Burn it Down, Kiss it Goodbye.

[hodad]

So here we are in Trump's endgame.  Everyone expected Trump to shout that the election was rigged because a) he's been laying that groundwork for months, and b) he's a whiny little baby who can't believe that he could ever lose anything. 
Unfortunately, GOP legislators and Trump's toadies are more than happy to join him in his delusional quest.  Bill Barr has decided to break with DOJ norms and start looking for imaginary vote fraud before votes have even been certified.  My useless Senators are attacking a Republican SOS for supposedly mishandling the election.  McConnell, Graham, and company are jumping on board to support the Emperor's idiocy. 

If this doesn't stink of wannabe fascism, I don't know what does.  THe GOP has shown its ass, and the darkness at the heart of its soul, in its rallying to Trump.  Disgusting.  Not  a real American among them. 

 

[JohnRoberts]

So here we are in Trump's endgame.  Everyone expected Trump to shout that the election was rigged because a) he's been laying that groundwork for months, and b) he's a whiny little baby who can't believe that he could ever lose anything. 
Unfortunately, GOP legislators and Trump's toadies are more than happy to join him in his delusional quest.  Bill Barr has decided to break with DOJ norms and start looking for imaginary vote fraud before votes have even been certified.  My useless Senators are attacking a Republican SOS for supposedly mishandling the election.  McConnell, Graham, and company are jumping on board to support the Emperor's idiocy. 

If this doesn't stink of wannabe fascism, I don't know what does.  THe GOP has shown its ass, and the darkness at the heart of its soul, in its rallying to Trump.  Disgusting.  Not  a real American among them.

The two Georgia senate seat run offs in early Jan are important (could determine the senate majority) so may draw historic political advertising spending.

JR

PS: I hope you are OK.

 

[gyraf]

..thanks JR ..

PS: I hope you are OK.

 

[hodad]

So apparently I'm not the only one who's not "OK" with top Republicans joining Trump in his spurious attacks on the American elections system:
The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.

It's reasonable to question whether my OP was an overreaction, but if Trump & co.'s actions don't concern you, then maybe it's time to start wondering if you are OK. 

EDIT:  Lindsey Graham on Fox News:  “We win because of our ideas. We lose because they cheat us.”
Poor Lindsey.  Do you think he's OK? 

 

[Winston OBoogie]

I wouldn't worry too much.  If this were an attempted coup, it'd be the lamest one in history.

The Trump campaign are sending hourly emails to most everyone on their list asking for donations.  When you read the small print (attached) you see that it's just more grifting on their part. 

We can just wait it out, it'll be settled soon enough.  But If Dems filed an action stating voter fraud in KY then I'm certain Mitch McConnell would swiftly re-align his position on the matter. 

 

[hodad]

Maybe it's just, as some Republican official suggested, an effort to "humor" Trump, and make him feel better about losing (sad that a grown-azz man who was elected president would need humoring, but unsurprising with Trump.) 
Maybe it's an effort to keep the "base" fired up & engaged for Senate runoffs (Trump certainly has a knack for drawing a certain type of voter to the polls, so that's possible.) 
Whatever the motivation, it serves to undercut Americans' faith in their elections.  And of course McConnell killed a measure to improve election security, so he doesn't seem to care about real or perceived election security.  And of course, undermining faith in elections is just one more step toward illiberal democracy. 

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Maybe it's an effort to keep the "base" fired up & engaged for Senate runoffs (Trump certainly has a knack for drawing a certain type of voter to the polls, so that's possible.) 

There's a story I just glimpsed online that the Trump campaign pressured the two Republican candidates to make the unsubstantiated claim about voter fraud in Georgia,  or otherwise risk him tweeting something negative about them prior to the runoff.  Dunno how accurate that story is but?

The R's certainly don't want to alienate any of Trump's base and risk losing the Senate majority so I could see it being a concern. 

I read Mary Trump's recent book about her uncle,  and his reaction to losing the election fits the profile she painted like a glove.   
From the outside, I'd say it's as if a 7 year old lost an ice skating competition.  What happened to their "Fuck Your Feelings" mantra?   

Chin up, it'll be over soon 

 

[iomegaman]

Trump is currently cutting a sweetheart arms deal with UAE, Dubai has no extradition treaty with USA...I pretty much expect that is where he will jet off to in the next 60 days.

Odd that the head of the Coronavirus response is taking a week long vacation right now...

Pence's silence is actually very interesting.

 

[Winston OBoogie]

Dubai has no extradition treaty with USA...I pretty much expect that is where he will jet off to in the next 60 days.

I had him pegged for Argentina.

 

[living sounds]

Russia is also beautiful this time of year...

 

[hodad]

The  cascading series  of  compounding defects  in Texas’s filings is only underscored by the surreal alternate  reality that those filings attempt  to construct. That  alternate  reality includes  an  absurd  statistical
analysis positing  that  the  probability  of  President-Elect Biden winning the election was “one in a quadrillion.”  Texas’s effort to get this Court to pick the next President has no basis in law or fact. The Court should not abide this seditious abuse of the  judicial  process,  and  should  send  a  clear and  unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22O155/163367/20201210142206254_Pennsylvania%20Opp%20to%20Bill%20of%20Complaint%20v.FINAL.pdf

"Seditious" is a pretty heavy word to be throwing around in a brief to the Supreme Court.  I don't think it's unmerited at all. Far too many Republicans, both the courtiers in DC and the ordinary joes in the hinterlands, are all to willing to support this nonsense.

There's a point at which one is either against it or is a part of it.  When people support this overtly or tacitly, they should not be shocked when folks call them "anti-American," "fascist," or worse.  Of course, for many on the right I believe the outrage at a term like "fascist" is feigned; they're happy to support leaders who walk and quack like fascists, but the term is so...ugly.  And they're not likely to cop to being "anti-American;" it's just that they support a vision of America that has nothing to do with the Constitution or democracy. 

 

[hodad]

It's worth noting that Texas AG Ken Paxton, who filed the case, is under indictment for securities fraud, and he's also being investigated by the FBI.  How telling is it that the state AG who is arguably the most desperate for a pardon is the one to bring forth this seditious case?  Is there a pardon in the works for AG Paxton?  One wonders.  One need not wonder what the reaction of Republicans would be if such a pardon were to be issued--a yawning "ho-hum,"  some weak rationalization, and a lame whataboutist distraction. 

 

[hodad]

I had run across this Hannah Arendt quote before, but I saw it again today & thought I'd toss it on this thread:

“if everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer…. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge.”

The contemporary corollary is that if the truth is reduced to being just one competing "theory" in a miasma of lies, the result is the same. 

Just sayin'. 

(I mean, they say it's 2021, but Joe down at the barber shop says his great aunt Mildred's IBM PC jr says it's 1937.  So who's to say what year it really is?)

 

[pucho812]

you guys.  :

you got what you wanted. only a matter of time before the "I told you so" starts

 

[hodad]

you got what you wanted.

It took me a minute to figure out what you meant by that.  I guess you mean that we (approx. 80 million Americans) voted Trump out of office?  Well, that was something I wanted.  But I didn't want a sizable number of Republicans buying into the most outlandish election conspiracy theories imaginable.  I didn't want to see so many of my fellow Americans so ready to make the leap to fascism.  I did not want to see a Republican party so eager to rebrand itself as fascist.  And that is almost certain not to go away on January 20th. 

I didn't want to see the federal govt. run into a ditch by incompetence, ignorance and deliberate malfeasance--and that's something that will take years to fix, even without the inevitable GOP interference in the rebuilding process. 

I'd like to think that Trump voters actually learned something from their mistake, but their votes in November proved me wrong.  Their continued belief in utterly insane and empirically unsupportable conspiracy theories has proved me wrong. 

I don't think you have any idea what we guys (whoever exactly that encompasses) want. 

 

[micaddict]

I'd like to think that Trump voters actually learned something from their mistake, but their votes in November proved me wrong.  Their continued belief in utterly insane and empirically unsupportable conspiracy theories has proved me wrong. 

Not supported and/or plainly censored by MSM (and social media) doesn't necessarily mean something is a conspiracy.
Although jointly hiding inconvenient truths is a conspiracy in itself and by definition.


I have a feeling there'll be a few surprises soon.
Well, the ones in wilful denial shouldn't really be surprised.

 

[hodad]

Not supported and/or plainly censored by MSM (and social media) doesn't necessarily mean something is a conspiracy.
Although jointly hiding inconvenient truths is a conspiracy in itself and by definition.


I have a feeling there'll be a few surprises soon.
Well, the ones in wilful denial shouldn't really be surprised.

While I would agree that many stories go underreported and even unreported at times, you segue from that to a "feeling" about "surprises."  Can't be much more vague, amorphous or unsubstantiated than that. 

I can cite phony right wing conspiracy theories that have been proven false--from Pizzagate to JFK Jr. becoming Trump's running mate.  Trump's "rigged election" charges  have been put to the test in several states--maybe most of all in Georgia, where I live.  And no evidence has been uncovered, even by partisan Republicans.  I think it's fair to say that the people who continue to believe Trump's attacks on the election are buying into an unfounded conspiracy theory.  Trump has no actual evidence, only his wishful thinking. 

"Feelings" and wishful thinking just don't cut it. 

 

[micaddict]

OK then.
More than a feeling.
Reminds of a song BTW.


Georgia?
Well, you ought to know then.
Reminds me of a song, too. 

 

[pucho812]

It took me a minute to figure out what you meant by that.  I guess you mean that we (approx. 80 million Americans) voted Trump out of office?  Well, that was something I wanted.  But I didn't want a sizable number of Republicans buying into the most outlandish election conspiracy theories imaginable.  I didn't want to see so many of my fellow Americans so ready to make the leap to fascism.  I did not want to see a Republican party so eager to rebrand itself as fascist.  And that is almost certain not to go away on January 20th. 

I didn't want to see the federal govt. run into a ditch by incompetence, ignorance and deliberate malfeasance--and that's something that will take years to fix, even without the inevitable GOP interference in the rebuilding process. 

I'd like to think that Trump voters actually learned something from their mistake, but their votes in November proved me wrong.  Their continued belief in utterly insane and empirically unsupportable conspiracy theories has proved me wrong. 

I don't think you have any idea what we guys (whoever exactly that encompasses) want.

the 80 million number is debatable, but go on believe what you want if it makes you feel better. 

 

[hodad]

the 80 million number is debatable, but go on believe what you want if it makes you feel better.

Apparently it's you who need something to make you feel better--still waiting for any kind of evidence to support your position.