Election Day 2018 News: “Last Exit Off the Road to Autocracy”; “Republicans have failed, abjectly. They should be voted out of office on Tuesday.”; “Democrats eye Virginia for path to power”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, Election Day 2018. No matter what the weather is today, make sure you exercise your precious right to vote. And of course, make sure you vote Democratic from the top of the ticket (Tim Kaine) “downballot” to the candidate for Congress (Vangie Williams in VA-01, Elaine Luria in VA-02, Bobby Scott in VA-03, Donald McEachin in VA-04, Leslie Cockburn in VA-05, Jennifer Lewis in VA-06, Abigail Spanberger in VA-07, Don Beyer in VA-08, Anthony Flaccavento in VA-09, Jennifer Wexton in VA-10, Gerry Connolly in VA-11) to local races like Babur Lateef for PW County School Board Chair and Matt de Ferranti for Arlington County Board. Go blue…let’s restore some checks and balances, rule of law and plain DECENCY to this country.

• The Only Responsible Choice Is a Democratic Congress (“Republicans have failed, abjectly. They should be voted out of office on Tuesday.”)
• Let Trump Be Trump? America’s About to Decide (“Voters have a simple choice: Let the president run wild, or not?”)
• Last Exit Off the Road to Autocracy (“Taxes and health care aren’t the only things on the ballot.”)
• Obama: “The character of this country is on the ballot” (This election goes wayyyyyy beyond “the issues” into the nature of our system of government, rule of law, ethical standards, social norms/how people treat each other, you name it.)
• Trump calls Fox’s Hannity onstage at campaign rally (That is absolutely f’ing disgraceful. Not surprising, but disgraceful.)
• Sean Hannity Strides On Stage At Trump Rally, Declares ‘All’ Media Fake News (“Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro also appears with Trump, adding to the image of the cable news channel as propaganda machine for the president.” This is sick, sick s***.)
• Rush Limbaugh: America Is A ‘Great Nation At Risk’ Without Donald Trump (“‘They say we’re divisive, but we’re not divisive,’ Limbaugh said. ‘We’re defending an America that has strayed from our founding.'” Completely wrong and unhinged.)
• NBC and Fox finally stop running Trump’s racist ad after it was viewed by millions
• Facebook Pulls Racist Trump Ad Following NBC, CNN, and Fox News (Not sure why Corey Stewart’s ads were allowed to air either, other than GREED on the part of the TV stations.)
• Trump Closes Out a Campaign Built on Fear, Anger and Division
• Facebook discloses possible election meddling by Russia, foreign actors on eve of midterms
• ‘Fired Up’ Voters in 25 States Have Outpaced 2014 Early Ballot Counts
• Why Barack Obama’s rallies feel so different from Donald Trump’s (“In all, the weekend could be summed up in two simple appeals to the base. Hope, Change, and Healthcare, versus Caravans, Guns, and Defiance.”)
• Defiant Donald Trump warns of ‘caravans and crime’ in last minute push for midterm votes (Trump is completely unhinged, as are the people who cheer him on.)
• Why Trump Doesn’t Care About House Republicans (“The president’s incessant caravan bashing is hurting the GOP’s chances of keeping the House. That’s fine by him.”)
• Battle for the Senate: Polls favor Democrats in key battleground races as control of Congress looms
• Advertisers that sponsor Trump-Hannity propaganda rally will face an immediate backlash
• Conservative media baselessly tie Stacey Abrams to the fringe New Black Panther Party
• Trump’s GOP Braces for Midwest Massacre (“A razor-thin margin in the Rust Belt gave the president his victory in 2016. But Democrats are rebuilding their vaunted ‘Blue Wall’ in 2018.”)
• ‘It’s depressing as hell’: Dem win would spell misery for Trump White House aides
• Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba’ (Steve King isn’t just a white supremacist and all-around scumbag, he’s also a raging homophobe. Who the hell votes for people like this???)
• Rep. Steve King Blasts GOP House Fund For Supporting Gay Candidate (Ditto.)
• Two Vastly Different Election Outcomes That Hinge on a Few Dozen Close Contests (“Even modest late shifts among undecided voters or a slightly unexpected turnout could significantly affect results.”)
• The Dark Certainty of the 2018 Midterms (“Two years after Trump’s victory, we already know that this election won’t heal the country’s bitter divide.”)
• I’m Very Worried About Don Jr.”: Forget the Midterms—West Wing Insiders Brace for the Mueller Storm
• Final 2018 Polls Suggest Late Movement Toward Democrats
• Confused Trump Fans Chanting ‘4 More Years’ Forget It’s Only 2018 (You don’t get “more stupider” than this.)
• Sean Hannity said he wouldn’t campaign on stage at Trump’s rally. Hours later, he did exactly that (Lies, lies and more lies from Fox, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc, etc.)
• Oprah fires back at racist robocall: ‘Jesus don’t like ugly’
• Something’s Happening in Texas (“The Republican Party’s future dominance of the Lone Star State, and the nation itself, relies on rigging democracy to its advantage. It won’t work forever.”)
• The 2018 election results won’t tell us what America thinks about Trump (“Elections tell us who wins power, not what the public believes.”)
• Trump’s final pre-election speeches featured vicious attacks on Kavanaugh accusers
• Kansas Has the Chance to Reject an Entire Toxic Governing Philosophy (“It was the lab rat for modern conservative governance. Now voters will decide whether they’ve had enough.”)
• Facebook Blocks More Than 100 Accounts, Citing Possible Foreign Influence
• Final Election Update: Democrats Aren’t Certain To Take The House, But They’re Pretty Clear Favorites
• Stacey Abrams vs. Brian Kemp: What to watch for in the Georgia governor race
• The polling miss that defines 2018 might not be the one from 2016. It may be the one from 2017. (Yep, the polls – particularly Northam’s “internals” – were way off in 2017.)
• Sen. Mark Warner on breaking up Facebook and Congress’ plan to regulate tech (“Every time we interact with Facebook… we make them more powerful”)
• Kaine looks to keep Democratic streak alive in Virginia
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Looks Forward to “Demise of the Last of the MN Confederates”
• Democrats eye Virginia for path to power (“Virginia has 11 House seats. Seven are currently held by Republicans and four by Democrats.” That BADLY needs to change.)
• Video: President Obama Makes Surprise, Day-Before-Election Appearance for Tim Kaine, Jennifer Wexton (And comes bearing doughnuts)
• Obama makes a surprise appearance in Virginia to boost Wexton and Kaine
• Video: Election Eve Rally in Henrico with Sen. Tim Kaine, Abigail Spanberger, Gov. Ralph Northam, Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Donald McEachin, LG Justin Fairfax
• Kaine, Warner and Northam make election eve pitch for Spanberger in Henrico
• Spanberger, Virginia Democratic Women Could Make a Lot of History
• Senator Mark Warner visits Lynchburg before midterm election (“Warner also made stops to Henrico, Roanoke, Richmond”)
• Corey Stewart is running for Senate with a mission: be Trump’s “number-one partner”
• Cockburn campaign holds U.Va. Get Out the Vote rally featuring Olivia Wilde (“Wilde spoke on the importance of voting in midterm elections Tuesday”)
• Dave Brat could become the first Republican to lose this Virginia district in 50 years (“If that happens, it will be in large part because of voters seeking a sharp break from ‘what politics has become today.'”)
• Amazon plans to split HQ2 in two locations: Crystal City in Northern Va. and NYC
• Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Evenly Between Two Cities (“Surprise decision is driven by the need to recruit enough tech talent and to support Amazon’s growth”)
• Your Election Day survival guide: Who’s running and what you need to vote
• Editorial: Done your research? Now go vote
• Virginia Absentee Ballots as of 11/5 at 374k, Up Sharply from 2017 Numbers; VA-08 and VA-10 Lead the Pack
• Virginia Politics Episode 26: The life of a freshman legislator (Part II: Emily Brewer)
• CASEY: Will efforts to launch a Virginia uranium mine never die? (“The folks seeking a uranium mine in Pittsylvania County lost in the Virginia General Assembly, lost in federal court, and lost before a federal appeals court. But the issue’s still alive. Monday, they argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. And this time they have the White House on their side.”)
• Supreme Court questions how to discern Virginia’s intent in uranium mining ban
• Supreme Court mulls Virginia ban on mining biggest U.S. uranium deposit
• SCC reluctantly approves Dominion’s offshore wind energy pilot project
• Election Day showers, storms clear by early evening; sun returns tomorrow