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

[ChangingStation]

Look Bernie Sanders had a heart attack. I'm not going to pretend Sanders would be a bad candidate, but his health would be an even greater question than it was for Biden.

[Gray Lensman]

Their is a universe now where Biden wins the presidency but pence becomes Vice President again. If no one gets 270 the house gets to pick the president and the senate picks the Vice President. Weird

It would still be Trump/Pence. In that scenario, it isn't one rep one vote, but one state one vote. Meaning that one rep from Wyoming or Vermont has as much say as the entire contingent from Texas or California.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Funny enough, Fox News has been very measured in their election coverage.

I expected some bluster and all that but we aren't seeing that at all.

I still can't believe that Arizona call. Given how hilariously petty the other networks were being over Florida/Texas, it just came off as if the Fox decision desk had been operating in its own parallel universe all evening long.

[kidfresh512]

Either way it goes now we are up for 4 more years of a shitshow. Trump wins he will double down on everything horrible. More will die and covid vaccine will be a tough sell.

You thought racists were emboldened before....

Biden somehow wins he won't get much done outside executive orders its Obama second term all over. Which makes the case for 2024 that much harder. I would not be shocked if Mitch holds a sc seat open a year or 2 again if ones available under Biden.

[Username taken]

One thing is for sure, no matter who wins the truth is America is more like Trump than we like to admit.

Secondly, a lot more people secretly support Trump than they say publicly. Looking at the races across all the arms of the government and we really can't argue against this.

Most people don't care about separating kids from their families at the border, they don't care about the corruption, the lies, the deceit and the over 200,000 dead from covid-19.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

At this point, I'm resigned to the fact that Trump is going to win, it's only a matter of time while ballots are being counted. What I want to know from those who are Trump supporters is this:

--What do you hope to get from a second Trump term? What does he do for you exactly?

--The virus is still out there, regardless of right wing propaganda to the opposite and is still killing people, and there's no plan in place from Trump to fight it. Do you feel comforted by that?

--The economy, which Trump was hedging his reelection bid on was wrecked thanks to his hamfisted response to the virus, and things haven't improved all that much. Are you confident he can fully turn it around?

--Trump was hellbent on filling RBG's seat on SCOTUS rather than churning out a COVID relief package. How does having Amy Coney Bennett on the bench instead of a check in your hand help you directly?

--The nation is horribly divided, perhaps worse than ever. Does it matter to you that Trump clearly doesn't care about bringing the country together?

If anyone can provide serious answers to those questions, I'd be appreciative, because I can't fathom how a second term of Trump helps anyone except for Trump.

[Username taken]

Well, Biden now leads in Wisconsin. I guess its not over.

But I've resigned to a Trump win.

Too much has gone wrong this night for me to be optimistic.

[mathew101281]

Well, Biden now leads in Wisconsin. I guess its not over.

But I've resigned to a Trump win.

Too much has gone wrong this night for me to be optimistic.

Crazier things have had happened.

[kidfresh512]

WI running out of ink and having to run to get more to keep counting is 2020 in a nutshell.

Michigan was scaring me all night but they keep saying the millions of votes to be counted will go Bidens way still

[Gray Lensman]

Trump is ahead by 70k in Michigan but there enough uncounted votes from Dem strongholds that 538 doesn't think he can hold the state. Likewise, Biden currently has a very narrow lead in Wisconsin, with the remaining votes being mail ins from Green Bay. Green Bay is solid Trump country but mail ins have been favoring Biden so far.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Well, Biden now leads in Wisconsin. I guess its not over.

But I've resigned to a Trump win.

Too much has gone wrong this night for me to be optimistic.

That's crazy good news for the Dems, really. I doubt anyone's particularly optimistic about NC/GA, but this definitely qualifies as a good sign for MI/PA.

Of course, you'll then have to deal with half of the country actively sabotaging the Biden Covid plan from the get-go and a significant portion of the other half turning on the poor guy once he enacts aforementioned Covid plan.

[Username taken]

That's crazy good news for the Dems, really. I doubt anyone's particularly optimistic about NC/GA, but this definitely qualifies as a good sign for MI/PA.

Of course, you'll then have to deal with half of the country actively sabotaging the Biden Covid plan from the get-go and a significant portion of the other half turning on the poor guy once he enacts aforementioned Covid plan.

That's the reality of the situation.

Trump's America is a very real, scary place.

[worstblogever]

The question in January might be if Trump is more dangerous as an opposition candidate four years away from the next election who's likely to incite domestic terrorists and/or work to host rallies that make the pandemic worse, then blame bad positive test numbers on the administration when he's the one causing them.

It's sad if it's not predictable.

[Starter Set]

Well, we can safely assume that indeed Trump is not going to be a good sport and just say GG to Biden, that's for damn sure.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, Mike Bost, a man whose screaming, flailing, paper-punching meltdowns back when he was in the Illinois State Legislature made him a Youtube legend before he ever made it to Congress. The Chicago press, fascinated with his temper, did some digging, and as far back as an incident in 1986 where he got annoyed at a neighbor’s beagle for biting his daughter, and rather than wait for the proper authorities to handle it and decide if the animal should be euthanized, Bost instead supposedly opted to shoot and kill the dog with his handgun like he was Charles Bronson in a revenge movie. And during his 2014 campaign for Congress, he joked about putting a bullet in Ol’ Snoopy. Between that and the time he started yelling out lines from the Book of Exodus like “LET MY PEOPLE GO!” over worker pensions, or other incoherent rants… “Meltdown Mike” seemed to be a volatile commodity, even for a modern Republican.

With Mike Bost’s history of irrational outbursts, how has he held up against the pressure many Republicans have seen about hosting town halls? NOT WELL. Honestly, it might have been bad enough that he compared the opposition who might show up to Chinese Maoists… but to refer to them with the racist derogatory term “Orientals” while doing it?

"The amount of time that I have at home is minimal, I need to make sure that it's productive. You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you'd put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That's not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive."

How quaint. Even without a town hall, Rep. Bost has been chased down by constituents when he’s been in public, like having to face down one resident from his district whose wife has a pre-existing condition, and Bost’s votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement including pre-existing condition coverage would have amounted to a death sentence for her. Bost’s response? “That’s just rhetoric.” (It isn’t.)

Bost regrettably won a third term in Congress with 52% of the vote in 2018, and has continued to vote almost completely along party lines in spite of being in a swing district:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Bost voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Bost votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• May 17th, 2019: Bost votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Bost votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Mike Bost votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 18th, 2019: Bost ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
  https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...navirus-relief
• May 15th, 2020: Bost votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Meltdown Mike” is someone you would THINK would be a vocal part of the Republican caucus, but he’s self-aware enough to know his career now is dependent on flying under the radar. After all, Illinois’ 12th Congressional District only has a +5 Republican lean, meaning his seat was decidedly in jeopardy going into Election Day, and his Democratic opponent, Ray Lenzi, seemed well-suited in taking him down given his long commitment to the Labor Movement, and that Illinois probably has more respect for unions than any state in the Mid-West. It looked like there might be a raucous debate between the two, but that went out the window in early October when Bost tested positive for Covid-19, not long after a lot of Republicans decided to gather to celebrate Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, catch the virus, and then spread it among themselves around the capitol. So any debate… never happened.

And… we are going to give the news that Mike Bost was re-elected to another term in office last night.

They’re still counting a lot of races, but that one’s over, at least.