That movie gave us the line "I thought Christmas only came once a year" and as such it is immune from criticism.
2020 US Elections | Biden certified as President | Dems control Congress
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Most of the countries which we would call democracies now could only really be said to be 'democracies' (in terms of genuine universal suffrage) within the past 100 years or so. If you want to say universal male suffrage was sufficient, at least to be on the right path, we're talking a couple of hundred years max. In terms of the full spectrum of human history, or even recorded human history, that is a tiny portion of time.
I would argue that in most current democratic countries....nobody has really tried to upend an election like this. I can't recall a British or French or Italian or Japanese leader openly claiming that the other party has rigged the election and stolen it. I can't remember the parties behind those leaders staying silent at best or encouraging it at worst either.
I still think Biden will be sitting in the White House come end of January. But I think the problem is that Trump and the Republican party are casting long term doubts on the legitimacy of the electoral process and you can't help but feel from the outside that America is generally headed down a very dark path.
superbI know I shouldn’t be surprised but I can’t believe people , either side of the political spectrum, have allowed this to drag on beyond a day or two. It’s beyond embarrassing for the United States.
Unfortunately this was always going to happen I think. They quite literally scraped every single voter they could this year and still lost. Things are only going to get worse as the demographics continue to change, and if PR and/or DC are made States? Game over for the Senate and presidency. What you are seeing is a party that mortgaged its soul to win one more election instead of examining it's shrinking base and adjusting to enlarge it. This is what a country looks like when it is a 2 party state and one party is in its death throes.
Just like the whole 4 years of his presidency was allowed to drag on despite hundreds of incidents that would have lead for calls of previous presidents to step down
Thank you for your mercy on my heresy.
I was referring to you, but you redeemed yourself below.
We can throw JLH and Neve Campbell (Wild Things
<3So what is the GOP strategy for the Georgia run-offs? Get Trump into the picture and try to get all of his voters to come? Get Trump a little out of the picture so his voters still show up but he doesn't say crazy things? (haha, as if that's possible) Raise the spectre of a full Dems majority? All of the above and more? The last item seems obvious, but for the rest, there are pros and cons everywhere in my mind, and I can't think of a clearly favourable strategy - especially with Trump likely to go fully nuts (yes, another notch) in the course of December when the Biden presidency becomes undeniable even for him.
To be fair to Pompeo, he did make more sense afterwards ('whoever is president in January', or whatever he said exactly).
Although Pompeo probably doesn't deserve a lot of 'to be fair'. I read that he's another GOP hopeful for the 2024 elections. Seriously? To me, he seems to lack everything the GOP might look for in a candidate except for the high profile and craziness.
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Its quite obviously not to piss Trump off (which means placating his fantasies about winning the election), and then have him get behind the two R Senate candidates in GA. Because if the Trump cult don't bother showing up on January 5th, there's a pretty good chance the Dems can take both seats and give Biden a Dem Senate.
They won with two terms of Bush and one term of Trump. I don't have my hopes up.
He was getting his quotable moment in front of the cameras in, then covering his ass by "clarifying" later. All that matters is Trump got his bitesize video to share.
Agreed. They need his base for the run offs. And then after that it is bye bye, Trumpie. They throw him under the bus. For now, they just shut up and let him do his thing. As long as it falls short of out right murder.
Voight looks like sloth from the goonies in this thumbnail.
I'm not sure what the centre-right is supposed to do when the far-right keeps spouting their nonsense. It's not like they can just force them to shut up.
Yeah it's certainly possible that if he tried it their could be a mass strike that would make his attempts futile, exactly that happened in Germany in the 20s where the military just let it happen but a workers strike meant the country became paralyzed. i believe Hitler himself tried to join it but by the time he got to Berlin it was over. Hitler obviously learned the lesson then that you need to be backed by enough of the population to succeed and well we know he was successful and the same fascist techniques are used today. The much more likely scenario is they'd contest it beyond beyond Inauguration (with both being sworn in) and put up a pretence that it's all a temporary effort to right illegalities, the machinations of government would likely just carry on largely in a status quo.
I do agree that he doesn't have the numbers even amongst his own base for anything more than a temporary delay though, I just wouldn't be at all surprised if he's in the office for a number of weeks longer than he should.
He is a West Point grad who was a rising star in the party earlier, but took a poisoned chalice with the SoS gig that put his prospects in peril. He was not smart enough as say, Haley, to maintain the purity of their GOP credentials with enough distance from Donnie to not go down with the sinking ship.
Yeah, hence the Georgian GOP going after that Secretary of State now. I can't imagine Trump not going off the rails, but yeah, if they keep him on their side at least, it might rally their voters.
Will this work though? The electoral college votes, by law, on Dec 14th. If they try and push this out then we will be in a TRUE constitutional crisis (not even considering their attempts to get faithless electors in PA). Most states will be certifying their results in the next 2 weeks as well. Basically, if the EC votes him out on Dec 14th I don't see any way he sticks around to help with the run-offs. If he is still in with a chance after the EC vote than we have bigger issues than the Georgia run-offs.
The bigger crisis is if legislatures substitute electors, which is in fact is allowed by your fantastic constitution .
That's why I keep going back on forth on strategy. (Well, when I do think about it, which isn't very often. I'm not that obsessed with you guys.
) On another hand, it's good that things should be wrapped up by Dec 14, cause that means Trump cannot continue to obsess about the elections and can thus go back to fuming about everything else. But he may also have completely lost the plot by then or, as you say, any interest in anything to do with politics. (Maybe he'll start promoting the media empire he'll surely be setting up right after he's left the White House.) Or maybe he'll pour his energy into Georgia as the final thing he can do to thwart Biden. Or not, because he'll feel the GOP hasn't supported him enough and now he'll lash out at anything that moves. And so on.Must be nice to strategize with a loose cannon around!
Was just reading up on this. Apparently it is NOT allowed as the laws currently exist. Now, the republicans can certainly try and change them for the next election, but they are in set now. PA for example has laws in place and explicitly say that the winner of the popular vote for the election conducted on Nov. 3rd will receive all the votes. This won't mean they will not try some shady shit, just that it will take complicit judges all the way up to the SC to make it happen.
Edit: Adding link - https://www.justsecurity.org/73274/no-state-legislatures-cannot-overrule-the-popular-vote/
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The only answer for the GOP is that it HAS to change. The future of a pretty far right party that has long relied on the evangelical vote is doomed both because of the general movement left and the increase of Atheism.
They may be able to survive in the very short term with a lurch even further right, but it can't last, its inevitable. My gut feeling is the GOP is stoking all of this to fuel turnout for the GA run offs, then they'll dump Trump like a bad habit.
Alicia Silverstone used to chew the food for her young child and then feed it to him. That was here automatically expelled from the wank bank.
I remember in 2016 the left were hoping for the same, that electors in the bluer states would rebel and vote for Clinton, but it didn't happen then and it won't happen now. Note that there were some faithless electors in 2016, but they all voted in a way that purposely didn't impact the result whilst making their 'points'.
Dr. Christmas.
I really hope this article is correct.
Are we sure the GOP are in a bad state? They got 70M votes!
I'm sorry but those is not how free speech works. It sounds nice and everything but in the end it's nothing but superficial. This becomes obvious the moment you really think about it. What if my opinion is that black people are an inferior races which doesn't deserve the same rights as whites do? Should I be allowed to post that without consequences? Or maybe tell some stories I just came up with about how jewish people secretly run the world and are responsible for everything bad going on, fueling antisemitism and maybe even inspiring acts of violence.Or maybe I feel like teaching kids that power outlets actually taste like their favorite candy if you lick at them. Should I be allowed to do that?
Obviously not so "free speech" really is just "free speech as long as you don't say something forbidden". The question isn't if anything should be allowed but what should be forbidden. What I demand isn't revolutionary since media corporations can't just dish out what they like. They have to comply with certain rules and fulfill certain requirements. I see absolutely no reason why private individuals who have similar reach shouldn't have to follow the same regulation. This was like the main part of my last post so it would be nice of you if you'd adress this argument instead of ripping quotes out of context.
Also, you obviously won't understand the point I'm making if you ignore half of my post. No, I don't want Twitter to become an echo chamber. I want Twitter to stop the spreading of deliberate misinformation for personal gain. There's a margin the size of the Grand Canyon between having a controversial opinion and posting fake news. By the way, people would be much more open to discussing controversial opinions if Trumpism wouldn't shed such a bad light on conservative opinions nowadays.
We all have our kinks.
Bingo.
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They're in a bad shape because they rely far too much on Trump's cult atm, and it'll be really hard for them to deal with him in the future if he decides to stay in politics. He's so unpredictablle you can't build any long term strategy with him being the face of your party. Some of these senators have built their empires for the past 40 years and he can pretty much destroy everything in a split second if he's in a bad mood.
Trump Replaces Four Senior Officials at the Pentagon!
Considering Mississippi gets far more out of the fed then it puts in?
You already are buddy, you already are.
Im guessing he meant "secede" since Mississippi won't be doing much succeeding.
I've read it , also lived through it, 'scary 'days interest rate at 18%. I was working just to pay the mortgage, borrowed money from 'bank of mum and dad' to get through (I am now bank of mum and dad... somethings never change!)
EXTRACT from above
"Although this was a difficult situation, the pound came back stronger because excess interest and high inflation were subsequently forced out of the British economy. Soros pocketed $1 billion on the deal and cemented his reputation as the premier currency speculator in the world."
Also convince us that after ERM failure, Britain would never give up the £(sterling)
Trying to curtail 'free speech' just drives it underground, in years gone by the term "don't give them a platform" was used widely amongst those who feared what was coming. It was used against the movement for racial equality in the US and elsewhere, in the 60's, it didn't stop Rev ML King; didn't stop the suffragette movement in the 1920's, it didn't stop Brexit in 2016. Denying people a platform does not stop the transfer of ignorance, just as it does not stop an idea whose time has come, /end to racial segregation/ prevent votes for women/taking back control, etc.
In the modern era with all the communications technology its practically impossible, all that curtailment efforts result in is creating 'echo chambers'
The GOP have lost the last 4 PVs by margins of 7.2%, 3.9%, 2.2%, 3.4%. It's frankly only Gerrymandering, the EC system and the 2 senators/state rules that keep them anywhere near power.Any of the following could seriously harm their ability to win an election:
- Georgia and Texas becoming blue given demographic trends
- DC and/or PR statehood
- the DNC taking full control of the legislature and fixing some of the gerrymandering
- the Cuban population in Florida who remember Castro dying out
- the trend for western nations to gradually move left politically (although recent right wing lurches is worrying)
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