Tag: 2020 Elections

That Latino Vote

Listening to all the “reporting” on this election and of course we hear about the white vote, the black vote and the Latino vote….but is this a true analysis or is it just words to fill the report when there is a lack of substance?

I heard this morning that the Latino vote would help Biden……but is there truly a Latino vote?

With only 42 days left until the election, Joe Biden has his work cut out for him with Latino voters. That’s according to his senior adviser Symone Sanders, who has had to answer for why Biden appears to be losing ground among Latinos. According to a recent Latino Decisions/National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials poll, 65 percent of Latinos plan to vote for Biden or lean toward him, but this is still 14 percentage points lower than the 79 percent of Latino voters who said they supported Clinton in the pollster’s national election-eve poll in 2016.

It’s true that Latino voters do, as a whole, tend to be more Democratic than Republican, a trend that has only accelerated in recent years. But they don’t vote as a single bloc (in 2016, at least 1 in 5 Latino voters still backed Trump): How Latinos vote in Florida, for instance, can be very different from how Latinos in the Southwest or Northeast vote. These differences especially matter due to the size of the Latino population in a number of key swing states.

There’s No Such Thing As The ‘Latino Vote’

Polls are about as worthless as teets on a boar…..they are seldom correct for respondents seldom tell the true to the questioners.

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30 Days And Counting

Actually 29 days….but who is caring?

November 3rd is so close you can almost smell the desperation of some candidates….and that got me to thinking…..in these days of uber divisiveness and the lack of knowledge about how Civics work especially how the elections work….I thought I would do what I do best…..EDUCATE!

How many know how the system works?

That would be the election system.

Please put your hands down…..I thought about a lengthy dissertation on our voting process but then I had to laugh…..no one would read it for most think they have all the answers…..so instead I decided to dumb it down to the level of a 5th grader…..teach with infographics.

https://th.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/electionsprocess-kids-1140x684-1.jpg

Then the vote and the Electoral College…..I personally would like to see this dinosaur scraped in favor of the popular vote…..but that is for another post.

Just how does the EC actually work?

Once again I will dumb it down to an inforgraph……

Click to access Electoral-College-Kids-Discover-1ttmyti.pdf

WE are hearing a lot about Red and Blue states….but how does that decide the election (via the EC)…..and again with the dumbing down of Civics……

The new Snake Chart from FiveThirtyEight

In recent years two presidents can thank their lucky stars for the EC….and both were from the GOP…..Bush and Trump…..so do not look for reform from the GOP it is about the only hope they have these days…..short of voter suppression…..and that is another post altogether.

This is how it works……any questions?

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Changes Needed!

73 million people watched the first 2020 presidential debate.  (Did anyone learn anything new?)

For all those that have not heard the first presidential debate was a shout fest and a complete disaster.

Even FOX’s anchor Wallace has seen the disaster of the evening…..

It’s “soul-searching” time for Chris Wallace. The Fox News Sunday anchor admits he struggled to moderate last night’s presidential debate—a contentious affair that one pundit called “two old men shouting at each other”—but he isn’t apologizing or taking all the blame. “I’ve read some of the reviews. I know people think, well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,” Wallace tells the New York Times in a voice still hoarse from the debate. “I guess I didn’t realize—and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20—that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.” For more:

  • “I thought this was great—this is a debate!” Wallace says of the moment when President Trump first spoke straight to Joe Biden. But as Trump kept interrupting, Wallace got worried. Then came “desperation.” He says he “never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did.”
  • “You’re reluctant—as somebody who has said from the very beginning that I wanted to be as invisible as possible, and to enable them to talk—to rise to the point at which you begin to interject more and more. First to say, ‘Please don’t interrupt,’ then ‘Please obey the rules,’ and third, ‘This isn’t serving the country well.'”
  • Should the president’s microphone be cut off he interrupts next time? “People have to remember, and too many people forget, both of these candidates have the support of tens of millions of Americans.”
  • “Generally speaking, I did as well as I could, so I don’t have any second thoughts there. I’m just disappointed with the results.”
  • “To quote the president, ‘It is what it is.'”

The entire paid punditry told whoever would listen that changes should be made to the format and mechanisms of the debate process……and the debate officials were shamed into making the changes that the pundits want……

After the chaos in Cleveland Tuesday night, some Democrats have been calling for Joe Biden to skip the next two debates with President Trump, who ignored moderator Chris Wallace’s pleas to stick to the agreed-upon rules and stop interrupting his opponent. But Biden’s campaign says he’s definitely going to show up in Miami and Nashville—and the Commission on Presidential Debates says there will be some changes. In a statement Wednesday, the CPD said the Tuesday debate made it clear that “additional structure” should be added to the remaining debate to “ensure a more orderly discussion.” The commission thanked Wallace for the “professionalism and skill” he brought to the debate.

The debate commission said it is “carefully considering” the changes and will announce them soon. Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said Tuesday night that Biden will definitely be at the Oct. 15 debate in Miami, the Tampa Bay Times reports. In that debate, the candidates will take questions from voters, and Bedingfield said it will be up to Trump whether he wants to repeat his “unhinged meltdown.” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh slammed the nonpartisan commission, saying it was only looking at changes “because their guy got pummeled last night.” He accused Biden of “trying to work the refs,” adding: “They shouldn’t be moving the goalposts and changing the rules in the middle of the game.”

Seriously?  Do these self-absorbed d/bags really think that Trump will follow the rules?  He did not in the first debate why would he play nice in the second and third?

It always amazes me just how naive these political pros can be.

My thought on the popular idea of a kill switch will play into the hands of Trump and his minions…..they can use it to prove that the news is corrupt and out to get Donald the Orange.  I agree with whoever said that the remaining debates should be canceled because nothing more can be learned….the viewer has seen all they need to know about Trump and his “style”…..

No one will listen to this lonely blogger and the change will be made and the news cycle will have their few days of story lines to keep them in beans.

I close with Weird Al’s look at the debate….

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2020 Presidential Debate #1

Last night the long awaited 1st presidential debate was given to the country……and it is now in the can as they say in showbiz…..

This debate was as I thought a war of interruptions and antics…..and political silliness.

The actors in this passion play are President Trump and Joe Biden……and the scenes went something like this…..Trump spend most of his time insulting someone……

With just 35 days until the election, President Trump and Joe Biden took the stage in Cleveland for their first face-off but declined to shake hands due to the coronavirus—one of six topics moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News plans to question the candidates about tonight. The others: the candidates’ records, the Supreme Court, the economy, race and violence in our cities, and the integrity of the election. Up first was SCOTUS, but within minutes the debate had taken on a life of its own, with Trump sparring with Wallace and Trump, Biden, and Wallace talking over each other in a heated and insult-studded early exchange on health care.

  • Wallace began by asking why each candidate’s opinion on the timing of filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat is correct. Trump expressed that “we won the election. Elections have consequences.” Biden responded that “we should wait and see what the outcome of the election is, because that’s the only way the people can express their view.” Trump’s retort: “I’m not elected for three years, I’m elected for four years.”
  • Biden brought up Amy Coney Barrett’s past writings on the Affordable Care Act, which opened the door on a discussion of pre-existing conditions. When Wallace pushed Trump about what his healthcare plan is, Trump said, “I guess I’m debating you, not him. But that’s OK, I’m not surprised.”
  • Trump then went after Biden on the topic, saying that what he has said about health care would turn off progressives. Biden called him a “liar” and a “clown.” After another interruption, Biden said, “Will you shut up, man?”
  • Up next: COVID. Trump vowed a vaccine would be ready “soon” and said he was speaking “sarcastically” when Biden brought up Trump’s previous comments about Americans consuming bleach. When asked about masks, Trump said “I think masks are OK. I put a mask on when I think I need it.” He then mocked Biden for wearing one all the time. Biden then expressed that experts have said 100,000 lives could be saved by January if mask wearing and social distancing recommendations are adhered to. Trump responded that many health experts have said “the opposite” on the subject of masks. Biden: “No serious person has said the opposite.”
  • Wallace asked Trump directly if reports he paid just $750 a year in federal income tax was true. After pushing him to directly answer the question on how much he paid in 2016 and 2017, Trump said, “Millions of dollars. Like every other private person, unless they’re stupid, they go through the laws and that’s what it is.” Biden kept pushing Trump to releasing his tax returns, finally saying, “You are the worst president America has ever had.”
  • Trump went after Biden’s son Hunter, asking after his business dealings in Ukraine. It was an expected topic, and Biden had a response ready: “This is not about my family or his family, this is about your family—the American people. He doesn’t want to talk about what you need.”
  • Things devolved to the point that when Wallace began the segment on race, he told Trump he was going to ask about race but Trump could use his two minutes to say whatever he wanted. Trump quickly referenced the 1994 crime bill Biden helped pass, accusing Biden of treating the Black community “about as bad as anybody in this country.” Said Trump, “You called them superpredators and you’ve called them worse than that.”
  • On the subject of law and order, Trump called out Democratic-led cities like New York and Chicago and said Biden would destroy the suburbs. “He wouldn’t recognize a suburb unless he took a wrong turn,” quipped Biden.
  • Wallace asks Biden about “reimagining policing,” which is stated in the Biden-Sanders document, and whether he backs Black Lives Matter’s call for community control of policing. Biden said he is not in favor of defunding the police. Trump said Biden “has no law enforcement support” and pushes him to name a law enforcement group that is backing him; Biden doesn’t answer.
  • Wallace then asked the candidates, “Why should voters elect you president?” Trump was up first: “Because there has never been an administration or president that has done more than I’ve done in a period of three and a half years,” even with “the impeachment hoax.” From Biden: “Under this president we’ve become weaker, sicker, poor, more divided, and more violent.”
  • On the topic of climate change, Trump said, “I believe that we have to do everything we can to have immaculate air, immaculate water.” When asked about greenhouse gas emissions as a contributor he said yes, they’re a factor. But he said we need better forest management, citing the fires in California. “That’s burning down because of a lack of management.”
  • The last topic was about mail-in ballots and the integrity of the election. “We might not know who wins for months,” said Trump. “He’s just afraid of counting the votes,” said Biden at one point. As for the ballots, Trump said solicited ballots are just fine but that unsolicited ones sent automatically to voters aren’t, and said there are examples of fraud already. “This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” he said.

This debate was the worst and best thing I watched all day.  He sounded like a 4 year old and a total amateur….and this person wants 4 more years…..sadly I think Nero would have been a better candidate.

I have a few words from those that analyzed the debate…..

  • RedState: “This is a hard one, folks. Time and again, this debate proved to me that this is a terrifying time to be alive,” writes senior editor Joe Cunningham. “Two old men shouting at each other while a third old man tries to get them to stop shouting at each other? Watching this debate was a type of self-destructive behavior that I’ll be recovering from for a while, I think.” He declares Trump the winner, “but barely.” Full piece here.
  • Vox: A number of writers at the site list three winners (none of them Trump or Biden) and four losers of the night. One of the winners? China. “No government can feasibly end American global hegemony—except for the American one,” argues Zack Beauchamp. “Nobody benefits more from this kind of internal discord in the world’s most powerful state than China.” Full piece here.
  • Washington Post: Aaron Blake is one of many naming Wallace a clear loser of the night. “What struck me most was Wallace’s attempts to almost placate Trump,” Blake writes. “‘Mr. President you’re going to be very happy, because we’re going to talk about law and order,’ Wallace said at one point while trying to move past Trump talking over Biden. ‘Let me ask—sir, you’ll be happy, I’m about to pick up on one of your points to ask the vice president,’ Wallace said at another point.” Full piece, which is one of multiple to use the word “unwatchable,” here.
  • More from the right: Hot Air’s livestream combines tweets from a number of Townhall Media editors; see it here. A number of the tweets slam Wallace, most seem happy with Trump’s performance, and at least one points out that Biden refused to answer a question about Democrats potentially packing the Supreme Court.
  • Axios: Mike Allen, who calls the debate “a hot mess,” was apparently so disheartened by the whole thing the site’s own format sort of fell apart. In the “Why it matters” section after one point, Allen writes simply, “Honestly, who the hell knows?” Full piece here.
  • Politico: David Siders says the “mayhem” of the night didn’t throw Biden off, and writes that if the talking points around the election itself are any indication, the aftermath is going to be “war.” The president said at one point that he is “counting on” the Supreme Court to “look at the ballots.” Full piece here.
  • Wall Street Journal: Rebecca Ballhaus writes that amid the “messy” debate, Biden “gave a more forceful performance than the low expectations set for him by the president and his allies.” That said, Trump did appear to “rattle” him several times. Full piece here.
  • Fact checking: ABC News fact-checks the debate, and finds multiple falsehoods. Full piece here. CNN’s version is here. The Federalist has a piece about Biden making a false claim about Dr. Fauci; see that here.

All in all the night did one thing…..let people know that Joe Biden is by far a better candidate….it was the most nonsensical evening I have ever spent.

Debate #2 will be 15 October 2020 and I will be watching (if my stomach can hold up)…..but my thought is that we do not need another debate for we have seen and heard everything we need to know about the people running…..

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Tonight’s The Night

Closing Thought–29Sep20

For those political junkies that have been waiting with bated breath……..Tonight at 9 pm Eastern the first debate between Trump and challenger Biden will be held…

The big day is here for President Trump and Joe Biden—the first of three presidential debates takes place in Cleveland. The debate is scheduled to run from 9 to 10:30pm ET, and it will be carried on all the major networks and streamed online at multiple places, including C-SPAN. If a poll out of Monmouth University is correct, the event could have heavy viewership—74% of registered voters say they plan to tune in. However, only 3% think it’s very likely they’ll hear anything to change their minds about their vote, notes the Washington Post.

Most voters (63%) say they’d like the debate moderator—in this case, Chris Wallace of Fox News—to fact-check the candidates on the fly, but don’t hold your breath. An exec with the Presidential Debate Commission told CNN over the weekend that the commission is not asking its moderators to assume that role, notes Forbes. “The minute the TV is off, there are going to be plenty of fact-checkers at every newspaper and every television station in the world,” said Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. “That’s not the main role of our moderators.”

I will be listening and watching and will give my take Tuesday here on IST…

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“lego ergo scribo”

Trump’s “Platinum Plan”

Donald the Orange has issued a new economic plan aimed at improving relations with the Black community…..it will be called “the Platinum Plan”….

President Trump took aim at Black voters Friday by offering a new multi-billion-dollar plan and taking a jab at his Democratic rival, CNN reports. “No one in politics today has done more to hurt the Black community than Joe Biden,” Trump said at a campaign event in Atlanta. “Joe Biden should not be demanding your support; he should be begging for your forgiveness.” Trump’s campaign said his so-called “platinum plan” would funnel up to $40 billion in government funding—and perhaps hundreds of billions more from the private sector—for Black business loans, per NPR. White House advisor Ja-Ron Smith called it “historic” for a GOP president to focus “on the economic empowerment of the Black community.”

Trump’s plan is packed with other planks, like designating Antifa and the KKK as “terrorist organizations” and making Juneteenth a national holiday, Fox News reports. It would also aim to improve healthcare for Black communities; allow Black churches to vie for federal resources; install “diversity training” in law enforcement; and boost Black educational opportunities by closing “failing schools” in favor of “full school choice and education opportunity.” The rollout comes amid gloomy polling numbers for Trump among Black voters, who prefer Biden by roughly a 75-point margin. Forbes, meanwhile, runs through Trump’s plan and says “it’s not clear” where much of the funding will come from.

Antifa?  Has anyone of these mental midgets ever taken a look that is?  It is NOT…I repeat NOT a single group but a loose organization of people who despise fascists so how will they decide which ones will be the ‘terrorists’?  A lame ass attempt to look strong….instead that appear to be idiots.

He, Trump, looks desperate…..this is an ambitious plan that will probably never see the light of day if he is re-elected……but I am being too pessimistic….here is his “Plan”……

The president on Friday is expected to roll out details of what the campaign is calling the “Platinum Plan,” which details “opportunity,” “security,” “prosperity,” and “fairness” for the Black Community.

The president’s plan, according to the campaign, will increase access to capital in Black communities by almost $500 billion, help to create 500,000 new Black-owned businesses, and help to create 3 million new jobs for the Black community.

(FOX News)

This from the president that has done more for black people than even Lincoln (that is my favorite bullshit line of all time)

But please take some time and look over his new “Plan” and tell me what you think.

Click to access president-trump-platinum-plan-final-version.pdf

Does this truly sound like a Plan that Trump would offer?

To me it does not…..some campaign worker wrote it in a desperate attempt to find some Afro-American voters for November.

Another one if my thoughts is if this is so damn important why was it nor part of the non-existent GOP platform?

This is a con job!

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Will He Go Or Will He Stay?

The big question that the media is trying to fixate on as we get closer to the day of the voting for president……will Trump leave office if he loses the election?  They pose the same question day after day and hope for a different answer……I believe Einstein had a thought on that type of thinking.

He keeps trying to set the stage for some sort of challenge to the vote when he loses…..of course he will employ an old reliable tactic of the GOP….accusations of voter fraud…..and the best target right now is mail-in voting……

President Trump on Wednesday declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election in November. “Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said when asked directly about the issue during a press conference, USA Today reports. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the [mail-in] ballots [sent automatically to voters in some states] and the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very a peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it, and you know who knows it better than anyone else? The Democrats know it better than anyone else.” Hours earlier, he had predicted the election results would end up before the Supreme Court, and noted in such a case it would be “important” to have all nine justices.

Democrats were speaking out strongly against the statement, the Washington Post reports. At least one Republican appeared to be speaking out as well, per the Hill: Mitt Romney, though he didn’t mention Trump by name, tweeted, “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.” A sample of the Twitter responses to Romney’s remarks: “You want to hand him another judge but you know his plot is to pick one that will help him steal the election.” There are quite a few more where that came from. Joe Biden’s take? “What country are we in? I’m being facetious. Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say.” The AP notes this is at least the second time Trump has made such a remark during this election cycle.

Could the rush for a new justice have anything to do with setting up the challenge?

Beyond that can Trump refuse to leave office when he loses?

Donald Trump is now openly threatening to pass an executive order that would prevent Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden from being elected.
 
During a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Saturday, Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters that “You can’t have this guy as your president. […] Maybe I’ll sign an executive order, you cannot have him as your president.” While he didn’t delve into the details of the executive order that would hypothetically bar Biden from holding office, Trump did continue to berate his opponent for the crowd, questioning how Biden became his party’s nominee and accusing him of being against a coronavirus vaccine. But there is some good news: Trump also told the crowd, “If I lose to him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I will never speak to you again. You’ll never see me again.”
 
All this drama…is it a real chance of a challenge or is it just Trump being the dick he is always?
 
More to think about……
President Trump set off a political ruckus Wednesday when he declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the results of the election are in. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” said the president, who again questioned the accuracy of mass voting by mail. Now the Atlantic is out with a story asserting that the White House is “laying the groundwork” for ways in which he could refuse to concede. Coverage:
  • One tactic: The Atlantic story by Barton Gelman, based on GOP sources, says the Trump campaign “is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority.” The idea is to claim fraud, then have state lawmakers “set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly.”
  • Elaborating: Here’s how a legal adviser to the Trump campaign puts it in the Atlantic: “The state legislatures will say, ‘All right, we’ve been given this constitutional power. We don’t think the results of our own state are accurate, so here’s our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state.'”
  • Trump’s full comments: Watch the question and answer via C-SPAN. You can watch Joe Biden’s reaction here, in which he asks, “What country are we in?”
  • From the right: At RedState, Joe Cunningham writes that it’s ridiculous to think that Trump might seriously try to stay in office should he lose, calling it a dumb question that should never have been asked. So why the provocative answer? Trump is again trolling the media and Democrats, asserts Cunningham. He wants them to “freak out over something stupid because it’s the perfect way to get them to stop talking about things he doesn’t want them talking about (like 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, economic numbers, polls, etc.). It’s a distraction game, and they fall for it every single time.”
  • Taking it seriously: Lots of commenters were taking Trump’s words seriously, including Stephen Collinson at CNN, who writes that they “posed a grave threat to the democratic continuum that has underpinned nearly 250 years of republican government.” Collinson also thinks Trump “poured gasoline on an an already inflamed” situation by sending a signal to his supporters on how to react to losing results.
  • Skeptical: At the Week, David Faris doesn’t think the plan laid out in the Atlantic would work. “The first and most obvious is that state legislatures play no clear post-election role in certifying slates of electors from the states.”
  • GOP reaction: Axios rounds up reaction from prominent Republicans, most of whom don’t mention Trump by name but insist that a peaceful transfer of power will, in fact, take place. Mitch McConnell: “There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.” Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted: “The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath.”
Could this be a coup d’etat?
The United States presidential campaign is being transformed into a coup d’état by Donald Trump, who has declared that he will not accept the results of any vote that goes against him.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–24Sep20

This headline caught my attention….

Democrat Opposed To Same-Sex Marriage Beaten By Drag Queen

I was intrigued by the title of the article…..I just had to read the whole thing….for it seemed unlikely…..

Same-sex marriage is legal in America and these days 63% of all Americans support the idea. Ten years ago, it was still a controversial issue among Democrats, but in 2019, 79% say they support same-sex marriage.

The issue played a big role in the Democratic primary for the Delaware’s House of Representatives 27th district race. On September 15, Eric Morrison defeated incumbent Earl Jacques in a landslide and gay rights was a central issue.

In 2013, Jaques voted against same-sex marriage and refused to vote yes or no on banning gay conversion therapy in the state. On the other hand, Morrison is a gay drag queen who performs under the name Anita Mann and is very progressive on LGBTQ issues.

https://www.upworthy.com/democrat-who-opposed-same-sex-marriage-defeated-by-gay-drag-queen-in-a-landslide-primary-victory

Okay I admit it!  I was looking for something more spicy than an election return.

All in all a great headline to get readers to jump on the article.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Coming Insurrection?

I get a chuckle when so-called conservs start their BS line with the revolutionaries on the Left that will start a war over this election.

First, wanting change is not a revolutionary according to the modern definition.

Is this election a “civil war” election?

The US presidential election is now eight weeks away. The campaign between Trump and Biden is pitting an administration that is making an increasingly open appeal to violence and police state repression against a Democratic Party campaign that, as always, offers no genuine alternative to the drive toward authoritarianism and war.

The Trump administration is utilizing the election campaign in an attempt to build up a right-wing, fascistic movement on a ferociously antisocialist basis. Trump has followed up his praise of Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two protesters and injured a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month, with calls for vengeance directed against opponents of police violence.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/09/pers-s09.html

Is this what makes the Right think there is a civil war coming?

a coalition of leading progressive groups gathered on Zoom to begin organizing for what they envision as the post-Election Day political apocalypse scenario.

Put together by the Fight Back Table—an initiative launched after the 2016 election to get a constellation of lefty organizations to work more closely together—the meeting dealt with the operational demands expected if the November election ends without a clear outcome or with a Joe Biden win that Donald Trump refuses to recognize. 

Sources familiar with the discussions described them as serious with a modestly panicked undertone. A smaller FBT session last fall had talked about post-election planning, but those discussions were tabled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time they were bringing the matter to the 50-plus organizations that make up the coalition. To formalize the effort, they gave it a name: the “Democracy Defense Nerve Center.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-left-secretly-preps-for-violence-after-election-day

If this worries the Right….and yet stuff like this means little to them…..

At a campaign rally and in a television interview, President Donald Trump reiterated his threats of police-military repression during and after the Nov. 3 election to maintain himself in power. He suggested again that he “deserved” a third term, for a total of 12 years in office, although that would violate the US Constitution.

His campaign speech Saturday night in Minden, Nevada, a small town outside of Reno, included a litany of insults and threats against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a claim that he would defeat Biden in Nevada and nationally on Nov. 3.

“And then, after that, we’ll negotiate, right?” Trump said. “Because we’re probably—based on the way we were treated—we’re probably entitled to another four after that.” Trump has repeatedly suggested staying in office beyond the two-term limit set by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/14/elec-s14.html

Trump’s people are no better than him….his HHS Secretary has added fuel to the bullshit scenario….

The former Trump campaign employee appointed in April as spokesperson for the Health and Human Services department on Sunday issued warnings that had little to do with the coronavirus. In a Facebook Live video, Michael Caputo said “his mental health has definitely failed” and outlined multiple conspiracy theories, reports the New York Times, which says Caputo on Monday said threats have been directed at him and his family since he joined the administration. He claimed that a “resistance unit” of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists is conspiring against President Trump and predicted that Joe Biden will lose the election but fail to concede. “When Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin,” he said. “The drills that you’ve seen are nothing.” He added: “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”

Caputo said he “didn’t like being alone in Washington” because the “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.” He told followers: “You understand that they’re going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that’s where this is going,” On Saturday, Caputo slammed the “deep state” following reports that his team had been altering CDC reports on the pandemic. The Times notes that in his video Sunday, he sounded “anguished” about the virus death toll and warned his friends to leave Trump rallies if most people there aren’t wearing masks. “I don’t want to talk about death anymore,” he said. “You’re not waking up every morning and talking about dead Americans.”

To add fuel to the fire…….some see that the US is in the early stages of an insurgency……already.

David Kilcullen is one of the world’s leading authorities on insurgencies. For decades he has studied them. As an infantry soldier in the Australian army and an adviser to the U.S. Army, he’s fought against them. His latest scholarly work has focused on their role in urban conflicts.

So when Kilcullen says that America is in a state of “incipient insurgency,” it’s worth sitting up, taking notice, and trembling just a little.

The official definition of an insurgency is the “organized use of subversion and violence to seize, nullify, or challenge political control” of an area. An “incipient insurgency” might be happening when “inchoate actions by a range of groups”—followed by organizing, training, acquisition of resources (including arms), and the buildup of public support—lead to “increasingly frequent” incidents of violence, reflecting “improved organization and forethought.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/america-insurgency-chaos-trump-violence.html

One last question….what if Trump loses election in 2020 and refuses to leave the White House?

For months now, President Trump has carefully planted the seed that he might not leave the office of the presidency willingly if he loses.

Whether it’s tweeting that the election should be delayed as it “will be the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history” or that there will be widespread voter fraud because of the expected uptick in mail ballots due to the coronavirus, Trump seems intent on undermining the electoral process.

This, in turn, raises a rather thorny and unprecedented question: What happens if Trump won’t go? The answer is bleak. Experts tell me that the president actually has a lot of power at his discretion to contest the election, and some of the scenarios that could bring us to the edge of a crisis are actually very plausible.

Consider this one: It’s late on Election Day, and hundreds of thousands of votes in key battleground states still have to be counted due to the increased use of mail and absentee voting because of the pandemic. As a result, media outlets have largely avoided calling the race, but based on the votes that have been counted, Trump leads in enough states to reach at least 270 electoral votes, which would be enough to win the election if his election-night lead holds. Trump claims victory, but because Democrats were much more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, Joe Biden eventually pulls ahead because of the Democratic lean of the remaining votes — a phenomenon known as the “blue shift.”

What If Trump Loses And Won’t Leave?

A lot of info to digest…but all the scenarios are something to consider…..this election will go down in the history books.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Picking That President

Paper #2 of 2

2020 and we are in the process of picking our next president……all of which does not in the least represent what the people actually want or need.

Is there a better way to pick the leader of the free world?

Of course there is…..the quickest way in my opinion is to eliminate the Electoral College…..

Americans are understandably disillusioned with how the Electoral College picks presidential winners. The system arguably functions contrary to expectations of how a democracy should work, and inconsistently with the purpose the founders intended.

There are some bold reform proposals on the table that deserve consideration in the long run—ideas that would solve the problem that presidents can be elected despite the majority of voters opposing them, an outcome unthinkable in any democracycommitted to majority rule. The problem is that most of these proposals either aren’t going to be feasible by 2020, if ever, or, on close inspection, would actually worsen the problems they’re intended to solve.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/04/electoral-college-reform-2020-226792

But are Americans truly wanting to eliminate the stupidity?

The Electoral College, which allowed the past two Republican presidents to win office with fewer votes than their opponents, has officially become a joke.

In a skit last week, Saturday Night Live lampooned how the US is picking its leaders by highlighting the fact that most voters have no say in who will become president. But the Electoral College is no laughing matter. 

As long as the same person won the popular vote and the Electoral College, this wasn’t a problem. But with the last two Republicans owing their election to an antiquated system and not the support of a majority of voters, it has dawned on many Americans that something is amiss — especially because things seem to be getting worse.

If recent history is any indication, this is not just a problem for the loser but also for the winner. The former will miss out on being president despite getting more votes, while the latter has to live with questions about their mandate — or even their legitimacy.

Are Americans Ready to Junk the Electoral College?

There is yet another possibility that needs discussion……on the Electoral College and their voting for president….

Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging state laws that bind Electoral College electors to vote for the presidential candidate they are selected to support. The case was brought in response to four 2016 electors — three from Washington and one from Colorado — who tried to vote against their state’s popular vote winner, and, in the case of the Washington electors, faced fines for having broken their pledges.

These so-called “faithless electors” have long been a feature of American presidential elections, but it’s possible that the Supreme Court could shake up the Electoral College system, striking down state laws that try to guarantee electors’ votes by replacing or punishing those who don’t vote as they promised to. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the overall lack of enforcement of electors’ pledge to vote for the winner of their state troubled her, saying, “I made a promise to do something, but that promise is unenforceable.” But Justice Samuel Alito said that overturning the state laws could “lead to chaos where the popular vote is close.”

If The Supreme Court Lets The Electoral College Vote However It Wants, Will Chaos Ensue?

There are a wealth of ideas to fix the stupidity of the picking of the president/nominee….personally I kinda like the national primary thing…….Let people nationwide cast their primary ballots all at once.

There are others as well…here are 6 ideas….

Every four years, Iowans are deluged with the talking points, the stump speeches, the polls and, of course, the ads.

They also hear that they shouldn’t be first. Iowans are too white, too old and too few to merit first-in-the-nation status, say the critics.

But if Iowa shouldn’t be first, who should be? For more than a century, reformers have been proposing ideas for how to change the primary system. And they’ve been failing. And they’ll probably continue to fail.

No one is going to persuade state and party machinery to change the current primary system anytime soon. However, these ideas can at least help show what works (and what doesn’t) about the way things are now.

Here are just a few of the ideas people have proposed over the years:

https://www.npr.org/2016/01/26/463870736/no-way-to-pick-a-president-here-are-6-other-ways-to-do-it

One last thought on the presidency……a little historic rambling…..

If the prospect of the Trump – Biden presidential election fills you with horror and despair, you might give some thought to not just replacing both candidates but the presidency as well, at least as we now conceive it.

For some time now, but maybe since the Kennedy administration (which ended in a hail of voter-suppressed gunfire), I have been thinking that one of the biggest problems with American democracy is the presidency itself, the idea that the chief magistrate of the country should be one person elected every four years by a few swing voters in Ohio, North Carolina, or Florida.

Get Rid of the Presidency

Any thoughts on this topic?

One closing cartoon…..

Image

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”