Donald has barricaded himself in the WH and we have Georgia on our minds. (Trump thread #113)

[TheNorthWestPawsage]

Will Donald pardon the turkeys or will the turkeys pardon Donald?

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4072846-He-can-thcream-and-thcream-until-he-s-sick-but-the-US-has-taken-its-future-back-Trump-thread-112?watched=1&msgid=101645744#101645744

I have beem to the US once, visiting my sister in Chicago. We flew the day after the foiled liquid bomb plot which was quite an experience.

You could spend a lifetime travelling in the country and never cross a border but still open yourself up to cultural differences and all kinds of diversity.

Something the majority of the UK has no interest in.

@chomalungma

Doesn't the queen pass or veto a bill like our us president does

I have just watched The West Wing when they veto a bill.

I couldn't see the Queen doing that.

Funny enough - I could see Prince Charles thinking about it - but again, he wouldn't do it.

He'd be out before he could blink.

The Monarch has no power in the UK. It's a fiction that lets the PM act as president without the risk of a direct election.

People may try to scare UK republicans with "President Blair", but at least you get to vote them out.

For the Floridians, I apologize for my Tampa joke.

Florida is huge and diverse and fascinating. Also if one is going to stereotype/satirize FL, I recommend Carl Hiaasen.

Trump has dug himself (and therefore the country) into a hole with saying "imagine losing to Biden, the worst candidate in history". Even if every last GOP Senator agrees Biden as POTUS elect, Trump just won't. But the GOP is facing the idea of Republicans splitting into Trump and non Trump wings with neither faction large enough to take on the Dems. So they dare not renounce him.

Flexing a bit of muscle now?

McConnell warns Trump against troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
thehill.com/policy/defense/526194-mcconnell-warns-trump-against-troop-drawdown-in-afghanistan

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired a warning shot Monday against withdrawing more U.S. troops from Afghanistan, even as the Pentagon is preparing an order to do so.

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, warned that only a "small minority" in Congress would support a rapid drawdown and warned that a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan "would hurt our allies and delight, delight, the people who wish us harm."

"The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011. ... It would be reminiscent of the humiliating American departure from Saigon in 1975. We'd be abandoning our partners in Afghanistan," McConnell said from the Senate floor.

McConnell didn't directly criticize Trump in his speech. But his remarks come amid multiple reports that Pentagon officials anticipate Trump will as soon as this week order military officials to cut the number of troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 and the number of forces in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500 by Jan 15.

Sounds like a new Vietnam. The one 45 didn't go to.

Here is who's in the running for Biden's cabinet

Zach Purser Brown @zachjourno

Bookmark this: You can keep track of who's who in Biden's White House and Cabinet as they're appointed, in this updating story.

www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/biden-cabinet/

Georgia:
www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fpolitics%2fbrad-raffensperger-georgia-vote%2f2020%2f11%2f16%2f6b6cb2f4-283e-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html

Do you think that not conceding straight away has set a precedent?

So the next election, will there be a few weeks of 'well the media doesn't call it, we'll just ride it out and see what happens?

@chomalungma

Do you think that not conceding straight away has set a precedent?

So the next election, will there be a few weeks of 'well the media doesn't call it, we'll just ride it out and see what happens?

I can't see Biden (who probably won't run for a 2nd term) doing it if a Repug wins (spit on the ground, turn around 3 times, etc) in 2024. I just think he has too much respect for the Office of the Presidency and for the peaceful transition of power.

A 'mere' candidate doing it isn't that big a deal, it wouldn't really impact the running of the Country nor the peaceful transition of power. The incumbent POTUS doing it (like Scrotus) is what is causing the problems. He's refusing to allow the incoming Biden Administration the transition privileges that he, Scrotus, was given by Obama four years ago.

This is a heartbreaking item on the cult of BS that Trump has helped build.
“South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'”

hill.cm/HDzlDjc

[quote EveryoneRevealsThemselves]This is a heartbreaking item on the cult of BS that Trump has helped build.
“South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'”

hill.cm/HDzlDjc[/quote]
It's all very 'Jim Jones' isn't it ☹️

Yes, if everything you don't want to believe is 'fake news' orchestrated by the 'deep state' you are likely to go very far adrift and maybe not return to solid ground.

I wish, as well as the other things that the Donald could get done for, he could get done for dereliction of duty as president of the United States over his handling of Covid or similar.

[quote EveryoneRevealsThemselves]This is a heartbreaking item on the cult of BS that Trump has helped build.
“South Dakota nurse says many dying patients still insist COVID-19 'not real'”

hill.cm/HDzlDjc[/quote]
That nurse and that story was on our news tonight. It's heartbreaking AND infuriating. But mostly heartbreaking.

@Yohoheaveho

It certainly is very Jim Jones. I remember when Jonestown happened. I was working for an Agency that had to deal with a lot of the families of those killed. It was my first career job with the Govt and I was such an innocent and naive baby. It was a terrible awakening and I thank God for the more experienced and steady heads of coworkers that guided me through it.

But those memories have given me a long standing abhorrence for cult leaders of any kind and I class Scrotus as the worst kind of cult leader. One who knows exactly what he's doing and doesn't give a shit about the 'fallout' to those gullible or stupid enough to follow them. Some cult leaders are deluded themselves, some are mentally ill, some get carried away like a snowball rolling down a hill. Scrotus is just plain evil.

@BruceAndNosh

Trump has dug himself (and therefore the country) into a hole with saying "imagine losing to Biden, the worst candidate in history". Even if every last GOP Senator agrees Biden as POTUS elect, Trump just won't. But the GOP is facing the idea of Republicans splitting into Trump and non Trump wings with neither faction large enough to take on the Dems. So they dare not renounce him.

Oh, gosh, thank you, @BruceAndNosh, that has clarified it for me so well. I've been struggling to understand this and you've summed it up in a nutshell.

EveryoneReveals I saw that nurse and the interview. It was awful. Even on their deathbeds the trump supporters are saying they've got lung cancer because covid doesn't exist. Or flu or pneumonia. And they are fighting against it... and the nurses. No peaceful end for them.

Thank god trump lost. Because now there are vaccines becoming available, I think he would have just totally ignored covid altogether until vaccines were rolled out. And it could be months and thousands and thousands more deaths in that time. Bad enough that Biden's hands are tied until January.

That interview is so sad

@tobee

I wish, as well as the other things that the Donald could get done for, he could get done for dereliction of duty as president of the United States over his handling of Covid or similar.

It is an interesting question. I mean, we know it won't happen, but how far would a world leader have to go in a pandemic scenario to face some sort of criminal or civil charge? Because he does seem to have done it all, and then some! He's even (probably) knowingly infected people directly, which would presumably be enough in the UK.

On a lighter note, this thread is funny. Trump's lawyers quit, leaving a radio host to deal with the case

Brad Heath @bradheath

A federal judge won't delay tomorrow's hearing on President Trump's lawsuit to overturn the election he lost i n Pennsylvania because most of his lawyers quit. His remaining lawyer - who's also a radio host - will have to go it alone and is "expected to be prepared."

twitter.com/bradheath/status/1328514432461365249?s=21

A worldwide ripple effect of Trump losing...

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/16/setback-for-bolsonaro-after-poor-results-in-brazil-local-elections

Bolsanaro, Brazil's PM, who also tried to ignore Covid, is now doing very poorly following Trump's loss.

“The left rejuvenated on Sunday,” reported the Rio broadsheet O Globo.

The election comes at a testing time for Bolsonaro. Trump’s defeat has robbed his populist project of a key source of legitimacy, corruption investigators are reportedly closing in on two of his politician sons, and polls show support slipping in several major cities.

Meanwhile, more than 165,000 Brazilians have died because of a coronavirus epidemic critics claim Bolsonaro has catastrophically mishandled. Last week, with hints that Brazil’s outbreak was again worsening, Brazil’s president rejected warnings of a “second wave” as “jibber-jagger”.

Let's hope Trump losing affects the UK too.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/16/georgia-brad-raffensperger-lindsey-graham-elections-ballots

In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state’s signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.

Raffspenger was reportedly “stunned” by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.

“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said.

I was just about to post that Roussette

CNN report
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/16/politics/georgia-secretary-of-state-lindsey-graham-ballots-cnntv/index.html?__twitter_impression=true