U.S. Politics - Oh no! Here we Don McGahn. Recuse or pack.

[Tywin et al.]

God Forbid is quite the wild doc. Always fun to see some toxic, lying Bible thumpers get exposed for the frauds they are. 

[Martell Spy]

23 hours ago, LongRider said:

Politico is reporting a bombshell, 

Trump lawyers saw Justice Thomas as 'only chance' to stop 2020 election certification - POLITICO

 

Clarence did vow revenge on liberals. People thought this meant something like overturning Roe. Apparently that isn't enough revenge for him and he won't stop until an American Putin is put into power. He's deranged and has lost it every bit as much as the guy that put his feet up on Pelosi's desk.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

My Baby girl is in line to vote for the first time.  She says everyone but her is “40+”.

 

[Wilbur]

We had a "voting party" at my place last weekend.  My daughter and a few of her voting-age college buddies brought their mail-in ballots and filled them out with my wife, put them into the envelopes and signed them.  Everybody mailed or handed in their own so we don't violate ballot harvesting regulations.

I had a couple of the state-produced voter guides with helpful highlighting for the initiatives and the judges' grades, pointing out the judges with particularly bad grades and the meat of the initiatives.

Some minor discussions as to why we as Republicans should vote against our party's candidates led to a general discussion of how in American democracy, all politics is local, and that in every election, you should vote for the best candidate, and not just pull the "straight ticket" lever.

Then, because I am old, I had to explain what a lever-action, mechanical voting machine looked like, and how it worked.  Many strange looks after googling the images of such a machine, as they realized that the world was a very different place not that long ago.  Where is my flying car?

[Luzifer's right hand]

So the classic argument from conservative people from the US was that the high drugs prices in the US make cheap prices in the rest of the world possible and finance research.

Now I read an article about a billionaire named Mark Cuban who cut out the middle man and is selling drugs for reasonable prices. 

Has the pharma industry in the US collapsed yet?

[Derfel Cadarn]

Will be interesting to see if the Republican-dominated supreme court overturning Wade v Roe will turn out to be the equivelent of killing John Wick’s dog for the party.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

5 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

My Baby girl is in line to vote for the first time.  She says everyone but her is “40+”.

 

Not to rain on everybody else's parade (and not to diminish your parental pride), but the everybody else is 40+ line isn't great. I know problem everywhere, that the young don't vote. But that's how we all end up with conservative goverments ruining everybody's life.

[ThinkerX]

Attempted voter fraud found! One guess as to the perpetrators.

I can just see something like this in a close race or three - the candidates are literally within a few dozen votes of one another - the R (who trumpeted nonstop about 'voter fraud') being in the lead - then something like this story breaks where it turns out a couple hundred votes are fictitious, with ties leading straight back to his office. Maybe DMC could come up with a race or three that might actually come out this way.

 

Milwaukee election worker under investigation for ballot fraud (msn.com)

[ThinkerX]

4 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Not to rain on everybody else's parade (and not to diminish your parental pride), but the everybody else is 40+ line isn't great. I know problem everywhere, that the young don't vote. But that's how we all end up with conservative goverments ruining everybody's life.

I attribute it in no small part to the US as a whole getting older. Area I dwell in was mostly 'under 40' back in the 70's and 80's, now literally every third person is social security age.

[LongRider]

27 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Not to rain on everybody else's parade (and not to diminish your parental pride), but the everybody else is 40+ line isn't great. I know problem everywhere, that the young don't vote. But that's how we all end up with conservative goverments ruining everybody's life.

Since I was 18 and a first-time voter it's always been this way.  Been voting for 40+ years, and I have never voted for a Republican.   Old does not automatically mean conservative. 

[Zorral]

However, today our local NPR station's broadcasting remote from a local community college, researching what this age group of diverse students is thinking about the midterms.  They generally aren't thinking of the midterms at all and none of them plan to vote.  The closest to political thinking I heard was, "all politicians are evil so why vote for any of them?"

Like Long Rider I've been voting since 18 and have never voted rethug ever for anything no matter where I lived.  I've never even considered doing so, no matter how hard I've had to hold my nose to vote for some these Dems -- like the mayor.  What a piece of shyte he is.  That's how bad the reichlicans are and always have been.

 

[Fez]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Will be interesting to see if the Republican-dominated supreme court overturning Wade v Roe will turn out to be the equivelent of killing John Wick’s dog for the party.

Seems unlikely. At this point the best argument for Democrats doing well is that pollsters have overcorrected after their mistakes in recent cycles of underestimating Republican turnout. Because if the polls are anywhere close to accurate, it's going to be a long night for Democrats. Probably not at the level of 2010 or 2014, but still bad.

And honestly, that's because of the effect of Dobbs (and Republican election denialism); without we probably we would be looking at a 2010-style wipeout.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

49 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Not to rain on everybody else's parade (and not to diminish your parental pride), but the everybody else is 40+ line isn't great. I know problem everywhere, that the young don't vote. But that's how we all end up with conservative goverments ruining everybody's life.

It’s South Carolina.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

4 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

It’s South Carolina.

Is that your way of saying, her vote was useless anyway?

Not to question your parenting skills, but don't complain, if this was her last election.  

[DMC]

11 minutes ago, Fez said:

Seems unlikely. At this point the best argument for Democrats doing well is that pollsters have overcorrected after their mistakes in recent cycles of underestimating Republican turnout. Because if the polls are anywhere close to accurate, it's going to be a long night for Democrats. Probably not at the level of 2010 or 2014, but still bad.

As much as I hate to say it, Silver is right that there doesn't necessarily need to be any "overcorrecting" for the polling error to go the Dems' way instead of the other way around.  Sometimes that's just the way it goes.  Still, though, yeah, looks like the fundamentals have caught up with the Dems, which isn't too surprising.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

9 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Is that your way of saying, her vote was useless anyway?

Not to question your parenting skills, but don't complain, if this was her last election.  

No.  Just that Democratic victories here are few and far between.  

[ThinkerX]

'Voter fraud must be out there somewhere! I know, we'll go door to door and check for illegal voters...hmm...better go armed and imply we are with the government.'

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you? If not there already?

In the hunt for voter fraud, Republican door knockers are intimidating residents: officials | Reuters

Nov 3 (Reuters) - The canvassers in California's Shasta County in September wore reflective orange vests and official-looking badges that read “Voter Taskforce.” Four residents said they mistook them for government officials.

But the door knockers didn't explain where to vote or promote a candidate, the usual work of canvassers ahead of a big election.

Instead, they grilled residents on their voting history and who lived in their homes, probing questions that might have violated state laws on intimidation and harassment, according to the county's chief election official.

Register now

 

At one house, they interrogated a couple about the whereabouts of their adult daughter. At another, they listed names of registered voters and demanded to know if they still lived at the address.

The incidents highlight how a once-routine staple of American elections -- door-to-door canvassing -- has been adopted by former U.S. President Donald Trump's supporters since the 2020 election to prove his baseless claims of voter fraud, or potentially disenfranchise voters by stoking doubts about voter registration books.

In at least one state, Michigan, they plan to use their list of alleged irregularities to challenge voters in the Nov. 8 election.

[LongRider]

55 minutes ago, Zorral said:

However, today our local NPR station's broadcasting remote from a local community college, researching what this age group of diverse students is thinking about the midterms.  They generally aren't thinking of the midterms at all and none of them plan to vote.  The closest to political thinking I heard was, "all politicians are evil so why vote for any of them?"

 

National Republican Radio finding doom and gloom for this election?  How many did they talk to who had voted or were planning to vote. You know, the ones they edited out?

 

(but I’m not cynical, oh no, not me)

[Zorral]

Governor Kemp’s Family Brought Slavery to Georgia
And He’s Signed a Law that Makes Sure You Don’t Know It
by Greg Palast for Gwinnett Black Magazine November 3, 2022

https://www.gregpalast.com/governor-kemps-family-brought-slavery-to-georgia/

Quote

 

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp does not want you to know that it was his family that first brought enslaved Africans to Georgia.

The original settlers in Georgia had outlawed slavery until James Habersham — Kemp’s ancestor — won a bloody battle to bring humans in chains to his plantations.

Habersham’s reward for bringing the slave system to Georgia? He was appointed acting Governor under King George II. So Kemp can claim a governing dynasty going back nearly three centuries. His mother was quite proud of it (her records and photo albums are priceless resources), but the current Governor demurs.

Let’s be clear: Brian Kemp did not bring enslaved humans to Georgia. Nor is he responsible for the horrors perpetrated by his long-dead ancestors.

But Kemp, who fanatically avoids association with his dark origins, has gone so far as to ensconce historical amnesia into law. This April, Kemp signed HB1178, the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights” and a companion bill that makes it darn difficult for any schoolteacher in the Peach State to teach uncensored history and keep their job.

As Kemp noted in his signing ceremony, the law “will ban the teaching of divisive concepts” and, as a gleeful local newscaster said, “would make it easier to ban books.”

My question for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation: Is it divisive, under the law, to state the fact that the Kemp Dynasty’s power and privileges are sourced in human trafficking?

FAKE WINDOWS, FAKE HISTORY

I spoke with Gov. Kemp’s cousin, Janie Banse, who believes it’s time for her family to ‘fess up to history, the uncensored history of Georgia, Jim Crow and the advantages enjoyed by those accustomed to rule, advantages that remain today.

Former US Congressman Bob Barrow told this reporter that, throughout Kemp’s life, the Governor been cosseted by political connections. Wealth arrived for Kemp on a silver spoon. While he plays himself as a self-made “small businessman,” in fact, young Brian waltzed into a multi-million dollar family construction business that cashed in on government contracts. ....

 

There is quite a bit more.  It's fascinating.

[Tywin et al.]

An outlier today, but for how long?: