GOP boasts cheating to win works very well

[Photo: AP file/J. Scott Applewhite]

Guessing they won't be leading the nightly news with this story. Republicans feel so safe from being held accountable for their vandalism of our government process, they feel free to boast GOP voting district rigging protected their power to enforce their own agenda against the will of the people. In a published report titled "How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led to a Republican U.S. House Majority in 2013″ they gleefully admit they cheated to win:

Farther down-ballot, aggregated numbers show voters pulled the lever for Republicans only 49 percent of the time in congressional races, suggesting that 2012 could have been a repeat of 2008, when voters gave control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to Democrats.

But, as we see today, that was not the case. Instead, Republicans enjoy a 33-seat margin in the U.S. House seated yesterday in the 113th Congress, having endured Democratic successes atop the ticket and over one million more votes cast for Democratic House candidates than Republicans. The only analogous election in recent political history in which this aberration has taken place was immediately after reapportionment in 1972, when Democrats held a 50 seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives while losing the presidency and the popular congressional vote by 2.6 million votes.

To be clear, Obama won by 5 million votes, or 51.1% to Romney 47.2% of the total. Which puts President Obama in history as the only sitting President to win twice with over 50% of the vote since Eisenhower. Not that you would know that if you only listen to the GOP caterwauling about their rigged "mandate" in the House.

The fruits of our labors

Mulling over the results of this election, one thing is clear to me. Our biggest obstacle to future progress is gerrymandering. From D.C. to the statehouses Democrats actually won a majority of votes that is not reflected in the number of seats they hold. This the poison fruit of the 2010 debacle that allowed Republicans to take over statehouses just when the new districts were being drawn.

Nonetheless, we did well with the new Democratic House in D.C.:

Come January, women and minorities for the first time in U.S. history will hold a majority of the party’s House seats, while Republicans will continue to be overwhelmingly white and male. The chamber, already politically polarized, more than ever is going to be demographically polarized, too. [...]

“When voters and citizens look at the Democratic Party, what they see is America,” said [Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland].

And when they look at the Republican party, they're going to see pretty much the same old horde of mostly sour-faced old, rich, white guys.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Staying calm and trusting Nate Silver

Atlantic Wire has a good one. They're saying Obama won PA. I'm on the twitter. You can see my tweets on the widget on the sidebar if you don't follow me.

Pulled some tarot cards earlier in the evening. My cards were Temperance, Four of Clubs, The Magician, The Hermit, and The Lovers. Make of that what you will. It's a powerful spread.

So far looking like a good night to be a bleeding heart liberal. Thrilled to see Obama take Michigan and Elizabeth Warren win in Mass. Don't know how they call these states so early, but happy enough if they're right. Meanwhile, a few nailbiters out there. Florida ridiculously close, as is Ohio. Where all the voting glitches are concentrated. Ohio looks good so far. Florida is going to come down to a few hundred votes I think. North Carolina will too.

Lot of people standing in lines when the polls closed. I seriously want to hug every single of them. That's going to be the biggest story tomorrow I think. Cautiously optimistic.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Voting machine problems in PA

And so it begins:



The person who put this up is happy to allow anyone to check the validity of his video. This happened on one machine in PA, but this is way to hide machine glitches. A few hundred votes in every precinct would add up to a lot. The only countermeasure is a massive turnout. Every vote matters. No matter where you live.

Somewhat related. Ballot placement in a wealthy precinct in Ohio.

[via]

Also, the Cincinnati Enquirer posted phony early voting tallies on their website. Claim it was a mistake. They were just testing a dummy template. But the fake numbers are still up as I post this.

Screw the vote

As it always the case, whatever GOPers are obsessing about, it's because they're doing it themselves. Saw on the twitter that Fox Spews is making a big deal about some black guy opening doors at the polls for old white ladies. Implication being Black Panther intimidation. Which is, of course, a lie.

In real life it's the Tea Party cons planning on intimidating black voters. An investigation has been requested:

"We have seen their list and it strongly suggests that the Pennsylvania Republican Party is coordinating with the Pittsburgh Tea Party to target African American voters for intimidation at the polls," said Nicole Berner, SEIU Associate General Counsel. "The Pennsylvania Republican Party has serious questions to answer about where they are putting their poll watchers and why."

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Republican observers forged signatures to illegally gain access to the polls.

Yesterday we reported that True the Vote was attempting to place observers at precincts in Central Ohio, focusing on African American districts. We also noted that there might be some problems with the forms they submitted to the Franklin County Board of Elections (FCBOE).

The FCBOE met today and determined that True the Vote had likely falsified the forms submitted for general election observers. The new observer forms, filed over the past few days by True the Vote representative (and Hilliard Tea Party Member) Jan Loar, used candidate signatures copied from a previous set of forms filed in early October.

All but one of the six candidates whose names appeared on the original form had withdrawn permission to use their signatures prior to the submission of today’s forms. During the BOE meeting Candidate Terri Jamison spoke up to say her name was “forged” on the latest round of forms.

And actual ballot fraud, yep, GOPers are the ones commiting that too. Got your GOPer trying to vote twice in two different polling places. And then there's your Republican elections workers altering already cast ballots in Oregon.

Not wonder they don't care that Romney has lied his face off for the last six years. Their "Christian values" apparently allow for lying and cheating as long as it helps them win.

Waiting is the hardest part

I've been a bit paralyzed these last few days. I'm not nervous in the same way I was in 2008. Just feel like everything that can be said, has been said a thousand times already. I'm turning it over to the universe. I've implored the cosmos to give us what we need and I'm hoping it will be what I want.

I'm too superstitious to make predictions. But this much I will predict, if the GOP manages to steal the vote, or it comes down to the Roberts court handing it to Willard, this time I won't be silent. I hope no one will.

In the meantime, think it's going to be a very long day. So here's a fun video of a recent Obama rally where our POTUS briefly busts a move.

Every vote counts and nothing else matters

Sure, we say it every time. It's the most important election ever. And you know what? Every election is important. And this one is the most important one ever. At least in my rather long lifetime.

The fight in 2012 isn't so much about party politics as it is about a fight to save civil society. Republicans are so emblodened by getting away with their blatant mendacity, they no longer feel the need to hide behind subtlety in manipulating the system to only their own benefit.

What's happening right now in early voting is just the beginning. The GOP is taking a jackhammer to the foundational structure of our system of democratic governance. These are the fruits of the 2010 experiment in teaching the Democratic party a lesson by sitting out the election and allowing Republicans to take over the statehouses.

In Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted issues a directive on provisional ballots that makes it possible to toss out many thousands of Democratic votes. People are waiting in hours long lines to cast ballots because Republican statehouses cut early voting days and cut voting hours in Democratic leaning precincts (but not in GOP districts).

Situation even worse in Florida where Republicans similarly curtailed early voting. Elderly people waiting eight hours in line to cast a vote. Improper instructions on the ballot. Confusing and conflicting evolving policies on extending access.

In Miami-Dade today, they opened an additional five hour window at one site and closed it after three hours saying they ran out of ballots and couldn't "accomodate" the voters. The voters wouldn't leave so they started towing cars. Then they re-opened at some point later. Then they tried to lock their doors at five even though people in line got there in time. Which is illegal. So they relented and said people already in line could vote.

Some of this is from later day twitter hysteria, so not entirely clear the details are exactly accurate but clearly, it was chaotic. Inarguably designed to discourage voter participation. And that's barely a sliver off the total block of GOP funded voter suppression going on all over the country.

Romney poll watchers being improperly instructed to confront voters. Mailings from GOP controlled government offices with improper instructions on polling stations, ID requirements and even the date of the election. Misleading robo-calls of unknown origin. There's not room to list every incident I've seen in the last 48 hours. The GOP is determined to steal this election.

If they're allowed to take over and disenfranchise enough of us, they'll shred our hard won social contract. It took over a century to write. With that kind of power, they could destroy it in another half a decade. Which has been their goal since the day the first draft was enacted over their protests. And they'll impose their own agenda in the process.

Allowing them to be rewarded for their perfidy isn't an alternative I find acceptable. The only way to thwart them is with a turnout so massive they can't hide the stolen votes. And every single vote counts because the popular count will matter in how the Republicans and their paid media are allowed to spin the results.

Every vote counts. Always. But this year, really, more than ever. You want to change the system, your vote is your best weapon. Deploy it wisely where it has the most effect.

Why the race is so close

[photo via OKnox on twitter]

On its face, it doesn't make sense. Certainly not to any one who's been paying attention right along. There's this overwhelming incredulity among the well informed that this could not possibly be real. No thinking person should be fooled by the blatant lies that have become Romney's stock in trade. But those who harbor the strongest disbelief don't live in Republican strongholds.

This was brought home to me when I voted last week. I was as thrilled as a freshman going to the senior prom as the football hero's date to see a long line on just the third day of early voting. I love seeing people participate in the process, even when I know they're not voting for my guy. I said as much to a woman outside the polls as I was leaving. She was clearly a Republican.

She looked at me and pointedly said, "As long as they're informed votes."

It was clear by her tone she knew I had voted Democratic and thought me to be not informed enough to be worthy of having cast my ballot. That stopped me in my tracks.

I very sweetly replied, "Yes, being informed is important. And everyone should exercise their right to participate."

I smiled brightly at her. She looked away and slammed her car door shut.

She could have been any one of the women in this video. Well except for the really crazy one. Didn't think I'd watch the whole thing, but was transfixed. I've seen this kid do interviews before. He's great. I don't know how he keeps his composure for so long.

This was taken at the Romney rally in Defiance where Meat Loaf endorsed Romney. (Added bonus if you make it to end, is the most embarrassing moment of Mr. Loaf's solo). These people could be my neighbors.



They believe they're the informed ones and we're the ones who are deluded.

Addendeum: And why do they think that, you ask? Here's a clue.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Why vote for Obama?

Lot of big endorsements for President Obama today. Everyone all agog about The Economist endorsement, no matter how reluctant. Mike Bloomberg made a stronger case for re-election and gratefully tied it to concern about climate change. Maybe now that it was NYC that half drowned, the media will be more willing to push that issue into the narrative.

But my favorite today was from Andrew Sullivan. The ninnyhammers at Bozell's madhouse are apoplectic over it. Don't click that link but do read Andrew's post. He runs down a decent list of sensible reasons but this one bit is the most important, at least to me:

Given the catastrophe Obama walked into, and the froth-flecked obstructionism of his opposition, he's had a remarkably successful, historic first term. His long game also makes much of the progress promised durable only if he gets a second term.

I understand Obama didn't deliver every single thing on the left's wish list. I get that some of the victories weren't all that glorious and barely moved us forward. But sweet jezus, they did move us forward and if Romney gets in, not only will everything Obama accomplished be rescinded, the GOPers will be gunning to reverse generations of progressive progress. And they'll have the tools to do it.

The days of FDR are gone. No president in recent history has made their biggest changes in the first term because they want a second one. In the second one they have nothing left to lose. The second term is when they establish their lasting legacy.

Obama has done much to reverse the damage of the Bush years and moved us forward in his first term. I still believe he's capable of doing great things if given another term. And I'm certain if Romney gets in, we'll lose everything. I really don't see how the choice could be clearer.

And yes, don't forget SCOTUS. Those appointment last generations. It matters:

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The day after election day

There's no doubt in my mind that President Obama is winning this election on the ground at this point. I'm less certain the GOPers won't still find a way to steal it. Already seeing disturbing reports of trickery including voting machine "patching" in Ohio and 1000 early votes mysteriously lost in a predominatly black precinct in Florida. But if Obama does manage to overcome the GOP's thievery, I think Paul Waldman is right on in this assessment:

It might be easy to believe we're approaching Peak Trutherism, what with good old-fashioned birthers now being supplemented by BLS truthers and poll truthers. But just you wait—should Barack Obama win this election, we'll see an explosion of election trutherism that will be truly unprecedented in scope.

And unlike 2004, when it was liberal Democrats pointing out the obvious anomalies in the tallies, if this happens you can be certain the media will be taking it very seriously because, conservatives. If the "real Murkins" are wailing about fraud it's a very serious matter. No one will be sneeringly dismissive about crazy hippies then.

Waldman riffs off the great Nate Silver pile-on of 2012. Truer words than this were never spoken:

But Silver is only a threat to reporters if they see explaining who is going to win as their primary job. And if that's how they see their job, they really ought to apologize to the public and find another career. Because there are few things as useless to the citizenry as a reporter giving his or her opinion on who is going to win.

Yet for the last two years, (actually more like at least six) that's pretty much all we've received in the way of political coverage. I can't think of single critical policy issue the legacy media hasn't framed in terms of political advantage while mainly ignoring the nuts and bolts of the policies.

Ironically, while I respect his work, and hope he's right again, I blame Nate for creating the poll mania that's at the root of what's wrong with the media. Thinking his being so right in his predictions is what inspired all the hundreds of imitators that now muddy the discourse.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Trash the vote

The GOP obviously can't win the election fair and square with their failed policies, so they do what they always do lie, cheat, and steal Democratic registration forms and throw them in the trash. This story broke last night and it just gets weirder as it develops.

This guy was a supervisor of GOP registration drives in swing states. He got caught throwing only eight forms away and only five of those were of voters not yet registered with the state. It begins to feel like he deliberatively got caught in a serious, but essentially petty crime in order to minimize the extent of the fraud. Authorities are already saying there's no evidence of a widespread problem. Yeah, Occam's Razor, but what better way to disguise a larger crime than to deliberately get caught in a smaller one which defines it as a lone wolf operation?

I mean there's an odd Rove connection in the story:

UPDATE: Sources close to the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office are telling me that Strategic Allied Consulting is involved in this. This is the same group that was in the national news two weeks ago for their "registration" drive in Florida that had forms with made up voters.

Even more interesting. Strategic Allied Consulting shares a Virginia headquarters with two other notables.

#1- American Crossroads- the superpac founded by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie

#2- The office of Virginia State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel.

And this guy is well connected within the GOP, having worked for Republican officeholders and the RNC. Also Nathan Sproul, who has managed to get away with apparent registration fraud for years, lurks around the edges of the whole mess.

Suppose we'll never know. These people are pros at ratfking. But it will be interesting to see if wide spread registration problems surface at the polls on election day.

On a related note, a few days ago "the Maricopa County Elections Department mistakenly listed the wrong date of the upcoming general election on an official government document." Said document contained a voter ID card. And what a coincidence, the wrong election day date was only listed in Spanish on the document. The English version was correct.

I'm sure I don't need to remind you Maricopa County is home to America's worst Sheriff, Joe Arpaio who has a long history of anti-Hispanic chicanery. This is shaping up to be the ugliest election day ever.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Wisconsin changes nothing

Good grief. Peggy Noonan wins the inane analysis award with today's column. Wisconsin didn't change everything. There's no huge message in Walker winning the recall by essentially the same margin with which he won the office in the first place. Labor has been steadily and successfully undermined by the GOP over decades. Also, little mentioned and ignored by Peggy, it looks like the voters also gave control of the Senate back to the Democrats. So no mandate for Walker at all really. Nothing new and startling happened here.

In the heat of the moment, among activists, cons will gloat and liberals will mope. The vast majority of the electorate is much more concerned about the outcome of American Idol or their local sports competition than this race. Nobody is going to change their presidential preference because of Scott Walker. Five months from now, few outside of Wisconsin will even remember this recall happened.

Well -- unless Walker gets indicted for his prior frauds on the electorate.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Wisconsin flocks to the polls -Updated

Finally felt well enough to keep a long delayed dinner date tonight. Came home to reports of a massive voter turnout in Wisconsin. Record busting lines at the polls. Ballots running out. People staying in line, waiting for more ballots to arrive. Seriously. I'm almost teary from gratitude and pride in the good citizens of Wisconsin. This is what democracy looks like. Participation is everything.

Meanwhile, exit polls showing an even split on the recall and 12% of the vote is absentee. Unlikely we're going to get the results tonight.

Update: Apparently we've seen the worst exit polls since Kerry/Bush 2004. Eerily reminiscent. I'll have more to say tomorrow, but for now, as I just said on the twitter, losing sucks but winning is not as important as having shown up. Be proud Barrett voters. You made them work hard for it. And now we know some of their tricks.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Abolish polling

I'm increasingly convinced the media obsession with daily polling is at the root of our failed political discourse. They waste endless time and money on the polling, and then waste oceans of bandwidth analyzing the results. It's all meaningless. Elections don't rest on the past in this country. They're decided in the last days, more often than not, on some unpredictable seminal event.

We need to look no further back than the polls of 2008 showing McCain leading at various times right up to the economic meltdown. The people who spent their time telling us what it all means, were almost all wrong. These are the same people who are telling us what the 2012 polls mean. They're still wrong. They mean nothing. Even less nothing now that there's so many damn pollsters out there who daily come up with wildly varying results. Polls are easily manipulated. The results inevitably rest on who's paying to conduct them.

There are days I think we should just make them illegal. They do nothing to inform and much to harm the electoral process.

Addendum: And here pops up Sabato's Crystal Ball, who points out pollsters have only correctly predicted the outcome twice in the last eight elections. As he says, might as well just flip a coin.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

No confidence in incompetence

When I saw Chuck Todd complaining on the twitter yesterday that the final count in the Wisconsin primary was delayed because of late results coming from Waukesha County, I thought it sounded familiar. Meant to check and then got distracted but the internets always deliver the answer if you wait a while. Sure enough, America's most inept county clerk struck again. Have to agree, it's time for Ms. Nickolaus to step down so we don't see this happen with the recall races:

The tallies start coming in; first Walker is ahead and then his Democratic opponent. The tally swings back and forth, and finally every vote is counted - except for those in Waukesha County. Once again, something has gone wrong with County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' system. No one knows what - just that the tally is hours late or vote totals aren't accurately reported or something else is messed up, and the outcome of one of the most important races in the country this year remains in doubt.

Of course we don't know that that will happen. But Nickolaus' record in counting ballots offers no confidence that it won't; her handling of last year's state Supreme Court election results and the mess that occurred Tuesday night have damaged her office's credibility beyond repair. To restore it, Nickolaus needs to step aside - we'd prefer a simple resignation - and allow someone else to run the recall elections, starting with the Democratic primary in May.

And, while they don't mention it here, these next elections are going to be more than usually emotionally charged and if memory serves, in the Supreme Court race, it was Waukesa's revised total, after they mysteriously discovered some "lost" votes that allowed the right wing judge to keep his seat on the bench. Even if there was none, it just smells like rigging the vote. The last thing we need is for there to be any doubt about the integrity of the process in what will be a historic recall election.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The unbearable uselessness of polls

Channeling my inner Andy Rooney tonight, there's too many damn polls. Almost every day, multiple polls are released with wildly varying results. Nearly everybody with a media microphone, new media and old, large or small hangs on the numbers as if they're some great portent of the future. Hell, you might as well use a Magic 8 Ball. It would be about as helpful.

It's not to say polls are entirely useless. Well written questions asked at judicious intervals are a good measure of the public pulse. I'm so old, I remember when most polls were conducted in such a manner. But we don't have that anymore. Like just about everything else, polling went from a profession to a profit seeking business.

Polling is a medium prone to easy manipulation of results to satisfy the client and all too many opportunists have cashed in on that business model. And seriously, what's the point? How does the daily reporting of public reaction serve the public interest? It certainly doesn't inform on the actual policy. Which leads to stories about confused voters like this:

Marcus Luckie, a 70-year-old retiree, agreed.

“You can’t believe whatever they say,” he said. “They all say the same thing about each other, saying each one as bad as the next. And these PACS are all paying for ads saying the same things, too.”

Where did that leave him?

“I ain’t decided on any of them yet,” he said, standing just outside of the door to the voting booth. “It’s going to be close my eyes and point today.”

Aggregate and graph a whole year's worth of polls. Better yet, make it five years. What will you find? The electorate is fickle as hell, given to emo outbursts and extremely susceptible to media hype.

Not sure how to fix that, but reasonably certain daily polling is not helping.

[Thanks to The Week for the name check. Appreciate the encouragement.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Million Voter March - Updated

I am so proud of the Wisconsin Democrats. In some ways, you could say the seeds of the Occupy movement were planted there almost a year ago with the mass demonstrations at the Statehouse. Those beautiful cheeseheads kept up the momentum all this time, with or without media attention, and today they trucked in 1.5 tons of recall petitions.

Democrats and organizers filed petitions Tuesday afternoon with more than a million signatures as they sought to force a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker - a massive number that seems to cement a historic recall election against him for later this year. [...]

The sheer number of signatures being filed against Walker - nearly as many as the total votes cast for the governor in November 2010 and almost twice as many as those needed to trigger a recall election - ensure the election will be held, said officials with the state Democratic Party and United Wisconsin, the group that launched the Walker recall.

"It is beyond legal challenge," said Ryan Lawler, vice chairman of United Wisconsin.

They also handed in many more signatures than required to recall the Lt. Governor and four GOP state senators. Can almost believe that democracy isn't quite dead yet. The system can work. Greg has a video statement from Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Mike Tate.

Update: Since Wisconsin is his adopted state and he's brilliant in general, you should certainly read Charlie Pierce's entire post. But I do want to quote just one line, because the same thought occurred to me when I was reading the story. "The most critical requirement right now is that the Democratic party in Wisconsin avoid a primary at all costs."



[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

What's in a name - Updated

Wingnuttia in a dither today over allegedly fraudulent petition signatures:

MADISON, Wis. -- The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated and include a Wisconsin address, the board charged with reviewing the petitions was told Tuesday. [...]

"We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge," Buerger said after being asked whether Mickey Mouse's signature would be counted. He noted that in previous recall petitions, Adolf Hitler's name was struck because the address given was in Germany, not because of the name itself.

This comes up every time the Republicans and conservatives want to justify their voter suppression tactics. So on a whim, I just did a quick check on Google. There is actually someone listed in the white pages directory as Mickey Mouse. In fact, there several people with the surname Mouse. No Adolph Hitlers showed up, but there were three with the last name so it's possible there's a real person out there with that name too. I mean, besides that unfortunate baby with the crazy parents who was involved in the birthday cake scandal.

Update: Thanks to Steve M. in comments for dropping this link. The story isn't even true.


[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Americans ready for direct democracy

I try to avoid posting about polls, but this one is worth mentioning. It's a sentiment that predates the debacle of the 2000 election and is now gaining traction even with Republicans. A majority of Americans want to eliminate the Electoral College.

Nearly 11 years after the 2000 presidential election brought the idiosyncrasies of the United States' Electoral College into full view, 62% of Americans say they would amend the U.S. Constitution to replace that system for electing presidents with a popular vote system. Barely a third, 35%, say they would keep the Electoral College.

The EC is a relic that was originally enacted to appease those who didn't want direct elections by the people at all. It's long outlived any utility, if indeed it ever had any. The President is elected to represent all the people. It only makes sense that this office be determined by a majority vote. In fact, if we had a truly representative Congress, it would have eliminated long ago.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Fat jokes

The jokes and snarky jibes have been percolating forever on the social sites but the question has now gone mainstream with ABC asking, "Is Chris Christie Too Fat to be President."

They're not posing it as a health question, which would be a legitimate query. After all, numerous studies show the obese are more suseptible to chronic conditions and life threatening health events. But ABC is posing it a cosmetics issue. As in, can the fat guy win against a fit guy with good hair? Which engenders the usual academic discussions about Kennedy and Nixon on the internets.

As a practical matter, the answer is fat is an obstacle Christie learned to overcome and turn to his advantage. For one thing he's not grossly unattractive in his obesity. He still has good hair. Moreover, he's adopted a Ralph Cramden loudmouth style that endears him to the rednecks and blue collars in the GOP base. And if memory serves, Christie wasn't doing that well in the polls until his opponent attacked with fat jokes. Which led to that self-effacing quote cited by ABC and ultimately paved the road to his victory.

It's useful to remember the majority of the electorate is obese, or at least significantly overweight, and sensitive to mockery.