Dana Milbank is a regular contributor to the Washington Post.
He says we should not be afraid of Trump’s efforts to sabotage the election. Yes, we can vote!
President Trump has done everything in his power — and some things outside his power — to sabotage the election.
He has suggested postponing the election and holding a re-vote, warned baselessly about rampant fraud and pushed his supporters to vote twice. The big-time Trump donor now running the post office has impaired mail delivery and sent misinformation to voters about mail-in ballots.
But here’s the good news: It’s not going to work.
Trump has succeeded in sowing confusion about the ability of the United States to hold a free and fair election. His allies in Congress have abetted the sabotage by refusing to give states the funds they need to hold an election during a pandemic while defending against foreign adversaries’ interference. But despite the attempts to incapacitate elections, the United States is on course to give Americans more ways to cast ballots than ever — and more certainty than ever that their ballots will be accurately counted.
“While it’s critical we be clear-eyed about the problems and keep up the pressure to do better, there’s been too much alarmism,” Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice. “People have the impression that the election is not going to work and they’re going to have problems, which is absolutely not the case for the vast majority of Americans.”
The Brennan Center exists in part to sound the alarm about flaws in the voting system, so it’s worth noting that Weiser says “we’ve watched the election system improve before our eyes” — especially after a pandemic primary season characterized by closed polling places, long lines and chaos.
Among the encouraging signs:
Somewhere between 96 percent and 97 percent of votes cast in this election will have paper backup — assurance against fraud and interference — compared with only about 80 percent in 2016. If there’s a challenge to election results, there will be a paper trail to verify the outcome.
Trump’s attempt to cause chaos by telling his supporters to vote twice? All states have protections against that, and all battleground states (including North Carolina, where Trump has focused his vote-twice effort) have ballot-tracking bar codes on their mail ballots — so voters and election officials will know whether someone has already voted. Their attempts to vote twice may cause delays (particularly in Republican precincts) as people submit provisional ballots, and slow the counting, but there’s a near-zero chance they will succeed in voting twice, Weiser says.
Trump’s attempt to sabotage the post office to prevent mail-in balloting? Almost all states that have vote-by-mail also have multiple options for returning ballots. With a couple of exceptions, battleground states have some combination of drop boxes, early voting locations and election offices that will accept dropped-off ballots.
As for mail-in voting in general, elections officials and lawmakers in Democratic and Republican states alike have vastly expanded the availability, despite Trump’s attempts to discredit this long-standing and reliable method. Thanks to recent changes, all but six states — Indiana, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — now either send ballots automatically or allow voters to request them without needing a special excuse for doing so.
Likewise, all but six states (Connecticut, Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire and parts of North Dakota) now offer some form of early voting (many with expanded locations and hours) so voters can avoid Election Day crowds.
Finally, after primaries plagued by precinct closures and a shortage of poll workers, the Brennan Center now expects the number of Election Day polling places to be close to 2016’s level, even if there’s a resurgence of the coronavirus.
Election officials, nonprofits, corporations and civic-minded volunteers are offsetting the shortage of poll workers and polling places caused by the pandemic. These range from LeBron James’s “More Than a Vote” movement to recruit poll workers to professional sports teams’ contributions of arenas as polling locations to hand-sanitizer donations from Anheuser-Busch.
Want to help? Sign up to be a poll worker at powerthepolls.org, or contact your local election office.
Certainly, there are still hurdles. The biggest problem may be voting misinformation, much of it amplified by the Trump administration. On Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from sending out a mailer that gave incorrect voting information. There’s still some hope Congress will provide states with funds to send out correct information to voters — but Senate Republicans may block even that.
The best thing the rest of us can do is counter misinformation with accurate information, such as The Post’s interactive guide to voting in each state.
Above all, don’t inadvertently reinforce Trump’s vandalism with hand-wringing about voting problems. Yes, Trump is trying to sabotage voting. But the world’s greatest democracy knows how to hold an election.
If you’re in a battleground state and you really want to make sure your vote counts, you should vote in person. Very large numbers of mail-in ballots get tossed for various technical reasons, especially among first-time mail-in voters. More than 20 percent of the mail-in ballots cast in the New York primary this year were tossed out, and that had nothing to do with GOP dirty tricks.
Pennsylvania tossed out 10,000 mail-in votes as well, but the worst is Georgia that purges voter rolls and throws out mail-in ballots as well.
I will be using the mail-in ballots because mail service has been good in central Jersey, fingers crossed. But it is true, you have to be super careful with mail-in ballots and handle them as if they were nitroglycerin; if you make one little error it will invalidate the ballot. I read the instructions 5 or 6 times, check at the web site and then fill it out very carefully and then check/review it 15 times over to make sure it is all A-OK for lift-off.
I will vote in person, even if I have to crawl over broken glass.
Be careful, Diane. That might be the next thing Trump requires for voting! (By the way, hello from the trenches. This was my first week of school. Needless to say, I’m glad it’s Friday!)
Stick in there. I have been in class six weeks and have not been sick yet.
I linked to it at OPED NEWS https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Trump-is-trying-to-sabotag-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Dana-Milbank_Election-Interference_Election-Protection_Trump-Con-200918-507.html
After 2016, I get nervous about “We Got This” articles. Democrats should take nothing for granted in this election as there is no end to the depth of evil on the other side, and there are still many moving parts at play in this election. Biden and Harris need to get out and fight every vote, especially for black and Latino votes, particularly in Florida as well as some of the other swing states. Somebody should make a play for Texas where I understand Democrats have added staff. Given the latest polls Democrats should visit Houston and San Antonio. Castro and Beto are working hard there, but they need to see more from the national campaign. These are two places with key demographic groups.
I agree that we cannot relax one bit. One major unforced error on the Dems’ part is their abandonment of in-person get-out-the-vote efforts. If they think they’re going to get any electoral advantage for being PC (Pandemically Correct), they are wrong. Dems have a tendency to overrate the value of the digital realm; virtual GOTV is not as effective. The Republicans are in the field; we’re staying home. Dumb! In-person GOTV can be done safely –it’s all outside, for goodness sake! This mistake could cost us the election.
I just found out that one of the service unions in Nevada is bucking the Dems and doing in-person GOTV. I’ll be driving from CA to Reno to participate.
Link for signing up in Reno:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehktuXc4qBXwRPS82XKn2Kmd-tmPdipXH41K8kKrlmxROu6w/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
Milbank didn’t mention what happens “IF” Trump and Barr succeed in sabotaging the election. The Constitution doesn’t allow recounts past a certain date. On January 20th, 2020, there has to be a president and it cannot be Trump if there is no clear winner.
1st: Remember this date, January 3rd. That is when the newly elected Congress takes their seats and are sworn in. The new president isn’t sworn in until January 20th.
What does that mean?
It means smile because the Founders already put safeguards into the Constitution for someone like Trump and his goons coming along that might sabotage an election, When January 20th arrives, if counting ballots has turned into chaos, then the House of Representatives decides who the president is and the Senate decides the VP.
After January 20th, if Congress cannot make up their minds, the Speaker of the House becomes the president on a temporary basis until Congress decides. That would be Nancy Pelosi. She might be president for hours, days, months, or years. From what I read from Constitutainl sites, she doesn’t have to have a VP.
Also, if the Democrats win the Majority in the Senate and increase their seats in the House on January 3rd, that is the Congress that will decide who the president and VP will be before or after January 20th.
The only way Trump and the GOP, Trump’s mob, can win is to cheat, lie, and attempt a coup with help from Barr to overthrow the U.S. Constitution. If his attempted coup fails, and it probably will, he will be on the run or in jail as a traitor bigger than Benedict Arnold ever was.
Why do I say Trump and Barr’s coup will fail?
Because of the oath all officers in the military take and the fact that more than 60 percent of them do not approve of Trump. That oath is not a loyalty Oath to any president. It is a loyalty oath to the U.S. Constitution.
“I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
How about the troops, our officers lead?
The Military Times answers that question.
Election 2020
Trump’s popularity slips in latest Military Times poll — and more troops say they’ll vote for Biden
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
Trump has never had even fifty percent of the troops supporting him and that number has dropped every year since he was elected.
Makes sense that the military sees through Trump lies. Trump dodged the draft five times to avoid serving in Vietnam.No member of the Trump family has ever worn their country’s uniform. Biden’s son volunteered to serve.
Today, Trump tweeted a photo of himself surrounded by members of the Air Force. And said the Atlantic article and Woodward’s book (with audio tapes) were fake.
I sent this article to my brother.
That’s liberal fake news. If that was true, Rush would have talked about it. It’s fake news. I’m listening to him now. Vote Trump!!!
OMG, I am so sorry Carol that your brother has been poisoned by that disgusting liar and hate monger, Limbaugh. He’s been vomiting up this garbage for over 30 years, has become a multi-millionaire, has spawned hordes of Limbaugh clones on talk radio (hate wing radio) and garnered the Medal of Freedom (the freedom to lie with impunity) from President Trumpbaugh. It’s like a bad science fiction novel except it’s reality. Once Reagan dumped or did not renew the fairness doctrine, talk radio has become 98% hard right wing flame throwers.
Carol, if he were my brother I’d ask him why it’s not a badge of shame to call oneself a “ditto head” (as I’ve heard Rush’s followers do).
Joe,
These people are truly dangerous. I hear them on long drives through the CA Central Valley. They are laying the groundwork for genocide against liberals. They demonize them the way the Hutus demonized the Tutsis –via radio. The order to “cut the tall trees” (code for Tutsi) came via radio too.
Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still vote for him.
It is a waste of time and effort to reason with Trump voters since their “facts” (what Rush Limbaugh says) are sacrosanct.
This election will be won by having as many people as possible vote. Trump knows that, which is why there is so much effort by the Republicans to disenfranchise any voters who aren’t traditionally Republicans (i.e. African American voters, young, progressive voters.)
And because the right wingers can’t disenfranchise most of the voters who don’t like Trump, they are also putting tremendous effort into suppressing the anti-Trump vote by pushing the false narrative – just directed to progressives — that there is almost no difference between Trump and Biden so not voting at all or voting 3rd party is a great idea! (To conservatives, they say that Biden is AOC and Bernie rolled into Karl Marx and the difference between Trump and the guy who will turn this country into a socialized nation in which Bernie Sanders and AOC call the shots is stark!)
Those pushing that “suppress the anti-Trump vote” narrative that the Republicans want like to prove they are “honest” by saying that they are being truthful by acknowledging that Biden is an itty bitty tiny little bit better but only on the totally unimportant and unmentionalable issues — like lifetime judicial appointments and not destroying social security, Medicare and the ACA and expanding health care coverage — that won’t affect your life one iota and that’s why they are determined not to mention those very, very unimportant issues when they say that there is barely any difference between Trump and Biden. What they believe is much more important for progressive voters to know is that Trump and Biden both don’t support Medicare for All! THAT shows how they are so very similar that one can hardly tell them apart! Oh yes, Biden is the one with dementia, say the pro-Trump posts claiming to be progressives. The fact that Biden has dementia and Trump does not is one of the very few ways you can distinguish the two, since their policies are practically identifical! That false narrative is being pushed to suppress turnout of progressive voters. Just like the false narrative that Biden is to the left of Marx and controlled by Bernie Sanders and AOC – and has dementia! — is being pushed to suppress turnout of moderate voters. Trump can only win by having his hard core supporters coming out in huge number while convincing those that know Trump is terrible to believe that Biden is nearly as terrible — and has dementia! — and not worth getting out of bed to support.
In Florida, the GOP is wooing the Cuban vote by portraying Biden as another Fidel Castro who will nationalize everything. It would be funny if the stakes were not so high.
Diane,
Biden should retort with “Trump is an American Castro –a dictator who wants to jail his opponents and stifle the press”.
Cubans always vote with the Republicans, but according to MSNBC the younger Cuban vote is split. Democrats should go after the Puerto Ricans and any Dominicans that can vote. Harris already campaigned with Jamaicans that live near Port St. Lucie.
I couldn’t find what Rush L was saying today. Here is a summary from three days ago. Rush: “…policies meant to curtail climate change are, in fact, an assault on freedom.”
………………………………
‘Nothing to Do With Climate Change’: Conservative Media and Trump Align on Fires
Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson dismiss scientists’ determination that climate change is a key culprit in West Coast wildfires.
Sept. 15, 2020
Rush Limbaugh told millions of his radio listeners to set aside any suggestion that climate change was the culprit for the frightening spate of wildfires ravaging California and the Pacific Northwest.
“Man-made global warming is not a scientific certainty; it cannot be proven, nor has it ever been,” Mr. Limbaugh declared on his Friday show, disregarding the mountains of empirical evidence to the contrary. He then pivoted to a popular right-wing talking point: that policies meant to curtail climate change are, in fact, an assault on freedom.
“Environmentalist wackos” — Mr. Limbaugh’s phrase — “want man to be responsible for it because they want to control your behavior,” the conservative host said on the show. He added that they “want to convince you that your lifestyle choices are the reason why all these fires are firing up out on the Left Coast.”
Hours later, that message leapt to prime time on Fox News, where the host Tucker Carlson said those who blamed climate change for the fires were merely reciting “a partisan talking point.”…
The 1932 German presidential election was held on 13 March, with a runoff round on 10 April.[1] Independent incumbent Paul von Hindenburg won a second seven year term against Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). The day before the election, Hitler gave a speech. Guess what the topic was? Immigrants are taking your jobs. I will stop this and make Germany great again.
Sound familiar?
Trump is running fewer ads now because he ran through his war chest (as he has always run through whatever money he had). But the big one he’s running now is this: Millions are out of work because of the pandemic from China. So, now more than ever, you need Donald Trump to protect you from having those immigrants take your job.
Of course, the truth is that immigration creates a net increase (of about 1 percent) in the number of jobs available to U.S. citizens. Why? Well, even undocumented immigrants need food and buy gasoline, and so they great demand just as other people do. And immigrants create new businesses that employ U.S. citizens at 10 times the rate that citizens do.
So, Donald is recycling the same big lie.
Here’s why:
He. Is. a. Nazi.
He and Bannon and Miller and Sessions. Nazis.
The first two sentences of this post are from Wikipedia. I wanted to make sure that I had the dates right.
Amen!
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/trump-xi-jinping-dictators/554810/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwYmkqd7z6wIViIbACh10MAhNEAMYASAAEgI6F_D_BwE
Meanwhile, as everyone thinks about the election, many have totally forgotten that we are still running concentration camps in the United States, though there has been a little attention to this the last few days because we’ve learned that ICE is carrying out ethnic cleansing via forced hysterectomies.
155 days until we have a new president.
That’s a long time for these asylum seekers to remain in these prisons under the horrific conditions they are experiencing, including rampant abuse of underage children.
If there is any justice in the world, one day Trump and Miller and those who served them in this will stand in the dock at the International Court of Criminal Justice charged with crimes against humanity.
And, ofc, a couple days after Putin announced approval of a Covid-19 vaccine that had not yet gone through Phase 3 human trials (in which the vaccine is tested on large numbers of people), Trump started saying that we were going to have a vaccine in three or four weeks.
Vlad’s Agent Orange
Moscow’s Asset Governing America (MAGA)
“Let me tell you what you need to do, Donald. . . .”
Trump also said he’d be revealing his new health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act in two weeks. He’s been saying that for years. One thing about Trump – he does have a magical ability to get some people to believe him no matter how many times his promises have been worthless. Like the banks who kept loaning him money even when he had already caused other banks to lose their investments, too many people don’t believe Trump is lying to them until that lie directly causes them or their loved ones personal harm.
The majority of Americans do know that Trump’s promises are as real as Tinker Bell (and apologies to Peter Pan). We clapped really loudly when asked whether we believed in fairies, but that didn’t mean that we lived our life knowing that fairies were there to help us whenever we needed and everyone who said they were not were liars.
But Trump and his little “helpers” in Russia and in the US are also good at pushing whatever false narrative works (and they try them all — right now they are definitely pushing the “Biden has dementia” one).
well said
Trump’s New Campaign Strategy: Declare The Election Illegitimate
09/17/2020
More and more, the president claims the only way Democrats can win is by cheating – even as he seeks to delegitimize mail voting.
“Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!” he said in a morning statement posted to Twitter.
“The only way [Democrats] can win is to cheat, in my opinion,” he said during a morning interview with Fox Sports Radio.
Neither assertion is new. Trump has been falsely claiming that mail voting is rife with fraud for several months, and in recent weeks has been repeatedly claiming that the only way Democrat Joe Biden could defeat him in November would be to cheat.
Trump, however, explained clearly why he opposed mail voting in a March 30 interview with Fox News. He said he opposed legislation that would have paid for coronavirus-related expansion of mail voting because: “They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
Despite that admission, Trump has continued to falsely claim that mail voting is fraudulent. At times, his attempts at explanation have bordered on nonsensical…
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-election-illegitimate_n_5f63c48dc5b6c6317d019555?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006
“News” from the WH:
US Will Protect Citizens and Defend Sovereignty Against International Court
-Fox News
“Multilateral organizations must be held to high standards . . . The International Criminal Court, in its present form, is inherently susceptible to political bias, manipulation and corruption. It neither serves American interests, nor the interests of its member states that genuinely want justice for war criminals,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo writes.
RBG!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dead_n_573b34d6e4b0ef86171c12cc
RIP Beautiful human.
We. Are. F—–d.
Goodbye, beautiful spirit. Every decent person grieves for you. Thank you for holding on so long.
A prayer of thanks for her. And a determination to fight as hard as she did, that she might live in us.
Bob Shepherd: This country is DOOMED. Trump already has a list of rotten people to replace RBG. That list was made public so that his loyal followers would be sure to vote for him. Now the country will be set back for generations if Trump/McConnell get their way.
I am weeping for the country’s great loss and the loss of a great woman.
Such grief. What a terrible loss.
Newsflash: this country has already been set back for generations. Now it’s about survival, and life support just got more critical.
This is how to honor her: do not give up the fight. She didn’t.
I just put in a newsflash from the NYT and it totally disappeared.
McConnell is already stating that a Supreme Court Justice will be appointed either before the Nov. 3 election or after the election in the lame duck time period.
Opps. It disappeared and now I see it. Weird.
This evil criminal $&$&@$*&!!!! He represents one of the poorest states in the union, and he consistently works against the interests of those very people because he is totally owned by the wealthy few. I just heard that Lisa Murkowski, Republican Senator from Alaska, has vowed tonight to fight choosing a new justice before the election. But Mitch, about whom I have some words not fit to repeat in public. . . . this very night, he has vowed to press for a vote before the election. Not even the decency to let people mourn.
It takes four Republicans to block a nomination.
[He sighs.] Yes.
How many decent Republican Senators can we count? Two, maybe three. . . .
The Tepublican senators that need a bipartisan sheen might say no.
Murkowski has already said she thinks it’s wrong to go forward so close to the election.
Collins might say no to avoid looking like a Trump puppet.
Romney…?
Where is the 4th?
Lamar Alexander?
The New York Times
BREAKING NEWS
Senator Mitch McConnell said he would move forward quickly with President Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
Friday, September 18, 2020 9:24 PM EST
“Americans re-elected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement. “Once again, we will keep our promise. President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Mr. McConnell was notably unclear, however, about the timing, whether he would push for such a vote before the election or wait until a lame-duck session afterward.
Talk about being struck by lightning, I screamed when I heard the news. Horrible, a terrible loss of such a great woman. The Democrats must fight any attempt at replacing her in such a short time.
There is nothing the Democrats can do. There was never anything the democrats could do if Trump won, without a Senate majority. Absolutely nothing.
I envy the people who aren’t crushed by this news — the right wing Republicans who are thrilled to own the SC and those progressives who believe so strongly that there is no – or almost no – discernible difference between the Republicans and Dems. While we who are crushed clearly believe – as Trump voters also believe – that having 3 far right Supreme Court Justices versus 3 new Ginsburgs is an EXTREME difference, that is not the case for those progressives who are certain that the difference between having 3 Kavavanaughs and 3 Ginsburg is not even worth mentioning, let alone caring about.
We knew this would happen. Trump voters knew this would happen. The people who believed the composition of the Supreme Court was unimportant voted 3rd party or didn’t vote. (I don’t include non-voters who were victims of targeted disenfranchisement efforts of Republican Governors that made it difficult for them to vote.) Those people – especially the ones who voted 3rd party – aren’t upset or concerned tonight since the composition of the Supreme Court is unimportant to them. They will continue their “good fight” to get voters who hate Trump to hate the Democrats just as much, and either vote 3rd party or stay home. After all, what’s the difference? Tonight is just “another day at the office” for them.
I realize I sound bitter. I am. I wish all progressives thought this was important, but clearly they don’t. At least they don’t have to feel crushed tonight since to them this is really no big deal.
I wish RBG had retired when she turned 80, in 2014. Obama would have replaced her and we would not be in this crisis of democracy.
It’s not at all clear the Senate will have the votes to confirm. The GOP only has a three-seat majority, so a vote, if one happens, would be razor thin.
In the event of a tie, Pence votes.
Four GOP votes needed to say no.
Murkowski, Collins, Romney . . . . . . . .
Collins especially is famous for only being allowed to oppose something Mitch wants publicly if Mitch doesn’t need her vote.
Romney has political courage. Collins has none.
It actually terrifies me if Collins publicly says she won’t vote for a Trump nominee because that ALWAYS means that Mitch does not need her vote.
Trump will have another pick. As I said, the only people who aren’t crushed today are the Republicans (who are happy) and the third-party voters who don’t care either way since they are certain that there is almost no discernible difference between a justice appointed by a Democratic president and one nominated by a Republican president – especially one nominated by Trump.
We need to marginalize those who weren’t at all bothered by Trump choosing Supreme Court Justices because anyone who isn’t much bothered by Trump choosing Supreme Court Justices is never going to vote for a Democrat, period. Other issues are so much more important to them that they don’t mind turning over the Supreme Court to the far right to achieve their goals. Of course, that does beg the question of why they believe that having a far right Supreme Court will do no harm to their fight for progressive goals, and whether people who believe that ever really supported progressive goals at all.
Rarely do we see her like. A great warrior for justice, for women, for POC, for the poor, for LGBTQX persons. But she lives in us and in the precedents she set. It is up to us now to build upon those, to ensure that they prevail. We must not give up. She didn’t.
I am devastated by the loss of RBG. She was a great jurist. Her death means that Trump can choose a rightwing zealot who will enable the Supreme Court to kill Obamacare, Roe v Wade, and give full approval to public funding of religious schools.
Diane A little history told by Michael Beschloss on MSNBC this morning in an interview with Alex Witt:
The SAME SCENARIO of choices for Supreme Court occurring so close to an election happened during both Lincoln’s and Lyndon Johnson’s terms.
BOTH Presidents opted to wait for the next election even when they could have pushed through their own Court choice, and both cited that it was the people’s choice, not theirs. CBK
CBK,
Waiting until after the election would be decent but neither Trump nor McConnell is decent and Trump loves to discard norms.
Diane Yes, we are in Hypocrisy Central. CBK
Thanks for this info, CBK.
Bob I jumped up when I heard it–even though I don’t think it will make any difference to Treasonous Trump and that group power-monger hangers-on that surround him.
It does, however, give us a sharp historical point of comparison for the grand difference between (a) persons of integrity who understand their place in history and (b) self-centered degenerates. CBK
Your life is a lie. You believe anything the fake news tells you, constantly lying about Trump. He’s walked over all you nut jobs and your to blind to see it. I will not change, I will never bow to your party. So why don’t you stop with the crap your sending me, it just shows how ignorant you are.
This came from my brother, who is also claiming that Satan is taking over the world and that religions are weak so the end of times is coming.
I don’t know what sites he is using to get all of his ‘news’. He has, since high school, been following some far off ministers. It has evolved into high strung anger. I do believe that Rush L and Trump are causing and encouraging this type of hatred.
If my brother is showing such hatred, what are other followers doing? My brother has a gun, to protect his home from the military when they are ready to attack all citizens, but he would never go out and shoot anyone. [He knows that Obama was killing people in FEMA camps.]
One of my very best friends, whom I’ve known since the early 1970’s, is furious over the Democratically run cities that are having riots. She is SO afraid that she actually is talking about getting a gun to protect her home from invasions. She lives in a suburb south of Chicago. She is afraid to drive to downtown Chicago because of the number of murders and is afraid that the riots will extend to her home.
Trump is encouraging this type of hatred and fear. My girlfriend has never before shown so much fear. [Of course, a win for Biden will mean riots all over the country as the BLM rioting spreads. Democrats don’t know how to control anything.] Only Trump has the courage to bring in the National Guard and save people.
Trump is an extreme danger to the U.S. because of what he is promulgating throughout the country. He is saying that if he doesn’t win it is due to fraudulent voting. He is encouraging people to get guns…and to be ready to fight if it is needed.
Trump doesn’t have to prepare for the debate. His magnificent, huge gut is smarter than most people’s brains.
“They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”
NYT:
Why Trump doesn’t prepare: Typically, candidates study a policy prep book that is hundreds of pages long. Trump aides have scaled that down to fewer than 30 pages, many of which simply have bullet points about issues likely to come up. So far, according to a campaign official, there are no formal debate preparation sessions set. Instead, whichever aide is traveling with the president has been peppering him with questions on the go.
Is Bernie a little overly optimistic? It’s one thing to say something but totally different when reality hits.
…………………….
First and foremost, the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a tremendous loss for our country. She was an extraordinary champion of equal rights and will be remembered as one of the great justices in modern American history.
That said, the right thing to do here is obvious, and that is to wait for whoever wins the presidential election to appoint the next Supreme Court Justice.
Unfortunately, we’ve already heard from Mitch McConnell that he has decided to go against Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish — and his own words from 2016 — in order to bring a judge nominated by Trump to the floor of the United States Senate.
McConnell’s goal, maybe above all others, is to pack the courts with partisan ideologues who will protect corporations at the expense of workers, will suppress people’s right to vote, and will allow the wealthy to buy our elections. And make absolutely no mistake about it, if he gets his way in this Supreme Court fight, that will be the end of Roe v. Wade.
Thankfully, not all Republicans agree with Mitch McConnell, especially if their past words from 2016 are any guide:
Senator Lindsey Graham
“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.”
Senator Ted Cruz
“It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.”
Senator Cory Gardner
“I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”
Senator Marco Rubio
“I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term — I would say that if it was a Republican president .”
Senator Rob Portman
“It is common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.”
And a number of senators have weighed in even more recently:
Senator Lisa Murkowski, just yesterday:
“I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. We are 50 some days away from an election.”
Senator Chuck Grassley in May
“You can’t have one rule for Democratic presidents and another rule for Republican presidents.”
Senator Susan Collins very recently:
“I think that’s too close, I really do,” when asked about appointing a justice in October.
Every issue we care about is at stake: abortion rights, campaign finance reform, voting rights, workers’ rights, health care, LGBTQ rights, climate change, environmental rights, gun safety and more.
Together we must do everything we can to hold the House, flip the Senate, and defeat Donald Trump. But now we also must do all we can to hold Mitch McConnell and many Republican senators to the word and let the winner of the next presidential election nominate Justice Ginsburg’s replacement.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
That’s wonderful! Bernie knows that everyone he quoted is a hypocrite and will do what Trump tells them to do.
There is our corrupt government at work.
Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day
Momentum is growing among Senate Republicans for a Supreme Court confirmation vote to take place before Election Day, something that GOP strategists say would rev up conservative voters and deliver a huge accomplishment for President Trump before voters go to the polls.
As of Saturday afternoon, Senate Republicans had yet to have a conference-wide call on the vacancy created by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but already a number of GOP lawmakers are publicly and privately making the case for a vote before Nov. 3 instead of in the lame duck session.
We all need a laugh, even if it is a sickening dark sense of humor.
Last year, Trump predicted he would win the Nobel Prize “for a lot of things if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.”
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End the Nobel Peace Prize — if Trump doesn’t win it
Trump has created more peace than 1994 winner Yasser Arafat — and more peace…
BY GAYLE TROTTER, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 09/19/20 11:00 AM EDT 1,248THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
“For his merit,” said the Norwegian official of Trump, “I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other peace prize nominees.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/517205-end-the-nobel-peace-prize-if-trump-doesnt-win-it
Any time Trump loses, he says “it’s not fair!” Typical childish response.
200,000 have died in the U.S. and the CDC is afraid to publicly announce this? Don’t want to offend Trump, our GREAT leader.
Can’t offend Trump and actually announce something like this.
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CDC Acknowledges That COVID-19 Mainly Spreads Through the Air in Unannounced Website Update
‘BEYOND SIX FEET’Jamie RossReporter
Published Sep. 21, 2020 5:13AM ET
Reuters/Amr Abdallah
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a fundamental change to its COVID-19 guidance last week but, curiously, didn’t issue an announcement about the changes. In an update to its website, the CDC confirmed what has long been suspected—that the virus spreads mainly through the air via respiratory droplets that are expelled by people when they talk, breathe, cough, sneeze, or sing.
The site now reads: “There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond six feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes).” The CDC has long resisted the idea that the virus spreads any further than six feet through the air. The updated guidance also now directs people to “stay at least six feet away from others, whenever possible,” where it previously suggested maintaining “good social distance” of about six feet.
Read it at Los Angeles Times