You probably saw footage of Trumpsters showing up to protest and make noise outside of vote-counting facilities in Arizona and Michigan. This is the exact same thing GOPers did in Florida during the Bush-Gore “hanging chads” recount in 2000, which was successful in scaring the crap out of the poll workers checking the ballots. That sped up the moves to end the recount, which ultimately was decided by the Supreme Court. Of course, there was not enough security — it’s not like this process is important — and when local law enforcement showed up, it did nothing to control those angry white Trumpsters. I’m sure that is the same reaction they’d have if a large crowd of Black supporters of Joe Biden showed up with open-carry guns and started making noisy demands.
Quote of the night, from my friend Jeff Smith: The folks chanting “STOP THE COUNTS” while their candidate trails have, IMHO, surpassed the Tea Partier w/ proclaiming “GET YOUR GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF MY MEDICARE.”
How ironic that evangelicals want to abort the election instead of allowing it to come to full term.
“I hereby claim…” — the phrase Trump used on Twitter to insist he’d won states where the ballot counting isn’t complete — is the sort of thing you hear an older brother say when he wants to keep his younger brother away from a certain corner of their shared bedroom. Not that I’d know anything about that particular sibling dynamic. In other news, my wife wants to go claim the freezer at Dierberg’s that contains Blue Bunny Peppermint Stick ice cream.
Why don’t we have the same rules for voting in all 50 states? I know states make up the rules for how they run their elections, but each state also has its own driving laws, yet everyone in the US drives on the right side of the road and stops when the light is red. Just as we have a single American currency (a dollar bill in Maine is the same as a dollar bill in Alabama), the most important aspect of democracy should be standardized nationally, as well.
Sad Math: If you add the vote totals for Biden and Trump, it comes to around 142 million. There are 245 Americans over the age of 18 and thus eligible to vote. That means more than a hundred million Americans did not vote in this election. That’s more people than were in the entire US population in 1914.
If you spend all day shouting that counting the votes at this point is illegal, you lose the right to demand a recount later.
Remember when Michael Bloomberg and a few rich celebrities and athletes said they’d pay off the debts of tens of thousands of ex-felons in Florida so they could vote? How’d that work out?
Joe Biden keeps proving he knows how to act presidential, and has said all the right things over the last 36 hours. I haven’t seen someone that good since watching the Barack Obama flashbacks in “The Way I See It,” the documentary about Pete Souza, the former Chief Official White House Photographer.
Tuesday night, there was election coverage on NBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and Peacock, but the only coverage worth watching from that company was on MSNBC, because it has Steve Kornacki and his magic maps. Since that cable channel beat its in-house partners and the big legacy network, why not just simulcast it across all platforms (with Spanish translation on Telemundo)? Other than my friend Bill, how many people could possibly have tuned in to the Morning Joe At Night stream on Peacock? I bet we’re talking Quibi-like low numbers.
If Nevada wanted people who are good and fast when it comes to counting, they should have hired some of the out of work casino dealers on The Strip. I’m not just talking about the ones at the poker tables. Have you ever seen the ones who work a busy roulette table with seven players, each betting with different color chips? Amazing.
A reminder to the media of a rule that’s been true for over four years: there is never any reason to show footage of Eric Trump saying anything, anywhere.
Seeing streaming feeds of people counting ballots, I’m reminded of the night I stayed up late to watch the National Actuary Championships on Twitch. Good times.
What was the last time Rudy Giuliani won a court case for a client while in private practice? He has about as much legal credibility as a graduate of Trump University Law School.
With Trump and his acolytes going around making absurd, evidence-free claims about voting fraud or that the Democrats are trying to steal the election, don’t bother arguing with them. Just say two words: “Prove it.”
You may ask, “How could 65 million Americans vote for Donald Trump knowing everything we know about him?” But you’re beginning with a faulty premise. Most of those people live inside the right-wing media bubble, getting misinformation from Fox News Channel, talk radio loudmouths, websites like Breitbart, and a toxic Facebook feed. So, they don’t know what you know. And if you’re not exposed to their poisonous propaganda and lies on a regular basis, you don’t know what they know. Then again, you likely haven’t woken up every day for the last dozen years feeling angry and afraid and victimized, as they have. And you probably wear a face mask when you go out in public during a pandemic.
If you’re a Democrat, when this is all over and Joe Biden is declared the winner, take pride in the historic fact that not only did your candidate get more votes than anyone in history, but your party has also flipped several states back to blue and elected a female person of color to one of the highest offices in the land for the first time. You also helped eject a president after just one full term, which has only happened three other times in the last century (Carter, Bush 41, and Hoover).
This may be a bit premature, but I’m really looking forward to saying “Happy Holidays!” next month.