Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Kaleredar]

That was kind of the whole point in linking the article. The man is basically advocating for an authoritarian government.

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This particular line of reasoning is all about keeping Biden from taking office.

Yeah, and Flynn can spin that conspiracy to continue pumping up Trump’s donation funds, and his followers can believe that it’s going to happen all they want.

But as I said, I think they’re in for a pretty cold shock when on January 20th that doesn’t happen.

[Xeones]

So I was largely indifferent to any appointment he makes for special counsel, but not her. I'm not ok with her, I expect a bare minimum amount of competence not someone who literally lies and makes up nonsense on her court filings riddled with errors.

[Kaleredar]

So I was largely indifferent to any appointment he makes for special counsel, but not her. I'm not ok with her, I expect a bare minimum amount of competence not someone who literally lies and makes up nonsense on her court filings riddled with errors.

Sadly we can’t exactly expect anything more of the trump Administration.

If there’s any silver lining here, though, it’s that she obviously doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground and they have basically a month before trump is out.

I seriously doubt they’re shrewd enough to craft anything in such a short amount of time that holds any precedent at all, especially considering how laughably bad her and their efforts have been thus far.

[Omega10]

Republican voter suppression is making news in other countries.

This is posted in Yahoo from The Guardian.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republica...110047392.html

Title: Republicans strategize for next elections: 'Their plan is to make it harder for voters to participate'

The article basically is a list of plans republicans already have put forward to make it harder to vote in the future, especially in Georgia and Texas.

After record turnout in the 2020 presidential election, Republicans in some states are already signaling they will pursue measures that make it harder to vote in the coming years.

Apparently, too many people voting is just one more thing causing a republican backlash.

The GOP backlash underscores how swiftly and severely the party is willing to cut off access to the ballot amid signs of a changing electorate. The baseless accusations of fraud that Donald Trump and other allies continue to levy about the election has offered election officials justification for passing the measures.

“There will be some states where it is very clear that the existing power structure is worried about their voters. And part of their job security plan is to make it harder for their voters to participate,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

In Georgia, a state where record numbers of voters cast their ballots by mail, Republicans who control the state legislature have said they want to pass a slew of new restrictions focused on mail-in voting. They have said they want to require voters to submit a copy of their ID with their mail-in ballot and eliminate ballot drop boxes. While Georgia currently allows anyone to vote-by-mail, Republicans said they intend to work on a new law that would only allow voters to cast a mail-in ballot if they have an excuse. Newt Gingrich, the conservative Georgian and former speaker of the US House, complained earlier this month that Republicans were helping Democrats by making it easier to vote.

The Republican push to do away with no-excuse absentee voting comes just 15 years after the party embraced the practice and adopted a state law doing away with the excuse requirement to vote by mail. In previous elections, Republicans in the state have used the practice more widely than Democrats, said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.

“Now, they’re clearly operating on the premise that: ‘fewer votes, we win’,” he said. “Making it harder to do absentee voting, assuming we don’t remain all locked in our homes because of the pandemic, that may hurt Republicans more than Democrats. It’s kind of a simple, knee jerk reaction to an election they very narrowly lost.”

There are examples from Texas, followed by this obvious conclusion.

Pérez questioned what kind of message it would send to the American public to see politicians so swiftly restrict access to voting after many people used it for the first time.

“What does it do to the American population to have to see our politicians being so self serving. So brazen in their attempts to make it harder for people to vote?,” she said. “It’s just gonna tell a really ugly story about America.”

This will be noticed not just by Americans, but will be used worldwide as just more proof that Trump is not an aberration and that America does not live up to the ideals that it sells itself on. This is just one more set of actions moving power - soft power in this case - away from the US and towards other countries.

[Paranoid Android]

Republican voter suppression is making news in other countries.

This is posted in Yahoo from The Guardian.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republica...110047392.html

Title: Republicans strategize for next elections: 'Their plan is to make it harder for voters to participate'

The article basically is a list of plans republicans already have put forward to make it harder to vote in the future, especially in Georgia and Texas.



Apparently, too many people voting is just one more thing causing a republican backlash.





There are examples from Texas, followed by this obvious conclusion.



This will be noticed not just by Americans, but will be used worldwide as just more proof that Trump is not an aberration and that America does not live up to the ideals that it sells itself on. This is just one more set of actions moving power - soft power in this case - away from the US and towards other countries.

Oh they see the writing on the wall. Well, they have for the past 12 years or so, especially when SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights. So yes for Georgia, since Dems won, the voting will be suppressed to the ground. Texas they are scared one day it might go purple and of course it's over. To be fair Texas likes suppressing the vote even if deep red. They love running up the score.

While people scoff at Trump and I have never taken this likely, I hope the know that they will still piggyback on this and claim illegal voting to make more laws. A fascist political party that can and will rule in the minority is dangerous.

[Breccia]

Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud

Trump will likely get to naming multiple special counsels in the next few weeks. Like, three to six, which in context is huge.

That's because they're hard to fire once started, and Trump waited three years and ten months before doing...anything, so he's not just flipping the table he's also gluing it face-down on the floor.

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So I was largely indifferent to any appointment he makes for special counsel, but not her. I'm not ok with her

I agree. I also don't know what other job she'll ever get, ever again, from anyone other than the rabid fanbase.

[PhaelixWW]

Welp...

CNN: After legal threat, Fox airs news package debunking election fraud claims made by its own hosts

If President Trump tunes into Fox News this weekend, he may see something unexpected: a point-by-point fact-check to wild election fraud claims made by some of his favorite hosts on the network.

After voting technology company Smartmatic sent Fox News a blistering legal threat that accused the network of participating in a "disinformation campaign" against it, the network has started airing a remarkable news package debunking claims its hosts and guests have propagated.

The package aired for the first time Friday night on Lou Dobbs' show. Fox News said the same package would air Saturday night on Jeanine Pirro's program as well as Sunday morning on Maria Bartiromo's show. All three hosts, who use their platforms to air pro-Trump propaganda, are close with the President.

The stunning news package featured an interview with voting technology expert Eddie Perez, who poured cold water on a series of conspiracy theories that have been amplified and promoted on the shows of Dobbs, Pirro, and Bartiromo.

Perez said, for instance, that he had not seen any evidence that Smartmatic software was used to manipulate the election or that there was a direct connection between the company and liberal philanthropic billionaire George Soros.

As Trump has continued to attack the integrity of the voting system, some of his allies have homed in on Smartmatic because of the services it provided Los Angeles County for the 2020 election.

The baseless conspiracy theories peddled about Smartmatic, which mimic those pushed against Dominion Voting Systems, falsely suggest that the company's technology allowed the November vote to be rigged against Trump.

Some strains of the conspiracy theory have aimed to tie the company to Soros and the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.

When asked for comment on the surreal news package Fox aired, Erik Connolly, an attorney for Smartmatic, told CNN, "We cannot comment due to potential litigation." A Fox News spokesperson referred CNN back to the segment itself and did not comment further.

In its legal notice to Fox News, dated December 10, Smartmatic identified several instances in which conspiracy theories were spread on its air by either Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani or former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell. The legal notice, which stated assertions made about Chavez and Soros have no truth to them, also identified instances in which Dobbs and Bartiromo helped spread false information.

Perez, who has a history providing insight to news organizations, told CNN on Saturday afternoon that the interview process with Fox was unusual. Perez said, for instance, that the network would not tell him which show the piece would be aired on and that he found it strange the interview was not conducted by an on-air reporter or host.

"I was never informed that the content would be for Mr. Dobbs' show," Perez told CNN. "And my reaction was to observe as many others have how kind of strange and unique that particular way at presenting the facts was."

"I am not accustomed to seeing Lou Dobbs air very straight forward factual evidence," Perez added, noting it was unusual for the news package to simply end with no comment from Dobbs and then cut to a commercial break.

"I think my main reaction was one of surprise and to think to myself that it was very interesting to see how the interview ultimately played out because I had not been given any reason to expect that was the nature story," Perez said.

Perez also said that he was not made aware prior to the interview that the questions would be solely focused on Smartmatic.

"There was nothing in any of the preliminary conversations that I had with Fox News that gave me any indication that Smartmatic would be a matter of conversation," Perez said. "It was never mentioned that this was going to be a discussion about Smartmatic or even claims about private vendors. I was anticipating a broader discussion about the debate around the election, election integrity, so on and so forth."

Asked to describe Fox's coverage of the election, Perez said that its on-air talent has made allegations "that are speculative and not based in fact, many of which are harmful to enhancing public confidence in the legitimacy of election outcomes."

But Perez expressed gratitude for being allowed to deliver the facts to the Fox audience in an unfiltered way.

"I felt it was important to talk to Fox News," Perez told CNN, "if anything potentially more important to be speaking the facts to their audience because there are a lot of consumers of Fox News that have doubts about the election."

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Also from yesterday...

CNN: Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of martial law:

[video]

An Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump that included Sidney Powell and her client Michael Flynn began as an impromptu gathering but quickly devolved, two people familiar with the matter said. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports screaming matches broke out at certain points as some of Trump's aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn's suggestions.

[Breccia]

"An Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump that included Sidney Powell..."

BLEARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH

Why the hold on there's more BLEARRRRRRRRRRRGH

Why the hell is she still there? Trump fired her. Oh right, she's doing something else now. God, I need a mint.

[Kaleredar]

Trump will likely get to naming multiple special counsels in the next few weeks. Like, three to six, which in context is huge.

That's because they're hard to fire once started, and Trump waited three years and ten months before doing...anything, so he's not just flipping the table he's also gluing it face-down on the floor.

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I agree. I also don't know what other job she'll ever get, ever again, from anyone other than the rabid fanbase.

Probably trying to fall back on being a “professional” (big air quotes) talking head on some trump mouthpiece channel.

[postman1782]

Because she's totally worked out so far....
Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud

It is a good thing he can't.

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Welp...

CNN: After legal threat, Fox airs news package debunking election fraud claims made by its own hosts


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Also from yesterday...

CNN: Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of martial law:

I hope they try it, just so they can try him for treason and sentence him to death.

[Dontrike]

Because she's totally worked out so far....
Trump Discussed Naming Campaign Lawyer as Special Counsel on Election Fraud

I'm all for this, I'm sure she'd commit perjury so fucking fast.

[pathora44]

I hope they try it, just so they can try him for treason and sentence him to death.

I would hope if he tried this the commanding generals of each of the U.S. military branches would do the moral thing and have Trump removed from his command and put under arrest.

[Paranoid Android]

Hey people Trump is still trying to overthrow our elected government. This time by having someone suggest a military coup.

Spineless Dems not even trying to impeach.

[Kaleredar]

Hey people Trump is still trying to overthrow our elected government. This time by having someone suggest a military coup.

Spineless Dems not even trying to impeach.

Because I don’t think the timeframe it would need to be in and the political capitol democrats would need to expend would be even remotely tenable.

[jonnysensible]

please santa for christmas let him try a slow coup and end up getting gaddafi'd

[Santti]

Hey people Trump is still trying to overthrow our elected government. This time by having someone suggest a military coup.

Spineless Dems not even trying to impeach.

Don't see any point in it. House might impeach him the second time (is that a thing?), but the senate will still not do anything against Trump. Because the Senate is Trump.

He's out the door soon anyway, and likely in all kinds of legal trouble.

And I don't think the military is too fond of Trump.

[PhaelixWW]

Don't see any point in it. House might impeach him the second time (is that a thing?), but the senate will still not do anything against Trump. Because the Senate is Trump.

He's out the door soon anyway, and likely in all kinds of legal trouble.

And I don't think the military is too fond of Trump.

I mean, technically there's a chance the Senate will be 50-50 with a full two weeks of Trump's presidency left. If Romney voted with the Democrats again, then it could happen.

But yeah, it's obviously not worth doing at this point. Biden's already won, and Trump won't be shielded much longer.

[Breccia]

Spineless Dems not even trying to impeach.

Flynn is not impeachable.

[Belize]

Hey people Trump is still trying to overthrow our elected government. This time by having someone suggest a military coup.

Spineless Dems not even trying to impeach.

The military already issued multiple statements that boil down to "We're not getting involved, fuck off Trump".

This is a non issue.

[Breccia]

I guess this goes here? Toss-up, really.

It's time to play Guess the Speaker: Double Header! The topic is the meeting described above, the "martial law" one that took place in the WH.

There’s no other way to describe it. It’s unbelievable and almost certainly without precedent, but it’s important to understand this is just another day at the office, at the Oval. He’s unfit for the job. I don’t think he’s ever read the Constitution, if he has, he clearly didn’t understand it, and if he did understand it one point, he’s forgotten it.

"Clearly some commie librul traitor who's never set foot in the WH."

Actually it's Bolton, who Trump hired. On purpose.

What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know? Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, “Libyan solution”, when describing what the U.S. was going to do for North Korea? I’ve got plenty of other Bolton “stupid stories”.

"Clearly that's Trump."

Indeed.

So what we have here are two people, both of whom intentionally and specifically sought the other one out, now each calling the other incompetent idiots in public.

@Edge- you have a catchphrase you want to throw in?