U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[Lovecraft]

2 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Are they all legal?

Enough of them are.

 

🙂

 

 

[ri Alban]

Scumbag Steve Bannon banned from twitter. He should be jailed for encouraging the death of Dr Fauci and the FBI guy. 

[John Gentleman]

6 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Scumbag Steve Bannon banned from twitter. He should be jailed for encouraging the death of Dr Fauci and the FBI guy. 

What's another few indictments/charges to add to his current list? Isn't the p***k just out on bail?

[ri Alban]

4 minutes ago, John Gentleman said:

What's another few indictments/charges to add to his current list? Isn't the p***k just out on bail?

Was that for the wall fraud? 

[John Gentleman]

1 minute ago, ri Alban said:

Was that for the wall fraud? 

Aye, plus a few other things for by (all fraud related).

[Maple Leaf]

All the tension over votes is wasted energy.  It doesn't matter.

 

Trump won't leave.  Repeat as often as necessary.  Trump won't leave.

 

If he loses in the election, he'll take the matter to all the courts he's stacked with Trump-friendly judges.  If he loses that round, he'll go to the Trump-friendly SCOTUS.

 

If he loses that, he'll get Republican governors to mess around with Electoral College votes.

 

One way or another, he'll stay in power.  Il duce won't leave. 

 

Accept the inevitable.

[John Gentleman]

PA down to 24k for Trump. This is where Trump's defeat is going to be crystallised.

[ri Alban]

7 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

All the tension over votes is wasted energy.  It doesn't matter.

 

Trump won't leave.  Repeat as often as necessary.  Trump won't leave.

 

If he loses in the election, he'll take the matter to all the courts he's stacked with Trump-friendly judges.  If he loses that round, he'll go to the Trump-friendly SCOTUS.

 

If he loses that, he'll get Republican governors to mess around with Electoral College votes.

 

One way or another, he'll stay in power.  Il duce won't leave. 

 

Accept the inevitable.

'Lock him up' 

[A Boy Named Crow]

10 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

All the tension over votes is wasted energy.  It doesn't matter.

 

Trump won't leave.  Repeat as often as necessary.  Trump won't leave.

 

If he loses in the election, he'll take the matter to all the courts he's stacked with Trump-friendly judges.  If he loses that round, he'll go to the Trump-friendly SCOTUS.

 

If he loses that, he'll get Republican governors to mess around with Electoral College votes.

 

One way or another, he'll stay in power.  Il duce won't leave. 

 

Accept the inevitable.

What does that do for America as a country?

 

Global standing would sink even further, any legitimacy they have previously claimed as the "world's policeman" would be out the window. 

 

Civil unrest would be significant too. 

 

I'm not disagreeing with you,  I doubt he would go off quietly into the night. The implications of their system failing so badly would be HUGE though,  eh.

Edited November 6, 2020 by A Boy Named Crow

[ri Alban]

Trump thinks everyone is as corrupt as him. He's probably right. Good it's coming full circle. 

[ri Alban]

3 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

What does that do for America as a country?

 

Global standing would sink even further, any legitimacy they have previously claimed as the "world's policeman" would be out the window. 

 

Civil unrest would be significant too. 

 

I'm not disagreeing with you,  I doubt he would go off quietly into the night. The implications of their system failing so badly would be HUGE though,  eh.

No one will hear him from guantananamo. 

[JFK-1]

20 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

All the tension over votes is wasted energy.  It doesn't matter.

 

Trump won't leave.  Repeat as often as necessary.  Trump won't leave.

 

If he loses in the election, he'll take the matter to all the courts he's stacked with Trump-friendly judges.  If he loses that round, he'll go to the Trump-friendly SCOTUS.

 

If he loses that, he'll get Republican governors to mess around with Electoral College votes.

 

One way or another, he'll stay in power.  Il duce won't leave. 

 

Accept the inevitable.

 

I agree he wont go peacefully. But I don't see any way he can retain the office. The courts wont back it simply because there is no legal means to do so. They  can't suspend reality to go along with his fantasies.

Edited November 6, 2020 by JFK-1

[JFK-1]

Armed Trumpists converge on Phoenix, Arizona to attack Fox News and demand that votes be counted, although vote counting was underway at the time.
 

 

[vegas-voss]

3 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

I agree he wont go peacefully. But I don't see any way he can retain the office. The courts wont back it simply because there is no legal means to do so. They  can't suspend reality to go along with his fantasies.

I read something about them trying to keep challenging this and that and trying to stretch it out to Dec 14th and if they can do that then the result gets nulled or something.Surely to **** the country won't stand for that though never mind the  courts 

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

Nate Silver has called it for Biden, albeit cryptically (he has to get around twitter rules)...

 

 

 

[John Gentleman]

2 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

Armed Trumpists converge on Phoenix, Arizona to attack Fox News and demand that votes be counted, although vote counting was underway at the time.
 

 

Folks are dumb where they come from...

[JFK-1]

Just now, John Gentleman said:

Folks are dumb where they come from...

 

While others converge on Georgia screaming stop counting.

[ri Alban]

Has there ever been a president not pass the baton on, on inaugural day? 

[John Gentleman]

4 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

While others converge on Georgia screaming stop counting.

Double-dumb! Couldn't make it up, could you?

[John Gentleman]

2 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Has there ever been a president not pass the baton on, on inaugural day? 

Nixon?

[ri Alban]

1 minute ago, John Gentleman said:

Nixon?

Was he not bumped beforehand. 

[ri Alban]

15 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

Armed Trumpists converge on Phoenix, Arizona to attack Fox News and demand that votes be counted, although vote counting was underway at the time.
 

 

Thank fk the Weans went back to school over here. This is what home schooling achieves. 

[A Boy Named Crow]

18 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

Armed Trumpists converge on Phoenix, Arizona to attack Fox News and demand that votes be counted, although vote counting was underway at the time.
 

 

I know it's not funny,  it's a very serious situation, but calling them Y'all Qaeda, that's a belter!

[ri Alban]

Anyone seen @alfajambo @alwaysthereinspirit.

[JFK-1]

In Philadelphia, police are reportedly investigating a tip about an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where officials are counting ballots.

6abc Action News reports that law enforcement took a man into custody. “Action News has learned that police got a tip about a group, possibly a family, driving up from Virginia in a Hummer to unleash an attack at the Convention Center,” the network reported.

 

The Guardian has not yet independently verified the report.

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/nov/05/us-election-joe-biden-donald-trump-result-latest-who-is-winning-live-2020-updates

[ri Alban]

Pence not saying much. 

[JFK-1]

Losing an election, Trump chooses to slander American democracy

 

PRESIDENT TRUMP did the country the favor of explaining ahead of time how he planned to falsely allege the rigging of the election for his opponent. Thursday evening in the White House, he followed up with a series of preposterous, inflammatory lies about the vote-counting process. “There’s been tremendous corruption and fraud going on,” he said.

 

Let’s be absolutely clear: There is zero — zero — evidence of fraud or corruption. What Mr. Trump sees as nefarious is something more mundane though undoubtedly painful for him: He is losing.

On election night in some states, he held a lead in partial counts. Then, as mail-in ballots were counted, his lead was “whittled away,” as he said.

The explanation is obvious to everyone except, apparently, the president. He railed so much against mail-in voting before the election that few Republicans voted that way. Most of the mailed ballots therefore favor Democrat Joe Biden.

Now officials are counting the votes — with observers watching, contrary to another Trump lie; with both Republican and Democratic election officials participating, contrary to another Trump lie; and in accordance with the rules, contrary to yet another Trump lie.

For news networks and platforms, these relentless, bald-faced falsehoods present an almost insuperable challenge. Hashtags exhorting readers to “stop the steal” exploded in popularity after Mr. Trump used Twitter to accuse Joe Biden of trying to “STEAL the election,” and then took to television to claim baselessly that he had won and that any other outcome would constitute a “fraud.”

Purveyors of propaganda within Mr. Trump’s circle needed no further cues. Eric Trump shared a fake “ballot-burning” video originally from sources affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory; he also announced, “We have won Pennsylvania!” even as evidence to the contrary flowed in.

Newt Gingrich launched allegations of vote theft on “Fox & Friends”; Rush Limbaugh shared a viral lie about more votes than registered voters arriving in Wisconsin; hyperpartisan outlets such as One America News declared a second term for the incumbent (“MSM hopes you don’t believe your eyes”).

News networks, platforms and other intermediaries to the public can try to contain the damage. Twitter’s aggressive labeling of misleading posts coupled with its sharing restrictions have proved fairly effective, though catching those who echo the original falsehoods is tougher.

Facebook’s label-only strategy has been somewhat less effective but still useful. YouTube has lacked a policy almost entirely.

Television networks also are struggling with how to handle an unprecedented assault on democracy consisting of patently incorrect but newsworthy claims. Thankfully, anchors have mostly been forceful at pushing back: Fox News’s Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, among others, have set the facts straight on many of the fanciful fraud accusations.

Of course, these efforts would be more effective if their network contended with its own disinformation superspreaders, including Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, by challenging their mendacity in something closer to real time.

As Mr. Trump spewed lie after insidious lie from the White House press room Thursday evening, many networks cut away entirely.

CNN continued to air his remarks, most of the time with a chyron pointing out their bogusness; Fox News’s chyron at one point simply quoted Mr. Trump saying, without proof, “WE HAVE SO MUCH PROOF.”

We hope, even after so many disappointments, that other Republican leaders will stand up to this most vile attack on the integrity of American democracy and say, “Enough.”

Whether they do or not, we are confident that election officials across the country will continue doing their job: counting every vote. We are confident, too, that most Americans will see these lies for what they are: desperate and despicable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/election-disinformation-trump-is-the-problem/2020/11/05/8f9acbd0-1f96-11eb-90dd-abd0f7086a91_story.html

[JFK-1]

 

[JFK-1]

To chant or not to chant? Or what to chant? Oh the confusion.
 

 

[John Gentleman]

11 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Frankly, I'm beyond shock now.

[John Gentleman]

PA down to a 18229 margin. Trump's a goner. 

[Unknown user]

When it became obvious a landslide wasn't happening there was a massive shift in odds  Trump went to 1/2 to put people off betting on him.

 

Biden moved too, 11/8 on Paddy Power. I saw my chance and put 60 quid on him, cashing out at 118.60 to be safe.

 

Tidy, mon the shermans!

 

[John Gentleman]

Just now, Smithee said:

When it became obvious a landslide wasn't happening there was a massive shift in odds  Trump went to 1/2 to put people off betting on him.

 

Biden moved too, 11/8 on Paddy Power. I saw my chance and put 60 quid on him, cashing out at 118.60 to be safe.

 

Tidy, mon the shermans!

 

That's your beer money then. Well done.

[Riddley Walker]

3 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

So now exactly what i thought may happen is beginning to kick off. With that wack job Alex Jones stirring it up.
 

 

 

 

 And people expect to look for sociological reasons as to why folk vote a certain way. If you vote for a lying moron then you deserved to get called out on it.

 

Alex Jones the hero.

[Justin Z]

Never would've guessed Justin Amash was a closet Indy supporter. Or Devo Max at least.
 

 

[Unknown user]

32 minutes ago, John Gentleman said:

That's your beer money then. Well done.

Cheers

[Justin Z]

[John Gentleman]

Georgia now down to +665 to Trump. Not that it'll really make much difference to the endgame.

[Sidelight]

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November, 1605.

Trump has been completely vindicated and will serve 4 more years.

[John Gentleman]

1 minute ago, alfajambo said:

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November, 1605.

Trump has been completely vindicated and will serve 4 more years.

.....in prison, hopefully.

[Justin Z]

4 minutes ago, alfajambo said:

 

[JFK-1]

9 minutes ago, alfajambo said:

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November, 1605.

Trump has been completely vindicated and will serve 4 more years.

 

You trying to out crazy him? Hell I could do better than that with no effort or inspiration at all. If you want to be a troll it at least requires a modicum of entertainment value.

[Justin Z]

[JFK-1]

Trump Moves Into the Burn-It-Down Phase

 

The president’s White House press conference showed that he knows his reelection prospects are fading, and he’ll try anything to keep power.

 

President donald trump tonight raised the threat of a constitutional crisis to a new level. He issued an extraordinary series of baseless charges about the election he is on the verge of losing—that Democrats were stealing the vote, that the media had deliberately released “phony polls” to suppress Republican turnout, that “corrupt” officials in Detroit and Philadelphia were finding Democratic ballots to whittle away his supposed lead.

 

They were shocking things for a sitting president to say. He promised “a lot of litigation” and held out hope that the Supreme Court, now with a 6–3 conservative majority thanks to his appointments, would save him.

 

But despite his fighting words, his body language betrayed a far different tone. He read from a prepared statement on his lectern, barely looking up at the cameras, his voice a flat monotone devoid of the verve he deploys to whip thousands of people into a frenzy at his rallies.

 

The president’s most devout loyalists respond best to his energy, to the high-decibel passion, and occasionally indignant anger, that he brings to the stump. This speech contained none of that.

 

Trump is a showman who prizes presentation above everything else, who watches his interviews with the sound off, who critiques appearances with precision, who famously mocks his opponents as “sleepy” and “low energy.”

 

When Trump goes back to watch his performance tonight, he’ll see a salesman who wasn’t selling. What matters, of course, is not what Trump says, or how he says it, but what he does—and what his supporters do at his behest.

 

Trump gave the speech his opponents had been fearing, one that signaled he might use the considerable tools at his disposal—the machinery of government, willing Republican allies, compliant conservative courts—to hold on to power and thwart the will of the voters.

 

Trump might well pursue that course, but his argument was largely nonsensical, and his complaints about the late counting of mail-in ballots—as stale as they are at this point—stem from dynamics his own allies created.

 

The health risk of the pandemic led to the surge in interest in voting by mail, and Trump’s attacks on the practice’s integrity resulted in a huge partisan skew in the people who availed themselves of that option.

 

In states such as Pennsylvania, Democrats begged the Republicans who control the legislature to allow county officials to begin counting those early ballots before Election Day to ensure a prompt result, as they do in GOP-led states such as Florida, which Trump won. But those lawmakers refused.

 

On Fox News, John Roberts described Trump’s remarks as the words of a man who was losing and trying to hold on to power. Even the loyal New York Post described the president as “downcast” and his charges as “baseless.”

 

The talkers on CNN were even more withering: Jake Tapper deemed the appearance a disgrace. “We knew the president wasn’t going to lose gracefully, if he lost,” he told viewers. “But frankly, watching him flail like this is just pathetic.”

 

Trump’s lone nominal defender on the network, former Senator Rick Santorum, said the president’s accusations were without merit and “dangerous.”

 

Anderson Cooper likened the president to “an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun.”

 

GOP lawmakers weren’t buying it either. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the lone Republican to vote to remove the president from office earlier this year, tweeted, “Counting every vote is at the heart of democracy.”

 

The soon-to-be governor of his state, Spencer Cox, urged Americans not to believe “unfounded allegations that destroy trust in the process.”

 

Representative Will Hurd of Texas said the president’s speech was “not only dangerous and wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon.”

 

Despite Trump’s lack of punch, there was—as Santorum noted—still danger in his message. If the election has demonstrated anything, it is that there are millions of Americans who hang on to the president’s every word, and who, even if he eventually vacates the White House, will believe that his defeat was fraudulent.

 

Among conservatives, there is already talk of asking Republicans in the Pennsylvania state legislature to overrule the popular will and submit their own electors on Trump’s behalf.

 

(A top GOP lawmaker in the state has reiterated, through a spokesman, that they will not do that.)

 

Asked whether Republicans in the state should “invalidate” the election, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina replied: “I think everything should be on the table.”

 

Trump’s supporters haven’t stormed the streets en masse, but they have gathered outside election offices in Detroit, Philadelphia, and elsewhere to protest the counting of legitimate ballots.

 

The registrar of Clark County, Nevada, Joe Gloria, told reporters today that he was “concerned for the safety of my staff.”

 

The president gave no indication that he cared about any of that. As he was speaking tonight, the tallies that could spell his defeat kept coming in—another few thousand votes for Joe Biden in Georgia and, shortly thereafter, a few thousand shaved off Trump’s shrinking lead in Pennsylvania.

 

The president seemed to know the end was coming. As he slunk away, a reporter shouted after him: “Are you being a sore loser?” Trump ignored him and left the room.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/trump-white-house-press-conference-election/617013/

 

 

 

[The Mighty Thor]

7 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

Ooft!

 

😃

[Bindy Badgy]

39 minutes ago, John Gentleman said:

Georgia now down to +665 to Trump. Not that it'll really make much difference to the endgame.

 

Pennsylvania down to 18,229 now so it's just a matter of time before that flips.

 

Biden's lead in Arizona has dropped to 47,052, which is a bit concerning.

[kingantti1874]

What a total embarrassment of a human Donald Trump is.

[CavySlaveJambo]

Less that 500 votes between Trump and Biden in Georgia now. 

[RobboM]

1 hour ago, alfajambo said:

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November, 1605.

Trump has been completely vindicated and will serve 4 more years.

God has sent a plague to USA to undermine Trump this year
God has given Biden nearly 4m more votes
Won't you listen to God?

[Justin Z]

5 minutes ago, RobboM said:

God has sent a plague to USA to undermine Trump this year
God has given Biden nearly 4m more votes
Won't you listen to God?