Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Thekri]

It is good to see President Obama has given up pretending to be neutral in this wildfire. I just got youtube ad he made for Jaime Harrison, which is good, because I haven't seen him active in Senate races so far. While I admire the concept of former presidents staying out of politics, the reality of our current situation just doesn't make it a defensible position, so it is good to see him rolling up his sleeves and wading in.

[Benggaul]

At this point I think I'm going to kick off November 3rd with a rewatch of the Freeman's Mind series, move on to some random, mindless Netflix movies while I level up a new char in Northrend (thanks Chromie Time!) and segue into some Phasmophobia streams.

Anything to keep me from checking the news every few minutes for however long it takes. This election will basically decide whether I'm helping some of my family take their belongings--and their money--out of the US for greener pastures or if they'll be able to stay and help their local level government continue to advance on the progressive path.

[Omega10]

At this point I think I'm going to kick off November 3rd with a rewatch of the Freeman's Mind series, move on to some random, mindless Netflix movies while I level up a new char in Northrend (thanks Chromie Time!) and segue into some Phasmophobia streams.

Anything to keep me from checking the news every few minutes for however long it takes. This election will basically decide whether I'm helping some of my family take their belongings--and their money--out of the US for greener pastures or if they'll be able to stay and help their local level government continue to advance on the progressive path.

I've been playing as much chess and minecraft as I possibly can. I still check in now and again, but I try to make my check the news times brief and not too often throughout the day.

[Benggaul]

I've been playing as much chess and minecraft as I possibly can. I still check in now and again, but I try to make my check the news times brief and not too often throughout the day.

Oooh, a new Minecraft mod pack might be good. I'll have to add it to the list. And going with the -craft theme it's probably about time to another run through the entire StarCraft campaign. And then back to an old favorite...Pharaoh. Some good-ole city building.

If nothing else this shitty year is going to have me revisiting a lot of old favorites. Comfort gaming, if you will.

I stopped checking polls ages ago and never watched any of the debates or town halls--because none of it matters to me. I got my mail-in ballot when it was first available, mailed it the next day (on crutches 10km from my apartment) and then checked online until I saw the status on it was "Accepted". Now my part is done.

Well, except bothering everyone I can to vote ASAP.

[Rasulis]

Wisconsin shredding ballots after Nov 4th even if post marked before the election will probably hurt Biden a lot in WI, but I still think he will win it.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/26/polit...urt/index.html

To be precise, ballots received after Nov 3, even if they are marked pre Nov 3, will not be counted. However, any ballots received by Nov 3 will be counted even if they require extra time to do that.

[Milchshake]

If republicans continue to gain 100k voters per every 4 years like they did the last 4 years apparently, they will catch up with democrats in 28 more years. The republicans catching up is a problem, and I would say a BIG problem. But Pennsylvania turning red is still a ways off, if ever.

If I understand PA politics correctly, fracking is what is keeping rural Pennsylvania employed and red. The decline of fracking will continue to be very bad for rural Pennsylvania. During Obama's presidency, fracking flourished in Pennsylvania. During Trump's presidency fracking has crashed. Regardless of how this election turns out, fracking will continue to decline over the next election cycle or two.

No, this is the same flawed logic people used when freaking out about Nevada, ummmm just last week.

Voter registration, like mineral extraction, will always decline as the mine/well ages. It's over looking that Democrat registration surged already in '17 and '18 and again in the primaries.

No one is tripping over easy oil like Jed Clampett these days. After the initial Rush, you have to dig deeper to find resources.


The GOP base is still in overall decline. If it wasn't, why would they be so desperate in suppressing votes. Or packing the court with pro-apartheid judges?

To be precise, ballots received after Nov 3, even if they are marked pre Nov 3, will not be counted. However, any ballots received by Nov 3 will be counted even if they require extra time to do that.

It's like early voters (80%) have been thinking about it.

One big fuck up, the GOP announcing loudly for a year, that they were going to ratfuck the election.

Which really animated Dem voters, and minority voters that got fucked in 2016.


This is remarkable .. 79% of requested absentee ballots in Wisconsin have been returned a week before the election




Stay enthusiastic! Enthuse others to get their ballots in, and early.

2020: People that actually vote, versus very online people that dont vote.

[Zan15]

If republicans continue to gain 100k voters per every 4 years like they did the last 4 years apparently, they will catch up with democrats in 28 more years. The republicans catching up is a problem, and I would say a BIG problem. But Pennsylvania turning red is still a ways off, if ever.

If I understand PA politics correctly, fracking is what is keeping rural Pennsylvania employed and red. The decline of fracking will continue to be very bad for rural Pennsylvania. During Obama's presidency, fracking flourished in Pennsylvania. During Trump's presidency fracking has crashed. Regardless of how this election turns out, fracking will continue to decline over the next election cycle or two.



!

Just like Coal and Steel. They will blame this all on democrats instead of market forces.

Speaking of steel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tariffs...el-11603877400

Tariffs Didn’t Fuel Revival for American Steel
Initial job growth withers as demand and prices sink; older mills face a dim future

the tariffs haven’t produced the steelmaking renaissance and robust job growth in America’s industrial heartland that Mr. Trump promised. What’s more, the tariffs have hurt U.S. manufacturers, including those in the automotive and appliance sectors, who say the duties on steel and aluminum continue to keep their metal costs higher than what overseas competitors pay.

With the expanded production, about 6,000 jobs were added to the U.S. steel industry’s workforce after tariffs started in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. By the end of 2019, though, those gains evaporated as steel demand and prices sank.

Higher prices also made steel more expensive for manufacturers that buy it, leading to the loss of about 75,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs, according to a study released late last year by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

[cubby]

Wisconsin shredding ballots after Nov 4th even if post marked before the election will probably hurt Biden a lot in WI, but I still think he will win it.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/26/polit...urt/index.html

It will hurt him, I'm not sure about that second part. The odds-makers and people predicting outcomes seem like that aren't taking into account GOP fuckery.

[PC2]

that is every single subject.

Well you're free to make an argument. My point is that if you go to a site like FiveThirtyEight and look at a model or a simulation you shouldn't assume "this is the truth". You should look into the nitty gritty details and figure out how the numbers are derived. The fact that there are many different ways to make models and interpret data about the same event means that you're dealing with a subject that involves taste and opinion.

[cubby]

To be precise, ballots received after Nov 3, even if they are marked pre Nov 3, will not be counted. However, any ballots received by Nov 3 will be counted even if they require extra time to do that.

It's still horrific news. It goes back to Kavanaugh ruling in favor of his Dear Leader and Sponsor and pushes the false notion of "flipping the results" and is bolstered by the GOP's fucking with the USPS. Counting ballots that are postmarked by Election Day is common across the country. No different than counting ballots by hand on Nov 5 that were cast in person on the 3rd, for example.

- - - Updated - - -

One big fuck up, the GOP announcing loudly for a year, that they were going to ratfuck the election.

Which really animated Dem voters, and minority voters that got fucked in 2016.


This is remarkable .. 79% of requested absentee ballots in Wisconsin have been returned a week before the election




Stay enthusiastic! Enthuse others to get their ballots in, and early.

That is fucking amazing.

[kaid]

It's still horrific news. It goes back to Kavanaugh ruling in favor of his Dear Leader and Sponsor and pushes the false notion of "flipping the results" and is bolstered by the GOP's fucking with the USPS. Counting ballots that are postmarked by Election Day is common across the country. No different than counting ballots by hand on Nov 5 that were cast in person on the 3rd, for example.

- - - Updated - - -



That is fucking amazing.

The upside of the GOP loudly telegraphing how they want to steal the election is getting people out and voting. Hopefully it is enough. I am also curious how many of those absentee ballots wound up casting a vote in person instead for fear of whats going on.

[cubby]

The upside of the GOP loudly telegraphing how they want to steal the election is getting people out and voting. Hopefully it is enough. I am also curious how many of those absentee ballots wound up casting a vote in person instead for fear of whats going on.

Agreed - we are seeing record turnout (percentages - which imo is the key factor) everywhere. If we win out and have a President Biden and a Democratic Senate, we have to go full-nuts-bore in passing sweeping legislation to prevent the Criminal GOP Fuckwits from trying to subvert democracy.

Secretary of Election Security needs to happen - the FEC might as well be dead if Dipshit-in-Chief can neuter it by simply doing nothing.

Secretary Abrams anyone?

[Redwyrm]

It is good to see President Obama has given up pretending to be neutral in this wildfire. I just got youtube ad he made for Jaime Harrison, which is good, because I haven't seen him active in Senate races so far. While I admire the concept of former presidents staying out of politics, the reality of our current situation just doesn't make it a defensible position, so it is good to see him rolling up his sleeves and wading in.

Trump opened that can of worms when he decided that this election was about Obama as much as it was Biden and Hillary. Trump can't attack Biden on much except SOCIALISM. So he has to bring up Obama and his record. But I don't think Trump realized how much of a mistake it was to get Obama on the campaign trail. You want a stark contrast between Presidential statures? Trump ain't winning that one.

[Edge-]

Speaking of Trump supporters being stranded, waiting for busses, this apparently isn't the first time. This happened a few weeks ago to a local "March for Trump" event that supporters organized - https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-coa...arch-for-trump

A couple hundred Donald Trump fans rallied outside Congress on Thursday for the “March for Trump,” an event meant to oppose House Democrats’ impeachment investigation. According to organizers, though, there would have been hundreds more people shouting “stop the coup” in Washington’s streets if not for a liberal plot against their buses.

That’s because, as would-be rally attendees gathered across the East Coast for the US Coachways buses that the organizer had promised would take them to Washington, those buses never showed.

The no-shows provoked a wave of anger, accusations that the “deep state” had colluded to stop a show of Trump support in Washington, and negative reviews aimed at US Coachways.

But US Coachways has a simpler explanation for what happened—it was never paid for the requested buses due to a series of declined credit card payments.

“We want to get people down there,” Joseph Heap, US Coachways’ chief marketing officer, told The Daily Beast. “But unfortunately, payment is required.”

For those who made it to the rally, the missing buses were a subject of anger, consternation, and conspiracies. Rally speaker and One America News personality Jack Posobiec compared the bus issue to social media companies “deplatforming” conservatives.

“I hear there was a buses issue today,” Posobiec said. “The company refused to work with folks.”

And Women for America First, the organizing group, quickly blasted the bus company in a press release, accusing US Coachways of stopping “hundreds of Americans from exercising their first amendment rights.”

“Last night, less than two hours before our first chartered buses were supposed to leave for DC, we were informed that the bus company was cancelling all of our buses—including ones that were fully paid for,” the statement read. “This move left hundreds of grassroots activists stranded and unable to attend the Anti-Impeachment rally today in front of the Capitol. We are incredibly disappointed at US Coachways, their actions prevented hundreds of Americans from exercising their first amendment rights and to have their voices heard.”

For those who couldn’t make it because of the absent buses, the vitriol was even more direct. Disappointed Trump fans took to social media and business review sites to vent their frustrations at the company.

“Deep state is diabolical,” tweeted one rallygoer. Another asked Fox News host Tucker Carlson to investigate.

It's all a deep state coup to deplatform conservatives!...

Or it's because they didn't get paid and, unfortunately for these Trump supporters, this isn't a socialist country with free public transportation.

Shame.

- - - Updated - - -

Remember that old anonymous op-ed from part of the "resistance" inside the WH? - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/o...esistance.html

We know who it is, Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at DHS - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/u...ous-trump.html

Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, was the anonymous author of The New York Times Op-Ed article in 2018 whose description of President Trump as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective” roiled Washington and set off a hunt for his identity, Mr. Taylor confirmed Wednesday.

Mr. Taylor was also the anonymous author of “A Warning,” a book he wrote the following year that described the president as an “undisciplined” and “amoral” leader whose abuse of power threatened the foundations of American democracy. He acknowledged that he was the author of both the book and the opinion article in an interview and in a three-page statement he intended to post online.

Mr. Taylor resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in June 2019, and went public with his criticism of Mr. Trump this past summer. He released a video just before the start of the Republican National Convention declaring that the president was unfit for office and endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee.

As a senior administration official, Mr. Taylor often interacted with the president at the White House, particularly on issues related to immigration, cybersecurity and terrorism. He left government after Ms. Nielsen was fired and later became the head of national security relations for Google. He has been on personal leave from the company for the past several months after endorsing Mr. Biden and has been organizing other Republicans to campaign against Mr. Trump’s re-election.

“More than two years ago, I published an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times about Donald Trump’s perilous presidency, while I was serving under him. He responded with a short but telling tweet: ‘TREASON?’” Mr. Taylor wrote in his statement.

“When I left the administration, I wrote ‘A Warning,’ a character study of the current commander in chief and a caution to voters that it wasn’t as bad as it looked inside the Trump administration — it was worse,” he added.

The disclosure of Mr. Taylor’s identity is likely to renew the debate over his motives and raise questions about whether his position in the Trump administration was senior enough to justify the decisions by The Times’s Opinion desk and the book’s publisher to keep his identity secret.

[Sunseeker]

“The company refused to work with folks.”

Ah yes, I hear this in my line of work a lot.
"Well you need to pay this."
"Well I can't pay it all."
"Okay how much can you pay?"
"I can't pay anything at all."
"Then I can't help you."
"HOW DARE YOU REFUSE TO WORK WITH ME!!!!"

[beanman12345]

yeah no more "resistance" anymore, they're all gone, it's now 100% yes men, and 225000+ dead american's.

[kaelleria]

New cnn national poll.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/28/p...mpression=true

Among likely voters, 54% back Biden and 42% Trump.

Overall, 55% of likely voters age 65 or older back the Democrat, 44% Trump. Biden also leads by a broad margin among voters under age 35 (68% Biden to 30% Trump), while voters between the ages of 35 and 64 are split about evenly between the two candidates (48% back each candidate).

[Kaleredar]

well there goes pennsylvania,
biden literally cant win without pennsylvania
so if biden loses you can thank these thugs rioting over a guy charging the officer with a knife,
im supportive of blm when its an actually unarmed guy, but this is a clear case of he was a threat to the officers lives
and all there going to do is make otherwise liberal people in phily ( big liberal town) not go out and vote for democrats

Seeing as all I’m hearing in the news right now are reports of skyrocketing Covid cases, I doubt this incident will move the needle much.

[DingDongKing]

54% of the 2016 has already voted. Keep. Voting.

[beanman12345]

New cnn national poll.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/28/p...mpression=true

Correlation between middle age rednecks and stupidity?