How Trump thinks "democracy" works

[MeDotOrg]

Do you know how many times he mentions the 11,779 votes he lost by?

Eleven. Eleven times in this one call.

Lock him up.

This goes to the heart of the issue, because it shows the President's state of mind. He is a lot more focused on the number of votes he needs than trying to prove the particulars of any allegation he makes. The bottom line is never a priniciple. It's always a number.

[Jersey Girl]

...a deranged wannabe tyrant who talks like a Mafia boss with a head injury ~ Seth Meyers, January 4, 2021

[Moksha]

Is destroying America to assuage Trump's ego that important to Republicans? They are willing to throw all those years of "pretend patriotism" out the window because narcissistic Trump cannot admit he lost. Their current actions reveal the extent of their phony reverence for the Constitution. Making America great again simply was empty words designed at keeping them in power.

Their emperor has no clothes and they are too dishonest to admit it - except for Mitt Romney. He was the last honorable Republican left standing. Mitt and his white donkey holding the Constitution are too few to revive the dying party. The Party of Sedition will now be inhabited by Ghouls, Draugr, and the trolls you recognize from this board.

[Some Schmo]

Is destroying America to assuage Trump's ego that important to Republicans? They are willing to throw all those years of "pretend patriotism" out the window because narcissistic Trump cannot admit he lost. Their current actions reveal the extent of their phony reverence for the Constitution. Making America great again simply was empty words designed at keeping them in power.

Yes. At least three quarters of GOP talking points have been rendered utterly useless because to speak them now only proves their shameless hypocrisy.

They never get to complain about a politician's character again without coming out as an obvious damned hypocrite, completely dishonest, and not worth taking seriously.

Course, most of them already have that status. Just following/supporting/enabling Trump at any time makes you a broken human being. Trump is the most obvious piece of crap in history, so if you do anything but criticize him, something is wrong with you.

[canpakes]

Is destroying America to assuage Trump's ego that important to Republicans?

Yes.

They are willing to throw all those years of "pretend patriotism" out the window because narcissistic Trump cannot admit he lost.

Yes.

Their current actions reveal the extent of their phony reverence for the Constitution.

Yes.

Making America great again simply was empty words designed at keeping them in power.

Yes.

Their emperor has no clothes and they are too dishonest to admit it - except for Mitt Romney. He was the last honorable Republican left standing.

Sure looks like it.

Mitt and his white donkey holding the Constitution are too few to revive the dying party. The Party of Sedition will now be inhabited by Ghouls, Draugr, and the trolls you recognize from this board.

Pretty much.

[Res Ipsa]

I read the transcript. First, some context. The Constitution gives states the power to the states to set their own election laws. The Georgia state legislature has exercised that power to adopt an election law. It has delegated certain duties to various officials in terms of who does what. It has set up a specific procedure for challenging the results of an election. It has designated certain information as private, so as to protect the voter's right to cast a secret ballot.

Trump's lawyers completely screwed up the election contest he filed under the Georgia statute. He waited until the last arguable second to file his challenge, even though many of the issues he raises could have been litigated months before the election. His lawyers wanted a special judge assigned, but failed to file the necessary motion. When a judge was assigned through the regular process, they filed a notice of appeal, which divests the trial court of jurisdiction. Meaning the trial court cannot take any action while the appeal is pending. They asked for an emergency appeal to the state Supreme Court, which was denied the next day. But they left the appeal pending in front of the state Court of Appeals, which was on their regular calendar because Trump's lawyers hadn't filed a motion for any extraordinary relief. Trump's lawyers then did nothing for a couple of weeks until the trial judge reminded them that the trial court couldn't take any action because the appeal was still pending.

Trump's lawyers finally wised up and dismissed the appeal. They were given an accelerated trial date, as they had requested. It's this Friday, two days after the electoral votes are counted by Congress. So, to cover their own screw up, the Trump Campaign did two things: they filed a new lawsuit in federal court, which has a hearing on a motion for a Preliminary Injunction this morning. Because hearings in these cases take place via Zoom, courts have given the public and press the access they would normally have to a hearing by letting them log in to zoom or a conference call for the audio. But the Trump campaign asked the court for no public or press access, and the judge agreed. (It's extremely unusual for a court to order a "closed" hearing on this type of motion.)

The other thing the Trump lawyers did was the call to Raffensperger. If you read the transcript, what you'll see is the usual bombastic claims by Trump that he won Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, based mostly on the size of his rallies. You'll also see the lawyers, including Mitchell, questioning or contradicting Trump's claims. Mitchell is one of a handful of lawyers who, backed by donation to 501(c)(3)s, go around trying to suppress the vote in heavily democratic (i.e., black) areas. She's a pro.

Trump behaves like a mob boss, alternating promising good things will happen if Raffensperger will just "find" enough Trump ballots and threatening that bad things will happen if he doesn't. But when Trump shuts up enough to let his lawyers talk, you see that what he's asking really doesn't have anything to do with "finding" votes. Trump claims that over 50,000 Trump voters were forced to vote provisional ballots because "someone else" had already cast their mail in ballot. Of course, he conveniently forgets that he told his voters to vote by mail AND in person. But none of that matters, because in the case he describes, the mail in vote is canceled and the provisional is counted. Trump claims they weren't, even though the Georgia officials correct him.

But the bottom line is that his lawyers are not asking Raffensperger to acknowledge actual votes that were somehow uncounted -- they are asking him to throw out Biden votes based on their own home-brew analysis of allegedly "dead" voters, allegedly "out of state" voters, etc. And that number is lots lower than the hundreds of thousands Trump keeps blustering about. The thing is, Georgia has already investigated these claims and determined that Joe Biden got more legal votes that Donald Trump. Most tellingly, Mitchell admits during the phone call that Trump's lawyers don't know whether their estimates of invalid votes are right. What the Trump campaign wants is access to records that are private and protected under Georgia law. One of Trump's lawyers even proposes that they get around the legal privacy protections by having Raffensperger "deputize" the Presidents lawyers as Georgia election officials. (That would bee corrupt as hell -- striking a secret deal that makes one candidate's lawyers part of the official body that conducts the state election.)

So, again, bottom line. The President wasn't asking Raffensperger to recognize legal votes that had somehow not been counted. He was actually asking Raffensperger to throw out votes of Georgia voters based on claims that his own lawyers admit they can't verify. But the Georgia election officials have investigated their claims and rejected them. And they certified the election results. That is what it means for the state's to have the constitutional power to determine election law. They set the procedure, they follow the procedure, and no one has the right to contest how the election is conducted except under the provisions of state law. (There is an exception for violations of the US constitution, but "I disagree with how you counted the votes" is not a federal Constitutional issue).

Trump told Raffensperger that he would be releasing new bombshell evidence last night that would show even more election fraud that he'd been claiming. Anybody seen that yet?

[canpakes]

But the bottom line is that his lawyers are not asking Raffensperger to acknowledge actual votes that were somehow uncounted -- they are asking him to throw out Biden votes based on their own home-brew analysis of allegedly "dead" voters, allegedly "out of state" voters, etc. And that number is lots lower than the hundreds of thousands Trump keeps blustering about. The thing is, Georgia has already investigated these claims and determined that Joe Biden got more legal votes that Donald Trump. Most tellingly, Mitchell admits during the phone call that Trump's lawyers don't know whether their estimates of invalid votes are right. What the Trump campaign wants is access to records that are private and protected under Georgia law. One of Trump's lawyers even proposes that they get around the legal privacy protections by having Raffensperger "deputize" the Presidents lawyers as Georgia election officials. (That would bee corrupt as hell -- striking a secret deal that makes one candidate's lawyers part of the official body that conducts the state election.)

This is what I was trying to get subs to address. It’s amazing to hear Trump and his backers on the phone just keep repeating the same junk over and over in the face of evidence repeated by the GA SoS.

It’s hard to imagine what Trump loyalists think that Raffensperger is doing wrong or that he is somehow purposefully blocking any viable data or investigations into their imagined ‘fraud’ schemes. Raffensperger Is about as straight-laced and solid a Republican/conservative as they come and has been no friend to the other side of the aisle with regard to making voting in GA ‘easier for Democrats’.

[canpakes]

To the point of the prior post:

Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, on Monday debunked a host of inaccurate claims by the president and his allies about fraud in the state’s Nov. 3 election during a news conference at the State Capitol.

Mr. Trump’s campaign and a Trump elector previously said that data indicated that more than 66,000 voters under the age of 18 illegally voted. But state officials found that no underage voters cast ballots, Mr. Sterling said.

“This is all easily, provably false. Yet the president persists and, by doing so, undermines Georgians’ faith in the election system,” Mr. Sterling said.

Mr. Trump’s campaign earlier said as many as 2,560 felons voted illegally. Mr. Sterling said Monday that state officials have access to better data. He said 74 potential cases are under investigation but some of those people may have been eligible to vote for reasons such as having completed their sentences.

There are potentially two cases of ballots cast by people who died before the election, Mr. Sterling said, but that is still being investigated. That data contradicts a claim that there were more than 10,000 votes from people who died before the election, he said.

Asked about Mr. Sterling’s remarks, Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis, said in a statement, in part, “The Trump Legal Team has presented facts and evidence, including witnesses and expert testimony” that she argued show there were election issues.

I don’t know that telling a judge that “this guy saw dead and underage people vote” works well without something more to go on.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

...a deranged wannabe tyrant who talks like a Mafia boss with a head injury ~ Seth Meyers, January 4, 2021

Trump accidentally referred to Kelly Loeffler as "Karen" and said he "loves" QAnon Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene at his Georgia rally. But, Biden is the one with dementia...

- Doc

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

RI,

I sure hope you’re firing some of these posts off as letters to an editor. They’re really good breakdowns of current events, and deserve a wider reading audience.

- Doc