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

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338726: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:42:07 PM

"Okay, the investigations are over and no voter fraud."

"THOSE SCUM COVERED IT UP!"

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#338727: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:43:52 PM

"If you're innocent, you've got nothing to hide, then you won't mind, right?"

It's that stupid type of non-logic that's surprisingly popular.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Blueeyedrat Since: Oct, 2010
#338728: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:44:56 PM

Re: Trump's last-minute intel appointments, the main line of thought among analysts ([1], [2]) seems to be less of a coup and more "burying the evidence on their way out".

Lazlo74 from A tropical hell-hole Since: May, 2018
#338729: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:48:46 PM

And when asked for any tangible evidence, they typically just double down and start making claims about how the MSM is doing the biggest to democracy or whatever because they don't support the fraud claims. Holy shit, do they have no ounce of self-awareness?

Scaled seeker
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#338730: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:48:50 PM

That seems more likely but also doomed to failure.

Two months to hunt down every backup throughout entire sections of government without anybody catching on and making sure to make more copies?

singularityshot Since: Dec, 2012
#338731: Nov 10th 2020 at 4:53:56 PM

Just put all the crucial evidence in the same place the Obama administration stored the pandemic response plan. We know that nobody in the Trump administration will look there...

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#338732: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:00:27 PM

Honestly, my first instinct here is that this is just more temper tantrums over having lost the election, with no deeper plan involved.

I'm not gonna lie and say that there isn't a part of me that's scared, because when I see a Republican who's so Islamophobic that it's actually getting called out being put in charge of defense policy, that feels like an attempt to set up for a war with Iran. (And it doesn't help that that's not the same sort of blatantly illegal order like a coup would be.) But in general, inexplicable behavior by Trump is more likely to be down to him acting on an immediate impulse than anything else.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#338733: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:02:21 PM

Their reasoning seems to be that you can open an investigation merely on the basis of suspicion without any evidence, and that not doing so means you have something to hide.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#338734: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:18:38 PM

Earlier today, Mike Pompeo stated that they will prepare for a second Trump term.

The top Republicans are actively trying to turn America into a dictatorship.

Edited by SatoshiBakura on Nov 10th 2020 at 8:26:14 AM

Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#338735: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:21:40 PM

Not at all surprising? They've always wanted that.

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#338736: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:25:36 PM

What constitutes grounds for sedition charges in the US again?

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
ScubaWolf from South Carolina Since: Feb, 2020
#338737: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:27:16 PM

The Pentagon is not okay with that idea in most likelihood. I wish they would come out and say that they're doing everything in their power to make sure the transition to President-Elect Joe Biden is peaceful, and they WILL intervene if necessary to make sure it's peaceful if they have to. Hearing that would likely scare the Republicans back into submission.

That of course is probably unlikely because they'll want to keep their heads down to prevent Trump from trying to remove them before he's out of office.

Edited by ScubaWolf on Nov 10th 2020 at 8:27:25 AM

"In a move surprising absolutely no one"
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#338738: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:33:04 PM

A Pompeo associate later tried to claim that Pompeo was just using wry humor to attempt to "trigger" people.

Yeah, they went with a "Just Joking" Justification and made light of psychological triggers.

Fuck these people.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CookingCat Since: Jul, 2018
#338739: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:33:11 PM

[up]x5 Somebody posted that earlier, and one of the comments points out his body language compared to the speech indicates that he knows that Trump's term is up and he is trying to save his own ass due to being so far up his.

Edited by CookingCat on Nov 10th 2020 at 5:35:41 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#338740: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:35:40 PM

Sounds more like wishful thinking at this point.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#338741: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:36:39 PM

Meanwhile, the Lincoln Project has pivoted to going after law firms working for the GOP in their election cases.

Bloomberg: Lincoln Project Targets Law Firms Working for GOP on Election

The Lincoln Project sent a tweet on Tuesday to its 2.7 million followers, encouraging them to contact employees of Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP through Linked In and “ask them how they can work for an organization trying to overturn the will of the American people.” It encouraged employees of the two firms to “resign in protest.”

The group has vowed to spend $500,000 on its pressure campaign against the two firms.

Disgusted, but not surprised
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#338742: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:43:00 PM

Honestly, watching the clip, Pompeo does deliver it in kind of a flippant way. It's inappropriate and seditious "humor", yes, but it's really just the same old standard Trump party line. People are blowing it out of proportion a little by making it sound like this is some whole new level of refusing to accept the results.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338743: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:44:15 PM

I'm not sure you can blow out of proportion a man in his position making a proclamation about ignoring an election.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Kaiseror Since: Jul, 2016
#338744: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:45:10 PM

Part of me wonders if trump is going into cornered rat mode and may make a serious attempt at this.

Scarecrow4774 from In Wonderland Since: Mar, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
#338745: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:47:48 PM

Was it just me or did he seem to have an Oh, Crap! expression after he said it? And that nervous laugh...

As someone who is a neurotic, I can tell that he was nervous when he said that.

“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” - Lewis Carroll
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#338746: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:50:45 PM

[up][up][up]I'm not saying it's not bad. I'm just saying I'm seeing some people reporting it like this is a new low on the part of Republicans when they're already at rock bottom. Like, did you really expect anything else from him?

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#338747: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:51:59 PM

The problem with a coup was never that Trump didn’t have the will to attempt it, it’s that it’s simply not possible. The military and intelligence community won’t go for it, and federal law enforcement is more interested in saving their own skins. He could send Don Jr. to seize the Capitol, but I’m not sure how well that would work.

They should have sent a poet.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#338748: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:58:17 PM

Part of me wonders if trump is going into cornered rat mode and may make a serious attempt at this.

I think anyone who doubts this should note that Dejoy did everything in his power to steal the election.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#338749: Nov 10th 2020 at 5:59:24 PM

Maybe they are aiming for a two popes model: an anti-president, if you will.

Meanwhile, users troll Trump “voter fraud” reporting hotline en masse: The Trump admin has heavily targeted TikTok... and users are hitting right back.

ABC News was first to report that staffers at the campaign's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters have been inundated with prank calls—and that recordings of those calls have become a popular trend on short-form video sharing social media platform Tik Tok.

One user, for example, recorded her call in which she quoted CNN's Anderson Cooper, saying she found an "obese turtle" overturned on is back in the sun. Another, unable to keep from laughing for the full duration of her call, claimed to have seen individuals "literally spreading poop" on their ballots.

Playing an anti-Trump rap, "FDT," was one popular tactic. (The "F" stands for exactly what you think it does, and the audio is not safe for most workplaces.) And music also formed the backdrop for another prank, in which the caller told the Trump campaign that she was a voter in Georgia, "in line to vote, and there was this guy there... and he challenged me to a fiddle contest?" while playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" in the background.

Twitter, too, has proven a popular platform for callers to share their own variations on the genre. Alex Hirsch, creator of the Disney show Gravity Falls, went above and beyond in his call, using the voices of two Gravity Falls characters to describe The Hamburglar in great detail and then encouraging followers of his Twitter feed to follow in his path.An

Plans for Oracle to buy Tik Tok seem to be floundering as well.

Zoom lied to users about end-to-end encryption for years, FTC says: Democrats blast FTC/Zoom settlement because users won't get compensation.

So the program that everyone has been relying on for secure work from home is not actually secure. Oops.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#338750: Nov 10th 2020 at 6:02:18 PM

[up][up] Don’t mistake malicious incompetence for some sort of master plan.

That’s been a running theme the last 4 years. Trump and friends were never playing 4D chess, they’re simply vicious thugs who lash out at whatever happens to be in front of them at the time.

They should have sent a poet.

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