Two stories emblematic of what tomorrow’s election means:

In New York City, a Marine veteran is on trial for murder for defending innocent bystanders against a man who was very blatantly threatening them:

The city has actively abjured enforcing public order; if you want to crap in public, mug or bully or terrrorize or attack people, close streets, run roughshod over the rights of others, the city could scarcely care less.

Misgender someone?  Exercise “bodily autonony” against Big Pharma? Own an unconventional pet?

Or try to protect innocent bystanders from the breakdown in order?

Suddenly they’re interested. Very, very interested.

There are many things at stake tomorrow. This is a big one.

Remember, when you go to the polls, that this is what our “elites” think the immigration crisis is about:

The borders they will enforce are all cultural.

And if you’re reading this blog, there is likely no trip to Martha’s Vinyard in your future.

New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi gets put on leave for having a “relationship” with RFJ Junior.

In the meantime, Lori Sturdevant, Rochelle Olson, Keri Miller and Esme Murphy have spent the decades (five of them in Sturdevant’s case) all-but-literally sending mash notes to three generations of DFL candidates – and bupkes.

Gotta confess, I didn’t see this coming:

But knowing some of the people involved, and even some recent history, perhaps I should have expected at least some Somali to take umbrage at the sense of entitlement the DFL feels re their votes.

Of course, I’d have to wonder if this endorsement happened after the vast majority of the local Somali population voted early.

Still – if the 5th CD and Minneapolis GOPs can keep this dynamic going – and I have confidence that they can – this could make the municipal elections next year a lot more interesting.

…were any needed, that nobody on the Harris/Walz campaign has ever actually met a straight adult male:

Because guys go to vote like they’re a bunch of girls at a bar going to the bathroom together.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Election officials in Trump-trending Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philly, sent a police officer to turn away voters standing in line, waiting for early voting.  The line was closed at 1:45 pm instead of 5:00 pm as advertised.  A judge later reinstated early voting after Republicans sued.

There is no election fraud.   There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair.  All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy.  

 

Joe Doakes

Seems a little…irregular.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

After 265,000 absentee ballots have already been accepted, NOW they’re going to consider putting Republicans on the Absentee Ballot Board to decide which absentee ballots can be accepted in the future:

 

There is no election fraud.   There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair.  All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy.  

 

Joe Doakes

It’s all feeling a little Orwellian, isn’t it?

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Around a dozen ballots in Mesa County were stolen from registered voters in the mail and submitted fraudulently.

State officials said Thursday they discovered the thefts this week through the signature verification process in Grand Junction, prompting an investigation by state and local officials.

 

This caught THIS dozen but how many others, in how many other counties, were not discovered?  Enough to swing the election?  How will we know? 

 

There is no election fraud.   There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair.  All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy. 

 

Joe Doakes

It’s enough to make you wonder. 

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Virginia Governor Youngkin issued an order in August directing the state to remove ineligible non-citizens from the list of eligible voters (dead people, non-residents, illegal aliens, fraudulent registrations).  Democrats sued to keep ineligible persons on the eligible voter list, the district court decided the state could not remove ineligible persons within the “quiet period” before the election, Republicans appealed to the Supreme Court which decided the “quiet period” does not protect ineligible persons since they’re ineligible to vote in the first place. 

If the Supreme Court had not acted, ballots from those ineligible persons could have been harvested and votes cast for Kamala, potentially tipping the election.  Remember the felon votes for Al Franken?  Same idea.

 

There is no election fraud.   There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair.  All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy.  

 

Joe Doakes

The crime, to the left, is noticing the crime.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

There are no standards for printing ballots.  Different counties use different print shops to print election ballots, but some ballots cannot be scanned.  Not all voters got the defective ballots and nobody knows whose votes were counted versus whose were rejected.  In counties where the red-blue split is close, rejecting red voters could swing the election.

There is no election fraud.   There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair.  All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy.  

Joe Doakes

The Constitution enumerates some powers to the states.   It’s both a strength and. weakness.  And unfortunately, the Federal and State governments are both run by government workers.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

I have been pelting you with emails on a certain theme. Now Laughing Wolf takes up the refrain:

“I highly recommend going back and re-reading Larry Correia’s excellent takes on the 2020 elections, here and here. There are some other good ones out on that election, and 2022, but those do a very good job of establishing the patterns. Patterns we are already starting to see in Colorado (passwords, multiple other issues, trying to keep Trump off the ballot), Minnesota (multiple votes same voter ID number, etc.), Michigan (Chinese student voting), Pennsylvania (closing lines, voter intimidation, etc.), and, well, there are more.”

The evidence is clear that Democrats are blatantly trying to steal this election.

I don’t want to hear Republicans say, “There is no election fraud. There may be occasional errors but not enough to change the outcome. It is impossible to steal an election. The last election was the fairest one ever, except for this one, which is even more fair. All we need to do to win, is to show up and vote. Anybody who says otherwise is an election denier and a threat to Our Precious Democracy.”

Instead, I want to hear Republicans tell Democrats right now, “You are cheating and we won’t sit still for it. If you cheat to steal the election, we won’t quietly go along. We will burn it all down before we submit to a usurper. Stop cheating, play fair, or face civil war.”

Of course the media will lose their minds. Of course RINOs will be aghast.
Of course Democtats will point and rheeee.

So what? What’s Option B? Let them cheat to steal the election and what, lose gracefully? Claim that Trump was a bad candidate, too divisive, we need to run someone more moderate next time? And when Democrsts steal that election, and the next, and the next, then what?

Which one is the hill to die on?

Joe Doakes

Discuss.

Tad Jude is running for Congress in CD3 against the morbidly extreme Kelly Morrison. If you live in CD3, and you care about sanity in government, I ask you (as a private citizen) vote for him on Tuesday.

“Do No Harm” is working to reverse the ravages of identity politics in the (gulp) healthcare industry. Find out how to get invol ed here, and in particular check out the “Stop the Harm” database on the systematic neutering of children.

And here’s today’s music list;

Here’s your state rep, Luke Frederick, comparing people of faith to slave holders for dissenting from the left on trans ideology:

Please shock the world on election day, and send this hamster back to whatever coffee shop he was working at before he latched onto the DFL gravy train.

Since we have an election coming up, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

Here’s Rep. Dave Pinto, progsplaining last session why DFL prosecutors won’t go after straw buyers – because the sentences are “too low”…

…before joining his entire caucus in voting down a bill that would have increased the sentence.

Pinto will get re-elected. He’s in a nauseatingly save DFL district.

But if you live somewhere in play?

Your mission is clear.

The Vice President of the United States actively worked to bail out rioters, convicted rapists and scads of violent goons:

Not a single national Democrat or local DFLer denounced this erosion of our legal system. Some, including much of the metro and state “progressive” power elite, celebrated and participated in it.

This needs to be held against every last one of them in tomorrow’s elections.

In response to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) noting that two months ago the Administration (like the MNDFL) told us that non-citizens weren’t voting, or even registering, and now the DOJ is suing to keep the on the voter rolls, Elon Musk responded:

Now can I count the ways this is not only true, but happening?

• Gun control
• Transing kids
• Third-trimester abortion with no restrictions
• “Restorative Justice” as practiced in Blue cities

What am I missing?

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como. Park, emails:

Visited a different church this weekend, and heard a new song.  The musicians on stage played and sang.  The congregation was instructed to shout, “That’s My King” when appropriate.  Like all modern churches, they have giant tv screens hanging above the stage showing the words.  I’ll skip to the part of the song that I found interesting:

That’s my God
That’s my shepherd
My protector
That’s my king

That’s my rock
That’s my anchor
My defender
That’s my king

Most  Americans think of “king” as a picture on a playing card, not a part of the government.  We mistakenly believe Our Precious Democracy is the ultimate form of government.  I think that’s simplistic and dangerous. The Seventeenth Amendment, the effort to pack the Supreme Court, the demand to abolish the electoral college, these all move us away from checks-and-balances and toward absolute rule by whomever counts the ballots. 

One need only look to the French Revolution to see why pure mob rule is a terrible idea.  Elections aren’t everything – Hitler, Castro and Putin won their elections, too.  Ben Franklin quipped: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.”  Robert Heinlein wrote:  “A king is the people’s only protection against tyranny . . . especially against the worst of all tyrants, themselves.”  

Throughout history before the Constitution, the most common form of government was kingship, partly because Might Makes Right, but also partly because Stability Brings Order.  The subjects owe allegiance to their king, sure, but as the song from church points out, kings have a responsibility to their subjects, to protect them from enemies foreign and domestic. When there’s a vacancy on the throne, there’s chaos in foreign relations and confusion in domestic politics.  That’s one reason some Founders wanted George Washington to agree to be king.  He was a natural leader and a gracious gentleman whom ordinary people could admire and respect.

Looking around at the chaos caused by the vacant Rose Garden Throne in America today, and considering the two contestants for the office, only one strikes me as the sort of leader who can inspire people to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get busy restoring this nation to greatness.  Only one of them is fit to be king.

Joe Doakes

 

Some historian – I forget who – described the British monarchy of myth, from its origins until probably the 1600s, as the old-world equivalent of Mafia factions duking it out for the position of Capo di Tutti Capi, only with no FBI to prevent slop-over to the wider society.  It took over 400 years, from the Magna Carta to the bitter end of the English Civil War, to turn the British monarchy into the most relatively small-l liberal significant monarchy (shaddap about Denmark) in the modern world. 

And the greatest glory of the American experiment was that we were able to not only short-circuit that 400 years of dynastic tree-pruning and blood-batheing, but do it via elections and an orderly process, and implement it in 15 short years and keep it running smoothly for almost 250. 

Who’s the best choice to try to keep that record going?

I can’t disagree with Joe at this point .

More tomorrow.

Since Tim “Mind Your Own Business” Walz and his phalanx of lies are on the ticket next week, let’s make sure people remember this:

They warned us that if we voted GOP, fascism would erupt. And they were right.

Remember 2020?

No. 

Never forget 2020.

The Cathedral of Saint Paul seats 3000 people.

Governor Klink arbitrarily limited to 10 people. No singing.

The 617 bar in White Bear Lake seats 37 people

Bars were limited to 50. No matter how many they started with.

This is governance by “the party of science“. Never forget.

(Via former representative Matt Dean.)

SCENE: In a conference room at the MN DFL headquarters. Chair Ken Martin is sitting along one side of the table with Gretel STROMBERG and Inge “Lucky” CARROLL, the executive director and chief social media meme-buffer at “Minnesotans United for All Progressive Causes”, the state’s primary non-profit political action committee that is no way, no how connected with the DFL, you racist pig. Across the table sits Chad MANBUNFRONDSON, upper midwest outreach director for the Harris/Walz campaign

MANBUNFRONDSON:  So for some reason the Harris/Walz campaign is having trouble among men, especially whyte men.

CARROLL: (Hisses theatrically)

STROMBERG:  Stupid wypipo

MARTIN:  Worst people in the universe.

CARROLL:  Unless they’re trans men.

STROMBERG:  Who are men.

MARTIN: But of course.

MANBUNFRONDSON: We’ve tried treating them like infants. How’d that work?

CARROLL: To my amazement, that did not poll well.

MANBUNFRONDSON: And we tried social media sizzle, creating an entire group for them.

STROMBERG: Polls show most men found it (reads notes) “so patronizing it felt like a Babylon Bee parody” at best, insulting at worst”.

MARTIN: Whaaaaaa?

MANBUNFRONDSON: And picking Tim Walz – the manliest man to ever weedwhip a lawn, didn’t do the trick?

MARTIN: Most of the guys on my staff agree.

CARROLL: Uhhhhh….

MANBUNFRONDSON: And telling them that Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff are the new models of masculinity?

STROMBERG: Kind of a bad news/bad news situation there.

MANBUNFRONDSON:  Huh?

MARTIN:  The bad news is, most men thought Walz is a (checks notes) “doughy, lying little weasel”, and Emhoff is a “philanderingt sh**stick”. 

STROMBERG:  And the other bad news is, the move backfired pretty spectacularly.

MANBUNFRONDSON:  Huh.  So nothing’s worked.

(The others shrug with exasperationˆ)

MANBUNFRONDSON: OK. It’s time to release the Kraken.

MARTIN: Yeah, that should do it.

STROMBERG:  (Chef’s kiss)

And SCENE

In a campaign full of cringe-y ads, this may be the dumbest:

Treating husbands as the enemy seems like a bit of a tactical error.

Democrats are shocked, shocked, that Trump is talking about using the guard “on citizens” (who are rioting and destroying cities).

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to keep order while they integrated the schools.

He used the military against segregationists, the enemy within, his political foes. 

Was that wrong? Was Eisenhower also Hitler, same as Trump?

 

 

Kennedy also sent the regular Army to help quell anti-desegregation riots at the University of Mississippi. To be fair, modern Democrats, at least the ones in MInneapolis, likely think of Kennedy as a fascist today, too.

As a good American of rural Scandinavian/Scottish descent, I’m rarely given to sharing optimism publicly.  It’s just not in the DNA.

And, as always, I’m a Trump skeptic. 

The race could still swing either way; there’s a week left for October Surprises (although have of them, mathematically, would be November surprises).

But over the weekend, the Real Clear Politics average finally showed Trump up in their polling average. 

The margin is well within the margin of error – like, in the margin of error’s upper GI tract.  But this is the first lead of any kind Trump has had in the RCP average since Harris’s “surge” after defenestrating the Potato.  And if it holds until Election Day, it’ll be the first time Trump has ever led the RCP average at election time – 2016, 2020 or this year. 

Now, I never bought the “Red Wave” hype in 2022, and I’m not getting on board any bandwagons this year either.  But I think two, maybe three, stories over the weekend got me thinking.

Lifeboats

VIrginia hasn’t gone Republican, IIRC, since the ’84 landlside.

But as Strommie points out, this isn’t your father’s VIrginia:

Harris is still up, but the change in momentum is pretty clear. If Harris is going to have to fight to defend Virginia, that could make for a very long election night for her, and a much shorter one for me.

Self-Inflicted

Over the weekend, NBC News started to rip off the bandaid – Arab-Americans in MIchigan are…not very warm to Harris:

[Michigan state represetnative Abanas] Farhat said the Democratic Party “has missed several key opportunities” to reassure Arab American voters concerned about Gaza. One glaring oversight, he said, is the ongoing decision to supply Israel with weapons for its military campaign in the enclave. He also points to how the Democratic National Convention did not allow a Palestinian American affected by the war to speak, despite giving a platform to the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a slain Israeli American who was abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

“The time for listening — we’re beyond that now,” Farhat said. “We’re in a phase where constituencies like mine are demanding action in the form of policy change, not just rhetoric change, but in seeing a party that for years this community has been loyal to, standing up for them.”

It’d be reasonable to read the NBC piece and conclude that Harris could lose Michigan’s Arabs – and, possibly, Michigan itself – rather than Trump winning it.

But events over the weekend showed us it might not be quite that simple:

At the Suburban Collection Showplace, 46100 Grand River Ave., a group of Muslim imams from the Michigan Chapter of the Arab American Bar Association took the stage to endorse Trump, expressing their support for his stance on ending the wars in the Middle East.

“We as Muslims stand with President Trump because he promises peace not war,” one of the imams said. “We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.”

The imams voiced a shared desire for peace, emphasizing that their communities want to see an end to these wars. Joining them was the mayor of Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who also took the stage to endorse Trump.

I did not have that on my bingo card.  Speaking of candidate just losing states…

Worse

Remember 2016?  When Hillary only carried MInnesota by two points? 

The Conventional wisdom was not that Trump almost won, but that Hillary almost lost; that Hillary was an unlikeable, bad candidate.

So my question, amid the usual overheated rumors that Trump is contending in Minnesota – and I’ve asked this of a number of Republicans – is this:  is Harris a better candidate and more likeable, presidential candidate than Killary? 

Do the world a favor and vote against Karl Procaccini:

A friend of the blog notes, for those with shorter and less-photographic memories:

He was the legal architect of the lockdown in MN. His appointment was payback for his ability to defend any bad judgment policy Walz had, constitution be damned. Hack. Don’t vote for him, don’t leave it blank, vote for his opponent.

He’s basically Tim Walz’s hired legal help.

It’ll take a miracle to affect a SCOM race – but if we don’t work for miracles, they never happen.

As noted earlier, the polls look all right for Trump – far better, in fact, than in 2016 and 2020.

But there’s no way to know what’s baked into the “special sauce” in the polls. Did they overcorrect from their embarassing showing in 2016 and 2020? Did they over-overcorrect for 2022? There’s no way to know.

So let’s not get cocky:

I want to make sure readers understand that, given the closeness of this race, the unpredictability (and inevitability) of polling error, and the Electoral College geography, a Harris/Walz victory remains plausible. You are permitted here, for a moment, to luxuriate in the irony that minorities are now the “problem” for Democrats — increasingly detached from what progressives arrogantly assumed would be a permanent relationship of political patronage. But MAGA types should save the smugness for now, if for no other reason than that Harris’s victory, should it emerge, will be properly interpreted as a direct rebuke to them.

I early-voted yesterday – something I’d never have thought about four years ago.

It took an hour to get into the polling station.  This was in Roseville, MN – a very blue suburb. 

Beyond the presidency – flipping the MN House, and ending the ravages of the “Trifecta”, is also at stake.

Two years ago, I resisted the “Red Wave” hype – it never quite smelled right to me. 

This year?  “It’s Trump’s race to lose” is a little more plausible – and thus,  more dangerous.

Drag people to the polls, already.