizona),   
   there has been an attempt by Trump-aligned forces to subpoena the network   
   routers used by the county's election division.   
   Why the routers? Oh because the state Senate Republicans leading the audit --   
   as well as the questionable firm they have hired to run said audit -- want to   
   know whether the Maricopa County voting machines were connected to the   
   Internet on Election Day. Why? Because of a debunked conspiracy theory that   
   votes were somehow electronically transferred from Trump to Biden. (This is   
   all part of a broader conspiracy theory that Italian satellites were used to   
   change votes. And no, I am not kidding.)   
      
   As the Arizona Republic wrote back in May:   
   "Senate liaison Ken Bennett has said [the routers] are needed to check   
   whether the county's voting machines were connected to the internet during   
   the election. But a county spokesperson said that the auditors already have   
   the information and machines to perform that check, and a previous   
   independent audit commissioned by the county proved they were not."   
   Why won't the county just turn over the routers to appease Trump? Three   
   reasons actually:   
   1. Money. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has estimated the cost of   
   replacing routers, which would need to be done if the current ones were   
   handed over for this "audit,"at $6 million. (If you're wondering the board   
   has a 4-1 Republican majority.)   
   2. Disruption: Handing over the routers would "severely disrupt the   
   operations of county government because other agencies outside of the   
   recorder's office and elections department use them," according to the board.   
   3. Safety: "Given access to the mail carriers' -- or routers' -- information,   
   it would be easier for a bad actor to get access to a person's mail, or to   
   target the information inside the network," wrote the Arizona Republic.   
   Trump, of course, cares about none of that. It makes a good talking point to   
   say that these routers hold some super-secret information (they do not) and   
   suggest that the county's unwillingness to turn them over is proof that there   
   is something nefarious on them. (It is not).   
      
   And so, we get the router rant. Which would be funny except that, as January   
   6 proved, lots and lots of people believe -- sight unseen -- whatever the   
   former president says. And that fact makes what Trump is doing actually   
   dangerous.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)