Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[unclevlad]

6 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Is it possible to impeach a senator? Asking for a friend.

Mmm...ok, technically no.  Expel but that's not gonna happen.  That said, you get my point, I suspect.

[Old Man]

Some but not all states allow recalling senators and representatives, IIRC. Hawai’i is not one of them otherwise Tulsi would already have been removed. 

[King Red]

9 hours ago, unclevlad said:

I think Trump will probably be sniping from the sideline, using his status as an ex-President to compel the media to listen.  Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if he became a Fox News contributor.

 

I am undecided, tho, whether the Republicans would accept him running again, or go a different direction.  If the latter...what about Pence, or is he too tarred with the Trump brush?  Not sure.  Pence would likely be more comfortable with the religious conservatives but not necessarily with the whole MAGA crowd.  But...someone can take that up, and push all the same buttons.  It need not be Trump.

 

EDIT:  there's a NY Times article on this;  they talk about Trump possibly trying to build a network to rival Fox News.  That's perhaps easier said than done.  But...he also has 88 million Twitter followers.  If nothing else, continuing to harangue there will have influence.

It is possible that Trump could remain politically influential if he loses the Presidency. However, he faces economic ruin from the many lawsuits against him, his failing businesses, and debt to Deutche Bank; he could be jailed from criminal accusations against him; and Twitter has censored him and could deplatform him in the near future. If he loses, he could be done.

 

America, like other countries, has an angry, politically active populist faction. Even without Trump, it is still there. How can we heal from this pandemic and our sectarian rage, to learn how to act with common sense and common decency? In the past, the human race has faced plagues and chaos and overcome them. I believe we can calm down, and work together to create a better world.

[Pariah]

I just saw a headline (didn't bother to read the article) saying that the Trump boys are now calling out Republicans for not supporting their father vigorously enough. Because we all know how unconditionally supportive Donald Trump has been of his followers over the past four years.

 

I have a feeling this could get very ugly very quickly if/when the final tally comes out in favor of Vice President Biden.

 

* Pariah sits back, munching popcorn. *

[archer]

13 minutes ago, Pariah said:

I just saw a headline (didn't bother to read the article) saying that the Trump boys are now calling out Republicans for not supporting their father vigorously enough. Because we all know how unconditionally supportive Donald Trump has been of his followers over the past four years.

 

I have a feeling this could get very ugly very quickly if/when the final tally comes out in favor of Vice President Biden.

 

* Pariah sits back, munching popcorn. *

 

Within 3 hours at the rate they're counting in Pennsylvania. Biden is winning in the absentee vote by big margins in every county, whether normally considered a red county or a blue one.

 

Looks like Trump really did scare his supporters out of mailing in their ballots.

[TrickstaPriest]

38 minutes ago, archer said:

Within 3 hours at the rate they're counting in Pennsylvania. Biden is winning in the absentee vote by big margins in every county, whether normally considered a red county or a blue one.

 

Looks like Trump really did scare his supporters out of mailing in their ballots.

 

Literally what I expected.

 

People are talking about fraud like Trump wasn't President for 4 years.  With the power to open a commission, a committee, an investigation, anything.

 

If anyone cares about fraud, blame Trump for not even trying to do anything about it, just so he can use it as an excuse at best... or that he's completely  ad-libbing at the last minute on this and every other issue.

[archer]

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his War Room Pandemic podcast Thursday said that President Donald Trump should start his second term by beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

 

"I want to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I would put them on the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats—you either get with the program or you’re gone. Time to stop playing games."

 

YouTube took it down. Twitter suspended his account.

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1752419/trump-adviser-steve-bannon-fauci-fbi-wray-beheaded/

[TrickstaPriest]

3 minutes ago, archer said:

YouTube took it down. Twitter suspended his account.

 

 

Good.  Calls to violence should get him arrested.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

* Pariah sits back, munching popcorn. *

I like popcorn as a late munchie.  Just finished a batch, actually.

Came here to say...did one last late check.  One thing for near-certain...Georgia is going to a recount.  

99% of the vote counted.  About 4.9 million votes.

The current margin is about 2000 votes.  Not sure what the auto recount margin is in Georgia but unless they're HEAVILY weighted to one candidate, ya gotta figure the margin will be less.

So that one won't be official til some time late next week, I expect.  Or later.

This is assuming there aren't a gazillion frivolous challenges filed....

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, archer said:

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his War Room Pandemic podcast Thursday said that President Donald Trump should start his second term by beheading FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci. 

 

"I want to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I would put them on the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats—you either get with the program or you’re gone. Time to stop playing games."

 

YouTube took it down. Twitter suspended his account.

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1752419/trump-adviser-steve-bannon-fauci-fbi-wray-beheaded/

 

Without Trump's status as President, I anticipate his social media outlets will also be curtailed sooner or later. Without them he won't be as much of a gadfly on the body politic. Of course that would be more incentive for him to start his own network, as he's threatened to do. But almost all his business ventures end as financial failures, so even if he does try it I doubt it'll be around long.

 

If Trump is replaced by Biden, I'll be interested to see if the mainstream media, including Fox, actually devote any attention to his ravings. IMO his office was the only reason they felt they had to cover him. It might also turn out to be a case study in the public's attention span. Will his current supporters continue to flock to his banner after he's lost? Or will they move on to someone/something else?

[archer]

59 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

I like popcorn as a late munchie.  Just finished a batch, actually.

Came here to say...did one last late check.  One thing for near-certain...Georgia is going to a recount.  

99% of the vote counted.  About 4.9 million votes.

The current margin is about 2000 votes.  Not sure what the auto recount margin is in Georgia but unless they're HEAVILY weighted to one candidate, ya gotta figure the margin will be less.

So that one won't be official til some time late next week, I expect.  Or later.

This is assuming there aren't a gazillion frivolous challenges filed....

 

Auto-recount is 0.5% if I remember correctly.

[Ragitsu]

If B wins, will future politicians shut up about mail-in voting?

[archer]

Biden has pulled ahead in Georgia by 1380 votes.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Ragitsu said:

If B wins, will future politicians shut up about mail-in voting?

 

Only if they see it to their advantage.

[Starlord]

 

[Starlord]

They found the person counting votes in Nevada, btw

 

[Hermit]

I would love it if Georgia went Biden and Blue. LOVE IT. The South needs more than Virginia to represent darn it.

 

Besides, I feel uncomfortable just relying on Nevada. NV AND GA swinging blue would be harder for the trumpkins to dispute

[BoloOfEarth]

9 minutes ago, Hermit said:

I would love it if Georgia went Biden and Blue. LOVE IT. The South needs more than Virginia to represent darn it.

 

Besides, I feel uncomfortable just relying on Nevada. NV AND GA swinging blue would be harder for the trumpkins to dispute

 

I'm pretty sure it's going to be GA, NV, and PA going to Biden, with NC and AK going to Trump.  Which means Biden would have 306 electoral votes, vs. Trump's 232, or a 74-vote margin.  Pretty much a flip of the 2016 election (hopefully without the faithless electors of that election).  Expect recounts in WI and GA at the very least, and possibly PA.

 

Not that this high margin for a Biden victory would stop the Trumpkins (from Twitler himself on down) from crying foul, throwing tantrums, and otherwise disputing the results.  

[Ragitsu]

Now I see why Trump opposed mail-in voting; he knew it would be bad news for him.

 

  

14 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Not that this high margin for a Biden victory would stop the Trumpkins (from Twitler himself on down) from crying foul, throwing tantrums, and otherwise disputing the results.  

 

You're getting my hopes up that the baby will have to be dragged out of The White House.

[BoloOfEarth]

7 minutes ago, Ragitsu said:

Now I see why Trump opposed mail-in voting; he knew it would be bad news for him.

 

Y'know, it was kinda a self-fulfilling prophecy.  He told his people to vote in person rather than vote absentee - so they did, with the result that the absentee ballots are mostly in favor of Biden.  Duh!  What did people think would happen?

 

If he'd extolled his supporters to use mail-in voting, the late returns would have turned out differently - but so would the election day returns. 

 

I think he knew that the election itself would be bad news for him, so he opposed mail-in voting specifically to give him something to point to and (baselessly) cry foul, and then try to steal the election in the Senate or the Supreme Court.  I just pray the Republicans / Justices have enough cajones to stop that from happening.

[Cygnia]

[Pariah]

I just read this on NBC News:

 

Quote

 

Counties with worst virus surges overwhelmingly voted Trump

U.S. voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support.

 

An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority — 93 percent of those counties — went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.

 

Most were rural counties in Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin — the kinds of areas that often have lower rates of adherence to social distancing, mask-wearing and other public health measures, and have been a focal point for much of the latest surge in cases.

 

 

This surprises me not in the least, naturally. 

[unclevlad]

One point from this election that's clear to me:

 

My god, we need to modernize the process.

Did a quick early-AM results check, including cnn.com.  They were doing live reports.

220,000 or so ballots still to count in Arizona (as of the moment).

About 4000 in Georgia...but then there's the provisional ballots and the military/overseas ballots, which IIRC was another 9000.  

So I believe neither would be resolved today. 

Nevada allows mailed ballots postmarked the 3rd to be counted as long as they arrive by the 12th.  Well, perhaps there isn't much to be done there....

 

Still, it feels ridiculous to me that it takes this long.  I figure part of it is, each state handles things on their own, so it's a patchwork of methodologies.  Part of it is fear...legit fear of fraud, but also the magnification of that fear because vote fraud claims have been rampant.  Some of it is almost certainly money.

[BarretWallace]

11 hours ago, Pariah said:

* Pariah sits back, munching popcorn. *

 

*Barret offers Pariah a beer to go with the popcorn.

Yeah, this election aftermath will almost certainly get ugly, and I hope the innocent casualties are minimal.

[Greywind]

Trump tells people to vote in person.

People are surprised when the majority of mailed ballots are for Biden.