Sept. 10, 2024 - Presidential Debate

 

[VIDEO] So far there will only be two debates between these two Presidential candidates - Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Back in June, former President Donald Trump debated current President Joe Biden and it was such a disaster that people were calling for President Biden to drop out of the race which he did before the DNC Convention in Chicago. Republicans already were contending since he became President in 2021 that he was not mentally capable of being president and for many even some Democrats he showed how much he slowed down in the June debate.

His Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democrat's nominee for President. She accepted her party's nomination for President in Chicago at the convention. And she took Pres. Biden's place in the debate which was held and broadcast on ABC in early September.

Some takeaways, even though it has been a whole month.

What dominated the headlines on FOX News and perhaps more conservative outlets was that there was a Haitian migrant problem in Springfield, Ohio. There were reports of migrants eating wild animals and also preying upon people's pets. 

For Trump, immigration is an issue he has campaigned on. We all have something to say about the migrants that have been transported from the southern border to mostly "sanctuary" cities & states. However, in my head this who issue of migrants eating pets shouldn't have been brought up in this debate as even police in Springfield have dismissed the allegations that these migrants were eating pets.

Also the Vice President isn't exactly known for her policy chops. She doesn't answer questions and she hardly does press conferences and the interviews she has done weren't exactly slam dunks either. She may have outperformed Trump in this debate, however, I'm not sure if that's saying much.

We know what Trump brings to the table in these debates and I would dare say VP Harris brings things to these debates also. Harris was likely to use the woman and race card in these debates and unfortunately there are those who will respond to that.

We're closer to election day now than we were in September and its likely there will be no other debates before November. When this debate was over Harris publicly declared she was ready for another one and Trump put the brakes on any future debates.

I'm sure Trump knows he didn't perform well and Harris found out what she could do to make him respond. Regardless, how beneficial are these debates when in such a polarized nation performance by either side isn't going to move the needle significantly in either direction?

Kamala Harris #DNCChicago acceptance speech

 

[VIDEO] Well the 2024 Democrat Nat'l Convention in Chicago is a wrap and Vice President Kamala Harris made her acceptance speech on Thursday night.

It wasn't a bad speech, there were two things I could hit her on which is the border especially. She was the border tsar and she was famously interviewed by NBC News anchor Lester Holt as far as whether or not she went to the border. When she's caught off guard or forced to answer a question she doesn't want to answer she's so awkward.

Either way it wasn't a bad speech. Having seen enough of this convention we see what the Democrats represents. There were some vignettes from those four nights which well it was just strange.

The themes are women's rights, love who you want to love, reproductive rights (and not so much abortion, they talked a lot about in-vitro fertilization), of course they hit on racial issues. Oprah Winfrey on the final night of the convention talked about integrating schools and mentioned one brave child - who passed away as a grandmother recently - who had to endure the possibility of a sniper.

I mean who'd have thought in order to integrate a public school in the south someone would be willing to shoot a child. It just shows how far we've come as a nation though we still have some work to do it seems.

Anyway, I'm a long way from prognosticating the 2024 Presidential Race. The Vice President isn't a great candidate and we could argue Democratic delegates...no Democratic voters didn't really get a chance to vote for her. Most of them voted for the incumbent President who dropped out of the race just last month.

And I look forward to whatever debates the Vice President will have with the 45th President. Certainly it would be great to see her running mate MN Gov. Tim Walz debate OH U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance debate each other as well.

Gov. Tim Walz acceptance speech at #DNCChicago

 

[VIDEO] The Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz speech last night at the Democrat Nat'l Convention in Chicago. He accepts his party's nomination for Vice President and running mate to the presumptive Democrat nominee and sitting Vice President Kamala Harris.

Tonight Kamala Harris will accept the Democrat nomination for President of the United States.

VP Kamala Harris has chosen her running mate.

 Allow me to share her tweet from about an hour ago. She chooses Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate against former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).

I am proud to announce that I've asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate.

As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his.

It's great to have him on the team.

Now let’s get to work. Join us:https://t.co/W4AE2WlMTj

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024

Allow me to share a livestream going on as I share this post from Mr. Beat who did the same thing when Trump announced Sen. Vance as his running mate last month. [VIDEO]

Gov. Walz is from a blue state and certainly might share some of the same ideals as Harris (that is if she has an real ideas or ideology or core values). More than likely she'll win Minnesota so I'm not sure what real benefit Walz pick would be.

In general people will still vote for who they want as President more so than who they want as Vice President. And just as we have to get to know Sen. Vance (whom Democrats have started calling "weird"), we'll have to get to know Gov. Walz.

I may point out that the unrest and anxiety of 2020 is in the rearview mirror I wonder if in any future Vice Presidential debates that questions might be asked about his response to the riots in Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd's death while being arrested by police. We shall see...

PBS: Former Pres. Trump's full GOP nomination acceptance speech

 

[VIDEO] The Republican Nat'l Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrapped with Trump's Thursday nite speech accepting his party's nomination for the presidency.

Having watched this speech he mentioned the assassination attempt in Butler Township, Pennsylvania in addition to his many accomplishments as President including securing the border. He made hardly any mention of the incumbent President other than some of his opponents failures in office.

This is a pretty long acceptance speech which was about an hour and one-half. Any thoughts on Trump's Thursday nite speech?

Last #ILGovDebate from Tuesday

 

[VIDEO] Darren Bailey the Republican challenger to Incumbent Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker sparred in a very heated debate for the last time on October 18, 2022. It aired live on WGN and a lot of overtalking with the Governor and Bailey literally bickering over the interruptions at one point.

I'm sorry to be late with this, however, I will share from Wednesday the Capitol Fax roundup of coverage with regards to this debate.

If you missed last night's #ILGovDebate

 

[VIDEO] Watch it here! It aired on WGN in the Chicago area on Thursday night. The next debate will be in Chicago in WGN's studios on October 18th, 2022. I very much hope that it is much different than last night's debate between Gov. Pritzker and Darren Bailey. A lot of over talking and distractions and side comments. Although there were a few good moments and good answers on both sides.

I got to share this interesting react via CapFax from a member of Darren Bailey's staff. Nice touch I thought, however, could it translate to voters?

I will also add this round-up also via CapFax regarding last night's debate.

Capitol Fax: Don’t buy into the silly “Pritzker may not seek reelection” clickbait

What I do buy is that J.B. Pritzker's term as Governor has been a very challenging one. He's had some effective accomplishments and of course there has been this pandemic which the state will begin fully re-opening next week.

What many observers have noticed this week as he does interviews is that he's been "coy" about his plans for re-election. He won't say for sure unless for example he's spoken to his family about another term. And that seems to be an operative phrase for a number of politicians - making it seem like they're thinking about their families.

So some in the media are turning this into a he's not running again. Who knows? What's noted that Gov. Pritzker has set $35 million of his money into his campaign back in March. Pritzker is a very wealthy man and perhaps this amount of money shows he's running for re-election. However as far as I'm concerned we won't know until perhaps this fall.

And that's about normal anyway. Although in the latest legislative session in 2022 the primary election will be pushed back to June 28, 2022 among other reforms to this state's elections. The reasoning for this is due to delays as far as drawing a new congressional map.

This is where I send you to the CapFax blog.

Don’t buy into the silly “Pritzker may not seek reelection” clickbait https://t.co/1njzrRxTtV

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) June 4, 2021

I think that barring an official announcement, there isn't much to be speculated. And it's amazing to look at the toll of public life on Pritzker's family I suppose what you see discussed here is unfortunately part of the game. 

It's not just being in a fishbowl unfortunately it comes with other things both good and bad. Regardless I'm sure we'll soon know what his future plans will be for 2022.

How would Mr. Beat vote in every presidential election

 

[VIDEO] This video is scheduled to go live at 7:30 PM. Of course he's stating he would vote all the way through the 2000 presidential election. 2000 was the first time he voted, but I'd be curious what his vote would be even as the issues and the nation begins to change throughout our history. Perhaps you would be also.

Mr. Beat livestream on the 2020 presidential race

[VIDEO] Mr. Beat is going to further discuss his 2020 election video in a livestream which is going on as I type this as of 4:20 PM - and yes I will timestamp this post at 2:30 PM. He talks about things he leaves out in his video from Friday morning such as further discussion of voter fraud which is where I got keyed in when I clicked on this stream.

Mr. Beat on the 2020 Presidential election

 

[VIDEO] I feel as if Mr. Beat left out some issues from the 2020 race, although he only referenced them. Remember not too long before Election Day he and another YouTuber predicted a Biden presidency considering the issues occuring last year with the pandemic and the economy.

He dismissed the issues of voter fraud. It's true that many federal judges appointed by Donald Trump wouldn't touch the election fraud issues. It's true that his own administration found no evidence of voter fraud especially as announced by President Trump's Attorney General Bill Baar. That doesn't mean something weird wasn't going on during the voting count on election day in some places around the country especially the disputed states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia or even Arizona for example.

Also I think it's true that there wasn't great enthusiasm for Joe Biden who has been President since January 20, 2021. I even had someone pull me aside and said while they just believed we needed to get Trump out of the Presidency, some of what Biden has proposed policy wise just doesn't make much sense.

Is there an echo chamber on social media? I think that's true, even I gravitate towards certain partisan sources which I trust and believe is more fair. There are ways for me to hear the other side and what they think, however, an echo chamber is a problem especially on social media. If you live in your own bubble I think it could have some awful results. And were seeing this with the extreme divisions in America right now.

Mr. Beat did mention the coronavirus and the racial issues that went on last year even referring to the murder of George Floyd. In my mind I put those two events together the economic issues with this global pandemic and the violence that happened after George Floyd's death as he was arrested by police officers showed how unsettled this nation was. And with a quick reference to the January 6, 2021 insurrection it further underscores how unsettled this nation remained almost a year after Trump declared a national emergency due to the pandemic.

2020 is one odd year and one I hope we can recover from. Though 2021 and a new administration coming in doesn't seem that promising.

How did 2021 start?

 First and foremost happy new year.

2021 has definitely started off with a bang, and unfortunate we didn't go a whole week into the year until a major incident took place. And we're still going through the fallout. Let me be clear I don't care about the politics of anyone involved in the property damage and the breach of our US Capitol in Washington, DC. All involved must be prosecuted.

Regardless the fallout so far includes the impeachment of the outgoing President - incidentally the Capitol was breached just as the US Congress met to certify the electoral votes for the 2020 race. I don't think this will help unify America it may further divide and certainly conflict with the incoming president's calls for greater unity after a very tumultuous year.

Anyone who went to a rally before the breach of the Capitol are suffering their own consequence which is why I'm sharing this article with you. A teacher in Wisconsin had been suspended because allegedly he shared a video with regards to the 2020 race. The video disputed the 2020 election as President Trump had up until the events of January 6, 2021. What you will see in that article is that the claims of the outgoing President Trump are largely considered baseless or debunked and is considered controversial politics and also note he allegedly attending this rally in D.C. on the 6th. He had a passion about election integrity.

As stated we're going to see a lot of fallout for a while as Trump gets impeached again although he will be leaving office on January 20th. I want everyone to remember America has a history of free speech and expression. And the fallout of this will also challenge the rights to free speech and expression. There are plenty who believe this election was "stolen" or otherwise there were some irregularities that tilted the election in a certain direction.

President Trump and his team had attempted to lawfully challenge the election results so far no court has been willing to hear the challenges. The S.C.O.T.U.S. even has a hearing with regards to the results in Pennsylvania scheduled for after the January 20th inauguration. Either way most of us have heard what was said by Trump as far as his election loss, and we know the media's response to it. It's too bad that a well stated sentiment became a basis for more division when we should get at the truth.

Either way I try to maintain my optimism and hopefully a divided America will heal and unify. I'm not happy about the last two months to be honest, however, after seeing the issues with this pandemic I can't wait to see a nation finally settling down.

Mr. Beat on the 2016 Presidential Election

 

[VIDEO] I guess we're binge watching Mr. Beat videos. I'm doing this because next week we're having a Presidential Election. We're in unprecedented times so the public is encouraged to vote early whether by mail, absentee, or even vote early. Many still like myself plans to vote on Election Day.

So to see where we are right now in 2020 politically we should revisit the 2016 election. Although 62,980,160 popular votes were cast for Donald Trump and Mike Pence they won the election with 304 electoral votes due to the quirky nature of the electoral college. The runner ups was Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine with 65,845,063 popular votes cast and the main thing is that they had only 227 electoral votes. In the electoral college you need 270 votes to win outright. The number of popular votes you win matters less if you don't have enough electoral votes.

2016 was one of those odd elections accordingly. President Trump is the first President to have had very little political experience before his election. Indeed he had never ever held elective office before he took the oath of office in January 2017.

On the other hand former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was touted as well qualified - not only was she the former first lady of the United States she was also a US Senator from New York - she was also the first woman to secure a major party nomination for President. As it turned out this was an historic election of sorts regardless.

I'll let Mr. Beat give you the rundown of 2016. I wonder how he might recap the 2020 elections once the tally is finally counted.

Mr. Beat: Why the Electoral College is terrible?

 

[VIDEO] To set up for tomorrow's post which I will make live at 9:00 AM Tuesday, I will today share Mr. Beat's video from almost two years ago about his criticisms of the Electoral College. 

While voters right now are voting early or by mail to cast their ballots or waiting until Election Day to make their choices for President of the United States know one thing. When we cast our ballot for President Donald Trump & his running mate Vice President Mike Pence or for former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate US Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif) and of course whatever other third party candidates that are on the ballot, we're actually voting for a slate of electors. That's true in other states also.

Usually when we vote for a Republican, Democrat or a third party the parties themselves will have a slate of electors who will actually cast their vote for President & Vice President. By convention and not law they will vote for their party's candidates. This doesn't always happen as the US Supreme Court had to settle the issue of "faithless electors" who choose not to vote for their pledged candidates for President & Vice President.

Either way people have been complaining about this system for years enshrined in our US Constitution. Illinois has current 20 votes - and since we're in a census year that can change. Those 20 electoral votes are a combination of our 18 congressional seats - and if this state loses enough population  we might go down one congressional district - and our two US Senate seats. That's true for every state and the District of Columbia although they're represented in Congress by a single non-voting delegate in the US House of Representatives, however, they have three electoral votes as if they're represented by two US Senators.

Either way the argument you might have heard is that in support of the Electoral College is that if we went to full popular vote only certain regions or states will determine the next President of the United States. So they might frequently cite New York, Massachusetts or California where most likely candidates will have to campaign hardest in to win the election. Meanwhile they may ignore the rest of the country including god-forbid Illinois.

Another argument about the electoral college is from what happened in 2016 which I will also share with you from Mr. Beat. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence won the election over former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Senate Tim Kaine in the electoral college, however, Trump/Pence lost the popular vote to Clinton/Kaine. 2016 wasn't the first time this happened, you might remember something like this happened in 2000 with Bush vs. Gore and there was a whole Supreme Court case about that. Bush won in the electoral college ultimately, however, he lost the popular vote.

Which brings up another state, we have essentially 50 states & Washington, D.C. maintaining separate elections. So if you're concerned about some states getting ignored consider how President Trump won, he knew which states he could win vs those he probably couldn't. It surprised observers when he won Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Those are shockers because they normally vote blue in Presidential elections and are referred to as part of the blue wall.

I also want you to note this isn't the first time I shared a video about the electoral college here.

Regardless, let's hear it from you. Is it time the United States of America ditch the electoral college? Do you think it remains relevant in presidential elections?

The Cook County State's Attorney Race

The above flyer I saw taped on a bus shelter on 95th Street Sunday. This is the first time I've seen such an accusation although if the State's Attorney is unpopular amongst some parts of the electorate it's due to her offices handling of the Jussie Smollett affair - Smollett formerly starred in the popular TV series Empire had allegedly engaged in a hoax claiming racists wearing a Make America Great Again ballcap had assaulted him.

Regardless Foxx easily won the Democrat primary in March even if it was affected by the coronavirus. And she does have a Republican opponent and I mentioned that in passing on Twitter as Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara noted the Republican opponent during his appearance on FOX News Channel.

#IngrahamAngle I hate to say it John Catanzara, but I doubt most of Chicago or Cook County knows who Kim Foxx's Republican opponent is. Who is he? Where is he?

— The Sixth Ward (@TheSixthWard) July 22, 2020

I found this article from March 2020 discussing the Republican opponent Pat O'Brien a former judge who was elected as such as a Democrat in 2006

After cruising through the GOP primary Tuesday, O’Brien outlined his plans to beat incumbent Democrat Kim Foxx in a live-streamed news conference, thanking his family, friends and “everyone who voted against Kim Foxx.”

“We really have to clean up the mess that she’s made,” O’Brien said, not even a minute into his remarks. “I think we have to restore justice to the community. We have to make it safer for people in all of the kinds of activities that they do, and we have to remember that the state’s attorney’s duty is to protect the victims of crime.”
...
O’Brien said he’s taken a hard look at the state’s attorneys office, and while he sees Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case as “a violation of oath and a lack of integrity” he said the office is “under producing in other areas.”

The former judge said that under Foxx’s administration, fewer than 200 jury trials have been held in 15 felony courtrooms, which works out to less than four trials per courtroom each year. He said that from the 1980s until the first decade of this century that number was much higher. He also said Foxx has “lost more trials and gun cases than she’s won in each of the three years” and called for quicker trials.

This article noted that it's been almost 25 since a Republican had been elected Cook County State's Attorney. I vaguely remember him, he was a man named Jack O'Malley. Perhaps some of you remember those "Back Jack" political ads from back in the day.

Either way, 2020 has proven to be an odd year in a variety of ways. We got this pandemic and this unrest over racial injustice. I thought Trump could be re-elected President and right now he's limping because of those two ongoing crises. Perhaps a Republican could win the State's Attorneys office this year.

However, Cook County seemed to have trended more and more Democrat over the years and since O'Brien seems to have hardly campaigned since his primary I don't see a change in Cook County. Then again who knows time will tell..

CNBC: Why The Electoral College Exists

[VIDEO] The electoral college is in the U.S. Constitution. Each state has x amount of electoral votes based on the number of representatives to the US House of Representatives and the two senators to the US Senate. Illinois currently has 20 electoral votes and every 10 years per the US Census (it's that time now in 2020) the number of seats in the House of Representatives could change.

Due to population changes in Illinois it's possible our electoral vote count will go down to 19 or more. It's often in the news that the population of this state is declining and especially downstate is losing population. If people are moving to Chicagoland it may not offset the number of people who are leaving Illinois.

It must be noted that the electoral college is a controversial subject. In the 2016 election, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. He won the majority of electoral votes, however, his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Granted while President Trump is a public figure where there's hardly any in between as far as like or dislike this had been one controversy surrounding him.

The quirk of electing a President on Election Day in November is that while we make our choices for that office we're really electing a slate of electors. These electors are in state capitols throughout the nation to formally cast their votes for President. In most states and definitely Illinois if you win that state's popular votes you will win that state's electoral votes. Some states decides electoral votes according to a congressional district. Occasionally we do have what we call faithless electors who decide that they don't want to vote for their pledged presidential candidate.

Here's the funny thing about the electoral college, electors can actually vote for who they want to vote for. It's their job to elect the President, never mind the convention of pledging your vote as part of a slate to a particular candidate according to the wishes of the voters.

Needless to say the debate regarding the electoral college has led to calls for its abolition.

It's time for the Iowa caucuses...

[VIDEO] I've been wanting to mark this year a presidential election year and let's start with Mr. Beat who covers the Iowa Caucuses one of the first major campaigns in the presidential election. The caucuses takes place today on Monday and the stakes are primarily among the many Democrats running for the presidential nomination - to be able to run against Republican President Donald Trump.

I suppose the questions that are being asked in this video is how effective are the Presidential Iowa caucuses in predicting who will win not only the nomination of their party to run for President? How effective are these caucuses in predicting who will be elected President? And how do foreigners such as a Canadian interviewed here view the idea of citizens helping to determine a party's nominee for President?

View our 2019 elections page #Ward09

Now one of the tabs for this blog. No one from the last election is on the ballot this year in Ward 09, however, we shall see if incumbent Alderman Anthony Beale will once again be re-elected to his office. He's been an Alderman since 1999.

I've been mostly paying attention to The Daily Line's 2019 Alderman election spread sheet. I see that Marcia Brown-Williams has been removed from the ballot due to petition objections. Her name will be stricken from the 2019 page.

Otherwise I will keep an eye out for other updates as I find them.

I will note our still public 2015 election page which was updated months after the election with vote totals for the candidates who were running at that time.

Woman defends herself at a bus stop in Fernwood #ChiMayor19

[VIDEO] Tuesday morning a woman was waiting for a bus near 103rd & Wallace and was forced to use her own conceal carry gun on a teenaged attacker. His attempt to claim a victim whatever his motives cost him his life. I don't like to read about the death of a teen, however, I'm glad that a woman had the wherewithal to not allow herself to be victimized.

You think someone like an Ed Burke - longtime Alderman of the 14th ward who was recently charged by federal authorities with extortion - cares whether or not you use a gun to protect yourself. Well it doesn't matter when federal authorities raided his offices they found 23 guns. Also bear in mind he usually had a police protection detail with him as well which he was stripped of once he resigned his powerful position as chair of the city council committee on finance.

Finally this is one of the more important issues in this year's mayoral campaign what you would've read on today's CapFax blog. An important issue for many Chicagoans, public safety.

Poll: Crime, public safety top list of Chicago voters’ concerns https://t.co/TZhOtsWNui

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) January 9, 2019

Not to say everyone owning a gun will protect each and every citizen, however, citizens are concerned. Why not empower citizens to defend themselves in the absence of police.

Capitol Fax: Let’s be careful out there #twill

Actually I wrote about this today at The Sixth Ward. You might have seen this on the news Sunday. I share this post from Capitol Fax regarding this shooting in the 15th Ward. A man doing some campaign canvassing got shot by some thugs who didn't recognize him. Rich Miller writes about this on his blog today.

Let’s be careful out there https://t.co/SN7O0nT9Pz

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) December 11, 2018

So let's all be careful out there. Campaigning or not and let's keep politics out of it. Politics already gets a bad rap especially out of Chicago no need to inject thuggish foolishness such as bullets into this.

BTW, want to see the story from ABC 7? [VIDEO]