He wants all voting to stop
So now I’m picturing the Supreme Court justices huddling in their huddle room with Amy Coney Barrett all enthusiastic saying come on guys it’s time to stop the vote count the way Trump said to, that’s what I’m here for, what’s the holdup?
In any case, the fact that it’s this close after the past four years is absolutely disgusting. Who ARE these people?
At 2:30 in the morning his time Trump told some cheering people in the East Room that he had more votes in Pennsylvania at that moment so he wanted the vote counting terminated so that he could claim to have won. The cheering people duly cheered. There’s a slight technical problem with that which is he hasn’t actually won.
Addressing an election party in the East Wing of the White House early Wednesday morning, President Trump falsely and prematurely claimed victory in key swing states and pledged to go to the Supreme Court to stop votes from being counted.
If he’s won, why stop the vote counting?
What he said: “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump falsely claimed.
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we will be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.”
But finding and counting the ballots and adding them to the list is how this is done. Freezing the process at a moment when the incumbent has a narrow lead in one crucial state is not how this is done.
Freezing the count and effectively throwing out millions of legal and legitimate ballots really would be unambiguously stealing the election (it’s not like the situation in Florida in 2000, when the Supreme Court stopped recounts in a state that was effectively tied 50-50). Of course nothing is certain in these bizarre times, but I really doubt the Supreme Court, even with its present make-up, would go along with such a crude and flagrant coup d’état based on nothing more than Trump’s say-so. Coathanger Coney may be a pure political hack, but most of the others aren’t, not to that degree.
It’s going to be a long few days, and the failure to achieve a landslide is disappointing, but Biden will probably win this in the end.
But if they keep on counting, and – gasp – finding more votes, there is a possibility that Dear Supreme Leader might lose, is it not? Clearly, one cannot allow that to happen.
He’s having many hissy fits as the counts of postal votes are going hugely in Biden’s favour. One tweet says
Yeah, really strange how in-person votes, which are quicker to count, were made by Republican voters while the slower-counted postal ballots are showing a strong Democrat majority. It’s almost as though Trump’s rabble-rousing in the run-up to the election had the effect of causing Dem voters to opt for the postal option rather than run the risk of problems at polling stations.
Did poor Donnie shoot himself right in the bone spurs?
After thinking Hillary would win and being completely wrong (if you don’t count the popular vote), I really have no faith in Biden pulling this out. I hope I’m wrong, but my track record on wishful thinking is abominable. What a shitty situation we’re in.
twiliter, I have the same dreadful feeling. In my entire voting life, I have only called one election wrong, and that was 2008, when I thought the country would not be willing to elect a black man president. I never thought Clinton was going to beat Trump, partially because she was a woman, partially because she was Hillary and hated by so many for two decades, and partially because she was clearly much more qualified.
For some reason, people who take their cars to properly trained mechanics, want properly trained builders building their houses, and expect farmers who grow their food to have knowledge of farming, want to pooh pooh expertise in a couple of areas: running the country, and medicine. The left is not much better than the right on that count, and that is why it is so difficult for a Biden or a Clinton to win over a Trump. They may not be the absolutely best or most perfect candidates for the job, but compared to Trump, their qualifications make him look like a ditch next to the Grand Canyon. So they must not be elected.
Perhaps if we had some qualifications for president – like, the ability to pass a seventh grade Civics exam. Anyone can vote, but the only candidates would be those who actually know what the job of President entails, and can govern for real, not by tweeing out “Covfefe”.
Ikn, I did expect Obama to win in ’08, but i was living in a mostly liberal urban area at the time, and it seemed like he had a good chance. However, I did vote for Hillary in the primary in ’08, knowing very little about Obama, but I am glad it turned out the way it did, because he was an exceptional President. Which is why I think Trump is so bad by the way, the contrast between Obama and Trump is breathtaking, from one of the best ever to unarguably the worst ever. Hillary would have made an excellent President to follow Obama in my view, because I think it’s high time for a woman to lead the country, and I still think that. I’m so tired of the old white guys that I could puke (and I am one!). But alas, here we are again, the battle of the old white guys. It’s sick making. My disillusionment with the American voters is complete. I don’t think Biden has much of a chance at the moment, but if he does win, I’m not sure I’ll be too happy about it, but I will be happy if somehow we can get rid of Trump, he’s beyond terrible.
I’ve had this same thought for as long as I can remember, but for every political office. Additionally the test needs to be taken publicly or at least with published results. That way when an obvious law/policy/code is violated it can be pointed out that they must have done it deliberately.
My other “fix” is no consecutive terms for any office. Make terms a bit longer to compensate but now there’s no re-election crap to deal with any more. You can get elected to the same office again after a full term has elapsed (or perhaps half in cases where incumbent isn’t able to complete the term and a special election is required).
A lot of people in Oz are asking how the mail ins could be so skewed in favour of Biden. I simply say that to apply for and cast a mail in ballot requires a certain level of reading comprehension, so Ya’ll Qaeda find pulling a lever easier.
Many are also asking why so many Nevadans voted for Biden who will close down Covid Creating Casinos in a state with no unemployment benefits. Again, I must remind them, not everyone in Nevada is drunk, stupid, or racist, the defining features of a Trumpista.
iknklast at #5:
That would almost certainly exclude Trump, but he would likely find a way round it, like paying someone else to sit the test for him. It has been known to happen. Guiliani would probably not be up to sitting the test in his place, but I reckon Stormy Daniels would be a shoo-in if the money was right.
However, this raises a deeper issue. I have long held that we should pick politicians the way we pick juries for the serious and at times life-and-death business of a jury trial. Names should be chosen by lot: say picked out of a rotating barrel, and then the population at large required tovote for candidates after suitability issues had been publicly aired and discussed.
The Trumps and Guilianis would all fall at the first hurdle.
If I had the habit of hanging around court houses offering my services to all and sundry as a potential juror, I would be swiftly shown the door, and rightly so. But the aspirant-politician types get away with it all the time.