Westminstenders: What the winds bring

[RedToothBrush]

The next few weeks are crucial. Eu talks, covid handling, the US election and any other unexpected events (its nearly November, lets face it will probably be the weather).

It feels a little like the car crash in slow motion is about to hit the wall of reality. I guess that just means all there is left to do is to brace for impact.

I enjoyed the anecdote @52andblue

I hadn't appreciated the Lord W link and am now

I hadn't appreciated the Lord W link

Me neither - though Chillingham is such a delightfull oddball collection his comment makes perfect sense.

The anecdote makes a lot more sense with the additional information!

Humphry Wakefield is eccentric.

He was one of the sources of the “Boris wants to quit” rumours recently.

DH has been saying this week that he expects that Trump will employ a 'red barrage' strategy tomorrow.

He thinks that the early declarations will be red, and trump will declare he is winning / has won. Then when state declare blue he will call it voter fraud.

I've now seen tonight that Trump is already preparing lawyers to make legal challenges tomorrow.

Trump WILL NOT go quitely even if the results go Biden's way.

I've said this for a long long time, but it's interesting that DH now thinks this. I know this has been speculated about for a while but I do think this is now almost a certainity if things go badly for Trump tomorrow.

He beleives he can always get his own way through the power of positive thought. And that includes bullying his way to it, if he doesn't get it legitimately.

Even if Trump appears to win, then there is already talk of how postal votes have been deliberately stolen / gone missing.

Tomorrow looks very very scary indeed...

Trump plans to barricade himself into the White House.
I think he has misjudged his new Supreme court appointees

Courts have rejected GOP applications to discount 127,000 drive through votes in Harris County, Texas.

www.texastribune.org/2020/11/02/texas-drive-thru-votes-harris-county/

Harris County (despite being home to the Bushes) voted Democrat in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The question for every would be dictator is who will the Generals and the Army back?

But the USA has more than one armed force. So I guess you also need to ask, who will the police back too. And then theres the armed miltia.

Thats where its scary.

What the courts say may be irrelevant.

The US military has been at pains to point out that it serves the position of President, not the person.

Trump will be relying on militias.

What about the police??
Who are the ones who manage the streets?

State Governors direct the police and highway troops, and can deploy the National Guard.

I can’t believe that we are all discussing what will happen if the US president loses the election and just refuses to go. This is absolutely extraordinary.

Welcome to 2020.

@SabrinaThwaite

Welcome to 2020.

We will all be wishing it was 2020 still by mid January!

National Guard is already out in Chicago I believe...

@RedToothBrush I completely agree with your DH (and you) I think it's very likely Trump will be quick to declare that he's won, and then all hell will break loose when it turns out he (hopefully) hasn't.

What's our plan for tomorrow folks? (I say like we're friends) I'm wondering whether to go to bed fairly early, quick check when Florida declare and then DH has to leave at 3am for work so I plan to watch/have it on in the background from my bed (and then all day, and possibly for days!) I say this, although last time I woke at about 1am for the 'Florida check' and that was me for the whole night watching the horror unfold!

I normally get sucked into watching every election but just can't with this as know I won't be fit for work. Think I'll just aim to get up earlier. Always have loads of calls as well so can't just have the radio on in the background all day. I simply don't dare to have hope any more, tbh.

Oh, and @52andblue - got your post.

I'm up tomorrow night and shall see how it goes.

If memory serves we tend to know where its headed by 2am despite the time difference because of the way they vote there. None of this sitting waiting for a reporter from a gymnasium in Sunderland for the first declaration at 11pm followed by hours of seeing hundreds of sports centres and school halls with the 3.30am - 4.30am drama of Minister Joe Bloggs losing his seat in spectular fashion and having to stand there like a plank in a rosette or a recount in Hastings.

As much as I prefer paper ballots, sometimes I do just wish it were over quicker rather the slow torture that it is.

@Zebracat

I can’t believe that we are all discussing what will happen if the US president loses the election and just refuses to go. This is absolutely extraordinary.

Because Trump loves to get people panicking and talking about things that are not going to happen.

He can't just refuse to go if he loses the election, just like he couldn't do many of the other things he said he was going to do.

It's all about keeping the attention on him. I'll be very glad when he's no longer in power and we perhaps stop falling for it.

Lets see what happens and hope that theres not violence (or more realistically as little violence as possible).

I agree with Red and her DH. Unless Biden secures a clear win tomorrow night (which I'm not optimistic of), things could get seriously scary. Can't work out whether to stay up. If it's looking Red at 2am sleep won't come easily...

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see violence especially in the city centres. It is 2020 after all...

If in the UK I'd go to bed early and then get up around 2.30am and watch the polls coming in.

Poll closing times (given in EST for me at least - maybe it adjusts depending on where you're located).
www.270towin.com/poll-closing-times

Could be completely off-beam here (please put me right if so!) but when I saw on the news earlier that the army are setting up camp in Liverpool in large numbers on Friday for a 'mass testing programme' I felt uneasy. The plan is to pilot the 'presence' there and then widen it to other cities, which I expect would come in handy after a perfect storm of extended winter lockdown and no deal or bad deal Brexit...

@baroqueandblue

Could be completely off-beam here (please put me right if so!) but when I saw on the news earlier that the army are setting up camp in Liverpool in large numbers on Friday for a 'mass testing programme' I felt uneasy. The plan is to pilot the 'presence' there and then widen it to other cities, which I expect would come in handy after a perfect storm of extended winter lockdown and no deal or bad deal Brexit...

No i felt that too.

I also have my doubts about whether a mass testing program will go down well in a lot of places too.

I know that the Labour leadership in the city approved this, seemingly willingly but yeah army on the streets in any context is not one i think good.

Mass testing is the way out of this, though, and in the U.K. the state has been so emasculated over the last 10 years that I don't believe there is any institution left with the capacity to run this.

As long as there is no compulsion and it's done with the full cooperation of local authorities then I don't think it's particularly problematic, any more than it would be to get the army involved after a natural disaster.

The devil is in the detail of course.