Trump's Card

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Do Americans who have to live more than twenty feet from a neighbour start to lose all capacity for Empathy?

[Incandenza]

Do Americans who have to live more than twenty feet from a neighbour start to lose all capacity for Empathy?

I wonder how much of it is them thinking that they are some sort of pioneer single-handedly taming their land..."I've earned everything on my own, tough shit if you can't manage that." Of course, they benefit from government subsidies and benefits probably more than any poor urbanite.

[caja-dglh]

So, what happens if you concede and then it turns out to be within the margin of a recount and you - somehow - subsequently win?

[ursus arctos]

Concessions are political theatre without any legal effect.

[ursus arctos]

Berba, an important reason why many of them moved more than 20 feet from a neighbour (and/or behind at least one gate) is because they already lacked empathy.

Agriculture only employs less than 2 percent of the population, and many of those are brown people.

[caja-dglh]

Concessions are political theatre without any legal effect.

That is interesting - so the standing up and yelling "EVERY VOTE MUST BE COUNTED" versus conceding and then letting every vote be counted, because that is process -the difference is whether you want to come across belligerent or like you have an ounce of grace?

Obviously you look a bit silly if you mess up conceding but the chances on the whole are rather low.

[ursus arctos]

Well, in place like Florida and Georgia, there are myriad excellent reasons to scream about every vote being counted.

[Etienne]

Sorry if this is is a stupid question, but with the debate over different designed ballot papers in Broward County compared to other (less Democratic leaning) counties, who designs the papers? Does each county design it's own, or does the State design them?

[anton pulisov]

I assumed you were referring to 2000.

But no, this shit is actually happening again.

[ursus arctos]

Each county gets to design its own. They also pick voting systems from a list approved by the state.

Note that the offices up for election (not to mention the candidates) can differ from county to county.

[Etienne]

Thanks. So given that Broward officials are likely to be Democrats then we're looking at idiocy rather than suppression.

[San Bernardhinault]

I should be horrified, but I'm kind of entertained by the ludicrousness of Republicans screaming that the election is being stolen from them. Particularly when Rick Scott and Brian Kemp have been using their positions to try and rig the elections in their own favour.

[Satchmo Distel]

Scott has filed a lawsuit, predictably enough. Ironic that crooks file so many lawsuits.

Contrast this with Gore choosing not fight on in 2000. I can't recall if we've ever discussed why Gore did that. Would he do it now? Would Bush in Gore's position? Trump obviously would never stop filing lawsuits until he was ordered to stop or it was costing him too much money. Scott is just a grifter who somehow became governor (because that's how much Florida stinks).

[Incandenza]

Trump is now suggesting that results from Arizona are invalid:

Just out — in Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH. Electoral corruption - Call for a new Election? We must protect our Democracy!

No one has any idea what he is specifically referring to.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nate Silver (remember him?) has Arizona US senate as Lean Dem, plus Lean Dem in ME-2 and CA-45.

[San Bernardhinault]

It's trite, but whoever has the lead in AZ is probably the favourite. CA-45 seems like a stretch, but there are a ton of late ballots being counted.

ME-2 is fascinating because it's the first high profile race being decided by ranked choice voting in the US. So it'll be interesting to see which way the second-choicers come down.

And I was thinking about Maine's ranked choice voting and gaming out Susan Collins's next steps. She'll almost certainly lose in 2020 if she runs as a Republican. People are really pissed about Kavanaugh and would vote against her. But I was wondering if she dropped the Republican whip and came out as an independent like Angus King, although more right wing, she might be in a better place. She can't be primaried, and any Republican running to her right would probably end up losing and handing second choice votes to her. She might lose anyway, but standing as a center-right independent and perhaps voting similarly to Joe Manchin might give her a better chance.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She'll be 67 in 2020, and has done 4 terms already. Young for a senator, but is she going to be bothered?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Maine 2 is incredibly rural. Has the second highest proportion of rural voters of any district in America. I thought Trump was supposed to have these voters sown up.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Dave Wasserman reckons CA-39 is in play. Is this one of the places that'll have got hit by the SALT tax thing in the tax bill? Why didn't the Republicans just stick it on the national debt with all the rest?

[NHH]

Didn’t the Norm Coleman and Al Franken election in Minnesota prompt the state to set up a citizens panel to standardise the statewide election system to get rid of the county by county bullshit?

[San Bernardhinault]

All of California, New York, New Jersey, New England were hit on SALT. It wasn't a rational move. It was deliberately a punitive attack against liberal states. The Republicans don't care about the debt, but they do care about giving the coastal elites a kicking.

I doubt CA-39 is a particular standout on that front.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They did appallingly in New Jersey. Down to 1 out of 12 congress seats.

[San Bernardhinault]

Trump, Ryan and Cocaine Mitch didn't care about their NY, NJ and CA congressional delegations. They just wanted to give the libtard states a kicking.

[Tubby Isaacs]

21,000 lead for Sinema now.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

This seems to be a pretty comprehensive account of what is going on. However I lost track about three paragraphs in. You have to assume that the point of a really complicated electoral system is to have more opportunities to manipulate it.