# Is Sidney Powell insane? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 22, 2020, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169 "2020-11-22T04:25:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/181 "2020-12-01T23:09:39Z")
Yes, the stickers are saying “I voted” in English and Spanish. **Marvin\_the\_Martian** ’s joke was deliberately mis-parsing the Spanish “Yo Voté” as a stereotypical resident of Philadelphia issuing an imperative in the stereotypical local slang - “Yo, Vote” - much as Rocky Balboa might have. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/182 "2020-12-01T23:11:26Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > uh, guys, isn’t that an accent? " _yo voté_ is Spanish for _I voted_ . That’s correct. First person past (preterite) tense, which has an accent on the final vowel. It has nothing to do with an exclamation point. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/183 "2020-12-01T23:14:36Z")
I read it as: **I voted, yo vote** Which didn’t make a heckuva lot of sense to me. But now I understand. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/184 "2020-12-01T23:15:47Z")
Geez, I am glad I do not have a bunch of wet blankets like you guys on my bed – it is hard enough to get warm on a winter night. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/185 "2020-12-01T23:30:25Z")
If we have to explain the joke, it just doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/186 "2020-12-02T00:32:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Maybe she meant Edison country. You know, where they grow all the light bulbs. That would be Holland, I think. Did Holland certify all their electors for Biden? > [@RickJay](#): > > When you hear things like “Trump is 1-39 in lawsuits” he actually isn’t; neither he nor his campaign is the plaintiff in most of them. Does anybody here have any statistics re: How many of these lawsuits were filed by Trump’s campaign or any other more-or-less official plaintiff, vs. how many were filed by various not-so-official allies and surrogates? ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/187 "2020-12-02T00:59:31Z")
Depends on who you have to explain it to. Dan ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/188 "2020-12-02T01:23:45Z")
@Senegoid posted this link in the thread on the supposed Frankfurt raid: > **[Army Hits Back Against False Claim that Soldiers Died in CIA Op to Nab...](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/12/01/no-kraken-refer-military-intelligence-unit.hmtl)** > > A retired Air Force three-star reignited claims about troops' involvement in secret missions in the wake of the election. 305th MI Guy’s story makes a little more sense to me now. I had seen some of the references the article talks about, but didn’t make the connection. For some unfathomable reason, the Trumpist echo chamber has decided that the 305th MI BN is a cyber-warfare unit with active operational responsibilities and activities, and that its nickname/mascot/symbol is “The Kraken.” _None_ of that is true. It’s all a farrago of nonsense. But a lot of Trumpists seem to honestly believe it. When Sidney Powell said that she was going to “release the kraken”, you see, what she was actually saying was that the full might of the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion’s cyber-warfare capabilities are about to be unleashed on the cyber-conspiracy to steal the election from Donald Trump, proving that Joe Biden and the Democratic party are traitors, and Trump is the One True President of America. For Trumpists, a [redacted] witness claiming a connection to the “305th Military Intelligence” using his cyber-warfare skillz to untangle the digital trail of the cyber-conspiracy that stole the election is just one small piece of that bigger picture. As I believe someone posited upthread, this affidavit, and Powell’s lawsuit, don’t really seem to be aimed at the courts at all. They’re aimed at Trumpists, and are part of their echo chamber. That echo chamber is creating an emergent eschaton in which the sinners shall be cast down and the righteous exalted. I think we’re seeing a millenarian quasi-religion forming in real time. It’s genuinely kind of scary. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/189 "2020-12-02T01:24:46Z")
I read the opinion and the court addressed that by saying that those kind of minor inequalities are inherent in our non-centralized voting system. Also, no county treated ballots from Republicans differently than ballot received from Democrats. Even though the court determined that the plaintiffs had no standing, they didn’t simply dismiss it for standing - they took the time to shred and trash the entire argument. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/190 "2020-12-02T01:35:21Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > As I believe someone posited upthread, this affidavit, and Powell’s lawsuit, don’t really seem to be aimed at the courts at all. They’re aimed at Trumpists, and are part of their echo chamber. As I posted in the Coup thread, there’s another apparent strategy in all these flurry of frivolous hopeless lawsuits: There’s that Safe Harbor Date deadline, December 8 this year. AIUI, if a state certifies a slate of electors (however it does that) by this date, then it cannot be challenged in Congress. If a state misses this deadline, then the electors can be challenged in Congress. All these Trumpy suits are intended to run out the clock, keeping the certifications unsettled until after December 8, thus preserving the possibility of challenging them when Congress counts the votes. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/191 "2020-12-02T02:23:31Z")
Here’s an article with a map showing the states which had certified by the end of November. [States continue to certify election results ahead of electoral college vote](https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/states-certify-election-results-despite-recounts/67-8495eaad-460e-43e7-8858-24aaf0119b2f) All of the swing states have apparently certified: Georgia, Pennsylvanie, Arizona, Nevada, Michign and Wisconsin. (Wisconsiin isn’t shown on the map, but the article says they certified yesterday.) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/192 "2020-12-02T02:27:48Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Here’s an article with a map showing the states which had certified by the end of November. > > [States continue to certify election results ahead of electoral college vote](https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/states-certify-election-results-despite-recounts/67-8495eaad-460e-43e7-8858-24aaf0119b2f) I wonder why California plans to certify after the safe-harbor date? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/193 "2020-12-02T02:30:15Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > All of the swing states have apparently certified: Georgia, Pennsylvanie, Arizona, Nevada, Michign and Wisconsin. (Wisconsiin isn’t shown on the map, but the article says they certified yesterday.) [Here’s](https://www.270towin.com/news/2020/11/22/interactive-map-states-certifying-2020-presidential-election-results_1131.html) a more up to date map. California’s date is a deadline. They could certify before then. Many other states certified before their deadlines. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/194 "2020-12-02T03:54:32Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Yes, the stickers are saying “I voted” in English and Spanish. **Marvin\_the\_Martian** ’s joke was deliberately mis-parsing the Spanish “Yo Voté” as a stereotypical resident of Philadelphia issuing an imperative in the stereotypical local slang - “Yo, Vote” - much as Rocky Balboa might have. Who you calling stereotypical? I’ll have you know that hardly a day goes by when I don’t use “Yo” at least once or twice. What else would you say to get someone’s attention? When my sister went to college in the Midwest, on the first day the instructor was calling roll and she answered with “Yo”. Everyone in the room stared at her as if she had two heads (this was in the pre-Rocky days). We won’t go into the time she ordered a “soda” at a lunch counter only to be handed an ice cream soda (with only enough money for a Coke)… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/195 "2020-12-02T04:08:17Z")
When _I, Robot_ played here in Panama it was titled _Yo, Robot_. I always imagined it as Rocky Balboa addressing his Roomba. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/196 "2020-12-02T08:17:56Z")
I can get three laughs out of that sort of joke - once when I see it, then again when its explained to me, and finally when I understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/197 "2020-12-02T09:45:20Z")
Sidney Powell has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a plaintiff without his knowledge or permission. The evidence of insanity keeps piling up. > ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/198 "2020-12-02T13:02:56Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > > [@gdave](#): > > > > As I believe someone posited upthread, this affidavit, and Powell’s lawsuit, don’t really seem to be aimed at the courts at all. They’re aimed at Trumpists, and are part of their echo chamber. > > As I posted in the Coup thread, there’s another apparent strategy in all these flurry of frivolous hopeless lawsuits: There’s that Safe Harbor Date deadline, December 8 this year. AIUI, if a state certifies a slate of electors (however it does that) by this date, then it cannot be challenged in Congress. If a state misses this deadline, then the electors can be challenged in Congress. All these Trumpy suits are intended to run out the clock, keeping the certifications unsettled until after December 8, thus preserving the possibility of challenging them when Congress counts the votes. Ok, except that they don’t actually seem to be doing that. Have any of these lawsuits actually significantly delayed any certifications? Of course, it’s possible that’s the intent, but they’re just failing. I’m bit skeptical that the suits have even that much strategy behind them. As I said, that passing reference to “305th Military Intelligence” is pretty much only meaningful to someone already immersed in the emerging Trumpist eschatological mythology. It would have deep and immediately understandable meaning to them. But to anyone else…I mean, I actually was in Military Intelligence, and trained at Ft. Huachuca where the 305th is, and I had no idea who they were until I looked them up online. The lawsuit in general, and that affidavit in particular, make a lot more sense to me as being part of an emerging mythology than as being part of a serious (but incompetent) legal strategy. Of course, it could well be both. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/199 "2020-12-02T13:33:21Z")
So, you ARE British… Dan ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169/200 "2020-12-02T14:06:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Trump Legal Team’s Record So Far: Bad Good headlines really are an art form. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sidney-powell-insane/926169.md?page=11)