The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal - US elections 2016: the october surprises

Not if the behavior of people in the eighties re: televangelists is any indication.

Ultimately it's a question of shame and embarassment -- can someone admit to themselves and, if they've been VERY public about it, to their friends/neighbors/etc., that they've been rooked? Some can. Not all.

I think all we have re: Trump is anecdotal evidence? And what we have points to him reading and watching clips about himself, or that mention him, as his only means of getting information, since that's the only thing that holds his attention. With maybe a dash of what Bannon or Kushner tells him is worth watching.

― El Tomboto, Sunday, October 16, 2016 9:32 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the whole "skimming the news, headlines first" thing really struck a chord when Trump said, in a debate, "The fed is doing a political" which I am guessing is half of a headline. I yelled at the television, "You have to remember the whole headline!"

The RNC won't pay so his adoring masses will just have to pony up $35 each for entry - $350 if you want to shake his hand.

$500 if you want to wash your hand right afterwards.

You gotta remember, Trump jacked up the rate of his campaign office in his own tower as soon as donations started rolling in, and yet people STILL kept giving him money. Y'know, despite his repeated claim that he's worth $10 billion. These people are idiots, plain and simple.

This is why, though Peter Thiel deserves no pity, I'm all "Dude, you just blew over a million. I thought you were supposed to be smart."

It may take a long time for the wheels to turn, but I'm taking heart lately in the fact that villainy is often self-defeating. Hope I live to see people like Trump and Thiel reenact the final scene from There Will Be Blood.

With Giuliani as the bowling ball

xxp Peter Thiel deserves no pity because he's a scumbag.

That was implied.

I feel it needs to explicitly stated, sorry.

Also, a vampire.

No one has more money invested in Trump than Robert and Rebekkah Mercer, and with them, their campaign contributions can be considered marketing investments towards a future Breitbart broadcast network (where the Mercers are funders). Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway were added to the Trump campaign at the Mercer's insistence. The Mercers themselves have libertarian views, so they're perhaps pushing more nativist Breitbart/Trump stance purely from the investment standpoint.

At that point I think the deplorables MIGHT just start recognizing the scam.

How long did it take people to realize that Sarah Palin was only interested in extracting money from them? Everyone should have known from the McCain campaign post-mortems that went around and she still skated around for what, a good 5-6 years before people in her base started calling her on her bullshit?

Wishful thinking on my part.

and the likes of Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace still get paid work.

More good news for Florida:

Calling existing rules “obscene” disenfranchisement, a federal judge in Tallahassee declared late Sunday that Florida must provide a method for voters to fix signature problems that might arise when they vote by mail in the presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling was a victory for the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee, which sued the state Oct. 3 arguing Florida canvassing boards shouldn’t immediately reject a ballot if a voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file. The state gives voters who forget to sign their mail ballots a chance to fix the problem before Election Day — but doesn’t offer voters with mismatched signatures the same opportunity.

Walker ruled the “bizarre” double-standard was unconstitutional.

“It is illogical, irrational, and patently bizarre for the State of Florida to withhold the opportunity to cure from mismatched-signature voters while providing that same opportunity to no-signature voters,” he wrote. “And in doing so, the State of Florida has categorically disenfranchised thousands of voters arguably for no reason other than they have poor handwriting or their handwriting has changed over time.”

He ordered the defendant, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, to direct election supervisors in Florida’s 67 counties to notify voters with mismatched signatures about the problem and allow them to submit a signed affidavit to their county elections office identifying themselves and attesting that they were the ones who voted. The same mechanism is already in place for voters who don’t sign their ballots.

“In our democracy, those who vote decide everything; those who count the vote decide nothing,” Walker wrote. Then he referred to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on obscenity that quipped, “I know it when I see it.”

It's Rasmussen...but that is reason enough to think in this case, since it's specifically focused on Utah, it might be fairly accurate:

http://heatst.com/politics/exclusive-evan-mcmullin-utah-poll-independent-conservative-ties-trump/?mod=sm_tw_post

750 likely voters were polled by telephone. The presidential preference question was as follows:

If the 2016 Presidential Election were held today, would you vote for Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Hillary Clinton, Independent Conservative Evan McMullin, Libertarian Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein?

Results were:

30% Trump
28% Clinton
29% McMullin
5% Johnson
1% Stein

So, dead heat. Let's see what further polls say.

If I were a Utah Democrat I'd vote for McMullin I think.

Meantime, Michelle Obama is going to be campaigning for HRC...in Arizona:

https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN/status/788032913505980416

Further:

https://twitter.com/danmericaCNN/status/788035569351794690

Robby Mook, on a conference call, announces the campaign is dumping $2m in AZ to win the state and $1m in MO and IN to help Dem races.

That's money to burn right there.

How long did it take people to realize that Sarah Palin was only interested in extracting money from them? Everyone should have known from the McCain campaign post-mortems that went around and she still skated around for what, a good 5-6 years before people in her base started calling her on her bullshit?

― ¶ (DJP), Monday, October 17, 2016 10:04 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was trying to remember how many minutes it was between the end of election season and the first appearance of a Palin on reality television. When the hell did we decide reality tv was a reasonable thing from people to drift into (and out of) from politics?

It was bad enough with actors, but at least that's a profession that requires you to be reasonably well-spoken, or at least able to deliver written material.

Meanwhile, he'd be a good president because he's a businessman who's efficient with money, you see.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-cash-bypasses-campaign-229849

Donald Trump posted an impressive fundraising haul last quarter, but a less efficient operation and his dependence on an estranged party apparatus mean his campaign benefits from only about a third of that.

Only about $68.7 million of the almost $212 million that Trump collected in the past three months through joint ventures with the Republican National Committee and state parties actually reached his campaign, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. Almost as much — $63.5 million — was eaten up by operating expenses such as paying for fundraising and compliance consultants, catering and event spaces, list rentals, direct mail and digital ads.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14292234_565728536952150_8170950379453742964_n.png?oh=798e02f5b46aeed67b617a07ad4dfb1f&oe=5898DA64

Carl Unger -- he speaks his mind:

https://twitter.com/anna_orso/status/787371278126710784

And while I dislike POLITICO here's a mostly unsourced glimpse into the glumness inside Clinton campaign headquarters.

When the hell did we decide reality tv was a reasonable thing from people to drift into (and out of) from politics?

To paraphrase a line from the Chapo Trap House podcast, when we made politicians celebrities and celebrities politicians.

We're a extremely depoliticized culture where most people's experience of elected types are just watching pixels on a screen, same with so many other contemptible types, so what's the differ?

And now HRC is planning an ad-buy in Texas:

https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/788043665788633088

xxpost -- yeah I liked that piece because I have half a feeling the whole idea is to avoid seeming like they're spiking the football: thus, project a 'gloom, doom' image.

More on the Texas ad:

https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/788044037278142464

Clinton campaign will run an ad in Texas highlighting her @dallasnews endorsement, aide says. Going up in Dallas, Houston, Austin and S.A.

Makes perfect sense.

I like the idea that people in Arizona, Texas, etc. have just been totally cut off from civilization, and all it takes is a couple of campaign ads to pop the bubble and break them out of their spell.

"Wait, wait ... huh? Where am I? What happened!? I had a horrible dream I was going to vote for Donald Trump, the only candidate, but now I have seen the truth. I have options!" [Votes for Trump anyway, because come on.]

Dallas and Austin are fairly liberal areas of Texas

John Oliver on Stein/Johnson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU

Ad magic is overrated, but this is less about that than marking territory/psyching the other side out. And given some recent polling in AZ in particular, the larger commitment of cash is notable; it won't just be ads, but a fuller play for the state.

Ads at this point in the game are more about getting people to the polls or to early voting and a lot less about convincing undecided voters, whoever the hell they are

90% of the effort in any campaign is getting your existing supporters to actually vote

Dallas and Austin are fairly liberal areas of Texas

San Antonio too from what I understand (+ huge latino population)

I like the idea that people in Arizona, Texas, etc. have just been totally cut off from civilization, and all it takes is a couple of campaign ads to pop the bubble and break them out of their spell.

"Wait, wait ... huh? Where am I? What happened!? I had a horrible dream I was going to vote for Donald Trump, the only candidate, but now I have seen the truth. I have options!" [Votes for Trump anyway, because come on.]

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, October 17, 2016 12:02 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was just in Arizona last week, certain parts are seemingly remote enough to make that possible. What a beautiful trip, though!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/10/13/the-washington-post-asked-clinton-trump-for-their-education-vision-heres-what-they-said/

The Washington Post asked the two major presidential candidates — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump — to respond to an identical series of questions about their vision and plans for public schools should they become president of the United States.

. . . Trump’s campaign declined requests to answer the Post’s questions and instead provided the following comment and said it preferred “to direct voters to Mr. Trump’s plan” on his website. Here is Trump’s response as provided by Jessica Ditto, the candidate’s deputy communications director:

“As your president, I will be the nation’s biggest cheerleader for school choice. I want every single inner city child in America who is today trapped in a failing school to have the freedom – the civil right – to attend the school of their choice. I understand many stale old politicians will resist. But it’s time for our country to start thinking big once again. We spend too much time quibbling over the smallest words, when we should spend our time dreaming about the great adventures that lie ahead.”

Clinton’s campaign responded to the questions.

https://youtu.be/Mn7OBOvJ2kI

Tight races remaining of course.

https://t.co/oczxMA25Hh

Though this is of interest:

https://twitter.com/ForecasterEnten/status/788049390728511491

Explained further:

among registered voters, Clinton is up 5 and 7. CNN's likely voter model is knocking 4,5 points off Clinton leads...while lv and rv models appear to be converging nationally, CNN remains outliers

“This is Russian psy-ops. That’s what they’re trying to do."

"...we will outcraft them, by buying...in Texas." *tents fingers*

Haha, man, the right wing just cannot cope with weird Twitter *at all*

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/788038014144540672

One recent evening, Kukura placed a sign in the student center that read, “College Republicans: The Best Party on Campus.” Half a dozen students attended their first meeting of the year, amid empty chairs and empty tables.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-campus-trump-backers-learn-to-keep-their-opinions-to-themselves/2016/10/17/7925a318-8f06-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html

yeah but the liberal media

I always vote for empty chairs oh wait

xxp couldn't have happened to a better grp of ppl

still baffles me that all these people who were perfectly willing to put sarah palin the proverbial one heartbeat away from the presidency are so shocked about trump

OK so dark hypothetical. suppose massive russian/external vote rigging and Trump wins the whole shebang by, like, 90% of all EV (because dictators never win by a plausible majority when an extraordinary majority will do...)

WHAT HAPPENS

You wake up and switch to better meals.

acknowledge the wholesale failure of our system to resist such obvious tampering and start over