2020: November election and beyond... (XIII)

$ TV, rallies, social media $
$ FL, s. states, MI/Wi/PA $

Bloomberg knocks Trump back on his heels in Florida
MARC CAPUTO and DAVID SIDERS | 10/20/2020

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s $100 million investment in Florida to defeat Donald Trump is recasting the presidential contest in the president’s must-win state, forcing his campaign to spend big to shore up his position and freeing up Democratic cash to expand the electoral map elsewhere.

Bloomberg’s massive advertising and ground-game spending, which began roughly a month ago, has thrown Trump into a defensive crouch across the arc of Sunbelt states. As a result, the president‘s campaign has scaled back its TV ad buys in crucial Northern swing states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — a vacuum being filled by a constellation of outside political groups backing Joe Biden.

...“I think one of the things we’re going to find this year is that there has been a much higher percentage spent on social media and voter contact,” said Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. “I think this is a base election, not a swing selection, so you’re having a much larger percentage of money spent on get-out-the-vote and communicating with your supporters.”

Samantha Zager, a Trump campaign spokesperson, pointed to the Trump’s campaign’s ground game, his digital spending and his data operation as advantages over Biden that counteract Democrats’ TV spending.

“Considering President Trump won in 2016 and the DC establishment got itself worked up over the exact same issue then, maybe it’s time for the mainstream media to accept our winning strategy and start questioning why Joe Biden is needlessly overspending on TV.”...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/20/bloomberg-trump-florida-spending-430236

Joe Biden releases incredible Sam Elliot endorsed & voiced ad
•Oct 20, 2020

Joe Biden releases incredible Sam Elliot endorsed & voiced ad
1:32 ( https://youtu.be/hTnCLddtIAU )

Half of Donald Trump supporters think top Democrats are involved in child sex-trafficking...

Reed Galen @reedgalen | 12:29 AM · Oct 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/reedgalen/status/1318771486526615552
You think #Trumpism is over when @realDonaldTrump loses? Think again.
Image ( https://twitter.com/reedgalen/status/1318771486526615552/photo/1 )
YouGov

US Court Upholds Extension of North Carolina Mail-In Voting Deadline
VOA News | October 21, 2020

...The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a challenge to a North Carolina State Board of Elections rule that said it will accept mail-in ballots (mailed no later than Election Day) as late as November 12. The original regulations would have made the cutoff November 6.

The 12-3 ruling involved all of the court’s active judges, instead of a more typical three-judge panel, signaling the importance of the case.

“Everyone must submit their ballot by the same date...The extension merely allows more lawfully cast ballots to be counted, in the event there are any delays precipitated by an avalanche of mail-in ballots.”

The courts have generally sided with the rules put in place by state legislatures and election officials while denying challenges from political parties and outside groups.

The legal challenges have included many of the states considered key to deciding which candidate will win the presidential election, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive by November 6.

Various courts gave voters in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin similar extensions, but in each of those cases a higher court overturned the ruling. Voters in all three states must now make sure their ballots are received by Election Day in order to be counted.

Overall, about 20 U.S. states currently allow ballots to come in after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by November 3...

https://www.voanews.com/2020-usa-votes/us-court-upholds-extension-north-carolina...

NowThis @nowthisnews | 11:53 PM · Oct 20, 2020
...
Trump ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ Parody ‘Pathological Liar’
Trump just got his own version of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire:’

3:33 ( https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1318762181895294976 )
Musical note

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 11:21 AM · Oct 21, 2020
. melbrooks for America.

0:53 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1318935442750754816 )
From Max Brooks

Federal and local law enforcement authorities in Florida are investigating the emails, and have put out alerts on social media to warn voters.
Voters in Two States Report Threatening ‘Vote for Trump’ Emails
Nick Corasaniti, Ben Decker and Stephanie Saul | Oct. 20, 2020

Voters in Florida and Alaska reported receiving menacing and deceptive emails on Tuesday that used false claims about public voting information to threaten voters: “Vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you.” (There is no way for any group to know for whom individual voters cast their ballots.)

One of the emails, obtained by The New York Times, came from an address that suggested an affiliation with the Proud Boys, a far-right group. But metadata from the email shows that it did not come from the displayed email address — “info@officialproudboys.com” — but instead originated from an Estonian email server.

...Each email begins by directly addressing the voter with his or her full name. It continues:

“We are in possession of all your information You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you.”

The email then concludes with an address, most likely the address attached to a voter’s registration...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/us/politics/florida-alaska-trump-emails.html

True Blue @SPMcKenny | 3:08 PM · Oct 19, 2020
#DemocratsStandTall

2:02 ( https://twitter.com/SPMcKenny/status/1318267899186851840 )
From Don Winslow

WOW--sure glad I deposited my ballot in drop box at end of Sept, where online verification showed it was processed shortly thereafter...

Key swing states vulnerable to USPS slowdowns as millions vote by mail, data shows
Jacob Bogage and Christopher Ingraham | Oct. 20, 2020 at 12:52 p.m. EDT

Battlegrounds that may decide the presidency have some of the nation’s most erratic mail service, which has particular implications for states with firm ballot deadlines

...In Detroit, where Democrats are relying on heavy turnout to carry the rest of Michigan, only 70.9% of first-class mail was on time the week that ended October 9th, compared with 92.2% at the start of the year.

In Wisconsin — which struggled mightily with a vote-by-mail primary in August — on-time delivery fell to 84.3 percent in the Lakeland district, which encompasses most of the state. In North Carolina’s Greensboro district, which includes Raleigh and Durham, service was 10.1 percentage points lower than it had been in January. Timeliness also varied widely in postal districts in Pennsylvania and Florida...

(MAP: on-time performance by state, by week !!!!!)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/20/swing-states-election-usps/
___________________________________________________________

USPS Has Made 57 Changes to Mail Operations Since Louis DeJoy Took Over
He said he only made one.
Aaron Gordon | October 21, 2020
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx8ewq/usps-has-made-57-changes-to-mail-operatio...

Michelle Kinney @MichelleKinney | 2:10 PM · Oct 21, 2020
I had never seen this clip before today, and now I’m sitting here wiping tears from my face.
Joe Biden is a good man, and he is our only hope to heal and restore the soul of our nation.

0;24 ( https://twitter.com/MichelleKinney/status/1318978084771594244 )
From Arun Chaudhary

Supreme Court clears the way for Alabama to bar curbside voting
Ariane de Vogue | October 21, 2020

(CNN)The Supreme Court granted a request Wednesday from the state of Alabama to prohibit voters from casting their ballots curbside, an accommodation sought by Covid-vulnerable voters in the state.

The 5-3 order was unsigned, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other liberal justices on the bench, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, dissented.

A federal district court had concluded that curbside voting should be allowed...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/politics/supreme-court-alabama-voting/index.html

Barack Obama delivers scathing takedown of Donald Trump (32:52)
•Oct 21, 2020

Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering account of his successor's first four years in office in Philadelphia, arguing that President Donald Trump has proved he is "incapable of taking the job seriously" and has shown no interest in "helping anybody but himself and his friends."

The event is Obama's first stump speech for his former vice president, a welcome sight to Democrats who see the former president as Joe Biden's most potent character witness and a key factor in encouraging Black men, Latinos and younger voters to turn out and vote.

Obama's speech represented his most direct attacks on Trump to date, with the former Democratic leader leveling both substantive critiques -- like questioning Trump's tax policy and handling of the coronavirus pandemic -- and personal barbs, jabbing at shrinking ratings for the President's speeches and town halls.

The remarks drilled down on years of Democratic concerns about the President, with Obama arguing Trump's presidency has not only changed the way other countries view the United States but remade the way Americans feel about politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOt-bW_3Sl8

_____________________________________________
ETA

Obama in PA intentionally stoking a Trump psychic meltdown in tomorrow night debate.
- David Frum @davidfrum | 7:02 PM · Oct 21, 2020

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/scott-baio-john-stamos-marxist-slams-happy...

Baio/Chachi wants us to return to the 'good old days' when women and
Blacks were seen but not heard from.

There will certainly be a lot of fundraising for a Trump library.
But as with the Trump inauguration and the Trump re-election campaign,
much of the money will vanish, nobody knows where

- David Frum @davidfrum | 8:45 AM · Oct 22, 2020

Joe Biden @JoeBiden | 11:10 AM · Oct 22, 2020:

I’ve spent my entire career fighting for the middle class and standing up to the abuse of power.
Donald Trump has spent his entire career looking out for himself and abusing his power.

4:12 ( https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1319294943110729730 )

Trump Campaign Draws Rebuke for Surveilling Philadelphia Voters
Danny Hakim and Nick Corasaniti | Oct. 22, 2020

PHILADELPHIA — The Trump campaign has been videotaping Philadelphia voters while they deposit their ballots in drop boxes, leading Pennsylvania’s attorney general to warn this week that the campaign’s actions fall outside of permitted poll watching practices and could amount to illegal voter intimidation.

The campaign made a formal complaint to city officials on Oct. 16, saying a campaign representative had surveilled voters depositing two or three ballots at drop boxes, instead of only their own. The campaign called the conduct “blatant violations of the Pennsylvania election code,” according to a letter from a lawyer representing the Trump campaign that was reviewed by The New York Times. The campaign included photos of three voters who it claimed were dropping off multiple ballots.

...“Third party delivery is permitted in certain circumstances,” Benjamin H. Field, a deputy city solicitor and counsel to the city Board of Elections, wrote in a letter sent to Ms. Kerns on Monday. “The Board cannot agree with your conclusion on the basis of the information you provided. Nor can the Board, in exercising its duties, assume that an individual is violating the Election Code when that person can act as an agent for a voter who required assistance.”

Under Pennsylvania law, voters are allowed to deliver only their own ballots to drop boxes, unless they are assisting a voter with a disability or who otherwise needs assistance. But voting has been upended by the pandemic and many voters are unfamiliar with the rules around drop boxes, which they may be using for the first time...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/trump-campaign-draws-rebuke-for-s...

Don Winslow donwinslow | 5:58 PM · Aug 30, 2020

MY NEW VIDEO: #OpenLetterToRepublicans SOUND UP!!
We don't have to reach all of them, BUT we do need to reach some of them.

2:19 ( https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1300191230328856576 )

Jeremy W. Peters (NYT) @jwpetersNYT | 10:35 PM · Oct 22, 2020:
Trump's "AOC plus three" and "frying pigs like bacon" and the "laptop from hell" is all Fox/right-wing media talk. Most Americans hear him speaking a foreign language, and it shows how he cannot reach beyond his base.

Michiko Kakutani (NYT book critic) @michikokakutani · 3h:
Trump’s incessant lying, the incomprehensible gibberish, the preposterous QAnon conspiracy theories, the dog whistles & hate talk - it’s almost literally “Newspeak” from Orwell’s 1984, complete with “doublethink” (“IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”) and grotesque efforts at “reality control”

Michiko Kakutani (NYT book critic) @michikokakutani · 2h:
Remember: in “Newspeak there is no word for ‘Science’.The empirical method of thought on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed”to its fundamental principles. Its aim is to extinguish critical thinking &”deny the existence of objective reality”

False Political News in Spanish Pits Latino Voters Against Black Lives Matter
Patricia Mazzei and Jennifer Medina | Oct. 21, 2020

Some of the wild and baseless claims question the validity of the coronavirus death toll, and question whether Joseph R. Biden Jr. can be president because of his Catholic faith.

But some of the most insidious messages disseminated to Spanish speakers across the country, like the one shared by Ms. Moncada, are intended to pit Latino and Black voters against one another by using racist language — sometimes veiled, sometimes not — to cast those who protest police violence as untrustworthy and dangerous. The efforts aim to draw clear distinctions between Black and Latino voters, though Afro-Latinos make up a sizable part of the population.

...much of the disinformation is designed to suppress support for Mr. Biden and is likely to increase in the final weeks of the campaign. If people are bamboozled, or take a pox-on-both-their-houses attitude, they may not bother to vote at all. Many researchers believe that disinformation, particularly in the final days of the campaign, most likely contributed to lower turnout among Black voters during the 2016 election.

And it remains, for now, impossible to know whether the misinformation is coming from foreign influencers and to what extent the distribution of misinformation is coordinated.

But the outright disinformation — the deliberate spreading of falsehoods — is coming almost exclusively from conservatives, researchers say, including from a crop of right-wing Spanish-language websites that are designed to look like nonpartisan news outlets. Liberal activists and experts have struggled to keep up with an accurate response, in part because of language barriers and because so much has been spread in private, closed groups...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/politics/spanish-election-2020-disinformat...

The GOP's legacy continues

Hoover (1930s)
Nixon (1970s)
Trump (20 teens)
?????? (2060s)

A pattern has been forming!

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 10:18 PM · Oct 23, 2020:

Trump’s Red Wave
Map ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1319825559619133442/photo/1 )

#23--Speaking of which 29 states now are on record of having more than 100,000 Covid cases with Kentucky, Colorado and Nevada probably all joining before the end of October. At least 8 states are over 200,000 and there will be more. New York where I live is closing in on 500,000--California closing in on 900,000 with Texas heading towards 850,000 and Florida over 750,000. Wisconsin is just exploding because of a republican controlled and gerrymandered legislature and a republican judiciary which will stop at nothing to undermine the democratic governor of that state. Safest states in the United States since the beginning of this are Maine and Vermont.

Right-Wing Militia Groups ‘Pose A Serious Threat’ To Voters; Researchers found that swing states are particularly vulnerable to militia activity around the 2020 election.

Joint report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and MilitiaWatch, “Standing By: Right-Wing Militia Groups & The US Election.”

The report cites kidnapping plots targeting elected officials and interventions in protests throughout the country. Parts of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Oregon are at the highest risk of increased militia activity around the election, it says, while parts of North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, California and New Mexico are at a moderate risk. The report identifies the Three Percenters, Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois as groups that pose a “high” or “very high” potential for violence

While these groups have traditionally been anti-government, several of them have largely rallied behind a single political leader: Donald Trump. The president has urged his supporters to go to polling sites during this election “and watch very carefully,” a directive likely to inspire far-right militia members, who see themselves as soldiers in a civil war. Asked to condemn the Proud Boys at a debate last month, Trump instead told them to “stand back and stand by,” a directive the neo-fascist group publicly interpreted as marching orders.
(SNIP)
ACLED and MilitiaWatch. . .found that militia activity has been reported in at least 34 states and Washington, D.C., since May.

ACLED is a nonprofit that monitors global political violence and MilitiaWatch is an online publication that tracks militia activity in the U.S.

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 11:05 AM · Oct 23, 2020:

Trump’s healthcare plan is around the corner.

1:15 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1319656235981959169 )
From The Lincoln Project

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin ASE | 9:51 PM · Oct 23, 2020
Young people are showing up like woah

Image--early voting (18-29 YO) in battleground states MI, NC, FL ( https://twitter.com/ASE/status/1319818684005756928/photo/1 )

>27 margd:

Building on that. . .

As of October 21, more than 3 million young people (ages 18-29) have already voted early or absentee in the 2020 elections, including more than 2 million in 14 key states that may well decide the presidency and control of the United States Senate.

Oct 21, 2020 Early Votes Cast (Ages 18-29) vs Same Time 2016

Texas 493,314/no data
Florida 257,720/44,107
North Carolina 204,986/25,150
Virginia 178,496/23,152
Georgia 170,282/32,960
Michigan 145,201/7,572
Minnesota 117,644/9,531
Pennsylvania 114,760/no data
Colorado 111,559/5,991
Arizona 99,049/18,550
Ohio 92,923/22,221
Iowa 46,750/17,007
Maine 19,651/3,956
Montana 17,124/3,999

CIRCLE Tufts University Tisch College · CIRCLE

Obama Zinger

Speaking tonight at a socially distanced car rally in Miami, this got immediate honks and headlight flashes of approval.

“We won’t have a president who threatens people with jail for just criticizing him,” Trump’s predecessor said to the socially distanced crowd who gathered outside at the drive-in rally.

“That’s not normal behavior, Florida,” Obama added. “You wouldn’t tolerate it from a coworker, you wouldn’t tolerate it from a high school principal, you wouldn’t tolerate it from a coach, you wouldn’t tolerate it from a family member.”

“Florida Man wouldn’t even do this stuff,” the president said, after which attendees began laughing and honking their car horns. “Why are we accepting it from the president of the United States? It’s not normal behavior.”

“Florida Man” refers to a social media meme and hashtag based on bizarre and unusual stories revolving around residents in the Sunshine State.

Trump says that if Biden is elected, seniors will have 'no air conditioning during the summer'
John L. Dorman,Business Insider•October 24, 2020

...During a rally at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida dominated by conservative voters, Trump expressed how he felt Biden's plans would transform everyday life.

"Biden's plan would mean that America's seniors have no air conditioning during the summer, no heat during the winter, and no electricity during peak hours," he said. "It's true. He wants wind. When the wind doesn't blow, 'Lets watch the president on television tonight, darling'...'I'm sorry we can't, the wind is not blowing tonight.'"

..During the final presidential debate this past Thursday, Biden said that he 'would transition from the oil industry,' if elected, which drew immediate blowback from Trump, congressional Republicans, and vulnerable Democratic incumbents in energy-rich states like Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Biden backtracked after the debate, saying that he wanted to transition away from government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry...

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-says-biden-elected-seniors-165758966.html

Black voters who sat out 2016 are ready to boot ‘ignorant’ Donald Trump ‘come hell or high water’.

According to Pew Research, Black voter turnout declined in 2016 for the first time in 20 years, down from 66.2 percent to 59.6 percent. Things are different this year. . .

Washington Post–ABC News national polls conducted late last month and early this month found Biden leading Trump among African American likely voters, 92 percent to 8 percent.

Voters who poll that strongly in favor of a candidate turn out to vote for that candidate. Statistically, their turnout alone would be enough to turn 2016 narrow Trump streets to Biden and the Democrats, no matter the White vote.

“In one of the states that determined the outcome in 2016, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct,” former first lady Michelle Obama said at the party’s national convention in August. “And we’ve all been living with the consequences.”

See the WaPo for interviews with AfAm voters and what they said about their 2020 intentions vs. their 2016 apathy.

Continue Reading

Really American @ReallyAmerican1 | 2:43 PM · Oct 25, 2020:
...We're running a targeted digital spend in Florida to seniors to expose how Trump has failed and insulted our senior citizens. Click on the link in the video to help keep them up through the election.
1:24 ( https://twitter.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1320435793819766784 )
From Really American

Alyssa Milano @Alyssa_Milano | 5:41 PM · Oct 25, 2020:

LET’S DO THIS.
Bernie. Warren. Yang. Castro. Cory. Pete.
They fought for their ideas. They fought for us.
Now, we fight to UNITE. #UNITE

1:41 ( https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1320480666329387008 )
From UniteNov3

Poutine sees which side the bread is buttered:

...Putin appeared less friendly towards Trump in remarks broadcast by Russian state TV on Sunday. In what may be seen by some analysts as an attempt to try to curry favor with the Biden camp, he took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-rejects-trump-s-criticism-hunter-biden-...

>35 margd:

Putin knows that Communists and Democrats have a lot of shared values, he's said so himself. He also knows that he gets to run rampant on Ukraine and can look a lot tougher with Democrats in power. We once though Korea and Russia were major threats, of course, they will again get what they want. Iran, China, they all love Democrats. It is true, there is no comparison. Trump has deals in the Middle East with Israel, no new wars and yet you question his foreign relations.

#36--in what way is Trump stopping Putin from doing what he wants in Ukraine? I've seen nothing of the kind. Part of the dispute pretty much stems from the United States reneging by the way on a promise after the old Soviet Union fell apart to not bring the old Soviet satellite states into NATO and you should keep in mind that a fairly substantial % of Ukrainians (not a majority mind you) are pro-Russian--particularly in the eastern part of that country. That shouldn't be a surprise either--borders have been drawn and redrawn in the Eastern part of Europe for a long long time and there are all kinds of ethnic and religious divisions all over this region of the world. These things aren't as simple as some people make them out to be and from Russia's standpoint being in proximity and surrounded by former satellite states that are now part of an adversarial military offense/defense system is not all that tolerable.

>37 lriley:

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-ukraine

On a side note: You have to admit, only an idiot would say we had a good relationship to Hitler up to World War II.

#38--the Obama administration pressured Russia on Ukraine too. What's been going on almost since the beginning is a stalemate between the eastern and western regions of the country and IMO the most valuable part of it for the Russians is the Crimean region which they gained back when the dispute arose and which they continue to hold. There really has been very little change in the Ukraine since then.

Trump meanwhile keeps silent on Lukashenko trying to steal an election in Belarus which plays wonderfully into Putin's hands and at the same time supports other soviet style dictators in the region. Not to mention if you want go go southward a ways his friendship with another dictator Erdogan in Turkey.

By the way the people leading the way to put troops into Ukraine were McCain and Trump's new buddy Lindsay Graham and his former national security advisor John Bolton. None of them ever made a secret about it either.

>40 Cubby.R.S.:

Nobody is talking about war in Iran/Russia/N. Korea.

Now you suggest that Trump should meddle in another nation's election?

>40 Cubby.R.S.:

Meddle in another nation's election? No, not exactly. Venezuela ring a bell? How about private army coup attempt?

Trump team jumps to support Venezuela uprising

The Dumbest Aspects of the Mercenary Coup Attempt in Venezuela

Venezuela 'coup plot leader' provided security at Trump rallies

>41 Limelite:

The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela at the hands of Nicolás Maduro’s “illegitimate regime” has only been exacerbated by the current pandemic.

The Trump Administration “indicted Maduro and 14 regime officials on narco-terrorism, proposed a dramatic power-sharing and transition agreement, and bolstered U.S. counter-narcotics assets in Latin America,” according to Ana Quintana, a senior policy analyst at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy.

The Heritage Foundation gives Maduro’s Marxist regime and abysmal “economic freedom score” of 25.2, “making its economy the 179th in the 2020 Index.”

“Economic freedom has been suffocated in Venezuela under the Maduro regime,” The Heritage Foundation continues. “If a transitional government could take power and begin the long return to market democracy, it would have to end hyperinflation, restructure public debt, and rebuild institutions to restore confidence and promote investment.”

Starvation is now commonplace in Venezuela due to decades of socialism alongside widespread corruption. A recent piece in The Atlantic reported that “78 percent of Venezuelans eat less than they used to, and 41 percent go whole days without eating.” The report goes on to provide horrifying details that harken back to Stalinism:

“To anyone who knows the long history of the relationship between Marxist regimes and famine, this development seems uncannily familiar. More than 80 years ago, in the winter of 1932–33, Stalin confiscated the food of Ukrainian peasants and did nothing while nearly 4 million died. Then he covered up their deaths, even altering Soviet population statistics and murdering census officials to disguise what had happened. To anyone who knows the long history of Communist countries’ use of food as a weapon, the Venezuelan regime’s manipulation of the food supply comes as no surprise, either. Most Venezuelans—80 percent according to a recent survey—now rely on boxes of food, containing staples such as rice, grain, or oil, from the government…The hungrier people get, the more control the government exerts, and the easier it is to prevent them from protesting or objecting in any other way. Even people who are not starving now spend most of their time just getting by—standing in lines, trying to fix broken generators, working second or third jobs to earn a little bit more—all activities that keep them from politics.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/troubling-developments-under-5-oppressive-regimes...

Like it or not -- Who committed sovereign "meddling"?

Republicans have their own Bay of Pigs thanks to Trump.

People are starving in North Africa under repressive regimes where hot civil war rages. Yet, Trump doesn't meddle there. Ever ask yourself why? Falun Gong, Uighur minorities, Mongols, and Tibetans are abused and threatened by China's government. Yet, Trump doesn't meddle there. Ever ask yourself why?

No oil. No trace element resources. That's why in the first case.
Bromance is why in the second (and fear of engaging in an equal-strength conflict).

So don't try any faux moral high ground hypocrisy to justify Trump's meddling. It won't fly.

>43 Limelite:

Give me a break, oil. The 90's called, they want their policies back. Conspiracy theorists about in the Trump derangement community.

You don't get a break.

Oil -- Bush/Cheney Mid-East Perpetual War. 2000s

Oil -- tool of punishing sanctions against Iran and Russia. 2010s

Oil -- Trump's favorite industry to award with deregulation and corporate welfare, and anti green energy policies.

Oil -- biggest slough of swamp dwelling Republican war-mongers and political donors since before WWII.

Oil -- now and since the first well produced in history and still "king."

>45 Limelite:

Fracking has created our energy independence and significantly lowered the cost of oil. We don't need their oil anymore, well, unless Biden wins.

well, because all the billionaire and social elite back Biden and Democrats pay for play...

One billionaire, George Kaiser, whose fortune stems from stakes in oil and gas, as well as banking, had his contribution returned, according to a Biden campaign spokesperson, because the campaign is not accepting contributions from fossil fuel executives.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2020/05/06/here-are-the-billionaires...

Here's a review on the debate. Really fair review I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zIKtULFZ_I

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGOLl-BbxUY&list=PLX_rhFRRlAG58_4z9KWPUYrnTM...

#42--we heard the same nonsense with Bolivia. That was illegitimate too and the coup plotters just got the daylights beaten out of them the first election the very next year that they had control over and guess what party is back with like an 80% plurality of the vote---that party that was called by our bullshitters 'illegitimate'. Maduro in Venezuela would kill anyone the right put up against him in a fair election.

>48 lriley:

No, really, he would kill them.

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 3:00 PM · Oct 26, 2020:

This is Joe Biden’s moment.
1:48 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1320802379596484608 )

#49--Maduro doesn't need to. In 2018 he won 67.8% of the vote. What % do you think the self sworn in Juan Guaido won?---Answer 0%--he didn't even run. I know it's tough for people who are use to winning by undemocratic means--like being outvoted by almost 3 million in 2016 but relying on the undemocratic electoral college but not every country is like that.

>51 lriley:
Democracy is oppression. Good thing we have the electoral college, so sheep of the concrete do not run the nation.

>3 margd: Such Marxists

Bloomberg Funds Last-Minute Advertising Blitz for Biden in Texas and Ohio
Alexander Burns | Oct. 27, 2020

...The Bloomberg team conducted polling in a number of states over the weekend and came away convinced that Texas and Ohio represented its best targets — narrowly divided electoral prizes where the war for television airtime is not already cluttered with heavy advertising on either side. The team presented Mr. Bloomberg with the numbers on Monday morning and he gave the go-ahead.

“We believe that Florida will go down to the wire, and we were looking for additional opportunities to expand the map,” (Howard Wolfson, one of (Michael R.) Bloomberg’s closest aides) said. “Texas and Ohio present the best opportunities to do that, in our view.”

Mr. Bloomberg is also planning to increase the size of his television ad buys in Florida over the next week, Mr. Wolfson said.

Should either Texas or Ohio slip into the Democratic column, it would likely indicate not only a Trump defeat, but also one by a thumping margin. The two states have 56 Electoral College votes between them, and Mr. Trump’s campaign has never devised a path to victory that does not involve carrying both...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/us/politics/bloomberg-ads-texas-ohio.html

I don’t want Hunter Biden’s laptop. I want Donald Trump’s taxes, his medical records,
Ivanka’s and Jared Kushner’s security clearance documents,
plus the translator’s notes from Helsinki.

- Andrea Junker ® @Strandjunker | 9:18 AM · Oct 25, 2020

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 9:22 PM · Oct 26, 2020:
NEW VIDEO

This is #WhatsAtStake
Traffic Stop | #WhatsAtStake...

0:55 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1320898626332209152 )

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 2:00 PM · Oct 27, 2020
Vote.
Life’s too important not to.

1:04 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1321149818107056134 )

Trump Throws in the Towel in FL -- Pulls Campaign Ads

Bloomberg the Billionaire promised Democrats after the primary that he'd do everything he could to beat Braggart the not-Billionaire in Florida -- and he's delivered. Now he's aiming his money at TX, buying ad time enough to drown out Trump's flailing campaign.

Biden, on the other hand, has money to spare and he's sparing none of it for his campaign ad budget.

“Since the beginning of the fall campaign on Labor Day, Trump has cut $24 million from his national ad budget, while former Vice President Joe Biden has added $197 million,” Bloomberg reports. “Biden has outspent Trump three-to-one over that time.”

Trump is redirecting whatever cash he has toward states in the north that he won in '16. Trump is focusing all his energy on the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania — where polls show he’s behind Joe Biden with the exception of Ohio. But he's clinging by his fingernails in OH, leading Biden by 1.6 points. His lead in IN is a safe +10 over Biden. But MI and PA are lost to him where Biden leads by +8.5 in the former and +5.3 in PA. Biden's lead in MN and WI is between 7 and 10 points, respectively.

Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck in the cold for hours when buses can’t reach Omaha rally
Tim Elfrink | Oct. 28, 2020

By the time President Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on Tuesday night and jetted away on Air Force One, the temperature had plunged to nearly freezing.

But as long lines of MAGA-clad attendees queued up for buses to take them to distant parking lots, it quickly became clear that something was wrong.

The buses, the huge crowd soon learned, couldn’t navigate the jammed airport roads. For hours, attendees — including many elderly Trump supporters — stood in the cold, as police scrambled to help those most at-risk get to warmth.

At least seven people were taken to hospitals, according to Omaha Scanner, which monitors official radio traffic...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/28/trump-omaha-supporters-stuck-co...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Trump Supporters Left Stranded At Freezing Omaha Airport
Paige Godden | October 28th, 2020

https://iowastartingline.com/2020/10/28/trump-supporters-left-stranded-at-freezi...

-----------------------------------------------------------------

ETA: “at least 30 people including the elderly, an electric wheelchair user and a family with small children were among those requiring medical attention...” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/hundreds-trump-supporters-stuck-f...

I wonder--maybe we ought to get on with the Biden impeachment now. His backers are so confident of his poll-lead's making his election a foregone conclusion; indeed, nobody loves foregone conclusions like today's self-described liberals. Why bother with an actual vote? Let's just say the polls are "right" and then we may get on with Biden's inauguration then move on with the impeachment.

After all, his general health isn't all that robust. Our legal system requires that the accused possess such mental capacity as to allow him to understand the charges against him and participate in his own defense. How long before the Dear Leader shall not be able to manage such a feat?

Extra bonus! With their hoped-for Senate majority, Dems are going to also pack the Supreme Court and end the Filibuster. I can't wait for the Republican's next turn at Senate control. They can triple the number of S.C. Justices--whatever it may then be--and there'll be no filibuster moves to prevent that. Filibuster--busted! Poof! Gone! Justices, Presto! "Times three!"

"When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

"When the hurly-burly's done,
"When the battle's lost and won." ...

#60--the House impeaches--the Senate removes. How is that going to work for you? Do you think the republican party is going to take back the House?--what is a lot more likely is they're going to lose more seats than they gain. I'm not really a betting person but that is one bet that I would make that isn't going to happen.......and if you don't have control of the House you're not impeaching anyone.

US Postal Service on-time delivery times for First-Class Mail have dropped again —
now nearly as bad as the worst period this summer.
f you are voting absentee and haven’t returned your ballot, experts say drop it off in person.
Do not rely on #USPS delivery at this point.

-Geoff Bennett (NBC) @GeoffRBennett | 6:54 AM · Oct 27, 2020:

Don Winslow donwinslow | 5:45 PM · Oct 27, 2020

**NEW VIDEO** #AmericaNeedsMichigan **SOUND UP**
Narrated by two-time Emmy winner @Jeff_Daniels!

2:03 ( https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1321206419387863041 )

#62--not crazy about either but voted Biden/Harris today.

>64 lriley: Me, too. Dropped off ballot Sept 24, then checked online to make sure received okay.
You know it's a good move when Trumpians are doing all they can to stop your vote!

https://www.theblaze.com/news/rush-limbaugh-plea-re-elect-trump

A cancer diagnosis has not changed Rush Limbaugh one iota. He has been a
super-rich political hack to the bitter end. In this pre-election week video he
is implying that non-Trumpers (and non-whites) do not cherish America's
Constitution the way he and his lunatic ilk do.

Donald Trump wrong that a winner has to be announced Election Night
Louis Jacobson | October 28, 2020

If Your Time is short

• Time after Election Day to count absentee ballots, overseas military ballots, and provisional ballots is enshrined in both federal and state law.

• In fact, federal law allows states until more than a month after the election to finalize their results before the casting of electoral votes...

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/oct/28/donald-trump/donald-trump-wron...

Jack Nicklaus, arguably the top golfer in history, released a statement late on Wednesday night announcing that he is endorsing President Donald Trump for re-election.

“Through the years, I have been blessed to personally know several Presidents on both sides of the aisle,” Nicklaus began. “All were good people. All loved their country. And all believed in the American Dream.”

“I have had the privilege over the last 3½ years to get to know our current President a little more as his term has progressed,” he continued. “I have been very disappointed at what he’s had to put up with from many directions, but with that, I have seen a resolve and a determination to do the right thing for our country. He has delivered on his promises. He’s worked for the average person. In my opinion, he has been more diverse than any President I have seen and has tried to help people from all walks of life—equally.”

“I’m just a guy from Ohio and a Midwestern middle-class family, whose grandfathers both worked on the railroad,” he continued. “They gave their son—my father—the opportunity to pursue his education and his American Dream. I was taught strong family values and worked hard to pursue my own dreams—my own American dream. I also believe that Donald Trump’s policies will bring the American Dream to many families across the nation who are still trying to achieve it.”

“You might not like the way our President says or tweets some things—and trust me, I have told him that!—but I have learned to look past that and focus on what he’s tried to accomplish,” Nicklaus continued. “This is not a personality contest; it’s about patriotism, policies and the people they impact. His love for America and its citizens, and putting his country first, has come through loud and clear. How he has said it has not been important to me. What has been important are his actions. Now, you have the opportunity to take action.”

“I know we are only a few days from Nov. 3 and Election Day, but I am certain many of you have not yet made up your minds,” he concluded. “But if we want to continue to have the opportunity to pursue the American Dream, and not evolve into a socialist America and have the government run your life, then I strongly recommend you consider Donald J. Trump for another 4 years. I certainly have and have already cast my vote for him!”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/arguably-top-golfer-in-history-announces-presiden...

Trump gets Nicklaus, Biden gets Chelsea Handler... I think that says a lot and quite honestly reading these boards confirms that some folks actually just like the stuff Democrats say.

I don't say this lightly, I think the country should consider a split. I don't hate Progressives, they just skeeve me out and I'd rather not be ruled by them. It's scary how dictatorial and oppressive they allow their base to be. They are developing a new age of segregation and oppression and I don't want any part in it. Even when Trump wins election, I think the agreement can be made, let's break this thing up before it turns even further into violence.

>69 Cubby.R.S.: ...I think the country should consider a split...I think the agreement can be made, let's break this thing up before it turns even further into violence.

I suspect you would not enjoy living in a Red States of America, without tax support from the Blue. ;-)

_______________________________________________

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson | 1:56 AM · Oct 29, 2020
As good an ad about Trump as I've seen. I hope you'll retweet it.
"Interview 2020"
Would you hire Trump?

1:29 ( https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1321692442983366656 )
From Win America Back...PAC

>70 margd:

I suspect that many of those incredibly large platforms and businesses (i.e. the rich) that donate to the Democrats will be incredibly pissed when they have no energy to operate with. I suspect that you believe money will just print itself when the rich begin to steal from you lowlife peasants, the friends you think you have. I'll sit in my cabin and drink my coffee, while you stew on the worthlessness of a woke existence.

I'll take my chances.

Furthermore, as little of a conversation that you typically present and the obvious bubble that you live in, are you really even alive at all? margd, are you Google? Are you an A.I. project? Test, what did Benjamin Rush say the two securities for liberty in any Government were?

>71 Cubby.R.S.: I'll sit in my cabin and drink my coffee

We 'muricans might have to settle for peppermint tea, if we keep burnin' them fossil fuels... :(

...Study after study has laid out the threat climate change poses to the coffee industry. Rising temperatures will bring drought, increase the range of diseases and kill large swaths of the insects that pollinate coffee plants. About half of the land around the world currently used to produce high-quality coffee could be unproductive by 2050, according to a recent study in the journal Climatic Change. Another paper, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that that number could be as high as 88% in Latin America...

https://time.com/5318245/coffee-industry-climate-change/

I hate fucking golf. It's even worse than bowling.

>72 margd:

Good, it's averaging about 40 degrees and rain every day this fall where I'm at, I hope it warms up.

...new purported audio recordings from alleged Biden family business partners fretting about the possibility that the Hunter Biden laptop-email controversy would get into the media and that, if someone verified it, it would blow up “big time.”

“You’re are about to hear Rob Walker and James Gilliar, those are two of the Biden family’s business partners, on a call with Tony Bobulinski,” Carlson said. “They’re discussing how very worried they are that this story, the one we’re talking about now, would emerge into the press, that it would become public. And they wanted to figure out how to handle the fallout from that. This audio is very new.”

Carlson played the following alleged audio files:

Rob Walker: I just think that if somebody comes out now and verifies the story, it blows up big time. That’s all.

James Gilliar: We’ve got this situation now where it’s escalating again because somebody, allegedly one of us three, has qualified the story, and already it’s back on the front pages.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-releases-alleged-audio-of-biden-al...

Law enforcement officials in Philadelphia have reportedly launched an investigation into a vehicle that was discovered containing explosives and suspicious items, which comes as the city is rocked by left-wing anti-police riots and widespread looting.

“Action News has learned that police recovered propane tanks, torches and possible dynamite sticks from the van,” ABC 6 reported. “The bomb squad is on the scene at this hour.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-police-in-philadelphia-discover-van-load...

The Oregon Health Authority, offering a public service announcement for Halloween, featured two doctors dressed in costumes, with one dressed as a clown while she announced the daily death statistics and new cases of COVID-19 in the state.

Wearing a red tie, polka dot shirt, bright yellow pants, and a clown face made from makeup, senior health advisor and pediatrician Dr. Claire Poche stated:

Hello. I’m Dr. Claire Poche. I’m a general pediatrician and also a senior health advisor here at the Oregon Health Authority. I’m here with Shimi Sharief, my colleague, who’s also a senior health advisor, and we thought we’d start by giving you a quick update on where we are as a state with COVID-19. As of today, there have been 38,160 cases of COVID-19 in Oregon, with 390 new cases being reported today. Sadly, we are also reporting three deaths today, bringing the statewide total for COVID-19 related deaths to 608.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-oregon-health-official-dressed-as-a-clown-a...

Maybe they aren't taking it serious enough, some lefty's will make her pay though.

After its worst quarter in history, the U.S. economy just posted its best quarter in history.

For July, August, and September, the gross domestic product (GDP), which measures total goods and services produced, grew at the record-shattering pace 0f 33.1% on an annualized basis.

The previous post-World War II record was the 16.7% growth in the first quarter of 1950. The new burst came after a 31.4% plunge in the second quarter.

“This record economic growth is absolute validation of President Trump’s policies which create jobs and opportunities for Americans in every corner of the country,” President Donald Trump’s campaign said in a statement. “The President built the world’s best economy once and he’s rapidly doing it again, proving that cutting taxes and reducing regulations and red tape clear the way for American ingenuity and our entrepreneurial spirit to thrive.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-economy-explodes-gdp-booms-at-33-1-rate-in-q3...

>75 Cubby.R.S.:

Tony Bobulinski, a whistleblower who was a former business partner of Hunter Biden, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that Jim Biden, the brother of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, told him that Joe Biden would not be hurt by their foreign business dealings because of “plausible deniability.”

Bobulinski says that he met with Joe Biden at a conference and that he met afterward with Jim Biden for two hours at the Peninsula Hotel, where Jim Biden “walked through his history, in his own words, stating with all the work and effort he did to get Joe Biden elected initially in Delaware and then through the family history and the role that he had played in it.”

Bobulinski said that he was skeptical of what was going on because of his high-level security clearance as a military official and his knowledge about needing to report gifts.

“And I’m thinking about the Biden family, like, how are they doing this? I know Joe decided not to run in 2016, but what if he ran in the future? Aren’t they taking political risk or headline risk?” Bobulinski continued. “And I remember looking at Jim Biden and saying, ‘How are you guys getting away with this, like, aren’t you concerned?'”

Bobulinski said, “He looked at me and he laughed a little bit and said, ‘plausible deniability.'”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-whistleblower-jim-biden-told-me-joe-biden-w...

https://sports.yahoo.com/golf-legend-jack-nicklaus-endorsement-president-donald-...

Jack Nicholas and others like him expect us to believe that they would
actually hire Trump to run large organizations they might own. Could it be
that they are all white nationalists at heart?

UPDATE: Keith Olbermann just announced on his 5 p.m. weekday YouTube
segment that the Trump administration RECENTLY gave big bucks to JN's pet
project. Apparently, both guys are loathsome transactional types.

I think Cubby should stay in his cabin where he feels safe hiding out from reality. So hunker in your bunker because it looks like America is going to return to sane prudent governance. I'm sure your cabin-schooled kids will be ultra qualified for the big paying jobs in high tech, enough to out compete the kids publicly schooled in CA, the NE corridor, and the Research Triangle of the Carolinas. Sadly, if your family's cabin is in one of the states I've named, taking advantage of the liberal benefits in the most politically liberal sections of those states requires you to be "ruled" by ideas other than your own.

About your energy producing states, there's a good chance TX, lead drilling and fracking state, may cease being a red state after Nov. 4; if Biden wins the billions in bribes paid by Trump for farmer welfare to ND and MT, the second largest frackers, will be cut off (combined). What they get from mining the sands doesn't compare for what they get to grow feeder grains. You may prefer putting up with the political chafe of moving to/living in a blue state. Particularly one with a superb healthcare system and plenty of urban and suburban liberals living in it who will fund it. By all means, go for it if you don't live in NE, WY, SD, or KS, for instance!

As for almost everyone except older white males and certain twisted "Christian" evangelicals, and the superbly poorly educated, we'll be dancing in the streets should Trump be defeated and hauled out of the WH, darted into submission with ketamine, if necessary.

Joe Biden @JoeBiden | 9:34 AM · Oct 29, 2020:

"History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme."
- Seamus Heaney

1:23 ( https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1321807498492354561 )

Republican Voters Against Trump @RVAT2020 | 3:57 PM · Oct 29, 2020:

The RVAT Closing Ad
Countless Republicans are putting country over party & voting for the candidate of character – @JoeBiden.
Thank you to all Republicans who've united against Trump, it's been an honor amplifying your voices.

Airing on TV in swing states this weekend.

1:00 ( https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1321903900224593920 )

>83 margd:

Yeah, we had a letter to the editor in our local from one of them... He essentially said "I voted for all the Democrats since McCain (who essentially was a Democrat) and won't pull the lever for Trump. Anyway, he managed to call himself a Republican at heart, so just another average Republican that's voting Democrat.

The only true Democrats are the ones having sex with underage prostitutes and aborting 3 year old children anyway... Oh, wait, that's 2024... Suppose it's better than the K9 69 coming in 2028 under the AOC regime. "I always thought I should've been a dog."

Blowhard Trump Cancels Tonight's NC Rally Due to "High Speed Winds"

Hair-Do Alert!! Coif Warning!!! Remember when Trump wouldn't go out in the rain in Normandy to honor dead WWII vets who liberated France from the Nazis? All the French dignitaries attended the D-Day remembrance ceremonies in spite of the weather.

Says fragile Don-Boy, "See y'all Monday," instead.

Weather.com’s ten-day forecast shows a lovely day in Fayetteville, with a high in the mid to upper 70s and winds only 15 mph.

Can you imagine FDR and/or Churchill blowing off WWII questions
during the 1940s???

Exclusive new Hill/Harris battleground poll: Biden leads in Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina

“Joe Biden’s position in key swing states going into the final week suggests that Trump has so far been unable to generate enough momentum to close the gap,” said pollster Mark Penn.

This election will be decided by female suburban voters, elderly women voters, Hispanics and AfAms. Evangelicals and many sane Republicans have already peeled off. Even white voters without college degrees are turning away from Trump and recognizing their self-interests lie with supporting Biden.

That demographic made up nearly 50% of the total popular vote Trump had in 2016. While Clinton lost this group by more than 20 points four years ago, Biden is behind by just 12 points in UCLA Nationscape’s polling.

White women backed Trump over Clinton in 2016 but were split pretty evenly between the two parties in the 2018 midterms. And now they favor Biden by 6 points in UCLA Nationscape polling, which would be around a 15-point swing toward the Democrats.

Democrats will have to be vigilant about Trump siphoning away younger AfAm males and younger Hispanics who have been barraged by anti-abortion misinformation about Democratic candidates and disinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing AfAm turn-out, copying a very successful subterfuge by the Russians in '16.

. . .the gender gap among nonwhite voters is shaping up to be even bigger than it was in 2016. Ninety percent of Black women supported Biden in UCLA Nationscape polling — unsurprising, as this group is arguably the most staunchly Democratic demographic in the electorate — whereas less than 80 percent of Black men did the same. And among Hispanic voters, 64 percent of women backed Biden compared to 57 percent of men.

. . .the real margin to keep an eye on is Biden’s double-digit lead in the polls. That kind of advantage will be hard to overcome if Trump is merely chipping away at the edges of Biden’s support, especially when so many of Biden’s gains seem to have come at Trump’s expense.

Trump's rallies are showing people around the world that many Americans
have a number of mental health issues. Trump's 2020 voters appear to
have his Apprentice persona locked up in their minds. They prefer not to
"see" the life-long con man who has been using them as entertainment
props for over four years. Americans are destroying America. Putin and his
ilk around the world can sit back and enjoy the show.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller reveals aggressive second-term immigration agenda
Sahil Kapur | Oct. 30, 2020

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller has fleshed out plans to rev up Trump's restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election next week, offering a stark contrast to the platform of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

In a 30-minute phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Miller outlined four major priorities:
limiting asylum grants,
punishing and outlawing so-called sanctuary cities,
expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants and
slapping new limits on work visas...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-adviser-stephen-miller-reveal...

Five Great Things Biden Has Already Done
We’re learning not to underestimate the guy.
David Brooks | Oct. 29, 2020

...Never in my life have I seen a candidate so confidently avoid wedge issues. Biden is instead running on the conviction that, despite it all, Americans deeply love their country, and viscerally long for its unity. He’s running with the knowledge that when you ask America about the greatest threats to our future, “political polarization and divisiveness” comes out No. 1.

It’s easy to say you’re for healing division. But here’s what Biden has actually done:

He’s de-ideologized this election.
He’s separated politics from the culture war.
Biden has scrambled the upscale/downscale dynamic.
Biden has avoided the stupid binaries about race.
He’s done a good job reaching out to white evangelicals.

Seventy percent of Americans in that Braver Angels survey* say America is facing permanent harm, but 70 percent also say the most important job after the election is to heal our enmity, to do the hard job of working with people whose views we find completely objectionable. This unity impulse is powerful in the populace, but it is deeply hidden.

Joe Biden knew it was there.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/opinion/joe-biden.html

* https://braverangels.org/yougov-poll-results-2/

Charles Stewart III (MIT) @cstewartiii | 9:15 AM · Oct 29, 2020:

Repeat after me: "All votes have never been counted on election night."
These graphs show the number of votes that were counted and reported in 2016 after Wednesday morning following E-Day.
Even "quick count" states had work to do.

Image, millions ( https://twitter.com/cstewartiii/status/1321802843590971392/photo/1 )
Image, percentage ( https://twitter.com/cstewartiii/status/1321802843590971392/photo/2 )

Is he coming to terms with a loss or planning some emergency or other move?

Trump changes election night plans, cancels party at Trump International: report
Celine Castronuovo | 10/30/20

President Trump has reportedly called off plans to host an election night event at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a person familiar with the plans told The New York Times.

The source told the Times that Trump will instead likely remain at the White House on Nov. 3...

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/523528-trump-changes-election-night-plans-...

Dem House Leader kionnemcghee | 12:30 PM · Oct 30, 2020:

Raw footage of mailroom in post office here in Miami Dade.
Source revealed “mail in ballots are within these piled up in bins on the floor. Mail has been sitting for over week!.” ..
0:45 ( https://twitter.com/kionnemcghee/status/1322214250413215744 )

Speaking with a resident within the area and being told some in the area haven’t received their mail from the below mentioned post office in five days. PRINCETON, FL Post Office 13500 SW 250TH ST HOMESTEAD, FL 33032

Postal police just arrived here at postal office. They have lined up at the entrance into the employee parking lots.

Interesting Ted Cruz's comment to Axios on the Hunter Biden thing--more or less that he doesn't think it moves a single voter and he notes one of Biden's comments on it was one of his best moments when he said that 'all the attacks on my family and his family don't matter....what matters is your family'.

Team Trump has invested so much time and energy on this narrative that does not connect with anyone outside those continually glued to Fox News or other right wing news sources. A comparison could be made to all the Trump/Putin shit that didn't connect outside of CNN/MSNBC/WAPO. It's going nowhere and at this point Texas already has more votes in the hopper before election day than they did in their record setting election of 2016 and other states with their early voting are seeing the same. I think more have voted already than will actually vote on election day and it's going to be a massive massive turnout......and massive turnouts don't usually bode well for the republican party.

The Day After Election Day
Current and former Trump administration officials are worried about what might happen on Nov. 4.
Ron Suskind | Oct. 30, 2020

...Many of the officials I spoke to came back to one idea: You don’t know Donald Trump like we do. Even though they can’t predict exactly what will happen, their concerns range from the president welcoming, then leveraging, foreign interference in the election, to encouraging havoc that grows into conflagrations that would merit his calling upon U.S. forces. Because he is now surrounded by loyalists, they say, there is no one to try to tell an impulsive man what he should or shouldn’t do.

“That guy you saw in the debate,” a second former senior intelligence official told me, after the first debate, when the president offered one of the most astonishing performances of any leader in modern American history — bullying, ridiculing, manic, boasting, fabricating, relentlessly interrupting and talking over his opponent. “That’s really him. Not the myth that’s been created. That’s Trump.”

Still another senior government official, who spent years working in proximity to Mr. Trump, put it like this: “He has done nothing else that’s a constant, except for acting in his own interest.” And that’s how “he’s going to be thinking, every step of the way, come Nov. 3.”

...by the summer of 2020, Mr. Trump was well along in completing the transition to a loyalty-tested senior team.

The reason having loyalists at both the Department of Justice and D.N.I. is so very important for the president is that it allows him, potentially, to coordinate two key agencies of the government — secret intelligence and prosecution — toward his own political ends. This is exactly what he was criticized for doing in the summer and fall of 2020, with Mr. Barr being accused of announcing politically motivated action and investigations — including to support the fiction of widespread voter fraud — and Mr. Ratcliffe, with collecting and releasing information that is targeted at Mr. Trump’s opponents.

The third leg of what would be an ideal triad for this sort of activity is the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, who drew Mr. Trump’s ire in September, when, in congressional hearings, he echoed the consensus of the intelligence community that the Russians intervened in the 2016 election on Mr. Trump’s behalf, that they were doing it again in this election cycle, that “racially motivated violent extremism” — coming mostly from right-wing white supremacists — was a persistent threat, and that widespread voter fraud was a nonissue.

The F.B.I. has been under siege since this past summer, according to a senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The White House is using friendly members of Congress to try to get at certain information under the guise of quote-unquote, oversight, but really to get politically helpful information before the election,” the official said. “They want some sort of confirmation that we’ve opened an investigation,” for example, into Hunter Biden, “which, again, the F.B.I. doesn’t confirm or deny whether it’s opened investigations.”

...Nov. 4 will be a day, said one of the former senior intelligence officials, “when he’ll want to match word with deed.” Key officials in several parts of the government told me how they thought the progression from the 3rd to the 4th might go down.

...Disruption would most likely begin on Election Day morning somewhere on the East Coast, where polls open first. Miami and Philadelphia...

A group could just directly attack a polling place, injuring poll workers of both parties, and creating a powerful visual — an American polling place in flames, like the ballot box in Massachusetts that was burned earlier this week — that would immediately circle the globe...

Would that mean that Mr. Trump caused any such planned activities or improvisations? No, not directly....

The local police are already on-guard in those cities and others around the country for all sorts of possible incidents at polling places, including the possibility of gunfire....

Conservative media could then say the election was being stolen, summoning others to activate, maybe violently...foreign actors...a violent segment of Mr. Trump’s supporters into action...Groups from the left may engage as well, most likely as a counterpoint to those on the right...less structured...But,...the numbers on the left are vast.

...would surely affect turnout, allowing Mr. Trump to claim that the in-person vote had been corrupted

Under the 12th Amendment, which Mr. Trump has alluded to on several occasions, the inability to determine a clear winner in the presidential election brings the final decision to the House of Representatives. The current composition of the House, in which Republicans control more state delegations even though Democrats are in the majority, favors Trump. But the state count could flip to the Democrats with this election.

There are many scenarios that might unfold from here, nearly all of them entailing weeks or even months of conflict, and giving an advantage to the person who already runs the U.S. government.

...Races tend to tighten at the end, but the question is not so much the difference between the candidates’ vote totals, or projections of them, as it is what Mr. Trump can get his supporters to believe....

But he could use all the help that he can summon to invalidate the in-person vote...foreign power...a breach or an appearance of a breach, in any state’s machinery, would, in a chaotic flow of events, be a well-timed gift to Mr. Trump....

No matter how the votes split, there’s an expectation among officials that Mr. Trump will claim some kind of victory on Nov. 4...

If the streets then fill with outraged people, he can easily summon, or prompt, or encourage troublemakers among his loyalists to turn a peaceful crowd into a sea of mayhem. They might improvise on their own in sparking violence, presuming it pleases their leader....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/opinion/trump-election-officials.html

ICE Ready to Respond to Potential Election Day Unrest for First Time Ever: Report
Tori B. Powell | Oct. 30, 2020

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have been ordered to gear up for potential Election Day unrest in Washington, D.C., NBC News reports. This is the first time that the agency has been called in to help secure federal property in the capital during the election, as Department of Homeland Security agents typically only assist with inauguration security, according to the report. An anonymous ICE official told NBC that they will be working with local police due to the historic nationwide protests and attacks on federal property that occurred this year. “As a law enforcement component under the DHS Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT), CBP will continue to provide support, as requested, to the Federal Protective Service to protect Federal facilities and property if needed and to local law enforcement partners if requested,” a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-prepared-to-respond-to-election-day-unrest-for...

NowThis @nowthisnews | 3:33 PM · Oct 30, 2020:
‘If you care about your family, if you care about Wisconsin, if you care about our country. Please vote.’ —
#VoteWithLove created a massive message for Wisconsin

1:01 ( https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1322260231494066176 )

Barack Obama BarackObama | 1:04 PM · Oct 30, 2020:

An important reminder as millions of folks across the country vote early or make plans to vote on November 3:
You have the right to vote. If you run into any issues at your polling place, call 1-866-687-8683 or your voter protection hotline.

Image ( https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1322222935659192321/photo/1 )

>94 lriley:
Says a lot about the state of the country that an obviously corrupt media can pull the wool over the eyes of so many. We shall see soon enough, whether the U.S. is still a resilient nation of independent thinkers or a group think nation of slovenly cowards.

I don't expect Trump in defeat will differ from Trump in the Oval Office. What concerns me most, more so since hearing on LT from some of our most fervent Trumpists, is that he will continue to think of himself as president and use Twitter to "rule" his nut job adherents by working them into a froth of misguided anger with his fondness for promulgating conspiracy theories.

That would result in two Americas, probably guerilla violence by the outlaw armed white supremacist gangs against AfAms, Jews, and LE since they've been primed to want to believe Trump can't lose unless the election is stolen from him. Of course, they know better but these people have been groomed and have groomed themselves to feel aggrieved and "done wrong." Trump will probe those wounds to get the pain response he wants.

Our only hope is that he is tied up in his legal battles, civil and criminal; otherwise, I believe he will exceed the line of legal hints at civil war and engage in outright seditious behavior. If that's the case, Biden's hand will be forced to respond to the full extent of the law and will give rise to flares of hot revolt against the Rule of Law. There will be killing.

There's no question of him remaining in the WH; like I've said elsewhere, he'll be darted with ketamine and bodily hauled off to the funny farm or Mar-a-Lago where they can Baker Act him, take away his communication devices, and force him to choose between institutional commitment or imprisonment if he doesn't control himself. House arrest wouldn't surprise me as a possible temporary outcome of transition to the succeeding administration.

#99--all your independent thinkers think the exact same shit. You even give it away yourself when talking about religion with John and why Biden is not catholic. Got to be a certain way on things and only that way.

Spread the virus. Incite violence. Throw in a bit of hypothermia etc.

Trump may just keep campaigning after Election Day
MERIDITH MCGRAW and GABBY ORR | 10/30/2020

Top surrogates for the Trump campaign have been told to keep their Novembers clear for potential campaign events. And Trump campaign advisers said not to rule out the possibility Trump continues his rallies even as election officials continue to count ballots after the Nov. 3 election...

With the possibility that there might not be a clear winner on election night in key swing states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the campaign has discussed putting Trump and his family on the road to give a morale boost to supporters and let the president fire off about the election to crowds...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/30/trumps-maga-roadshow-ballots-tallied-43...

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 4:38 PM · Oct 30, 2020
NEW VIDEO

We are done with #TrumpsDeadlySins
1:56 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1322276658154336256 )

GOP Efforts to Suppress Voting (MSNBC):
https://twitter.com/ThomasJankow/status/1322250907409666048

Image ( https://twitter.com/ThomasJankow/status/1322250907409666048/photo/1 )

_______________________________________

Conservative and libertarian lawyers discuss "extraordinary" and "unprecedented" situation that "more than 350 lawsuits" have been filed about this election

Election Litigation Looms (47:22)
October 26th, 2020

With more than 300 cases pending it seems clear that the Supreme Court may play a decisive role in the next election. On this week’s Checks and Balances podcast, Richard Bernstein and Trevor Potter join host Paul Rosenzweig to discuss the Court’s inconsistent jurisprudence and the dangers to its own credibility.

"...it's really always good news for the rule of law and for at least my heart when judges follow the law and are seen not as mere ciphers for their own party's victory..."

https://threats.checks-and-balances.org/election-litigation-looms

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Pensylvania ballot-count case that may yet come back to US Sureme Court (Richard Bernstein, Checks & Balances)
1:37 ( https://twitter.com/chkbal/status/1322201991939039233 )

Now, as we approach election-day, Tuesday, November 3rd, remember, the choices are clear:

either you're voting for truth, justice & the American way, (that is, Democrats) ;^)

or, in effect, for all practical intents and purposes, your vote indicates that you'd not hesitate to drown whole sacks full of adorable helpless puppies in a tub of water. (that is, you're voting for Trump and his approved associated Republican candidates.)

The choice is yours. Vote Biden or consign numbers of helpless, innocent and adorable puppies to cruel deaths.

Got it?

Yours truly & Your ever-vigilant Guardians of truth & justice,

The Nation's Associated Mass-Media Giants, Inc.

Really we're at the point where a vote for Trump is a vote for the pandemic and a Covid economy. California a state with a democratic governor hit 916,000+ cases yesterday--Texas a state with a republican governor hit 893,000+ cases yesterday---Florida a state with a republican governor hit 789,000+ cases yesterday--New York a state with a democratic governor hit 505,000+ cases yesterday. Biggest riser is Wisconsin whose democratic governor has been checkmated at every step by republican legislature and judiciary hit 232,000+ cases yesterday for a state of around 6 million and if you prorated that to California's population you would be multiplying that 232 X 7. 27% of Wisconsinites who tested for Covid on wednesday came back positive. There are over 46,000 people in hospitals around the country today with Covid and every day there's about a 1000 more who die and it could easily get worse. 31 out of 50 states have already crossed the 100,000+ case barrier and Nevada will join that group today. At least a dozen states have surpassed 200,000 cases.

Trump's response throughout all this at best our a bunch of glueless bandaids-'a vaccine will be here any day now' or 'one day it will just disappear' or 'nobody dies anymore'. There have been about 230,000 nobodies--hopefully we're not talking about any of your friends or family. The best he can do is bullshit and he wants to open everything up so that the pandemic can spread even deeper. He's been a curse on this country since the day he was born.

R voter suppression in Texas, Minnesota:

Mark Joseph Stern (Slate) @mjs_DC | 2:14 PM · Oct 31, 2020
https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1322602843661021184
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322602843661021184.html

Texas Republicans have asked a federal judge to throw out 100,000 ballots in Harris County cast through curbside voting. They drew Judge Andrew Hanen, one of the most notoriously partisan Republican judges in the entire federal judiciary. This is alarming. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20401146/sd-tex-20-cv-03709.pdf

Judge Hanen has already scheduled an emergency hearing for Monday morning—without even giving Harris County a chance to file a response brief. This, too, is extremely concerning. It looks like he may be rushing to throw out 100,000 disproportionately Democratic votes.

Texas Republicans are deploying the theory—recently endorsed by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh—that only state legislatures have authority over elections. Because the Harris County Clerk implemented drive-through voting, Republicans say all 100,000 ballots must be tossed.

Two partisan federal judges are already trying to nullify thousands of Minnesota ballots under this radical theory. I am deeply concerned that Judge Hanen, too, will use it to disenfranchise 100,000 Texans on the eve of Election Day. This is frightening.
Judges Are Already Testing How Far Amy Coney Barrett Will Go for Republicans
In a shocking opinion, two judges tried to hijack Minnesota’s election law to throw out mail ballots.
Mark Joseph Stern | Oct 30, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/minnesota-judges-barrett-absentee-ba...

Republicans are racing to federal court because they have lost in state courts (so far). The Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely Republican, refused to halt curbside voting in October when the GOP claimed it was illegal.
Texas Supreme Court Refuses to Shut Down Drive-Thru Voting
Cameron Langford | October 22, 2020
https://www.courthousenews.com/texas-supreme-court-refuses-to-shut-down-drive-th...

I want to clarify one point: While I said "curbside voting" in this thread, the better term is "drive-through voting." Though most of us may use these terms interchangeably, they're different procedures in Texas, and Republicans are specifically going after drive-through voting.

Bruce Springsteen springsteen | 12:52 PM · Oct 31, 2020
This is @joebiden’s hometown. This is more than where he’s from. This is who he’s for.

1:00 ( https://twitter.com/springsteen/status/1322582291453861890 )

The Recount @therecount | 4:35 PM · Oct 31, 2020:
Trump in PA:
“If we win on Tuesday or — thank you very much, Supreme Court — shortly thereafter …"

0:10 ( https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1322638291632558081 )
From The Recount

Allamance County, NC

Police use pepper-spray on protesters — including children — marching to Alamance polls
Zachery Eanes and Carli Brosseau | October 31, 2020

...A racially diverse group of about 200 people walked with a police escort from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church to Court Square, where they held a rally encouraging people to vote. The event was organized by Rev. Greg Drumwright, a Burlington native who leads the the Citadel Church in Greensboro, according to his website.

At least three politicians participated in some parts of the event: the current mayor of Burlington, Ian Baltutis; Democratic candidate for county commissioner Dreama Caldwell; and Democratic school board candidate Seneca Rodgers.

At one point, the marchers held a moment of silence in the street in honor of George Floyd, the Black man killed while in police custody in Minneapolis earlier this summer. After the moment of silence concluded, law enforcement told people to clear the road.

Then, deputies and police officers used pepper spray on the crowd and began arresting people. Several children in the crowd were affected by the pepper spray....

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article246861942.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Nat Frum @natfrum | 4:58 PM · Oct 31, 2020:
@SheriffAlamance caused this woman in a wheelchair to have a seizure, then sprayed those who tried to help with tear gas
0:15 ( https://twitter.com/natfrum/status/1322644016945635332 )

Poutine must be loving this...

>105 proximity1:

Fairy's Tale: It ain't poor innocent helpless puppies that are gonna die.

Fact's Truth: It's innocent helpless people that are being killed by Trump.
___________________________________________
GAME ON!

NY AG serves notice to Trump on MSNBC she’s coming after him and his family after the election. I hope that's win or lose. Oh, Happy Day, it is!! I hope that the wheels grind slowly and exceedingly fine as they roll over Trump, his spawn, and his fraud shop.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office is proceeding with investigations into Donald Trump and his family whether he wins re-election or not.

(H)er first concern is making sure there is no election interference in New York on Tuesday, before assuring the MSNBC host that the Justice Department can’t interfere with her when it comes to the Trump Organization and financial improprieties.

The New York AG's investigation against the Trump Organization related to financial impropriety is ongoing, lying in Trump's exit path from office like a Taliban IED on an Afghan road. Said AG James Letitia about her work so far. . .

. . .they have used every legal attempt to block and deny us information and to witnesses. We filed requests to compel and we were successful. We had the opportunity to question Eric Trump and we are continuing to review all of the documents they have submitted and other witnesses as well — we look forward to questioning them also.”
(SNIP)
James also noted that a great part of her investigation came about from information given to her office by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

When karma bites you in the ass, it's gonna be a lawyer with your whole dirty record -- documented.

Trump Dismisses Virus Coverage and Biden Dismisses Virus Leadership: This Week in the 2020 Race
Astead W. Herndon and Annie Karni | Oct. 31, 2020

...Trump advisers said their best hope was if the president wins Ohio and Florida is too close to call early in the night, depriving Mr. Biden a swift victory and giving Mr. Trump the room to undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/us/politics/trump-dismisses-virus-coverage-an...

More than 1,000 economists have now signed letter urging voters to reject 'reckless and selfish' Trump on Election Day.
Alvin Roth, a Nobel winner, tells us why he's among them.
Kate Duffy, Business Insider • October 31, 2020

More than 1,000 leading economists have now signed an open letter* warning against the re-election of President Donald Trump on November 3.

The number of signatures has risen by 300 since last Friday, when the letter was created.

Alvin Roth, a Nobel-winning economist who signed the letter, told Business Insider that he believed that Trump prefers trade wars instead of working with trading partners, and his his re-election could harm the economy

Roth is an economics professor at Stanford University. He shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2012

Roth said he was "concerned that some voters might believe President Trump's essentially false claims that his careless stewardship has been good for the US economy."...

https://news.yahoo.com/more-1-000-economists-now-112300216.html

* Open Letter: 1073 Economists Oppose Trump's Re-Election
We, the undersigned economists, strongly urge voters not to re-elect Donald Trump on the following grounds...
https://sites.google.com/site/econagainsttrump/

Pennsylvania:

Security info request from Trump campaign perturbs Cumberland County officials ahead of election
Zack Hoopes | Oct 30, 2020

...The email, obtained by The Sentinel, went so far as to ask for the address and room numbers of ballot storage locations, and requested that the information be sent to the Gmail account of a Florida-based Trump operative.

County officials said they have not responded to the request and do not intend to, according to the county commissioners.

...The message was sent Tuesday, according to emails reviewed by The Sentinel, from Leslie O’Shaughnessy (a volunteer with the Trump campaign), who said she was writing “on behalf of Donald J. Trump for President.”

The email contained an attached, bullet-pointed list of the details requested, which O’Shaughnessy described as being pursuant to “your office’s compliance with existing statutes and law.”

“Please respond to these questions no later than 5:00 pm EST, tomorrow, Wednesday, October 28, 2020,” the email stated, asking for the response to be sent to a Gmail account bearing O’Shaughnessy’s name, and also including a phone number.

That number is tied to an Orlando-area virtual learning center, as well as a personal Facebook page for O’Shaughnessy where she identifies herself in a publicly visible post as having “served as an appointee in the Trump Administration in Washington DC.”

...the details O’Shaughnessy asked for in her email do not concern ballot verification; rather, they are specific physical security details for ballots and voting machines.

...“the location(s) that ballots are immediately sent to when polls close (including address and room number)”
...“the individuals who transport the ballots to the location(s).”
... “the time(s) when are ballots are transported to canvass site,”
... information on any security provided, and
... “the best point of contact for each storage location(s) of the ballots.”
... physical security details are asked for voting machines
... “If there will be any info still on the voting machines once they are stored” and
... “the time when any residual information is wiped.”

...Legal counsel told county officials that the only means for the Trump campaign — as a private entity operating out of a Gmail account — to force the surrender of information would be through a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know request. (Right-to-know requests for the location and security measures where police store confiscated weapons, for instance, or requests for information on when and how government agencies transport cash revenue, have been shot down.)

...Cumberland County officials said their understanding was that other counties in the state had gotten the Trump campaign email.

Pennsylvania, and specifically Cumberland County, have played an outsize role in the 2020 campaign. Trump and his opponent, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, stand limited statistical chance of winning office without carrying the state...

https://cumberlink.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/security-info-requ...

Joe Biden @JoeBiden | 7:01 AM · Nov 1, 2020:
Let’s put dogs back in the White House.
0:20 ( https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1322871257902145536 )

Andrew Sullivan, speaking with Sam Harris*,

A.S. : “... (Trump's) ('truthful hyperbole') which makes it almost impossible to engage with reality. That's what he's (i.e. Trump has) done. And he's not solely responsible for it and I'm not going to say that Wokeness or far Left (Sic) or the attack upon liberal democratic values he entirely created. He didn't. He was partly a product of that. But we have a test-case of whether he can make it better and in fact, by the manner of his engagement in the discourse is making it much, much worse all the time.”

Sam Harris (S.H.) : Yeah, he has this almost supernatural ability to make his enemies worse people—or behave like sociopaths.”

So, then, yes, let's admit it: we, i.e. “liberals” have lately been going off the rails or, as Harris put it, “behave like sociopaths,” but, well, really, if we've behaved like sociopaths, that's really Trump's fault. Why? Well, because Trump created the circumstances in which we effectively had no choice but to behave like sociopaths.

Wow! Now isn't that interesting?!?

(S.H.) : “He, being this sociopath, manages to corrupt even the well-intentioned reactions to his norm-breaking. This is what bothers me so much about this allegation of Trump Derangement Syndrome (T.D.S.) or this claim that 'we get that you don't like him as a person but it doesn't matter,'—the problem with that is that it doesn't even begin to make contact with the criticism of him as a person which is actually relevant to his governing and his assuming the responsibility of the presidency. Because, as president, it really does matter that Trump is a terrible human being who values nothing beyond his own personal gain and who lies more than any person in human history. These are not private flaws, these are flaws that have done immense harm to our politics. … ” …

There you have it, a verbatim quote from the mouth of Sam Harris, “neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up App.”

I suppose that, if such a characterization of Trump is to be faulted as, on its face, utterly unhinged nonsense, then that, too, is chargeable to Trump's faults since Trump, of course, makes his opposition what they are, helplessly reactionary fools who, because they're so furious at Trump's flummoxing them and foiling all their efforts to undermine him, turn them into wacko, nut-bar bands of hysterical panic-driven fools.

Therefore, their logic goes, to save their sanity (and, it's implied, our own as well, the rest of us really should and must vote Biden/(Kamala) Harris

Indeed, it goes without saying, it is of course generally true, that, whatever a president's character flaws, to the extent that they are grave in their nature, they of course can do “immense harm to our politics.” I suppose that the same goes no less when it comes to Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris's flaws. Right?

As far as I'm concerned, this particular podcast— with Andrew Sullivan as his guest and Sullivan, in turn, making of the same interview/discussion the inaugural program of his own first-time podcast with Sam Harris as "his guest" — marks the low-point in Sam's podcasts. This one is the worst I can recall. Not even a serious or interesting discussion going on here. Just a tag-team orgy of epithets and "Oh, Yeah? Well, I can do better! Trump is even worse than that! — He's ... (blah, blah, blah)."

Neither of these two men has the slightest insight into any theory of how and why a sane person could support Trump's re-election. For them, the only possible explanations come down to one or another form of grievous psychopathology. As they see it, only the insane could find Trump's candidacy appealing enough to back it.

They've spent the past four years stewing in their bile and have learned simply nothing about the people they'd failed to understand four years ago.


_________________________

The full interview is free and open to non-subscribers at the following link :

(Making Sense No. 223) A Conversation with Andrew Sullivan (30 October, 2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-y7_DnhDtQ&feature=youtu.be

"Executive Time" political satire video
Harry Shearer playing the Trump part

*********
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ue5F57dZMU

"The Day Democracy Died"
The Founders Sing with Don McLean & Founding Fathers

>107 margd:
Nick Corasaniti @NYTnickc | 1:38 PM · Nov 1, 2020:
Just in: Texas Supreme Court denies a Republican-backed petition seeking
to toss out more than 100,000 votes in Harris County cast in drive-thru lanes.

Opinion, without comment, is here:
https://txcourts.gov/supreme/orders-opinions/2020/november/november-1-2020/
Image (https://twitter.com/NYTnickc/status/1322971299401080832/photo/1 )

While the ruling is significant, there is still a nearly identical effort at the federal level. (>107 margd:)
A hearing in that effort has been set for Monday

New Jersey

Breaking911 @Breaking911 | 12:42 PM · Nov 1, 2020:
NJ: Trump vehicle convoy shuts down the Garden State Parkway....
0:16 ( https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1322957092412686343 )
From Yeshiva World News

------------------------------------------------------

George Conway @gtconway3d · 14m:
Yeah, this will surely persuade people to vote for Trump.
These are the express lanes, BTW.

VoteVets (Text VOTEVETS to 88424) @votevets | 12:04 PM · Nov 1, 2020
If it comes down to Trump not wanting to leave the White House, our veterans will be happy to walk him out.

#VoteHimOut #WalkHimOut
#VoteVetsVoteBlue #Vote

1:06 ( https://twitter.com/votevets/status/1322947630494846977 )

>119 margd: "Trump trains" did that on a few roads/bridges in the NY/NJ area.

I have two surviving sisters. One was born in 1964 and the other in 1963. The one born in 64 has become a 'great patriot'. This wasn't a gradual transformation--this is more of an all of a sudden we're concerned about all kinds of shit thing. Mexicans are job stealers and rapists, Trump is Jesus Christ reincarnated, covid isn't for real, get rid of your masks 'I refuse to live my life in fear' and she takes part in Trump trains. The one born in 1963 thinks the one born in 1964 has lost her mind. I agree with her but I also would add the one born in 1964 has always been a one way street. That is her nature and that is the way it is. It's kind of like the Sly song Family Affair. Different children born into the same family but one is this and one is that. All that said I've had enough of the one born in 1964 that if I don't see her ass in the next 10 years it's not going to bother me at all and I've been kind of pissed at her for other things for several years as it is.

>121 rastaphrog: TX, NJ, NY, CO: next will MAGAts block the polls? Now THAT would bring in feds. (If FBI Director Wray hasn't been replaced by Trump toadie by then.)

'Trump trains' block highways and bridges from New York to Colorado as 2020 election approaches
‘Since he’s been getting out raising heck, we’re doing the same thing for him today,’ one supporter says
Griffin Connolly | Nov 1. 2020

Donald Trump supporters across the US have hit the road in cars and trucks this weekend to rally on US highways in a bid to drum up excitement and publicity for the president’s campaign home stretch before Election Day.

Thousands of people from New York to Texas and all the way to Colorado took part in the “Trump Train” caravans, shutting down roads and bridges.

In Colorado, motorists were seen driving down State Highway 470 towards the parking lots at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison on Sunday.

The caravan was part of a “MAGA Drag the Interstate” event, Denver’s local CBS News affiliate reported...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-train-m...
________________________________________________________

Trump defends Texas drivers who surrounded Biden bus, while the president’s supporters block traffic in New York and New Jersey.
Neil Vigdor, Jesse McKinley, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Sydney Ember, Annie Karni, Stephanie Saul and Dave Montgomery | Nov 1, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/us/elections/trump-defends-texas-drivers-who-...

More chaos after Trump rally, Rome, Georgia. Third time in a week this happened! Why aren't organizers being held to account??

Julie Tsirkin @JulieNBCNews | 12:52 AM · Nov 2, 2020
Hours after the President departed for Florida, this was the scene in Georgia as people were left for hours waiting for buses to take them to their cars:
0:22 ( https://twitter.com/JulieNBCNews/status/1323140942623313920 )

Some of the folks left stranded were older and disabled. Multiple people tried to hitch rides from strangers amid the pandemic.

The single, narrow road to get in and out of the rally site was shared by pedestrians, cars, busses and emergency vehicles.
0:20 ( https://twitter.com/JulieNBCNews/status/1323142004256157696 )

A chaotic scene where hundreds lined the road a mile up from where President Trump held his rally in Rome, GA — attempting to exit the event.

Some people were sitting and laying on the ground. It’s 46 degrees and windy in the area tonight.
0:15 ( https://twitter.com/JulieNBCNews/status/1323144589448916993 )

CNN CNN | 4:30 AM · Nov 2, 2020:
A false and deceptively edited video of Joe Biden
making it appear the Democratic presidential nominee forgot what state he was in
was viewed more than one million times on Twitter over the weekend.

False video of Joe Biden viewed 1 million times on Twitter
Donie O'Sullivan, CNN Business | November 1, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/01/tech/false-biden-video-twitter/index.html

Geoff Bennett (NBC) @GeoffRBennett | 9:39 PM · Nov 1, 2020:
The White House on lockdown:
A federal law enforcement source tells NBC that beginning tomorrow,
crews will build a “non-scalable” fence to secure the WH complex, Ellipse and Lafayette Square.

250 National Guardsmen have been put on standby, reporting to Metro Police officials.

What voter intimidation looks like and numbers to call:

Robert Reich (Berkeley prof, frmr Secy of Labor) @RBReich | 1:59 PM · Oct 31, 2020:
Reminder: Voter intimidation is illegal. Know your rights.
And if you encounter any issues at the polls, call the national Election Protection hotline.*

*English: 866-OUR-VOTE; Español: 888-VE-Y-VOTA; Asian Languages: 888-API-VOTE; Arabic: 844-YALLA-US

4:14 ( https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1322599142489665538 )

S.C. drop boxes

John Whitehouse @existentialfish | 11:15 PM · Nov 1, 2020:
Fox anchor: Let me push back on the idea that voters are suppressed. What about voter dropboxes?
Clyburn: South Carolina doesn't have dropboxes.
Fox anchor: My understanding is every state had them.
Clyburn: We tried, the legislature said no.
Fox anchor: I stand corrected.
2:16 ( https://twitter.com/jslovegrove/status/1323116508105613318 )

Jamie Lovegrove (SC journal courier) @jslovegrove | Nov 1, 2020
It’s even a step further than that. South Carolina actually *did* have voter drop boxes, and
the Legislature decided to ban them exclusively for this one election.
Some counties had to tape up their existing drop boxes with saran wrap to make sure voters didn’t use them.

Michigan

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322967483695902722.html
Heidi Przybyla @HeidiNBC | 1:23 PM · Nov 1, 2020
https://twitter.com/HeidiNBC/status/1322967483695902722
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1322967483695902722.html

Trump lied to Michigan today about
1) booming auto plants & 2) it’s all because of him.

1. Net loss of 2 auto plants since he took office:
(Warren transmission and a Ford engine plant in Romeo. A shuttered Detroit Chrysler plant is being retooled.

2. Another major loss is Great Lakes Steel, which for more than 100 years sustained the community of Ecorse. Hear from some of the workers here:
Laid-off steelworkers in Michigan say Trump didn't keep business promises
NBC News’ Heidi Przybyla speaks to steelworkers who were laid off from a plant in Michigan about their views on President Trump and the promises he made their industry in 2016.
https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/laid-off-steelworkers-in-michigan-say-trump-di...

3.Also not true no plants were opening before Trump took office.
Here’s two examples: Ford Dearborn Truck in ’04 and Lansing GM assembly in 2006.

4.COVID is no excuse.
Jobs were ticking down even BEFORE COVID.

“There was not some rocket ship kind of thing going on here that all of a sudden got messed up by the pandemic,” said Kristin Dziczek of the Ctr. for Automotive Research. Peak auto sales were in 2016/17

5.OVERALL, when Obama/Biden took over in Jan. 2009 MI unemployment was 13%; When he left it was 4.6%. Obama is credited with helping to save the auto industry with the auto bailout.

6.Wages in Michigan are lower today than in 1979, adjusted for inflation.

7. Overall manufacturing jobs as of Oct. are DOWN 10% in MI, according to BLS.

Climate Ad Project @ClimateAd | 6:14 PM · Nov 1, 2020
America is ready to transition from fossil fuels. Let's do it!

1:06 ( https://twitter.com/ClimateAd/status/1323040762729148417 )

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 9:10 PM · Nov 1, 2020
NEW VIDEO

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will fight to uphold our nation’s values
unlike the candidates of the radical right who seek to destroy democracy as we know it.

The (Not So) Radical Biden-Harris Ticket
1:03 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1323085009213812737 )

Really American @ReallyAmerican1 | 2:33 PM · Nov 1, 2020
NEW VIDEO: Trump Promised everything in 2016. He said he would protect social security, cut taxes for the middle class, and fight for working families. But he is the promise everything, deliver nothing President. He delivered nothing.

#TrumpDeliveredNothing
1: 29 ( https://twitter.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1322985023411281925 )

Again?! Trump Campaign Strands Rallygoers in the Cold for a Third Time, This Time in Georgia (Mediaite report)

And, these chumps will most likely vote for DJT.

The only grey matter they have between their ears is cement!

MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 8:58 AM · Nov 2, 2020
NEW VIDEO
Stevie Wonder joins MeidasTouch to share his love of Michigan and its importance this election.
#WonderfulMichigan
2:05 ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1323263144337133569 )

Kamau Marshall @KamauMandela | 8:55 AM · Nov 2, 2020
Good morning! Wake Up and Do The Right Thing and #VOTE
for #BidenHarris2020 to get Mo Better. Vote for your ancestors and for future generations. One more thing: Wear your mask. Save lives! -Spike Lee

0:29 ( 8:55 AM · Nov 2, 2020 )

House outlook:

Dave Wasserman (Cook Political Report) @Redistrict | 8:53 AM · Nov 2, 2020
New @CookPolitical: our FINAL House outlook is a Dem net gain of 10-15 seats, with anything from 5-20 seats well within the range of possibility. View our final ratings: https://cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings ($)

Solid/Likely/Lean D: 229
Solid/Likely/Lean R: 179
Toss Up: 27

Image-competitive races ( https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1323262040555900932/photo/1 )

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 7:19 PM · Nov 1, 2020:
Con nuestro VOTO, los Latinos podemos “BOTAR” a Trump de la Casa Blanca.
Translate Tweet: With our VOTE, Latinos can "BOOT" Trump from the White House.

0:54 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1323057193864888322 )

Eduardo Silva @EduardoMSilva | 9:08 AM · Nov 2, 2020:
WATCH: The @DNCWarRoom's last (!!!) ad of the cycle just aired on @Morning_Joe

1:18 ( https://twitter.com/EduardoMSilva/status/1323265787306627078 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5nzy_I7pk

Anthony Scaramucci ~ Why I'm Voting for Vice President Joe Biden ~ November 1, 2020

Anthony, Mary Trump and Michael Cohen know the guy who lurks behind the facade.

A lot of these pro-Biden republicans see their future leader as someone like Liz Cheney---they're not really won over---they just hate Trump and basically they're neo-cons.

Pennsylvania

Marc E. Elias ( democracydocket.com ) @marceelias | 2:51 PM · Nov 2, 2020:
BREAKING: Philadelphia Court REJECTS Republican's latest effort to block mail ballots....

1 p order:
https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/2020-11-02-O...

Texas

Federal Judge Dismisses Effort To Throw Out Drive-Through Votes In Houston
Brian Naylor | November 2, 2020

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen today threw out a suit challenging the legality of some 127,000 votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area. He ruled the plaintiffs don't have legal standing to sue.

Harris County, Texas' most populous county, and majority-Democratic, erected ten tents to expedite the early voting process, as a way of allowing people to vote safely during the coronavirus pandemic. They were also in place this summer, prior to the state's primary. Noting that, Judge Hanen, a George W. Bush appointee, asked plaintiffs "Why am I just getting this case?"

The suit was brought by a group of Republican activists, who argued the move by Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Democrat, was an illegal expansion of curbside voting, which is permitted under Texas law.

A similar challenge had been dismissed by the Texas Supreme Court Sunday. All of that court's were appointed by Republicans...

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/02/930365888/federal-judge-dismisses-effort-to-throw...

Edit to entire Ray Charles ad:

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 10:46 AM · Nov 2, 2020:
Vote for America.
1:01 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1323290480495546374 )

>141 lriley:

If true Republicans want a party which can recapture its viability by winning
the hearts and minds of a majority of U.S. citizens, I don't think a party led
by Liz Cheney (WY) is going to get them there. We are entering the 2020s,
and the U.S. demographic express train is barreling down the tracks.

The Juice Media provides a podcast guide to the impending shitshow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50sn8OMe8JE

#145--I was riffing off an article from Politico the other day--people like Bolton and Kristol and Schmidt very much like the idea of a party led by Cheney's daughter Liz--it mentioned a number of other important elected republicans saying nice things about her like the House leader McCarthy, Oregon member Walden and Texas member Crenshaw, retiring Texas member Thornberry. She's voted with Trump 96% of the time but she's been very careful to keep some separation from Donald but they're mostly for a lot of the same things--it's just that tea party movement vs. the older establishment types. This is one of the main differences though Liz Cheney is actually very bright and articulate--something that a Trump or a Jim Jordan certainly isn't.

Luis A. Miranda, Jr. @Vegalteno | 7:48 AM · Nov 3, 2020
Buen día/Good mirning

1:01 ( https://twitter.com/Vegalteno/status/1323608001203359746 )

Caitlin Huey-Burns @CHueyBurns | 10:22 AM · Nov 2, 2020
Hello from the Bucks County Courthouse!
These PA voters have been in line here on a frigid morning to correct issues w/ their absentee ballots.
They had been notified to come in and fix.
Voters tell us they’re willing to wait as long as it takes to make sure their vote counts.

0:11 ( https://twitter.com/CHueyBurns/status/1323284335798243330 )

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 4:28 PM · Nov 2, 2020
Donald Trump doesn't get to decide the future of America's leadership.
The American people do.

1:44 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1323376566085341187 )

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 10:38 PM · Nov 2, 2020
Vote for them, for your boys.
1:24 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1323469512990248968 )