Vote!

[shoothoops]

Bucks County (Philadelphia) PA line to correct absentee ballots:

https://twitter.com/CHueyBurns/status/1323284335798243330?s=19

[Billy Hoyle]

I guess I'll take the low hanging fruit.

Im unsurprised to learn that there are bunch of trump supporters who are Dicks

the names of my parents are both on there. No surprise.

[MUfan12]

I fear there will be a lot more of this on Tuesday/Wednesday. Hoping some cops will actually do their job.

When I saw the highway stunts, my first thought was this is what they're gonna do in blue areas to try and impede voting.

[MU82]

Trump did say he has the police on his side.

They certainly were working for him Saturday in NC, when they pepper-sprayed a rally that not only was peaceful but for which the participants had a permit.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/election-graham-north-carolina-protest/2020/11/01/beee5d8c-1c64-11eb-90dd-abd0f7086a91_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2c77a18%2F5fa03cd69d2fda0efb5ab8c2%2F5f8d147cae7e8a56e5b732a4%2F40%2F71%2Fb3563592a6e9cbfdd26e210ad7669201

GRAHAM, N.C. — The voters came in black sweatshirts emblazoned with the mantra of the late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who celebrated "good trouble."

Fists and iPhones raised, they chanted “Black lives matter” and promised “power to the people,” as they made their way from a Black church to the base of a monument to a Confederate soldier. In its shadow, they paused for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, honoring George Floyd, the Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for what was later determined to be 7 minutes and 46 seconds.

The participants in Saturday’s “I Am Change” march had intended to conclude at an early-voting site to emphasize turnout in the final days of the presidential campaign. Those plans were thrown into disarray when law-enforcement officers in riot gear and gas masks insisted demonstrators move off the street and clear county property, despite a permit authorizing their presence.

As tensions escalated, officers deployed pepper spray and began making arrests. Among those caught in clouds of the irritant were children as young as 3 years old, as well as elderly residents and a disabled woman, said participants in the march.

The episode, which was live-streamed on Facebook by the march’s organizer, the Rev. Greg Drumwright of nearby Greensboro, unfolded three days before an election that feels to many Americans like the edge of an abyss. It capped nearly a half-year of protests after the killing of Floyd. And it reflected efforts to channel indignation on the street into power at the ballot box in North Carolina, a critical battleground state, and other places deciding the country’s direction.

“The world wants to know what’s going on in Alamance County,” Drumwright said, invoking the rallying cry of anti-Vietnam War activists.

His outrage was echoed by state and national leaders, including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who called the incident “unacceptable.” The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law described the police response as a form of voter suppression.

In a statement, the Graham Police Department said its officers had made eight arrests, arguing that force had been justified by the refusal of demonstrators to disperse after the gathering had “reached a level of conduct that led to the rally being deemed unsafe and unlawful by unified command.”

The department also defended the deployment of what it called a “pepper-based vapor,” saying its officers did not “directly spray any participant in the march” — an account at odds with the statements of numerous participants.

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office issued a one-line tweet, saying, “Unfortunately the rally in Graham ended due to concerns for the safety of all.” The office has previously faced scrutiny for what the Justice Department in 2012 called “discriminatory policing,” leading to a civil rights lawsuit against Terry S. Johnson, the county sheriff. After a Republican-appointed federal judge dismissed the suit, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the case in exchange for revisions. Since then, Johnson has twice won reelection, both times running unopposed.

In August, a U.S. district judge in the Middle District of North Carolina blocked county officials, including Johnson, from prohibiting protests in certain areas around the county courthouse in response to a lawsuit brought by the Lawyers’ Committee and the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

These events were the backdrop against which the weekend’s conflict unfolded. Drumwright, who was arrested Saturday and ordered not to return to Graham for 72 hours, seemed to point to earlier struggles as he offered this assessment: “We’re tattered. We’re torn. We’re pressed on every side.”

[TSmith34, Inc.]

These people seem nice.

https://twitter.com/balleralert/status/1323305624214642693

They are brownshirts through and through, and one side is absolutely OK with that. I mean, they are very fine people according to POTUS. Their uniform of choice is trashy shirts and camo rather than brown, but that's the only difference.

[Jockey]

When I saw the highway stunts, my first thought was this is what they're gonna do in blue areas to try and impede voting.

Urging on the terrorists!

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/pirro-applauds-trump-supporters

[Jockey]

They certainly were working for him Saturday in NC, when they pepper-sprayed a rally that not only was peaceful but for which the participants had a permit.

....

Gotta pepper spray the kids so they learn their lesson early. At least they didn't gather them up and put them in cages.

[Jockey]

These terrorists aren't going away anytime soon.

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/how-noisy-jerks-blocking-traffic-helping

[tower912]

jb looking ever more prescient.

[MU82]

An essay on Trump's fake voter fraud, from lifelong conservative Benjamin Ginsberg, who spent many years helping Republicans root out actual voter fraud:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/01/ben-ginsberg-voter-suppression-republicans/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2c77a19%2F5fa03cd69d2fda0efb5ab8c2%2F5f8d147cae7e8a56e5b732a4%2F42%2F71%2Fb3563592a6e9cbfdd26e210ad7669201

President Trump has failed the test of leadership. His bid for reelection is foundering. And his only solution has been to launch an all-out, multimillion-dollar effort to disenfranchise voters — first by seeking to block state laws to ease voting during the pandemic, and now, in the final stages of the campaign, by challenging the ballots of individual voters unlikely to support him.

This is as un-American as it gets. It returns the Republican Party to the bad old days of “voter suppression” that landed it under a court order to stop such tactics — an order lifted before this election. It puts the party on the wrong side of demographic changes in this country that threaten to make the GOP a permanent minority.

These are painful words for me to write. I spent four decades in the Republican trenches, representing GOP presidential and congressional campaigns, working on Election Day operations, recounts, redistricting and other issues, including trying to lift the consent decree.

Nearly every Election Day since 1984 I’ve worked with Republican poll watchers, observers and lawyers to record and litigate any fraud or election irregularities discovered.

The truth is that over all those years Republicans found only isolated incidents of fraud. Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party. People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn’t exist.

As he confronts losing, Trump has devoted his campaign and the Republican Party to this myth of voter fraud. Absent being able to articulate a cogent plan for a second term or find an attack against Joe Biden that will stick, disenfranchising enough voters has become key to his reelection strategy.

Perhaps this was the plan all along. The president’s unsubstantiated talk about “rigged” elections caused by absentee ballot “fraud” and “cheating” has been around since 2016; it’s just increased in recent weeks.

Trump has enlisted a compliant Republican Party in this shameful effort. The Trump campaign and Republican entities engaged in more than 40 voting and ballot court cases around the country this year. In exactly none — zero — are they trying to make it easier for citizens to vote. In many, they are seeking to erect barriers.

[shoothoops]

@chucklindell: The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday rejected, without comment, a bid by three Republican candidates and a GOP activist to toss out almost 127,000 votes cast in drive-thru lanes in the emerging Democratic stronghold of Harris County.
The developing story at:
https://www.statesman.com/news/20201101/texas-court-rejects-bid-to-toss-127000-harris-county-votes-but-fight-isnrsquot-over

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen, a GW Bush appointee, also ruled today that the 127k Drive Thru votes must be counted.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen, a GW Bush appointee, also ruled today that the 127k Drive Thru votes must be counted.

Since taking my current job, I've grown to respect the judiciary more and more. Hanen is about as conservative of a judge as you can find at the federal level but he upheld the law over his party.  You'll find a few "activist" judges on both sides but I've found most take their roles very seriously and keep the politics out of their decisions. It's a refreshing change of pace

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Since taking my current job, I've grown to respect the judiciary more and more. Hanen is about as conservative of a judge as you can find at the federal level but he upheld the law over his party.  You'll find a few "activist" judges on both sides but I've found most take their roles very seriously and keep the politics out of their decisions. It's a refreshing change of pace

Yes.  Also, the Supreme Court is also historically been concerned about the image of the Court.  And throwing out ballots that were legally cast, to swing an election to a candidate (when that candidate has zero authority over them), isn't likely to happen IMO because of this. 

[wadesworld]

These terrorists aren't going away anytime soon.

https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/how-noisy-jerks-blocking-traffic-helping

Shutting down highways is only an issue when the people shutting them down are fighting for equality in America.  That's when the tear gas and riot gear comes out.  Preventing people from getting to the polls?  Nothing to see here!

[MU82]

Since taking my current job, I've grown to respect the judiciary more and more. Hanen is about as conservative of a judge as you can find at the federal level but he upheld the law over his party.  You'll find a few "activist" judges on both sides but I've found most take their roles very seriously and keep the politics out of their decisions. It's a refreshing change of pace

You know, you're right. For each of us, it's not easy to take our politics out of it, but I agree with what you're saying here.

Yes.  Also, the Supreme Court is also historically been concerned about the image of the Court.  And throwing out ballots that were legally cast, to swing an election to a candidate (when that candidate has zero authority over them), isn't likely to happen IMO because of this. 

Here's hoping. I certainly have come to feel pretty good about Roberts in this vein. I know I caused a mini-firestorm with what I said about Justice Stepford a few days ago, so I won't repeat it here, but I hope you're right.

[HouWarrior]

Since taking my current job, I've grown to respect the judiciary more and more. Hanen is about as conservative of a judge as you can find at the federal level but he upheld the law over his party.  You'll find a few "activist" judges on both sides but I've found most take their roles very seriously and keep the politics out of their decisions. It's a refreshing change of pace

I have known Hanen for three decades going back to his days as a corporate litigator; opposed him in few cases. I would disagree that he is "about as conservative of a judge as you can find at the federal level" - hyperbole. He certainly respects rule of law, he listens and is fair. He certainly prefers precedent over making new law and therefore is not an activist. Actually, He is typical of most federal judges appointed before our recent times...academic and professional skills/reputation were paramount. Smart guy hard worker

The recent round of federal appointees include many lacking those skills (a bunch that couldn't even garner ABA approval--long considered a minimum for senate approval--) and such now take a back seat to political connection/preconceptions .  This has occurred before in our history and it takes about a generation to rotate them back out. These too shall pass

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Yes.  A lot of things have happened in our history and have passed and rarely even thought of after.

Does anyone think of the 1876 election any longer?  Probably the most corrupt in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Commission_(United_States)

[GooooMarquette]

Yes.  A lot of things have happened in our history and have passed and rarely even thought of after.

Does anyone think of the 1876 election any longer?  Probably the most corrupt in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Commission_(United_States)

Maybe the election itself is forgotten, but the effects were dramatic and felt for a LONG time.

From the wiki:

One major outcome of the electoral commission and the Compromise of 1877 was the return of the South to "local rule" via the removal of federal troops, effectively ending the Reconstruction era and the federal government's enforcement of post-bellum equality in the South was no more.

This resulted in Democrat takeovers of the Southern legislatures, typically by the same kind of fraud and violence that had previously been counteracted by federal troops under President Grant's command. These new Democratic Party governments quickly implemented Jim Crow laws which imposed a legal system of racial discrimination that effectively reversed all the gains of Reconstruction, and also disenfranchised virtually all black people in the South until 1965.

[Warriors4ever]

In summer 2019 I was out in NW Ohio for a few days and we visited the Rutherford Hayes home and museum. I really didn’t know many things about that election until then. Talk about deal-making!

[Jables1604]

Someone hit me with this Sofie’s Choice about an hour ago: 8 more years of Wojo or 4 more years of Trump?

Gotta pick one.

No abstaining allowed.

[Pakuni]

Someone hit me with this Sofie’s Choice about an hour ago: 8 more years of Wojo or 4 more years of Trump?

Gotta pick one.

No abstaining allowed.

That's actually pretty easy.

[Billy Hoyle]

Someone hit me with this Sofie’s Choice about an hour ago: 8 more years of Wojo or 4 more years of Trump?

Gotta pick one.

No abstaining allowed.

Wow, that's a tough one. Let me think....

8 more years of Wojo doesn't threaten my wife's citizenship. 8 more years of Wojo doesn't threaten the marriage status of friends. 8 more years of Wojo doesn't put my job and industry in jeopardy. 8 more years of Wojo won't implement a health policy that will kill millions of Americans.

I'll take 80 more years of Wojo if that's the choice.

[tower912]

800 more years of Wojo.

[Pakuni]

I reserve the right to change my mind the next time a first-round tournament loss costs tens of thousands of lives.

[tower912]

Wednesday morning, back to commercials for hemorrhoid cream