2020 Election Results Part 9: Biden Wins Again And Continues Building An Administration

[AmazonGrace]

War on Christmas, an update.

 

[Black Aliss]

On the off chance that there are people who still think there is some theoretical "bottom" below which Trump supporters cannot sink: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-mock-biden-visit-family-grave-anniversary-deadly-crash-1556169

[Alisamer]

17 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

I got interested in this a couple of years ago, and from memory (I would look it up, but I'm supposed to be working...) the Supreme Court will only intervene if the boundaries of the electorate obviously contain hugely unequal numbers, or of the boundaries aren't contiguous - you can corral all your [insert preferred kind] voters into one stupidly laid out electorate as long as those conditions are met. Personally I think the electorates should be drawn up at a federal rather than state level by an independent government body (yes, this is because I'm Australian and this is how we do it - also I personally think some states cannot be trusted, both here and there.)

I was fascinated by the gerrymandering in North Carolina last time I had a look. The "contiguous" part explains some of the long skinny bits connecting blue pockets together, cramming the majority of Democrats into two big districts around Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, while the rest of the state is divided up much more normally.

I agree though, some standard dividing up would be better. Even if it was just going by county.

16 hours ago, Black Aliss said:

On the off chance that there are people who still think there is some theoretical "bottom" below which Trump supporters cannot sink: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-supporters-mock-biden-visit-family-grave-anniversary-deadly-crash-1556169

I wonder what sort of crap Trump supporters will come up with on Christmas, when they try to explain why it's far godlier to go play golf than to attend mass and spend time with family.

[front hugs > duggs]

Why DON'T we do it by county? Wouldn't that make more sense?

[47of74]

Someone got thrown under the bus. 

Quote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Breaking with President Donald Trump, outgoing Attorney General William Barr said Monday he saw "no reason" to appoint a special counsel to look into the president's claims of election fraud or the tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden.

In his final press conference, Barr also broke with Trump in reinforcing that federal officials believe Russia was behind the cyberespionage operation targeting the U.S. government. Trump had suggested without evidence that China could be responsible.

Barr said the investigation into Hunter Biden's financial dealings was "being handled responsibly and professionally."

"I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave," he said.

Good thing I just had my warehouse restocked. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

On 12/20/2020 at 10:05 AM, 47of74 said:

Sorry to beat this dead horse once again but I think voter suppression and electoral fraud should be put in to the Constitution as the very worst crimes one can commit and named as capital crimes.

And every time you beat this dead horse where I see it I'll point out how fucking insulting this is to every.  single. victim. of a violent crime.

Political crimes are bad, but if in your mind you think they are worse than child abuse, sexual assault, murder, torture, domestic violence, etc. which you have categorically stated more than once then you seem to have a real problem with empathy.

If you say this kind of thing as hyperbole then you should know the impression you give when you say this is very much, 'the thing that is bothering me in this moment is the worst thing ever and it's far worse than even children being sexually assaulted and murdered because my feelings."

You sound an awful lot like Trump sometimes.

[47of74]

3 hours ago, Alisamer said:

I wonder what sort of crap Trump supporters will come up with on Christmas, when they try to explain why it's far godlier to go play golf than to attend mass and spend time with family.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Fuckmuppet’s supporters said it wasn’t safe for him to go to church because of the pandemic so he decided to stay away from church. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 hours ago, front hugs > duggs said:

Why DON'T we do it by county? Wouldn't that make more sense?

It would, but it would cause an issue in representation in some.  Like my county has 5.15 million people (Chicago and burbs) - there are 28 states with lower population than we have in just my county.  

Representation for 5+ million people would be brutal especially given the huge demographic and economic disparity within the county.  But we did go 76% Biden so if we have to go by counties I'm good...if they can tone down the graft.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Maggie Mae]

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

It would, but it would cause an issue in representation in some.  Like my county has 5.15 million people (Chicago and burbs) - there are 28 states with lower population than we have in just my county.  

In contrast, Kalawao County on Moloka'i has a population of under 100 people. 

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Representation for 5+ million people would be brutal especially given the huge demographic and economic disparity within the county.  But we did go 76% Biden so if we have to go by counties I'm good...if they can tone down the graft.

We absolutely need to get more House representatives. I hate mine, but I know exactly where I can find him and talk at him. When I lived in other states, I definitely didn't have the option of "accidentally" running into any of my representatives or senators while shopping or having lunch. Regardless, having one person represent 5.1 million people wouldn't be right. What kind of staff would that person need? How would they prioritize the constant letters and phone calls and have any idea what their constituents want or need? 

This article makes a good case for increasing representation. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/09/opinion/expanded-house-representatives-size.html 

[Howl]

47 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

@Cartmann99,  Am I seeing correctly that Presidio County is blue but Brewster County is red? My impression was that Big Bend's Study Butte/Terlingua/Lajitas/BBNP is pretty liberal, but I'm guessing that there are less (and maybe much less) than 500 people who live there full time.

I see that Alpine (pop. ~ 6,000)  is on the northern tip of Brewster County, and sounds like it's maybe turning purple.  Who (and where) are the Republicans that made Brewster County red?

Edited December 21, 2020 by Howl

[47of74]

48 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

Yeah that's something fuck nugget supporters fail to realize is how few people live in some of the counties here in the US.  Texas isn't the only state to have variations but it might be one of the most extreme cases.  Even in Nebraska Douglas County (Omaha) has over 1,000 times the population of its least populated counties (Arthur and Blaine at about 464 people each).

I wonder if some of these Diaper Don supporters have ever been out in places like western Nebraska or southeast Wyoming where there's hardly anyone living?

Edited December 21, 2020 by 47of74

[zeebaneighba]

5 hours ago, front hugs > duggs said:

Why DON'T we do it by county? Wouldn't that make more sense?

Counties can have vastly different populations.  The county I live in has about 500,000 residents; other counties in my state can barely scrape up 1000.  There would still have to be artificial lines drawn to equalize representation.

Edited December 21, 2020 by zeebaneighba

[AmazonGrace]

Don't look now but they've found dead people voting in Philly.

 

[front hugs > duggs]

Ok I do understand the county issue now, thank you all for explaining . I guess it still just seems like a better option than the absolute disgrace gerrymandering has become. 

[47of74]

15 minutes ago, zeebaneighba said:

Counties can have vastly different populations.  The county I live in has about 500,000 residents; other counties in my state can barely scrape up 1000.  There would still have to be artificial lines drawn to equalize representation.

Here in Iowa Polk County has over 490,000 people. Or about 14% of the total population of Iowa.  Adams County has the lowest population with just over 4,000 people.  So Polk has about 120 times as many people as Adams.

I like reading about history - especially local history.  I remember reading somewhere that there were big debates on how to divy up the state when it came to deciding on legislative districts both for the House and Senate.  Even back then there were questions about how to divide up things fairly with the large metros (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Dubuque, and so on) increasing in population.  Go strictly by geographic area or population size?  I believe the concern was that to go too far in either direction would mean some areas would have more political power than others. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Biden has nice arms.  Is that a weird thing to say?

Just now, front hugs > duggs said:

Ok I do understand the county issue now, thank you all for explaining . I guess it still just seems like a better option than the absolute disgrace gerrymandering has become. 

Gerrymandering is a hot mess and we absolutely need a better system, you're dead right on that.

Fun fact - John Mulaney told Seth Meyers all about how it is supposed to be pronounced with the hard G like Gary rather than like Jerry...because his grandma knew the Gerry who started this whole business.  

[Cartmann99]

21 minutes ago, Howl said:

@Cartmann99,  Am I seeing correctly that Presidio County is blue but Brewster County is red? My impression was that Big Bend's Study Butte/Terlingua/Lajitas/BBNP is pretty liberal, but I'm guessing that there are less (and maybe much less) than 500 people who live there full time.

According to Brewster's website, they did go red.

Spoiler

Early voting:

Election day:

Both:

 

[47of74]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Don't look now but they've found dead people voting in Philly.

 

 

Yeah he could be going away for a while

Quote

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced the charges in a press release Monday. Bartman was arraigned Friday and released on $100,000 bail, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. If convicted on all charges, the 70-year-old Bartman could spend up to 19 years in prison.

"This is the only known case of a 'dead person' voting in our county, conspiracy theories notwithstanding," Stollsteimer said in a statement. "Further, the prompt prosecution of this case shows that law enforcement will continue to uphold our election laws whenever presented with actual evidence of fraud and that we will continue to investigate every allegation that that comes our way."

Samuel Stretton, Bartman's lawyer, told The Inquirer his client took responsibility for his actions.

"In his political frustration, he chose to do something stupid," Stretton told The Inquirer. "And for that he is very sorry."

He should ask the fuck knob to help him with the bail. 

[Ozlsn]

4 hours ago, zeebaneighba said:

Counties can have vastly different populations.  The county I live in has about 500,000 residents; other counties in my state can barely scrape up 1000.  There would still have to be artificial lines drawn to equalize representation.

Our boundaries get drawn so there are roughly the same number of people - so we have some huge electorates in WA, NT, SA and QLD where very few people live. My local election boundaries shifted by a few streets this year due to the number of dual occupancies going in - I moved (without moving) from the ward we'd been in since we came here to the one next to it, which meant I had to find out who the representative was as I had no idea. All my electorate boundaries (federal, state, local) are different from my local government area boundaries. I'm not sure how it would go with state boundaries in the US - you would obviously need significantly more electorates in Los Angeles than in, say Wyoming to keep numbers being represented by each person roughly equal.

For political crimes I think heavy penalties including incarceration and fines are warranted because of the level of trust placed in those positions. Violent crimes I think the community needs to be protected from the offender as well, so yeah incarceration and further monitoring. 

[Xan]

Axios is reporting that Trump just trashed McConnell.  "Sadly, Mitch forgot,” reads the top of the slide sent to Republican senators by Trump's personal assistant, written in red for emphasis. “He was the first one off the ship.”

Okay.  From my point of view, this just got interesting.  I don't think Trump has thought this through.  (Well, of course he hasn't.  He doesn't think -- period.)  Mitch is trying to get some distance from Trump so he doesn't lose Georgia.  Pissing off McConnell is not a smart move when one is hanging onto power by one's fingernails -- particularly when one is worried about getting a pardon.

I think Trump is trying to warn the other senators to keep their mouths shut.  I wonder if Mitch will now give them permission to do the opposite...

ETA:  Screenshot of tweet showing what Trump sent the other senators.

Spoiler

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Xan

[AmazonGrace]

Some people are planning to challenge elector votes in the House (yeah, exactly the people you would expect) and it's going to be a whinefest.

 

[Howl]

Yeah, between now and Jan 6 is gonna be lit, as they say.  McConnell is working to squelch any rebellions on the Senate side during the electoral vote.  However, Machiavellian Moscow Mitch will just keep on keeping on.  Besides the GA elections, Mitch has other fish to fry, like torching the Republic and screwing the desperate citizenry.  Never ever underestimate this man's power and his ability to wield it with brutal efficiency. 

  

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

Some people are planning to challenge elector votes in the House (yeah, exactly the people you would expect) and it's going to be a whinefest.

If I'm understanding this correctly, there are going to be some brand new representatives seated on the House side (Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) and QAnon adjacent Lauren Boebert (R-Wingnut) who will act out, plus the usual suspects: Gym Jordan, Crenshaw, Gohmert et al.. 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Howl

[GreyhoundFan]

One of  the new senators who will be seated in January, "Tubs", who is being foisted on us by repugs in Alabama, is all-in for trying to subvert democracy as long as it's what Twitler wants: "Trump’s final hope rests with Tommy Tuberville. Sad!"

Quote

President-unelect Trump has studied every play in the Coups-for-Dummies playbook: court challenges, pressure on Republican officials to overturn the election, even a half-baked plan for martial law from pardoned convict Michael Flynn. But no luck.

Now, Trump’s final hope rests with Tommy Tuberville.

This is like finding out your death-row appeal will be argued by Sidney Powell.

Tuberville — or “Tubs,” from his college football coaching days — is the Republican senator-elect from Alabama, and he’s proposing to object to the election results in the Senate on Jan. 6. Trump exulted: “Great senator.”

Problem is, Tubs, if he were a Democrat, is what Trump might call a “low-IQ individual.” In their wisdom, the voters of Alabama chose to replace Democrat Doug Jones, who prosecuted the Birmingham church bombing, with a man who recently announced his discovery that there are “three branches of government,” namely, “the House, the Senate and the executive.”

In an interview with the Alabama Daily News, he also offered the insight that World War II was not, as many suppose, a conflict against Nazism. “My dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of socialism,” he said.

He further informed the newspaper that “in 2000 Al Gore was president, United States, president-elect, for 30 days.” (Actual number of days Gore spent as president-elect: zero.)

For obvious reasons, Tubs avoided debates and interviews during the campaign. Even so, he imparted some extraordinary wisdom.

On climate change: “There’s one person that changes the climate in this country and that’s God,” he told Alabama’s Daily Mountain Eagle.

On the opioid epidemic: “It’s not just opioids now, it’s heroin …”

On health care: “We don’t have the answer until we go back to open up being a capitalistic health-care system where we have more than one insurance company.” (There are 952 health insurers in the United States.)

On education: “We’ve taken God out of the schools and we’ve replaced the schools with metal detectors.”

Tubs has declared his desire to serve on the Senate “banking finance” committee, apparently unaware that banking and finance are separate committees — and that he is ineligible to serve on banking because Alabama’s senior Republican senator already does.

Tuberville’s Senate campaign (in which he also defeated former attorney general Jeff Sessions) was a magical voyage of discovery, as he learned about such things as advice and consent. Senators “confirm judges all across the country, federal judges, and get them in place,” he marveled.

He also seemed to have no clue what the landmark Voting Rights Act was, telling Rotarians: “It’s, you know ― there’s a lot of different things you can look at it as, you know, who’s it going to help? What direction do we need to go with it? I think it’s important that everything we do we keep secure. We keep an eye on it. It’s run by our government. And it’s run to the, to the point that we, it’s got structure to it. It’s like education.”

Now this genius wants to make his first act as senator a doomed, symbolic challenge to the election that forces Republican colleagues into an embarrassing vote. Trump will soon be gone. But as long as there are mental giants such as Tubs, Trumpism will remain.

Tuberville had a mixed record as a football coach at Auburn, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. He had a brief broadcasting career with ESPN, once confusing Iowa and Iowa State, and, when asked for a game analysis, replying on hot mic, “Y’all make me do this s---.”

He also established his financial naivete: His business partner in a hedge fund pleaded guilty to fraud; Tuberville claimed he knew nothing. Tubs also was lured to invest in an alleged Ponzi scheme. He set up a foundation to help veterans, but veterans got only a third of the money raised.

As a candidate, Tubs offered exotic views on why rural hospitals closed (“because we don’t have Internet”), on impeachment (“I’ve been trying to keep up with it but it’s so hard”) and on constitutional democracy (“We’d probably get more done with just the president running this country. So let the Democrats go home”).

Tuberville was baffled by the vote counting after Election Day (“The referees are suddenly adding touchdowns to the other team’s side of the scoreboard”), and last week said he plans a Senate challenge to the electoral college tally.

Would you expect otherwise from this champion of civics education? “We’ve gotten away from teaching … history, civics, government,” he observed. And another time, “We’ve got to get our education back on the right track … we’re going to educate several generations in this country that really don’t understand this country.”

Eventually, people might not even know the three branches of government.

 

[Becky]

12 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

One of  the new senators who will be seated in January, "Tubs", who is being foisted on us by repugs in Alabama, is all-in for trying to subvert democracy as long as it's what Twitler wants: "Trump’s final hope rests with Tommy Tuberville. Sad!"

 

Dear gourd, what ignorance.  While forcing a challenge in your first days on the job should play well with his constituency and with lame-duck Trump, pissing off McConnell right off the bat might not be a great way to start off his Senate career.