We’re emerging from the pandemic, the economy is rebounding, our president speaks in complete and cogent sentences—things are looking up, right? Well, not for conservatives, who seems unable to let go of vaccination conspiracies and false claims of voter fraud.
On May 4, during the SLO County Board of Supervisors meeting, independent “journalist” the SLO County Observer was riding the bus and saw a protest on the corners of Monterey and Santa Rosa and decided to stop and see what the fuss was about.
“What’s your grievance?” he asked a woman holding a sign that read “Tommy GONE.”
“Dominion Machines have a Verizon SIM card in ’em, and it can be set for anything. You have a SIM card, you have a Verizon card, and you can tap right into the machine. Nobody knows it. Tommy didn’t know it.”
“Who’s Tommy?” the SLO Observer asked.
“Tommy Gong. He’s the Clerk-Recorder. He’s the one in charge of all this,” the protester said.
“Is that local?” the SLO Observer asked.
Huh? You’ve never heard of Tommy Gong? Independent journalism indeed.
Meanwhile in the meeting, 170 phone calls poured in, many prerecorded, to leave public comments about an item on the agenda—Public Health Director Penny Borenstein‘s update about the county’s efforts to combat COVID-19. Most of the calls complained about the “vaccination passport” the county allegedly plans to enact … except it doesn’t and isn’t and never was.
“Vaccines are the beginning of the end of our right to control our bodies,” several callers parroted. “We know it won’t stop with one COVID injection.”
Yeah, pretty soon they’ll demand your children get polio; diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP); measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR); and hepatitis B vaccines to enter kindergarten!
“We don’t live in a tyrannicalsociety where we have to do something because the government tells us to,” said another caller who probably refuses to get a driver’s license or pay taxes.
Listening to the stream of calls filled with falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and anti-vaxxer rhetoric gobbled up the lion’s share of the meeting, which was supposed to discuss, among other things, in-person vs. mail-in voting. Conservatives across the country are calling for voter ID requirements, in-person-only balloting, no early voting, and hand-counting of ballots, which have nothing to do with voter suppression of people of color, right? Right?
Meanwhile, back outside, the protester handed the SLO County Observer a piece of paper with what she believes are the facts of her case against Dominion Voting Machines: Six states are being audited, in New Hampshire the machines shorted Republicans 300 votes, another machine “flipped” 6,000 Trump votes to Biden “in another small county,” three Republicans were shorted “6 percent exactly by the machines.”
It was all the talking points of the national conservative effort to sow seeds of distrust in our voting system, which court after court and study after study has deemed virtually free of election fraud.
The SLO Observer then crossed the street toward the County Government Center, his camera streaming live to YouTube.
“Who are you with?” asked a female protester.
“I’m an observer,” the SLO County Observer replied.
The exchange was repeated, and then she demanded, “What’s your name?”
“I’m by myself. I’m an observer.”
“So what are you going to do with this video?”
“I’m not too sure yet. I just wanted to see what was going on. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Not until you identify yourself.”
One might be forgiven for asking, what’s the point of a protest if you’re not going to explain what you’re protesting?
Finally, a woman in a floral blouse and wide-brimmed hat stepped forward and said, “Is it not obvious what’s going on?”
“No. I see signs, and I just wanted to get an idea of what’s going on. Voter fraud?”
“Item 25,” a man shouted out.
“Yes, item 25 on there and items 16, which is the health,” floral blouse woman said incoherently as she unfurled another sign that read, “No VaCCiNE PassPort.” “They have it every single board meeting. No vaccines. No vaccine passport. It’s against the Constitution, and trash the voting machines because we don’t have fair and honest elections. You can’t be sure because these are hackable.”
Yes, machines are hackable … when they’re connected to the Internet, but SLO County’s system is not, so it can’t be hacked. Of course, as the floral blouse woman said, “Watch HBO’s documentary Kill Chain.” It will absolutely trigger the conspiracy theory center of your brain.
Back inside the Board of Supes meeting, the conservative majority—John Peschong, Lynn Compton, and Debbie Arnold—bulldozed the liberal minority and voted to roll back the successful election model used during the November 2020 election, which helped spur record voter turnout, to bring back the old model. One day of in-person voting and sending mail-in ballots only to those who have gone out of their way to ask for them. And they’re considering asking the state to require IDs for in-person voting—did someone say voter suppression? Someone attending the meeting accused Tommy Gong of belonging to the Chinese Communist Party.
Who do these people think they’re kidding? Oh yeah. The small crowd gathered outside who are sure vaccines are bad and voting is riddled with fraud because Trump lost. There were no masks among the protesters. Δ
The Shredder is fully vaccinated. Send conspiracies to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2021.
With so many legitimate issues with which to criticize the Democratic Party, mostly for behaving much like the other right wing, warmongering, corporate, imperialist party, it is always fascinating to observe how otherwise decent people can be whipped into a frenzy to not only make voting more difficult, but to support and vote against their own interests.
Meanwhile the US and it’s allies continue bombing and slaughtering innocent men, women and children in at least 7 nations fulfilling its role as the most violent and terrorist nation in the world with nary a peep from anyone. But heck, as long as they can keep the poor and disenfranchised from voting and ignore and or deny the validity of vaccines, all is right with the world.
It is truly despicable the way Arnold, Compton and Peschong contine to advance the Trump lie about voter fraud in a Putin-inspired attempt to block citizens from participating in our democratic process. Please do not let the self-serving dictatorial ambitions of the board majority corrupt our democracy. If the majority of voters in the districts of Arnold, Compton and Peschong no longer want them in office, they should have the power to make that happen when it is time to vote. Do not allow the Trump lie to infect our democracy and curtail the rights of voters to reject would-be dictators in our community.
The RACIST democrat party wants no ID’s and mail in ballots for dead people, pets, etc because they cannot win without cheating and fraud. Their ideas are VACANT and BANKRUPT. Intelligent people can see through the BS. Who cannot procure some form of identification in this day and age? If they cannot do such a simple thing as prove they are who they say they are, they do not need to vote. Communists love mail in voting, socialists love no ID voting. Wonder why?
Can anyone name a single public election in California during the past hundred years that was won because of voter fraud?
Our system has minimized potential voter fraud. There’s no good reason to further minimize voter access to casting a ballot.
Voter suppression is anti-democratic and unfair and should not be accepted by the voters on the central coast Who have enjoyed fair access for years. This is not the time or the place to ramp up anti-democracy measures.
FRAUD SUPPRESION. Can anyone name a democrat that’s not full of shit?
“The RACIST democrat party wants no ID’s and mail in ballots for dead people, pets, etc because they cannot win without cheating and fraud.”
Do you ever look at actual facts, or just pull stuff from nowhere?
In the 2018 midterms, the Democrats won the popular vote by more than 9 million votes.
And, in the 2020, Mr. Biden won by more than 7 million votes against Mr. Trump. In fact, Biden’s 51.3% of the popular vote represented the largest victory by a challenger against an incumbent since Roosevelt beat Hoover in 1932 (not surprising considering Trump was arguably the worst president in the history of the nation and the American people rarely suffer fools).
So, 9 mill, 7 mill, all fraudulent? Voter fraud is a myth and hasn’t been a factor in American elections since Tammany Hall in the late 1800’s.
As for ID’s, every American who registers to vote has to prove their residence and then must sign their ballot (it’s a lot easier to get a fake Id than to fake someone’s signature). Signatures can be challenged so it’s pretty damn rare that someone casts a fraudulent vote (about .001%).
Mr. Biden is an old placeholder for a party that couldn’t win if it didn’t cheat. Kamala will be President within a year. She’s the tool Obama wants to continue his obliteration of the constitution and the democrat’s feeble, tenuous hold on power. The chickens are coming home to roost soon. The end of liberalism as any form of ideology is near. The American people see through them and will send them packing in the next election in droves. Hope that the dems like golf, they will have plenty of time for it soon!
Joe Biden has been a wonderful president so far. Just what the country and the world needed at this crucial time in history. He is proving to be a popular president who is helping bring the country together and erase the travesties of the Trump administration . More power to him. Long live Joe Biden.
Obvious facts about The Shredder, Democrats, and dupes like Rightword:
Big Government Good, small government bad.
Whacky liberals good, sensible conservatives bad.
Illegal immigrants good, legal immigrants bad.
Homeless bums good, working class people bad.
Restricting legal gun rights good, punishing violent gun criminals bad.
Raising taxes good, living on a budget bad.
Corrupt liberal politicians good, Corrupt Conservative politicians bad.
Children in cages under Biden good, children in cages under Trump bad.
Killing unborn babies good, preserving sanctity of life bad.
Minority Women good, white males bad.
Islam good, Christianity bad.
Get it? The hypocrisy of the whacky left is a national embarrassment, and people would do well to abandon Democrats in 2022 and 2024, we cannot afford more of their nonsense.
The latest Trump/GOP slogan: “Abandon democracy in 2022”
The future of politics:
Love thy neighbor. Peace and goodwill to all. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Don’t lie.
An election without rigged machines and a unbiased media will be refreshing. To bad we won’t have one. What will happen is the refutation of leftist politics in overwhelming numbers in 2022,2024 and thereafter. The reason the white house and congress are surrounded by razor wire and guards is because the people don’t want these leaders in power, they have no legitimacy. They will keep the razor wire and the guards because they are AFRAID of WE THE PEOPLE! They know they only stay in power by the slimmest of threads. What kind of leaders are afraid of their countrymen? Illegitimate leaders, that’s who.
A person who isnt liberal when theyre young doesnt have a heart, and if theyre not conservative when they’re old, they dont have a brain. 🙂
Steve are you quoting Silence Dogood?
Face it. Trump totally screwed up. He couldn’t even cheat his way into winning the last election. With all the power of the presidency behind him, he still lost. And soon he will be charged with crimes. Those are signs of being a weak leader. He was in way over his head. He’s a phony. Tens of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily because of trumps attitude toward COVID and masks. Trump doesn’t care. Joe Biden cares.
Trump couldn’t win because Biden and the dems rigged it. With help from the elites in media and technology they could only BARELY win with cheating involved. This shows that given their honest preference the American people are conservative and vote accordingly. Liberals MUST cheat and EXPLOIT less intelligent voters and import illegals that they have vote. They must get the DECEASED vote, the confused vote, the double voter, the vagrant (I will vote whatever for free booze) voter. This is the liberal base. This is the convoluted mindset of liberalism. The party of Jeffry Epstein, the party of slavery, the party of oppression. 2022 is coming, thank GOD.
SLO County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong visits his wife Sherry Gong in jail on the weekends, and has to repay thousands of dollars which his wife stole from a local children’s booster club. Yes, this is typical for SLO County. https://pasoroblesdailynews.com/former-boo….
Trump was such a weak president he wasn’t even able to overcome what some people called a rigged election. And Trump is a guy who’s famous for cheating and encouraging others to cheat. Ask anyone who has played golf with him. Donald Trump is famous for cheating. With all the power of the presidency behind him, Donald Trump still ended up being a loser. He was in way over his head and he will soon be Learning more about the American judicial system. Simply allowing a rigged election during his presidency, would be reason enough to not vote for him. Donald Trump just doesn’t know how to get it done. He’s a phony.
Joe Biden is a worldwide hero for defeating Donald Trump. No one cares if it was a rigged election or not. Just as long as Donald Trump was defeated is all anybody who matters really cared about. Joe Biden made Donald Trump look like one of the biggest losers in the world. And it’s only gonna get worse on the criminal charges start rolling in.
Joe Biden is super popular in the United States and around the world. More power to him. Long live Joe Biden.
Tommy Gong has been excellent clerk recorder. Under very difficult and changing situations Mr. Gong made sure our elections ran exceptionally smoothly.
It’s a travesty that people who are promoting the Trump lie spread their own lies about some of our finest most competent and successful elected public servants.
With all the power of the presidency behind him, if Donald Trump was so incompetent and unable to unrig a rigged election he does not deserve to be president. It’s the president’s responsibility to make sure our elections are fair. If Trump can’t even live up to that democratic responsibility, what good is he?
Trump may be a TV star and grabs lots of forbidden pussy backstage, but that alone does not qualify him to be a competent and effective United States president. When it comes to politics and understanding the big picture of world leadership, Donald Trump is a loser.
Let’s all support Joe Biden‘s efforts to clean up the mess that Donald Trump left behind. And let’s honor the tens of thousands of Americans who died unnecessarily because of Donald Trump’s tragic attitude and lies about COVID-19 and masks.
Joe Biden is a world wide douche.
Vladimir Putin is not happy with him either.
The Iranian Dictators LOVE Joe Biden, he is set to gift them $100 million US taxpayer dollars, and he plans to rejoin the treaty allowing them to develop nuclear weapons. The dictators in North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, all LOVE Joe Biden, as it opens up a chance to take advantage of his weak foreign policy.
Here at home, people like elections chief Tommy Gong ought to be removed from office, his wife was just convicted of embezzling money meant for schoolchildren, and it is unclear if Tommy Gong knew of this fraud and criminality. He has never explained to the taxpayers what exactly his role in this whole sordid affair was, and how can we trust him with elections if we cannot trust him with money?
Abandon ALL Democrats in 2022/2024.
Republican and Russian efforts to Abandon democracy by 2022 must be opposed. Local efforts to put a biased Republican favoring shill in the Clerk Recorders office to suppress non-Republican votes should also be opposed.
Tommy Gong has been doing excellent job as clerk recorder, making sure our elections ran smoothly and legally during a very difficult period in our history. The despicable Republican anti-Asian bigots need to be called out for their local terror campaign aimed at corrupting our elections and spreading fear and animosity in our community.
Communist Chinese and democrat efforts to steal another election in 2022 have no way of succeeding and must be opposed. The left privilege chi-com cabal must and will be stopped. Using race and gender to divide us won’t work, no matter how many ballots are found in railroad cars or under desks. The American people will take back this country from the dottering fool and his cohorts.
Thankfully, unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration is working hard to make sure foreign governments do not interfere with United States elections. The Biden administration is doing lots to clean up the messes left by the Trump administration.
If the Trump administration was so weak, derelict and ineffectual as to not be able to prevent the Chinese from rigging our elections, Donald Trump has no business being our president or commander in chief. If the elections were rigged, it was on his watch. He was in way over his head. Most people in the world don’t care if the election was rigged or not as long as it resulted in the defeat of Donald Trump. Fortunately, The majority of voters in the United States rejected Trump. He’s a world-class loser. His days of grabbing forbidden pussy and carelessly and coldly letting citizens die of COVID-19 are over.
Joe/Hunter Biden is China. The proof is in the laptops that the government has. This president is corrupted and illegitimate. The democrat party is the US wing of the communist party. Grabbing pussy is forbidden in the democrat world because all of us will be choking on CHI-COM choade for a millenium if they win (steal) another election. Careless letting folks die is DEMOCRAT gov Cuomo’s deal righttard. Check your facts you reprobate. Oh yeah you can’t because facts get in the way of party politics on the left privilege side.
What are you planning to do about it?
Rightword2 has her head way up her ass!!
Haha! Right turd is getting frustrated…what I’m planning to do is put you and your ilk on front street through the media. Your responses are a matter of public record. The people that read this will see your weak arguments and understand the liberal philosophy to be ineffectual and inferior. Your ideas are backwards and corrupt. Your arguments are specious and biased. Your frustration is rooted in the insecurity of knowing that liberalism is a suicidal ideology forwarded by secular communists in the vain attempt to stifle individualistic freedoms that are guaranteed by this country’s Constitution and the founding father’s visions’. You are on display.