America Revealed 2020

[Econoline]

Woke up to pee (73-y.o. male ) and decided to check on the election results.

Had (another) gin&tonic and I'm going back to bed.

C U ;later...

[Crackpot]

Lucky you getting to go back to bed

[Crackpot]

My guess:

Biden takes Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania the first two (at least) by close margins. Giving Biden the win and the nutjobs a cause.

Mitch gets to keep fucking up the Senate.

[BoSoxGal]

I believe Biden can still win the White House, but without the Senate he’ll be limited in how much he can help our country move forward from these health and economic challenges.

I’m admittedly disheartened; I hoped for a blue wave of repudiation.

All my young life my father told me that most people were fucking idiots, but I bristled and believed him to be a hopeless misanthrope. Turns out he was right.

Six more years of McConnell in charge?! UGH.

Let’s hope the courts laugh at orange’s attempt to shut down the lawful counting.

[Big RR]

Six more years? Let's hope for more common sense in 2022 and a flip of the Senate then.

[Crackpot]

Let’s hope the courts laugh at orange’s attempt to shut down the lawful counting.

If they do now He loses.

[BoSoxGal]

Six more years? Let's hope for more common sense in 2022 and a flip of the Senate then.

Thanks; it had somehow momentarily gone out of my head that we have chances to shape the Senate every two years.

[Crackpot]

And don’t forget there is always a chance Mitch could die

[BoSoxGal]

Good post from Michael Moore just now:

THERE IS NO CRYING IN TRUMP REMOVAL!

I am writing this at 7:45am on Nov 4 and here’s how I see it. First, I just slept like a baby in my chair with the TV blaring. For 3 hours. That’s cause I dozed off at 4:30am knowing this: Millions of ballots — all of them from early and mail-in voting which the majority of Democrats did — had not been counted! In Pennsylvania, I knew that the majority of those 2.2 MILLION uncounted ballots were from registered Democrats. When I fell asleep, the map of Michigan showed Flint as red! Hahaha!!

And here’s the bottom line: After all the hoopla of the last 12 hours, ONLY Biden has been able to flip a state AND an electoral college delegate district that had gone the other way in 2016. That state is Arizona and it went to Biden (and THAT was called by FOX News!). The one other elector that changed from 2016 to last night was the 2nd Congressional district of Nebraska which had gone for Trump in 2016 — and it was won by Biden yesterday. Trump has not flipped a single state that Hillary won! Only Biden is flipping states and electors that Trump won in 2016. And he will flip more today as the ballots continue to be counted.

Here’s the facts:

The mail-in ballots had not been counted by 4am in PA, MI, and WI. Of those 2.2 million ballots that had not been counted in PA, 66% of them had been sent to registered Democrats. In Michigan, Detroit and Flint are still not fully counted. Same in Wisconsin — oh, and now Milwaukee’s votes have just come in — and Biden has gone ahead in Wisconsin!

TV last night provided Trump with the graphic map he needed — all those states in blood red — so Trump came out and stood in the middle of the night in front of a hundred American flags and declared victory and ordered the counting of all the ballots to cease. Halt! he ordered. The places he demanded the counting to be stopped are the places... wait for it!... they are the places with majority Black voters! Just like a thug bigoted strongman leader would do in a non-democracy. He then declared that he would immediately go to his Supreme Court. The one he packed. Will this bastard Court do his bidding? Will we stand for it?

We had been warned about not being fooled by all the early “red” on the map — the “red mirage.” Too many pundits wasted too much time this week smoking the bad weed that the DNC and some in the media had been handing out. “Oooh, I think we can win Texas!” “People in South Carolina will remove Lindsay Graham!” “Ohio will GO BLUUUUUE!” Seriously? Have you been to Ohio?

The ballot counters have now gotten a little sleep and they have started counting again. And every ten minutes, for the last hour, Biden has continued to gain on Trump. Trump tried hard to flip two Hillary states from 2016 — Minnesota and New Hampshire. He lost both last night. This is not over. Stop crying! There is no crying in Trump Removal!

Demand every single vote be counted. A group called “Protect the Results” is organizing protests. Go to their site now and sign up! The only vote thief here will be Trump.

And finally, sadly, as to why our fellow Americans did not repudiate Trump yesterday in a massive way, as to why nearly 70 million Americans still embrace a bigot and a psychopath — well, we must have that discussion soon as to who we REALLY are. Shameful. Apologies to our Black brothers and sisters, and apologies to the rest of the world.

[BoSoxGal]

Here’s some good thoughts from Dan Rather:

We awaken to a country in pain, deeply divided, and in search of its soul. That we have an election with razor-thin margins in several states is not a complete anomaly in our history. That the chasms between us feel so fraught and so alienating does feel uniquely precarious;.

There was no wave, although if the votes turn out in a certain way in the final counting Biden could win a healthy number of states. And let's start with a basic fact this morning: a Biden presidency is a completely different destiny for America than a continuation of what we've had. And there seems a fair - maybe even good - chance that he will prevail in the Electoral College.

Although there are potentially dangerous days ahead, I remain optimistic. I don't think that the worst fears of violence or stopping the vote count will be realized. I believe our institutions will hold.

The question that does loom is what's next? Why did so many support Trump with all that he has done? I don't think there is a single answer to that question. At the same time, one can also ask why did so many vote to reject an incumbent president? That has proven a difficult bar in American history. There are many answers to that question as well.

I don't minimize the challenges we are facing. The struggle for justice and the truth seems more difficult than many had hoped. But that doesn't lessen the importance of the mission. Quite the contrary. I know many are tired, disappointed, and in disbelief. Many wonder what their country truly is and where it might go. All of these are natural reactions to where America is today. But I have seen over the course of my lifetime that victories are rarely easy and the struggle for healing and hope takes time and perseverance, because the forces of hate and lies are always easier to summon.

There is a lot that is broken, deeply broken. But there are millions upon millions of our fellow citizens who wake up each morning, undaunted, ready to do the hard work to help others and make this world a better place. Today, I honor that spirit. As long as I have breath, I will continue to fight for the America I want to live in.

[BoSoxGal]

Political operatives on the ground are very confident Michigan and Wisconsin are in the column for Biden as the mail in ballot count grows.

[Darren]

[BoSoxGal]

The soul of America is darker than I naively hoped.

Story of my life.

[Darren]

The soul of America is darker than I naively hoped.

Story of my life.

From your pov that makes perfect sense.

[Long Run]

Winners and losers:

Main stream pollsters are the big losers. Got it very wrong. Again. Some were off the charts bad in their polling (Biden by 10+%, wtf).

I'd rather be sitting in Biden's place than Trump's as the last votes get counted. Biden should manage to win a close one.

Trump loses the election, but maybe this all helps rebuild his brand? Fortunately, he will fade away from our daily life, but the issues that drove his success remain. Question is whether those issues need the battering ram that is Trump, or if a mainstream pol can carry those ideas forward.

Biden has to deal with divided government which should help him prevent the self-destructiveness the far left would impose on his party. Biden has far more experience in successfully working with the opposition, and understanding the legislative process, than the last two who sat in the Oval Office. Biden has a good chance to have a successful presidency, which would be nice since it has been over 20 years since we had one of those.

[BoSoxGal]

Plenty more chaos up Cheeto Mussolini’s sleeves.

[Econoline]

The soul of America is darker than I naively hoped.

Story of my life.

This just posted from Jim Wright:

So, what have you learned?

I mean, you should have known this already, but it's obvious many of you didn't.

So, what have you learned?

I'll tell you: people lie.

That's what you learned.

"Decent" Conservatives are embarrassed to vote for Trump.

They are (and note the quote marks before you reach for the keyboard).

Decent Republicans, or at least those who think of themselves as such, they're embarrassed by Trump.

They're embarrassed to see what's become of their political party, their ideology, the so-called Party of Lincoln.

They're embarrassed to see the hate, the racism, the bigotry, the sexism, the nationalism, the Swastikas and the Confederate flags and all the things that so much resemble 1930's Germany -- oh, I don't mean they're embarrassed by those things themselves, I mean they're embarrassed to see Trump waving it around out in the open.

See, so long as they keep their white sheets hidden away in the closet and they're not actually burning crosses in a black family's front yard or shoveling Jews into the ovens, they can pretend they're not horrible people.

They can pretend they really ARE living up to those ideals their religion tells them are the ticket to some better afterlife.

And there's Trump, reminding them everyday who they really are.

Rubbing their noses in it.

Some, well, they embrace it. They mount flags on their trucks and shout it from the windows. They'll be the first ones in line when the job of Concentration Camp Guard opens up.

But many? Maybe even most?

They're embarrassed.

So, when the pollsters call, they lie about who they're going to vote for.

Trump? I just can't. I'm a republican, but I'm voting for Joe!

And we wanted to believe them.

We wanted to believe our neighbors and our countrymen really WEREN'T a bunch of fucking Nazis.

But when no one can see, when they're all alone in the voting booth, then they cast their ballot for hate, fear, bigotry, and more Trump, because secretly, that's who they ARE.

That's who they really are.

This is the instinctive, ingrained, institutional racism, the accepted systematic sexism, the everyday bias of our civilization -- the very things women and people of color tell us about every single goddamn day.

This is the fear that cripples the minds of at least half of our country.

This is America's religion.

And no amount of reason will change that.

It's that story I told you earlier, last week, the doctor who called Trump a "scumbag," but was determined to vote for him anyway, because in his mind anything else was TERRIFYING.

What have you learned?

People lie on polls because they're ashamed to admit, even to themselves, who they really are.

But when they are alone in the voting booth, when they think no one else can see, well ... here we are.

People lie.

But in the end, their actions ALWAYS show you who they really are.

(My emphasis.)

I feel somewhat the same as you, Karla. But I'm old enough to have also lived through some genuinely hopeful—inspiring, even—times and events. I don't know if that makes it better...or worse.

*SIGH*

At least I will go to my grave knowing that I've seen, on live TV, an American citizen plant our national flag on the goddamn MOON.

*SIGH*

[Darren]

Fear and hate are such strong motivators that the ability to consider evidence much less seek out evidence which doesn't support the point of view inculcated by fear and hate is impossible.

[Scooter]

Fear and hate are such strong motivators that the ability to consider evidence much less seek out evidence which doesn't support the point of view inculcated by fear and hate is impossible.

[datsunaholic]

If AZ and NV hold for Biden as projected, and PA, NC, and GA go for Trump as trending, that puts Biden at EXACTLY 270.

Which means faithless electors could come into play.