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

[Ozlsn]

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

 

Does this mean he is going to speak?  Or that the topic will be discussed.

I seriously read that show as "Markle Vin", my brain did a subconscious translation so it became "Markle Wine" and then went "Megan Markle has a wine show? And she's talking to Trump? Why??"

I would probably watch that, just for the weird.

[Smee]

So, I spent last week at an (online) international conference for study of Young Adult literature. Scholars from around 40 countries, not coming together to discuss politics but books. 100% of the comments about the election were anti-Trump and hopeful for a Biden win. I found it interesting firstly how often it came up, how many were watching panels while keeping a tab open with the news and refreshing it periodically, but also how it was just completely assumed that if you’re an educated person at an academic conference you’re not a Trumper and we can be free to call him a fascist without any pushback.

[Jasmar]

48 minutes ago, GeraldineGrainger said:

I'm just curious if anyone else has been losing Facebook friends today, because I have, and I barely said anything other than I'm relieved the waiting is over, and I'm happy Biden won. Apparently that was enough to wound them deeply, because as it turns out, Trumpers are the biggest snowflakes of all.

 

Well we did have a rare flounce in the JillRod threads under similar circumstances…

[Cartmann99]

3 minutes ago, thoughtful said:

How dare she talk about Covid deaths while asking for consideration for Trump!

She never did a fucking thing to protect the people of her state.

Well, you could pull the neckline of the t-shirts she's selling up over your nose and mouth as a makeshift mask.

 

[Destiny]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Is there a real time (or real time as possible)ticker for the counting in each state?

https://alex.github.io/nyt-2020-election-scraper/battleground-state-changes.html

ETA: If you have a browser that supports it, it will even send notification when new votes are uploaded.

Edited November 9, 2020 by Destiny

[AnywhereButHere]

51 minutes ago, GeraldineGrainger said:

I'm just curious if anyone else has been losing Facebook friends today, because I have, and I barely said anything other than I'm relieved the waiting is over, and I'm happy Biden won. Apparently that was enough to wound them deeply, because as it turns out, Trumpers are the biggest snowflakes of all.

 

I just noticed today that cousin’s husband deleted me as a friend. I see them maybe once a year, and we’d  just randomly like each other’s kids and pets pictures off and on, so I’m surprised at how much it bothers me that he removed me. I never commented on his Fucknut worship posts, and I don’t think I made excessive posts anti-Fucknut, but hey. Whatever, I guess. I’m going to go have some cheesecake and try not to wonder how many of that branch of the family also decide to delete me. 

[onekidanddone]

12 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Well, you could pull the neckline of the t-shirts she's selling up over your nose and mouth as a makeshift mask.

 

I’m sure the good folks of South Dakota who lost love ones are lining up to get that shirt

[Not that josh's mom]

I spent the morning and early afternoon reading here, feeling so good to be among people who share my feelings. Then I spent time reading news services and Facebook. I'm absolutely horrified at the stupidity and hatred! It is truly amazing. Why can't people see the bigotry, the racism, the sexism, the lies that we have endured for the past 4 years? We have a new decent administration ready to try to heal the US, but the hatred they are facing is terrifying. I'd like to only read here because the other places are truly scary. But I feel like I need to know what the stupid people are saying too, even though they are so outrageous. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Okay, this made me laugh even more about the Four Seasons snafu:

[GreyhoundFan]

[AuntK]

I wonder when it finally occurred to the Trump campaign that his constant allegations of fraud and collusion regarding mail-in ballots only made sense to his supporters,  who did not avail themselves of mail-in ballots like Biden voters did. In fact, I believe Trump's continued assault on the USPS actually inspired and encouraged Biden voters to mail their ballots early. And that paid off big time for Joe!

It must be painful to be so dumb.

[Ali]

2 hours ago, GeraldineGrainger said:

I'm just curious if anyone else has been losing Facebook friends today, because I have, and I barely said anything other than I'm relieved the waiting is over, and I'm happy Biden won. Apparently that was enough to wound them deeply, because as it turns out, Trumpers are the biggest snowflakes of all.

 

They may have deactivated their Facebook accounts and moved to Parler. I have noticed many of my Trump cult followers talking about it today. It is a safe space that will not censor them. 

 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Ali

[Dandruff]

I slept 13 hours last night vs. zero the night before and had nice dreams.  Still feeling that slight sense of hope and calm following the election being called yesterday, but have no doubt there will be Trump-related BS ahead.  My only question is whether it'll be illusory BS, more along the line of posturing, or genuine horrific can't-put-it-back-in-its-box BS that'll leave people with their mouths hanging open.  My guess is the former.

If Trump decides there's no way he can stay in office I think he'll try to get out as "cheaply" as he can.  He knows he'll be dealing with a mountain of trouble once he's no longer protected by his office.  I think he's actually capable (with a little help from his friends) of not taking impulsive actions that could substantially change his life for the worse later on.  I wouldn't be surprised if he's trying to cut some deals already, though I'd still expect him to try to turn around the election if he believes there's a chance of doing so. 

Still no word on Barr?

Edited November 9, 2020 by Dandruff
punctuation

[GreyhoundFan]

This. So much this.

[GreyhoundFan]

No surprise:

[K'Z'K]

It began on a gold escalator. It may have ended at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

 

Spoiler

By Dan Zak and Karen Heller

November 8, 2020 at 4:14 p.m. EST

PHILADELPHIA — The end came in all the places you’d expect, in all the ways you’d expect, with all the people you’d expect.

When news broke Saturday that Donald Trump’s reign was ending, the president was on a golf course that he owns in Virginia, playing his last round as a non-loser. In Washington, about 125 of his worshipful supporters gathered on the stoop of the Supreme Court to “stop the steal,” then circumnavigated the U.S. Capitol seven times, because that’s how the Israelites conquered Jericho, according to the Book of Joshua. And a pair of Trump’s most loyal surrogates made a defiant stand on the gravelly backside of a landscaping business in an industrial stretch of Northeast Philadelphia, near a crematorium and an adult-video store called Fantasy Island, along State Road, which leads — as being associated with Trump sometimes does — to a prison.

Rudolph Giuliani, America’s mayor turned Trump’s sloppy fixer, squinted into the autumnal sun at journalists who had assembled outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping — a choice of location that multiple Trump staffers could not account for, saying that it was the work of the campaign’s Pennsylvania advance team. Literally anywhere else would have conveyed more legitimacy on the enterprise, but legitimacy did not seem a high priority for one of the last battles of a lost war.

“Joe Frazier is still voting here — kind of hard, since he died five years ago,” Giuliani said in a meandering monologue, referring to the champion boxer who died in 2011 as an example of Philadelphia’s unproven election malfeasance. “But Joe continues to vote. If I recall correctly, Joe was a Republican. So maybe I shouldn’t complain. But we should go see if Joe is voting Republican or Democrat now, from the grave. Also Will Smith’s father has voted here twice since he died. I don’t know how he votes, because his vote is secret. In Philadelphia, they keep the votes of dead people secret.”

Where to begin?

Or rather: Where to end?

As Joe Biden marched slowly to victory last week, the Trump Train jackknifed. It raged about suspicious Sharpies in Arizona, about “irregularities” and “anomalies” in Georgia, about weaponized pizza boxes used to obscure democracy in Michigan, about “mathematical impossibilities” in Wisconsin, about ghosts in Philadelphia. What became clear is that Trump supporters thought Democratic votes, Democratic strongholds and Democratic methods were suspicious. Cities were suspicious. The turnout was suspicious. The mail was suspicious.

In reality, a preponderance of mailed-in ballots — which were counted last, in many places — had slowed the process and delayed the inevitability of Biden’s win. Poll workers were just trying to do their civic duty — extracting, flattening, scanning and counting ballots into the night — but this was not good enough for the president’s supporters. They showed up with instructions tailored to whatever way the tide was shifting.

“Stop! The! Count!” they chanted Wednesday afternoon outside the TCF Center in Detroit.

“Count! The! Votes!” they chanted Wednesday night outside the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix.

“A lot of shenanigans,” Trump said from the White House briefing room Thursday.

Indeed. Top Trump lieutenants deployed to various cities in navy windbreakers with their names embroidered. The campaign set up a fraud hotline, which was eventually swamped with prank calls. They sent out desperate fundraising pleas for its legal defense fund. On his podcast, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases.

Veterans of the “Brooks Brothers riot,” when preppy supporters of George W. Bush rallied at a recount center in Miami during the interminable 2000 election, got the band back together.

Trump surrogate Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, was one of those “rioters” two long decades ago. Last week he jetted to Las Vegas to look into allegations that GOP observers were unable to look at ballots and diagnosed the country as a “banana republic.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who was part of the Florida fight as a 29-year-old, appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News to implant more conspiracy theories in the American mind. “I’m more than a little frustrated that every time they close the doors and shut out the lights, they always find more Democratic votes,” Cruz told Hannity, inaccurately describing the vote-counting process, which occurred with the lights on and in the presence of Republican observers.

Outside the Clark County Election Center in Las Vegas, a news conference was interrupted by a hysterical man in a sleeveless tank that read “BEER BBQ FREEDOM.”

“The Biden crime family is stealing this election!” he screamed over and over again, as if repetition would make it true.

In Philadelphia, a demilitarized zone formed early Friday afternoon at Arch and 12th streets near the convention center, where ballot counting continued. To the south was a large, jubilant street party, in front of historic Reading Terminal Market. To the north were agitated Trump supporters engaging in magical thinking.

On Friday, as the counting continued in the convention center, Biden fans held an impromptu street party on one side of a nearby intersection while Trump supporters seethed on the other side.

New Jersey resident Edward X. Young wore a button that said “Barron 2052,” referring to the president’s 14-year-old son. “I will never accept Joe Biden,” said Young, a horror-movie actor whose titles include “Maggots,” “Mold!” and “Gerry the Psychopath.”

Biden “is a senile gangster with the IQ of a sack of carrots,” he said.

That evening, a federal judge heard arguments from attorneys who wanted to stop the counting in Nevada’s Clark County because Republicans could not conduct “meaningful observation.” The judge wondered how to interpret the phrase. How many people should observe, and from what distance? Should observers be entitled to hear a ballot-counter’s every utterance? What if one of the poll workers had a soft voice and could not be overheard?

“At what point does this get to the ridiculous?” Judge Andrew P. Gordon asked.

His question was answered the following day, at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

Sean Middleton, the company’s director of sales, was at a Bible study when he got the call to come to the shop and help prepare for Giuliani’s news conference.

“I was pretty happy because it got me out of Bible study,” he said Saturday, adding: “I have no idea why [the campaign] wanted to do it here. I don’t know how the government works. Maybe they saw on satellite images that we have a big back lot and proximity to [Interstate] 95?”

Middleton said he was not aware of any connection between the landscaping company and the Trump campaign, which did not immediately provide an explanation for why the news conference was held at that location.

Rudolph Giuliani, a lawyer for President Trump, said during a Nov. 7 news conference in Pennsylvania that "networks don't get to decide elections." (C-SPAN)

Giuliani stood in the landscaping company’s dusty parking lot with campaign adviser Corey Lew­andowski, in front of a garage door plastered with Trump placards, flanked by a few disgruntled GOP poll observers, facing a gaggle of journalists. He claimed there was fraud; he also said GOP observers were prevented from witnessing fraud. About 30 minutes into his show, Giuliani was informed that the race had been called for Biden on television. He stretched out his arms, looked to the heavens and seemed to mock-crucify himself on the notion.

“Come on, don’t be ridiculous,” Giuliani said. “Networks don’t get to decide elections. Courts do.”

The president had promised many lawyers, and now Giuliani promised many lawsuits, some “big” and some “small.”

“We are leaving all legal options open,” Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis said in an email Saturday, which she sent from an airplane flying back from a “Stop the Steal” rally in Wisconsin. Asked to describe the emotions of this moment, as Trump World teetered on the brink, Ellis said she was “disgusted” by Biden.

Lewandowski, when reached by phone after the Giuliani news conference, answered more flatly. “I have no emotions,” Lewandowski said. “I’m like a robot. I literally have no emotions.”

“Stop the Steal” rallies popped up all over the country over the weekend, including at the Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon.

Supporters of President Trump rally outside the Michigan Capitol. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

In Washington, Always-Trumpers who planned to encircle the Capitol were awash in positive emotions, despite heckles from people passing by.

The president is “going to get that miracle that he needs because God will not let this nation fall into chaos,” said Bethesda resident Karen Simon, carrying a huge Trump flag.

“Go home! The game is over!” someone yelled at the group.

“What pathetic losers,” said another.

But the marchers had faith that God and Trump would prevail. And so, as in the Book of Joshua, they began their seven laps in pursuit of victory.

One. A marcher said the “Hail Mary” over and over again.

Two. A group of young men spoke of “malnourished socialists” and the Carter-Baker Commission on election reform.

Three. They were joined by a small group carrying a tapestry of Jesus Christ.

Four. There was talk of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and a pardon that was sure to come, and a truth that would finally be revealed.

Five. Across the river in Virginia, a crowd gathered outside Trump’s golf club. One sign said “You’re fired.”

Six. A stream of Biden supporters, on their way to a massive block party by the White House, doubled over in laughter at the marchers.

Seven. Victory was indeed coming, but not for Trump.

 

[Dandruff]

44 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

No surprise:

Only the best people.

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, Ali said:

They may have deactivated their Facebook accounts and moved to Parler. I have noticed many of my Trump cult followers talking about it today. It is a safe space that will not censor them. 

 

The majority of this thought is absolutely terrifying, with all the things that can be plotted that no one knows about. I do enjoy the line about it is a safe space that will not censor them, since that's what Trumpozoids have been harassing others about, calling them snowflakes and asking if they need a safe space.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Okay, this made me laugh even more about the Four Seasons snafu:

 I found a restaurant in Gloucester, Virginia called The Courthouse Restaurant. I'm amusing myself imagining Trump's lawyers showing up there instead of the actual courthouse.

[thoughtful]

33 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

 I found a restaurant in Gloucester, Virginia called The Courthouse Restaurant. I'm amusing myself imagining Trump's lawyers showing up there instead of the actual courthouse.

"I can wait all day for this court to open!"

Spoiler

 

[Ozlsn]

53 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

 I found a restaurant in Gloucester, Virginia called The Courthouse Restaurant. I'm amusing myself imagining Trump's lawyers showing up there instead of the actual courthouse.

Hey if they got really lost they could end up on the wrong side of the planet.

[adidas]

16 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

You guys get CAKE?!  

Well we don’t get a choice ... voting is compulsory. So they have to sweeten the deal somehow ?

Btw I support our system - I’m very happy to vote, never begrudge it, and I like that we have compulsory voting here. 

[Hane]

@Smee and @adidas, pre-COVID, it used to be common in my area for local school and civic organizations to have bake sales at polling places. Something else I miss!

[adidas]

12 hours ago, Not that josh's mom said:

I read that Kamala's stepchildren call her "Momm-ala". That has helped me with the pronunciation. However we pronounce her name, it isn't done maliously- just learning and done with respect.

I found this video really helpful (and cute).

 

[Nothing if not critical]

You know what seems so odd to me from a European perspective?

Picking Biden as the candidate seemed like such a conciliatory move - Democrats going out of their way to pick someone who would be acceptable to the other side, who would reach across the aisle, who wouldn't raise anybody's hackles too much.

And yet, listening to the Trump voters you'd think that Biden was Communism personified, here to destroy everything America stands for, ready to pack them all off to Siberia or worse. The cognitive dissonance is astounding. It also makes you wonder how they'd react to an actual Socialist candidate (not that I can think of one - we have a different concept of Socialism over here).

I've seen some people argue that Biden is only a figurehead, and that the real power would be with the "extreme left" - which is at least an attempt to rationalise their opposition to what should be a super uncontroversial choice. But with many others it's just a blatant refusal to get in touch with reality, as far as I can see...