The Election Is Almost Over (but Not Really); How a ‘Culture of Retribution’ Has Swept America–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Nov. 4, 2024

Indy Digest: Nov. 4, 2024

Well, my friends: Tomorrow evening, Election 2024 will be all over but the countin’. And the legal challenges. And, hopefully, not as much chicanery as I fear there’ll be.

One thing is almost certain: We won’t know for sure who the next president is going to be tomorrow night. Same goes for all the close local races. Our partners at Calmatters explain why:

There are only two more days to vote in California, and more than 7.6 million Californians have cast their ballots. But the counting will last for days, if not weeks, before news outlets declare all the winners or candidates concede.

The delays and uncertainty—which have grown since California started sending mail ballots to all voters—can sow doubts or even conspiracy theories. So state and local election officials are trying to reassure voters that their ballots are safe against cyber and other attacks and will be counted.

To bring more transparency and build public trust in the count, the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation is launching a new project that, in seven swing congressional districts, will track how many ballots have been counted, how many ballots remain to be tallied and the margin between the two candidates. The updates will start Tuesday and end Dec. 5. …

A reminder: While there (have been) some mishaps, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in California that would change the election results.

One of those seven swing congressional districts, by the way, is District 41, with Ken Calvert vs. Will Rollins.

All the waiting and all the nuttiness surrounding the election may be causing you some stress. However, there are things you can do to combat that stress, as explained by a clinical psychologist, writing for The Conversation. Here’s a snippet from one of the three suggestions she offers:

Be present. Anxiety can draw you into an uncomfortable spiral of “what-ifs” about the future. When you make a point to be present, you remind yourself what is actually happening right now, rather than letting hypothetical fears take over.

Although you may have serious concerns about the fate of the nation, those outcomes have not yet come to bear. As I tell my patients, “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. For now, focus on the step right in front of you.”

If you notice yourself getting carried away by thoughts of the future, you can pull yourself back to the present by bringing awareness to simple sensations – the feel of your feet on the floor, the rhythm of your breath, or the sounds around you – and remind yourself that you are safe in the current moment.

Whatever happens, the Independent will be here as the dust settles to help you make sense of it all.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Some of the aforementioned election chicanery is already starting to happen in California. In a story from Friday, our partners at Calmatters report: “On Wednesday, as the workers of the Shasta County Registrar of Voters office busily sifted through the ballots that have already been cast, they had company. A group of nine people, holding clipboards and taking notes, stood in a hallway peering through wired glass as workers took ballots out of envelopes. Across the hallway another group of observers hovered over computer screens, watching a live video feed of workers in a room verifying signatures. These self-appointed election observers spent their day looking for proof of tomfoolery. One woman wasn’t satisfied with watching the election administration through the buttressed window. She wanted to be in the room while they sifted through ballots. … The assistant clerk put up a rope to stop the observers from following workers into their breakroom to ask questions. They’ve also had to put locks on the offices, after observers tried to open doors and see what was happening inside each office. This comes as election officials across the nation received death threats following the 2020 and 2022 elections, fomented by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen. Workers in Shasta are quitting. Tanner Johnson signed up to be an account clerk because he wanted to help protect democracy. ‘I felt called to do this job,’ he said. But, after a little more than a year in the registrar’s office, he quit on Wednesday.”

• In a related story, headlined “Election Deniers Are Out in Full Force. We Went Where They Did,” Wired reports: “These election deniers have spent years building and buying an alternative reality sold by far-right groups that have been working around the clock to activate and train them. The groups are well connected: The Election Integrity Network is run by former Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell, and True the Vote, a Texas-based group, was cofounded by election denial superstar Catherine Engelbrecht, who has worked on dropbox monitoring and voter roll purge initiatives around the country for more than a decade. Election observers have also been trained in online calls by pro-Trump groups like Turning Point USA and the campaign’s own TrumpForce47. Over livestreams and in conferences around the US, these groups have prepared thousands of activists for this very moment.”

• Also related is this Los Angeles Times piece headlined “Trump’s culture of retribution has swept through American life.” It says: “Trump’s increasingly dark vision of America as evidenced by his recent hate-inflected rally at Madison Square Garden is less of unity and promise than of suspicion and grievance directed at those who cross him and his white, working-class base. He has so normalized outrageousness with coarse language and cutting asides that his pronouncements and well-documented lies—which years ago would have doomed a candidate—have lost their capacity to shock even some of the conservative Christians who back him. ‘He’s speaking to anger and fear and giving voice to it,’ said William Howell, a politics professor at the University of Chicago and co-author of Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy. ‘He didn’t invent divisive rhetoric. We have a long history with that. But he’s taken it to new heights. He stands apart from any American president in history for what he’s doing to the country. He’s a destructive, corrosive force.’ A recent study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats suggests how Trump has incited extremes and increased the potential for political violence: Six percent of Americans—the equivalent of 15 million adults—believe force is justified to return Trump to the White House. Eight percent—about 21 million adults—agree that force could be used to prevent Trump from returning as president.“

• Sorta related is this piece out of Ohio, from The Associated Press: “An Ohio sheriff’s patrol commander who declared on Facebook that he would not help Democrats and would require proof of who a person voted for before providing them aid has apologized, blaming prescribed sleep aids for causing his ‘out of character’ actions. Lt. John Rodgers, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s office in Clark County, where Springfield is the county seat, made the statements in several posts on Facebook, WHIO-TV reported. ‘I am sorry. If you support the Democrat Party I will not help you,’ Rodgers reportedly wrote in one post. Another said: ‘The problem is that I know which of you supports the Democratic Party and I will not help you survive the end of days.’ The sheriff’s office said Rodgers, who has commanded the department’s road patrol, would remain on duty, with a written reprimand for violating the department’s social media policy.”

• In other holy-shit news, here’s a CNN headline: “Russia suspected of sending incendiary devices on US- and Canada-bound planes,(the) Wall Street Journal reports.” (We’re linking to the CNN piece because of the WSJ’s strict paywall.) From the CNN piece: “Incendiary devices that ignited in Germany and the United Kingdom in July were part of a covert Russian operation that aimed to start fires aboard cargo and passenger flights heading to the U.S. and Canada, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday, citing Western security officials. In July, device explosions at DHL logistics hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, U.K., kickstarted a race to find the suspects, WSJ reported. … The devices, which were reportedly electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance, were sent to the UK from Lithuania and ‘appear to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America,’ the WSJ reported. When the WSJ asked Russia for comment about the suspected Russian plot, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations. ‘We have never heard any official accusations’ of Russian involvement, adding: ‘These are traditional unsubstantiated insinuations from the media.’” BIG yikes.

• And finally … a labor dispute in Canada could affect the availability of goods in the U.S. in the coming months. CNBC explains: “Key ports on Canada’s West Coast, including its largest container port in Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, were shut down by a labor strike on Monday. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foreman Local 514 began striking on Monday morning, stopping containers and cargo immediately. According to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, $800 million in trade flows through West Coast ports every day. Approximately 20% of U.S. trade arrives in the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, where strikes broke out after union leadership and industry representatives failed to reach a deal before a cooling-off period expired. … The United States is Canada’s largest trading partner. Containers filled with footwear, apparel, auto parts, chemicals, and lumber are just some of the top products that enter the Port of Vancouver and use Canadian rails or trucking to come into the U.S..”

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