US Elections 2020 (geopolitics, informed debate, no ad hominems)

Biden

14 (66.7%)

Trump

7 (33.3%)

Total Members Voted: 21

Voting closed: November 02, 2020, 06:25:59 pm

[LesPalenik]

How can one trust a doctor who doesn't know anything about RT?

[Manoli]

More attempted voter suppression:

Texas’s Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit filed by Republicans that would have rendered illegal 127,000 votes already cast in drive-through polling stations.

[faberryman]

How can one trust a doctor who doesn't know anything about RT?

I am a little more concerned that he is a radiologist giving epidemiology advice. Kind of like going to an environmental lawyer for tax advice.

[William Walker]

Knowing these facts before the accusations start coming in might be useful:

"The Heritage Foundation Election Fraud Database has compiled every instance of any kind of voter fraud it could find since 1982. It contains 1,296 incidents, a minuscule percentage of the votes cast. A study of results in three states where all voters are mailed actual ballots, a practice at the apex of the president’s outrage, found just 372 possible cases of illegal voting of 14.6 million cast in the 2016 and 2018 general elections — 0.000025 percent." - Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a leading GOP lawyer.

The article can be found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/08/republicans-have-insufficient-evidence-call-elections-rigged-fraudulent/

Things should start getting interesting...!

[Peter McLennan]

I have to post this.  If I get banned for life, so be it:

I find it absolutely hilarious that Lamson decided to run for cover at this particular juncture.

[faberryman]

Anybody think this is normal behavior?

Trump Repeatedly Fantasizes About Beating Up Biden at Florida Rally

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-repeatedly-fantasizes-about-beating-up-biden-at-florida-rally

[Peter McLennan]

Anybody think this is normal behavior?

Trump Repeatedly Fantasizes About Beating Up Biden at Florida Rally

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-repeatedly-fantasizes-about-beating-up-biden-at-florida-rally

Normal?  Absolutely.  If you're a bully.

[John Camp]

A few minutes ago, I mentioned everybody’s favorite radiologist Scott Adams, Trump’s go to guy for coronavirus advice. Well, it appears the good doctor did a sit down interview with RT, which, as most of us know, is the Russkie propaganda network. When someone pointed out that he may have made an error in judgment, the oblivious Dr. Adams said oops, and has issued an apology. He is just lucky he is not appearing in a Borat film lying on his back on a hotel room bed with his hands down his pants, while a 24 year old actress portraying a 15 year old reporter watches the action, whiskey glass in hand. Actually, I think she had glasses of whiskey in both hands. She was holding his glass of whiskey for him, so he could do whatever he was doing with his hand down his pants. Then old Scott Adams would have had to go into hiding while he racked his brain, or what was left of it, for an innocent explanation for the whole thing.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/01/media/scott-atlas-russian-media/index.html

Actually, Scott Adams draws the Dilbert comic strip. Trump's go-to guy is Scott Atlas, the radiologist who knows nothing about epidemiology.

[faberryman]

Actually, Scott Adams draws the Dilbert comic strip. Trump's go-to guy is Scott Atlas, the radiologist who knows nothing about epidemiology.

Thanks for the correction. I forget stuff sometimes. I was remembering Trump's radiologist's name by thinking about Charles Atlas, but I obviously forgot that too. I guess I got so excited about the story I lost my mind.

I found my keys this morning and drove up to the grocery store to pick up our groceries, and I forgot to check them. Sure enough, they were someone else’s groceries. I consoled myself by noting that even if I had checked them, I wouldn't really have known whether they were our groceries or not, because my wife orders the groceries; I am just the delivery boy. But I usually check them anyway, and figure that if there are six or eight bags of organic healthy stuff that I humor my wife by eating, it's probably our order. Anyway, back at the ranch, I rummaged around in the bags to see what's what. There were no ice cream sandwiches or Oreos or anything else that looked particularly enticing, so I took the stuff back, not that I had ice cream sandwiches or Oreos in my order, but sometimes you get the the wrong stuff, and it is better stuff than the stuff you ordered, so you are faced with an ethical dilemma. Fortunately, this morning it was an easy call. I even resisted the impulse to don my mask, go into the petri dish that is a grocery store, risk getting COVID and dying, and buy some ice cream sandwiches and Oreos, so I felt pretty good about myself.

Where were we?

[faberryman]

Knowing these facts before the accusations start coming in might be useful:

"The Heritage Foundation Election Fraud Database has compiled every instance of any kind of voter fraud it could find since 1982. It contains 1,296 incidents, a minuscule percentage of the votes cast. A study of results in three states where all voters are mailed actual ballots, a practice at the apex of the president’s outrage, found just 372 possible cases of illegal voting of 14.6 million cast in the 2016 and 2018 general elections — 0.000025 percent." - Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a leading GOP lawyer.

The thing is that research tells you what happened before, and not what will happen this time around. If we didn't have COVID, and everyone voted like they usually do, then it would be fairly predictive. This time the voting rules have changed in every jurisdiction, sometimes multiple times because of litigation, so how the election workers handle the counting is new, and the election workers probably don't get adequate training, so mistakes will be made. So I am not so much worried about fraud as I am about innocent screw-ups, which may be significant, that the adversaries are going to characterize as fraud. So it is inevitable that there is going to be demagoguery and litigation.  That, and counting all those mail in ballots is going to take time.  I am hoping whomever wins, wins by a landslide so we don't have to go through all of that. Wouldn't it be great if tomorrow night we knew whether to commit hari-kari or breath a sigh of relief? I am not holding my breath that will happen. So I will probably go to bed tomorrow night at the regular time, knowing that tomorrow is not the end but the beginning.

And this whole scenario is a lawyer's wet dream. It is going to be a lot of work in a little time, and lawyers are going to take any loss up on appeal after appeal after appeal, whether there is any chance of prevailing or not. The clients won't worry about the cost, because your and my campaign contributions will be funding it. So the lawyers are going to be billing out the wazoo. Like I mentioned, unless it is a landslide one way or another, it is going to be a long slog to the finish line.

[JoeKitchen]

More attempted voter suppression:

Texas’s Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit filed by Republicans that would have rendered illegal 127,000 votes already cast in drive-through polling stations.

Source?

Please give us a break on this nonsense.  More people are going to vote in this election then in recent history.  There is no suppression.  Just admit that perhaps your ideas are wrong and that is why you could lose.  We'll find out in 36 hours, or a week, or a month, or hopefully before January 20th. 

[TechTalk]

More attempted voter suppression:

Texas’s Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit filed by Republicans that would have rendered illegal 127,000 votes already cast in drive-through polling stations.

There is no suppression. 

If attempting to throw out 127,000 votes in a single county isn't voter suppression, it's a pretty good facsimile.

[JoeKitchen]

If attempting to throw out 127,000 votes in a single county isn't voter suppression, it's a pretty good facsimile.

Once again, source?  I am sure there is more to the story, you know, like nuance? 

[JoeKitchen]

Whoops, looks like Harris let the cat out of the bag. 

Kamala Harris’ ‘equality of outcome’ video slammed as communism pitch

Capitalism vs Marxism.  You guys are making it pretty easy. 

Equality of outcome is impossible to achieve without tyranny.  Government lack the ability to make a person more successful then what they choose to be or have the talent to achieve.  The only thing governments can do is limit those over achievers, which keeps their innovations from bettering our lives.  Unfortunately when you limit someone, they tend to jump ship to another country, and the only way to stop this on your march towards equality of opportunity is by stopping them from leaving through terror.

I hope to God we are smart enough to reject this faux premise. 

[kers]

nuance...?

[LesPalenik]

Once again, source?  I am sure there is more to the story, you know, like nuance?

Source? If you google for it, you'll get literally many thousands of hits.
How come the foreigners know more about the US current affairs than some Americans?

[TechTalk]

Once again, source?  I am sure there is more to the story, you know, like nuance?

After you emphatically and falsely asserted twice that there was no provision in the Constitution for who would serve in the event of the death of a President Elect, I served up the 20th amendment for you on a silver platter. It would have been very easy to have looked that up on your own and avoid repeating a false assertion.

Now you want someone to provide you with one of the multitude of news stories on this attempt to have tossed out 127,000 votes from the largest Democratic county in the State of Texas? Tell you what, try Google first and if you still can't find it, I'll give you as many links as you'd like.

[Manoli]

Once again, source?  I am sure there is more to the story, you know, like nuance? 

The Economists - daily brief today (morning) EU
You’ll note that the original post said  ‘Texas Supreme Court’, since then ruling has been upheld by a Federal judge in Houston

A federal judge in Houston on Monday rejected Republican efforts to invalidate more than 127,000 votes that were cast at drive-through locations in Harris County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.

The lawsuit was one of the most aggressive moves by Republicans in an election marked by more than 400 voting-related lawsuits. And it came as Texas, long considered reliably Republican in presidential elections, has emerged as a swing state this year, with polls showing an unusually close race there.

Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, is home to one of the state’s largest concentrations of Democratic voters. It had set up 10 drive-through voting sites to offer a safe, in-person voting option amid the pandemic, and polls were open for 18 days.

But in a lawsuit, Republicans argued that Chris Hollins, the Harris County Clerk, did not have the authority to allow drive-through voting in the county.

Judge Andrew S. Hanen, a federal judge who was appointed by President George W. Bush, held an emergency hearing for the lawsuit on Monday and ruled against tossing the ballots. On Sunday, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court had rejected a similar effort to get those ballots tossed out.

source : NYT

[faberryman]

Whoops, looks like Harris let the cat out of the bag. 

Kamala Harris’ ‘equality of outcome’ video slammed as communism pitch

Capitalism vs Marxism.  You guys are making it pretty easy.

I don't read the tabloids. If you want to rely on them, that is of course your choice.

[JoeKitchen]

After you emphatically and falsely asserted twice that there was no provision in the Constitution for who would serve in the event of the death of a President Elect, I served up the 20th amendment for you on a silver platter. It would have been very easy to have looked that up on your own and avoid repeating a false assertion.

Now you want someone to provide you with one of the multitude of news stories on this attempt to have tossed out 127,000 votes from the largest Democratic county in the State of Texas? Tell you what, try Google first and if you still can't find it, I'll give you as many links as you'd like.

My bad, I was gone for a couple of days and did not care to read any reply past its expiration date.  Really, why get food poisoning?  I have just looked up the 20th amendment and, my God, for once in your life, you were right.