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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#335801: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:12:46 AM

Remember that all of these rules are merely Senate procedure: they are not enshrined in the Constitution. Democrats could change them with a simple majority vote, although that sets a dangerous precedent if Republicans hold power there again.

Edited by Fighteer on Oct 28th 2020 at 11:13:02 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#335802: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:18:49 AM

"Budget Reconciliation" Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Well, if we take the Senate, we can do the exact same thing back at them, so the filibuster would seem to be irrelevant.

Getting rid of the Filibuster entirely would make it much more irrelevant. It'd also make Budget Reconciliations pointless too.

TyeDyeWildebeest Unreasonably Quirky from Big Rock Candy Mountain Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: How does it feel to treat me like you do?
Unreasonably Quirky
#335803: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:25:52 AM

A ban on letting postal workers co-sign absentee ballots could affect the results in Wisconsin, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Wisconsin, North Carolina, and South Carolina are among the most closely watched states in the 2020 election, for good reason. The first two, as swing states, could affect who wins the White House, while the latter two have close Senate races that could determine which party controls Congress. They also have something else in common: the dubious distinction of being among the handful of states that require a witness signature on absentee ballots.

As a security matter, demanding a second signature on a mail-in ballot is “utterly useless,” notes Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State, and a Washington Monthly contributing editor. Vote-by-mail systems in nearly all states already check voter’s signatures against voter registration records, so requiring a witness signature amounts to a “superfluous and unnecessary obstacle to voters,” he adds.

The requirement is particularly burdensome for older voters who live alone and have difficulty finding witnesses, especially in the middle of a surging pandemic. Understandably fearful of leaving their homes to find a co-signer, these voters are forced either to mail in their ballots without a second signature and risk having them thrown out or not vote at all if they can’t find someone to sign for them. That’s why state courts over the last several months have overturned witness signature mandates in Rhode Island, Virginia, Minnesota, and Alaska. Yet such restrictions are still on the books in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Sure enough, that has already created problems. In North Carolina, for instance, the Associated Press reported last month that “lack of a witness signature or other witness information has emerged as the leading cause of ballots being set aside before being counted in North Carolina, with problems disproportionately affecting Black voters in the state.”

In past elections, the requirement has not been much of a problem because few people in these states voted absentee and, if they did, they had a handy workaround. They could get their local letter carriers to co-sign their ballots or ask a clerk at their local post office to do so.

In this election cycle, however, not only are vastly more residents choosing to vote by mail—absentee ballot requests in Wisconsin, for instance, have more than doubled compared to 2016—but, in a much under-covered move, the U.S. Postal Service under Donald Trump’s handpicked Postmaster General Louis De Joy issued an order this summer forbidding Postal Service employees from providing witness signatures on voters’ absentee ballots.

Fucking shit.

In a free and fair election, I have no doubt whatsoever that Biden would win. But the deck is stacked so thoroughly against him that he has to not just win, but win by such overwhelming margins that he overcomes all of the efforts by the Postmaster General and 6-3 Supreme Court to invalidate as many ballots as possible.

And if he fails this time, there may be no second chances.

Someone please hold me.

No beer?! But if there's no beer, then there's no beef or beans!
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#335804: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:31:57 AM

Nickelodeon's quadrennial "Kids Pick the President" poll picked Biden 53-47, but was the target of bots, but Nick nipped that in the bud.

The relevant part is at 41:27.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#335805: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:33:37 AM

They way they got their tax cuts through was by making them temporary, so that it won't necessarily increase the deficit more than 10 years in the future (which is what the "Byrd Rule"—the rule that allows budget reconciliation in the first place, states). That is, they decreased taxes now by promising to let the rise later (the fact that this was all lies doesn't change the way the process worked). Basically, a bill is revenue neutral if the Senate says it's revenue neutral. To reverse this, the Democrats need only do this in reverse: temporary tax increases that do not raise revenue beyond 10 years. There are other budget gimmicks that I'm sure the party can think of.

What's good for the goose is also good for the gander. Seems to me like the filibuster is already dead.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#335806: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:46:27 AM

So I did check whether an electoral map with Biden winning only these swing states that have Democratic governors and losing North Carolina works. It does

So if Republicans plan to steal the election, they cannot do this without sidestepping governors in some fashion.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#335807: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:48:58 AM

My main concern right now is that the theft could occur in the courts, which Republicans have been setting up for this purpose for years.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#335808: Oct 28th 2020 at 8:55:52 AM

From the Wikipedia article [1]

Reconciliation bills can be passed on spending, revenue, and the federal debt limit, and the Senate can pass one bill per year affecting each subject. Congress can thus pass a maximum of three reconciliation bills per year, though in practice it has often passed a single reconciliation bill affecting both spending and revenue.

This to me says filibuster reform/removal is still needed, because budget reconciliation doesn't cover things like electoral reform or anti-discrimination laws. And under budget reconciliation, Democrats can only pass 3 bills a year, which is nowhere near enough to get everything done.

Edited by nova92 on Oct 28th 2020 at 8:58:09 AM

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#335809: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:03:25 AM

Fear Of Voter Intimidation Is Its Own Voter Intimidation

So it's been brought up here that this will be the first presidential election in decades in which the RNC isn't banned from organizing poll watching initiatives. That's made some people worried it'll become a repeat of what happened in New Jersey in 1981 that got that been instated in the first place, but on a larger scale.

But, apparently, experts think that while that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, it's not particularly likely. But just the thought that there will be voter intimidation efforts is enough to intimidate some people from not voting.

speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#335810: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:17:43 AM

So has anybody brought up yet that Trump wants a winner officially declared on election night? Nevermind that it never goes like that, even in years when we weren't dealing with a pandemic and didn't have the amount of absentee ballots we have now that will take time to count. But screw that, apparently he thinks all absentee ballots should be counted by the end of day or they don't "count".

Xopher001 Since: Jul, 2012
#335811: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:20:23 AM

Trump can't force a decision like that, he does not have the power to. TBH I'm going to try and wait until November 4th to check the election results - I know it can take all night to count them, and I am also 7 hours ahead of the United States so there's no point in me staying up all night

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#335812: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:21:22 AM

He will, without doubt, declare himself the winner on any flimsy basis he can find. That alone won't affect the final outcome, of course.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
TitanJump Since: Sep, 2013 Relationship Status: Singularity
#335813: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:22:42 AM

[up][up][up] He will immediately take that back once it turns out that Biden got the most votes at that moment and say "let's wait until ALL of them have been counted."

Trump got the spine of a straw in the wind... it bends from even the slightest pressure in any direction.

Edited by TitanJump on Oct 28th 2020 at 5:22:50 PM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#335814: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:34:33 AM

I think he will declare victory right away, especially if it is very close. He will want to set the narrative that he won and Democrats are trying to steal his victory.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#335815: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:40:27 AM

Trump was always going to declare victory anyway. Even if on election night Biden is ahead in key states he will call fraud and say everything is rigged.

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#335816: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:50:17 AM

He's right, the system is rigged against him. Because it's still fair and honest.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#335817: Oct 28th 2020 at 9:56:09 AM

Or, at least, it's not as unfair and dishonest in his favor as he'd like it to be.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#335818: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:16:13 AM

Lordy, Woodward has tapes on Kushner. From April.

Highlights include; bragging about taking power from doctors, replacing people with yes men, admitting plans to foist response and blame onto Governors, and calling Trump's control of the GOP a "hostile takeover".

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/10/28/politics/woodward-kushner-coronavirus-doctors/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Nothing we didn't already know, but admissions are nice.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#335819: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:19:48 AM

The way he words these things is very telling. He talks like it's all a sleazy business deal, you can feel the slime and contempt oozing just from the transcript. There was also his garbage earlier where he implied black people were unambitious and lazy.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Oct 28th 2020 at 2:20:36 PM

Aszur A nice butterfly from Pagliacci's Since: Apr, 2014 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
A nice butterfly
#335820: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:19:51 AM

Not the quiet part out loud again oh nooo that will certainly hurt them in the polls and...

Oh who am I kidding.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#335821: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:21:12 AM

Another scandal that'll sink Trump and the GOP forever and totally? Heap's that way, just toss it in there, try not to trip over any of the "anonymous" leaks

Edited by Reflextion on Oct 28th 2020 at 1:21:56 PM

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#335822: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:25:19 AM

The only thing that can definitively kill Trump's chances are a) the COVID-19 situation getting much worse or b) an unexpected hurricane strike on Election Day in a state where all Trump voters are voting in-person.

a) is pretty likely - in fact, it's already happening in Wisconsin if that outlier poll Falrinn referenced is correct - while b) is improbable.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#335823: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:31:07 AM

Kushner's idea is that ignoring health experts would end up helping Trump on election day?

What.

He also told Woodward, "The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots" and that Trump had replaced them with "more thoughtful people who kind of know their place."

Glad we have confirmation Trump is the most dangerous person around Trump. Also yourself, Kushner.

Edited by RainehDaze on Oct 28th 2020 at 5:31:50 PM

speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#335824: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:32:11 AM

And people thought Kushner would be one of the "rational" voices in the White House. Laughable.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#335825: Oct 28th 2020 at 10:34:26 AM

Those people were always idiots, he's a slumlord who willingly associates with Trump. There was never a chance he was decent, rational or no.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

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