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thewayneIf the election was rigged so that Biden would win - which means you have to rig it in multiple states across the country - wouldn't you rig it so that you would win more down-ballot races?
The fact is that the Republicans GAINED SEATS in the House of Representatives and the Dems did not win a majority in the Senate.
Court cases challenging election results and votes are getting thrown out left and right because the Trump team are not offering EVIDENCE, you know, the stuff that is required in court.
But since when has logic and proof been a requirement of this presidency.
In other election news, it looks like Arizona has been finalized and for the first time since voting for Bill Clinton, they've elected a Democratic president. They also filled John McCain's seat with a Dem, significantly, with a former Astronaut, Mark Kelly, Kelly's wife Gabby Giffords was a Representative who was almost murdered by an assailant at a public speech in Tucson several years ago. Kelly himself is a twin who participated in an experiment to see how space affects twins.
John McCain's wife got in a great dig at Trump by posting a photo of John McCain on Twitter with the byline "I like my Presidents that don't lose."
Arizona's electoral votes have already been figured into Biden's 290, so the vote total does not change.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/biden-wins-arizona/index.html
And in other other election news, two Federal agencies are not ignoring the ban in providing services to President-Elect Joe Biden: the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Secret Service has, of course, been stepping up their protection of him ever since he became the nominee, and now that he's the President-Elect, he's getting full proper coverage along with his family. So also is Kamala Harris and her family. The FAA has made his house and operations center in Delaware a no-fly zone.
Meanwhile, Republican Senators are beginning to clamor for Biden to receive the Presidential security briefings from the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence. It's not like Trump ever did anything with them. Some of the Republicans ARE ON THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE.
Oh, in 2000? When it was unclear whether Bush or Gore won the election for a month? BOTH received the briefings temporarily. Biden has received these briefings before, he's handled classified material before, and I'll bet the people giving the briefings will enjoy giving them again to someone who appreciates the material and their work in preparing them, and not having to put the President's name in every other paragraph to keep his attention.
Let's address another subject: the possibility of a military coup to keep Trump in office.
Earlier this week, Trump replaced the head of the Pentagon. This is a civilian role. The admirals and generals who head up the various parts of the U.S. armed forces swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as do all members of the armed forces. They do not swear an oath to the president. Part of that oath is to faithfully execute all LAWFUL orders. If they do not, there are serious consequences, including imprisonment, loss of rank, discharge from service, and I think they can lose their pension.
The people at the top of the armed forces take this oath very seriously. Trump has insulted them on numerous occasions, both directly and indirectly. He's never understood the concept of sacrifice for bigger ideals, he's only understood greed. He went to Arlington National Cemetary with Jim Mattis when Mattis was visiting the graves of his sons and Trump was quoted as saying "What was in it for them?" He didn't understand. Trump repeatedly said that John McCain was a loser, "I like heroes who don't get captured."
He doesn't understand and that's an insult to the military.
And the guys at top heard that, understood that, and will never forget that.
Trump also infamously said that 'My Vietnam was not getting STDs at Studio 54.' He got 3 deferments from not serving in Vietnam because of bone spurs. Meanwhile, he was considered a top athlete playing baseball at the military school that his dad sent him to. No x-rays have ever been produced showing the bone spurs, and he can't remember which foot was bothered.
I worked on an Air Force base four years ago shortly after Trump was elected. There was very little respect for him among the upper ranks from what I heard and saw then, I don't know what that opinion is now.
But what it boils down to is that the military is a structure-driven organization. Trump can only order top brass to do things. He can order his top brass to do a coup. And they would be bound by the Constitution and their oath to disregard that order, and they would be bound to order their underlings to disregard any orders from the President to do a coup or anything like it as it is Unconstitutional and an illegal order.
If any units in the military go into the field in the attempt to overthrow Biden or uphold Trump, then they are acting in an Unconstitutional manner and the rest of the military will have to put them down, and it will be a bad day in America. Hopefully those unit commanders will listen to their superiors and roll back into their barracks and stand down.
The fact is that the Republicans GAINED SEATS in the House of Representatives and the Dems did not win a majority in the Senate.
Court cases challenging election results and votes are getting thrown out left and right because the Trump team are not offering EVIDENCE, you know, the stuff that is required in court.
But since when has logic and proof been a requirement of this presidency.
In other election news, it looks like Arizona has been finalized and for the first time since voting for Bill Clinton, they've elected a Democratic president. They also filled John McCain's seat with a Dem, significantly, with a former Astronaut, Mark Kelly, Kelly's wife Gabby Giffords was a Representative who was almost murdered by an assailant at a public speech in Tucson several years ago. Kelly himself is a twin who participated in an experiment to see how space affects twins.
John McCain's wife got in a great dig at Trump by posting a photo of John McCain on Twitter with the byline "I like my Presidents that don't lose."
Arizona's electoral votes have already been figured into Biden's 290, so the vote total does not change.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/biden-wins-arizona/index.html
And in other other election news, two Federal agencies are not ignoring the ban in providing services to President-Elect Joe Biden: the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Secret Service has, of course, been stepping up their protection of him ever since he became the nominee, and now that he's the President-Elect, he's getting full proper coverage along with his family. So also is Kamala Harris and her family. The FAA has made his house and operations center in Delaware a no-fly zone.
Meanwhile, Republican Senators are beginning to clamor for Biden to receive the Presidential security briefings from the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence. It's not like Trump ever did anything with them. Some of the Republicans ARE ON THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE.
Oh, in 2000? When it was unclear whether Bush or Gore won the election for a month? BOTH received the briefings temporarily. Biden has received these briefings before, he's handled classified material before, and I'll bet the people giving the briefings will enjoy giving them again to someone who appreciates the material and their work in preparing them, and not having to put the President's name in every other paragraph to keep his attention.
Let's address another subject: the possibility of a military coup to keep Trump in office.
Earlier this week, Trump replaced the head of the Pentagon. This is a civilian role. The admirals and generals who head up the various parts of the U.S. armed forces swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as do all members of the armed forces. They do not swear an oath to the president. Part of that oath is to faithfully execute all LAWFUL orders. If they do not, there are serious consequences, including imprisonment, loss of rank, discharge from service, and I think they can lose their pension.
The people at the top of the armed forces take this oath very seriously. Trump has insulted them on numerous occasions, both directly and indirectly. He's never understood the concept of sacrifice for bigger ideals, he's only understood greed. He went to Arlington National Cemetary with Jim Mattis when Mattis was visiting the graves of his sons and Trump was quoted as saying "What was in it for them?" He didn't understand. Trump repeatedly said that John McCain was a loser, "I like heroes who don't get captured."
He doesn't understand and that's an insult to the military.
And the guys at top heard that, understood that, and will never forget that.
Trump also infamously said that 'My Vietnam was not getting STDs at Studio 54.' He got 3 deferments from not serving in Vietnam because of bone spurs. Meanwhile, he was considered a top athlete playing baseball at the military school that his dad sent him to. No x-rays have ever been produced showing the bone spurs, and he can't remember which foot was bothered.
I worked on an Air Force base four years ago shortly after Trump was elected. There was very little respect for him among the upper ranks from what I heard and saw then, I don't know what that opinion is now.
But what it boils down to is that the military is a structure-driven organization. Trump can only order top brass to do things. He can order his top brass to do a coup. And they would be bound by the Constitution and their oath to disregard that order, and they would be bound to order their underlings to disregard any orders from the President to do a coup or anything like it as it is Unconstitutional and an illegal order.
If any units in the military go into the field in the attempt to overthrow Biden or uphold Trump, then they are acting in an Unconstitutional manner and the rest of the military will have to put them down, and it will be a bad day in America. Hopefully those unit commanders will listen to their superiors and roll back into their barracks and stand down.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 05:28 pm (UTC)Trump has millions of Twitter followers and we know they have guns. If he ever started organizing a militia of some sort, I'd be worried. But him being the Commander-in-Chief does nothing to automatically earn the respect of men and women in uniform-- if they do not like the man their discharge of their duties stop at the legal requirements. They certainly would never risk their career, risk their honour and pride for that man. History shows that most militaries are connected to their people and their country.
Trump has ICE and Blackwater.
Date: 2020-11-13 06:25 pm (UTC)I worry that the baseless lawsuits and posturing, combined with the rhetoric about how Portland, DC, NY, Boston, Philly, and other sanctuary cities are lawless places with no police and constant looting (going around on right-wing social media) are designed to create cover for "I sent in federal forces to establish order and uncover the true election results" --> para-military takeover.
As you say, he doesn't have much of the actual military behind him. And probably the nukes are off-limits. But events so far are disturbingly similar to how Bush Jr. created a cover story for Gulf War 2.
Re: Trump has ICE and Blackwater.
Date: 2020-11-13 07:16 pm (UTC)There’s a very interesting article about Eric Prince and Blackwater in Rolling Stone right now. Seems like he’s the laughing stock of the military contractor community right now. While Trump could theoretically order out those groups and they could cause a lot of trouble, if they didn’t stand down when Biden was sworn in, it wouldn’t take much for them to be put down.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 07:11 pm (UTC)Yep. “I’ve got my AR-15 and 5,000 rounds!”
They’ve got armor and missiles. Gee, I wonder who’s going to win.
No, do not piss off, or on, the Army. Or any other branch.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 05:28 pm (UTC)I think you misheard a little.
Gen. Mark Milley's statement about an oath to the constitution does not seem to be particularly "now let's not be having a coup now"; it's pretty close to "fuck around and find out". There will be a peaceful transition of power and there will be an observance of norms. There may also be a stack of corpses, if they're so lost to sense as to really insist on trying to violate the constitutional norm.
And I'll note that it's after Milley's statement that the Republican calls for Trump to admit defeat started.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 07:12 pm (UTC)Very cogent point. If the military isn’t going to support him, and I never thought they would, then it’s a good time to surrender.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 07:14 pm (UTC)All that was needed to keep him out was for every candidate who wants to run for POTUS to pass the U.S. Citizenship test. If they can’t demonstrate the basic understanding of our democracy, then they don’t deserve to lead it.
I doubt Trump could read it outloud, much less pass it.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-13 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 05:36 am (UTC)Not only that, but...https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/10/pentagon-top-policy-official-resigns-435693
I'm playing "wait and see" on that same as with all the other things coming out of this election.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 06:04 am (UTC)Thank you for the info, I hadn't seen that. My Politico app doesn't work well as my iPads are stuck at older versions of iOS due to their age. I should make an effort to follow that site more, it has good info.
no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-14 11:27 pm (UTC)