Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by James Brown

I agree with what Maurice, Jim, and James said.   Not nearly as strident as James though - I think Trump is full of bluster, but not actually affecting reasonable Americans.   I expect a blue wave in the house, and a 51/49 Senate in favor of the

Originally Posted by James Lacey

 Trump can't just accept a loss; he always has to create a pretext for why he was cheated, and he doesn't care one whit who or what he harms as long as it soothes his ego. He's done this before, so no one should think he won't do it again,

and Trump outright said, when he was asked, that he told the DOJ to file the lawsuit in Alaska.

Originally Posted by James Brown

100% agree.  I'm not optimistic the D's won't squander their goodwill with endless impeachments and lawsuits.  On the other hand, I totally get it that Congress can not do too much actual legislating without a veto-proof majority, or the white house.  Any impeachment is DOA since at best the Ds will have only a slim majority in the Senate.  The Ds should try to address the economy and foreign affairs though, putting the ball back into Trump's court.  Make him veto popular and reasonable legislation and then coast to victory in 2028.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Oh, and surprise, surprise: "Over 40% of names on DOJ list of alleged noncitizens(in Calif) are not on Calif voter rolls, analysis finds"  "The analysis also found that thousands of U.S. citizens appear to be flagged as ineligible to vote on the government’s list."

https://apnews.com/article/california-justice-department-noncitizen-voters-midterms-45b31d5aefb03723f0e59f6084e918d4

Reminds of the Trump government doing this in Nevada :  "The federal government said 15,903. The answer was zero."  

"In July 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) claiming that as many as 15,903 noncitizens were on Nevada's voter rolls. The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent letters to election officials in all 50 states the same week, threatening criminal prosecution. The message from Washington was clear: Nevada's elections were compromised and federal action was warranted."  "None of it held up."

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/opinion-the-federal-government-said-15903-the-answer-was-zero

But, what's that compared to a couple of candidates with similar names in Alaska?

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Breaking news: "Judge tosses DOJ’s lawsuit over Alaska Senate race":   https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/6186982-judge-dismisses-trump-alaska-lawsuit/

Hopefully, any undecideds at this point in Alaska will see this for what it was: another bogus move by Trump folks to sway the election...

Originally Posted by Maurice Clark

Hi James, 

I agree with you that this was a stupid move by Petola's campaign,  and one that can only be detrimental to her election chances.  However,  all the gnashing of teeth and howls of indignation from the Republicans is really hypocritical I feel, since this sort of dirty tricks has been going on for decades. See here for a few examples.  https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2026/Items/Oct30-1.html

In Australia we had similar shenanigans.  We have compulsory voting (you are fined if you do not vote) and voting uses the preferential system. ( what you call ranked choice). Originally candidates were listed alphabetically,  so candidates would change their name before the election in order to appear first on the ballot and so get what we called the "donkey vote". Ie. Those who just numbered the boxes 1,2 3 etc without knowing who the candidates were. That was finally stopped when the electoral commission switched to listing candidates randomly. 

Have fun Tuesday night. Make sure you have plenty of popcorn! 🙃

Maurice

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

My understanding is that there is a top-2 runoff if no candidate gets more 50% of the vote, so it seems immaterial to me.

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

Hopefully tomorrow is D day and the beginning of the end of MAGA. Of course, I could be totally off base and trump gets out the vote from his minions, although I also think his minions may be hurting a bit economically and disappointed he did the exact opposite of what he promised he'd do. Hopefully they put the blame where it is due. Besides, trump has been even more a whack job the last few months than he has been in the past. The screamer would be screaming about it if it was Biden saying the crazy things coming out of trump's mouth at his rallies.

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

One final prediction:

I think we may be watching history repeat itself in today's election, and Republicans should be very concerned about the long-term consequences.

Remember California's Proposition 187?

In 1994, Republican Governor Pete Wilson embraced an initiative to deny public education and other government services to illegal immigrants. The proposition passed overwhelmingly, and Wilson won reelection.

But Republicans paid a terrible long-term political price. Hispanic voters increasingly abandoned the party, helping transform California from a competitive state into one dominated by Democrats. More than 30 years later, Republicans still haven't recovered.

Fast forward to 2024. Trump made remarkable gains among Hispanic voters, receiving 48% of their vote, nearly matching Harris. It was an enormous opportunity for Republicans to build a lasting political coalition.

Instead, Trump has pursued an immigration crackdown that has gone well beyond what many of those voters thought they were supporting.

There is a huge difference between securing the border and making millions of American citizens feel that their families and communities are under attack.

And the polling shows it. A recent Pew survey found that Trump's approval among Hispanic voters has fallen to just 24%.

Today's election may be remembered as the beginning of another Proposition 187 moment, this time on a national scale.

Pete Wilson won his election in 1994, but his party lost a generation of voters.

Trump is about to accomplish the same thing.