[stone monkey]

Really, the most disturbing thing about this election is not that it's so close, but that it's even close at all. You have a perfectly boring challenger to one of the most corrupt Presidents in history (Trump is basically the Warren G. Harding of the 21st century... but without the marginally competent staff) and nearly 50% of the US still casts votes for the racist, crypto-fascist, grifter. Terrifying.

[Mentalist]

AP called Michigan, finally.

In PA, Trump's lead is down to 270K.

Given the SCOTUS challenges, I'd much rather just take Nevada for the simple win.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump Orders Advisers to "Go Down Fighting"

Seeing his chances of reelection slipping away, the president wants his armada of lawyers to give Democrats a court fight that "they'll never forget"

[...] In Detroit, pro-Trump protestes showed up at a ballot counting site demanding access to the officials and insisting that the counting be ended. In Arizona, one of Trump's closest congressional allies, Rep. Paul Gosar, put out a "call to action" for "red blooded American patriots" to attend a rally to "protect our president" at the Maricopa County election center. In Nevada, a Trump supporter interrupted a registrar of voters press conference by declaring "the Biden crime family steals this election." And throughout the day, the Trump campaign peppered donors and supporters with text messages and emails asking for money to help fund—what it erroneously called—an attempt by Democrats to "steal" the election.

"They came down the escalator and came in and started banging on the door, 'stop the count, stop the count.' This was a clearly coordinated effort by people wearing official GOP credentials to stop the counting of absentee votes in the city of Detroit," [...]'

[Biden had already pulled ahead in Michigan, but perhaps they thought they could stop the counting in Detroit while it continued in other areas?... Or maybe their passion for willful ignorance got the better of them?... Or they thought they could somehow make mail-in ballots 'flipping' the 'result' (as Kavanaugh put it in his infamous recent opinion) seem to have a 'cloud' of illegitimacy ('Justice' Alito), and retroactively disqualify them?]

'Trump's legal team—including George W. Bush campaign veteran Mark "Thor" Hearne—asked a court in Michigan to halt absentee ballot counts because it alleged its observers had not been granted full access to the tally, and were not permitted to watch video footage of "remote and unattended dropboxes." It brought a similar suit in Pennsylvania, fighting to stop the tabulation on the grounds that its overseers had not been allowed within 25 feet of the counting effort.

Further, it filed to enter an ongoing Supreme Court case, hoping to convince jurists on the highest bench to overturn a state policy that would allow counties to count votes postmarked on Election Day and received as late as Friday.

[...] Giuliani declared [Philadelphia]'s count "totally illegitimate," citing fabricated data, contextual-less anecdotes, and manufactured rumors of illegal voters.

[...] The effort to swarm the sites and demand access to the vote counting operations had clear echoes to what Republicans did in Florida in 2000, when a group of young operatives famously caused a scene in Florida that became known as the Brooks Brothers Riots.

[...] before the morning even ended, three senior officials on the reelection effort were already telling The Daily Beast that they were confident the president's best, if not only, hope in locking Biden out of the White House would be if the attorneys were able to successfully intervene in enough states.

"Lawyer city," Joe Grogan, formerly a top domestic policy adviser to President Trump, said, describing the situation on Wednesday afternoon. "It's going to be really ugly."'

https://www.thedaily...ection?ref=home

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 04 November 2020 - 11:44 PM

[stone monkey]

I think we're getting to the stage where Trump is going to ask his lawyers to actually argue in the Supreme Court that an illegally cast vote is defined as anything that doesn't have an X next to the name Donald J Trump.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 04 November 2020 - 11:37 PM

[HoosierDaddy]

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope. For hope would be hope of the wrong thing....

[HoosierDaddy]

stone monkey, on 04 November 2020 - 10:53 PM, said:

Really, the most disturbing thing about this election is not that it's so close, but that it's even close at all. You have a perfectly boring challenger to one of the most corrupt Presidents in history (Trump is basically the Warren G. Harding of the 21st century... but without the marginally competent staff) and nearly 50% of the US still casts votes for the racist, crypto-fascist, grifter. Terrifying.

Yes.

This is America. Don't catch you slippin' now.

[Mentalist]

PA lead down to 212k

GA lead down to 45k

crazy numbers. If everything flips (except NC, that one seems unlikely), then I don't think even a massive legal attack could stall it.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 05 November 2020 - 12:42 AM

[Slow Ben]

stone monkey, on 04 November 2020 - 10:53 PM, said:

Really, the most disturbing thing about this election is not that it's so close, but that it's even close at all. You have a perfectly boring challenger to one of the most corrupt Presidents in history (Trump is basically the Warren G. Harding of the 21st century... but without the marginally competent staff) and nearly 50% of the US still casts votes for the racist, crypto-fascist, grifter. Terrifying.

Yep. And it makes me profoundly sad. Even though I live in an “All Lives Matter” county that voted 86% Trump. I still wanted to think better of it.

[QuickTidal]

AP has Biden currently 6 electoral college votes from victory. That means if Nevada clinches tonight...that’s the ballgame, right?

[Terez]

Nevada won't. They decided to go back to their original plan, which is to not report any new votes until tomorrow morning.

Our hopes for tonight are pinned on a vote drop that we're about to get in Arizona, and maybe Georgia. PA won't be called tonigiht either - tomorrow or maybe even Friday.

PS: AZ+GA is 270, not counting NV and PA at all

This post has been edited by Terez: 05 November 2020 - 01:54 AM

[Cause]

So can we not trust that Arizona was called by AP and Fox hours and hours ago?

[Terez]

Cause, on 05 November 2020 - 02:41 AM, said:

So can we not trust that Arizona was called by AP and Fox hours and hours ago?

It's definitely iffy. The vote that just got reported in AZ (~75k out of ~400k outstanding) went 59% for Trump, and he needs to get about 60% of the whole batch to overtake Biden. There's a reason why all the other news orgs were reluctant to follow.

[HoosierDaddy]

Cause, on 05 November 2020 - 02:41 AM, said:

So can we not trust that Arizona was called by AP and Fox hours and hours ago?

To veterans of US elections you learn to never trust a call until they've all called them. And even then, they can "un"call them. NBC will not make this call and evidently the Trump people are making noise about the outstanding votes left there....

Who knows.

[Mentalist]

GA is down to 33K difference.

If Arizona flips, that'll be pretty bad at this stage.

[Cause]

Man I am already seeing so much Democrat poison against Biden. Now that the die is cast people who were vote Biden to save democracy are saying that he is such a terrible choice, a corporate democratic is republican lite. That the Democratic Party is full of losers for not flipping the senate. I mean it’s disappointing but it’s a bit early for so much gloom and hate.

[Mentalist]

When are we expecting additional AZ reports?

[Terez]

About two hours.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Armed Agents Are Allowed in Ballot-Counting Venues, Justice Dept. Tells Prosecutors

Former officials expressed fears that the department's legal interpretation would allow federal investigators to intimidate vote counters or interfere with their work.

[...] A law prohibits the stationing of armed federal officers at polls on Election Day. But a top official told prosecutors that the department interpreted the statute to mean that they could send armed federal officers to polling stations and locations where ballots were being counted anytime after that.

The statute "does not prevent armed federal law enforcement persons from responding to, investigate, or prevent federal crimes at closed polling places or at other locations where votes are being counted," the officia[...] told prosecutors in an email that he sent around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

[...] sent his email about half an hour before Mr. Trump made reckless claims including falsely declaring himself the winner of the election and began calling for election officials to stop counting ballots.

"We want all voting to stop," Mr. Trump said at the White House. He said, without offering details, that his campaign would "be going to the U.S. Supreme Court" over the election count. The Trump campaign said later in the day that it was filing lawsuits in multiple states, including Michigan, to halt or protest vote counts.

One state election official vowed to resist any interference or intimidation efforts by federal officials.

[...] In instances where the department can secure access to ballots for any investigation, Ms. Gupta said that federal law allowed law enforcement officials to "copy and inspect, but that ballots stay in the hands of local election officials."'

https://www.nytimes....s-election.html

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 05 November 2020 - 04:00 AM

[Garak]

So Trump is acting like a spoiled child. Ugh, someone slap the stupid out of him already.

[Lady Bliss]

Trumps lead is shrinking in AZ... ugh