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Tag: kristina karamo
Kristina Karamo

New Michigan GOP Chair Urges Her Party To Focus On 'Demonic Forces'

In today’s Republican Party it is no longer enough to deny that Donald Trump lost in 2020. The true Republican diehards demand that their leaders deny that Republicans ever lose any election.

That played out at the Michigan GOP convention over the weekend, with Trump’s pick for state party chair being defeated by a candidate who is even more extreme an election denier. It took three rounds of voting—counted by hand because Republicans have also made it an article of faith not to accept voting technology, even at their own convention—but Kristina Karamo prevailed over second-place finisher and Trump endorsee Matt DePerno.

Karamo ran for secretary of state in 2022, losing by 14 points. DePerno ran for attorney general, losing by 8.6 points. But DePerno conceded that he had lost, while Karamo refused to concede. At the state party convention, she made that part of her campaign message, saying, “Conceding to a fraudulent person is agreeing with the fraud, which I will not do.”

When it comes to 2020, DePerno has been an election denier in good standing, having made his name as a Republican and earned Trump’s endorsement on the basis of his quest to prove fraud in that election. He’s even faced a criminal investigation for tampering with voting machines in 2021. That is the kind of stuff that gets you Donald Trump’s endorsement to lead a state Republican Party. But apparently it is not enough for Michigan Republicans. “Matt ran out on us; he didn’t fight for us,” one delegate told The Washington Post.

Election denial isn’t Karamo’s only angle, though. At the convention, she said, “My goal number one as a Christian is to bring people to Christ, and secondarily to save our country.” A few nights earlier, in a speech to a far-right “patriot” group, she went into a little more detail.

“When we start talking about the spiritual reality of the demonic forces, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy, we can’t go there,’” Karamo said. “No. It’s like, did you read the Bible? Didn’t Jesus perform exorcisms? … Scriptures are clear. And so if we’re not operating as though the spirit realities of the world exist, we’re going to fail every time.”

The convention that elected Karamo to lead the state party was attended by 2,000 delegates—but not one of the outgoing party co-chairs or any member of the state congressional delegation. But Karamo claimed the party would move forward unified. “We cannot wait to get work done as one Michigan Republican Party,” she said. “And we are going to beat the Democrats.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Battleground Courts Reject GOP Efforts To Block Voting And Create Chaos

Battleground Courts Reject GOP Efforts To Block Voting And Create Chaos

On November 7, the eve of Election Day, judges in numerous battleground states issued rulings that rejected efforts by Trump Republicans to impede the casting and counting of ballots and replace state-approved vote-count verification processes with untested hand counts.

Those critical decisions, which push back on efforts to stymie voters and counting in Democratic strongholds such as the cities of Philadelphia and Detroit, came as the Department of Justice announced that it will send federal election monitors to 67 counties in 24 states across the country.

“The [DOJ] Civil Rights Division will monitor for compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” said the department, listing jurisdictions that are blue epicenters – cities and counties – in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The suits filed by Trump Republicans and their allies in national and state Republican Party organizations show the range of GOP efforts to stymie voters, disqualify mailed-out ballots, and create alternative vote counts that likely would clash with results produced by federal- and state-approved election systems.

In Wisconsin, a judge ruling from the bench rejected an effort to set aside and stop counting mail ballots cast by military service members. In neighboring Michigan, a judge rejected a lawsuit filed by Republican secretary of state candidate and election denier Kristina Karamo that would have imposed strict limits on counting Detroit’s mail ballots.

There were three rulings in Pennsylvania. The first rejected a GOP attempt to urge the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling on the date range (on mail ballot return envelopes) when the ballots could be accepted. The GOP wanted a narrower window.

(The high court also had ruled that ballot return envelopes had to be properly signed and dated by a voter. As of Monday, a Philadelphia election official said that 3,400 mail ballots had been rejected on these grounds, causing Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman’s campaign to file a suit seeking to count the rejected ballots.)

Another Pennsylvania ruling rejected an effort led by former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr that would have impeded Philadelphia’s ability to use electronic poll books to check in Election Day voters. The third ruling rejected an effort to impede election officials in Monroe County from starting to reach out to voters to “cure” – meaning fix – a mistake they made filling out their ballot return envelope.

In Georgia and New York, courts issued rulings to expand access for some voters who otherwise might be disadvantaged. Metro Atlanta’s Cobb County was told to accommodate 1,000 voters who did not receive requested mail ballots. In New York, a court rejected a GOP effort to prevent a polling place from being set up at Vassar College.

In Arizona, a state court stopped Trump Republicans associated with the notoriously sloppy post-presidential election “audit” led by the Cyber Ninjas, an IT firm selected by Republican state senators, from supplanting the state-approved counting and audit process with a manual hand count of every ballot before certifying winners.

In Arizona’s Cochise County, which is on the border with Mexico, Trump Republicans on the county board of supervisors sought to override the objections of their county’s election director and replace a count of all ballots by computer scanners with a hand count. The court said the supervisors, who are Trump Republicans, violated Arizona law.

“The Board of Supervisors has acted unlawfully,” Superiors Court Judge Casey McGinley held. “Defendants urge the Court to consider that permitting a full hand count audit would help ameliorate fears that the electronic count was incorrect, and that it ensures that every vote is counted and counted correctly. However, there is no evidence before this Court that electronic tabulation is inaccurate in the first instance, or more importantly, that the audit system established by law is insufficient to detect any inaccuracy it may possess.”

There will be more court rulings in comings days as the administration of the election shifts from the last day for casting votes – Election Day – to the counting of those in-person votes and processing of mail ballots, which, in many states, can still be received in coming days and will count as long as they were postmarked by November 8.

Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, The American Prospect, and many others.

This article was produced by Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

GOP Hopeful Kristina Karamo Sees Satan In Yoga — And Beyonce

GOP Hopeful Kristina Karamo Sees Satan In Yoga — And Beyonce

Kristina Karamo, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Michigan secretary of state, was previously a podcast host who claimed that certain celebrities are tools of Satan. Karamo suggested that a “super crafty” Satan is behind Beyoncé pulling “Black Americans into paganism,” called Cardi B a “tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture,” and said that people practicing yoga are doing “a demonic ceremony.”

Karamo also said that Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish have been putting children under a “satanic delusion” and criticized a Korean drama in which characters communicate with their ancestors, saying that they’re actually communicating with “demons.”

Over the weekend, Michigan Republicans endorsed Karamo as the party’s choice for secretary of state. Karamo is a community college professor and commentator who has appeared on Fox News.

Karamo has frequently pushed the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, who has endorsed her. She is also part of a QAnon-connected “coalition” that has been attempting to recruit and elect like-minded secretary of state candidates. Last year Karamo attended a QAnon conference organized by “QAnon John,” and she appears to still keep in contact with him. She additionally has promoted conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection and has also repeatedly made anti-LGBTQ remarks.

On her now defunct podcast It’s Solid Food, Karamo regularly warned listeners that Satan was trying to infiltrate their lives and had the help of celebrities and popular culture. Here are some of her allegations.

Karamo claimed that singers including Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish have been putting children “under a satanic delusion.” From the August 6, 2020, edition of her podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): One of the things [unintelligible] most perpetuators of this rise in paganism and witchcraft are celebrities. They are some of the worst offenders of it all. You know, Ariana Grande, she had a song called God is a Woman. She has a song called God is -- this is what I'm talking about. Christians got to quit being squeamish. Got to quit being squeamish, folks. Let’s deal with the world we live in and let's fight back and if we want to hide from like, “Ohhh no, that’s too gross, ahhh!” You know, then you're not preparing, you’re not preparing your kids.

She literally had a song, has a song called God is a Woman. And at the MTV video awards, she, her performance involved recreating the Last Supper of Christ as a lesbian orgy. You heard me correctly. I don't need to repeat that. Then she had the Shiva, which is the Hindu goddess of death, above the supposed lesbian orgy that was the Last Supper. Just total blasphemy. Just total blasphemy. And then after it was interchanged between Shiva, which was the Hindu goddess of death, in a portal that was a vagina because that's part of paganism, this female worship. And so that’s the people who are entertaining your kids. So you send, we send our kids to these weak churches, these weak churches, then they turn on and then they’re boring. They don't learn anything, no spiritual meat. Then they have these entertainers who do this kind of blasphemy of the highest level, just blasphemy. And these are the people who entertain your kids. And then we still have, “Why are young people walking away from the faith?” Because they're under a satanic delusion. You think -- or, or Billie Eilish. She has a song called Good Girls Go to Hell. That’s the name of a song. This is what kids are listening to.

Karamo said that Satan “is super crafty” and “Beyoncé is working overtime to pull more and more Black Americans into paganism and calling it African spirituality.” During her August 6, 2020, podcast, Karamo attacked Beyoncé for allegedly “trying to target Black people into embracing paganism.” In discussing Beyoncé and paganism, Karamo said that Satan “is crafty. That joker is super crafty.” (Karamo has stated that she believes paganism leads you down a road to Satan.)

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): I don't talk about my religious beliefs at work because I teach in a secular environment. But if a student asked me my personal opinion, I'm going to be very honest. And I had a student who once said, “Well, you know, I believe there's a bunch of gods.” And that’s what people are gravitating to because, again, witchcraft gives them a sense and paganism gives them a sense of power without conformity to something. It's just follow self.

And we see Beyoncé pushing that more and more. And she's really targeting, trying to target Black people into embracing paganism. And one of the really interesting things is that her husband, Jay-Z, is, many people have said, is a satanist. I believe it to be true. I don’t have any hard proof.

With Beyoncé, she now is trying to push paganism, especially she is targeting Black people with her Black is King album. It's a really, I totally believe it's like a whole slap on the whole Jesus is King album that Kanye West came out with because as you see here in her promo video, she's reading a book about Black gods and kings and whatnot. And, and that's the thing. And in one of her songs from the new visual album, you know, one of the artists who's singing the song with her said, “There ain’t no Bibles, there ain't no Bibles in the, in the jungle,” you know? And then in her, one of her songs, Black Parade, you know, it’s all this talk about, “I’m Oshun and I charge my crystals in the moonlight” and all this, and so I notice a lot of people, a lot of people I know are getting involved into straight up witchcraft because they, “I want to connect with my ancestors and our people weren’t Christian before.” And it’s just — this is what I always say. Satan ain't smart, he is crafty. That joker is super crafty. So how he’s -- and paganism. I don't care where you going to [unintelligible]. They all use some kind of rocks and crystals to gain some kind of wisdom and knowledge and power. They all do it. It's not even novel. It's not even new. Come on. Satan, do it, try, do better. But he don't have to do better than most humans are so ignorant. Why? Why? Why should he have to create a new strategy? I mean, it works, so why — if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? And that's what's going on. So Beyoncé is working overtime to pull more and more Black Americans into paganism and calling it African spirituality. It's hilarious. Actually, it’s not hilarious. It’s sad. It's really sad.

Karamo on a Korean drama’s plot line about communicating with ancestors: “Satan, again, he's so crafty. … You're communicating with demons.” From Karamo’s August 6, 2020, podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): The point of the matter is is that entertainers are now marketing satanism and paganism to people. Satanism is on the rise. And you talk to people about satanism, they're like, “Oh, those people are just playing. They're just poking fun at organized religion.” Really? So why do they always try to mock Christianity and mock Jesus? Why don’t they [mock] Islam and Allah? Not going to do that. Why don't they mock Shiva or Brahman? They don't do that. They only mock the one true God. It’s because of Satan.

And so people are turning to these things to find happiness and “I'm going to communicate with my ancestors.” Bull, no. There's no ancestors for you to talk to. And Satan, again, he's so crafty. You know, one of the things I, my new thing — haven’t watched one in a while but I really like — are Korean dramedies. Korean dramedies are great, by the way. They are. They are really great. I love them. OK. And so I was watching one particular Korean dramedy and it was about how it was a pastor and his brother. And they were going to find their mother, who was missing. And so nevertheless, the brother was a shaman. And so when I'm watching the movie, the brother was talking about communicating with the ancestors. And I was just so -- I was so, you know, I found it so interesting that the brother mentioned communicating with the ancestors because I'm like, here it is. This is in Korea.

It is so important to know that you're not communicating with no ancestors. Sweetheart, you’re communicating with demons. And this is what we're turning to to cope with life because people don't want God. And the only true way you can cope with life, you can cope with this existence is with Jesus Christ. You can only get through life with the maker of life. And that is God.

Karamo warned that people doing yoga are doing “a satanic ritual.” From the September 18, 2020, edition of It’s Solid Food: 

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): If you start studying other cultures, art, what we consider to be art oftentimes, [unintelligible], “Oh, they're doing this ritual, this dance.” These are all satanic rituals. This is not just dance to dance. It is to summon a demon. Even yoga. The word yoga really means yoke to Brahman. So people are thinking they're doing exercises, no, you're doing actual, a satanic ritual and don't even know it. And that's becomes from our very materialistic worldview that's crept into every corner of our life that someone could be practicing an open, demonic ritual in front of our faces and we’ll be like, “Oh wow, this must be just some kind of cultural dance.” Like, it's not a cultural dance, it's a demonic ceremony. What's wrong with you? But people don't understand that. It’s because our worldview is so skewed.

Karamo: “Cardi B is another tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture.” From the September 18, 2020, edition of her podcast:

KRISTINA KARAMO (HOST): Whether she knows it or not — I have no clue — she is a tool of Lucifer. Cardi B is another tool of Lucifer because she peddles filth in the culture, and she peddles such filth and sexual degeneracy in our culture that many people are laughing at her, and they're laughing because as we know her and Megan Thee Stallion came out with this video called WAP, or this song. And you already know what it stands for, so I'm not going to say, but it's very obscene.

Printed with permission from Media Matters.