The Presidential Election of 2020

[magentaflame]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-03/ ... a/12841100

It's not going to be pretty.

[spot]

Neither are boxing matches but people still watch.

I shall have my radio on. For the record I think President Trump is going to have his second term.

[magentaflame]

This business of blocking the Biden transport and encompassing it with vehicles. I'm glad most got their votes in early. That kind of threatening behaviour can turn people off voting altogether. But the gall of these people . Seriously? You'd normally expect that kind of behaviour in Turkey or Indonesia

[magentaflame]

looks like old Joe has it in the bag anyway. Phew!

[spot]

looks like old Joe has it in the bag anyway. Phew!

I'm not sure who has persuaded you.

Here's my take, as we go into election day. The states which could go against type are very few - nine, on my sheet. I'd apportion them as

Democrat:
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Arizona

Republican:
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Ohio
Florida
Iowa
Michigan

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

How many days it will take before all nine give their result is another matter.

[tude dog]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-03/ ... a/12841100

It's not going to be pretty.

Uh HUH

[LarsMac]

looks like old Joe has it in the bag anyway. Phew!

That's what the Dems were saying about Hilary this time in 2016.

[Snooz]

looks like old Joe has it in the bag anyway. Phew!

I'm not sure who has persuaded you.

Here's my take, as we go into election day. The states which could go against type are very few - nine, on my sheet. I'd apportion them as

Democrat:
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Arizona

Republican:
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Ohio
Florida
Iowa
Michigan

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

How many days it will take before all nine give their result is another matter.

I think the Dems have Wisconsin and Michigan but Pennsylvania is still up in the air.

[spot]

I think the Dems have Wisconsin and Michigan but Pennsylvania is still up in the air.

I've not even turned the radio on yet today.

[LarsMac]

It's a bit early, yet. They won't even start counting the votes until after 7 PM Eastern time.
I will just wait til in the morning and see what it looks like.

[magentaflame]

results begin coming in around 11 am my time. I'll keep the telly on in the background.

[LarsMac]

I just hope we don't see anything like the 2000 fiasco.
I would like to see a clear majority, one way or another. Get it done and move on.

[magentaflame]

looks like old Joe has it in the bag anyway. Phew!

I'm not sure who has persuaded you.

Here's my take, as we go into election day. The states which could go against type are very few - nine, on my sheet. I'd apportion them as

Democrat:
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Arizona

Republican:
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Ohio
Florida
Iowa
Michigan

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

How many days it will take before all nine give their result is another matter.

I was watching 'the last leg' last night (we're a week behind your showing) first time I've actually understood the American voting system . It doesn't look democratic to me. Although they did explain it via a monopoly board.

[Bryn Mawr]

results begin coming in around 11 am my time. I'll keep the telly on in the background.

01:00 our time - I’ll be tired in the morning

[magentaflame]

FBI investigating robocalls urging people to stay home on election day. Indiana and Kentucky have closed.

[magentaflame]

results begin coming in around 11 am my time. I'll keep the telly on in the background.

01:00 our time - I’ll be tired in the morning

You're keen.

I'm predicting (solely what I've seen on facebook) that north Carolina will be republican and Arizona will switch to dems. Or I have it completely and hopelessly wrong.

[magentaflame]

Oh dear God. The woman who believes the world is run by paedophiles and Trump was sent by god to disrupt their position in the world has been elected to the senate.

[tude dog]

I just hope we don't see anything like the 2000 fiasco.
I would like to see a clear majority, one way or another. Get it done and move on.

AMEN

[LarsMac]

results begin coming in around 11 am my time. I'll keep the telly on in the background.

01:00 our time - I’ll be tired in the morning

You're keen.

I'm predicting (solely what I've seen on facebook) that north Carolina will be republican and Arizona will switch to dems. Or I have it completely and hopelessly wrong.

North Caroline being Republican will be no surprise. Arizona going Dem would be refreshing.
I am hoping to see that mealy-mouthed Graham being sent packing in South Carolina.

[magentaflame]

It's not even half way through and yet live to air people scuffling with secret service members outside the white house.


it's only extremely early but Biden 212 Trump 109. ...again hugely early . postals in most states won't start counting them until tomorrow.

[spot]

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

The Al Jazeera map, with the red and blue predictions from the part-counts they have in so far, adds up to a 50 vote second term for the President.

They've marked Maine and Pennsylvania (R)

and Montana, Colorado, Arizona and Virginia (D)

Snooze, I think you may now swear.

[spot]

And Mr Biden is about to make an announcement.

The 5.30 GMT tally is a Republican majority of 42, and I can't see any other state switching now.



eta: and Biden is speaking, 5:45am GMT, and he says he thinks he's ahead and he's going to win. Wow, that's astonishing. The man is delusional.

The President tweeted in response, disagreeing.

I'll be interested to see what's happening to the Senate.

[magentaflame]

No he didn't he said "we're on track to win this" ..And called for peoples patience. That's all. Only the President can call the election... And then Trump tweeted and had a go at Fox news for calling Arizona.

Texas will bring the count up for Trump. But not quite enough.

[spot]

No he didn't he said "we're on track to win this" ..And called for peoples patience. That's all. Only the President can call the election... And then Trump tweeted and had a go at Fox news for calling Arizona.

Texas will bring the count up for Trump. But not quite enough.

Neither of them can "call" the election. The result is the result, nobody calls it. Candidates occasionally concede, at which the new President says thank you graciously. If President Trump could claim the election at this moment it would be a bit banana republic and he'd only look silly if he tried.

I reckon "he says he thinks he's ahead and he's going to win" is a fair paraphrase of what you wrote, perhaps I just can't see a difference. No idea.

The only reason the election is uncertain at this point is the counting of postal votes in Pennsylvania, and we'll not know the effect there until Friday. If that switches to Democrat then the President's majority goes down to a mere 2 electoral college votes, and faithless electors could then be the deciders.

[magentaflame]

trumps about to make a statement. This'll be good.

[spot]

He is, not surprisingly, trying to stop the count of all postal votes which arrive at the count after the close of polling yesterday. If I grasp his argument.

If that's where the count stops then he has a majority of at least 12 electoral votes, assuming a worst case from his point of view that he has already lost Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Maine. Any of those which turn out not to have been lost pushes the 12 majority higher. Some, at the moment, have President Trump in the lead.

If he can't get the count stopped, and the count pushes Pennsylvania to a Democrat win, then Trump will have lost. There's around 25% of that count still in play but even if it's all counted, those remaining votes would need to split 70:30 for it to turn Democrat. I think that's unlikely.

I still think whatever happens this is a second term for President Trump. Without his succession of dirty tricks he wouldn't have come anywhere near winning.

I expect to hear him say he's won bigly, super bigly, that no American President in all of time and space has ever received so many votes in any election for anything. Which, while true, is not the whole story. But for the record, he was already second on that list from 2016 - President Obama is the only winner who got more votes to become President.

And if the Senate really has stayed Republican, that's another major problem. So far, no change.

Meanwhile I declare my betting book on Ivanka 2024 well and truly open.

[magentaflame]

Ojay so Trump says it's a fraud but he won anyway............that says to me that he has been fraudulent. lol

last night every single American constitutional lawyer our news spoke to (and they must have been searching all day for them because there were many)Reckons Trump has no grounds for any of his accusations nor can he stop lawful counting of ballots. BUT..... they have to check postal marks and signatures. Which apparently they do anyway. So no news there.

[magentaflame]

I have a question for the Americans on this board. Australia has laws concerning incitement to violence and inciting people to break the law.\
Can Rudi and Donald be done for this if the proverbial hits the fan? Or can they use the cover of the courts ? Citing that their claims are a lawful questions to be answered?
Has America had to board up premises during an election before because of fears of violence?
Is fearmongering common to this degree/extent during elections?

[LarsMac]

I have a question for the Americans on this board. Australia has laws concerning incitement to violence and inciting people to break the law.\
Can Rudi and Donald be done for this if the proverbial hits the fan? Or can they use the cover of the courts ? Citing that their claims are a lawful questions to be answered?
Has America had to board up premises during an election before because of fears of violence?
Is fearmongering common to this degree/extent during elections?

Simple answers, Yes, Yes, Yes, No, and No.
IWe do have laws about such behavior, and they could be dinged for such actions, if people cause real trouble, and they can probalby hide behind the courts for a while, and tangle things up for a long time - and they probably will. I don't recall ever hearing about premises being boarded up because of such activity during elections. And no, fear-mongering on such a scale has never been a part of our election process.

[LarsMac]

This is going to drag on for a while, as I feared.
It could end up making the 2000 adventure look like a cakewalk.

And one of the senate races in Georgia (How the HELL did they end up with both seats up at the same time? ) Will likely not be resolved until January.

SHEESH!

This election may not be settled until the 2024 election.

[Snooz]

Biden's been telling us to be patient. Too many states wait until election day after the polls close to start counting mail-in ballots and since millions more people voted that way this year thanks to the pandemic, it's taking much longer to tally the results. Colorado starts counting mail-ins on 19 Oct; more states should follow suit.

Add to that the POS that Trump installed as the Post Master General that has done everything in his power to cripple the US Postal Service and there ended up being a reported 300,000 mail-in ballots that were unaccounted for, "lost" in the system. When a judge ordered them to inspect their facilities for the lost ballots, they simply didn't do it. That's been rectified but the level of corruption in this administration is mind boggling.

[magentaflame]

He's going to speak in 15 minutes. Holy hell I hope you guys are going to be okay.

[magentaflame]

This is one hell of a narcissistic psychopathic dangerous man.

[spot]

Here's the focus of next week:

The Republican party in Nevada said it had sent a report to the US Department of Justice on what it alleged were "at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud".

The party tweeted that thousands of individuals had been identified violating the law by casting ballots after moving out of the state.

At a news conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, a Trump campaign ally, claimed: "We believe that there are dead voters that have been counted."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54834584

[LarsMac]

Here's the focus of next week:

The Republican party in Nevada said it had sent a report to the US Department of Justice on what it alleged were "at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud".

The party tweeted that thousands of individuals had been identified violating the law by casting ballots after moving out of the state.

At a news conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, a Trump campaign ally, claimed: "We believe that there are dead voters that have been counted."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54834584

Well, I can see why they might go for that. They did have a candidate or two get elected after they had been dead for a while.

[spot]

I had not realized the votes in each state would be counted in such a strange order that the first half would turn out to be so different to the second. I'll know better next time. Everyone else was right, I was wrong.

The exciting prospect of a Biden administration is that he might be obliged to hand over to Ms Harris. I for one would very much like to see her run the White House for most of this first term, it might give her the charismatic impetus to win a second in her own name.

Meanwhile, can we hope that ex-President Trump might be appointed the next Secretary-General of the UN? It would be a shame for him just to fade into obscurity.

On other fronts, there were 122,888 new positive Covid cases registered in the US yesterday. It seems unlikely the current White House administration will change its message until January 20th. Matters are not improving in that regard. Quite why the CDC didn't just block the White House number and take over the national public message some months ago I'm not sure.

"Steve Bannon banned by Twitter for calling for Fauci beheading" - is that vile lying propagandist crook not in jail yet? Why is he still at large?

One fairly certain thing is that President Trump isn't going to get a pardon from the team which has just beaten him, should any prosecution unfold, nor any of his very suspect enablers.

On the news this afternoon,

“My hope is that President Trump will lead the millions of Americans who understand exactly what’s going on,” Gingrich said. “The Philadelphia machine is corrupt. The Atlanta machine is corrupt. The machine in Detroit is corrupt. And they are trying to steal the presidency. And we should not allow them to do that.”

“First of all, under federal law, we should lock up the people who are breaking the law,” he continued. “You stop somebody from being an observer, you just broke federal law. Do you hide and put up papers so nobody can see what you’re doing? You just broke federal law. You bring in ballots that aren’t real? You just broke federal law.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -beheading

I'm left wondering whether there are any honorable Republican politicians in America, or whether they're all cast in this shameful fashion.

[LarsMac]

I had not realized the votes in each state would be counted in such a strange order that the first half would turn out to be so different to the second. I'll know better next time. Everyone else was right, I was wrong.

The exciting prospect of a Biden administration is that he might be obliged to hand over to Ms Harris. I for one would very much like to see her run the White House for most of this first term, it might give her the charismatic impetus to win a second in her own name.

Meanwhile, can we hope that ex-President Trump might be appointed the next Secretary-General of the UN? It would be a shame for him just to fade into obscurity.

On other fronts, there were 122,888 new positive Covid cases registered in the US yesterday. It seems unlikely the current White House administration will change its message until January 20th. Matters are not improving in that regard. Quite why the CDC didn't just block the White House number and take over the national public message some months ago I'm not sure.

"Steve Bannon banned by Twitter for calling for Fauci beheading" - is that vile lying propagandist crook not in jail yet? Why is he still at large?

One fairly certain thing is that President Trump isn't going to get a pardon from the team which has just beaten him, should any prosecution unfold, nor any of his very suspect enablers.

On the news this afternoon,

“My hope is that President Trump will lead the millions of Americans who understand exactly what’s going on,” Gingrich said. “The Philadelphia machine is corrupt. The Atlanta machine is corrupt. The machine in Detroit is corrupt. And they are trying to steal the presidency. And we should not allow them to do that.”

“First of all, under federal law, we should lock up the people who are breaking the law,” he continued. “You stop somebody from being an observer, you just broke federal law. Do you hide and put up papers so nobody can see what you’re doing? You just broke federal law. You bring in ballots that aren’t real? You just broke federal law.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -beheading

I'm left wondering whether there are any honorable Republican politicians in America, or whether they're all cast in this shameful fashion.

Firstly, "Honorable politician", republican or otherwise, may be the grandest oxymoron of them all.
Trump fading into obscurity would be a blessing, IMHO.
There used to be some. McCain had a rare sense of honor.

And Newt is almost as big a waste of space and time as Pence.

[spot]

If there is a take-home message from this year's campaign, it's that I never again want to see any Republican politician with an American flag or an Eagle-tipped standard in the same frame. I have no idea who President Trump's Commissioner for the Artistic and Technical Presentation of Party Rallies and Demonstrations was, but the whole staging time after time was over the top, threatening, forbidding and historically obscene.



and...

Thousands of Donald Trump supporters have unwittingly found themselves in a Facebook group called “Gay Communists for Socialism”, after being tricked by its creators into joining what they thought was a pro-Trump election group.

[...] “We had no idea it would take off like this or suck in as many clueless people as it did when we made the switch,” the administrator said. He said the group, which now has 60,000 members, has an additional 20,000 member requests.

[...] The administrator told the Guardian it was likely the group would soon be removed due to the number of people in the group reporting content they are offended by. These reports, he said, are mostly coming from conservatives. “The real snowflakes,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... book-group

[Snooz]

"Steve Bannon banned by Twitter for calling for Fauci beheading" - is that vile lying propagandist crook not in jail yet? Why is he still at large?

He didn't just call for Fauci's head, he also included the Director of the FBI. Complete lunacy.

As for Newt bitterly complaining about vote counters being corrupt, there were protesters outside one of the counting locations shouting that they should be able to observe the count when there was already a livestream of the room. The abject stupidity of these people.

[tude dog]

Joe Biden Wins 2020 Presidential Election

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden- ... 1604766914

We are DOOMED

[spot]

We are DOOMED

How do you say banana republic in American English?

[magentaflame]

We are DOOMED

How do you say banana republic in American English?

I can't think of a country that isn't .

[spot]

We are DOOMED

How do you say banana republic in American English?

I can't think of a country that isn't .

Canada. New Zealand. Finland. Norway. Iceland. Uruguay. Switzerland. Belgium. Holland. Ireland.

[LarsMac]

Joe Biden Wins 2020 Presidential Election

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden- ... 1604766914

We are DOOMED

I doubt that.
But, why do you think so?

[spot]

For those who might have forgotten what derisive dismissal looks like, there's this:

The Official Charts Company described Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead as "one of the most controversial chart contenders of all time".

Sales were fuelled by an online campaign organised by opponents of the former prime minister, who wanted to see the 51-second song reach number one.

It entered the charts at number 54 on Tuesday, the day after Baroness Thatcher's death, and climbed to number 10 on Wednesday. By Thursday, it had reached number four and was at number three by Friday.

There was a final rush of 18,000 sales between Friday morning and today, the Official Charts Company said, but its final total was 52,605 copies - 5,700 behind Duke Dumont, which achieved 58,321 sales in the past week.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 72547.html

The difference this time is that the witch is alive to hear the mockery, as well as his followers.

There are times when bad taste is the only possible reaction. Baroness Thatcher had to be cremated to avoid having her grave repeatedly desecrated.

"Steve Bannon banned by Twitter for calling for Fauci beheading" - is that vile lying propagandist crook not in jail yet? Why is he still at large?

He didn't just call for Fauci's head, he also included the Director of the FBI. Complete lunacy.

The problem with treating Steve Bannon as a scapegoat is there are seventy million Steve Bannons in America, and only one of them is going to jail. It's all very well for the President-elect to say he'll unify the country, but I can't see the Bannons of this world joining his bandwagon any more than I could describe Margaret Thatcher as just part of life's rich pageant.



See those 579.6K likes? They're a few of your Steve Bannons. Perhaps we could bring back the term Deplorables.

It may not be legal for President Trump to issue a blanket pardon for himself, when he issues one for all his staff. But if he then resigns office, I bet Mike Pence could issue a legal pardon for him next day.

The right to issue pardons for federal crimes in the US should be abolished.

[spot]

Here's my take, as we go into election day. The states which could go against type are very few - nine, on my sheet. I'd apportion them as

Democrat:
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Arizona

Republican:
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Ohio
Florida
Iowa
Michigan

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

How many days it will take before all nine give their result is another matter.

I think the Dems have Wisconsin and Michigan but Pennsylvania is still up in the air.

I've just checked where I went wrong. It's strange how small things make so much difference.

Of my nine swing-state predictions, only two were wrong - Wisconsin and Michigan ended up as you said, Democrat instead of Republican.

What I didn't have on my list were the three other states which switched - Colorado, Georgia and Virginia. I hadn't listed them as at risk, I'm not sure many people did.

Most American pollster companies need a rebore, they did far worse.

[magentaflame]

question. Is Trump going to play golf every day until January?

[Snooz]

Here's my take, as we go into election day. The states which could go against type are very few - nine, on my sheet. I'd apportion them as

Democrat:
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Arizona

Republican:
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Ohio
Florida
Iowa
Michigan

which would give President Trump a 54 vote majority in the electoral college, with minor adjustment for split-voting states. I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

How many days it will take before all nine give their result is another matter.

I think the Dems have Wisconsin and Michigan but Pennsylvania is still up in the air.

I've just checked where I went wrong. It's strange how small things make so much difference.

Of my nine swing-state predictions, only two were wrong - Wisconsin and Michigan ended up as you said, Democrat instead of Republican.

What I didn't have on my list were the three other states which switched - Colorado, Georgia and Virginia. I hadn't listed them as at risk, I'm not sure many people did.

Most American pollster companies need a rebore, they did far worse.

I think Colorado's been a blue state for a while. Not all of it, my county is pretty firmly red but we're blue enough that a gay Dem got voted in as governor. I'm surprised about Georgia though, but that's mostly because I associate them with ultra conservative bible thumpers.

[Snooz]

question. Is Trump going to play golf every day until January?

God, I hope so. That would keep him out of trouble instead of peeing on all the carpets in the White House.

[magentaflame]

question. Is Trump going to play golf every day until January?

God, I hope so. That would keep him out of trouble instead of peeing on all the carpets in the White House.

He's still firing people I see. I wonder what he wanted from the defence guy that was refused? I hope he's not planning anything.