2020 Election Results 3: The Longest Episode of Democracy Ever

[Lillymuffin]

How many more votes does GA have to count?

[Cartmann99]

 Current White House staffer mood:

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Cartmann99
forgot a word

[Smee]

Yeah Georgia!!!

oh to be a fly on the white house wall.

[SassyPants]

GO GA, and I’m here for it!

[Snarkasarus Rex]

1 hour ago, Smee said:

Yeah Georgia!!!

oh to be a fly on the white house wall.

Brian Kemp ain’t getting any sleep the next few weeks...and Biden OWES Stacey Abrams.

GA is going to be cray from now until the special election is over!

And how fucked up is it that we haven’t decided an election where one candidate leads by 4M+ votes?

Edited November 6, 2020 by Snarkasarus Rex

[Audrey2]

6 hours ago, AmericanRose said:

I'm quietly horrified that Trump has received 6.6 million (so far) more votes than he did in 2016. WTF, people?

I wonder if some of the people who voted for Trump were actually voting for no more Covid  masks. I know there were all sorts of rumors swirling about Biden shutting down the country because of Covid and all I hear from my really conservative area is they are so tired of wearing the mask and would vote for anyone who told them they didn't have to wear it anymore. They would have voted Republican anyway, but I think for probably a good chunk of that 6 million, the masks are the difference.

[SassyPants]

14 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

I wonder if some of the people who voted for Trump were actually voting for no more Covid  masks. I know there were all sorts of rumors swirling about Biden shutting down the country because of Covid and all I hear from my really conservative area is they are so tired of wearing the mask and would vote for anyone who told them they didn't have to wear it anymore. They would have voted Republican anyway, but I think for probably a good chunk of that 6 million, the masks are the difference.

I think it’s the fiscal ramifications of shutting down the country, which I can understand and respect, but damn, it’s what you have to do in a world wide pandemic and ESPECIALLY IF YOU REFUSE TO WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING. YOU CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! You can not bitch and moan about things being shut down if you refuse to do what it takes to control the virus, so that things can open back up.

[Nothing if not critical]

Question for you American peeps: A friend of mine who lives in the States just told me she was against Obamacare, because it put too much of a burden on hard-working middle class people, up to the point where they couldn't afford healthcare any more. Would you agree? It's just not an argument I've heard before, and I wonder what your take on it is.

[srlm]

A thought just occurred to me, does anyone know...  if Biden wins and trump refuses to leave the white house, who will be in charge of the military (I assume it would be the military's job?...) to get him out of there on Jan 20?  

[Smee]

I do think historians and anthropologists will be breaking down the impact of the pandemic on this election for many years to come. 

13 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

I think it’s the fiscal ramifications of shutting down the country, which I can understand and respect, but damn, it’s what you have to do in a world wide pandemic and ESPECIALLY IF YOU REFUSE TO WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING. YOU CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! You can not bitch and moan about things being shut down if you refuse to do what it takes to control the virus, so that things can open back up.

Here in Australia, Victoria has only very recently come out of another hard lockdown & still has a mask mandate (though that may change soon). It freaking worked, in a way that the rest of the world dreams of - there hasn’t been a new Covid case or death in Vic for a week now, and the 14-day average for daily cases sits at 1.8 which is just incredible. There is in my mind no disputing that the lockdown was the right decision, but apparently that IS contentious and there are people who protest “Dictator Dan” (the Premier) for taking away their rights. Even when it is abundantly clear that these measures are WORKING and there is an actual end in sight - like a literal date - people will complain and tantrum about why we should all run around living like the pandemic doesn’t exist and overthrow these terrible leaders who want us to wear masks. Sorry about keeping your grandpa alive, I guess?

2 minutes ago, srlm said:

A thought just occurred to me, does anyone know...  if Biden wins and trump refuses to leave the white house, who will be in charge of the military (I assume it would be the military's job?...) to get him out of there on Jan 20?  

I’m not sure the military is the best option to get rid of him. He will definitely claim that as a coup. They could probably just starve him out. Swear Biden in elsewhere and run his staff from a different building, while removing all cleaners, cooks etc from the White House and revoking Trump’s security clearance so that once he steps out he can’t get back in.
 

More realistically though, I’m guessing it would be the secret service who basically become security guards escorting him from the building? 

[Snarkasarus Rex]

13 minutes ago, srlm said:

A thought just occurred to me, does anyone know...  if Biden wins and trump refuses to leave the white house, who will be in charge of the military (I assume it would be the military's job?...) to get him out of there on Jan 20?  

Biden will be the commander in chief on 20 Jan but the military has no role in removing Trump. Federal law enforcement will handle it, if it comes to that.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Snarkasarus Rex

[fraurosena]

I still don’t think he’ll even be in the White House on that day. As soon as it’s absolutely clear to him he has lost, he’s fleeing the country or going into hiding. He is not going to face public humiliation. His ego couldn’t handle it.

[clueliss]

I refuse to go find one to share here because well I’ve hidden the damn stuff that hit my page. However on Facebook I’m already seeing from my redneck neighbors all sorts of shares with these whining whingeing posts about those of you who voted for Biden blah blah blah blah blah they’re already whining it hasn’t been called yet.   ?????

[CarrotCake]

9 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I still don’t think he’ll even be in the White House on that day. As soon as it’s absolutely clear to him he has lost, he’s fleeing the country or going into hiding. He is not going to face public humiliation. His ego couldn’t handle it.

Maybe he will finally 'think it is not safe to have to many people around'  and will propose to skip the handover in person (or whatever that meeting is called) because of the pandamic.

[Alisamer]

52 minutes ago, Nothing if not critical said:

Question for you American peeps: A friend of mine who lives in the States just told me she was against Obamacare, because it put too much of a burden on hard-working middle class people, up to the point where they couldn't afford healthcare any more. Would you agree? It's just not an argument I've heard before, and I wonder what your take on it is.

In my experience that happened AFTER the Republicans eliminated the individual mandate part of it. Before that it was pretty good, after that prices on insurance spiked like crazy. Mine more than doubled, and so now I have no health insurance myself. 
I did the math, and between the deductible and premiums I’d struggle so much financially and probably go bankrupt if I needed major care anyway since my deductible was so high, I’m just going without. If I’ll go bankrupt even with insurance if I actually get sick, why scrape to pay more than my mortgage each month on premiums just for minimal preventative care?

 

also Go GEORGIA!

[JoyfulSel]

1 hour ago, Nothing if not critical said:

Question for you American peeps: A friend of mine who lives in the States just told me she was against Obamacare, because it put too much of a burden on hard-working middle class people, up to the point where they couldn't afford healthcare any more. Would you agree? It's just not an argument I've heard before, and I wonder what your take on it is.

Completely agree with @Alisamer! For our family, we had to go a year without when the individual mandate was removed because the prices skyrocketed and there just wasn't much choice in NJ. Then last year I decided to look to see if anything had changed for this year's insurance and the market in my state seems to have stabilized. A lot of the companies that left came back and the prices are generally back to what they were before. Each state is just so different and things change year by year.

[Snarkasarus Rex]

Policies became unaffordable for some even before the individual mandate was removed, tho. This happened to my mom and she went without medical coverage for 2-3 years until she turned 65 and was covered by Medicare.

[Nothing if not critical]

@Alisamer and @JoyfulSel: Ah, that makes more sense - thank you so much!

Seems to me that in either case it would make more sense to fix the problems with Obamacare rather than do away with it entirely. It's normal for health insurance systems to need the occasional tweak, but no reason to throw out the baby with the bath water...

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 hour ago, Nothing if not critical said:

Question for you American peeps: A friend of mine who lives in the States just told me she was against Obamacare, because it put too much of a burden on hard-working middle class people, up to the point where they couldn't afford healthcare any more. Would you agree? It's just not an argument I've heard before, and I wonder what your take on it is.

I don't have the bandwidth atm to go in-depth but Obamacare helps some and is out of reach for others.  And it did hurt some people because some employers which had previously offered benefits stopped because people could just get their own.

When I lost my job and thus my insurance a few years ago I looked into it and at the $1200 a month premium it would have cost me it was completely out of the question.  And when they were charging anyone uninsured for not having insurance when they paid taxes it was unconscionable.  People who can't afford health insurance sure as hell can't afford to pay a fine for being uninsured.

It's better than nothing for some people and the pre-conditions and extending how long adult kids could stay on their parents insurance....but it's very problematic in a lot of ways they need to fix.

I've been on my bathroom floor in excruciating pain unable to get medical treatment for a kidney thing because I couldn't afford insurance even with Obamacare so we need something that actually works.  

 

[apple1]

10 hours ago, formergothardite said:

North Carolina needs you to get some sun drop, fried liver mush and some BBQ for good measure.  Maybe make a banana pudding. ?

Never mind the liver mush; as for the BBQ, Sun Drop, and banana pudding - now you've done it. I will be looking for a meal of that for the next entire week.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

8 minutes ago, Snarkasarus Rex said:

Policies became unaffordable for some even before the individual mandate was removed, tho. This happened to my mom and she went without medical coverage for 2-3 years until she turned 65 and was covered by Medicare.

This.  It was completely unaffordable for me before the mandate was removed.

I had a kidult son and he was able to go onto his dad's plan when I lost my job.  Had I had to get insurance for both of us it would have been close to 2000 a month and neither of us have major health issues.  I was maxing out unemployment in my state at about 1800 a month. 

It fails many Americans.

[Alisamer]

There were hardship exceptions for the mandate that were available before the mandate was scrapped - its very individual. My ACA premiums started out under $200 a month - but my co-worker’s were over $900 because she’s a smoker and with her husband’s disability payments her income counted as too high for subsidies. She claimed hardship and didn’t have to pay the penalty. 
 

Healthcare in the US is a mess, essentially. The ACA had issues but the Republicans have just made it worse in my experience. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Alisamer

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Regarding GA - I need to get to work so can't google now so hoping someone knows...

are there still about 8k outstanding ballots from Military absentee?  If so I won't breathe easy until they are all in.  Trump may have lost a lot of military support, but by no means all of it (although don't ask me why.)

[Xan]

My sister is a single mom and is so happy to have Obamacare insurance.  Otherwise, it was too expensive to afford.  Before I went on Medicare, my insurance was beginning to be prohibitively expensive and, at that time, I had no pre-existing conditions.  The excess cost was just due to my age.

The real problem is the health insurance industry.  We shouldn't have a middleman collecting money from people "in case they need health care."  I understand that some people are fearful of national health care but I think that's the only way we can be sure that everyone is covered and that they don't have to go into bankruptcy if they have cancer.  The reason that the prices of policies went up is because the insurance companies were allowed to do it.  

[HerNameIsBuffy]

7 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

There were hardship exceptions for the mandate that were available before the mandate was scrapped - its very individual. My ACA premiums started out under $200 a month - but my co-worker’s were over $900 because she’s a smoker and with her husband’s disability payments her income counted as too high for subsidies. She claimed hardship and didn’t have to pay the penalty. 
 

Healthcare in the US is a mess, essentially. 

It varies state by state.  In mine I was quoted at $1200 as a non-smoking unemployed person and my only preconditions were ADHD and migraines.

When people talk about Obamacare they often don't take into account how different it is from state to state. (not you, just in general.)

Edited November 6, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy