Talk Description to Me

Episode 21 - Election Day

November 03, 2020 Christine Malec and JJ Hunt Season 1 Episode 21
Talk Description to Me
Episode 21 - Election Day
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

This has been an unprecedented U.S. election campaign rife with political and social drama. In this special election-day episode, recorded at 9am on Tuesday November 3rd,  Christine and JJ discuss the visuals of the final days and hours of the campaign, including courthouse clashes in North Carolina, Trump Trains in Texas, fences surrounding the White House, and long lines of voters determined to do their part. 


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JJ Hunt:

Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.

Christine Malec:

Hi, I'm Christine Malec.

JJ Hunt:

And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashtag in description rich conversations.

Christine Malec:

Welcome to a special episode of talk description. To me it is Election Day in the United States. It's we're starting to record at approximately 9am in the morning just to help you position the things you're going to hear about. The Many people have a sense of breath held today. It's a very important day, the days leading up to today have been full of important images and important events. And so our intention today is to talk about the visuals that have led up to the election. And tomorrow we will be recording at our usual time and we will be talking about images from election day. So these episodes are being produced, edited and released pretty quickly. So we definitely are doing our best to be thorough and professional and keep the standards that we we value. But they are coming pretty fast as with all the journalism today, we're everyone's just sort of doing their best to keep up. So today, we're going to start with a development that happened overnight. That was completely a surprise to me. And that's the way the white house looks. So JJ, can you describe that this morning?

JJ Hunt:

Yes. So yesterday, I started seeing news reports and some photos online that word was spreading that they would that a non scalable fence that was the phrase that was always used a non scalable fence was going to be erected around the White House, and it was going to be done overnight. And I saw some maps that illustrated a perimeter that would enclose the something like a 70 acre piece of property around the White House. And on Twitter, there were pictures of work crews that were gathering late yesterday, late Monday with flatbed trucks that were laden with sections of steel fence. And I, I saw a few images in newspaper or magazine articles and on social media that showed some new types of barriers that I wasn't actually familiar with. There's one section of wall that looks like so it looks like kind of like a white wall paneling, like giant wainscotting, if you will with vertical rectangular frames inside each panel. So these are essentially like sheets of I'm going to guess plywood standing on end. So four foot wide, eight foot tall. And they are standing on top of concrete traffic barriers. So that's how they're imbedded in staying upright. And then inside each one of these, these sheets of plywood is a white frame. So what you end up with is a white wall lined with identical empty white frames. I haven't seen this kind of barrier before, I don't think this is what's all the way around the White House, I think there's only a section. And this went up yesterday. And then overnight, new kinds of fencing was put up. So I saw a news report on CNN, it was I think 630 this morning, the fencing is a is panels of modified chainlink. So it's like regular chain link fence, except that the the weave of the link is actually quite tight. And so it's difficult to get your fingers and toes through that therefore it's harder to climb. I certainly wouldn't say it's non scalable black metal the chain link is looks quite a bit thicker, sturdier than regular chain link, again, about eight feet tall. And this according to the CNN report is what's all around the White House and and, you know, all around the property as well. I did see some other images yesterday of I mean, this is I think my understanding is this kind of fence is the kind of fence that was around the White House during the George Floyd protests And sections of that have remained in different areas since those protests, and one of those sections I saw a picture of yesterday. Again, this black chain link fence in this image, the White House is in the background as well as the Washington Monument, the obelisk that's also behind the fence. And there's a helicopter flying overhead, it looks like a civilian helicopter, not a military one. And the fence is covered in protest signs just absolutely blanketed. And lots of these signs are they're kind of professional looking, they're black signs with bold white print. And those signs say arrest Trump, remove Trump, Trump is unfit, Trump is guilty fake president. And then there are several signs that have the background of the trans pride flag. So stripes of pale blue, pink, and then white in the center. And and those signs say black trans lives matter. And also on this fence was a big handwritten sign with like a you know, sheet of Bristol board with a handwritten resist. That's all it said resist. And then rising above the fence, kind of like a scarecrow on a cross is a sweater. So the sweater on a cross, and it's wearing a black tukar and knit hat. And on in black letters on this like bright orange sweater it says Trump and Pence hashtag out now. So those are kind of the images that I'm seeing specifically about the fence and the White House as it looks this morning.

Christine Malec:

In your experience of seeing construction and different things in your daily life living in a city, is it shocking that something that big could go up so quickly?

JJ Hunt:

That's a lot. I mean, if that is in fact, the case that the 70 acres was fenced in overnight. I mean, that is a lot of that is a lot of work to do. That requires a lot of human intervention to get that fence up overnight. I mean, these things are modular, they are created, they're built in such a way that they link together they have their stanchions there their stands, if you can, you know, put these things on. So there they are made to go up quickly. But, you know, to enclose 70 acres. And I mean, doing it overnight that it is a tall order. And you know, at the CNN report at 630 this morning, they were still working on it. Like there were still people who were some of the some of the work crews were still on scene. So yeah, yeah, I should also mention, this is just a side note. But when I was looking at the CNN clip this morning, we haven't really talked about the layout of CNN and other news agencies the screen, there's so much information that's on the screen at any given point, we should probably talk about that at some point because it is really interesting. But the way the image is just In brief, there's a video of the reporter is kind of in the upper left, it's a big big block. So probably two thirds or three quarters of the screen is the video of the reporter. Then along the bottom, it says breaking news, a title for whatever news story is going on, as well as the the reporter's name and title. And then down the right side of this screen is a is a text panel. And that's where cnn loves to put countdowns and timers and tickers and things that count because it's so engaging to constantly watch numbers come in numbers changing whatever. And what they had this morning, are the early voting numbers. And these are certainly available in different places. But I hadn't seen them like this before. And again, watching these ticking numbers. It's it's stunning. So early voting numbers as of 643. This morning. 63 point 5 million mail in ballots have already been cast in the US 35 point 2 million in person votes have already been cast. So that's a total of 98 point 6 million pre election votes that have already been cast. And according to CNN, that's about 72% of the 2016 total 72% of the total from the last election already cast. So I just thought that was quite stunning.

Christine Malec:

This US selection has seen many unprecedented things And there were two incidents recently, one in North Carolina and one in Texas that we felt could could be described, usefully. So JJ, which one of those Do you want to start with?

JJ Hunt:

Let's, how about we start with North Carolina? Okay. So there was a pepper spraying incident in North Carolina, this was on Saturday, I believe Saturday, the 31st. And what organizers called get out the vote rally in Graham, North Carolina, I'm going to call them protesters. Just because that group of people looked like protesters, they were behaving in a way that I would say is is, you know, I think protesters is an accurate name for them. And news agencies were saying there were hundreds of people that were taking part in these protests, most of the videos that I saw, the groups look smaller than that. But you know, you're only ever getting one shot one angle here or there, this wasn't covered by mainstream media, as they say, in in organized fashion. So it's a little bit more difficult to piece it all together. What I can say is they did march through the streets, this group marched through the streets, I saw videos that included people chanting for Black Lives Matter. And standing often in, you know, in groups, they would stop in the middle of a street, and they would all stop in information. So they were social distancing. Standing in grids, and they would often stop and and raise their fists in the air and the black power salute. These are men, women, black people, white people, these were, you know, a reasonably diverse crowd. And then this group headed to the courthouse. And there they stopped. And there's a big wide street in front of this courthouse, and they stopped in the middle of the street, it was full. But again, people were spaced out for social distancing, lots of people wearing COVID masks. And there was at least one speaker who had it looked like a megaphone with a microphone attached to it. Who was speaking to the crowd. This was a relatively quiet protest, at least at times. I can't I can't speak for the whole thing. But I can say that there were certainly moments of video that I saw, where groups were with a group was standing quietly, silently, in, in thought, or in prayer or in, you know, in solidarity, but it wasn't it wasn't necessarily a loud and boisterous crowd. And there were police on hand in front of the courthouse, lots of police, some police in black uniforms, with neon green reflective vests. Some that were sheriff's deputies, they were in grey uniforms with flak, like, with vests, not flak jackets, but with vests and, and they had on face shields with built in gas masks. And there were soldiers. So they were people in full camouflage. This was a brown camouflage, and they had assault rifles with them. And at some point, they start to clash. And again, you're only seeing a series of clips. So it's hard to say when or how but at some point, they start to clash. The police in the black uniforms, they step into the street, and they start yelling that protesters need to clear the street or they will be arrested. And then they start arresting people. They haul people from the crowd of protesters, they they select individuals, it's always hard to say why from from an outside perspective, they start zip tying hands behind people's backs. There was a man in a in a shirt and tie. We had a professional looking camera and he was arrested by three or four police officers. They took his camera part of it dropped on the ground and standing alongside the cops. The police in this case are these soldiers in fatigues and they're armed with assault rifles. And there's there was a bit of hubbub at some point it looked like it was maybe about speakers maybe they were going to try and set up a more official speaking situation I'm not entirely sure, but at some point the officers wanted to moved far back from the building and and they got out there pepper spray cans. And these are they look like shaving cream cans or like raid like insect repellent cans a standard can and you put them in this into a handle so that you don't you don't spray by pressing the top nozzle with your finger you grip the this handle and you squeeze your hand so it's easier to spray and you can then swap in a new you can take out the empty cane and put in a new one over and over again. Right. Okay and so officers began pepper spraying The crowd, generally they were spraying waist high and lower. So more or less at the protesters feet. And what this does is it creates, I mean, first of all, it forces you back because you don't want to get sprayed, but the mist then rises up. So it's an irritant, but it's not disabling that's the concept by spraying pepper spray the ground. But I have to say there are some videos, there is some video evidence that at least in some cases, they were not spraying at the ground, they were spraying straight into the crowd at head height, in short bursts, you know. So they would sweep along at the you know, at the ground level and maybe spray in bursts at the ground level at people's feet. But they there is evidence that they did spray in people's faces as well. And you know, the crowd that starts to get panicked, and, and people yelling and screaming and some people kind of fighting back and some people who got blasts in the face, it was one person who was in a mobility scooter. And I didn't see the moment when that person got sprayed. But again, like you think of the height of a person sitting in a mobility scooter, in someone's spring waist high you can imagine in this person in the scooter starts to thrash violently covering their face. And they're like, they're bucking like on a mechanical bull like it was incredibly violent thrashing and someone yells, medic medic. And then things calm down the group, the groups then face off all of the the cops and the soldiers and whatever line up in a straight line in front of the in front of the courthouse and a smaller group of the protesters line up to face them. And they're standing on this like a small riser that's not even knee high. And they're facing off and one of the one of the protesters has has this bullhorn, and they're all wearing COVID masks, and there's at least 10 officers in the line of police officers. And again, some in tactical gear, all of them have these these, these face masks and the shields and then the police step forward onto the riser. And they begin arresting individuals, they pulled them off the the riser, they put them facedown on the ground. And sheriff's deputies pull their hands behind their back. And then the remaining police fully clear the streets by spraying at the feet of protesters and backing everyone away, backing away, backing away backing away until the street is cleared. Now that's my interpretation of this series of videos. I certainly wouldn't be comfortable swearing to that timeline. But that's the way I that that makes sense in piecing together all these bits of video and images that I saw that event.

Christine Malec:

Were you getting those from social media? You sort of I think you mentioned there wasn't a lot of mainstream media coverage.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, I saw some I mean, I saw some news reports about it. But even the news reports were pulling video from social media. I think at some point, the you know, regular local news reporters came in, but no one did a comp no one did that. I saw a comprehensive beginning to end story on it. So it's, you know, within a within a three minute story on the local news. They'll take 30 seconds of clips from social media and and, you know, a minute of background clips from their own reporter so it's all layered it's it gets it's it's really tangled, it's really difficult to piece together the story.

Christine Malec:

I imagine that what happened in Texas was much more comprehensively covered from a wide lots of wider angles. Is that true?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah. Well, amazingly. So that, this business in Texas with the Trump train, this Trump train phenomenon is really quite something so both Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have been actively supporting these Trump trains, which are groups of people who get together by the dozens, hundreds. And they get in their vehicles, Trump supporters they put up Trump flags and American flags and in some cases, state flags. And, you know, they do a variety of things as a group, they drive through towns and cities and highways and show support for their candidate. And sometimes what they do is, I mean, I think it's fair to say they actively disrupt so they go to areas where there were protests, Black Lives Matter protests taking place, and they it's a show force and I mean a literal show of force. People stand up in the backs of pickup trucks adorned with Trump flags with assault rifles and weapons and oh, yell at the crowd. Yeah, I mean, sometimes these are real shows of force. And then in the last few days, with the campaign's heating up and focusing on specific swing states, and right now Texas is considered a swing state, a potential swing state. They, these Trump trains started to they started to follow the official Biden bus and the official Biden representatives who were in town to give speeches and rallies and do last minute campaigning. And so this one specific video, there are a handful of videos. Again, mostly taken these are cell phone videos taken by often either supporters of the Trump train or or people who were in the Trump train, because they blocked everyone else out. There wasn't much else. No one else had an opportunity to film except perhaps from inside the bus. But we haven't seen that yet. Because that's what those videos are with police and FBI in Texas pickup trucks, largely pickup trucks, a couple of SUVs, but mostly pickup trucks, about a dozen of them follow the Biden Harris bus. This is a large private bus. This is the kind of bus where you would climb a small set of stairs to get get in upon entering. And then they have a big luggage hold at ground level big double sets of wheels in the back. So great big bus, mostly blue in color, a bit of blended red at the front with white lettering on the side that says Biden Harris in the slogan is also painted on the bus in white letters battle for the soul of the nation. And so this is the bus, the Biden bus, that six to 12 pickup trucks follow on to the highway and surround so these pickup trucks again waving you know flying Trump flags and American flags and I think some Texan flags. They stick around the the bus they get right in front of it right beside it right behind it. And they close in very tight so that they they force the bus to do whatever they want. They can slow down, they can speed up, they can do any number of things, but the bus is surrounded. And what one point there is a white SUV that it has been identified as belonging to a democratic staffer who was traveling with the bus. And in one of the videos. This white SUV is directly behind the Biden bus and there's a big black pickup truck behind it. So the order is in front of the bus is a Trump train pickup. Then there's the big bus, then behind it is this white SUV that belongs to a staffer and then behind that is a black truck that belongs to the Trump train. And at some point that white SUV gets is is outed, is moved or moves on its own. You don't see the video into the lane beside to the driver's side of the big bus. And the pickup truck moves in very close tailgates, the the bus and that white SUV clearly is trying to get back in trying to get back between the pickup truck and the big bus. And there's there's some images of that but there's a moment that is missing where the person the people who are filming this event have turned away and then suddenly they turn back and say oh my god, and what you see is the white SUV trying to get back into that space and the black pickup truck, ramming it from the side and hitting it hard and at the side. It's kind of a this is a vehicular equivalent to an elbow from the side to a shove. If you can imagine a body check from the side with your elbow into it. And that's what this black pickup truck does to this quite small like the smaller SUV This is a big pickup truck. And after when they're when the whole incident is done. The staffer took pictures and posted pictures of the side of their SUV and it is scraped up and it has it looks like it's got mud spatter on it and there are these arching black streak marks across the side of the this crumpled side of the SUV that look like they were either from the tires of the The pickup truck or the bumper of the pickup truck, or the truck also had a big heavy steel grate in front of the headlights. This is a, you know, a pickup truck thing that you do to protect your grill and your motor. And it might have been from that, but this was the side of the truck is. I mean it's it's it's gone it's it's it's crumbled in and it's it's blackened and in streaked with these rubber marks.

Christine Malec:

Was the car able to keep driving? Like did did the whole entourage make it off the highway?

JJ Hunt:

They must have. There's no you know, it was funny you asked about like, coverage from media. This was happening... this was an event that wasn't covered. This was just this was just supposed to be the the bus going from one campaign stop to another. So the only videos are from, you know, people who were involved. And, and they don't show the moment. I haven't seen a video where it shows a moment of it ending. Okay, everyone. A lot of people in these videos are like, you know, taking videos from inside their own cars and laughing like we're running them out of town. We're running them out of town. And I'm not sure if if that's I know that the the campaign's canceled several events, the Biden campaign canceled events, but I'm not sure how the physical encounter ended. Okay.

Christine Malec:

Speaking of Actually, I don't know if this is unprecedented, but the phrase gerrymandering has has come up and in our getting ready to to record this episode, you talked about the visuals of some maps that have been modified. And so maybe you could talk a bit about that. Yeah, so gerrymandering is such an interesting phenomenon. It's been around for a long time. Gerrymandering, of course, when you take a, you take a political jurisdiction, and you tweak it to your personal advantage, or to the disadvantage of your opponent, right. And when you hear about a district being reshaped to affect results, it's natural, a lot of us picture, kind of the old way of doing this, which means like maybe you shave the edge off of one neighborhood and add it to your opponent, or shave the edge off your opponent's get, you know, district and add it to your so that you get a boost and they get a drop, whatever. It's bad behavior. But it's relatively unsophisticated, and it's relatively minor compared to what's happening these days. What's happening these days is a gerrymandering. That is absurd. And I think the visuals of it are the best way to appreciate just how absurd this has gotten. So the gerrymandered districts of today, when you look at these images, and a lot of them are done in blues and reds in the US, of course, because you've got the Democrats and the Republicans. And what you end up with our districts in either blue or red, that look like digitized lake and river systems. They've got long fingers that reach out in various directions. They don't follow any geography or any neighborhood map. They're just purely based on cobbling together tiny blocks of supporters into absurd shapes that give you an advantage and your opponent a disadvantage. And it's it's just about the mathematical formula. And if you do this without compunction or shame, if you just, if you do this to the extreme as is being done now, you can relatively easily create systems where 40% of the population ends up getting 60% of the electoral wins. And, again, when you look at these maps of these absurd lake and river systems have of, you know, interconnected and these are cobbled together like a couple of streets, or blocks of houses will be added to a district on this part of the neighborhood or on this side of the street. It's these kinds of houses, they tend to vote in this way. So let's attach that will glom that on to the side of our district. And we don't want that part there because that's got this kind of school in it and the people who there so we carve that off and again, it these wild shapes that are that are absurd, not based on any geography, any neighborhood just based on mathematical formulas. So I guess you're comparing these two older images. Yes, when you call them so outrageous That's because you're comparing them to older versions of the same geographical areas. That's right. And so older districts tend to be boxy in some way, right? Because maybe they're based on roads. Or maybe there's a ravine that cuts a neighborhood in half. So on one edge of the district, there's a, you know, there's a rough edge, or, you know, here's where the main street curbs. So it's not that they're perfect squares by any stretch. And these have been adjusted over time, people have been gerrymandering for a very long time and nudging this out of here, you know, carving that out of there. So it's not that they're perfect squares by any stretch, but they their blocks in some way, they're blobs and blocks. And now what you sometimes see is like a blob of red. So that's the original, you know, district, and there will be a blue finger, that cuts right through the middle of it, and takes all of the support for one party out of that district. And so, even though if those if that, you know, if it was divided in a different way, those little tiny blue blocks would be a minority. If you put them all together, then you can sacrifice the, you know, the votes that are going to go to your opponent, they're going to just sweep a couple of districts, but you now are going to have one or two of these fingers, where you dominate. And therefore, you'll win more votes, you'll win more seats more... Representation.

JJ Hunt:

Yes, representing more representation, thank you, than you're then your opponent. Yeah.

Christine Malec:

We thought we would end by talking about voting in person lineups. And there's a few reasons for this. Talking, of course, you know, lots of people are talking about the election. And one of the things that a wise friend of mine said is that when we listen to the news, we hear about the worst things, and there's lots of worst. But you don't hear about the peaceful people lining up for a long time, or the little old ladies who have signed up to be pole monitors just to keep an eye on things. And so it's not that we're only going to talk about those those peaceful people and not the little old ladies, but because it is election day. And so there has been lots of lining up and in person voting up until now. And today, of course, is election day. So we thought we would end there. And I'm sure there's a huge range of images that you've seen. JJ. So what have you seen in the days leading up to and then this morning?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, well, I mean, there was, again, going back to some of those earlier numbers on you know, pre election voting that there have been major lineups in lots of parts of the country where people have been lining up early to vote and Georgia was a was a place where there are, there were lots of images of people lining up those I saw an image of a black woman with brown braid extension sunglasses and an a pink camouflage COVID mask. She was taking a selfie outside of a Georgia polling station, I believe this was on October 14. And behind her is a long line of people socially distance right there standing separated in what looks like a parking lot. And the in the lineup of people just extends all the way out of the right edge of the frame. And she claims to have waited 10 hours to vote. Yeah, another image from Georgia around the same time, an outdoor lineup of people that is in a like a parking lot. And this is a this is a line that bends back and forth on itself over and over again, kind of like you're at airport security. And we just go back and forth back and it just totally fills this parking lot. And this was again, in Georgia. The I would say that the group of people waiting in line, mostly black, some people were white. And then, you know, I got up early this morning to start looking at images what's going on right now what's happening this morning, and people were starting to post images as early as like 630. This morning, I saw

an image from Connecticut 6:

36am a very long line along the side of the road that's following the curve of the road as it as it winds its way toward a red brick building in the distance. And everyone's wearing their their winter hats and their winter coats. And a lot of these photos are taken from in the line. So what you're seeing on the backs of all of these people, as they, you know recede into the distance. Another image is similar images from Pennsylvania. These were people who are standing along the side of a brick building so I think the lineup had gone had curved you know gone around the corner of the brick building. Again you're seeing all the backs I saw one from Hoover Alabama 8:19am a line wrapping around a parking lot again the similar to the one in Georgia from earlier in the month with it kind of folding back on itself. And then it the line leaves the parking lot and goes into a nearby park and the line disappears into the into the trees. It was hard. And there's a long shadow of the photographer who is taking this picture in the shadow of the photographer kind of stretches across the lawn and onto the pavement. And the length of this shadow tells me just how early in the morning this shot was taken. Because the sun is low and the shadow's stretching halfway up the line.

Christine Malec:

Wow.

JJ Hunt:

That's quite something

Christine Malec:

Voting is precious.

JJ Hunt:

It is!

Christine Malec:

One good takeaway is that we're hopefully reminded of how precious voting as and those long lineups suggest that that we are we are acknowledging that.

JJ Hunt:

I hope everyone votes and I hope everyone stays safe.

Christine Malec:

Yeah, so even you know, people outside the US are watching with apprehensive hope so yeah, stay strong, be peaceful. Stay safe, and we will be talking about the visuals of election day tomorrow. We hope you're loving the show. We really enjoy the challenge of putting together a new episode each week. To ensure that our efforts are worthwhile. We need to reach as many people as possible. That's where you can help spread the word. Maybe send a podcast link to three friends. post about the show on local listservs and Facebook groups. Perhaps tweet about a favorite episode and tag some followers you think might like it, or show your love by becoming a patron. The broader our reach, the longer we can stay Boyd and keep afloat. With your support. We'll be around for a long time. Thanks for listening and staying connected on social media. It's what makes this so rewarding for us to have feedback or suggestions of what you'd like to hear about. Here's how to get in touch with us. Our email address is top description to me@gmail.com. Our Facebook page is called talk description to me. Our website is top description to me.com and you can follow us on Twitter at talk description.

Pre-election voting
White House fence
North Carolina courthouse protest
Texas Trump Train
Gerrymandering maps
Voting lines