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American Politics Thread

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Richmond’s my former congressman, so this is pretty cool.
Cedric Richmond has also taken over $300,000 from the fossil fuel industry, so the idea that he could possibly be an objective "liason" between climate activists and industry is an absolute joke. He's a hawk to a ridiculous degree on fossil fuels, especially oil, and his joining the administration in this role is not a good thing.
 
Cedric Richmond has also taken over $300,000 from the fossil fuel industry, so the idea that he could possibly be an objective "liason" between climate activists and industry is an absolute joke. He's a hawk to a ridiculous degree on fossil fuels, especially oil, and his joining the administration in this role is not a good thing.

I was so excited. I still don't know much of anything, but I'm deflated, at the moment.
That was one of the big bad things about Congressman Beto O'Rourke.
 
I see the GOP tried to fail to certify the Wayne county votes in Michigan (but it didn't work, thankfully).

If I'm hearing this right, they were trying to go ahead and certify the state without the Wayne county votes, giving the whole state to Trump.

All of this happened in a flash and I completely missed it. The GOP could have taken one major step to stealing the election just like that. And I'm left wondering how in the world they have this much power to be so crooked. I shouldn't even have to worry about this kind of thing, much less almost see it happen.

Please tell me I'm just seen this oversensationalized and it never was going to be anything to begin with... Otherwise, IDK what is wrong with this country.
 
The corruption of the GOP under Trump is sickening. They've always been corrupt, but the party has devolved into a disgusting mess that no longer bares any resemblance to the party before Trump. Its basically a cult dedicated to one man. The extreme lengths they've gone to just to overturn this election in Trump's favor is sickening. These scumbags sat there accusing the Democrats of trying to overturn the 2016 election for years, which is one of the most idiotic statements when you realize removing Trump wouldn't overturn anything. Pence would have been president if Trump was removed before his loss. It wouldn't have made Hillary president. And what's the GOP trying to do right now? Trying to overturn the 2020 election with baseless claims of voter fraud and illegal votes.
 
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Cedric Richmond has also taken over $300,000 from the fossil fuel industry... He's a hawk to a ridiculous degree on fossil fuels, especially oil...
I was so excited. I still don't know much of anything, but I'm deflated, at the moment.
Richmond represents Louisiana, where oil and gas account for nearly 30 percent of the state’s economy. He did what his constituents elected him to do.
 
I see the GOP tried to fail to certify the Wayne county votes in Michigan (but it didn't work, thankfully).

If I'm hearing this right, they were trying to go ahead and certify the state without the Wayne county votes, giving the whole state to Trump.

All of this happened in a flash and I completely missed it. The GOP could have taken one major step to stealing the election just like that. And I'm left wondering how in the world they have this much power to be so crooked. I shouldn't even have to worry about this kind of thing, much less almost see it happen.

Please tell me I'm just seen this oversensationalized and it never was going to be anything to begin with... Otherwise, IDK what is wrong with this country.

This will make you feel better. Those two GOP toadies got utterly eviscerated during a Zoom meeting:


View: https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1328882122724155393
 
Sorry for doubleposting, but this one is its own discussion. Georgia is seriously in play and if Trump continues to rage at the Republican governor for refusing to illegally give him Biden's electoral votes then a depressed Trump voters turnout might give the Dems those two senate seats.


View: https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1328901435103326209
 
I forgot to share this here. My share here probably won't impact any, but still doing so. It's time-sensitive to today.
Realized it's already past 1700 hours postmark for USPS in EST, but if you're a resident of Georgia and out-of-state to the west, you can still submit immediately?

Looks like absentee ballot registration deadline is today. I mean, I'm sure everyone has already voted in the previous elections, but if you know any who are turning 18, while also being out of town... tiny subset of people with miniscule time window, but whatever.

Also remind anyone who fits the unlikely case of not registered to vote, and/or just turning 18 while in Georgia, that registration deadline is Dec 07.

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Georgia is seriously in play and if Trump continues to rage at the Republican governor for refusing to illegally give him Biden's electoral votes then a depressed Trump voters turnout might give the Dems those two senate seats.
Oh how I love it when the Trump Administration plays itself lmao.

But I'm not gonna hold my breath on this one either.
 
Well... that was certainly an eventful couple of weeks in American history. After spending four days straight streaming CNN before, during and after work, taking a break for a week from anything political was good for the sanity. But now, we're staring at control of the senate coming down to Georgia. Which means it's time for some political hot takes.

1. Even if Trump's lawsuits weren't burning up one by one, the Trump attempted coup was doomed from the start. But Hector, I hear you saying, what about the 12th amendment? A good question, but the answer ultimately lies in how the House of Representatives operates. The most important thing to note is that the House can choose when to count the votes from the Electoral College. (Those of you who follow US politics closely will note that this would be poetic justice given how the Republicans in the senate blocked judicial nominees and bills coming up for a vote for years). Now this is important because as the Democrats control the house, they can simply... choose not to count them. This is perfectly valid under constitutional law, and more importantly the Supreme Court and the executive branch cannot do anything to stop them. In this case, on January 20th, the speaker of the house would become president. Which in this case could be Nancy Pelosi, or if the Democrats knew this was coming ahead of time, they could make Joe Biden their speaker (because the speaker of the house does not have to be a member of the house, they could name me speaker if they wanted) to elevate him on the 20th automatically. So in a universe where somehow the Trump campaign got multiple states to go against the will of their voters, the Democratically controlled house could easily counter this. The other (and perhaps even funnier) method of countering this lies in how the members of the house are sworn in. If the Democrats wanted to, they could simply only swear in their own members (believe it or not, this is actually allowed), as the Speaker (again, this will be a Democrat) is sworn in first, then swears in the other members. At this point, they could hold the tie-breaking vote in the house and with only Democrats voting, obviously Biden would win.

If you want a REALLY deep dive into how this all works (it's incredibly informative and I learned a lot, but it's a LONG watch):


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6sVow9l8H4


TL;DR - the people trying to sell you that the Trump campaign will possibly pull off this coup are either misinformed (to be fair, Constitutional law is a goddamn trainwreck of confusion) or are trying to drum up controversy and ratings. The reason this can't work is the parliamentary procedure of the house allows the Democrats who control the house to counter any ratfuckery with shenanigans of their own. The only way Trump is president on January 21st is if there's tanks in the streets (which isn't going to happen).


2. I'm sorry to tell you progressives but never Trumpers made the difference between Biden and a second Trump term. And I'm not just saying this as someone who was a republican until 2016. While it is of course impossible to ascertain the motives of individuals who split their ballots, the math does point to people voting for Republicans across their ballots for other positions and voting against Trump. For example, in Georgia. The current vote count for President stands as :

Joe Biden 49.5%
2,472,255

Donald Trump 49.2%
2,458,248

Jo Jorgensen (LIB) 1.2%
62,072


An incredibly tight margin. However, when you look at the senate race between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff, a different picture emerges:

David Perdue (REP) 49.7%
2,459,034

Jon Ossoff (DEM) 48%
2,372,327

Shane Hazel (LIB) 2.3%
114,909

When looking at the numbers, the difference between the two elections is apparent. Joe Biden got 99,928 more votes for president than Ossoff got for Senate. David Perdue received just over 1,000 more votes than Donald Trump and the Libertarian received over 50k more votes in the Senate race than in the Presidential race. Again, it is very difficult to assume what any one voter did and why they did it, but the pattern seems to be some republicans and a ton of libertarians (who usually vote R in presidential races due to the two-party system) voted for Biden but split their ticket for the senate race. The other senate race in Georgia is a bit more complicated due to the jungle runoff system, but while Reverend Warnock (D) got the most votes, the democratic candidates got 48.4% of the votes (only slightly better than Ossoff, but less than the republicans who got 49.3% (again, very similar to the simpler Perdue v Ossoff race).

You can do very similar analyses on PA (House Republicans got more votes than House Democrats in PA and Republicans won multiple statewide races, while Trump lost the state to Biden) and the other battleground states.

TL;DR - as much as people dragged the Lincoln Project and never trumpers on twitter (and much of that was very, very funny), suburban moderates were ultimately the reason that Joe Biden will be your next president. This isn't to minimize the impact that native communities had in tipping Arizona or the efforts of Stacy Abrams and her team in GA, but those efforts wouldn't have gotten it done without suburban moderates and never trumper republicans.

3. The next two months is going to be a full on assault for any of you who are both fortunate and unfortunate enough to live in Georgia. While you will get to determine which party controls the senate, there will in all likelihood be hundreds of millions of dollars spent on advertising from now until Jan 5 for the two senate runoff elections. So get used to seeing Kelly Loefler, Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and David Perdue on your TV screens and facebook feeds.

4. For the first time in my life, I voted for a winner! Only took four elections and three different parties to do so. If you're wondering:

2008 - John McCain
2012 - Mitt Romney (I've mentioned it before, but I volunteered on his campaign)
2016 - Gary Johnson (I was a never trumper before they had a name. Silly in retrospect, but legal weed and I would have voted for Clinton if I lived in a state where my vote mattered)
2020 - Joe Biden

Who knows who I'll be voting for in 2024. What I can tell you it won't be anyone with the last name Trump. Not even Ivanka.

5. Don't read too much into who gets floated in the news and through social media as part of Biden's potential cabinet. Ignoring the fact that 'sources' who float names may just be trying to get into said person's good graces (this is common as hell... if you write a think piece on why say Charlie Baker (Republican governor of MA) should be considered for a cabinet position, down the road if you need a quote from him... you're more likely to get it. Just the nature of the beast). And more importantly, ultimately the president is the person who makes the final call on all big issues and policies. The secretaries are there to advise, counsel and run the day-to-day of their departments, but at the end of the day they serve at the pleasure of the President.

6. Only two more years until the midterms. God help us all.
 
The only way Trump is president on January 21st is if there's tanks in the streets (which isn't going to happen).


And the military has said they swore the oath to the Constitution and not to a person (that includes a self serving president-for-life want to be.)
 
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