“Just in time for the home stretch of the most tense election of modern times, the masked and anonymous rock band the Network is back from a 17-year hiatus to stir the pot with its new single, Ivankkka Is a Nazi,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The group — widely believed to be Green Day in luchador masks and wigs — last released music in 2003, a song titled ‘Money Money 2020.'”
The original cast of Hamilton led by Lin-Manuel Miranda perform “The Room Where it Happens” to encourage voter turn-out for Joe Biden.
Stevie Wonder, along with Rapsody, Cordae, Chika and Busta Rhymes, is out with a brilliant anthem for the next 17 days.
“A voter initiative led by Michelle Obama is partnering with a similar group founded by NBA star LeBron James and other prominent Black athletes and entertainers to sponsor events in major U.S. cities starting next week to generate excitement about voting early for the Nov. 3 election,” Politico reports.
President Trump mocked the ratings of the NBA playoffs, suggesting fans don’t like the players criticizing him.
Ron Brownstein: “Trump, by attempting to brand them as unpopular for criticizing him, is essentially daring LeBron James and the other NBA stars to prove they can mobilize turnout and move persuasion among Black voters, and young voters generally, between now and Election Day.”
Kanye West reportedly requested that staffers working on his long-shot presidential campaign “refrain from fornicating outside of marriage,” the New York Times reports.
A state judge ruled that Kanye West did not qualify to get on the Wisconsin presidential ballot because 5 p.m. means 5 p.m. sharp, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
The entertainer sued seeking to undo an Aug. 20 decision to keep him off the ballot in November because he was seconds late in filing his nomination papers.
Former President Jimmy Carter admits in a new documentary that one of his sons smoked pot with Willie Nelson on the roof of the White House, the New York Post reports.
“The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Kanye West’s bid to appear on the state’s Nov. 3 ballot as an independent presidential candidate, just hours before eight of the state’s 15 counties faced a deadline for printing ballots,” the Arizona Republic reports.
A state judge ruled that rapper Kanye West will be removed from the ballot as a presidential candidate in Virginia, WWBT reports.
Filmmaker Michael Moore warned in a Facebook post that enthusiasm for Donald Trump is “off the charts.”
Said Moore: “Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC to pull this off?””
He added: “I’m warning you almost 10 weeks in advance. The enthusiasm level for the 60 million in Trump’s base is OFF THE CHARTS! For Joe, not so much.”
New York Magazine: “In a span of two days, West was booted from the ballot in five states: Illinois, Montana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Illinois, Montana, and West Virginia, it was because he filed an insufficient number of valid signatures. In Wisconsin, it was because West did not file on time. In Ohio, the information and signature on West’s nominating petition and his statement of candidacy did not match those on petitions circulated to be signed.”
“West has filed in several other states in this week: Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia, but it is unclear if he will ultimately qualify to appear on the ballot in all of them. West may face particular issues in Virginia, where seven of the thirteen electors that West submitted told Intelligencer they were either unaware that they signed up to cast electoral votes on his behalf, or that they had signed notarized paperwork connected to the rapper’s presidential bid at all.”
Jared Kushner met privately last weekend with Kanye West, the rapper who has filed petitions to get on the November ballots for president in several states, the New York Times reports.
Amid various reports that Trump-affiliated political operatives are trying to get Kanye West onto various state ballots for the presidential election, the rap superstar indicated to Forbes that he was in fact running to siphon votes from Joe Biden.
Asked about that directly, West said that rather than running for president, he was “walking.”
When it was pointed out that he actually won’t be on enough ballots to yield 270 electoral votes and thus was serving as a spoiler, West replied: “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”
Kanye West may have filed to appear on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot several minutes after the Tuesday deadline, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
A local news reporter present at the scene tweeted that West’s lawyer entered the building “just after 5.”
“Kanye West has officially submitted signatures to appear on the ballot in Wisconsin, arguably the most important state on the presidential map — and those signatures were dropped off by an experienced GOP operative,” Vice News reports.
“Lane Ruhland, who a local reporter recorded as she headed in to drop off the signatures that would qualify West for his presidential bid in Wisconsin on Tuesday, is one of a handful of GOP election lawyers in the state — and a former legal counsel for the state Republican Party.”
New York Times: Republicans aid Kanye West’s bid to get on 2020 ballot.
“A St. Louis-based Republican consultant with ties to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley was listed as the point of contact for Kanye West’s campaign when it submitted signatures Monday to appear on the Arkansas ballot in November,” McClatchy reports.
“Kanye West is pushing ahead with his presidential campaign and is now trying to get on the ballot in Wisconsin, a pivotal swing state which was decided by less than 23,000 votes in 2016,” according to New York magazine.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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