Newspaper Page Text
Page 6 - Wednesday, January 24, 2024
The Jenkins County Times
jenkinscountytimes.com
Raffensperger sets record straight
Special
to
The Times
Trump Recycles Tired 2020
Election Allegations
The former president just
won’t let his loss go, even if
that means returning to long-
disproven allegations about the
outcome.
As originally conceived by
its inventors, the concept of the
“big lie” is supposed to be a tale
so audacious and captivating
that people can’t doubt it. Its
unbelievability is its power
— so impossible that it will
change public beliefs. After
three years, though, former
president Donald Trump and
his allies haven’t enlarged the
lie about the 2020 election being
“stolen.” Instead, they have resorted
to merely repeating the same tired
and long-disproven assertions. The
once-fantastical lie that the 2020
election was somehow “stolen”
from President Trump through
voting-machine irregularities,
foreign intervention, or out-and-
out fraud has become repetitive,
boring, and sad.
These fabricated assertions were
certainly entertaining at first — like
the water fixtures in front of the
Bellagio in Las Vegas. Every 15 to
30 minutes, jets of water spray up,
down, and rotate in a rhythmic and
visually amusing pattern. But one
can’t watch it for very long before
the patterns become predictable
and boring. The big lie about the
2020 election, repeated now for
more than three years, has brought
forward no proof and nothing
that hasn’t been publicly known
since January 2021. The current
variations, on display regularly
during Trump’s 2024 presidential
campaign thus far, are merely part
of the dancing fountain of lies that
have been disproven by the count,
the recount, and the audit of the
2020 vote in Georgia. Not one
single shred of evidence has been
offered in its support, in my state
or in any other.
There was plenty of opportunity
for Team Trump to back up its
wild and audacious assertions
with evidence. Courts of law
would have been the appropriate
forum to do so. Sixteen individual
lawsuits were brought to challenge
the validity of Georgia’s 2020
election results, of which twelve
were dismissed, and four of which
were withdrawn by Trump’s own
legal team. Why withdraw? Even
if it was too late to decertify the
2020 election, Trump or his allies
could have argued before a judge
— and potentially a jury — and
possibly put some actual proof to
any of the wild assertions made
in the immediate aftermath of the
2020 election, some of which are
still being made to this day. One
need not be more than slightly
cynical to understand why Team
Trump would choose a tactical
retreat from the truth. The lie was
far more compelling than any
sober analysis of election returns.
One crucial element to any
confidence game is summed up in
the 2015 movie Focus with Will
Smith and Margot Robbie. “Never
give up the con,” says Smith’s
character. “You die with the lie.”
Anyone willing to go that far, the
con man’s theory goes, must be
telling the truth.
It gave me no joy to report to
President Trump in January 2021
that he had lost Georgia in the
presidential contest. I have been
a conservative all my life and
a Republican for the entirety of
my elected career. I had voted for
him twice. But during our phone
call on January 2, 2021, President
Trump told me he wanted me to
find “11,790 votes, which is one
more than we have ...” I looked,
and what I found clearly showed
why he lost.
In Georgia in 2020, there were
33,527 voters who requested a
Republican ballot in Georgia’s
primaries but who also did not
participate — at all — in Georgia’s
general election. Georgia had 14
Republican candidates for the U.S.
House of Representatives on the
ballot in the 2020 general election.
Those 14 candidates’ combined
vote total was 27,559 more than
President Trump’s Georgia total.
Another 27,967 voters voted for
down-ballot Republicans but left
the presidential contest blank.
There were more than enough
Republican votes in Georgia for
President Trump to carry the state.
Republicans just didn’t cast them.
Left- Secretary
Brad Raffensperger
To describe the former
president as polarizing is a
profound and indisputable
understatement. He’s a political
magnetic pole that either attracts
or repels people irresistibly,
with nearly no one on the
fence or in the much-coveted
political “middle.” Trump
forces people to take a side. In
2020, he pushed voters into a
“you’re with me or against me”
choice that tens of thousands
of Georgians flatly refrised to
make. Many of them stayed
home, and some of them left the
presidential choice blank.
It’s important to emphasize that
the key to Trump’s loss in Georgia
was that the Georgians who didn’t
vote for Trump were Republicans.
The thousands of voters who
made no choice in the presidential
contest in Georgia voted for other
Republican candidates on the same
ballot. The former president’s
power of polarization repels not
only all Democrats but also enough
independents and Republicans
that he couldn’t win Georgia. The
former president’s personality is
unprecedented and so off-putting
to some that it has created a
cottage industry of “Never Trump”
Republicans who gladly take
millions in donations from angry
liberals on the flimsy promise
of “fighting Trump.” Plenty of
people have been angry with other
Republican presidents or nominees,
but neither “Never Bush” nor
‘Never Romney” ever existed as
significant political movements by
the time the general election came
around.
Former president Trump has
released a “new” document he
described as “fully verified ... by
the most highly qualified Election
Experts in the Country.” Maybe,
maybe not. The former president
has been known to exaggerate. But
the larger problem for this “new”
document with its supposedly
‘definitive” proof is that it fails to
deliver anything new or definitive
at all. It’s nothing but recycled
conspiracy theories and repetition
of already disproven allegations.
The three-ring circus that was
once the Trump entertainment
spectacle has withered away to a
single decrepit pony, desperately
performing its one trick, hoping
to regain the audience it once
held in thrall. Iowa showed that
performance can still keep some
people entertained. Others can
make up their own minds.
Sen. Ossoff Launches Bipartisan Inquiry
into VA Community Care Wait Times
H U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is pressing the VA to reduce wait times for community
care appointments.
Today, Sens. Ossoff and Rick Scott (R-FL) launched a bipartisan inquiry into
delays veterans are facing between referral dates and scheduled medical appointment
at VA community care locations in Georgia and nationwide.
Sens. Ossoff and Scott are joined by Senators John Comyn (R-TX), Reverend
Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ted Budd (R-
NC), and Shelley Moore Capita (R-WV).
“We receive frequent communications from our veteran constituents regarding
lengthy wait times in both scheduling and receiving health care through community
care providers,” Sens. Ossoff, Scott, and the group wrote to VA Secretary
McDonough. “Eligible veterans have earned timely, quality health care; These
delays must be urgently addressed.”
Sens. Ossoff, Scott, and the group are urging the VA to fully implement U.S.
Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recommendations to improve program
timeliness and efficiency.
Since 2018, multiple GAO reports have recommended that VA ensure timely veteran medical care by establishing and
analyzing feasible, discrete time standards. Of the six relevant GAO recommendations, VA has only fully implemented
two.
Sen. Ossoff continues to advocate on behalf of Georgia’s veterans and their families.
In December, Sens. Ossoff and Kevin Cramer (R-ND)’s bipartisan Military Families Mental Health Services Act to
help more military families access vital mental health care services became law as part of this year’s National Defense
Authorization Act.
In October, Sen. Ossoff launched an inquiry with the VA into excessive delays with the VA Board of Veterans Appeals
(BVA), which decides whether or not veterans are entitled to claimed veterans’ benefits and services.
Also in October, Sens. Ossoff and Mike Braun (R-IN) led a bipartisan coalition of 20 Senators in a follow-up inquiry
to the National Archives of the United States (NARA) into the backlog of veterans’ record requests, requesting updated
information on the status of reducing the backlog of record requests.
CANOOCHEE
PADDLE RACE OPENS
REGISTRATION
ORK BRINGS THE POPULAR EVENT BACK TO EVANS COUNTY
Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) will host the Canoochee Paddle Race on Saturday, April 13, 2024 in Evans County,
Georgia. The race will begin at noon, with fun paddlers to follow.
The race will take place along approximately seven miles of the Canoochee River, from Brewton Bridge to Rocks
River Bridge landing. Rocks River Bridge landing will also serve as the headquarters for the awards presentation,
winners circle, food vendors, and entertainment. Everyone is welcome to come cheer for the racers and enjoy a day
out by the river.
Paddlers of kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, and canoes are welcome to compete. Non-racing paddlers are also
welcome to follow the route after racers have started. Entrants will receive a vessel identifier, map, and official race
t-shirt. Registrants will receive packet pick-up information via email. Entry is $50 per person, regardless of racing
status.
ORK does not provide vessels or equipment. Personal flotation devices are required for each participant. Entry is
limited and pre-registration is required. The deadline to register is Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at noon.
Where: Canoochee River, Evans County
Rocks River Bridge Landing: GPS 32.184196, -81.889276
When: Saturday, April 13, noon. - 5 p.m.
Cost: $50 per person; Free to cheer for the paddlers
Details and registration: https://www.ogeecheeriverkeeper.org/events/canoochee-paddle-race/
Aged to Perfection
Jenkins County Senior Center
By Lee Wilson,
Special Contributor
for
The Times
It’s always fun to sit around our Senior Center and listen
to the different conversations around the tables. You can
leam a lot. Whether the stories are true or not, it is always
entertaining!
“Laura” was telling the ladies at her table last week
that whenever she vacuums her house, she always wears
headphones and listens to music because she does not like
to hear the noise that her vacuum makes. “Laura” said that
she finished vacuuming her entire house before realizing
the vacuum wasn’t even plugged in!
We overheard “Mr. William” in the tv room complaining
to “Terry” that he was mad with “Roger”.
“Mr. William” said he asked “Roger” if he could help
him move into his new apartment last weekend. “Roger”
said he wasn’t sure and asked him if he was moving closer
to where his sister lives. “Mr. William” told him that he
didn’t have any sisters. Well, “Roger” then told him that he
definitely couldn’t help him move. “Mr. William” said he
asked “Roger” you mean to tell me that you can’t help me
move because he didn’t have a sister??? “Roger” then told
him it was because when he was getting ready to move last
year “Mr. William” told him that he couldn’t help because
his sister was in the hospital!
“Myrtis” was overheard telling the card players at her
table that she had thought about joining the gym downtown.
She said that when she met with the trainer she said how
surprised she was at how winded she got by the exercise.
“Myrtis” said the trainer told her, “Mam, this was just the
tour of the gym.”
While the ladies were finishing up their puzzle at the
puzzle table, “Ms. Julia” told them that at her last doctor’s
appointment she complained to him that she was tired of just
eating boring salads. “Ms. Julia” said her doctor responded
that actually the more colorful your salad is the better it is
for you. So, “Ms. Julia” said she left the doctor’s office and
immediately went to the grocery store and bought m&ms to
replace the croutons on her salad!
During lunch, “Ms. Mary Francis” was saying that she had
watched one of Dr. Phil’s shows and there was a therapist
on there. The therapist told this lady on the show that she
needed to write letters to the people that she didn’t like and
then bum them. “Ms. Mary Francis” she was going to do that
but then she didn’t know what she was to do with the letters!
After hearing “Mr. Kenny” say that the other day he had
told this lady she had a really beautiful home and she told
him ’’Sir, I’m a bartender. You’re in a bar!”, I decided I had
heard enough for the day, and I needed to just get back to
work!
Jenkins County
Booking Log
January 24
January 8 - Michael Dequarius Bryon - DUI (Alcohol),
Failure to Maintain Lane, Driving w/out License on
Person.
January 10 - Tamani Dewayla Bryant - Probation
Violation.
January 11 - Jonathan Michael Roberts - DUI
(Alcohol), Speeding (19-23 Miles Over) (55 Zone).
January 12 - Linya Nykira McFarlin - Probation
Violation.
Incidents
January 10 - Criminal Damage to Property (2nd
Degree), Perkins Green Fork Rd.
January 10 - Theft by Taking, US 25 N.
Couple finds surprise
outside of local store
Upon leaving a local store, a couple noticed their
vehicle across the street. Local authorities responded to
the incident and pulled the vehicle back onto the road.
The exact cause is still unknown, but authorities believe
it could have been the result of a mechanical issue.
Photo by S. Brinson