For normal people it is. But for Trump and his cronies - it’ll come as a shock and would be an embaressing affair that they wouldn’t be able to sweep under the rug
They have spent 8 years already trumpsplaining…listening to what ever racist, ugly shit he’s said or just his plain incoherence, and then criticizing the rest of us for “misunderstanding” and “misquoting” him and explaining what he really meant. He is stupider now, and should be held to a higher standard than in 2016 having actually already been in office, but there isn’t much difference to the silly dance his enablers do today than they have ever done in the interest of pretending he isn’t as manifestly unqualified and unfit as we all see with our own eyes
7 Likes
3 Likes
Makes sense that’s what Trump would do. He lost the last one, and then dozens of lawsuits to boot. He tried to bring a case but the problem is that in a courtroom you need some actual evidence, whereas in the news media you can just say what you like. Mind you, to a point, as Fox were sued for almost $800M and Tucker Carlson lost his job for lying.
If Trump loses the election, and I think he will, his play will be to mobilize lower down electors to stop the count from being ratified, and then to have a friendly Supreme Court install him as President.
Hopefully Harris has counter measures all mapped out.
1 Like
I fear he will lose the popular vote but scrape the EC.
A reasonable concern given the past history, but we are seeing that Harris’ coalition is a bit more like Obama’s than Biden’s and that is indicating she is eliminating much of the recent GOP EC bias.
4 Likes
It will be close. Loss was certain under Biden. Replacing him with Harris put the Dems in a contest. The initial positive reaction to Harris and Walz was very understandable, but even after that, all the numbers point to a close race.
It will be a major shock if Harris does not win the popular vote. But in the wonderful world of American politics, as ever, it all boils down to the electoral college vote.
Harris has most, if not all of the swing states back in play, and has multiple paths to victory, depending on what happens in those states.
But it will be a close one, and a loss is not out of the question.
I think she will win, so long as the Dems get out and vote. The MAGA block - I estimate 45%, will be well mobilized, and the Dems have to match and then better that.
In a way, I think the closeness of the race might help, as it will sharpen the focus for people to actually get out and vote. At that point, it will be harder for many poor communities, as their polling places are under represented, and the lines will be long. A slew of dirty tricks to massage the outcome has been played by the Republicans for a generation or more - gerrymandering, voter suppression, scrubbing the voter rolls of legitimate voters.
Edit: including what Limiescouse says below, too, on intimidation.
The whole thing needs to be looked at, and I’m not hopeful that it will.
In the meantime, hopefully Harris and Walz get it over the line and Trump’s inevitable scheming to overturn it, or block it, will come to nothing.
1 Like
Keep in mind that in Georgia it is illegal to give food or water to people standing in line (with Kemp having created situations that result in LONG lines in Dem districts), but not to show up in full tactical gear and intimidate people trying to vote.
Trump is barely even trying to win at this point, seemingly more focused on behind the scenes shenanigans to win it for him. But it is not an outrageous possibility that election day is full of incidents that impact the ability of us to actually cast our votes and there is no playbook at all on how to manage that, but we sure as shit know which direction the legal rulings will be directed.
5 Likes
Really? I didn’t know that… What a disgusting way of influencing elections… Is that a recent change, or in place since long?
3 Likes
US democracy from the beginning has always been more concerned with ensuring the right people vote than in allowing people to vote. Over time we have in theory expanded who qualifies, but in practice this protectionism is built into not just our systems for voting, but the rhetoric of the white people who have never had a problem casting their vote (“having a voting ID is just common sense, and only people who want to cheat are against it”, I say while ignoring that in communities whose vote is being threatened they have no ID office and the closest one to them is not close to any public transport route and is only open from 10-4 3 days a week).
The real reason Trump has so focused on claims of rigged elections is to provide a priori justification for the rat fucking they are always in the process of doing. They are not preventing people vote, they are protecting elections. They are not throwing out votes, they are being diligent in ensuring a “fair” election. The reason it is so insidious is the majority of the rat fucking doesn’t look too different from the shit we see in every election.
Edited to add: This is why the idea that Kemp in Georgia opposed Trump in 2020 because he honours free and fair elections is not just laughable but dangerous. He doesnt abhor cheating in elections, he abhors cheating in such a crass way that if focused on may bring unwanted focus on their long established ways of cheating. Now Kemp has had 4 years of good press about Georgia being a home of free and fair elections while purging voters from the roles, closing polling stations that make it harder for certain people to vote, and putting in rules that allow them to pretty liberally throw out votes after they’ve been cast
4 Likes
Well… the least I can say is that this country has still a lot of work ahead if it wants to reach full democratic status. It’s the case of most countries of course (actually all of them if we are fair), but this is still crass. Racism in full action.
1 Like
Am I reading things correctly?
RFK jr is suing to get himself off the North Carolina ballot after taking legal action to get on it.
US madness continues.
6 Likes
In the last week I read somewhere that Harris has mobilised hundreds of lawyers in preparation.
She’s not an idiot, that’s for sure.
2 Likes
2 Likes
The Biden team parted ways with Marc Elias a couple of years ago over a difference in ideas over strategy. It was reported they were concerned over how aggressively and broadly he wanted to litigate and worried about the perception of having such an attack dog on the team and how it would play in response to Trump’s ongoing complaints about rigged elections. The Harris team have brought him back on and are basically giving him the money to pick any legal fight he thinks needs to be fought.
4 Likes
A bully needs to be punched in the nose, and all that…
2 Likes
It cannot be emphasized enough how not normal this is at this time in the campaign, especially for a challenger.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1830983480387477933
Either he is disinterested in trying to win, or is incapable of running a robust campaign, the latter of which we have already been told by supposedly serious people is worthy of wall to wall coverage of questions over fitness for office.
3 Likes
One issue Dems have consistently had is excessive focus on the top of the ticket. A couple of weeks ago a couple of groups were trying to put the word out that while Harris’ fundraising has been amazing to see it has come at the expense of funding groups that can help with downballot races. That is the context of this news
4 Likes
Also worth noting that the RNC is apparently quite strapped for cash too. The only category where the Republicans have an edge is the SuperPACs, but those generally don’t take a general interest in down ballot races. The Trump campaign doing so seems unlikely, particularly in light of the relative inactivity - this week after Labour Day is the real start to campaigning season, where the presidential candidates are deployed to build support in key states. The tension is often between electoral college and key races as priorities. Ohio becomes an obvious priority for both, but Harris in some ways has a simple problelm, the next tier of Senate races where Democrats can win are all electoral college swing states (NV, AZ, WI, MI, PA). The corresponding states for Trump are Florida and Texas. By most accounts, campaigning in Texas is probably not that useful for Trump - which means that Senatorial campaign is on its own.
It will be interesting to see if Harris goes to Texa or Montana, either would make more sense for trying to win the Senate than the Presidency.
4 Likes
The candidates in Ohio and MN are by all accounts absolute Chads on a level with Blake Masters, which is keeping the door open for Brown and Tester. It’ll be really interesting to see if the campaign spends any time with either of those guys down the stretch given the relative lack of value to the presidential ticket.
Anyway, this story is wild
https://x.com/TheTNHoller/status/1830947454142853175
A convicted cop killer was given clemency by Trump in his last days in office and is now back in the news after committing additional assaults. Trump, the back blue guy, commuted the sentence of a cop killer. I continue to be fascinated how time after time Trump is exposed for something that at any other time would have been an automatic campaign ender and it causes barely a ripple, but we’ll see if any hay will be made from this.
4 Likes