Maybe it’s because of COVID-19, but one thing I haven’t heard from the debates was the “spin room’. I suppose that’s a good thing.
How Texas went from low voter turnout to nation’s top early voting state – From coronavirus concerns to changing demographics of new voters, a record number of people have voted in a state known for voter suppression tactics
In a tidal wave of political engagement, more than 7 million Texans have already cast a ballot during the general election, the vast majority in-person. The numbers are propelling what is historically one of the lowest voter turnout states to the top of the nation’s leaderboard in terms of the sheer number of people who have voted thus far. That groundswell of participation is even more striking in context, as democratic hurdles remain ever-present at the polls while fears of Covid-19 also loom large.
“What we’re seeing is that Texans will crawl through broken glass to be able to make sure their voices are heard this election,” said Abhi Rahman, communications director for the Texas Democratic party.
In the midst of the early voting period, extended by Governor Greg Abbott amid the coronavirus pandemic, approximately 43% of registered voters statewide had voted as of Sunday, logging more than 80% of the total turnout from four years ago with over a week left in the election.
From the Dallas subreddit – Per NYTimes data, the average Trump donor in zip code 75225 gave Trump $3,784.62
Since this is paywalled, I’ll excerpt a few stats from the article about Dallas area donations. These are donations recorded since April.
75225 is the square between Lovers Ln, Walnut Hill, 75, and the tollway. It had 706 Trump supporters who donated a combined $2,671,944 and 714 Biden supporters who donated a combined $456,952 (avg $639.99 each). 75205, just to the south, includes SMU, Highland Park, and Knox Street. Its 565 Trump supporters gave $1,789,779 (avg $3,167.75) and its 737 Biden supporters gave $313,108 (avg $424.84).
Another interesting zip code is 75247, where almost nobody lives – it’s the industrial parks and strip clubs along 183 and 35. There are just 30 Biden donors and 21 Trump donors in that area – but the 21 Trump donors raised $84,439 (avg $4,020.90), against a still fairly impressive $10,513 from the 30 Biden people.
In terms of pure money raising, the most Biden-friendly areas in Dallas are both sides of White Rock Lake, 75208 (Bishop Arts, Kessler, Jefferson Ave.), and 75062 (Irving north of 183). 75062 is kind of interesting because Biden outraised Trump there by $133,000, but had less than 10% more total donors.
Most of the zip codes around Dallas had far more Biden donors, but raised more money for Trump. In fact, not one single zip code in Dallas city limits had more Trump donors, although there are some in Garland and Irving and Mesquite.
Cruz is a snake.
.@tedcruz: "I'm very worried about the debt…Now, to be fair, Trump didn't campaign on cutting the debt."@jonathanvswan: "He did. He said he was gonna eliminate the national debt in 8 years."
Watch the full #AxiosOnHBO interview tonight at 11:16pm ET/PT. @dctvny @hbodocs pic.twitter.com/mwfUVefA7m
— Axios (@axios) October 26, 2020
Investor Bill Gross accused of blaring ‘Gilligan’s Island’ song on loop to torment neighbor
Maine Congressional candidate cites ‘orientals’ in military as evidence against systemic racism
The Tortured Self-Justification of a Trump Enabler
Officially, there’s little daylight between the party and the president, and this Republican works for one of the most powerful people in the country, which means, looked at in one way, that he’s working for Trump, too. “If you ask the average well-informed observer,” he said, “I think they would say most every Republican is working for him.”
This Republican works for one of the most powerful people in the country. Read that sentence again. Does it mean anything to you? When you think about it, it could mean almost anything, couldn’t it? He might work in the White House. He might be the vice-president. Or he might just work for the vice-president. He might be a member of the president’s Cabinet. Or he might work for a member of the president’s Cabinet. He might work on the president’s reelection campaign or for the Republican National Committee. He might be in congressional leadership or a member of the leadership’s staff. The chairman of a powerful congressional committee or the chair’s chief. The director of the deep state or the director’s intelligence agent. Someone you’d recognize or someone you’ve never heard of.
He was of the Establishment but never deluded about the righteousness of his chosen side. George W. Bush, for instance, couldn’t earn his support because of “how badly he had fucked up” the Iraq War. “I still don’t think Republicans have been held to account completely for that,” he said. The election of the country’s first Black president gave life to right-wing extremism, and over eight years, polarization and negative partisanship — or hatred of the other side — accelerated as it hadn’t since the Gingrich revolution. By the end of the Obama administration, the party sounded more like Glenn Beck than Barry Goldwater, and although mainstream conservatives liked to pretend that the “crazies” said little about them, there was no denying that a fear of such people motivated much decision-making in Washington. This transformation all but invited what happened next.
Yet, eyes open, the Republican hadn’t anticipated a moral inconvenience like Donald Trump. “We were still fundamentally sane until Trump became the nominee,” he said of his party. Like just about everybody else, he didn’t believe Trump’s campaign was serious at first and didn’t believe he would win the Republican nomination. “I was one of those idiots. I remember telling family members there was zero percent chance,” he said. “When he became the nominee, I almost quit.” But he didn’t. Instead, when the test came, he found it was possible — easy, even — to put up with what he didn’t agree with and didn’t want to be associated with in order to climb and survive in Washington.
Note: Mel magazine’s has a lot of mature content and it could be one of those sites you wouldn’t want to visit at work. But I can relate to the article title of the article a little bit. I’ve been married over 17-years and still feel guilty having sex. But I’ll be honest, I haven’t ready anything more than just the title. I’m not blaming anyone or anything for this guilt, I’m just stating I have it.
The Lifelong Guilt Trip Of Abstinence Pledges And Purity Balls – ‘It took both talk therapy and physical therapy to even be able to have sex as an adult. There was still that guilt looming over me. It was very hard to shake. I’m now married, and sex can still sometimes be difficult and painful.’
What’s a newspaper presidential endorsement worth? – Not much, really. And yet every four years we go through the motions.
The New Yorker has an excerpt of former President Obama’s upcoming memoir. That’s a bit interesting considering they once had a controversial cover with he and his wife depicted as fist-bumping terrorists.
I cut and pasted the section about how his administration handled H1N1 after the jump. I was surprised to learn he sought out advice from the Ford Administration’s 1976 swine-flu response team. It was handled exactly as you’d hope your government would handle a global pandemic as defined by the World Health Organization. For the life of me, I don’t understand why Biden and his team haven’t highlighted this more in their messaging and during the debates.
