2020 US election - The fat lady is warming up in the wings

[RMH999]

Well, the Electoral College has voted and finished this step of the process with officially giving Biden the win. Now to wait for the next step.

[GethN7]

As I understand it, some states are defiantly trying to do a replay of the 1876 elections with two sets of electors.

My take: SCREW THAT.

Seriously, I do not want, and the country does not need, another replay of that electoral tire fire. If Biden's got the votes, let him win already beyond any shadow of a doubt.

[robkelk]

So... pondering on the US Senate and the election in Georgia.

If both or either seat in Georgia goes to the GOP, then it's possible - dare I say "likely" because of the current unwillingness of the GOP to work with anyone else - that nothing will get done for four more years.

But if they both go Dem... then things get interesting.

Everybody's saying that if both of Georgia's seats go to the Democratic Party, then the Senate will be split 50-50 and the Vice-President will break the ties. But that isn't necessarily so: there are two independent Senators who caucus with the Democrats, but they aren't part of the party. If an independent really wants something to pass the Senate, he can do some horse-trading for something he wants to pass the Senate as well, as his price for supporting the government.

From what I've seen in a very-quick look, one of the independents - Angus King - isn't likely to ask for anything that the Dems wouldn't be comfortable supporting.

But the other independent is Bernie Sanders.

Judging from how minority Parliaments work, this gives him a golden opportunity - possibly his only opportunity ever - to get one of his pet projects through the Senate. (Whether it would also pass the House and then avoid a veto is another matter altogether.) I wonder which one he'd pick.

So... If you live in Georgia and are allowed to vote, vote. The results just might change your entire country.

[Labster]

Political parties are such big tents that you can say that about literally every other Senator, many of whom might cross party lines to get a barrel of pork for their home state. Anyone can be a deciding vote. Now, of course, there's the filibuster. Things need only 50 votes to pass in the Senate, but in order to close debate, they need 60 votes. If Democrats get the majority, that rule is likely to go. We've used it before, when in the minority, but in the last four years the filibuster has had near zero utility to the Democratic minority.

Meanwhile, we had slates of certified electors casting the real votes for the Electoral College. And we've had slates of certifiable Electors casting fake votes in several swing states that Trump lost by a lot. So much voter fraud happened that they couldn't find proof anywhere, because it's everywhere. No, really, an actual lawyer argued this in court. So I guess they had to make their own.

And here in California, Christy Smith lost the Congressional race in CA-25 by 330 votes -- and decided not the spend the money to recount the results. This means that she believes the election is very accurate. We've had recounts where only one vote shifted -- not sure what other states are doing wrong. Sure, California gives billions of dollars in unemployment benefits to incarcerated inmates, but damn do we know how to run an election.

[Bob Schroeck]

Mitch McConnell Proves Unable to Deny Reality as Well as Trump

[Bob Schroeck]

Trump's Pal Putin Stabs Him in the Back By Acknowledging Biden's Win.

Trump tries to fire Putin in 5, 4, 3, 2...

[RMH999]

Mitch McConnell Proves Unable to Deny Reality as Well as Trump

And therefore has been declared RINO/Deep State/China Agent/Enemy by the Trump true-believers.

[Bob Schroeck]

Attorney General Barr "resigns"

[Bob Schroeck]

Trump May Get Banned on Twitter Starting Inauguration Day

[hazard]

With the secondary electorate saying the same reality is not going to be denied any longer, I see.

And, as expected, Barr is trying to leave the sinking ship.

[SilverFang01]

Yesterday I saw several screenshots of QAnon related accounts warning that China was disembarking troops near the Canadian border.

*looks thru twitter* Ah! here it is: https://twitter.com/nathanTbernard/statu...63970?s=20

Can you verify this Robkelk? (tongue firmly in cheek)

[Bob Schroeck]

I am firmly convinced that somewhere behind QAnon is a master troll who is laughing his ass off as he sees if there is anything so crazy or unlikely that they won't swallow it hook, line and sinker.

[Labster]

Q definitely is a master troll, no doubt about it. One of the great things about the QAnon theory is how utterly postmodern it is, mashing together conspiracies in a package that anyone could like, no matter which brand of tinfoil they use for hats. They initiate new members deep dark child sex rituals... in a pizza joint. The CIA installed the North Korean dictators, and also Democrats hire MS-13 gang members to kill their own members. Sure, why not?

[Dartz]

I wonder if Q looks like John DeLancie?

[robkelk]

Yesterday I saw several screenshots of QAnon related accounts warning that China was disembarking troops near the Canadian border.

*looks thru twitter* Ah! here it is: https://twitter.com/nathanTbernard/statu...63970?s=20

Can you verify this Robkelk? (tongue firmly in cheek)

I can verify that the Twitter post exists.

("near the Maine-Canada border"? Really? That's the long way around for China, and there's no way that every other navy on Earth wouldn't have noticed them. But then, folks in the USA have a reputation for not knowing anything about geography. Far more believable if they had claimed China shipped troops to Vancouver in shipping containers and were stopped at the Washington border - that's the closest Canadian port to most Chinese ports, and they already ship goods to Canada that way.)

[Bob Schroeck]

That's one reason right there that I'm sure there's a master troll behind QAnon -- it plays so perfectly to the ignorance of the average low- to lower-middle class American citizen. (Not their fault, but forced on them by the changes in education over the past eighty years. When I was a kid, I amassed, more or less by accident, a small collection of elementary school textbooks* dating from around 1910 to maybe 1950 -- no, I don't know where they are now, and I wish I did, because the older ones are surely worth something to collectors today. Anyway, while some/most of the contents aged rather less than gracefully, other differences between those books and what I was learning from was amazing, particularly the level of discourse on how American democracy functioned. I truly believe there was a reason that civics stopped being taught in American schools about the time I was in elementary school, and that reason was for the benefit of the elected rather the electorate.)

* As a side effect of amassing a large collection of books of every kind, many of which are still in our multi-thousand-volume library.

[DHBirr]

As a side effect of amassing a large collection of books of every kind, many of which are still in our multi-thousand-volume library.

I'm turning Grinch-green here; my library maybe reaches 2000 volumes IF you count graphic novels and translated tankoubons....
<whine>
...

But anyway, I wanted to share a comment someone calling himself/herself dotbup posted under a political cartoon today:

Two Trump supporters die and go to heaven (yeah, ok). At the pearly gates St. Peter tells them they can ask anything they wish to know.
“Who really won the 2020 presidential election?” one asks.
St. Peter responds, “Joe Biden. By 7 million votes.”
The Trump supporters look at each other wide-eyed. Then one leans in and whispers to the other, “This goes even higher than we suspected…”

(Full disclosure:  I edited the grammar a bit.)

[hazard]

Civics is a largely disliked-to-loathed obligatory course at what the USA would (junior) high school in the Netherlands. But damn if it isn't a necessary course.

[Black Aeronaut]

I think they should teach Civics at the elementary school level.  Get it into their heads early on, and then have it as an elective in junior high/middle and high school.  Young children seem to have a huge interest in why everyone gets so worked up about the talking heads in the news channels, and explaining it like they're five years old when they're actually five years old seems the best way to do it.

[hazard]

I can see it as a recurring subject, or starting in the upper grades of elementary school (ages 8-12, roughly). There's a fair question as to whether or not that's a very good idea though, especially given that children don't really start getting into politics until 15 years and older.

Although it wouldn't be the first time a school taught a subject that most students won't ever use.

[classicdrogn]

In this case, the problem is not teaching a subject that every citizen should use, but it's a fair cop that many to most would probably forget or ignore it. It was a mandatory recurring subject as part of US History and the Sociology half of Psych/Soc every two or three years in 6-12th grades for me, late 80s/early 90s, but I can easily believe it's been cut down along with the general loosening of standards for teach-to-the-standardized-bubble-test No Child Gets Ahead style programs. They were bad enough then.

[SilverFang01]

I got a collection of old school books from when my grandparents passed away and can confirm about civics and a lot of other stuff. Another difference is the clarity of the writing in some of those textbooks, specially the math ones.

[Black Aeronaut]

Pull the other one. It's got bells on it.

You can't tell me that children have no interest in politics. Seriously, have you ever sat down and WATCHED a group of children playing together? The topics are different, but you can bet your ass that once you look at it from the right angle, it suddenly looks like a congressional meeting, only things are happening a lot faster. You'll start to see cliques (read: political parties), each one with their own leader, and you'll see them argue over the basic things like what game do they play today.

Really, it's not that hard to get them interested in politics. All you have to do is make it relevant. Such as getting them to work as a group to write their own classroom rules. It's that simple.

And once they have the idea, THEN you can start teaching about the various levels of government, how they work, and how it pertains to them. (Because, let's face it, we got a whole slew of laws about the raising and care of children.)

[robkelk]

CBC Analysis: No one has lost quite like Donald Trump in nearly 150 years

Donald Trump is now a history-making loser.

His doomed crusade to overturn the U.S. election result crossed a milestone following electoral college meetings Monday that formally selected Joe Biden as the next president.

Not in a century and a half, since the post-Civil War era, has a defeated presidential candidate continued to challenge the results past those electoral college meetings.

[Bob Schroeck]

QAnuts threaten to leave the GOP and form their own party because Republicans aren't delusional enough for them.