The Wow I Can't Believe That News Story Thread

[rostasi]

There’s A Major Scandal Brewing In Trump’s Kodak Pharmaceutical Award

[Raime]

Originally Posted by jwb

The nation would go ape**** if this really happened. I know I would.

[jwb]

According to the video, Congress would have to agree to it, which seems very hard to imagine. If there is any rationale to this beyond Trump's deranged lack of any connection to reality, it's likely just setting up the narrative of a fraudulent election in case he loses.

[OccultHawk]

I’m surprised anyone didn’t see this coming.

Once he does it every congressional election and gubernatorial election will also be contested and the smooth transition of government will be a thing from our past. It’s just another step in a very steady move toward third world disarray. We already have a below third world education, third world health care, third world nutrition, and superstitious conspiracy minded tribal third world culture. Of course our politics are going the same way.

How long can a country this armed and this poorly governed avoid a nuclear crisis? Another plague? Black truck genocides? Civil war? Water disputes? Devastated farm land? War with Mexico? Taken offline by China and Russia? The dollar finally bottoming out?

[OccultHawk]

Originally Posted by jwb

According to the video, Congress would have to agree to it, which seems very hard to imagine. If there is any rationale to this beyond Trump's deranged lack of any connection to reality, it's likely just setting up the narrative of a fraudulent election in case he loses.

That he uses to stay in office, “Just until we figure this thing out”

I don’t see how anybody could still think we’re going to have a peaceful transition of government.

[jwb]

People have been speculating about this sorta thing for years tbh. Before the last election people thought he might not willingly accept a loss and since then it's been endlessly debated whether he will leave the office willingly, whether he would go for a 3rd term, how he would try to rig the election, etc.

I don't doubt for a second there's a decent chance he'd try to contest a loss, I just don't think that will work. Seems more likely he could do something to rig/unfairly influence it and get away with that instead. Especially since they've already impeached him once for it and that didn't stick.

[The Batlord]

Yeah unless it's a Bush/Gore situation I imagine Trump losing will see the rest of the Republicans casually back away and leave him rambling alone like a madman.

[grindy]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

I’m surprised anyone didn’t see this coming.

Once he does it every congressional election and gubernatorial election will also be contested and the smooth transition of government will be a thing from our past. It’s just another step in a very steady move toward third world disarray. We already have a below third world education, third world health care, third world nutrition, and superstitious conspiracy minded tribal third world culture. Of course our politics are going the same way.

How long can a country this armed and this poorly governed avoid a nuclear crisis? Another plague? Black truck genocides? Civil war? Water disputes? Devastated farm land? War with Mexico? Taken offline by China and Russia? The dollar finally bottoming out?

What's a black truck genocide and can I name my band that?

[OccultHawk]

Originally Posted by grindy

What's a black truck genocide and can I name my band that?

In predicting an age of terror in which "the major work involves midair explosions and crumbled buildings," DeLillo was eerily ahead of his time in contemplating the profound effect that political terror was soon to have on American society. The question of the efficacy of art in the context of dogmatism and violence of a massive scale is central to the narrative. In preparing the novel, DeLillo's editor at Viking, Nan Graham, said, "Long before he had written anything Don told me he had two folders -- one marked 'art' and the other marked 'terror.'"

Murica Maoism First Action

*Public executions of black truck owners.

[Lisnaholic]

This is how I suspect the election will go down: the Republicans will use all the voter suppression tricks they have already successfully used in Georgia and elsewhere:
- gerrymandering
- closure of polling stations
- relocating polling stations to places void of public transport
- "typo errors" in polling announcements to give wrong hours/locations etc.
- retweeting Russian media disinformation
- pedantic/intimidating voter registration

They'll also try out some new ones for mail-in ballots:
- reduced funding and service of the postal system
- arbitrary cut-off deadlines for postal votes
- accusastions of fraudulent postal ballots

With all those in place, they'll be in a position to either win some states or to get close enough to demand recounts, etc. The GOP won't flat out deny the election result if they lose, but they'll be piecemeal tipping the playing field in their favour with moves that are, each of them alone, plausably excuseable, for eg. "We had to move the polling station out of town for economic reasons."

And here's how the GOP could plausably scupper mail-in balloting with each move being, of itself, excusable: (i) reduce postal service, (ii) send out a mailshot with a "mistake" giving a ballot dealine of, say, November 10 (iii) on November 5, send out a correction with the real ballot deadline of November 6.


What worries me about the coverage of current poll numbers is that they are making the Dems complacent again. I think the media should analyse all poll results like this:
Poll: Biden leads at 60%
Adjusted for gerrymandering: 55%
Adjusted for inaccessible polling stations: 50%
Adjusted for mail-in ballot deadlines: 45%

I think it was one of the Lincoln Project guys who said that the Dems turn up to a knife fight with a soup ladle. Didn't we see that in the Barr hearing the other day? Some angry words, but no action. Why didn't they press Barr to recuse himself from any case in which there could be an appearance of impropriety? That could've stopped Trump "activating" Barr at will.