Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Machismo]

God damn it... in Australia you get a democracy sausage... wtf? Why don’t we have that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage

I'm rather disappointed that I wasn't witty enough to come up with that name for my penis.

On a related note, I love the idea of Election Day being a national holiday, where people party, and even grill at polling locations.

[Milchshake]

God damn it... in Australia you get a democracy sausage... wtf? Why don’t we have that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_sausage

Kangaroo Meat is totally underrated.

[Breccia]

in Australia you get a democracy sausage.

Hey, that's what Lindsey Graham's wife calls it when I

*cough*

So Obama is hitting the campaign trail. His reported plans are to hit the swing states, most notably Florida.

Obama's level of involvement has steadily increased, but this step just shows how seriously Team Biden is taking the final stretch. Unless someone like Barr or Pence suddenly defects, Obama is the biggest name Biden has to drop.

[DingDongKing]

I would find it HILARIOUS if Barr defects and is like, 'he made me do things!'

[Thepersona]

I'm rather disappointed that I wasn't witty enough to come up with that name for my penis.

On a related note, I love the idea of Election Day being a national holiday, where people party, and even grill at polling locations.

Yeah, i'm still baffled that you dont have your election day on a holiday or on sunday. It has been the norm here since we got back our democracy from Pinochet.

[Draco-Onis]

Yeah, i'm still baffled that you dont have your election day on a holiday or on sunday. It has been the norm here since we got back our democracy from Pinochet.

It's not baffling there's a political party whose sole strategy for decades is stopping people from voting.

[Endus]

Yeah, i'm still baffled that you dont have your election day on a holiday or on sunday. It has been the norm here since we got back our democracy from Pinochet.

It's even more ridiculous when you learn why it's a Tuesday, for the USA.

Couldn't be Sunday; that's church.
Lots of folks lived far from polling stations back in the days before motor cars and didn't always have a horse, so you needed to give them a day to travel, so Monday's out, or they wouldn't make it to the polls in time. Because, y'know, they're at church on Sunday.
So, it's Tuesday.

Because church and because not everyone owns a horse.

That's the only reasons it's a Tuesday.

[Milchshake]

For our international comrades that still cant comprehend how awful the GOP is.

Here's something that will look familiar. 1994: the first Post Apartheid vote in South Africa.



The GOP is desperately trying to roll back voter rights. The GOP is the Apartheid Party of the US.

2013: GOP judges Kennedy and Roberts said, "I've never personally seen a racism, so it doesn't exist!" As they led the way in gutting the Voting Rights Act.

US voting, post Shelby v. Holder.

[PhaelixWW]

What the actual fuck. Just when you thought the GoP couldn't get any more desperate, hypocritical, or corrupt...

CNN: California Republican Party says it will not comply with state's cease and desist order on ballot drop boxes

The California Republican Party said Wednesday it will not comply with the state's cease-and-desist order over unofficial ballot drop boxes placed in at least four counties, escalating a brewing political showdown ahead of the November election.

The unauthorized ballot boxes, which state officials have called illegal, have been found in at least four counties across the state: Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and Fresno.

"Ballot harvesting program will continue," California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas said in a statement to CNN.

The fight over the unofficial drop boxes comes as the coronavirus pandemic has led to historic interest in mail-in voting, even as President Donald Trump and the GOP have spent months attacking the integrity of mail ballots and fighting in court against drop boxes. Trump has repeatedly made unfounded claims that the election tally will be fraudulent because of the proliferation of mail-in voting and drop box usage and has warned that he may not agree to a peaceful transfer of power due to those misleading beliefs.

The party made their intentions clear in a letter to the California Secretary of State on Wednesday. In the letter, attorneys for the state GOP say all of the ballot boxes deployed by the party are indoors, staffed by volunteers or party officials, secure and not labeled "official."

While images of the ballot boxes have shown the boxes labeled as "official," the state GOP said it did not authorize the use of that term and had it removed.

"The California Republican Party did not promote, or authorize the promotion of, the secure boxes as 'official mail drop boxes,'" the letter states. "When we learned that a sign using the word 'official' was used in some locations on Saturday, October, 10, 2020, we corrected that error immediately and within hours."

A spokesperson for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, told CNN his office "is in the process of reviewing the CA Republican Party's response letter."

Casting the unofficial boxes as "wrong no matter who is doing it," Padilla had explained to CNN's Chris Cuomo on "Prime Time" Monday evening that the operation doesn't have a "chain of custody, and we don't have the requirements or regulations for these fake drop boxes as you do for the official drop boxes."

"We have a ton of requirements on official drop boxes," he continued. "That's where we should be driving voters to."

The deadline for the California Republican Party to comply or respond to the order is Thursday night.

Barajas said Wednesday in an interview with CNN affiliate KABC that "a lot" of ballot boxes have been distributed statewide and the party may expand the program because "it's going well."

"We're going to continue this program," Barajas emphasized in the interview. "If you want to take us to court, then we'll see you in court."
Trump earlier this week encouraged the GOP to not comply and fight the order in court.

"You mean only Democrats are allowed to do this? But haven't the Dems been doing this for years? See you in court. Fight hard Republicans!" Trump tweeted Tuesday night, inaccurately describing state laws, which allow any party to collect ballots as long as it is done in person.

While rare instances of voter fraud from mail-in ballots do occur, it is nowhere near a widespread problem in the US election system.

But that hasn't stopped Trump and his allies from pushing a conspiratorial message against drop boxes, with the California dispute marking just the latest flashpoint.

CNN election law analyst Rick Hasen said the unauthorized drop boxes were "not secure" and that the GOP was "asking for trouble."

"Whether or not it is technically legal, it's extremely problematic for voters," Hasen said who is also a law professor at the University of California-Irvine.

Meanwhile, I'm sure that Texas voters would like to send a big "fuck you" to the California GoP.

[DingDongKing]

Can you imagine the meltdown if the Democrats ever did even half the stuff the GOP does? Sometimes I'd like to see authoritarianism thrown back into the faces of Conservatives and the GOP, just to see how they'd react. Because they're so soft skinned that they'd cave immediately.

[masterhorus8]

What the actual fuck. Just when you thought the GoP couldn't get any more desperate, hypocritical, or corrupt...

CNN: California Republican Party says it will not comply with state's cease and desist order on ballot drop boxes


Meanwhile, I'm sure that Texas voters would like to send a big "fuck you" to the California GoP.

I wonder if there are any legal protections to keep someone from driving up and just taking those unofficial drop boxes...

[Edge-]

What the actual fuck. Just when you thought the GoP couldn't get any more desperate, hypocritical, or corrupt...

CNN: California Republican Party says it will not comply with state's cease and desist order on ballot drop boxes


Meanwhile, I'm sure that Texas voters would like to send a big "fuck you" to the California GoP.

Man, every time I think I couldn't lose any more respect for the Republican party they always manage to find out something.

Seriously, may these people always find splinters in every piece of wood they touch.

- - - Updated - - -

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile...d-trumps-will/

An Assistant U.S. Attorney General who worked in the Department of Justice for more than three decades and under “19 different attorneys general and six different presidents” is leaving the department because he’s had enough of Attorney General Bill Barr’s “slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will.”

Philip Halpern wrote in an op-ed for the San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday that Barr is a “well-trained bureaucrat” and a “career bureaucrat” who “seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.” This is a criticism that has been levied against Barr more than a few times during his second stint as attorney general of the United States.

In “I won’t work in Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department any longer,” Halpern painted a picture of Barr, a person who has “never actually investigated, charged or tried a case,” pulling the strings of the criminal justice system in order to help the 45th president and his allies. Halpern said he had hoped that Barr’s “preemptive misrepresentation” of the Mueller Report was “an honest mistake or a solitary misstep — rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal potential presidential misconduct.” He does not have those hopes now.

Halpern noted that Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said Barr “lacked candor” about the conclusions of the Mueller Report and “distorted” the special counsel’s findings. This was the first in a series of overtly political acts by a “lap dog” attorney general’s “slavish obedience” in service of the president and his friends, Halpern wrote.

“Unfortunately, over the last year, Barr’s resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump’s will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases,” he wrote. “In each of these cases, Barr overruled career prosecutors in order to assist the president’s associates and/or friends, who potentially harbor incriminating information.”

The longtime prosecutor concluded that there is also “no other honest explanation for Barr’s parroting” of President Donald Trump’s “wild and unsupported conspiracy theories regarding mail-in ballots […].”

“Rather than representing the interests of the American public, Barr chooses to act as Trump’s lap dog,” Halpern wrote, turning his attention to the government “assault” on Lafayette Square protesters before the president’s photo op with a Bible. Halpern took shots at the John Durham investigation, saying it is nothing more than a “quixotic pursuit designed to attack the president’s political rivals.”

The decades-long federal prosecutor, who recently prosecuted and secured the conviction of corrupt Republican congressman Duncan Hunter, took offense to Barr’s characterization of DOJ prosecutors as “headhunters.”

Recall: Barr, in a September speech, tore into prosecutors as “headhunters, consumed with taking down their target,” particularly “prominent political figures.” The attorney general went on to compare line prosecutors to preschoolers as far as the entire DOJ hierarchy is concerned.

“Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it’s no way to run a federal agency. Good leaders at the Justice Department — as at any organization — need to trust and support their subordinates,” Barr said. “But that does not mean blindly deferring to whatever those subordinates want to do.”

Halpern made no apologies for prosecuting Hunter and Randy “Duke” Cunningham; the latter was a Republican congressman convicted in 2005 in a fraud and $2 million-plus bribery case. Cunningham served 8 years of prison time.

In closing, Halpern said he was disturbed that it has gotten to the point that longtime federal prosecutors like himself are “abandoning Barr’s ship” and many “qualified lawyers” are refusing to board it.

Career DOJ attorney with over 3 decades of experience under 19 different AG's and 6 presidents resigns. And boy oh boy does he have some thoughts on Bill Barr.

This is why this administration needs to go. We're losing career public servants who have mountains of institutional knowledge that cannot be replaced.

[omerome]

Human garbage, Rupert Murdoch, is now mad at Trump because he can no longer control the toxic waste dump and wants to cover his ass and claim a Biden victory instead because of COVID-19.

President Trump’s influential supporter Rupert Murdoch is telling close associates he believes Joe Biden will win the election in a landslide.

The Australian-born billionaire is disgusted by Trump’s handling of COVID-19, remarking that the president is his own worst enemy, that he is not listening to advice about how best to handle the pandemic, and that he’s creating a never-ending crisis for his administration, according to three people who have spoken with Murdoch.

In response to an email inquiry for this report asking him if he believes Biden will win in a landslide and his thoughts on Trump’s handling of coronavirus, Murdoch responded, “No comment except I’ve never called Trump an idiot,” referring to a 2018 report that the media mogul called the president a “fucking idiot” following a chat about immigration.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-ne...-win-for-biden

Just another example of another rat trying to jump off the ship. This time though, that ship is his own. He suddenly wants to wash his hands on this when his very own organizations (Fox, NY Post) have been and currently are big reasons why Trump is where he is in the first place is just convenient.

GFY Murdoch.

[Edge-]

Personal lawyer to Trump, and "cybersecurity expert" Rudy Giuliani, fresh off of feeding the NY Post disinformation, is back!

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rudy-g...ans-to-youtube

Accidentally uploading a video of himself engaging in racist mockery of Chinese people. To his own YouTube video. These are not the people I want around the POTUS.

[DingDongKing]

This came up on my YT feed. Will be very interesting to see Obama out on the campaign trail over the next few weeks.

[Thepersona]

Human garbage, Rupert Murdoch, is now mad at Trump because he can no longer control the toxic waste dump and wants to cover his ass and claim a Biden victory instead because of COVID-19.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-ne...-win-for-biden

Just another example of another rat trying to jump off the ship. This time though, that ship is his own. He suddenly wants to wash his hands on this when his very own organizations (Fox, NY Post) have been and currently are big reasons why Trump is where he is in the first place is just convenient.

GFY Murdoch.

How old is that bastard? i wanna save some champagne or a good wine when the fucker croaks.

[CastletonSnob]

Trump supporters think Trump is gonna win in a landslide, when as of this writing, Biden is leading by double digits nationally, including a 5 point lead in Florida.

They really are delusional.

[Thepersona]

Trump supporters think Trump is gonna win in a landslide, when as of this writing, Biden is leading by double digits nationally, including a 5 point lead in Florida.

They really are delusional.

I think that's better. Keeping them in the delusion is much better than having them behave like raving lunatics because they know they're on the backfoot.

[Underverse]

Trump supporters think Trump is gonna win in a landslide, when as of this writing, Biden is leading by double digits nationally, including a 5 point lead in Florida.

They really are delusional.

Yes, if that translates into accepted ballots. Which given all of the post office and voting access manipulations Republicans are executing, is a question mark.

The US is really becoming a new American backwater. Our grip on civilization is slipping away and all half the nation can think about is stopping women from aborting fetuses in the third trimester.

[Captain N]

It will forever amaze me that this absolute clown of an old man was ever considered a "cybersecurity expert."

Brought to you in full by the Administration that deemed a doctor who believed in dream sex with demons and alien DNA was a "medical expert"