OB Rag

Nov. 3rd:– the Day Americans Take Back Our Country

9:53 am Voters in several US states are casting their ballots, with the first polls due to close at 6 p.m. ET, 3pm PT. Some voting machines in the key swing district that includes Westchester County, New York, have been unable to scan ballots, and flooding in Florida has forced 23 polling locations to move. CNN

9:50 am Bruce Springsteen, who has made his anti-Trump views well known this election season, posted a video message Tuesday reminding election officials of their “solemn duty” to ensure that all votes are counted and warning them to resist any pressure to the contrary. “You who represent us must never consent to any directives that undermine our constitutional right to a free and fair election,” he said. “Our vote is our voice, and it’s up to you to ensure that our voice is heard.” Washington Post

9:48 am RYDAL, Pennsylvania — Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said Tuesday that election monitors sent by the U.S. Justice Department to Philadelphia and several other Pennsylvania counties “will be stopped” if they try to prevent anyone from voting. “We’ve made it very clear that should those election monitors or anyone else try to interfere with any Pennsylvanian’s access to the ballot box … they will be stopped immediately,” Shapiro said after he cast his ballot in suburban Philadelphia. “These monitors will not interfere with our process today.”

9:41 am Long wait times to vote in Tarrant County, Texas, home to Fort Worth

About a dozen polling places in Tarrant County, Texas, home to Fort Worth, are reporting wait times an hour or longer, with two polling places reporting a two-hour wait as of 11 a.m. local time.

As CNN previously reported, Republican Tarrant County commissioners cut Election Day voting locations to 224 from the 316 the county had in 2022. They also denied requested polling locations on five university campuses and had no polling places within the 76103 and 76104 ZIP codes, both of which have a majority Black or Hispanic population, according to census data. CNN

9:38 am The United States has conducted defensive strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said Monday, on the eve of crucial midterm elections.

Iranian state television reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island. The official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said “Iranians using surface to air missiles against U.S. assets” had been targeted.

The strikes appeared to be limited as opposed to a return to full hostilities but followed President Donald Trump previously saying the U.S. wouldn’t launch strikes on Iran before Tuesday’s midterms. The strikes were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

The unpopular Iran war and the resulting impact on U.S. gasoline prices and other parts of the economy have been a vulnerability for Republicans as they try to keep control of Congress.

9:31 am Trump makes closing remarks in front of the Reflecting Pool. What was he thinking?

Trump’s closing message hits a topic close to his heart — but not voters’ minds. The president spent more than 20 minutes of his final midterm elections speech detailing his renovation projects in Washington

9:23 am If things go south for Donald Trump today, here’s a few of the reasons:

• affordability – from gas to food
• war in Iran
• tariffs
• ICE
• Epstein files
• Most corrupt White House in history
• all the lies and broken promises
• health care costs

9:10 am — 6 Lies You’ll Hear Before the End of the Day

It isn’t hard to predict: By the time polls close Tuesday, President Donald Trump and his allies will have spread a slew of false and dangerous election conspiracy theories online.

They’ll be shrieking about late-arriving mail ballots. They’ll be falsely claiming votes from noncitizens have corrupted the midterms. They’ll be attacking election workers, as they count votes, for somehow rigging the result. And much more.

So keep in mind: Some races may take days or longer to be counted. A candidate’s lead may shrink or disappear as different batches of ballots are counted. Mail ballots cast on time may arrive after Election Day. None of those things are evidence of fraud.

But ordinary election procedures can look suspicious when stripped of context. And Trump and MAGA — with polls showing the GOP headed for a major defeat — will aim to exploit that confusion to portray routine events as evidence of a coordinated effort to rig or steal an election.

So before the first viral images or claims of a “stolen” race begin ricocheting across social media, here are some of the most predictable myths Americans are likely to hear on Election Day and in the days that follow — what those claims leave out and what’s actually happening.

‘If we don’t know the winner on election night, something is wrong’

 One of the most predictable claims this week will be that an election is suspicious simply because the winner is not known Tuesday night.

Expect variations of the same rhetoric Tuesday night: “Why are they still counting?” “They found another batch of ballots.” “The lead changed overnight.”

Election Night results are preliminary by definition. Election officials may still be counting mail ballots, provisional ballots and votes from military and overseas voters for days afterward, depending on state law.

Some states also require additional time to verify ballots, cure defects, conduct canvasses and audit results before they become final. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission says plainly that election-night results are “unofficial and never final.”

That has not stopped the claim from spreading before voting is even finished.

On Saturday, PBS NewsHour shared a PolitiFact explainer noting that it is normal to go to bed without knowing the winner of a congressional race — and normal for a candidate who was trailing to later pull ahead as more ballots are counted.

The White House’s Rapid Response account replied: “No, it isn’t.” [For more, go here.]

9:00 am  Inside the plan to send 1,000 DOJ monitors to the polls

The Justice Department has assured local officials that monitoring will follow past norms, but election clerks say they have reason to worry.

Democrat With Local Roots Outshines Triple-Time Trump Voter and Carpetbagger Richard Bailey

Candidate Nicole Crosby has won the OB Rag’s endorsement for the general election to be held in 30 days. Coming to this stance, I looked at Nicole’s campaign website, my experiences over the last year with Richard Bailey, reviewed candidate debate reports from the U-T, Times of San Diego and our own Rag account.

Bailey has been campaigning for over a year and has polished off a number of campaign phrases — he’s into policies not politics, and the city doesn’t have a money problem, it has a spending problem. Yet, of course, he’s into politics.

Although not perfect, Crosby has a more compassionate heart than Bailey does when you compare their positions on San Diego’s homelessness, rent-control, city staffing,Trump’s immigration policies and the constitutional rights of all citizens in the area.

Of note are Crosby’s local roots — they particularly stand out in heavy contrast to the current District 2 officeholder, Jen Campell. Crosby and her family have lived in Clairemont for many years; she was the president of the PTA for her daughter’s school and was the chair of the Clairemont Town Council. This is also a huge contrast between her and the other candidate, Richard Bailey. Bailey

SDPD Investigating

By Dana Williams / 7SanDiego / Nov. 2, 2026

Two fathers had a frightening experience after their children picked up what appeared to be candy from a porch in Ocean Beach while trick-or-treating, only to discover the packaging identified the treats as psilocybin mushroom gummies.

The San Diego Police Department is investigating the Halloween incident, but questions remain about who left the gummies outside the home and whether they actually contained illegal drugs.

Frank Cary and Cameron Hunter were trick-or-treating with their children and several neighborhood families Saturday night when they made the discovery.

The parents said they were walking just a few yards behind their children when the kids approached a porch with a bowl of what appeared to be candy.

Cary said his 2-year-old grabbed one of the packages before he noticed something unusual about it.

By Natalie Hausmann / Democracy Docket / November 2, 2026
The Supreme Court swiftly rejected the Trump administration’s emergency bid to force California to segregate ballots from more than 20,000 people it alleges may be noncitizens. 

The decision hands the administration its third and final defeat in its effort to intervene in the state’s ongoing election.

The justices denied the administration’s emergency application without explanation, just hours after it was filed Monday. Justice Elena Kagan referred the request to the full Court, which rejected it with no noted dissents. 

By Lindsay Whitehurst / PBS – Associated Press / Nov. 2, 2026

Trump administration appeals to Supreme Court to sideline 20,000 disputed California mail ballots

See Below — Analysis: More than 40% of names on DOJ list of alleged noncitizens not on California’s voter rolls

President Donald Trump’s administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday — today, Nov. 2 — in its push to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots the day before the pivotal midterm elections.

The emergency appeal came after a divided appeals court rejected the request to set aside ballots from some 20,000 people the federal government suspects may not be citizens. It also came just hours before another federal judge ruled against the administration’s efforts to make last-minute changes in California’s election.

The federal government says those ballots should not be counted until the voters’ status can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.

The Republican Trump administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, despite them being rare.

A district court judge had previously denied the Justice Department’s request and warned that the demand could disenfranchise citizens in Tuesday’s midterm elections to determine control of Congress.

Impeachment and court reform stand out as the most powerful accountability tools Dems will have

By Bill Blum / Common Dreams – Truthdig / Nov 01, 2026 Truthdig

It’s not enough for the Democrats to win the midterms. Whether they take back one or both chambers of Congress, their overriding objective must be to cripple the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency and dismantle the MAGA movement he leads. Holding Trump and his key enablers to account for their lawlessness and corruption will be the standard for success. Without accountability, there will be no justice and no end to the growing threat of fascism in America.

Of all the accountability tools that will be available should the Democrats prevail on November 3, impeachment and court reform stand out as the most powerful. Both are implicitly on the midterm ballot, and while neither is a magic bullet for checking Trumpism, they can and must be deployed far more aggressively and urgently than in the past.

The road ahead won’t be easy, but the party may never get another opportunity.

Impeachment
The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision on presidential immunity (Trump v. United States), penned by Chief Justice John Roberts, has made it all but impossible to hold Trump accountable through ordinary criminal prosecutions. As legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin has noted, Roberts’ opinion contains language that “suggests the president cannot even be investigated for his official actions,” much less indicted.

Elections are always split in their results; Tuesday’s could be the same

By Bill Eddy / Substack /  Nov 01, 2026

Over the past few weeks, we have seen a flurry of rallies by President Trump around the country, including this weekend, in desperate support of his troubled Republican candidates. It’s tempting to see this effort as futile for him since his approval ratings have now sunk to 30% according to some polls. However, I believe quite the opposite: by making urgent intense emotional attacks on Democrats he will claw back some of his reluctant followers to turn out the vote and dampen any Democratic wave. Remember that his power is based on right brain emotions rather than left-brain logic. (See last week’s blog: Right Brain Politics II.)

How Splitting Works

In 2012, a psychologist friend, Don Saposnek, and I wrote a little book titled: Splitting America: How Politicians, Super PACs and the News Media Mirror High Conflict Divorce. I was working as a family lawyer at the time and we were struck by the similarities of people with high-conflict personalities in high-conflict divorces to some politicians who were entering politics. People with high-conflict personalities tend to have four key characteristics: blaming others, all-or-nothing thinking, unmanaged emotions, and extreme behaviors. “Splitting” is a psychological term for seeing some people as all-good and others as all-bad, which is common for people with high-conflict personalities. As we wrote then:

Last week we ran Debbie Sklar’s post about Devil’s Pot in the Sunset Cliffs area. At that point, no one was certain where it used to be as it no longer exists, what due to the tremendous erosion the cliffs suffer every year.

Then “Larry OB” or Larry O’Brien responded to the post with this:

“In all fairness to Dave Bunnnell, [ed.:who performed a study of sections of cliffs cited by Debbie] back in 2008 he probably wasn’t aware of this (attached) photo of the early development of Sunset Cliffs.  I think Devil’s Pot was filled and buried out in front of the mansion at Osprey Street.”

The San Francisco-based court also said federal officials must stop demanding that ballots from selected voters be segregated.

Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney / rsn – POLITICO / November 2, 2026

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution over their handling of disputes about voter qualifications.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson also ordered the Trump administration to cease demanding that election workers remove voters from statewide rolls, refuse to issue ballots to specific voters or segregate ballots cast in the midterms based on the administration’s claims that some voters are ineligible.

November 2nd Monday 12 pm – 1 pm Interfaith Vigil for Earth Justice
November 3rd Tuesday — Last Day to Vote in Mid-Terms; protect the vote — keep in tune; be aware of Trump’s efforts to rig the elections. The OB Rag will have an all-day Live Blog. 

November 4th  Wednesday 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm Monthly Social for Makers, Tinkerers and Creatives

November 4th Wednesday 8 pm – 9 pm No Kings Post-Election Call: What Happened In the event of election interference or sabotage,

November 5th Thursday 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm BikeSD’s Gears & Cheer 2026

November 6th Friday 6 pm – 9 pm Boot Scootin’ Boogie fundraiser for SNAP Spay Neuter Action

November 6th Friday 10 am -1:15 pm  FILM SCREENING : WHAT THE RIVER KNOWscajon/

November 6th Friday 5 pm – 9 Final Market! San Diego Sustainable Night Market

By Staff

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council hearings and other city public meetings, particularly this week the San Diego Planning Commission.

The full City Council is adjourned this week for elections.

Thursday, November 5:

Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, 9:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Item 2: Proposed Revisions to Council Policies 900-20 Naming of City Assets and 000-40 Marketing Partnerships

Why it matters: The proposed revisions appear to strengthen transparency and oversight while maximizing potential revenue. But in a cash-poor city that continues to squander public trust, this issue will always need close scrutiny.

From San Diego Police Department

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, officers from Western Division responded to reports of a fight between two men on the sea wall at 5000 block of Newport Ave. in Ocean Beach.

When officers arrived, they found Jorge Corona Vilchis, 61, critically injured. Officers gave first aid until San Diego Fire-Rescue arrived and took over. Corona Vilchis was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

Local Artists Associated with San Diego Museum of Art Sponsoring Exhibition

A group of local artists associated with the San Diego Museum of Art are sponsoring an exhibit in downtown Ocean Beach starting Tuesday, November 3rd. The exhibition entitled Takeover: Small-Scale Works will consist of fifty-five paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and mixed-media works by forty artists, none of which are larger than 16 inches in any direction.

This is all happening at SHIFT Gallery at 4847 Newport Avenue (across the street from Target) by the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. Barbara Sexton, nationally known artist and retired Mesa College art professor, selected the art from 221 entries in a juried competition.

Takeover will run November 3 through November 17 at SHIFT Gallery. SHIFT is open seven days a week from noon to six p.m. and by appointment. The public is invited to meet participating artists at a gallery reception on Thursday, November 5, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.