2020 Political Chatter

[Paul Jacobs]

Just an observation and I am far from suggesting that we have got things right in the UK over the past several years, Boris Johnson is aged 56 and Sir Kier Starmer (leader of the opposition) is 58. Donald Trump is 74 and Joe Biden is 77 and Mitch McConnell is 78.

[Colinmclelland]

If you count the Georgia special elections that looks likely for their senate seats, this may push to the $2 billion figure.

Does that include Bloomberg’s big Primary spend?

[jmgorman]

Oh, that was just president. Some of these senate races were over 500M combined all on their own. It was a hell of a year to be in the local television and radio business.

If you count the Georgia special elections that looks likely for their senate seats, this may push to the $2 billion figure.

[dgaddis]

Oh, that was just president. Some of these senate races were over 500M combined all on their own. It was a hell of a year to be in the local television and radio business.

I'm in Georgia. We don't have cable and I haven't listened to the radio hardly at all this whole year. I listen to music on Spotify (add free), and listen/watch a good bit of YouTube.

They're spending TONS of money on YouTube ads. Like, that's well over 50% of the ads the last month or so have been political.

[htwoopup]

Actually, if you look at all the election the way the ad industry looks at it which includes PAC money and party money and local...all elections in the cycle that ended this past Tuesday, it is 14 Billion. That may be a little low as numbers as a tad weird in the online space. Which is a crazy stupid amount of money. Which is why McCain-Feingold was such a great idea. But that was ruled unconstitutional hence the insanity. And there are people starving out there. Disgusting.

Another thing that I find disgusting about the process is that claims in ads must be provable and have to go through « standards and practices » to be verified/ be fact checked for lack of an easier way to put it for product and services or other commercial advertising. The kind you normally see. It has been decided that that would be wrong and a violation of free speech if political advertising also had to be factually correct. The reason it isn’t a violation in regular advertising is commercial speech is protected also but not to the same level. So, politicians can lie in an ad and unlike for laundry detergent they are not held to account on it.

[echappist]

Thank you PA!

Well, also Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Team effort.

Also, not over yet. Whole bags of trickery and shenanigans that could be unleashed. From Wapo

State legislatures’ role in who wins: Not much, after the election is held

Normally, Congress and state legislatures are in the background of how elections are run. Congress sets the election date, and state legislatures figure out among themselves how to best hold them.

State legislatures decide how electors are chosen: For more than a century, that has meant every state has allotted electors based on which presidential candidate won the popular vote in that state.

When this would become an issue: There are a number of swing states that are both crucial to the election and have divided control of government. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania all have Democratic governors but Republican-controlled legislatures, which could lead to partisan battles over how to allot electors should it not be clear who won.

A drawn-out counting process in Pennsylvania in particular has national Democrats on edge. Some fear Republican lawmakers could take advantage of post-election chaos to hand Trump a win, especially after these GOP lawmakers were quoted in an Atlantic article as having discussed the possibility with the Trump campaign. The top state House and Senate Republicans wrote an op-ed in October saying the legislature has no role to play in choosing electors. It’s a stance they reiterated this week, but with the caveat that “under normal circumstances” they won’t play a role. Some interpreted that as leaving the door open for the legislature to intervene.

Where choosing electors might run up against the law: States can constitutionally change how electors are chosen, but they’d have to change the rules before Election Day, not after.

That’s according to experts on law, the Constitution and democracy from a wide ideological range on the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises. Doing so, they argue, would violate federal law that requires that all states appoint their electors based on what happens on Election Day.

Where things could get messy: What if state lawmakers, getting pressure from Trump, decide they do have the authority to pick electors after Election Day based on results different from the outcome of the election?

Such a move would almost certainly get challenged in courts, but what if the courts agree? The Supreme Court’s conservative justices in particular have been inclined in voting rights cases to side with Republican legislatures.

[ides1056]

No
F*********
Way

[Will Neide]

Thank you PA!

You're welcome.

[guido]

Adam Zygus in the Buffalo News via Washington Post

[guido]

Barry Blitt in the current New Yorker

"How's the vote count going for Donald Trump?"

[colker]

Is Trump going to jail? Where is the limit to destroying the GOP credibility?

[colker]

Does that include Bloomberg’s big Primary spend?

Democracy is expensive. Tiranny is cheaper.

[rwsaunders]

In listening to all of the news about voter registration, ballot design, vote counts, mail-in voter fraud, etc. I said to my wife the other day, this reminds of watching the news when the citizens of a third world country finally get to vote and there are UN Peacekeepers present at the polls and the voter gets to dip their thumb in blue dye to prevent voting again. Maybe it’s come to that here. Also, how come tRump hasn’t requested recounts in the states that he’s apparently won? What a transparent, petty and pathetic POS.

[Too Tall]

Pardon the break in this all too civil conversation.

Party every evening at my place after dinner. Bring firewood and good booze. This will continue until the cows come home and there ain't no cornfields in our zipcode.

[htwoopup]

Two articles, in case you didn’t see them, apropos of the discussion that belong here rather than the journalism thread.

Well written, and I hope they speak to you and give you pause as they have spoken to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/o...ion-2020.html?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/w...election.html?

[johnmdesigner]

Upper Manhattan going nutz!

[climbgdh]

Thank you USA...... Thanks & Regards from The Rest of the World.

[colker]

Congratulations to the american people for getting rid of proto fascism.

It seems americans won´t be told anymore to move out of the country in case they disagree w/ paranoid politics.

[vvv321]

Congratulations to the american people for getting rid of proto fascism.

It seems americans won´t be told anymore to move out of the country in case they disagree w/ paranoid politics.

It's not gone yet. Unfortunately, we will be dealing with this for years to come.

[robin3mj]

Pardon the break in this all too civil conversation.

Party every evening at my place after dinner. Bring firewood and good booze. This will continue until the cows come home and there ain't no cornfields in our zipcode.

I’ll be right over.