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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
It arguably made Obama weaker when he could have been working against the Republicans to implement a stronger system. He wasted his time when he had a majority.
Also, we lost a Supreme Court Justice seat by humoring the INSANITY of Mitch's argument (and it got worse when Democrats tried to use it because it's a stupid argument).
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
In fact, it's only been recently that Obama has allowed himself to be more candid about his opinion of what was happening around the time of his presidency, like him saying Palin was a garbage VP pick that led the GOP in a horrible direction, or that Trump was a racist response to his presidency.
Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 20th 2020 at 10:26:04 AM
Staying silent during Trump was a smart political tactic tbh, save the stories for helping Biden win.
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2020/11/20/day-1401/
https://apnews.com/article/trump-invites-michigan-gop-white-house-6ab95edd3373ecc9607381175d6f3328
Trump is using the power of his office to try to reverse the results of the election, orchestrating a pressure campaign to persuade Republican officials in Michigan, Georgia, and elsewhere to overturn the will of voters in what critics call an unprecedented subversion of democracy. “In an extraordinary news conference Thursday at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Trump’s attorneys claimed without evidence there was a centralized conspiracy with roots in Venezuela to rig the U.S. presidential election. They alleged voter fraud in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and other cities whose municipal governments are controlled by Democrats and where President-elect Joe Biden won by large margins.” (Washington Post)
Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election are unprecedented in American history. “Mr. Trump has only weeks to make his last-ditch effort work: Most of the states he needs to strip Mr. Biden of votes are scheduled to certify their electors by the beginning of next week. The electors cast their ballots on Dec. 14, and Congress opens them in a joint session on Jan. 6.” (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/us/politics/trump-election.html
Trump’s election power play: Persuade Republican legislators to do what U.S. voters did not. “Trump’s strategy for retaining power despite losing the U.S. election is focused increasingly on persuading Republican legislators to intervene on his behalf in battleground states Democrat Joe Biden won.” (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-strategy-idUSKBN27Z30G
Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 election. “Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there is great concern that Trump’s effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of U.S. elections.” (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-allies-try-overturn-biden-victory-29da6aac9cc41e47f3095855e7af7031
2/ Georgia certified the state’s general election results, then issued a correction to say certification is still on-going because a staffer “sent out the wrong press release,” and then officially certified the results. The certification ensured that Biden received the state’s 16 electoral votes. The certification followed a hand recount of the state’s five million votes that was requested by the Trump campaign. The recount found that Biden beat Trump by more than 12,000 votes. (New York Times / Washington Post / ABC News / Bloomberg)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/20/us/joe-biden-trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/11/20/joe-biden-trump-transition-live-updates/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/nov/20/us-election-trump-michigan-biden-georgia-live-updates
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-trump-us-election-news-11-20-20/index.html
3/ The United States reported a record high of more than 185,000 new coronavirus cases, a record number of hospitalizations, and more than 2,000 deaths. Less than three weeks ago, the U.S. reported 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said, “This is faster, it is broader and, what worries me, is it could be longer.” Health experts and epidemiologists, meanwhile, added that the U.S. hasn’t seen the peak and that the worst is yet to come. (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / New York Times)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/20/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
Global: Total confirmed cases: ~57,366,000; deaths: ~1,369,000
U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~11,855,000; deaths: ~254,000
Source: Johns Hopkins University
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / CNN
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/20/world/covid-19-coronavirus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/20/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/20/coronavirus-live-updates.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-19/dc-cases-rise-texas-sees-new-case-record-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus&sref=MIBMEEoj
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/covid-2020-11-20?mod=hp_theme_coronavirus-ribbon
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/2020-11-20-covid-live-updates-n1248338
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-11-20-20-intl/index.html
4/ Pfizer asked the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine after initial results showed the vaccine was safe and 95% effective. The process is expected to take a few weeks, and an advisory committee meeting to review the vaccine has been tentatively scheduled for early December. Emergency use authorization would allow limited groups of Americans to get the vaccines before the FDA has completed the typical approval process. (New York Times / Stat News / CNBC)
5/ The Trump Administration vaccine distribution team will not brief Biden’s transition team and has “no plans to do so.” Trump’s unwillingness to share plans with the incoming administration “risks President-elect Biden’s team not being ready on day one to implement the plan or make adjustments to it,” Senator Chris Murphy said. Biden, meanwhile, called Trump’s refusal to concede “incredible irresponsibility, an incredibly damaging message being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.” (Reuters / NBC News / New York Times)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-vaccine-idUSKBN27Z2UA
6/ Biden named four more officials to White House posts and Judge Merrick Garland is under consideration to serve as attorney general. Louisa Terrell was named director of White House Office of Legislative Affairs, Cathy Russell was named director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, Carlos Elizondo was named White House social secretary, and Mala Adig was named policy director for Jill Biden. Garland, meanwhile, joins former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former civil rights chief Deval Patrick, and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, among others, on Biden’s short list for attorney general. (USA Today / NPR)
7/ The Census Bureau won’t be able to produce the state population totals required to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives until after Trump leaves office in January. In July, Trump said he wanted to remove unauthorized immigrants from the count, which would leave an older and whiter population as the basis for divvying up House seats, shifting the number of House seats held by Republicans over the next decade. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham cited “anomalies” discovered in processing that could delay the report past January 20, 2021. (New York Times / CNN / Wall Street Journal)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/census-undocumented-immigrants/
8/ Two separate New York State fraud investigations into Trump and his businesses have expanded to include about $26 million in consulting fee tax write-offs – some of which went to Ivanka Trump. The two inquiries — a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and a civil one by the state attorney general — are being conducted independently, but both offices issued subpoenas to the Trump Organization in recent weeks. On a 2017 disclosure Ivanka filed when joining the White House, she reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, which totaled $747,622 – exactly matching consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization. Ivanka, meanwhile, called the investigations “harassment […] motivated by politics, publicity and rage.” (New York Times / Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/19/ivanka-trump-investigations-harassment-438561
9/ The Supreme Court postponed a planned hearing into congressional efforts to see Robert Mueller’s secret grand jury material from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The House Judiciary Committee said the status of the case has changed because of the election, and that Biden and the new Congress should decided whether to pursue the grand jury material. (Washington Post)
Edited by sgamer82 on Nov 20th 2020 at 5:48:50 AM
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
Have a Twitter video of an Arizona judge telling a T**** lawyer why his collection of affidavits do not actually make proof.
Edited by Resileafs on Nov 20th 2020 at 9:04:19 AM
Flip you Kansas City
If the libertarians aren't buying this why should i
Taichibana-san are you really a traitor?
Fairy-type Iris
Something tells me that between 2021 and 2024 Donald, if he still has more years left in him, may try to restart The Apprentice and take advantage of his "popularity" (meaning fanatical devotion from his followers) as an ex-President. I think that would be honestly as likely as him obtaining his own entire network, however (which isn't much).
"I usually specialize in Dragon-types, but now I'm a fairy and specialize in Fairy-types. See the irony?" - Iris
The Louisville, KY Police Department apparently was covering up a massive amount of child sexual abuse by its officers.
I...really have no way of describing what the fuck I'm reading.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 20th 2020 at 7:02:36 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
So, Joe Biden, the presidential transition, and No. 45's refusal to provide any assistance.
I'm reminded of one of the Jack Ryan novels, back when Tom Clancy actually wrote them — something something worldwide financial disaster, and it looked like there was no way to prevent the world economy from collapsing ... and the solution was simply to re-set the stock market to what it was doing just before the brink of collapse.
Maybe Biden can pull off the same trick. "Hey, everybody! It's really January 2017! The last four years never happened! And yes, that's Bobby Ewing next to you in the shower!" ;)
Would that it were so simple.
"It arguably made Obama weaker when he could have been working against the Republicans to implement a stronger system. He wasted his time when he had a majority.
Also, we lost a Supreme Court Justice seat by humoring the INSANITY of Mitch's argument (and it got worse when Democrats tried to use it because it's a stupid argument)."
That's easy for us to say, a decade later. In 2010, it took literally every ounce of the Democratic leadership's political capital just to get ACA, in its watered down form, passed. And it was passed with the understanding that a lot of marginal Reps would be losing their seats. I don't think they expected their losses to be so huge, or their time in the wilderness to last for eight years.
As for Mitch's "argument," his real argument was that he had a majority, and because of that, whatever he says goes. That's why Garland was passed over and Gorsuch and Barrett have seats. We didn't "lose" anything in that tussle over Garland's nomination because we never had anything to begin with.
It could have been 2013, but if Mitch deliberately sweated out an entire presidential term without bringing a SCOTUS nomination to vote, he absolutely could have. He did that with literally hundreds of lower court vacancies.
Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Nov 20th 2020 at 11:03:03 AM
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
The Michigan lawmakers who met with Trump went home and said, "Nope. Nothing Trump suggested is remotely capable of happening."
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Also while the republican were already in their road of what they are now, they were still capable of regular behavor.
If anything obama mistake was not seen exactly that him being elected let the republican throw whatever remain od sanity they have left.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Fairy-type Iris
I think some of the moderate Republicans are an example of Believing Their Own Lies. They honestly believe that their way of life is the ideal way of life, and should be everybody's. And Obama, being a left-wing liberal, was a threat to that way of life.
Obama was not that left leaning, though, which mean their reaction is explicitly racist.
Like Biden being a crazy socialist PLUS racism.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Oh, bother.
The "threat" Obama posed to their way of life wasn't due to any political leanings of his. It was solely because he was a non-white man who gained the most powerful political position on Earth.
Disgusted, but not surprised
So without Michigan or Georgia, the latest most dangerous coup part is done.
Still, I won't be happy until the 23rd when Trump's defeat is confirmed for the 2nd time.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Knows-Many-Things
And now the existential dread has spread from a non-white being in office to any Dem ever. Joe Biden is one of the most milquetoast candidates ever and he's still being treated like some ticking time bomb of socialism.
The scariest thing about the rift in this country is that the very idea of someone on [Other Party] becoming president is now unacceptable for both sides.
Edited by Codafett on Nov 21st 2020 at 2:13:55 AM
Find the Light in the Dark
It's partially why I think the GOP are dropping Trump gently. They understand he's toxic to their brand in a way that could backfire on them.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
That Guy
Honestly, I kinda see it as most right-wing politicians right now still think the Cold War is going, and don't realize there really ISN'T a Communist nation anywhere in the world anymore, because admitting the Cold War IS over means they can't use it as a bogeyman to coerce or frighten people.
Edited by Pendrake on Nov 21st 2020 at 2:35:15 AM
Semper Fi. Semper Paratus. Vigilo Confido.
Trouble is, they can and will still use Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, Vietnam and even China as their socialist bogeymen to attract refugees from those countries and their descendants unless the Democrats make a much bigger effort to counter the GOP's misinformation and really reach out to those groups.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Republicans have a all-year presence in these communities, causing people to listen to them even if it's all scaremongering hate rallies, because it's the messages they hear the most. Democrats need to firmly establish their own presence among them too, or they'll be considered intrusive outsiders, the 'them' compared to the Republican 'us'.
Edited by Alycus on Nov 21st 2020 at 3:13:23 AM
@Codafett: The problem is that for many minority and underprivileged groups, Republicans in power can have devastating consequences for their lifestyles and even their lives. When Republicans get in power, they remove things like the Voting Rights Act, marriage equality, Roe v. Wade, legal protections for trans people, environmental protection laws, and so much else. It's become clear by now that the GOP doesn't want a government that runs differently, they want a government that doesn't function at all, except to funnel money to the obscenely rich.
It's been fun.
How ironic in that they're now willing to bend over backwards for Putin's Russia. If anything, they've switched sides in the Cold War and are helping rebuild the Soviet Union.
Fucking Christ that Explorer Scout sexual abuse story - and for others hearing about it for the first time, I managed to find a timeline of events for it.
Oh, and Kyle Rittenhouse has made his $2 million bail, largely because the MyPillow guy paid it for him. The amount of supportive tweets I saw for Rittenhouse is... genuinely disturbing, considering that he bought a gun illegally and crossed State lines with that gun to "defend" others.
Edited by ironballs16 on Nov 21st 2020 at 11:21:22 AM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
No longer a forum herald
Gonna file this one under "we need some levity" category. Such a good caricature.
Anyone who was actually paying attention to Obama's presidency would realize that dynamic at play too. He was always trying to be the bigger man and offer every opportunity for bipartisanship and cooperation with the republicans, and he was only met with obstruction and hostility.