Theprogressivist

New rules in Georgia governing how local officials finalize vote totals have some election watchdogs worried that loyalists of former President Donald Trump could trigger a crisis if he loses the state in November, by abusing their authority to delay or avoid certifying results.

Election experts say they’re confident that the system’s checks and balances will quash those efforts and that each state has the legal authority to force members of county election boards to fulfill their duty to certify results. But they and state election officials are still concerned that the attempts could push the process close to strict deadlines and stoke doubts about the integrity of the election.

Is Donald Trump really trying to get out of debating Kamala Harris again? Or is it the opposite?

On Thursday, it seemed like the dust had finally settled. “The debate about debates is over,” said Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign communications director, in a statement. “Donald Trump’s campaign accepted our proposal for three debates—two presidential and a vice presidential debate.”

“Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” the Harris campaign continued.

But now, Trump’s team claims that the Democrat lied when she said the two sides reached a debate agreement. At the moment, there is only one confirmed debate between the presidential nominees, to be held September 10 by ABC News.

Nevertheless, the Trump campaign’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Caller Friday that Trump will be doing three debates and Vance will be doing two.

Online influence campaigns tied to Russia are expected to promote Western politicians' opposition to ongoing support for Ukraine ahead of an upcoming election in the United States, according to a report published by Meta on Thursday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, Moscow has bombarded global social media networks with covert efforts to undermine the West's support for Kyiv. It has also elevated speeches from national lawmakers from France to Canada who argue the tens of billions of dollars provided to Ukraine would have been better spent at home.

Ahead of the November presidential election in the U.S., where Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance and other leading Republican lawmakers have openly challenged Washington's financial support for Ukraine, Meta said that Russia-based influence operations would likely piggyback onto these domestic messages for their own political gain.

@jordanlund@lemmy.world post can be found here: Willow before the first vet trip

Former President Donald Trump is losing older voters to Vice President Kamala Harris, a new poll shows.

A survey released by Emerson College on Thursday revealed that the majority of voters over 70 are supporting Harris, 51 percent, over Trump at 48 percent.

Those results show a major breakthrough for Harris, who has been able to surpass Trump's lead with older voters. Just last month, with President Joe Biden still in the race, 50 percent of voters over 70 supported Trump, while 48 percent of the age group backed Biden.

The over 70 category includes both baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, as well as the silent generation, anyone born between 1925 and 1945.

Don't get complacent! Vote!

Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and co-authored by more than 100 former Trump administration staffers, has been denounced for several of its tax proposals, including slashing the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax to benefit wealthy Americans—but a research group on Wednesday warned that one economic policy that hasn't gotten much attention could "greatly increase" financial hardships for millions of working families.

EPI Action, a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization affiliated with the Economic Policy Institute, published an analysis of a proposal that appears on page 7 of Project 2025's section on the Treasury Department—whose authors include at least two people who served on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign and transition team for his term in office.

The proposal calls to tax employers on workplace benefits that exceed $12,000 per worker annually—which would undoubtedly "lead to employers cutting back on these benefits," wrote Josh Bivens, chief economist for EPI Action.

Based on health insurance benefits that are provided to more than 150 million Americans through their employers, Bivens found, more than 15 million workers would see their benefits taxed under the Project 2025 plan.

Those workers would collectively pay over $12 billion more in taxes if their employers shifted away from providing benefits as a cost-cutting measure.

@setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world original post may be found here: Hell is Where the Heart is

@WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world original post may be found here Sunset through the pier.

The Democratic Party began the formal vote to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Thursday, kicking off a virtual roll call that will cement her status as the party's standard-bearer heading into November.

The Democratic National Committee opened the vote to the delegates who will decide the party's nominee at 9 a.m. Delegates are emailed a personalized and watermarked form, and they can either send the form back or have the DNC call them to cast their vote. Ballots are being sent on a rolling basis, and the process is expected to take several days, with the voting window closing at 6 p.m. on Aug. 5.

The DNC said it will share the full results of the roll call after it is completed, but it's unclear whether they will make an announcement when Harris passes the threshold needed to secure a majority of 1,976 delegates.

Donald Trump addressed a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists Wednesday where he was asked to explain his earlier words about “Black jobs.” His answer didn’t clear anything up.

Trump was initially asked by Fox News’s Harris Faulkner, who sat on the panel along with Rachel Scott of ABC News and Kadia Goba of Semafor, what his message was at the event. He began by talking about the so-called crisis at the U.S. southern border.

“A lot of the journalists in this room I know and I have great respect for, a lot of the journalists in this room are Black,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the audience. “I will tell you that coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking Black jobs.”

“What exactly is a Black job, sir?” Scott asked him.

“A Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is. Anybody that has a job,” Trump said to more laughter from the audience. “They’re taking the employment away from Black people.”

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