2020 Election - Thread #5

[Labster]

Highest rated and most money-losing show. Advertisers didn’t want to be associated with Lou Dobbs so they ran it as a loss leader to attract audience.

The case itself is textbook defamation. Here’s hoping Smartmatic gets all of Fox News’ 2020 profits to cover their own losses.

[LynnInDenver]

Interesting that he's still on the payroll, either to return him to the airwaves later, or at least keep him from being hired elsewhere and used to strip their audience away... that could still be a factor in the defamation suit against them, although Smartmatic would have to prove that Fox intends to return him to the air once this blows over.

[hazard]

It's entirely possible that part of the judgement includes a 'Lou Dobbs will never be on air at Fox News again'. At that point Fox can keep him on the payroll to keep him from other networks but not on air as either a host or guest without further penalties.

[Black Aeronaut]

Who would even want Lou Dobs after this? The only ones I can think of are fringe elements like InfoWars.

[robkelk]

Microsoft suspends donations “for the duration of the 2022 election cycle” to politicians who backed attempt to overturn US presidential election

And they announced it on a Friday evening, too.

Way to take a stand there, guys.

[Black Aeronaut]

I wouldn't disparage them too badly. It seems that their aim was to see what their PAC's donors wanted to do. The fact that they took the time to hear what people had to say is a good thing, especially seeing as that money will not simply just sit around collecting interest, but instead go towards causes that will further the democratic process.

[Bob Schroeck]

So, who else has heard the newest from the QAnuts? Apparently they've latched onto a formerly independent conspiracy theory that posits that there hasn't been a legitimate US president since Grant because an obscure law passed in 1871 turned the United States into a corporation and since then it's actually been ruled by a shadowy cabal of "investors" (add or exclude "Jewish" here depending on your flavor of crazy). At around the same time, the date of the inauguration was moved from March 4 to January 20. Put it all together with everyone who couldn't understand why the Inauguration of Joe Biden went off without a hitch, and you get the Second Coming of Trump, who will be inaugurated on March 4 through some mechanism not adequately explained for those whose idea of logic actually has to make sense.

By sheerest coincidence, the Trump hotel in DC has doubled its rates for March 4 and vicinty...

[robkelk]

Maybe I should make a batch of "I'm too illiterate to be able to read the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution" t-shirts and sell them to everybody who's holding out for a March 4 inauguration this year.

By the way... Quoting Wikipedia: "The Twentieth Amendment was adopted on January 23, 1933." That's six decades after Grant.

Also, this article in the Harvard Gazette might be of interest.

[Jinx999]

The Trumpists are going full Sovreign Citizen . . . . .

[robkelk]

The Trumpists are going full Sovreign Citizen . . . . .

In that case, they shouldn't care who's President because Sovereign Citizens claim he or she has no power over them.

[DHBirr]

The Trumpists are going full Sovreign Citizen . . . . .

In that case, they shouldn't care who's President because Sovereign Citizens claim he or she has no power over them.

They don't want him to have power over them; they want Trump, who's a bigoted ignoramus like them, to have power over those USAians who aren't like them.

[Bob Schroeck]

The first criminal case regarding Trump's election antics has been opened: Prosecutors in Georgia open criminal investigation into Trump's attempt to influence election results

[hazard]

And it took them only 3 weeks after his successor took office.

And at least 1 month, 2 IIRC, since it became known to the public Trump was pulling shit.

[classicdrogn]

As long as the time means they're making sure all the tees are crossed. iys are doted, and evidence is comprehensive and accurate, I'm all for it. Let the ruling in the case be too solid for dispute by anyone with a vague grasp of reality, so it probably won't have to go through more than three or four appeals and only the conspiracy theory crackpots will hold on to the delusions of it being some kind of shady scheme.

[Bob Schroeck]

Meanwhile...

Sidney Powell tries to pretend a process server isn't there.

Nikki Haley publicly breaks with Trump.

The Proud Boys disintegrate amid internal bickering, the revelation their leader was an FBI informant, and being declared a terrorist group by Canada. That doesn't mean they're going away.

And of course the fix is in, the vote is rigged -- Trump's acquittal is all but guaranteed. But there may be a silver lining: Even with acquittal, GOP sees trial ending Trump's shot at future office. In which there is one of the best quotes I've read in a while:

“It just makes you realize what an asshole Donald Trump is," said one GOP senator after watching day two of the House managers' presentation.

[Star Ranger4]

Makes one wonder why they let him run as their candidate...

Oh, wait. because they felt the people had spoken.

[Black Aeronaut]

Wow.  Two impeachments with two acquittals, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  This is certainly groundbreaking.  The Republicans sure are setting themselves up for failure later on down the line what with all these precedents they're setting.  Clinton got fucking nailed, even if all he got was a censure.  But Trump?  He's their Golden Child.  God forbid they ever punish him, oh no.

[hazard]

They've set the precedent that no matter what, a president cannot be punished by Congress for corruption, sedition and outright insurrection.

Not that I expect that they will let the same hold true should it be a democratic president holding office (small 'd' democratic deliberate), but then the Republican Party stopped being the party of Lincoln before Obama took office. And quite possibly before either of the Bush administrations.


Oh, also, there will be elections in the Netherlands on 17 March 2021. I would not anticipate major issues, but for the first time in... basically ever I think is there a concerted effort for voting by mail (for everyone 70 years and older) and multiple days for voting (15-17 March), with 15 and 16 March intended for voting by those at risk from covid.

Which is both very unusual, and I mean unprecedented in living memory and potentially completely. Normally it's only voting in person (or by authorized proxy, limited number of proxy votes permitted for each proxy) and on the day of the election. To the point, I'll note, that if you haven't voted yet and would like to your boss is required by law to provide you the time to cast a ballot regardless of all duties you have to your employer. At least if you wouldn't otherwise have the time to vote.

[DHBirr]

Representative Kevin McCarthy allegedly got into a telephone quarrel – one report actually uses the phrase "shouting match" and another says "screaming" – with Windrip during the 6 January riot.  Particularly interesting is that the Dotard is quoted as saying, "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," in response to McCarthy asking that the rioters be called off.  He was totally casual about the possibility of members of Congress, even those of his degraded party, being beaten up or murdered by his deranged supporters.

“You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at,” [Rep. Jamie Herrera] Beutler [R-Washington] told CNN. “That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn’t care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry.”

[Bob Schroeck]

Wow.  Two impeachments with two acquittals, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

No acquittal yet.  At least last that I heard.  I didn't mean to suggest the trial was over -- just that the verdict was a foregone conclusion due to most of the Republicans almost certainly refusing convict one of their own.

[hazard]

If they believe Trump is one of theirs they're fools.

Trump certainly doesn't.

[Black Aeronaut]

Wow.  Two impeachments with two acquittals, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

No acquittal yet.  At least last that I heard.  I didn't mean to suggest the trial was over -- just that the verdict was a foregone conclusion due to most of the Republicans almost certainly refusing convict one of their own.

Well, it's official now.

[Bob Schroeck]

I have to admire McConnell, as much as I dislike him. I was making dinner while Peggy was listening to the trial, and I heard his entire speech... and he somehow managed to savage Trump and throw him under the bus as undoubtedly guilty of inciting insurrection but at the same time refusing to vote to convict over a point of constitutional law. He gave Trump the acquittal Trump wanted, while gutting him at the same time.

[robkelk]

CBC Analysis: Impeachment is over. These four threats now loom over Donald Trump

Forty-three of the 50 Senate Republicans opposed conviction. Strikingly, this is weak by historical standards: The seven Republicans voting to convict a president of their own party actually set a new record.

And that speaks volumes about how impeachment has worked.

I now understand why you people are so gung-ho about your Second Amendment rights. You literally have no other way to remove a despot from power.

You really need a Constitutional Convention to clean up the mess you're in - the Electoral College is a minor irritant compared to the problems that the previous administration revealed in the foundations of your political structure.

Trump, shown in 2016, has insisted that he was a victim of the courts, the Democrats, weak-kneed Republican officials and voting machines in a supposed conspiracy that cost him numerous swing states in November's election.

Not to mention the "strawberry investigation" - at least, that's what his constant refrain calls to my mind.

[GethN7]

At this point, I don't care about Trump's fate, he made his bed and he can lie in it, but on the impeachment thing, I'm rather glad it failed, but not for Trump's sake.

Impeachment is a double-edged sword politically speaking. The only time it went through and the people who wanted it got little political heat for it was with Richard Nixon, and only because the smoking gun on tape that left him no defense for his actions, and his other abuses of power pissed off both sides of the aisle to the point only an idiot wouldn't want to fry him at the stake.

Trump, on the other hand, even if it worked, it would result in political backlash for the same reasons as Andrew Johnson, where it looked like an exercise in political spite to some degree (more so, since Trump is on the way out, Johnson was still serving his term), and let's be honest, a successful impeachment would just rile up more crazy assholes to try something stupid in retaliation. While Johnson had a better argument he was being railroaded, impeachment hinges more, in the public eye, on the perception of what's happening over the reality, and one that went through would just have nuts doing terrorist madness as revenge in return.

As it is, Trump is up to his neck in legal crap even without impeachment and his chances of running for office again are practically nil, and that strikes me as the best one could possibly hope for without riling up lunatics further.