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2016 Election Tag

Donald Trump said at the debate that he would consider whether to accept the election results at a later date. The media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) are pretending to be apoplectic, as if Trump had violated a core principle of our democracy that no election result could be contested. The NY Times hyperventilated, Donald Trump’s Contempt for Democracy, while WaPo called it Trump’s breathtaking repudiation of American democracy. In fact, Trump "threatens" to do only what Democrats have done in the past when it comes to disputed elections:

That was ugly! Today's Morning Joe offered a prime example of the notion that the bitterest political fights are the ones between members of the same party. Joe Scarborough and Bill Kristol got into a nasty spat over Kristol's accusation that in the early days of the campaign, Morning Joe had been supportive of Donald Trump, and by extension bears some responsibility for his rise. An angry Scarborough shot back "you lied!" and laid out the case that he had declared early on that he wouldn't vote for Trump, had analogized his call for a Muslim ban to Germany circa 1933, and said that Trump's reluctance to reject David Duke's endorsement was disqualifying.

Every couple of weeks, Joe Scarborough rebuilds lost conservative street cred by going on a good rant against liberals and the MSM. He did so in spades on today's Morning Joe, comprehensively crushing libs for their hypocrisy in "freaking out" over Trump's wait-and-see answer at last night's debate to the question of whether he'd accept the results of the election. Excerpts: "the media got something they can absolutely freak out about and claim that he is an agent of Vladimir Putin and destroying democracy in America and it's just another example of the media having to find a little phrase and freak out when as a Republican I have listened to Democrats talk about the only two times we won the White House in like 800 years that we stole both elections . . . hell, even Bernie Sanders supporters just six months ago were saying that Hillary Clinton was rigging the election."

I don't have a clear "who won" reaction. Trump was more subdued than usual for the first part of the debate, and he seemed to do well. He missed a huge point on the Heller decision -- which Hillary absolutely falsely described as an issue of protecting toddlers. As things heated up, Trump again scored points, particularly on the Clinton foundation and Hillary making a mess of the world. He also did well on immigration. BUT, as usual, Trump gave the media something to talk about that likely hurts him -- declining to say whether or not he would accept the outcome of the election. In a prior debate he said he would, but now no? It's all the media is going to want to talk about.

Welcome to our live coverage of the third and final Hillary v. Trump showdown. Hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the debate will begin at 9:00 PM EST. According to The Daily Beast, "Wednesday’s program will include six segments, each 15 minutes long, in which the candidates will be asked about a myriad of topics including debt, immigration, the economy, Supreme Court appointments, and the candidates’ fitness to be president." Fox News' Chris Wallace will moderate tonight's debate.

As we approach the final presidential debate later tonight, the polling looks grim for Donald Trump. In a sense, Trump never really recovered from his post Democratic convention fall, when his public feud with the Khan family wasted what had been a Trump rally after the Republican convention. There was a rebound for a couple of weeks, as Trump maintained uncharacteristic composure and relative silence as Hillary's email and other scandals took a toll. But all of that went down the tubes as Trump took the bait on the "fat shaming" allegation after the first debate. Does ANYONE even remember the woman's name at this point? She was just a Clinton prop used to set up what was to come, the NBC tape of comments about groping women and the rollout of a series of women accusing Trump of groping them in some form or another.

Indiana officials have started an investigation into possible voter fraud after people noticed their voter registration cards had incorrect information. Secretary of State Connie Lawson released this statement:
“We ran a report in the Statewide Voter Registration System and found thousands of dates of births and first names were changed. These records were changed on paper forms, at the BMV and online. At this time, my office is not sure why these records were changed, but we have evaluated the Statewide Voter Registration System and have found no indication it has been compromised. We believe this may be a case of voter fraud and have turned our findings over to the State Police, who are currently conducting an investigation into alleged voter fraud.”

If there was ever an omen about America's possible future based on the outcome of Election 2016, then an incident occurring in a small town in Georgia is surely it!
Authorities are investigating whether a Democratic Party campaign bus illegally dumped raw sewage in Gwinnett County Tuesday morning. According to the police report, authorities were called to the O’Reilly Auto Parts on Grayson Highway after reports that an RV was dumping its sewage into a storm drain.

The Ecuadorian government admitted it cut off and limited Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's internet access as a way to stop interfering with the U.S. presidential election. The anti-secrecy website has been publishing emails from Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's Gmail account, including transcripts from her speeches to Goldman Sachs. The government had enough, but also expressed its continued support of Assange:
“The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” Ecuador said in a statement.

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas is at it again -- needling the hubris of Democratic operatives and claiming scalps. O'Keefe and his band of undercover videographers thrive during election season for obvious reasons -- if you're going to find instances of waste, fraud, and abuse, they're ripe for the picking before election day. Project Veritas' latest series of videos captured a Hillary campaign operative admitting to inciting violence at Trump rallies. "It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherfucker," said Scott Foval, National Field Director at Americans United for Change. "One of the things we do is we stage very authentic grassroots protests right in their faces at their own events. Like, we infiltrate."

NBC has made it official and removed Billy Bush from the Today show after The Washington Post leaked audio of him laughing as Donald Trump talked about groping females:
“Billy Bush will be leaving the Today show’s 9 a.m. hour, effective today,” the network said in a statement to its employees. “While he was a new member of the Today team, he was a valued colleague and longtime member of the broader NBC family. We wish him success as he goes forward.”
Unconfirmed reports said Bush received a $10 million settlement package.

Remember Wendy Davis? She was the Texas Democrat who became an MSM darling for her filibuster against a state law restricting abortions. Davis exploited her 15-minutes of fame by running for Governor of Texas in 2014. But despite the backing of an adoring press, Davis got demolished, losing by more than 20 points to Greg Abbott. For the record, my home county of Hood showed its scorn by awarding Davis all of . . . 18.9% of the vote. So when on today's Morning Joe, Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei claimed that Hillary Clinton is so far ahead that she has a better shot at winning Texas than Trump has of winning the presidency, this adopted Texan had to laugh.

Yesterday, Wikileaks said a state cut off founder Julian Assange's internet access at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which led to theories that he died. But today, the anti-secrecy website claims Ecuador cut off Assange's internet, nine days into Wikileaks email dumps of Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta's emails. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/788099178832420865 Ecuadorian embassy employees or ambassador would not comment on the tweet. Wikileaks has also released more Podesta emails.

Do you ever think Hollywood will ever learn that not everyone thinks the way they do? Yeah, neither do I. Well, in Tampa Bay, people booed and stormed out of Amy Schumer's comedy show when she insulted Donald Trump, calling him an "orange, sexual-assaulting, fake-college-starting monster," and called for more gun control. The group of people was relatively small, but large enough for others to notice:
Schumer scanned the crowd for Trump voters, and invited one up to the stage. He identified himself as Dave, an attorney and RINO (Republican In Name Only) who hadn’t voted for a GOP candidate since Reagan. He said he just felt safer with the country in Trump’s hands than Clinton’s.

The fight for the Senate continues to grow tighter, which has led Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to push even more of her campaign money to Democrat senate candidates. The Democrats only need five seats to take the majority or four if Hillary wins. Politico reported:
Clinton, who entered October with more money than any other candidate ever at her disposal, will spend more than $6 million total on paid media and get-out-the-vote efforts in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire — each of which also has Senate races — said campaign manager Robby Mook on a conference call with reporters on Monday.

Instead of election officials rejecting mail in ballots because the signature does not match the one on file, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ordered that Florida extend the same courtesy it extends to those who don't sign their ballot at all: a chance to correct the problem. The Miami Herald reports:
Calling existing rules “obscene” disenfranchisement, a federal judge in Tallahassee declared late Sunday that Florida must provide a method for voters to fix signature problems that might arise when they vote by mail in the presidential election. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling was a victory for the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee, which sued the state Oct. 3 arguing Florida canvassing boards shouldn’t immediately reject a ballot if a voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file. The state gives voters who forget to sign their mail ballots a chance to fix the problem before Election Day — but doesn’t offer voters with mismatched signatures the same opportunity. Walker ruled the “bizarre” double-standard was unconstitutional.