Trump vs. Biden

[Totenkindly]

Prominent Trump backer, evangelical minister Jeffress admits Biden has won

Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress has become one of the few high-profile supporters of President Trump to publicly acknowledge that the election was won by Joe Biden — and to urge his followers to pray for (rather than against) him.

“When Joe Biden becomes president, we should commend him for the things he does right. We should condemn the things he does wrong. And above all, we must pray fervently for our president,” Jeffress wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News. “If President Biden succeeds, we all succeed. May God bless Joe Biden, and may God bless the United States of America.”

Jeffress, a frequent visitor to the White House who traveled with Trump during the 2016 campaign, is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, and his sermons are carried on 1,200 television stations across the U.S. Jeffress is also a frequent guest on Fox News, so his voice reaches many evangelical Trump voters. His message to those refusing to accept Biden’s apparent victory was simple: Don’t be hypocrites...

He also said that Trump was fully within his rights to challenge the election results in court, but he remains skeptical that those cases will yield a new winner.

But of course I'm sure everyone jumped on him for this. So....

On Wednesday, however, Jeffress abruptly reversed himself, saying that the outcome of the election would not be decided until the Electoral College votes in December.

"Don’t believe some false media reports that I have “broken” with our great President realDonaldTrump. I support him completely. We do NOT have a “president-elect” until electoral college votes December 14. I will discuss on “
LouDobbs Tonight" Friday.

 

[Jonny]

The "Trump is staging a coup" story from the media is, frankly, hilarious.

It's like they've been at an Orange Hitler 11 for four years, and have no idea how to turn it back down. They have to keep portraying Trump as an authoritarian dictator intent on subverting the constitution, because the second they stop it means their entire narrative surrounding him for the last 4 years falls apart, and they'll have proved themselves wrong. So onward with more of the same panicked indignant pearl clutching!

Everyone would be much better served if they turned off CNN and did literally anything else with their time and energy. The stuff you people read and call news has become Bush-era Fox News levels of garbage. They're not even pretending to be news anymore.

Where are you seeing this? My sources pretty much tell the story of a man who is attempting to line his pockets one last time before he leaves office by selling a "we can still win" narrative and asking for donations for his "legal defense fund." As for the other Republicans, they're going along with this so they can remain in good standing with his dyed in the wool supporters after he goes.

I'm genuinely asking for some sources. Not because I disbelieve you, but because I'm not seeing what you're seeing.

 

[anticlimatic]

Where are you seeing this? My sources pretty much tell the story of a man who is attempting to line his pockets one last time before he leaves office by selling a "we can still win" narrative and asking for donations for his "legal defense fund." As for the other Republicans, they're going along with this so they can remain in good standing with his dyed in the wool supporters after he goes. I'm genuinely asking for some sources. Not because I disbelieve you, but because I'm not seeing what you're seeing.

Donald Trump's administration acting 'more akin to a dictatorship' sparks growing alarm as he denies election defeat - CNNPolitics

The most trusted name in news.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/11/coup-trump-election-concede-military/

Some commentators have settled on a shorthand description for what's going on: "The current present of the United States, Donald Trump, is attempting a coup in plain sight," as Vox's Ezra Klein put it.

 

[Jaguar]

Decision Desk HQ Projects Biden (D) Has Won The State Of AZ And Its 11 Electoral Votes

Race Called At 10:29 PM EST

https://twitter.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/1326728894339309569

 

[Jonny]

 

[Lark]

The "Trump is staging a coup" story from the media is, frankly, hilarious.

It's like they've been at an Orange Hitler 11 for four years, and have no idea how to turn it back down. They have to keep portraying Trump as an authoritarian dictator intent on subverting the constitution, because the second they stop it means their entire narrative surrounding him for the last 4 years falls apart, and they'll have proved themselves wrong. So onward with more of the same panicked indignant pearl clutching!

Everyone would be much better served if they turned off CNN and did literally anything else with their time and energy. The stuff you people read and call news has become Bush-era Fox News levels of garbage. They're not even pretending to be news anymore.

There's precident for this in US history, they tried it when FDR was in office and its an under scrutinized period of history.

There's also the book "war is a racket" which was written by one of the military types which establishment figures tried to enlist in a similar effort.

So I dont think its conspiracy theory or manufactured news.

Then again I've always wondered whether Trump is the threat liberals think he is or if he is in fact posing as the icon of the far right merely to draw them out and expose them in order that the establishment can either co-opt or eliminate them. Which I think is almost more possible.

 

[Totenkindly]

A growing chorus of GOP senators wants Trump to allow the Biden transition to start

 

[anticlimatic]

There's precident for this in US history, they tried it when FDR was in office and its an under scrutinized period of history. There's also the book "war is a racket" which was written by one of the military types which establishment figures tried to enlist in a similar effort. So I dont think its conspiracy theory or manufactured news.

There is definitely prescident, going all the way back to Julius Caesar, for leaders to attempt further power grabs through war mongering and safety theater. If Trump wanted to go that road he would have had to have started some kind of unfinished war or conflict, the way Bush did, for the sake of securing a second term- since nobody would have trusted Biden to be any kind of war time leader. But he didn't. Instead he sought re-election by growing the economy and middle class, which also should probably have been enough- but when your political opposition includes just about everyone in the 1%, including the entire national social/news media acting as an activist wing of the DNC, running on good news and optimism isn't going to cut it. Fear/hate mongering is always a better avenue to power, which is the Democrats bread and butter.

 

[Totenkindly]

Updates: Tracking The Unresolved 2020 Races | FiveThirtyEight

NATHANIEL RAKICH NOV. 12, 10:01 AM
Last night, Maricopa County, Arizona, released 13,143 more ballots, and Trump won them 53 percent to 44 percent — well behind the pace he needed. There are now, at most, 25,000 ballots remaining to be counted statewide, and Biden leads Arizona by 11,635. While ABC News has not yet projected a winner, last night Decision Desk HQ joined Fox News and the Associated Press in doing so.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

NYT: Small Cracks Emerge in G.O.P. Support for Trump’s Baseless Fraud Claims

“The president does a disservice to his more rabid supporters by insisting that he would have won the Nov. 3 election absent voter fraud,” said an editorial in The Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper owned by the family of the Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. “That’s simply false.” Mr. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have given more than $75 million to super PACs supporting Mr. Trump.
​

Election Was Most Secure in U.S. History, Government Officials Say

Top government security and election officials released a joint statement on Thursday definitively declaring that the presidential election last week “was the most secure in American history” and making clear that “there is no evidence” that any voting system was compromised in any way.

The statement, attributed to a high-ranking official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — part of the Department of Homeland Security — along with several top elections officials, amounted to a strong rebuke of President Trump’s repeated baseless assertion that the election had been stolen from him through widespread voter fraud.
​

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

NYT: Small Cracks Emerge in G.O.P. Support for Trump’s Baseless Fraud Claims

“The president does a disservice to his more rabid supporters by insisting that he would have won the Nov. 3 election absent voter fraud,” said an editorial in The Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper owned by the family of the Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson. “That’s simply false.” Mr. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have given more than $75 million to super PACs supporting Mr. Trump.
​

Election Was Most Secure in U.S. History, Government Officials Say

Top government security and election officials released a joint statement on Thursday definitively declaring that the presidential election last week “was the most secure in American history” and making clear that “there is no evidence” that any voting system was compromised in any way.

The statement, attributed to a high-ranking official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — part of the Department of Homeland Security — along with several top elections officials, amounted to a strong rebuke of President Trump’s repeated baseless assertion that the election had been stolen from him through widespread voter fraud.
​

Most secure? This is a purely irrelevant reaction, but that phrase sounds very Trumpian. Remember when he had the best health of anyone running for President (which I suppose he frantically tried to convince people of this this time, too)?

In both cases, how could we possibly know that? How long have we been tracking this stuff? Not back to when Washington was elected, I suspect.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Most secure? This is a purely irrelevant reaction, but that phrase sounds very Trumpian. Remember when he had the best health of anyone running for President (which I suppose he frantically tried to convince people of this this time, too)?

In both cases, how could we possibly know that? How long have we been tracking this stuff? Not back to when Washington was elected, I suspect.

Yeah it does sound Trumpian. But the thing to focus on is that it's DHS saying it, not the media. (And that not everyone who says something hyperbolic is immediately belying that the opposite is probably closer to the truth).

eta: It would be enthralling to hear he said it that way on purpose to make fun of Trump, but that's probably too much to hope for.

Axios (no paywall) : Department of Homeland Security calls election "the most secure in American history"

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Reuters: Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC

But any small-dollar donations from Trump’s grassroots donors won’t be going to legal expenses at all, according to a Reuters review of the legal language in the solicitations.

A donor would have to give more than $8,000 before any money goes to the “recount account” established to finance election challenges, including recounts and lawsuits over alleged improprieties, the fundraising disclosures show.

The emailed solicitations send supporters to an “Official Election Defense Fund” website that asks them to sign up for recurring donations to “protect the results and keep fighting even after Election Day.”

The fine print makes clear most of the money will go to other priorities.
​

 

[Jaguar]

A late-evening ballot update from Maricopa County clinched President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state of Arizona on Thursday. Biden picked up the state's 11 electoral votes, flipping the state Democratic in a presidential race for the first time since 1996. Major U.S. networks including CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post all call Arizona for Biden late this evening.

 

[Jonny]

I’m not sure. Some of my sources have huge expected gains for Biden in outstanding absentee ballots, which are counted later in rust belt, GA and NV. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Biden actually wins this thing with 306 electoral votes.

Of course Trump can win. If he does, he’ll likely have lost the popular vote by an even larger margin than in 2016, and will come in under 300 EV’s.

I think people underestimated the different voting preferences for Dems (absentee) vs. Reps (in person). The urban/rural divide seems larger than ever, and we’re going to have to figure out as a country how to work together and appreciate each other’s differences. We are a divided nation, but there is potential for reconciliation.

Indeed, it wasn’t. Biden will now most likely receive the exact number of EV’s that Trump would have in 2016 without faithless electors (he got 304 after 2 defections). Rather poetic. Of course, Biden is on track to when the popular vote by 4-5% whereas Trump lost it in 2016...

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

Michigan judge says GOP election challengers skipped training session, didn't fully understand process

...so he ain't letting them block cert...

 

[Z Buck McFate]

 

[Lark]

OK that made me laugh

 

[Lark]

I wonder if anyone knows that the attempts to destablize the US through plumbing the depths of racism and stoking a lot of shady elements for decades has probably been covert action by the US' biggest frenemy the UK as a sort of retaliation for intervention in the Ireland (north and south).

UK is never, ever done seeking the collapse, one way or another, of former imperial territories.

Not that there's not probably some sort of two way street to this. The UK itself as a single entity is probably more likely to break apart than the old money and aristos that the US originally fought for independence from will fade out for good.