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The US 2020 Presidential Election & Attempts To Overturn It

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  • The Middle Finger Election

    If Trump wins, explains Rich Lowry, the editor of the journal founded by William F. Buckley Jr., it will be because he is “The Only Middle Finger Available.”

    Voters will back Trump not because he stands athwart history, yelling “Stop,” or because he offers a compelling vision of a Trumpian Morning in America, writes Lowry, but because he is a giant opportunity to say F*ck You to the media, academia, Hollywood, professional athletes, and entire world of woke culture.

    He’s not wrong.

    Lowry’s argument is part description and part rationalization. He notes that the middle finger “may not be a very good reason to vote for a president, and it doesn’t excuse Trump’s abysmal conduct and maladministration.”

    But, he explains, “Trump is, for better or worse, theforemost symbol of resistance to the overwhelming woke cultural tide.” He has become the anointed vessel “for registering opposition to everything from the 1619 Project to social media’s attempted suppression of the Hunter Biden story.”
    To put it in blunt terms, for many people, he’s the only middle finger available — to brandish against the people who’ve assumed they have the whip hand in American culture.

    The tweets, the insults, the bullying aren’t the bugs; they are just different versions of the middle finger — and his people love it. Conservative ideas are just the gloss.

    I suspect that Buckley himself would’ve had a different word for this: nihilism.

    But we are also seeing the devolution of the right, from Buckley, to Reagan, to the Flight 93 election, and now to the Election of the Raised Middle Finger. On this trajectory, 2024 will be The Grunt and Head-Butt Election (an essay by Victor Davis Hanson).

    But the raised middle finger is a useful image, because it also manages to describe what a Trump second term would look like.

    As Axios reported “a win next week, no matter the margin, will embolden Trump to ax anyone he sees as constraining him from enacting desired policies or going after perceived enemies.”

    He is already planning a festival of retribution, which includes firing FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, reports Axios. A safely re-elected Trump would also be unleashed to turn the Department of Justice into a weapon of political revenge.

    He has already signaled his plans to gut much of the Civil Service, issuing an order “that strips job protections from employees in policy roles across the government.”

    Beyond that? There is no second term economic plan. The debt and deficit? No idea at all. He will likely purge more medical experts and continue to wield his magical thinking against the coronavirus until we get a vaccine. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will die and the economy will be weighed down for years.

    On immigration, expect more cruelty, as there be no one to dissuade Trump from his pet ideas that include things like sharpened spikes on his new Wall. He may pull out of NATO. The corruption will continue, and Republicans will look the other way.


    And none of this will come as a surprise, because everyone will have understood what the election was really all about.

    Trump never pretended that he had a second term agenda. Last summer, longtime fluffer Sean Hannity served up a softball question when he asked Trump “What are your top priority items for a second term?"

    This was Trump’s full answer. Savor it:
    "Well, one of the things that will be really great -- you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience, I've always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It's a very important meaning. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington, I think, 17 times, all of a sudden, I'm president of the United States. You know the story, I'm riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our first lady and I say, this is great. But I didn't know very many people in Washington. It wasn't my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now, I know everybody and I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes like, you know, an idiot like Bolton. All he wanted to do was drop bombs on everybody. You don't have to drop bombs on everybody. You don't have to kill people."

    Afterward, he was given multiple chances to give a better answer, but he never did. As Peter Baker later wrote in the New York Times:

    How would he be different in a second term? Really not much at all. “I think I’d be similar,” he said. Which is exactly what his supporters want and his opponents fear.

    Beyond more of the same, he has strained lately to define what his second-term agenda would be. Asked at various points, even by friendly interviewers on Fox News, he has offered meandering answers. His fellow Republicans seem no more certain. They therefore dispensed with a party platform altogether, opting instead for a simple resolution of loyalty to the president.

    “But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done,” he said.

    In other words, he has no idea. And much of the MAGAverse don’t care.

    As Ben Shapiro explained, his most important reason for backing Trump this time around was that “Democrats have lost their fucking minds."

    Four years ago, Shapiro had posted a six minute video on YouTube titled “Donald Trump is a Liar.” The next month, he wrote, “I Will Never Vote for Donald Trump: Here’s Why.

    But, like Lowry and National Review, he has evolved.

    Shapiro explains his reversal by pointing to what he sees as Trump’s record as a conservative, but he strains to rationalize Trump’s mendacity, which he acknowledges. So he’s left to argue that however bad Trump is, the “damage that President Trump has done to the country, on a character and rhetorical level, has already been done and cannot be undone. I don’t see it as getting worse day by day. That is the new status quo unfortunately.”

    In a recent endorsement video, Shapiro insisted that "I have been very clear on my feelings about Donald Trump's character. I have serious reservations to say the least...” He worried about “the soul sucking of the Republican Party to approve Trump’s bad behavior; people nodding and grinning at bad stuff Trump did….”

    But, he insisted, “Trump has some good qualities.”

    “He’s a hammer in search of a nail. Sometimes he hits a nail and it is super satisfying and sometimes he hits a baby and it is far less satisfying…. [Emphasis added.]

    Apparently, you have to smash some babies to make an omelet, or something.

    Shapiro dismisses all of this because, he says, “whatever damage he was going to do has already been done.”

    But this is a Vesuvius of wrongness.

    With Trump, it can always get worse, because there is no bottom. In just four years, Trump has already made the conservative movement, dumber, crueler, more dishonest, and more extreme. Rationalization has turned to acceptance. As the toll rises from the pandemic the pro-life party increasingly behaves like a death cult.

    Four years into his presidency, Trump can tweet conspiracy theories about Seal Team Six, and Republicans no longer even blink.

    What will be the butcher’s bill for another four years of Trump’s denialism and flimflammery?

    Two years of accommodating deception, cruelty and corruption, can be a temporary bargain.

    In four years, it becomes a habit.

    In eight years, it becomes a culture.

    _______


    See surfgun, sometimes it's not shooting 10 year old girls, it's hitting a baby...but if that's what it takes to get the job done, right?

    (By the way, in case you missed it, those are Ben Shapiro's words, not mine.)

    But my takeaway from this article is that your love of Trump as "the anti-lefty" is exactly what the majority of the cult loves as well.
    Cruelty, thuggery, sociopathic indifference to the suffering of non-cult Americans....these are desirable features, not bugs.
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • Chatting with some one that has no clue about American politics, the topic of age came up

      Trump remains the oldest president elected into office ever.

      At the end of a second term Trump will be as old as Biden entering his first term.

      Given that Presidents have won re-election since the last thirty years, Biden will be 86 by the time he finishes.

      Will he last that long. Maybe. Otherwise his deputy takes over.

      So why will people vote for Biden in the first place. What does he bring that is so appealing.

      He is only for those that hate Trump. He's not Trump. Sounds like the Democrat campaign of 2004.

      There is no anti-incumbency factor at play here.

      Better the devil you know

      Trump it is.
      Last edited by Double Edge; 27 Oct 20,, 19:32.

      Comment


      • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
        Chatting with some one that has no clue about American politics, the topic of age came up

        Trump remains the oldest president elected into office ever.

        At the end of a second term Trump will be as old as Biden entering his first term.

        Given that Presidents have won re-election since the last thirty years, Biden will be 86 by the time he finishes.

        Will he last that long. Maybe. Otherwise his deputy takes over.

        So why will people vote for Biden in the first place. What does he bring that is so appealing.

        He is only for those that hate Trump. He's not Trump. Sounds like the Democrat campaign of 2004.

        There is no anti-incumbency factor at play here.

        Better the devil you know

        Trump it is.
        There is no comparison between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. None. If you or your friend think that there is, then you clearly don't know jack shit about Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

        Comment


        • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

          There is no comparison between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. None. If you or your friend think that there is, then you clearly don't know jack shit about Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
          Nether was there between Bush & Kerry

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post

            Nether was there between Bush & Kerry
            Neither Bush, nor Kerry, are a valid comparison to Donald Trump. Which, again, is something you would already know if you knew anything about any of them.

            Your knowledge of the United States, its politics and politicians is exceedingly poor. You make that blindingly obvious every time you post about it.
            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

            Comment


            • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

              Trolls need love too
              Then roast them on the barbie, right....

              Comment


              • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                Neither Bush, nor Kerry, are a valid comparison to Donald Trump. Which, again, is something you would already know if you knew anything about any of them.

                Your knowledge of the United States, its politics and politicians is exceedingly poor. You make that blindingly obvious every time you post about it.
                The beauty of the age argument is you need know absolutely nothing about either.

                Quite elegant.

                Another person told me they prefer to vote democrat because the candidates are better looking

                Really lucked out with Biden this time

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post

                  The beauty of the age argument is you need know absolutely nothing about either.

                  Quite elegant.

                  Another person told me they prefer to vote democrat because the candidates are better looking

                  Really lucked out with Biden this time
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                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post
                    Chatting with some one that has no clue about American politics, the topic of age came up
                    As they say two is company and now you have company...

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post

                      As they say two is company and now you have company...
                      Tell me that after Trump wins his second term

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Double Edge View Post

                        Tell me that after Trump wins his second term
                        That is one thing that I can only hope that you're wrong about. But I'll have to wait at least 7 interminable days to know for sure.
                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by astralis View Post
                          DE,



                          purple is fairly easily defined. a state with relatively even numbers of voters from both parties. in this cycle, Texas and North Carolina and Georgia are purple states, not California.
                          Will get back to you on this when i find the quote.


                          Originally posted by astralis View Post
                          this is a meaningless metric, because social media engagement =/= political reality.

                          IE Twitter overall has a very definite liberal activist slant, but using that to measure a state's political lean is...dumb.
                          What kind of bias does facebook have then ?

                          That quick a pickup in Wisconsin means not liberal is what i want to say.

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                            That is one thing that I can only hope that you're wrong about. But I'll have to wait at least 7 interminable days to know for sure.
                            Deal is I go with whoever wins, whether I like them or not and then find ways to like them.

                            This way i'm with the right crowd of any country that has free and fair elections.

                            Comment


                            • DE,

                              What kind of bias does facebook have then ?

                              That quick a pickup in Wisconsin means not liberal is what i want to say.
                              or, it just shows that some right-wingers are going online to vent-- which doesn't do anything politically, and is not a good indicator of where conservatives are relative to the entire population of Wisconsin.

                              also, regarding California again:

                              https://www.latimes.com/politics/sto...nia-poll-shows

                              WASHINGTON —

                              With one week to go before the 2020 campaign ends, California remains on track to hand former Vice President Joe Biden a victory by the largest margin for a Democratic presidential candidate in state history, the final UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies poll indicates.

                              Biden leads President Trump 65%-29%, the poll finds. That 36-point margin would top the 30-point advantage that Hillary Clinton amassed against Trump in 2016, the previous record for a Democrat. The only larger victory in state history came exactly a century ago, in 1920, when Warren G. Harding, the Republican, beat James Cox, the Democratic candidate, by 42 points.
                              There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                              Comment


                              • Will the Electoral College favor Biden or Trump? Here’s what researchers predict

                                Researchers from Columbia University explored thousands of simulations to figure out who the Electoral College will favor this presidential election based on who it voted for in past elections.

                                The trio’s calculations revealed a “slight bias” toward President Donald Trump, but one that is about “half as severe” as that of 2016, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

                                There’s also the possibility that if Trump were to win the popular vote by a “slim margin,” he could lose the Electoral College, with the predicted bias favoring former Vice President Joe Biden instead.

                                “We note that 2016 was a statistical outlier,” study co-author Robert Erikson, a political science professor at Columbia University, who pointed out that Trump won in 2016 by barely winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, said in a news release. “The Democratic versus Republican divisions in the prior election have mattered, but only up to a point. That is why the same national popular vote as 2016 could have a different Electoral College outcome.”

                                What is the Electoral College?
                                Trump’s 2016 victory with the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote, inspired the researchers to explore all the possibilities of 2020’s presidential outcome and biases.

                                U.S. presidents are not elected directly by the citizens, known as the popular vote. They are chosen by “electors” through a process called the Electoral College. This process was established in the Constitution as a compromise to give both citizens and Congress members a chance to choose who they think is fit for presidency.

                                There are 538 electors based on 435 representatives and 100 senators from the 50 states, plus three electors from Washington, D.C. States with the most electors are California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20) and Pennsylvania (20). These numbers are based on each state’s population size.

                                A presidential candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes, or more than half of all electors, to win the election. But some deem the Electoral College biased because not all state laws require electors to follow their state’s popular vote.

                                Who will Electoral College favor in 2020 election?
                                The researchers examined historical Electoral College bias in past elections, as well as voting patterns in each state going back to 1980 using mathematical equations.

                                Over the nine presidential elections leading up to 2016, the Electoral College showed little bias toward one party over the other, according to the study. There was some bias working in the Democrats’ favor in the three presidential elections leading up to 2016, however, the researchers found.

                                “Although it has not granted either party a persistent historical advantage, the Electoral College has offered a mild, seemingly random, perturbation to the outcome, which matters in close elections,” the trio wrote in their study. “The Electoral College’s tilt toward Trump in 2016 stands out for its absolute magnitude, with the largest gap out of all elections.”

                                If Biden gets 51% of the popular vote, the team estimates that he would have a 46% chance of winning the Electoral College and a 50% chance of winning the “electoral votes-rich states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania and losing the less rich states of Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Nevada.”

                                “We found that Biden probably does not need as big a popular vote margin as Hillary Clinton did,” study co-author Karl Sigman, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at Columbia, said in the news release.

                                “If the vote were 51-49, as it was with Hillary Clinton, that would be the tipping point, and the Electoral College could go either way rather than a certain Trump victory.”

                                But if the popular vote ended in a tie, the team’s simulations say Trump would have a 12% chance of losing, or 88% chance of winning. And if the popular vote was 52 to 48 in favor of Biden, the former vice president would have a similar probability of losing, according to the study.
                                ____________

                                It's going to be interesting - to say the least - to look back in a week or so, and see how close any of these predictions actually were.
                                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                                Comment

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