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Here's how John Ratcliffe and Bill Barr are Aiding Donald Trump's collusion with Putin

on September 2, 2020
By Nancy LeTourneau, Washington Monthly

After reviewing classified intelligence reports about Vladimir Putin's attempts to interfere in the 2020 election over three weeks ago, Senator Richard Blumenthal tried to sound the alarm.

The warning lights are flashing red. America's elections are under attack.

This week, I reviewed classified materials in the Senate's Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility and received a similarly classified briefing on malign foreign threats to U.S. elections. I was shocked by what I learned - and appalled that, by swearing Congress to secrecy, the Trump administration is keeping the truth about a grave, looming threat to democracy hidden from the American people. On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement that only hints at the threats.

The facts are chilling. I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately.

Blumenthal went on to say that what he learned makes "Moscow's past interference and nefarious actions look like child's play." We still, however, have no idea of what shocked him enough to write that op-ed in the Washington Post.

What we do know is how the Trump administration reacted. Last Friday, the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, told Congress that his office would no longer brief them in person about foreign election interference, but would submit written reports. Clearly they don't want to face probing questions from Congress. In defending his actions, however, Ratcliffe admitted that it goes beyond that.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe defends scaling back in-person election security briefings to Congress pic.twitter.com/YKf2sjtI1S

- Talking Points Memo (@TPM) August 30, 2020

Ratcliffe's initial argument doesn't make any sense. He said that he is going to stop in-person briefings because members of Congress leaked classified information to the press. What he didn't explain is how that would stop leaks. Classified information provided in writing is even easier to share with reporters.

In a scathing rebuke of Ratcliffe's announcement, the Washington Post editorial board pointed out that the only so-called "leaks" came from the kind issued by Senator Blumenthal.

After the intelligence community briefed members of Congress in late July about threats to the upcoming election, Democrats expressed alarm about what they had learned - and about the fact that the information had not been shared with the American public. "The warning lights are flashing red. America's elections are under attack," wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a Post op-ed, without disclosing any specifics"¦

The only "leak" was the simple fact that the administration was withholding critical information about Russia's interference - which, of course, is intended to help President Trump win reelection.

In that clip of Ratcliffe's Fox News appearance, he eventually got to the point by saying that Democrats leaked information that "simply wasn't true, that somehow Russia is a greater security threat than China." In a case of obvious projection, Ratcliffe is telling us that the Trump administration doesn't want Congress or the public to know what Moscow is doing to interfere in the election, but instead wants to change the narrative to focus on the distraction they're offering about the threat posed by China. In other words, Ratcliffe is suggesting that he will now cherry-pick what intelligence is shared with Congress to provide cover for what Moscow is up to.

Added to that is a troubling story about yet another purge in the Justice Department by Attorney General Barr.

Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr's recent decision to remove the head of a Justice Department office that helps ensure federal counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities are legal - and replace him with a political appointee with relatively limited experience.

Barr has reassigned 23-year career professional Brad Wiegmann, who had been serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Law and Policy. As ABC News reports, "The office shapes government efforts by ensuring that new policies and executive actions don't violate federal law."

We've heard stories from former Trump administration officials who have said that they often found themselves having to tell the president that the actions he wanted to take were not legal. As former DHS Chief of Staff Miles Taylor said, Trump would claim to have "magical authorities" to break the law.

Now Barr has removed the person whose job it is to tell the administration when they are breaking the law and replaced him with a partisan loyalist. While it might not be unprecedented to do that, the fact that it comes a couple of months before an election makes this one troubling. Here is the most telling part about Wiegmann's replacement, Kellen Dwyer:

From 2018 to 2019, he served as a fellow at the conservative-leaning Leonine Forum, a non-profit organization that says its alumni are "committed to the cause of reintroducing the tenets of the Catholic church into the political, policy, legal, business, and cultural activities of society."

The Leonine Forum was created by the Catholic Information Center (CIC), an extremist group founded by Father John McCloskey, who eventually left the organization over allegations of sexual assault. Several members of the Trump administration have close ties to the CIC, including Attorney General Barr, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

What appears to be happening is that both Ratcliffe and Barr are paving the way for Putin and Trump, who speak regularly by phone, to illegally collude in their efforts to influence the election-this time from the Oval Office with the entire federal bureaucracy at their disposal.

"˜Trump is showing us his playbook': The president tips his hand on the plan to exploit the "˜red mirage'

on September 3, 2020
By Julia Conley, Common Dreams

President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning openly embraced a theory put forth by analysts earlier this week that he would try to misdirect the American people on election night by claiming a "landslide" victory that doesn't exist-leading grassroots organizers to begin planning for a chaotic post-election period during which the president is liable to claim that the counting of mail-in ballots is evidence of cheating by the Democratic Party.

While getting the details and implications of the story exactly backward, Trump tweeted the phrase "Rigged election?" along with a link to an article at right-wing website The National Pulse, titled "WARNING: Democrat Data Firm Admits "˜Incredible' Trump Landslide Will Be Flipped By Mail-In Votes Emerging A Week After Election Day."

   Rigged Election? https://t.co/LK0gp40luC

   - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020

The article presented a right-wing narrative regarding what political data firm Hawfish this week called a "red mirage"-election night results which could give the appearance of a Trump victory before mail-in ballots have been tallied.

As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, Josh Mendelsohn, CEO of Hawkfish-founded by former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg-warned that as in-person votes are counted on November 3, the president could claim victory as he appears to be in "a stronger position than he actually is."

Almost twice as many Democrats as Republicans plan to vote by mail to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, according to recent surveys, and Trump has been sowing doubt about the validity of mail-in ballots for months as it became apparent their use would skyrocket amid the coronavirus pandemic-despite the fact that the president himself voted by mail as recently as last month.

The National Pulse attempted to turn Hawkfish's warning on its head, claiming an election night victory by Trump-one that would not include millions of mail-in ballots-could be unfairly "flipped" after all of the votes are counted.

Natalie Winters of The National Pulse compared Hawkfish's projections with a warning from far-right British politician Nigel Farage about ""˜dark art operatives in the Democrats'"¦intent on "˜abusing' mail-in ballots to secure a victory for [Democratic presidential candidate Joe] Biden."

"It's called counting votes," tweeted journalist Thor Benson in response to Trump's promotion of the article.

By twisting Hawkfish's warning to suit his own narrative about an election he says he is bound to win-despite the fact that his approval ratings have never risen above 49% during his presidency according to Gallup, and just 39% of Americans approved last week of his handling of the pandemic that's killed more than 850,000 people in the U.S.-"Trump is showing us his playbook," said Sarah Dohl, co-founder and chief communications officer at Indivisible.

"He's signaling that he may try to exploit the confusion surrounding this unique election cycle to declare a premature "˜victory' when the counting of ballots has only just begun," Dohl told Common Dreams.

To counter Trump's narrative, pro-democracy grassroots organizers say, voters-36% of whom currently believe results will be available on November 3, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll released Tuesday-should shift their understanding of election night and begin preparing for an "election period" during which all the ballots must be counted.

"The fact is that we will not get results on election night-it may take days or even longer for states to count the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots needed to conduct a safe election after Trump botched the response to the coronavirus," Ryan Thomas of Stand Up America told Common Dreams. "The baseless charges being spread by Trump's allies and right-wing media about the election results is not only damaging to the foundation of our democracy, it's wholly un-American."

Stand Up America, Indivisible, and other advocacy groups are incorporating into their voter outreach efforts information about how the pandemic has created a situation which won't allow for all votes to be counted on election night.

"Donald Trump is not running a re-election campaign. He's running a power grab," said Ben Wessel, executive director of NextGen America, which joined the coalition. "We must be prepared to protect the integrity of this election and ensure that the voices of the people determine the outcome."

The organizations on Wednesday unveiled Protect the Results, a coalition that will mobilize Americans "should Donald Trump contest the election results, refuse to concede after losing, or claim victory before all the votes are counted."

"For months Trump has ignored democratic norms and threatened to reject the results of the 2020 election," said Liz Butler, vice president of organizing at Friends of the Earth Action, in a statement. "It is no surprise that a man who embraces brutal authoritarian dictators would question the legitimacy of our elections. Trump has used his position to benefit himself and his corporate cronies at the expense of our communities, and he's desperate to hold onto that power. His words are not bluster, and we must be prepared in November for this potential attack on our democracy."

Along with Trump's sabotage of the U.S. Postal Service, which millions are expected to rely on to mail in their ballots, and his baseless claims that the use of mail-in ballots will invite fraud, "This is just one more reason: we need to be ready to mobilize to protect the legitimate results of the election," said Dohl.

"He's laying the groundwork now to steal the election; we need to lay the groundwork now to fight back," she added.

***************

Trump says North Carolinians should vote twice - despite it being illegal

US president suggests people vote in person and by mail and if system works it will stop two votes

Reuters
Thu 3 Sep 2020 09.03 BST

Donald Trump has suggested that people in the state of North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once in person and once by mail, although doing so is a crime.

"Let them send it in and let them go vote," Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Wednesday when asked about the security of mail-in votes. "And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won't be able to vote" in person.

Voting more than once in an election is illegal.

"President Trump outrageously encouraged" North Carolinians "to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election," said the state attorney general, Josh Stein, in a tweet. "Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November."

The US attorney general, William Barr, told CNN that Trump "was trying to make the point that the ability to monitor this system is not good". When told that voting twice is illegal, he said, "I don't know what the law in the particular state says."

Barr said mail-in ballots for the election on 3 November could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing an argument Trump has made to denounce the use of voting by mail. Trump has previously said the voting method is susceptible to large-scale fraud, although experts say voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States.

Voting by mail is not new in the US - nearly one in four voters cast presidential ballots in 2016 that way. A record number of mail-in ballots are expected for the election due to concerns about in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has accused Democrats of trying to steal the election by pushing the use of mail-in voting. The re-election campaign of Trump has recently sued states like New Jersey and Nevada for expanding access to mail-in voting.

Democrats have said Trump and fellow Republicans are attempting to suppress the vote to help their side.

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"˜The president just committed a felony': Trump slammed for encouraging supporters to vote fraudulently

Raw Story
9/3/2020
By Matthew Chapman

On Wednesday at an event in North Carolina, President Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to vote twice, once by mail and once in person, to "test" the integrity of the election system - advice that, if followed, would constitute felony voter fraud.

The president's comments drew outrage from social media.

   The President just committed a felony.ðŸ'€https://t.co/kgvMOCJYfz

   - Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) September 2, 2020

Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.

   Trump encourages North Carolina residents to vote twice to test mail-in system https://t.co/pGesGFCwXf via @nbcnews- in what world is this ok, in which country is this legal?!? Encouraging people to commit a federal crime?!? Are you FUCKING KIDDING, TRUMP?!?

   - Martina Navratilova (@Martina) September 2, 2020

   Trump is desperately trying anything he can, including encouraging his supporters to commit election crimes, in order to throw doubt into the election he is badly losing.

   - tak (@tak_twitt) September 3, 2020

   Vile behavior. Surprised Trump hasn't burned the Constitution by now.

   - Kristi D (@KristiDRafan) September 3, 2020

   How is this not the first story on the news? It's a felony to conspire with people to commit a felony.

   - Sanders Ekanepi (@ekanepi) September 3, 2020

   https://t.co/FcFrDXeIFJ

   - Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) September 2, 2020

   Vote early. Don't use voting machines if you can avoid it. HAND DELIVER your ballots to your local county election office or OFFICIAL drop box. If you must vote in person request PAPER BALLOT and fill out using a ball point pen!

   DON'T LISTEN 2 TRUMP. DO NOT VOTE TWICE. ILLEGAL!

   - Davids_annie (@Davidsannie4) September 3, 2020

   Not only is this illegal, but it would seem likely that neither vote would count if someone votes twice, because the assumption might be that it was fraudulent, assuming it is caught. And it would hurt Trump, not help him. And place a MAGAt in jail as well.

   - Marcus Aurelius (@MarcusA08679856) September 3, 2020

   When you can't find any evidence of mail in voter fraud, invent some The Trump campaign submitted a 524-page response to a discovery demand turned up precisely zero instances of mail-in voter fraud in PA. https://t.co/Vox3tbkqSp

   - KD (@Fly_Sistah) September 2, 2020

   pic.twitter.com/IiEP7lZjlE

   - Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) September 3, 2020

******

"˜Insidious': CNN's Berman shreds Trump for encouraging fans to "˜commit a felony' by voting twice

on September 3, 2020
RAW STORY
By Brad Reed

CNN's John Berman on Thursday shredded President Donald Trump for encouraging his fans commit voter fraud.

Trump on Wednesday encouraged his voters in North Carolina to test out the state's mail-in voting system by first sending in their ballot, and then trying to go vote in person to see if they can get away with casting their ballots twice.

Reacting to this, Berman said he was less worried about Trump supporters breaking the law than by the president's efforts to preemptively cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

"It's insidious," he said. "There's no other way to put it, it's just insidious what's being done here. And it's designed to sow doubt in the system."

Berman then explained how this is undermining faith in American democracy.

"Don't pay attention to the fact that the president is telling people to go commit a felony by voting twice, you obviously can't do that," he said. "And there are systems in place to make sure you can't do it - they check your name to see if your absentee ballot is in when you get there. But that's not what's happening. He's trying to suggest that the system is broken to sow doubt, and it's just insidious to see."

Watch: https://youtu.be/08qv_BX0vgs

**************

Lincoln Project uses Trump's own Fox interview to troll him over his rant about voting twice

on September 3, 2020
Raw Story
By Sarah K. Burris

President Donald Trump spent Wednesday telling his voters to vote twice as a means of testing "the system" of voting, which encourages people to commit a felony, as voting twice is voter fraud.

But in a Fox Business interview, Trump railed against Democrats for what he said was trying to "vote twice" in an election.

"The level of dishonest with Democrat voting is unbelievable," Trump said. "I you told a Republican to vote twice, they'd get sick at even the thought of it. And you have people that vote numerous times. What's happening is crazy. So, now they want to send out vote-by-mail. Who knows who's signing this stuff?!"

It was something that the Republican-led group The Lincoln Project said is an example of "Trump accusing someone of something, he has likely done it or thought it."

Watch the video below:

    If Trump is accusing someone of something, he has likely done it or thought it. pic.twitter.com/QDmfB3XCba

    - The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 3, 2020

Watch: https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1301540686521667585

Postal Service warned "˜issues in the supply chain' may result in voters not receiving ballots: report

Raw Story
9/4/2020

Reporters at The Daily Beast obtained a recording of the U.S. Postal Service's elections-integrity task force.

"The embattled leadership of the U.S. Postal Service warned its elections-integrity task force on Thursday about "issues in the supply chain," particularly from printers, that risk voters not getting ballots and election mail, according to a recording of the inaugural meeting of the task force acquired by The Daily Beast," correspondents Spencer Ackerman and Sam Brodey reported.

"With the dramatic increase of ballots compared to previous elections, in some cases a tenfold increase in the number of ballots in some states, there are some issues in the supply chain," a senior USPS official told the group. "Some of these printers"¦ just don't have the capacity they were used to in prior elections."

"Despite the heroic efforts I know you guys will pursue to get that ballot in the hands of voters, the reality is, that's going to be a difficult situation for that voter to have their vote counted," a different official said.

**********

Polling place bottleneck delays could begin soon after they open, election logistics experts warn

on September 4, 2020
By Steven Rosenfeld, Independent Media Institute

For the estimated 50 million Americans who will vote at a polling place this fall, delays and long lines will likely surface sooner than in past presidential elections-America's highest turnout elections-because of challenges due to COVID-19, according to election logistics experts.

"When do bottlenecks occur?" asked Charles Stewart III, the MIT director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, after noting that 50 million voters would likely cast ballots at polling places this fall. "There comes a point, it's when you reach 80-to-90 percent of [what] the theoretical capacity is, that the lines just go through the roof."

Stewart was speaking at a Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) briefing that sought to promote new planning tools that local election officials could still use to try to prevent bottlenecks this fall. While 80 million or more voters will likely cast mailed-out ballots, those voting in person will face COVID-related constraints that will slow down the process when it gets busy.

"Bottlenecks appear for a variety of reasons," Stewart said. "Sometimes they appear because you've had emergencies"¦ There are three big parameters. How fast do people arrive? How long does it take to serve people? How many places can you serve them?"

The pandemic has forced election officials to rethink how they handle polling place voting. Many have had to find new locations that are large enough to accommodate social distancing concerns and require fewer poll workers. That constraint has meant closing many longtime neighborhood precincts and opening voting centers in public schools and libraries, said Michael Vu, the registrar of voters in San Diego County, California.

Even though three-quarters of the county's 1.8 million voters will vote with absentee ballots as they have in recent elections, Vu said that the pandemic forced his staff to consolidate its 1,600 neighborhood polling stations into 235 "super polls" and take other steps, such as doubling the drop-box locations for absentee ballots and having four consecutive days to vote in person that end on Election Day, November 3. These steps will be accompanied by "the most robust" public education campaign, he said. Still, Vu had worries.

"The biggest uncertainty is voters," he said. "How will voters behave on Election Day? Will they vote their mail ballot in the high numbers that we need them to, to really not spread the virus if they go to their respective [in-person polling] location?"

Gretchen Macht, a University of Rhode Island mechanical, industrial, and systems engineering assistant professor, recommended that election officials use familiar polling places that are spacious-like public school gyms-if they can. She showed new precinct layout software that officials could use to map how voting equipment could be set up to accommodate voter traffic.

Juan Gilbert, the University of Florida chair of the computer and information science and engineering department, described a free ticketing software system that he created that could be easily used by poll workers to expedite the check-in process.

The BPC's briefing was to alert election officials about new tools to configure polling places. That discussion revealed that the fall's in-person voting would have a range of new elements for voters, which usually slows down the process. The experts cited other factors that could prompt bottlenecks akin to rush-hour traffic jams that seem to appear out of nowhere.

"We have examples like this, a recent executive order of the governor of Maine restricting in-person polling places in that state to no more than 50 people at any one time," Stewart said. "We are going to have a substantial number of people voting in person. Those in-person voting places are going to be constrained. Officials managing polling places need a plan."

The experts urged election officials to get specific with estimating how fast voters would arrive and how long it would take for checking voters in, ballot-marking, and preparation of the voting station for the next voter. They recommended having real voters take part in mock exercises.

But what emerged beyond the planning and tools discussed was a big warning for this fall's in-person voters. They should expect delays, especially if they arrive during the highest-traffic periods, which tend to be before and after work.

The BPC briefing underscored that Michelle Obama was not exaggerating when she cautioned during the opening night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention that it may take longer to vote this fall, especially in person on Election Day-remarks that some officials said were a bit too dire. Obama also advised people to vote with an absentee ballot or to vote in person at an early voting site, thus making Election Day voting their last resort.

"We've got to vote early, in person if we can. We've got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow up to make sure they're received," Obama said. "We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we've got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to."

************

"˜Fighting against voting rights everywhere': Trump, RNC sue Democratic Montana governor to restrict mail-in election

on September 4, 2020
By Common Dreams

"This template lawsuit appears to be part of a pattern of lawsuits across the country by Republican Party operatives to limit access to voting during the pandemic," said Gov. Steve Bullock.

President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee on Wednesday sued Montana's Secretary of State and Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock for giving counties the choice to hold the November election by mail, an expansion of a safe voting option during the Covid-19 pandemic that the lawsuit alleges-without evidence-would "invite fraud and undermine the public's confidence in the integrity of elections."

"I don't think it can be emphasized enough that Trump has been emboldened to the point that he sees democracy as his primary rival. He is asking Americans to reject it, and he's not waiting for an election to validate his thinking."
Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics

In a statement announcing the lawsuit (pdf), the RNC called Bullock's initiative to improve voter access and safety during the ongoing deadly outbreak of coronavirus an "unconstitutional vote-by-mail power grab."

But many Republicans in Montana would likely object to that description of Bullock's directive, which "he issued after a request from county clerks statewide," NBC News reported.

According to the secretary of state's elections office, 42 out of 56 counties have already confirmed plans to conduct the November election completely by mail, and voting rights expert Stephen Wolf pointed out that "even many GOP counties" in the state "have opted" to mail ballots to voters ahead of the election.

In a statement, Bullock said:

    This template lawsuit appears to be part of a pattern of lawsuits across the country by Republican Party operatives to limit access to voting during the pandemic. Voting by mail in Montana is safe, secure, and was requested by a bipartisan coalition of Montana election officials seeking to reduce the risk of Covid-19 and keep Montanans safe and healthy.

Marc Elias, a lawyer and founder of Democracy Docket, an organization advocating for fair elections, argued that the "GOP is fighting against voting rights everywhere."

    BREAKING: Trump, RNC and NRSC sue to block Montana's vote by mail plan.

    The @GOP is fighting against voting rights everywhere. We @DemocracyDocket are fighting back. pic.twitter.com/xPipMyqS6Z

    - Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) September 2, 2020

For Wolf, Wednesday's lawsuit filed by the President's re-election campaign and the RNC cannot be understood outside of the context of Montana's "hotly contested Senate race" between current Gov. Bullock and Sen. Steve Daines, the Republican incumbent.

    Montana has voted mostly by mail for years. In the primary, even *state Republicans* supported mailing every voter a ballot, & even many GOP counties have opted to do so for November.

    Trump & the RNC are freaking out here because Montana has a hotly contested Senate race https://t.co/VjCMLdy6A6

    - Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) September 2, 2020

Given the large number of "split ticket voters" in Montana who might support Bullock over Daines regardless of which presidential candidate they prefer and because the outcome of this contest could determine the balance of power in the Senate, some think that the state's voters are key to a potential victory for the Democratic Party.

Trump and the RNC's attempt to limit Montana's recently expanded vote-by-mail option came within hours of Trump's felonious encouragement of voter fraud in North Carolina-where he told residents to vote twice-and Attorney General Barr's failure to acknowledge whether doing so is illegal, as Common Dreams reported earlier on Thursday.

"I don't think it can be emphasized enough that Trump has been emboldened to the point that he sees democracy as his primary rival," said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, earlier this week.

"He is asking Americans to reject it, and he's not waiting for an election to validate his thinking."

Trump's big hopes for a post-RNC polling bounce have burst

on September 4, 2020
By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

Some state polls released after this year's Republican National Convention have suggested that the presidential election could be growing tighter in Florida and Pennsylvania, with former Vice President Joe Biden slightly ahead in those key swing states (although Quinnipiac finds that Biden has an 8% lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania compared to a 3% lead in Florida). But at the national level, one isn't seeing major advances for the Trump campaign. FiveThirtyEight's Geoffrey Skelley, analyzing a slate of new post-RNC national polls, finds that so far, not much has changed nationally in the presidential race - and the big post-convention bounce for Trump that some pundits were predicting has yet to materialize.

Skelley explains:

    FiveThirtyEight's general election forecast tells the tale. On August 16, the Sunday before the Democratic convention, Trump had a 28 in 100 shot at winning. A little over a week later, as the GOP convention was taking place, Trump's chances ticked up to 32 in 100, as there wasn't much evidence of Biden getting any post-DNC bounce. And as of the afternoon of Wednesday, September 2, Trump has a 30 in 100 chance. All in all, there's been only a very small shift in Trump's direction.

FiveThirtyEight tracks a variety of major polls, ranging from Quinnipiac to Ipsos. And Skelley reports that when all of those pollsters are taken into consideration, the RNC wasn't a big game-changer for Trump.

"Quinnipiac University found Biden ahead by 10 points, 52 percent to 42 percent, in a poll conducted after both conventions, which marked an improvement over Trump's 15-point deficit in the pollster's mid-July survey," he explained. "Meanwhile, USA Today/Suffolk University gave Biden a 7-point edge, 50 percent to 43 percent, smaller than the 12-point lead Biden had in late June. Grinnell College/Selzer & Co. also released a new survey, finding Biden ahead by 8 points"¦. Lastly, CNN/SSRS's post-convention survey actually showed a marginal improvement for Biden: he led by 8 points, 51%- 43%, up from his 4-point lead in mid-August."

New York Magazine's Eric Levitz offers some post-RNC poll analysis as well, listing five reasons why, as he sees it, the U.S. "probably isn't about to reelect a lawless cable news addict who responded to a pandemic by advising voters to inject bleach into their lungs."

Pointing to similar findings as described in Skelley's piece, Levitz argued Trump has blown one of his best shots.

"Trump has used up his free, week-long infomercial - and Biden is still leading national polls by a margin too large for the Electoral College to close," he said.

And while some have feared that the recent unrest and violence in the streets would good for Trump, there's little evidence of that.

"Post-Kenosha polling indicates rising crime isn't actually a "˜win' for the sitting president." Trump has been pointing to recent unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin as an example of the type of thing he claims the U.S. would suffer if Biden wins, but Levitz argues that so far, it isn't working. And Levitz notes it's "hard for Trump to make new attacks on Biden stick when the electorate trusts the Democrat's word over his" - because polling shows that voters trust the former vice president more than current president by a lot.

One reason to be optimistic about Biden's chances is, unfortunately, bad news for the American people as a whole.

"As the return of cold weather threatens to chill demand for outdoor dining and COVID-19 case counts rise throughout the Midwest," Levitz argues, "it is easier to see how America's already beleaguered economy gets significantly worse before Election Day than it is to see how it comes to resemble the triumphant recovery that Trump's been touting. All else being equal, mass unemployment and rolling bankruptcies are unlikely to aid the "˜Keep America Great' candidate's cause.

Joe Biden Picks Up More Republican Backers As Election Day Nears

on September 4, 2020
By Sarah Toce, The New Civil Rights Movement

A new group comprised of nearly 100 non-democrats was announced Thursday and it's called Republicans and Independents For Biden. The sole objective of the newly-formed organization is "to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden the next President of the United States."

Former Republican governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, is at the forefront of the endeavor. Readers will remember Whitman from her scathing criticism of President Donald J. Trump during the Democratic National Convention. She also headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003.

"Trump is not the leader our nation needs, and it is time he got out of the way so true leaders can move our nation forward," Whitman wrote. "A pandemic, economic collapse, racial unrest, and foreign dictators interfering in our elections have brought our country to the brink. 30 million unemployed, and worst of all, over 180,000 American lives tragically lost, due to this President's gross incompetence and strategic choices in his response to COVID19."

Whitman added, "Donald Trump's daily assaults on our nation's founding principles pose an existential threat to the future of the Republic."

Joining Whitman in the humanitarian effort of America's time is one-time 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder wrote an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press Thursday that said he was still a Republican, but would nevertheless be endorsing Biden's Democratic presidential candidacy.

"Donald Trump is a bully who lacks a moral compass. Joe Biden would bring back civility," Snyder wrote.

With 61 days to the election, Republicans and Independents For Biden will target persuadable Republican and right-leaning Independent voters in "key battleground states who may have given Trump a chance in 2016, but now know that he can not lead our country to the greatness we seek," according to the group's website.

"Americans were promised more good-paying jobs and the opportunity for their families to live the American dream if they worked hard and played by the rules," said Rosario Marin, the 41st Treasurer of the United States under President George W. Bush. "Instead, Donald Trump's willful ignorance and abdication of leadership in the face of a pandemic has led to more job losses than at any point since the Great Depression. Tens of millions of Americans remain out of work and dependent on government assistance to feed, clothe and shelter their families. In short, there is no credible argument for the president to make that American families are better off than they were four years ago."

Additional participants in this effort are listed here: https://republicansforbiden.net/news/prominent-republicans-and-independents-led-by-former-governor-christine-todd-whitman-launch-new-coalition-uniting-conservatives-to-take-on-trump-elect-joe-biden/

Watch: https://youtu.be/1GzdrNsSLBU

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks on economic crisis

9/5/2020
Guardian

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf6F5kN7CYE

Democrats eye Arizona, Georgia and Texas as potentially winnable

    Party's electoral map aims to expand into Republican areas
    Campaign manager: "˜All of these states are legitimately in play'

A volunteer worker of Harris County Democratic party holds up signs to support Joe Biden during a drive-in DNC watch event in Houston, Texas. The party sees Texas as potentially winnable.

Daniel Strauss
Guardian
Sat 5 Sep 2020 14.13 BST

Former vice-president Joe Biden's presidential campaign sees Arizona, Texas and Georgia as possible pathways to victory and ousting Donald Trump from the White House.

During a press briefing with reporters top Biden campaign officials displayed a map of the states that they see as winnable. The map showed Arizona, Texas and Georgia in the light pink color marked as "expand" states.

Democrats push to register 1m voters in attempt to rip Texas from Trump..Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/31/democrats-push-to-register-voters-in-attempt-to-rip-texas-from-trump

"We really feel like all of these states are legitimately in play," Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, said.

Democrats have not won any of those three states in the past two election cycles. They all have Republican governors and two Republican senators. Texas in particular is a state Democrats have long hoped to put in their column, but so far to no avail.

The map put Nevada, Minnesota, Virginia and New Hampshire, which the Democrats won in 2016, in its protect category and Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida in its win back category. Donald Trump won Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida in 2016.

As of Friday the polling website fivethirtyeight.com, labeled Biden as slightly favored to win Arizona while Trump is slightly favored to win Georgia and favored to win Texas.

The fact that the Biden campaign, just a few months before the election, is listing southern states as ones that are hard but still within reach suggests a level of confidence after years of hand-wringing over whether usually Democratic states like Pennsylvania and Michigan have permanently tilted toward Republicans.

"As you look at this breakout we really think we've started with 180 electoral votes safe Dems. If you look through the states that are states we won in 2016 as protect Democrats that gives you 44 more," O'Malley Dillon said. "So we're really looking for 30 electoral votes and as you can see there's a number of combinations that will get us to where we need to go and get over that 270 hump."

Hi Rad,

Thanks for posting the link to the "Unfit" documentary. It was well done---definitely worth watching.

If the election ends up being fair and the results are not tampered with, it seems likely that Biden will win. Unfortunately, Trump will cheat and may end up stealing the election, since he has all the levers to accomplish that at his fingertips.

Before Comey interfered with the 2016 election, 11 days before election day, it felt like Clinton would win, but as soon as Comey came out, I felt the energy shift to Trump's side.

Am feeling a similar shift right now. I was feeling hopeful about Biden up until Trump began dismantling the Postal Service (which is still continuing, despite what DeJoy has claimed). At that point, I felt the energy shift to Trump's side again. Then when he told his supporters to vote twice, I felt it even more, and I think many of his supporters will try to vote twice. Unfortunately, from what I can see, most states don't have foolproof methods for detecting that in time, and, even if they did, most people who have voted twice don't ever get prosecuted.

But there are still 58 days to the election, so anything can happen. Unforeseen events may occur, and the energy may shift again.

Do you think his attempt to destroy the Postal Service and tell his base to vote twice will work?

Thank you.

Soleil

Hi Soleil,

All's I can say is what I have said before: that Trump and those that enable him will do ANYTHING to maintain power. There literally are no limits to what Trump can and will do including the ongoing destruction of America's institutions which then crumbles the country from within itself. This of course is the goal of Putin who hates democracy wherever it is in the world, and Trump ,as you know, is doing the biding of Putin in every way including following his instructions/ 'advise' to how to take over America for himself.

This latest 'strategy' of encouraging the goons / automatons that follow his every word via the voting twice thing, the manipulation of the postal service in the form of DeJoy,  etc are only examples of all the possible ways of his evilness in service to his desire to be a 'ruler' of America can and have manifested:  just as Putin in Russia has done exactly the same. The good news as I see it is that there have been, and are. increasing forces in America that are determined to defeat this evil. To me it is truly a titanic struggle between the forces that reflect what we call God, and the forces that we call Evil.

As I have also said before, and as we have all been witnessing from around the world, chaos, confusion, and total crisis in America relative to the election can not be overstated.

God Bless, Rad

"˜Nightmare scenario': Trump is laying the groundwork for election result mayhem

on September 6, 2020
By Common Dreams
- Commentary

Warning of the very real chance of a "nightmare scenario" in which President Donald Trump misleads the American people over the results of the November election-or refuses to leave office voluntarily if voted out-Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the alarm and mobilizing his army of supporters to be aware of just how dangerous a game the president is now playing.

In an interview with Politico and an email sent to his massive email list Friday, Sanders suggested that too many news organizations, social media companies, and lawmakers-in addition to the broader public-remain unaware of the manner in which Trump is laying the groundwork for a potentially devastating series of events.

"Trump is now using his lies and misinformation to sow confusion and chaos in the election process and undermine American democracy," stated in the email, sent to millions of his supporters on Friday. "In other words, he does not intend to accept the results of the election if he loses and leave office voluntarily. This is not just a "˜constitutional crisis.' This is a threat to everything this country stands for."

Speaking with Politico earlier in the day, Sanders said one crucial thing to be done immediately is to educate people. "What we have got to do in the next two months is to alert the American people about what that nightmarish scenario might look like in order to prepare them for that possibility and talk about what we do if that happens," he said.

Earlier this week, Trump was accused by legal experts of committing an outright felony when he publicly called on voters in North Carolina to vote twice in the November federal elections. For Sanders, the comment should be seen as just part of a larger ploy by the president and the GOP to sow doubt about the integrity of the election while also creating conditions to actually steal power by refusing to concede if Trump is defeated by Democratic rival Joe Biden.

    We must do everything we can to ensure @JoeBiden wins by the largest possible margin. We also must consider what happens if Trump loses but refuses to abide by the results and does everything he can to hold onto power.

    - Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 4, 2020

In his email, Sanders said:

    At a time when he is behind in almost every national poll and in most battleground state polls, Trump recently stated, "The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election."

    Think about what that means. What he is saying is that if he wins the election, that's great. But if he loses, it's rigged. And if it's rigged, then he is not leaving office. Heads I win. Tails you lose.

As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, Sanders is not alone in his concerns. After researchers at the analysis firm Hawkfish presented a scenario in which Trump could try to prematurely claim an election night victory on November 3 based on incomplete results-a so-called "Red Mirage" win based on same-day voting by Republicans but leaving out millions of yet-to-be-counted mail-in ballots by Democrats in key battleground states-it was clear to many that both the president and his GOP supporters will create untold havoc if not adequately confronted.

    This is important: I'm standing side-by-side with @SenSanders to make sure we have a plan if President Trump refuses to leave office.https://t.co/WaV86rcoU2

    - Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 5, 2020

"The fact is that we will not get results on election night-it may take days or even longer for states to count the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots needed to conduct a safe election after Trump botched the response to the coronavirus," said Ryan Thomas, a spokesperson for Stand Up America, after Trump invoked the "Red Mirage" scenario on Wednesday, but inversing the implications by saying it would be Democrats "rigging" the delayed results against him.

Such "baseless charges being spread by Trump and his allies in the right-wing media about the election results," said Ryan, "are not only damaging to the foundation of our democracy, but also wholly unAmerican."

And Sanders agrees.

"Trump is not only trying to create chaos and delegitimize the election process," he warned in his email. "He and the Republican Party are now spending tens of millions of dollars in the courts to make it harder for people to vote."

To combat the ability of Trump to sow such misinformation, Sanders is calling for four things to be done without delay:

    With the pandemic and a massive increase in mail-in voting, state legislatures must take immediate action to allow for votes to be counted before Election Day, as they come in;
    The news media needs to prepare the American people to understand there is no longer a single Election Day and that we may not know the results on November 3;
    Social media companies must finally get their act together and stop people from using their tools to threaten and harass election officials and spread disinformation; and
    We need Congressional hearings with local officials to learn how they plan to handle the Election Day process and the days that follow.

While Sanders told Politico he hopes "with all of my heart that none of this happens," he admitted he is very much concerned that Trump will do nearly anything to cling to power and would even go so far as to refuse to leave office if defeated.

"There is a very high likelihood that Trump will contest the results if he loses," he told the outlet. "And it would be an unprecedented moment in American history and undermining everything that this country stands for if we have a president remain in office who lost the election."

The reality, he said in his email, is not easy to face but the truth must be told.

"In the United States we have an antiquated and inefficient process for conducting elections," he wrote. "And, today, that system is operating under the additional strain of the coronavirus pandemic. Sadly, instead of trying to improve this flawed situation Trump and many Republicans appear willing to exploit it to maintain power."

As his final message to supporters in the email, he said the hard work ahead in the weeks and months ahead is "to deliver Joe Biden an overwhelming victory on election night. But, we must also stay vigilant, and do everything possible to prevent Trump from staying in power if he loses."

And concluded: "Nothing less than our democracy is at stake."

Trump's lunacy becomes even more terrifying as Bill Barr makes it clear he will do anything to keep the president in power

on September 4, 2020
By Heather Digby Parton, Salon
- Commentary

Many of us have long warned that this fall would see a dirty campaign without precedent, that Donald Trump would stop at nothing to foment chaos, and so forth. But up till now there has been a certain abstractness about it. Who knew exactly what form it would take and whether it would have any real effect?

It's here, and it's not abstract any longer. What was assumed to be just more of the usual Trump lunacy is starting to feel terrifying. He and his campaign really are pulling out all the stops and they are doing it in the middle of a deadly pandemic that has ravaged the people and destroyed the economy. Creating even more disorder and turmoil in middle of this crisis, in an effort to concoct or create an electoral victory he will not have earned legitimately, is over-the-top even for him.

This week the president gave a number of interviews and rallies in which he sounded more unhinged than usual. In fact, they were so bad that if his plans only depended upon him, we could probably feel a bit reassured. Unfortunately, his henchmen all seem to be on board and none more so than Attorney General Bill Barr, who appeared on CNN Wednesday and signaled that he's prepared to enlist the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement in Trump's election chaos strategy.
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Barr always has an arrogant, supercilious attitude, whether he's facing Congress or members of the media. But he was downright angry with anchor Wolf Blitzer and it took him off his usual game. More than any other interview I can remember, this one revealed that Barr's insolence is actually cover for the fact that he really doesn't know what he's talking about. The man who once told the New York Times that investigating the silly, manufactured Clinton-related Uranium One "scandal" was more justified than any probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election still sees the world from the perspective of a Fox News viewer, rather than as the leader of the federal government's most powerful law enforcement agency. And like his boss, Barr is much too egotistical to have a clue how ignorant that makes him.

He showed how little he knows or cares about the ethics of his position by saying that he wouldn't talk about the case of Jacob Blake case (the Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who was shot seven times in the back by a police officer) and then proceeded to share his conclusion that Blake was armed and in the process of committing a felony. When Blitzer pointed out that this was not established fact, Barr came back with "I've stated what I believe "¦" In other words, he was prejudging the facts of the case on television, which totally taints the Justice Department's investigation.

He couldn't simply say, "I won't comment on the case because the department is investigating," as any other attorney general would have done. That was because Barr clearly has a political agenda, which became more explicit as he went on to deny the existence of systemic racism. He said that "the narrative that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that that's based on race." He elaborated on this by saying that Black men are stopped more often by police is not the result of racism but rather of "stereotypes" about Black people being criminals. In other words, he doesn't even know what racism is, nor does he have the self-awareness to know that his own antediluvian attitudes are racist - another thing he has in common with President Trump. (I really shouldn't have to say this, but Barr is wrong about all of this.)

Barr blatantly lied when he said that Russia hasn't been interfering in the election up until now and that China is a greater threat to the integrity of the process, despite the fact that the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI have said the opposite. Indeed, the very next day the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin saying it has high confidence that "Russian malign influence actors" have targeted the absentee voting process "by spreading disinformation" since at least March:

    Russian state media and proxy websites in mid-August 2020 criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote-by-mail, claiming ineligible voters could receive ballots due to out-of-date voter rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots unaccounted for and vulnerable to tampering. These websites also alleged that vote-by-mail processes would overburden the U.S. Postal Service and local boards of election delaying vote tabulation and creating more opportunities for fraud and error.

The attorney general must be on their mailing list because these were exactly the arguments he set forth in the CNN interview, at one point getting very testy with Blitzer on the subject. He insisted that the nation is "playing with fire" by changing the method of voting in this election, fatuously insisting that it will cause people to lose faith in the process - which of course is exactly what he is doing in spreading this hysterical propaganda.

When Blitzer asked him about Trump's recent exhortation to his voters to vote by mail and then go to the polls to try to vote again, the attorney general said he couldn't comment because he didn't know the laws in individual states, as if any of them allowed voting twice in the same election. When quizzed about how many cases of voter fraud the Justice Department is pursuing, he said he didn't know, although he did mention one case that purportedly had 1,700 cases of mail-in voter fraud. That story was totally wrong and the DOJ had to issue a correction saying Barr had been given incorrect information.

Barr's most ludicrous contention was that foreign countries are going to counterfeit ballots and mail them in. He has no evidence other than what he calls "logic" to back up this ridiculous claim, which proves how divorced from reality the attorney general of the United States actually is. The Washington Post's Philip Bump explains:

    For one thing, any number of those ballots would conflict with existing submitted ballots and be rejected. For another, ballots meet particular design and production standards that would need to be matched. But most important, ballots submitted by mail are validated upon receipt, usually by matching the ballot's signature to the recorded signature for the voter. As a forgery expert with whom we spoke in June made clear, this would be nearly impossible to fake.

Barr is essentially spreading a ludicrous conspiracy theory about foreign interference with mail-in ballots, while also helping a foreign adversary interfere in the election by spreading several different conspiracy theories. It's insane.

We've long known that Barr was happily performing the role of Trump's "Roy Cohn," seeing his primary role as leader of the Justice Department as leading a war against Trump's political enemies. But Barr is also a true believer, not just a cynical fraud. His willingness to distort the rule of law to benefit his patron, while at the same time falling down the rabbit hole of one right-wing conspiracy theory after another, is the very definition of Trumpism in action. And he's not even trying to hide it

Hi Soleil,

Here is a perfect example of how evil Trump is, just one example that can be multiplied by the amount of conscious lies he has made during his 'presidency'. Imagine, if any of us can, how many lies this evil Soul has  made during this lifetime as he has coned, swindled, cheated, and manipulated others leading to him being where he is now.

Keep in mind that Steve Jobs was totally into Yogananda. Even during his funeral he had people passing out free copies of Autobiography Of A Yogi. He wife is just as dedicated as he was. So in this one example we can see yet again how Evil tried to defeat God, and God tries to defeat Evil.

God Bless, Rad

******

Trump encourages his followers to harass widow of Steve Jobs over her support of Biden

on September 6, 2020
Raw Story
By Tom Boggioni

In an early Sunday morning tweet, Donald Trump retweeted a post stating the Laurene Powell Jobs - widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs -  donated at least $500,000 to Joe Biden's campaign this year and urges his followers to contact her and express their displeasure.

According to the president, "Steve Jobs would not be happy that his wife is wasting money he left her on a failing Radical Left Magazine that is run by a con man (Goldberg) and spews FAKE NEWS & HATE. Call her, write her, let her know how you feel!!!"

You can see the tweet below:

    Steve Jobs would not be happy that his wife is wasting money he left her on a failing Radical Left Magazine that is run by a con man (Goldberg) and spews FAKE NEWS & HATE. Call her, write her, let her know how you feel!!! https://t.co/wwuoP85bQE

    - Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2020

Hi Rad,

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, his lies about Steve Jobs' widow are just the latest example of his sickening and evil attempts to con and manipulate the American people. He thinks that, no matter how outrageous his lies, his base will believe anything he says.

Unfortunately, a lot of them are so brainwashed, brain-dead or uneducated, they actually do. The rest are so blinded by either their devotion to getting richer and maintaining power or to protecting unborn fetuses (once fetuses are born, they could give a crap), that they will go along with anything he says.

It's hard to believe that around 46% of the population is either sociopathic, like him, or deeply racist, like him, or so greedy, like him, that they will willingly destroy our democracy, our citizens and everything good about this country, including the environment---thereby endangering us all---in order to hold onto power and acquire even more wealth.

At the core, I think Republicans love how openly evil and racist he is, because it gives them permission to be just as evil out in the open.

Trump is everything horrific and destructive a human is capable of being rolled into one person----not only is he evil, he is also a malignant narcissist, clinically insane and delusional, cruel, sadistic, corrupt, power-hungry to the nth degree, a pathological liar, stupid as a brick (and that's an insult to bricks)....I mean, I could go on and on.

He needs to be stopped. I just wish Democrats would do a better job at fighting back and pointing out the fact that he is destroying the country and obliterating democracy. And I wish they would stop treating this as a "normal" election. They need to have a much more urgent way of communicating and acting.

Specifically, Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats need to come out with a strong and clear message re voting----i.e. NOT to send their ballots back via the Postal Service (I think DeJoy will trash ballots in blue states and minority areas), but instead to drop off their ballots at drop-off boxes or the offices of Secretaries of State or county registrars.

Pelosi keeps saying "we don't agonize, we organize." Where is the organizing? If I were Pelosi, my hair would be on fire because this evil orange moron is an existential threat to all of us.

Thanks for all the great articles you post---so important to stay aware.

Wishing you the best,

Soleil

In America on edge, White House race enters final sprint

on September 8, 2020
By Agence France-Presse

Democrat Joe Biden, his running mate Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's vice president Mike Pence head to key swing states on Labor Day - kicking off the final stretch of the White House race in a nation battered by the Covid-19 pandemic and facing a historic reckoning on race.

Trump, who rarely stays out of the spotlight for long, was remaining at the White House but announced a surprise news conference for 1:00 pm (1700 GMT), where he was expected to tout some positive financial numbers on a day dedicated to the nation's workers.

"Biggest and Fastest Financial Recovery In History," he said in an early morning tweet.

With less than two months until the November 3 election, the dueling campaigns are anything but traditional, knocked off stride by the multiple layers of turmoil.

Candidates who normally would be skipping daily from state to state to speak before big crowds are limiting their movements and doing much more virtually.

And the sometimes violent anti-racism protests and counter-protests - including one expected later Monday in Portland - lend an explosive and unpredictable element to the campaign.

Biden headed Monday to Pennsylvania, the state of his birth, where he kicked off with a socially-distant meeting with leaders of the huge AFL-CIO trade union.

At 77, he last week picked up the pace of campaigning but, citing the Covid-19 threat, has been far more cautious than Trump, who at 74 has appeared before hundreds of supporters.

Still, polls show Biden maintaining a persistent, if not insurmountable, lead over Trump, with both men increasingly focusing on key upper Midwest states like Wisconsin, where polling is closer.

Harris, in her highest-profile political sortie since Biden named her running mate, headed to Wisconsin on Monday where she followed in Biden's footsteps by reportedly meeting the family of Jacob Blake - an African American whose shooting by police touched off widespread protests and rioting last month.

The child of immigrant parents, the 55-year-old California senator is both the first black and the first person of Indian descent on a major-party presidential ticket. Black participation dropped in Wisconsin in 2016, and its mobilization could be key this year.

Harris will also seek to appeal to the important labor vote, meeting with electrical union workers and then black businesspeople in Milwaukee. She is expected to argue that Trump's handling of the pandemic has been incompetent, harming the economy and American workers.

- Battling for Wisconsin votes -

Pence was also heading to Wisconsin - marking the first time both vice presidential candidates have spoken in the same state on the same day - to deliver remarks to an energy cooperative in the western city of La Crosse.

He is expected to argue that a second Trump term would bring a strong economic revival.

Wisconsin has become a dynamic electoral battleground, even more so after Blake's shooting.

Having seen Hillary Clinton narrowly lose Wisconsin to Trump in a 2016 shocker, Biden and Harris appear determined not to neglect the state's voters.

- A racial tinderbox -

Trump, in his news conference, seems likely to be asked about a report in The Atlantic magazine that he has frequently been dismissive of the military and its veterans, charges he angrily denies but which could be damaging, with polling shows his support waning among US troops.

Up to now, the shadow of the coronavirus has produced a somewhat muted campaign, with Biden originally spending so much time in his Delaware home that Trump taunted him about coming out of "his basement."

But the sometimes violent anti-racism protests around the nation, rumbling on unabated and creating a tinderbox situation, are drawing strong words from both presidential candidates.

Trump, blaming the violence on "radicals" and "anarchists," has positioned himself as a law-and-order candidate, openly supporting some right-wing counter-protesters.

Already high tensions in the Oregon city of Portland were further raised Monday by plans for a pro-Trump motorcade into the city, which has seen more than 100 days of protests and two deaths among protesters on either side.

More protests were also expected in the New York city of Rochester, where a black man with psychological problems, Daniel Prude, died after being placed in a hood and forced face-down on a road by police.

Five nights of protests have erupted in the city, whose mayor Lovely Warren has vowed in response to "transform" policing in the city.

Biden recently issued a sharp denunciation of the violence and looting that have accompanied some protests, even while vowing to speak out against racism as the country's "original sin."

*********

50+ progressive groups plan for "˜mass public unrest' if Trump loses - but won't leave office

Raw Story
9/8/2020
By Bob Brigham

President Donald Trump has said that the 2020 election results will be illegitimate if he loses - despite trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in the polls. Now, progressives are planning to deal with what may come after Election Day 2020, according to a new report in The Daily Beast.

"Last week, a coalition of leading progressive groups gathered on Zoom to begin organizing for what they envision as the post-Election Day political apocalypse scenario," The Beast's Sam Stein reported.

"Put together by the Fight Back Table-an initiative launched after the 2016 election to get a constellation of lefty organizations to work more closely together-the meeting dealt with the operational demands expected if the November election ends without a clear outcome or with a Joe Biden win that Donald Trump refuses to recognize," Stein reported. "Sources familiar with the discussions described them as serious with a modestly panicked undertone. A smaller FBT session last fall had talked about post-election planning, but those discussions were tabled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time they were bringing the matter to the 50-plus organizations that make up the coalition. To formalize the effort, they gave it a name: the "˜Democracy Defense Nerve Center.'"

"Over the course of two hours, participants broached the question of what the progressive political ecosystem can functionally do in a series of election scenarios," Stein reported. "They began charting out what it would take to stand up a multi-state communications arm to fight disinformation, a training program for nonviolent civil disobedience, and the underpinnings of what one official described as "˜mass public unrest.'"

The group reported studied the Transition Integrity Project report warning, "The potential for violent conflict is high."

The Beast interviewed "one source familiar with the Democracy Defense Nerve Center operations."

"I don't know what the strategy is when armed right-wing militia dudes show up in polling places," the source said. "This [Kyle] Rittenhouse guy is being lionized on the right, right now. If it is being unleashed that you can shoot people and be a hero, I don't know what preparation we can possibly do for that."

    NEW - A coalition of top progressive groups secretly met last week to begin preparing for the chaos that seems destined to come after Election Day, including the likelihood of violence in the streets. https://t.co/MtMj3wIXZ7

    - Sam Stein (@samstein) September 8, 2020

More than 550,000 mail ballots rejected so far: Here's how to make sure your vote gets counted

on September 8, 2020
By Igor Derysh, Salon

Election officials are working to make sure voters are not disenfranchised in November after an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots have been rejected in primary elections so far this year.

A Washington Post analysis found that more than 534,000 mail ballots were rejected in primaries in 23 states this year and a separate NPR analysis found more than 558,000 ballots rejected in 30 states. By comparison, less than 318,000 ballots were rejected in the 2016 general election, raising concerns that ballot issues could tip the election. After all, the 2016 presidential race was decided by about 77,000 combined votes, spread across in three states.

"We've been worried about this problem," said Ellen Kurz, a veteran of several presidential campaigns who co-founded iVoteFacts, a nonprofit that seeks to educate voters about new voting options amid the pandemic. "New York's [21%] rate was crazy and New Jersey was 10%. And one of the big problems is the fact that voting by mail is going to be new in a lot of these states."
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"You can't have 10% of voters disqualified because of a technicality," she told Salon in an interview. "That's nuts."

Twenty states have expanded mail voting amid the pandemic this year, resulting in many voters casting mail ballots for the very first time. A recent study found that first-time mail voters in Florida were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected than voters who had previously voted by mail. The issue is particularly concerning in key battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the three states that tipped the race to President Trump in 2016. Election officials in those states alone "tossed out more than 60,480 ballots" during the primaries, according to the Washington Post. More than 60,000 more votes were rejected in swing states such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada and Maine.

"If the election is close, it doesn't matter how well it was run - it will be a mess," Charles Stewart III, an election data expert at MIT, told the Post. "The two campaigns will be arguing over nonconforming ballots, which is going to run up against voters' beliefs in fair play."

Some states expect to see a tenfold increase in the number of mail ballots cast this year. While some states have long held elections by mail, in some cases exclusively, others are unprepared to handle the influx.

"In states like Colorado or Washington, where they've been implementing vote by mail for a long time, or at least over several cycles, you don't see that signature spoilage rate. So it's the newness of the process," Kurz told Salon. "When you first implement vote-by-mail, a lot of things can go wrong."

Washington state, which has held all-mail elections for years, has a rejection rate of between 1% and 2%, Kylee Zabel, a spokeswoman for Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, told Salon.

"Ballots are most commonly rejected for late postmarks, or missing or mismatched signatures," Zabel explained.

Voters in at least 20 states, including Washington, can address signature issues until Election Day, though although the processes for doing so vary by state.

"In order for their completed ballot to be processed, voters must sign and date the exterior of their (postage prepaid!) return envelope," Zabel said. "Those signatures are checked against the signatures on file in their voter registration records. If a signature does not match, the county elections office reaches out to the voter with a form they can sign and return to attest to the validity of their signature. This enables the voter to correct or update their signature on file and, if the voter did not return a ballot, notify election officials that a ballot may have been returned fraudulently on their behalf."

Kurz's organization aims to educate voters, with the goal of avoiding having their ballot ensnared in the system.

"Depending on the state, we have legal redress for ballots"¦ but who wants to go through that?" she said. "It would be so much better if people just were informed and educated and reminded about the proper way to fill their ballot out, the proper time to return it and the place to put your signature."

In some states, stray marks on a ballot can lead to disqualification. In others, slight tears in the envelope can invalidate a ballot.

Kurz is planning to launch an advertising campaign to educate voters about how to properly fill out their ballot and iVoteFacts will soon launch an app that will help voters in a half-dozen states that are adopting expanded mail voting systems get all the information they need.

"Sometimes the instructions are really simple, just reminding voters to sign their ballot," she said. "It's literally that people fill the ballots out wrong."

Democratic lawyers and election officials in more than 30 states are pushing to limit the number of reasons that ballots can be rejected. Studies have found that these rejections disproportionately affect voters of color and young people.

A nationwide mail slowdown at the U.S. Postal Service also threatens to delay the arrival of ballots. The USPS recently warned 46 states that ballots may not arrive in time for election deadlines.

Each state has a "unique system," a spokesperson for the National Association of Secretaries of State told Salon, but "overall, every state is encouraging their voters to mail back or deliver ballots as early as possible."

Some states, like Michigan, are pushing for the legislature to extend deadlines and allow ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted even if they arrive several days later.

"If that doesn't change and if there are no other changes, we're facing a scenario where we could have to reject a number of otherwise valid votes sent through the mail that are delayed through no fault of the voter, because of the Postal Service or some other snafu," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson recently told voting rights activists. "So those voters could be disenfranchised, and that number could exceed the margin of victory for a number of races, statewide and local."

Many states are also adding ballot drop boxes so that voters don't have to rely on the USPS to send back their ballot.

Kurz said that secretaries of state have led the charge on trying to educate voters on how to make sure their vote is counted.

"I call them the first responders because nobody should lose their vote or their voice because they put their signature or marked the envelope in the wrong way," she said. "There's a hundred reasons that are just ridiculous. And then you add to that the post office troubles and Trump's campaign, and you could see a disaster really happening. We're trying to avoid that. I think the secretaries [of state] are really going to be really focused on this ballot spoilage issue."

While secretaries of state and Democratic lawyers have sought to ease restrictions that can lead to a ballot being rejected, Trump and many Republican elected officials have launched a legal campaign of their own, arguing that strict signature-matching requirements and voter identification are necessary to prevent fraud. Numerous studies have found that mail-ballot fraud is virtually nonexistent.

"Overhauling the way Americans vote less than 80 days out will only spread chaos and confusion," Mandi Merritt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, told the Post.

Kurz described the ballot rejection issue as a "potential hanging chad on steroids," referring to an infamous issue that arose during the controversial Florida recount in the 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

"Anything that is going to decrease people's voices being heard is just terrible for the country," she said. "So in a pandemic, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you should be trying to solve these problems, not throw wrenches into the problem. That's absurd. There's a global pandemic and, more than ever, people need to vote on who their leaders should be to see us out of this. So we should not be doing things to stop people from voting. It's un-American. Any issue where you're trying to stop eligible citizens from voting, you're just wrong."