Once again, the polls misled us. We were expecting an overwhelming defeat for the incompetent racist-misogynist-xenophobic liar Trump, but it didn’t happen. As of 2:35 am, when I wrote this, the election was undecided. Trump held on to most of the states he won in 2016. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are not decided, although the polls showed comfortable leads for Biden in all three. The blowout that the polls told us to expect did not happen.
Republicans Joni Ernst, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsay Graham were re-elected, perhaps even the pusillanimous Susan Collins. It’s not yet clear which party will control the Senate.
As awful as Trump is, as badly as he has damaged the Western alliance, as surely as he has mishandled the pandemic, there’s a chance that we will have four more years of this mendacious buffoon. What does that say about the American people? What does it say about the Republican Party?
Four more years of DeVos or someone just like her? Heaven help us. Trump would wind the clock back to 1925, before the New Deal. No restraints.
If Biden ekes out a victory and has a Republican Senate, he won’t be able to fulfill any of his promises. A sad day.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What it says about the American people is that they had two lying, racist, sexist, corporate friendly war-mongers to choose from, neither of whom are willing to give people healthcare during a pandemic or stimulus payments/housing protection/debt forgiveness during an economic crisis or environmental protections as we hurtle toward mass extinction. So what does it say about the Democratic Party that would foist this disaster on us?
But here are the lessons the Democrats will take from this election:
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/11/04/25-lessons-democrats-will-take-from-their-horrible-2020-performance/
If Biden maintains his presumptive victory, I hope you all are gearing up to “push him left”. It’s going to take a lot more than a couple sternly worded emails. How many of you are prepared for general strikes, spending boycotts, occupations, stopping transportation, and mass protests in the streets (including mass property damage)? Because that’s what’s going to happen if the brunch liberals try to go back to sleep and let the rest of us suffer.
Biden lost Florida big because people were terrified of “socialism”.
I know a lot of people who are voting for Trump in the midwest because Biden was too “socialist”.
What does it say about fake progressives who like Trump more than the democrats that they have spent 1000x more time on bashing Biden than they have defending the progressive agenda Biden represents!
If voters thought Biden was too much of a socialist, anyone even a smidgeon more progressive would have gone down in flames.
Rather than to bash democrats for the things that the Republicans do (which is very Trumpian of you), maybe you should spend some time defending the “socialist” agenda you pretend to support.
Thank goodness the real progressives like AOC all voted for Biden. But then again, they actually think Trump is bad, unlike some people here who attribute Trump’s very worst qualifies as being what the democrat are while always defending Trump against all the people who are “against him”.
^^^Caitlin Johnson loves Trump a lot more than Biden or Bernie Sanders, and she constantly attacks and demonizes Bernie Sanders and AOC for not bashing Biden and not agreeing with her that Trmp is a great guy! I can’t believe anyone posing as a progressive would think they could get away with quoting an Australian who knows nothing about America except Caitlin is a favorite of the proud boys and other far right male wannabe soldiers.
Tragic
Even if the Senate is not turned, much of what Trump has done was done by executive order. All of those things can be reversed. Plus, if the Dems keep the House, they can flood the Senate with easy to interpret legislation that the Senate will somehow not get around to and the Repubs will be seen as obstructionists.
Only the President can reverse or modify executive orders. If Trump is declared the winner, Congress cannot do anything about the executive orders and Bill Barr will likely churn out more. There are still many “Ifs” in this election but also some hard facts (yes, facts) that will shape the quality of life for many.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/six-charts-that-reveal-americas-deep-divides.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
In darkness, it becomes all the more important to tend to the light.
Not blue wave. Even if Biden hers in by a thin margin, the Mitch, the Senate and House will stop his nominations and proposals.
According to one AM Pundit,
Trump’s strongest support: men, white voters without a college degree, rural residents and those who said the government should put a higher priority on the economy
EVEN IF IT INCREASES THE SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS.
For Trumpsters, human life and welfare matters less than the economy. Trump and his supporters have misrepresented the economy as if it it can be reduced to the stock market. Forget the welfare of people, including children, who will be kicked out of rental units and have their homes taken by loan sharks, most of this happening before the end of the year…and that is just a small set of the trouble brewing.
Biden is/was more heavily favored by women, urban and suburban residents, nonwhite voters and college graduates.”
Milton Friedman is long gone but his free market, and “choice is everything good” mythology lives on. It is not even recognized as lipstick on the pig of corporate socialism with tax breaks for the rich along with policies for those lobbies with the deepest pockets and votes for the new status quo.
If Trump loses, it may be because he lost a lot of support among white men. The exit polls I’ve seen show him gaining support versus 2016 in all the other big demographic categories: white women, black men, black women, Latino men, Latino women, and “other.”
Anyway, I wish the racial and gender bean-counting and blame-assigning would stop.
I don’t get how anyone is even taking “exit polls” in an election that had vast numbers of voters who voted by mail! And those voters were largely the democrats!
So the exit polls are of the people who are Republicans!
For Trumpsters, human life and welfare matters less than the economy”
Not just for Trumpeters.
Many mainstream (,including academic) economists have the people serving the economy rather than the other way around.
It’s all about Gross Domestic Product (no matter how Gross) and growth for growth’s sake.
We need to completely reorient our priorities, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, if ever.
One angle I don’t see getting enough attention is that economists– & Wall St– are actually for major stimulus aid like, yesterday. Which means they have a more realistic grasp, i.e., covid has to be beat before economy can bounce back, that will take time & safety protections, so we need to deficit-spend to keep economy afloat in the interim. Meanwhile it45 & followers, & Mitch MConnell/ Senate are all about, we’re not going to help JQPublic, what he needs to do is get out there & work sans protection/ risk lives, that’ll do it. They should read the WSJ. Market just took a huge jump up the other day on hopes of a Biden win & swift passage of a major covid aid bill.
But if you look at the “reason” many of the pro stimulus Economists and Wall Street give, it all has to do with boosting economic growth.
Wall street certainly does not give a damn about families and children.
Growth for growths sake ino matter the type of growth is nonsensical because as everyone knows, cancer is “growth”
I feel like I’m shell-shocked waiting for the outcome. It says a lot about America when so many people believe the lies and falsehoods that Trump continues to spew. As some commenter said on some media, this isn’t the country I used to know.
McCain gave a beautiful speech when Obama won the election. All Trump can do is scream ‘fraud’ ever more loudly.
After four years of his scabrous nonsense, people in this nation somehow see fit to return this hideous carnival barker to the highest office in the land? The movie “idiocracy” just jumped genres from comedy to documentary.
exactly
Come on, Guys. My eyes are on Nevada (6 electoral votes), Wisconsin (10) and Michigan (16). Assuming that Biden really has 238 electoral votes (according to Fox) then winning these three states will give the necessary 270. If the Trumpkin wins the other still questionable states, then he will have 264.
My feeling is that the whole thing will be decided by Nevada’s 6 electoral votes. In WI and in MI, Biden’s lead is increasing but in NV, Biden leads only by 7K, and that hasn’t changed in the last hour.
The senate is still 47-47 so I wouldn’t give it up, and why would anybody?
But yeah, polls are crap. We should never ever listen to them in the future. Biden’s popular vote count is greater only by 2% and holds steady. Where is the almost uniformly reported 8% that was reported even two days ago?
There is no science behind polls: they make up completely irrational schemes to extrapolate form interviewing at most a few thousand people to 150 million. Cannot be done!
I originally wrote this about economists, but curiously (I have no idea why) it also applied to election Oracles.
“Pollsters are like psychics”
Pollsters are like psychics,
This cannot be denied.
Cuz if, by chance, they get it right,
It’s greatly AMPLIFIED!!
But mostly, they just get it wrong,
And utter not a word
For them to somehow point this out
Would really be unheard.
And when their goof’s so blantant
They really can’t ignore it
They simply claim “There was a chance”
“I told youI was for it”
I look at these results and think of the “data” mongers of Education Deform. I came up with a number, and numbers, you know, are always right, however they are arrived at. LMAO.
Bob, statistics are often like counting tea leaves, particularly when we are dealing with the hypothetical. Polls depend on the sample they take. They likely under count the rural vote.
Polls are like Tea Party leaves.
Tgecresukts depend on whom you ask.
Results too.
To Trump and his supporters, it’s irrelevant if Biden wins the electoral vote because Trump already declared victory and said there was fraud by Democrats .
He has also promised to take it to the Supreme Court to stop the counting (presumably only if the counts show him losing).
Do you blueve the Supreme Court would decide in Bidens favor? regardless of whether the votes were legal or not)
I don’t.
Ironically, despite the pretense to be “above the political fray”, it is one of the most political bodies in the country.
If he stops the counting, he lost.
If he stops the counting now, he lost.
That’s why I said if the counts show him losing
We’ve seen this movie before.
The way I envision this playing out is that Trump will contest any and all mail in votes that put Biden ahead.
And if the Supreme CourtRules on those, I would lay down money that they will rule in Trump’s favor to discount those for any reason they can think of.
My bet is on Biden’s win without serious contesting, and Trump will have to face criminal charges but Biden, in the interest of peace, will pardon him.
Máté Wierdl: Nobody can pardon Trump from state crimes.
“Lock that &$()%#^$&#^)$ UP!”
Biden says he would not pardon Trump or block investigations
ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic candidate Joe Biden said that if he wins the presidency he would not use his power to pardon Donald Trump or stop any investigations of Trump and his associates. “It is not something the president is entitled to do, to direct a prosecution or decide to drop a case,” Biden said Thursday on MSNBC…
Search domain news.yahoo.com/biden-says-not-pardon-trump-035945357.htmlhttps://news.yahoo.com/biden-says-not-pardon-trump-035945357.html
I don’t think he can pardon state charges. NY will screw him to the wall.
Good to know, thanks! :While we can worry about what’s gonna happen in the Senate and Supreme Court, we shall have fun as well, for sure. 🙂
Exactly, what the hell is the matter with the American people that so many Americans would actually vote for this obviously venal, vicious demagogue and conman. It’s not as if he’s even trying to hide all his massive psychopathologies, they are out there for everyone to see. It baffles me why more than 62 million Americans would vote for a blatant sociopath and psychopath! I’m at the point of frustration where I actually hate Kentucky and South Carolina for returning McConnell and Graham to the senate. I know it’s wrong to hate whole states but how much bad news am I supposed to absorb after 4 years of this GOP induced nightmare. Geebus, what is the matter with those people. Thank you, NJ, for staying blue and giving 14 electoral college votes to Biden.
I think between the low interest, “I vote for whoever the Republicans tell me to vote for” voters and the Trump as Messiah voters, you get a sizeable number of people. All the info many of these people have ingested is the slogans along with a Republican mantra that only exists in the ether now. Put that together with all the voter suppression efforts and you have a sizeable voting block. Remember, though, that the democrats believe we are in the midst of a dangerous pandemic which led many of them to vote early and by mail. Many of those votes are still to be counted. We can still hope.
speduktr: Apparently, Gov. Holcomb [R-IN] won in Indiana. The mail-in ballots couldn’t be counted until Nov. 3…stupid. Any mail-in ballot received after noon on election day isn’t counted.
Indiana is a red state and what it does doesn’t matter much. It has 11 electoral votes.
“a Republican mantra that only exists in the ether now” – got that right. Whole lotta rationalization going on, & fingers-in-ears ‘la-la-la’-type cognitive dissonance. At base, half of any human populace resists change of every kind, & is still slowly metabolizing 50-yo wake-up calls that challenge mindsets imbibed in childhood. It takes an earthquake on one’s own turf—like, for Europe, WWI followed by WWII just 20 yrs later—to overturn longstanding ideas on how to govern.
I think we have to do exactly what we do in a class: we do not get angry with crazy teenagers but face the reality, and see how we can manage them. We finally have to face the fact that the country is truly divided.
I now believe that the same way, we cannot claim that “65% of Americans support Roe”, because that’s just poll-speak. No, we have to realize that we are completely divided over this issue and instead of thinking about how we can grab power to ensure that “the majority of the voices” is heard, we need to think about how to deal with this reality better.
I do not think, flexing muscle will do the job—even if our muscle appears 2% bigger than the other side’s biceps.
Imo.
WISDOM.
I also like what my hubby concluded tonight, after a day of eyeballing returns (on mute) while working (from home). He was observing that cities all over the country are blue islands surrounded by red. Pit city populations against rural: population advantage is a few % to the blue, but you’ll get a whisper-close, by-the-nose contest for sure, at which point you can hope that shenanigans like gerrymandering et al voter-suppression will bring it home. So Rep strategy will always be about creating divisive, city v rural politics.
What you said. Even bigger Biden win in Illinois–thanks, Illinoisians!
(Although, big boos on not passing a graduated tax amendment &, also, to Senator Lauren Underwood’s (D) defeat by 1,000 votes. (Probably not, but a recount, perhaps. or the 5% audit?) Kudos to Sean Casten’s district for his reelection& defeat of the dastardly Jeanne Ives.
&–carolmalaysia: so sorry to hear of the relection of Holcomb, which was an early one. Indiana & Iowa oh so red.
Iowa is a heartbreaker–Ernst toxic.
I think Biden will end up winning this based on the mail ballots.
But still.
And the Senate does not look great.
“What does that say about the American people? What does it say about the Republican Party?”
And what does it say about the Democratic Party?
Flerp I do think Biden will win (at this point). But to answer your question, it says to me that The People who voted for Trump are either brain-dead, not paying attention, or are morally depraved and just don’t give a hoot–probably have money in the game.
Regardless, in fact, they are burning down their political house while standing in it.
One thing that is irksome about the democratic talking heads is the argument that “Trump won’t want to end the election early . . . he would be disenfranchising the military and many republications.”
It’s irksome that “we” still don’t know Trump: He doesn’t care! He only wants to win, and THAT’s how he can do so. The means to his ends don’t matter.
Do they really think he cares about his military supporters and the democratic process if it’s not going his way? . . . If they don’t understand THAT, after four years of depravity, they still live on Planet Projection. CBK
“The People who voted for Trump are either brain-dead, not paying attention, or are morally depraved and just don’t give a hoot–probably have money in the game.”
This kind of evaluations ensure that 50% of the population will support Trumpism forever.
Mate A rose is a rose. But the hope is that people can change . . . the question then becomes: who suffers and how while they are learning. CBK
The response of Rep voters is entirely due to the way their party frames the issues. Reps can’t win the numbers game if they stick to their decades-long play of deregulated capitalism [drown govt in bathtub], which throws regular working people to the wolves. Instead of modifying platform back toward the middle, they cloak their bad-for-the-public agenda in a cultural dress-up play designed to divide voters evenly, aiming for a much closer election where they can play games [gerrymandering, electoral votes, voter suppression] to tweak themselves over the hump.
The last time I checked, nothing official was said about The US Presidential (S) Election. 😐
Biden has 238 Electoral College Votes and Trump has 213 Electoral College Votes. 😁
I never bother with polls, because I’m never asked and I don’t know if they’re honest. 😐
Isn’t it the case, though, that Biden can still rejoin the international environmental and nuclear agreements, irrespective of what the senate is saying? Plus he chooses te Cabinet, and can make Bernie or AOC the education secretary.
For the record, Collins got defeated.
Hooray!!!!!!
And some other good news from the NYT: “Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York sailed to an overwhelming victory on Tuesday over a first-time Republican challenger who, despite his long-shot credentials, raised more than $10 million to make the race the second most expensive House contest in the country.” end quote
Where did you read this, Mate? I’m looking at Associated Press results updated 1 minute ago, which show her ahead.
My “Hooray” was premature, sigh. This from the bangordailynews (is it a pro GOP rag?): U.S. Sen. Susan Collins seemed likely to win a fifth term early Wednesday as she hovered just above a majority of votes and remained well ahead of House Speaker Sara Gideon in a surprising finish to a race that saw a record $200 million in spending. end quote
6 more years of phony baloney Susie fake independent.
Sry guys, I misread something as I was switching between sites and maps.
Gideon just conceded.
Gideon’s loss is very sad. Collins deserved to lose.
Four more years of McConnell installing federal judges. An extreme right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court.
Worst-case scenario: Trump squeezes through and finishes the job of replacing all senior leaders in defense and intelligence with his goosestepping toadies.
Joe Jersey… and Diane
You said it all.
“What does that say about the American people?”
How do 50milllion+ people vote for a man who has …. we all know the list of FACTS and on-tape quotes and actions? Seriously, I hope there is some in-depth research – psychological, not financial – on how a person knowing the illegal, crude, and immoral actions of this man could vote for him.
For US – it’s about PUBLIC EDUCATION? All those years I taught interdisciplinary English, Social Studies, and Humanities (and way back when we used the book the right loves to hate: Values Clarification) – all the years that extraordinary civics, history, and social studies teachers and teachers of literature and the arts… how can those students not think critically, ignore basic human values of respect and not lying to the public…
If ever we fought against not watering down curriculum – but fighting against actual hatchet jobs on history and thinking – the time is now.
Amen.
Regardless of the outcome, I am profoundly sad and disillusioned about my country. A country that values guns over kids, and which does not support health care and suffrage for all is not one that I want to live in anymore. The suffering has been and will continue to be profound.
You have exactly summarized my feelings and thoughts at this time. It’s very hard to maintain a positive attitude with all that’s going on electorally and politically.
You read my mind, Sereia. Exactly.
This man has shown by his inaction and indeed affirmative sabotage of experts on the pandemic that he literally does not care one whit whether his supporters live or die. And yet when called upon they return this indifference to their very existence with fervent support. I am sure Trump is enjoying a hearty laugh over this.
Many decades of an economic system that reminds people every day that they are totally on their own, and that the only “winners” are those who are most successful in gaming the system to produce unfair and unexpected results have led us to this.
At least Cori Bush won–and the Squad gained a member.
Diane, I respectfully disagree. Last night turned out exactly as planned. We all knew it would take a long time to count votes. Biden will win most of the swing states and win the popular vote by well over 5 million votes. He also will finish with somewhere over 300 Electoral College votes.
We all knew the Senate would be tough. Those races are not over yet.
We also always knew our country was deeply divided. Now the hard work begins.
Repairing the damage caused by Trump will take time. Education is the key. We need to use this victory to change the narrative and restore Social Studies into our curriculums.
Keep the faith.
RR
Ralph,
I fear that Republicans will retain control of the Senate and block everything Biden wants to do.
However, remember when, back during the Bush Jr. years, it was so popular for people to say that the Presidency isn’t all that powerful without the Congress? That’s just not so. There is much, much that the President can do flying solo. Consider what’s happening with immigration in this country. Trump is making the decisions.
He should probably take a page from Trump’s book. Executive orders. He also has to make it very clear what doesn’t get done because of the Republicans blocking it. In two years there will be another chance to change the makeup of the Senate. The Democrats have to be very clear about the obstructionism of the Republicans. There is no reason they can’t be targeting those Senators who will be up for reelection then. They may actually get some votes out of some of them. Will the Republicans dare to block pandemic relief? Of course, this all depends on the Democrats winning.
It’s not over until Jan 8th in Georgia
Exactly. There are two runoffs in GA.
Exactly.
I mean what rratto originally said.
The election results are sad but should inform progressives that their message is being rejected in rural America. OK to lick your wounds for a day or two, but we need to self-reflect on our inability to communicate with rural people. I don’t think saying they are all racists and white supremacist is the answer or correct. Somehow, they are frightened by progressive ideology and we need to understand why. We need to do a better job of explaining the progressive message and work harder at reaching out to people who do not agree with us.
tultican Your note speaks to some subtlety that I also think is overlooked in the electorate. That’s why I cringed when Biden referred to Trump being “laughed at by other world leaders” at an international conference.
That was true; but in an INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Trump is family. CBK
And workers. We need to rethink our inability to communicate with blue-collar people. Will Scranton Joe, should he win, get behind a revitalization of the union movement in this country? It’s obscene that in the US workers consistently go to the polls (or Poles, as stable genius Trump called them in a tweet yesterday) and vote against themselves.
Absolutely, Bob. Thomas Frank did an excellent job laying this out in his book “Listen, Liberal.”
Democrats need to do a better job with rural and Latino America. A lot of these voters have lost confidence in them.
retired I have to wonder how many of the Latino, Black, or White, for that matter, . . . electorate are drawn to Trump merely because he defines their version of macho.
CBK
We have to stop lumping all Latinos into one amorphous group. They are not all “compadres.” The wealthy Cubans forced out of Cuba have little in common with a peasant from Honduras. Why should we think they all march to the same drummer? We don’t expect the Germans and the French to agree with each other and the Brits have made their differences clear although internal state divisions are evident in all these countries. My point is we have to begin to look at our neighbors to the South as separate players.
I consider myself a far-left progressive, but I think I have a little insight into why we are not connecting with rural people. Like many Democrats and other progressives, I watch Rachel Maddow and her team. Although I like them, I also recognize how incredibly SMUG they (meaning WE) must appear to those who don’t share our ideas, education, etc. Things that are “obvious” to us, aren’t obvious to everyone, and when we act like they are, we alienate people who might be willing to listen if only they didn’t feel that we think they are stupid.
Nice insight, Anne. I respect Rachel Maddow as a journalist, but I intensely dislike her smirky know-it-allism, which I think attenuates the gravitas journalists should seek to project.
Anne I started my university education after I was 30. But I remember clearly my “before” time of being vaguely defensive and resentful of those who “lorded it over me” because they had that golden degree.
However, when I got my own degrees, I understood just what that meant but, more importantly, what it DIDN’T mean.”
My insights? FIRST, the differences between before and after can be very real, and they were for me. Knowledge is king in our culture, and it’s a good thing.
However, SECOND, I also learned that, though some college-educated ARE quite arrogant about it, most of my earlier resentment came from my own sense of somehow being “lesser,” even though I worked a full-time job and, later, started a successful business–which I sold to pay for my education.
That’s FWIW only one anecdote; but maybe it also has some more general application to our present time. CBK
Absolutely, Anne. See my note, below, about PSAs to educate voters.
Thanks for sharing that, CBK. The path you took gives a perspective that I wish many more voters had. I came by it as daughter to a BA suburban mom & 8th-gr-ed rural dad. Family friends were a thorough mix, ed-wise. Nationally there were fewer college grads in the ‘50’s/ ‘60’s, but it was a college town so we had a large component. Intelligence was thought of as native/ environmental, not a product of advanced ed. I never saw smugness. The advanced-ed contingent was often viewed as nerdy, but that adjective (I think we said ‘egghead’ then) was seen as a personality trait equally applicable to auto-didacts. Despite this, the non-college-ed were touchy about it, they had the ‘lesser-than’ feeling, as much about having been raised poor [or poor-er] as about level of ed.
We often use rural/ urban-suburban shorthand for our political division. But there’s a huge overlap with hisch-only vs college-educated. My experience suggests increasing divisiveness may be more about increasing residential segregation by class. Smugness comes from living in a bubble.
The judgemental attitude isn’t exclusive to those from a higher socio-economic class. The resentment is often justified, but it also sometimes comes from envy. When I began teaching in a multiracial, lower socio-economic community, my supervisor assumed that I was a do-gooder from the Northshore and wouldn’t last long. He told me this after my first year. I passed the test! 🙂
Tom,
Rural people were influenced by Trump’s campaign of fear mongering. That Biden was senile. That he would be a pawn in the hands of the radical leftists Kamala and Bernie. That Biden would kill God and religion, close churches. That Antifa would overrun the country. That the riots would burn down America. And oh yes, he would take away your guns.
Good idea, Bob. I use such data and examples in my writing classes.
I have long, long argued that if the Democrats are going to make any headway at all, then they need to start running public-service-announcement-type commercials TO EXPLAIN SOME BASIC STUFF TO VOTERS.
For example,
The US pays TWICE per person for healthcare what other developed countries pay. But we have the highest rates in the developed world of infant mortality and of many diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and various cancers. So, double the cost and worse outcomes. Why? Because half our healthcare dollar goes for profits for healthcare RICOs. The electorate DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THIS.
Another example,
Blacks are poorer than whites are in this country. Why? Most middle-class people get their money from the value of a home left to them by parents who paid for it over a lifetime. Well, for a century, the US government had official policies that kept blacks from being able to get mortgages and pay down principal. So, they didn’t develop this generational wealth. Again, the electorate DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THIS.
Another example,
Starting in about 1975 and continuing to this day, productivity (the value of goods produced) has soared (it has almost doubled), while wages have remained flat. And so we have extraordinarily high income and wealth inequality. The rich have gotten much, much richer. And the middle class and poor have been screwed. And now, only 11 percent of US workers have unions to protect them and push their wages up. Again, the electorate DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THIS.
and so it is on issue after issue. The problem is THE IGNORANCE OF THE ELECTORATE. US rural whites and working poor folks have to be educated by the Dems because the press is NOT DOING THIS.
Good afternoon Diane and everyone,
Agreed Bob, but if it’s coming from Democrats, will they TRUST the information? Or will they see it as “fake news?”
The design of these would be all-important. Folksy people talking straight talk to folksy people. Since they would not be ads for candidates, the party affiliation would not have to be mentioned.
I agree that a lot of people need an education on how policy has actually affected them, but if you call them “folksy” you’re likely to get the door shut in your face if not your teeth bashed in. Plain talking should do it. They’re not dumb, just uninformed.
By folksy, that’s what I meant. Clear talk. Simple language. There are plenty of scientific studies about comprehensibility that are relevant. But common sense applies here.
Bob Yes, but which “press”? CBK
Bob, that can definitely be done on the campaign trail, and Dems could & should do a better job of it. But mostly we need media support there, & need to look at why we get the opposite. Straight news reporting is pretty good this way on the big 3 networks, the problem is with the Fox, MSNBC, CNN 24/7 news commentary cycle. I have my issues w/PBS news commentary as well. None of it existed when I was growing up. It’s a Frankenstein: who created this monster?
Since I pretty much ignore everyone that reports the results of the polls except ThreeFiftyEight and Real Clear Politics, I do not feel the polls were misleading. ThreeFiftyEight made it clear that the odds of Biden winning by a landslide were slim but not impossible.
Click the following link and scroll down to:
“Weird and not-so-weird possibilities – The chances that these situations will crop up”
ThreeFiftyEight gave Biden a 29% chance of winning the election with a landslide and an 8% chance that he’d win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/?cid=rrpromo
When I went to bed last night, Trump was ahead in WI and MI. When I woke up, Biden was leading in those states.
Also, PA did not start counting its mail-in ballots until after the polls closed and not all of the mail-in ballots have been delivered by the USPS yet. They are still coming in.
PA currently has 1.6 million mail-in ballots from Democrats and about a half-million from Republicans to be counted, and it is expected that the count will not be done until Friday at the earliest.
Do the numbers:
PA vote count from in-person voting:
Trump has 3,0134,723
Biden has 2,523,086 but after we add in the 1.6 million mail in ballots that number climbs to more than 4.1 million
Add in the half-million GOP mail-in ballots to Trump’s 3 million in-person ballots and he ends up with about 3.6 million votes.
This election has to wait for PA to finish counting all the mail-in ballots and that could take days. From the numbers I’ve seen in reports so far, PA should end up going for Biden, and the Trump administration is already going to court challenging several aspects of the mail-in ballots to count in that state even accusing the person in charge of bias and other bogus allegations demanding that she step down.
Then NC and GA are still counting mail-in ballots, too.
Of the three states we are waiting on, all Biden has to do is win three of them in any combination and he wins the Electoral College. He already has the popular vote.
WI (already leaning toward Biden)
MI (already leaning toward Biden)
PA (uncounted mail-in ballots indicate Biden will win this state)
NC
GA
Hmm, how did that happen? I mean of the FIVE states, not THREE. Biden only needs three of those five states to win and it looks like he already has those three unless Trump wins one or more of his court challenges to the mail-in counts.
I may be wrong but I don’t see how any court can throw out mail-in ballots.
Several states have had all mail-in ballots for years.
Diane Of course, a denial of those votes is a denial of the very principle of democracy.
But we cannot assume ANY reasonability from Trump, much less principle–which hopefully will bite him in the . . . face . . . very soon. But then he apparently THINKS the Court belongs to him now, if he can get there.
I am with you on that, however. The Court itself would have to deny democracy to stand behind what Trump wants . . . a replacement of PRINCIPLE with TRUMP. And I doubt the justices don’t know what that means for the country and for all of us. CBK
I would think, the only two states that matter are WI and MI—provided NV and AZ hold.
The Biden campaign is very confident right now that Joe and Kamala are “on a clear path to victory.” It’s looking better today. And the sun came up this morning too. Hang in there.
Didn’t Truman and Clinton have control of both the House and Senate, but still couldn’t get things done? 🤔😮
Republicans took control of Congress as a result of the 1994 elections. So, in January, the Repugnicans controlled both houses of Congress. This was the so-called Gingrich Revolution.
Presidency of Bill Clinton
January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001
During the third and fourth years of Harry Truman’s presidency, the GOP controlled both the House and the Senate. I’m not sure if that changed in other years of his presidency. I think the GOP also got control of the House and/or Senate during the Clinton years. Newt Gingrich was a big thorn in Clinton’s side.
Truman racially integrated the military, which was a very bold move at that time, especially surprising for a president from Missouri. Not by law but by executive order.
Trump’s late night appearance during which he criticized a network for declaring his loss in Arizona, yet wanted all to declare his win in states having tons of mail-in votes yet to be counted–disenfranchising millions of voters–was, a typical twelve year old’s response when the amygdala has taken control.
His future as a private citizen hangs over his mentally deprived head, and narcissistically deprived heart like a bomb ready to explode. Defeat lights the fuse.
Just reward for a man who declares “one life is too many”, yet ignores the cascading cases of corona virus causing hundred of thousands of death to citizens of a country which should have been the best prepared to achieve the opposite.
It was truly sickening to observe the Trump-serving actions and sounds of his maskless, ass-kissing sycophants, exhibiting the surprising-to-me behavior of employees who apparently had been fed carefully-portioned, ever alluring morsels of power during their tenure.
Family members who strutted out of the room, I couldn’t help wonder, if they would have adjoining cells after the Southern District of New York gets a little bit even for all of us.
Indeed
It was an early morning appearance. Sorry.
I don’t know whether or not such a petition helps. [It probably helps in only making the signer think they have done something valuable, when they haven’t.]
……………………….
Subject: I just signed this petition — will you?
Donald Trump is trying to silence American voters and cheat his way back into the White House by declaring a premature victory. Millions of ballots have yet to be tallied — and these voters deserve to have their voices heard.
I just signed a Common Cause petition rejecting Trump’s declaration — and I think you should, too:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/breaking-reject-trumps-premature-victory-declaration/?source=email&
The Hill:
Collins says Gideon called to concede Maine Senate race
GOP Sen. Susan Collins said on Wednesday that Democratic nominee Sara Gideon called her to concede the Maine Senate race, keeping the seat in Republican hands.
The Washington Post
News Alert
Nov. 4, 1:14 p.m. EST
Trump campaign says it will ask for recount in Wisconsin, where Biden leads by about 20,000 votes in unofficial results
In Wisconsin, a recount is automatically conducted at state expense if the margin is less than 0.25 percent. But candidates can request a recount if they agree to pay, provided the margin is under 1 percent.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe told reporters Wednesday that all but one of the state’s 1,850 municipal clerks have now reported unofficial tallies of all absentee and in-person votes.
I’m sure Trump is screaming FRAUD!!! [It’s all of those fraudulent voters who came from Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mars and Venus. That’s why we need a Space Force NOW!!]
The Hill: [and other sites]
Biden wins Wisconsin
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is projected to win the critical swing state of Wisconsin, claiming its 10 electoral votes.
The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday at 2:16 p.m. EST.
Fox gave AZ to Biden long ago (last night), and now it gave MI and WI to him as well, so only NV remains with its 6 electoral votes for Biden to win. What is strange is that the vote count hasn’t changed in NV since early this morning. What’s happening there, does anybody know?
https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2020/general-results
The popular vote for Biden is 3 million more than for Trumpkin and I bet the difference will grow to at least 6 million. Just in CA alone, the difference is over 3 million but there only 75% of the votes have been counted, so, based on that (and the , just in CA alone the difference will increase by 1 million more.
Assuming Biden wins and the Senate stays in Republican majority, eliminating the threat of court-packing, I suggest any feeble, Trump-driven lawsuit to overthrow the election, will have adjudicating language consisting of that classic legal term: ” Up yours” Mr. President.
I went to bed around 10:30pm EST and vowed to wake up at 6:00am and completely avoid my phone, TV and such while making breakfast. Nope. I slept poorly. I woke up twice before 2am wondering how things were going. Then I caved and turned on the TV. Multiple states too close to call. Well, I had a good call going to bed when I did.
Me checking relieved some of the anxiety and I was able to get back to sleep, albeit lightly.
In regard to Lindsay Graham, some have speculated that the race of his opponent could have hurt them. Would South Carolina really send two Black senators to DC? I hate hate hate thinking about race implications, but it’s something worth considering.
When it comes to the polls, the sentiment may have been true, but perhaps it didn’t result in voter turnout. It’ll be interesting to see the data in the next few weeks.
Trump REALLY hurt Biden in Florida, particularly with people of Cuban and Venezuelan decent, with claims that he is a socialist in the likes of the dictators their families fled. Meanwhile, the “out and proud” socialists have been bashing Biden since it was clear he would win the nomination. They did the same with H. Clinton.
Ugh: I get it. Notice that I’m up at 3:30AM and had to check where Biden is…still uncalled votes but seems to still be the one who will win. The thought of 4 more years of a lying, no-good who will believe that now he is stronger than ever makes me sick.
So, believe me, you are not alone.
A friend of mine who lives in Illinois wrote, “Carol, I am about to have a nervous breakdown–how do you feel?
I have a friend who lives around 20 minutes from me in Indiana who is now working to buy a house in Ontario, Canada. She has always been extremely politically active and can’t take it any more.
I guess this is an update. Nothing definite yet but we can hope for the best.
………………….
IBT:
Along with record voting turnouts comes record counting times, as Americans are discovering two days after the presidential election. Although only a handful of states are still tabulating ballots, they are the ones holding up a final verdict.
As of Thursday morning, the Electoral College scoreboard was still stuck at “Democrat Joe Biden 253, President Trump 213.”
Trump held slim leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where early and mail-in votes were still being counted. Biden led in Arizona and Nevada, two states that would deliver the 17 combined electoral votes needed to reach the magic 270 number to win.
That is, unless something unusual happens (this is 2020, after all). The Trump campaign is filing lawsuits to stop tabulations in states where he leads while calling for continued counting in the states where he trails. However, Biden has a clearer path to victory than Trump, who prefers the issue be handled in the courts. Only time, math and maybe judges will tell the winner.
Carolm, think about the fact that you won’t change the election results and go to bed—or binge-watch something like The queen’s gambit. 🙂
Máté Wierdl: Thanks for the message. I will have a long nap sometime later in the day.
I have plenty of chocolates and ice cream and lots of movies recorded on my DVR. Somehow, we’ll get through this mess.
At least my brother hasn’t reminded me recently that I’ll be going to hell for an eternity for supporting evil politicians. [I’m being influenced by Satan and I have to let Jesus into my life.]
Carolm, your brother also needs some of that chocolate.
I knew I couldn’t nap yesterday when I found myself roaming the house like a caged animal. I went out and cut did yard work with sharp instruments. Beheading wayward plant stalks was very therapeutic. Today the bathroom got cleaned, and I raked some leaves. I still have plenty of yard work saved up if needed. 🙂
I never understood why people calm themselves with housework. They increase my blood pressure. 🙂 But I do recognize that these people might be the majority—as polls would certainly show. 🙂
I prefer the outdoors with sharp tools, but the bathroom was pretty bad.
Hm, so outdoors, you need to destroy, when indoors, you need order and cleanliness.
I’ve given up on order. I have a husband who doesn’t understand that term. As for cleanliness, …when I wouldn’t go in a public bathroom that looked like mine, it is past time to clean it.
Biden won Michigan!!! He is now 6 electoral votes short of 270.
Don’t worry. Trump has a great healthcare plan waiting for us. /s
…………..
The Washington Post
News Alert
Nov. 4, 5:42 p.m. EST
United States tops 100,000 new coronavirus cases in a day for first time
A fall wave of infections throughout the country is threatening again to overwhelm some health systems, with hospitalizations steadily rising. The United States is nearing 9.5 million known cases.
“Biden won Michigan!!! He is now 6 electoral votes short of 270.”
Yeah, but what’s happening in NV (which has 6 electoral votes)? The votecount hasn’t changed since this morning? Nobody talks about it. At least I haven’t heard anything?
Máté Wierdl: What is happening in Nevada?
Nevada: Check back tomorrow.
We should get a big update. Biden currently leads by only 7,000 votes, but the remaining ballots are expected to lean Democratic.
Yes, thanks. Here is the news in video from PBS about NV and explanation. We’ll know about the counts by 10AM tomorrow. It seems certain that Biden wins there. NV starts at 14:25 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/presidential-election-updates-from-5-key-states
So it seems certain now that Biden wins because with NV’s 6 electoral votes, he has 270. But we’ll know for sure only at 10am tomorrow, and by then, Biden may win another state like PA.
Arizona is unsettled because so many uncounted Ballots.
Religious Organizations Admonish United States’ Formal Exit from Paris Climate Agreement
As religious organizations representing a diversity of faith traditions we profoundly regret that today the United States formally exits the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world’s best framework for action to address the climate crisis. Global climate change presents an unprecedented threat to the integrity of all life on Earth and a challenge to values that bind us as human beings.
Even as climate change impacts all of God’s creation, we know that the consequences of climate change both in the U.S. and around the world are felt more keenly among low-wealth communities and among those that have suffered long histories of racial and ethnic discrimination and exploitation. Our principle of the common good calls us to be in solidarity with those most adversely impacted by climate change now while avoiding the temptation to pass this problem along to future generations as a result of our own neglect or narrow interests.
The Trump Administration’s abandonment of the Paris Agreement undermines a key pillar of international cooperation against climate change and damages the world’s ability to avoid the most dangerous and costly effects of climate change. It also leaves the U.S. behind in the global transition to a clean energy economy.
Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
The Episcopal Church
Faithful America
Franciscan Action Network
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns
Maryknoll Sisters Eastern Region USA
Mennonite Central Committee, Washington Office
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society United Methodist Women
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action
More BS from the far right to keep Trump lovers outraged over the huge voter fraud by Democrats in Michigan.
…………………………………………….
RenewedRIght.com
Donald Trump was red with rage when he saw this election night trend
Americans were disturbed by what they saw as Election Night transitioned into the following morning.
The President was among those most concerned.
And Donald Trump was red with rage when he saw this election night trend.
When President Trump spoke to Americans at 2AM, the President was leading in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
By the following morning, Joe Biden led in all three thanks to a deluge of heavily Democratic mail-in ballots.
President Trump questioned these results.
“Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat-run and controlled,” President Trump tweeted. “Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.”
President Trump noted that the pollsters got all of these states wrong predicting a Joe Biden blowout.
“VERY STRANGE, and the ‘pollsters’ got it completely & historically wrong!” he wrote.
“How come every time they count Mail-In ballot dumps they are so devastating in their percentage and power of destruction?” President Trump added. “WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?”
There was some evidence to back up the President’s claim.
Overnight in Michigan, officials found 138,000 ballots where every single vote was cast for Joe Biden and none for Donald Trump to add to the tally.
“So while everyone was asleep and after everyone went home, Democrats in Michigan magically found a trove of 138,339 votes, and all 138,339 of those ‘votes’ magically went to Biden? That doesn’t look suspicious at all,” Federalist co-founder Sean Davis wrote.
President Trump spent months warning about the dangers of mail-in ballots.
The Fake News Media claimed he was lying and misleading the public.
But in the end the President was right.
Renewed Right will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
And people still vote for the worthless POS.
……………………………………….
Trump’s Rallies Are Scientifically Proven Murder and Mayhem
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
04 November 20
…The Stanford study has now shown such arrogant irresponsibility can be lethal on a mass scale. The researchers linked 18 of Trump’s packed, massless rallies to some 30,000 avoidable COVID-19 cases. At least 700 deaths and numerous hospitalizations resulted.
“Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low,” the researchers wrote. “The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.”…
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/66047-trumps-rallies-are-scientifically-proven-murder-and-mayhem
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 230,996; Tuesday, 231,562; Wednesday, 232,626; Thursday, 233,729.
Did you ever go to bed last night!?
speduktr: I went to bed early and woke up early…then had a nap. Weird but for now, it works.
May we all have sweet dreams soon.
I doubt, there is anything to worry about. We can start dreaming about DeVostation leaving Washington and going back to terrorize poor Indiana teachers.
Máté Wierdl: Why would DeVostation want to go to Indiana? [Be careful, I live in Indiana and so do some good friends of mine!!]
Carolm, I admit, I haven’t slept enough and so I am not reviewing enough what I am writing here. So she’ll go back to her home state (which has turned blue) and hopefully will not visit IN, though Mike Pence may invite her over for a party to reminiscence about the good old days in DC.
Máté Wierdl: “Carolm, I admit, I haven’t slept enough and so I am not reviewing enough what I am writing here.”
I say, “Welcome to the club.” There are many of us not sleeping that well. This will continue until Biden officially wins the election and has taken the oath of office.
Reading CR*P like this is enough to cause nightmares.
…………………………………………………….
RenewedRight.com
Rush Limbaugh revealed the math behind why Trump will win the election
Votes are still being counted in key states.
Joe Biden is acting like he won the election.
But now Rush Limbaugh revealed the math behind why Trump will win the election.
Donald Trump needs to win Pennsylvania and Arizona to secure a second term.
Trump leads Joe Biden by about 190,000 votes in Pennsylvania and trails by about 68,000 votes in Arizona.
But in Arizona, there are still hundreds of thousands of ballots remaining to be counted and the President is winning them at the rate necessary to flip the state.
Rush Limbaugh explained that on a conference call with reporters, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien told the press that the math was in the President’s favor and that when all was said and done Trump would carry Arizona by about 30,000 votes and hold on in Pennsylvania by about 40,000 votes.
“He said the math adds up to a margin, at the end of the day, around 30,000 votes in the president’s favor. Arizona with the votes that are still being counted will come to the president’s favor, come his way, and the president expects to win Pennsylvania by 40,000 votes, Arizona by 30,000. That is their latest tabulation. The minute Fox called Arizona last night, I turned to Kathryn and I said, ‘This is not gonna . . . There is something really, really wrong about this,’” Limbaugh stated.
The problem began – Limbaugh told his audience – when Fox News outrageously called Arizona for Joe Biden with just 7 percent of the vote in.
Limbaugh believed Never-Trumpers on the Fox Decision Desk called the state for Biden to stick it to Trump.
“I mean, I don’t want to name any names, but you do. There are a bunch of them in there, and some of them are on the decision desk. You think they’re not gonna take advantage of an opportunity to harm Donald Trump? Damn straight they will! That’s what they think their perk is. I want to go back to the first hour. You and I, we’re not part of the establishment in Washington. We’re not part of the Deep State,” Limbaugh added.
Fox’s call of Arizona was premature and likely incorrect.
But it changed the narrative around the election by making it seem like the President had no path to re-election.
That does not pass the smell test.
Renewed Right will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
Ah, it’s certain that Biden gets GA and PA and NV. These give him 295 electors. He is also ahead by 4 million in the popular vote count. Diane was right, though, that Biden may lose AZ.
Unfortunately, Gov. Holcomb [R-IN] won the reelection. He refuses to do anything about the continuing spread of COVID-19 except ask citizens to wear a mask. As long as hospitals have room to care for patients, nothing will be done.
……………………
Holcomb shoots down rumors of state closing
Thursday, November 05, 2020 1:00 am
…“100% no truth to that whatsoever,” he said. “We would just ask folks to keep in mind in the future that wherever those sources are to discount them because they are simply misleading the people. And the unfortunate thing is it’s affecting people’s daily lives and the decisions that they make. Not helpful. Counterproductive.”
The misinformation has been spreading like fire the last two weeks, and Holcomb said he will continue a “surgical” approach to hot spots in the state.
The problem is the whole state is becoming a hot spot. According to new metrics released Wednesday, 72 counties are in the top two levels of virus spread. Only one county is in blue, the lowest level….
On Wednesday, the state recorded 3,756 new cases – the third-highest daily total during the pandemic. An additional 25 Hoosiers also died for a total of 4,224.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said the state’s seven-day positivity rate of cases is now 8.7% and went up 200% between Sept. 15 and Oct. 25. The state is also starting to see more testing delays.
When asked about whether any new restrictions would be imposed, Holcomb said: “We have the capacity to care right now. If we start to lose that capacity to care, then we’re going to have to become more and more restrictive.”…
https://journalgazette.net/news/local/20201105/holcomb-shoots-down-rumors-of-state-closing
Let’s hope the Orange A-hole doesn’t get reelected since he no longer cares about how many people are getting infected or who are dying.
…………………………………….
[NWI Times] US daily virus cases spike 45%. These 8 charts show where, how fast COVID-19 is spreading.
Nov 4, 2020 Updated 7 hrs ago
…Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have surged 45% over the past two weeks, to a record seven-day average of 86,352, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths are also on the rise, up 15% to an average of 846 deaths every day.
The total U.S. death toll is already more than 232,000, and total confirmed U.S. cases have surpassed 9 million. Those are the highest totals in the world, and new infections are increasing in nearly every state….
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/national/us-daily-virus-cases-spike-45-these-8-charts-show-where-how-fast-covid-19/article_84078bc6-0292-59c7-92c6-9a3193d96d9d.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
“When Biden talked about the election being a battle for the soul of the US, he was alluding to Trump’s unfitness for office, which seemed to have been demonstrated by the Covid-19 failure, along with the racist dog-whistling and various other insults to the democratic system,” noted an editorial in Stuff, New Zealand’s biggest news site. “That so many voters in the US were willing to have another four years of Trump should cause all of us to rethink our assumptions.”
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2c87be5/5fa385d89d2fda0efb5d7953/596996aa9bbc0f6d71c4feac/21/74/60e2e736e5e70b92939e7f8be79c811e
WaPo:
11:55 a.m.
Tens of thousands of ballots stuck at Postal Service facilities until Wednesday
By Jacob Bogage
Tens of thousands of ballots were caught in U.S. Postal Service processing facilities until the day after Election Day, according to new data filed in federal court, including nearly 24,000 ballots in states that remain uncalled for either Trump or Biden.
In Pennsylvania, 6,877 ballots were processed on Nov. 4. That number was 5,915 in North Carolina, 9,037 in Nevada and 1,706 in Georgia.
Those votes — which could count in some states but not others depending on local ballot deadlines — could loom large in tightening races in those states that could ultimately swing crucial electoral votes, and ultimately control of the White House.
The Postal Service processed close to 150,000 ballots nationwide on Wednesday, with a 94.5-percent on-time rate, an improvement over recent days, but still below the 97 percent that postal and voting experts expect of the agency.
But in the nine postal districts spanning the five states — Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia — yet to be decided, the ballot on-time rate was 84.6 percent. That means roughly 15 out of every 100 ballots in processing plants were not sorted — or delivered — on time.
In filing the data, Justice Department lawyers representing the Postal Service in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia cautioned that the figures were not reliable. The data does not include “first mile” and “last mile” handling steps, which could add time to delivery, and only accounts for items the agency was able to successfully identify as ballots. The Postal Service also encouraged post offices to cull local ballots by hand and deliver them directly to vote counters, bypassing the regional facilities that account for processing scores, though the agency cannot say how widely that practice is being employed.
It seems that the second senate race in GA also goes to runoff!!!
It’s very satisfying to watch Trump talking crazy about voter fraud and such as he is trying to explain why he is losing. The whole thing is just pouring out of him. What I do not understand why the journalists and reporters don’t leave. Why give publicity to this rant that will incite many of his supporters?
Mate MSNBC isn’t showing Trump, though I’m not so sure that’s a good thing either. A crazy man in high office makes for bad choices all around. CBK
I think if journalists had ignored Princess Trumpkin from the beginning and he had faced only Fox at press conferences, he would have resigned within a year.
Mate The “liberal” (nee truthful) Press are now calling a lie a lie, even before they relate it to their audiences. But methinks they took WAY too long to finally “get it.”
Like so many of us, the Press kept expecting Trump to be civilized, to listen, and to understand what a democracy is. CBK
If they write about Trumpkin’s lies they still write about him. It doesn’t matter for him why he gets the attention, he just needs to have it.
I was watching MSNBC last night. When they switched to the White House, Trump began a tirade claiming that he won the election, that they were stealing it, and —MSNBC cut him off. I’ve never seen any network or cable news show shut off a President. They said he was lying a and spreading disinformation and they would not air it.
Good for MSNBC. But they should have done this starting in 2016. Just pull the darn soapbox from under him.
The networks are not allowing Trump to continue his rantings. GOOD!! “One obese turtle flailing on his back”…great description.
………………………………………….
Networks cut away from Trump’s White House address
NEW YORK (AP) — ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away from President Donald Trump on Thursday as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the presidential election was being stolen from him.
Trump had tried to commandeer the nation’s airwaves at a time when the evening newscasts are shown on the East Coast, after a day when the slow drip of vote counting revealed his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia dwindling.
MSNBC’s Brian Williams also interrupted the president. Fox News Channel and CNN aired the president’s full address, after which CNN’s Anderson Cooper said Trump was “like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realizing his time was over.”
Network personalities had sharply criticized Trump after his angry, middle-of-the-night speech following Election Day but aired that talk in full. Trump was more subdued Thursday, yet offered a litany of complaints about “suppression” polls, mail-in voting and fraud that he never specified.
“We have to interrupt here, because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting,” said NBC’s Lester Holt. “There has been no evidence of that.”
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell broke in to ask correspondent Nancy Cordes to fact-check Trump’s assertion that if “legal votes” were counted, he would easily win the election. Cordes said there is no indication of a substantive number of illegal votes cast, and said Trump’s reference to votes arriving late was “another falsehood.”
MSNBC cut away from Trump to anchor Brian Williams.
“Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,” he said. “There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”
After ABC ended its coverage, the network’s White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, also said there was no evidence of illegal votes.
“What he seems to be frustrated by is … that it takes time to count votes,” Karl said. “It’s always taken time to count votes. But especially in this election.”
While CNN kept Trump on the air, a chyron displayed under him said, “Without any evidence, Trump says he’s being cheated.”…
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-brian-williams-elections-voting-fraud-and-irregularities-8159feee1f7539e0bd4815092c11952f
Finally, someone in the crowd has shouted “The Emperor has no clothes!” I think it was a poll worker who dunnit. CBK
“Fox News is pulling out all the stops to promote Trump’s twisted logic about ‘corrupt’ voting”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/fox-news-corrupt-voting/2020/11/05/78c7899a-1f67-11eb-ba21-f2f001f0554b_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%2F2c89faa%2F5fa434269d2fda0efb5dcf43%2F597c3073ade4e26514d23e47%2F56%2F77%2F35c708a0dfce30512dcc7ae3b2592fc6