Last Call For Like A Kansas Trumpnado

How do I know the Trump regime is now expecting to lose? 

Kansas is now in play according to the NY Times. Kansas.

 

President Trump, who won Kansas by more than 20 percentage points four years ago, maintains only a single-digit lead in the state, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Thursday, an erosion of support that typifies his struggles in nearly every corner of the country as he fights for a second term.

With the clock ticking down before Election Day, the president leads Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, by seven percentage points, 48 to 41, among likely voters in a traditionally conservative state.

The abandonment of Mr. Trump by some voters whom Republicans could once rely on unfailingly has filtered down to the state’s Senate race, where the Democratic nominee, Barbara Bollier, trails the Republican, Roger Marshall, by just four percentage points, 46 to 42.

Kansas has voted for the Republican presidential nominee in the last 12 elections and is home to the party’s 1996 nominee, Bob Dole (who is now 97 years old). It is unlikely to stray this year. But the fact that the contest is so close in the state may presage a brutal self-examination for Republicans if Mr. Trump becomes the first president to lose re-election in a quarter-century.

Barely more than half of Kansans, 51 percent, approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing. Forty-five percent disapprove.

“I don’t know anything about Joe Biden, and everything I know about Trump, I dislike, so you can say I’m voting for Biden because I can’t stand Donald Trump,” said Richard Loveall, 77, a retired computer programmer who cast his ballot for Mr. Trump four years ago because he didn’t like the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

His views of the president today are searing. “He has no integrity,” Mr. Loveall said. “He cheats all the time. He never does anything he said he’s going to do. He’s not a man who honors his word.”

 

I will say this one last time for the folks in the back of the room:

 

Kansas is legitimately in play for the Democrats, for both Biden and for the US Senate with Dr. Barbara Bollier. 

It was legitimately in play 2 years ago, and Democrat Laura Kelly is now Governor as a result.

I'm starting to allow myself to believe Biden's going to win this.

But we need you down the stretch to vote.

Russian To Judgment, Con't

 Me, Wednesday night on news of Russian and Iranian election interference:

Keep a weather eye out for the rest of this story. It involves Russia and the Proud Boys, I'm sure of it.

 

 The NY Times, Thursday night:

While senior Trump administration officials said this week that Iran has been actively interfering in the presidential election, many intelligence officials said they remained far more concerned about Russia, which has in recent days hacked into state and local computer networks in breaches that could allow Moscow broader access to American voting infrastructure.

The discovery of the hacks came as American intelligence agencies, infiltrating Russian networks themselves, have pieced together details of what they believe are Russia’s plans to interfere in the presidential race in its final days or immediately after the election on Nov. 3.

Officials did not make clear what Russia planned to do, but they said its operations would be intended to help President Trump, potentially by exacerbating disputes around the results, especially if the race is too close to call.

There is no evidence that the Russians have changed any vote tallies or voter registration information, officials said. They added that the Russian-backed hackers had penetrated the computer networks without taking further action, as they did in 2016. But American officials expect that if the presidential race is not called on election night, Russian groups could use their knowledge of local computer systems to deface websites, release nonpublic information or take similar steps that could sow chaos and doubts about the integrity of the results, according to American officials briefed on the intelligence.

Some U.S. intelligence officials view Russia’s intentions as more significant than the announcement Wednesday night by the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, that Iran has been involved in the spreading of faked, threatening emails, which were made to appear as if they came from the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group.

Officials briefed on the intelligence said that Mr. Ratcliffe had accurately summarized the preliminary conclusion about Iran. But Tehran’s hackers may have accomplished that mission simply by assembling public information and then routing the threatening emails through Saudi Arabia, Estonia and other countries to hide their tracks. One official compared the Iranian action to single-A baseball, while the Russians are major leaguers.

Nonetheless, both the Iranian and the Russian activity could pave the way for “perception hacks,” which are intended to leave the impression that foreign powers have greater access to the voting system than they really do. Federal officials have warned for months that small breaches could be exaggerated to prompt inaccurate charges of widespread voter fraud.

Officials say Russia’s ability to change vote tallies nationwide is limited.

And it's Columbo time again.

Just one more thing...

Senate Republicans, in particular Mitch McConnell, have been personally blocking legislation that would strengthen election cyber-defenses for years now. Note that Russia is using the same style of exploits and attacks made in 2016, because states have not been able to close those breaches.

Republicans scream about "election integrity" and want as many hoops as possible put in place making it more difficult to vote, measures that actually don't increase security, they just create long lines in Democratic districts for voting, and yet when it comes to actual threats to election integrity, Republicans do everything they can to block the attempts, and offer none of their own solutions saying they are unneeded because our voting system is fine.

You be the judge.

And you will, by voting the GOP out.

It's About Suppression, Con't

The Trump regime is quite serious about doing something about voter intimidation at the polls in battleground states like Florida, and by "doing something" I mean denying Trump's public calls towards intimidating voters at polling places with armed fascist brownshirts.

A Trump campaign spokesperson says two men dressed as armed security guards who set up in a tent outside an early voting location in downtown St. Petersburg were not hired by the campaign.

Thea McDonald, Deputy National Press Secretary for the Trump campaign, told 8 On Your Side: “The Campaign did not hire these individuals nor did the Campaign direct them to go to the voting location.”

Julie Marcus, Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, told 8 On Your Side the men set up a tent outside an early voting site on Wednesday and claimed to be with the Trump campaign.

“The Sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] told me the persons that were dressed in these security uniforms had indicated to sheriff’s deputies that they belonged to a licensed security company and they indicated—and this has not been confirmed yet—that they were hired by the Trump campaign,” said Marcus in a video interview with 8 On Your Side’s Chip Osowski Wednesday night.

Marcus, a Republican, is running to keep her seat as supervisor after being appointed in May of this year by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Gualtieri, also a Republican, is running for re-election as well.

“The sheriff and I take this very seriously,” Marcus said. “Voter intimidation, deterring voters from voting, impeding a voter’s ability to cast a ballot in this election is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any way shape, or form. So we anticipated many things going into this election. Not only cybersecurity, but physical security and we had a plan in place and executed that plan.”

In the first presidential debate last month, President Trump encouraged his supporters to go to the polls to watch what happens there.

“I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully,” Trump said. “Because that’s what has to happen. I am urging them to do it.”

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri spoke with News Channel 8 on Tuesday about his plans to thwart any potential voter intimidation. He said he’s been working closely with Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus to make polling places safe.

“I just don’t want to get too deep into the specifics because we’re trying to balance it,” Gualtieri told 8 On Your Side political reporter Evan Donovan. “But I’ll say it’s a combination of uniformed personnel who will be in the area and also we’re gonna use some undercover personnel just to monitor the situation.”

Dustin Chase, deputy supervisor of elections in Pinellas County, told 8 On Your Side the men setup outside the Supervisor of Elections Office in the County Building, which is located at 501 First Ave. North.

Marcus told 8 On Your Side that Gualtieri plans to have a deputy presence specifically outside that polling place on Thursday.

Deputies with Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office came to the polling place on Wednesday and spoke to the guards, who said they were hired by the Trump campaign and said they would be out tomorrow at the early voting location.

Again, the Roberts Court has all but made this perfectly legal, first by dismantling the Voting Rights Act, and then by lifting the GOP consent decree on voter intimidation tactics exactly like this.

This is working as intended, folks.

This is why I'm still not even close to being comfortable with a ten point Biden national lead, when a dozen battleground states that will determine the winner are all within five or six points. It doesn't take much in the voter suppression category for Trump to eke out a win.

Literally, they did this all before four years ago and he won because of it.

StupidiNews!

• Hospitals nationwide are starting to fill up as a fall surge in COVID-19 cases in the US has left 1,100 dead in Thursday, with almost 1.2 million new COVID-19 cases in October so far.
• The BBC announced this week that journalist Martin Bashir is "seriously unwell" due to COVID-19, Bashir remains in a British hospital.
• Senate Republicans on the Judiciary Committee moved Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Senate floor for an expected Monday vote, Democrats boycotted the vote as illegitimate.
• The Trump regime has released footage of Trump's 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl ahead of time, Trump apparently said that he wanted the Supreme Court to kill Obamacare.
• Both the White House and Twitter are denying the claim of a Dutch researcher that he was able to access Donald Trump's official Twitter account by guessing the password as "maga2020!".