US Elections 2020 II - Bernie Topwin: "We'll see this trashcan dream come true"

[Bazooka]

If DMT smoked Joe Biden it would convulse.

[peanutbutter]

Bet he wouldn't have been with (the tacitly Rogan approved) Bernie though.

Yknow, the GOP have been so awful during the pandemic I think they legit could have deluded themselves into thinking bernie hadn't a chance



That despacito clip is all kinds of cringe, definitely feels like since Harris was made his running mate that the Hillary crew have completely taken over his campaign.

[Mister Six]

"It's entirely possible... Mr Biden, have you ever smoked DMT?"

Trump on DMT would be something. There's nothing to him but ego, so what happens when that's stripped away? Does he cease to exist?

[Sin Agog]

Trump on DMT would be something. There's nothing to him but ego, so what happens when that's stripped away? Does he cease to exist?

[Mister Six]

My god.

[Alberon]

Early voting opens in Virginia.

The 2020 Dementia Games finally begin.

[Old Nehamkin]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-trump-war-military/

Progressives Slam Biden's Foreign Policy Team

As Joe Biden kicks his presidential campaign against Donald Trump into high gear, concern is growing inside the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that the foreign policy and political outreach teams he has assembled don't come close to reflecting the change—and reduced military spending—they hope to see after the November election.

The unrest is building as Senator Bernie Sanders, whom many of the dissidents supported, is privately expressing doubts about the direction of the Biden campaign and asking the former vice president to reach out more to the left. But Sanders has said little about foreign policy or national security since Biden secured the nomination, leaving the floor to rank-and-file Democratic activists.

They are particularly concerned about the influence of people like Antony Blinken, the chief foreign policy adviser to the Biden campaign. He was Biden's top aide when he voted in 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

...

In addition to Blinken, Democratic activists have focused on Michèle Flournoy, a former Pentagon official and military investor reportedly slated to become secretary of defense; and Avril Haines, the former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who will lead the foreign policy side of Biden's transition team if he wins. She crafted President Obama's policies on drone warfare as well as the administration's tough approach to North Korea, which Biden has promised to revive.

...

But policies are not the only issue: Biden's critics have also focused on the ties of his advisers to the military-industrial complex, which run deep.

After leaving government, Blinken and Flournoy created WestExec Advisors, a "strategic advisory firm" that works closely with military contractors and was modeled after the high-powered consultancy pioneered by Henry Kissinger during the Cold War, according to a recent profile in The American Prospect. Its influence within the Democratic Party is significant.

Flournoy, who also sits on the board of directors of intelligence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, was an adviser to vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as was WestExec principal Matt Olsen, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center under Obama. Haines, the former CIA official heading the transition team, is also a principal with WestExec.

...

In communications with Democrats, Winograd has pointed in particular to Flournoy's role as cofounder of the Center for a New American Security, which during the Obama years became a champion of the counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan. Under Flournoy, CNAS also became one of the most hawkish voices on confronting China. (In June, Flournoy suggested in Foreign Affairs that the United States should have "the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China's military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours" as a way to deter Chinese leaders from aggressive military action.)

I'm finding the "harm reduction" argument for Biden harder to swallow by the day, to be perfectly honest.

[Dog Botherer]

proxy war with China by 2022 if he gets in. you heard it here first.

[falafel]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-trump-war-military/


I'm finding the "harm reduction" argument for Biden harder to swallow by the day, to be perfectly honest.

I'm starting to think that having my hand slammed in a car door isn't worse than being shot in the back

[jobotic]

Perhaps it was not chance that the president, ever eager to generate media outrage, gave the first question to Brian Karem, who describes himself on Twitter as a "Loud Mouth" senior White House reporter at Playboy. "Will you commit to make sure there's a peaceful transferral of power after the election?" Karem asked.

All of his 43 predecessors would have said yes, presumably. But Trump replied: "We're going to have to see what happens, you know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster."

Karem shot back: "I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to make sure that there's a peaceful transferral of power?"


Still Trump refused to commit. "Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful — there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else."

Later, Karem remarked on Twitter: "This is the most frightening answer I have ever received to any question I have ever asked. I've interviewed convicted killers with more empathy. @realDonaldTrump is advocating Civil War."

And Julian Castro, who served in Barack Obama's cabinet, tweeted: "In one day, Trump refused a peaceful transition of power and urged the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice to hand him an election if the results are contested. This is fascism, alive and well in the Republican Party."

[ajsmith2]

It's gonna be insanity and chaos after Election night if there's any other outcome other than a convincing Trump victory. And America's so fundamentally divided that that seems a very unlikely scenario. Not sure America will be able to even pretend to function as one entity anymore if there's a narrow Biden win.

[phantom_power]

Arnold Schwarzenegger is pledging to fund a grant to re-open/keep open polling centres to help ensure a fair election. Now there's a sentence I wouldn't imagine writing a few years ago

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

The only thing that will save America is if enough Republicans and Republican voters still believe enough in the Constitution they fetishise to say "Trump is undermining Are Democracy, I'm leaving the party/voting for the other old white mostly conservative candidate." Democrats are pandering to Republicans and corporate interests and are going to blame "the left" if they don't win. There's no help there.

[evilcommiedictator]

EVERYTHING IS FINE
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/


Although, let's hear it for team "couldn't be arsed!"

[El Unicornio, mang]

It's gonna be insanity and chaos after Election night if there's any other outcome other than a convincing Trump victory.

I actually thought this sentence was going to end in "Biden victory". I think there's going to be chaos either way.

[Old Nehamkin]

Although, let's hear it for team "couldn't be arsed!"

Always worth remembering that "team couldn't be arsed" is largely composed of poor and non-white Americans who over the last four decades have been thoroughly and deliberately alienated from electoral politics by a Republican party which seeks to directly disenfranchise them and a Democratic party which seeks to simply render their voices irrelevant by cultivating an easily-disciplined wealthy suburban base.

[ajsmith2]

I actually thought this sentence was going to end in "Biden victory". I think there's going to be chaos either way.

My thinking was that a convincing Trump victory wouldn't be as contested by the Dems to remotely the same extent as a convincing Biden victory would be by Trump and the Repubs.

Both outlier outcomes anyway: it's very likely going to be close and unpleasant.

[Dog Botherer]

it'll be an election week. many states don't even begin counting absentee ballots until days after the election.

if Trump is ahead on election night and his lead is eroded by mail in ballots, he'll cry foul and every Republican official in the country will fight tooth and nail to throw out the ballots. if Biden is ahead on election night, Trump will call fraud and demand every single vote be examined and counted. then it's just a case of who blinks first really.

[Wonderful Butternut]

it'll be an election week. many states don't even begin counting absentee ballots until days after the election.

B-b-but the result has to be on the night!!!

(Nevermind that the actual act of electing the President is done 30 days later by the Electoral College)

I wonder will fascists riot at polling stations to try and get them closed down on election day.

[kngen]

it'll be an election week. many states don't even begin counting absentee ballots until days after the election.

if Trump is ahead on election night and his lead is eroded by mail in ballots, he'll cry foul and every Republican official in the country will fight tooth and nail to throw out the ballots. if Biden is ahead on election night, Trump will call fraud and demand every single vote be examined and counted. then it's just a case of who blinks first really.

I'm wouldn't want to be living in Pennsylvania. As well as being probably the most crucial swing state, it's just passed legislation to allow ballots that arrive after the cutoff to be counted so long as the postmark shows they were sent in on time. However, a similar move to allow early counting of ballots is unlikely to be adopted. I envisage armed MAGA twats storming ballot counts all over the state.

[The Roofdog]

Is Trump doing any actual campaigning at all or just sitting around wargaming how they'll steal it after he loses. I don't get what he does if Biden is ahead by the end of election night without postal votes, is the thing, is he so confident that's not going to happen?

[Dog Botherer]

his campaigning seems to mostly be calling Biden a communist anarchist and watching tv.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Maybe I'm naive but I still don't think there's any scenario where Trump tries to remain in office if he clearly lost (which of course is distinct from the Republicans stealing the election again if it is remotely close or turns on mail ballots). That would be bad for business.

All of the rhetoric from him on this is just to rev up his base with "voter fraud" scare tactics so that they are motivated to vote.

[kngen]

Maybe I'm naive but I still don't think there's any scenario where Trump tries to remain in office if he clearly lost (which of course is distinct from the Republicans stealing the election again if it is remotely close or turns on mail ballots). That would be bad for business.

All of the rhetoric from him on this is just to rev up his base with "voter fraud" scare tactics so that they are motivated to vote.

No, if it's a blowout, I think he'll fuck off and carp from the sidelines for eternity. But a close race – with him possibly having the lead with in-person voting on the night and then the blue shift of mail-in ballots eroding and possibly superseding his lead as the days go on - seems far more likely if the polling and voting patterns are correct.

[rjd2]

Maybe I'm naive but I still don't think there's any scenario where Trump tries to remain in office if he clearly lost (which of course is distinct from the Republicans stealing the election again if it is remotely close or turns on mail ballots). That would be bad for business.

All of the rhetoric from him on this is just to rev up his base with "voter fraud" scare tactics so that they are motivated to vote.

Its online resistance fan fiction bollocks tbh. He has been their meal ticket for so long and they are probably a little worried that after all their proclamations of a civil war etc, what will ultimately happen Trump will tweet in caps to sulk.

Trump if he loses will moan quite a bit, but ultimately when January comes around Biden will be sworn in.

[C_Larence]

Its online resistance fan fiction bollocks tbh. He has been their meal ticket for so long and they are probably a little worried that after all their proclamations of a civil war etc, what will ultimately happen Trump will tweet in caps to sulk.

Trump if he loses will moan quite a bit, but ultimately when January comes around Biden will be sworn in.

www.fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-if-trump-loses-and-wont-leave

This article goes into more details about specific potential scenarios where Trump refuses to concede, which to be fair he has repeatedly suggested he might.

[phantom_power]

his campaigning seems to mostly be calling Biden a communist anarchist and watching tv.

Don't forget blaming him for all the things happening now while he isn't even in charge

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The line about escorting trespassers from the White House was pretty good for a decomposing skeleton.

[kngen]

Its online resistance fan fiction bollocks tbh. He has been their meal ticket for so long and they are probably a little worried that after all their proclamations of a civil war etc, what will ultimately happen Trump will tweet in caps to sulk.

Trump if he loses will moan quite a bit, but ultimately when January comes around Biden will be sworn in.

I really hope you're right, but it's not like there isn't precedent. Bush in 2000, obviously, but more sinister is the expiration of a decree protecting voters from 'Ballot Security Patrols' - basically off-duty cops pulling non-white voters out of line and demanding to see their IDs, voter registration forms etc - the kind of stuff you expect in tinpot dictatorships. I don't think it's a huge leap to imagine a scenario where these groups attempt to bully their way into mail-in ballot counts in order to (GIANT FINGER QUOTES) prevent fraud.

At the moment, the best worst-case scenario I can envision is that the GOP grandees, having got their Supreme Court stacked for a generation at least, will decide that Trump has served his purpose and cut ties. They know he's making a total arse of things, and they're probably tired of having to pretend to support him as he drags them deeper into his end-of-days failed state. Let the Dems try to turn the economy around, and deal with pandemic deaths that will approach half a million, then they can push someone equally noxious but not actually insane like Tom Cotton in 2024.

EDIT: I genuinely think Trump will do anything to win a second term, not because he fears prison (as if the Dems are going to do anything like that if they take the reins), but because he'll be a one-termer and therefore not as successful or popular as Obama.

[Hundhoon]

i dont think Trump is going to win, the week after Brexit i was  80 percent certain he would win, due to his outsider rhetoric, he reminded me so much of Nigel Farage the way he invigorated people against the establishment, i just imagined rural American county after country voting for him .... i saw so many similarities but all that is gone this time and he has not delivered.

he could still win, just less likely he barely won last time, however the opposition is  78 year old who clearly is not able to be president, a frail old man who is being used as a tool.

Joe Biden is nothing he is a vehicle for the democrat establishment, i just dont think Trump will surmount it this time, the energy is gone. god knows whats going to happen with Biden, what a car crash of a situation lol