you can check your registration quickly in South Carolina-my mother and I are doing absentee ballots so had to send a letter to get the application, they called to check on something about me, then will send the applications I think within 30 days from the election. They have a place where you can check to see if your absentee ballot had been received.

Newsmax has settled with Smartmatic over their defamation of them over the 2020 election claims as jury selection was ongoing. There are still other suits out there to be decided yet. I really wish one of these goes to trial and we can see all the evidence and hear all the lies:


Newsmax and Smartmatic settle 2020 election defamation caseÂ*on eve of trial | CNN Business

At some point the voter does have to take some responsibility, like others have shown it's not hard to check.

I like how they handle the our ballots here (Colorado, all by mail unless you want to go to your polling place.) We get sent an email when the ballot is mailed, another when they receive the returned ballot and a third when it has been counted.

And based on this, I checked my registration in Louisiana, and I am still listed as an active voter there. It has been over 20 years since I've lived there. And I am pretty sure that I am still registered at my parents' house, where I have not lived since 1994.

So, yeah, periodic cleaning of the rolls is a good thing.

I would like to see a report on which party the dead people voted for.

Apparently Trump is going to be at the Georgia-Bama game tonight and the Harris campaign is going to fly a banner over the stadium that says "Trump punted on 2nd debate"

I hope this is true and not just internet BS. :)

Keep hearing the line from the ICE guy about 13000 convicted murderers in the US. How many of them are in jail? I'd expect almost all of them given that they are convicted.

Senate GOP already saying if they take the Senate and Harris takes the White House they won’t allow a vote on any Harris nominees to the Supreme Court.

While I don’t agree with it, it’s a good argument if you take both you should stack the court with as many justices as you can confirm in four years.

All rise for our 13,000 members of the Supreme Court.

https://t.co/vIkg6FkrcF pic.twitter.com/gq0Vdxlm3I

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 29, 2024

It’s being pretty heavily reported that none of them are detained, but that’s not true. I’m certain these staggering numbers will be investigated and either corrected or some national action to find and remove these criminals will take place. Hopefully we have actually detained them all but it’s truly not clear where these people are.

The report you reference is broken into two categories. Detained and non-detained (Assuming this means by ICE which has limited detainment infrastructure considering the incredible surge since 2021). The non-detained is what the numbers below are focused on.

Charges and numbers include…

Assault - 105,100
Burglary - 17,500
Dangerous Drugs - 70,400
Family offenses - 10,200
Forgery - 12,100
Fraud - 21,100
Homicide - 15,000
Illegal immigration - 92,000
Kidnapping - 3,300
Larceny - 30,500
Robbery - 12,000
Sex offenders - 12,100
Sexual assault - 21,000
Weapons offenses - 16,700

That’s a lot. I think we can both agree we need to ensure the non-detained numbers needs to be around zero. And perhaps the cooperation of state and local authorities can assist in that.

As Grant posted above, non-detained doesn't mean not in jail, it just means not under the supervision of DHS. I expect almost all of the murderers are in jail. We don't convict people of murder and then release them.

I feel like the disaster response is going to be a pretty defining moment of the campaign. If they screw this up, it’s gonna be all kinds of material, if they’re competent they probably don’t lose points. I’m sure they’ll be a bunch of stuff about the government giving money to people they shouldn’t, it’s just a treasure trove. Meanwhile large chunks of the Appalachian region will be barely hanging on.

AZ better not be a close one ...

Just a moment...

I'm not sure I understand why the AZ elections just don't ask the 100k for proof? They know who the 100k are and have a month. Using 80-20, they should be able to reach out to 80% of them "please provide proof or you can't vote". For the remaining 20%, spend the money & resources to help them and confirm or not. Why give election doubters another excuse.

First day in America?

I think we all know Harris could literally be on the ground filling sandbags and right wing media would say they aren't doing enough.

Listening to some clips from Trumps speechs from this past weekend.

Holy shit. It is beyond unhinged. I don't understand how anyone can vote for him.

You got a problem with the purge? Sounds like you should be one of the people the cops get to beat up.

You can really see the Russian propaganda at work with the flooding. There are so many accounts saying we should stop funding Ukraine and put the money in Asheville. It's funny because I think complaining about immigrants or welfare is a better strategy for the GOP, but hardly anyone mentions anything other than Ukraine.

It also makes you wonder how many of the high-profile right is also getting paid by the Russians. They are all speaking in one voice now about Ukraine and Asheville.

I know that no story has sticking power these days. But the "a bunch of right-wing media guys were being paid by Russia" story probably should have penetrated the public consciousness a bit more than it did.

Every other story can be seen through that lens.

The people that the message needs to get through to really don't care. They are being told what they want to hear. They couldn't care less about the source.

I remember a time when saying your opponent was born mentally disabled would be a bridge too far.

Not to mention admitting to stiffing workers on overtime pay

I was just coming to mention that. How on earth can anyone in organized labor support him given his history.

Trump in Pennsylvania blames Biden for his small crowd yesterday in Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/HK0At4iZPy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2024

Trump's rallies are a nothing issue. But ever since Harris made fun of them in passing, that's all he can think about.

No wonder his people won't let him debate again. We are still seeing the ripple effects from the first one.

She really hit his ego. The clip of him telling his supporters at a rally that people leaving early aren't really leaving, they're going to the back for photo ops is crazy.

Absolutely bonkers that Trump called for a day where police can be as violent as they please and nobody in the national media seems to be covering it as a big story.

In Valdosta, GA yesterday, Trump said "Nobody thought this would be happening, especially now it's so late in the season for hurricanes." It's actually peak hurricane season. Apparently, he gets his meteorological information from Marjorie Taylor Greene instead of NOAA, which he probably intends to disband.

This "Trump donated 25 million to hurricane victims" is just another perfect example of how the MAGA presence on Twitter take a completely unverified claim and turns it to absolute truth. Then when it is inevitably debunked they yell fake news.

It is maddening how easily manipulated a large portion of the US electorate can be.

He who has the sharpie last is always correct. ;)

I don't discuss politics with my mother in law who is very MAGA, but I really want to text her and tell her my daughters principle just called and said my daughter called another girl stupid and said she was mentally disabled since birth. Wonder what her reaction would be. Then send her the clip of Trump saying that about Harris and Walz

Is there anything more ridiculous than the VP debate? These people literally have no role to play unless the President dies or resigns. A debate between HHS Secretary candidates would be more useful.

When Bentsen struck the death blow against Quayle in their debate, it didn't move the needle one bit.

A minimal role. Cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate if needed. And oh yeah, attend funerals and ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

And become President if anything happens to the President, which is not very important especially considering both candidates are young and healthy and one is not going to be over 80 while in office and one cheeseburger away from a massive coronary. Not an important job at all.

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...also not target of three (?) credible assassination threats in about that many months. And all of that's ignoring how Kamala Harris got in this race in the first place.

Yeah, I just don't know why we care who these guys are at all. Just nominate a ham sandwich. It is just not important we know anything about who is a heartbeat beat away from the Oval.

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But we're not really getting what Vance would do as President, we're getting what Vance wants to say to make it more likely people will vote for Trump. Tonight won't give us much insight on what a theoretical President Vance will do.

I think it shows Vance's character quite well.

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Debates have always been somewhat unproductive but I do agree a VP debate is rather pointless. They were more important before the 24 hour news cycle when VP candidates weren't well known by voters.

So far this debate has been rather pointless and lackluster. Vance has largely tried to tell the audience what they want to hear regardless of what Trump's stance is and what his stance has been historically.

Make doors lock better, make stronger windows. That will fix gun violence in schools.

I am watching now. It is clear Vances strategy is to appear normal and congenial. He also keeps referring to the "Harris" administration. Hopefully people aren't that stupid.

I thought Vance was pretty strong tonight and had a slight edge overall but the fact that he refused to say Trump lost the election probably undid everything before that.

Tim Walz is the type of politician the right wanted for ages. A gun owner, hunter, football coach, farm supporting everyman. Now that the party is all about finding a minority group to punish because they're not happy with their lives it no longer represents the base of the party.

Now they have JD Vance, who would tell anyone anything they want to hear for just a little bit more power.

Solid debate.

I like Vance challenging the fact checking. Agree Vance’s weakest was Jan 6 response. Walz’s was China experience. It was relatively civil, good to see a ‘normal’ debate.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/polit...ate/index.html

Didn't watch.

The social media reviews seem to be that it was like an A- for Vance and a B+ for Walz, and nothing changed about the race.

Weirdly, I wonder if the fact that this was a "normal" debate hurts Trump just because it reminds people of just how much he, personally, is the reason nothing has been normal since 2016.

The fact that GOPers still make hay out of the media being unfair to them, despite that just no longer being true over the past 15-20 years is pretty astounding to me.

Prime example is people holding Walz’ fee to the fire for saying he was in China/Hong Kong, 35-years ago, at the time of Tianeman Square when he w there multiple times that year.

Meanwhile, Vance lies in real time by saying he never said he was for a national abortion ban, called Trump “America’s Hitler,” or that Hillary and Trump are somehow equivalent when it comes to peaceful transition of power (Hilllary called Trump to concede and conceded in public to her followers and literally went to Trump’s inauguration) and folks like Edward are noting Walz on China being a big takeaway from the event. If Walz’ China lie is more important than those sets of “lies” from Vance to a lot of people, then I guess I have a much better understanding of how things are so close to 50-50.

I quit watching when it became clear Walz was just playing it safe. That might be a good strategy but Vance has made so many weird comments Walz could have been much more aggressive. I'm guessing they just want to focus on Trump though since that is 99% of the Dem strategy anyway.

Pre-debate CBS graphic:

Grocery prices since January 2021 equated to wage growth since last September designed to make viewers think they cover the same time period.

The media is a lot of things. But anti-GOP ain't one of them.

That graphic is so egregious . You would think it was from Newsmax.

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I was very disappointed that Walz essentially let Vance off the hook after Vance rewrote history and said Trump saved the Affordable Care Act. On day one, Trump signed an executive order that tried to get rid of it, and on 60 occasions during his presidency he and the Republicans tried to get rid of it. The only reason they failed was John McCain's "no" vote to repeal it.

Hot take: if Trump manages to win NC, the post-Helene lies/mischaracterizations being spread via social media will play a decent part in it. "The national media doesn't care and isn't covering it!" "Biden and Harris are sending all our money to Ukraine and nothing to NC!" "They're needing all these volunteers because the government isn't doing ANYTHING!" This stuff is rampant here, and it seems to be landing with some folks that are likely in the independent/undecided/swing voter group.

I thought this was a mistake. He basically was saying "how dare you don't let me spew lies" while coming off as a misogynistic bully.

I didn't watch the debate, but that's exactly the way everyone should have interpreted it. As someone I read pointed out, it was like the Ford-Carter SNL debate parody where Chevy Chase says, "It was my understanding that there would be no math.”

As far as the media being anti-GOP, when I visited Asheville a few weeks ago, I had a long debate with my SIL about all things political. I wouldn't call her a Trumper per se, but she's definitely full-on GOP and had a lot of hateful things to say about Kamala Harris, had no clue why anyone would think badly of JD Vance, and just basically sees the world as anti-GOP. She about fell all over herself when I challenged the idea that the media was anti-GOP.

At one point she brought up the increase in crime, which I immediately pushed back on, and she told me that she could no longer discuss anything with me if that's what I truly believe. I googled FBI stats in 5 seconds (this was before the latest FBI stats came out, but they showed the same thing), and she wouldn't even acknowledge it and we just sat watching TV in silence for about 5 minutes. Completely unhinged from reality, Trumper or no.

Never mind that when trump was the President the Democratic Governor of NC requested 900m in emergency funds and trump sent just over 6m instead. But explain to them again, how he doesn't play politics with emergencies and looks our for everyone. On his visit he should have basketball shot some paper towels into the crowd and then ranted about how everyone just loved him during the visit. Again.

FWIW I heard 3 of my younger coworkers talking about the VP debate. They don't seem to have a preference between Vance and Walz but agreed that both VP candidates did a lot better their debate than the presidential candidates did in their debate.

This was an actual debate instead of "trainwreck TV", which the Trump-era debates have been.

Vance got at least a draw, which kinda enrages me.. This is kinda stuff that can get the fringes of the middle on both stuff to pay attention, which is good (and what I want), but then you compare it to his "Well, sometimes we have to invent stuff to make the media pay attention to us" comments, and it's just.. infuriating.

One interesting observation that I hadn't picked up on from last night was with that exchange where they cut the mics - two women I work with thought Vance came off as condescending and was "mansplaining" while missing the point of the question. And, in hindsight, the moderators seemed to receive it in, what I thought at the time, was an odd way. Knowing what I know now, I guess the reactions were more of a typical response to that behavior.

Edit to add - I doubt it moved the needle much for either side, but thought it was interesting to hear from two separate women at separate times of the day.

Vance is the ultimate political chameleon, and last night just cemented that status. He was able to stand there, in a convincing and composed manner, and either deflect or completely reverse his positions on almost every controversial issue that plagues him. I think Vance is just as despicable and reprehensible as Trump is, but he is shrewd and calculating enough to be looking ahead to positioning himself for 2028. Whether that comes as a sitting Vice President or a potential Republican nominee from an open field challenging Harris remains to be seen.

This has been the concern all along - someone who is actually interested in governing in an extreme manner (as opposed to Trump, who really just cares about the money and power trip) and can channel Trump's worst impulses, but has way more brains and self-control to hide/deflect it when necessary.

I don't know if Vance is going to be that person, but eventually he or someone else is going to take that mantle from Trump and possibly be way more effective at wrecking our country than Trump has been or will be.

Can we all agree last nights biggest loser was Meatball Ron?

I think Meatball Ron was the biggest loser long before last night.

Social media is killing us.

Today I saw a MAGA pundit credulously share a post about Sec. Pete having HIV. 500k views. My husbands HS friend shared an AI pic of Trump wading thru the water doing hurricane relief and asked why media wasn’t covering. Pretty concerning view into MAGA info space pre-election

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) October 2, 2024

Yeah I saw that AI pic of Trump wading through the water. It's unbelievable what people believe - or want to believe.

There is always going to be a not insignificant number of gullible, or just plain stupid, people out there who will believe anything. I think the number of people who chose to believe it because it goes along with their narrative is much larger.

Does anyone think there is one person out there who will change their vote based on Jack Smiths filing being unsealed?

"It was in this newly unsealed court paper we're learning that former President Trump resorted to crime in a bid to cling to power after the 2020 election."

Who is saying this? CNN? MSNBC? The New York Times? Nope. Fox News.

x.com

(whoever wrote that up on the prompter deserves a raise from reality standpoint, and firing from the Fox News POV. He's just reading the prompter on breaking news, but the intern transcribing it just copied "Resorted to crime.." part from the opening statement, so it comes out like Fox News actually is saying that Trump resorted to crime.

I'd bet Turnip is on the phone yelling and screaming to Fox right now, demanding that they declare him the 2020 election winner, and that he is the one true God-Emperor.

"Resorted to crime" though. I mean, it's like his natural state.

Well, you see, he did some of his criming at Mar-a-Lago, which is a resort, so yes, he did Resort to crime ;)

FOX became bunch of RINO traitors the second they declared Arizona for Biden

I have two family members who are die-hard MAGA and never deviate from Fox News for any other source of information. One of them thought that since all of the debates so far have been from "liberal" news channels with biased moderators, it would only be fair to have one on Fox News with Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. I had a hard time explaining to him that if a debate were to ever take place on Fox News, then Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would be the moderators. You know, actual news anchors, not right-wing entertainers like Hannity and Carlson, which would be the equivalent of having a debate on MSNBC with Reverend Al Sharpton as the moderator.

No blowback from that CBS graphic at all? The only thing I see is a reddit thread about it.

This could have been serious 3 months ago, enough time for prices & availability to impact the pocketbooks. But a month out, I think Kamala can minimize the impact right now. May hurt BF sales though?

Regardless, going to buy some extra TP.

I need my damn bananas (at a reasonable price)!

I'm resisting the urge to stock up on things we have a month or two supply of because I don't want to be part of the same kind of hoarding-out-of-fear-with-disposable-income thing that helped to drive scarcity of staple items and made Covid suck even worse.

That said, if my stance turns into a grossly miscalculated attempt to be a good neighbor, can you please return the favor and spare a square? The leaves will start falling off the trees soon enough, so I guess I'll hoard those first. Although once they fully turn brown, it'll get a bit scratchy back there...

2 words ... bum gun

Next time I'm in Asia in a fancy 4-5 star hotel, I'm gonna try it.

I dreamed last night that Harris won and it wasn't close. Like call Florida for her on election night blowout.

And the striking thing was what a sense of just pure relief I felt in the dream.

I'm managing to keep it all pretty together, but I am wound tight as fuck about this election.

My brother installed bidets on the main floor of his new house. I didn't try it, but when I walked into the bathroom to pee, the damn thing opened and started spraying something in the bowl, ready for action. My wife definitely enjoyed the warm seat. I figure if I had one, I'd probably pee sitting down during the winter!

That's about the only scenario I DON'T see happening.

Not sure if you are serious, but toilet paper isn't shipped in. It is manufactured here in the US, no ports involved in its transportation.

If the strike does cause any kind of perceived disruption in the economy then Harris can kiss the presidency goodbye.

I'm just waiting for Trump to publicly come out against any kind of resolution of the strike as brazenly as he did against Congress passing legislation to fix the BORDER CRISIS!, because the ongoing dispute will help his election chances. And then everybody pretends that's a normal thing a presidential candidate would or should say. Fun times we're living in.

I still have to think in the end the R will win, but there are now multiple polls showing the Independent candidate leading in the NE senate race.

This is, umm, some special plan for housing pic.twitter.com/vCzV5nP8ST

— Michael Li 李之樸 (@mcpli) October 2, 2024

Sounds like something North Korea would say it was planning to do.

dola: This, of course, from the guy who couldn't get a highway bill through Congress when the GOP controlled both chambers.

But, sure, Trump moon cities in Wyoming or whatever.

We just can't figure out how to house the 3000+ homeless that have been stressing Portland for the last 50 years, but I'm sure building 10 new cities from the ground up on Federal land will be a cinch.

Not Wisconsin. He was selling this in Nevada, because of all the Federal land there. You know, what most people call desert.

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Weren't these the people bitching about the horrors of 15-minte cities?

His ideas are seriously something a 5 year old would come up with and cater to the segment of the population who lack the critical thinking skills to understand just how unrealistic and nonsensical they are.

This post immediately made me think of the Sam Kinison bit chastizing hungry people living in deserts. "THIS IS SAND! YOU KNOW WHAT IT WILL BE IN 1000 YEARS? SAND!!!"

Lets say for a second Trump built these cities then populated them with homeless people and people with housing insecurity. The crime rates would be off the charts.

"We have deserts in America. We just don't live in them!"

A question to those more knowledgeable than me.

Let's say Biden uses the Taft-Hartley act to end the strike. What would prevent the workers from staying home anyways?

You need Sam for the full effect, such a great bit.

- YouTube

No idea but IMO this is exactly what the Trumper Union boss wants Biden to do so that they can claim he is anti working class. It is 100% political and disgusting. Trump wants the economy to crash. He doesn't care about every day Americans.

Trump needs to brand this plan. Since it's about restoring American culture, maybe a Cultural Revolution?

So, 1/2 to 3/4 of the electorate?

Trump in Milwaukee says he wants to close down the Department of Education and have parents run public schools to make sure teachers aren't "teaching woke" or "start teaching a language we don't want them to teach" pic.twitter.com/HTjYIIqfQU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2024