From a practical point of view, most people cannot just get up and move to a different country.
I am, as most of you know, a person who has exactly got up and moved to a different country (because that's where the job I wanted was), but countries in general have restrictive visa conditions on who may migrate there.
If you're wealthy, or have skills that are in demand, then perhaps getting a job and/or migrating to a country with politics that you prefer is possible. Most people can't do that. Most countries' immigration systems have some sort of check that says "why are you trying to hire this foreigner rather than a local person", or a moral equivalent.
I think both approaches are valid and understandable. When talking with my daughter, I put it in terms of myself—I’m not going anywhere; I’m staying and trying to make things better. But that’s me.
I get that it’s impractical for a lot of, if not most, people. I just don’t think there’s anything especially noble about sticking it out. Leaving is in our deepest DNA, both as Revolutionaries and Immigrants.
The other side of the coin is that sometimes, if you don’t leave, there comes a point after which you can’t leave. If you think that’s hyperbole, do a quick search for States that are actively contemplating travel bans for pregnant women.
Leaving is in our deepest DNA, both as Revolutionaries and Immigrants.
For some people, that may be the case, but not for me. My deepest DNA is very, very deep-rooted, with a very strong sense of home. This—and I mean North Carolina as much or more as the US—is my home.
It seems difficult to vote in the USA. I think we looked at this before. All voters in the UK have a polling station near them, mine is 10 mins walk. When I lived in London it was closer. Postal votes are reserved for those who cannot make it to the polling station.
It seems difficult to vote in the USA. I think we looked at this before. All voters in the UK have a polling station near them, mine is 10 mins walk. When I lived in London it was closer. Postal votes are reserved for those who cannot make it to the polling station.
Theses days in the UK, anyone who requests a postal vote can have one.
It seems difficult to vote in the USA. I think we looked at this before. All voters in the UK have a polling station near them, mine is 10 mins walk. When I lived in London it was closer. Postal votes are reserved for those who cannot make it to the polling station.
That very much depends on where you are and other factors.
In my state, everyone voting on election day votes at their precinct polling place, which will be near their home. For early voting, counties will set up early voting polling places at various places in the county. A voter can go to any early voting polling place in the county, which can be much more convenient than going to your precinct polling place on Election Day. And mail-in voting is available to everyone, without any reason or excuse needed.
So from that perspective, not too difficult at all for most people, though there may be disputes about how many early voting places there should be and where they should be located.
It seems difficult to vote in the USA. I think we looked at this before. All voters in the UK have a polling station near them, mine is 10 mins walk. When I lived in London it was closer. Postal votes are reserved for those who cannot make it to the polling station.
Mine is a 10 min drive. If I lived the other end of the island it would be 30 minutes. Proximity is largely a product of population density in the UK.
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
I used a mail-in ballot, as anyone in California can do. And Jane R., you are right I was sick of the campaign before it was time to vote. I just want it over now.
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
As a Yank, it's funny to hear you describe a drive from NE Maine to Boston as "most of the day." Looking on Apple Maps, I see that driving from Van Buren, ME (about as far NE in that state as one can go) to the heart of Boston, MA -- roughly 440 miles -- takes about 6.5 hours. I'm not belittling it! That's a long sit, as my kids used to say, for sure. I remember, though, driving from Marshall, TX to El Paso, TX, basically the width of that state, which took every bit of 12 hours. I was younger then(!), but I remember struggling to believe that I had driven that long and that far, and yet was still in TX.
Leaving is in our deepest DNA, both as Revolutionaries and Immigrants.
For some people, that may be the case, but not for me. My deepest DNA is very, very deep-rooted, with a very strong sense of home. This—and I mean North Carolina as much or more as the US—is my home.
Florida for me. I left once for seven years, and while I met Cubby up in the DC area when I lived there, this is home. Despite DeSantis, Florida is home for me. Born and raised.
I've contemplated the feasibility of fleeing to Canada (they have politeness and healthcare, too) but even in a worst-case scenario, unless they just welcome fleeing refugees from the hellscape the US could become with open arms, I'm not sure I would qualify--I'm 57, with no retirement savings or possibilities (yes, it's "work till you die or are incapacitated, at which point you may have to beg friends to let you sleep on their couch for however long you have left, or else be homeless or in a really horrible facility or something, so pray for death to come rather than be unable to work" for me*), teaching at an array of community colleges because I can't get full-time at any one place, so it's not like I'm rich. I do suspect that apart from the coldness, I would find the culture (at least in some regions) more welcoming for gay people than much of what we have here. I don't know if I could afford to move or live there.
* My God, this went dark. The possibility that Canada might have a robust enough social safety net that this would not be my only option has occurred to me, but again, I don't know that I would qualify to move there, and I'm sure there are homeless people up there due to poverty too...
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
But research now shows the distress we feel around politics can harm our physical and mental health—and it’s only getting worse.
“In general, we know that chronic stress harms psychological well-being and physical well-being. It takes a toll on our bodies,” said Brett Ford, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who studies the link between emotions and political engagement. “There’s a strong case to be made that for many people, politics is a form of chronic stress.”
In national surveys, close to half of U.S. adults say politics is a significant source of stress, citing problems such as lost sleep, shortened tempers, and obsessive thoughts (Smith, K. B., PLOS ONE, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2022). On a daily basis, diary studies show that political events can make self-reported emotional reactivity and physical health worse (Neupert, S. D., et al., Current Psychology, Vol. 40, 2021).
“There is a considerable and growing amount of evidence that politics is having a negative effect on a broad range of health outcomes,” said Kevin B. Smith, PhD, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln who studies how politics affects well-being. “This is coming from different scholars using different data, approaches, and measures, and it all triangulates on the same inference: Politics isn’t very good for us.”
It seems difficult to vote in the USA. I think we looked at this before. All voters in the UK have a polling station near them, mine is 10 mins walk. When I lived in London it was closer. Postal votes are reserved for those who cannot make it to the polling station.
One of the weaknesses of the American system is exactly that campaigns are so long. As soon as one election is over, the next campaign starts. We suffer from entirely predictable election days.
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
We don't.
Yeah, but we used to cope just fine. At least, I did. The problem now is that we're on the third election in a row that's the most important election of our lives.
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
We don't.
Yeah, but we used to cope just fine. At least, I did. The problem now is that we're on the third election in a row that's the most important election of our lives.
Well, it is the third time a known fascist (according to four generals who worked under him) has run. They say the third time is a charm, meaning we just might get rid of this nut case for good.
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
As a Yank, it's funny to hear you describe a drive from NE Maine to Boston as "most of the day." Looking on Apple Maps, I see that driving from Van Buren, ME (about as far NE in that state as one can go) to the heart of Boston, MA -- roughly 440 miles -- takes about 6.5 hours. I'm not belittling it! That's a long sit, as my kids used to say, for sure. I remember, though, driving from Marshall, TX to El Paso, TX, basically the width of that state, which took every bit of 12 hours. I was younger then(!), but I remember struggling to believe that I had driven that long and that far, and yet was still in TX.
450 miles is about as far as Penzance (in Cornwall) to Carlisle (on the Scottish border), and it would probably take longer than six and a half hours here, unless you did it in the middle of the night when there was no traffic. I don't think anywhere in England is more than 500 miles away from anywhere else, but the roads are much more crowded. So, for example, most British people would not casually hop into the car and drive 200 miles for an afternoon's sailing, as our American friends did with us the day after we arrived on their doorstep.
It's about as far as Penzance (in Cornwall) to Carlisle (on the Scottish border), and it would probably take longer than six and a half hours here, unless you did it in the middle of the night when there was no traffic.
Google Maps reckons 9hr 39min right now (fastest route, via the M5 and M6), though that's with at least three crashes and two sets of major roadworks to get past. In ideal conditions it might get down as low as 7:30 or so, which is still far longer than I'd ever want to be driving in one day.
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
As a Yank, it's funny to hear you describe a drive from NE Maine to Boston as "most of the day." Looking on Apple Maps, I see that driving from Van Buren, ME (about as far NE in that state as one can go) to the heart of Boston, MA -- roughly 440 miles -- takes about 6.5 hours. I'm not belittling it! That's a long sit, as my kids used to say, for sure. I remember, though, driving from Marshall, TX to El Paso, TX, basically the width of that state, which took every bit of 12 hours. I was younger then(!), but I remember struggling to believe that I had driven that long and that far, and yet was still in TX.
450 miles is about as far as Penzance (in Cornwall) to Carlisle (on the Scottish border), and it would probably take longer than six and a half hours here, unless you did it in the middle of the night when there was no traffic. I don't think anywhere in England is more than 500 miles away from anywhere else, but the roads are much more crowded. So, for example, most British people would not casually hop into the car and drive 200 miles for an afternoon's sailing, as our American friends did with us the day after we arrived on their doorstep.
If you went for Berwick rather than Carlisle you'd probably bump the number up a bit (Google reckons 541 miles and around 10 hours).
Of course with Argyll & Bute being the shape it is it takes the better part of 3 hours to traverse even the contiguous portion (Helensburgh to Campbeltown, 113 miles)
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
Native Americans living on a remote Montana reservation filed a lawsuit against state and county officials Monday saying they don’t have enough places to vote in person — the latest chapter in a decades-long struggle by tribes in the United States over equal voting opportunities.
The six members of the Fort Peck Reservation want satellite voting offices in their communities for late registration and to vote before Election Day without making long drives to a county courthouse.
The legal challenge, filed in state court, comes five weeks before the presidential election in a state with a pivotal U.S. Senate race where the Republican candidate has made derogatory comments about Native Americans.
Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship a century ago. Advocates say the right still doesn’t always bring equal access to the ballot.
<snip>
It’s a 60-mile round trip from Frazer to the election office at the courthouse in Glasgow. Old Elk says that can force prospective voters into difficult choices.
“It’s not just the gas money; it’s actually having a vehicle that runs,” she said. “Is it food on my table, or is it the gas money to find a vehicle, to find a ride, to go to Glasgow to vote?”
The lawsuit asks a state judge for an order forcing Valley and Roosevelt counties and Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen to create satellite election offices in Frazer and Poplar, Montana. The offices would be open during the same hours and on the same days as the county courthouses.
As with a lot of things in U.S. politics, there is a racial element at work here.
@Hugal : vast tracts of the USA are very thinly populated. I didn't really understand just how much bigger the US was until I spent most of the day driving from Maine to Boston... and that's just a tiny part of the top right hand corner...
As a Yank, it's funny to hear you describe a drive from NE Maine to Boston as "most of the day." Looking on Apple Maps, I see that driving from Van Buren, ME (about as far NE in that state as one can go) to the heart of Boston, MA -- roughly 440 miles -- takes about 6.5 hours. I'm not belittling it! That's a long sit, as my kids used to say, for sure. I remember, though, driving from Marshall, TX to El Paso, TX, basically the width of that state, which took every bit of 12 hours. I was younger then(!), but I remember struggling to believe that I had driven that long and that far, and yet was still in TX.
450 miles is about as far as Penzance (in Cornwall) to Carlisle (on the Scottish border), and it would probably take longer than six and a half hours here, unless you did it in the middle of the night when there was no traffic. I don't think anywhere in England is more than 500 miles away from anywhere else, but the roads are much more crowded. So, for example, most British people would not casually hop into the car and drive 200 miles for an afternoon's sailing, as our American friends did with us the day after we arrived on their doorstep.
Yup! Just as there is a real Kalamazoo, as I found when I worked there. And very nice both places are too. Kalamazoo takes the prize for the trees in the Fall, Penzance for its beaches!
Two people shouted “Trump!” at us in line as they drove by while we were waiting on the sidewalk to cast our ballots early (not for Trump).
Anyone else here doing canvassing or phone calls for Harris? What kinds of people have you encountered?
I’ve spoken to undecided people of many races and ethnicities, in both English and Spanish. It’s very unusual to encounter so many undecided voters this late in the campaign. I’m terrible at persuading them, though, and I don’t find the talking points I’m given very helpful.
It's now about getting the vote out. No longer persuasion. Making sure people cast their ballots. Turn out appears very high in swing states. Usually favors Democrats, but even Trump is telling his people to vote early, so hard to tell this year/
It's now about getting the vote out. No longer persuasion. Making sure people cast their ballots. Turn out appears very high in swing states. Usually favors Democrats, but even Trump is telling his people to vote early, so hard to tell this year/
Trump’s mere presence on the ballot turns out many people who are unlikely to vote in any other election, so it is no longer clear whether high turnout benefits Democrats or not.
I’ll let you know if I keep on encountering as many undecided voters, but quite a few of the ones that I’ve spoken to are people who would be targeted in a Get Out the Vote operation: registered Democrats.
I know there are quite a few blue collar white Democrats (in terms of registration) who have become hardcore Trumpers about registering as Republican, but I have also encountered black and Latino registered Democrats, young and older, who are undecided.
The undecided voters I have spoken to mostly say they definitely will vote - they just don’t know yet for whom. I’ve never encountered that before. Usually undecided voters at this stage aren’t even sure if they will vote.
In our mobile home park of 70 homes, there are only two vote Trump signs in the yards and many more Harris signs. It gives me hope. I assume all of these people are voting.
Tropical Weather Outlook
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
200 PM EDT Mon Oct 28 2024
For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
1. Southwestern Caribbean Sea:
A broad area of low pressure is likely to develop over the southwestern Caribbean Sea in a few days. Gradual development is possible thereafter, and a tropical depression could form late this week or over the weekend while the system begins to drift northward or northeastward toward the central Caribbean Sea.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 7 days...medium...40 percent.
Forecaster Hagen/Adams
Here's the link for those who want to look at the map in question. The picture you're looking at may be updated from the one I'm seeing as I write this, depending on when you check. At any rate, hurricanes that form in this area often come ashore in Florida. American Shipmates living anywhere along the Gulf Coast should probably consider voting early, if possible.
I saw very briefly on the news that drop boxes for early voting are being firebombed in WA and OR.
There was one box firebombed in Portland, OR , and another one bombed accross the river in Vancouver, WA, less than 10 miles away. They seem to be connected in that the same vehicle was spotted at both boxes. Officials are saying if people had cast their votes in either one, they can request a new ballot to vote.
Philadelphia’s district attorney asked a state judge on Monday to shut down tech billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial $1 million giveaway to registered voters, calling it an “illegal lottery scheme.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, filed the civil lawsuit against Musk and his pro-Trump group, America PAC.
“America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens – and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) – to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million,” the lawsuit alleges. “That is a lottery. And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery.”
SCOTUS has left in place a purge of Virgina's voter rolls. It was demonstrated in court that doing so would remove legal resident voters, effectively disenfranchising them, within the 90 day barrier set in place by VA state law.
MAGA Conservatives would rather take away legal votes before an election than prosecute alleged illegal votes (there just aren't very many at all) afterwards. This is a solution without a problem, and the last gasps of a derelict GOP.
The governator's time in office was a very mixed bag, but I'm glad he's made the endorsement. More reason to despise George W. Bush for saying he's retired from politics and therefore not endorsing anyone. If I could think any less of him, I would.
I mailed my last postcards to voters Tuesday, and I'm signed up to phonebank Saturday. I've only done that before for a city council candidate I knew personally, but it really feels like an all hands on deck moment. It was easy to talk to strangers about someone I knew, and I went off-script all the time and was surprisingly successful, but this feels really awkward, so I'll just do as I'm told.
Same, Ruth. I'd never done postcards and phonebanking except for a local alderman I know and care about. But if this goes bad, I will at least know I tried.
The governator's time in office was a very mixed bag, but I'm glad he's made the endorsement. More reason to despise George W. Bush for saying he's retired from politics and therefore not endorsing anyone. If I could think any less of him, I would.
I mailed my last postcards to voters Tuesday, and I'm signed up to phonebank Saturday. I've only done that before for a city council candidate I knew personally, but it really feels like an all hands on deck moment. It was easy to talk to strangers about someone I knew, and I went off-script all the time and was surprisingly successful, but this feels really awkward, so I'll just do as I'm told.
What I tell myself at this late stage is that now it is all about get out the vote so if someone on the phone is leaning Trump or unsure of who to vote for or whether to vote at all, to keep the conversation short and polite, hit some key talking points based on whatever issues the voter says they care about when asked, and move on. It’s more important to get to the next phone call or knock on the next door than to spend too much time trying to persuade at this point unless you feel yourself making headway in the first moments of talking to someone. And if someone is strongly pro Trump or rude, just end the conversation politely and hang up.
Comments
I am, as most of you know, a person who has exactly got up and moved to a different country (because that's where the job I wanted was), but countries in general have restrictive visa conditions on who may migrate there.
If you're wealthy, or have skills that are in demand, then perhaps getting a job and/or migrating to a country with politics that you prefer is possible. Most people can't do that. Most countries' immigration systems have some sort of check that says "why are you trying to hire this foreigner rather than a local person", or a moral equivalent.
The other side of the coin is that sometimes, if you don’t leave, there comes a point after which you can’t leave. If you think that’s hyperbole, do a quick search for States that are actively contemplating travel bans for pregnant women.
Theses days in the UK, anyone who requests a postal vote can have one.
In my state, everyone voting on election day votes at their precinct polling place, which will be near their home. For early voting, counties will set up early voting polling places at various places in the county. A voter can go to any early voting polling place in the county, which can be much more convenient than going to your precinct polling place on Election Day. And mail-in voting is available to everyone, without any reason or excuse needed.
So from that perspective, not too difficult at all for most people, though there may be disputes about how many early voting places there should be and where they should be located.
You could look it up on Wikipedia.
Mine is a 10 min drive. If I lived the other end of the island it would be 30 minutes. Proximity is largely a product of population density in the UK.
What I don't understand is how you (Americans) cope with such long electoral campaigns. We had six weeks between the election being called and it actually taking place over here, and everyone I know was fed up with the election campaign after two weeks. How do you cope without going insane?
As a Yank, it's funny to hear you describe a drive from NE Maine to Boston as "most of the day."
Florida for me. I left once for seven years, and while I met Cubby up in the DC area when I lived there, this is home. Despite DeSantis, Florida is home for me. Born and raised.
I've contemplated the feasibility of fleeing to Canada (they have politeness and healthcare, too) but even in a worst-case scenario, unless they just welcome fleeing refugees from the hellscape the US could become with open arms, I'm not sure I would qualify--I'm 57, with no retirement savings or possibilities (yes, it's "work till you die or are incapacitated, at which point you may have to beg friends to let you sleep on their couch for however long you have left, or else be homeless or in a really horrible facility or something, so pray for death to come rather than be unable to work" for me*), teaching at an array of community colleges because I can't get full-time at any one place, so it's not like I'm rich. I do suspect that apart from the coldness, I would find the culture (at least in some regions) more welcoming for gay people than much of what we have here. I don't know if I could afford to move or live there.
* My God, this went dark. The possibility that Canada might have a robust enough social safety net that this would not be my only option has occurred to me, but again, I don't know that I would qualify to move there, and I'm sure there are homeless people up there due to poverty too...
We don't.
The impact of election stress: Is political anxiety harming your health?
Mental health companies start campaigns to address election stress
American Adults Express Increasing Anxiousness in Annual Poll; Stress and Sleep are Key Factors Impacting Mental Health
From 2019: 11 Barriers to Voting: Here are some of the most common ways voting rights are undermined across the country
Also: Gerrymandering Explained
Well, it is the third time a known fascist (according to four generals who worked under him) has run. They say the third time is a charm, meaning we just might get rid of this nut case for good.
450 miles is about as far as Penzance (in Cornwall) to Carlisle (on the Scottish border), and it would probably take longer than six and a half hours here, unless you did it in the middle of the night when there was no traffic. I don't think anywhere in England is more than 500 miles away from anywhere else, but the roads are much more crowded. So, for example, most British people would not casually hop into the car and drive 200 miles for an afternoon's sailing, as our American friends did with us the day after we arrived on their doorstep.
@ChastMastr 😥
Google Maps reckons 9hr 39min right now (fastest route, via the M5 and M6), though that's with at least three crashes and two sets of major roadworks to get past. In ideal conditions it might get down as low as 7:30 or so, which is still far longer than I'd ever want to be driving in one day.
If you went for Berwick rather than Carlisle you'd probably bump the number up a bit (Google reckons 541 miles and around 10 hours).
Of course with Argyll & Bute being the shape it is it takes the better part of 3 hours to traverse even the contiguous portion (Helensburgh to Campbeltown, 113 miles)
A somewhat relevant story from one of those thinly populated states.
As with a lot of things in U.S. politics, there is a racial element at work here.
There is no way on God’s green earth I would casually hop in the car and drive 200 miles one way, either. Yikes! :eek:
Yup! Just as there is a real Kalamazoo, as I found when I worked there. And very nice both places are too. Kalamazoo takes the prize for the trees in the Fall, Penzance for its beaches!
When you arrive in Tipperary, there's a sign that reads:
There is. The name means Holy Headland or Holy Hill in Cornish.
la vie en rouge, Purgatory host
Anyone else here doing canvassing or phone calls for Harris? What kinds of people have you encountered?
I’ve spoken to undecided people of many races and ethnicities, in both English and Spanish. It’s very unusual to encounter so many undecided voters this late in the campaign. I’m terrible at persuading them, though, and I don’t find the talking points I’m given very helpful.
Trump’s mere presence on the ballot turns out many people who are unlikely to vote in any other election, so it is no longer clear whether high turnout benefits Democrats or not.
I’ll let you know if I keep on encountering as many undecided voters, but quite a few of the ones that I’ve spoken to are people who would be targeted in a Get Out the Vote operation: registered Democrats.
I know there are quite a few blue collar white Democrats (in terms of registration) who have become hardcore Trumpers about registering as Republican, but I have also encountered black and Latino registered Democrats, young and older, who are undecided.
The undecided voters I have spoken to mostly say they definitely will vote - they just don’t know yet for whom. I’ve never encountered that before. Usually undecided voters at this stage aren’t even sure if they will vote.
Here's the link for those who want to look at the map in question. The picture you're looking at may be updated from the one I'm seeing as I write this, depending on when you check. At any rate, hurricanes that form in this area often come ashore in Florida. American Shipmates living anywhere along the Gulf Coast should probably consider voting early, if possible.
There was one box firebombed in Portland, OR , and another one bombed accross the river in Vancouver, WA, less than 10 miles away. They seem to be connected in that the same vehicle was spotted at both boxes. Officials are saying if people had cast their votes in either one, they can request a new ballot to vote.
(Posted on the Elon Musk Hell thread)
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/10/28/politics/elon-musk-philadelphia-lawsuit
Needs a shave, though.
MAGA Conservatives would rather take away legal votes before an election than prosecute alleged illegal votes (there just aren't very many at all) afterwards. This is a solution without a problem, and the last gasps of a derelict GOP.
The governator's time in office was a very mixed bag, but I'm glad he's made the endorsement. More reason to despise George W. Bush for saying he's retired from politics and therefore not endorsing anyone. If I could think any less of him, I would.
I mailed my last postcards to voters Tuesday, and I'm signed up to phonebank Saturday. I've only done that before for a city council candidate I knew personally, but it really feels like an all hands on deck moment. It was easy to talk to strangers about someone I knew, and I went off-script all the time and was surprisingly successful, but this feels really awkward, so I'll just do as I'm told.
What I tell myself at this late stage is that now it is all about get out the vote so if someone on the phone is leaning Trump or unsure of who to vote for or whether to vote at all, to keep the conversation short and polite, hit some key talking points based on whatever issues the voter says they care about when asked, and move on. It’s more important to get to the next phone call or knock on the next door than to spend too much time trying to persuade at this point unless you feel yourself making headway in the first moments of talking to someone. And if someone is strongly pro Trump or rude, just end the conversation politely and hang up.
I do find it very stressful too though.