[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Texas Republicans Ask Federal Judge to Throw Out 117,000 Legally Cast Ballots

Texas Republicans have asked a federal judge to throw out at least 117,000 ballots cast in Harris County, a heavily Democratic area that has experienced an unprecedented surge in early voting this month. The brazen effort to undo legally cast ballots in a diverse, populous county is an eleventh-hour attempt to diminish Joe Biden's chances of carrying the swing state on Nov. 3. Republicans claim that Harris County's use of drive-thru voting violates the U.S. Constitution, requiring the judge to throw out every ballot cast this way—more than 117,000 as of Friday. This argument is outrageous and absurd. But the case landed in front of U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, one of the most notoriously partisan conservatives in the federal judiciary. Democrats have good reason to fear that Hanen will order the mass nullification of ballots as early as Nov. 2, when he has scheduled a hearing.'

https://slate.com/ne...ut-ballots.html

Even 'better' for Republicans if he waits until November 4th to nullify those ballots....

'Cops Pepper-Spray Voters as They March to Polls in NC

On the final day of early voting in North Carolina, police in Alamance County pepper-sprayed a group of voters who were marching to the polls, leaving demonstrators injured and vomiting in the streets.

At least one journalist was arrested in the chaotic showdown on Saturday in Alamance County, a red county but one that may decide which party controls the state legislature next year.'

https://www.thedaily...rolina?ref=home

'Chicago, Philadelphia and New York are among cities that have revealed plans to prevent violence on Nov. 3, when election observers worry polling sites could be targeted, or in the weeks that follow if historic levels of mail-in ballots preclude the declaration of an immediate winner.'

https://www.bloomber...tion-day-unrest

'"We have to be very, very careful in this state," Trump said. "What happens in Philadelphia, we have to be very careful. Everyone has to watch."

He encouraged supporters to vote in person: "I won't even say go today, go tomorrow, go the next day, or go on the third, we want Election Day, thank you."'

https://www.bakersfi...7be2b36319.html

'Known as the "red mirage", the scenario could develop if Trump appears to be leading in the presidential race late on election night and declares victory before all the votes are counted.

[...] In the scenario, Trump's declaration of victory is echoed on the conservative TV network Fox News and by powerful Republicans across the US. By the time final returns show that in fact Joe Biden has won the presidency, perhaps days later, the true election result has been dragged into a maelstrom of disinformation and chaos.

To some officials, the scenario is too realistic for words. A potential multi-day delay in counting votes is anticipated in Philadelphia, whose mostly Democratic votes are crucial for Biden to win in Pennsylvania, currently the state the quants see as most likely to tip the election one way or the other.

The public must understand, these officials say, that Philadelphia will not be able to report its election result on the night of 3 November, and may not be able to do so for days afterward, owing to the extraordinary circumstances that the pandemic has wrought.

[...] The blood-curdling thing about the red-mirage scenario, for some analysts, is that some aspects of it look more like a certainty than a scenario.

[...] Making life more difficult for Philadelphia election officials, negotiations broke down last week between the state's Republican-led legislature and the Democratic governor to allow the processing of mail-in ballots – meaning removing the ballots from their envelopes and smoothing them for insertion into counting machines – before election day itself.'

Many representatives from each party will be allowed inside the convention center to observe the process, but arrangements for media to be inside have been shelved. Any ballot whose validity is contested [...] must be reviewed by commissioners in a process that has not been publicly described.

"There are challenge guidelines that are outlined in the state election code, and we will follow those guidelines," Deeley said.

Some election observers fear that the presence inside the hall of Trump supporters could create an opportunity for havoc – especially with concerns about coronavirus – that could interrupt the operation in a way that could allow Trump to amplify his claims of fraud in Philadelphia.'

https://www.theguard...cenario-victory

Frivolous challenges to slow down the process....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 31 October 2020 - 10:57 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'4 Dozen Undelivered Ballots Found at Miami-Dade Post Office, Sparking Investigation

[...] Video taken by a postal worker shows they had been sitting there for more than a week.'

[Florida]

https://www.nbcmiami...7cs470cGEuRWMgw

'Biden Team Cancels Texas Event After Highway "Ambush" by MAGA Cavalry

[...] a line of pickup trucks along the highway, many of them flying Trump flags. The drivers were "waiting to ambush the Biden/Harris campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin," [...]

"These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road [...] They outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer's car."

[...] Trump supporters surrounded the bus on the highway and slowed down in front of it, attempting to stop it or run it off the road. The official sent a picture taken on the bus, showing Trump trucks surrounding the front of the vehicle. Staffers on the bus called police, who helped the bus reach its destination.

Video from the highway shows trucks surrounding the bus, at one point colliding with an SUV.'

https://www.thedaily...gn-bus?ref=home

'Trump on Saturday night praised his supporters who almost ran a Biden bus off the road in Texas.

"Did anybody see the picture of that crazy bus driving down the highway and they're surrounded by like, hundreds of cars? They're all Trump flags all over the place," Trump said at his fourth Pennsylvania rally of the day.

"What a group," he remarked. "It's like a hot thing."

[Trump tweet including a video of it] "I LOVE TEXAS!"'

https://www.rawstory...UE4uCuIpZqqKdM4

'This weekend, pro-Trump MAGA supporters will be driving around the US in large convoys, including here in New York.

Car attacks against BLM protesters have occurred with horrifying frequency since May. In September, the local MAGA creeps rammed their car through a crowd of protesters in Times Square--injuring many.

[...] This "full police support, top to bottom" is very curious, considering these bootlickers' disregard of their precious law and order: "Everybody tape up your plates, run the lights, have a party."

Last Sunday, NYers confronted a far-right Trump Rally and car convoy that was fully protected by the NYPD--who allowed Trump supporters to run through police lines to attack counter-demonstrators and run back when people defended themselves.'

https://twitter.com/...678860819869697

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 01 November 2020 - 02:41 AM

[Tsundoku]

'Murica. I know it's far from absolute, but sometimes I think you guys almost have a monopoly on being fucking stupid:

https://www.news.com...36f2a25361fa347

We and other western countries truly have too many deadshit mouth breathers in politics (one is enough), but it just seems like the USA has a critical mass of them.
And they're not minor parties either, but highly ranked in major organisations. Yet nobody bats an eyelid - that's the scariest part!

EDIT: now Trump is saying he'd like to take Biden behind a barn or something? Is this in response to a physical challenge earlier from Biden? Not sure from context.
But of courser Trump even reveals his cowardly, bullying ways in a taunt:

"He's a weak person, he challenged me a year-and-a-half ago, 'I'd like to take him behind a barn,'" he said.

"I said, of all the people in the world I'd like to fight, that's probably the one I'd like to most fight. Those legs have gotten very thin. Not a lot of base."

"Of all the people in the world I could fight that's probably the one I'd like to most fight. Those legs have gotten very thin" — Trump mocks Biden's appearance and fantasizes about fighting him pic.twitter.com/3qBjhd7MvK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 2, 2020

Showing he wouldn't have a go at anyone who he thinks could be a physical challenge. I notice he doesn't do that to Obama. Obama would flog so much shit out of him all that would be left is a deflated orange bag on the floor. Then Trump would probably cry about bone spurs or some shit, then claim he won.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 02 November 2020 - 08:26 AM

[Malankazooie]

The Trump supporters driving around with flags has been on the news, and I can say that is something I have seen in my area.

I saw a truck where on the driver's side was flapping a "Trump 2020" flag, the other side (passenger's) was, get this, not the stars and stripes, but a Confederate flag. And the size of them. Both were big enough to fly at a state capital. And on this troll's back window of the cab was a large sticker/decal with the word "Redneck".

That was last Thursday. Then Sunday saw another truck, same deal except not trolling with the Confederate flag on this one and instead the gold 'ol stars and stripes. Don't you just love America?

[Gorefest]

You want the symparhetic or the honest answer?

[Aptorian]

Watching all the preelection predictions and projections are making me pretty hopeful about the election tomorrow but I'm afraid of believing in a blue wave and a blue white house, because I don't want to jinx it.

[Terez]

Not where I live, but I am decidedly in Trump country a.k.a. Illinois corn country. Trump signs abound. There are a few Biden/Harris signs but not many.

Good news: the federal court just threw out the challenge to drive-through votes in Harris County, TX. Not expecting this one to have any better luck up the chain.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Briar King, on 02 November 2020 - 08:32 PM, said:

Been a strange one. This is the 1st presidential run where you can look around and see no signs out for either person but the local and state candidates are spammed all over. I wonder if this is the case elsewhere?

'Signs Get Snatched, Kicked, Burned as Political Battle Reaches the Front Lawn

Fights over political signs happen every year, but this year seems more intense. "It feels like a war," one resident said.

[...] police officers have been summoned to investigate Biden signs set ablaze and Trump flags swiped in the night. Homeowners, angry over their campaign signs disappearing, have set up elaborate motion-activated cameras to catch the culprits. A sneaky few have booby-trapped signs with sharp razor blades glinting underneath.

[...] a neighbor punched another in the face because he believed that his own Trump sign was blocked by his neighbor's Biden sign [...]

Trump-Pence signs have been defaced with stickers. Biden-Harris signs have been kicked down in the grass. In central Iowa, a Trump sign along a highway was partially covered with a sheet of black metal spray-painted with Bible verse: "Love One Another. John 15." On a country road in northeastern Wisconsin this fall, a large Biden sign stood pockmarked with fist-sized holes, flaps of shorn sign fluttering in the wind.

A Trump sign, booby-trapped with hidden razor blades, injured a worker in Michigan who was moving it because it had been placed too close to a roadway, sending him to the hospital to get his bloodied hand stitched up.

[...] One particular neighborhood, which happened to be his own, was hit hard by people stealing Biden signs. Not long afterward, somebody — or somebodies — defaced a line of Trump signs on a main highway that runs through the county.

"They sprayed a big 'X' on them, sprayed other things on there that I can't repeat," Mr. Dressel said. "We realize everybody's tense. I'm 50 years old and I've never seen a presidential election that has been this antagonistic."

Entire roads have been turned into sign battlefields.

[...] "People are holding their ground as they would in battle, and they are strategically planning their actions and counter actions."

By the next day, the Republicans had put up counter messages taking aim at Mr. Biden's long political career: "Drain the Swamp."'

https://www.nytimes....-sign-wars.html

'He Already Saw the Election as Good vs. Evil. Then His Tractor Burned.

[...] two "Trump 2020" flags that he had hoisted above his combine — until a couple of weeks ago, when a fire destroyed much of his farm equipment.

[...] That sense of Trumpian kinship permeates rural areas like Henderson, population about 1,000 [...]

The charred remains of his farm vehicles sit in a field surrounded for miles by tilled prairie. A blackened Trump flag lies crumpled at the base of a scorched tractor. Mr. Rempel had been so certain they were safe, he left the keys in the ignition.

Though it is unclear how the fire started, the news about it startled a community that believes it shares a common value system. The fact that one vehicle was outfitted with Trump flags has led some residents and some of the more than 1,700 people who commented on Mr. Rempel's Facebook post about the blaze to declare the fire politically motivated.

It's a sentiment also expressed by top Republicans in the state. Gov. Pete Ricketts brought up the incident when asked at a news conference about vandalism to pro-Trump signs, calling anyone who would do such a thing "anti-American" and "people who hate our country." [...]

For his part, Mr. Rempel refuses to speculate about a motive, but here in Henderson, a certain fear is being whispered: The fire-starters are aligned with antifa, coming from the cities to attack their way of life.'

https://www.nytimes....e-nebraska.html

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 02 November 2020 - 08:47 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Ballot processing begins in Detroit; 2 poll challengers removed

[...] The man in the horror-movie mask had credentials to be a poll challenger, election officials said. But he started to cause a commotion, shouting the process is “crooked.” He wore a mask that looked similar to the masks worn by the villains in the movies "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th."

The man in the horror-movie mask yelled in the direction of poll workers seated at tables and then at police before being escorted out. A Detroit election supervisor said he was using racist language, referring to slavery. Detroit is 79% African American.

The election supervisor said the man’s mask did not properly cover his face, with an open area around his mouth.'

https://www.freep.co...HgQNW2KKDfCDhX0

[Vengeance]

Terez, on 02 November 2020 - 08:35 PM, said:

Not where I live, but I am decidedly in Trump country a.k.a. Illinois corn country. Trump signs abound. There are a few Biden/Harris signs but not many.

Good news: the federal court just threw out the challenge to drive-through votes in Harris County, TX. Not expecting this one to have any better luck up the chain.

That was good news

[Malankazooie]

Damn, was listening to the national news on the commute this evening and people are preparing for shit to get craycray. Business owners are in the process of boarding up or having materials ready to board up tomorrow (a local news segment reported the same the other night). One guy said he has been accumulating guns since the George Floyd murder. You guys familiar with the movie franchise "The Purge"? We damn-sho gunna give it our best in 'Murica to imitate the premise. I's gots mines, so if you want to step to this you're welcome to try, but I really don't think you want any of this smoke.

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 02 November 2020 - 11:43 PM

[Slow Ben]

Terez, on 02 November 2020 - 08:35 PM, said:

Not where I live, but I am decidedly in Trump country a.k.a. Illinois corn country. Trump signs abound. There are a few Biden/Harris signs but not many.

Same. The town i live in was 84.6% for Trump last year. I think it will be less, but not much.

But i definitely see more B/H signs than i saw Clinton signs last year.

The further north and further into Central Illinois I get the more Biden/Harris signs I see.

[Terez]

I'm only a couple hours south of Chicago, so officially Central, but my town is tiny and surrounded by corn. My county is one of the state's least populated. Drove past this bullshit a few weeks ago on the way to Peoria.

[Maark Abbott]

Terez, on 03 November 2020 - 12:12 AM, said:

I'm only a couple hours south of Chicago, so officially Central, but my town is tiny and surrounded by corn. My county is one of the state's least populated. Drove past this bullshit a few weeks ago on the way to Peoria.

I daresay this could be appropriate given the phrase 'return to monke' but let's see what kicks off before we commence humour hours eh

[Aptorian]

I see the Republicans are now resorting to Gorilla tactics in this political campaign.

[Slow Ben]

I’m so fuhreaking nervous. I’ve packed my schedule the next two days so I can’t just sit and doomscroll.

I’m confident Biden will win. I’m not confident in what shit Trump will pull. And it’s been way too long since we’ve heard from Bill Barr.

[Malankazooie]

Pokémon GO to the polls.... and vote.

-

Picked up some Buffalo Trace bourbon on the weekend. Bottle is sitting on the counter, waiting for this evening. Will be checking in on results sitting on my deck, probably watching the world burn, and doing my darnedest to drink to the bottom of that bottle.

[Aptorian]

The first results will be coming in during the night and early morning here in Denmark, so I'll wake up and look at my phone with great anxiety tomorrow.

[Obdigore]

Not sure I'd bother. Unless there is a blowout in PA or FL, it won't be decided for a while, possibly days, depending on what the midwest does, because of terrible laws around when you can count mail in ballots.

PS - Trump campaign is going to claim victory at about 8:01pm EST tonight, regardless of what the polls look like.

[Terez]

There's a very good chance it will be clear enough to call tonight and I will be there for it if so. I'm sure there will be ongoing drama either way, though.