SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

[Simon_Jester]

If he does attend via giant screen, I'm looking forward to the president being on a mute button.

[Borgholio]

If he does attend via giant screen, I'm looking forward to the president being on a mute button.

Or even better, this:

[Zwinmar]

Another debate, this one just as anger inducing.

[Napoleon the Clown]

If Twitter is to be believed, Harris won the debate but a fly stole the show. My self-loathing is inadequate to actually watch the thing.

[Mr Bean]

If Twitter is to be believed, Harris won the debate but a fly stole the show. My self-loathing is inadequate to actually watch the thing.

I watched it on a second monitor while in my Curse of Straud game. So trust me when I say I started drinking at an hour before, ended thirty minutes after and the only real notable thing was Senator Harris fell for several of VP Pence verbal traps (Like for example ignore the question on covid deaths to ask Senator Harris a question which she answered).

The flip side is it was Senator Harris and reality vs VP Pence who kept talking like he was VP to some other Republican other than President Trump.

But yeah a fly landed on VP Pence and it seems he could not feel it nor did he look at his wife who was trying to cue him hey you have a fly on your forehead. It was there a solid 2-3 minutes hence #ZombiePence on twitter.

[Crazedwraith]

Trumps refusing to do a second debate as it would be virtual

[Solauren]

I'd do the debate anyway. He doesn't want to show, then he's given his opponent free time to speak to the entire country.

[Raw Shark]

I'd do the debate anyway. He doesn't want to show, then he's given his opponent free time to speak to the entire country.

That's exactly what Biden is doing, except he's calling it a Town Hall if Trump chickens out of showing.

[Solauren]

Good! Just make sure to start it with proof that Trump backed out, and why. And then point out a live debate would put the health of everyone there at risk, due to Trump having Covid-19.

[Rogue 9]

Trump comparing himself to Lincoln was just fucking hilarious. "Least racist person in the room," when the room contains the vice president of the first black President and a black moderator.

[Soontir C'boath]

Just an anecdotal look on a NYC level. I'm noticing people on Twitter posting photos of people waiting long lines to early vote today and it actually kind of makes me sad. Biden was going to win NY anyway and most, if not all, of the competitive races was back in the primary when people didn't really show up.

And in the end, they haven't really shown up for the past four years. We really need to lose the brainbug that only Presidential years matter, because there are plenty of local races that matter and in the end, not all Democrats are the same in this city. We can do better than what we have now.

I mean how can we march for George Floyd, Brienna Taylor, Eric Garner, etc when we keep the same piece of shit attorney generals with a (D) in their name no less in our city that enable the NYPD? SMH. Melinda Katz is a career politician who's never touch the court before and she's just continuing the same bullshit Richard Brown was doing before her. Congratulations on voting more of the same while wasting energy marching on the streets and getting hit with rubber bullets and tear gas.

[Rogue 9]

Well, if you spend much time interacting with the English-speaking online Left, you will find widespread rejection of "electoralism." They don't vote, nothing changes, which they use to justify that voting doesn't work (because obviously other people voted, and they didn't change anything). It's pants-on-head stupid.

[Soontir C'boath]

Well, if you spend much time interacting with the English-speaking online Left, you will find widespread rejection of "electoralism." They don't vote, nothing changes, which they use to justify that voting doesn't work (because obviously other people voted, and they didn't change anything). It's pants-on-head stupid.

I'm not even boiling it down to that sect of the Left. I mean Democrats in general. I should clarify in this case that it was a tight race between Katz and an up and comer public defender named Tiffany Caban for Queens District Attorney. The latter of which did promise needed judicial reforms for minority and the LGBT+. Katz won because she was endorsed by a couple fellow Queens black legislators which ultimately won her the black vote in the county. Annnd since her election and placed in office, she has renege on her promises of judicial reforms. Surprise, surprise.

[Soontir C'boath]

Maybe this should go into a separate "I voted" thread. Anywho, I went to "early vote" today in NYC. This is the first year we are able to do this due in part to getting rid of our Democrats in Name Only with leftists/progressive politicians that pushed for voting reform among other things. It was pretty quiet during the primary, but the general election is certainly making early voting busier. Today everything seemed to be moving at a pretty brisk pace. I came in late in the afternoon to avoid the long lines in the morning and I didn't have to wait much if at all to sign in and get my ballot. There seemed to be a steady stream of people coming in as I was filling out my ballot so that was good to see.

I usually write-in random names during the general election since it's usually a foregone conclusion on who gets elected in the primary, but since Democratic Governor Cuomo decided he had to fuck with how third parties (Working Families specifically) can stay on the ballot, I voted down the line for them. I have a personal issue with the WFP, so I usually ignore them, but not anymore it seems. Thanks, Cuomo.

[Rogue 9]

I'm working the polls for early voting tomorrow and on Election Day. I voted early myself last Saturday and there was a consistent hour and a half line at the library all day.

[Soontir C'boath]

Was just told by a buddy of my that he voted Republican. Half of me is surprised. Other half is not. Not to say railfans are not Republicans as I'm sure there are plenty out there, but he's Asian, autistic*, and loves the NYC Subway system. Voting Republican, you might as well stab the subway in the back and we've actually had a brief conversation or two about this in what's happening to the MTA too. Though that's if he actually paid attention or remembers.

*I am pretty sure his inability to understand normal social behaviors and frankly his childlike understanding of the world (constantly looks to cartoons for IRL lessons) doesn't help at all.

[Rogue 9]

NPR

Republicans Seek To Toss Out 127,000 Ballots In Democratic-Leaning Texas County

November 1, 202011:16 AM ET

Republicans in Texas have asked the courts to toss out some 127,000 early ballots cast by voters in Harris County, arguing that the votes — delivered via drive-through in the heavily Democratic area — violate the U.S. Constitution and should be deemed invalid.

The plaintiffs argue that the drive-throughs are an illegal extension of curbside voting, which is available at all county voting locations and is designated for people who have an illness or disability.

The Democratic Harris County clerk, Chris Hollins, dismissed the lawsuit as "baseless" in an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition.

"This is simply an un-American attempt to disenfranchise voters," he said, noting that no one knows whom the ballots were cast for and that rejecting them would likely affect thousands of Republicans too.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Houston, seen as a deeply conservative federal magistrate, is set to rule over the complaint.

Throughout the campaign, Republicans and President Trump have baselessly claimed that various efforts — particularly mail-in voting — intended to accommodate voters amid the coronavirus pandemic pave the way for fraud.

Election security experts have repeatedly said that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, though there are active attempts to sow disinformation among the electorate.

The case of the Harris County ballots is set to be heard Monday morning.

Hollins said on Sunday that he expects to win, but "in a totally extreme downside scenario, we would need to encourage those 127,000 Harris County voters to come back out on Tuesday and cast a provisional ballot to make sure that in any circumstance their vote was counted. We're hoping it doesn't come to that."

If you can't win, cheat.

[MKSheppard]

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/132 ... 36225?s=20

Joe Biden @JoeBiden
It’s long past time we take action to end the scourge of gun violence in America.

As president, I’ll ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, implement universal background checks, and enact other common-sense reforms to end our gun violence epidemic.

2:00 PM · Nov 1, 2020·TweetDeck

Joe, Joe, you're supposed to keep your mouth shut on stuff like this -- you say it during the primaries when you're facing Beto "Take 'em all" O'Rourke; NOT like 48 hours before the general election.

[Solauren]

So, make a claim that the twitter was hacked

[madd0ct0r]

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/132 ... 36225?s=20

Joe Biden @JoeBiden
It’s long past time we take action to end the scourge of gun violence in America.

As president, I’ll ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, implement universal background checks, and enact other common-sense reforms to end our gun violence epidemic.

2:00 PM · Nov 1, 2020·TweetDeck

Joe, Joe, you're supposed to keep your mouth shut on stuff like this -- you say it during the primaries when you're facing Beto "Take 'em all" O'Rourke; NOT like 48 hours before the general election.

Why do you think he'd say this 48hours before election?

[Raw Shark]

Why do you think he'd say this 48hours before election?

The voters who are going to be alarmed and think, "Gun-grabber!" when they hear the words, "Common sense reforms," are a lost cause anyway. There is no capacity to drive them away from voting for your typical Democrat because they're already gone. People who are totally anti-guns, on the other hand, hear that and think, "Well at least he wants to do something," if there's nobody like O'Rourke on the ticket, and responsible 2nd Amendment supporters such as myself are 100% on board with that message, so really he's got (minimal) potential gain and nothing to lose with this move.

[Rogue 9]

NPR

Republicans Seek To Toss Out 127,000 Ballots In Democratic-Leaning Texas County

November 1, 202011:16 AM ET

Republicans in Texas have asked the courts to toss out some 127,000 early ballots cast by voters in Harris County, arguing that the votes — delivered via drive-through in the heavily Democratic area — violate the U.S. Constitution and should be deemed invalid.

If you can't win, cheat.

Update via NPR

Federal Judge Dismisses Effort To Throw Out Drive-Through Votes In Houston

November 2, 20203:27 PM ET
BRIAN NAYLOR

Updated at 4 p.m. ET

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen on Monday threw out a suit challenging the legality of some 127,000 votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area. He ruled the plaintiffs don't have legal standing to sue.

Harris County, Texas' most populous county and majority-Democratic, erected 10 tents to expedite the early voting process as a way of allowing people to cast ballots safely during the coronavirus pandemic. They were also in place this summer before the state's primary. Noting that point, Hanen, a George W. Bush appointee, asked plaintiffs, "Why am I just getting this case?" He later said that the suit was not timely and that "this has been going on all summer."

The suit was brought by Republican activists, who argued the move by Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Democrat, was an illegal expansion of curbside voting, which is permitted under Texas law.

The Texas Supreme Court dismissed a similar challenge on Sunday. All of that court's justices are Republican appointees.

Hanen said that if he found the plaintiffs did have standing, he would have still ruled against them "as to the voting that has already taken place," but that he would "probably enjoin tomorrow's votes."

He also ordered that records of votes cast in the drive-through facilities be maintained in case his decision is reversed on appeal.

One of the intervenors in the hearing, lawyer Andre Segura of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, argued that a ruling allowing the ballots to be thrown out would cause people to have to vote a second time.

"Once the egg has been scrambled, it doesn't make sense to put it back in the egg," Segura said, adding: "We're talking about a very large scramble."

Other attorneys said some of the affected voters were receiving medical treatment and would be unable to get to the polls on Election Day.

The Texas case is one of a number of legal challenges to voting and ballot counting, many of them brought by Republicans.

Texas, long a GOP stronghold, has become an unlikely swing state this year, with urban and suburban areas such as Harris County accounting for the bulk of the growing Democratic vote. In the early vote period alone, the state has already exceeded its voting totals from the 2016 general election.

Harris County has also been the site of pre-election vandalism. Someone spray-painted "Election No, Revolution Yes" and a hammer and sickle on windows at the county's Democratic Party headquarters, and the building's locks were filled with super glue, according to the Texas Tribune.

"Make no mistake: [T]his is not a partisan victory," Rebecca Acuña, the Biden campaign's Texas state director, said in a statement. "This is a victory for voters across the country who are exercising their constitutional right to make their voices heard."

[MKSheppard]

Well, let's unpack Scranton Joe's statement from twitter:

As president, I’ll ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, implement universal background checks, and enact other common-sense reforms to end our gun violence epidemic.

A while ago (2019) I estimated AR15 production and put it up on my website:

http://alternatewars.com/Politics/Firea ... uction.htm

It's turned out to be one of the most popular pages on my site.

Basically:

All AR15s (1964-2017 Totals) 8.287~ million produced over 53 years

All Remington 700 Bolt Rifles (1962-2018 Totals) 5~ million produced over 55 years

Remington 870 Shotguns (1950-2009 Totals) 10~ million produced over 56 years

For the first 17 years of AR production (1964-1981), it was about as popular as the Remington Model 31 Shotgun; at around 9,000 to 10,000 units sold annually.

However, following the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, it's popularity exploded as 7.5~ million were made over the nineteen years from 1998 to 2017. This compares favorably with the peak of Remington Model 870 pump-action shotgun popularity in 1984-1996, where 4 million were made over twelve years.

Let's.... ban the most popular firearm in America; and not only that, "high capacity magazines".

By contrast in 2008; the AFL-CIO unions dropped this flyer in support of Obama:



Because unlike Scranton Joe, Obama was smart enough to keep his mouth shut and allow plausible deniability -- you only have to look at Scranton Joe's campaign platform (https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/)

[Elfdart]

I'm predicting a Biden win tomorrow, though there is one thing that keeps me from being hyped: In 2016 anywhere from 5-10% of voters polled said they were voting for Gary Johnson and in every state, over half of them voted Trump. So there's about 3-4% of voters lying to pollsters about how they're going to vote. Looking at the electoral map, this could cause several of the states listed as likely Biden to turn out for Il Douchebag:

https://electoral-vote.com/

Georgia and Florida will go for Trump. The GOP has gone to great lengths to Ku Klux the vote and will steal all 45 electoral votes. North Carolina will most likely go for Trump, too. So that's 60 votes in addition to the 170 he's already expected to win. Nevada, Arizona and Ohio are also close enough for Trump to steal them and that's another 35 electoral votes. He needs only five more votes, so all he needs now is ONE of the Rust Belt states he won last time to go his way and he gets another term.

I'm hoping Biden's vote is big enough for him to overcome the Republicans' fascist tactics, he wins Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, and the election is over before they cross the Mississippi.

[Darth Yan]

According to FiveThirtyEight he has Wisconsin in the bag, and the covid thing has thrown everything off. If not for covid I would be more worried but Trump bungled that one so badly that even many of his die hards had to accept that he's an incompetent fuck.

Trump's main strategy is trying to cancel votes that are counted later; if mail in ballots are counted he's fucked.