Crooked Media - What A Day: All our exes vote in Texas

Republican leaders have been going through pearl-clutching motions following President Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacy at Tuesday’s debate, but they’ve made clear they see only one path to a GOP victory, and it’s not “winning over suburban women.”
 

• GOP lawmakers are rightfully worried about what Trump’s refusals to disavow the Proud Boys could mean for the party’s electoral chances, while pretending that he hasn’t been blowing kisses at violent racists throughout his presidency, and that they aren’t complicit. A day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it “unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists,” Senate Republicans blocked a resolution condemning white supremacists. (Curb Your Enthusiasm theme plays.)
   
• It takes some Cirque du Soleil-level contortions to (vaguely, carefully) disavow Trump’s debate comments while ignoring the overt racism and xenophobia that are central to his re-election strategy. Trump attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for the second time in less than a month at a Wednesday night rally in Duluth, MN, falsely accusing her of participating in election fraud based on an online disinformation campaign, and questioning her standing as an American: “Then she tells us how to run our country. Can you believe it?” Trump goaded the very white crowd into a “lock her up” chant, then widened the attack to Minnesota’s Somali community: “Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp.”
   
• None of these campaign rants are empty words. The Trump administration has just lowered the annual refugee cap for the fourth year running, informing Congress that it only intends to accept 15,000 refugees into the U.S. in the 2021 fiscal year—an appalling historic low. While the administration vilifies innocent refugees, it handles violent far-right extremists with kid gloves: DHS officials were expressly directed to make public comments sympathetic to teenage murderer Kyle Rittenhouse, and to suggest that he brought his AR-15 rifle to Kenosha to “help defend small business owners.”

None of this actually appeals to voters who aren’t up to their eyeballs in Fox News, which is why Trump and Republicans have no option left but to run against democracy itself.
 

• Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has issued a proclamation limiting each Texas county to a single drop-off location for mail-in ballots, in a last-minute effort to suppress the vote in large urban counties that lean Democratic. Harris County (home of Houston) opened 12 satellite sites on Monday, and Travis County (home of Austin) opened four; Abbott’s order will force most of them to close as of Friday. Here’s how to fight back.
   
• In Madison, WI, 11,000 voters dropped off their absentee ballots with city officials stationed in parks on Saturday. GOP leaders there tried to block the ballot collection event from happening in the first place, and are now threatening to invalidate those ballots in court, on no particular legal basis. Five Madison voters have filed a lawsuit asking a judge to preemptively confirm that the ballots were collected legally, ahead of a second event scheduled for this Saturday. 
   

We can’t stop Donald Trump from doing racist things or the GOP from showing its whole anti-voting ass, but we can correctly read each instance as an admission that they’re losing, and work to place victory out of their reach. Here’s your new mantra, courtesy of Stacey Abrams: “I'm not optimistic or pessimistic. I'm determined.” 33 days.

We’ve added two new funds to Vote Save America to help you maximize the impact of your dollars between now and the election. If you head to votesaveamerica.com/donate, you’ll find our new House-Keeping Fund to help Democrats maintain their House majority by supporting candidates in key districts AND our FuckGerry(mandering) Fund to help flip state legislatures and support fair maps during redistricting, as well as our Get Mitch fund to flip the Senate and our Every Last Vote fund to get out and protect the vote. Now’s the time to donate, and these funds are the best way to make sure 100% of your donation is used strategically.

Donate: votesaveamerica.com/donate

The Agriculture Department has mandated that food-aid boxes include a letter from President Trump claiming credit, because what’s the point of distributing food to people in need if that food isn’t also a taxpayer-funded campaign ad? (Especially now that the administration’s literal taxpayer-funded ad campaign around the coronavirus response has exploded.) The letter is on White House letterhead, featuring Trump’s giant signature and reading, “As part of our response to coronavirus, I prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America.” Food-bank directors are appalled (“In my 30 years of doing this work, I've never seen something this egregious”), and some charities are removing the letter before distributing the boxes.

• Close Trump aide Hope Hicks has tested positive for coronavirus. Hicks traveled with President Trump on Air Force One to and from the debate on Tuesday, and to his Minnesota rally on Wednesday.
   
• A Cornell University study found Donald Trump to be the single largest driver of coronavirus misinformation, with the help of the media, which researchers found to have published “the majority of COVID misinformation...without question or correction.”
   
• Amy Coney Barrett signed a 2006 newspaper ad that called Roe v. Wade “barbaric,” sponsored by an extreme anti-choice group that believes abortion providers should be criminalized. The perplexing mystery of how Barrett might rule on abortion as a Supreme Court justice continues!
   
• The House Ways and Means Committee has called IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to testify about Trump’s tax returns, after which he will be brought to a small windowless room containing only Elizabeth Warren, Katie Porter, and a whiteboard.
   
• Memory sticks used to program Philadelphia’s voting machines were stolen from a city warehouse. City officials said they’re confident that the theft won’t compromise election integrity, but are worried about how Trump might use the news for his own election-compromising purposes.
   
• United Airlines and American Airlines have begun furloughs of 30,000 workers, and Disney announced it would lay off 28,000 employees. A coronavirus-relief deal remains out of reach, but will likely include another round of stimulus checks if it goes through. Anyway, here’s a wild visualization of how much harder this crisis has hit the lowest earners than previous recessions. 
   
• The Pope refused to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, so as not to be used as a campaign tool. The Pope...gratam erit resistentia.
   
• Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been charged with felonies for allegedly (lol) orchestrating robocalls discouraging Detroit voters from using mail-in ballots. 
   
• Mercifully, blessedly, just in the nick of time, Fat Bear Week is here. 

A pro-Trump militant group has drawn in thousands of police, soldiers, and veterans, many of whom share the feeling that civil war is already upon us. Stewart Rhodes, who founded a militant group called the Oath Keepers in 2009, views the group’s current role as defending the country and Donald Trump from “insurrection.” An Atlantic investigation into Oath Keepers found that about two-thirds of the nearly 25,000 members in its database (as of 2015) had military or law enforcement backgrounds. Many current and former members have braced themselves for civil conflict that they view as forced upon them, not something they’ve incited, and are incredibly paranoid about the left. Several different flavors of not great!

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO DEFEND VOTING RIGHTS – FOR ALL OF US

The American Civil Liberties Union is taking action across the country – with more than 20 legal actions so far – to ensure that all of us can vote safely and securely in this year’s election. With just over a month left until Election Day, this fight is more important than ever. Every voice matters in the fight to defend voting rights and in this year’s election. You can make your voice is heard with the ACLU. Your vote can help determine the future of civil rights in America – immigrants’ rights, reproductive rights, criminal justice reform, and so much more are on the line. We’re working to ensure that all of us can vote like our rights depend on it – because they do. 

Sign our petition to join the fight and defend voting rights for all of us – time is running out. Click here to add your name today. 

Snapchat has helped over one million people register to vote. More than half are first-time voters, and more than 80 percent are under the age of 30. 

Joe Biden just broke his monthly fundraising record again, hauling in more than the $364.5 million he raised in August.

Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) has pardoned over 2,700 people convicted of minor marijuana possession. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has signed a law that will establish a task force to make recommendations for slavery reparations.