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LOL! The LA Times didn't endorse a president. Or did they? This from today's paper: "As the 2024 election grinds to a hair-raising conclusion, it’s not just democracy that’s on the Nov. 5 ballot. Voting itself is under attack, in big ways and small, from Donald Trump and his Republican allies. Trump is already spreading unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and cheating in Pennsylvania, with he and his supporters laying the same groundwork of lies, threats and misinformation as he did four years ago in preparation to contest the results if Vice President Kamala Harris wins. Their attacks on the machinery of democracy put poll workers and election officials in danger. And the GOP’s efforts to challenge the eligibility of voters , purge voter rolls , restrict the counting of ballots and change the certification process threaten to disenfranchise citizens and cast doubt on the election. But this is no reason to despair. It’s time to act, using the best defense we have against the threat of a vindictive authoritarian , consummate racist and malignant narcissist who puts himself before Americans and our democracy. It’s time to get out and vote. As late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis said: “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy.”

But it’s meaningless unless you exercise it. It shouldn’t have to be said, but if Trump and the Republican Party think their path to victory depends on spreading misinformation about election fraud, attacking poll workers and suppressing votes, that does not bode well for democracy. By working to restrict the electorate rather than expand it, that only demonstrates that they don’t think they can win on the merits of their unpopular agenda. Expanding voting rights was a nearly two-century struggle, but those rights have been under assault from Republican leaders. So it’s painful and tiring the extent to which every election has become a referendum on democracy. That reality is clearer than ever. Trump is running an explicitly authoritarian and antidemocratic campaign, saying he would be a dictator on “Day One. ” He said at a Christian summit this year that if he is elected, “ you won’t have to vote anymore. ” His fomenting of the Jan. 6 insurrection and his attempts to overturn the will of the voters and his unabated lies about his 2020 loss to Joe Biden may only be previews of what is in store in the coming days. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has said he wouldn’t have voted to certify Biden’s 2020 election win and said last month that Trump didn’t lose . In a recent social media post, Vance praised a Trump supporter who verbally attacked a poll worker, saying, “ What a patriot .”

It’s not just your vote on the presidential ticket that’s important. Remember that four years ago there were 147 members of Congress , all of them Republicans, who tried overturn the will of the people by voting against the certification of Biden’s victory. Many of them, from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and Mike Garcia (R-Santa Clarita), are running for reelection, while their party lays the groundwork to undermine this year’s election if they don’t like the results. Most California Republicans running for Congress won’t commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results. That’s shameful and disqualifying. If they don’t respect our votes, they don’t deserve our votes. If you are disillusioned, on the fence, thinking of sitting this one out, otherwise disengaged or uninspired to use your vote to reject Trump and his attacks on America’s values, remember that you will be given no second chance. There will be no do-over in returning an aggrieved and emboldened demagogue to power, and no opportunity to reverse the ensuing harm to women, LGBTQ+ Americans, immigrants and people of color, including friends, family members and neighbors.

So just vote. Vote, vote, vote. None of this matters if you don’t vote. — Tony Barboza is a member of

the editorial board"

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Thanks for posting.

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Lyn Cheney is a brave patriot. She needs to be protected from the MAGA folks who think those were Trump’s orders.

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A reminder to those so-called Republicans that remain silent at this time in American history, from an Australian who believes in our alliance and holds faith that most Americans are not MAGA:

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

It's really a shame that someone from NSW, Australia has to point you to words you should all know by heart. Considering that you proudly called yourselves "the party of Lincoln", you should hang your heads in shame - to be silent is to be complicit. The MAGA party now owns the naming rights to the GOP, but if you actually believed the words of Lincoln it is well past time for you to speak up!

George W. Bush, spoke the following words whilst standing in our Parliament House in October 2003 towards the end of his speech - "More then 60 years later, that code still guides us. We call evil by its name, and stand for freedom that leads to peace....." To put it in Aussie vernacular, Bush's silence at this time means that he stood in our house & pissed in our pocket! Shame on you that ordinary people like Sarah Matthews & Cassidy Hutchinson show more courage than an ex President!

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Just to note, Trump DID sink lower last night in Milwaukee when he simulated a hand job and oral sex with his microphone.

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What was he thinking? Was he trying to be funny? Was that what he was thinking about at the time? I know he was angry about the sound system, but I don't get the connection. It is shocking to see a political figure do that. And I keep saying that Trump can't shock me anymore. I was wrong.

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I absolutely love the dodges being used by Republicans to get around the Cheney comment. There are the tranditional "No, I didn't hear that." and the "I don't think that is quite what he meant". But the new one I heard was "Well, he didn't say they were going to pull their triggers!"

WTAF!? These are supposedly gun people and they have forgotten the first rule of gun safety which is NEVER, EVER point a gun at anything you DO NOT intend to shoot!

So, they all damn well know absolutely what he meant!

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If Biden garbles something akin that, they would have no problem understanding exactly what he meant.

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Here's my own "cheap shot":

Trump said, about Liz Cheney: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

But at least he didn't call her (or her's) "garbage."

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It;s not often I sit looking at my screen with my jaw hanging open, even with trump's antics, but- when you thought he couldn't sink any lower - he simulates oral sex on stage at a rally? and they're VOTING for him?

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Ladies, are we going to let them keep on killing us? By leaving a woman bleed out or get an infected uterus and then sepsis is killing us. WTF! What about your ethics, your oath, your responsibilities as physicians and nurses. As a retired ICU nurse I say for shame, how do you live with yourselves? Vote straight Blue. Take your control of your body back.

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founding

RE: The Economy

It would be pointless to even try to persuade the trump electorate, by using an evidence-based argument, that the economy is robust, because the trump electorate (1) is impervious to facts outside their immediate personal perceptions, the inputs they receive from Fox, and the influences of social media; (2) has been told by trump that the economy is a wreck; and (3) must believe what trump says as a matter of faith to maintain membership in the tribe.

Not only pointless to argue the facts, but counter-productive as well. Biden tried for months, and failed miserably. And the harder he tried, the worse his poll numbers became. Harris wisely decided not waste the precious weeks of her late-starting campaign.

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Not just the "Trump electorate," but anyone still undecided between Trump and Harris, or whether to vote at all, is motivated not by facts or reason, but by emotion.

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Over the years, every time I heard someone be nostalgic for W, that would get me started.

The fact that he's too chickenshit to say BOO about Trump - even when Trump degrades Liz Chaney - W wasn't a leader then and he's hasn't grown into one since.

Damn him.

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Mr. Kristol one of the few joys of the last 8 years is to have found myself in a coalition with principled people like yourself. The greatest pain of the last 8 years is to have been smacked in the face with just how few people of principle there seem to be at the moment.

No matter what happens on Tuesday the other thing I've learned is it's going to be a long slog out of this win or lose.

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Agreed. It's been very disheartening. And I think we have so much damage done to date that it will take some years, if not decades, for it to straighten out.....

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It just takes one person shitting in a well...and there it is. Disease.

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Crude, but entirely appropriate.

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Think Cholera. Crude was intentional when I considered the one who has poisoned our cultural milieu. He would do it if it if it benefited him.

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It all depends on the shape of the distribution. An asymmetrical distribution can create big differences between the median and average even in very large samples. A good example is home prices - extremely long tail on the high end, which creates big differences between median price and average price.

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MAGAs: "If you call Trump a threat to democracy, you're essentially calling for his assassination."

Also MAGAs: "When Trump fantasizes about putting a personal enemy he has tagged as a traitor in front of nine people pointing rifles at her, he's really making an eloquent and powerful critique of her foreign policy views (which he didn't take issue with until after she spoke out against his effort to retain power unlawfully)."

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I am so deeply disheartened at the loss of moral and spiritual compass by Trumpublicans, many life-long friends and family members. I've long not been a practicing Christian, but I have always taken Jesus' words to heart (other than "I am the only son of God"—if indeed, he claimed that). But I find myself repeating these words attributed to him from the cross—it's the only way I avoid going into a rage:

Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.

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I agree with you in part. The problem is that the politicians, the Bezos, the billionaires, the Murdochs, the Tuckers, the Hannitys, etc. know EXACTLY what his is. And the cowards are either kissing his . . . ring. Or simply looking away. It's becoming increasingly obvious that Trump has lost it, and, I suspect his handlers are giving him something to keep him semi-sane. But as the day wears on, he becomes more and more unhinged. I find myself praying for a black swan event in the next two days.

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I wholeheartedly agree. Those who know better are NOT let off any hooks. I should have been more explicit about that.

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I have relatives who were lifelong Republicans who oppose Trump because of their Christian values.

I have other devout Christian relatives whose political stance I don't know, and maybe I'd rather not.

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Biden meant the campaign that approved that speaker and his jokes were garbage. In his muddled, addled way, it came out unclearly. Shouldnt even be a story. He's not running, and the other guy says more vile things hourly.

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Really! It's like Joe Biden never committed a gaffe in his life or something! These disingenuous clowns should drop their faux outrage, do the world a favor, and point their flamethrowers at each other.

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B-B-B-But, Little Marco Rubio thought it was comparable to the death of Hitler in 1945.

Which makes me wonder what post that insignificant twerp could have held in Nazi Germany.

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founding

RE: supporters and supporter's

I have far fewer issues with a guy stumbling over a couple of confusing homophones than I do with a party chocked full of homophobes wanting nothing more than to trample on the hard-won rights of us all. Time to chuck this garbage and move the f**k on.

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