Someone Has To Do It: US Elections 2020

[caja-dglh]

I'm sure the timing of it's release, soon after Trump's defeat, is no coincidence. Presumably they would have had a plan for when to put it out after a Trump victory as well, but likely not in the immediate aftermath.

See the $65 million advance (above). Not that I have verified WOM's numbers. That seems absurdly high.

[caja-dglh]

OK - absurdly high but apparently a world-wide deal, which tempers it a little.

[ursus arctos]

It was for both of their books in a package deal

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/2...n-random-house

[Tactical Genius]

In in his ongoing Jihad against black men, Obama couldn't help himself and had another snide dig.

Whenever I hear him speak, he always sounds like a closet White Supremacist. He constantly has a go at the "Woke culture" (meaning intelligent black people) because they are the main group who criticise his 8 years in office.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/barac...voters-2818585
I guess if you pay a black man ?65 million, he will happily say what your think whilst you pretend to be shocked and surprised and nudge and wink at each other.

[ursus arctos]

Rudy Unbound

First year law students would be thrown out of moot court for this kind of garbage

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1329198595308974080

[Tactical Genius]

Ursus, is there any truth to the theory they are purposefully losing at the lower courts so they can appeal to the US supreme Court?

[ursus arctos]

No

It is almost as stupid a "theory" as the ones they are advancing

[Tactical Genius]

No

It is almost as stupid a "theory" as the ones they are advancing

Ha.

[caja-dglh]

No

It is almost as stupid a "theory" as the ones they are advancing

I suppose my naive question to follow this is - when do you just run out of appeals? Is the theory that elections are so important you can lose all the time but then pressure the next circuit to take it on because it is key to America, even though everyone has already determined it is garbage?

It is like a combined attack on law and elections.

[ursus arctos]

From a purely technical point of view, they have a lot of appeals left.

The vast majority of their losses so far have been in trial courts, so they generally have two possible appeals left in the relevant state system plus a hail mary to the Supreme Court if they can present a constitutional question. They also have a few losses in Federal district courts, which they can appeal to SCOTUS after they lose in the relevant Circuit Court.

Their fundamental problem is that the record they are producing at the trial court level (which is all the appeals courts can rule, as they are not finders of fact) is absolutely deadly to their aims, while the timing is about to render the cases moot.

https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/1329242860273676292

[ursus arctos]

As to Obama's memoir

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1329188166524411904

[Ginger Yellow]

Oh, wow, I hadn't realised that Giuliani was actually going to be making submissions in court. Time to get out the popcorn.

[WOM]

You're a day or two behind. There's some good stuff around. Like a judge explaining that 'opacity' means the opposite of what Rudy thought.

[San Bernardhinault]

During an audit of the vote count in Georgia (I think this is different to the recount: I think this is where they try and reconcile records of votes submitted and the numbers in the count) two counties appear to have misplaced or forgotten to upload drives containing a number of ballots. In total there were something like 5,000 missing ballots which cut Biden's margin by 1,000 votes.

Yet, somehow, the Republican crazies aren't going ballistic about voter fraud here, even though it's actually in their favour.

Unsurprisingly, it's because these are heavily Republican counties with Republican election officials.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1329449778988658692

[Eggchaser]

God Almighty, America, how the everliving fuck did you manage to come up with an election process that takes three bloody months to get rid of the loser?

[ooh aah]

Yeah, for all the faults with the British system, the one redeeming feature is that they're evicted by about 9am the next day.

[ursus arctos]

Used to be five months, chief

[caja-dglh]

God Almighty, America, how the everliving fuck did you manage to come up with an election process that takes three bloody months to get rid of the loser?

Having an election in the first week of November to take office late January tends to result in that.

[San Bernardhinault]

I've seen some people arguing that America's comically involved and ridiculously devolved election system makes it basically invulnerable to large scale fraud because people have to fraudulently attack so many different jurisdictions in so many different ways that it's just overwhelming bordering on impossible.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Except it is fraudulent, on a pretty massive scale, so...

[Eggchaser]

Having an election in the first week of November to take office late January tends to result in that.

But that's the point. Why wait so bloody long? We're off to ask the Queen for permission seconds after the voting's finished. The outgoing PM just about has enough time to get the man in with a van in.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I have often wondered if there's any good reason for the delay now, rather than just tradition and what have you. I'm not convinced there ever was a good reason, but leaving that to one side.

[Hot Pepsi]

In 1800, it took a long time to count the votes and then get everyone to travel to Washington, DC. That was still true in 1900. After that, we collectively gave up on ever trying to improve the system.

[WOM]

I think ursus alluded to the fact that the US is so large that it used to take 6 weeks to gather and reconcile all the votes, then send back word to the territories and make the appropriate plans.

Unlike the UK, which is so small you could just bellow out the window and everyone would be on board.