While there was continuing fallout today from the story that Trump lied to the American people about the seriousness of the coronavirus, the breaking stories were mostly about securing the election.
I'm looking forward to the day when the Treasury puts Guiliani and many more of his ilk on a list of those undesireable in the US, sequesters his assets and issues a "Red" interpol arrest warrant for this traitor. Then the Derkachs of this world will change strategy as Putin will know that he has not succeeded and needs to deal with a USA that is regaining its greatness after slumming it with Trump/GOP degenerates.
Heather, thank you for taking yourself to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. We are so appreciative of your incisive letters but also worried about the possible cost to your health. Dream of a better world: it's coming, I feel, beginning November. Blue Wave!
It is interesting to observe that those at the top of the Republican structure, who perpetrated massive voter fraud depriving "unwanted people" of their effective vote, of their proper schooling and their rights to decent health amongs many other indignities and iniquities by the meticulous gerrymandering of political boundaries and other miserly chicaneris draw a moral "red line" at Trump's lies about mail in voting fraud! Well, Well! What is the world coming to! Perhaps there are GOP partisans and profiteers who are starting to be afraid of their great white whale President, taking their ship down with him and killing Captain Ahab, crew and the whole damnable whaling business in the process.
I think the "voter fraud" you refer to is better described as "voter suppression." The difference is significant although both qualify as "fraud." One, as you say, is "massive," the other is nearly nonexistent. It bothers me that voter suppression is not clearly understood and sometimes purposely confused with voter fraud to effect distrust in the electoral process. It's a "thing" I have.
Gerrymandering, of course, is also a "massive" part of voter manipulation, which, along with voter suppression, has given Republicans the structural advantage that Ginsberg writes about here. When Republicans talk about "voter fraud," they invariably mean illegal, fraudulent voting by individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., dead people voting, people voting twice, etc.). They don't mean voter suppression or other voting manipulation techniques that they themselves have become masters of perpetrating.
I have argued with people nonstop about so-called voter fraud. I have given the facts, told about the one case here in Oregon where a R poll worker decided to fill places that voters have left blank. Now two people open each ballot. We have voted for about 20 years by mail with very little fraud. For the first time, thanks to No Joy, we will carry our ballots in. I might also add that most of the places in Oregon where fire destroyed a good part of towns are heavily R. I hope this causes them to think things through. We are also having problems with false rumors of antifa setting these fires. Law enforcement agencies have told people to look at official sites and these people are taking up law enforcement time with this nonsense. It is true that officials are investigating where the Ashland to further north fire started because they found a body and it looks like it was set to cover up a murder. Some people from new outlets were conducting an interview with some people in a town under level three and they were approached by two guys with guys who told them they needed to leave. I hope we can get through this without the vigilantes shooting someone. And two looters up the canyon are in jail after a long chance where they drove into the golf course in Stayton. They are probably lucky they are in jail.
"Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?" Mr Trump said. (As reported in BBC News)
Answer from incredulous, losing patience, so sick of you Democrat:
Perhaps Mr. Woodward recalled the impeachment and trial during which Democrats presented facts and Republicans pounded on tables, repeated lies, displayed bad manners and laughable posters, went after the whistleblower and respected witnesses, rewrote the Constitution and performed for their fearless leader. Their fearless leader continued to bellow hoax, harassed and/or fired the witnesses, inspector generals and anyone else who seemed disloyal and may or may it have built a super nuclear weapon.
I would also answer Trump's query: "Because Woodward and the rest of the country were waiting for YOU to do something, since that's your bloody job, you stupid cretin."
Republican Texas has most kiddos back in school. Ours is a choice system in an affluent area. It’s really like running two schools at once. But our district does require masks of anyone on district property. I’m so anxious everyday! Especially since Labor Day weekend. But just a few have tested positive. Maybe now those teachers that held onto dumpty’s word will take the disease seriously!
Duval county in FL said yesterday that things look good so far so they are resuming things like normal in schools. They’ve been limiting how many students are on campus at once, but are stopping that now. Problem 1-they’re basing this off 1-2 weeks of data is all. Problem 2-you don’t stop what you’re doing because it’s working. You keep doing it because it’s working. Bars will also be opening again next week. Here we go again.....
And DeSantis has throttled back reporting in Florida, for the schools in particular. How does anyone know the reality of Florida's caseload at this point?
Some of my southern Illinois relatives are on a road trip to Florida with nary a mask in sight. They do have underlying conditions, so I hope they stay well. Not a good choice.
We've officially been back in school for 3 days now, today will be day 4. We had a LEAP week 2 weeks ago with limited numbers of students coming in on designated A or B days for testing/evaluation. Masks have been required, social distancing is required and still one student from LEAP week has contracted the virus and now his teacher is sick and has tested positive for Covid. The teacher who shares office space with her was sent home yesterday to be tested and to quarantine, and all the students they saw during LEAP week must be contacted and told of their exposure. Prior to this incident, four other teachers in my building self-quarantined during LEAP week because they had been exposed (three were exposed following a case in their daycare; the fourth has a sister who works in a nearby school that had its entire Kindergarten wing shut down). Even with all our precautions, things aren't going so well, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.
FB is being run by algorithm ‘bots, which since the days last century of “porn filters” on text boards are ineffective nuisances. We have not reached AI capability yet (altho, I suspect Mark .uckerberg is an android – why else would a billionaire look like that).
Zuck follow @jack? Gimme a break. He's a dawg in the worst possible way. Do NOT forget his massive DUMP of names & data+++ for Cambridge Analytica - and for Putin, far as I can see. Under the bus is where he belongs.
A glimmer of hope on the horizon, if Twitter actually does what it plans to do about tweets that are lies/misinformation about the upcoming election... perhaps we'll finally see less from the Liar-in-Chief.
His supporters around me just say it’s more reason not to trust the democrats—they are taking away free speech and trying to stop Trump is all. I just look at them and shake my head.
I’m hearing that too. I text for Indivisible, and yesterday was texting into Ohio about voting methods (early, mail or in person). Got many more Trump2020 responses than in any other project. SMH
Thank you again Heather. I don't know how you do this day in and day out. It is exhausting to keep up with the barrage of news everyday. I sometimes have to take a break from it because it gets me down. Please know how much you are appreciated for bringing these concise summaries to us. Take care of yourself.
Jumped back on social media just to see your FB Live yesterday. Your lecture tied in with the story from Ginsberg and my poll worker training made me realize how much we need more Americans involved in the political process. Not just as politicians but in the electoral process, because things could be so easily manipulated those who want to control the process. It would just take a few bad eggs working together. Americans need to be more active in our local politics. Stop taking a backseat and trusting that our local officials are taking care of us. But how do we do that without teaching it in schools? I know I never learned about it...
I agree strongly about the importance of teaching civics as a mandatory subject for all. Though caution that in the wrong hands in can turn into an indoctrination course.
In my own case I made certain the our children had summer reading lists designed to broaden their horizons and sufficiently educate and inform them to be able to make their own choices. The goal was to teach them how to think for themselves not what to think.
"Stop taking a backseat and trusting that our local officials are taking care of us. But how do we do that without teaching it in schools? I know I never learned about it..."
Belinda, you have identified the solution just by raising your question. Local officials are dealing with very concrete things that affect us, that are also very easy to understand. I try to get neighbors to see how those decisions affect our daily lives, and once decided make our lives either better or worse, sometimes everyday. It could be schools, roads, zoning, or any other thing. When they make moves to segregate schools, we gotta' watch 'em. They are NOT our friends.
People should pay attention to all elections, local, state, and national. We now have a school board that does not represent the community. Big flap not long ago, about a white member wearing a mask of a black person. Then the board chairman and her replacement have close ties to white supremacists although they deny this....photo suggests otherwise. They were elected by local evangelicals. This is a large urban school district.
Thank you Dr. Richardson! The more of this under-handed back-room wheeling and dealing I read about, the more I am reminded of the images of portly older men in smoke-filled rooms making laws and determining policy behind the voting public's backs, with no regard to the havoc that was being wreaked upon the masses. Same here, but there are more of them, and they are more blatant about it.
The good news on the hacking and foreign election interference front is that recent attacks were blocked....and on the internal front Twitter is finally starting to assume it's responsibilites. What abot FB, Instagram and the myriads of others?
Attempting to contain lies, misinformation, and exaggerations being spread by Trump, his enablers, his administration, and his supporters is like trying to make rain rise rather than fall. It is best to simply identify the source of the information and if it is in any way connected to Trump, his supporters, or enablers assume it is untrue and act accordingly.
“Social Media” has become anti-social and over the past few years I have deleted my profiles on PhotoBucket, tumblr & flickr, due to their changes in allowable content or limited free service. In May I deleted my facebook account after being banned AGAIN for content that was within their arbitrary and capriciously enforced “community standards.”
It was just too frustrating being banned for no reason by the algorithm ‘bots, who cannot discern the nuances of speech and tagged my post as “hate speech.” Yes, I do hate “hateful white monsters” who kill black joggers and that was what the ‘bots banned me for. I tried to appeal and got a message that due to COVID there were no humans available “sorry.” (My sci-fi mind sees Mark *uckerberg as an android automaton controlling the unaware humans).
So, after a couple of bans lasting weeks or a full month, I decided if I could live without FB for that length of time, why not live without it forever. I miss some of my cyber friends there, but I am now diverted to those here, who also are no more than words on my monitor, but with whom I can interact during these social distancing times. Also, from the news I hear about FB, it seems more corrupted than the annoyance it has always been. I am getting used to twitter and the upstart MeWe, my only social media profiles.
I prefer twitter over FB now. There's a learning curve but it's short. I DIY'ed my way through. It's my go-to for latest news. Forget MSM. They're too busy running really creepy ads - like for Trump! - on Rachel Maddow's show.
I'm looking forward to the day when the Treasury puts Guiliani and many more of his ilk on a list of those undesireable in the US, sequesters his assets and issues a "Red" interpol arrest warrant for this traitor. Then the Derkachs of this world will change strategy as Putin will know that he has not succeeded and needs to deal with a USA that is regaining its greatness after slumming it with Trump/GOP degenerates.
Heather, thank you for taking yourself to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. We are so appreciative of your incisive letters but also worried about the possible cost to your health. Dream of a better world: it's coming, I feel, beginning November. Blue Wave!
🌊 💙
Mr. Ginsberg cashes in his chips and as he leaves the room mutters to those still at the table, “By the way, the game is rigged”.
It is interesting to observe that those at the top of the Republican structure, who perpetrated massive voter fraud depriving "unwanted people" of their effective vote, of their proper schooling and their rights to decent health amongs many other indignities and iniquities by the meticulous gerrymandering of political boundaries and other miserly chicaneris draw a moral "red line" at Trump's lies about mail in voting fraud! Well, Well! What is the world coming to! Perhaps there are GOP partisans and profiteers who are starting to be afraid of their great white whale President, taking their ship down with him and killing Captain Ahab, crew and the whole damnable whaling business in the process.
I think the "voter fraud" you refer to is better described as "voter suppression." The difference is significant although both qualify as "fraud." One, as you say, is "massive," the other is nearly nonexistent. It bothers me that voter suppression is not clearly understood and sometimes purposely confused with voter fraud to effect distrust in the electoral process. It's a "thing" I have.
Gerrymandering, of course, is also a "massive" part of voter manipulation, which, along with voter suppression, has given Republicans the structural advantage that Ginsberg writes about here. When Republicans talk about "voter fraud," they invariably mean illegal, fraudulent voting by individuals or groups of individuals (e.g., dead people voting, people voting twice, etc.). They don't mean voter suppression or other voting manipulation techniques that they themselves have become masters of perpetrating.
Actual voter fraud (by individuals or groups of individuals), as Dr. Richardson has repeatedly articulated, is virtually nonexistent.
I have argued with people nonstop about so-called voter fraud. I have given the facts, told about the one case here in Oregon where a R poll worker decided to fill places that voters have left blank. Now two people open each ballot. We have voted for about 20 years by mail with very little fraud. For the first time, thanks to No Joy, we will carry our ballots in. I might also add that most of the places in Oregon where fire destroyed a good part of towns are heavily R. I hope this causes them to think things through. We are also having problems with false rumors of antifa setting these fires. Law enforcement agencies have told people to look at official sites and these people are taking up law enforcement time with this nonsense. It is true that officials are investigating where the Ashland to further north fire started because they found a body and it looks like it was set to cover up a murder. Some people from new outlets were conducting an interview with some people in a town under level three and they were approached by two guys with guys who told them they needed to leave. I hope we can get through this without the vigilantes shooting someone. And two looters up the canyon are in jail after a long chance where they drove into the golf course in Stayton. They are probably lucky they are in jail.
Merely inattention on my part. Thanks for the clarification.
That's problem with a loose cannon. Sometimes it punches a hole in your own ship!
Let's hope so.
Or gives you a big hole in your foot..difficult when you continually put it in your mouth!
And he hasn’t written a book ..yet.
"Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?" Mr Trump said. (As reported in BBC News)
Answer from incredulous, losing patience, so sick of you Democrat:
Perhaps Mr. Woodward recalled the impeachment and trial during which Democrats presented facts and Republicans pounded on tables, repeated lies, displayed bad manners and laughable posters, went after the whistleblower and respected witnesses, rewrote the Constitution and performed for their fearless leader. Their fearless leader continued to bellow hoax, harassed and/or fired the witnesses, inspector generals and anyone else who seemed disloyal and may or may it have built a super nuclear weapon.
Any more questions?
I would also answer Trump's query: "Because Woodward and the rest of the country were waiting for YOU to do something, since that's your bloody job, you stupid cretin."
Boo boo. That’s so mean! ;-). Here come the Republican crocodile tears.
Correction—...May or may not have built a super nuclear weapon.
The man is a compulsive liar talking now about trust. I’m pretty sure he and his lovely bride often make fun of us.
And "...in an effort to save lives" means HE knew there would be lives lost but did nothing.
Republican Texas has most kiddos back in school. Ours is a choice system in an affluent area. It’s really like running two schools at once. But our district does require masks of anyone on district property. I’m so anxious everyday! Especially since Labor Day weekend. But just a few have tested positive. Maybe now those teachers that held onto dumpty’s word will take the disease seriously!
Early voting in Texas begins Oct 13th! 💙 💙 💙
Thank you! Stay Safe!
Duval county in FL said yesterday that things look good so far so they are resuming things like normal in schools. They’ve been limiting how many students are on campus at once, but are stopping that now. Problem 1-they’re basing this off 1-2 weeks of data is all. Problem 2-you don’t stop what you’re doing because it’s working. You keep doing it because it’s working. Bars will also be opening again next week. Here we go again.....
And DeSantis has throttled back reporting in Florida, for the schools in particular. How does anyone know the reality of Florida's caseload at this point?
I'm so glad my granddaughter in Duval county is being home schooled. My son is a type 1 diabetic.
Some of my southern Illinois relatives are on a road trip to Florida with nary a mask in sight. They do have underlying conditions, so I hope they stay well. Not a good choice.
We've officially been back in school for 3 days now, today will be day 4. We had a LEAP week 2 weeks ago with limited numbers of students coming in on designated A or B days for testing/evaluation. Masks have been required, social distancing is required and still one student from LEAP week has contracted the virus and now his teacher is sick and has tested positive for Covid. The teacher who shares office space with her was sent home yesterday to be tested and to quarantine, and all the students they saw during LEAP week must be contacted and told of their exposure. Prior to this incident, four other teachers in my building self-quarantined during LEAP week because they had been exposed (three were exposed following a case in their daycare; the fourth has a sister who works in a nearby school that had its entire Kindergarten wing shut down). Even with all our precautions, things aren't going so well, and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.
Now we need FB to follow Twitter’s lead.
FB is being run by algorithm ‘bots, which since the days last century of “porn filters” on text boards are ineffective nuisances. We have not reached AI capability yet (altho, I suspect Mark .uckerberg is an android – why else would a billionaire look like that).
Zuck follow @jack? Gimme a break. He's a dawg in the worst possible way. Do NOT forget his massive DUMP of names & data+++ for Cambridge Analytica - and for Putin, far as I can see. Under the bus is where he belongs.
A glimmer of hope on the horizon, if Twitter actually does what it plans to do about tweets that are lies/misinformation about the upcoming election... perhaps we'll finally see less from the Liar-in-Chief.
His supporters around me just say it’s more reason not to trust the democrats—they are taking away free speech and trying to stop Trump is all. I just look at them and shake my head.
I’m hearing that too. I text for Indivisible, and yesterday was texting into Ohio about voting methods (early, mail or in person). Got many more Trump2020 responses than in any other project. SMH
Thank you again Heather. I don't know how you do this day in and day out. It is exhausting to keep up with the barrage of news everyday. I sometimes have to take a break from it because it gets me down. Please know how much you are appreciated for bringing these concise summaries to us. Take care of yourself.
Amen and here here! Thank you Dr. Richardson!
Jumped back on social media just to see your FB Live yesterday. Your lecture tied in with the story from Ginsberg and my poll worker training made me realize how much we need more Americans involved in the political process. Not just as politicians but in the electoral process, because things could be so easily manipulated those who want to control the process. It would just take a few bad eggs working together. Americans need to be more active in our local politics. Stop taking a backseat and trusting that our local officials are taking care of us. But how do we do that without teaching it in schools? I know I never learned about it...
I sure did; in 8th grade I had one semester of Indiana history and the other of civics. What happened to civics? Too much teaching to test I guess.
I agree strongly about the importance of teaching civics as a mandatory subject for all. Though caution that in the wrong hands in can turn into an indoctrination course.
In my own case I made certain the our children had summer reading lists designed to broaden their horizons and sufficiently educate and inform them to be able to make their own choices. The goal was to teach them how to think for themselves not what to think.
Yes, critical thinking skills are even more important than the content.
"Stop taking a backseat and trusting that our local officials are taking care of us. But how do we do that without teaching it in schools? I know I never learned about it..."
Belinda, you have identified the solution just by raising your question. Local officials are dealing with very concrete things that affect us, that are also very easy to understand. I try to get neighbors to see how those decisions affect our daily lives, and once decided make our lives either better or worse, sometimes everyday. It could be schools, roads, zoning, or any other thing. When they make moves to segregate schools, we gotta' watch 'em. They are NOT our friends.
People should pay attention to all elections, local, state, and national. We now have a school board that does not represent the community. Big flap not long ago, about a white member wearing a mask of a black person. Then the board chairman and her replacement have close ties to white supremacists although they deny this....photo suggests otherwise. They were elected by local evangelicals. This is a large urban school district.
Boy, you’re up against all the major obstacles!
Thank you Dr. Richardson! The more of this under-handed back-room wheeling and dealing I read about, the more I am reminded of the images of portly older men in smoke-filled rooms making laws and determining policy behind the voting public's backs, with no regard to the havoc that was being wreaked upon the masses. Same here, but there are more of them, and they are more blatant about it.
The good news on the hacking and foreign election interference front is that recent attacks were blocked....and on the internal front Twitter is finally starting to assume it's responsibilites. What abot FB, Instagram and the myriads of others?
I hope you get to relish a decent bedtime for a change. Rest well! We deeply appreciate all that you do.
Ginsberg's phrase, that Republican rhetoric is "transactional hypocrisy," defines this whole administration, from the top down.
My proposed (long) bumper sticker: TheCreatureLiedPeopleDiedPeopleSickenPeopleSuffer
I hope this early post means you will get some rest. Thank you.
It will be interesting to see if Twitter and Trump go to war.
Oh, you can count on it. Get the popcorn.
You mean I will have to get a new hobby? I recently started with the many ppl telling tRump he's full of ..it.
https://twitter.com/roboyte/status/1304097540896428032?s=20
Attempting to contain lies, misinformation, and exaggerations being spread by Trump, his enablers, his administration, and his supporters is like trying to make rain rise rather than fall. It is best to simply identify the source of the information and if it is in any way connected to Trump, his supporters, or enablers assume it is untrue and act accordingly.
“Social Media” has become anti-social and over the past few years I have deleted my profiles on PhotoBucket, tumblr & flickr, due to their changes in allowable content or limited free service. In May I deleted my facebook account after being banned AGAIN for content that was within their arbitrary and capriciously enforced “community standards.”
https://twitter.com/roboyte/status/1264661242158948354?s=20
It was just too frustrating being banned for no reason by the algorithm ‘bots, who cannot discern the nuances of speech and tagged my post as “hate speech.” Yes, I do hate “hateful white monsters” who kill black joggers and that was what the ‘bots banned me for. I tried to appeal and got a message that due to COVID there were no humans available “sorry.” (My sci-fi mind sees Mark *uckerberg as an android automaton controlling the unaware humans).
So, after a couple of bans lasting weeks or a full month, I decided if I could live without FB for that length of time, why not live without it forever. I miss some of my cyber friends there, but I am now diverted to those here, who also are no more than words on my monitor, but with whom I can interact during these social distancing times. Also, from the news I hear about FB, it seems more corrupted than the annoyance it has always been. I am getting used to twitter and the upstart MeWe, my only social media profiles.
I prefer twitter over FB now. There's a learning curve but it's short. I DIY'ed my way through. It's my go-to for latest news. Forget MSM. They're too busy running really creepy ads - like for Trump! - on Rachel Maddow's show.
If'n I could figure out twitter, I'd be on it more. I'm slow to learn!
Yeah, it took me the longest to get used to it. Still get lost trying to figure out all those icon pix or send a PM, but managing now.