Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Breccia]

He was amazing in Congress.

You could make the argument that theater training (SNL is theater) might be the single best way to prepare for public speaking.

[Shadowferal]

Sanders isn't really shutting up and frankly if she did that we would have another Trump in 2024.

Citation needed.
And winning lottery numbers.

[ati87]

Citation needed.
And winning lottery numbers.

Citation for what needed? Sanders have been campaigning for Biden as much as any other guy and he is aiming for a position in his cabinet.
And a 2024 Trump? You currently have Tucker Carlson being polled as a potential canidate and even JR.

[Shadowferal]

Citation for what needed? Sanders have been campaigning for Biden as much as any other guy and he is aiming for a position in his cabinet.
And a 2024 Trump? You currently have Tucker Carlson being polled as a potential canidate and even JR.

Hate to break it to you...

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to be frozen out of Biden cabinet, report says

Left-wing lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are reportedly set to be frozen out of president-elect Joe Biden's cabinet amid concerns the Democrats could lose more seats in upcoming elections.
The Biden administration has to be a lot more sensitive of where you come from if you’re looking at members of Congress,” Gerry Connolly, representative for Virginia's 11th congressional district told the publication. “We cannot afford to put any seats in jeopardy.”
----
The shit is hitting sooner than I expected.

[Felya]

You could make the argument that theater training (SNL is theater) might be the single best way to prepare for public speaking.

The reason I do very well in public speaking, is because I was forced into a class play in 7th grade and got an astounding reaction. That has carried my confidence from that point on. Theater has its purpose...

I once apologizing to corporate overlords, for the difficulties they felt in laying off our office... in person, with everyone from the company present. Suits were going with it, until people started laughing, as they realized what I was doing. Shit... this was in 2001... was I a troll, before trolling was a thing? Uh oh...

I do much better in public speaking, than one on one...

[kaelleria]

Hate to break it to you...

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to be frozen out of Biden cabinet, report says

Left-wing lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are reportedly set to be frozen out of president-elect Joe Biden's cabinet amid concerns the Democrats could lose more seats in upcoming elections.
The Biden administration has to be a lot more sensitive of where you come from if you’re looking at members of Congress,” Gerry Connolly, representative for Virginia's 11th congressional district told the publication. “We cannot afford to put any seats in jeopardy.”
----
The shit is hitting sooner than I expected.

Bernie and Warren wouldn't ever get confirmed either... In fact when asked if Bernie would ever get confirmed, John Thune laughed and said no.

[PresidentGreymane]

Bernie and Warren wouldn't ever get confirmed either... In fact when asked if Bernie would ever get confirmed, John Thune laughed and said no.

It's like they need 50 dem senators or something. But picking tweeter feuds with Joe Manchin is a thing....

Bernie Sanders Says Democratic Party Has Become a 'Party of Coastal Elites'
ON 10/30/20


Are they being just dumb, or is sabotaging Democrats the whole point?

[kaelleria]

More law firms bail on the Trump Campaign

Another law firm has moved to drop its representation of President Donald Trump’s campaign in its flurry of lawsuits challenging the results of last week’s presidential election.

Late Thursday night, Columbus-based firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur notified a federal judge hearing a Trump-filed suit over the election tallies in Pennsylvania that the firm is seeking to pull out of the case.

The development comes as Trump’s political opponents have sought to put public pressure on law firms assisting what many legal experts view as a meritless and likely fruitless campaign to try to thwart President-elect Joe Biden from taking office despite the fact that major media outlets have declared Biden the victor and the near-final counts showing Biden thousands of votes ahead in the key battleground states.

Some Trump critics including Republicans affiliated with the Lincoln Project have indicated they planned to pressure the commercial clients of law firms representing the campaign to drop the firms if they continued with the court fight on behalf of the president. In the motion filed at 11:53 p.m. on Thursday, Porter Wright lawyers Ronald Hicks and Carolyn McGee — who work out of the firm’s Pittsburgh office — said the campaign was “in the process of retaining and causing other counsel” to take over the case.

The attorneys said they and the campaign had agreed on the withdrawal, but Hicks and McGee were vague about the reason for their exit.

“Plaintiffs and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that Plaintiffs will be best served if Porter Wright withdraws, and current co-counsel and such other counsel as Plaintiffs may choose to engage represent Plaintiffs in this case,” the filing said.

It is highly unusual for a major law firm to seek to withdraw its representation of a client in litigation so soon after it commenced. The suit in question, before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Brann in Williamsport, Pa., was filed just four days ago.

Because such a move can do damage to a litigant’s case, the withdrawal requires Brann’s approval. Porter Wright’s attempt to depart the case comes as a series of briefing deadlines loom and as Brann scheduled an argument session for Tuesday and an evidentiary hearing for Thursday on the campaign’s claims that alleged irregularities in last week’s vote justify preventing Democratic-leaning counties from certifying their vote totals.

Hicks and McGee did not immediately respond to a message Friday morning seeking comment on the development. In their motion, they said the firm would abide by its professional obligations when handing off a client and “otherwise take such steps as are necessary to avoid prejudice to Plaintiffs in this matter or to delay the Court’s consideration of this case.”

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign and a personal attorney for Trump also did not respond to requests for comment on the development.

If Brann permits the Porter Wright lawyers to quit, the campaign will remain represented in the case by a Philadelphia-based solo practitioner, Linda Kerns.

Last week, another law firm representing the Trump campaign in similar litigation — Arizona-based Snell & Wilmer — moved to withdraw from an election-related lawsuit over results there. A judge granted the firm’s request on Tuesday.

Yet another law firm that has extensive ties to the Trump administration, Cleveland-based Jones Day, has also come under pressure for its role in election litigation.

Last week, the firm issued a defensively worded statement stressing that its work on a high-profile election-related case was not for the campaign but for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. That case, which is the subject of two pending petitions at the Supreme Court, began several months before Election Day.

In that suit, Jones Day has asked the justices to take up and overturn a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling allowing mail-in ballots received through Friday of last week to be tallied if they were postmarked by election day or appear to have been mailed by then.

In advance of the election, the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked, 4-4, on a request to block the state court’s ruling. Last week, Justice Samuel Alito partially granted another request by the Pennsylvania GOP for an order requiring that late-arriving ballots be segregated from those that came in before the polls closed. Alito referred the issue to his colleagues for further action but no additional orders had been issued by early Friday.

[Breccia]

More law firms bail on the Trump Campaign

That's two in your post, and I mentioned a third earlier. This is an exodus.

[kaelleria]

That's two in your post, and I mentioned a third earlier. This is an exodus.

Trump's remaining PA representation specializes in Divorce...

[Breccia]

Trump's remaining PA representation specializes in Divorce...

I mean, he is divorced from reality.

[gondrin]

Trump's remaining PA representation specializes in Divorce...

Well, maybe he can go from one Trump to deciding the fate of a couple of them. I hear one relationship is on the rocks.

[Kaleredar]

That's two in your post, and I mentioned a third earlier. This is an exodus.

It’s not worth it to them to represent a lawsuit so public and with so little merit. They could get disbarred if they knowingly lie to a judge, which could undermine their whole firm.

[Thepersona]

It's like they need 50 dem senators or something. But picking tweeter feuds with Joe Manchin is a thing....

Bernie Sanders Says Democratic Party Has Become a 'Party of Coastal Elites'
ON 10/30/20


Are they being just dumb, or is sabotaging Democrats the whole point?

Yeah. I know that Bernie and Elizabeth are fully aware of the fact that they cannot leave their senate posts, risking a potential majority. What the could (and should) do, is recommend people for cabinet positions.

[Breccia]

It’s not worth it to them to represent a lawsuit so public and with so little merit. They could get disbarred if they knowingly lie to a judge, which could undermine their whole firm.

And if that isn't enough, the article I cited pointed out that law firms could face anything from ridicule to a boycott for, you know, directly taking part in an attack on democracy in the USA.

I wonder why they even took the case(s) in the first place? I mean, did they think "well surely if we investigate we'll find evidence" only to come up empty? Or did they say "We'll make a quick buck, then Trump will get bored and/or fire us?" What's the best excuse for the law firms who willingly took these cases, then bailed and left?

[kaelleria]

Walls are closing in -
https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...ection-2020-11

CEOs of top US firms held a private meeting to discuss what to do if Trump's refusal to concede to Biden becomes a threat to democracy

• More than 24 CEOs of Fortune 500 firms met on November 6 to discuss what to do if President Donald Trump refuses to leave office on January 20, according to the Yale professor who organized the meeting.
• The CEOs said Trump had the right to pursue legal challenges alleging voter fraud, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told AP.
• But they also spoke about making public statements, and pressuring GOP legislators, should Trump's refusal to concede threaten a peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden, Sonnenfeld said.
• The executives were from finance, manufacturing, retail, and media companies, he said.

[Kaleredar]

And if that isn't enough, the article I cited pointed out that law firms could face anything from ridicule to a boycott for, you know, directly taking part in an attack on democracy in the USA.

I wonder why they even took the case(s) in the first place? I mean, did they think "well surely if we investigate we'll find evidence" only to come up empty? Or did they say "We'll make a quick buck, then Trump will get bored and/or fire us?" What's the best excuse for the law firms who willingly took these cases, then bailed and left?

I’d imagine that they’d still be billing trump for the “discovery” they’d be undergoing in their “search” for legal grounds.

And then when they find nothing they send him the bill and say “sorry, can’t represent you. Now, about that check...”

[Machismo]

After a week, both parties should be looking at how the map has shifted for the presidential election.

1. The Democrats were able to reclaim their Blue Wall. They definitely need to reinforce the shit out of it, and part of that will be pushing jobs programs and modernization/education in the Rust belt. Democrats also need to change the messaging about policing, and take a more positive approach. Pennsylvania is very pro-police, especially in the suburbs. Make this about improvement, and not punishment.

2. More red states are in play. Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and even Texas are states that are now contested. Both parties are going to need to push messaging at the state and local level to make sure that the voters are loyal to the particular parties.

3. Florida is a red state, and should be treated as such. Just like Ohio is slipping away from the Dems, the amount of effort that is put into those states should be reduced. No amount of effort is going to make Florida a reliable "get" for the Democrats. That money and effort can better be spent elsewhere. As Skroe made clear a long time ago, the GOP simply has a better ground game in Florida, and the Dems simply cannot compete.

4. The Democrats are going to be able to do what the GOP has been doing for two decades. The GOP has long pushed a "bend, but don't break" mentality with states. It's better to win two states by 3 points each, than to win one state by 20 points. That means the focus should be on growing demographics in those battleground states. For Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, that means going after suburbanites, white women, and young, college grads. For Arizona, that means appealing to Latinos (same for Texas), and moderates. The GOP pushed a better message this year than Democrats did in regards to how to appeal to Latinos, because they basically stopped pandering to them, and simply tried selling the narrative of socialism. The Democrats need to stop trying to baby Latinos, and start focusing on preaching opportunity, family, and the moral values of work ethic, and honesty.

5. The GOP doesn't have a lot of states to gain. Outside of the Blue Wall that Trump won in 2016, the only blue state that is in danger for the Dems, is Nevada. That means the GOP has to target the Rust Belt, and they need to come up with a permanent solution to winning it over. I think the days of them promising they'll save their dying industries is long gone. Trump promised welfare, giveaways, all while promoting his racism in order to blame other groups for why the jobs are going away. I think the GOP needs to help those states come to terms with the fact that those jobs are not coming back, and innovation is required. That means pushing tech-sector jobs in those states, and lots of them. Push the local politicians to offer tax incentives, land, and anything else they can think of to lure new jobs and industries to the area. here's the kicker, they also need to push for the locals to learn those trades, or else those states will simply turn blue, like Omaha did. For a long time, the narrative was that the Rust belt was all about rugged men who worked an honest day in the factory, and came home to their wives. Now, they need to sell the image of those same rugged men working in a data center, keeping their hands cleaner, and still going home to their wives. Sell the easy life, and sell it like they deserve the easy life, because they will have earned it.

[Mormolyce]

Clyburn and others however aren't wondering

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn isn't happy with his Democratic caucus for allowing slogans to dominate the narrative about their party, telling "Axios on HBO" that phrases like "defund the police" cost them crucial seats in the House and Senate.
"That phrase — 'defund the police' — cost Jaime Harrison tremendously,"

"Stop sloganeering," he said. "Sloganeering kills people. Sloganeering destroys movements. Stop sloganeering. And let's go about the business of representing people and building hopes and aspirations for people."

Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas said these slogans gave Republicans ammunition to use in “commercial after commercial” against their candidates.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who eked out a re-election victory in Virginia, took aim at her colleagues who have embraced the "defund the police" movement and said Democrats needed to be better at fighting the "socialism" label.

That's fucking idiotic, they think they're going to win an election without at minimum a slogan? This is the precise problem with modern politics, they just sit back, offer voters nothing and hope the other side says something they can pick apart. It's exactly what got us to this point.

If they don't like the messenging then they need to get their heads out of their asses and come up with better messenging.

Jesus Christ, these old fossils have learned absolutely nothing. I almost wish Trump had won, maybe that would've been a fucking wakeup call... albeit too fucking late...

[Adam Jensen]

AOC is more popular than the rest of the Democrats combined, but apparently that's not a meaningful metric to establishment Dems. And they wonder why they failed to materialise a blue wave.

"Maybe I'm out of touch and the people do want universal healthcare, climate change action, and better worker rights"

*Principal Skinner meme*

"No, it's the people who are wrong."