2020 Election - The curtain starts coming down

[Bob Schroeck]

Old thread is here.

And to start the new thread on a lighter note, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is still pressing Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick for the $1 million bounty promised for proof of election fraud. Pennsylvania found several cases of fraud on the Republican side, for those who don't remember -- like Dan Patrick, who clearly doesn't want to pay out.

[Pyeknu]

LOL! And to believe the so-called "GOP" accuses the left of cheating...!

[hazard]

Of course they did. The GOP has had a long history of projecting their own behaviours on their opponents.

[Bob Schroeck]

House of Representatives votes to override Trump's veto of the defense authorization bill.

It was a lopsided 322-87. The Senate may vote on it as early as tomorrow.

[DHBirr]

Ummm ... wow.  Just wow.  Some Republicans are filing a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence, intended to make him disregard the Democratic electors and replace them with Republican electors.

The chances of this lawsuit being successful appear to be negligible. University of California, Irvine, law professor Rick Hasen said flatly "this won't work," while Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis called it "insane."

[Bob Schroeck]

Ummm ... wow.  Just wow.  Some Republicans are filing a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence, intended to make him disregard the Democratic electors and replace them with Republican electors.

The chances of this lawsuit being successful appear to be negligible. University of California, Irvine, law professor Rick Hasen said flatly "this won't work," while Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis called it "insane."

Oh yeah.  CNN has a great opinion article about not only how wacky and unlikely the suit is, but just how great a betrayal of conservative principles it is as well.

[Bob Schroeck]

And the answer is a qualified yes. The following comes from The Washington Post (here; if you've used up your free reads at the Post this month, Google Cache is your friend):

A person may refuse to testify, even when subpoenaed, on the grounds that the testimony may expose him to criminal liability. But if the prospect of criminal liability disappears — whether because he has been granted adequate immunity by prosecutors, or because he has accepted a presidential pardon — then the privilege against self-incrimination also disappears. “If the witness has already received a pardon, he cannot longer set up his privilege, since he stands with respect to such offence as if it had never been committed.” Brown v. Walker (1895); see also, e.g., Nixon v. Sampson (D.D.C. 1975) (yes, that Nixon). (Remember that, as with President Richard Nixon, a pardon can preclude future criminal prosecutions, and not just erase past ones.)

There's more than that, including the option to refuse a pardon to preserve one's fifth amendment rights, but the article is surprisingly short and succinct. Worth a read.

And you can be sure that while prosecutors are thoroughly aware of this, it may have escaped Trump entirely.

Remember this from a week ago? Well... it's finally occurred to someone on the Trump side.

Edit: Link to story on Business Insider India because the main site is now showing only the headine.

[robkelk]

When Geraldo Rivera says you're behaving badly, you're really behaving badly. He's unintentionally made a career of behaving badly.

Geraldo Rivera said the president is acting like an 'entitled frat boy' since losing the election

[robkelk]

2020 is refusing to concede, is launching court cases designed to declare the end of the term to be null and void, and will not be leaving as scheduled.

EDIT: And if that doesn't work, then there will be an Executive Order declaring the days after January 19 to be January 19.0001, January 19.0002, January 19.0003, January 19.0004, January 19.0005, January 19.0006, January 19.0007, and so on - cancelling January 20 altogether.

[classicdrogn]

I won't repost the image (it's in the General Chatter Images thread) but I for one am concerned that in a few hours the year will be "2020 Won" and then after that comes "2020 II..."

[DHBirr]

Is U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts a murderer and worse?  Inquiring (and deranged) StormTrumpers want to know why he isn't denying it!

[Note error in the Independent article quote below, where Lin Wood is cited as "Mr. Lin."]

Mr Lin's conspiratorial tweets began on Wednesday, when he questioned why Justice Roberts was discussing Mr Scalia's successor prior to his death, insinuating Justice Roberts knew something about Justice Scalia's impending death. Justice Scalia was nearly 80 years old with a history of high blood pressure and heart issues.
...
Comparatively, that was the most normal element of the tweet; after pondering Justice Robert's motives, he then asked if the chief justice was a member of any "club or cabal requiring minor children as an initiation fee."

Let's also notice the claim, stated as flat fact in yet another crazed tweet, that Jeffrey Epstein neither committed suicide nor was murdered, but is still alive.  No doubt Bigfoot, Nessie, and Elvis can testify to the truth of this.

Furthermore, another article quoted Wood as tweeting that it's suspicious – and supports his vile accusations – that Roberts hasn't yet sued him for defamation of character.

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Those who believed the laws of physics made things "possible" or "impossible" were mistaken.  Time travel violated one of those laws.  Physics took its revenge.

[Jinx999]

https://twitter.com/questauthority/statu...1827520512

A lawyer has been analysing the (supported by 140 RepublicansMonarchists) legal argument that it's the Vice-president who gets to decide the election for president.

As would be obvious, it's profoundly stupid, self-contradictory and isn't fit to be used for toilet paper.

[robkelk]

https://twitter.com/questauthority/statu...1827520512

This is not available to you

[Jinx999]

https://twitter.com/questauthority/statu...1827520512

This is not available to you

Not sure why . . . .

https://twitter.com/questauthority

[RMH999]

https://twitter.com/questauthority/statu...1827520512

This is not available to you

Same thing happens with me, but if I reload the page once there, it comes up appropriately.

[Bob Schroeck]

Mike Pence asks court to throw out lawsuit that aims to give him the power to decide the election.

[robkelk]

Reminder: Georgia's runoff election for both of its Senate seats is on Tuesday. If you are legally allowed to vote in this election, please vote.

[classicdrogn]

Twitter no longer allows you to see anything but a page telling you to turn on javascript or stop using twitter, so my answer is obvious. Which is not your problem, but still annoying enough that I can't help but bitch about it.

[Bob Schroeck]

Judge dismisses Gohmert's suit to let Pence decide what electoral votes to count.

[robkelk]

Twitter no longer allows you to see anything but a page telling you to turn on javascript or stop using twitter, so my answer is obvious. Which is not your problem, but still annoying enough that I can't help but bitch about it.

I agree with you completely, and not just because of this - everything running for somebody else's benefit on my system slows down the programs that I want to have running. But this is a discussion for another thread.

[DHBirr]

Rep. Louie Gohmert called for violence in the streets after his lawsuit against the Vice President was tossed. 

“Bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this, you have no remedy,’” said Gohmert. “Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and BLM [Black Lives Matter].”

He later tried to claim his words didn't mean what they meant.

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Up, lad, up!  We've villages to pillage, maidens to slay, and dragons to rescue!

[Labster]

I’m okay with people taking to the streets and bringing as much violence as Black Lives Matter, it’s still less than the amount of violent crimes committed by police every day. As they say, it’s just a few bad apples, which explains why the police whine like a spoiled bunch.

[robkelk]

11 Republican senators to challenge Joe Biden's win, vow to vote against state electors

The 11 senators largely acknowledged Saturday they will not succeed in preventing Biden from being inaugurated on Jan. 20 after he won the electoral college 306-232. But their challenges, and those from House Republicans, represent the most sweeping effort to undo a presidential election outcome since the Civil War.

If you know you aren't going to win, why the hell are you wasting time on this when your constituents are dying?

publicity stunt

Oh, right. Never mind how many people are suffering, as long as you get your names in the public consciousness. Which is why I've deliberately avoided mentioning any names in this post.

[Jinx999]

Trump's been tweeting about some "March for Trump" dipshits who will be in Washington on the 6th.

Can we expect them to engage in violence when they find that the latest Trump challenge (like the previous 60) is an ineffictive publicity stunt?

Trump isn't leaving himself an out to ever accept the election result.

And the behaviour of the current republican party is filling me with disgust. It's worrying as it's not healthy for a country to only have one significant political party that achieves the bare minimum of civilised behaviour.

[hazard]

Do you expect them not to spread COVID-19?