Tim Onion, CEO at "The Onion," tweeted "the October surprise is an advent calendar of racism." Pretty well sums up the final few days of the month, no?

To close out the month we had the breathtaking parade of white nationalism and "bro-tastic" (not my term; that came from hyper-partisan Megyn Kelly) speeches from Madison Square Garden. The response from Puerto Rican voices was loud, swift and severe.

Then, a day later, enter Ryan Girdusky on the set of CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip." the off-the-cuff, surely "in the chamber" swipe he made at Mehdi Hasan was grotesque. Inferring Hasan - I suppose because he's Arab - could be part of Hezbollah or Hamas, was "on brand" racist.

Within the "big tent" on the left are a lot of dissatisfied pro-Palestinian voices - chief among them, Senator Bernie Sanders. Earlier this week he took to social media to air his grievances with Biden/Harris on that crucial issue, but also to reason with others like him who somehow think "sitting it out" this election cycle is somehow going to send the right message.

There was a LOT of "quiet part out loud" fodder served up at Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally yesterday - a not-so-subtle homage to the 1939 Nazi rally at the venue's predecessor in New York City. Many are honing in on the racist swipes made by a previously little-known comedian - so awful even the Trump campaign seeks to distance itself from them (did they review when loading his notes on the teleprompter?). I began with Tucker Carlson, though, what with his mocking Kamala Harris' being multi-ethnic and his gratitude for Trump sparking a MAGA movement that gives him the freedom to SAY "the quiet part out loud" now - making him feel like s a freed slave. I'm not making that part up. Hear it for yourself.

Reminded me a lot of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder getting fired in 1988 for racist statements made in a TV interview ... or Rush Limbaugh losing his ESPN gig in 2003. They've come a long way, baby.

Also, much has been made of the Washington Post and L.A. Times declining to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump - and they do deserve all the smoke. Incidentally, cancelling your WaPo subscription isn't what'll hurt Jeff Bezos. What about your Amazon shopping habit? Your Prime subscription? Follow through if you truly intend to, people.

That said, what about at the state and local level? What are editorial boards doing there? In South Carolina, The State (Columbia, SC) chose to reward a Congressional candidate with their endorsement despite his failing to respond to their questionnaire in the 7th district race vs. the Democratic opponent - who did fill out the questionnaire - mostly (it seems) based on how they believe the race will play out on Election Day.

Here's what they wrote:

"In northeastern District 7, The State Editorial Board endorses incumbent Republican Rep. Russell Fry over Democrat Mal Hyman. This was the endorsement we spent the most time discussing. Fry, elected in 2022 after easily defeating five-term incumbent Rep. Tom Rice in the GOP primary, was one of only two congressional candidates to not reply to our questionnaire. Hyman seemed thoughtful, but he didn’t offer much in the way of specific solutions in his Q&A, and he also was hard to reach for what should have been an easy follow-up question seeking to fact-check a couple of his figures. Given that Hyman has already fallen well short in two other races for this seat since 2018, a third time does not feel like a charm. We reluctantly endorse Fry, and hope that he doesn’t show such disinterest in the press or the public in a second term."

That's prognosticating; not endorsing. It's weak and their quibbling over a follow-up (given prior to publication, no less) doesn't hold up.

HERE are the submitted answers to the questionnaire given by the Mal Hyman for Congress campaign.

Bear in mind, at the bottom of The State's endorsements, behind a paywall but you can read HERE, they wrote:

"How we do our endorsements

Members of McClatchy’s South Carolina Editorial Board conducted interviews and research of candidates and made endorsements in many local, county, state and federal elections on the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot. We based our endorsements on this reporting and fact-checking — and on each candidate’s achievements, background, character, demeanor and experience.

The state and federal endorsements were made by South Carolina Opinion Editor Matthew T. Hall, letters editor Allison Askins and regular columnist Matt Wylie, a Republican strategist and analyst, in consultation with Brian Tolley, president and editor of The State, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette, and The Sun News. Hall and Askins made the local and county endorsements in consultation with Tolley.

If you have questions or comments about our endorsements, please email Hall at [email protected]."

I do, and I will. Do you? Will you?

Seeing Bruce Springsteen perform is something I've wanted to do since "Born in the USA" was blaring on the radio when I was a kid - or from my cassette player. Well, I missed him on his mini-tour with VP Kamala Harris yesterday in Clarkston, but I got to listen to it on the drive back from South Carolina, so it'll have to do. I have some of his music & statements to review.

So it turns out the right wing trope about "illegal voters" is much ado about nearly nothing. Or 9 total, in Georgia, and none since 2012, or maybe twenty tops, and at worst, 156 illegally registered. A rounding error in a state with 8.2 million voters. That's the findings in an exhaustive audit performed by the Georgia Secretary of State' office.

Also, drilling in on the latest AJC/UGA polling data for Georgia's electorate, I found it really interesting just how many self-professed "conservative" voters are breaking towards Kamala Harris. Note: it's way more than black men for Trump.

Former Trump chief-of-staff John Kelly was finally triggered to go "on the record" after the former President crossed one of two red lines with Kelly - the "enemy within" quips weaving in use of military force.

In speaking with the New York Times, Kelly surprised no one with what he said; that he said it, on record, while being recorded willingly, is historic.

I'm spending a few days in coastal South Carolina where my friend Mal Hyman is working overtime on the "retail political trail" - having to get out to shake hands and meet people on-one-on as opposed to taking PAC money to flood TV and radio airwaves.

It's a noble endeavor, but because of the size of his district, a gargantuan task that could be better alleviated by eliminating gerrymandering and uncapping The House, which he and I discuss a bit.

Today, though, we mostly just get a sense of his "ground game," and part of that was his longtime friend, Randy Cahall, guitar in-hand, coming in for a couple weeks to help his buddy Mal out.

Randy shares his talents (and a couple of really good protest movement-era songs. A nice change-of-pace from hearing me drone on and on, right?

Oh, also the GOP-heavy Georgia Supreme Court smacked down state GOP efforts to save those 11th-hour MAGA-packed elections board rules. Sort of delicious to hear it from Marc Elias via Democracy Docket.

You better believe the litigious folks at Dominion Voting are watching and listening to everything 2020 election-deniers like Marjorie Taylor Greene are saying. She just can't help herself.

New AJC/UGA polling data's out, and along with what we're seeing from GeorgiaVotes.com, there's an emerging story about who the new voters are: young and likely Hispanic and/or Asian.

How weird is it that right wing radio host Charlie Sykes emceed a Kamala Harris rally Monday? You know, the one with Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney? Surreal times we're living in.

After doing (what I presume may be my daily) review of GeorgiaVotes.com early voting data, I connected with Donnell Suggs, editor-in-chief at The Atlanta Voice. He had wall-to-wall coverage of VP Kamala Harris' visit to metro Atlanta this weekend. We discuss her events, the "black men leaving the party for Trump" trope, highlight his latest piece "It's late October; do you know where your polling place is?" and a few other touchy subjects (not including his Mets' being bounced last night).

I'm a little ashamed I was surprised - at all - to come across this post on Facebook from musician/friend John Wesley Satterfield, this morning. In all the years I've known him, we'd just never discussed political issues, so I literally had no idea he'd be "woke," but lo and behold. Well, if you checked that post, you'll see this isn't even about him. His brave sister, Mary Rose Wood, a Chapin (SC) High School teacher, is pushing boundaries in that a suburban community by using Ta Nehisi Coates' book, “Between The World And Me”, in her AP Language Arts class. This despite a push to have the book banned and for her to lose her job.

"Nevertheless, she persisted.' Her plight even got the Coates, the author, to visit her school board's meeting to support her.

Inspiring recount from The State HERE - which I focused on a little today.

First, a look at a nifty website - GeorgiaVotes.com - giving us up-to-date early voter data by various demographics and comparing to 2020 data, too.

JD Vance has been mouthing off about Social Sbyecurity and Medicare fraud by "illegal immigrants," but the fact is, they're just contributing to both entitlement programs while rarely ever getting anything from it. We should be thanking those 'illegal' immigrants.

Donald Trump has (super-weird) Elon Musk. Kamala Harris has Mark Cuban. When it comes to "billionaires in their corner," it's time to give some attention to Mark.

Back-to-back "bad days" in courtrooms for Georgia's MAGA-led state election board this week, with another superior court judge wiping out the board's "eleventh hour" rules-a-palooza onslaught. Fair High Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo joined me today to give reaction to that and the many and varied ways Republicans - the pro-Trump ilk and even just the 'good old fashioned voter suppression' kind - have sewn so much calamity around Georgia's process all on their own.

Meanwhile, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has gone to "Big Lie" camp and gotten his merit badge. Yep; Vance is now a full-on election denier, meaning any hint of there being a 'guard rail' against Donald Trump's anti-democratic tendencies on the GOP ticket is now gone.

In the "trees for chainsaws" conversation, why there's even one Hispanic voter even considering a vote for Donald and J.D. is already beyond me, but Donald's Univision town hall was a bit of a disaster for their sales pitch to that voting bloc. There we learned January 6th was a "day of love" when he was pressed by a skeptical Republican voter, and he regurgitated (poor term?) the Haitian cat/dog-eating smear because "it was reported" to him. That's not at all unsettling - to know a former and would-be-again future president is so easily misinformed and would react so publicly to incorrect information.

In contrast, VP Kamala Harris went into the "Fox hole" with Fox personality (I dare not call him a journalist anymore) Bret Baier. It didn't go well; at least not for Baier's credibility or Fox's flimsy-already pretense it's a legitimate news source.

I've a theory: yes, abortion rights are definitely "on the ballot" and energizing women voters, but white women broke for Donald Trump 55% to 45% in 2020 - after he'd stocked the Supreme Court with anti-abortion perjurers Then came 'Dobbs,' but also his ramped up divisive rhetoric. Surely you've noticed he labels anyone not "pro-Trump" as the "enemy within," right? That he's more than intimating the use of military force on political opponents.

At a Republican-stocked suburban Atlanta "town hall" for women voters, Donald Trump was given a chance to walk back his "enemy within" rhetoric but Trumps' Trump and can't not BE "Trump."

Yeah, maybe envisioning a totalitarian state in the very near future sours white women, too. Well, polls show Trump has squandered his lead with that crucial voting bloc - and with it being the plurality of American voters, that impact dwarfs any gains he's made with black male voters.

And on that note, VP Kamala Harris sat down with the syndicated "Breakfast Club" radio show and its host, "Charlemagne Tha God," and ... she did quite well. I reviewed and summarized for you.