Recap of Today in Politics, 10/25/24

… A right-wing panel of judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that states cannot count ballots after election day even if they are postmarked on or before election day. 18 states currently allow this, so this decision could lead to chaos if it was enforced immediately.

… There can be an appeal to the Supreme Court (good luck with that) but the 5th Circuit gave another out - allowing the District Court judge discretion not to enforce this ruling on the 2024 election since it is last minute and would cause utter chaos. The District Judge is the one who they overruled, so there is a pretty good likelihood he will not enforce this decision in this election.

… Nearly 2,000 subscribers cancelled their subscriptions to the LA Times and two more editors resigned in protest after their Trump-loving billionaire owner refused to led to editorial board endorse Kamala Harris.

… The Washington Post announced today that they will not make an endorsement in the presidential race for the first time in 36 years.

… Former WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron: “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate Jeff Bezos and others. Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

… WaPo Editor-at-Large Robert Kagan resigned in protest.

… As of 5:00 PM ET, over 2,000 people cancelled their WaPo subscriptions.

… Mark Hamill posted his cancelation notice for WaPo on Twitter. It had 445K views in one hour.

… Trump’s long campaign to threaten media companies with prison, loss of licenses, lawsuits, loss of access, and various other things should he become president has worked out pretty well for him as the 4th Estate takes us down the road to autocracy by abdicating their responsibility to the Republic.

… The NY Post endorsed Trump today, so apparently Rupert Murdoch does not fear retaliation from Kamala Harris since she is not an unhinged fascist. Although in his case …

… Trump made one of his most unhinged and psychotic posts ever where he threatened long prison sentences for every person who he decides has tried to “rig” this election. He specifically listed “lawyers, political operatives, donors and elections officials.”

… Marc Elias posted on Twitter that he is well aware that one of the people Trump is talking about is him, but that won’t scare him like it scares Bezos.

… In a separate statement, Trump said that Jack Smith should be deported.

… At the same time Trump made his post, Mike Johnson issued a statement calling on Kamala Harris to “tone down the rhetoric.”

… It turns out the “Black Insurrectionist” twitter account that spread Russian disinformation about the storm response by FEMA is a 51 year old white guy named Jason Palmer. What a surprise.

… JD Vance started to give a shoutout today in NC to disgraced Republican nominee for Governor Mark Robinson, then stopped himself after remembering that the campaign is supposed to be pretending that the Trump-endorsed candidate doesn’t exist.

… Lancaster County, PA announced they have launched a criminal investigation into alleged fraudulent voter registrations involving Amish people. RNC operative and all-around shady character Scott Presler has been bragging about registering Amish in Lancaster County. He issued a denial on Twitter tonight saying it has nothing to do with him. We shall see.

… The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Harris: “Harris wants to help all Americans. Trump wants to help himself.”

… The Houston Chronicle endorsed Harris.

… More than 1 million people signed up online to attend Kamala Harris’s rally tonight in Houston with Colin Allred. The venue holds 20,000.

… A federal appeals court ordered VA Gov Glenn Youngkin to reinstate tens of thousands of voters purged from the rolls since he waited until the last minute to do it in violation of the federal law which prohibits mass purges within 90 days of an election. Youngkin said he is appealing to the Supreme Court.

… Naturally, Youngkin claims that DOJ brought the lawsuit because they “want illegals to vote,” but this really is simple. The law is clear and the reason for the law is that you have to give people time to appeal or be aware of their removal. There is no reason why Youngkin waited so long except to create this issue to demagogue on.

… MO AG Andrew Bailey filed yet another ridiculous lawsuit to use taxpayer dollars to get Trump to notice him. This time he is suing Google for supposedly rigging their search engines against Trump. This all started from a conspiracy that Google was supposedly suppressing stories about the PA rally shooting.

… Democratic Senators Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to DOJ urging them to do something after Elon Musk ignored their warning letter and continues to pay out $1 million prizes to people in swing states who sign his voter petition. They urged DOJ to criminally prosecute Musk if he is violating the law.

… Elon Musk put another $43 million in his pro-Trump PAC, bringing him up to a total of over $110 million spent in his attempt to buy the election for Trump. There is a lot Musk wants and gets already from the federal government, but he wants much more