Friday Potpourri: 18 October 2024
Let’s start with the fact that the Convicted Felon attempted to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence again. Now. This week. You can watch the full breakdown here. But the bottom line is that Ms. Daniels launched a GoFundMe site to raise money to pay off the Convicted Felon’s judgements against her, and hit the goal! There was a legitimate issue related to the final dollar amount due to accrued interest. The legal team offered Ms. Daniels a discount if she would sign an NDA and agree NOT to talk about the Convicted Felon between now and the election. It’s like they learned NOTHING. Yes, the NY DA’s office has been informed.
True words from Tim Walz’ Twitter feed:
A few words on the latest numbers.
There are many more Rethuglican polls coming out than either Democratic or nonpartisan ones. I’ve read a bunch of articles from poll aggregators defending their positions on what they include in their aggregations, how they account for bias and house affect, and the rest of the secret sauce. While they all contend that they’ve overcome any bias, when you compare all the polls, the aggregated totals end up just a little more red (about one point) than they would if the cascade of Rethuglican-leaning pollsters weren’t included.
Regarding point 1, above, no one is polling new voters, e.g. those who have registered for the first time in the last several months.
The rule of thumb is that the better ground game is worth 3 points on Election Day. The Democratic ground game ROCKS - it has been developed, enhanced, and utilized over a period of decades. It is a 100% volunteer undertaking, and we all know that enthusiasm at the door counts. The GOP ground game has been outsourced to Elon, who has never done this before, and likes to fire people en masse. They’re using tech on cell phones that doesn’t work in poor reception areas. Canvassers are paid by the door, with no oversight over whether they actually talked to voters, only left lit, or outright lied about interacting. Depending on who you believe, this is costing Elon between $75 and $100 million. More deets here.
With respect to point 3, above, PLEASE CANVASS. These last couple weeks are critical to both turnout intermittent voters as well as the undecideds. If you can donate 2 hours to be a greeter on Election Day, PLEASE DO! It can make a huge difference to the
moronsvoters who will not make a decision until they are in the booth. REALLY. Please volunteer if you can. Remember, almost half of all voters vote ON Election Day - and that’s especially true of undecided voters. If you need help to sign up, just let me know, and I’ll direct you, based on where you live.
Lewis Black’s thoughts on undecided voters (NSFW).
In Georgia, Betty Cartledge voted for the first time on Wednesday. She’s 81 and will turn 82 this Saturday. Why had she never voted before? Because her husband, who died last year, didn’t think she should. Not making this up. I’m pretty sure who she voted for, although the article doesn’t say for sure.
Especially for political junkies:
In Nebraska, this week the state Supreme Court ruled that felons who have completed their sentences can vote. This might make a difference in the Senate race. Dan Osborne is, as you know, running as an Independent, and has a lot of traction. Not saying he’ll especially appeal to felons, but Deb Fischer would for sure put all sorts of people back in jail for no reason, so there you have it. In answer to your question about why people would vote Convicted Felon AND Osborne - Nebraskans like their independents along with their Rethuglicans. And as an aside, the 2nd District in Nebraska is mostly Omaha, which is as Democratic as it gets in that state, and we might finally be able to say goodbye and good riddance to Don Bacon.
In Montana, they have strict rules regarding the IDs that need to be presented to vote. (Yes, one can vote provisionally if they turn in ID by the day after the election.) This may not change the outcome of any of the races, except for Ballot Initiative 128 which would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. So why do we care about the ID issue? Who doesn’t have government-issued IDs because they don’t believe in the government? Yup - “sovereign citizens” - and there are a lot of them in Montana. And they’re mostly men. Who would be MAGA if they voted. Add to that Native Americans, who depend on same-day registration. HB 176 would have taken away that right, but the state Supreme Court struck HB 176 down earlier this year. Meaning Native Americans will be voting. Statistically, they tend to vote Democratic, although there are not enough of them to swing the presidential contest, but this will help Initiative 128. For some reason that I don’t understand, people will vote to preserve/restore/enshrine abortion rights, but appear to be clueless that it’s the Rethuglicans who push for no abortions for any reason. You’d think they could make the connection, and vote to oust the Rethuglicans, but they don’t. It happens all over the country.
And I leave you with a funny for people of a certain age… if you don’t get it, leave a comment and I’ll help you.
Poor Stormy. Another soul injured by a contact with TFG. At least she has been able to fight back.