Crooked Media - What A Day: The final clowntdown

Nearly 98 million Americans have already voted, the president has laid out his plan to throw their ballots out, and a host of people who understand how democracy works have firmly replied, “lol, no”: Happy Election Eve. 
 

• A final round of swing-state polls fell in line with every generation of polls before it, finding Joe Biden solidly (if not invincibly) ahead. So naturally, Donald Trump has decided that the ballot-counting in states like Pennsylvania should stop whenever it *looks* like he’s winning: “We're gonna go in, the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers.” On Sunday, a balloon with a goatee drawn on it Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller suggested that counting all of the votes would amount to stealing the election for Biden. (It bears repeating that Republicans, who claim to simply want a speedy result, also made sure Pennsylvania couldn’t begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day.)
   
• One tiny snag here: Donald Trump saying stuff is not how elections get decided. States have never reported a winner on election night. Pennsylvania’s attorney general made clear that Trump can yell whatever he wants, but every eligible vote in Pennsylvania will be counted. The Biden campaign has been preemptively getting the word out that “under no scenario will Donald Trump be declared a victor on election night,” and The Media has now had AMPLE TIME to prepare to REACT APPROPRIATELY so it would be PRETTY WEIRD if any political journalists FUCKED THIS UP.
   
• “But what about the courts,” you ask, panic-sweating through your third shirt of the day. There’s reassuring news there, too. After voters in Harris County, TX, (a heavily Democratic area) had been casting ballots via drive-through for over two weeks, Texas Republicans went to court seeking to have those nearly 127,000 votes tossed out. The Texas Supreme Court rejected that ludicrous effort on Sunday, and an extremely right-wing federal judge took a hard pass on Monday, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing: “For lack of a nicer way of saying it, I ain’t buying it.” If that judge ain’t buying it, Trump’s chances of getting the courts to throw out votes after November 3 start looking a whole lot slimmer. 

There’s still the small matter of making sure those votes actually arrive in time to be counted. 
 

• The Postal Service reported another drop in on-time ballot delivery on Sunday, for the third day in a row. Only 62 percent of central Pennsylvania’s ballots moved in a timely manner on Sunday, and ballot processing scores (the measure of how many ballots were moved on time) in most swing states dropped below 90 percent. On Sunday night Judge Emmett Sullivan ordered the USPS to use its “extraordinary measures” policy to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.” (Dons fifth shirt of the day.)
   
• There is also the small matter of, um, “the country might explode.” Things are getting a little scary out there. On Friday in Texas, a caravan of Trump supporters aggressively surrounded a Biden campaign bus and rammed into a Biden staffer’s car; Donald Trump later celebrated this. Trump supporters also blocked traffic on major highways in New York and New Jersey on Sunday. In Georgia, Democrats had to cancel a planned rally due to a “large militia presence” drawn by Trump’s visit. We can’t control what nutjobs in MAGA hats do this week, but it might ease your anxiety to know that no matter what stunt Trump tries to pull, progressive groups have worked out a plan of action. 

Before all hell breaks loose on Tuesday, take a moment to consider what you’ve helped accomplish over the last four years. We have come into this election with so much momentum, organization, and determination that Republicans are fecklessly scrambling to get ballots thrown out in Texas. There’s still plenty of work to be done until the moment the final polls close, and if we all step up to turn out every last voter, we’ve got this. One more day. 

You have the right to vote fairly and safely. But, if you run into any issues or problems while voting, you can call the national or state voter protection hotline. Maybe make it a contact on your phone, we'll wait. ⁣All done? Save this graphic and post it to your social media accounts to  help spread awareness for Election Day!

President Trump suggested at one of his superspreading rallies that he might fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election, after Fauci told the Washington Post that the U.S. “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” for the fall and winter. Here’s just a glimpse of what Trump has personally contributed to that poor positioning: A Stanford University study estimated that Trump’s rallies were directly linked to at least 30,000 infections and 700 deaths—and that’s before Trump went into campaign overdrive during the last few weeks of accelerating outbreaks. In the great tradition of ending one’s campaign by killing a few more people closer to home, Trump reportedly plans to hold an indoor election-night party at the White House, with some 400 guests. Apropos of nothing, this is a great article on how Trump set the stage for a catastrophic White House outbreak (from the reporter who made that outbreak public), and this is another on how we might still learn more about the White House cluster through genetic sequencing.

• A few handy things to keep at your fingertips, and share far and wide on Tuesday: These are the states that allow Election Day voter registration, this is every voter protection hotline, this is when to expect results in each state, and this is a list of good cheap wines. 
   
• Police in Graham, NC, used pepper spray on people who were peacefully marching to the polls on Saturday, just to finally tie these “violence against protesters” and “voter suppression” storylines together. 
   
• Trump stranded his rally attendees in the cold for a third time, straining the very limits of symbolism. Congrats to the Trump campaign on finding the most on-brand possible way to save some money, though! 
   
• Trump allies have consistently blown past Facebook’s election misinformation guardrails, if you can believe it.
   
• Kyle Rittenhouse was extradited to Wisconsin and made his initial court appearance today. His bail has been set at $2 million. 
   
• Two gunmen at Kabul University killed at least 22 people and wounded 22 others. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, in spite of having been wiped off the planet entirely by Donald Trump. 
   
• Prince William had coronavirus back in April and didn’t tell anyone, cementing his long-suspected status as the Khloe Kardashian of the royal family. 
   
• You knew masks work, but now there is a Magic Schoolbus-style visualization to prove it. 
   
• Friendly’s Restaurants has filed for bankruptcy and put itself up for sale. Rival chain Worsening Hostility’s, on the other hand, absolutely thriving. 
   
• Sean Connery, the first and best James Bond, has died at age 90. (Too soon?)

Black Mississippians have had to contend with ramped up voter suppression to vote in an election with major race issues on the ballot. Mississippi is the only state in the country where the GOP-controlled legislature didn’t give citizens any option to vote early in person or by mail in the middle of a pandemic. Voters will have to wait in line on Election Day and risk coronavirus exposure to vote for Mike Espy, who could become the first the Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, to replace a sitting senator with a history of racist remarks. Mississippi voters will also be deciding whether to replace a confederate symbol on the state flag, and whether to strike down a Jim Crow-era law that effectively prevents any Black person from winning statewide office. As coronavirus cases surge, higher-risk Black voters in particular will have to decide if it’s worth risking their health to cast their vote—an unacceptable choice in a functioning democracy. No matter what happens on Tuesday, we’ve got ourselves a broken system to fix.

Today, as cities contemplate reopening and rebuilding their local economies, Lyft has expanded its Jobs Access Program to provide access to rides and additional job search support through Goodwill® and United Way in 20 major cities. A ride — whether it's on a Lyft bike, scooter, or rideshare — can go a long way towards supporting an individual’s economic mobility and recovery. In the first year of the Jobs Access Program, Lyft provided nearly 20,000 rides through its partners.

The program focuses on three key interventions in the employment pipeline that are critical to individual success, and where transportation can play a major role:

• Rides to/from job training programs
• Rides to/from job interviews
• Rides to/from the first three weeks of employment, until individuals receive their first paycheck and begin to pay for their own transportation

The Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit against Black Lives Matter organizer/Pod Save the People host DeRay Mckesson, sending the case back to state courts. 

Just about everyone but white men is demonstrably fired up in Georgia. 

Beyhive voter turnout is now assured. 

Hope is active. Hope is about making something happen. Hope is picking up one more volunteer shift.