Biden v Dump 1: If not now, when? If not us, who?

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Dilbert guy got rolled on Twitter cause he said his show (Dilbert) was canceled by UPN cause he is White. The amount of people who posted the ratings of the show (dead last!) was hilarious.

It's gotta be extra embarrassing to get cancelled by UPN, of all networks. :-D

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

I think I might have to throw my Dilbert books into the fire when I get around to burning my American flag. I used to love those cartoons but now I question why any syndicate even gives him a platform for his strip anymore. Progressives get trolled all the time for creating and furthering a "cancel culture" but if anything needs to be cancelled it is clearly Scott Adams.

As for Biden V Dump, this article might make some feel a little better about some of the polling, even if it is from a partisan pollster.

The lingering apprehension among Democrats fails to recognize just how much the political landscape has changed since 2016. We are looking at different polls, a different America, and different campaigns with different leaders.

and

So one reason to trust my polls more now than in 2016 is this change: Four years ago, those without a four-year degree made up 48 percent of my survey respondents; today they account for 60 percent. Whites without a college degree were 33 percent of my surveys; today they are 43 percent. That is a huge change—an elixir against being deceived again.

Again, we must take nothing for granted. It is halftime and the score might be 27-0. But we need to keep the first string in, we need to keep throwing it down field, we need to stomp the other side right in the kidneys so they pee blood for days after the game is over.

 

[Kepler]

I think I might have to throw my Dilbert books into the fire when I get around to burning my American flag. I used to love those cartoons but now I question why any syndicate even gives him a platform for his strip anymore. Progressives get trolled all the time for creating and furthering a "cancel culture" but if anything needs to be cancelled it is clearly Scott Adams.

I still love Ender's Game even though Orson Scott Card has outed himself as an actual Nazi. You can separate the art from the artist. Lots of great works were produced by horrible people.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Dilbert is nothing without Pointy-haired Boss and it turns out that particular character is all Scott Adams has ever wanted to be. PHB is white male privelege in comic strip form.

 

[Handyman]

It's gotta be extra embarrassing to get cancelled by UPN, of all networks. :-D

When you see some of the shows that beat him in the ratings it is a friggin laugh riot

The best part is that he is quoted in interviews back in the day as saying they were cancelled because UPN sucked and the show was awful. Nothing about how they supposedly told them they are looking to go for the "Black Demographic". Then Tweeters started talking about the shows on UPN that didnt get cancelled and they were all primarily shows written for and starring White People. Then guys like Chris Titus showed up and attacked him. Then he changed from his "Woe is Me" story to "Are You Telling Me This Stuff Doesnt Happen"? stance. He got so burned he looked flame broiled

Plus Dilbert was overrated anyways. Maybe 1 out of 5 was actually clever or funny and in truth none of it was groundbreaking. OOOOOH its a comic about working in the office and how dull it is!!! The subtext wasnt particularly clever either. You are either clever or if you arent clever you are funny. You can be both but Dilbert somehow was neither. Friggin Cathy was better...

 

[French Rage]

Plus Dilbert was overrated anyways. Maybe 1 out of 5 was actually clever or funny and in truth none of it was groundbreaking. OOOOOH its a comic about working in the office and how dull it is!!! The subtext wasnt particularly clever either. You are either clever or if you arent clever you are funny. You can be both but Dilbert somehow was neither. Friggin Cathy was better...

It was pretty strong in the mid to late 90s. I liked it a lot. But the TV show just plain sucked. I had no rhythm or pacing, possibly because turning a 3-panel strip into a 21 minute sitcom doesn't work. (I guess it worked for Garfield And Friends, but even then they broke it into three segments.) The cancellation had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the execution being piss poor.

 

[Kepler]

Tim Wirth on how Dump and the Nazis could lose but destroy democracy.

For Trump, there are two broad pathways to maintaining power. First, we can already see very clearly a strategy designed to suppress voter turnout with the purging of registration rolls of large numbers of mostly urban voters; efforts to suppress mail-in ballots, which are more necessary than ever, given COVID-19; a re-election apparatus that is training 50,000 poll watchers for the purpose of challenging citizens' right to vote on Election Day; and significant efforts to make in-person voting in urban areas as cumbersome as possible in order to have long lines that discourage people from exercising their voting rights.

The second pathway to subverting the election is even more ominous—but we must be cognizant of it because Trump is already laying the groundwork for how he can lose the popular vote, and even lose in the key swing states necessary for an Electoral College victory, but still remain president.

This spring, HBO aired The Plot Against America, based on the Philip Roth novel of how an authoritarian president could grab control of the United States government using emergency powers that no one could foresee. Recent press reports have revealed the compilation by the Brennan Center at New York University of an extensive list of presidential emergency powers that might be inappropriately invoked in a national security crisis. Attorney General William Barr, known for his extremist view of the expanse of presidential power, is widely believed to be developing a Justice Department opinion arguing that the president can exercise emergency powers in certain national security situations, while stating that the courts, being extremely reluctant to intervene in the sphere of a national security emergency, would allow the president to proceed unchecked.

Trump actually tweeted on June 22: "Rigged 2020 election: millions of mail-in ballots will be printed by foreign countries, and others. It will be the scandal of our times!" With this, Trump has begun to lay the groundwork for the step-by-step process by which he holds on to the presidency after he has clearly lost the election:

1. Biden wins the popular vote, and carries the key swing states of Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by decent but not overwhelming margins.
2. Trump immediately declares that the voting was rigged, that there was mail-in ballot fraud and that the Chinese were behind a plan to provide fraudulent mail-in ballots and other "election hacking" throughout the four key swing states that gave Biden his victory.
3. Having railed against the Chinese throughout the campaign, calling Biden "soft on China," Trump delivers his narrative claiming the Chinese have interfered in the U.S. election.
4. Trump indicates this is a major national security issue, and he invokes emergency powers, directing the Justice Department to investigate the alleged activity in the swing states. The legal justification for the presidential powers he invokes has already been developed and issued by Barr.
5. The investigation is intended to tick down the clock toward December 14, the deadline when each state's Electoral College electors must be appointed. This is the very issue that the Supreme Court harped on in Bush v. Gore in ruling that the election process had to be brought to a close, thus forbidding the further counting of Florida ballots.
6. All four swing states have Republican control of both their upper and lower houses of their state legislatures. Those state legislatures refuse to allow any Electoral College slate to be certified until the "national security" investigation is complete.
7. The Democrats will have begun a legal action to certify the results in those four states, and the appointment of the Biden slate of electors, arguing that Trump has manufactured a national security emergency in order to create the ensuing chaos.
8. The issue goes up to the Supreme Court, which unlike the 2000 election does not decide the election in favor of the Republicans. However, it indicates again that the December 14 Electoral College deadline must be met; that the president's national security powers legally authorize him to investigate potential foreign country intrusion into the national election; and if no Electoral College slate can be certified by any state by December 14, the Electoral College must meet anyway and cast its votes.
9. The Electoral College meets, and without the electors from those four states being represented, neither Biden nor Trump has sufficient votes to get an Electoral College majority.
10. The election is thrown into the House of Representatives, pursuant to the Constitution. Under the relevant constitutional process, the vote in the House is by state delegation, where each delegation casts one vote, which is determined by the majority of the representatives in that state.
11. Currently, there are 26 states that have a majority Republican House delegation. 23 states have a majority Democratic delegation. There is one state, Pennsylvania, that has an evenly split delegation. Even if the Democrats were to pick up seats in Pennsylvania and hold all their 2018 House gains, the Republicans would have a 26 to 24 delegation majority.
12. This vote would enable Trump to retain the presidency.

 

[burd]

If dump wins, by whatever means, the anger in this country will go through the roof, and when hot weather returns it will feel like the 60s again in American cities.

 

[Rover]

I did some research via ballotpedia and this falls apart on #6. Couldn't find anything reading the actual laws where certification of election results has anything to do with the state legislature in those states. It's the job of the secretary of state who I believe is a Democrat in those places. Furthermore the state supreme courts of NC, PA and most likely MI are unlikely to go along with this scheme. I would not like to rely on the WI court however so hopefully Biden has a cushion (NC for example).

 

[Jimjamesak]

I did some research via ballotpedia and this falls apart on #6. Couldn't find anything reading the actual laws where certification of election results has anything to do with the state legislature in those states. It's the job of the secretary of state who I believe is a Democrat in those places. Furthermore the state supreme courts of NC, PA and most likely MI are unlikely to go along with this scheme. I would not like to rely on the WI court however so hopefully Biden has a cushion (NC for example).

Not to mention the country falling into to complete and utter chaos if they tried it. I mean, we just exploded over the police kneeling on a black persons neck.

Two fun ways to stop this, assuming Democrats would have control of the House and Senate (which would be likely given the assumptions that started this whole mess).

1. Invoke the 14th Amendment, more specifically Section 2. Remove the Republican Members from those states contingents and Biden still wins.

2. Trump wins this way but Biden’s VP pick becomes VP because the Senate would choose the VP. Swear Trump in, invoke the 25th Amendment and Biden’s VP pick becomes President.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Of course we all know the only way trump wins is by cheating -- most likely suppressing the vote in handful of key states. But right now it looks like polling shows those states are some of the last ones you would figure to be close, like Georgia or Texas. If Biden is close enough a little well place voter suppression is needed in a place like Georgia, I would assume that means he's winning by huge margins in places like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

As much as I love a good voting conspiracy theory, it will take a lot to do a lot of bad things in enough states. And while I don't necessarily look the part of a typical lefty (white, live in a small, rural town, easily confused for a good ole boy if you don't listen too closely) I'll be voting for every Democratic candidate I can possibly cast a ballot for and if you try to keep me from voting you better be prepared for a world of hurt.

 

[burd]

Of course we all know the only way trump wins is by cheating

Perhaps, but I'm still leery about making assumptions about the way people will vote when behind the curtain and about who will feel compelled to show up, regardless of suppression efforts.

When the curtain closes, people's guts kick in, and I don't think we libs fully appreciate how averse a LOT of people are to supporting what they think is the liberal agenda.

 

[Handyman]

Amazingly in the early hours (roughly 2pm Moscow Time) #Trump2020Landslide started trending. Their effort is halfassed and predictable but the ignorant sure do fall for it. Then the sun rises, the thinkers see it and co-opt it ;-)

 

[Drew S.]

Kanye West is now running apparently. Hopefully he doesn’t get his campaign off the ground because if he does this could be the linefline Trump needs.

 

[First Time Long Time]

Kanye West is now running apparently. Hopefully he doesn’t get his campaign off the ground because if he does this could be the linefline Trump needs.

You would hope people aren't that stupid...but we have Trump.

 

[Handyman]

Kanye was a Trumper...I dont see it going well for him.

 

[Scarlet]

Kanye was a Trumper...I dont see it going well for him.

I was thinking the same, but I think Trump is thrilled because he’d take votes from Biden. But SERIOUSLY? Kanye West. He’s a LOON. I could see a third party candidate doing that but it’s Kanye West. I....I have to believe there aren’t people stupid enough to think this is a serious campaign.

 

[bronconick]

McMullin got on 11 state ballots after announcing August 8th, 2016, and had help from some proto-NeverTrump SuperPAC. Kanye's too late to file in Indiana, Maine, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Texas right now per Ballotpedia. Getting on ballots are going to be as much fun as even getting people registered right now. Lots of things can be solved in America with loads of cash, but where's Kanye going to get seasoned political help get on ballots, etc? The GOP is all in on Trump, and the Never Trump and DNC are all in on Biden and/or thrashing Trump. Is Trump going to loan Kanye some help in a hope to draw young African American support from Biden?

 

[Handyman]

Kanye's attempt will make Bloomberg's campaign look viable.

 

[burd]

But SERIOUSLY? Kanye West. He’s a LOON. I could see a third party candidate doing that but it’s Kanye West. I....I have to believe there aren’t people stupid enough to think this is a serious campaign.

True, but it just seems like I've had that thought before in the last 4 years.