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As we've discussed here, "treason" would be a legally problematic charge. However, Trump has unquestionably undermined American national security, by cancelling treaties, abandoning allies, gutting the diplomatic and intelligence corps of their most qualified officers, and blurting out classified info to the public and/or America's enemies. Sadly, making such decisions most likely falls under the legal purview of the POTUS.

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2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

As we've discussed here, "treason" would be a legally problematic charge. However, Trump has unquestionably undermined American national security, by cancelling treaties, abandoning allies, gutting the diplomatic and intelligence corps of their most qualified officers, and blurting out classified info to the public and/or America's enemies. Sadly, making such decisions most likely falls under the legal purview of the POTUS.

 

Legally problematic is another way of saying legally possible.

 

We still have no idea what we will find once we're able to examine Trump's financial records (which will definitely be open to congressional scrutiny once Trump has left office) nor what we will find in whatever documents and transcripts which Trump doesn't manage to destroy from his time as commander-in-chief.

 

Nor do we know what his lackies will say when under threat of indictment themselves and Trump no longer able to promise them pardons.

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Trump makes one-minute appearance to tout Dow's 30,000

 

But the stock market rally today started because it looks like the administration has conceded the presidential race and has started the transition to the end of the Trump era and a return to normalcy.

 

More winning.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/527365-trump-makes-one-minute-appearance-to-tout-dows-30000

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Record number of absentee ballots requested in Georgia runoff election

 

Already more than triple the number of requests than happened for the 2018 midterm election.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/527426-record-number-of-ballots-requested-in-georgia-runoff-election

 

(Funniest comment so far: Show those libs you won't stand for them stealing the election from Trump by writing his name in on your votes for the Georgia senate run-off! #MAGA!)

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I believe the interviewer was asking about actual allegations made, maybe by Trump, maybe his lawyers or spokespeople, maybe by elected Republican officials. I noticed he recited each question rather expressionlessly, then after the Dominion rep answered he moved on to the next question without comment. I got the impression the host didn't want to ask them, but was doing the job he was given. That methodical, detailed dispassion may turn out to be the most effective way to reply to the frequent near-hysteria of Trumpists.

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Yeah, I noted the same thing;  one can readily enough argue that this looks like one of the news department people, not one of the talking heads.  So on a personal level he probably deserves some slack...and even perhaps sympathy.  But it was still all pure steer manure.

 

And some of it is so incredibly whacked out.  Venezuela ties?  Really?  What's next, they'll find V. M. Smith and assert Martian influence?

 

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HHS Secretary Azar says states will decide who gets first Covid-19 shots. "We hope our recommendations will carry weight with [states] but at the end of the day, they will make that decision."

 

So basically, even at this point in the process, we get no federal leadership and no national policy. 

 

There's going to be 50 different distribution plans determined by politicians ranging from those who take the virus seriously to those who continue to think the virus is a hoax and resist taking even basic public safety measures.

 

Who wants to bet that there will be states where vulnerable people will have to line up for hours indoors in mask-optional lines in order to get their vaccine shot?

 

And how many vulnerable people in those states will line up, twice, to get their vaccine shot...without realizing that if they get infected while in line before the vaccine has weeks to take effect that the vaccination will be absolutely worthless for preventing their illness?

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/24/alex-azar-coronavirus-vaccine-states-440337

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6 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

And some of it is so incredibly whacked out.  Venezuela ties?  Really?  What's next, they'll find V. M. Smith and assert Martian influence?

 

 

Oddly enough, that one actually has a kernel of reality to it. Sequoia Voting Services out of Florida, which designed and built the first generation of these voting machines and software, was purchased by a Venezuela-based company in 2005, and most of their designers at that time were based there. CNN did an expose of that in 2006, which has recently popped up on YouTube and is frequently being linked to as "proof" of the machines' subversion by "leftists," not to mention CNN's hypocrisy.

 

What's being left out is that Sequoia was sold again in 2010, to Dominion Voting Services, a company originating in Canada but incorporated in the United States, with dual corporate headquarters in Toronto and Denver. Dominion has no ties to Venezuela or any other "socialist" country, unless you count Canada. ;)  (About ten minutes of online research was enough to clarify the issue. I also fact-bombed one of the video's comments section. I imagine I'm not too popular there.) :P

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President-elect Biden at the moment is giving a heart-felt Thanksgiving speech.

 

He was talking about those we lost to COVID and the empty spots which will be around the Thanksgiving tables across the country this year. And started talking about the pain of losing his wife that first year  and was apparently going to try to tie that thought into Thanksgiving and what he went through.

 

But he kind of chocked up half-way through trying to get to his point and said, "I remember that first Thanksgiving" then kind of trailed off (choked up a bit), didn't complete the thought, and went on to something else.

 

I turned to my wife and said, "I knew he was old but I didn't realize that he was was there at the first Thanksgiving."

 

Ba dum bum. < cymbal crash >

 

 

In any case, he's giving a really classy speech. It's going to be so refreshing to have someone who sounds like a compassionate and caring professional leading the country. I know it's only been a few years since we've had that, but it feels like it's been so much longer.

 

 

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22 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That methodical, detailed dispassion may turn out to be the most effective way to reply to the frequent near-hysteria of Trumpists.

Gray rocking is generally the most effective way to deal with people who have attention-seeking personality disorders. Getting drawn into their drama isn't productive.

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8 hours ago, archer said:

In any case, he's giving a really classy speech. It's going to be so refreshing to have someone who sounds like a compassionate and caring professional leading the country. I know it's only been a few years since we've had that, but it feels like it's been so much longer.

 

 

 

Maybe Trump has helped remind us that those qualities weigh for more than individual political policies. If a leader starts from a position of compassion and competence, the details can be worked out.

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2 hours ago, Matt the Bruins said:

Gray rocking is generally the most effective way to deal with people who have attention-seeking personality disorders. Getting drawn into their drama isn't productive.

 

As Mark Twain is reported to have said, "Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." 

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17 hours ago, archer said:

There's going to be 50 different distribution plans determined by politicians ranging from those who take the virus seriously to those who continue to think the virus is a hoax and resist taking even basic public safety measures.

 

 

I'd worry less about that and worry more about how local culture will impact the prioritization.

I mean, can you imagine Alabama officials NOT making sure the Crimson Tide football team is in the first wave to get the vaccine?

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5 hours ago, Matt the Bruins said:

Gray rocking is generally the most effective way to deal with people who have attention-seeking personality disorders. Getting drawn into their drama isn't productive.

 

I've never hit any mentally ill person with a gray rock before. Do I start with big rocks and work my way down or small rocks and work my way up?

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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/26/trump-conspiracies-georgia-senate-440776

 

Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott

 

Their reason: The two GOP candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are not only insufficiently pro-Trump, they may be complicit in Georgia’s electoral fraud.

 

It doesn’t matter that both candidates are essentially lock-step with Trump, or that there is no evidence of links to electoral malfeasance. On Twitter and its less-restrictive alternative Parler, Trump’s more hardline followers have linked the duo to the president’s favorite — and untrue — voter-fraud theories. Hashtags like #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly are flying around. The two lawmakers’ Parler accounts are brimming with posts accusing them of being secret “liberal DemoRats.”

 

Live by the QAnon, die by the QAnon.

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The sub-head to the article is:

 

Quote

It's hard to tell if the online chatter reflects wider voter sentiment, but some Republicans have expressed concern.

 

I agree with the irony;  if the conspiracy theorists boycott and that causes the Republicans to lose control of the Senate, then the boycotters sliced off their nose to spite their face.  BIG time.  (BUT, giving the Democrats control now might be the best way to take back BOTH chambers in 2022, as a stepping-stone to the WH in 2024.  Let the Dems take ALL the heat for the tough times that will be with us.  It might be betting on failure, on the hope that things DO go south, and the further the better, but I absolutely don't put that past Trump.)

 

But I'm more worried that this is the kind of movement that feels, to me, like it can *easily* go violent.  They want to oust the Republican secretary of state, they're willing to sacrifice 2 Senators AND control of the Senate...and this all came about in a couple of weeks.  There's probably little to connect the Georgia people with the Michigan terrorists who threatened their governor, at least directly, but ideologically?  They feel strongly connected.  IMO, we are absolutely at risk for seeing the start of American home-grown terrorists.

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5 hours ago, archer said:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/26/trump-conspiracies-georgia-senate-440776

 

Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott

 

Their reason: The two GOP candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are not only insufficiently pro-Trump, they may be complicit in Georgia’s electoral fraud.

 

It doesn’t matter that both candidates are essentially lock-step with Trump, or that there is no evidence of links to electoral malfeasance. On Twitter and its less-restrictive alternative Parler, Trump’s more hardline followers have linked the duo to the president’s favorite — and untrue — voter-fraud theories. Hashtags like #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly are flying around. The two lawmakers’ Parler accounts are brimming with posts accusing them of being secret “liberal DemoRats.”

 

Live by the QAnon, die by the QAnon.

 

And what do you want to bet that, after boycotting and contributing to losing the Georgia senate runoffs, they scream foul and insist Republicans only lost because of Democrat voter fraud?

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