2020 Election Results Part 6: A President-Elect Who Will Make Trump Irrelevant Again!!

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Does anyone know where pompeo is traveling to?  Sorry I’m in the middle of an upgrade and on phone running between workstations so just checking in quick when I can.

46 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Trump's team isn't going to leave systems already set up and ready for Biden's team to step in. Biden's team will be lucky to have desks and chairs when they get there. 

As an IT person the wait would be killing me because that’s a hell of a lot of new users to onboard last minute.

[Xan]

6 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Does anyone know where pompeo is traveling to?  Sorry I’m in the middle of an upgrade and on phone running between workstations so just checking in quick when I can.

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to leave Friday for a 10-day trip to seven countries: France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia."  (from Business Insider)  All seven countries have recognized Biden as the winner.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Xan

[Nothing if not critical]

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

If that's the way to do it, my dad was born in Germany.  Any of our German FJs want to take in a long lost cousin?

Sure, come on over. I think you'll like Berlin ?.

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, Dandruff said:

Some, but not all.

Not good about Pompeo (IMO).  He's there for a reason - what is it?  What will the rest of the world do after January 20th if Trump wants to engage?  It may be worth looking at which countries have congratulated Biden (acknowledging his win) and which haven't.  Where are the dependencies with the US?  Are there any other major world powers who will/might stick with Trump?

 

IIRC, the media reported that the countries he is visiting have already reached to congratulate Biden.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Was making a post with links and quotes and will update when I get back to my desk but Miller, new SOD just hired former general as top level advisor.  
 

General is a Trump loyalist.  On record with being against the “Muslim invasion” in Germany, advocated marital law on US soil, and said the more people who die trying to enter the us will help stop the flow of people trying to come here.

he and trump also want us out of Afghanistan by Christmas.  As much as I hate wars and the fewer troops deployed the better they still need to be brought home safely with a solid plan in place so as to not needless endanger our troops or cause massive unrest where they are now.

I think the article was Newsweek  (it was axios) but will post when I get back to a computer.

Edited to add quotes from article:

Quote

 

Macgregor was announced over the summer as Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Germany. He has criticized the EU and Germany for being too welcoming to "Muslim invaders."

Macgregor has advocated for martial law at the U.S.-Mexico border, and per CNN's reporting, and advocated the use of deadly force to deter illegal immigration. In a 2016 blog post, he also wrote: "Once it becomes clear that Central Americans AND Mexicans [and other illegals], are NOT going to survive an attempt to enter the US, and will be LUCKY if they are turned back rather than killed in the attempt to violate US sovereign borders, the flow will diminish substantially."

 

https://www.axios.com/trump-pentagon-douglas-macgregor-43082c11-5480-4efb-9d83-3761f35798ff.html

Edited November 11, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, Xan said:

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to leave Friday for a 10-day trip to seven countries: France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia."  (from Business Insider)  All seven countries have recognized Biden as the winner.

All seven have recognized Biden, perhaps a coincidence, but I wonder what he might be trying to learn/offer/withdraw in these countries.  How much aid do they get from the US?  Are they communicating well with each other?

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 hour ago, Dandruff said:

All seven have recognized Biden, perhaps a coincidence, but I wonder what he might be trying to learn/offer/withdraw in these countries.  How much aid do they get from the US?  Are they communicating well with each other?

• France:  $26k 
• Turkey:  $180 Mil
• Georgia:  $125 mil
• Israel:  $3.3 billion
• United Arab Emirates:  $1.5 mil
• Qatar:  $1.5 mil
• Saudi Arabia:  $1.1 mil

France is nothing, and the UAE, Qatar, and SA it's minimal and not change of life money (although I know nothing about Qatar.)

Turkey, Georgia, and Israel might well have some oh shit moments if American aid is threatened.  

https://explorer.usaid.gov/cd

France is the most interesting place on his itinerary to me.  Why?  They don't need our money.  What they need from the US is in joining the rest of the world in fighting climate change and getting covid under control so travel can resume safely...both of those things will be addressed under Biden, and I can't see Macron being dumb enough to fall for anything if they try to get them to go along with recognizing Trump if he steals the election.

Edited November 11, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Don't know if this has any bearing on anything, but the new Congress is seated on Jan 3rd unless the old congress changes the date, like if Jan 3rd is a weekend or a, you know, coup going on. 

I’m confused. How does that work when the two GA Senate seat run-offs are two days later on Jan 5th?

[Marmion]

 

[Dandruff]

44 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

France is the most interesting place on his itinerary to me.  Why?  They don't need our money.  What they need from the US is in joining the rest of the world in fighting climate change and getting covid under control so travel can resume safely...both of those things will be addressed under Biden, and I can't see Macron being dumb enough to fall for anything if they try to get them to go along with recognizing Trump if he steals the election.

If it's not the money, or an issue that Biden will handle, then it's something else.  Don't think he's going on a food tour.

[Marmion]

4 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

If that's the way to do it, my dad was born in Germany.  Any of our German FJs want to take in a long lost cousin?

You might actually qualify for German citizenship .  {  https://www.sovereignman.com/lifestyle-design/five-places-you-could-obtain-citizenship-6359/#german_citizenship_by_descent  ,  https://visaguide.world/tips/german-citizenship/ }  Kirsten Dunst had acquired German citizenship in such a manner .  https://www.germanpulse.com/2011/10/12/kirsten-dunst-becomes-a-german-citizen/  

[Cartmann99]

Estonia’s far-right minister resigns over Biden remarks

Quote

Estonia’s far-right interior minister, Mart Helme, resigned Monday, a day after he called President-elect Joe Biden and his son Hunter “corrupt characters” without providing further details or evidence.

“Last night I decided to resign (when) looking at the slander and lies produced by the Estonian media,” said Helme, of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party, or EKRE.

“I am tired. I did nothing yesterday that would endanger Estonia’s security. I have not said anything that has not already been told by the American media, the American free media,” he told public broadcaster ERR.

He made the remarks on Sunday in an Estonian radio show which interviewed both Mart Helme and his son Martin, who is the country’s finance minister. They also discussed a hypothetical scenario of a U.S. civil war after the election result.

U.S. President Donald Trump “will win eventually. It will happen as a result of an immense struggle, maybe even bloodshed but justice will win in the end,” Mart Helme told the TRE radio station according to local media.

“There is no question that these elections were falsified,” Martin Helme said in the interview, according to Estonian news portal Delfi and national broadcaster ERR. “I believe all normal people should speak up against it. There is no point in talking about democracy or rule of law in a situation where elections can be faked so plainly, boldly and on a massive scale.”

On Facebook Sunday, Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas urged the pair to stop issuing unsubstantiated statements that he said damage Estonian and U.S. bilateral relations. Ratas congratulated Biden and stressed the U.S. elections were “fair, free and transparent.”

The populist EKRE, which Helme co-founded and has an anti-immigrant and anti-EU agenda, emerged from a March 2019 election as Estonia’s third-largest party.

On Monday, Martin Helme told reporters that what he said was what “the whole of the U.S. media is saying. The press (in Estonia) is not telling the Estonian people what the entire American media is saying, but I did it — election fraud,” the younger Helme said, according to the Baltic News Service.

The comments are seen as highly embarrassing to Estonia, a small former Soviet republic of 1.3 million and a European Union and NATO member that is a staunch ally of Washington.

In a statement issued Monday, Ratas said that “In the current situation, Mart Helme’s resignation is the only way for the government to continue its work, including foreign policy goals.”

Martin Helme, 44, and his father Mart, 71, have been embroiled in various political scandals in past few years due to their controversial public comments.

In October, Mart Helme told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that marriage should only be a union between a man and a woman and suggested that gay couples should go to Sweden. Martin Helme has insisted that his father’s interview was mistranslated, and Mart Helme has denied being homophobic.

Last year, Mart Helme called Estonia’s first female president, Kersti Kaljulaid, an “emotionally heated woman” for walking out during the swearing-in of a Cabinet minister accused of domestic violence.

I can see Trump inviting these two jackasses to the White House.

[47of74]

I have reached the go self conjugal visit yourself stage now with everyone who insists I should be magnanimous towards Republicans.  FUCK THAT.  I should be somewhere over New York State right fucking now trying to fall asleep so I'd have some energy when I reached Athens,  But of course given the fucked up response to the pandemic and the fucked up idea from both Democrats and Republicans that American middle class people absolutely cannot have nice things attitude I can't have that now.  I wanted so much to see Greece.  So people thinking that I'm supposed to make nice with fuck face supporters can go fuck themselves.  I'll be against fuck face and all his supporters until the day I fucking die.

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

General is a Trump loyalist.  On record with being against the “Muslim invasion” in Germany, advocated marital law on US soil, and said the more people who die trying to enter the us will help stop the flow of people trying to come here.

Ok this actually does scare me a lot. This looks like a big step closer to an actual civil war, by which I mean the US military fighting itself as different people pick sides and issue orders. Think Syria - some units fighting for the government, some for the opposition. And that is frankly terrifying - the US military has a shitload of hardware, and if you look at the photos of Damascus etc and imagine that is Philadelphia, New York, Charlotte... it's terrifying. Forget the likely additional insurgencies on top of that, that scenario will kill millions, majority civilians.

If Pompeo is on an arms buying trip... that is not impossible.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ozlsn

[HerNameIsBuffy]

32 minutes ago, Marmion said:

You might actually qualify for German citizenship .  {  https://www.sovereignman.com/lifestyle-design/five-places-you-could-obtain-citizenship-6359/#german_citizenship_by_descent  ,  https://visaguide.world/tips/german-citizenship/ }  Kirsten Dunst had acquired German citizenship in such a manner .  https://www.germanpulse.com/2011/10/12/kirsten-dunst-becomes-a-german-citizen/  

Thanks.  That doesn’t apply to me since he’d have had to have been a German citizen at the time of my birth and he was naturalized long before I came along.

idk if they had dual citizenship back then, but I have no paperwork indicating that.  
 

it wouldn’t be possible financially anyway, just a panicked musing  

Edited November 12, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy

[NotQuiteMotY]

5 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

If that's the way to do it, my dad was born in Germany.  Any of our German FJs want to take in a long lost cousin?

I may have nudged my husband to check and see if all of his Italian grandparents had been properly naturalized... Italy isn't the best place stability-wise, but it's an EU country. Unfortunately they all were.

4 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I wouldn't doubt it, but there are independents would skew hard republican in rural KY if they believed the whole "they're coming for our guns" argument.

This. You don't have to be a registered Republican to vote for the Republican candidate.

I'm just... nervous. It's one thing if Trump's delusional. It's another if Pompeo and other advisors are. And the shuffling in the departments concerns me.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

Ok this actually does scare me a lot. This looks like a big step closer to an actual civil war, by which I mean the US military fighting itself as different people pick sides and issue orders. Think Syria - some units fighting for the government, some for the opposition. And that is frankly terrifying - the US military has a shitload of hardware, and if you look at the photos of Damascus etc and imagine that is Philadelphia, New York, Charlotte... it's terrifying. Forget the likely additional insurgencies on top of that, that scenario will kill millions, majority civilians.

If Pence is on an arms buying trip... that is not impossible.

I thought Pence was in town having cancelled his vacay to meet with the Senatw Republicans?  Am I wrong or did you mean Pompeo?

Whats freaking me out is those terrifying scenarios would have been unthinkable for most Americans until very recently.  As messed up as we are as a country, I would never have considered the possibility of civil war or mass violence breaking out along ideological lines.  Never in my life until now would I have thought it even remotely possible.

Not to sound cliche but the whole idea is just so freaking unamerican.  
 

then again I never would have believed that my Navy vet ex would tell our kids they should lose their citizenship for voting for Biden.  
 

trump is a very dangerous symptom of a problem we‘ll have even when he’s gone - a huge divide and some people being angry and scared enough that they think seizing power by force is an option.

i really hope I’m overreacting.  Petty vengeance firings would suck but I’d feel better knowing he was just having a tantrum and there wasn’t someone smarter behind the scenes with a plan.

[Ozlsn]

7 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

thought Pence was in town having cancelled his vacay to meet with the Senatw Republicans?  Am I wrong or did you mean Pompeo?

I meant Pompeo - white dude, starts with P... edited to fix.

8 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

really hope I’m overreacting.  Petty vengeance firings would suck but I’d feel better knowing he was just having a tantrum and there wasn’t someone smarter behind the scenes with a plan.

Same. And also same that I never thought it'd be something I'd be thinking possible.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Biden’s choice of Ron Klain to run White House signals rejection of Trump-era chaos"

Quote

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen longtime Washington operative Ronald A. Klain as White House chief of staff, sending an early signal that he intends to rely heavily on experience, competence and political agility after a Trump presidency that prized flashiness and personality.

Klain, 59, has been a senior adviser to Democratic presidents, vice presidents, candidates and senators. His appointment marks a homecoming of sorts, since Klain served in the late 1980s as a top aide to Biden when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and ran Biden’s office when he first became vice president.

“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014,” Biden said in a statement. “His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again.”

A strategist with a legal mind and political ear, Klain is the sort of behind-the-scenes Washington hand more common in decades past, an operative who has managed everything from an Ebola outbreak to candidate debates to judicial confirmations.

“This town is brimming with smart people and high school valedictorians,” said Jared Bernstein, an economic adviser to Biden when he was vice president. “Ron brings something extra to the table, which is an ability to quickly process complex, conflicting streams of information and zero in on the optimal solution.”

Often called the second-hardest gig in Washington, the White House chief of staff holds what is traditionally the most important unelected position in government not subject to a Senate confirmation, a person who must wake the president in a crisis and decide who gets to be in the room to shape his views.

The job has often gone to the most talented advisers in both parties — people such as Republican James Baker and Democrat Leon Panetta. Under President Trump, however, the role of the chief of staff has shifted, with the position falling to officials with strained relations and limited sway with Trump. Bucking convention, Trump’s son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, established an independent locus of power inside the West Wing.

Choosing Klain reflects Biden’s plan to move beyond that chaos-driven presidency. The internal White House structure will probably revert to form, with a single manager in charge surrounded by senior officials who also have direct relationships with the president. Mike Donilon, who helped write Biden’s campaign strategy, and Steve Ricchetti, the campaign chairman, are well positioned to land influential positions inside the White House, according to people with knowledge of the internal dynamics who spoke on the condition of anonymity to recount private conversations.

Other top campaign advisers, including Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, and her husband, former White House counsel Bob Bauer, are expected to stay out of government this time around.

Many in Biden’s orbit have long seen Klain as the most obvious pick for chief of staff after more than 30 years of background roles. After a falling-out with Biden’s team when he offered early support to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, Klain has worked his way back into the upper echelons of Biden’s trusted circle.

He consulted with Biden on general strategy even before the former vice president announced his presidential campaign last year, and since August he has served as an unpaid senior adviser to the campaign and led Biden’s extensive debate preparation.

“He is the logical choice and brings the complete package — universally acknowledged ability, a broad range of experience, chemistry with the president-elect — and he is a strategic thinker that brings results,” said Pete Rouse, who was a top aide to President Barack Obama.

At times Klain appears to have worked with every Democratic leader of the past three decades. As counsel to the Judiciary Committee, Klain advised then-Sen. Biden during Clarence Thomas’s volatile Supreme Court confirmation hearings. He worked in the Bill Clinton White House to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, served as chief of staff to Attorney General Janet Reno and was a top policy aide to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

Klain also served as chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore and led Gore’s legal efforts to force a recount of Florida ballots after the 2000 election — actor Kevin Spacey played him in the 2008 movie “Recount.”

“People frequently tell me that I should ‘get over’ the 2000 election and the recount,” Klain tweeted in 2019. “I haven’t, and I don’t think I ever will.”

Along the way, Klain has developed a specialized role as the Democrats’ preeminent coach for presidential debates. He worked on debate preparations for Bill Clinton in 1992 and Gore in 2000, and he has led the debate prep for every Democratic nominee since — John F. Kerry, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden.

Klain’s debate rules for candidates, versions of which long ago became public, have been a mainstay of both party’s strategies for these presidential matchups. “Write your ‘dream’ post-debate headline,” one bullet point says. “Dress so no one will talk about it,” says another.

“A stumble, fumble, or gaffe can cost you a debate, right up to the last second,” he wrote in one memo that became public. “But while you can lose a debate at any point, you can only win a debate in the first twenty minutes.”

But it is Klain’s experience battling both a recession and a pandemic that could come most quickly into play as Biden confronts the nation’s crises. “He knows Biden and he is loyal to Biden, and he absolutely has Biden’s trust,” Dunn said. “There is no one who works harder than Ron, whether it is on a debate book or covid policy.”

As Biden’s vice-presidential chief of staff, Klain oversaw the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a stimulus package that helped ward off a deeper recession after the 2008 economic collapse.

Klain was considered for White House chief of staff during Obama’s second term. That job ultimately went to Denis McDonough, a longtime Obama policy adviser, after Klain withdrew from consideration for personal reasons.

But he returned to the White House to become the point man for the administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, which has now made him one of the Democratic Party’s go-to experts for responding to the coronavirus.

“It’s hard to prove a counterfactual, but I believe that Ron Klain is the reason we did not have an Ebola epidemic in the United States,” said Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Obama. “He is well respected by all the people I have worked with.”

But Klain has not escaped the friction that is a constant at the highest reaches of government. He resigned as chief of staff to Gore in 1999, in the middle of Gore’s presidential campaign, after it emerged that he was in the room with President Bill Clinton when the president called a reporter for a story about the Gore campaign’s struggles.

Clinton had been seeking to convey to the reporter that Gore’s campaign was now doing well after initial stumbles. But Gore was furious at the implicit criticism in that message and at Clinton for delivering it.

Klain said he had opposed Clinton’s call, but the fallout only deepened divisions between the campaign and the vice president’s White House team. Klain left his job about a month later and was hired back into Gore’s team only after a shake-up in the senior campaign leadership.

More recently, Klain infuriated some in Biden’s inner circle by signing up to advise Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign before Biden, who was mourning his son Beau’s death from cancer, had decided to take a pass on the race. Klain helped prepare Clinton for her first debate against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which took place days before Biden announced he would not run.

After the campaign, Ricchetti, who also served as chief of staff to Biden in the vice president’s office, arranged for a meeting between Klain and Biden to clear any lingering bad feelings, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Ron’s value is that Biden trusts him completely and Ron has no fear of telling him exactly what he thinks,” said Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary who Klain hired previously to work for Biden. “He does it respectfully and bluntly, which is what Biden wants and expects.”

Klain also has private-sector experience, which he got after leaving the Gore campaign. He became a litigator and registered lobbyist from 2001 to 2004, working out of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers for a range of clients, including AOL Time Warner and the federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

He then went to work for Revolution Ventures, a firm that has invested in companies such as Sweetgreen, Cotopaxi and DraftKings. The company was started by Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL.

Klain is married to Monica Medina, an environmental policy consultant who previously held positions at the Defense Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 

[SassyPants]

7 minutes ago, NotQuiteMotY said:

I may have nudged my husband to check and see if all of his Italian grandparents had been properly naturalized... Italy isn't the best place stability-wise, but it's an EU country. Unfortunately they all were.

This. You don't have to be a registered Republican to vote for the Republican candidate.

I'm just... nervous. It's one thing if Trump's delusional. It's another if Pompeo and other advisors are. And the shuffling in the departments concerns me.

My dad’s father emigrated from Italy. What an absolutely beautiful country. I think I could live there. My dad’s mother was born and raised in Winnipeg. My maternal grandparents emigrated from Switzerland. Hell, I have a second home in Ecuador that is nicer than my home in CA. We will likely move away from the states when my husband retires. My daughter and her family are living in EC and are never returning to the states. Truly folks, beyond easy access to material items and Amazon, I really can’t think how the US is better than any other half way developed nation. The only thing we’re number one at is saying we’re number 1. Trump, a complete idiot, is our current President. He is more fitting for prison than the WH. It is crazy.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump lawyers suffer embarrassing rebukes from judges over voter fraud claims"

Quote

By now, it’s well-established that most of the arguments put forward by President Trump’s reelection campaign in its challenge of the results of the 2020 election are baseless and highly speculative. Even Trump allies, as The Washington Post reported late Tuesday, acknowledge the apparent futility of the effort. Others have reasoned that there’s no harm in going through the motions, with one anonymous GOP official asking, “What’s the downside for humoring him” for a little while?

But as scenes in courtrooms nationwide in recent days have shown, there is indeed a downside for those tasked with pursuing these claims. Repeatedly now, they have been rebuked by judges for how thin their arguments have been.

The most famous scene came in Pennsylvania, where a Trump lawyer strained to avoid acknowledging that their people were, in fact, allowed to observe the vote-counting process in Philadelphia:

At the city’s federal courthouse on Thursday evening, attorneys for Trump asked a judge to issue an emergency order to stop the count, alleging that all Republican observers had been barred.

Under sharp questioning from Judge Paul S. Diamond, however, they conceded that Trump in fact had “a nonzero number of people in the room,” leaving Diamond audibly exasperated.

“I’m sorry, then what’s your problem?” asked Diamond, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. Denying Trump’s request, Diamond struck a deal for 60 observers from each party to be allowed inside.

At one point on Friday afternoon, 12 Republican observers and five Democrats were watching the count, according to a ballot counter who was working.

After that “nonzero” answer, Diamond pressed the Trump campaign lawyer to be more explicit — and he suggestively invoked their standing with the bar: “I’m asking you as a member of the bar of this court: Are people representing the plaintiffs in the room?” The lawyer responded more directly: “Yes.” By the end of the hearing, Diamond invoked his right to make sure lawyers in his courtroom acted in good faith.

Another Trump lawyer, Jonathan S. Goldstein, was also grilled by a Pennsylvania judge this week. Under questioning, he acknowledged that, contrary to Trump’s claims about rampant voter fraud, he wasn’t alleging fraud in the 592 ballots he sought to disqualify in Montgomery County, Pa.

Again, Trump’s lawyer strained to avoid directly answering the question but was ultimately forced to acknowledge it:

THE COURT: In your petition, which is right before me — and I read it several times — you don’t claim that any electors or the Board of the County were guilty of fraud, correct? That’s correct?

GOLDSTEIN: Your Honor, accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step. And it is rare that I call somebody a liar, and I am not calling the Board of the [Democratic National Committee] or anybody else involved in this a liar. Everybody is coming to this with good faith. The DNC is coming with good faith. We’re all just trying to get an election done. We think these were a mistake, but we think they are a fatal mistake, and these ballots ought not be counted.

THE COURT: I understand. I am asking you a specific question, and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?

GOLDSTEIN: To my knowledge at present, no.

THE COURT: Are you claiming that there is any undue or improper influence upon the elector with respect to these 592 ballots?

GOLDSTEIN: To my knowledge at present, no.

The Trump campaign also sought to temporarily stop counting some ballots in Detroit. It cited a GOP poll watcher who had said she had been told by an unidentified person that late mail ballots were being predated to before Election Day, so they would be considered valid.

The judge repeatedly asserted this was hearsay, but Trump campaign lawyer Thor Hearne sought to argue that it wasn’t — despite it having been someone who said they heard about something they weren’t personally involved in. He pointed to a vague note the poll watcher produced — which said “entered receive date as 11/2/20 on 11/4/20” — as evidence:

STEPHENS: So I want to make sure I understand you. The affiant is not the person who had knowledge of this. Is that correct?

HEARNE: The affiant had direct firsthand knowledge of the communication with the elections inspector and the document they provided them.

STEPHENS: Okay, which is generally known as hearsay, right?

HEARNE: I would not think that’s hearsay, Your Honor. That’s firsthand personal knowledge by the affiant of what she physically observed. And we included an exhibit which is a physical copy of the note that she was provided.

The two later returned to the point, after Stephens reviewed the note, and Stephens echoed Judge Diamond’s exasperation:

STEPHENS: I’m still trying to understand why this isn’t hearsay.

HEARNE: Well, it’s, it, I –

STEPHENS: I absolutely understand what the affiant says she heard someone say to her. But the truth of the matter … that you’re going for was that there was an illegal act occurring. Because other than that I don’t know what its relevancy is.

HEARNE: Right. I would say, Your Honor, in terms of the hearsay point, this is a firsthand factual statement made by Ms. Connarn, and she has made that statement based on her own firsthand physical evidence and knowledge --

STEPHENS: “I heard somebody else say something.” Tell me why that’s not hearsay. Come on, now.

HEARNE: Well it’s a firsthand statement of her physical –

STEPHENS: It’s an out-of-court statement offered where the truth of the matter is [at-issue], right?

In a later written decision, Stephens slammed the argument as “inadmissible hearsay within hearsay.” And after the campaign appealed, Stephens rebuked it Monday for not including required documentation.

“I regret to inform you that your submission is defective,” Stephens said.

Another of the Trump team’s claims crumbled rather quickly in Georgia.

In Chatham County, as in Michigan, the Trump campaign cited supposed evidence that 53 late ballots may have been predated so they could be counted. Except two witnesses they called acknowledged under oath that they didn’t know whether the ballots were received after the deadline. And two others for the local board of elections testified that they were, in fact, received on time.

Judge James Bass dismissed the case in a one-sentence, eight-word ruling, saying, “I’m denying the request and dismissing the petition” and abruptly adjourned the hearing. He then elaborated in a written opinion, saying that “the Court finds that there is no evidence that the ballots referenced in the petition were received after 7:00 p.m. on election day, thereby making those ballots invalid. Additionally, there is no evidence that the Chatham County Board of Elections or the Chatham County Board of Registrars has failed to comply with the law.”

The common thread running through all of these is that Trump’s lawyers are regularly offering a significantly more watered-down version of Trump’s claims about rampant voter fraud — because they, unlike Trump, have to substantiate their claims. And as these exchanges show, it’s a rather thankless task that can quickly land them on a judge’s bad side.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

LOL, huge rally for people protesting actual vote counting:

[SassyPants]

Just venting because Trump’s behaviors and his supporters responses are mind bogglingly crazy. He thinks his campaign is going to overcome 10’s of thousand’s of votes in at least 3 and more likely 4 states. And if you peruse other forums, he has plenty of people convinced that this is a totally doable task. First, he’d have to convince the states to comply, and in most of these places he’d have to pay for those efforts since the tallies do not meet the thresholds that trigger a recount. The courts have been knocking him down left and right. When Jill Stein’s campaign asked for a recount in WI in 2016, the number of votes affected was 200. Even in the state with the closest margin, AZ (IIRC), 200 votes doesn’t change a thing. I am fearful of what some of his supporters might do when Trump fades into oblivion, because with what Trump is currently facing litigation and finance wise, I can’t see him being a political player once all is said and done.

[GreyhoundFan]

Because it's all about lining his pockets.

 

[church_of_dog]

Just read CNN's article about potential Biden cabinet picks, and was nearly brought to tears over the idea that his prospective Sec of the Interior, Rep. Deb Haaland, would be the first Native American to hold that position.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/biden-harris-administration/index.html

Edited November 12, 2020 by church_of_dog