US election 2020 thread

[cupid_stunt]

It's clearer than ever, they need to scarp the electoral college system, and go for a simple national vote, putting a stop to this batshit crazy nonsense, once and for all.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'm taking my earlier prediction that he won't attend Biden's inauguration as so solid as to need no further thought. He'll be playing golf or doing a rally with his ever diminishing band of followers.

Or he might be gibbering in a padded cell somewhere, drugged up on anti-psycotics. An actual breakdown doesn't seem impossible now - can his mind withstand the contradiction between the knowledge that he is the greatest and can't lose and the knoweldge that he has lost?

 

[rubbershoes]

Over 900 votes according to the NYT. Got it permanently open in a tab at the moment, I really ought to offer my client a refund on their bill for the past couple of days I have been so distracted by this

Our work system has been down since yesterday morning. Happy days!

 

[rubbershoes]

It's clearer than ever, they need to scarp the electoral college system, and go for a simple national vote, putting a stop to this batshit crazy nonsense, once and for all.

True but they need 2/3rds majorities all over the place for that to happen

 

[fucthest8]

The on-going nightmare for the GOP; a large chunk of their 'base' will not vote for the communist/pedarist enablers.

Er, what? Sorry, I can't unpick that, apologies if I'm being dim

 

[killer b]

meaningful electoral reform would require a senate supermajority and a substantial number of republicans voting against a system which has allowed them to win a quarter of the last 8 elections - elections that they otherwise would have lost. It simply isn't going to happen.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

True but they need 2/3rds majorities all over the place for that to happen

Yep this is why anacronistic systems stay in place for so long. There is huge institutional inertia, and there are too many vested interests to enable change. Exactly the same here.

 

[danny la rouge]

Looks like they are anticipating it, but haven't actually called it (on the website at least).

Yeah, the alert suggested they’d called it but the article is somewhat different.

 

[Teaboy]

It's clearer than ever, they need to scarp the electoral college system, and go for a simple national vote, putting a stop to this batshit crazy nonsense, once and for all.

As part of a project I am doing I was reading about the 1860 US election. Its essentially the same system that they have now. A system which came about in a piecemeal way to accommodate a handful of states and more joining the Union at different times. It was a system that was never designed to scale up to what the Union is now. Basically its a mess that needs root and branch reform. As does the UK's of course.

Fat chance.

 

[rubbershoes]

tbf, they did say, right at the start, that they would be done by Friday.

Nevada said the same. But they didn't say which Friday

 

[Cloo]

Yep. While my first response to Trump last night was to guffaw and take the piss, my second response was 'he's just cost someone their life'.

Some tosser with a gun is going to take it upon himself to do justice for 'Murca by shooting someone involved, isn't he?

If Trump does concede he will push though a bunch of scorched earth moves in the next 2 months to make Biden's life difficult regardless of their impact on ordinary Americans, because that's the sort of petty piece of shit he is

 

[belboid]

Not even faithless - a whole new Trump delegation. Possibly two delegations from the same state with Congress deciding which to accept

I think it’s time you got done sleep!

 

[fucthest8]

Nevada said the same. But they didn't say which Friday

Or which month.

 

[bellaozzydog]

That's true, and Trump doesn't have that support, and he won't stay in power...but he does have millions of supporters and a good number are very riled up and there's two months before power is handed over... Still a high chance of violence once the election is called.

It might be reassuring to think this is a peak moment but the US and the rest of the world is going into a deep Covid recession, poverty is going to deepen further, Biden set to be a lame duck, and so the underlying breeding ground conditions for further authoritarianism / neofascism seem ripe.

i think the vast majority of trumps guns are great supporters wandering around the streets strapped up like the idea of the gun and of violence but when the shooting starts and they realise they are on a two way range 95% of them will piss their fat britches and fuck off home

they think all this is an existential threat until they realise they can just go home and continue as per normal

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Some tosser with a gun is going to take it upon himself to do justice for 'Murca by shooting someone involved, isn't he?

If Trump does concede he will push though a bunch of scorched earth moves in the next 2 months to make Biden's life difficult regardless of their impact on ordinary Americans, because that's the sort of petty piece of shit he is

I am genuinely hoping for a nervous breakdown at this point.

 

[nogojones]

This is a great parody 'boot on the other foot' thing going on here:

View attachment 237596

there's lots more...

How well placed are some of the larger African armies to help out in a peace keeping mission in the US?

 

[Lord Camomile]

One Republican not distancing himself from Trump is Lindsey Graham. Not just supporting him in words, but even financially too!

Honestly thought he'd keep quiet like the others and do another 180 once Trump had gone. Maybe he feel like his support of Trump won him votes in his own election?

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, has pledged to donate $500,000 (£380,000) to help fund the Trump campaign's lawsuits.

"The allegations of wrongdoing are Earth-shattering," Graham, who was re-elected in South Carolina, told Sean Hannity in an interview with Fox News, without providing any details.

"I'm here tonight to stand with President Trump - he stood with me, he's the reason we're going to have a Senate majority," he said.

The money donated to Trump's legal team will come from Graham's own campaign funds, the Associated Press reports.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

One Republican not distancing himself from Trump is Lindsey Graham. Not just supporting him in words, but even financially too!

Honestly thought he'd keep quiet like the others and do another 180 once Trump had gone. Maybe he feel like his support of Trump won him votes in his own election?

Very generous with other people's money.

 

[The39thStep]

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's not impossible that Biden could win this by 104 electoral college votes.

That needs NC to come through, but we've seen what just happened in Georgia.

 

[MickiQ]

View attachment 237608

I love how it and people next to it are maintaining social distancing

 

[Doodler]

Wonder if/when Trump will start referring to his supporters as The Resistance.

 

[Argonia]

Biden now ahead in Georgia!

See you later, Trump

 

[Yossarian]

One Republican not distancing himself from Trump is Lindsey Graham. Not just supporting him in words, but even financially too!

Honestly thought he'd keep quiet like the others and do another 180 once Trump had gone. Maybe he feel like his support of Trump won him votes in his own election?

"This election is a fraud," says guy who just won re-election. I was hoping that Graham losing was going to be one of the high points of election night.

 

[magneze]

Which episode of "it could happen here" are we up to?

 

[Lord Camomile]

"This election is a fraud," says guy who just won re-election. I was hoping that Graham losing was going to be one of the high points of election night.

View attachment 237609

Yeah, me too

 

[Combustible]

The Republicans have a real big problem here: in January there's almost certainly going to be a run-off election in Georgia for the two Senate seats and control of the senate - what serves their election prospects best here? For the run off to be held against a backdrop of Trump thrashing about and refusing to leave office and occasional paramilitary violence? Some of this isn't under their control, but I'd guess that they will try to shut this down as quickly as possible. Once the result is clear.

It's easy to overestimate the extent to which the Republican establishment are capable of shutting things down, although they won't go along with blatant illegal attempts to stop Biden now. After the Sarah Palin debacle in 2008 it seemed like that they would do just that, but although they tried at first, in the end they went along with the Tea Party to an extent, as they served as a wrecking ball to the Democrats. It was also widely believed they would be able to stop Trump getting the nomination, but look how that turned out.

 

[bimble]

People like this woman did the hard work that it all seems to ends up hinging on and are having to sit there listening to these claims of fraud.

 

[Combustible]

True but they need 2/3rds majorities all over the place for that to happen

The three quarters of state legislatures required makes it even more impossible

 

[Lord Camomile]

People like this woman did the hard work that it all seems to ends up hinging on and are having to sit there listening to these claims of fraud.

And also be completely overlooked and taken for grated by the DNC.