User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Biden: “What the hell is happening to us.”
Biden firing up Iowa Dems yesterday: “What the hell is happening to us? Our children are listening!”
Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.
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105 thoughts on “Biden: “What the hell is happening to us.””
politico tantalizes us today…. like buying a megamillions ticket, it’s fun to dream big dreams even when there’s slim chance of realizing them:
A careful reading of court filings suggests the special counsel hasn’t been quiet. Far from it.
patd… great catch from politico! Of course I hope the article is correct… but… I’m not going to let myself get excited until we learn if it is true.
I won’t vote for Joe in the primary… but I’m really glad he’s out there on the campaign stump.
Joe’s message stirred the crowd helping those attending to remember the good days of the past. Whether or not they will motivate that crowd to convince their neighbors to clean house in Des Moines and DC is another story.
I very much admire Joe for his courageous, motivated participation. Clearly, he is old now. I sense that he is doing this because Beau can’t.
We need Joe’s voice now whatever his motivations. In point of fact we need the voices of all our former presidents speaking in a non partisan manner about the direction of the country.His should not be the only voice being heard the stakes are too high.
Good on Joe.
You have to hand it to Joe to get to the basics of what we need to be considering.
I’m glad Biden is out campaigning but I still do not want him to run. He is certainly collecting lots of favors and will be a good position when primary season starts and it is clear he still wants to be president but boy o boy would that be a mistake.
Joe knows he aint gonna go, but he might still want to hit the early primaries just cause why not? And he’d still be out there whacking on the Grand Old Past-tensers……that can’t hurt, he’s got moxie.
Joe can set the tone. That’s good. He’s old enough to clearly remember the pre-fokkks news days. Younger folks may not know that there was once civil news media. Bless you, Joe.
The election will be over in a week then almost immediately the presidential speculation will begin. It will be interesting see who steps up and begins calling out Trump and company. Biden is well positioned to do so and it is obvious that he has the energy and conviction. Everyone else will be playing catch up. Booker will try, don’t know who else, but it promises to be a crowded field early.
whatever happens, it needs to begin soon, because right now a Trump re-election is not out of the realm of possibility.
The “media” favors Biden by giving him lots of coverage. Lots of other potentials are also out on the trail and I think saying similar things but Joe is hogging the limelight although I don’t think it is intentional on his part — I think the media once again fails to have imagination and to actually do their jobs
KC, Joe’s plain spoken language apparently appeals to the media, plus his age and experience give Joe the gravitas to call out SFB’s bullshit without having to pull punches for fear of having his words hung around his neck in the next election. I don’t have the strong objection to him running that you do – in may ways he has more youth and vigor than the clown he’d be opposing, and god knows he’s got a shitload more intelligence to bring to bear.
Still say Joe’s winning message could be, “Give me one term to fix this mess.”
Then we can indulge ourselves with a “fresh face” who needs 18 months on-the-job training. For starters Biden could quickly fix relations with allies. He’s on a first name basis with all of them. And Congress? Nobody knows better how to navigate that mess.
.
Craig… the “give me one term to fix the mess” message is appealing. I might…. BIG MIGHT… consider voting for him in the primary provided he picks one of those “fresh faces” for his running mate.
wapo:
U.S. archivists on Wednesday revealed one of the last great secrets of the Watergate investigation — the backbone of a long sealed report used by prosecutor Leon Jaworski to send Congress the evidence that led to the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.
The release of the 1974 impeachment referral came after a former member of Nixon’s defense team and three prominent legal analysts filed separate lawsuits seeking its release from grand jury secrecy rules. The legal analysts argued the report could offer a precedent and guide for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as his office addresses its present-day challenge on whether, and if so, how to make public findings from its investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election, including any that directly involve President Donald Trump.
The legal specialists said they and Watergate veterans sought the release of the Jaworski report after more than four decades of secrecy because of the historic parallels they see to the current probe and the report’s potential to serve as a counterexample to the independent counsel Ken Starr’s report seeking president Bill Clinton’s impeachment. [Read the redacted Sirica Road Map]
The 453-page Starr report, written in 1998, deepened partisan divisions when its graphic detail and legal conclusions about Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky were immediately made public by House Republicans, who suffered an electoral backlash.
By contrast, the reputation of Jaworski’s report has fared far better, even as its bare-bones form remained a mystery. The Jaworski report is known colloquially known as the “Sirica road map,” for then-Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica, who approved its creation and transmission to lawmakers
“There were no comments, no interpretations and not a word or phrase of accusatory nature. The ‘Road Map’ was simply that — a series of guideposts if the House Judiciary Committee wished to follow them,” the late Jaworski wrote in his 1976 memoir, “The Right and the Power: The Prosecution of Watergate.”
Sirica’s modern-day successor, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District, on Oct. 11 ordered the disclosure of his report — with limited redactions — in response to petitions by California author and former Nixon deputy Watergate defense counsel Geoffrey Shepard and by Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes; Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under president George W. Bush; and Stephen Bates, a Las Vegas professor who co-wrote the Starr report with now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and other members of Starr’s team. [Judge orders Nixon grand jury testimony unsealed]
In a statement Deana El-Mallawany, counsel for Protect Democracy, which represented the Wittes group, said, “The Road Map is a critical historical precedent for ensuring that the facts uncovered in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation become public and serve as the basis for whatever accountability is necessary. Our democracy depends on it.”
The road map consists of a two-page summary, followed by 53 numbered statements, supported by 97 documents including interviews and tapes, according to information that the National Archives and Records Administration turned over to Howell.
While much of the report’s substance — including evidence of the Nixon campaign’s funding of the break-in of Democratic National Committee headquarters and the president’s role in the subsequent coverup — has long been public, its structure and potential to serve as a template for others remained under seal.
Bates said as a Starr prosecutor in 1997, he learned that despite the potential for the “road map” to present a legal model for future investigations, such as Mueller’s it was not publicly available when he asked the National Archives for a copy to study.
“It is one of the only precedents of a report that has had to go through that kind of process [under grand jury secrecy rules] to get to the House for consideration as grounds for impeachment,” Bates said in an interview. “If Mueller could say, ‘We have structured this report the way Leon Jaworski did in 1974, and Judge Sirica approved it,’ that might be persuasive in this case.”
Jaworski needed Sirica’s approval to send materials to Congress because they were covered under federal grand jury secrecy rules under a process overseen by the judge.
Jaworski faced a problem similar to one that may confront Mueller today: he had relevant evidence but not, he concluded, the constitutional authority to indict a sitting president. Congress had the authority to impeach Nixon, but not the evidence. In the end, the House committee sought access to evidence gathered by prosecutors, the grand jury adopted the road map, and Sirica and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia authorized its transmittal under seal.
Ah RR, was hoping I MIGHT wear you down.
What do we think of the rumblings from Hillary world about running? I am decidedly undecided. See Vox
No Hillary either.
The one term thing is baloney (perhaps fried) It’s going to take more than one term.
if the 2018 turnout is only a trickle and not a wave, forget about 2020
in fact, forget about the world and democracy as we once knew it.
Most accounts of early voting say it is not a trickle and regardless of the way it is being spun so far very good for Democrats. Although Republicans do vote early this time the gap between Dem and Republicans is much smaller.
Any 2020 candidate will need to be able to redraw the electoral map. The mid section of the country that abandoned HRC is now firmly Trump country. A dem will need to pick up some votes somewhere and there are very few to be had.
The Nuremburg trials lasted into the 50s, and they didn’t convict more than a % of the nazis. Of course, we have computers now, but if we do a thorough job, it should take at least one presidential term to extirpate our nazis and their willing collaborators ( the murdochs, the mercers, hannity and limbaug, wnd, zerohedge, daily crawler, gateway, coulter, farrakhan & last call, wohl & burkman, WaTi, WaEx, NYpest, sinclair, bob jones & liberty universities, bannon, liberty broadcasting, the rnc, trump inc. Etcetera ! Etcetera ! Etcetera ! )
The question is, what sort of executions are most humane ? Clearly, there are doubts about lethal or semi-lethal injections being humane. Maybe we should simply hang our nazis, too.
Dress them up in bright colors and blinking lights, and they’d make festive wintertime street decorations, besides feeding the crows and other wildlife.
Guillotine is pretty efficient, all things considered.
Seems like a simple overdose of heroin or morphine would be kind of nice…….you know, Dreamland and then you slide on out.
I’m not entirely sure why but I remain opposed to the death penalty.
Re: Hillary, I unfortunately think she is past her shelf life, but then again, she is in a position at this point to say things like Trump’s FBI didn’t do anything with her emails to vindicate SFB’s claims about them, the country has taken a decidedly negative turn under the SFB administration, SFB has turned out to be among EVERYONE who sought the presidency in 2016 the biggest liar imaginable, he’s been incompetent as president, our standing in the world is greatly diminished during his administration, those things we have held as values we like to think are unique to the US are under attack (immigration, for instance) while views we abhor (racism, etc.) are protected and even exalted by SFB , the deficit has exploded….the list goes on. The appeal of course is to Dem base voters and thinking voters who don’t vote R or D only and who know that SFB is an idiot. Say like about 60,000 in Wisconsin, PA, ….
Like Poobah, I’m decidedly undecided, or as a friend of mine likes to say, I have a strong opinion on both sides of the issue.
I’ll vote for the democratic nominee…….even should it turn out to be Jimmy Cottah……
John Lennon was Best Man at Peter Boyle’s wedding.
On Peter’s first date with his wife to be, he went in total make-up as the monster in “Young Fronkenstein”.
Humane execution – a bottle of sleeping pills and a pint of booze. If you want there to be an element of punishment, make the booze Ouzo.
Sturg, I may have missed that FKB episode. (Wish I could say that was before my time, but …)
Weird – my response posted above Sturg’s post.
Fronkenstein and friend
remember when father know best had that yard man named Fronk, but Kathy noticed that it was spelled frank and father who know best went thru a whole immigrant explanation to his daughter……..
Hillary? Seriously?
I hope she doesn’t think third-time’s-a-charm. It isn’t.
Also…
Won’t the #metoo movement just have a field day with Bill?
XR,
We don’t do retribution well in this country. Seldom if ever is there a price to be paid for being totally and completely wrong. Our jails should be full of people who led us into the Iraq war, caused the economic meltdown of 08, continue to support the sale use of assault weapons, the list goes on. The same will be true of Trump criminals if an when this nightmare is finally over. None will pay a price for their part in enabling this unfolding disaster. Perhaps that is for the best, but it seems awfully foolish to expect good behavior on one hand when there is zero accountability on the other. So far Trump and his people are winning the race to the bottom and there is little in recent history to suggest that they will pay any significant price for it. The only possible exception might be Chris Christi who failed in his bid to become Trump’s footstool. Repairing this country is going to require a 1932 type of election result, and someone with enough balls to do something with it. The damage is that great.
Haha…….complaining about the not-in-existence-yet Democrat nominee?
ie……..complaining about democrats. Fixya focus, maybe.
“The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”
Klobuchar fine with me and Kamala Harris as well……they both got moxie.
Sturg, the death penalty is irrevocable; so is trench warfare. Ogden Nash would prefer the former
Clinton ? Nope.
Klobuchar, okay. Klobuchar/Swalwell : Very Okay.
Posting out of order. Keep me posted.
2020 DREAM TICKETS
DEMS – ABC/ABC
crazy rippers – lyin’ ryan/li’l rubio
super crazy rippers – pence/cruz
sho biz rippers – roseanne/kanye
kkk – trump/graham
nazis – runt pol/spencer
prolife rippers – sayoc/bowers
Notice to all democrat office-seekers…….either you got moxie, or you hit the bricks.
If sho biz rippers win, roseanne can be the actual president, cuz kanye already has a job.
Mr Sturgeone,
Thank you, sir. I never miss a chance to leave them out. That is, unless I’m absolutely forced to.
Haha I deleted it when I realized that I’d misunderstood the intention of the post, ie 2 people for running mates.
so actually….now I’ve left them out too.
lol
Oh, man………dottir is now a vice-president at Forbes Media, Inc.
Whatta kid, eh?
2020 candidates in the rust belt formally known as the blue wall. Women need not apply. See results of 2016 presidential election. Preferred candidates should be white, male and stupid.
Mr Jace, you are a decent fellow, and I appreciate your kindness and mildness – even when I am pitching for judicial murders.
Also, thanks for reminding me that we haven’t hanged any neocon war criminals, either. It’s ’bout time we gave you an opportunity to wax decent over their cadavers, too.
(-:>D))<
What a kid indeed?
XR,
It is very hard to wax decent. At a minimum these folks deserve so much more than our contempt. Then again contempt is all I have to offer
Well……..it’s the same old people……just a new batch of em
One of the greatest of all time, Willie McCovey is gone. He was 80.
I love this shit. Jace, good to see ya, buddy. White, male and stupid – to mirror the voting demo in the rust belt?
Sturg, XR, you have me in stitches. I may have pissed myself a little laughing at your posts.
Just checking this out to see whether it works. (Hot damn, better than my phone)
Travis, Buddy where you been? Really good to see you back around here. We could use a good dose of your wit and wisdom. I really hate to hear that about Willie McCovey. He was definitely one of the great ones (baseball players that is).
I was so hoping Beto O’Rourke would destroy Cruz but it just slipped away. Cruz knew it all along I figure. Oh well… here in Ohio we have a helluva race for governor. Right now Cordray the Democrat is up at RCP, +2.7 % . Senator Sherrod Brown is all set, he’s up by a huge margin. All is not lost. ~~ I am getting old, and so, I gotta go to the V.A. and have a nuclear heart stress test next week. The real stress is worrying about what they’ll find! I know, this is the thin edge of the wedge; with age comes the doctors and hospitals and all. Nobody gets out of here alive, right?
Wow, Travis AND Dexter ! This is a great night.
Hey Pogo – I’m in and I’m out. Just trying to make it through next week without getting too high or too low.
Oh hey! Just got some great news from my vascular doc. I’ve been taking Xarelto for a year and half to deal with the blood clots that developed as part of my cancer symptomology. Well the good news is that I don’t need to take it any more. I’ll always be at risk for DVT/PE, but the greater worry now is stroke. So now I’m on an aspirin regimen. Aspirin is a helluva lot cheaper than Xarelto.
The move has been excellent for my health, both physically and mentally. We get up early and do a couple of laps around the neighborhood before I work. We’re getting to know our neighbors. My mom and Pam are thick as thieves. They meet for lunch and go shopping. We have game nights over at the folks’ place. We just finished setting up our loft space so we can have games at our place.
It’s turning out just the way I hoped it would.
The Midwest is changing color. Even in darkest red OK and KS, Dems have a chance to elect Govs.
Why do I have the feeling that I’m about to enter into the…….. long winter of my discontent? Is there no one who will make it glorious summer?
Always liked Klobuchar, don’t know enough about Harris to get a read on her but she seems very formidable..would like to see either one debate Trump.
Travis,
Good health news indeed. Congrats!
Dexter,
Don’t be such a stranger?
McCovey was a fearsome presence at the plate. Line drives that were like missels.
Tomorrow, another Thursday another chemo infusion. Then most of two weeks feeling weak and sick. Then start the process over. Am home bound mostly. As such the trail and all the trail hands mean a lot to me. You have a way of taking my mind off the things over which I have no control. Thank you all.?
Pogo,
to mirror the voting demographic in the rust belt? Pretty much.
perhaps stupid is too harsh, but you had to be more than a little gullible to believe that any of those muscle jobs were ever coming back. They haven’t and they won’t. Wishing it won’t change the reality.
Before it is too late. Hope everyone has a happy All Hallows Eve.?
Jace – Hang in there with the chemo. For me, the cold sensitivity was the worst. Even room temp water would make my mouth go tingly, from my lips all the way down my throat. The slightest flex of my thumbs would make my hands cramp so bad that I finally got some compression gloves to manage it.
Travis,
Thanks. I know what you mean about the cold. For me the biggest problem has been the weight loss it has left me very weak and easily fatigued. My wife requires almost round the clock care as the result of a brain tumor and treatment for it. Needless to say I am not up to the task. Frustrating and worrisome both.
Stay strong, Jace and Mrs. Jace. My 40 year old daughter Vanessa had a mastectomy three weeks ago and started chemo Tuesday. Her doctor believes in radical surgery, chemo and also radiation. I drove to Columbus Saturday to see her and bring my wife back, who had been staying there a while to help out.
So far , with all of Trump’s lies and really, just one thing after another, and now he calls for “possibly sending another 15,000” troops to stop the deadly invasive force of tired and beat and sick people seeking political asylum…and really just saying he is all powerful and he lords over the constitution as king of America, where is the backlash? Trump is unstable and unfit for office, so why has there not been some kind of movement to oust him from office? My gawd, you might think a Russian agent in The White House , and I mean Trump, would send out multiple alarms, but yet, he’s still President. On AF1 , departing Pittsburgh, he just went on about how nice he was treated and never mentioned the victims of this Bowers nutcase. Why anybody would want this whore-hopping maniac as POTUS is beyond my comprehension. But then, his magical instant lower-class workers’ tax cut does sound impressive, right? Trump thinks he can make shit like that up and people will believe all of it, even though it cannot be done by executive order.
One more note: Willie McCovey tributes have been filling my Facebook page constantly like popcorn popping. I saw him play many times on TV and also in Chicago’s Wrigley Field and also at Candlestick Park when I attended games when I was a soldier stationed in Monterey. My vivid memories include Willie smashing a line drive to Bobby Richardson to end the ’62 World Series in a 1-0 game, and also watching batting practice in Wrigley Field as Willie McCovey smashed long towering shots way the hell over the bleachers, across Sheffield Avenue, and off the brownstones there. Many say Willie McCovey was the most popular San Francisco Giant ever, even more-loved than Marichal or Mays. I know I loved watching him clobber home runs and later seeing him during events on TV as he was wheelchair-bound and still commanding that fan-love.
SFB should send the entire U.S. Army and Marine Corp to the Mexican border. Why only fifteen thousand when a million would be much more impressive!
Although I have reduced my contact with media which still puts up SFB and his little creepy voice, I still make mistakes on my timing to get traffic reports and hear it. My hate for the little man is intense, he has declared war on me personally and my family too. That his actions are meant to destroy me as a person means a lot. It means my family will be voting for our lives this year.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe on Tuesday sued the state of North Dakota over its voting identification requirements, part of a larger effort to ensure American Indians can vote in next week’s election in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar lawsuit filed by another tribe.
To cast a ballot, voters in North Dakota need identification with a provable street address — something that’s hard to come by on reservations. The state maintains everyone has a street address via the statewide 911 system, but the lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund, the Campaign Legal Center and two law firms argues the system is “incomplete, contradictory and prone to error on reservations.”
“State policies should be designed to make it easier for all citizens to vote, but North Dakota’s voter ID law disenfranchises Native Americans living on reservations,” said Danielle Lang, senior attorney with the Campaign Legal Center.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to have the street address requirement ruled unconstitutional.
[….continues…]
Six days out from Election Day, over 24 million votes have been counted as early or absentee, a number that exceeds the total nationwide early vote from 2014.
As of Wednesday, 24,024,621 million early and absentee ballots have been counted nationwide in all states with early voting activity.
Six days out from Election Day during the last midterm in 2014, just under 13 million (12,938,596) early or absentee ballots had been counted — a difference of over 11 million — signifying that voters could be shifting more and more toward early voting.
Wednesday’s early vote total even surpasses the total nationwide early vote from 2014, which was over 21 million (21,218,015).
Turnout overall is generally lower during midterm elections than presidential elections, but this year the total early vote count six days out is between where it was in 2014 and the over 29 million (29,196,380) early votes that were counted six days out from the presidential election in 2016.
In all of the key states NBC News has been following, early vote counts for so far this year (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas), the six-day-out total is higher in than it was in 2014. The national trend toward early voting has been close between the two parties.
As of Wednesday, 43 percent of early voters are Republican and 41 percent are Democrats. At this point in 2016, 43 percent of early voters were Democrats and 40 percent were Republicans.
At this point in 2014, though, 44 percent were Republican and 40 percent were Democrats.
Great to see Dexter on watch. Jace, you know we trailhands are here for you.
B.B.,
Pls, pls, don’t let SFB wear you down. You have family all over the place. We are in your corner and on your side. You are a soldier for freedom figuratively and in reality; he is shit. I want you to get your ass down to your boat and christen her SS United States–you’ve earned the privilege.
Flatus
Travis,
Will you be doing a globe on Nov 4 for Dona Nobis Pacem? I’ll be posting mine here as well as my blog and Facebook. Words have power and this gang is pretty powerful when they want to be.
Sure I grew up in California, but despite a mother who basically ran her own United Nations, I was always aware of racism. Still it was an era when “The House I Live In” could win an Academy Award and be believed along side block busting to break real estate codes or braceros in the fields were brought in and then returned to Mexico to combat Hispanic citizens forming unions for higher wages. Then there were Japanese trying to reclaim the land they had lost when sent to concentration camps. On top of that the religious prejudices of Southern Baptists against Catholics and Jews. Interracial marriage was frowned upon and the gay population hidden.
The US has always had these factions, but at least the most dangerous, rampant hatred was frowned upon and forced under their rocks in ideal if not in practice. Donald Trump has lifted the rocks and now they scurry out. It is horrifying to realize that what I once thought was a small percentage seems to have reproduced and grown in the dark. It’s time to make racism shameful and drive the ones who refuse to change back under their rocks.
Jamie – I don’t think I will. I support the message though.
Jace, I spend time in Cleveland with my MIL’s friends, teh vast majority of whom support SFB with every fiber of their being. Stupid is not too harsh.
Dexter,
Thanks. Will do.
Pogo,
Is deplorable too harsh??
Pogo… I can proudly say that I hate SFB with every fiber of my being.
Great seeing you pop up here Dex!
Jace and TravisC… take care… and I’m glad you’re both here.
I voted!
Nice to hear from the Nightwatchman I think about Dexter every time I have Pho
Jace – all the good thoughts in the world to you and Mrs. Jace. That is a tough row to hoe
Good for you Travis and it’s nice to settle into a new place and have everything work out
dexter and travis and jace as well as the mrs jace and mrs jack, extra healing thoughts sent your way.
my feelings also about the trail, jace, when you wrote “the trail and all the trail hands mean a lot to me. You have a way of taking my mind off the things over which I have no control.” our virtual mental health support group.
usatoday:
Oprah Winfrey says if you don’t vote, you are ‘dishonoring your family’ at Stacey Abrams rally
[…]
Winfrey has traveled to Georgia to campaign for Abrams, whose potential victory would make her the first African American woman to be governor in U.S. history.
The cultural icon said she is a political independent who has “earned the right to think for myself and to vote for myself.” She stressed the importance of getting out to vote over any partisan or policy message.
“I don’t want any party, and I don’t want any kind of partisan influence telling me what decisions I get to make for myself,” she said. “Nobody paid for me to come here, nobody even asked me to come here, I paid for myself and I approve this message.”
[…]
She stressed that her appearance was not about testing the political waters and that she does not plan to run for office herself.
Winfrey said she was at the rally because of people who have been “lynched” and “oppressed” for their right to vote.
“I want you to know at their blood has seeped into my DNA and I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain,” she said. “for anybody here who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote, wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family, you are disrespecting and disregarding their legacy, their suffering and their dreams when you don’t vote.”
She said the right to vote is like “the crown that we all get to wear.”
May the G!D which made the heavens and earth bring the knowledge of Its presence, healing and cures to all of you who face difficulties and disease.
glad someone picked up on sarah’s latest prevarication
MSNBC: White House inadvertently reminds us of Trump’s popular vote loss
During the fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complained that Democrats were “trying to undercut the voice of the American people” who elected Donald Trump.
There was, however, a problem: the American people not only opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination, they also didn’t elect Trump president. In the American system, for good or ill, the electoral college elevated Trump to the White House, despite the fact that more Americans voted for his opponent. In fact, it wasn’t especially close: Hillary Clinton ended up with nearly 3 million more votes than the candidate who took power.
Yesterday, Sanders returned to the subject while complaining bitterly about media coverage of the Trump administration.
“[T]he president is delivering on exactly what he said he was going to do if elected. And he got elected by an overwhelming majority of 63 million Americans who came out and supported him, and wanted to see his policies enacted.”
It’s true that Trump ended up with 63 million votes. It’s also true that Hillary Clinton ended up with nearly 66 million votes.
In other words, the Republican president wasn’t elected by “an overwhelming majority.” Or a regular ol’ majority. Or even a plurality. Americans were given a choice and the electorate didn’t choose Trump.
That’s not to say the popular vote alone delegitimizes his presidency. Our system allows for the candidate whom Americans didn’t choose to take office anyway – something that’s happened twice in the last five presidential elections.
But every time the White House pretends Trump rode to office with a popular mandate for his agenda, we’re reminded anew that this president came in second when Americans cast their ballots.
In fact, Trump won 46% of Americans, which not only falls short of an “overwhelming majority,” it also falls short of what plenty of losing presidential candidates managed to get, including Mitt Romney, who received 47% four years earlier. John Kerry topped 48% eight years before that. Neither, as you may have noticed, moved into the White House.
If Trump and his team want to make the case for their agenda, their ideas, and their nominees, they should certainly do so with vigor. If they’re convinced they have a stronger case to make in support of their vision than their rivals’, let’s hear it.
But to keep arguing that Americans necessarily endorsed this president’s wishes when they cast their ballots, and so everyone has a responsibility to get in line behind Donald Trump, is a mistake that defies recent history.
* Postscript: Trump has argued from time to time that he secretly won the popular vote, and it only looks like he lost it because of a nefarious conspiracy theory. If this is how Sarah Huckabee Sanders arrived at her “overwhelming majority” argument, she should say so explicitly.
patd, the “lovely” Suckabee left the word “the” before “63” out of her pronouncement.With the addition of that word the statement is true, albeit very misleading.
So has SFB done anything particularly bone headed today?
And RR, I hear ya, and I’d like to be inducted as a member of your “I hate SFB with every fiber of my being” club. I’m sure I meet the membership criteria.
Robert Henry Eller’s Comment On The NYT Birthright Article
Portland, Oregon Oct. 31
Keep voting Republican, folks. Why rule yourselves with your own Constitution of Laws, when you can be ruled by Madmen, Greedy Grifters, the Ignorant, the Stupid, the Haters, the Worshipers of False Idols, and Foreign Dictators? Why vote in your own self interest, when you can be slaves? Keep voting Republican, folks. And keep watching Fox News, the Opioid Channel. Lie yourself to Death. Keep voting Republican, folks.
Deport melanoma and barroom ! She worked here (taking jobs away from Americans) before she applied for a green card ! Therefore her citizenship should be revoked, and she and her birthrighted child should be deported.
Tongue firmly in Left cheek.
Flatus – here is a nice thing. The department I work for has asked me to represent the U.S. Air Force Vietnam Era veterans at the department Veterans Day event. I am to be on stage to receive a pin (I think it is the DoD Vietnam Era veteran pin) as the representative of these vets and shake the hand of the secretary. I am looking forward to that as he has stated some less than nice things about LGBTQ people. Quite interesting. It is an honor I am happy to receive and share with all veterans. Due to security concerns all of us employees are requested to lower our online presence and not name who we work for and where. I guarantee the white, straight, males do not need to be concerned. Everybody else does need to be concerned.
The reason I sort of disappeared two years ago was Trump’s win. I couldn’t stand the thought of him as prez for4 years. Now the nightmare is half over and the excitement is building to a crescendo for next Tuesday.
KGC, a friend told me of a great pho place in Fort Wayne. Maybe I’ll try it after Trump leaves Fort Wayne…he’s coming in for a rally in a few days and the repuggs are just going ape-**** over it. I live about 45 minutes from the venue. When Cheney came here for a barn rally, I tried to drive through the farmland to get to a meeting and the sheriffs had every road and lane barricaded, and to get through one had to have a special red invitation to the barn rally. I just went home.
Since I was a regular here Mrs. Dexter( Carla Lee) has had two knee replacements and a corrective surgery at Cleveland Clinic, daughter Sandi was in a Miami, FL hospital with stomach problems, my great grandson was in a Las Vegas hospital three times with an autoimmune disease, Vanessa the middle daughter had a mastectomy for Stage One cancer,and Carla Lee’s car was condemned by our mechanic as unsafe, so…a car loan. With all this (and really much more) I can’t even get all worry-warted up about my stress test on Wednesday next week. I know they’ll “find something” but I surrender to modern medicine.
It must be the SecDef as the AF Secretary is a woman (Heather Wilson). If anybody gives you any shit, let us know. Consider taking a couple of bios detailing your most significant accomplishments for presentation to whomever should they give you any shit. Having one for the dean of the press corps would be nice if the conversation overflows. F… them if they can’t take a joke.
Dex, I refused to take mine. That was several years ago; I’m fine. I had one a couple of years earlier–it was a on a treadmill–a crappy experience.
For a nice mostly liberal state, WA does have some weird types and Rep. Matt Shea is one of them. I think being on the Eastern side of the mountains does something to the brain. He’s been handing out this little “Christian” document on how to conduct war and wipe out those who will not convert.
politico tantalizes us today…. like buying a megamillions ticket, it’s fun to dream big dreams even when there’s slim chance of realizing them:
Has Mueller Subpoenaed the President?
A careful reading of court filings suggests the special counsel hasn’t been quiet. Far from it.
patd… great catch from politico! Of course I hope the article is correct… but… I’m not going to let myself get excited until we learn if it is true.
I won’t vote for Joe in the primary… but I’m really glad he’s out there on the campaign stump.
Joe’s message stirred the crowd helping those attending to remember the good days of the past. Whether or not they will motivate that crowd to convince their neighbors to clean house in Des Moines and DC is another story.
I very much admire Joe for his courageous, motivated participation. Clearly, he is old now. I sense that he is doing this because Beau can’t.
We need Joe’s voice now whatever his motivations. In point of fact we need the voices of all our former presidents speaking in a non partisan manner about the direction of the country.His should not be the only voice being heard the stakes are too high.
Good on Joe.
You have to hand it to Joe to get to the basics of what we need to be considering.
I’m glad Biden is out campaigning but I still do not want him to run. He is certainly collecting lots of favors and will be a good position when primary season starts and it is clear he still wants to be president but boy o boy would that be a mistake.
Joe knows he aint gonna go, but he might still want to hit the early primaries just cause why not? And he’d still be out there whacking on the Grand Old Past-tensers……that can’t hurt, he’s got moxie.
Joe can set the tone. That’s good. He’s old enough to clearly remember the pre-fokkks news days. Younger folks may not know that there was once civil news media. Bless you, Joe.
The election will be over in a week then almost immediately the presidential speculation will begin. It will be interesting see who steps up and begins calling out Trump and company. Biden is well positioned to do so and it is obvious that he has the energy and conviction. Everyone else will be playing catch up. Booker will try, don’t know who else, but it promises to be a crowded field early.
whatever happens, it needs to begin soon, because right now a Trump re-election is not out of the realm of possibility.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jim-carrey-donald-trump-america-artwork_us_5bd96205e4b0da7bfc15316a
Happy Hell-oween
The “media” favors Biden by giving him lots of coverage. Lots of other potentials are also out on the trail and I think saying similar things but Joe is hogging the limelight although I don’t think it is intentional on his part — I think the media once again fails to have imagination and to actually do their jobs
KC, Joe’s plain spoken language apparently appeals to the media, plus his age and experience give Joe the gravitas to call out SFB’s bullshit without having to pull punches for fear of having his words hung around his neck in the next election. I don’t have the strong objection to him running that you do – in may ways he has more youth and vigor than the clown he’d be opposing, and god knows he’s got a shitload more intelligence to bring to bear.
Still say Joe’s winning message could be, “Give me one term to fix this mess.”
Then we can indulge ourselves with a “fresh face” who needs 18 months on-the-job training. For starters Biden could quickly fix relations with allies. He’s on a first name basis with all of them. And Congress? Nobody knows better how to navigate that mess.
.
Craig… the “give me one term to fix the mess” message is appealing. I might…. BIG MIGHT… consider voting for him in the primary provided he picks one of those “fresh faces” for his running mate.
wapo:
U.S. archivists on Wednesday revealed one of the last great secrets of the Watergate investigation — the backbone of a long sealed report used by prosecutor Leon Jaworski to send Congress the evidence that led to the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon.
The release of the 1974 impeachment referral came after a former member of Nixon’s defense team and three prominent legal analysts filed separate lawsuits seeking its release from grand jury secrecy rules. The legal analysts argued the report could offer a precedent and guide for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as his office addresses its present-day challenge on whether, and if so, how to make public findings from its investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election, including any that directly involve President Donald Trump.
The legal specialists said they and Watergate veterans sought the release of the Jaworski report after more than four decades of secrecy because of the historic parallels they see to the current probe and the report’s potential to serve as a counterexample to the independent counsel Ken Starr’s report seeking president Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
[Read the redacted Sirica Road Map]
The 453-page Starr report, written in 1998, deepened partisan divisions when its graphic detail and legal conclusions about Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky were immediately made public by House Republicans, who suffered an electoral backlash.
By contrast, the reputation of Jaworski’s report has fared far better, even as its bare-bones form remained a mystery. The Jaworski report is known colloquially known as the “Sirica road map,” for then-Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica, who approved its creation and transmission to lawmakers
“There were no comments, no interpretations and not a word or phrase of accusatory nature. The ‘Road Map’ was simply that — a series of guideposts if the House Judiciary Committee wished to follow them,” the late Jaworski wrote in his 1976 memoir, “The Right and the Power: The Prosecution of Watergate.”
Sirica’s modern-day successor, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District, on Oct. 11 ordered the disclosure of his report — with limited redactions — in response to petitions by California author and former Nixon deputy Watergate defense counsel Geoffrey Shepard and by Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes; Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under president George W. Bush; and Stephen Bates, a Las Vegas professor who co-wrote the Starr report with now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and other members of Starr’s team.
[Judge orders Nixon grand jury testimony unsealed]
In a statement Deana El-Mallawany, counsel for Protect Democracy, which represented the Wittes group, said, “The Road Map is a critical historical precedent for ensuring that the facts uncovered in Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation become public and serve as the basis for whatever accountability is necessary. Our democracy depends on it.”
The road map consists of a two-page summary, followed by 53 numbered statements, supported by 97 documents including interviews and tapes, according to information that the National Archives and Records Administration turned over to Howell.
While much of the report’s substance — including evidence of the Nixon campaign’s funding of the break-in of Democratic National Committee headquarters and the president’s role in the subsequent coverup — has long been public, its structure and potential to serve as a template for others remained under seal.
Bates said as a Starr prosecutor in 1997, he learned that despite the potential for the “road map” to present a legal model for future investigations, such as Mueller’s it was not publicly available when he asked the National Archives for a copy to study.
“It is one of the only precedents of a report that has had to go through that kind of process [under grand jury secrecy rules] to get to the House for consideration as grounds for impeachment,” Bates said in an interview. “If Mueller could say, ‘We have structured this report the way Leon Jaworski did in 1974, and Judge Sirica approved it,’ that might be persuasive in this case.”
Jaworski needed Sirica’s approval to send materials to Congress because they were covered under federal grand jury secrecy rules under a process overseen by the judge.
Jaworski faced a problem similar to one that may confront Mueller today: he had relevant evidence but not, he concluded, the constitutional authority to indict a sitting president. Congress had the authority to impeach Nixon, but not the evidence. In the end, the House committee sought access to evidence gathered by prosecutors, the grand jury adopted the road map, and Sirica and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia authorized its transmittal under seal.
Ah RR, was hoping I MIGHT wear you down.
What do we think of the rumblings from Hillary world about running? I am decidedly undecided. See Vox
No Hillary either.
The one term thing is baloney (perhaps fried) It’s going to take more than one term.
if the 2018 turnout is only a trickle and not a wave, forget about 2020
in fact, forget about the world and democracy as we once knew it.
Most accounts of early voting say it is not a trickle and regardless of the way it is being spun so far very good for Democrats. Although Republicans do vote early this time the gap between Dem and Republicans is much smaller.
Any 2020 candidate will need to be able to redraw the electoral map. The mid section of the country that abandoned HRC is now firmly Trump country. A dem will need to pick up some votes somewhere and there are very few to be had.
The Nuremburg trials lasted into the 50s, and they didn’t convict more than a % of the nazis. Of course, we have computers now, but if we do a thorough job, it should take at least one presidential term to extirpate our nazis and their willing collaborators ( the murdochs, the mercers, hannity and limbaug, wnd, zerohedge, daily crawler, gateway, coulter, farrakhan & last call, wohl & burkman, WaTi, WaEx, NYpest, sinclair, bob jones & liberty universities, bannon, liberty broadcasting, the rnc, trump inc. Etcetera ! Etcetera ! Etcetera ! )
The question is, what sort of executions are most humane ? Clearly, there are doubts about lethal or semi-lethal injections being humane. Maybe we should simply hang our nazis, too.
Dress them up in bright colors and blinking lights, and they’d make festive wintertime street decorations, besides feeding the crows and other wildlife.
Guillotine is pretty efficient, all things considered.
Seems like a simple overdose of heroin or morphine would be kind of nice…….you know, Dreamland and then you slide on out.
I’m not entirely sure why but I remain opposed to the death penalty.
Re: Hillary, I unfortunately think she is past her shelf life, but then again, she is in a position at this point to say things like Trump’s FBI didn’t do anything with her emails to vindicate SFB’s claims about them, the country has taken a decidedly negative turn under the SFB administration, SFB has turned out to be among EVERYONE who sought the presidency in 2016 the biggest liar imaginable, he’s been incompetent as president, our standing in the world is greatly diminished during his administration, those things we have held as values we like to think are unique to the US are under attack (immigration, for instance) while views we abhor (racism, etc.) are protected and even exalted by SFB , the deficit has exploded….the list goes on. The appeal of course is to Dem base voters and thinking voters who don’t vote R or D only and who know that SFB is an idiot. Say like about 60,000 in Wisconsin, PA, ….
Like Poobah, I’m decidedly undecided, or as a friend of mine likes to say, I have a strong opinion on both sides of the issue.
I’ll vote for the democratic nominee…….even should it turn out to be Jimmy Cottah……
John Lennon was Best Man at Peter Boyle’s wedding.
On Peter’s first date with his wife to be, he went in total make-up as the monster in “Young Fronkenstein”.
Humane execution – a bottle of sleeping pills and a pint of booze. If you want there to be an element of punishment, make the booze Ouzo.
Sturg, I may have missed that FKB episode. (Wish I could say that was before my time, but …)
Weird – my response posted above Sturg’s post.
Fronkenstein and friend
remember when father know best had that yard man named Fronk, but Kathy noticed that it was spelled frank and father who know best went thru a whole immigrant explanation to his daughter……..
Hillary? Seriously?
I hope she doesn’t think third-time’s-a-charm. It isn’t.
Also…
Won’t the #metoo movement just have a field day with Bill?
XR,
We don’t do retribution well in this country. Seldom if ever is there a price to be paid for being totally and completely wrong. Our jails should be full of people who led us into the Iraq war, caused the economic meltdown of 08, continue to support the sale use of assault weapons, the list goes on. The same will be true of Trump criminals if an when this nightmare is finally over. None will pay a price for their part in enabling this unfolding disaster. Perhaps that is for the best, but it seems awfully foolish to expect good behavior on one hand when there is zero accountability on the other. So far Trump and his people are winning the race to the bottom and there is little in recent history to suggest that they will pay any significant price for it. The only possible exception might be Chris Christi who failed in his bid to become Trump’s footstool. Repairing this country is going to require a 1932 type of election result, and someone with enough balls to do something with it. The damage is that great.
Haha…….complaining about the not-in-existence-yet Democrat nominee?
ie……..complaining about democrats. Fixya focus, maybe.
“The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.”
― Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
Klobuchar fine with me and Kamala Harris as well……they both got moxie.
Sturg, the death penalty is irrevocable; so is trench warfare. Ogden Nash would prefer the former
Clinton ? Nope.
Klobuchar, okay. Klobuchar/Swalwell : Very Okay.
Posting out of order. Keep me posted.
2020 DREAM TICKETS
DEMS – ABC/ABC
crazy rippers – lyin’ ryan/li’l rubio
super crazy rippers – pence/cruz
sho biz rippers – roseanne/kanye
kkk – trump/graham
nazis – runt pol/spencer
prolife rippers – sayoc/bowers
Notice to all democrat office-seekers…….either you got moxie, or you hit the bricks.
If sho biz rippers win, roseanne can be the actual president, cuz kanye already has a job.
Mr Sturgeone,
Thank you, sir. I never miss a chance to leave them out. That is, unless I’m absolutely forced to.
Haha I deleted it when I realized that I’d misunderstood the intention of the post, ie 2 people for running mates.
so actually….now I’ve left them out too.
lol
Oh, man………dottir is now a vice-president at Forbes Media, Inc.
Whatta kid, eh?
2020 candidates in the rust belt formally known as the blue wall. Women need not apply. See results of 2016 presidential election. Preferred candidates should be white, male and stupid.
Mr Jace, you are a decent fellow, and I appreciate your kindness and mildness – even when I am pitching for judicial murders.
Also, thanks for reminding me that we haven’t hanged any neocon war criminals, either. It’s ’bout time we gave you an opportunity to wax decent over their cadavers, too.
(-:>D))<
What a kid indeed?
XR,
It is very hard to wax decent. At a minimum these folks deserve so much more than our contempt. Then again contempt is all I have to offer
Well……..it’s the same old people……just a new batch of em
One of the greatest of all time, Willie McCovey is gone. He was 80.
I love this shit. Jace, good to see ya, buddy. White, male and stupid – to mirror the voting demo in the rust belt?
Sturg, XR, you have me in stitches. I may have pissed myself a little laughing at your posts.
Just checking this out to see whether it works. (Hot damn, better than my phone)
Travis, Buddy where you been? Really good to see you back around here. We could use a good dose of your wit and wisdom. I really hate to hear that about Willie McCovey. He was definitely one of the great ones (baseball players that is).
I was so hoping Beto O’Rourke would destroy Cruz but it just slipped away. Cruz knew it all along I figure. Oh well… here in Ohio we have a helluva race for governor. Right now Cordray the Democrat is up at RCP, +2.7 % . Senator Sherrod Brown is all set, he’s up by a huge margin. All is not lost. ~~ I am getting old, and so, I gotta go to the V.A. and have a nuclear heart stress test next week. The real stress is worrying about what they’ll find! I know, this is the thin edge of the wedge; with age comes the doctors and hospitals and all. Nobody gets out of here alive, right?
Wow, Travis AND Dexter ! This is a great night.
Hey Pogo – I’m in and I’m out. Just trying to make it through next week without getting too high or too low.
Oh hey! Just got some great news from my vascular doc. I’ve been taking Xarelto for a year and half to deal with the blood clots that developed as part of my cancer symptomology. Well the good news is that I don’t need to take it any more. I’ll always be at risk for DVT/PE, but the greater worry now is stroke. So now I’m on an aspirin regimen. Aspirin is a helluva lot cheaper than Xarelto.
The move has been excellent for my health, both physically and mentally. We get up early and do a couple of laps around the neighborhood before I work. We’re getting to know our neighbors. My mom and Pam are thick as thieves. They meet for lunch and go shopping. We have game nights over at the folks’ place. We just finished setting up our loft space so we can have games at our place.
It’s turning out just the way I hoped it would.
The Midwest is changing color. Even in darkest red OK and KS, Dems have a chance to elect Govs.
Why do I have the feeling that I’m about to enter into the…….. long winter of my discontent? Is there no one who will make it glorious summer?
Always liked Klobuchar, don’t know enough about Harris to get a read on her but she seems very formidable..would like to see either one debate Trump.
Travis,
Good health news indeed. Congrats!
Dexter,
Don’t be such a stranger?
McCovey was a fearsome presence at the plate. Line drives that were like missels.
Tomorrow, another Thursday another chemo infusion. Then most of two weeks feeling weak and sick. Then start the process over. Am home bound mostly. As such the trail and all the trail hands mean a lot to me. You have a way of taking my mind off the things over which I have no control. Thank you all.?
Pogo,
to mirror the voting demographic in the rust belt? Pretty much.
perhaps stupid is too harsh, but you had to be more than a little gullible to believe that any of those muscle jobs were ever coming back. They haven’t and they won’t. Wishing it won’t change the reality.
Before it is too late. Hope everyone has a happy All Hallows Eve.?
Jace – Hang in there with the chemo. For me, the cold sensitivity was the worst. Even room temp water would make my mouth go tingly, from my lips all the way down my throat. The slightest flex of my thumbs would make my hands cramp so bad that I finally got some compression gloves to manage it.
Travis,
Thanks. I know what you mean about the cold. For me the biggest problem has been the weight loss it has left me very weak and easily fatigued. My wife requires almost round the clock care as the result of a brain tumor and treatment for it. Needless to say I am not up to the task. Frustrating and worrisome both.
Stay strong, Jace and Mrs. Jace. My 40 year old daughter Vanessa had a mastectomy three weeks ago and started chemo Tuesday. Her doctor believes in radical surgery, chemo and also radiation. I drove to Columbus Saturday to see her and bring my wife back, who had been staying there a while to help out.
So far , with all of Trump’s lies and really, just one thing after another, and now he calls for “possibly sending another 15,000” troops to stop the deadly invasive force of tired and beat and sick people seeking political asylum…and really just saying he is all powerful and he lords over the constitution as king of America, where is the backlash? Trump is unstable and unfit for office, so why has there not been some kind of movement to oust him from office? My gawd, you might think a Russian agent in The White House , and I mean Trump, would send out multiple alarms, but yet, he’s still President. On AF1 , departing Pittsburgh, he just went on about how nice he was treated and never mentioned the victims of this Bowers nutcase. Why anybody would want this whore-hopping maniac as POTUS is beyond my comprehension. But then, his magical instant lower-class workers’ tax cut does sound impressive, right? Trump thinks he can make shit like that up and people will believe all of it, even though it cannot be done by executive order.
One more note: Willie McCovey tributes have been filling my Facebook page constantly like popcorn popping. I saw him play many times on TV and also in Chicago’s Wrigley Field and also at Candlestick Park when I attended games when I was a soldier stationed in Monterey. My vivid memories include Willie smashing a line drive to Bobby Richardson to end the ’62 World Series in a 1-0 game, and also watching batting practice in Wrigley Field as Willie McCovey smashed long towering shots way the hell over the bleachers, across Sheffield Avenue, and off the brownstones there. Many say Willie McCovey was the most popular San Francisco Giant ever, even more-loved than Marichal or Mays. I know I loved watching him clobber home runs and later seeing him during events on TV as he was wheelchair-bound and still commanding that fan-love.
SFB should send the entire U.S. Army and Marine Corp to the Mexican border. Why only fifteen thousand when a million would be much more impressive!
Although I have reduced my contact with media which still puts up SFB and his little creepy voice, I still make mistakes on my timing to get traffic reports and hear it. My hate for the little man is intense, he has declared war on me personally and my family too. That his actions are meant to destroy me as a person means a lot. It means my family will be voting for our lives this year.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe on Tuesday sued the state of North Dakota over its voting identification requirements, part of a larger effort to ensure American Indians can vote in next week’s election in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar lawsuit filed by another tribe.
To cast a ballot, voters in North Dakota need identification with a provable street address — something that’s hard to come by on reservations. The state maintains everyone has a street address via the statewide 911 system, but the lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund, the Campaign Legal Center and two law firms argues the system is “incomplete, contradictory and prone to error on reservations.”
“State policies should be designed to make it easier for all citizens to vote, but North Dakota’s voter ID law disenfranchises Native Americans living on reservations,” said Danielle Lang, senior attorney with the Campaign Legal Center.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to have the street address requirement ruled unconstitutional.
[….continues…]
reported yesterday at 5:46 pm by nbcnews:
Six days out from Election Day, over 24 million votes have been counted as early or absentee, a number that exceeds the total nationwide early vote from 2014.
As of Wednesday, 24,024,621 million early and absentee ballots have been counted nationwide in all states with early voting activity.
Six days out from Election Day during the last midterm in 2014, just under 13 million (12,938,596) early or absentee ballots had been counted — a difference of over 11 million — signifying that voters could be shifting more and more toward early voting.
Wednesday’s early vote total even surpasses the total nationwide early vote from 2014, which was over 21 million (21,218,015).
Turnout overall is generally lower during midterm elections than presidential elections, but this year the total early vote count six days out is between where it was in 2014 and the over 29 million (29,196,380) early votes that were counted six days out from the presidential election in 2016.
In all of the key states NBC News has been following, early vote counts for so far this year (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas), the six-day-out total is higher in than it was in 2014. The national trend toward early voting has been close between the two parties.
As of Wednesday, 43 percent of early voters are Republican and 41 percent are Democrats. At this point in 2016, 43 percent of early voters were Democrats and 40 percent were Republicans.
At this point in 2014, though, 44 percent were Republican and 40 percent were Democrats.
[…click to see comparison charts which show break down by individual states…]
Great to see Dexter on watch. Jace, you know we trailhands are here for you.
B.B.,
Pls, pls, don’t let SFB wear you down. You have family all over the place. We are in your corner and on your side. You are a soldier for freedom figuratively and in reality; he is shit. I want you to get your ass down to your boat and christen her SS United States–you’ve earned the privilege.
Flatus
Travis,
Will you be doing a globe on Nov 4 for Dona Nobis Pacem? I’ll be posting mine here as well as my blog and Facebook. Words have power and this gang is pretty powerful when they want to be.
Sure I grew up in California, but despite a mother who basically ran her own United Nations, I was always aware of racism. Still it was an era when “The House I Live In” could win an Academy Award and be believed along side block busting to break real estate codes or braceros in the fields were brought in and then returned to Mexico to combat Hispanic citizens forming unions for higher wages. Then there were Japanese trying to reclaim the land they had lost when sent to concentration camps. On top of that the religious prejudices of Southern Baptists against Catholics and Jews. Interracial marriage was frowned upon and the gay population hidden.
The US has always had these factions, but at least the most dangerous, rampant hatred was frowned upon and forced under their rocks in ideal if not in practice. Donald Trump has lifted the rocks and now they scurry out. It is horrifying to realize that what I once thought was a small percentage seems to have reproduced and grown in the dark. It’s time to make racism shameful and drive the ones who refuse to change back under their rocks.
Jamie – I don’t think I will. I support the message though.
Jace, I spend time in Cleveland with my MIL’s friends, teh vast majority of whom support SFB with every fiber of their being. Stupid is not too harsh.
Dexter,
Thanks. Will do.
Pogo,
Is deplorable too harsh??
Pogo… I can proudly say that I hate SFB with every fiber of my being.
Great seeing you pop up here Dex!
Jace and TravisC… take care… and I’m glad you’re both here.
I voted!
Nice to hear from the Nightwatchman I think about Dexter every time I have Pho
Jace – all the good thoughts in the world to you and Mrs. Jace. That is a tough row to hoe
Good for you Travis and it’s nice to settle into a new place and have everything work out
dexter and travis and jace as well as the mrs jace and mrs jack, extra healing thoughts sent your way.
my feelings also about the trail, jace, when you wrote “the trail and all the trail hands mean a lot to me. You have a way of taking my mind off the things over which I have no control.” our virtual mental health support group.
usatoday:
Oprah Winfrey says if you don’t vote, you are ‘dishonoring your family’ at Stacey Abrams rally
[…]
Winfrey has traveled to Georgia to campaign for Abrams, whose potential victory would make her the first African American woman to be governor in U.S. history.
The cultural icon said she is a political independent who has “earned the right to think for myself and to vote for myself.” She stressed the importance of getting out to vote over any partisan or policy message.
“I don’t want any party, and I don’t want any kind of partisan influence telling me what decisions I get to make for myself,” she said. “Nobody paid for me to come here, nobody even asked me to come here, I paid for myself and I approve this message.”
[…]
She stressed that her appearance was not about testing the political waters and that she does not plan to run for office herself.
Winfrey said she was at the rally because of people who have been “lynched” and “oppressed” for their right to vote.
“I want you to know at their blood has seeped into my DNA and I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain,” she said. “for anybody here who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote, wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family, you are disrespecting and disregarding their legacy, their suffering and their dreams when you don’t vote.”
She said the right to vote is like “the crown that we all get to wear.”
May the G!D which made the heavens and earth bring the knowledge of Its presence, healing and cures to all of you who face difficulties and disease.
glad someone picked up on sarah’s latest prevarication
MSNBC: White House inadvertently reminds us of Trump’s popular vote loss
During the fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complained that Democrats were “trying to undercut the voice of the American people” who elected Donald Trump.
There was, however, a problem: the American people not only opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination, they also didn’t elect Trump president. In the American system, for good or ill, the electoral college elevated Trump to the White House, despite the fact that more Americans voted for his opponent. In fact, it wasn’t especially close: Hillary Clinton ended up with nearly 3 million more votes than the candidate who took power.
Yesterday, Sanders returned to the subject while complaining bitterly about media coverage of the Trump administration.
It’s true that Trump ended up with 63 million votes. It’s also true that Hillary Clinton ended up with nearly 66 million votes.
In other words, the Republican president wasn’t elected by “an overwhelming majority.” Or a regular ol’ majority. Or even a plurality. Americans were given a choice and the electorate didn’t choose Trump.
That’s not to say the popular vote alone delegitimizes his presidency. Our system allows for the candidate whom Americans didn’t choose to take office anyway – something that’s happened twice in the last five presidential elections.
But every time the White House pretends Trump rode to office with a popular mandate for his agenda, we’re reminded anew that this president came in second when Americans cast their ballots.
In fact, Trump won 46% of Americans, which not only falls short of an “overwhelming majority,” it also falls short of what plenty of losing presidential candidates managed to get, including Mitt Romney, who received 47% four years earlier. John Kerry topped 48% eight years before that. Neither, as you may have noticed, moved into the White House.
If Trump and his team want to make the case for their agenda, their ideas, and their nominees, they should certainly do so with vigor. If they’re convinced they have a stronger case to make in support of their vision than their rivals’, let’s hear it.
But to keep arguing that Americans necessarily endorsed this president’s wishes when they cast their ballots, and so everyone has a responsibility to get in line behind Donald Trump, is a mistake that defies recent history.
* Postscript: Trump has argued from time to time that he secretly won the popular vote, and it only looks like he lost it because of a nefarious conspiracy theory. If this is how Sarah Huckabee Sanders arrived at her “overwhelming majority” argument, she should say so explicitly.
patd, the “lovely” Suckabee left the word “the” before “63” out of her pronouncement.With the addition of that word the statement is true, albeit very misleading.
So has SFB done anything particularly bone headed today?
And RR, I hear ya, and I’d like to be inducted as a member of your “I hate SFB with every fiber of my being” club. I’m sure I meet the membership criteria.
Robert Henry Eller’s Comment On The NYT Birthright Article
Portland, Oregon Oct. 31
Keep voting Republican, folks. Why rule yourselves with your own Constitution of Laws, when you can be ruled by Madmen, Greedy Grifters, the Ignorant, the Stupid, the Haters, the Worshipers of False Idols, and Foreign Dictators? Why vote in your own self interest, when you can be slaves? Keep voting Republican, folks. And keep watching Fox News, the Opioid Channel. Lie yourself to Death. Keep voting Republican, folks.
Deport melanoma and barroom ! She worked here (taking jobs away from Americans) before she applied for a green card ! Therefore her citizenship should be revoked, and she and her birthrighted child should be deported.
Tongue firmly in Left cheek.
Flatus – here is a nice thing. The department I work for has asked me to represent the U.S. Air Force Vietnam Era veterans at the department Veterans Day event. I am to be on stage to receive a pin (I think it is the DoD Vietnam Era veteran pin) as the representative of these vets and shake the hand of the secretary. I am looking forward to that as he has stated some less than nice things about LGBTQ people. Quite interesting. It is an honor I am happy to receive and share with all veterans. Due to security concerns all of us employees are requested to lower our online presence and not name who we work for and where. I guarantee the white, straight, males do not need to be concerned. Everybody else does need to be concerned.
The reason I sort of disappeared two years ago was Trump’s win. I couldn’t stand the thought of him as prez for4 years. Now the nightmare is half over and the excitement is building to a crescendo for next Tuesday.
KGC, a friend told me of a great pho place in Fort Wayne. Maybe I’ll try it after Trump leaves Fort Wayne…he’s coming in for a rally in a few days and the repuggs are just going ape-**** over it. I live about 45 minutes from the venue. When Cheney came here for a barn rally, I tried to drive through the farmland to get to a meeting and the sheriffs had every road and lane barricaded, and to get through one had to have a special red invitation to the barn rally. I just went home.
Since I was a regular here Mrs. Dexter( Carla Lee) has had two knee replacements and a corrective surgery at Cleveland Clinic, daughter Sandi was in a Miami, FL hospital with stomach problems, my great grandson was in a Las Vegas hospital three times with an autoimmune disease, Vanessa the middle daughter had a mastectomy for Stage One cancer,and Carla Lee’s car was condemned by our mechanic as unsafe, so…a car loan. With all this (and really much more) I can’t even get all worry-warted up about my stress test on Wednesday next week. I know they’ll “find something” but I surrender to modern medicine.
It must be the SecDef as the AF Secretary is a woman (Heather Wilson). If anybody gives you any shit, let us know. Consider taking a couple of bios detailing your most significant accomplishments for presentation to whomever should they give you any shit. Having one for the dean of the press corps would be nice if the conversation overflows. F… them if they can’t take a joke.
Dex, I refused to take mine. That was several years ago; I’m fine. I had one a couple of years earlier–it was a on a treadmill–a crappy experience.
For a nice mostly liberal state, WA does have some weird types and Rep. Matt Shea is one of them. I think being on the Eastern side of the mountains does something to the brain. He’s been handing out this little “Christian” document on how to conduct war and wipe out those who will not convert.
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/khq/SHEAWAR.pdf
Anybody got a post?
Gimme a few minutes …
Dex, in the small world category, the doc who did my hip resurfacing, Michael Mont, is now Chief Of Orthopedics at Cleveland Clinic.
U got nice hips, Mr Pogo ?
Not Prepared For Federal Prison
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/press-conference-alleging-mueller-sex-assaults-features-no-evidence-no-victim/ar-BBPepsx?ocid=spartanntp