2020 US Elections | Biden certified as President | Dems control Congress
- Thread starter Raoul
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Are we still posting ads from those people, after how ineffectual they turned out to be?
I see amphetamine coffee is still a thing in the trucker world.
Could the US have made a worse way of electing the president.
In cases of conflicting electors from a state, then both chambers of the congress vote what to do. Theoretically, the senate can decide to vote to accept the electors sent from GOP in the swing states. House obviously would not do so, and then it is unclear what will happen.
But. If both chambers were controlled by Republicans and they decide to throw away the electors from PA, WI, AZ, NV and MI, then no candidate has 270 votes, which means that the election goes to the House of Representatives for president (one vote for state with GOP having 26 votes) so Trump becomes president. I actually wouldn’t have put this past GOP if they controlled the house.
How on the feck this is a good idea? There is civil war potential there if this happens (of course it won’t considering that McConnell already said that it won’t happen, probably cause he knew that the likes of Romney, Murkowski, Collins and Sasse would not go with it, but this is still extremely dangerous even as a thought experiment).
In cases of conflicting electors from a state, then both chambers of the congress vote what to do. Theoretically, the senate can decide to vote to accept the electors sent from GOP in the swing states. House obviously would not do so, and then it is unclear what will happen.
But. If both chambers were controlled by Republicans and they decide to throw away the electors from PA, WI, AZ, NV and MI, then no candidate has 270 votes, which means that the election goes to the House of Representatives for president (one vote for state with GOP having 26 votes) so Trump becomes president. I actually wouldn’t have put this past GOP if they controlled the house.
How on the feck this is a good idea? There is civil war potential there if this happens (of course it won’t considering that McConnell already said that it won’t happen, probably cause he knew that the likes of Romney, Murkowski, Collins and Sasse would not go with it, but this is still extremely dangerous even as a thought experiment).
Hehehe Trump 232.
Yes. And Biden won, so they certainly didn't work against him.
Were they not exposed as grifters?
They would have 100% done it imo. As it stands there's already a large faction of them who plan on kicking up dust once the electors reach the house on Jan 6th.
They're the same people they've been for decades. Well known Republican operatives - nothing more or less.
Surely the ones with half a brain realize that is the end of the country as they know it. In such a case I can only see a quick sucession of referenda in CA, NY, etc to exit the union.
That's very interesting logic.
True, but these people are behaving like cult members, not rational actors. If Trump had any plausible path towards staying in office by using the existing legal framework to go full on autocrat, he would've definitely done so imo. He knows that his life is probably going to be an endless hell of litigation until he dies, so remaining in power would've been the only way to get out of it by dismantling all legal cases against him from within over the next four years.
Yes, the line between the mere sycophants and the platinum cult members is getting blurier by the day.
Yup. I have no idea how this really happened. The theory of meme created by Dawkins has to be real. Either that, or there is a hivemine behind the human consciousness. Nothing else can explain to me this fanatic cult-behavior from otherwise rational people (be it smart educated people who are totally convinced that Trump was cheated, or from congressmen and senators).
Theoretically, they can still do it. If McConell convinces 50 senators to dismiss the electors from swing states, then even if the House votes otherwise, it is not clear what happens next, but at least in short term, it is in the hands of Mike Pence who would decide to throw those electors. Then the election goes to House and Trump wins, and VP election goes to senate and Pence wins.
How this was ever a good system and how did the US came to this? Don’t get me wrong, I do not think that the coup will happen, but the fact that it is so easy to happen, is extremely worry. Especially in some other election which might be closer and where the leader won’t be a total moron.
McConnell has already congratulated Biden and told R senators to not join in with the rogue house members on Jan 6th, so that is unlikely at this point. He just needs to keep Trump in check until the GA senate races, after which Trump will lose a lot of his power with the GOP imo.
I think both houses need to confirm the objections.
Just something hilarious that perfectly captures the situation today
Yes they were, and played their part in the rise of Trump.
Agree. Twitter might hide behind a justification like that, but I assume they're either motivated by income based on the traffic he generates or the fear of the wrath of a US president and his followers.
I hope we'll see a more systematic scrutiny on the role of social media in the coming years. There has been some in light of for instance the live streaming of the NZ terror attack, but I think it's outmost important to start really looking into the accountability and responsibility of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Personally I don't think it's responsible to continue to allow the free stream of obvious propaganda and other harmful content. They're responsible for the spread of so much dangerous disinformation. Twitter should never have allowed Trump to go on like he has for four years in my opinion. He's the president, if he wants to spew lies and hate he should at least do it through his official WH channels. I guess social media is more complex and this case is a litte different, but the way they just neutered a massive site like Pornhub could be a source of inspiration.
They’re simply a Super PAC dedicated to getting rid of Trump, who will probably morph into a centrist GOP media entity after Biden takes office. They started as Republicans, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that they will continue as Republicans.
I think there’s going to be a lot more scrutiny on tech and social media companies in the coming years, not just because of the Trump issue abut also over data rights and monopoly concerns.
That's what they technically were. The end result was that they took in a lot of money to make some memey ads/Twitter posts, and in the end had a vanishingly small impact on the actual election (since Trump won the vast majority of GOP voters anyway - and in fact got significantly more votes than in 2016).
They sure made themselves a lot of money, though.
Trump was never not going to win the vast majority of R voters, but even the slightest impact on GOP voters in a few swing states could've made a difference. They are apparently planning on continuing to build a political apparatus with their money which is perfectly fine. If people want to continue to contribute then that’s their call.
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Personally, I would love that; but I don't know how regulation would work. Social media is just 'the internet', and that's so amorphous and international that it's very hard to subject it to similar laws and regulations as traditional media. For example, if new US regulations force Twitter to become editors of all content on their platform, their work may well become unprofitable. Even if not, many users would probably move somewhere else; and what if that somewhere else is an equivalent website located in a different country? Would the US be able to regulate that website's use by people located in the US? (Are we going to look at IP-based legislation everywhere?) Also, would the same guidelines also apply to public forums?
I don't know the legal landscape at all, but I imagine it's very hard to regulate it in the way that's necessary...
Presumably someone is contacting the FBI to look into this whacked out dude?
I'm curious - is it not a criminal offence in the USA to publicly encourage violence and murder?
I have the same question. I know they have freedom of speech and all that, but surely this is seditious?
All true, it's very complex.
In Twitter's case I think they've already shown that they're willing to clamp down though, they've banned several right wing extremists. They're branding Trump's posts. I think it shows that they're willing to implement strict guidelines, sort of self regulating, instead of having governments intervene. If you use their service you bow to their rules. They have the power to delete posts and ban users if they want to.
Agreed, but I think that's very self-serving: what's the minimum we can get away with to avoid government intervention in the form of laws/guidelines that we would fully have to comply with? Personally, I'm all for further government regulation - if only on the subject of all the violence and abuse, much of which could be subject to police investigation if it were not done anonymously. It's just that I imagine it's extremely hard to implement in a way that will actually help on a global scale.
Where's that global government!
I think it is considered an arestable offense when making threats online. I recall a few making threats about killing Pres Obama and were arrested. So, it may need to be directed at a person by name or location or something.
https://abc13.com/facebook-threat-president-obama-secret-service/1730684/
https://www.phillyvoice.com/new-jersey-man-charged-making-death-threat-against-obama-social-media/
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local...-assassination-on-facebook-complaint/1917390/
We are watching mental illness.
Are there any senate race polls we can trust now?
Most polls are pretty even right now (within a point or two between both candidate matchups) so its basically just a turnout game the rest of the way.
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