GET OUT: US politics November 2020

Firing of Esper appears to have been to replace him with someone who thinks it's ok to use the military to quell protests, which is admittedly a little disconcerting.

This could be the late appointment that survives the transition - if the military are already shooting protestors, Biden can appease both sides: those who want protestors shot, and those who think his plan to increase police funding in order to train police to shoot protestors against police violence was extreme or ill-guided.

can somebody smart reassure me that shit isn't gonna work and that we're not gonna have four more years of the guy who lost because this shit is making me nervous

I'm not smart but I'm 100% certain this shit isn't going anywhere.

Nah, Joan. McConnell's thinking of Georgia Senate.

in terms of any legal challenges I'm pretty certain all of them fail. In terms of elector revolt or that sort of shit I'm also pretty sure that's not gonna happen - would require blatant rejection of democracy on too large a scale. IDK what else Trump's got. I don't think he has the firepower for a coup, I think too many people in power would want him removed etc. Is there a chance for some kind of extreme, reichstag fire-like event? Who the fuck knows. I highly doubt the team that brought you Four Seasons Total Landscaping is capable of it. They'd probably wind up blowing up a Capitol City Brewing Co. or something.

It's going absolutely nowhere aside from maybe getting Republicans a couple of Senate seats (which, to be clear, would be terrible but not as terrible as four more years of President Trump)

would require blatant rejection of democracy on too large a scale.

Not that I disagree with your overall point but, uh, have you not seen the last few years?

I'd say even just the Supreme Court bullshit was pretty much a blatant rejection of democracy on a pretty big scale.

Seems to me that these runoffs are a like a defacto mid-term election, i.e. no standard-bearer at the top of the ticket. Wondering how fired up the average 'pubkin will be to vote a second time.

thanks y'all. shit makes me nervous. the joy in the street on saturday here was so real.

xp: I don't think complacency is a good idea here

i get Joan's anxiety. it's not so much the steadfast belief something will happen, but it's like getting a restraining order against someone where they can't come within 100 feet of you, and they drive by every day, get out of their car, and stand 102 feet outside of your house, then get in and drive away.

they're not breaking the law but they're hinting they might, preying on your anxiety over them doing so to where you react like they are.

i'm repurposing all of my donations to the Georgia Senate race

s

.

the Democrats are gonna have an insane amount of cash on hand for that

Oh yeah, we've already looking into how we can do more text banking in GA and have donated multiple times to those races over the weekend.

Neanderthal otm about the restraining order example, but it's also a feeling of like, "okay, I have the restraining order, but is this piece of paper really going to be enough to stop someone driven enough?". Like the fear still seems so raw that it's hard not to feel it.

the Democrats are gonna have an insane amount of cash on hand for that

― frogbs, Monday, November 9, 2020 4:22 PM bookmarkflaglink

ok well then I'm just gonna buy Criterion collection blu-rays

That's why the refusal to concede is so juicy, any scratch-ticket winnings that go to the defense fund are scratch-ticket winnings not going to the GA races.

Ha, nice.

And here's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's lengthy, fiery response to the request he resign, starting with "Let me start by saying that is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me, and the voters will be the one to fire me." #gapol https://t.co/9QGeHrus0I pic.twitter.com/MARMN5ktGz

— stephen fowler covers Georgia's election! (@stphnfwlr) November 9, 2020

Special elections normally favor Republicans, but who knows with the Cove raging...

xps I felt similarly about the general election- that maybe the “midterms effect” came early- people voted the President out but made adjustments the other way downballot. Which gives me some hope for the actual midterms, that maybe there won’t be as much of a rebound effect as usual.

maybe we just offer people free stuff if they vote for Dems

Obviously that response is not PERFECT, thus that Fulton County comment, into which lots can/should be read. Even so.

xpost look at the line at 7/11 on Free Slurpee day. the damn thing costs a dollar, tops, any other day of the year, but it's the not having to spend that dollar that brings millions of Americans out!

2020 everybody
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/furries-four-seasons-total-landscaping

Dems have been doing really well in special elections since 2016 and I don't think that dynamic is going away especially if Trump is still in office

that shit in Georgia is heinous, Dems need to be all over that shit

In the next month, Biden and Pelosi should give a joint press conference calling for raising the minimum wage, pelosi should pass a bill in the house and Biden should say “the only thing between this bill and me signing it is Kelly loeffler and David Perdue”

— sam deutsch (@samdman95) November 9, 2020

They definitely won’t do that

Manchin didn't co-sponsor the $15 min wage bill but did support $10.00 so they can compromise at $11.00 and letting his daughter's pharmaceutical company use foster children as test subjects.

"elections don't matter because of fraud and oh btw go vote on january 5th" may not be the greatest message, idk

xps

we all have problems with the Electoral College, Senate, and other founding-era structures that distribute disproportionate power to low-population states, but having 50 independent state governments is a pretty good way to make a federal-level coup hopelessly impractical

a more interesting question is whether Trump will act out in ways that damage the Senate incumbents in Georgia, who might prefer to lean a little toward the center now but can't show the GOP base any daylight between themselves and Trump

Stacey Abrams' GOTV operations for the run-offs are going to be absolutely critical: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/georgiasenate

lol @ this shattering takedown in the Josh Hawley thread

My friend, I am an expert on Benford's Law (in fact, I'm in that documentary you watched about it on Netflix). If you'd like me to explain the countless ways you don't know what you're talking about here, let me know.

— Dr. Jen Golbeck 💗💜💙 (@jengolbeck) November 7, 2020

Senate incumbents in Georgia who might prefer to lean a little toward the center but can't show the GOP base any daylight between themselves and Trump

idk if calling for the resignation of the state's republican secretary of state is an action taken by an actor concerned with leaning to the center

xpost - lol that the Dr. Jen Golbeck tweet was necessary in response to a tweet from... *checks notes*... UKIP2.0Webmaster Trump 2020.

leeeeeroy jenkins

Fox News just cut away from @PressSec, saying the network could not in good conscience continue to air her false claims, for which she has provided no supporting evidence.

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) November 9, 2020

Here we go

Loeffler and Perdue have no intention of leaning center, they need to poke the hogs with cattle prods to keep them fired up

If you have a little $$ to spare, the Dem side of GA runoffs might be a good place to park it.

As it happened.

Fox News cuts out of McEnany

Cavuto: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just think we have to be very clear: she's charging the other side as welcoming fraud and illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue to show you this." pic.twitter.com/0koLBJasl9

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 9, 2020

Trump really fucked up with that whining call to Murdoch

i'd love it if they destroyed Fox News as a byproduct of all this

If you have a little $$ to spare, the Dem side of GA runoffs your local homeless outreach organization or bail fund might be a good place to park it.

Seriously, they're awash in money. Give your money to people who are suffering.

Like Trump?

xp -- are we sure those aren't maga furries, those exist

xp You didn't read my post.

guys. folks. ppl. y'all.

Briscoe Cain, the miniature Texan lawyer who prayed the gay away, posted photos of himself and a companion hard at work investigating election fraud in Philly on Saturday (by, er, sitting in a room and looking at the internet). He carefully TRIGGERED liberals by insisting they had lunch from homophobic chick chain Chick-Fil-A, and positioning their packaging in both pictures.

His pic also includes a post-it-note with a street address written on it, which when searched turns out to be that of Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

Happy that @MikaelGarciaTX, exec director of the @TxFreedomCaucus is with me in PA. Of course we had @ChickfilA for lunch. And yes voter fraud, ballot harvesting, intimidation, and electioneering is real. pic.twitter.com/xawm4sxUI3

— 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐧 (@BriscoeCain) November 8, 2020

It's almost certainly just because they looked it up after the announcement and then didn't bother to go, because they were scared of actually encountering Philadelphians, but let's savour the possibility that Briscoe was actually involved in booking the landscaping company for Giuliani's command performance.

our enemies are conspiring ... to entertain the shit out of us