The New Yorker published an article today on the latest Republican who appears to have committed voter fraud: former NC congressman and Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows:
On September 19th, about three weeks before North Carolina’s voter-registration deadline for the general election, Meadows filed his paperwork. On a line that asked for his residential address—“where you physically live,” the form instructs—Meadows wrote down the address of a fourteen-by-sixty-two-foot mobile home in Scaly Mountain. He listed his move-in date for this address as the following day, September 20th.
Meadows does not own this property and never has. It is not clear that he has ever spent a single night there. (He did not respond to a request for comment.) The previous owner, who asked that we not use her name, now lives in Florida. “That was just a summer home,” she told me, when I called her up the other day. She seemed surprised to learn that the residence was listed on the Meadowses’ forms.
Meadows’ wife rented the modest abode for a couple of months within the past few years, according to the former owner, who couldn’t remember the exact dates, but the Meadows never lived there. The wife and the Meadows’ grown kids allegedly spent a couple of nights there, but the offsite former owner said Mark Meadows never did, and she’s completely mystified as to why the couple would list that address as their residence. The current owner is also surprised:
Ken Abele…bought the mobile home in August [2021]. Abele said that he’d heard that the Meadows family stayed there in the fall of 2020, when they were in the area for a Trump rally, because nearby hotels were scarce… It struck him as odd. “I’ve made a lot of improvements,” Abele said, of the mobile home. “But when I got it, it was not the kind of place you’d think the chief of staff of the President would be staying.” I asked him what he made of Meadows listing the property as his place of residence on his voter-registration form. “That’s weird that he would do that,” he said. “Really weird.”
It’s unclear from the article whether the local authorities intend to investigate. I’m going to go way out on a limb here and predict that they will not.
Open thread!
Villago Delenda Est
It is ALWAYS projection with these GQp motherfuckers. ALWAYS.
Spanky
And if it’s not voter fraud …
cope
No investigation, no charges, no blood, no foul. All these rethug voting violators will skate. This will just cause the righteous howl from their base to get louder. Trust me, I am always wrong when I make predictions.
MattF
Rule 1: Every accusation is a confession.
Raoul Paste
Why isn’t this story on the damn nightly news?
if this were a Democrat, it would be screamed 24/7 on Fox.
debbie
Have there been any legitimate voting frauds by Democrats that resulted in charges? All I ever hear about is Republicans being charged for fraud.
MattF
@Spanky: Robin Ficker is sort of a special case. He’s been trolling Maryland politics from the right wing for decades. The only real question is ‘why now’?
debbie
@debbie:
Trying to answer my own question, I came across this factoid:
Plenty of links but most are for Heritage. Pass.
JoyceH
This story just baffles me. He was a NC Congressman until March of 2020 – did he not own a house? Are there NO dwellings in NC (parents residence, kids residence) that would be more plausible than a vacation rental mobile home that belonged to someone else?!
SFAW
Lock him up.
Baud
@debbie:
The closest thing they have are a couple of black parolees who wrong believed they were eligible to vote.
Baud
@Raoul Paste:
When a Dem does something fraudulent, both Dems and Republicans care. When a Republican does something fraudulent, only Dems care. The media understands this.
BC in Illinois
@JoyceH:
Yeah, up your game, man!
Learn from Joshua Hawley — Twitter: @HawleyMO [sic] — and claim your sister’s place as your home-of-record. (Hawley and family own a home-of-actual-residence in Virginia.)
JoyceH
@BC in Illinois: The claiming the vacation rental place makes me wonder if there’s anyone left in NC who even LIKES the man.
Shalimar
If he was black, he would be going to prison for a decade.
Timill
@JoyceH: Per the linked article, he had sold his NC home (https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/145-River-Overlook-Rd_Sapphire_NC_28774_M50494-61784) in March 2020 and not yet bought a replacement.
Presumably his family don’t like him either…
matt
The laws are for those other people to follow.
Danielx
I am shocked, shocked…not
jonas
@Spanky: Being convicted of some kind of fraud, fired for rank incompetence, or disciplined by a professional association is a feature for these people, not a bug. It’s a sign you’re not an “elitist insider,” or something.
I don’t know what’s next, but I presume it will be something like “I never scored in the three digits on a IQ test like some of those fancy-pants, beltway insiders!”
sab
I met my husband committing voter fraud. He was newly divorced and visiting his kids. He noticed me and fell head over heels in love with my german shepherd, and determined he was going to meet that dog’s owner.
So when I went to vote he followed me, even though he should have re-registered in the next precinct. We chatted in the long voting line.
His kids loved my german shepherd.
Another Scott
IOKIYAR.
Seriously.
Their idea of fraud is “wrong people voting”. It has nothing to do with the actual voting rules and laws. It’s about keeping the “wrong people” from voting.
They’re GQP, so by definition they’re not the “wrong people.”
That’s why any accountability, and I’m not holding my breath, is different for GQPers and for the rest of us.
(insert “the-more-you-know.gif”)
:-/
Grr…,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
?
sukabi
Seems like a clear cut case of willful, knowing, deliberate VOTER FRAUD…
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
This.
This is all of it. They can do no wrong, but everyone else can do no right.
UncleEbeneezer
Finally watched the new West Side Story last night. The original was one of my late Mom’s favorite films and we watched it many times together over the years so I was really looking forward to checking this out. Here’s my (heavily biased) take:
Awesome!! Very good film. Spielberg knows his shit when it comes to delivering big-time, big-Hollywood cinematic moments. Everything is visually stunning. And it is great to see actual Latinx people playing the Puerto Rican characters. Especially alot of dark-skinned, Afro-Latinx representation too. The film didn’t gloss over racism/xenophobia, but made it a fairly central theme of the movie.
Some people say you can’t/shouldn’t compare with the original film, but fuck that. We all know that is the first thing that pops into our heads so here goes:
The Jet Song– Fairly similar to the original in spirit. No amount of updating can really change the corniness of the song, but the new version had some great exterior shots of NY, good dancing etc.
America– one of the most iconic scenes from the original is given a new outdoor spin with some bright, colorful costumes and much larger dance group. It’s almost as good as the original or maybe just as good, only different. Ariana Debose is really amazing as Anita. And while I don’t think anyone could ever match Rita Moreno’s performance in that role, Debose gets about as close as possible while not trying to mimic the original.
I Feel Pretty- not one of my favorites in the original version, but in the Speilberg version it’s pretty great. Rachel Zegler (Maria) and her friends have a really fun time singing and dancing their way around a department store.
Dance At the Gym- Gives the original a good run for its’ money and features Tony and Maria meeting behind the bleachers in private, which makes much more sense for their intimate moment, than the way they meet in the original.
One Hand, One Heart– Kind of a sappy song/scene in the original, and it still is in this version too, but the use of camera angles and lighting was really cool.
Somewhere– Neat that they gave this one to Rita Moreno’s character, Valentina, Tony’s Aunt to sing. But it didn’t really work for me. Interesting attempt at giving it a different spin and mostly successful, but I think I still prefer the original.
Cool– Hands down my favorite song/scene from the original. This one fell REALLY flat to me. Spielberg moved it from the dark parking garage to an ocean pier. Tony is now the singer and only the men are there. I get that they wanted to do something different, but it’s like they stripped everything that made the original so damn cool (the car lights, the Jets girlfriends etc.) in the first place, leaving a scene that looks more like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. So this scene was a big old MISS for me. The dancers also didn’t scream the “Pow!”s during the song which made the big musical build-up sound kind of empty.
A Boy Like That/I Have A Love– not a whole lot different from the irginal from what I could tell. Very good. Moving etc.
All in all, I feel like the singing in the original was overall better. While nobody had BAD voices in the remake, many of them sounded like actors who are decent singers rather than Broadway-level singers. Nobody had Hamilton-level voices. The dancing was great and had many of the same moves from the original but with some more modern flairs thrown in. That said, I think the choreography in the original, especially for Prelude, America, Cool, Dance At The Gym, Rumble etc., was pretty much impossible to beat.
Very good remake. But I’ll always prefer the original.
laura
@sab: This is the best voter fraud story I’ve ever heard…..and good on him for following that their of hearts.
Wrt Meadows, it isn’t wierd, it is criminal activity and he joins Kayliegh what’s her face, Hawley, Liz C., and those goobers who voted for their dead spouses who got hand slaps and Youngkin’ boy who made 2 attempts to vote and was merely turned away. Ann Coulter voted outside her precinct a few years ago and everything was jake. There are at least two Black Women in prison or facing retrial right now. There’s formerly incarcerated persons who are subject to sudden catch-22 laws that discourage attempting to register. Senior housing has been lousy with door to door party registration flippers and there’s random dingle berries going door to door demanding party registration and voter preference despite it being against the law.
Funny old world.\\
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Scott:
This. It is tied directly into one of the core assumptions of racism: The Other cannot win in any fair competition due to being inferior. Ergo, if the Other wins they must be cheating. Any cheating you do is like when the hero defeats the villain with a trick.
As usual, Darth Narcissist just screamed at the top of his lungs what his base always believed.
Mike in NC
Meadows appears to be as nutty as a squirrel turd.
debbie
@UncleEbeneezer:
What about the final scene on the playground?
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: This, this, THIS.
UncleEbeneezer
@debbie: It was good but didn’t move me the same as the original. Maybe because I already knew the ending and I’ve seen original countless times.
delk
@UncleEbeneezer: my husband watched it last night. Was pretty neutral about it. Didn’t hate it didn’t love it.
cain
In the original, I used to roll my eyes at the kind of poor latino accents – especially when Natalie Wood would speak spanish.
I only caught the end of the latest one, as one of my step kids was watching it. I found it more intense than the original. Rachel Zigler reminded me of my niece – they both have very similar features. Hell, one of the Sharks looked like a south indian tamil boy!
The use of the word gringo seemed out of place with Puerto Ricans. I know the word originated with Mexicans but I’ve never heard Puerto Ricans use it when I used to hang around them.
I’ve been called a gringo by Mexicans (which is hilarious considering I’m Indian) but I suppose I act ‘white’ and it was used in a teasing, affectionate way. (which apparently is pretty universal when it comes to how people react to me) I love Mexican folks. :-)
cain
@Frankensteinbeck: Kind of how they react to any kind of black person being successful. (see Obama, or any other successful black person)
debbie
@UncleEbeneezer:
No matter how many times I see the original ending, it chokes me up.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
I’ve been wondering about Dr. Oz the carpetbagger running for the senate in Pennsylvania. He doesn’t own a house in the state but registered using his in-laws address in the Philly suburbs to vote in the last election. I doubt he’s ever actually been there for more than a few nights.
The PA Voter registration form says the following though:
Can we get him locked up please? Then we can chen on a few of the other rethugs running.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Spanky: Wait a minute. I know that name, going back to when I lived in the DC area in the 80s and 90s.
Ficker’s name kept popping up in the WaPo on various asshole things, often connected with trying to eliminate property taxes.
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
Gary K