US Election

[lpm]

Jesus, this is close. We got complacent maybe.

Biden's lead has been cut to just 11 votes.

240-229

And Montana's 3 is next up which could well bring it to just an 8 vote lead.

After that the only states left to vote are California, Oregon and Hawaii, all notorious swing states.

[bolo]

Trump is now (this morning) suing in New Mexico, in order to throw out the election results and have the Democratic majority New Mexico state legislature choose the electors.

Trump's lawyers appear to be of the view that billable hours are billable hours are billable hours.

Which has a certain internal logic, except that their client is famous for not paying his bills.

[dyqik]

Jesus, this is close. We got complacent maybe.

Biden's lead has been cut to just 11 votes.

240-229

And Montana's 3 is next up which could well bring it to just an 8 vote lead.

After that the only states left to vote are California, Oregon and Hawaii, all notorious swing states.

Those states are fairly unstable.

Geologically speaking.

[Little waster]

++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

Message starts+++++There is an alternative electoral college vote.++++++++It is like that time there were all those Popes. +++++ Trump is currently an unprecedented 538-0 in this other electoral college.++++++No word yet on how the US Constitution deals with two presumably equally legitimate electoral colleges sitting in parallel, presumably best of three rounds of Ker-Plunk.+++++++Message ends.

++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

[dyqik]

++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

There is an alternative electoral college vote. It is like that time there were all those Popes. Trump is currently 538-0 in this other electoral college. No word yet on how the US Constitution deals with two presumably equally legitimate electoral colleges sitting in parallel, presumably best of three rounds of Ker-Plunk.


++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

It's all laid out explicitly in the Electoral Counting Act.

All Electors certified by the safe-harbor deadline of 8th December are presumed to be the only valid electors from that state. That's every state except Wisconsin.

The Democratic majority in the House plus the state Executives in the question are enough to carry the votes, whatever the Senate votes. And the Senate will vote to count the real votes, anyway (50 R vs 48 D, with at least Romney, Murkowski and Toomey voting to reject the fake votes).

[lpm]

What's this, at the last minute a big dump of votes comes in for Biden? Yeah right.

[Little waster]

What's this, at the last minute a big dump of votes comes in for Biden? Yeah right.

Are they seriously trying to claim that 55 electoral college votes just happened to turn up this late in the game and they ALL, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, just happened to go for Biden?

Now a 50:50 split might have been more plausible but the Democratic fraudsters have clearly panicked and over-played their hand.

Preposterous!

What are they saying? That there's some sort of giant bin of Democratic votes just sitting there out west on the Pacific coast. I'm sure we would of* heard about this before now.

[EACLucifer]

++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

There is an alternative electoral college vote. It is like that time there were all those Popes. Trump is currently 538-0 in this other electoral college. No word yet on how the US Constitution deals with two presumably equally legitimate electoral colleges sitting in parallel, presumably best of three rounds of Ker-Plunk.


++++++BREAKING NEWS+++++++

It's all laid out explicitly in the Electoral Counting Act.

All Electors certified by the safe-harbor deadline of 8th December are presumed to be the only valid electors from that state. That's every state except Wisconsin.

The Democratic majority in the House plus the state Executives in the question are enough to carry the votes, whatever the Senate votes. And the Senate will vote to count the real votes, anyway (50 R vs 48 D, with at least Romney, Murkowski and Toomey voting to reject the fake votes).

Sasse has been pretty scathing about some of the challenges, too, can likely add him to the list too.

[dyqik]

Cornyn, Braun, Blunt and Thune probably as well now.

[Grumble]

Cornyn, Braun, Blunt and Thune probably as well now.

Read that as Corbyn for a second

[jimbob]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/15/poli ... index.html

(CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the first time acknowledged Joe Biden's victory and referred to him as President-elect, six weeks after Election Day and amid President Donald Trump's continued refusal to accept defeat.

"The electoral college has spoken," McConnell said in remarks from the Senate floor in the US Capitol, adding, "Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."

I'm sure that's going to look bad all round. Too late for anyone reasonable and too soon for the nutjobs.

[Little waster]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/15/poli ... index.html

(CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the first time acknowledged Joe Biden's victory and referred to him as President-elect, six weeks after Election Day and amid President Donald Trump's continued refusal to accept defeat.

"The electoral college has spoken," McConnell said in remarks from the Senate floor in the US Capitol, adding, "Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."

I'm sure that's going to look bad all round. Too late for anyone reasonable and too soon for the nutjobs.

As long as Putin is happy, Moscow Mitch will sleep easily.

[dyqik]

Cornyn, Braun, Blunt and Thune probably as well now.

Read that as Corbyn for a second

So did my auto-correct.

[FlammableFlower]

They just can't let it go...

On Facebook, North Carolina state Sen. Bob Steinburg (R) paraphrased a conservative commentator to make a radical suggestion: President Trump should declare a national emergency, suspend civil rights and remain in power over his baseless claims of election fraud.

Asked by a local TV station on Tuesday whether he stands by those sentiments, Steinburg doubled down, insisting that nefarious forces had corrupted President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

“There’s something going on here bigger than what anybody is willing to talk about,” Steinburg told WRAL Tuesday evening. “I don’t like conspiracy theories at all. But something is going on here that’s bigger than meets the eye.”

Furthermore:

“President Trump must declare a national emergency,” the 72-year-old state senator wrote in the post, which has since been deleted. “Trump should also invoke the Insurrection Act.”

Absolutely bonkers.

[headshot]

Any thoughts on this? https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house ... e-scenario

No, Biden hasn't won yet — one more nightmare scenario

The goal is not to win, the goal is to delay, to prevent the "tiebreaking" provision of the ECA from happening.

Remember, the presiding officer under the ECA is Mike Pence. He can be expected to interpret the rules in a way highly favorable to the Republicans. He can help the GOP delay any resolution until about Jan. 18.

Now comes the endgame maneuver. The Constitution specifies that if there is no Electoral College winner, the Senate chooses the vice president and the House picks the president. The Senate, claiming that there is no Electoral College result, picks Pence.

And it won't be a Biden-Pence administration. The Democratic majority in the House can't pick Biden because when picking a president, the House votes by state delegation, and the Republicans control more House delegations.

The House Democrats will never let that vote happen. Which means we won't have a president. If we don't have a president by noon on Jan. 20, the law of presidential succession comes into play.

[Grumble]

Any thoughts on this? https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house ... e-scenario

No, Biden hasn't won yet — one more nightmare scenario

The goal is not to win, the goal is to delay, to prevent the "tiebreaking" provision of the ECA from happening.

Remember, the presiding officer under the ECA is Mike Pence. He can be expected to interpret the rules in a way highly favorable to the Republicans. He can help the GOP delay any resolution until about Jan. 18.

Now comes the endgame maneuver. The Constitution specifies that if there is no Electoral College winner, the Senate chooses the vice president and the House picks the president. The Senate, claiming that there is no Electoral College result, picks Pence.

And it won't be a Biden-Pence administration. The Democratic majority in the House can't pick Biden because when picking a president, the House votes by state delegation, and the Republicans control more House delegations.

The House Democrats will never let that vote happen. Which means we won't have a president. If we don't have a president by noon on Jan. 20, the law of presidential succession comes into play.

So you’re saying Nancy Pelosi will be president?

[lpm]

No, the VP would become President.

But the Senate would not pick Pence in this scenario - a whole bunch of Republican Senators have already confirmed a Biden victory. People like Romney would vote with the Democrats to stop this nonsense.

[Cardinal Fang]

There's a guy called Jay Kuo on FB who's a lawyer and Political Science major who has been posting debunks of these sort of rumours and myths since the elections. He's worth looking up and following.

This is his take on what Mike Pence would be able to actually do (the TL;DR version - not a lot)


CF

[Bird on a Fire]

Former Houston police captain charged with pointing gun at air-conditioner repairman, believing he was a voter fraud 'mastermind'

(CNN) A former police captain who was part of a private citizens group investigating still unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims was charged Tuesday with running a man off the road and pointing a gun to his head two weeks before the election, the Harris County district attorney said in a statement.
Prosecutors say former Houston Police captain Mark Anthony Aguirre said he believed the man was transporting fraudulent ballots.
"I believe it's a political prosecution," Terry Yates, Aguirre's attorney, told CNN affiliate KTRK.

Prosecutors say Aguirre was paid over a quarter million dollars by a private group called "Liberty Center for God and Country" to investigate alleged ballot schemes in the Houston area.

[Little waster]

Former Houston police captain charged with pointing gun at air-conditioner repairman, believing he was a voter fraud 'mastermind'

(CNN) A former police captain who was part of a private citizens group investigating still unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims was charged Tuesday with running a man off the road and pointing a gun to his head two weeks before the election, the Harris County district attorney said in a statement.
Prosecutors say former Houston Police captain Mark Anthony Aguirre said he believed the man was transporting fraudulent ballots.
"I believe it's a political prosecution," Terry Yates, Aguirre's attorney, told CNN affiliate KTRK.

Prosecutors say Aguirre was paid over a quarter million dollars by a private group called "Liberty Center for God and Country" to investigate alleged ballot schemes in the Houston area.

And with investigative skills like that you can see why he's a "former police captain".

[Grumble]

No, the VP would become President.

But the Senate would not pick Pence in this scenario - a whole bunch of Republican Senators have already confirmed a Biden victory. People like Romney would vote with the Democrats to stop this nonsense.

But Pence’s term will have expired, you can’t just add 4 years. Pelosi is in office.

[Gfamily]

There's a guy called Jay Kuo on FB who's a lawyer and Political Science major who has been posting debunks of these sort of rumours and myths since the elections. He's worth looking up and following.

This is his take on what Mike Pence would be able to actually do (the TL;DR version - not a lot)


CF

Wasn't showing for me (possibly because http rather than https) so here instead

FB electoral college.png (92.08 KiB) Viewed 3551 times

[jimbob]

ninja'd

[Bird on a Fire]

Riyadh is looking increasingly likely, as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago neighbours initiate legal action to stop him moving there when he leaves White House.

Donald Trump’s neighbours at his Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Florida, are not excited at the prospect of him moving there post presidency and have initiated legal action to stop him from making it his permanent residence once he leaves the White House.

The neighbours have delivered a demand letter to the town authorities of Palm Beach, addressed to the US Secret Service, which said that Mr Trump lost his legal right to permanently live at Mar-a-Lago due to an agreement he signed in 1993 when he turned his private residence to a private club.

In 1993, the president made a deal that bars any of the club members from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites or staying there for longer than seven consecutive days. At that time, the town council was assured that the president would not live at Mar-a-Lago.

[dyqik]

Riyadh is looking increasingly likely, as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago neighbours initiate legal action to stop him moving there when he leaves White House.

Donald Trump’s neighbours at his Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Florida, are not excited at the prospect of him moving there post presidency and have initiated legal action to stop him from making it his permanent residence once he leaves the White House.

The neighbours have delivered a demand letter to the town authorities of Palm Beach, addressed to the US Secret Service, which said that Mr Trump lost his legal right to permanently live at Mar-a-Lago due to an agreement he signed in 1993 when he turned his private residence to a private club.

In 1993, the president made a deal that bars any of the club members from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites or staying there for longer than seven consecutive days. At that time, the town council was assured that the president would not live at Mar-a-Lago.

And since Trump registered that as his residence address in order to vote in Florida, it means he committed electoral fraud...