All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[4saken1]

Increasing costs of mail-in ballots hurts Republicans who have enough sense to avoid standing in line outside polling places since it stands to reason COVID will still be around come November.

Trump probably figures that once he gets their vote, he won't need them around anymore. That many less elderly to pay Social Security to.

[PaulBullion]

You'd rather not discuss that what you said isn't really how it is.

Noted.

I'm just pointing out that what you brought up is what you keep bringing up, because it's all you have.

[AnakinFlair]

The UAE and Israel have agreed to establish diplomatic ties. I think Trump and Kushner are taking credit for it, but am unsure since it's my policy to mute the TV whenever he comes on.

[PaulBullion]

Harris was born in the US and is a US Citizen at the time fo her birth. There was more controversy over Ted Cruz and John McCain and even Tulsi Gabbard.

The same hack had previously written an opinion piece saying Ted Cruz was a natural born citizen and would be a fine president.
He had also lost a GOP primary to get Kamala's job in California.

[worstblogever]

Do you think pizzagate is standard right-wing media boilerplate?

As long as QAnon followers are being elected into office it will be. The sane members of the Republican Party are being gradually pushed out by the fringe.

Exactly, Mets. Your party had scores, literal scores of Qanon conspiracy theorists believing Democrats are running devil-worshopping cults that harvest fear hormones from abused children. And they're running for office... and winning primaries now.

THIS IS YOUR PARTY NOW. Take your head out of the sand and go and thank Donald for your new club's identity.

[PaulBullion]

Imagining caring about Biden's taxes right now.

Biden is the man who promised in the 70s never to own stocks because it could compromise him and he kept that promise.

[worstblogever]

And the absolute terror.

The very thought that Biden might get more of the African-American vote than Clinton is making them panic. They know the maths and they know what could happen to Trump in the fall.

That's why they are doing everything possible to not describe her as African-American.

Hell, she polls better with suburban women than either Tim Kaine or Hillary Clinton, too.

It's why he's making panicked pleas to women to still vote for him... and I think that "Biden's gonna let minorities come break into your homes and do things to you!" isn't the winning strategy that he thinks he is.

Ipsos/Reuters had a poll out yesterday that put Biden up 16 points. And that poll was done prior to the Harris announcement. And still with a convention bounce to come.

I'm starting to think Trump does ditch Pence for SD Gov. Kristi Noem just to try to appeal to women and potentially win some of them back.

[Tami]

Trump saying clearly on Fox why he won’t fund USPS. “Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots...But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting...”

Twitter Link

Trump Has Launched a Three-Pronged Attack on the Election

Trump’s attack on voting by mail has several fronts, but one is by far the most serious: his attempt to slow down mail service, perhaps in a targeted way, while also insisting that only ballots counted on November 3 are valid. In addition to casting doubt on the entire election, another purpose of this scheme is to engineer a scenario in which Trump can pressure Republican-controlled legislatures to ignore the popular vote in their Democratic-leaning swing state (think Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and instead select an Electoral College slate that supports him. Trump’s attempt to cut short the counting of valid votes is flatly contrary to constitutional law and federal statutes. Even so, states can and should do more to protect American’s mailed-in votes. States should immediately enact new legislation or take other legal steps clarifying that they intend for Congress to honor electors they choose, and that they may need a bit of time to finalize choosing them—ideally doing so by December 23 and no later than January 6, 2021, when Congress meets in special session to certify the election results. Through state-level action, Trump’s efforts can be neutralized.

Trump will almost certainly use this delay as an opportunity to cast doubt on the whole election. He may even try to urge Republican-controlled legislatures in states that tend to vote blue but supported him in 2016 to deem Election Day “failed” given the uncounted votes, as well as pressure those legislatures to then exploit a federal law that allows them to come up with a new way to appoint presidential electors—such as handpicking a slate committed to Trump.

Trump may additionally think his hand is strengthened by another federal law that tells Congress to respect each state’s final resolution of ballot disputes if made by December 8. This date may well be too soon for all mail-in ballots to be counted when the pandemic is sure to increase the number of such ballots cast. But that provision is a mere “safe harbor”: It doesn’t require that states resolve ballot disputes by December 8. The only statutory deadline for a state to send its tally is December 23, and the only deadline for receiving a state’s tally—the true constitutional deadline—is January 6, when Congress meets in special session to certify the election results. So there’s no excuse for a state to call its election a failure or for Congress to disregard the results so long as they’re resolved ideally by December 23 but ultimately no later than January 6—not December 8.

First, states should pass statutes making clear that vote-counting must be done not by December 8, but by January 6—and ideally by December 23, which still provides crucial additional time.

Second, states should adopt a postmark rule, whereby every ballot postmarked on or before November 3 is included in the tally. If the question isn’t whether ballots are received by November 3 but instead whether they’re sent by that date, a deliberately tardy Postal Service no longer poses the same threat.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Twitter Link

Trump Has Launched a Three-Pronged Attack on the Election

Trump has certainly gotten some devious as hell advice from his henchmen. No way in hell he would've dreamed all that up, he's far too stupid to be THAT devious. He probably had a meeting with all his stooges and said: "Find ways to help me steal this election, because if I lose, I'm not going down alone, I'll take all of you to hell with me!"

[Robotman]

Twitter Link

Trump Has Launched a Three-Pronged Attack on the Election

Jeezus. What’s the freaking point if he can so blatantly cheat and even admit it on national television? The GOP will continue to look the other way while Trump destroys democracy.

[worstblogever]

Jeezus. What’s the freaking point if he can so blatantly cheat and even admit it on national television? The GOP will continue to look the other way while Trump destroys democracy.

The honorable response to outright admission of manipulating American elections would be to invoke the 25th Amendment.

The GOP are not an honorable party, and certainly not the Trump Cabinet who would invoke the 25th.

[InformationGeek]

Well that's being honest, I'll give them that.

[worstblogever]

How unprepared was the Trump campaign for Sen. Kamala Harris as Biden's VP candidate?


This is literally the fundraising e-mail they sent out after the announcement:



Just... is your campaign being run by Regina George and Gretchen Weiners? WTF are you evening doing? LOL.

[AnakinFlair]

How unprepared was the Trump campaign for Sen. Kamala Harris as Biden's VP candidate?


This is literally the fundraising e-mail they sent out after the announcement:



Just... is your campaign being run by Regina George and Gretchen Weiners? WTF are you evening doing? LOL.

Is that legit?

SERIOUSLY?!

My godson could come up with better copy than that, and he's THREE.

[Joker]

Do you think pizzagate is standard right-wing media boilerplate?

I'm trying to think of Republicans who denounced pizzagate for the absurdity that it was, but I'm coming up empty. Maybe you can remind me of any that did?