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Arlington and Alexandria. They’re, like, the same place… right? Ok yeah, no, they aren’t. But two of DC’s southern neighbors often get mistaken for one another, so here's a number of the differences.Left: Wilson Boulevard in Arlington. Photo by Tony Webster on Flickr. Right: Old Town Alexandria. Photo by Roger W on Flickr.First, some historyVirginia donated both “Old Town” Alexandria and the land that later became Arlington County to form the District of Columbia in 1801. At the time, Congress organized the area as a subdivision of DC and named it Alexandria County.In 1846, the land went back into Virginia’s possession when DC was downsized to exclude the portion south of the Potomac River. In 1852, what was then the Town of Alexandria incorporated as a city; it became independent of Alexandria County in 1870.Since 1871, all municipalities in Virginia incorporated as “cities” have been “independent cities,” not politically part of a county. This revision to the state constitution happened after the Civil War and the creation of West Virginia.1878 Map of Alexandria County, Virginia. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.In 1908, the Town of Potomac incorporated as a town in Alexandria County. To avoid confusion with the adjacent city, Virginia’s General Assembly changed the name of Alexandria County to Arlington County in 1920. The City of Alexandria annexed the Town of Potomac in 1930, and it’s now designated as the Town of Potomac Historic District.A number of neighborhoods in Fairfax County that aren’t in Alexandria’s city limits, like Franconia, Groveton, Huntington, Hybla Valley, Kingstowne, and Mount Vernon, still use the namesake on their postal addresses.The local laws and politics are different…Since Arlington is a county, it’s governed by a County Board. Alexandria, on the other hand, is governed by a City Council.“Arlington was actually very rural for a long time and its current level of development didn’t really take off in earnest until the mid and late 20th century. That informs how both areas look. Alexandria has great examples of ‘old urbanism’ while Arlington showcases how it’s done today without worrying about historic preservation so much.”Courthouse Plaza in Arlington. Photo by Ron Cogswell on Flickr.Alexandria and Arlington share so little in terms of administration, policing and planning for such relatively small jurisdictions. That has only recently begun to change. The development of Potomac Yard caused a dilemma for both jurisdictions because the county/city border was not changed with the realignment of Four Mile Run during the flood control project of the 1970-80s. This forced them to work together and resulted in the joint Four Mile Run Restoration Plan than is now underway.I think the main difference is that Arlington was almost all developed since the start of World War II and was largely rural before that, whereas Alexandria (even the parts it annexed from Arlington) predate that at least somewhat. The big exception is the West End that Alexandria annexed from Fairfax County. The City and County allow residents to share public libraries though. I’ve found that useful.As for differences in local laws, one that comes to mind is that new residents will only have 30 days to apply for a city decal showing that they’ve paid personal property tax in Alexandria on a percentage of the value of the car.Agnès Artemel from ggw gives us a great in-depth analysis on the differences between Arlington and Alexandria, from the perspective of being a long-time Alexandria resident:Alexandria and Arlington should be very similar in that they are both “inside the Beltway” communities that were once dependent on DC to employ their residents but now have developed their own employment centers.But, as a long-time Alexandria resident, I feel they are very different — in physical appearance, way of life, and politics.Physical: Alexandria has a very large grid-patterned Old Town that give it a distinct sense of place and a reason for tourism; the waterfront is another asset. Central Alexandria is all suburbia — large lot single-family. And the west is highway-oriented: apartments and condos for those who used I-395 to get to DC. To me, Arlington is divided up several ways 1) by the highways that traverse it making it seem impossible to get from place to place, and 2) by the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor versus the area to the north and the area to the south. Arlington also has huge federal land reservations that break it up. To Alexandrians, Arlington’s streets make no sense whatever — lacking connections and even a reasonable naming system.Way of life: Alexandria is still the sleepy southern town. Residents don’t like bars and restaurants to stay open past 11 or 12. They don’t like outsiders, particularly commuters from Fairfax. They tried to get toll gates set up at entrances to the city to discourage commuters. We wish we could be an island away from this pesky growthy region. Arlington has seemed more dynamic, more interested in jobs, economic development, and the new economy based on tech. Arlington found a way to separate its growth areas (Rosslyn-Ballston, Crystal City) from the neighborhoods that want to be protected from tall buildings. Alexandria is still fighting land use battles one at a time, starting from scratch on each one.Politics: Until recently, it felt like Arlington had figured out how to get buy-in on smart growth, and the Board appeared unified in its approach to land use. Alexandria kept missing opportunities due to fear of opposition— we could have had the Potomac Yard infill Metro station in the mid-80s, for example. And for a long time, driving on Jefferson Davis Highway it was quite clear where the jurisdictional boundary was— Alexandria got all the traffic and none of the tax revenues was the way we saw it. Arlington planned for a streetcar through Crystal City and Alexandria planned for a BRT, and people were going to have to switch at Four Mile Run (no one will get a streetcar now, so its a moot point today).Of course, much has changed in the last couple of years, in both jurisdictions. Time will tell whether we become more similar or not, and whether that’s good or bad.Photo of Alexandria’s Amtrak station by Jeanette Runyon on Flickr.Jonathan Krall from ggw touches on similar points:Alexandria and Arlington have commonalities, such as the streetcar suburbs of Del Ray (Alexandria) and Clarendon (Arlington), both developed by the same company in the late 1800s. A big difference is that Alexandria predates Washington DC and has attitudes shaped by its history.One way of looking at it is that many of the “mover and shakers” in Alexandria still want it to be a sleepy southern town where no decision is made until the proper people are consulted. After a major fight over bike lanes on King Street, in 2013-2014, the Alexandria leadership took steps to avoid further fights, delaying two bicycle projects that were scheduled to begin planning for Old Town. Major projects, such as the waterfront plan, are accomplished only by overcoming that conservatism.All that is by way of saying the Alexandria has a conservatism that has been largely missing in Arlington. However, the recent street car revolt in Arlington makes this difference less certain going forward. Both places talk a good game in terms of urbanism, but Arlington does a better job of following through with their new-urbanist ambitions. This is why, on Potomac Ave, the bike lanes stop at the Arlington/Alexandria border....and so is transportationBoth jurisdictions are served by WMATA Metrorail and Metrobus, however Arlington’s local bus service is Arlington Transit (ART) and Alexandria’s service is DASH.“Arlington has a bit more flexibility when it comes to its transportation decisions because they opted to maintain control of their own roads rather than have VDOT take over (that’s part of the reason why Arlington has more bike infrastructure).”“Arlington doesn’t really have any waterfront areas despite having more land on the river. The GW Parkway, Arlington Cemetery, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport prevent the county from really developing one as well.”With regards to bicycling, Jonathan Krall says that “On the plus side, Alexandria has a large, flat, street-grid area that is relatively easy for bicycling, despite a paucity of bike lanes. One can reach the metropolitan downtown from this area of town without going up or down a big hill. This is something that Alexandria has in common with Portland, OR, and may be responsible for Alexandria’s very good bicycle mode share.”The conversation then shifted to Arlington and Alexandria’s street-naming system, with Michael Perkins from ggw giving some basic information about Arlington’s system:There is actually a good naming system for Arlington, unlike the “system” in Old Town Alexandria. North-South streets have names and East-West streets have numbers. First set of streets have one-syllable names like Bell and Clark. Second set have two syllable names like Kenmore or Quincy. Third set have three syllable names like Somerset or Quintana. There’s only one four syllable name—Arizona.There are longer boulevards and drives that don’t follow this pattern. Examples are Arlington Boulevard, Lee Highway, Washington Boulevard, Fairfax Drive, George Mason Drive, and Shirlington Road.Jonathan Krall gives us the Alexandria perspective:In Alexandria, the original main street was Cameron, flanked by parallel streets King to the south and Queen to the north. Next was Prince and Princess. Then Duke and Oronoco. Oronoco was named for a tobacco warehouse.Kevin Beekman from ggw adds, “In Alexandria, street numbers increase as you go north. In Arlington, street numbers increase as you go south. So there are places on Jefferson Davis Highway were the addresses (or block numbers) repeat.”Michael Perkins also adds that the street numbers in Arlington increase “as you get further away from Arlington Boulevard, either north or south”.Sources: Greater Greater Washington

9/11 - 19 terrorists on a suicide mission took over control of 4 passenger airplanes and used it as bombs on several targets in the United States. Two of the airplanes were used in an attack on the “Twin Towers” of the World Trade Center in New York, resulting in their total destruction. Another airplane was crashed into the Pentagon, the Headquarters of the US Ministry of Defense. The fourth plane crashed near Pittsburgh without hitting any particular target (possibly due to some resistance from crew members and passengers).The attacks can be considered as one of the most horrible and tragic terrorist acts in the history of humankind due to the number of irreplaceable losses, as well as the level of impact it had globally. The cumulative loss in terms of rebuilding was estimated at 105 billion US dollars in 2001.The deadliest terrorist attack on the USA in modern history, reportedly killed 2,996 (including 19 hijackers), within the USA by the direct impact of the attack orchestrated by Al-Qaeda Chief Bin Laden and executed under direct monitoring of his No 3 commander Khalid Mahmood.Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.Let’s check the fast facts before, on and after the 9/11Note: The attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 resulted in the largest loss of life by a foreign attack on American soilBackground event(s)Date: 9/9 - Place: Nothern AfghanistanAhmad Shah Massoud: Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He has a stronghold in Northern Territory in Afghanistan. Massoud was killed by a foul-play by some unknown suicide attacker in the role of TV interviewer. During the interview, they set off a bomb composed of explosives hidden in the camera and in a battery-pack belt. It is believed to have a direct link with the 9/11 attacks that has to happen two days later.Date 9/11Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners (two Boeing 757s and two Boeing 767s) en route to California (three-headed to LAX in Los Angeles and one to SFO in San Francisco) after takeoffs from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts; Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey; and Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia.Large planes with long flights were selected for hijacking because they would be full of fuel and cause the maximum impact and damage to the infrastructure they would hit.The crashes1st Plane hit the WTC (North Tower)On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel, en route to Los Angeles with a crew of 11 and 76 passengers, not including five hijackers, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City2nd Plane hit the WTC (South Tower)United Airlines Flight 175: a Boeing 767 aircraft, departed Logan Airport at 8:14 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of nine and 51 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the southern facade of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 9:03 a.m.Casualty at WTC: At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died after the two planes slammed into the twin towers. That figure includes 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors.18 people were rescued alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center site.9:59 a.m. ET - South tower of WTC collapses in approximately 10 seconds.10:28 a.m. ET - North tower of WTC collapses. The time between the first attack and the collapse of both World Trade Center towers is 102 minutes.Note: May 30, 2002 - Cleanup at Ground Zero officially ends. It took 3.1 million hours of labor to clean up 1.8 million tons of debris. The total cost of cleanup was $750 million.3rd Plane hit the PentagonAmerican Airlines Flight 77: a Boeing 757 aircraft, departed Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m. en route to Los Angeles with a crew of six and 53 passengers, not including five hijackers. The hijackers flew the plane into the western facade of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, at 9:37 a.m.Casualty at Pentagon: At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 774th Plane crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, PennsylvaniaUnited Airlines Flight 93: a Boeing 757 aircraft, departed Newark International Airport at 8:42 a.m. en route to San Francisco, with a crew of seven and 33 passengers, not including four hijackers. Passengers aboard United Flight 93, heard about the previous airplane attacks and attempted to retake control of the plane from hijackers. As a result, the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field instead of at their unknown target.Casualty at flight crashed in Pennsylvania: On Flight 93, 44 people died when the plane crash-landed in Pennsylvania.Flight PathPresident Bush during 9/11President Bush (Jr.)was in a Florida classroom reading to children when he was told the news. At 0910 Eastern Daylight Time on 11 September 2001, President Bush was informed of the World Trade Center attacks by his chief of Staff, Andrew Card.HijackersMohamed Atta: The Egyptian guy leader of all 19 hijackers. He was inside American Airlines Flight 11Hijackers at Washington's Dulles International Airport the morning 9/11Preparation - Flight Training in the USASome of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the country in the months before September 11 and acted as the “muscle” in the operation.The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four early-morning flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming ordinary passenger jets into guided missiles.Who were behind the attack?The hijackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by the al Qaeda terrorist organization of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden), they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America’s support of Israel (Israel), its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, (Persian Gulf War) and its continued military presence in the Middle EastOsama Bin Laden: The main culprit and was a global terrorist leader, who directly motivate and financed 9/11 attacksCurrent Status: was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 am PKT(20:00 UTC, May 1) by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six). The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear,Ayman Al Zawahiri: Al-Qaeda chief after Bin Laden’s death, he was believed similarly responsible as Bin Laden in 9/11 as the principal conspiratorCurrent Status: Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri's whereabouts are unknown, but he is generally thought to be in tribal PakistanKhalid Sheikh Mohammed: The principal architect of the 9/11 attacksCurrent Status: Held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-related chargesRamzi Yousef: An ally of his uncle and Principal architect of the September 11 attacks in 200, Khalid Sheikh MohammedCurrent Status: Yousef is serving his life sentences at ADX Florence, located near Florence, Colorado. He shares a cellblock that is commonly referred to as "Bombers Row" with Terry Nichols, Eric Rudolph, and Ted Kaczynski.9/11 immediate impact on EconomyUSA Airlines IndustriesThere are few events in modern history that can rival the immediate impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States and indeed the world economy. The airline industry was particularly hard hit because commercial airliners were the weapon used by the terrorists in the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the U.S. government grounded the commercial fleet for three days that resulted in a 31.6 percent reduction in travel volume in September of 2001 compared to that same month in 2000 and generated massive industry losses.The fallout prompted a swift congressional response to shore up the industry. Significant changes were also implemented by Congress to enhance transportation security. Specifically, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) within the Department of Homeland Security was created and charged with maintaining the security of all forms of transportation including the airline industry. Since its formation, TSA has federalized all security personnel and instituted extensive security precautions on commercial airlines. Although these steps have thus far prevented another successful attack on U.S. soil, they come at a cost. Specifically, they increase the time cost of travel and hence they alter the optimizing calculus of potential travelers.The US tourism industry reported a 2 billion US dollar loss in the first two weeks after the terrorist act. The employment rate fell by 5%. Domestic airlines lost over 100 million US dollars. The severe drop in tourism expenditure resulted in a GDP loss of 27.27 billion dollars (Blake and Sinclair, 2002). During the post-attack period, the 2001-2002 US tourism labor market suffered 335,000 13 job losses, whereas 141,000 jobs were lost in accommodation and 93,000 in air travel sectors simultaneously.However, $9.3 billion - Insurance claims arising from the 9/11 attacks.Note: $500,000 - Estimated amount of money it cost to plan and execute the 9/11 attacks that caused $123 billion - Estimated economic loss during the first 2-4 weeks after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York City, as well as the decline in airline travel over the next few yearsBin Laden Family allowed flying to the outside USAAt least 13 relatives of Osama bin Laden, accompanied by bodyguards and associates, left the United States on a chartered flight with Ryan International Airlines (Ryan International Flight 441) eight days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a passenger manifest released on July 21, 2004.6 Million job loss in the global tourism industryThese losses have resulted in over 6 million jobs gone, or 8.6%, in the tourism industry worldwide, or every 12th employee in the industry had lost his/her job by the end of 2002. It took up to one year to observe the peak effect on the tourism labor market.Only 1 plane allowed to fly on 9/11 when all flights were grounded in the USAOnly One-Plane Was Allowed To Take Off After Flights Were Grounded On Sept 11, 2001. After the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11/2001, all air traffic was grounded. But, a cross-country flight was the only thing that could save one man's life.Note: During or after 9/11 media coverage, American Media not published any disturbing images like dead bodies, blood or coffin, They practiced the best discipline to support the nation during this critical time, SaluteLong live America - Long live humanityMore stories to add soon….Thanks,

This is a long answer that will summarize all the testimonies and rebut most of the misleading information.Most of the people have covered the fact that this wasn’t an official hearing, it was more like a GOP clubhouse meeting with a GOP Pennsylvania legislator. No one was under oath.It seems that they held a similar meeting in Arizona with similar results. It’s performatively trying to look official to give more credence to their conspiracy theories and misinformation since they clearly don’t have the evidence to press forward in court.This was a superspreader event. They attempt to spread misinformation masquerading as official testimony…and no one wore a mask in a small hotel ballroom.Let’s look at Giuliani’s testimony, first.To summarize in advance, it’s full of either lies or ignorance mixed with misinformation.During the course of this election, we’ve come pretty close to losing our right to free speech. There’s been censorship that I’ve never seen before, of an incredible nature by big tech, big networks, big companies.This is utter nonsense. “Big tech” can’t censor you, by definition your right to free speech is protected from the government. Facebook has been removing fake posts, while Twitter has been labeling them as misinformation (but still showing them). This is Victimhood talk, and pathetic victimhood talk on top of it. What I’m reading here is that the Trumpists don’t want government out of business, they want to regulate media companies to only tell their truth.You know there was a fierce debate over whether we should have mail-in ballots in the first place.It’s so bizarre the different factual universes we find ourselves in. We’ve always had mail-in ballots. Every state had a way to mail in ballots for decades. Several states have exclusively mail in ballots. PRESIDENT TRUMP ALWAYS VOTES BY MAIL! This narrative has been invented by the GOP who have spend decades stacking the deck through dozens of legalized voter suppression measures.[1] They knew that voter turnout would be increased significantly by mail in ballots and have been eroding public trust in the process that the President himself utilizes in order to stage this last ditch attack on Democracy.Many scholars, many experts, always felt that mail-in ballots were very dangerous because they’re very easy to forge, it leads to more defrauding. We will warned by Justice Souter, among others. We will warned by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, in a report that they did on how to make elections more secure.I couldn’t find what Souter said other than a decision that he would have upheld restrictions in Texas on helping the elderly cast their ballots out of fears of ballot harvesting.[2] Also, The Carter Foundation found the exact opposite thing that Giuliani has claimed.[3]“I urge political leaders across the country to take immediate steps to expand vote-by-mail and other measures that can help protect the core of American democracy – the right of our citizens to vote,” said former President Carter.Giuliani continues:Witnesses we present are going to first show you that, in the case of Philadelphia, and in the case of Allegheny County, and one or two other counties, the mail-in ballots that were received, were not inspected at all by any Republican, they were hidden from Republicans. In the case of Philadelphia and Allegheny County, I can’t be absolutely certain, but I do believe the witnesses will show that a Republican never got to see a single ballot.This is directly contradicted by their lawyers:The transcript from one of Trump’s legal challenges is fascinating. The judge trying to get to the bottom of whether they WERE allowed to have observers:Judge : “Are your observers in the counting room?”Trump lawyer: "There's a non-zero number of people in the room.” pic.twitter.com/CU4VbqIfj4— Man vs Baby (@mattcoyney) November 6, 2020Not just in this case, but in every one.Giuliani continues to complain about absentee ballots not being a problem normally because it’s acceptable to have a little bit of fraud, in his book (I mean, to be fair, there’s likely always a small amount of fraud, these elections are a big deal).That’s a huge number of votes, 65% of the vote had been cast. Under normal circumstances, like if this were a fair media, your state would have been called for Trump. Virginia was called with 10% of the vote, it turned out to be separated by 1%.I think we may have actually won Virginia, but that’s another battle. Michigan, we were ahead by 300,000 votes, Wisconsin, more. Georgia, we were down to 90% and ahead. What are the odds that they all switched overnight? They just switched by the next day.So the interesting thing here is that he’s playing into the other narrative that the media doesn’t determine the winner.The problem is that he’s he’s right, he’s just digging a deeper hole into reality.Virginia has gone blue for the past decade, and not by a little. The past 3 presidential elections leaned heavily red in the initial counting, because those small precincts all over the state are able to finish and report quickly. The much larger precincts and counties in Northern Virginia (Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William) as well as Richmond and Chesapeake are heavily blue and take much longer to finish processing. That last 1% of precincts has more than half the vote in the state. This is not unusual.With more mail-in ballots than usual, many states accepting the ballots for as long as a week after the election so long as they’re postmarked before the end of election day. It didn’t help that the GOP sabotaged the post office, either, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters.[4] Pennsylvania, in particular, and these legislatures, in particular, made it illegal to validate and count the ballots before the election was over causing this delay in counting.Nothing switched overnight. The ballots were already cast, they were just being counted.The media caused this complaint, and their “calling” of the election doesn’t mean anything, legally. The results are certified by the states and then they send electors to vote officially. Frankly, I think the media should cut the crap with this play-by-play election commentary since it plays right into the hands of those trying to erode trust in the Fourth Estate.We have calculated, and the evidence will show, that there were 682,770 mail-in ballots that were entered into your votes, in just Allegheny County and in Philadelphia, that were not observed by any single Republican.This would be news…if they did have evidence…which they don’t. They’ve repeatedly said they did, but haven’t presented ANY evidence of it. They even removed this part of it (the number of ballots keeps changing daily, as well) from their lawsuits two weeks ago.[5] They’re most likely taking the inch (they found that they were kept too far away) and taking a mile (THEY WEREN’T ALLOWED TO OBSERVE ANYTHING!).[6]Once again, they’ve presented zero, zip, zilch, evidence that 600,000+ ballots were verified without observation.I’ll give you one other enormously puzzling statistic. You sent out in the State of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1,823, 148 absentee or mail-in ballots. You received back 1.4 million, approximately. However, in the count for President, you counted 2.5 million. I don’t know what accounts for that 700,000 difference between the number of ballots you sent out and the number of ballots that ended up in the count. That number, 2,589,242 was on your government website until yesterday. And yesterday, it was removed without explanation.There’s 3 things wrong with this statement:The first number cited was for the primaryThe larger number cited was for the 2020 presidential electionThe numbers weren’t removed from the website (You can see them here: Pennsylvania Elections - Summary Results)I’ll repeat, Both of these different sets of numbers are still on the website and you can see them.Fact check: Pennsylvania mail-in ballot claim mixes primary, general election dataHe throws out a bunch of other numbers:22,686 mail-in ballots that were returned on the day they were mailed. (Pennsylvania allows you to request and submit in person early, no issues there)How about 32,591 were returned the day after they were mailed? (same as above)20,000 were returned before they were mailed (this comes from an “anonymous source” at epoch times (a right wing propaganda source) that posted screenshots of a datasource that’s not available and is formatted improperly from the site…My guess is that there was a placeholder or a clerical data entry error)8,021 ballots from dead people (but then he changes it to 30,000 in the next sentence) A number of news sources have looked into these finding no evidence outside of a few small incidents involving registered Republicans.[7]4,984 mail-in ballots that were never requested. (This is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania for parties to request ballots for people)[8]I can go on. Everything Giuliani brings up in his little tirade is either blatantly false, intentionally misleading, or easily explicable but easy to manipulate for people who refuse to listen.Before I continue, let me remind you: this hearing was held after nearly every single lawsuit was thrown out because there was no evidence of anything wrong. That even their assertion that the observers weren’t able to see things that they initially gave an injunction to allow the observers to be closer, was rejected on appeal because they weren’t restricted arbitrarily, they were restricted by a highly contagious virus that kills or cripples many that are infected.The “hearing” continues with different witnesses, mostly volunteers who were observers.Justin Kweder tries to establish they didn’t have meaningful access to observe things, but, again, the access was there, it was just not over people’s shoulders, and nothing was done in secret. His claims apply to all observers, so shenanigans could have occurred for Trump. Nevermind that the counters are also working in teams to prevent mistakes, as well…I find it disturbing that they’d allege that these volunteers would be able to, and willing to, stuff hundreds of thousands of ballots with hundreds of observers in the room.Kim Peterson makes similar allegations, but is inconsistent claiming that she was either 10, 15, 20, or 200 feet away from people, without mentioning that there were people all around the corral which were 10, 15, or 20 feet away from the people on the other side .She also reveals that there was closed circuit TV on so that the observers could see everything from a distance. She was disappointed in the quality — she just wanted to do her civic duty. The precious snowflake.Let’s summarize, briefly the first two. Some observers were far away from some of the counters…but there were cameras and monitors all over so that you can see everything.Leah Hoops says this:Not only was private grant money used from the center for tech and life owned by Google and Mark Zuckerberg, but pop-up voter sites were also approved. These pop-up voter sites were placed in heavily Democrat cities, including Chester and Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in which case the grant money from the CTCL was used to pay for electioneering. It was literally a one-stop shop. Walk in, apply, get your ballot, submit, and you were out the door. But where this didn’t take place was in heavily Republican and independent areas.The reality is that areas with lots of people tend to be blue, proportionately. Areas with fewer people proportionally tend to be red. If you were going to put a pop up location anywhere, why would you put it in the middle of a cow pasture?Her complaints might be true, but they’re founded in nonsense, like arguing that Gravity isn’t fair.We have signed affidavits under penalty of perjury, which should be consideration enough to know that this is a very serious issueJust because you tell the truth doesn’t make it relevant. Her claims about not being able to observe were heard but dismissed after initially granting an injunction. The distance was not arbitrary, and accomodations were made for access.She also claims that they weren’t able to see the ballot signature validation room until an injunction was put in place. I found no record of any such injunction, unless she’s referring to the injunction that was put in place requiring them to be allowed within 6 feet, that was then rescinded on appeal.[9]Gregory Stenstrom did his best to be charming, but starts off saying it was his first time. He claims to have memorized the process manual, but he clearly skipped the training session.First, he claims they gave actual ballots instead of provisional ballots to people who claimed that they had requested mail in ballots. He doesn’t understand the process because if they had shown up as requesting mail in ballots, they would have been in the database. They didn’t, so they got actual ballots. Never mind this contradicts what other poll watchers saw regarding the treatment of black voters.[10]Then he claims that he wasn’t allowed into the counting center at first, which is valid because you have to be certified to be allowed in. Remember the chaos in at the Michigan counting facility when people not authorized to be there tried to storm in?He then claims there was a “forensically destructive process” with how the ballots were coming in…making claims that people “weren’t observed” and USB drives were being shuffled around. Ballots being moved around, votes being updated (50,000 for biden…because they organize the ballots and then run them…). He claimed that he spoke with a sheriff and the sheriff did nothing.He constantly makes emotional appeals and seems interested in the process…but rather than actually be a part of the process he’d rather “just ask questions.” — A key tactic in spreading conspiracy theories. His entire testimony seemed to revolve around ignorance of the process and drawing long conclusions from incomplete understandings of what was going on.The star witness seems to be Colonel Phil Waldron. He claimed no expertise or evidence or observation of the counting process, so he had no way to make any real claims about observers, but that didn’t stop him from continuing the claims the other witnesses made. He did claim expertise in information warfare that he took part in towards the end of his 30 year career.Consider a Colonel to be similar to a Project Manager at a very large company. They usually have several teams working underneath them and they’re either happy where they are, they’re not driven enough to advance, or not political enough…or they’re just not good enough. When you get to that point you’re in charge of people that know what they’re talking about and you just have to have a vague sense of it, it’s not required that you actually be or have the qualifications of a white hat hacker…and it shows in his testimony that he’s been at a distance from this stuff.He was clearly brought in by Trump's team and nearly everything he says is irrelevant and speculative. He claims, without evidence, for example, that 600,000 ballots were counted without observation. He insinuates, that the late Hugo Chavez had his undead hands on this election.I know there have been statements to the contrary but I personally debriefed the son of a Cuban intelligence officer who had first hand knowledge of Hugo Chavez’s family members who told him not to worry about the populous threat against Maduro’s election in Venezuela.Actual people that were able to analyze these things and verify the machines were trustworthy didn’t find anything…but Mr. Waldron personally could talk to people who guaranteed it. And let’s be clear, he’s tracing this “DNA” history back to before 2010…6 years before Trump won in Pennsylvania and many other states that use the same machines.All of this is similarly pointless conjecture since we have the paper ballots that we can audit.He says some things that make someone at all familiar with security wonder about his qualifications:And just so you probably all are aware, on 30 September, an election storage facility was robbed in your state. 30 USB devices were stolen and a laptop. Those USB devices more than likely had encryption devices and you just heard another previous witness talk about the nonstandard use of the USB storage devices.Yes, a facility was robbed. No, the USB devices didn’t have nonsensical “Encryption devices” on them, they had ballot layout templates for the machines to be programmed.[11] The machines are all sealed and those layouts are easily acquired elsewhere. The ballot layouts are also public information that are mailed out to everyone in advance of even the ballots being mailed out for remote voting.As a matter of fact, one of our white hat hackers previously discovered a malware that’s present on the servers that captures every log in and every password of every operator down to the precinct level that logs into one of these systems. That’s just like giving the password to your bank account out, putting it on the dark web. It’s not going to be there very long.There’s no context here. “Previously” could mean any time before hand. It looks like he hasn’t touched these things since 2010…They’ve most likely updated these servers since then, and if they found this “a malware” (No one talks like this in infosec circles) they probably fixed it…but we don’t know. But because of the way that he talks about these things it’s clear that he doesn’t have much insight and is simply trying to “just ask questions”.There’s a manufacturer specified rate of speed that a number of ballots can be imaged and processed. These spike anomalies in this chart really show where for us to look forensically to actually determine what happened with these votes. Our team has looked at these systems and there are a dozen ways to interdict the voting process, whether it’s mail in ballot manipulations, they can scan and allocate blank votes, whether it was a 70,000 votes left in the back room. There’s just lots of ways to interdict these systems.It’s like he doesn’t understand that:They don’t have to upload them as they run the ballotsThey can have more than one machine goingThey can release the reports whenever they feel like itMost of those votes are mail in ballots which haven’t been used to this extent in previous elections due to obvious circumstances, so this process is going to be differentThese aren’t votes coming in…these are votes that are being counted. There’s nothing unusual about this other than the fact that Pennsylvania didn’t allow early ballot counting to take place.This is just a purported “expert” “just asking questions” and sowing distrust.Gary Phelman says he has a “poll watcher’s certificate” that he says is good in every location in Philadelphia. He said he was denied entry. He claims it’s because his was yellow. He tries to claim they weren’t wearing masks, he definitely wasn’t wearing his bandana properly, however. A video of his encounter was here:A poll watcher in Philly was just wrongfully prevented from entering the polling place#StopTheSteal pic.twitter.com/iJTFtRk0Id— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 3, 2020Even though he is complaining about this now, it was cleared up pretty quickly:(Feeley is a spokesperson for the city commissioners) More on this can be seen here: Right-wing propagandists try to concoct a Philadelphia election scandalThis was an isolated incident that was cleared up on election day…yet here he is testifying about it.Dave Stisogis testified about a few things. He’s a lawyer and worked on campaigns for several candidates as well as running for office several times.First he complained about the processes and rule changes and how difficult it was for him to get people accredited (which applies to both sides).Then he talked about how he was observing the mail in ballot process about how they were separating the secrecy envelopes from the ballots with the cutting machines.His entire testimony can pretty much be summed up with this sentence:We had really no concept of what was going onThe Dunning-Kruger was strong with this one. He uses his credentials to imply that he is familiar with how it should work without establishing that he actually understands how it should work before saying flat out here that he doesn’t and has no intention of learning.At one point he called the fact that they had to “flatten out ballots” “obscene.” Which is a very…bizarre term for it. He says:People would come in with big armloads of ballots from the other room. Apparently with no providence, no explanation of where they came fromThis has been debunked to death. It’s a multistep process with observers at every step. Just because you can’t see everything doesn’t mean there isn’t meaningful access to it. If you did “have a concept of what was going on” you probably wouldn’t have expected it to be narrarrated to you.But there was absolutely no providence to what was going onHe likes the word providence.I had about 25 other affidavits from other folks that had joined me during the time that had been part of this that describe essentially the same thing over there in Allegheny County, most of whom were attorneys and had been versed on the comings and goings of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which I might suggest, ultimately, the last decision in recanvassing when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ultimately said that it doesn’t matter how far you’re away from the ballots because you don’t have the right to challenge anything, anyway. I read the opinion, and I said to myself, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court just called off elections in the state of Pennsylvania.”Again, a sworn affidavit might mean that you’re telling the truth, but it doesn’t make it relevant. Just because you’re a lawyer doesn’t mean that you have any insight into how elections work behind the scenes…and I’ve linked to the decision [9], and it doesn’t say what he claims.Next we have Elizabeth Preate Harvey who is full of softball concerns about the process, all of which are rehashes of what’s already been said and completely ephemeral.First, the Montgomery County Republican Committee was not provided meaningful view of the mail-in ballots at any time, despite our requests. Second, we were not provided with regular, detailed information about the mail-in ballots over the course of the election, despite our requests. Third, we still lack complete and detailed information about these ballots despite our written requests.I mean, this is, frankly all bullshit. Mail-in ballots are the same as in person ballots, except with secrecy envelopes. Sample ballots are mailed out prior to the mail in ballots.Second, as testified, you have observers all over the place. The “regular, detailed information” is likely not something that you’re entitled to, however much you wish you were.Third, Public information is available on the Pennsylvania secretary of state website.Since the election, we have received many calls and emails from Republicans with questions about whether their mail-in ballot was counted, expressing concerns that they didn’t request a mail-in ballot, but received one, anyway, that they were made to vote provisional when they shouldn’t have, that they have great concerns about the efficacy of this election.They can check that by calling their office. Clerks all over the country are friendly and very helpful.As touched on above, the Republican party likely requested one on their behalf which is completely legal in PennsylvaniaProvisional ballots are counted if they’re deemed legitimate to vote.In order for this country to have trust in the electoral process, elections must be viewed as open and transparent.I agree, and with social media, and media coverage, this has been the most transparent election in the history of the country.Julie Vahey was the Executive Director of the Montgomery County Republican Committee. She claims no one was allowed to see the mail in verification area…yet the lawsuits never make this assertion.[12]They claim they weren’t close enough to see what was going on. (Neither were the Democratic observers if that was the case). They eventually moved the tables to give better visibility, which she doesn’t mention…just complaints about the process.Over the last ten months, in my role, I’ve spoken to thousands of voters firsthand who have lost faith in the election processes and procedures in Montgomery County and across Pennsylvania as a whole.Over the last ten months…That’s waaaaay before Trump started complaining about mail in ballots. That’s back in February even before the lockdowns hit. That’s a really bizarre time frame.Next we have Barbara Sulitka who is basically an elderly voter and her daughter Cheryl Nudo and son-in-law Charles who is helping her testify. Barbara thinks her vote didn’t count since she got a print out that didn’t have Trump on it. Cheryl thinks scantron forms are a form of voter suppression because old people don’t get technology. (seriously).I’ve never gotten a receipt of who I voted for, and the only thing I could find is that if you did a provisional ballot they give you the id of that ballot so you can track it.[13]Then we have Olivia Jane Winters who told a long tale about how the Chief of elections might have voted twice.Finally we had Gloria Lee Snover who testified that Mail-in ballots were new and confusing…She claimed that they didn’t have access to observe them (which would have been illegal, so why they didn’t file suit about that is strange) and that, without evidence, claimed Democrats had more access and information than she did.Then Trump came on and rambled for 10 minutes adding no evidence to the table since he wasn’t there and had no visibility or expertise on the matter.They let the audience chant “Trump” in a cult-like manner for 5 minutes.The Chairman then pats himself on the back:I think what you’ve just heard guarantees that a hundred years from now, that this is the most important public hearing ever held by this Senate committee.and they lob it back to Trump’s lawyers, who botch the numbers to make it seem like they’re going to flip the election because of all of this pretend fraud.This fake hearing was more like cult-ritual. There were no Democrats present, no testimony from the election officials (many of whom were Republicans), no testimony from anyone but the select few that could try to confirm their biases.The people present were not under oath and some of their testimonies were different from their sworn affidavits. Many of them weren’t trained.The numbers provided were wrong. Their experts weren’t experts.The goal of this is to build up a wall of “Just Asking Questions” and pile on more and more innuendo to try to make it seem like there’s smoke, and therefore fire. Upon closer examination, it’s all just steam. These implications are like a hydra, designed so that if you cut one head off, 2 more pop in their place. Such that books have to be written that no one will read to debunk it all.This is like a travelling revival show. The purpose was to sell snake oil.The only thing that will come of it is more donations to help Trump pay back his debts.Some more viral misinformation debunking:Tracking Viral Misinformation About the 2020 ElectionFootnotes[1] Stacking the deck: How the GOP works to suppress minority voting[2] Absentee ballot dispute reaches Court - SCOTUSblog[3] Carter Center Statement on Voting by Mail for 2020 U.S. Elections[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/05/usps-late-ballots-election/[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lawsuit-pennsylvania/2020/11/15/4aab8048-279b-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html[6] Trump lawsuit seeks to block certification of votes in Allegheny, Philadelphia counties[7] Man arrested for voter fraud in Luzerne County[8] Your Pa. election questions answered: I received a mail-in ballot application but never requested one. What should I do?[9] https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000176-0ae5-d692-a977-1effb4f90000[10] Being a poll observer in West Philly made me really angry. Here’s why. | Opinion[11] Memory sticks used to program Philly’s voting machines were stolen from elections warehouse[12] Poll watchers emerge as a flashpoint in battle over ballots[13] Election 2020 in Pennsylvania: All of your voting questions, answered | Spotlight PA