2020 Presidential Election

[Orema]

If Biden is elected and there’s an opening on the Supreme Court, I’m hoping he’ll nominate an American Indian or Anita Hill. Of course, I don’t want anyone to have to work with their abuser (!), but I’d get some satisfaction if Thomas had to work with Hill as an equal on the highest court in the U.S.

And it’s long overdue for an American Indian to be a Supreme. Of course, the same case can be made for others.

[Cin]

This guy is such an asshole. I can't believe he gets away with this crap.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ce-again-urges

'Do Not Do What the President Directs,' Warns North Carolina AG as Trump—Once Again—Urges Residents to Commit Felony by Voting Twice

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein on Saturday pleaded with residents of his state to "not do what the president directs" after President Donald Trump yet again advised people to attempt to vote twice—once by mail and once in person on Election Day—in violation of both state and federal law.

"To make sure your ballot COUNTS, sign and send it in EARLY," Stein tweeted, mimicking the president's use of all caps for emphasis. "Then track it online with Ballottrax. Do NOT vote twice (it's a felony), or waste your time, or unnecessarily risk exposure to more people."

"The only GOOD thing about the president's tweet is that he FINALLY encourages voters to VOTE BY MAIL. It's an easy, safe, and secure way to cast a ballot," Stein added, linking to North Carolina's Absentee Ballot Request Portal.

Stein's tweets came after Trump repeated advice he originally offered during a trip to North Carolina earlier this month.

"NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign and send it in EARLY," the president tweeted Saturday morning. "When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don't let them illegally take your vote away from you!"

In a statement issued a day after Trump's visit to the state, Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, reminded residents that "attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so... is a violation of North Carolina law."

Critics warned that the president's recommendation could sow further chaos on Election Day by driving voters who have already cast mail-in ballots to in-person polling places, lengthening lines and increasing the risk of spreading Covid-19.

"Trump's goal here," said attorney Susan Simpson, "is to cause the 2020 election to be the biggest clusterfuck the U.S. has ever seen."

[Cin]

'A Matter of Life and Death': After 175 Years, Scientific American Backs Biden With Magazine's First-Ever Endorsement
The editors blast Trump's rejection of "evidence and science," especially "his dishonest and inept response to the Covid-19 pandemic."

With unprecedented wildfires burning across western states, the Gulf Coast bracing for a hurricane, and the coronavirus pandemic still raging, Scientific American on Tuesday gave Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden its first-ever endorsement in the magazine's 175-year history.

Although SciAm had refrained from supporting any political candidates up until now, "this year we are compelled to do so," the editors explain in an endorsement published online. "We do not do this lightly."

"The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science," the editors charge, calling "his dishonest and inept response to the Covid-19 pandemic" just the "most devastating example."

SciAm's editors note that in addition to his "catastrophic" handling of the ongoing public health crisis, Trump "has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges."

"That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment," they write. "These and other proposals he has put forth can set the country back on course for a safer, more prosperous and more equitable future."

The rest of the article here:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...iden-magazines

[Cin]

Why the stability of the 2020 race promises more volatility ahead

In a presidency of unprecedented disruption and turmoil, Donald Trump's support has remained remarkably stable. That stability, paradoxically, points toward years of rising turbulence in American politics and life.

Trump's approval ratings and support in the presidential race against Democratic nominee Joe Biden have oscillated in a strikingly narrow range of around 40%-45% that appears largely immune to both good news -- the long economic boom during his presidency's first years -- and bad -- impeachment, the worst pandemic in more than a century, revelations that he's disparaged military service and blunt warnings that he is unfit for the job from former senior officials in his own government. Perhaps the newest disclosures, in the upcoming book from Bob Woodward, that Trump knew the coronavirus was far more dangerous than the common flu even as he told Americans precisely the opposite, will break this pattern, but most political strategists in both parties are skeptical that it will.

The durability of both support and opposition to Trump shows how the motivation for voters' choices is shifting from transitory measures of performance, such as the traditional metrics of peace and prosperity, toward bedrock attitudes about demographic, cultural and economic change. The immovability of the battle lines in 2020 captures how thoroughly the two parties are now unified -- and separated -- by their contrasting attitudes toward these fundamental changes, with Trump mobilizing overwhelming support from the voters who are hostile to them, no matter what else happens, and the contrasting coalition of Americans who welcome this evolution flocking toward the Democrats.

"That is certainly what gives Trump a floor: By stoking those cultural war fires you are going to win over a certain share of the electorate that has this more racist and sexist and xenophobic views," says Brian Schaffner, a Tufts University political scientist who has extensively studied the correlation between political preferences and cultural attitudes. "But it also prevents him from winning over these other people who would otherwise be conservative or be open to voting Republican, but simply can't stomach that culture war stuff he is so focused on."

In the near term, this alignment has produced a campaign dynamic in which Trump consistently trails Biden, but not so severely that despite all the controversies that might have capsized an earlier incumbent, he cannot squeeze out another narrow win in the Electoral College.

Over the long term, the durability of attitudes toward Trump spotlights the likelihood of a widening rift between two Americas fundamentally diverging in both their exposure to and attitudes about such fundamental dynamics as the nation's growing racial and religious diversity, rising demands for greater racial equality, changing gender roles and the transition from an industrial to an information age economy.

"When your identity and view of [the nation's] identity overlaps with your partisan identity so much, it's hard to ever consider shifting sides," Schaffner says.

The article is too long to post. If interested the rest can be read here:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/polit...ews/index.html

The bottom line is regardless of what happens, a cultural war is looming.

[homoe]

Schmidt, who quit the GOP in 2018 over its support for Trump, is one of the cofounders of The Lincoln Project, a group of “never Trump” conservatives working against the president’s reelection.

He said Trump’s efforts to downplay the virus made the United States the world’s epicenter of coronavirus death and suffering, and pointed to a shattered economy, mass unemployment, interrupted education and a still-rising death toll.

A death rate similar to Germany would have meant 140,000 fewer deaths in the United States. Instead, Trump seems to be pushing for herd immunity, which Schmidt described as “the most immoral plan ever articulated in the history of the country by a president.”

Schmidt cited estimates that a herd immunity approach without a vaccine could lead to nearly 3 million deaths.

[BullDog]

One of the worst possible things that could have happened before the election just occurred. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died. May she rest in peace for all that she has done for our country.

I think there is zero chance that McConnell won't try to ram through a conservative justice. My guess is they will wait to vote until after November 3 during the lame duck session. I don't know if the Democrats can do anything to stop it.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by BullDog

One of the worst possible things that could have happened before the election just occurred. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died. May she rest in peace for all that she has done for our country.

I think there is zero chance that McConnell won't try to ram through a conservative justice. My guess is they will wait to vote until after November 3 during the lame duck session. I don't know if the Democrats can do anything to stop it.

Yes it is the worst possible thing. What makes it worse is that she told her granddaughter she wanted to outlive the election.