2020 Election Thoughts

[Stinky Stanky]

2 hours ago, Danny Dravot said:

I just don't get why we need to have actual people fill the electoral roles. The faithless elector idea is ridiculous. If you win Georgia, you get 16 electoral votes. Period. There shouldn't be any "Will this ceremonial flunky appointed by so-and-so abide by the people of his state and cast his vote for so-and-so? Let's find out!" No way. If Biden wins Georgia, then the Trumpiest dude appointed by Kemp goes up there and casts his vote for Biden. If he tries anything else, the supervisor of the process says, "No, idiot, that's not how this works." Then he Sparta kicks him out the front door, takes the ballot, and casts it for Biden. Shouldn't be hard.

An unkind view would be that the Electoral College was created to give more representation to the smaller states to encourage them to join the newly formed union, since each would have at least 3 votes regardless of size.  That doesn't seem too bad.  The electors who could override the popular vote by being faithless to their candidate?  One view is that the Founding Fathers wanted an escape hatch in case the voting public "got it wrong" in other words, democracy was a new thing and they didn't want the people getting too much power.  Seriously.

[CanOfCorn]

2 hours ago, Danny Dravot said:

Please please please know that would never happen. The military leans to the right, sure, but we swore an oath to the Constitution. If he sits behind his desk on Inaug Day and tries to postpone the transfer, the Secret Service is going to forcibly remove him and 99.99% of service members read about it on the news later. We're not going to have any part in that.

Not to mention, his comments about McCain and POW/KIA in general, his overall incompetence, and his gross character (I had a soldier booted out for saying a female soldier would "throw pussy" at anyone during an upcoming deployment- sound familiar?) have made him, I think, the least popular Republican president among military members in DECADES.

Tammy Duckworth was inteviewed the other day by Ali Velshi (I know, I know), but she said she has spoken with the Joint Chiefs and some high ranking officials in all the branches and they reiterated what Danny is saying here. They will not get involved as they swore on the Constitution, not the Presidency. AND, they have to follow all LAWFUL orders. 

[mqr]

Trump is now 0-16 on court cases, and one case was over 592(!!) disputed ballots in PA. You're an absolute rube if you think they have any grounds to call for an illegitimate election.

Edited November 11, 2020 by mqr

[StrangeSox]

23 minutes ago, Stinky Stanky said:

An unkind view would be that the Electoral College was created to give more representation to the smaller states to encourage them to join the newly formed union, since each would have at least 3 votes regardless of size.  That doesn't seem too bad.  The electors who could override the popular vote by being faithless to their candidate?  One view is that the Founding Fathers wanted an escape hatch in case the voting public "got it wrong" in other words, democracy was a new thing and they didn't want the people getting too much power.  Seriously.

It was designed so that the slaver states got their 3/5's representation counted for Presidency as well without actually having to treat the slaves as humans and, god forbid, actually let them vote in a popular election. Even if it was simply a popular vote of white men, the southern slaver states knew that they'd be dominated politically, and so instead set up a system where they could more often than not dominate the majority of Americans.

When it was originally conceived, there was no conception of a broad popular vote or political parties coming to dominate who even gets consideration. For a while, a number of states didn't have a presidential vote at all and instead had the state legislature choose.

Edited November 11, 2020 by StrangeSox

[Danny Dravot]

32 minutes ago, The Beast said:

The nurse I spoke to at the hospital said that she felt like our country was respected more and there was more love for the country with Trump in office, though I think she meant that our military was respected more. 

I have been an American patriot all my life, and honestly, Trump's version of patriotism really grates on me.

First, if you want a cringefest, just google "Trump hugging American flag". I don't know about you, but when I signed up to offer my life for this country, my number one wish was to be represented nationally by a fat cheesedick who never misses an opportunity to hug the flag and transfer Stormy Daniels' bodily fluids onto one of the stars.

Second, if military service isn't in your destiny, that's fine. Trump even tends more towards old-school GOP isolationism, so I won't even whip out the chickenhawk smear and beat him up about his deferments. But don't tell us that avoiding STDs was your own personal Vietnam. If someone offers you their Purple Heart, turn them away- don't take it and say, "I always wanted the Purple Heart. This was much easier." Don't claim that being at boarding school was akin to military service. He does this Billy Badass all over the place, including his shenanigans on The Apprentice, but everyone who talks to him says he's a wimp (totally unrelated, but fuck Ted Nugent for similar reasons- Obama should suck on his machine gun, but he peed himself to avoid 'Nam). 

Third, if it wasn't for Trump's trademark narcissism (and use of pointless adjectives), I would have thought this was a Bernie Sanders quote: "I’m not saying the military is in love with me—the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t, because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy. But we’re getting out of the endless wars, you know how we’re doing."

I don't care if Joe Biden's vision of the welfare state is a bit different from mine. I don't even care if he has different ideas on how to deal with Iran and/or North Korea (I'll leave out China because I think Biden will focus more on human rights violations and not just trade, and I think that is the correct approach). I don't care if he disagrees with me on abortion. I just want a POTUS who isn't a fucking tool.

[NWINFan]

Trump has denigrated two groups: veterans and health care providers. Both have put their lives on the line and both have lost their lives. It is curious that this man lashes out at people that most respect.

[Danny Dravot]

1 minute ago, NWINFan said:

Trump has denigrated two groups: veterans and health care providers. Both have put their lives on the line and both have lost their lives. It is curious that this man lashes out at people that most respect.

Honestly, I'd pay money to see how military members voted for him compared to previous Republican presidents.

[chw42]

2 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

AZ will probably end up closer than GA, but it looks like Biden will hang on there.

 

 

A recent batch of 5000 was 50/49 for Biden. Now Trump needs almost 70% of the remaining 35,000 ballots.

Edited November 12, 2020 by chw42

[pcq]

28 minutes ago, chw42 said:

A recent batch of 5000 was 50/49 for Biden. Now Trump needs almost 70% of the remaining 35,000 ballots.

Only because you guys are cheating. 

[pcq]

Turns out the judges are not required to believe what campaign officials say on TV. Sounds pretty corrupt.  

[Texsox]

4 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Eh.  A better anology would be to turn baseball into a game where scoring the runs in the most innings is how you win, instead of the most runs winning so that if someone scores 10 runs in 1 inning, they lose to someone who scores 1 run in 2 different innings.

or instead of using total runs for the season to determine the winner divide it up into 162 games and count who wins the most games.

[southsider2k5]

?‍♂️

 

[chw42]

Maricopa county just dropped their last big batch of ballots and Trump won 55% of them. He needed to win around 70% to come back. With 22,000 ballots remaining, he needs 76% of it to win Arizona. Looking like Biden will hang on there. Arizona also has no recount unless it's within 0.1%. 

Decision Desk HQ just called AZ for Biden.

Edited November 12, 2020 by chw42

[southsider2k5]

Been saying 306 for a week now.

 

[greg775]

7 hours ago, The Beast said:

 I asked her when she last felt the country wasn’t divided and when there was dealmaking in congress. She said Reagan. What do you all think?

The country is never divided when hurricanes blister the south or the coasts. Americans from all over the land join forces with the agencies and head to the trouble spots and save fellow Americans. They even tow their own boats to trouble spots down south to save people off their roofs and save people and their animals. 

But for some reason ... politics. We hate each other's guts and never stop. I read today Democrats are moving to Georgia so they can vote to get the Senate majority. The hatred between Trump Republicans and Democrats is insane especially considering Americans band together for things like attacks from foreign countries and natural disasters. It makes zero sense but this country is totally divided because of politics. But u wait until the next disaster hits ... we'll all help each other day and night. Makes zero sense we can't do it all the time and work together instead of beat each other with baseball bats and start fires in innocent businesses.

[hi8is]

33 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Been saying 306 for a week now.

 

5 to 6 point national lead? Seems impossible for him to get to that.

[southsider2k5]

 

[southsider2k5]

21 minutes ago, greg775 said:

The country is never divided when hurricanes blister the south or the coasts. Americans from all over the land join forces with the agencies and head to the trouble spots and save fellow Americans. They even tow their own boats to trouble spots down south to save people off their roofs and save people and their animals. 

But for some reason ... politics. We hate each other's guts and never stop. I read today Democrats are moving to Georgia so they can vote to get the Senate majority. The hatred between Trump Republicans and Democrats is insane especially considering Americans band together for things like attacks from foreign countries and natural disasters. It makes zero sense but this country is totally divided because of politics. But u wait until the next disaster hits ... we'll all help each other day and night. Makes zero sense we can't do it all the time and work together instead of beat each other with baseball bats and start fires in innocent businesses.

It's not insane when Donald Trump makes hatred his platform. 

[Stinky Stanky]

6 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

It was designed so that the slaver states got their 3/5's representation counted for Presidency as well without actually having to treat the slaves as humans and, god forbid, actually let them vote in a popular election. Even if it was simply a popular vote of white men, the southern slaver states knew that they'd be dominated politically, and so instead set up a system where they could more often than not dominate the majority of Americans.

When it was originally conceived, there was no conception of a broad popular vote or political parties coming to dominate who even gets consideration. For a while, a number of states didn't have a presidential vote at all and instead had the state legislature choose.

That's true, the Constitution didn't say how the electors were to be chosen.

[Stinky Stanky]

26 minutes ago, greg775 said:

The country is never divided when hurricanes blister the south or the coasts. Americans from all over the land join forces with the agencies and head to the trouble spots and save fellow Americans. They even tow their own boats to trouble spots down south to save people off their roofs and save people and their animals. 

But for some reason ... politics. We hate each other's guts and never stop. I read today Democrats are moving to Georgia so they can vote to get the Senate majority. The hatred between Trump Republicans and Democrats is insane especially considering Americans band together for things like attacks from foreign countries and natural disasters. It makes zero sense but this country is totally divided because of politics. But u wait until the next disaster hits ... we'll all help each other day and night. Makes zero sense we can't do it all the time and work together instead of beat each other with baseball bats and start fires in innocent businesses.

Who knows how much the legitimate BLM protests and the illegitimate stuff that attached to them affected the election results in down ticket races.  The top of the ticket was carrying the heavy burden of its pandemic debacle and that was an unclimbable mountain.

[joejoesox]

6 hours ago, Danny Dravot said:

Honestly, I'd pay money to see how military members voted for him compared to previous Republican presidents.

This was during the primary, but seems like Sanders had the most support from service members if you go by individual donations

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bernie-sanders-leads-trump-all-2020-candidates-in-donations-from-active-duty-troops-946188/amp/

[greg775]

1 hour ago, southsider2k5 said:

It's not insane when Donald Trump makes hatred his platform. 

What if I say I disagree with this assertion? You say it with such force like it's 100 percent the truth, no room for discussion. Not debatable? Are you saying half the country (close to half) that wants Donald to win exudes hatred 24/7? And are hateful people?

Don't you see how divisive saying such things with 100 percent certainty can be? What if I picked something about Kamala or AOC or Joe and said something negative with the same forcefulness? I'm pretty sure my forceful "opinion" (your comment is an opinion not fact) would put me in the penalty box for a long long time.

Edited November 12, 2020 by greg775

[Danny Dravot]

1 hour ago, greg775 said:

What if I say I disagree with this assertion? You say it with such force like it's 100 percent the truth, no room for discussion. Not debatable? Are you saying half the country (close to half) that wants Donald to win exudes hatred 24/7? And are hateful people?

Don't you see how divisive saying such things with 100 percent certainty can be? What if I picked something about Kamala or AOC or Joe and said something negative with the same forcefulness? I'm pretty sure my forceful "opinion" (your comment is an opinion not fact) would put me in the penalty box for a long long time.

I’m Veterans Day shitfaced.

1) @joesaiditstrue, that suuuuuucks.

2) @greg775, unfortunately, I probably agree with you more on policy than I do with anyone else, so could you practice less victim hood, please? If AOC is divisive, point it out. Conservatism is about the creation of the modern world; practice stoicism and a stiff upper lip. “If I said these mean things about [insert liberal heroes], you’d ban me!” is not an effective argument. It’s just whiny. Stop.

Good night, world.

[Dick Allen]

6 hours ago, greg775 said:

What if I say I disagree with this assertion? You say it with such force like it's 100 percent the truth, no room for discussion. Not debatable? Are you saying half the country (close to half) that wants Donald to win exudes hatred 24/7? And are hateful people?

Don't you see how divisive saying such things with 100 percent certainty can be? What if I picked something about Kamala or AOC or Joe and said something negative with the same forcefulness? I'm pretty sure my forceful "opinion" (your comment is an opinion not fact) would put me in the penalty box for a long long time.

That's what Fox News does. Funny thing is, you don't even realize it.

[Dick Allen]

7 hours ago, greg775 said:

The country is never divided when hurricanes blister the south or the coasts. Americans from all over the land join forces with the agencies and head to the trouble spots and save fellow Americans. They even tow their own boats to trouble spots down south to save people off their roofs and save people and their animals. 

But for some reason ... politics. We hate each other's guts and never stop. I read today Democrats are moving to Georgia so they can vote to get the Senate majority. The hatred between Trump Republicans and Democrats is insane especially considering Americans band together for things like attacks from foreign countries and natural disasters. It makes zero sense but this country is totally divided because of politics. But u wait until the next disaster hits ... we'll all help each other day and night. Makes zero sense we can't do it all the time and work together instead of beat each other with baseball bats and start fires in innocent businesses.

Where did you read that?

The biggest disaster is hitting, and we have half the country refusing to wear a mask making things so much worse, because Donald Trump said so.