Not related to American politics, but a Nigerian friend of mine has been telling me about something called SARS- Special Anti Robbery Squad. From what I understand, this was a police unit specifically made to counter the high number of robberies in the country. Quickly it turned into an organized robbery scheme itself. Many people are protesting the existence of the unit, claiming to have been shaken down by them, and citing a high number of murders by the unit.
The government actually responded and chose to dissolve the unit, but it speaks to the ease in which police can commit crimes and evade accountability for them.
Not related to American politics, but a Nigerian friend of mine has been telling me about something called SARS- Special Anti Robbery Squad. From what I understand, this was a police unit specifically made to counter the high number of robberies in the country. Quickly it turned into an organized robbery scheme itself. Many people are protesting the existence of the unit, claiming to have been shaken down by them, and citing a high number of murders by the unit.
The government actually responded and chose to dissolve the unit, but it speaks to the ease in which police can commit crimes and evade accountability for them.
See every drug and gang task force put together by the LAPD in the '90s. Among all the theories out there, the MOST persuasive argument for who killed Tupac Shakur was off-duty cops from the Rampart Squad.
The fact is, police misconduct is only in the limelight as much as it is the last decade because of the invention of the smart phone, and the ability of anyone with a cell phone plan to have a miniature recording device. What's disheartening is the fact that cops don't really seem to mind one way or the other if they get filmed or not. They still believe they can get away with anything regardless. But the line between cop and criminal is, often, not just blurred but nonexistent. In many cases, they are the same psychological profile.
Not related to American politics, but a Nigerian friend of mine has been telling me about something called SARS- Special Anti Robbery Squad. From what I understand, this was a police unit specifically made to counter the high number of robberies in the country. Quickly it turned into an organized robbery scheme itself. Many people are protesting the existence of the unit, claiming to have been shaken down by them, and citing a high number of murders by the unit.
The government actually responded and chose to dissolve the unit, but it speaks to the ease in which police can commit crimes and evade accountability for them.
I hope it works. If things go well, now that the power base for the unit has disappeared it will become possible to prosecute individuals for the many serious crimes it seems clear were committed by the unit. However, I think there's quite a lot of skepticism in the country about this. Thus far there has been no commitment to prosecute past crimes and, though the unit has been abolished, everyone in it is just being redeployed within the police force. Given the police as a whole don't have a great reputation, it's pretty clear that abolition of SARS alone will not solve concerns about police.
so Trump had a osteopathic doctor (equivalent to an urgent care doctor it seems and the first ever for the White House) say Trump isn't transmitting the virus anymore. Not that he tested negative or anything. But maybe he's getting better? It's tough to say because Trump surrounds himself with liars and yes men. So anyway, Trump's going to give a rally on Monday because he's tanked in the polls and is probably dragging the entire Republican party with him into the gutter and he thinks yelling conspiracies, lies and racists BS at people will help him.
I sure as shit wouldn't be in his vicinity right now, can't trust trump or the quacks he influences to do his bidding.
Trump has a long history of getting doctors to lie for him going back to his bone spurs that he doesn't know which knee they are on, to the crazy one page note from Dr. Borenstein or Ronny Jackson saying he was like superhumanly healthy or whatever. To the crazy demon semen woman Trump had give a coronavirus briefing.
He might truly be getting over the disease, good for him, but you can't trust his word or anyone associate with him at all ever.
That is not an osteopath in America. In other countries, sure. But in America osteopaths are as fully trained and licensed as regular MDs.
The kooky part is that said osteopath is a neuroradiologist. That is, a person who specializes in reviewing images of the brain and spine and reporting what they see in those images.
This is NOT the sort of specialty for treating a pandemic-level infectious disease in the most powerful person in the country if not the world. At all.
Edit-Didn't read the article, thought you were referring about Scott Atlas advising the president
Not related to American politics, but a Nigerian friend of mine has been telling me about something called SARS- Special Anti Robbery Squad. ...
Also, that name. Would you rather have a gang of cops that takes your stuff then might kill you, or a contagious disease that leaves you gasping for air then might kill you?
I have heard talk of emails today, but it all had to do with how Facebook and Twitter decided to censor a news story about Hunter Biden.
This is so incredibly stupid. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, cares about Hunter Biden. It will not move a single vote. It will not change one mind. The facts are not being contested. But they decide to censor it anyway out of mere fear that it might change a mind or a vote, which I have to emphasize again, it won't.
Good. This will hopefully prompt a conversation about the level of control that Twitter/Facebook/social media have in the dissemination of information on their platform.
The story itself is pretty meaningless. The information isnt really new, and just has some private photos of Hunter Biden dealing with his drug addiction, and it's awful those are released as part of a political attack.
That said, just because the facts are meaningless doesnt mean that the GOP wont try to spin this as hard as humanly possible to damage Biden. They're desperate for another "but her emails" moment.
If they actually are talking about Clintons emails again I can only take that as a sign that the internal polling isn't looking good.
Sorry - I'm not being clear. I'm using "but her emails" as a place holder for "but his emails" - all of this allegedly came from the emails on Hunter Biden's laptop. I think they're trying to make the same link.
I have heard some chatter of right-wing twitter saying that there are 40,000 emails on the laptop and some of them somehow deal with Clinton. So they are trying ton bring that back up (like always).
Any story involving Rudy Giuliani, now indicted fraudster Steve Bannon, and some mysterious "computer repairman" is likely complete horseshit. I've already seen people diving into it, and apparently the email in question is lacking metadata that should be present if it was legitimate. In the same way we knew Trump's Walter Reed photos were staged because the metadata revealed they were taken less than 10 minutes apart.
I can reiterate enough WHY the emails worked in 2016. It's because everything was relatively "normal" and the average voter didn't view it as an existential choice. That is NOT where we sit in mid-October of 2020. Just as Democrats were way too optimistic about how Access Hollywood would play, so too is the GOP thinking they can shift the race with a tabloid story in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is unchecked. ANYONE who gives a fuck about Hunter Biden is already voting for Trump.
Ah. I got ya. I legit thought you meant they were bringing this 2016 issue up again and I couldn't imagine what would possess them to do such a thing.
Well - it does play to the base. Whenever Trump was a cheer at a rally, he'll mention Clinton or her emails. I think the pivot he's trying to use these days is then to get into the so called "Obamagate".
Anyways. I actually didnt realize that the reason Twitter/Facebook etc had blocked it was due to hacked materials - my first thought was that it was just made up. As @jjstraka34 is alluding to, Giuliani/Bannon/etc arent good faith actors in this process, and the NYPost isnt known for its honesty/integrity/etc.
Anyways. I actually didnt realize that the reason Twitter/Facebook etc had blocked it was due to hacked materials - my first thought was that it was just made up.
Yes, that was their stated reason. Hacked materials. The kind that a large portion of important journalism, which this is not, comes from. This will inevitably change once they can come up with a better reason, but they had to justify themselves on the spot.
I, for one, don't accept ex post facto rationalizations.
I have heard talk of emails today, but it all had to do with how Facebook and Twitter decided to censor a news story about Hunter Biden.
This is so incredibly stupid. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, cares about Hunter Biden. It will not move a single vote. It will not change one mind. The facts are not being contested. But they decide to censor it anyway out of mere fear that it might change a mind or a vote, which I have to emphasize again, it won't.
Where is the limit to this logic? As ballpointman says, those emails divulge some embarrassing personal information on someone who is not running for office, nor ever has. Nor has that person ever chosen to publicly advocate in politics. And that private information was acquired illegally.
Just to use Glenn Greenwald for one example. If the CIA hacked the emails of a prominent leftist politician, say Evo Morales, I'm pretty sure he would be outraged about divulging embarrassing private information on Morales' family. And he would, rightfully, argue that journalists were being played by the CIA. But this same behavior becomes acceptable in another context?
I've read some more about this story, and it's Jacob Wohl-level ridiculousness. A man who runs "The Mac Shop" says Hunter Biden dropped off a computer for repair, and never picked it up again. The reason he assumes it was Hunter Biden is because the supposed laptop had a Beau Biden sticker on it. Magically, this computer Hunter Biden decided to abandon at some hole-in-the-wall repair store just happens to contain an incriminating email. I'd like to personally wager my entire bank account immediately to anyone willing to take the bet that this falls apart into a puddle of nothingness within 72 hours.
There will be ex post facto rationalizations up the wazoo once this standard of "you can't use hacked materials for journalism" is put under examination. Historical revisionism will come. We have always been at war with Oceania.
There will be ex post facto rationalizations up the wazoo once this standard of "you can't use hacked materials for journalism" is put under examination. Historical revisionism will come. We have always been at war with Oceania.
Does wikileaks still have a twitter account?
edit: just checked it does. Time to deep dive twitter's terms of service...
edit #2: This was updated in May 2019, so prolly why wikilinks still has an account, however, here is the policy, or rather, what is not a violation:
What is not a violation of this policy?
You can discuss a hack that has taken place (including reporting on a hack, or sharing press coverage of hacking), provided that you don’t include someone’s private information, information that could put people at risk of physical harm or danger; and/or information related to trade secrets.
So there are 3 things to consider:
1) Is any of Hunter's Private information being shared in the story that was obtained through the hack, listed as:
home address or physical location information, including street addresses, GPS coordinates or other identifying information related to locations that are considered private;
identity documents, including government-issued IDs and social security or other national identity numbers – note: we may make limited exceptions in regions where this information is not considered to be private;
contact information, including non-public personal phone numbers or email addresses;
financial account information, including bank account and credit card details;
other private information, including biometric data or medical records.
2) Is there any information that would put Hunter in physical harm?
3) Are any trade secrets being discussed in the emails.
I refuse to read a sensational click bait article about a nobody who some journalist think is a somebody because he is related to someone famous, so I refuse to check, but I do think Twitter is full of shit here unless the emails in question are corporate ones then it may not be democrats doing the twisting here but the actual company that Hunter worked for.
I really, really don't think social media companies need to be directly involving themselves in elections, especially by throwing lots of money around. I think it's bad enough they control the entire public discourse and are now putting their fingers directly on the scale in order to try to influence outcomes.
It's really ironic because Republicans of the past couple of decades made their own bed here.
I think the era of the "small government conservative" is over with this level of corporate interference. This is where that line of thinking leads. Either you use the power of the government to assert your rights, including over private corporations, or this is what you get.
It's really ironic because Republicans of the past couple of decades made their own bed here.
I think the era of the "small government conservative" is over with this level of corporate interference. This is where that line of thinking leads. Either you use the power of the government to assert your rights, including over private corporations, or this is what you get.
Good, I hope this pile of bullshit dies.
"small government conservative" was always a fairy tale since the conservatives want a deep state domestic spy system (pre-9/11 even), a massive fucking military capable of literally taking the world on, and to be cramming themselves up every woman's vagina.
"small government conservative" = "I don't want to pay for all that crap, but I want all that pointed at anyone but me"
I don't know how relevant it is but dems are regestered almost 2 to 1 to republicans in PA. I know there is the non politically affiliated but I am one and all of those I know are extremely anti Trump. That is a conservative estimate btw, it was actually far more skewed. Going to get back to Tequila Sunrise now.
I don't know how relevant it is but dems are regestered almost 2 to 1 to republicans in PA. I know there is the non politically affiliated but I am one and all of those I know are extremely anti Trump. That is a conservative estimate btw, it was actually far more skewed. Going to get back to Tequila Sunrise now.
It's pretty clear from around the country that people are beyond amped up to vote and are doing it as early as possible. Biden is banking the vast majority of it right now, and Trump will have to have historic election day turnout to even stand a chance. The negative partisanship he has unleashed is unreal. The election is absolutely stilla referendum rather than a choice 3 weeks out, and that is not what Trump needed or wanted.
I don't know how relevant it is but dems are regestered almost 2 to 1 to republicans in PA. I know there is the non politically affiliated but I am one and all of those I know are extremely anti Trump. That is a conservative estimate btw, it was actually far more skewed. Going to get back to Tequila Sunrise now.
I'm a PA resident as well. Last election Dems has roughly a million more registered voters in PA but lost by narrow margins. Where I am at the city limits hold the Biden signs and everywhere else is nothing but Trump signs.
I'm near the capital and man, you can feel that this state is a battleground state, far moreso than last time. Trump has had rally after rally here. His family members do their own. This is clearly a priority for them.
But i'm not voting for him. They had 4 years to do something about the growing control of tech giants over our democracy. Not only did they do nothing, their one threat was to repeal Section 230, which will only further harm their own voters, of course.
I want the entire GOP to be slaughtered (metaphorically) come election night so that a new crop of representatives will take their place who may actually do something about anything their voters care about, rather than playing the puppet for their donor class.
But uhh, are you sure of those numbers? I looked it up out of curiosity and this is what I came across.
I don't know how relevant it is but dems are regestered almost 2 to 1 to republicans in PA. I know there is the non politically affiliated but I am one and all of those I know are extremely anti Trump. That is a conservative estimate btw, it was actually far more skewed. Going to get back to Tequila Sunrise now.
I'm a PA resident as well. Last election Dems has roughly a million more registered voters in PA but lost by narrow margins. Where I am at the city limits hold the Biden signs and everywhere else is nothing but Trump signs.
I'm near the capital and man, you can feel that this state is a battleground state, far moreso than last time. Trump has had rally after rally here. His family members do their own. This is clearly a priority for them.
But i'm not voting for him. They had 4 years to do something about the growing control of tech giants over our democracy. Not only did they do nothing, their one threat was to repeal Section 230, which will only further harm their own voters, of course.
I want the entire GOP to be slaughtered (metaphorically) come election night so that a new crop of representatives will take their place who may actually do something about anything their voters care about, rather than playing the puppet for their donor class.
But uhh, are you sure of those numbers? I looked it up out of curiosity and this is what I came across.
The old voter ID rolls dont really seem to correlate to reality anymore. IIRC, West Virginia has a significant Democrat advantage in registration over Republicans... because the state *was* reliably Democratic 30 to 40 years ago. Now it's 100% reliably republicans. Those voters are still there/alive, it's just they didnt bother switching their party affiliation. They're conservative and vote GOP.
There's also been an interesting trend lately in party ID. If you keep up with Nate Cohn on twitter, he usually teases the Party ID of each poll his organization does before it releases, and they've mostly all skewed strongly into R+3 to 7 range lately. The results are still coming back overwhelming Biden, but the actual ID is frequently more Republican than Democrat.
People are trying to figure out how or why that would be happening. In an election cycle that LOOKS like it's going to be a landslide, why is the Republican party ID growing and the Democrats arent? No one seems to be sure, but it the prevailing theory that I've seen is that the Conservative leaning Independents are changing their ID to GOP faster than the liberal leaning Independents are for Democrats. Hard to say what that means, or if that's even the case...
I don't know how relevant it is but dems are regestered almost 2 to 1 to republicans in PA. I know there is the non politically affiliated but I am one and all of those I know are extremely anti Trump. That is a conservative estimate btw, it was actually far more skewed. Going to get back to Tequila Sunrise now.
I'm a PA resident as well. Last election Dems has roughly a million more registered voters in PA but lost by narrow margins. Where I am at the city limits hold the Biden signs and everywhere else is nothing but Trump signs.
I'm near the capital and man, you can feel that this state is a battleground state, far moreso than last time. Trump has had rally after rally here. His family members do their own. This is clearly a priority for them.
But i'm not voting for him. They had 4 years to do something about the growing control of tech giants over our democracy. Not only did they do nothing, their one threat was to repeal Section 230, which will only further harm their own voters, of course.
I want the entire GOP to be slaughtered (metaphorically) come election night so that a new crop of representatives will take their place who may actually do something about anything their voters care about, rather than playing the puppet for their donor class.
But uhh, are you sure of those numbers? I looked it up out of curiosity and this is what I came across.
The old voter ID rolls dont really seem to correlate to reality anymore. IIRC, West Virginia has a significant Democrat advantage in registration over Republicans... because the state *was* reliably Democratic 30 to 40 years ago. Now it's 100% reliably republicans. Those voters are still there/alive, it's just they didnt bother switching their party affiliation. They're conservative and vote GOP.
There's also been an interesting trend lately in party ID. If you keep up with Nate Cohn on twitter, he usually teases the Party ID of each poll his organization does before it releases, and they've mostly all skewed strongly into R+3 to 7 range lately. The results are still coming back overwhelming Biden, but the actual ID is frequently more Republican than Democrat.
People are trying to figure out how or why that would be happening. In an election cycle that LOOKS like it's going to be a landslide, why is the Republican party ID growing and the Democrats arent? No one seems to be sure, but it the prevailing theory that I've seen is that the Conservative leaning Independents are changing their ID to GOP faster than the liberal leaning Independents are for Democrats. Hard to say what that means, or if that's even the case...
Completely agree here. The polls and the registration numbers could not be more different in many cases. I have no idea why that is nor do I pretend to.
I'm just sitting here hoping that my mail in ballot arrives. The USPS here has a crappy track record of actually getting my mail to me. This was before the recent kefuffle of sabotage...
I'm just sitting here hoping that my mail in ballot arrives. The USPS here has a crappy track record of actually getting my mail to me. This was before the recent kefuffle of sabotage...
Hope you didn't wait too long. If you don't get the ballot in time, I'd still vote in person if I were you. Double-mask if you want to be safer, but I wouldn't stay home for this election unless I was on my deathbed....
Well, this vindicates everything @deltago said about the non-arrest of the suspected Portland shooter. Even if he WASN'T directly involved in how that went down, he is taking credit for it now and celebrating it:
Comments
The government actually responded and chose to dissolve the unit, but it speaks to the ease in which police can commit crimes and evade accountability for them.
See every drug and gang task force put together by the LAPD in the '90s. Among all the theories out there, the MOST persuasive argument for who killed Tupac Shakur was off-duty cops from the Rampart Squad.
The fact is, police misconduct is only in the limelight as much as it is the last decade because of the invention of the smart phone, and the ability of anyone with a cell phone plan to have a miniature recording device. What's disheartening is the fact that cops don't really seem to mind one way or the other if they get filmed or not. They still believe they can get away with anything regardless. But the line between cop and criminal is, often, not just blurred but nonexistent. In many cases, they are the same psychological profile.
I hope it works. If things go well, now that the power base for the unit has disappeared it will become possible to prosecute individuals for the many serious crimes it seems clear were committed by the unit. However, I think there's quite a lot of skepticism in the country about this. Thus far there has been no commitment to prosecute past crimes and, though the unit has been abolished, everyone in it is just being redeployed within the police force. Given the police as a whole don't have a great reputation, it's pretty clear that abolition of SARS alone will not solve concerns about police.
That is not an osteopath in America. In other countries, sure. But in America osteopaths are as fully trained and licensed as regular MDs.
The kooky part is that said osteopath is a neuroradiologist. That is, a person who specializes in reviewing images of the brain and spine and reporting what they see in those images.
This is NOT the sort of specialty for treating a pandemic-level infectious disease in the most powerful person in the country if not the world. At all.
Edit-Didn't read the article, thought you were referring about Scott Atlas advising the president
Also, that name. Would you rather have a gang of cops that takes your stuff then might kill you, or a contagious disease that leaves you gasping for air then might kill you?
This is so incredibly stupid. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, cares about Hunter Biden. It will not move a single vote. It will not change one mind. The facts are not being contested. But they decide to censor it anyway out of mere fear that it might change a mind or a vote, which I have to emphasize again, it won't.
This is what institutional power looks like.
Warning: Wall of Tweets
The story itself is pretty meaningless. The information isnt really new, and just has some private photos of Hunter Biden dealing with his drug addiction, and it's awful those are released as part of a political attack.
That said, just because the facts are meaningless doesnt mean that the GOP wont try to spin this as hard as humanly possible to damage Biden. They're desperate for another "but her emails" moment.
Sorry - I'm not being clear. I'm using "but her emails" as a place holder for "but his emails" - all of this allegedly came from the emails on Hunter Biden's laptop. I think they're trying to make the same link.
I have heard some chatter of right-wing twitter saying that there are 40,000 emails on the laptop and some of them somehow deal with Clinton. So they are trying ton bring that back up (like always).
I can reiterate enough WHY the emails worked in 2016. It's because everything was relatively "normal" and the average voter didn't view it as an existential choice. That is NOT where we sit in mid-October of 2020. Just as Democrats were way too optimistic about how Access Hollywood would play, so too is the GOP thinking they can shift the race with a tabloid story in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is unchecked. ANYONE who gives a fuck about Hunter Biden is already voting for Trump.
Well - it does play to the base. Whenever Trump was a cheer at a rally, he'll mention Clinton or her emails. I think the pivot he's trying to use these days is then to get into the so called "Obamagate".
Anyways. I actually didnt realize that the reason Twitter/Facebook etc had blocked it was due to hacked materials - my first thought was that it was just made up. As @jjstraka34 is alluding to, Giuliani/Bannon/etc arent good faith actors in this process, and the NYPost isnt known for its honesty/integrity/etc.
Yes, that was their stated reason. Hacked materials. The kind that a large portion of important journalism, which this is not, comes from. This will inevitably change once they can come up with a better reason, but they had to justify themselves on the spot.
I, for one, don't accept ex post facto rationalizations.
Where is the limit to this logic? As ballpointman says, those emails divulge some embarrassing personal information on someone who is not running for office, nor ever has. Nor has that person ever chosen to publicly advocate in politics. And that private information was acquired illegally.
Just to use Glenn Greenwald for one example. If the CIA hacked the emails of a prominent leftist politician, say Evo Morales, I'm pretty sure he would be outraged about divulging embarrassing private information on Morales' family. And he would, rightfully, argue that journalists were being played by the CIA. But this same behavior becomes acceptable in another context?
There will be ex post facto rationalizations up the wazoo once this standard of "you can't use hacked materials for journalism" is put under examination. Historical revisionism will come. We have always been at war with Oceania.
Does wikileaks still have a twitter account?
edit: just checked it does. Time to deep dive twitter's terms of service...
edit #2: This was updated in May 2019, so prolly why wikilinks still has an account, however, here is the policy, or rather, what is not a violation:
What is not a violation of this policy?
You can discuss a hack that has taken place (including reporting on a hack, or sharing press coverage of hacking), provided that you don’t include someone’s private information, information that could put people at risk of physical harm or danger; and/or information related to trade secrets.
So there are 3 things to consider:
1) Is any of Hunter's Private information being shared in the story that was obtained through the hack, listed as:
2) Is there any information that would put Hunter in physical harm?
3) Are any trade secrets being discussed in the emails.
I refuse to read a sensational click bait article about a nobody who some journalist think is a somebody because he is related to someone famous, so I refuse to check, but I do think Twitter is full of shit here unless the emails in question are corporate ones then it may not be democrats doing the twisting here but the actual company that Hunter worked for.
Apparently they also tried this in Texas.
https://thetexan.news/federal-lawsuit-filed-over-zuckerberg-grants-for-texas-elections/
I really, really don't think social media companies need to be directly involving themselves in elections, especially by throwing lots of money around. I think it's bad enough they control the entire public discourse and are now putting their fingers directly on the scale in order to try to influence outcomes.
I think the era of the "small government conservative" is over with this level of corporate interference. This is where that line of thinking leads. Either you use the power of the government to assert your rights, including over private corporations, or this is what you get.
Good, I hope this pile of bullshit dies.
"small government conservative" was always a fairy tale since the conservatives want a deep state domestic spy system (pre-9/11 even), a massive fucking military capable of literally taking the world on, and to be cramming themselves up every woman's vagina.
"small government conservative" = "I don't want to pay for all that crap, but I want all that pointed at anyone but me"
It's pretty clear from around the country that people are beyond amped up to vote and are doing it as early as possible. Biden is banking the vast majority of it right now, and Trump will have to have historic election day turnout to even stand a chance. The negative partisanship he has unleashed is unreal. The election is absolutely stilla referendum rather than a choice 3 weeks out, and that is not what Trump needed or wanted.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/15/trump-derangement-syndrome-429527
I'm a PA resident as well. Last election Dems has roughly a million more registered voters in PA but lost by narrow margins. Where I am at the city limits hold the Biden signs and everywhere else is nothing but Trump signs.
I'm near the capital and man, you can feel that this state is a battleground state, far moreso than last time. Trump has had rally after rally here. His family members do their own. This is clearly a priority for them.
But i'm not voting for him. They had 4 years to do something about the growing control of tech giants over our democracy. Not only did they do nothing, their one threat was to repeal Section 230, which will only further harm their own voters, of course.
I want the entire GOP to be slaughtered (metaphorically) come election night so that a new crop of representatives will take their place who may actually do something about anything their voters care about, rather than playing the puppet for their donor class.
But uhh, are you sure of those numbers? I looked it up out of curiosity and this is what I came across.
The old voter ID rolls dont really seem to correlate to reality anymore. IIRC, West Virginia has a significant Democrat advantage in registration over Republicans... because the state *was* reliably Democratic 30 to 40 years ago. Now it's 100% reliably republicans. Those voters are still there/alive, it's just they didnt bother switching their party affiliation. They're conservative and vote GOP.
There's also been an interesting trend lately in party ID. If you keep up with Nate Cohn on twitter, he usually teases the Party ID of each poll his organization does before it releases, and they've mostly all skewed strongly into R+3 to 7 range lately. The results are still coming back overwhelming Biden, but the actual ID is frequently more Republican than Democrat.
People are trying to figure out how or why that would be happening. In an election cycle that LOOKS like it's going to be a landslide, why is the Republican party ID growing and the Democrats arent? No one seems to be sure, but it the prevailing theory that I've seen is that the Conservative leaning Independents are changing their ID to GOP faster than the liberal leaning Independents are for Democrats. Hard to say what that means, or if that's even the case...
Completely agree here. The polls and the registration numbers could not be more different in many cases. I have no idea why that is nor do I pretend to.
Hope you didn't wait too long. If you don't get the ballot in time, I'd still vote in person if I were you. Double-mask if you want to be safer, but I wouldn't stay home for this election unless I was on my deathbed....