State of elections since 2020

mickeyrat

https://www.factcheck.org/2024/06/factchecking-the-biden-trump-debate/

FactChecking the Biden-Trump Debate

In the first debate clash of the 2024 campaign, the two candidates unleashed a flurry of false and misleading statements.

By Robert Farley, Eugene Kiely, D'Angelo Gore, Jessica McDonald, Lori Robertson, Catalina Jaramillo, Saranac Hale Spencer and Alan Jaffe

Posted on June 28, 2024

---

Summary

The much-anticipated first debate of 2024 between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump featured a relentless barrage of false and misleading statements from the two candidates on immigration, the economy, abortion, taxes and more.

• Both candidates erred on Social Security, with Biden incorrectly saying that Trump “wants to get rid” of the program, and Trump falsely alleging that Biden will “wipe out” Social Security due to the influx of people at the border.

• Trump misleadingly claimed that he was “the one that got the insulin down for the seniors,” not Biden. Costs were lowered for some under a limited project by the Trump administration. Biden signed a law capping costs for all seniors with Medicare drug coverage.

• Trump warned that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times,” but Biden has not proposed anything like that. Trump was also mostly wrong when he said Biden “wants the Trump tax cuts to expire.” Biden said he would extend them for anyone making under $400,000 a year.

• Biden repeated his misleading claim that billionaires pay an average federal tax rate of 8%. That White House calculation factors in earnings on unsold stock as income.

• Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody,” including all legal scholars, wanted to end Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to abortion.

• Trump falsely claimed that “the only jobs” Biden “created are for illegal immigrants and bounced back jobs that bounced back from the COVID.” Total nonfarm employment is higher than it was before the pandemic, as is the employment level of native-born workers.

• Biden claimed that Trump oversaw the “largest deficit of any president,” while Trump countered that “we now have the largest deficit” under Biden. The largest budget deficit was under Trump in fiscal year 2020, but that was largely because of emergency spending due to COVID-19.

• Biden misleadingly said that “Black unemployment is the lowest level it has been in a long, long time.” The rate reached a record low in April 2023, and it was low under Trump, too, until the pandemic.

• Biden said Trump called U.S. veterans killed in World War I “suckers and losers,” which Trump called a “made up quote.” The Atlantic reported that, based on anonymous sources. A former Trump chief of staff later seemed to confirm Trump said it.

• Trump claimed that Biden “caused the inflation,” but economists say rising inflation was mostly due to disruptions to the economy caused by the pandemic.

• Trump grossly inflated the number of immigrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration — putting the number at 18 million to 20 million — and he said, without evidence, that many of them are from prisons and mental institutions.

• Trump claimed that “we had the safest border in history” in the “final months” of his presidency. But apprehensions of those trying to cross illegally in the last three full months of his presidency were about 50% higher than in the three months before he took office.

• Biden criticized Trump for presiding over a loss of jobs when he was president, but that loss occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Trump falsely claimed that “some states” run by Democrats allow abortions “after birth.” If it happened, it would be homicide, and that’s illegal.

• Trump made the unsupported claim that the U.S. border with Mexico is “the most dangerous place in the world,” and suggested that it has opened the country to a violent crime wave. The data show a reduction in violent crime in the U.S.
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mickeyrat

sooooo in 2022 just over 4 million ohioans cast a ballot for statewide offfices and for us senator.

yesterday, the group citizens not politicians seeking to end gerrymandering via constitutional amendment submitted 730k signatures , roughly 1/6th of the 2022 vote total.......

granted these still need certified, but having signed myself and listening to the volunteer ask the questions, as long as the signers were honest, the vast majority should be valid.

heres the link to the webpage laying out what we look to achieve.....

https://citizensnotpoliticians.org/

mickeyrat

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ziklag-secret-christian-charity-2024-election

 

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country

by Andy Kroll, ProPublica, and Nick Surgey, Documented July 13, 5 a.m. EDT

The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.

• 
  

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Co-published with Documented

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A network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.

These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.

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mickeyrat

 Rep Andy Kim NJ....

 When Lincoln was shot he wore a coat embroidered with “One Country, One Destiny.” I’ve turned to those 4 words to help me process this moment. This assassination attempt was one of the worst events I’ve seen in our democracy. It feels like we are a country unmoored…I’ve never experienced a time more unpredictable yet with such generational consequence. So what does this particular moment mean? I remembered a passage in a book I read. “Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent.”

The deep unease we carry is in part the fact that we witnessed with the shooter one person trying to use the means of violence to impose their will upon a nation of 330 million and subvert the power of people that underlies our very democracy. And now trepidation across our nation as “The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world.” We fear retaliation, reprisal or escalation. But let us remind ourselves that it doesn’t have to be that way.  

In the aftermath of other recent shocks to our country, we failed to unify and instead sadly grew more divided. I had hoped that these shocks would be what I called defibrillator moments that would shock our irregular heart beats into normal rhythm, but we fell far short. It’s not just that our divisions have grown so wide in our country, but our willingness to allow contempt to accompany us. It’s not just a disrespect that we see towards one another, it’s a deeper disregard and a disgust of one another.

We are losing touch with the understanding that we are all part of something bigger than all of us. As those 4 words of Lincoln - One County, One Destiny - remind us, the commonality we share runs deep and cannot be forgotten or dismissed. Violence is cowardice not strength. It is fiercely undemocratic. As we process this shock, we can choose to realize that we’ve gone too far as a society down the path of contempt. We are not each other’s enemy. We are not at war with each other. Choosing to unite instead of incite does not mean we dismiss the magnitude of our differences. But it compels us to be cautious and precise about our next steps, our words, and our actions in this unbelievably precarious moment.

One Country, One Destiny doesn’t mean we all agree, but instead reminds us that we share the same fate. We collectively mourn the death of the rally attendee, we are relieved that Trump wasn’t seriously injured. Now let’s unite around Lincoln’s vision One Country, One Destiny.

shecky

mickeyrat

anything to muck it up....

Republicans in the state Senate refused to change the law and allow mail-in votes to be counted ahead of Election Day, despite widespread calls for change.

Pennsylvania presidential election results could again take days to count

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/27/pennsylvania-election-results-mail-ballots/

Gern Blansten

shecky said:

LOL fucking PATHETIC!!!!!

Halifax2TheMax

Gern Blansten said:

shecky said:

LOL fucking PATHETIC!!!!!

We’ve always none POOTWH was a drama queen. Maybe he should host a story hour?

mickeyrat

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/elon-musk-pac-voter-data-trump-harris.html

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How an Elon Musk PAC is using voter data to help Trump beat Harris in 2024 election

Published Fri, Aug 2 20249:56 AM EDTUpdated 31 Min Ago

Brian Schwartz@schwartzbCNBC

WATCH LIVE

Key Points

• Tesla boss Elon Musk and other tech executives are funding a social media ad blitz to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
• The ads come as Musk uses his account on X, the social media platform he owns, to back the Republican nominee over the de facto Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Musk’s America PAC is collecting data in more than a half-dozen swing states that could determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

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Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X speaks during the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Sessions at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 6, 2024. 

David Swanson | Reuters

If a voter in Michigan performs a search on Google

, a somewhat shocking ad might pop up.

The ad shows a young man lying in bed late at night when someone else texts him, “Hey you need to vote,” and then sends the man a video of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The man can hear the gunshots and people screaming in the background.

As Trump is rushed off stage with blood pouring down his face, the man watching the video types in response, “This is out of control. How do I start?”

The ad then displays a website for a group called America PAC.

The website says it will help the viewer register to vote. But once a user clicks “Register to Vote,” the experience he or she will have can be very different, depending on where they live.

If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they’ll be prompted to enter their email addresses and ZIP code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign-up section.

But for users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.

If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a “thank you” page.

So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.

Specifically, a political action committee created by Tesla

CEO Elon Musk, one aimed at giving the Republican presidential nominee Trump an advantage in his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee.

“I have created a PAC, or a super PAC ... the America PAC,” Musk said in a recent interview.

Musk also owns the social media platform X, and has a net worth of more than $235 billion, according to Forbes.

The combination of owning a social media company that gives him an enormous platform to push his political views, and creating a PAC with effectively unlimited resources, has made Musk, for the first time, a major force in an American presidential election.

Musk PAC uses ‘register to vote’ data

The America PAC has spent more than $800,000 since early July on digital ads that target voters in the key battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to AdImpact.

The ads appeared on Facebook, Instagram and Google through YouTube, and many encouraged people to register to vote at America PAC’s website.

The PAC’s effort to collect information from people using the idea of “voter registration” is a critical piece to its plan to make personal contact with these voters.

“America PAC is focusing on door-to-door canvassing in support of Trump,” said Brendan Fischer, a deputy executive director at campaign finance watchdog Documented.

“I think it is safe to assume that the voter data gathered through these digital appeals are going to inform America PAC’s canvassing and other political activities,” he added.

Fischer pointed to the group’s privacy policy which says it can use the data they’ve collected on “other activities and/or fundraising campaigns.”

Since June, America PAC has spent more than $21 million on canvassing, digital media, text message services and phone calls, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The PAC’s website offers no indication one way or another what the group’s political leaning is. But in its federal filings, the group discloses that all of its work is designed to either help Trump or hurt his opponent.

Fischer said he has seen some other PACs try to use a “register to vote” message to gather people’s data.

But what is unique about America PAC’s project is who is backing it and the timing of its creation.

In most cases, super PACs are not allowed to directly coordinate the ads they pay for with the campaign. But this spring, regulators ruled that door-to-door canvassing falls outside the scope of the ban because, unlike an ad, it is a person-to-person exchange.

“What makes America PAC more unique: it is a billionaire-backed super PAC focused on door-to-door canvassing, which it can conduct in coordination with a presidential campaign,” Fischer said. “Thanks to a recent FEC advisory opinion, America PAC may legally coordinate its canvassing activities with the Trump campaign — meaning, among other things, that the Trump campaign may provide America PAC with the literature and scripts to make sure their efforts are consistent.”

“Coordination is incredibly important: it ensures that the PAC’s activities are maximally beneficial to the campaign, and frees up the campaign’s own funds for other uses,” he said. “I suspect that the PAC’s ability to coordinate its data-driven canvassing activities with the Trump campaign made it very appealing for donors.”

Longtime Republican strategists Phil Cox, Generra Peck and Dave Rexrode are among those now guiding the PAC after a shake-up in mid-July, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. This person was granted anonymity to speak freely about a private matter.

The change suggests there could be a shift in tactics by the PAC come November. The New York Times first reported on the moves.

Read more CNBC politics coverage

• Simone Biles takes apparent swipe at Trump — ‘I love my black job’ — after Olympics win
• DJT shares jump after Trump Media rolls out TV streaming plan
• Elon Musk sued by ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon over canceled X deal
• Kamala Harris has a murky antitrust record. Wall Street sees an opportunity
• WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, ex-Marine Whelan released in U.S., Russia prisoner swap

Musk is not the only tech executive backing this effort.

The America PAC raised more than $8 million between April 1 and June 30, according to FEC records. It has received donations from veteran investor Doug Leone, cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and a company run by longtime venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, according to FEC records.

Lonsdale, a co-founder of the software company Palantir, is also a leader of the PAC, and “serves as a political confidant to” Musk, according to the Times. 

The records do not yet list Musk as a donor. He recently said on X that he is “making some donations to America PAC,” but did not say how much. The PAC is not required to file a third-quarter report until Oct. 15, the first time that Musk’s name could be listed as a donor.

A spokesman for America PAC declined to comment. Musk did not return emails seeking comment.

Musk on X mirrors Musk PAC

The PAC’s ads that have aired on social media platforms also mirror a larger message that Musk pushes out to his 191 million followers on X several times a day: the notion that America is in chaos and voting for Trump over Harris is the only way out.

″These PACs have often functioned as the alter ego of whatever billionaire is behind them,” said Daniel Weiner, a director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program.

Experts say Musk’s ownership of X and the lack of any real guardrails around how he uses it, are a sign the platform could be used by the Tesla boss as a political weapon to take on Harris and Democrats at large with fewer than 100 days left until Election Day.

“I’d say that it is somewhat concerning that the owner of one of the most important social media platforms is openly partisan (rooting for one of the candidates) and is using his platform ... as a vehicle for pursuing his openly partisan ends,” said Matthew Baum, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, whose research includes studying misinformation.

Baum said such ownership of a social media company like X leaves open the possibility of “capture of a major platform by a partisan actor, who would then be largely free to use the platform as they see fit, regardless of the potential negative social or political consequences.”

“There is a concern that Musk is weaponizing that platform to help his preferred candidate” in Trump, said Weiner.

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mickeyrat

found the voter fraud!!!!

gimmesometruth27

mickeyrat said:

found the voter fraud!!!!

LOCK HIM UP!!!!



seriously, every accusation is a projection.

mickeyrat

this fucking guy needs put down

https://www.threads.net/@barbaraj.sobel/post/C_J4e2aNobw/?xmt=AQGzsJ0coIzeO3eaIsKiTeLDS5NFGSzyOTYgmNI2oLTkFg

mickeyrat

https://www.threads.net/@democrascene/post/C_I9wlGMBj8/?xmt=AQGz2RhFOPBDdGGnw722fzVD_Nd4svu2vMOMG-O_S8FN6A

Halifax2TheMax

mickeyrat said:

this fucking guy needs put down

https://www.threads.net/@barbaraj.sobel/post/C_J4e2aNobw/?xmt=AQGzsJ0coIzeO3eaIsKiTeLDS5NFGSzyOTYgmNI2oLTkFg

Or be named AG of the USA. Practicing those gestapo tactics.Where’s the outrage? There is none. Guess it’s okay? Because it’s the “other.” Sure. Carry on.

mickeyrat

this is what gerrymandering has wrought. maybe this is the necessary path to reset "voter mandates"

https://apnews.com/article/ballot-measures-abortion-marijuana-immigration-taxes-6ef66d1c94fce24e3150d0ff4bf57a1b

mickeyrat

https://www.threads.net/@propublica/post/C_Q8h7DqCPv/?xmt=AQGzkxkwWDD1K-sO5sJi6xahsf7UAY9IQ3IoMKNspTnREQ

mickeyrat

gift article....

https://wapo.st/3Xbyh1N

Paxton’s election fraud charges upend lives but result in few convictions
By Arelis R. Hernández and Molly Hennessy-Fiske
September 02, 2024 at 5:00 ET
SAN ANTONIO — Leticia Sanchez was a church deaconess, teacher’s aide and an activist in her majority-Latino community helping register people to vote before she was arrested in 2018 for the first time in her life.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) accused her and three other Hispanic women of forming an “organized voter fraud ring” that targeted elderly voters by applying for mail-in ballots they had not requested.
Five years later, the case was dismissed after the state’s highest criminal court ruled Paxton didn’t have the authority to prosecute Sanchez. But even with her record cleared, the cost of being branded a felon was enormous.
“It’s been difficult to move forward,” Sanchez, 63, said in her first interview since the arrest. “We didn’t do anything wrong. We were just helping people.”
The church leader’s case fits a pattern that has emerged in Texas under Paxton: Aggressive prosecutions for alleged election fraud crimes that upend lives but result in few cases that go to trial and end in a conviction. The Republican attorney general and his supporters believe election fraud is rampant, and point to the large number of charges filed as proof. Yet many of those charged have stories like Sanchez’s.
Civil rights groups say the charges tend to target Black or Latino voters and volunteers, many of whom are Democrats. The result has been a chilling effect on volunteers and community groups that for decades have worked to increase turnout in a state with one of the nation’s lowest voter participation rates. Critics say the charges are part of a wider effort by predominantly White, Republican state lawmakers to suppress votes in some of the fastest-growing parts of the majority-minority state: urban and suburban communities that lean Democrat.
“The goal isn’t to get a conviction,” said Chad Dunn, legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, who has defended Texan clients against election-fraud claims and won a 2021 case that curbed the attorney general’s prosecutorial power. “It’s to set up a climate of fear around voting. He uses these witch hunts to gain attention and money.”
Paxton’s work in combating alleged voter fraud is back in focus after a recent spate of state raids on the homes of South Texas “abuelitas,” or older women known for their community work. One of the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organizations has called on the Justice Department to investigate. The department confirmed they are aware of the matter but declined to comment further.
Critics, both Democrats and Republicans, said they have become accustomed to the election season rollout: After a contested race result, the attorney general’s election police announce an investigation. Indictments and raids are timed to the run-up to early voting in the next election. And new, inexperienced voters and volunteers are scared off.

continues.....

mickeyrat

stand back. professional at work....

mickeyrat

https://www.threads.net/@democracydocket/post/C_tvRfUvnuv/?xmt=AQGz39TJoafdjWkFpZWNOiLPeBkiPDFCAd-8CA1gln3jYw

mickeyrat

https://www.threads.net/@democracydocket/post/C_v-PkJNBsa/?xmt=AQGzK8PlvcAzhVMquUTdsm4YGBsYlbnvHCepVZDdXrmpLg