American Politics: We're in for it now

[onemoment]

This situation makes me queasy, but even if Michigan reversed Trump still loses.

It's like, they're pulling out all the stops, losing dozens of court cases, and disgracing democracy just to fall short of the finish line. It's gross and weird, but mostly likely it'll all fail.

Yet, even saying that I'm still stuck watching the news until January.

[sgamer82]

Yeah this doesn't look suspect at all.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/rai...et-with-trump/

For context, headline reads "‘Raise the alarm’: Experts warn of ‘sedition’ and ‘coup’ attempt as Michigan GOP leaders fly to DC to meet with Trump"

One way or another, they are stealing this election....

I need a drink...

Again, only if it sticks. Their otherwise long list of failure suggests it won't, and today's What the Fuck Just Happened Today has a story stating that "The Trump campaign dropped its federal election lawsuit in Michigan seeking to block certification of the results"

Before we get into that, however:
Georgia confirms Biden victory and finds no widespread fraud after statewide audit

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/georgia-recount-election-results/index.html

---

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2020/11/19/day-1400/

Day 1400: "The American way."

Spoiler:

1/ The CDC warned Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving, citing record rises in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Despite the guidance, around 50 million Americans are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Officials said they were alarmed to see more than 1 million new cases reported across the U.S. within the past week. Nearly 80,000 patients are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. – another record. The CDC also projected that “newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next four weeks, with 7,300 to 16,000 new deaths likely to be reported in the week ending December 12, 2020.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, called the new guidelines and restrictions “Orwellian,” adding “that’s not the American way.” (New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

• 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”
  
  
• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~56,076,000; deaths: ~1,347,000
• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~11,486,000; deaths: ~251,000
• Source: Johns Hopkins University
• Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / NBC News / NPR / CNN / Wall Street Journal
• The states that imposed fewer coronavirus-related restrictions now have the worst outbreaks. Outbreaks are comparatively smaller in states where efforts to contain the virus were stronger over the summer and fall. (New York Times)
• Trump’s top medical adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Scott Atlas, has not attended White House task force meetings in person since late September. Atlas, however, has continued to spread misinformation about the worsening health crisis. (NBC News)

2/ More than 743,000 workers filed new unemployment claims – an increase of 31,000 from the previous week. An additional 320,000 claims were processed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the program for gig and self-employed workers. Roughly 20.3 million people are claiming some form of unemployment insurance. About 12 millions Americans are scheduled to lose their jobless benefits the day after Christmas unless Congress passes another relief bill. (Washington Post / New York Times / NPR / ABC News)
3/ After the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the presidential results, Trump called both of the Republican board members who now say they want to “rescind” their votes to certify the election in the Michigan county. After briefly trying to block the county from certifying its election results, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann later voted Tuesday to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election. But in a pair of affidavits signed late Wednesday night, Palmer and Hartmann allege that they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit. The two Republicans are now seeking to rescind their decision to certify their county’s results – a day after the deadline and roughly 24 hours after Trump had spoken with Palmer and Hartmann. Trump, meanwhile, invited Michigan’s Republican state legislators to meet with him at the White House on Friday. (Washington Post / ABC News / New York Times / Detroit Free Press / Axios / CNN / Washington Post / The Guardian)

• Trump-Biden Transition Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / The Guardian / CNN

4/ The Trump campaign dropped its federal election lawsuit in Michigan seeking to block certification of the results, falsely claiming that the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certification had declined to certify the results, which had already been certified in favor of Biden. Rudy Giuliani said the campaign decided to withdraw its lawsuit “as a direct result of achieving the result we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted.” Michigan’s secretary of state, however, said the two board members can’t rescind their votes and that the next step is for the state to certify its results on Nov. 23. (CBS News / Bloomberg / NBC News / Politico)

[Demon Rin]

Again, only if it sticks. Their otherwise long list of failure suggests it won't, and today's What the Fuck Just Happened Today has a story stating that "The Trump campaign dropped its federal election lawsuit in Michigan seeking to block certification of the results"

Ok, but who's gonna stop them this time? The Michigan one isn't going through the courts, he's going to have the legislature replace the electors. They're just straight up doing a coup at this point.

And you know they won't stop at the one state. Once they know it will work, Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania are next.

[Ubiq]

Michigan's Governor would just reject the legislature's slate of electors if they violate state law by not going with the winner of the state's popular vote. Same for Pennsylvania.

[Dorobō Neko]

Can the worry work finally stop? Biden won.

Focus on the party infighting or the 2022 midterms or better yet the GA runoffs in a few weeks.

But the 2020 election? That Biden won multiple times at this point?

Trump is a dumb old fuck loser. Stop thinking he is smart enough to pull off anything. He didn't win the first time due to his "smarts" either. He is a dumb old fuck on his way out. Stop worrying already.

Edit: What Ubiq said.

[Robby]

They have to announce in advance if they're going to change who they vote for. The governor doesn't have to allow them at that point.


Again, if this was a 270-269 near tie, or Trump had the popular but not the electoral, or if all the close states were within a few hundred votes like Florida in 2000, yeah, there'd maybe a little reason to worry about it, since last time a random Clinton voter cast their vote for Bernie when it didn't matter.

But none of those things are true, and Trump isn't going to to get 37 faithless electors, nor will anyone accept such a blatant attempt to work around the now multiple times proven fair election. And anyone with ANY intelligence isn't about to commit a federal crime to *fail* to rig an election when they're being watched super closely because of Trump. Their opportunity to rig it passed already, now its just keeping the madman placated, not actually making it work for him. (Hence the THIRTY lawsuits that all got thrown out immediately.)

We're not just going to wake up one morning and be told "surprise! this actually worked out very differently!"

This isn't like 1824 where there are four different parties competing where none has the majority and there's an actual negotiation to be made. And people will NOT accept it being overruled on a technicality of 200 year old legalese.


Rin, I know you have every reason to be frustrated and paranoid and scared of Trump. That is completely legit, he's been gaslighting us all for the last four years. But it's done.

A crazy man who knows he's going to jail is doing what he can to not go to jail, but there isn't anything left he can do to change the outcome. They spent months building up one specific narrative to try and cheat by delaying the mail in count, so that it would look exactly like it looked, that he won on election night and the rest was a cheat... but that mad plan has failed and by a huge margin. People voted in numbers too large for them to cheat.

He might still throw us into a war (hopefully everyone has the same notice they had when Nixon went crazy to not do any nukes without confirmation) and uncountable amounts of people are going to die from Covid before he leaves, and there's definitely scary things and damage he can still do in the next two months, but changing the results is not one of them.

[RoboBlue]

Tucker Carlson came out against the absolutely insane mess that was Rudy's press conference yesterday, and to a lesser extent the Trump administration's use of conspiracy garbage to falsely claim they won.

[Huschel]

Tucker Carlson came out against the absolutely insane mess that was Rudy's press conference yesterday, and to a lesser extent the Trump administration's use of conspiracy garbage to falsely claim they won.

I read some YouTube comments because I hate joy in my life and everybody on there is now - predictably - calling Tucker a traitor. He must have known that would happen so I wonder what incentive he has. Are they okay with distancing themselves so hard from Trump supporters because he's a sinking ship? Are they hoping it'll blow over?

[Robby]

Even Fox knows Trump is in trouble after January 20th and even they are going to have to cover all the crimes its revealed that he did. Better to get out from it now than be buried with him over the next year as legal action comes down on them for aiding in actual criming..

They'll lose some supporters now sure, but its better for them in the long run to get that noose off their neck.

[RoboBlue]

I read some YouTube comments because I hate joy in my life and everybody on there is now - predictably - calling Tucker a traitor. He must have known that would happen so I wonder what incentive he has. Are they okay with distancing themselves so hard from Trump supporters because he's a sinking ship? Are they hoping it'll blow over?

I think a lot of the frauds, grifters and more traditional crooks within the GOP and its surrounding media have realized that Trump really is attempting a coup and because he's supposed to be leaving the White House soon it's now OK for them to come out and admit they weren't really on board with completely overthrowing democracy.

[Kirbycide]

I’m just going to keep posting things from O Brother because it’s one of the only ways I can keep smiling through this hellscape.

Trump, to suburban women and black voters:



--- Update From New Post Merge ---

I’m watching people walking around at some sort of rally in Canton, GA without masks on like... “are these people stupid or just suicidal?”

[sgamer82]

I’m just going to keep posting things from O Brother because it’s one of the only ways I can keep smiling through this hellscape.

Trump, to suburban women and black voters:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SeriousBes...restricted.gif

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

I’m watching people walking around at some sort of rally in Canton, GA without masks on like... “are these people stupid or just suicidal?”

For situations like this my movie go-to is Men in Black:

"A person is smart. People are*dumb,*panicky*dangerous*animals*and you know it.*"

[pariston_hill]

Oh the GOP is slipping into authoritarianism, now with graphics: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ritarian-data/

[theackwardstation]

I can't read the article, so how did they measure those things?

[pariston_hill]

I can't read the article, so how did they measure those things?

Not sure, I ain't paying a subscription for a Bezos owned journal. Hope some american friend can elucidate us.

[sgamer82]

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday...1/20/day-1401/

Day 1401: "Incredible irresponsibility."

Spoiler:

1/ Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders met with Trump at the White House ahead of the state’s canvassing board meeting on Monday, when the election results are expected to be certified. Details of the meeting with Mike Shirkey, the leader of the State Senate, and Lee Chatfield, the speaker of the state House, are unclear. Trump and his campaign have openly floated the idea that the board of canvassers could choose to not to certify the results, forcing the state legislatures to appoint new electors who would overturn the will of the voters. All 83 counties, however, have certified their vote counts, giving Biden a 156,000-vote margin of victory. The state board of canvassing is scheduled to meet Monday to certify the final state tally. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory – her first press briefing since October 1 and since Trump lost the election – and denied that Trump had invited officials from the Michigan state legislature to the White House as part of an “advocacy meeting.” Rudy Giuliani was involved in arranging the meeting, but won’t attend after being exposed to the coronavirus. Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani, a White House aide, tested positive for COVID-19. And, finally, Trump has expressed interest in inviting Republican state legislators from Pennsylvania to the White House for a similar meeting. (NPR / Bloomberg / Politico / Associated Press / New York Times / Washington Post / The Hill / CBS News / Axios / Reuters / CNN)

• ✏️ Notables.
  
  
• Trump is using the power of his office to try to reverse the results of the election, orchestrating a pressure campaign to persuade Republican officials in Michigan, Georgia, and elsewhere to overturn the will of voters in what critics call an unprecedented subversion of democracy. “In an extraordinary news conference Thursday at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Trump’s attorneys claimed without evidence there was a centralized conspiracy with roots in Venezuela to rig the U.S. presidential election. They alleged voter fraud in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and other cities whose municipal governments are controlled by Democrats and where President-elect Joe Biden won by large margins.” (Washington Post)
• Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election are unprecedented in American history. “Mr. Trump has only weeks to make his last-ditch effort work: Most of the states he needs to strip Mr. Biden of votes are scheduled to certify their electors by the beginning of next week. The electors cast their ballots on Dec. 14, and Congress opens them in a joint session on Jan. 6.” (New York Times)
• Trump’s election power play: Persuade Republican legislators to do what U.S. voters did not. “Trump’s strategy for retaining power despite losing the U.S. election is focused increasingly on persuading Republican legislators to intervene on his behalf in battleground states Democrat Joe Biden won.” (Reuters)
• Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election. “Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there is great concern that Trump’s effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of U.S. elections.” (Associated Press)

2/ Georgia certified the state’s general election results, then issued a correction to say certification is still on-going because a staffer “sent out the wrong press release,” and then officially certified the results. The certification ensured that Biden received the state’s 16 electoral votes. The certification followed a hand recount of the state’s five million votes that was requested by the Trump campaign. The recount found that Biden beat Trump by more than 12,000 votes. (New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News / Bloomberg)

• Trump-Biden Transition Daily Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / The Guardian / CNN

3/ The United States reported a record high of more than 185,000 new coronavirus cases, a record number of hospitalizations, and more than 2,000 deaths. Less than three weeks ago, the U.S. reported 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said, “This is faster, it is broader and, what worries me, is it could be longer.” Health experts and epidemiologists, meanwhile, added that the U.S. hasn’t seen the peak and that the worst is yet to come. (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / New York Times)

• 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”
  
  
• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~57,366,000; deaths: ~1,369,000
• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~11,855,000; deaths: ~254,000
• Source: Johns Hopkins University
• Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / CNN

4/ Pfizer asked the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine after initial results showed the vaccine was safe and 95% effective. The process is expected to take a few weeks, and an advisory committee meeting to review the vaccine has been tentatively scheduled for early December. Emergency use authorization would allow limited groups of Americans to get the vaccines before the FDA has completed the typical approval process. (New York Times / Stat News / CNBC)
5/ The Trump Administration vaccine distribution team will not brief Biden’s transition team and has “no plans to do so.” Trump’s unwillingness to share plans with the incoming administration “risks President-elect Biden’s team not being ready on day one to implement the plan or make adjustments to it,” Senator Chris Murphy said. Biden, meanwhile, called Trump’s refusal to concede “incredible irresponsibility, an incredibly damaging message being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.” (Reuters / NBC News / New York Times)
6/ Biden named four more officials to White House posts and Judge Merrick Garland is under consideration to serve as attorney general. Louisa Terrell was named director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs, Cathy Russell was named director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, Carlos Elizondo was named White House social secretary, and Mala Adig was named policy director for Jill Biden. Garland, meanwhile, joins former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former civil rights chief Deval Patrick, and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, among others, on Biden’s short list for attorney general. (USA Today / NPR)
7/ The Census Bureau won’t be able to produce the state population totals required to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives until after Trump leaves office in January. In July, Trump said he wanted to remove unauthorized immigrants from the count, which would leave an older and whiter population as the basis for divvying up House seats, shifting the number of House seats held by Republicans over the next decade. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham cited “anomalies” discovered in processing that could delay the report past January 20, 2021. (New York Times / CNN / Wall Street Journal)
8/ Two separate New York State fraud investigations into Trump and his businesses have expanded to include about $26 million in consulting fee tax write-offs – some of which went to Ivanka Trump. The two inquiries — a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and a civil one by the state attorney general — are being conducted independently, but both offices issued subpoenas to the Trump Organization in recent weeks. On a 2017 disclosure Ivanka filed when joining the White House, she reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, which totaled $747,622 – exactly matching consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization. Ivanka, meanwhile, called the investigations “harassment […] motivated by politics, publicity and rage.” (New York Times / Politico)

9/ The Supreme Court postponed a planned hearing into congressional efforts to see Robert Mueller’s secret grand jury material from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The House Judiciary Committee said the status of the case has changed because of the election, and that Biden and the new Congress should decided whether to pursue the grand jury material. (Washington Post)

[pariston_hill]

centralized conspiracy with roots in Venezuela to rig the U.S. presidential election.

Maduro ain't capable of orchestrating the welfare of it's state nevertheless a foreign election fraud. They are getting more desperated each week.

[theackwardstation]

They literally blamed Hugo Chavez

[maxterdexter]

Zombie Chavez hasn’t done anything, maybe he’s rooting if the embalming is not tropical proof, but that it.

[Kirbycide]

Fox News and some Republicans finally turning on Trump like: