Gateway Pundit flops again.
Shrouded in shameless banner ads that generic revenue from your eyeballs, Jim Hoft’s most recent attack on reality has targeted Colorado’s 9th Senate District, currently (and future-ly) occupied by State Senator Paul Lundeen.
Apparently, he stole the election too!
Hoft’s evidence is strong (sarcasm) in this piece - a screenshot from a news source that shows the vote totals flipped, as you can see below:
“It was a big night for Lynda Zamora Wilson.
At 8:12 she held a significant lead over incumbent Paul Ledeen.
Wilson was at 15,385 votes to Lundeen’s 6,675 votes — more than twice his total!”
I don’t know who “Paul Ledeen” is, but I can guarantee to you that Zamora Wilson never held a lead over him. Indeed, these “results” were only live on Fox31’s website for a short period of time.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s vote count never reflected this issue, and neither did the El Paso County Clerk & Recorder. So what did happen?
“The machines flipped her lead to a loss.”
Well, that’s not what happened. Indeed, this was simple a result of a news outlet misreporting the results. When Fox31 heard of the Gateway Pundit “article,” they published this:
On primary night, KDVR/KWGN experienced a technical error in reporting voting results in the Republican race for State Senate District 9. Our system incorrectly reported data for the winning and losing candidate. To be clear, the race was won by Paul Lundeen, as certified by the El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s Office and the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. We reviewed the El Paso Clerk and Recorder’s Office election night reports and confirmed that at no time did Mr. Lundeen trail in the race. Once we discovered the error, we made an immediate correction. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it caused.
Auxiliary evidence in the article includes that Lynda Wilson won at county assembly (52% to 48%), which is true. If you’re familiar with county assemblies - and the caucus system in general - you’ll know that this small selection of a few hundred activists. There is no evidence to suggest that a county assembly is indicative of the full Republican electorate.
Furthermore, a recount was conducted in a handful of El Paso races, including this one, and they concluded that Paul Lundeen won the race by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.
Interestingly, the article does not mention the fact that Paul Lundeen raised $93,616.52 while Lynda Zamora Wilson raised just $22,299.50. If you recall, in their article explaining why Pam Anderson couldn’t have possibly won her primary race for Secretary of State, they pointed out that Tina Peters out-raised Pam Anderson. Of course, that isn’t the case in this race, so it won’t be mentioned.
Who cares, right? Well, you should. This specific article has over 1,000 comments on it. Based on that alone, we can estimate that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of eyes have viewed this article.
And if you read some of the comments at the bottom, it’s evident that people believe it.
Don’t worry, the left has crazies too.
I’m usually quite critical of those on the right that peddle conspiracy theories and related bunk news because I am on the right. I feel it is imperative to ensure that conservatism is represented by facts, not by hogwash.
But, alas, sometimes I spot flotsam in the internet ocean that drifts from the shores of leftyland that I cannot help but laugh at.
In this tweet, from another anonymous account (as most ridiculous tweets are, mysteriously), a leftist claims that the baby formula shortage was manufactured by Republicans in an effort to force women to breastfeed.
The baby formula shortage this year was brought on by three simple factors: bacteria, the COVID-19 supply chain effects, and U.S. trade policy, as pointed out by this article in The Atlantic.
The equation was simple:
Baby formula was recalled and removed from the shelves due to bacteria leading to the death of two infants. A plant that produced the formula was shut down for a prolonged period of time.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the supply chain made it more difficult for that company, and others, to ramp up supply elsewhere.
American trade policy surrounding baby formula means that are only a few companies with FDA approval to produce formula - and almost no way for formula to be imported from other nations in case of a domestic shortage.
As somebody pointed out to me on Twitter, this individual only has 60 followers. It’s not as if their gibberish is being echoed widely on the left. That’s a valid point. However, this isn’t the only account to echo such sentiment.
While certainly not demonstrative of the entire Democratic Party, it is demonstrative of the knee-jerk, reactionary rhetoric we see in politics constantly. Every issue becomes attributable to our political foes, regardless of actual causes.
Sometimes, things happen. They suck. That doesn’t mean it has to be the fault of your political opponents.
Colorado Inside Out.
Yours truly had the privilege of being a guest commentator on Colorado Inside Out on PBS12 a couple weeks ago. Joined by three other fantastic individuals (and a great host in Kyle Dyer), we talked about the Kansas abortion initiative, upcoming initiatives in Colorado, Denver Public Schools, and the Broncos’ new owner.
Reminder to self: Don’t say “quite frankly” more than once in a show, and you don’t need to say Floyd Little’s name twice when talking about Broncos greats (as amazing as he may have been).
I’ll be joining CIO again this Friday with some great guests.
Fascinating Tidbits
Faith in Humanity Restored (FOX News): Indiana delivery driver saves five from burning home: 'No hesitation, no thinking'
No Medal for Meddling (The Dispatch): Joe O’Dea: The Republican Senate Candidate Who Survived Democratic Meddling
Color Palette Generator: If you do design work, like me, and you want to find some great color palettes, this is a great website for exactly that. Automatically generates complimenting colors!
More to Come
I’ve been dawdling with a few pieces for Substack for a month or so now, and have slowly been chipping away at each of them. Keep your eyes open as I hope to send them your way in the next few weeks.