US Election 2024: Grumpy Old Men

[Elfdart]

The really frightening thing is not Trump. There will always be assholes like him littered around the world. The thing I find scary, is that 50% of Americans still want to vote for him. 50% wants to vote for an oligarchic fascist.

You and me, both, bud. I had no idea how fucking stupid half of my fellow countrymen are until seven years ago. I pine for the days when "Republican" just meant, "Yeah I don't want to pay taxes and am kind of a douche," instead of, "Yeah, I'm batshit crazy."

They're not stupid -they're racist. Watching a black man get elected touched off a wave of white power hysteria that has run full tilt for sixteen years. Raw Story pointed out that most of the Jan 6 putschists came from congressional districts that had become majority non-white. Trump is just more upfront about this than Nixon/Reagan/Bush I/Bush II. It's always been there, it's just that the election of Obama pricked a boil, and all the revolting stuff squirted out.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

US election: Trump and Harris' teams react to Biden's blunder

Vice President Kamala Harris has rallied her supporters outside the White House and promised to be a leader for all Americans, not just for her tribe.

That was the explicit promise in her campaign's closing speech which was given in front of 50,000 emotional supporters and with the White House as the backdrop.

The location was carefully chosen. The lawn adjacent to the National Mall was the exact same spot from where Donald Trump delivered his infamous speech on January 6 2021, when he contested the election result and ordered his followers to "fight like hell." They went on to storm the Capitol.

So Harris' team was using the visual stagecraft to provide the starkest of contrasts: her message of unity pitched against the man she calls a "petty dictator" and an agent of chaos.

But at the very moment she was trying to reach moderate Republicans, Joe Biden was undermining her central message, infuriating Team Harris.

Uninvited to his own vice president's speech - even as the event took place in his own backyard - Biden appeared to call Trump supporters "garbage."

Well, that's what his opponents are claiming. The White House says he wasn't referring to all of Trump's supporters, only to the comedian who described Puerto Rico as "garbage."

Perhaps in this hyper-partisan environment, it no longer matters what he meant or exactly who he was referring to.

Trump supporters are outraged - and conservative media outlets are declaring that Democrats hold half the country in contempt.

It's a twist that Harris will view with horror. Her last major pitch as a unifying figure, overshadowed by a fumbling president.

We now enter the final days of the campaign with the polls tied, with controversies raging across the political divide, and with growing concerns that this election campaign has deepened the great American schism.

Meanwhile, ITV News' US Correspondent Dan Rivers and Washington News Editor Jonathan Wald are in Wisconsin and have been following the Trump campaign's reaction

After the widespread criticism of Donald Trump’s New York rally, in which racist jokes and personal insults were peppered through the warm up speeches, it appeared to hand a political advantage to Kamala Harris.

The jibe about Puerto Rico made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, describing it as a "floating island of garbage" could well alienate those of Puerto Rican heritage.

There are about half a million in that critical state alone and in an election of wafer-thin margins, it could make a difference.

But then last night President Joe Biden waded into the row. During a video call, he said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters’ - his, his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

Despite initially putting out a transcript with an apostrophe (as above) suggesting a plural possessive, the White House later corrected it, to change it to “supporter’s” - flipping the meaning to a singular possessive.

It altered the thrust of the sentence to suggest he was talking about a single supporter’s garbage - ie Hinchcliffe’s. But the tweak did little to limit the damage.

The Trump campaign seized on the moment to claim “Kamala Harris’ governing partner just insulted tens of millions of Americans. Will Kamala apologise and disavow Joe Biden’s remarks?”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance said: “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope American’s reject it.”

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, speaking on a stage next to Donald Trump, pushed it further saying: “He’s talking about the Border patrol, he’s talking about nurses. He’s talking about teachers. He’s talking about every day Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr President.”

Trump responded by simply saying “Wow that’s terrible.”

Biden then issued message on the social media platform X, trying to clarify what he said: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage - which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at the rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”

Kamala Harris addressed the row today, distancing herself from Biden’s comments, saying: “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.” Suffice to say this is not the message she was hoping to deliver this close to the election.

The gaff is reminiscent of Hilary Clinton’s description of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” in 2016, which was widely seen as a political own goal, insulting a huge section of American society.

They basically ARE garbage though. Human garbage!

[Batman]

At least as (largely) biologically functional homo sapiens, they should be mostly biodegradable.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

[Zaune]

Cheer up, everyone. Whatever else happens on polling day, Trump has completely failed to gain the support of the army.

[Solauren]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

More like a prediction of what he wants to happen.

Trump isn't Homelander, and doesn't have a mega corporation like Vaught behind him.

[Ralin]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

More like a prediction of what he wants to happen.

Trump isn't Homelander, and doesn't have a mega corporation like Vaught behind him.

Here's the thing (I've never seen the show you're talking about). Trump failed to overturn the election results when he was the actual sitting president, and he did so in a really pathetic and half-assed way. That's great and it should bode well for his likelihood of failing at doing it again.

Except this time it seems like it's less him trying to do it and much more the party in general gearing up to steal the election. And that means a lot more non-clown people being the movers behind it, and that there will have been a lot more thought and planning put into it. And even someone as stupid as Trump eventually learns a thing or two.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

More like a prediction of what he wants to happen.

Trump isn't Homelander, and doesn't have a mega corporation like Vaught behind him.

He does have the Trump Organisation, would Fox not also count as one?

[bilateralrope]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

More like a prediction of what he wants to happen.

Trump isn't Homelander, and doesn't have a mega corporation like Vaught behind him.

Here's the thing (I've never seen the show you're talking about). Trump failed to overturn the election results when he was the actual sitting president, and he did so in a really pathetic and half-assed way. That's great and it should bode well for his likelihood of failing at doing it again.

Except this time it seems like it's less him trying to do it and much more the party in general gearing up to steal the election. And that means a lot more non-clown people being the movers behind it, and that there will have been a lot more thought and planning put into it. And even someone as stupid as Trump eventually learns a thing or two.

SCOTUS are the problem here. They have the power to push through anything Trump tries to steal the election. The only way to fight back against that would be for Biden to use the immunity they granted presidents, assassinate some of them, then ask SCOTUS to reconsider their decision.

[bilateralrope]

Blow for Republicans as supreme court rejects appeal over Pennsylvania ballots

Voters in key swing state will be able to cast provisional vote if they forget to put mail-in ballot in secrecy envelope

Sam Levine in Scranton, Pennsylvania and agencies
Sat 2 Nov 2024 01.05 GMT

Pennsylvania voters will be able to cast a provisional vote if they make an error and forget to put their mail-in vote in a required secrecy envelope, the US supreme court ruled on Friday, a decision that could lead to thousands more votes being counted in a key battleground state where the presidential race is extremely tight.

The supreme court announced its decision on Friday on its emergency docket, giving no reasoning for its ruling, which is customary in emergency cases.

Republicans had asked the court to intervene after the Pennsylvania supreme court ruled 4-3 earlier this week that voters should not be disenfranchised if they forget the secrecy envelope. Voters in Pennsylvania must place their ballots in two envelopes: an inner envelope that ensures its secrecy, and an outer envelope that they mail.

Pennsylvania law does not allow for a voter to cast a provisional ballot – an emergency vote at the polls – if they have cast a timely mail-in vote. But a majority of justices on the state supreme court said that a ballot that was rejected because it lacked a secrecy envelope did not count as a cast ballot. “Because electors failed to comply with the mandatory secrecy envelope requirement, they failed to cast a ballot,” the state supreme court wrote.

The scope of the ruling is not immediately clear. As of Thursday, nearly 9,000 out of 1.6m mail-in ballots returned had arrived without a secrecy envelope, the Associated Press reported. The NBC News decision desk estimated that thousands of votes could be affected in a state that could come down to extremely fine margins.

“In Pennsylvania and across the country, Trump and his allies are trying to make it harder for your vote to count, but our institutions are stronger than his shameful attacks. Today’s decision confirms that, for every eligible voter, the right to vote means the right to have your vote counted,” read a joint statement from Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Pennsylvania adopted a law in 2019 that allows all voters to cast a mail-in ballot. But the law is not clear when it comes to whether officials should be required to notify the voter of technical errors on their ballots – a missing secrecy envelope, signature, or date – and help them fix them.

Thirty-eight counties in the state notify voters of errors and give them the opportunity to fix it, according to an analysis by Votebeat. But the court’s decision on Friday means that any voter in Pennsylvania who has a ballot rejected on a technicality will have the chance to cast a provisional ballot on election day to be counted.

The dispute stemmed from a special election earlier this year in which two voters in Butler county, near Pittsburgh, had their mail-in ballots rejected, were invited to cast a provisional ballot, and then had their provisional ballots rejected.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote on Friday that the case before the court was relatively narrow, and that the court’s intervention at this stage would not prohibit any other Pennsylvania county from prohibit provisional voting. Still, he expressed openness to the argument from Republicans that the state supreme court may have exceeded its authority.

Alito’s statement, joined by Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, was significant because he seemed to suggest that the court could use the case to revisit the question of how far state supreme courts can go in policing election laws.

The supreme court said last year that state courts can police election rules, but that sometimes they can go too far. It has declined to clarify the ambiguity of its ruling.

Pennsylvania is the biggest presidential election battleground this year, with 19 electoral votes. Donald Trump won the state in 2016, then lost it in 2020.

A judge in Erie county, in Pennsylvania’s north-western corner, ruled on Friday in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic party that about 15,000 people who applied for a mail ballot but did not receive it may go to the county elections office and get a replacement through Monday.

The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot has passed in Pennsylvania, the biggest presidential battleground this year and a state that has hosted far more visits by Trump and Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, than any other.

The ruling means that Erie county’s elections office will be open every day through Monday for voters to go in, cancel the mail-in ballot they did not receive in the mail, and get another one over the counter, said Cliff Levine, a lawyer for the state Democratic party.

In suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks county, a court set a deadline of 5pm for voters there to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot.

Lines outside the elections office in Doylestown were long throughout the day – snaking down the sidewalk – with the process taking about two hours by Friday afternoon.

A Bucks county judge had ordered the three-day extension in response to a Trump campaign lawsuit alleging voters faced disenfranchisement when they were turned away by county application-processing offices that had struggled to keep up with demand, leading to frustration and anger among voters.

The Trump campaign lawsuit said people who were in line by Tuesday’s 5pm deadline to apply in person for a mail ballot should have been allowed to get a ballot, even after the deadline. However, Bucks county’s election office denied voters that right and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

Bucks county judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled that the board of elections violated the state election code and ordered an extension through Friday.

Unlike other states, Pennsylvania does not have true early in-person voting. Voters can apply early for mail ballots online or in person at county election buildings.

Doing so in person can take about 12 minutes and requires applying for a mail ballot, waiting for a bar-coded envelope to be printed and then, if voters wish, they can cast the ballot on the spot. Or they can put it in a drop box or a mailbox. Election offices must receive the ballots by 8pm on Tuesday.

Here SCOTUS sided with giving everyone a chance to vote over what Republicans wanted. In a swing state. So I can't predict how they will respond when they have to decide on Trump's attempt to steal the election.

[Raw Shark]

SCOTUS are the problem here. They have the power to push through anything Trump tries to steal the election. The only way to fight back against that would be for Biden to use the immunity they granted presidents, assassinate some of them, then ask SCOTUS to reconsider their decision.

Maybe I'm channeling Joe Biden the way The Onion portrays him here, but I'm picturing more like Thomas or Kavanaugh or somebody gets up in the middle of the night and Seal Team 6 is standing around the bathroom when the lights come on, wearing party hats. One of them whispers, "Boo!" The lights go out, and they're gone. Y'know, more whimsy than blood on the walls, but still effective...

[Elfdart]

This election is starting to remind me of an NFL game I saw when I was a kid in 1981 between the Colts and Patriots. They were the two worst teams in the league playing the last game of the season. It was such a terrible game that everyone was convinced both teams were trying to lose on purpose.

To recap: Harris sent an anti-Palestinian bigot and cheerleader for the Gaza Genocide by the name of Ritchie Torres to campaign for her. In Michigan, where she's running behind Jill Stein, Donald Trump AND staying at home among Arab-American voters, who make up over 500,000 people in the state. If she loses Michigan, she loses the election, barring upsets in other states.

But Trump really wants to lose, too! At his mini-Nuremberg rally, one of the guest speakers insulted Puerto Ricans, who make up a large number of voters in Pennsylvania and Florida. It's like the "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" speech that tanked J.G. Blaine in 1884 by pissing off Irish Catholics in several toss-up states. This might be the straw that broke the orange camel's back!

But then Bill Clinton had to do Torres one better by telling Arab-Americans that their kin are being massacred in acceptable numbers. This is the same Clinton who, like his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, thinks deliberately starving half a million Iraqi kids was worth it. I can't think of anyone alive today who could have pissed off Arab-American or Muslim voters more with the possible exceptions of Dubya or Cheney.

Aside from throwing the election on purpose, the only explanation for this deranged campaign is that both candidates expect to lose and they're lining up excuses for failure ahead of time.

[Mr Bean]

I think it's clear based on past experience that Harris like Hillary before her 100% could case less about certain demographic groups. The Palestinians are just one group that has no choice in this election. Do you want the orange grifter who will ask the the Israelis how many bombs they like or VP who might someday send a strongly worded letter tucked away in a shipment of ammunition.

I think the answer is Elfdart that there is simply no choice for any Arab Americans as their choice is either someone actively calling for your imprisonment, deportation and possibly genocide or someone happy to let Israel do whatever they want. Trump is the worse choice, Harris is a bad choice and Jill Stein is a worse choice that a right in for Mickey Mouse.... I'm pretty sure Disney is not an active agent of the Russian Federation unlike Stein.

[Ralin]

I think it's clear based on past experience that Harris like Hillary before her 100% could case less about certain demographic groups. The Palestinians are just one group that has no choice in this election. Do you want the orange grifter who will ask the the Israelis how many bombs they like or VP who might someday send a strongly worded letter tucked away in a shipment of ammunition.

I think the answer is Elfdart that there is simply no choice for any Arab Americans as their choice is either someone actively calling for your imprisonment, deportation and possibly genocide or someone happy to let Israel do whatever they want. Trump is the worse choice, Harris is a bad choice and Jill Stein is a worse choice that a right in for Mickey Mouse.... I'm pretty sure Disney is not an active agent of the Russian Federation unlike Stein.

They can always just not vote

[bilateralrope]

I think it's clear based on past experience that Harris like Hillary before her 100% could case less about certain demographic groups. The Palestinians are just one group that has no choice in this election. Do you want the orange grifter who will ask the the Israelis how many bombs they like or VP who might someday send a strongly worded letter tucked away in a shipment of ammunition.

I think the answer is Elfdart that there is simply no choice for any Arab Americans as their choice is either someone actively calling for your imprisonment, deportation and possibly genocide or someone happy to let Israel do whatever they want. Trump is the worse choice, Harris is a bad choice and Jill Stein is a worse choice that a right in for Mickey Mouse.... I'm pretty sure Disney is not an active agent of the Russian Federation unlike Stein.

They can always just not vote

I think that's what Harris is expecting from anyone who cares more about what Israel does than the meaningful differences between her and Trump. They aren't going to vote for her, but they aren't voting for Trump either.

Focusing on people she can convince to vote for her, or democrats in congress and the senate, might be the better strategy.

[Ralin]

I think that's what Harris is expecting from anyone who cares more about what Israel does than the meaningful differences between her and Trump. They aren't going to vote for her, but they aren't voting for Trump either.

Focusing on people she can convince to vote for her, or democrats in congress and the senate, might be the better strategy.

Or she could just, you know. Agree to not help murder Palestinians.

[bilateralrope]

Or she could just, you know. Agree to not help murder Palestinians.

It's not just a question of what Harris wants. It's also a question about what she can convince the democrat party to cooperate with.

That makes it difficult for me to believe any promise she might make about stopping Israel.

[Solauren]

Is it me or is the finale of season 4 of The Boys a terrifying predictor of what would happen if Trump wins a second term?

More like a prediction of what he wants to happen.

Trump isn't Homelander, and doesn't have a mega corporation like Vaught behind him.

He does have the Trump Organisation, would Fox not also count as one?

Not of the type needed. After all, Vaught had it's own private security forces comparable in size to the United States army, backed up by super-beings. With military grade hardware, and even some tech design to help contain superbeings.

The end you are referring to, is that, with co-operation of law enforcement, targetted against people that were wanted criminals before the election.

[Elfdart]

Or she could just, you know. Agree to not help murder Palestinians.

It's not just a question of what Harris wants. It's also a question about what she can convince the democrat party to cooperate with.

That makes it difficult for me to believe any promise she might make about stopping Israel.

Polls show Dems are mostly in favor of an immediate cease fire and stopping arms shipments to Israel*. The donors and media want the Palestinians exterminated. Harris chose the latter. If she loses Michigan -and there's a good chance she will- it was because of a deliberate choice on her part.

* A majority of younger Republican men are in favor of an arms embargo on Israel:

[Ralin]

Plus the President is Commander-in-Chief over the military with broad powers when it comes to anything related to what they do, and also has veto power over Congress. One might even go so far as to postulate the existence of some sort of fantasy world where Harris would agree to not aid and abet mass murder and genocide and use those powers to try and stop the slaughter of Palestinians even if it wasn't popular with the voters because it would be the right thing to do, though obviously such a thing would only happen in the wildest reaches of the imagination.

So yes, it is largely a question of what Harris wants. None of this has to be happening.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

If Trump wins, how long before he tries to repeal the twenty-second amendment?

[Elfdart]

The President could stop this holocaust right now by doing nothing:

No more weapons for Israel.
No more UN vetoes.
No more US personnel in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon or the nearby seas to cover the IGF's depredations.

The Dems have dubbed Trump (rightly) as a fascist. If Trump had half a brain, he could reply that what made the Fascists under Il Duce so vile wasn't the black shirts, castor oil and other violence against political opponents, it was their mass murder of people in other countries -especially Muslims in Africa and the Middle East. It was the ethnic cleansing of natives to make room for European colonies, bombing of civilians, the deliberate targeting of hospitals, deliberately starving refugees in cities and ghettoes, providing weapons and other support to client states that reveled in murdering civilians -all things that the Biden-Harris regime is doing right now. But then, Trump decided to speak on much more important issues, like the size of a deceased golfer's dick.

[Ubiquitous]

Is the IvP matter important to the US electorate?
I'm not a yank and don't pay much attention to their politics. I've just been reading this thread and it appears to be a key issue, but is barely reported upon in my country. Is the MSM not reflecting American priorities?

[Solauren]

Is the IvP matter important to the US electorate?

Truth be told, this is the only place I see any discussion about it.

[Ralin]

Is the IvP matter important to the US electorate?
I'm not a yank and don't pay much attention to their politics. I've just been reading this thread and it appears to be a key issue, but is barely reported upon in my country. Is the MSM not reflecting American priorities?

US presidential elections are frequently won on the margins by swaying or turning out relatively small and specific demographics.