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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Gabriel Sterling, a voting systems manager for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, was visibly angry and shaken as he approached a lectern in the Georgia Capitol.
"Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language," he said. "Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions.... Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence."
He added: "That shouldn't be too much to ask for people who ask us to give them responsibility."
But Sterling said Tuesday that for him, the last straw came when a 20-year-old technician for the state’s voting machine contractor, Dominion Voting Systems, was targeted by far-right social media users who falsely claimed they'd caught him on camera manipulating election data. Some people called for the worker's imprisonment, torture or execution. One tweet accused him of treason and included an animated image of a hanging noose.
But Raffensperger gave Sterling the green light to speak his mind, Jordan Fuchs, a deputy secretary of state, said in an interview. "We pointed him in a direction and said, 'Just do your thing.'"
Fuchs said Raffensperger's wife, Tricia, has received "sexualized death threats." Members of far-right groups have been found trespassing at the Raffenspergers' home. Someone broke into the home of one of their adult children and turned all the lights on, "sending a clear signal that they can get access to their house," Fuchs said. And members of Fuchs's staff have had to filter through "thousands" of emails saying, "You should be shot" and "You should be hanged," she said.
It's weird but Trump is honestly coming off like a Villainous Breakdown here. I'm getting Green Goblin Dark Reign flashbacks here.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
That's because Pigface himself is a white nationalist.
He said at one point that he was a nationalist, and obviously he was referring to the "white" kind of nationalism. So of course he would support white nationalists.
"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - DawnEDIT: I hate it when I'm right. Trump double down after this plea:
Edited by speedyboris on Dec 2nd 2020 at 6:17:13 AM
Brooks confirmed his plans in a phone interview, adding that he is still considering objecting to the vote-counting process even if no one joins him - though he acknowledged that would be more of a symbolic protest. Brooks, echoing President Donald Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud without providing evidence, argued that the election was "badly flawed" and that most mail-in voting is "unconstitutional."
This is a is a 5-term sitting Representative, making plans to try to discard the results of a democratic election. He almost certainly won't succeed, but that's where the Republicans are at right now.
(And BTW, Politico needs to stop giving these recaps cutesy names like "The GOP's electoral mischief" like its some sort of wacky hjinks. The Republican Party is trying to destroy democracy and they should be calling it like it is.)
Edited by nova92 on Dec 2nd 2020 at 6:39:12 AM
I've tried to bring up Congressional certification challenges a couple of times now, and frankly the only reason I'm not posting about it 24/7 is because I'm leery about people just skimming over the posts as alarmist. As Brooks himself notes in that article, unlike the lawsuits that have been clearly shown to be a waste of time, this is actually a theoretically possible path to steal the election.
It's still pretty much guaranteed to go nowhere, mind you, because from what I can tell if a challenge is raised it's a straight majority vote. Three Republican senators being unwilling to risk outright civil war is not a hard ask, even with the bar as impossibly low as it's been set. But the fact that that's even a possibility is still really, really alarming, and I agree that it feels like it's being both ignored (Politico is the only place I've really seen anyone talking about this) and dismissed as completely harmless. Hell, I still can't figure out from the article linked from that one
what would happen if the Senate just outright refuses to confirm Biden's electoral votes, because it's devoting too much space to the idea of competing electoral slates that looks like a complete non-starter at this point. AFAIK if that lasts until January 20th, we get Acting President Pelosi - hardly an incentive for Senate Republicans to go along with this - but still, one MIGHT think that a potential constitutional crisis would be worth at least some consideration beyond "mischief", and beyond stuff that 100 percent isn't going to happen.
Edit: To be fair, though, I will point out he is a five-term sitting representative from Alabama, so it's not like believing in democracy was ever really a possibility here anyway.
Edited by nrjxll on Dec 2nd 2020 at 9:25:50 AM
I mean, I said as much. I'm just really, really frustrated about how much more media and public attention is being focused on Trump and his personal legal circus act/fundraising scheme than on the behavior of the huge majority of congressional Republicans. The latter is a lot more concerning.
Edited by nrjxll on Dec 2nd 2020 at 9:41:46 AM
Unless Mitch changes his tune on things I’m going to stand that there’s no realistic possibility of anything happening.
Yes it speaks badly about the state of American democracy and the Republican Party that the entire is even being floated, but we need to make clear the distinction between “Proof they’re anti-democratic assholes” and “Actual coup attempt that might succeed”.
I suspect that part of why the guy feels able to do this is because he knows it’s purely symbolic, his safety is unlikely to be threatened over symbolic opposition to democracy, where as a successful or near-successful derailing of things would put his safety at risk.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranOssoff welcomes Bernie Sanders endorsement.
Looks like the Georgia Democrats are pulling an all hands on deck move. I couldn't find an recent article on Warnock that wasn't a hit piece from some right wing outlet.
Consider me pleasantly surprised to find a part of government that's not vulnerable to gridlock from politicians acting in bad faith.
I'm honestly going to be really glad I don't live in Georgia this month.
Edited by nrjxll on Dec 2nd 2020 at 10:10:33 AM
Obama has said AOC should be given a bigger platform at the DNC.
“But, you know, the fact that an AOC only got, what? Three minutes or five minutes? When she speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don’t agree with everything she says,” Obama continued. “You give her a platform, just like there may be some other young Democrats who come from more conservative areas who have a different point of view. But new blood is always good.”
He also agrees that Defund the police is a bad slogan.
Michael Flynn, Newly Pardoned, Calls for Trump to ‘Temporarily Suspend the Constitution’ and Impose Martial Law
Okay, this is getting fucking frightening. More and more voices in Trump's circle are calling for this, and he's crazy and desperate enough to try it. These people are advocating for a dictatorship, full stop.
It continues to be unclear if they know he can’t do it (both legally and practically) but are saying it anyway or if they’re actually dumb enough to think Trump has either the legal power or the capability to pull such a thing off.
I’d urge everyone to remember two points.
- Neither martial law or a state of emergency has any legal impact on Biden taking office.
- The military have already refused when Trump has tried to use them as his goons, the groups willing to act as his goons lack the ability to win in a conflict against the parts of government that would stand up to them.
Congress pulling a legislative coup to enstate Trump against the will of of the voters is about as plausible an outcome as Conservative electors faithlessly rejecting Trump and electing Hillary Clinton in 2016.
We are in the uncertain times where the President has been decided but there's still the tiniest wiggle room for paranoid fears or pie in the sky hopes to emerge among the winning and losing sides, respectively. But our government has been here many times before. Literally every four years. And it will do what it's done every time.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Flynn's pretty much engaging in sedition with this.
“The Uniform Code of Military Justice defines as ‘sedition’ one who, ‘with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or *other disturbance* against that authority,” he wrote. “To be sure, there is an open question as to whether *retired* servicemembers like [Gen. Flynn] can constitutionally remain subject to the UCMJ (and my own view is that the answer should be no). But the government’s consistent position has been—and remains—that the answer is ‘yes.’”
Trump would have a very hard time declaring martial law in the final weeks of his lame duck session. The military is sworn to obey the Constitution before the Commander-in-Chief, and I guarantee you that every soldier serving today is aware, whether they like it or not, that the role of Commander-in-Chief is weeks away from changing hands.
We swear our troops to serve the Constitution instead of Insert Sitting President Here for literally this exact reason. This exact reason.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 2nd 2020 at 8:38:55 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

The law as a whole is a catch-22: you'd need a very specific law (probably unworkably specific) to replace 230 to not turn it into a censorship tool. As we can blatantly see from the executive order, if it was within their power then they would want it interpreted so that anyone mentioning collusion is, according to the Republicans, spreading dangerous unfounded rumours and should be banned or flagged, whilst whatever crap they can invent is allowed unmolested.
As long as one party exists completely outside of reality, trying to write anything more concrete is a terrible idea.