2020 Political Chatter

[caleb]

We had snow overnight, so it looks like Christmas outside.

I will walk the dogs and think good thoughts.

It's a beautiful day here, too. I started it with a 90 minute dog walk as the sun was coming out. When the sun shines, this is a great time of year.

[guido]

Stephen King: I’ve come to understand what 2016 Trump supporters wanted. It’s not 2016 anymore. | Washington Post

I’ll call her Annie. That’s not her name, but it will do. In September 2016, she worked at a convenience store not far from where I live in western Maine. I still gas up there, but I don’t see her around these days. In the summer, she was always inside, busy ringing up the purchases of the summer people: six-packs of beer, canisters of Blue Rhino for the barbecue, chips and dip, lottery tickets. After Labor Day, though, the summer people go home, and more often than not, Annie would be leaning against the side of the building in her apple-red smock, having a smoke. I’d put her age back then as 60, or maybe a hard-living 50. Deep lines on her face, smoker’s rasp, Maine Yankee from her brassy blond home-dyed hair to the soles of her red sneakers.

One day that early fall, I joined her at her smoker’s post to scratch a five-dollar lottery ticket with my lucky dime, and asked who she was voting for in the presidential. I expected her to say Hillary Clinton, because I stupidly assumed that, as a woman, Annie would love to see a woman president, but also because the polls, in Maine and in the other 49, made it clear that Donald Trump was going down, buried under a landslide.

“Trump,” she said.

I was shocked. I think I said, “You’re joking.”

She gave me a look that said, Surprised you, didn’t I.

“But why?” I asked, and then used a descriptor Joe Biden would use in a debate with Trump almost exactly four years further down the timeline: “He’s a clown.”

“I like him,” Annie said. “He’s not like the other ones. He says what’s on his mind, and if you don’t like it, you can stick it.” And this time her glance said, That goes for you, too, Writer Boy.

I pointed out that Trump had no experience. Annie nodded as if it were her point. “I like that. He’s a business guy. He’ll shake things up, kick over a few apple carts.”

Four years later, here we are. America is more set against itself than at any time since the Civil War, and Trump is the cause. He’s not just an apple-cart kicker; he is that dangerous combination of low pressure and warm water around which hurricanes form. The polls say he won’t win, but they said it wouldn’t happen in 2016. A good many mainstream Republicans have deserted Trump and will either sit this one out or will vote, quietly, for Biden. Yet Trump’s core support has shrunk very little — and it has hardened. The MAGA contingent is an apolitical rock packed into a Republican snowball.

[Saab2000]

He’s a good writer, that’s for sure. A national treasure.

[Scott G.]

[
“I like him,” Annie said. “He’s not like the other ones. He says what’s on his mind, and if you don’t like it, you can stick it.” And this time her glance said, That goes for you, too, Writer Boy.

I pointed out that Trump had no experience. Annie nodded as if it were her point. “I like that. He’s a business guy. He’ll shake things up, kick over a few apple carts.”

Annie has a faith in the American governments ability to self right that I find dangerously naive.

[htwoopup]

It is really sad that for an election...a free election in what is supposed to be the leader of the « free world »...Macy’s in NYC is boarding up and Walmart is removing guns and ammo from its stores. My sister who lives and works in LA just got this notice....

https://mailchi.mp/downtownla/octobe...3?e=455a3b4648

It is not only troubling, it makes me sad.

[jclay]

864511320....that's all I'm saying.

[ides1056]

Wasn't disaster forecast for 2000? Computers were supposed to go haywire or something?

I drove past big open fields as the moon rose and thought how in love I am with this world.

[guido]

Trump rolled back more than 125 environmental safeguards. Here’s how. | Washington Post

President Trump has spent the run-up to next week’s election touting himself as the finest steward of the nation’s air and water in generations. “Who would have thought,” he boasted during one stop in Florida, “Trump is the great environmentalist?”

But over the course of nearly four years, his administration has steadily loosened oversight of polluting industries, eroded protections for endangered wildlife and stymied Obama-era efforts to address the globe’s most daunting environmental threat: climate change.

A Washington Post analysis has found that as Trump’s first term winds to a close, he has weakened or wiped out more than 125 rules and policies aimed at protecting the nation’s air, water and land, with 40 more rollbacks underway.

The administration has accelerated its push to deregulate in the weeks before the election, to ease requirements on power plants that leak waste into waterways, weaken efficiency standards for dishwashers, scale back oversight of mine safety and approve seismic drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge.

[climbgdh]

I’ve been quietly reading this thread over the last several months. Thanks for all the insights and respectful dialogue. NOW it’s time to get serious...... USA please vote the ORANGE dude out of office. Thanks and Regards from Canada.

[jclay]

"United States Postal Service officials are looking into a video shared by the Florida House Democratic Leader showing what he says are piles of unsorted mail sitting in a Miami-Dade post office, sparking concerns that valid ballots won't be counted.

House Democratic Leader Kionne McGhee tweeted Friday a video from a "concerned postal worker," his office said in a statement. The video shows mail sitting in numerous bins at the Princeton post office on Southwest 250th Street in Homestead. NBC 6 has not verified the validity of the video.

McGhee said the person who sent him the video said mail-in ballots are within the bins and that the mail has been sitting in the post office for over a week."

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...975F7PbiUwJxNM

[fastupslowdown]

[QUOTE=jclay;1025597]"United States Postal Service officials are looking into a video shared by the Florida House Democratic Leader showing what he says are piles of unsorted mail sitting in a Miami-Dade post office, sparking concerns that valid ballots won't be counted.

House Democratic Leader Kionne McGhee tweeted Friday a video from a "concerned postal worker," his office said in a statement. The video shows mail sitting in numerous bins at the Princeton post office on Southwest 250th Street in Homestead. NBC 6 has not verified the validity of the video.

McGhee said the person who sent him the video said mail-in ballots are within the bins and that the mail has been sitting in the post office for over a week."

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...975F7PbiUwJxNM[/QUOTE



A number of articles are reporting that mail delivery in swing states is significantly slower than the national average. This type of statistical aberation is hard to ignore. The judge overseeing the post office response has demanded an explanation at the most granular level. It's hard not to think this is by design. Ironically a judge that approved a reduction in Texas drop off ballot sites to one per county said it wasn't voter suppression because the mail is still an option. It's like nobody sees the big picture or wants to. -Mike G

[jclay]

[QUOTE=fastupslowdown;1025601]

"United States Postal Service officials are looking into a video shared by the Florida House Democratic Leader showing what he says are piles of unsorted mail sitting in a Miami-Dade post office, sparking concerns that valid ballots won't be counted.

House Democratic Leader Kionne McGhee tweeted Friday a video from a "concerned postal worker," his office said in a statement. The video shows mail sitting in numerous bins at the Princeton post office on Southwest 250th Street in Homestead. NBC 6 has not verified the validity of the video.

McGhee said the person who sent him the video said mail-in ballots are within the bins and that the mail has been sitting in the post office for over a week."

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...975F7PbiUwJxNM[/QUOTE



A number of articles are reporting that mail delivery in swing states is significantly slower than the national average. This type of statistical aberation is hard to ignore. The judge overseeing the post office response has demanded an explanation at the most granular level. It's hard not to think this is by design. Ironically a judge that approved a reduction in Texas drop off ballot sites to one per county said it wasn't voter suppression because the mail is still an option. It's like nobody sees the big picture or wants to. -Mike G

Voter suppression, gerrymandering and sabotage, at all levels of national and state government, are now completely naked, in obvious plain sight and acceptable to a large percentage of our population.

The democratic foundations and ideals upon which our government and society are based, to whatever imperfect degree they have been realized, are being destroyed. It is alarming, obvious, in full sunshine. The USA is on what I want to say is the early trajectory towards being a failed and unstable nation; but I'm not really convinced of the "early" part and the reactions to erosion of these fundamentals are often neither smooth, nor predictable nor recoverable, the implosion of the USSR being but one example.

You bet your ass it can happen here.

[jclay]

An interesting article and fascinating analysis, courtesy of the Columbia Journalism Review.

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitba...qYSY50RV44u72E

[fastupslowdown]

[QUOTE=jclay;1025603]

Voter suppression, gerrymandering and sabotage, at all levels of national and state government, are now completely naked, in obvious plain sight and acceptable to a large percentage of our population.

The democratic foundations and ideals upon which our government and society are based, to whatever imperfect degree they have been realized, are being destroyed. It is alarming, obvious, in full sunshine. The USA is on what I want to say is the early trajectory towards being a failed and unstable nation; but I'm not really convinced of the "early" part and the reactions to erosion of these fundamentals are often neither smooth, nor predictable nor recoverable, the implosion of the USSR being but one example.

You bet your ass it can happen here.

I've always believed we could follow the worst examples of Europe. I remember in college learning about Stanley Milgram's experiment on authority. I'm even more alarmed by what I see on cable news and social media. Freedom of speech now means hate speech facebook groups and cable news channels have become one big echo chamber.

[guido]

Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose | The New Yorker

"The President was despondent. Sensing that time was running out, he had asked his aides to draw up a list of his political options. He wasn’t especially religious, but, as daylight faded outside the rapidly emptying White House, he fell to his knees and prayed out loud, sobbing as he smashed his fist into the carpet. “What have I done?” he said. “What has happened?” When the President noted that the military could make it easy for him by leaving a pistol in a desk drawer, the chief of staff called the President’s doctors and ordered that all sleeping pills and tranquillizers be taken away from him, to insure that he wouldn’t have the means to kill himself.

The downfall of Richard Nixon, in the summer of 1974, was, as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relate in “The Final Days,” one of the most dramatic in American history. That August, the Watergate scandal forced Nixon—who had been cornered by self-incriminating White House tape recordings, and faced impeachment and removal from office—to resign. Twenty-nine individuals closely tied to his Administration were subsequently indicted, and several of his top aides and advisers, including his Attorney General, John Mitchell, went to prison. Nixon himself, however, escaped prosecution because his successor, Gerald Ford, granted him a pardon, in September, 1974.

No American President has ever been charged with a criminal offense. But, as Donald Trump fights to hold on to the White House, he and those around him surely know that if he loses—an outcome that nobody should count on—the presumption of immunity that attends the Presidency will vanish. Given that more than a dozen investigations and civil suits involving Trump are currently under way, he could be looking at an endgame even more perilous than the one confronted by Nixon. The Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said of Trump, “If he loses, you have a situation that’s not dissimilar to that of Nixon when he resigned. Nixon spoke of the cell door clanging shut.” Trump has famously survived one impeachment, two divorces, six bankruptcies, twenty-six accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated four thousand lawsuits. Few people have evaded consequences more cunningly. That run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, if he loses to Joe Biden. Even if Trump wins, grave legal and financial threats will loom over his second term.

Two of the investigations into Trump are being led by powerful state and city law-enforcement officials in New York. Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, are independently pursuing potential criminal charges related to Trump’s business practices before he became President. Because their jurisdictions lie outside the federal realm, any indictments or convictions resulting from their actions would be beyond the reach of a Presidential pardon. Trump’s legal expenses alone are likely to be daunting. (By the time Bill Clinton left the White House, he’d racked up more than ten million dollars in legal fees.) And Trump’s finances are already under growing strain. During the next four years, according to a stunning recent Times report, Trump—whether reëlected or not—must meet payment deadlines for more than three hundred million dollars in loans that he has personally guaranteed; much of this debt is owed to such foreign creditors as Deutsche Bank. Unless he can refinance with the lenders, he will be on the hook. The Financial Times, meanwhile, estimates that, in all, about nine hundred million dollars’ worth of Trump’s real-estate debt will come due within the next four years. At the same time, he is locked in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over a deduction that he has claimed on his income-tax forms; an adverse ruling could cost him an additional hundred million dollars. To pay off such debts, the President, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be two and a half billion dollars, could sell some of his most valuable real-estate assets—or, as he has in the past, find ways to stiff his creditors. But, according to an analysis by the Washington Post, Trump’s properties—especially his hotels and resorts—have been hit hard by the pandemic and the fallout from his divisive political career. “It’s the office of the Presidency that’s keeping him from prison and the poorhouse,” Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale who studies authoritarianism, told me."

[cny rider]

And right on cue, here they go:
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/texas...213348687.html

[echappist]

And right on cue, here they go:
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/texas...213348687.html

oh boy, of course "right on cue" is the right expression. In some ways even more sinister and cynical. If they challenge a particular method of voting ahead of time, one simply doesn't use that particular method (it may not be easy, but at least one knows). To do it after the fact is just dastardly.

Part of a broader trend

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...105_story.html

Republicans shift from challenging rules to preparing to challenge individual ballots

Oct. 30, 2020 at 5:59 p.m. CDT


In Nevada, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit this week seeking images of the signature of every registered voter in Democratic-leaning Clark County — a potential first step toward challenging individual votes on grounds that the signed ballots don’t match the signatures on file.
Follow the latest on Election 2020

In Texas, Republican officeholders and candidates sued this week to have more than 100,000 votes invalidated in the Houston area because they were cast at drive-through voting centers the GOP has asked a judge to declare illegal.

And in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, election officials will set aside any mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day — even if they were mailed before the polls closed — to facilitate potential court challenges.

For months, Republicans have pushed largely unsuccessfully to limit new avenues for voting in the midst of the pandemic. But with next week’s election rapidly approaching, they have shifted their legal strategy in recent days to focus on tactics aimed at challenging ballots one by one, in some cases seeking to discard votes already cast during a swell of early voting.

“It’s not just the rules anymore,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. “It’s individual voters.”

[jclay]

This is so not OK: https://heavy.com/news/watch-trump-s...und-biden-bus/

[echappist]

This is so not OK: https://heavy.com/news/watch-trump-s...und-biden-bus/

it gets "better". From the following twitter post

A highly regarded reporter (TEXASTribAbby) from the highly regarded TEXASTribune reached out to the Texas Republican Party for a comment on yesterday’s bus incident along I-35.

[vertical_doug]

Just keep in mind, these tactics are just the openers. They are saving the real nasty stuff for when they are desperate.