Attempted Coup - is it actually possible?

It won't happen

What Trump is trying to accomplish is convince his the Republican base he is not a loser, but that he was robbed.

Whatever he does next, he refuses to be thought of as a loser. Sadly man in the GOPnare playing along.

No one, including Trump himself, really things the outcome will change. However this is a very dating and dangerous thing for our democracy to cause people to lose faith in it.

It’s already happening. They’re trying everything.

Amazingly they don’t even try to hide the corruption anymore because they don’t have to. When the GOPers enabled him with impeachment avoidance this is what we get.

Attorney General Barr just joined the fray.

I’m nervous about how Republicunts are going to handle this. McConnell hasn’t congratulated Biden, yet. The fact that most of the party has been so quiet makes me think they are going to back the orange asshole. The ones who have talked have been very careful about their words. They all talk about the “legal votes” and “illegal votes”..... they allude to backing him up if there is “proof”. They are cutthroat and crooked. I don’t rule out a second Trump term. I’m nervous about the whole thing. I lost faith when W robbed Gore.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barr authorizes DOJ to probe 'substantial allegations' of voting irregularities despite little evidence of fraud.

While this seems bad, remember when everyone was freaked out that Barr would pull some "October Surprise" out of his ample ass and even his self appointed lackey/appointee Durham yawned at the Hunter Biden allegations? I don't think he's doing it for show - he clearly wants to take something to the SC - it's just not clear he'll find anything.

This IS now officially a coup.

I don't think the Supreme Court will back Trump. They don't want to be associated with the mess that would ensue.

An attempted coup.

They are trying to create an exit ramp for Trump. He would have won, but for this list of irregularities. He can go off and nurse his grudge and point to his list until he falls over dead. And he's already 2 years older than his brother that just kicked the bucket.

I'm worried, but even Fox News - Neil Cavuto, no less - isn't playing along with their reindeer games and we know without the support of Fox News, the repigs are nothing.

Luckily, Biden has a considerable team of lawyers who are ready & waiting...

Hold me David, I’m scared.

This is part of a grift for money that he doesn’t have and desperately needs.

It’s a cash grab. Democrats did it with Hillary, too.

Let’s concentrate on Georgia and Osslof. Let’s also start in a attempting to get McConnell out.

Please op, stop. Once Trump goes through the stages of grief, he will slip out in the middle of the night before Jan. 20th and go to a country that he can't be extradited from.

This is becoming less of “let’s make trump happy” to “let’s steal this”

This is very concerning

Barr getting involved is VERY concerning.

This CANNOT stand. The country will burn if they keep this up. Do they think Democrats will just roll over and take it? This is NOT 2020.

Actually, this is 2020.

Could you imagine what the reaction would be if he tried to get away with this? What he would be saying about the American people? Now that would really cause a civil war.

80% of republicans believe the election was stolen from trump. Even if this all fails-the damage is done.

America is in its dying days

Ha. I mean, this is not 2000.

I guess I just wish it weren't 2020. This fucking year.

Well, 100% of Democrats think the election was stolen from Hillary, but we got on with things.

Of course Barr will try to help Trump enact a coup, but they won't succeed. I do wonder if any of the pundits and reporters actually went back and read some of the speeches Barr gave in the past decade or so? Listened to any speeches he gave? The guy is a batshit crazy conservative Catholic lunatic just like our new Supreme Court handmaid. Barr truly does not believe in democracy. He doesn't believe Democrats should have any role in ruling. He believes a President (Republican) should be like a king.

Barr is not just doing shit to appease Trump. He is a true believer. He is in INSANE and I will keep screaming that until somebody in the media pays attention.

The genie can't be put back in the bottle. If the election was overturned at this point it would lead to absolute chaos and nobody would be safe.

I personally feel like Republicans in Congress know the writing is on the wall, but Trump got enough votes they have incentive to at least pretend to be supportive. As other news sources have pointed out, Pence is going on vacation in a few days. If he felt victory was immenent, he'd be leading the way advocating for his boss.

There's a pattern here. First the stories came out that the Trump appointee at the GSA who is declining to sign the letter authorizing the Biden transition to begin. Then, later in the day all of this nonsense started about lawsuits and not counting votes.

Then Barr got involved.

My opinion is that they are buying time. Once the GSA allows the transition to go forward, Biden starts getting access to some pretty juicy intel.

Barr is busy trying to hide and destroy information as fast as he can. He and Mitch probably cooked up this plan.

It won't hold.

They're going to get away with it. Who's gonna stop them?

75 million people, will stop them, R26. Even pacifistic people would burn shit down if they tried to overturn it now.

Right now anything is possible. Have you seen the last 4 years?

The Republicans better stop Now! What they are doing is dangerous, and someone could possibly get seriously hurt or worse. Their playing with fire.

These are the crooked assholes who represent us.

My opinion is that they are buying time. Once the GSA allows the transition to go forward, Biden starts getting access to some pretty juicy intel.

Barr is busy trying to hide and destroy information as fast as he can. He and Mitch probably cooked up this plan.

That's an interesting theory R25; I also wonder if the GA Senate seats were uncontested/repigs won, McConnell would have what he needed & had 0 fucks to give about Dump.

The collapse of the American is inevitable and almost complete. Welcome your Antichrist, Americans, his name is Donald Trump.

[quote]Let’s concentrate on Georgia and Osslof.

Oh, dear.

Biden is going to win AZ and GA. That’s 304 electoral votes.

I’m a bit worried. This is exactly how those other countries that America looks down on for being undemocractic end up in civil wars. This is the playbook and I don’t think Americans see it and know how to stop it.

MO the lesson from the Barr and McConnell moves today is this: the delay in concession has nothing to do with the president's feelings or ego. They're using their power to buy him time to see if he can stay in power if facts of fraud miraculously appear...

Carrie Codero Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow & General Counsel

We can’t just stand by and watch this happen.

Sure we can, R36, and laugh at the stupidity of the obvious tactics of a flailing campaign.

It doesn't matter what they do, it's over.

R36 But we are just going to stand by and watch. Just like we stood by and watched Trump stampede over all the checks and balances Americans believed in for ages.

r26, so they are going to explain how the presidential election was rigged but not the CONGRESS. All those congressional seats they flipped in the house. THOSE were all legal votes. These are the same ballots, how is one wrong and the others are right. How did Collins and Ernst pull off those wins no one is questioning those ballots? It's ridiculous and no one is going to buy it. It's called being a SORE LOSER.

Republicans said FUCK YOU Trump but we are scare of de-funding the police and and them stacking the SCOTUS so we are voting our boys and girls into congress. That is it. That is the whole narrative of how this happened.

[Quote] This CANNOT stand. The country will burn if they keep this up. Do they think Democrats will just roll over and take it?

Did Democrats riot over Amy Cunty Barrett getting appointed to the Supreme Court?

This is not to say they shouldn't riot if Trump pulls this off? They [italic] should [/italic]. But knowing all the other times when they promised to do this and didn't, I'm not so confident.

The very concerning tactic — more so than the idiotic lawsuits — is the suggestion by Rethuglican state legislators that the election results in their states are fraudulent and need to be overturned. The next step would be to replace the slate of Democratic electors with the Repuke electors. tRump would only need Rethugs in a few states to agree to this fraudulent scheme.

The lawsuits are laughable and have no merit. Judges — even Repub judges — have found no credible legal bases on which to ground results that favor Cheatolini.

But, legislatures are not courts. They are political entities and need not follow any widely recognized standard rules of law. So, if they declare that unsourced and unverified claims of fraud are sufficient, there’s not much that can be done if they are in the majority.

It is a major coup. Would they try this? 🤷‍♂️ But you better believe they are talking about it. Some Repuke in Georgia was calling for the REPUBLICAN Secretary of State in Georgia to step down because of the “incompetently” run election.

Would people take to the streets to stop this theft of our democracy? Maybe. But we don’t have a great track record in this regard.

No, this is not possible and it's not going to happen. Don't feed the trolls.

What is the process to censure McConnell?

R43 That has me nervous too.

Also the White House has suddenly removed all the grass from the front lawn and is building a bigger wall around the building.

R44, I am not a troll. This was suggested by Esper's comment backed up by Trump's behavior and the appearance that Mitch is actually giving Trump's BS the appearance of potential legitimacy. I am hoping that that a coup tactic proves impossible.

[quote] 1/2 There is no “coup”. There are no “credible” allegations (Barr) so memo is window-dressing. Nor does Trump think he can “win”. The entire thing is fraudulent stoking the hopes of Trumpers so they donate to Donald’s campaign debt.

[quote] 2/2 in order to get $$, Trumpworld must pretend the lawsuits are real. Fine print says money can be used for campaign debt. It’s literally a scam on MAGA. It’s Trump U. It’s Build the Wall.

For those who follow Louise M. on Twitter, these are her words, not mine. If you are someone who reads beyond MSM, you know who she is.

No idea who she is and when I tried to look there were several from which to choose so...

How are trolls going to get their fix in a non-Trump world.

He was their King.

Now he's a laughing stock.

Like the OP.

The laughing stock part. The OP wasn't even a court jester.

Check my posting history and tell me what a Trump fan I am, R50.

Louise Mensch? Now there’s a name I haven’t heard of since 2017...and haven’t missed.

Better to read Heather Cox Richardson.

No OP. It isn't possible. Not in any way, shape or form.

All legal experts say the election results will be certified and that the constitution requires Biden to be inaugurated on January 20th 2021. This will happen no matter what Dump says or does or whether he ever concedes defeat. Dump is absolutely immaterial to this process. Do you understand?

Dump has made himself a laughing stock of the entire planet by the way he is acting. Fox News isn't the only one refusing to show and validate his garbage - it's happening around the globe. At this point - Dump is merely of visual circus freak value. He's done.

Forgot the quote from HCR yesterday:

“The Trump campaign is fundraising on this issue, urging followers to donate for the legal challenges ahead. But the Wall Street Journal today noted that the fine print of the “Official Election Defense Fund” explains that 60% of contributions to the fund will go toward paying off Trump’s election debt, and 40% to the operating account of the Republican National Committee. Only after a donation hits the legal limit will the remainder go toward legal expenses.“

Good to know, R53 - Mitch seeming to give Trump some credence spooked me. It makes sense that this is simply one last grift in terms of raking in the MAGA-bucks.

Still not sure what the new wall around the White House is supposed to convey.

Biden is going to have a lot of redecorating to do.

People need to stop thinking people are being dramatic saying this is a coup. This IS an attempted coup. Start calling it as such.

R46 they are replacing the sod that was damaged from heavy equipment for Dump's election night event. And those are bleachers already getting set up for the inauguration.

R57 - thanks for the clarification. God, it seems so obvious when you point that out, but the last four years have been so haywire I'm ready to read the worst case scenario into anything and everything.

[quote] Better to read Heather Cox Richardson.

Thank you for the recommendation. While she appears knowledgeable, she would not be a preferred read of mine. Her ideaology seems like the perfect disguise for right wing individuals and groups to hide behind while trying to appear concerned about democracy. Just my opinion.

Calling BS on this story about them just building bleachers for the inauguration.It’s too early for that. Trump is getting ready to destroy America

NEW: Richard Pilger, the official who oversees election crimes has stepped down over Barr's memo: “Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications… I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch.”

For r60

[quote]NEW: Richard Pilger, the official who oversees election crimes has stepped down over Barr's memo: “Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications… I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch.”

OK, so what does this mean? Does Trump get to replace him with one of his Yes Men?

I would be interested to know if Trump spoke with Putin lately. Usually every time he starts pulling shit like this we find out later he'd talked to Putin beforehand.

Dotard tRump and his gang of thieves don't have the intelligence to pull off a coup.

R6, the 2000 election was different. There is no attempt to stop counting the votes that has any teeth to it. Trump has gone to court in several cases to try to stop the counts or to to raise some other bogus issue, but he is losing these cases. If you are on Twitter, follow Marc E. Elias with Democracy Docket. They are filing and following many of these cases and I've linked an interactive map so you can see what's happening.

It's by design.

Tramp has been sowing seeds of mistrust in the electoral system since the beginning of 2020 ...

*HE KNEW* that he wasn't able to win legitimately

“OK, so what does this mean? Does Trump get to replace him with one of his Yes Men“

No half way decent prosecutor will touch this. Sure, they’ll appoint a hack - but there is literally no evidence. I understand the concern here, but absent compelling evidence, this can’t go anywhere.

R63 From what media sources are saying on Twitter, Richard Pilger would only resign if something bad was happening.

Remember this, if Trump leaves office, he's open to prosecution. This to me is the biggest reason why he (and many around him) would be willing to stage a coup. Even if he does leave, he will likely try to give himself (or get Pence to grant him) a Federal Pardon from obstruction of justice charges dating back to the Mueller Investigation, but it wouldn't protect him from the NY charges he's expected face. The NYAG is allegedly waiting until January 22 and they're going in for the kill.

That being said, Moscow Mitch's statement today was very careful. He said that Trump has the legal right to weigh legal options and not concede. He did not follow Trump's lead and say that there has been fraud or that "legal votes" shit. I also think Barr meeting with Mitch is basically a "you protect my butt and I'll protect yours" moment. Yes the DOJ opened an investigation...just like the one it opened on Hillary and Obama recently....it was done to humor the man baby in the WH.

Story just came out that after Trump recently fired the Deputy as USAID and installed a yes man, that yes man is telling his department not to cooperate with the Biden reps

This is just an attempt by McConnell to hold on to his position in the senate. He hopes if he gets enough of the base riled up they will vote in the Georgia January senate runoffs.

We all need to be very afraid. Barr is up to something

Why is the GOP lining up behind Trump when they know full well he cannot win this legally.

There will be mass riots in the streets if he tries to overturn Biden’s victory by coup

Barr is now allowing his attorney generals to get involved. This is using the levers of govt to overturn an election

This is what happens in banana republics

This thread is so DL. Biden won after endless threads, Trump is done, and now you are worried about a coup. It's not going to happen. Never say never, but it's just not going to happen. Enjoy, relax, turn off the news. You got what you wanted.

It’s all a game to the gop. They’re just humoring Trump because they’re afraid of him. They admit it’s all nonsense.

[quote]Republicans said FUCK YOU Trump but we are scare of de-funding the police and and them stacking the SCOTUS so we are voting our boys and girls into congress. That is it. That is the whole narrative of how this happened.

Yep, that's what I'm thinking too. Dump can't win them elections anymore, he's erratic, does stupid things etc. They want him gone, but they absolutely want to keep the senate and make gains in the house.

And make no mistake, Yang is their Tulski now, he's heading to Georgia with Nina Turner in toe, to make sure Ossoff and Warnock will lose.

The GOP is secretly sponsoring these saboteurs posing as lefties. Just like Hillary said of Tulski.

It's all about divide and conquer.

Barr will announce some high profile investigation in the coming days. It will amount to nothing, but it’ll grab headlines.

R71 Is totally right. The GOP don't give a shit about Trump (many are likely happy to be rid of him) but they need him until January 5th. The focus of the GOP right now is keeping the Senate by winning the runoffs in Georgia. They need to rally Trump's base so they are going to fall in line just enough to appear to be on his side. Mark my words regardless of the outcome on Jan 5, it's going to be "I don't know her" come January 6.

I'm terrified now, thanks guys.

Pretty much all I can do to help is give money to the Dems in Georgia, right?

I don't understand how those people quitting their job helps anything. Trump just replaces them with someone who will do anything he tells them to. None of them go to the press or the military.

Fucking cowards.

It's puzzling why the person or persons are solely focused on coup this, coup that, blah, blah, coup...

Not once do they focus on or speculate a Biden defense strategy. Do they think Biden is just going to shrug his shoulders and say oh, ok, I quit. They just want to focus on coup, coup, coup. Their compass seems like an ideology adopted to fit an agenda of fear, coups, civil war and suppression. One poster, in particular, leads the carnival side show of Fake Democrat Concern Trolls.

Now go join your coup and civil war, Fake Democrat Concern Troll.

“So how long can the Trump campaign and the Trump White House go on before they are worn down by reality? We don’t know the answer,” he added. “But one date to watch is November 15th. That’s when the paychecks run out for the Trump campaign staff and that potentially is where some of the steam might come out of the effort"

R75 is absolutely right. I can't wait until December 14th, when we can all begin to recover from Trump Derangement Syndrome. All the horrible stuff that was supposed to happen leading up to, and in the immediate aftermath, of the election never came to be. Now people are finding the next thing to be terrified about!

1. Barr is not telling prosecutors to find cases of voter fraud. He authorized prosecutors to investigate credible cases if they exist. He made it clear that due to the events of 2016 and 2017, he would have to personally authorize any cases that might be politically sensitive.

2. Donald Trump received over 71M votes, and Republicans picked up seats in Congress and state legislatures. Even if they know the writing is on the wall and Joe Biden WILL be the next President, most Republicans know there's no incentive in proactively throwing Trump under the bus. Read between the lines: They say he has every right to request recounts and file lawsuits, which is true. However, once every legal challenge fails they get to blame the courts instead of getting roasted on Twitter (or targeted by his psychotic devotees).

Worry about shit that actually happens. Don't get all worked up about things that are plausible, but highly unlikely.

If you actually read Barr's letter...it appears to be a nothing burger.

Jesus, remember this? Did he say this to rile the libtards?

R85, thanks for posting a timely tweet. Some fools focus on posting nostalgic tweets that are more agenda driven for counter productive conversation.

[quote

And make no mistake, Yang is their Tulski now, he's heading to Georgia with Nina Turner in toe, to make sure Ossoff and Warnock will lose.]

Oh, dear!

Take 2 🎬

[quote]

And make no mistake, Yang is their Tulski now, he's heading to Georgia with Nina Turner in toe, to make sure Ossoff and Warnock will lose.

Oh, dear!

[quote] And make no mistake, Yang is their Tulski now, he's heading to Georgia with Nina Turner in toe, to make sure Ossoff and Warnock will lose.

Oh, dear!

And that's a wrap!

Not sure what the point of posting some shit Trump tweeted almost 4 years ago is.

What's really crazy is that a lot of the MAGAt's are literally convinced that Biden and the media are orchestrating a coup against Trump! This is literal projection, it's so crazy and yet that's part of why I'm so nervous about this. Trump and the reich have their base completely hooked on this narrative. I don't think we should downplay this. Their efforts to stall certification and then flip the decision to GOP state legislatures could work. We should remain vigilant.

If he tries anything, I’ll give him such a pinch!

It's impossible to tell, R84. The media and social media both are overwhelmed with people who make their living off of scaring people into believing the worst case scenario is always going to happen, plus a subclass of people who make their living saying there's nothing to worry about. Consequently, we don't ever really get an even-handed assessment of the situation.

[quote]Not sure what the point of posting some shit Trump tweeted almost 4 years ago is.

Because I wonder if he says this shit just to rile us up to keep the attention on himself. He doesn't have a leg to stand on in regards to changing the outcome of the election and there is no way he could have worked with Putin to protect the integrity of our elections. Both are absolutely absurd, yet we are all riled up and focused on him.

Lots of fake Democrat concern in these responses. When are you going to start reintroducing your propoganda websites like The Bulwark. That was a classic.

Even people on LinkedIn are riled about the election being stolen from Trump. People are literally laying it all on the line, their entire professional reputation, in order to support this plutocrat. It's unbelievable.

[quote]He doesn't have a leg to stand on in regards to changing the outcome of the election

Maybe that's not the goal. Maybe he's trying to ruin as much of the country as he can before he leaves office. Maybe this is a ploy to make sure the GA runoffs bring out Repug voters to "stop" the "steal."

These are early days and we don't know how this is going to play out.

Whether one thinks the coming attempted coup will be successful is not the issue. Nor will it be something that takes place at a distance from our own lives, in DC, where we only hear about it on the news and social media. Chances are good that at some point before January, 'Landru' is going to 'summon the Body'; i.e. all those grumbling, bitching Trump voters who even now have not reconciled themselves to the fact that Biden has won, and they are going to stage civil unrest, an uprising, here on the ground where we all live. There's liable to be a 'Red Hour.'

Trump's talk of election impropriety will continue to grow, and the Biden team will edge closer towards trying to get election results certified. Trump will flip out and issue a tweet calling upon all who are loyal to him to rise to defend his presidency, and then all the bets will be off.

We should not permit ourselves to be taken by surprise. Like one prepares for a hurricane or creates a plan of what to do in case of a tornado, we should all make some sort of plan of how we'll respond if it gets ugly here on the ground, from random Trumpbillies, blue-line white supremacist law enforcement, etc. Someplace we can each be relatively secure and keep our heads down until something approaching stability is achieved. 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨-𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨, 𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧/𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐧 - just the people you care about and would prefer to have with you when you hole up.

Oh for Pete's sake- they know they lost. He's just stealing the Deplorable's hard-earned donations to pay off his legal bills, campaign bills... One last theft from the people he despises.

[quote]Oh for Pete's sake- they know they lost.

It's becoming increasingly clear, R100, that they don't care that they lost. McConnell's movements are the tell - he's still encouraging the President not to concede.

R80, the people that are quitting now probably stuck it out as long as they possibly could, knowing if they left, Trump would appoint a loon to take their place.

I think they are quitting now because they don’t want to be prosecuted later for carrying out illegal orders.

The GOP wouldn't be helping him this much if this was simply a grift, R100. There's more to it than that.

r83 It's really strange you keep trying to convince everyone Barr is nothing to worry about and use phrases right-wingers do like trump derangement syndrome. It's not derangement to be worried and alert when the Republicans are actually, you know, deranged.

[quote]It’s a cash grab. Democrats did it with Hillary, too.

What are you both sides-ing about, fool?

Democrats and liberals internalize the media message about themselves pretty frequently, R104. You can't always assume someone who thinks "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is real is a Repug. Sometimes it's a Dem who thinks they're being "pragmatic" and "moderate."

To institute a coup you have to have the army on your side.

That is the only fact that matters.

[quote]For those who follow Louise M. on Twitter, these are her words, not mine. If you are someone who reads beyond MSM, you know who she is.

Louise Mensch! Ohmygawd. I know who she is, she's a raving, tinfoil hat lunatic!

The poster above who thinks Heather Cox Richardson is a conservative in disguise is an absolute idiot. She's the farthest thing from it. She's a history professor at Boston College and is quite liberal. Her newsletters are excellent.

^ Maybe the poster was talking about Louise Mensch, who used to write for Breitbart?

Yes, the Louise Mensch troll has returned recently, I'm sure that's who he was talking about.

I am agreeing with R25's interesting theory of this is a buying time exercise to clean up the place of the dirt they have from serving the Orange Turdling.

R112 and others. Can't it all be true?

R109 Total agreement about Heather CR. A friend turned me on to her a couple months and I've been getting her newsletters ever since. If I had to pick just one source to get important national and political news, it would be that.

Weird thing about Louise Mensch. Almost everything everybody write about her on DL is true. Both the bad and the good. She IS kind of a lunatic, (I suspect bipolar). has made some highly implausible claims, but sometimes she'll write about a hunch that turns out true. Enough of the time that I will check her twitter feed on occasion.

Mensch is a Breitbart and Murdoch stooge who spent years saying "There are sealed indictments, everybody! Don't worry about actually DOING anything about the problem, it's being taken care of behind the scenes by powerful people! It'll all work out without you having to lift a finger!"

It's Deep State bullshit for liberals, stupidity and propaganda meant to make the masses numb and dumb.

Don't forget Trump is being talking about rigged election since 2016, but he won that time, wait, even before that, let Hillary explains it.

A successful coup requires a complicit military. This will never happen.

Plus this is all Trump bluster per usual. Listen to/follow Neil Katyal to calm yourself the fuck down

It's "Neal" Katyal, and obviously this isn't just Trump bluster because the GOP is all in on it WITH him.

R118 All it takes is a few bad men. They tear gassed protesters for a stupid photo op...

R6

It is bothersome that McTurtle says nothing.

I guess he can't alienate the base. 70 million votes is 70 million votes.

He must know Trump is done. No one wants to make the first move.

R20, R21

Biden won. At least that happened.

The thing is nothing can start until all votes have been counted. With Biden having a bigger lead than Trump had in 2016 social media and the media in general will have a field day with sore loser Trump claiming the election must have been rigged since he didn't win and there is evidence for sure that will be presented as soon he gets all the money he needs to go to court.

Kompromat is not needed on Miss La Lind Spottybugs. She shows she is immensely in love with the Orange Con Man. This love relationship will lead to turmoil and destruction.

The lady is the new Helen of Troy.

[quote] [R36] But we are just going to stand by and watch.

Yeah, and point and laugh as the courts toss lawsuit after lawsuit. He’s already 0 for 5. An ATTEMPTED coup is possible and underway. A SUCCESSFUL coup, nah.

It is disquieting that he got rid of a defense secretary who won't use the military against its own citizens.

Here's a question: if the Joint Chiefs got wind that the Defense Secretary was going to institute a coup on behalf of Trump before 20 January, and they went to Biden and said "We don't want the military to support this, what should we do?"

- If Biden tells them to disobey the Defence Secretary is THAT a coup d'état?

[quote]Did Democrats riot over Amy Cunty Barrett getting appointed to the Supreme Court?

Not even remotely the same.

[quote]This is not to say they shouldn't riot if Trump pulls this off? They should . But knowing all the other times when they promised to do this and didn't, I'm not so confident.

Oh, I think that this would be IT. The proverbial straw--if you will. I feel it my bones and came to this conclusion Saturday after watching that victory gathering waiting for Trump to return from his golf game. I couldn’t believe the number of people there. Nah, they ain’t standing for this. I think this WOULD start a civil war.

[quote]It's puzzling why the person or persons are solely focused on coup this, coup that, blah, blah, coup...

Not really. I mean...Trump is a soap opera villain. He has strategically placed one of his donors/puppets EVERYWHERE. We’re talking Julius Caesar-Roman Empire shit. There are far too many red flags to not obssess over. When he started pushing this mail-in ballot bullshit 4 MONTHS ago, you knew something was brewing. We should be VERY concerned.

Zee problem with zee bourgeois democratic intelligentsias is they play by zee rules. Vee don't.

Major donors are backing off supporting Trump and his cohorts in this nonsense.

R130, link?

Murdoch has turned on Sump. This is the end of all of them, so it’s their last stand. Dump will start aggressively shit talking Fox even more and this will cause even more schisms. Americans don’t want some kangaroo fucker dictating how they should think about their government and country and the international right wing assholes who thought America was in the bag for their side will implode over time too. Dump has lost in a spectacular way and McConnell has guaranteed a win in Georgia for Ossof and Warnock. The problem is the next two months are going to be horrible.

The problem is the next two months are going to be horrible.

As opposed to the last 4 years that have just been awesome; last night when I was laying in bed worrying about this latest cluster, I was thinking that I only got *1 day* to absorb the Biden victory before things went to shit

Beware the Ides of November (Friday the 13th this year).

Oy!

[quote]Reporters covering the transition might want to look into this:

[quote]On Oct. 29, 2020, a lawyer from the White House Counsel's office was sent over to GSA to serve as General Counsel - Chris Lu

The tweet contains a link to the press release.

I can’t find the “Why is Ann-Marget Such a Ho?” thread anymore.

So I’ll just leave this here.

Trump is dead broke.

He's going to use as much tax payer money as he can to challenge this election. He doesn't have any of his own or his campaign's left.

He and the GOP will soon realize, that case after case is getting thrown out by judges, that it's hopeless.

Pompeo just now: “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."

Jesus, what a delusional, arrogant fuck

Putie, just how many cases of videotapes are you holding?

A coup goes much more smoothly if everyone remains calm about it.

I agree with Marcy Wheeler. Nobody is saying their coup is going to work, but people just waving this away are wrong. I hope everyone can call me a huge Mary later and I'll laugh with you, but when have Republicans ever done the right thing? They are trying to overturn this election. For real.

They are doing their Master's bidding.

So This happened today. Additionally the White House tells federal agencies to proceed with plans for Trump’s February budget.............I'm starting to lean towards a coup now.

Pompeo was just engaging in some light hearted fascism.

"Unbelievable what’s coming out of the mouth of the US secretary of state. If this were any other country what do you think the State Department would be saying about this message? What will other countries say now when the US condemns undemocratic behavior, which is what this is?"

- Acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller

In my day, we voted for a president.... and then the old one left.

Another slew of Trump firings are allegedly taking place, and the White House is vetting candidates for Trump's second term.....I don't think this about humoring Trump anymore. This seems like a legit attempt at grabbing power. Get ready to March America...this seems to be heading into a dangerous waters.

Seems like Dump is trying to blackmail for a pardon. I don't believe Joe Biden would prosecute Trump, but Letitia James will.

Biden has said he would never interfere with the DOJ. So watch and see who he appoints. If he can’t get them past Moscow Mitch,” he can call them Acting just like Trump did.

If I was Biden I would appoint the most aggressive prosecutor I could possibly find, then sanctimoniously proclaim that I will never interfere with the DOJ because they’re independent. Too bad AOC can’t do it. Sally Yates would be good.

Letitia James absolutely will go after all of the tRumps who have committed prosecutable crimes in New York State.

Appoint Adam Schiff as US Attorney General. He’d be more than willing to go after the traitorous Orange felon.

Trump is firing people from the Pentagon which seems to have Jake Tapper nervous. I was the one of the people posting last night that this was just a strategy to try and keep Trump voters motivated until Jan 5 in GA. Today I'm worried.

[quote] I'm worried, but even Fox News - Neil Cavuto, no less - isn't playing along with their reindeer games and we know without the support of Fox News, the repigs are nothing.

Forgive me if this was said elsewhere but....

The NEWS part of Fox News may be challenging him but Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham are still swimming in Trump's turds and kissing his ass.

Trump be firing people who crossed him. So Anybody who resisted his Crazy, or disagreed with him, or din't do what he axed is gonna be fired. Boom, like that. With Trump there isn't a scheme or a plan or a plot. There's just "Do what I say, or else!" and lots of people are gonna get "or elsed."

R151, He’s probably trying to get rid of the old school guys that would refuse to bomb American cities or shoot protesting Americans. The question is, are they being replaced with the next guy in line, who’s probably the same, or is Trump pulling in people from out of the line of succession that are radicals with no experience, like he’s done in other jobs?

[quote] I was the one of the people posting last night that this was just a strategy to try and keep Trump voters motivated until Jan 5 in GA. Today I'm worried.

Me too. He won't leave. Perhaps not ever. The military leadership change means no one can come after him if he refuses to leave.

Y'all. Pence just announced that he's going on vacation. LOL! He's getting out of town. And Barr was scarce there for a while, and he will go back underground now he's made his announcement to silence DOnnie. And notice how invisible Pompeo is? And Meadows has the COVID? They know how to get the fuck out of his way when he is in a killer frame of mind.

There’s a firing going on at the pentagon as the president refuses to accept the results of an election. This is what happens in third world dictatorships.

I wish they’d all just say they have Covid. Nobody can prove it, and if they’re sick he can’t fire them for not working.

[quote]R151 Trump is firing people from the Pentagon which seems to have [bold]Jake Tapper [/bold]nervous.

I always read this as Jack [italic]Tripper...

This is suck a joke. Stop letting the right wing steal Biden’s glory.

Gina Haspel is meeting with Moscow Mitch.

Bet she’ll be resigning by tonight

R149 I completely agree with all of that. Get Sally Yates in there. She'll have all those crooks sweating like pigs. She was actually who I wanted for VP but I think she's been in the wings waiting for AG since the get-go. I loooooooove Sally Yates.

You guys......this is all really fucked up. Do you think Biden/Harris and Pelosi are talking with EU allies and the UN about Staging An Intervention?

all Biden would have to do is ask, baby. Macron, even Boris, Justin, Angela, the whole gang would be here in a heartbeat. They love him.

The only thing the CIA can tell McConnell is that the fucking Russians intervened in our election again and Iran did too. OR She can lie and accuse China of helping Biden. Start a clusterfukck.

You're giving these clowns too much credit. Anything Trump says is a lie. Per usual. Why listen to him?

He's trolling.

McConnell can't fire anyone except his staff.

This is blackmail. 'Pardon me or I start a war.'

They are literally putting up an additional fence around the White House. Why would they do that? Sometimes the most obvious answer is correct.

Inaugural. They did the same thing in 2016.

considering how calm some of Trump's supporters, tells me they have something up their sleeve that people are missing

Take a break from cable news and twitter. There’s a lot of scary speculation out there. It isn’t healthy to read it every waking hour.

Possible? Yes.

Successful? No.

Stop listening to the doom-scrolling Twitter Blue Checks; they're trying to stay relevant in a soon-to-be Trumpless news cycle.

It's all posturing and runny feces being thrown. These clowns are playing a game. A very dangerous game, but a game nonetheless. Biden won and is not phased by the nonsense. I love how he laughed at Pompeo during his press conference today.

FWIW, the chairman of armed services is very troubled by the pentagon purge that is happening

[bold]Shitfest.[/bold]

That's the only way to describe what's going on and what Trump is doing. The instability he is creating. It's beyond shameful and makes a mockery of the United States democracy and its peoples - all of them including the Trumpsters. The world is watching on with stunned incredulity wondering how far he's going to go and what's going to happen next.

*It was on this very day in 2016 that Barack and Michelle Obama welcomed the Trump's into the White House and began the process of handing over for Trump's presidency.

The next 2 months are going to be horrific.

These people can’t even organize a bake sale.

R165 Boris hates him as does the Tory party.

Former UK Ambassador to the USA Kim Darroch, before he was forced out by Trump, says that visiting UK ministers met ONLY with Republicans, despite the advice of the UK diplomats to meet with the Democrats too. He said they ignored the advice. Trump was a big Brexit supporter, and promised the UK a trade deal, even if it meant the war in Northern Ireland kicked off again.

The DoD is now being run by Devin Nunes and Michael Flynn guys.

Lissen. DOnnie and his family will always be newsmakers. They will draw more hits than a Kardashian. The media need not worry. Biden and his gang will be boring and get work done, and once we get rid of Bitch McConnell by electing the two Democrats in Georgia, we will get a lot of stuff done. But honestly, Biden needs to play hardball. The Fake NEws and social media sites that promote the lies and divisions all need to be dismantled and we need some serious laws passed to make sure we never face this again. Congress included because they fucked us harder than Trump.

Wallace just had to clench her job to keep from laughing at Tata’s name.

Very worrying r180. These are not the actions of a person who has any intention of leaving office

Nicole Wallace just said “it’s clear” that Trump does not plan on leaving

I saw Nicole Wallace interviewed yesterday by that blond female anchor with the huge eyelashes who SHOUTS.

She said Dump isn't leaving. We're gonna have to haul him out and use extreme violence.

Dump's "coup" will go something like this (the dog is Dump/Proud Boys/Meal Team Six, the young gentleman is the US military):

Could be a coup. Could be trump installing loyalists to destroy all evidence and documents and ensure maximum disruption for Biden’s transition. My bet is the latter. Let’s be real, republicans only care about money. A coup would not exactly be great for business and the stock market.

You are absolutely right, R177. We're in for an exhausting 70ish days.

Ari Melber is of the opinion it is only acting out on Trump's part. No coup possible.

Ari Melber also don’t realize he’s humiliating himself every time he raps on air.

That too, R190, but he's 🔥. So I don't care.

He's barking mad so put nothing past him. If the ballot challenges get traction in the courts I'll start to worry.

Biden/Harris legal team held a briefing today ... this may help put your mind at ease.

A lot of former FBI officials on twitter are saying that the purge at DOD looks more like a coverup and destroying evidence than it is about a coup. The reason theyre slowing down the transition is to prevent the Biden admin access to all these places so they can shred the files first. The people appointed at the DOD are devin nunes cronies heavily involved in the Ukraine call.

It’s not a coup, it’s a grift. Trump is raising mountains of cash to fight “election fraud” but he’s not spending it on legal expenses. Most of the money is going into a super PAC, which means it’s going into his pocket. He’ll fund-raise off of this “stolen election” claim forever, pretending to raise money for a new Presidential run.

Pompeo has (somewhat) backtracked his remarks about a "second Trump administration." Though his focus on "electors" still worries me.

How long will it take until Trump, the GOP, and the right wing media call the 2020 election a coup, and they claim they are in their legal right to fight against it?

[quote] Though his focus on "electors" still worries me.

Of course it does. Worries me, I'm afraid and build a bunker have become your mantra.

Pompeo has been a master enabler of Trump. He should never be allowed to sweep that under the rug.

I knew the cunt wore a hairpiece, R199.

Pompeo must be pissed that he didn't get as much out of Trump as he wanted to in the last four years. All the other guys are treating Trump like, "I got what I wanted ... bye, you fat fuck!".

[quote]It’s not a coup, it’s a grift. Trump is raising mountains of cash to fight “election fraud” but he’s not spending it on legal expenses. Most of the money is going into a super PAC, which means it’s going into his pocket. He’ll fund-raise off of this “stolen election” claim forever, pretending to raise money for a new Presidential run.

It's both, I think. No one in the government wants to admit that this is a sloppy attempt at a coup, but it is. It may even be a test run for the GOP to try it again seriously in the future some time.

The Senate wouldn't be backing Trump on this if this was just a grift. They don't care if he gets money or not.

Many coups have succeeded. The one that ended in LBJ, the one that gave us Ford, the one that gave us G.W. Bush, the second one that gave us G.W. Bush.... Republicans are old hands at Coups, as are the military. But for Trumptard? Not unless they can accidentally do him in.

I read somewhere that the installation of his flunkies is more about a cover up than a coup; it's disturbing none the less, but Dump did say (more or less) is is exactly what he'd do

Already happening - check out CNN this morning

[quote]These people can’t even organize a bake sale.

Uh...these people FUCKED UP the US Postal service, the CDC, and the WHO. I think they can handle a bake sale.

The states where Biden Won to get to 270 will not change their Electors to deny the popular vote. Period. Not happening. The Wisconsin, PA, Michigan Nevada wall will hold. Will some defect to Trump? Maybe. But he won't get to 270. He needs 50+ votes and they're not there.

no. . .

A popular-media created monster. Take a look at yourselves, assholes, and take a bow. If it comes to civil war in the US, you'll take the first hits.

Yes r133, my statement about the next two months being horrible obviously meant that the past four years were fantastic. Clearly the next two months are going to erase the entire space-time continuum and people’s memories of the Dump “presidency”.

Are you always such a literal minded idiot, or do you just enjoy kissing your reflection when you walk by a mirror? Do you also keep recordings of your own voice giving you daily affirmations about your own brilliance?

Trump and his lackeys have shown over and over again that they fuck things up royally. I trust that any attempt of a coup, led by Trump, will fail in epic fashion.

Barr's very public investigations didn't give Trump any ammo to attack Joe Biden. Trump had to resort to questionable sources to create some fake stuff about Hunter. And the best what they could come up with is, I presume, hacking Hunter's online cloud files.

Trump is more desperate than ever. Yes, it will be a hot mess, but he will not get away with it.

I still don’t trust that Barr doesn’t have something up his sleeve.

An unnerving tweet

He’s definitely trying, but he’s a fucking INEPT twat — as Four Seasons garden centre debacle showed us, if they can’t even organise a press conference how can they bring down democracy and stage a successful coup?!

Really, all this is about though is damage control for his poor little fragile ego.

It seems extremely far fetched that he can pull this off. He’s a moron.

R133

I agree. We had about one day to celebrate Biden's win.

Turdus Orangicus loves spoiling people's fun. Especially when he isn't having any.

If Joe has a traditional, out door Inaugural celebration count on the MAGAts and Proud Boys etc. to be there to disrupt it. Count on it. And Trump will be in Biden's face criticizing him every time he opens his mouth. I hate Trump so much.

Biden has the right approach though. Don't play into his hands by hitting back. The right wing media would call Biden mean for attacking Trump for no reason at all to rile up the Deplorables.

Remember when we were all worried about what Trump would do back when he was first elected, and were scolded for being alarmist and stupid?

Yeah. Seems like we were pretty on the money.

It isn’t just trump trying tho. He has party support. They could pull it off in the states they need to.

r219. The difference was that most of us underestimated Trump's backers we didn't know about (Putin, the Mercers, etc.)

The reason Trump was voted out this time was because people learned their lesson and got their asses out of the couch and voted no matter how long they had to stand in line.

Biden has thousands of lawyers and they likely played thru all of the scenarios. The states can’t say it wasn’t a normal election because they “feel” it was. They need cold hard proof from a court of law.

[quote]It seems extremely far fetched that he can pull this off. He’s a moron.

Are you talking about the 2016 election or a 2021 coup?

[quote] Democrats did it with Hillary, too.

Oh yeah I also remember that time Hillary refused to concede and claimed fraud in Michigan and WI and PA and Obama’s officials agreed and began “investigations.”

There's a difference between fucking things (the USPS, the CDC, the WHO and, oh yeah, the USA) up, r206, and actually making something (a coup) work.

A toddler, or the Trump troupe, can easily do the former. The latter? Not so much.

January 20, 2021 and he's out. The Secret Service and the military will have to move them out, even if it's kicking and screaming.

Pam Bondi, Nunes goons, Matt Schlapp, Miss Lindz, Lyin' Ted, etc. are taking roles.

The question is who is funding it all?

Top Trump donors:

[quote]The biggest industries represented among Trump donors this cycle overall are Real Estate, Finance and Oil & Gas.

BIden also has a formidable legal team. Biden is acting calm and Presidential while he has a huge team of lawyers working in the background. They will file a lawsuit against the fat woman holding up the transfer funds. It's against the law what she's doing, that position is supposed to be impartial.

R229 technically she isn’t breaking the law. There is no certified president elect yet. Going with the apparent winner is tradition, not law. One thing we know is clear is that we have been relying on traditions for way too much important shit. This stuff needs to be on the book in iron clad law going forward.

Biden has been in Washington for almost 50 years. He knows how to play the game. He knows the GOP guys better than trump ever will. He also knows the DOD and international governments better than anyone in Washington. The Biden campaign knows what they’re doing.

I've rewatched the clip where the young lady asks President Elect Biden about Republicans refusing to acknowledge his win. The words, with the quiet confidence and smile. That young woman ended up grinning in return and blushing, walking away totally reassured and maybe a little turned on.

Joe knows EXACTLY what he's doing.

Lawrence O'Donnell reiterated this on his show last night. He said not to don't worry, Biden knows what he's doing.

The state legislators are what worries me. Those people are usually incredibly stupid and in PA there is a lot of pressure for them to change the way they choose electors. It’s really troubling that we have to worry about this, let alone that it could actually happen.

What they need to investigate is Moscow Bitch's "re election". How does one win with a 13% approval rating?

[quote]Biden has the right approach though. Don't play into his hands by hitting back.

Indeed. Biden has no need to wrestle with the pig. Whenever he speaks he sounds like a true inspiring President. Trump never has and never will.

Beyond legal matters Biden has no need to acknowledge Trump, and is doing that perfectly. Trump delegitimises himself further daily. Biden needs only (huge only) to focus on his immense task, and let Trump hang himself.

I feel so powerless. What can we do?

[Quote] ..What can we do?

Trust Joe. He has been working in the US government since 1973.

[quote]is it actually possible?

Short answer: No.

[quote]Lawrence O'Donnell reiterated this on his show last night. He said not to don't worry, Biden knows what he's doing.

Yikes, Lawrence needs to take some remedial English classes.

[quote]I feel so powerless. What can we do?

Ride it out till January. Lazy, fat-ass Dump doesn't want to be president bad enough, he just can't deal with being a loser.

A showdown in congress would be nuts. Would these people dare?

Something’s gotta give soon. We cannot continue this for another month until the 14th when the EC votes. We just can’t.

If we were Republicans, we'd be amassing fake "grass-roots" demonstrations in front of whatever is Conspiracy Central for them, putting public pressure for Trump to accept the results of the election and "Stop the Real Steal." But we're not, so I guess we'll have to behave like adults and hope it works.

In addition to being deathly afraid of being perceived as a loser, his next biggest worry will be facing the impending NY State fraud charges by the Southern District of Manhattan Attorney General, Letitia James. State charges are NOT subject to pardons. So be it. Let trump squirm like the motherfucker he is.

I’ve been drunk every night because I’m so fearful of what’s about to happen. I can’t even watch the news.

Don’t watch cable news. Watch PBS News Hour. That’s all you need for news. Stay away from the hothouse hysteria of cable news.

R236, I suggest donating directly to the campaigns of the two Democrats in the runoff elections in Georgia. Volunteer for their campaigns, in a virtual capacity. Boost their profiles, tweets and platforms. If Joe gets a majority in the Senate, McConnell loses. Senate Republicans lose. And, most importantly, America wins because Joe will be able to get all of the wonderful things he has planned, done a hell of a lot easier.

Congress is usually on vacation for part of November and December for the holidays. So hopefully, a lot of the last month, Trump’s hands will be tied to some extent. I don’t know what Republicans would say if McConnell tried to make them come back over the holidays to confirm a thousand judges or something. Most of those people are out of state at that time. Hopefully they’ll stay gone.

According to the Congressional calendar I read, the Senate is off today, then works from Thursday, November 12, until Friday, November 20, then they work again on Monday, November 30. They’re on again from Tuesday December 1, until Friday, December 18. That’s it for the year.

So basically, eight days in November, 14 days in December. There’s fifteen consecutive days in a row at the end of November and beginning of December. If McConnell is going to try to interfere with Biden, that’s probably his best chance. They’re working when the electoral college votes, on Monday, December 14. That’s right in the middle of Hanukkah.

If Michael Cohen is correct, maybe Trump will leave when Congress leaves. I wonder if he’ll even leave for Thanksgiving and not come back. Or only come back for a week or two to make a show of being there, then go back to Mar a Lago after the electoral college vote December 14, and that’s it. He might give up then, because it’s a done deal.

Some of those days the Senate is in session are during Hanukkah, I don’t know if that affects who’s available to vote. It might. Hanukkah starts on December 10. The Electoral College vote is during Hanukkah. Jared and Ivanka are probably secretly atheists, but I wonder if they might use it as an excuse to leave, at least for a while.

It's like the senate republicans want a violent civil war to erupt in this country.

They are laying the groundwork to get electors to give their votes to Biden instead of Trump. That is what this has all been leading to. Will it work? Probably not. But that's the goal.

Give votes to Trump, I mean, instead of Biden.

So much for Murdoch giving up on trump R249

That’s one of their “real news” guys. Scary....

[Quote] It's like the senate republicans want a violent civil war to erupt in this country.

I've been having a more dreadful thought recently. What if, let's say Trump successfully pulls this off and Biden exhausts all his legal options, that Biden just lays down his arms and concedes? He'll say "let's take back the state houses" and "close up the loopholes so this doesn't happen again" and set off into the sunset. How are we all going to respond to that and will people actually respond to it or just accept it because Biden says so? What indication do we have that, if necessary, Biden will fight this and call on international allies to demand Trump leave?

If Trump is able to claim that his coup plot is "legal" and "constitutional" and the Supreme Court upholds it as such, what remedies does Biden have left at his disposal? Does he want to be the one accused of formenting an uprising and getting arrested by Barr under the insurrection act? My fear is that Democrats will just roll over and accept this rather than go through the trouble of ousting Trump by any means necessary. Democrats accepted Bush v Gore, despite the fact that Al Gore still had ammunition left in his arsenal to play to stop Bush from becoming president. Unlike in that case, Biden will have exhausted every legal option. What will make this different?

My hope is that the difference is the public won't accept it willingly, but if Democrats aren't going to support independent resistance efforts to force Trump out, then I'm not sure what else can be done. If we're serious about stopping this, then it has to be done on our own. I don't trust the Democrats to effectively counter this.

Calm down, Mary! at r252

This is from the Atlantic article that laid out Trump's exact scenario precisely to the T. It details how quickly Al Gore gave up in his fight against Bush, even though he had other cards left to play (which he should have played in hindsight).

[Quote] Consider the 2000 election, which may appear at first glance to demonstrate otherwise. Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush on Election Night, then withdrew his concession and fought a recount battle in Florida until the Supreme Court shut it down. It is commonly said that the Court’s 5–4 ruling decided the contest, but that’s not quite right.

[Quote] The Court handed down its ruling in Bush v. Gore on December 12, six days before the Electoral College would convene and weeks before Congress would certify the results. Even with canvassing halted in Florida, [bold] Gore had the constitutional means to fight on, and some advisers urged him to do so. If he had brought the dispute to Congress, he would have held high ground as the Senate’s presiding officer.[/bold]

[Quote] Not until Gore addressed the nation on December 13, the day after the Court’s decision, did the contest truly end. [Bold] Speaking as a man with unexpended ammunition, Gore laid down his arms. “I accept the finality of this outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College,”[/bold] he said. “And tonight, for [bold] the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy,[/bold] I offer my concession.”

Does Biden have the kind of ruthlessness necessary to fight Trump to the bitter end? Considering how he spent his victory speech imploring people to "put aside our differences" and "come together" I think not.

R253 Fuck off, bitch. We're dealing with a fascist in the White House that refuses to leave and has a plan to avoid doing so. We need to be preparing ourselves accordingly to respond to this. DLers only use "Mary!" for things that are hysterical [italic] and [/italic] not based in reality. This is a serious problem, coming from the most powerful man in the world. We are not overreacting to treat it as such.

He used to be almost normal. How did he become so grotesque? It's almost like a different person.

[quote] Does Biden have the kind of ruthlessness necessary to fight Trump to the bitter end? Considering how he spent his victory speech imploring people to "put aside our differences" and "come together" I think not.

Are you insane? You are part of the problem or a Trumper.

Biden will have Kamala Harris--his secret pitfall--- and the other Dems and over 80% of the American population who have accepted the results. No fucking way. People will be marching en masse into the Washington DC, ready to overthrow the government and it will make the BLM protests look like a tea party. Biden would absolutely fight. For Democracy.

He has never been normal. This is always who he has been. All his life, whenever he has faced a loss he has gone to court with ridiculous lawsuits. He once filed a $2 billion lawsuit against a writer so said he (trump) was not a billionaire.

Kamala - secret PitBull (geez, autocorrect)

Btw, R254, Biden prepared in advance that Trump may refuse to leave and he and the Dems have a HUUUGE team of lawyers to fight it and the Best Legal Team money can buy. So STFU.

After 2016, historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on Nazi Germany and authoritarian regimes, wrote a book called [italic]On Tyranny[/italic] that has guided a lot of us through these last few years as we watched the orange would-be autocrat and his eager sycophants and collaborators break the country.

He makes an important point in this piece about how this insane baby-tantrum/hail-Mary strategy is more than just an annoying inconvenience. It’s a threat unto itself:

[quote]When you lose, it is good and healthy to know why. In the First World War, the conflict that defined our modern world, the Germans lost because of the overwhelming force assembled by their enemies on the Western Front. After the Americans entered the war, German defeat was a matter of time. Yet German commanders found it convenient instead to speak of a “stab in the back” by leftists and Jews. This big lie was a problem for the new German democracy that was created after the war, since it suggested that the major political party, the Social Democrats, and a national minority, the Jews, were outside the national community. The lie was taken up by the Nazis, and it became a central element of their version of history after they took power. The blame was elsewhere.

[quote]It is always tempting to blame defeat on others. Yet for a national leader to do so and to inject a big lie into the system puts democracy at great risk. Excluding others from the national community makes democracy impossible in principle, and refusing to accept defeat makes it impossible in practice. What we face now in the United States is a new, American incarnation of the old falsehood: that Donald Trump’s defeat was not what it seems, that votes were stolen from him by internal enemies — by a left-wing party. “Where it mattered, they stole what they had to steal,” he tweets. He claims that his votes were all “Legal Votes,” as if by definition those for his opponent were not.

[quote]Underestimating Donald Trump is a mistake that people should not go on making. Laughing at him will not make him go away. If it did, he would have vanished decades ago. Nor will longstanding norms about how presidents behave make him go away. He is an actor and will stick to his lines: It was all a fraud, and he won “by a lot.” He was never defeated, goes the story; he was a victim of a conspiracy. This stab-in-the-back myth could become a permanent feature of American politics, so long as Trump has a bullhorn, be it on Fox or on RT (formerly Russia Today) — or, though Democrats might find this unthinkable, as an unelected president remaining in power.

R256, I’m telling you, there are Two Donald Trumps.

R261, the most dangerous thing is his claim that when Democrats vote legally, their votes aren’t legal because he doesn’t want them counted. That is horrific.

R263 it’s deeper than that. He’s blaming “democratic cities” with majority black populations (Detroit, Atlanta, Philly) aka black people voted too much and that means it was stolen from me. Votings rights are going to be gutted in the next 4 years especially with Amy covid Barrett on the SC

You don’t see him trying to invalidate the votes in New England

[quote] facing the impending NY State fraud charges by the Southern District of Manhattan Attorney General, Letitia James

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) is a federal court based in Manhattan.

Letitia James is the Attorney General of New York. Her office supposedly is bringing civil suits against Trump.

Cyrus Vance, Jr., is the District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan). This office could bring criminal charges against Trump. I have read here on Datalounge allegations that Vance has failed on previous occasions to bring charges against members of the Trump Crime Family.

A team of lawyers will not help Biden against Trump though. Trump will just claim the Dems started a coup, and he and the GOP stand up to the "real" bullies. At the end Trump may have to vacate the WH, but he will remain on the front pages of media outlets insisting that he was cheated out of a second term and the Deplorables should buy his merchandise to show their support and their disapproval of how the Dems stole the election with mail-in voting. And Rupert Murdoch? He will love the drama no matter how he loathes Trump.

It’s not a coup. Trump replaced top Pentagon officials because he wants to pull the troops out of Afghanistan.

He also wants troops on the streets to handle protesters. Esper wouldn't do it.

I think seeing all those people shouting and flipping him off outside the WH rattled him.

Please, I'm sure some aide said that they were cheering for him and Trump in his delusion saw it as confirmation for what he believed happened.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey on shakeup at the Pentagon: ‘Mark me down as alarmed’

Well, it seems Donald finally got his wall... around the White House!

How many more signs of a coup do people need to see before they realize that it is a coup and act accordingly?

It’s not a coup. Trump replaced top Pentagon officials because he wants to pull the troops out of Afghanistan.

—Egalandy

And Iraq and he wants to declassify info embarrassing to his enemies - including Merkel

I know this will never happen, but I wish Esper would just go in front of a TV camera & say "this is what's happening, this is what he's doing & here's why". The repigs have their heads so far up their own asses & make not make a difference to many of them, but at least help clarify what is going on

You all DO know we cheated....right?

Oh shit. All sorts of foreign agents will call in their favors and Trump will probably oblige to spite the US. I imagine until Jan 20th Russia will get all sorts of things from Trump that not even Biden can take back.

Agreed that the pentagon shit is very alarming. They’re clearly planning something whether it’s for here or abroad is anyones guess. Mark esper has the obligation to speak about what he knows and what he thinks is going on.

OT, I’ll just pop this here. Go to. loser dot com

That Ari melber interview with the general should scare the bejeesus out of everyone.

I don't understand WTF we're supposed to do with the knowledge that Trump is doing this. The people have no power. You can say: take it to the streets! But to what, to get gassed and die? So these same media pundits and their guests can continue to do their socially distanced roundtables of concern? While the peons die?

These useless bastards resigning from their lofty positions so they can be filled by Dump's stooges and then just tweeting their concern, can SUCK MY COCK! Those assholes are the only ones who would be able to stop a coup, fucking duh!

WE voted him out in record numbers.

We donated in record amounts.

We stood in line for freaking hours.

We volunteered our time in campaigns and as poll workers during a pandemic.

WE DID OUR JOBS, MOTHERFUCKERS! Do your jobs, assholes! YOU stop Trump!

The people he put in at the DOD are loyalists but they’re incompetent. They don’t know what they’re doing. I’m more on the side of this being a “destroy all the evidence” thing than a full on military coup that would not have the support of any high ranking military generals.

You made me feel better R280.

Are the chiefs of staff Dump loyalists?

R281 I’m glad. I definitely don’t think we should look away, and they could totally be trying to build up a coup, but these guys are idiots and have very very limited experience at the DOD. I don’t see career DOD officials and high ranking military officers going along with a coup.

There’s a lot of alarmism going on-with good reason-but try not to fall down the doomer rabbit hole because it does no one any good

There isn’t going to be a coup. Trump will drag this out in court for a few weeks, but will get nowhere. Contrary to the increasingly hysterical articles in The Atlantic, state legislatures are not going to appoint their own electors. Pennsylvania, for one, has said it will not. It’s not even clear that they can.

Objections can be raised in Congress when they’re counting the votes, but it would be all but impossible for them to actually throw out any of the votes.

Admittedly, I was a little freaked out by some of these possibilities, but I did some reading and am now satisfied that none of that is going to happen. Trump will be gone Jan. 20 and Biden will be sworn in.

These guys couldn’t put together a sham press conference at a hotel. You think they’ll be able to organize the overthrow of the US government and the world war 3 that it would start?

The cronies that Trump put in at the DOD are all big time islamaphobes. Maybe a war with Iran will be his parting gift.

[quote] the most dangerous thing is his claim that when Democrats vote legally, their votes aren’t legal because he doesn’t want them counted.

And because it was the Black Vote that pulled Biden over, he's really discounting the minority votes like they don't matter.

Adam Schiff just said he has great confidence that the pentagon will not go along with a military coup

Trump cannot handle this level of activity. He'll croak.

R279 is the hottest stud to post here, ever. Preach baby! I feel you.

[quote]Adam Schiff just said he has great confidence that the pentagon will not go along with a military coup

So, holy shit, they were actually trying. Not sure this is comforting, because they still have 2 months to pull other stunts.

I don’t think the military will have much of anything to do with it. The scam would be to try and get the Rethuglican legislatures in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia to overturn the election results and install their own slates of electors. That’s why Michigan legislators plan on holding hearings about the alleged “fraud.” That’s why they want the Repub Secretary of State to step down.

I doubt they will be successful, but they may nevertheless give it a go.

[quote] Adam Schiff just said he has great confidence that the pentagon will not go along with a military coup

I was reading AS twitter feed earlier, OP. I didn't see where he said that.

Could you please provide link to the EXACT words? If they don't exist you should let people it was your spin or interpretation that you are attempting to pass of Adam Schiff's. And make sure the article has the date on it. It should be a linked article. Not you typing the words.

To be clear, the link you supply should contain these words as you typed them claiming Adam Schiff said them: "has great confidence that the pentagon will not go along with a military coup"

Thanks very much. I must have overlooked his statement today.

R288, just checking in about my request. I don't want to be a Pesky Patty but I'm very interested in the Adam Schiff quote.

He said it on Rachel Maddow which was hosted tonight by Ali Velshi R293

I’m sure there’s video there. Calm the fuck down R293

Great, thank you R295. I'll look it up to see if it's posted yet. A Google search didn't bring it up.

How odd. Didn't see the video anywhere.

Also, no mention of Schiff being on Maddow or any quotes. I'm sure they will be there in the morning.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

A Fox clip, R299? Idiot.

The big fat sow whale at the GSA still isn’t releasing the funds. Hope the fame was worth it, cow.

WTF R299? Your clip is snarky Pompeo walking back his bullshit story about trump transitioning into a “second term”.

Odd... I guess the unwelcome link from the Independent which related the White House demand for the names of those DOD employees who clapped in support of Espers advisor Anderson when he departed the Pentagon just linked to a video and not the article.

It will be fine. Tomorrow morning R288 is providing the Maddow/Schiff clip to corroborate his post.

r299, AOC and all of her supporters are cool with that, right? They argued that political hit lists were the only way forward just a day ago. So, they'd have to be just as enthusiastically supportive of this action because they're not opportunistic, hypocritical, authoritarian, ideologues, right? You were so offended when we outlined all the political instincts and personality flaws that AOC has in common with Trump, but silent now...

It cannot be linked here, R303. One has to copy/paste the contents of the article.

𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 ‘𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥’

Bill Kristol has claimed that there is an ‘atmosphere of loyalty-oath’ within the Pentagon after an unprecedented post-election round of firings and resignations

The White House has reportedly demanded a list of names of people who clapped as a departing Pentagon official left the building, having resigned after his boss was fired by Donald Trump.

James Anderson, the acting under secretary of defense for policy, was a key advisor to Mark Esper, the defense secretary who Mr Trump announced via tweet on Monday had been “terminated”.

Mr Anderson, a former marine who taught at the Marine Corps War College before joining the Department of Defense, resigned on Tuesday.

Bill Kristol, a “Never Trump” Republican and former newspaper editor, who now runs advocacy organisation Defending Democracy Together, said there was an atmosphere of “loyalty-oath” inside the Pentagon.

"A sign of the loyalty-oath atmosphere now at DOD: When Jim Anderson was fired yesterday as Acting Under Secretary for Policy, he was given a "clap-out" as he left the building," Mr Kristol tweeted.

“The WH called to request names of any political appointees who joined in so they could be fired.”

The Department of Defense, asked for comment, referred 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 to the White House.

The White House referred 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 to the Department of Defense.

Mr Anderson, appointed in June, had repeatedly clashed with the White House over the installation of Trump allies in the department, Politico reported.

Mr Trump’s removal of Mr Esper and his replacement with Chris Miller, 55, has alarmed some and set off a series of resignations - including Mr Anderson’s.

Mr Miller has served in the Trump administration since 2018, when he was named special assistant to the president and senior director for counter-terrorism and transnational threats at the National Security Council, according to the Department of Defense website.

He served in the army from 1987, joining the special forces in 1993 and retiring to work, from 2014, for defence contractors.

Mr Anderson has been replaced by retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, who will take over policy on a temporary basis.

Mr Tata, a Fox News regular before joining the administration this year, had been nominated by Mr Trump for Mr Anderson’s job, but his nomination collapsed this summer after CNN unearthed tweets calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and referring to Islam as "most oppressive violent religion I know of.”

Following Mr Anderson’s resignation Jen Stewart, the chief of staff to the defense secretary, also resigned and was replaced by Kash Patel.

Mr Patel, played a key role in helping Republicans discredit the Russia probe, and has had a number of roles in the Trump administration, culminating in being named the White House’s top counter-terrorism official.

“It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition,” said Adam Smith, chair of the House armed services committee.

He told 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑜: “If this is the beginning of a trend — the president either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him — then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst.”

[quote] [R288], just checking in about my request. I don't want to be a Pesky Patty

Bit late for that, eh?

I think we should be more concerned about what Trump does before leaving more than an actual coup. I heard last night that while not participating in the transition, they're ALSO not passing along messages from foreign governments to Biden's people. I think undermining Biden via "little things" will be Trump's focus.

Like Peppermint Petty, Petty LaBelle shit.

[quote]ALSO not passing along messages from foreign governments to Biden's people.

They'll get there in the end. The world knows all about the current corrupt culture in the WH. If or when it turns out that Trump's people deliberately withheld important information (on Trump's orders) it'll only amplify what a dreadful irresponsible 'President' he's been from first till last.

God knows that when normality returns in January 21 there'll be a slew of accounts from all levels about former ineptitude and mayhem the like of which we've never known. And what we do know is bad enough.

You know Deplorables are sending him their hard-earned money to "keep fighting". They just can't believe the whole country didn't vote for him.

Has he made a public appearance since his loony presser last Thursday?

Admittedly, I was a little freaked out by some of these possibilities, but I did some reading and am now satisfied that none of that is going to happen. Trump will be gone Jan. 20 and Biden will be sworn in.

Keep telling yourself that R284

[quote] Has he made a public appearance since his loony presser last Thursday?

He and Melania appeared at Arlington yesterday. He laid a wreath. Didn't speak or answer questions.

Trump looked dejected yesterday. His swag is gone.

[quote]He and Melania appeared at Arlington yesterday.

[quote]Trump looked dejected yesterday. His swag is gone.

He doesn't respect or like dead people, because they're 'losers.' And now they remind him of himself.

Ah, here we go (I only saw our President Biden and his lovely wife Jill at Arlington).

NO. A Coup will NOT happen.

The military has taken an oath to our country and to our constitution. To abide by the rules of the president. On Jan. 20, Biden will be POTUS. Right now, Rump has the military. He will not Jan 20.

The constitution will always prevail. IF anyone, on Jan 20 insists that they are POTUS, or any member of the cabinet..and they are NOT, they will be arrested.

Period.

R3, no it isn't. Rump is still POTUS. He can do whatever he wants---right now.

On Jan. 20, he will be arrested if he insists that he is POTUS. As will any person that is not a cabinet member, but insists she or he is a member.

The constitution wins.

[quote] Some of those days the Senate is in session are during Hanukkah, I don’t know if that affects who’s available to vote. It might. Hanukkah starts on December 10. The Electoral College vote is during Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a minor holiday. It does not require religious observation.

[quote] He and Melania appeared at Arlington yesterday. He laid a wreath. Didn't speak or answer questions.

To be accurate, he touched the wreath. It was odd — which is very on brand for him.

[quote] I only saw our President Biden and his lovely wife Jill at Arlington.

You did, but they were near Philly, not at Arlington. And President-elect Biden carried the floral arrangement that he and Dr. Biden brought. He didn’t just touch the flowers. 🙄

I watched Trump with the wreath several times. I think he wanted to knock it off the pedestal or toss it in a fit of rage. To disrespect the Armed Forces, who overwhelmingly voted for President Elect Biden, and to make a scene. He LOVES making a public spectacle of himself.

I love that the Bidens are a real couple with genuine affection for one another.

There's a level of class and social graces that one does not typically find with grifter narcissists crybabies and Eastern European whores.

R321, the difference is they’re very American.

Melania is not American, and Trump doesn’t think like an American, he thinks like a third world strongman that was raised in a third world country. Barron is being raised by a parent and grandparents that aren’t American.

The Biden family may not be perfect, but they understand what it means to be an American. That’s why people are reassured by them. Because they understand them.

What is a "clap-out"?

Lá Sènatrice & Lyin' Ted are going to all kinds of desperate behavior to illegally install Orange Con.

R323, it’s when the Chlamydia organizes a protest.

Trump expects others to do the coup for him since he fully knows he has no political know-how to accomplish that. I imagine he also has to admit that he doesn't have the right allies to get this coup going with him as a visible leader.

Of course, the other thing is that anyone who is able to accomplish the coup is also a big threat to Trump's self perceived alpha male status, and he would be the first one Trump gets rid of. And that is the main reason why I don't believe an actual coup will ever happen since Trump has shown over and over again that he doesn't show gratitude to anyone or repays someone's loyalty. And rather gets rid of people by throwing them under the bus.

These people resigning and then just going silent accomplish nothing. When you resign like this, it's to free yourself from the constraints of that position in order to fight against the reason for the resignation. All resigning and going silent accomplish is to help the fucker get away with whatever he's trying to get away with.

R323, in other words, when he left the building, his admirers applauded for him in respect.

Same thing that happened when that Navy captain was fired by Trump because he alerted his superiors that his ship was full of Covid and they weren’t battle ready. He got fired for that, but his sailors respected him for trying to get them help, so they cheered him on the way out as he left.

Trump hates respect. He can’t understand what he hasn’t got.

Clap out !

Clap out !

Remembering the flack Dump got for not wanting to get wet in France .Noticed Merde L'Orange actually let it rain on him this time. Must have used the waterproof tangerine base and scotchgarded the hair.

Everyone calm down; you see Uncle Joe, cool, calm, and collected, getting his cabinet together, working with his transition team, and assembling his own COVID task force? It's called Not Being a Reality Show Villain.

Arizona was finally called last night -- for Biden. Soon Nevada and Georgia will be called -- for Biden.

More and more GOP are coming out in recognition of Biden's victory. Dump "fraud" cases are 0-12, and even his own lawyers have admitted they have no case. The "evidence" presented have all been debunked. The generals have hinted that they will NOT cowtow to some Dump flunky. Dump himself has been completely silent--no press conferences, no calls to Faux"News", nothing. They ALL see the writing on the wall. Biden will be sworn in on January 20th, and all will be (closer to being) right with the world.

PS...The Trump2024 thing is a final, desperate cash grab from the grifters.

Eric will finally get to come out as part of the LGBTQ community.

Trump has a new target: FOX News. At this point Trump knows that he has lost and it's just about saving face and getting his grift going.

CNN has still not called Arizona

CNN has proven itself a middling piece of shit this whole election. Not that we should be surprised at this point. They invented bothsiderism.

Biden spoke to the Pope today, and Graham and Grassley joined Lankford in advocating Presidential Daily Briefs for Biden. Add on top of that a steady stream of stories featuring quotes from anonymous Trump staffers, and it's clear this farce is coming to an end. I'm willing to bet Arizona is called in a few days a drumbeat of Republicans start referring to Biden as President-Elect.

[quote]You can say: take it to the streets! But to what, to get gassed and die?

GOOD GOD, think we can get any more melodramatic? Sheeeeesh!

By the way, you guys DO know we cheated, right? ;)

[quote] More and more GOP are coming out in recognition of Biden's victory. Dump "fraud" cases are 0-12, and even his own lawyers have admitted they have no case. The "evidence" presented have all been debunked.

Trump's team wanted more access, the suits were thrown out because the counting was already in progress or nearly finished. Trump's lawyers have been trying to get access to the voter rolls and are being denied. What is there to hide? As far as evidence is concerned, you already have hundreds of signed affidavits of eyewitnesses, a list which is growing every day. If Biden won this election fair and square, then he has nothing to worry about.

[quote] By the way, you guys DO know we cheated, right? ;)

We did a rather piss-poor job then, because we should have gotten rid of a few GOP Senators while we were at it.

R340 is laughably stupid.

Since the mail-in paper ballots "fraud" is dead in the water, Dump's now running with "the voting machines were hacked!"

How can it be a coup if he's still the President and he is actually winning some of the legal battles over the Democrat cheating? Even the head of the CIA or FBI said weeks before the election he thought the Democrats would try cheat the election by a margin of 3%, and that is exactly what's happening. It's a Democrat/Deep State coup, not a Trump Coup. Your Republic is under thread by enemies within and it's fine, because the media fed you some crap that Trump hated gay people.

[quote]How can it be a coup if he's still the President and he is actually winning some of the legal battles over the Democrat cheating?

a) He's not winning legal battles.

b) Democrats didn't cheat.

c) The few, tiny, human-error, irregularities that have been observed are both normal and irrelevant, as none of them rise even close to the level where the election outcome would be impacted.

d) Trump's policies are anti-gay, as are the judges he's been packing the courts with.

e) "Even the head of the CIA or FBI said weeks before the election he thought the Democrats would try cheat the election by a margin of 3%" Hilariously stupid bullshit.

f) You really are bad at this.

[QUOTE] How can it be a coup if he's still the President and he is actually winning some of the legal battles over the Democrat cheating?

THIS is the level of troll we’re getting now on DataLounge? It’s almost insulting.

R346, agreed. R340 and r344 etc. are too stupid to breathe......I honestly could give a shit if we cheated btw — paybacks a bitch, right Donnie? Womp-Womp!!! #LOOOOOOOOOOSER #LockItUp

Statically Biden overperformed significany in battleground states yet underperformed in states he didn’t need to win. Tens of thousands voted for Biden and no other candidate while only hundreds voted for trump only, again only in battleground states, even when there were competitive senate races. Less than .5 percent of ballots were rejected, an historical record. Biden nearly doubles Obama’s votes but only in states he won (all with razor thin margins but not enough to trigger a recount). Even if you ignore the eyewitness accounts of ballot tampering and backdating ballots, the circumstantial evidence alone is overwhelming.

R347 I find it’s best not to give them any oxygen. I just block and move on.

Joe Biden leads by example. Don't feed the trolls.

The in-person, same-day votes were overwhelmingly for Trump and led to his premature declaration of victory. If the voting machines were "hacked," what does that say?

I honestly couldn't give a shit about voting machines. What I really do is how many of those Biden only ballots can be verified? In my mind, that would tell the whole story.

R348, some states Republicans have to have, some states Democrats have to have. They’re not all the same states.

Biden didn’t campaign in red states he didn’t need. Trump didn’t campaign in blue states he didn’t need. It’s not surprising Biden didn’t spend day and night in Alabama, or didn’t run ads there. He wasn’t going to win it. Same with Trump. I bet he spent $0 in NY, because he could never win it.

The swing states that Biden gained were flipped for two reasons: huge coordinated get-out-the-vote in GA and PA, and Native Americans turning out in Arizona.

The Navajo Nation and several other tribes turned out in very large numbers. Normally they don’t do that. It’s very hard to vote if you live on the reservation, roads are bad, the polling places are very far and hard to get to for poor people. Some rode horseback to vote. Biden’s people did a huge get out the vote effort with Native American tribes in AZ. They flipped Arizona. Some tribes voted 95% Biden. They hate Trump. Remember Pocahontas? They hated that. Biden came up with a policy to help them and put it on his website. He worked with NAs to draw up the policy.

Nevada has been blue since 2004. For some reason, Trump and his people seemed not to understand that, they seemed to think Nevada was red. It was, many years ago, but not for a long time.

Californians have moved in very large numbers to NV and AZ. This has been going on for decades. Nevada already flipped, Arizona had Mark Kelly running for Senate who was well liked and a lot of people turned out to vote for him and Biden.

People didn’t like Mark Kelly’s opponent, Martha McSally. She was appointed to that job after losing her own race. She’s never won. Now she’s lost two races in a row and really has no reason to be there. She was never democratically elected to the position, she was appointed. A very weak candidate. People did like Mark Kelly a lot. He’s married to a former well liked politician there, Gabby Giffords.

Good chat today on NPR

R352, what is a “Biden only” ballot? Did some people only vote for Biden and nobody else? If it’s a paper ballot, they’re auditing ballots right now.

So far in Arizona they have been re-auditing already counted ballots and they’re finding zero evidence of fraud.

[quote]Even if you ignore the eyewitness accounts of ballot tampering and backdating ballots, the circumstantial evidence alone is overwhelming.

The "eyewitness accounts" have already been shown to be complete nonsense.

There is no "circumstantial evidence," which is why Trump is losing and you come across as a really clumsy troll.

You need better material.

[quote] The "eyewitness accounts" have already been shown to be complete nonsense.

Evidence is not the same as proof. These eyewitness accounts have already been corroborated with the testimony of others who have signed affidavits. Likewise, circumstantial evidence is not proof of fraud or irregularity, but it's still evidence.

No, R357, they haven't. I know you're desperate but blatantly lying here doesn't really work. And no, that ridiculous nonsense that you came up with that you call "circumstantial evidence" is not "evidence," it's mindboggingly stupid drivel, which is why nobody takes it seriously.

Here is where things stand with all of these Trump allegations. Hint: none of them amount to anything.

R359 Yes, local officials who investigated themselves found no evidence of wrongdoing. You need an independent investigation.

R360, back your shit up or get the fuck out. RECEIPTS whore.

[quote]none of them amount to anything

Oh, dear!

[quote]Biden’s people did a huge get out the vote effort with Native American tribes in AZ. They flipped Arizona. Some tribes voted 95% Biden. They hate Trump. Remember Pocahontas? They hated that. Biden came up with a policy to help them and put it on his website. He worked with NAs to draw up the policy.

Honorable mention re. Arizona: the Latino vote; people who for years were terrorized by racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies profiling people "driving while Mexican" and demanding to "see their papers". Anyone without papers were arrested and sent off to the hellish open-air Tent City, where Joe thought it was a good idea to issue the men pink uniforms and underwear, and feed everyone moldy green baloney sandwiches. When Arpaio was finally brought up on charges of civil rights violations and convicted of criminal contempt of court, Dump famously pardoned him, solely because he was blatantly anti-Mexican.

Arizona Latinos were waiting for election day like it was Christmas.

Some of these so called eyewitness accounts have been dismissed in court as hearsay, because it turns out it was somebody saying their friend said. In court, that means absolutely nothing.

One Trump lawyer said, “my evidence is a woman who said her friend said,” and the judge said, that’s hearsay, what’s your evidence. The lawyer said, it’s not hearsay. The judge said, that’s the definition of hearsay.

Make no mistake, these lawyers know perfectly well what hearsay is. They couldn’t possibly pass the bar if they didn’t know. What they are doing is taking Trump’s money and going into court with nothing. Probably they think dummies like R357 are incapable of understanding how courts work and they will be tricked into thinking something is there when it isn’t. The law is the law even for Trump lawyers.

The judges call them out and tell them they are filing a frivolous lawsuit. That’s a big deal. They can be held in contempt, fined, or they could even be disbarred if they don’t stop it. Nobody is going to throw their law career away for Trump. Two different judges have reminded Trump lawyers that they are “lawyers of the bar,” in other words, they can lose their license to practice if they don’t stop filing phony cases with no evidence.

People that go to court wait months for their court date. And these yahoos get to be heard ahead of everybody else, delay somebody else’s case possibly, and they get to the courtroom and it turns out they don’t have one little bit of evidence and they’re wasting everybody’s time. They’re lucky the judge doesn’t scorch their ears off. And they have to work in that court with that judge again, and now he thinks they’re a shitty lawyer with no integrity. Those judges aren’t going to forget.

R357, there is such a thing as legal procedure, and these guys aren’t following it. That is not trivial. Normally, a case from the President would be a very big deal. These are just lawyers lying their way into a courtroom and when the judge asks them, do you have any evidence of fraud, they say no. One of them actually said that. That would be irrational and pointless, except it’s being done to trick people like you.

I would love to see Arpaio indicted on new charges and thrown back in the slammer.

[quote] One Trump lawyer said, “my evidence is a woman who said her friend said,” and the judge said, that’s hearsay, what’s your evidence. The lawyer said, it’s not hearsay. The judge said, that’s the definition of hearsay.

The Michigan lawsuit filed a couple days ago had direct eyewitness testimony from several individuals. Their accounts contradict what election officials are saying.

[quote] Make no mistake, these lawyers know perfectly well what hearsay is. They couldn’t possibly pass the bar if they didn’t know.

So what if some of the allegations are determined to be hearsay? It is still evidence that can be corroborated. The Michigan lawsuit is much more substantive.

[quote] People that go to court wait months for their court date. And these yahoos get to be heard ahead of everybody else, delay somebody else’s case possibly, and they get to the courtroom and it turns out they don’t have one little bit of evidence and they’re wasting everybody’s time.

They are working with a deadline. The integrity of the election is at stake when you have half the electorate not believing the results of the election. I think that's pretty important.

[quote] These are just lawyers lying their way into a courtroom and when the judge asks them, do you have any evidence of fraud, they say no.

Then those lawyers are idiots. They have evidence, not proof. They are requesting data so they can do their own independent analysis.

R366, hearsay is not evidence. Hearsay is gossip. Judges don’t make rulings based on gossip.

There is no such thing as working with a deadline if you have no evidence. If you have no evidence you don’t go to court. It doesn’t matter what time it is.

Try to go into a courtroom and tell a judge your friend gossiped to you and now you want to sue somebody based on gossip. Good luck.

You can't do it without the military on your side, by which i mean the actual generals and admirals, not the bureaucrats in the state department.

R369, all they swear to defend the Constitution and they are all told to not obey an illegal order. But if Trump tells them to bomb Iran, that’s a legal order. It may be pointless and idiotic, but I don’t know that they can say no. And if they resign, he’ll just put some maniac in their place who will do it gladly.

Sorry, that was for R368^^

R367 Of course you ignored the part where I said there was direct evidence from individuals who signed affidavits under penalty of perjury.

In terms of hearsay. None of those allegations would stand up in court. However, hearsay can help build a case. So can character testimony. Rarely do they help decide a case but they can strengthen allegations. We've seen it happen numerous times in assault cases where there is no direct evidence.

Wait a minute r371, “signed affidavits” by fucking CULTISTS?!?!?!?!?!!?!? Cultists will say ****anything****. Surely, you’re not suggesting that we take “signed affidavits” of cultists seriously? RIGHT???? Give me a goddamn mother fucking break, they’ve already shown over and over and over and over that they accept LYING. So, you’re going to need to show me some actual PROOF if you fucking expect me to seriously consider their “signed affidavits”. Fucking PUHLEEZE. This isn’t a fucking circus — this is the US of A, and if these idiots want us to take them seriously, how about they get off the Dictator Choo-Choo first????

There was a lot of chief of staff and SoD 'defying orders' during the Nixon administration. After Nixon, one night drunk out of his mind wanted to nuke North Vietnam, Schlesinger and the generals made sure he didn't have access to the nuke codes anymore.

I hope the same precautions are taken now!

Those affidavits contained little or nothing relevant to a charge of fraud.

Anyone can say anything, but we’re talking about votes, not whether there are elves and brownies in real life. The close states are recounting and auditing as is. You can’t just say, I refuse to believe the recounts because I don’t want to.

Even in cases of someone not signing their ballot or something, that’s not intentional fraud. That’s forgetfulness. Forgetfulness is not a crime, and it’s not large numbers of tens of thousands of people committing intentional fraud. It’s just some one individual that forgot or didn’t understand what to do. That’s not a crime, and it’s not a conspiracy. It’s just one guy. Over a whole state, that can be a few thousand, but they checked a lot of those out before the deadline and cured them, or they couldn’t count them. It’s not enough to flip a state. None of these states are that close. And they’re being audited, so what else is there?

Liars lying under oath isn’t proof with no evidence, especially since Trump lawyers have already filed so many totally evidence-free cases that fell apart. They’re making future cases look sketchy by their negligence.

There’s the guy that swore he saw fraud for $130,000, then admitted he was lying, the lawyer that sued for fraud then said he had no proof of fraud in court, the video of “burning ballots in the woods” that was sample ballots on closer examination, and so on. 12 cases were dismissed the last I heard. None have gone through at all. That makes the next case look phony in front of a judge and he’s going to eyeball it skeptically to begin with. They’re doing it to themselves.

While Trump has done some vile things in the past 4 years, most of the stuff we’ve most feared has failed to come about because of Trump’s vast incompetence.

I hope if Trump or Melanie leave anything behind in the White House it just gets dumped on the sidewalk.

[quote]R367 hearsay is not evidence. Hearsay is gossip. Judges don’t make rulings based on gossip.

In the UNITED COURTS OF DATALOUNGE we do!

What’re the chances that a covert govt agency takes Trump out the at 12:02 pm on 1/20/21? This behavior may be allowable antics for a sitting “President”, but afterwards? He’s proven himself to not have best interest of the nation at heart time and again these past four years, but this is getting a little to iffy for those in real power in this country to look away from. I doubt they’ll care too much about what his motives are.

Statement from Gen. Mark Milley, joint chiefs of staff. Apparently happened today.

I saw that clip on a Joy Reid, R380. And Tammy Duckworth said on Maddow (when Velshi was standing in) that a military leader (perhaps this one) had reached out to offer assurance that their loyalty is to the Constitution, not the President. Unbelievable that he would have to, but it is what it is.

I do think we need to see more of the Democratic Party leadership, including the President and VP-elect. I understand ignoring Trump’s shenanigans, but SOMEONE should be showing strong leadership now, and we know it won’t be the GOP.

This might help the "there's a coup a comin" troll pack. You all can just discuss the coup-o-meter instead of posting your over the top crafted fear porn responses.

Yes, you fool no one.

I don't doubt for one minute that Dump and his henchmen were/are trying for a coup. The fact that one of the joint chiefs of staff felt compelled to make a statement just shows how serious the situation is.

[quote] Liars lying under oath isn’t proof with no evidence, especially since Trump lawyers have already filed so many totally evidence-free cases that fell apart.

There is no evidence of voter fraud because there has been no investigation. However, there are incidents of voter irregularities that have been attributed to human error. However, it may be that there were more incidents that can only be uncovered by an independent audit. It's entirely possible, but in my opinion, not likely given the circumstantial evidence. There could be systemic issues that may not even be intentional given how unprecedented this election was.

[quote] Liars lying under oath isn’t proof with no evidence, especially since Trump lawyers have already filed so many totally evidence-free cases that fell apart. They’re making future cases look sketchy by their negligence.

Sworn testimony is not proof but it is still evidence. We can't treat it differently because it may or may not be politically motivated.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made clear his dedication to the constitution at an event Wednesday while standing beside the newly installed acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

"We are unique among militaries. We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe or religion. We take an oath to the Constitution. And every soldier that is represented in this museum, every sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, each of us will protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price," Milley said during remarks at the opening of the US Army's museum.

The WSJ is saying the Trumo camp wants to try this idea of replacing electors. I could see them trying it just because they are sore losers and crazy.

It’s frightening that he thought he had to say that. Who was he saying it to, us, or Trump?

R386, I read they were looking at that weeks ago. Maybe it’s a last chance sort of thing.

There never was an actual attempt of a coup. It was just Trump throwing shit at the wall hoping something will stick to create fear, drama, chaos, confusion, etc.

Trump hopes for so much chaos that Biden and Harris will back off and let Trump have his second term. Which will never happen, of course.

You're nuts R389!

I'm beginning to think the people who are desperately trying to convince people Dump isn't planning a coup are Dump supporters.

[quote] You're nuts [R389]!

Why, because I don't believe that Trump is willing to do the work it requires planning and executing an actual coup? What has Trump really accomplished on his own and with the help of his administration other than destroy what's already been there? All the administration can do is destroy, they can't actually organize anything including a simple press event at the Four Seasons.

Cuckoo cu coup

He’s systematically pursuing/exhausting all of his options: he’ll try to stop certifications, he’ll try to get electors replaced, he’ll try to get the vote challenged in those House. He may even try to pre-emptively pardon himself. All will fail.

Come 1/20/21, Biden will be President and Trump will be facing trial, possibly prison.

Mary Trump said there is no bottom. There is nothing he will not do or consider. He is mentally ill. She said it outloud clearly in answer to Chris Cuomo's questions tonight.

Right now, the true danger, IMO is Mark Meadows is terrible. He is immoral slime. He is Chief of Staff. There are no grown ups except Chris Christie and he may not always have the access he needs. Mary Trump says the Republican leaders in Congress must stop him. They have to confront him, stand up to him. To the degree they are not he is getting worse.

Now, I believe they are manipulating the Intel to try to act like he is not in bed with Putin. I believe they're destroying evidence. I believe they want the troops out of Afghanistan, I believe that he is going to declassify a lot of stuff to harm us and our allies.

But I also believe he is trying to hang on to the Presidency by any means necessary. So, yeah, a coup. And think about this. He is disturbed. He is agitated. Who is advising him? Who is telling him who to get rid of. Because this is a series of complex maneuvers and he is not coming up with all of this by himself. Multi faceted strategies are not his style.

Sam Nunberg was just on PBS saying Trump should litigate PA, refuse to concede the election, leave the White House the day before the inauguration, write a letter refusing to concede, saying “see you in 2024,” take a photo of the letter on the desk in the Oval Office & tweet the photo. He thinks Trump should hold rallies in PA & GA to whip his cult into a frenzy to elect GOP senators, governor, state legislators, etc so the GOP politicians can somehow overturn the state election results & claim Trump really won them both.

So Trump has plenty of devoted cultists out there who will do whatever it takes to make Donald Trump look like a winner.

The “Trump camp” can’t replace electors. State legislatures might be able to. The PA senate majority leader said they aren’t going to do that. If any state legislature attempted this, I imagine they’d find themselves in front of SCOTUS fairly quickly. And SCOTUS was completely unsympathetic to the idea of “faithless electors” when they heard that case earlier this year. I doubt seriously that they would allow this.

I'm surprised his enablers in all the stunts he's pulling now aren't afraid of the legal consequences. I'm not a lawyer, but I can imagine disrupting and disabling the transition from the outgoing president to the incoming one is a very serious crime.

This theatre is about Georgia and 2022. That's all.

Does anyone on this thread really think Trump and his "landscaping" crew can engineer a coup?

R396 - I agree with you. They WILL try everything - even if we never hear all of the gory details. If SCOTUS ever allows "faithless electors", this will lead to civil war and justly so. What would be the point of even holding elections again? After such a move, the SCOTUS would basically relinquish all power to an authoritarian dictator and no longer have a say in the law of the land. Everything becomes a dog and pony show that will follow the whim and will of the dictatorship in power. And YES - this will lead to civil war and the destruction of our nation as we know it.

Of course the entire electoral college has to go and soon. We are no longer a country that allows slavery and considering that all adults of voting age are allowed a free and fair vote (whether they be male/female or white/black/brown/red/yellow/any other stupid term used to segregate one man from another). This unfair system of allowing a vote from Wyoming to count for 3 times that of a vote from California is ridiculous. Wyoming gets 2 senate seats when residents of DC get ZERO but have a greater population. California gets only 2 senate seats - the same as puny, pathetic Wyoming whose entire existence must be paid for by the largest, most productive states who actually make the money that keeps our entire country afloat. Don't get me started on Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, etc. Fair is fair and this system is inherently corrupt and has been since the Civil War. I don't give a shit whether or not the GOP ever wins an election again if the EC is dissolved. Here is hint - run on better policies and see where that gets you. Earn your votes - appeal to the entire population of the country and not just a minority that does everything it can to cheat and discourage votes from being either cast or counted.

I am a white male and I am sick of this BS; I can only imagine how tired and furious my other brothers and sisters are feeling. Yes, we need change in this country and I'm literally counting the days until Joe and Kamala lead the way. But we have a fight ahead and it is dire. We need those Georgia Senate seats and we need to fight for our life to GET OUT THE VOTE.

R399 Dissolving the EC would disenfranchise millions of voters, including minorities. Candidates would only campaign in a few states. Republicans are vastly outspent in major cities. The effort to get rid of the EC is purely partisan politics.

It’s only sad that so many Republicans are enabling his madness. Giving false hope to his base of supporters, as if lies have now been normalized. Where is the leadership that will tell him to stop? And if they want to tie their wagon to that fat pig for 2024, be my guest. They are such pathetic weaklings.

Please expound R400. Not seeing your point.

R400, you have no idea what you are talking about. Getting rid of the electoral college would make a 50 state strategy a requirement. Repugs would never win another election unless they changed their entire party. They have lost the popular vote in almost every election for the last 40 years.

[quote]The effort to get rid of the EC is purely partisan politics.

So is keeping it!

Heard something interesting on the radio today where one of our local progressive stations was interviewing one of the Lincoln Project guys. He said that once the Repugs lose Texas, which he predicted would happen in 2024, one of their main aims will be getting rid of the electoral college because they will never again be able to win a presidential election with it in place.

[quote]We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe or religion. We take an oath to the Constitution.

Plainly and tragically this did need saying, due to Trump's mental illness. Among his early statesmanlike words were: 'What's the point of having nuclear weapons if you don't use them?' On a related matter of magnitude, 'Who says I can't?' Additionally, 'I know more than my generals.' All this being part of the 'mind' which tells him he can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

Trump wouldn't have necessarily framed not budging or conceding as a coup, he'd just have improvised by the hour what to say or do to cling on while the world around him moves on. But doubtless that post-Covid Evita balcony salute played into what even for him was a wild juvenile reach, which mental infirmity allowed him to consider. The General's real-world actuality was a vital re-set for everyone.

Complete agreement, R401.

I hope his base turns on those same enabling Republicans, ending their careers because of their perfidy and cowardice.

Please stop referring to “faithless electors” as if that applied in this situation. It does not. That refers to a very narrow class of cases where an elector who is pledged to one candidate then abandons that candidate and votes in favor of someone else. That’s it. It does not include the attempt under discussion here, which contemplates the state legislatures replacing the Biden slate of electors with the tRump slate of electors.

In that circumstance would the US Supreme Court step in and stop the states from proceeding with the swap of electors? It would depend on whether these actions contravened the legislature’s authority. If the state constitution and laws give them that authority, there is not much room for the Court to overturn the legislature’s decision to abandon the results of the election, as heinous as that would be.

This is precisely why Rethugs’ indiscriminate use of raw power — because they can, not whether they should — is so dangerous and alarming.

If the Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate says this is not going to happen, that’s a very good thing, because Pennsylvania is critical to the success of their scheme.

[quote]Yes, local officials who investigated themselves found no evidence of wrongdoing. You need an independent investigation.

We have already had that "independent investigation," R360, and as with everything you've posted in this thread, you're wrong again. These allegations have been investigated in multiple court cases, by multiple news organizations, and by the states themselves. Nothing has been found.

Moreover, those "sworn affidavits" you're so proud of? It turns out that the Trump campaign has been soliciting them via its website and had to admit in front of a judge that they had to throw out a lot of them as obviously bogus. They also had to admit that they had not been able to confirm a single one, nor were they prepared to bring any of the authors of those "sworn affidavits" into court to swear under oath under threat of perjury as to the accuracy of their "sworn affidavits."

It sucks to be a lawyer for the Trump campaign these days, as they have been repeatedly humiliated in court by judges who don't give a shit what is said on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube but insist on actual evidence, evidence that the Trump campaign has so far been completely unable to provide.

[quote]Of course you ignored the part where I said there was direct evidence from individuals who signed affidavits under penalty of perjury.

That's probably because what you're saying isn't true.

There needs to be a mass-disbarment of the Dump legal crew including Barr.

I don’t think the courts would allow them to replace electors for certain states for no reason. They may be conservative justices but there is no basis for overturning a free and fair election.

ANY idiot buying into the fraud is just that.

No, the affidavits are NOT real. They are from a website---made by a partner of one of the legal team members----where any trumper can go on and fill it out. Many were filled out w cartoon names, and curses. The team printed out literally THOUSANDS and brought them to court, like idiots.

FAIL.

R339, BTW, you do know that your mother was drunk 24/7 while she carried you right? ;)

And she tried to dig you out of her cum-splattered whore's snatch with a coat hanger, right? ;)

But in her drunken state, she missed and just tore out your frontal lobes, rendering you the drooling moron we all know and hate, right? ;)

Go shit in your hands again and lick them clean, dear. ;)

Cuckoo cu coup

Trump's law firm representing him in PA dropped him today.

All these legal challenges are fruitless to say the least.

^^^^^^^ LMAO!!!!

#Looooooooooser

#LockItUp

For what it's worth, in addition to his PA firm dropping him, his team in Arizona just dropped their lawsuit. Additionally, the voter fraud hotline is completely shut down.

Most of his campaign staffers officially lose their paychecks and healthcare benefits on Sunday. That's when a mass exit is really predicted to gather steam.

I was going to say what you said, R408. My understanding is that Pennsylvania law stipulates that the popular vote in the state determine the electors—but I presume the legislature, which made state law, could change it. Whether they would or not depends on how deterred they feel by the response of an electorate whose majority will (by almost 55k votes) would be summarily overturned.

R418, looks like Friday the 13th is an unlucky day for Trumpie-Dump!

I hope the cunt has a stroke.

Porter Wright quit. Jones Day is still in.

Is the public pressure still turned up high on JD?

The only “fraud” is plotzed on power in the White House.

Politico has a story today saying Trump’s strategy is working. I hate when media capitulates to him.

How is it supposedly “working”?

It’s only “working” in the sense that millions of people believe it was stolen and will not see Biden as legitimate. It isn’t working in a legal sense. They’re being laughed out of every courtroom they enter.

R390 It's crazy because just a few days ago, posters were accusing other posters warning about an attempted coup of being Rumpster supporters. The Lincoln Project was right after all. People should take this seriously.

[Quote] The PA senate majority leader said they aren’t going to do that.

Yeah, he's hedging on that already.

BUT R428

Both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, there is a process codified in state law for choosing electors, and it gives the legislature no part. (As Corman wrote just last month, “Pennsylvania law plainly says that the state’s electors are chosen only by the popular vote of the commonwealth’s voters.”) Furthermore, both states have Democratic governors, so the legislatures can’t pass a new law changing these rules after the fact.

I just don’t see it happening. The state Capitol buildings would be set on fire with all of the legislators locked inside. Or else they’d be dragged out and beaten to death in the streets.

Why would they be getting ready for the inauguration over two full months in advance??

[quote] Why would they be getting ready for the inauguration over two full months in advance??

Standard operating procedure, R431. It is not early or late, but right on time. Weather and holidays are both considerations.

The only thing that interests Trump is drama and commotion where he’s the focal point. A coup/revolution is the only ‘fun’ playing field left for him.

It’s like “Coup for Dummies.” These people are so incompetent. I really don’t think we have anything to worry about.

Is that “abortion that lived” Stephen Miller running the show?

To me it’s a loser strategy. Soon Trump will exhaust all legal remedies and he will be seen even more as a loser. How does that help Republicans other than making them seem like delusional and sore losers?

A Biden adviser was on msnbc tonight and said gop senators are calling Biden to congratulate them. She would not name them. Makes me think it isn’t just the 5 who have acknowledged his victory publicly.

Sad Kayleigh going on TV giving false hope to the cult members. Sad Trump posting that he is fighting for the truth. Isn’t it easier to say we lost? It’s not helping Republicans it’s just making them seem crazy and out of touch.

It's not1943 we have total communication now. If anyone tried, we would know who it is , where they and their family lived and there would be a few hundred thousand people walking to their front door.

The armed forces won't be helping Don the Con with his little coup:

He will resign so Pence can pardon him. Do his followers not understand this?

Yeah R439 that was clearly meant for Trump’s ears

If the Trump administration has proven anything the last four years it's that they fuck everything up, even their own plans. But sure, fear the coup coming from this "only the best people for the job" bunch. Even Putin needs some qualified people to do his bidding.

The likes of Barron and Stone may be good strategists, but they know fuck-all about how to execute them. They lack access to actual qualified people to execute their plans. Everybody who is involved has their own fragile ego that gets in the way of things. And that is why all of their plans have failed and they only got barely away with their shit, because of Barr being head of the DOJ. But a coup is too big to handle even for him.

Barr has been lavishly dining while Trump sulks.

Pompeo and DeSantis have been pigging-out too.

[quote]A Biden adviser was on msnbc tonight and said gop senators are calling Biden to congratulate them. She would not name them.

Delicious to think that grown-ups are behaving with a measure of decorum behind Trump's back, but can't go public because it's simply not a language he understands.

The 'most powerful man in the world' is being humoured, wearily tolerated, until logistics take their course, as it's totally understood that otherwise there'll be a destructive tantrum.

So much cross-party Champagne must be stored up for late January 2021.

Dump is mad, but McTurtle is the real villain in this nauseating story. He's unprincipled and soulless and has embalming fluid for blood.

Usually when a head of state passes they lie in state in the Capital Rotunda so the public can pay their respects. Unfortunately, DUMP is still with us so they could have him 'sit' in State (physically & verbally restrained) and have the public roll in and tell him what a piece of SHIT he is (among other things!). You can bet it wouldn't take more than 10 minutes for him to explode with rage but have no way to counter the bombardment of insults against him. If the rumor is true that he wears diapers then lets hope they installed an industrial strength Butt Plug so the pressure would build to dangerous levels! A girl can dream!

[quote] R126: If Biden tells them to disobey the Defence Secretary is THAT a coup d'état?

The military cannot follow an illegal order. I’m sure it’s a lot of fuss if/when given an illegal order, but that’s the rule. It would be a crime, to do so. A smart military leader has to think long term. If/when Trump loses, they would be prosecuted.

Joe won’t be 46. He’ll be 47.

R447, for all we know, high ranking military staffers may be calling to “congratulate” Biden, i.e., ask him what he thinks about this or that, to see what they might have to refuse to do. They’re going to be there after Trump is gone.

Did anyone see 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐫 this past Friday, where pro-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis tried supporting this bullshit?

I take nothing for granted until Biden is sworn in as president on January 20th. After that I couldn't care less what Trump thinks. Nobody in government or military or the secret service will stand up for him.

Except the stooges he burrowed in lifetime civil servant positions. Hopefully they can be reassigned to the basement counting paperclips when Biden takes over.

[quote] Except the stooges he burrowed in lifetime civil servant positions.

There are pretty strict rules about burrowing in. Such moves are largely prohibited in the year leading up the election. Plus, most of those who are able to do it are almost always relegated to positions that are not in the business of policy making. And the few who need to can be dispatched to a job that would not be able to interfere with Biden’s agenda.

Trump has definitely moved some shady loyalists into policy making positions at DoD. Whether they would retain any authority after Biden comes in ... I hope not.

R454, what do you think, Biden will just let them move in??? It’s not happening. They will be *whisked* away in mere hours of Biden’s formal entrance.

Not if they are appointed to protected government jobs. You can transfer them but you cannot fire them without cause.

Being a Trump loyalist is cause enough. They can sue all they want.

You never give trash a way to sue.

What you do to these people is to give them a lateral 'promotion' and take away their job duties and influence with it. Let them stew in their own ineffectual juices for a while. If they start acting out, fire them for poor conduct/insubordination/not doing their work. If they sit around with their thumbs up their ass, cashing a paycheck, make sure they are first to go when 'departmental budget cuts' happen.

You give them NOTHING to use against you, only take things away, until the goal of them no longer being employed there is achieved.

I personally think the idea these people will burrow is laughable. The 2 frontrunners to lead the Department of Defense know the Pentagon like the back of their hand (Michele Flournoy and Jeh Johnson). Any Trump political appointee will be dumped, and those who accept civil service jobs will be sidelined. They will have no influence whatsoever, and I seriously doubt they will want to spend 4 years doing administrative work.

Michigan GOP tried to steal the election but trying not to certify Detroit's votes (but certifying the rest of the country).

Thankfully the hullabaloo it cause made the panel reverse itself and certify all the votes.

The GOP is very very willing to do whatever it can to win this for Trump

[quote] The military cannot follow an illegal order.

the military will follow any order unless it is blatantly illegal. The illegality usually isn't determined until far afterwards in court.

I doubt Trump would say something so obvious as "go kill them." Instead it will be wrapped in some pseudo-legal talk about "stealing the election," and " terrorism."

Maybe Trump will just fly to Mar-a-Lago for Xmas and never come back

Mar-a-Lago = Saudi Arabia.

It's pathetic that Giuliani is apparently heading Trump's Pennsylvania strategy.

According to the news reports, Giuliani spoke in court as a lawyer for the first time in decades. Now that's sad

He’ll fly wherever he’s able to cum inside Ivanka a couple more times.

[quote] Whether they would or not depends on how deterred they feel by the response of an electorate whose majority will (by almost 55k votes) would be summarily overturned.

NYC went to the polls twice & voted for mayoral term limits. Two terms only. Bloomberg got the city council to overturn it & so he could run for a third term. Citizen’s didn’t make a peep about it. In fact, they elected him to a 3rd term.

The Republicans showed us for sure last night in Michigan (where Biden won by about 150k votes) that they're willing and eager to overturn an electoral win by the other party if they can find the merest legal loophole. Only the righteous public outcry (what Republicans call mob rule) stopped them. They'll try again and again to make free elections just a meaningless formality.

But they didn’t even have a small legal loophole. They had absolutely no legitimate reason not to certify and they knew it. They literally just decided not to certify the votes of black people because they voted for Biden. That’s it.

DUMP ain't goin' to Maga Lard-O for Thanksgiving. He is going to stay at the WH to stink it up and spread the COVID throughout every nook and cranny. When his time is up on 20 January, 2021 they will have to use a front-end loader to haul his carcass out of there. He thinks if he stays he's president but the PTB will route him out!

What’s the point of not going to MaraLago? Does he think the White House locks will be changed when he’s gone?

I think it's easier for him and his base to pretend he won if he stays in the White House. Mar-a-Lago represents his civilian life.

[quote]What’s the point of not going to MaraLago?

He wants to be on hand to supervise important shredding, in many ways the most devoted task of his entire 'Presidency.'

It’s clear the goal now is to obstruct as much as possible so that states can’t certify the results in time

It’s already making Biden look weak & ineffectual. He can’t do anything about Republicans refusing to let him into power. It’s very bad optics for Biden because it plays into the media narrative that democrats are pussies who can’t defend themselves & Republicans are tough and willing to do anything for their followers. “Democrats in disarray; GOP toughs it out.”

What are you talking about? Trump is weak and ineffectual for losing or dropping 30 lawsuits.

Biden could be making clearer statements about the wrongness of this Republican shenanigans, but he doesn't look weak—he's the one who looks like he's toughing it out, troll at R474: continuing with the transition despite pathetic Republican stonewalling, appointing staff and cabinet members, receiving the congratulations from foreign leaders, etc.

Absolutely disagree with R474. Trump is acting like a bratty three year old. He's golfing, tweeting and whining while over 1k Americans die PER DAY! Joe is staffing up, meeting with experts and scientists to plan out a response to stop the spread and the deaths from COVID and giving Anusmouth every opportunity to act like an adult. A man. Presidential in any way.

Anusmouth isn't just failing at it all, he's refusing to try. He's a total piece of shit!

The numbers and law are on Biden's side. While Trump stonewalling is inconvenient, Biden is taking the high road and pressing forward.

TRump has been lining up calls to state legislators in PA, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia in an attempt to get them to stall certigying the election and delay everything until the Congress can vote on January 8th to accept the certified results. If there are no certified results, Congress has to intervene and vote. Both Houses. Now McConnell and his GOP Senate could try to stop everything. But you know what? If there's a deadlock, the President's term will expire on January 209 at noon and if there is no President elect, the Speaker becomes PResident. So they can fuck around all they want, it.is.over.

People are getting fed up with Trump's undermining of a free and fair election. Probably even some Republicans but this is just to rev up his base. The RNC head in Michigan wants the state to delay certification but Michigan said no way. Now Trump wants to recount Georgia's vote a 3rd time. I think a lot of the governors are getting impatient with Trump's delaying tactics to stay in power while they have to deal with an uncontrollable pandemic. Biden needs to keep putting pressure on Congress and the public that his plan needs to get going by January 20. The unions have threatened to have a major strike if Trump keeps stalling and if the GSA doesn't release the funds.

People are getting fed up with Trump's undermining of a free and fair election. Probably even some Republicans but this is just to rev up his base. The RNC head in Michigan wants the state to delay certification but Michigan said no way. Now Trump wants to recount Georgia's vote a 3rd time. I think a lot of the governors are getting impatient with Trump's delaying tactics to stay in power while they have to deal with an uncontrollable pandemic. Biden needs to keep putting pressure on Congress and the public that his plan needs to get going by January 20. The unions have threatened to have a major strike if Trump keeps stalling and if the GSA doesn't release the funds.

R474

Biden isn't touching the Orange diarrhea with a barge pole.

He is wisely ignoring it to underscore its irrelevance.

Yeah, I thought a coup might be possible weeks ago, but Trump is losing all his legal challenges daily no State reps seem willing to stick their neck out for him. Trump looks worse and weaker with each day.

^Whistling past the graveyard. It really isn't over until it's over. If the election had been closer we could have had a real civil war. Trump has exposed the flaws in our electoral system.

Bill Maher called him the Gus president. "You didn't say the kicker had to be a HUMAN, so we have a donkey"

The State has to start certifying soon because they also have votes in the State Senate and Congress, if they keep recounting they hold up the State government. This delaying is only for a small man's ego and even the Republicans are cracking.

How many times can Trump ask for a recount? He’s on his second recount in Georgia. Operatives are challenging every ballot in WI

He's also asking for a 3rd recount in Georgia. It's getting ridiculous. He's like a little toddler that won't let go of mommy's leg.

It's funny that most of his recount is done in mostly Democratic counties where the minorities live. He's a racist and wants to discount the Black vote. They probably dumped thousands of ballots in Florida and South Carolina in the states where the governors kiss his ass. There is no way that he won a Democratic county in Florida when the polls said otherwise and also how could Lindsay Graham have a landslide win when he was losing in the polls. But in Georgia, they underestimated Stacie Abrams.