Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 5 2020 17:33 utc | 102
Americans (and many other peoples) are easily led. From the Prop 22 opposition Twitter account I am getting the impression that the proponents ran a very misleading ad campaign. I honestly had never even known of this until 15 minutes ago, so I’m just getting caught up. From the Twitter account I quoted earlier:

Gig Workers Are Voting No On Prop 22
@GigWorkersRise
·
Nov 4
We know Californians stand with us: A full 40% of those who cast their ballot for Prop. 22 did so believing they were giving drivers a living wage, misinfo peddled by gig cos. Drivers are still owed protections, wages, paid time off, & we’re going to make sure the cos provide it.

I’ve seen this play out on numerous other propositions over the years where the (likely) incessant advertising by billionaire corporations tricked people and totally drowned out any anti advertising. California may be worse than most places, but I saw it happen in Texas too under (slightly) different circumstances.

Posted by: _K_C_ | Nov 5 2020 17:41 utc | 104

There is nothing “left” about California which is why I go with the “Dead Kennedys” assessment of that land of hypocrisy.
Posted by: William Gruff | Nov 5 2020 17:33 utc | 102
Yep, demographics here is complicated, but it’s always been a Republican state, and the current Dem party here is pretty much Republican light. What reforms we have managed came mostly from the initiative process and that is hit or miss as one can see this time. Pat Brown was an anomaly. The duopoly is under attack here, we mucked up their closed primary system, the know-nothing style of Republican politics is still popular but gets no traction in elections. The Silicon valley boys, who are just as bad, still have some credibility here, which is unfortunate.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 5 2020 17:43 utc | 106

Eoin W @32
Ta very much for the very needed chuckle! I doubt that Biden was really intended to be the Prez for longer than is absolutely necessary; Harris instead. But Biden would get his evidently decades long yearn: having the title Prez for however brief a moment. He will, should he win and it looks more likely (!?! Tara Reade, anyone?????? but then there was M. Lewinsky indicating that when it’s a Blue Face, don’t matter), ever after, semi-alive or dead, be called Prez Biden. (Isn’t this his third or fourth effort? Boy, does that show something psychologically unhealthy.)
Why do Muricans not drop these titles (Prex, Vice Prez, Sec of this or that) once out of office??? To me it seems that they crave titles but don’t have, ya know, “Sir, Lord, Earl, Lady, Prince etc….”

Posted by: Anne | Nov 5 2020 17:49 utc | 108

The Russian disinformation campaign to divide Americans and sow chaos has infiltrated The Atlantic magazine.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/large-portion-electorate-chose-sociopath/616994/

Posted by: jayc | Nov 5 2020 17:50 utc | 110

Nevada results are coming in and they’re not looking good for Trump.
Okay, given that development, if Biden takes Nevada; this may be premature, but I have a strong gut feeling that Georgia might be kingmaker. That would mean that (my oh my, what beautiful irony!) Georgia would make Biden the 46th President of the United States. Astounding.

Posted by: Circe | Nov 5 2020 17:58 utc | 112

@Posted by: jayc | Nov 5 2020 17:50 utc | 110
Thanks for link (Atlantic, yesterday), jayc !
“The party of national security, fiscal austerity, and personal responsibility supports a president who is in the pocket of the Russians”
“Russia, Russia, Russia”
Can we give this Russia-mania disease a name?
How about circe-somethingorother?

Posted by: librul | Nov 5 2020 18:07 utc | 114

@ jayc | Nov 5 2020 17:50 utc | 110… thanks.. i enjoyed that…
@ librul | Nov 5 2020 17:58 utc | 111… polls are very useful for massaging brains… it seems to work and will not be going out of style any time soon…

Posted by: james | Nov 5 2020 18:10 utc | 116

librul
Mccarthyism 2.0? Philip Giraldi wrote the following some days ago:

Reich’s objective is not limited to punishing the Trump White House’s top officials who may have promoted policies considered anathema by the incoming Democratic administration. Reich tweeted “When this nightmare is over, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump’s lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe.” The Reich proposal would potentially mean punishing thousands of otherwise innocent individuals who had little influence over what happened during the past four years. “Enabled” covers a lot of ground, and is prone to devolve into something like a witch hunt. “McCarthyism” only much worse comes immediately to mind.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/29/disappearing-america-progressives-want-a-revolution-not-just-change/

Posted by: Zanon | Nov 5 2020 18:16 utc | 118

Consortium News published this excellent article about how the Electoral College was decided upon at the Coup that brought us the 1787 Constitution. I’m sure many will find this excerpt amusing yet very perceptive:
“[George]Mason, a delegate from Virginia, shared Jefferson’s skepticism about regular Americans, saying it would be ‘unnatural to refer the choice of a proper character for chief Magistrate to the people, as it would, to refer a trial of colours to a blind man. The extent of the Country renders it impossible that the people can have the requisite capacity to judge of the respective pretensions of the Candidates.'”
Those that read the lecture I linked to about China’s System can now make a better comparison once they’ve read how and why the Electoral College system was formed.

Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 5 2020 18:17 utc | 120

old hippie @86
Appalling – and everyone ought to be appalled at such treatment of an elderly woman – and for so minor an infraction. And the notion that one cannot speak one’s mind to the FILTH (cops – sorry Brit Speak), that that is considered “illegal” is outrageous, obscene. THEY – the Filth, The Busies (as in Busybodies) etc…- Serve US, not the other way round.
That’s the problem with them being armed.

Posted by: Anne | Nov 5 2020 18:27 utc | 122

Public armwrestling match,
Jerry Springer fight,
Or, put them on Family Feud (live),
Dealer’s choice… 😏

Posted by: Josh | Nov 5 2020 18:35 utc | 124

So true Mr Gruff @ 93 (?) I was horrified (but unsurprised) when I heard this a.m. that the CA electorate had voted against the Uber/Lyft gig workers being covered for unemployment etc…oh dearie me, the bourgeois Californians (all “Progs” and “Woke” no doubt) couldn’t allow that. (Just as they wouldn’t, in the 1970s, allow for a property tax increase in order to help continue good education for, well, you know, the lesser folks.) I mean – those “Progs” might actually have to pay for a real taxi, or real taxi prices…Gor Blimey….
These arses really have no bloody idea – despite, I do not doubt, their expensive eds, their nice jobs (Zoom assisted at the mo), what it is like at the bottom of the ladder… Oh wait: isn’t it all about equality of opportunity not equality of outcome???? We need a rev…

Posted by: Anne | Nov 5 2020 18:37 utc | 126

So many universes so little time. Actually the ‘counting’ has gone incredibly smoothly with not nearly the chaos that was predicted by many. The States that are not done counting are those everyone knew were the closest contests going in and that lawsuits were bound to be threatened and so the slow count is to make sure the laws are being followed closely. But it is remarkable the Trumpian hysteria, the cult that has been engendered by a diseased conman who believe every meme they see. Trump’s chance of winning is 50%. That is a huge victory for Trump given the 5% chance he had going in. His base is unshakable and zealous and he’ll carry his base onto Trump TV or whatever his next gig is if he loses. And if Biden wins? Fours years of partisan gridlocked nothing – which is like 20 in End Time Years. We’re doomed either way. I’m thumbing through my Bunker catalog.

Posted by: gottlieb | Nov 5 2020 18:44 utc | 128

Its ridiculous how they cannot call the Alaska vote finished,
Right now:
Trump 62%
Biden 33%
Will it appear some new ballots in this typical republican state perhaps?

Posted by: Zanon | Nov 5 2020 18:57 utc | 130

More and more evidence of voting fraud is piling up (barring outside observer from voting counting, 89% voter turn out, refusal of states to update their vote totals, discarded trump votes found in dumpsters, vote counts being stopped for hours at a time). Textbook example of votes being manipulated, they are counting some, stopping, estimating how many Biden votes need to manufactured to reach the desired total, stuffing the ballot boxs, then restarting. Will almost certainly go to the US Supreme Court (unless the supreme court declines to hear the cases, which I think is unlikely). Regardless of how this turns out I think some things can be agreed upon
1. Trump supporters are furious, far more angry then Gore supporters in 2000, they are mobilizing to defend Trump’s political future and his legacy. If Trump loses, I suspect their first target will be the Republican establishment who they regard as having been half-hearted in defending Trump. They will probably succeed in making Trump-style populism the new ideology of the Republican Party (comparable to Goldwater’s influence on the Republican Party of the 60s-80s)
2. Biden is a lame duck already, his political capital has been wholly spent and with a Republican senate and a Republican base baying for blood he won’t be able pass anything of note that doesn’t have bipartisan support (he’ll probably stir up some new wars in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe – always bipartisan support for MOAR war). We will probably stand down within 18 months (he’ll try to last at least a full year). As a political figure he is tarnished beyond repair and his calls for “coming together” will mean nothing to the Trump supporters who are convinced he stole the election.
3. The Democrats are no longer the party of minorities as they originally assumed themselves to be. Though the majority of blacks and hispanics continue to support the Democratic party, Trump grew his support in both groups (around 20%, almost double what it was last election). “IF” the Republicans continue with a populist message they will be able to continue this growth, this is significant because the Democratic rainbow coalition strategy is based around getting 80%+ of the minority vote, this will force the Democrats to look at strategies at getting elected
4. For several decades now the US political system has been becoming more corrupt, undemocratic, unrepresentative and oligarchical. Regardless of outcome, this looks like a crossing of the Rubicon moment, where a huge segment of the population refuses to accept the legitimacy of an election. This doesn’t mean a civil war is on the table now, but many people (on both sides) will adopted a turn-a-bout is fair play attitude – expect future elections to be even more disputed, courts to be more politicized and prosecutions to be more arbitrary.

Posted by: Kadath | Nov 5 2020 19:03 utc | 132

Wait, what?!?
The democrats are bad because they want single payer health care and reduce fracking and transition to green energy using solar, wind, and storage.
And you are against that?
Curious…

Posted by: Tom | Nov 5 2020 19:14 utc | 134

But I don’t believe we are a nation of children and idiots. I believe the political class is completely corrupt and does not serve its citizens, but they are not us; they have been captured by the wealthy and the powerful. A few observations. I saw the long lines on Tuesday and how orderly and patient those in line were, socially distancing and wearing masks, and those were – in the main – Trump voters. This morning I took a little drive around my locale, and like magic all of the yard sign litter – like an aggressive fungus – was almost completely gone. Halle-fuckin-leujah! Seems that everyone here, as partisan as they may be, really want to put this season behind them.
I understand the desire by non-Americans and expats to see rioting, violence, and societal collapse here in the US. To be expected after decades of crimes against humanity that are globe-spanning. But, be very careful of what you wish for: that sort of breakdown can only result in a fascist totalitarian state, and if you think that the US can’t bring more pain than has already been caused, you may find yourself very mistaken.

Posted by: vinnieoh | Nov 5 2020 17:12 utc | 96
Thanks for both the first hand report and the warning. Hopefully what you have witnessed was less anecdotal, more generalized. Regarding the warning I would replace all the misguided wishes you mentioned as the collateral of an actual expectation that a Trump administration would have spoilt the opportunity for the US Outlaw Empire to bring further global misery. Your point stands of a system breakdown potentially bringing a fascist totalitarian state…
As an external observer I am since recently inclined to recognize that a 2020 Biden election would fulfil the role the 2016 Trump election represented beyond the domestic purpose. Trump brings down Empire’s Mask, beyond the ability of their true political representatives to sanitize it back globally. Trump being the industrial air-bag, and Biden eventually whizzing the Empire in its, hopefully “soft” but, inevitable crash-landing. Where Trump Would Not, Biden Can Not. Wishes..
In truth I have no idea, that’s USAians mess to clean up, not mine.

Posted by: Vasco da Gama | Nov 5 2020 19:26 utc | 136

Polling and the Gallup organization were already being used to influence American opinion and voting in 1939-40 by British intelligence. This is treated in Thomas Mahl’s book “Dangerous Deception.” This has been going on for a long time.

Posted by: lysias | Nov 5 2020 19:43 utc | 138

From oldhippie | Nov 5 2020 13:43 utc | 25

Repeating a comment from yesterday. US does not have national elections. The US has 3141 County elections that all happen on the same day. Each County plays by own rules. The only reason for maintaining the arcane system is corruption. Jimmy Carter has said many times the Carter Center would never accept an invitation to monitor a US election because there are basically no rules. Only 3141 satrapies.

Absolutely spot on. Back in the day I worked many an election and from this rejected all the bullshit claims about Russians getting into voting machines. The only people cheating Americans are other Americans. Both parties are too vested into their particular methods of cheating to ever allow reforms needed for fast, efficient, and correct voting and tallies. Oh, BTW one of the distractions to keep Americans from understanding voting corruption is to blame the Russians for raping America’s pure pristine and virginal electoral system.
Gallup Poll Shows 78% Of Democrats Mistakenly Believe Russia Changed Election Results
https://www.tremr.com/rchusid/gallup-poll-shows-78-of-democrats-mistakenly-believe-russia-changed-election-results

Posted by: Erelis | Nov 5 2020 19:47 utc | 140

If Trump loses the election and it’s really looking that way, I suspect he will attempt to run again in 2024. This is going to make Nikki Haley and Republicans very angry, cause it will hurt her own ambitions and I don’t believe she would be interested in VP, cause she resigned from the Trump Administration to distance herself from his self-destruction and I doubt she’d want to play second fiddle to another session of chaos.
Besides, by 2024, Trump may already have a criminal record.

Posted by: Circe | Nov 5 2020 20:10 utc | 142

“We are all Donald Trump!” Only in the US would the same people who claim some mysterious Deep State controls everything, who claim that it doesn’t matter who lives in the White House, and who say that everything is rigged nonetheless suddenly rally around an ignorant jerk who can’t stand them and who did not do one thing to actually help them in the last 4 years.
The other guy is a corpse, but at least we know that going in. And hey – the Deep State controls everything, it doesn’t matter who lives in the White House, and everything is rigged anyway.
So here’s some stuff:
Kenye West won about 60,000 votes. He has graciously conceded the race and is planning his 2024 run. Huzzah!
Turns out there IS an international observer group watching the US elections. The OSCE [Org for Security and Cooperation in Europe] has an observer mission to the US elections. The head of this group said that Trump is grossly abusing his office by calling for an end to the vote counting and for prematurely declaring his victory. “In a preliminary report published on Wednesday, the OSCE called Trump’s accusations of fraud ‘baseless’ and praised the ‘enormous effort made by election workers,’ despite what it called ‘deliberate attempts by the incumbent president to weaken confidence in the election process.’ ”
Now Trump says he is going to make legal challenges of voter fraud in ALL the states that were put in the win column for Biden. But not in the states that went for Trump, because obviously those weren’t fraudulent votes. I bet previous candidates wish they had thought of that. For proof, he says, all you have to do is just check out the media – all the proof is right there being reported in real time. (He is now going to rely on the same media he has called enemies of the state and fake news to provide his proof that the election is being stolen. Okay.)
The fastest growing segment of Christianity around the world is Pentecostalism. This is the “charismatic movement”, comprised of sects that believe in divine healing, speaking in tongues, and prophesying.
The fastest growing Christian church in the US specifically is the Mormon Church [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. Of course, they allow you to be baptized into membership after you are dead (your living relatives just nominate you and you are added to the rolls posthumously), which may explain their continuing growth. The talk on this thread about dead people voting made me think of this. See, the US is so great and exceptional that even being DEAD is no barrier to your continuing success in life. The Mormons also believe in divine healing and the gift of prophesy, which has led to some really horrible, disturbing events. A great book about one such situation is Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven”. And if you are into adventure or mountain climbing, you should read his “Into Thin Air”. Great storytelling and very compelling.
All these miscellaneous, seemingly unrelated things may be an indicator of what some of our problems are and from whence they arise. If you don’t know what I mean, maybe check out “The Demon-Haunted World” by Carl Sagan.

Posted by: teri | Nov 5 2020 20:23 utc | 144

@TJ | Nov 5 2020 16:47 utc | 89

Now we have dead people voting Democrat, all I can do is laugh at this point.

The dead voting for the demented. Yes, that’s how far it has gone.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 5 2020 20:27 utc | 146

Nemesiscalling @ 105
I agree with you re w a Biden win the democrats will gradually lessen Covid measures…I have been telling my husband that for weeks… they politicized the virus to hamper Trump… they didn’t give a damn about the economy for main street or the effects on peoples emotional state..

Posted by: dp | Nov 5 2020 20:36 utc | 148

#137 willie
He was there. Here`s an interview with him from 2014:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysia-airlines-mh17-michael-bociurkiw-talks-about-being-first-at-the-crash-site-1.2721007
I only heard that specific theory recently and searched some of the CBC news coverage from the days after the crash. Revealing info includes flight number from tail of plane, how high the plane was flying, photos. Reminder that Malaysia is a Commonwealth nation.

Posted by: Quasi Retired anonym | Nov 5 2020 20:48 utc | 150

karlof1 @ 140 But as myself and others note, to do that, citizen solidarity is a sine qua non, and this election proves that’s far from happening. <= thanks for Giraldi quote <= citizen solidarity often arises in leaderless, spontaneous, idle-space environments; college campus panty raid=example; the campus becomes roar directed. I do not know an American who is happy with the USA.. Its collective current potential to adequately perform is even worse, then its long prior history of dismal performances. The USA and those it govern are buried in the middle of seven privately owned layers, suggesting the USA is a mindless servant to the other seven layers. Yes the USA needs a modern engine that runs on a different fuel, but careful inspection of the nine layers shows the problem is not in the structure of the government, instead it is in the USE and management of the government. Seven of those nine layers use<=or direct the use of, the government, and every one of the seven users are private entities or made up of private entities each seeking to accomplish private interest. No revolution would produce a successful result ( a change favorable to the governed), if any of those seven layers were allowed to remain. the layers in the power stack: layer 1: global franchisor (Oligarch) sets rules of play; establishes goals local nation state franchisees must actively seek in order to remain in control of the power. Layer 2: local oligarch <= national (wall street beneficiaries who use their wealth to conform national outcome consistent with global powers). Layer 3: copyright and patent monopolies represent 90% of the Assets of market based corporation balance s. Layer 4: think tank and other private organizations and bureaucracies regulate, fund and direct programs. public<= layer 5: the elected 527 person government regulate the members of the public Layer 6: Intergovernmental Bureaucracies limit and direct elected power to global goals. public<= layer 7: the 340,000,000 members of the highly public layer 8: Keysian stimulus restrain economic system control layer 9: the media which programs the environment variables and keeps the narrative on track (many techniques) The private layers, 5 and 7, are contained within, and enveloped by, privately owned layers. Its the total environment that has brought the USA to "not relevant, cannot govern status". Once again I submit it is not material who is in charge at the USA.

Posted by: snake | Nov 5 2020 21:07 utc | 152

“Trumpism will only grow and make the U.S. ungovernable”.
What a relief, we were worried that the Democrats and their sponsorship of BLM and Antifa might somehow make the country ungovernable.

Posted by: lah | Nov 5 2020 21:11 utc | 154

c1ue@142 reaffirms basic innumeracy, trying to compare percentages without looking at totals, which is incompetent math. Imagined points #2 and #4 are not. If deregulation were nothing but the decades old repeal of Glass-Steagall, rather than executive orders, decreasing funding for regulatory agencies and deliberately putting into place officials ideologically opposed to the very functions of their office, c1ue would have a point. But none of that is true and there goes point #3. Point #1 reduces to a whine that c1ue didn’t personally predict a landslide (which may not even be true, c1ue is not an honest person,) while steadfastly ignoring the illogic of thinking that such enthusiasm will mean something politically after an election campaign. The idea that the current party system is going to be fixed by rah-rah rally goers. This is not a point, it’s doubling down on grossly stupid. As is, by the way, whatever moronic conspiracy theory about Marshall c1ue is fixated on.
As to point #5 about the PMC? c1ue in another comments writes
“PMC refers to the Professional, Managerial class.
It could be considered the Petit Bourgeoisie in the Marxist sense except these aren’t shopkeepers. They’re the middle managers, doctors, lawyers, MBAs, tenured professors, finance types and what not who are divorced from the actual hands-on labor.
They mostly work for large corporations and government/non-government institutions like state governments (at the higher levels), think tanks and nonprofits.”
The claim that doctors and lawyers mostly work for large corporations and government/non-government institutions is a barefaced lie, on a par with the crank history of judicial review. The idea that MBAs are a class who don’t include top management is remarkably stupid even for c1ue. Bankers are “finance” types, as well as stockbrokers but they are not socially connected to “tenured” professors. Actually tenured professors are only in there to try to pretend that these are all lefty university types. University types most certainly include the likes of Victor Davis Hanson, who is not a lefty, but an astonishingly reactionary piece of trash whose judgment on everything, including Greek history is suspect. I didn’t know he was a property owner, but being a genuine petite bourgeois certainly explains a lot about him. Professional managerial types by the way also include clergymen, after life salesmen in business for themselves, by the way. The dishonorable implication is that something called the PMC is the vessels of wokeness, the true threat to humanity, but they are not good honest hard-working folk, etc. Given c1ue’s track, the claim will no doubt be that no, there isn’t really an invidious hint that PMCs are snobby elitists…but that is only meaning. PMC is a reactionary propaganda construct, a parody of pseudo-ideas like “totalitarianism,” mindless jargon posing as thought.
A sad human being? Quit looking in the mirror, c1ue.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 5 2020 21:17 utc | 156

The rational way of doing things follows the maxim: haste makes waste. Every Spring Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crews are busy marking stretches of divided highways where a line or two will be repaved. Then the work on those stretches is scheduled to last till late fall, giving the crews steady work when they are not busy with snow removal.
Similarly, a rational method for vote counting would schedule it so the results are ready when the elected office holders should be introduced to their offices. In case of President, that means before January.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 5 2020 21:38 utc | 158

@Smith | Nov 5 2020 21:25 utc | 156

Counting is still frozen, people.
What is going on?

They are waiting for the correct result to appear, then counting will resume.

Posted by: Norwegian | Nov 5 2020 21:39 utc | 160

scotch bingeington@152 has a question about the difference in the votes for Biden and down ballot Democrats. What I make of it is, Trump has no real program but racism and the promise to use government to hurt the woke, and forget about making this a better country but trashing government instead. Thus I see this as people repudiating Trump personally, as a villain whose racism either repels them or they don’t see it as compensating for his being a grossly incompetent pathological liar. And the difference in the senatorial races is probably due to not nearly so many people wanting to vote against the incumbent.
But the guy probably thinks this is some sort of evidence of villainy.
So look at the figures. Don’t just look at the differences highlighted but look at the totals. There are listed about 2.64 million votes for Trump and about 2.79 million votes for Biden, for a total of about 5.43 million votes. The Republic (NOT A DEMOCRACY!) senator is listed at about 2.63 million votes and the Democrat is listed for about 2.72 million votes, for a total of about 5.35 million votes. That’s a difference of about 80 000 votes, even larger than the 69 000 the twitter genius finds so sinister. But the thing is, is this abnormally large for a drop in down ballot races? Until that question is answered with some numbers, this means nothing sinister.
But if you are a die hard reactionary, you can read these same figures as proving there is a lot of support for the Republic (NOT A DEMOCRACY!) Party that is immune to distaste for Trump, for reactionary principles with more manners.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 5 2020 21:44 utc | 162

steven t johnson wrote:
That’s a difference of about 80 000 votes, even larger than the 69 000 the twitter genius finds so sinister. But the thing is, is this abnormally large for a drop in down ballot races?
___________________________________________
Yes I think it is abnormally large.
What I think it means is that 80,000 showed up to vote either for or against Trump and did not care to vote the rest of the ticket.
If you compare the vote totals to 2016 I think you may find goof evidence to conclude that a lot more than 80k showed up purely to vote for or against trump. Most of those apparently did bother with other races on the ticket.

Posted by: jinn | Nov 5 2020 21:57 utc | 164

Thanks teri for mentioning that Sagan book, very much looking forward to reading it!
Thanks for the sensible statements vinnieoh. Thanks for sharing the anecdote oldhippie.
The rest is pretty much pure FUD.

Posted by: Rae | Nov 5 2020 22:06 utc | 166

Re: discrepancy between numbers of votes for president and for senate.
Lots of people only vote for the president in a presidential election year and don’t bother with down-ticket candidates. And lots of people only bother to vote at all when it is a presidential election year and don’t bother voting during mid-term years. Also, US senators serve for 6 years and the schedule is staggered so that only about a third of the Senate is up for reelection during any given election. Neither of Maryland’s Senators was up for reelection this year, so there was no section on the ballot for US Senator in our state.

Posted by: teri | Nov 5 2020 22:11 utc | 168

154:If you really hated the US, which candidate would you want to see in the Whitew House?
Trump!

Posted by: blueswede | Nov 5 2020 22:28 utc | 170

Arm wrestling does not strike me as a method of electing someone. In Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth there were plentiful elective offices, including deputies to Diet (Sejm), and if I recall correctly: there were three rules: one sabre – one vote (no right to bear a sword, no vote), consensus — all voters have to agree, and the last one: intimidation allowed. That said, the use of firearms would be dishonorable.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 5 2020 22:38 utc | 172

It is looking grim for Trump. There is a good chance that Biden will take, PA, GA, NV. He is already projected by most in Arizona. Trump is going to lose the popular vote by a million votes more than he lost it by in ’16. It is possible the Dems pick up a senate seat in GA in addition to the seat they picked up in CO. They retained control of the house. For some reason, there are people on the site who seem to think this was a good showing for the Republicans because they didn’t do quite as badly as the polls predicted.

Posted by: David | Nov 5 2020 23:05 utc | 174

People seem to think that the Trump team is looking to win on these lawsuits. They know they aren’t going to win. They’re doing it to introduce doubt in the election process. It’s an awful abuse of the judicial system and does nothing to serve their goals, so I have no idea what they’re hoping to get out of this other than a fucking civil war.

Posted by: Nick | Nov 5 2020 23:06 utc | 176

@ karlof1 #162
At least you (apparently) got to cover JFK’s assassination which ended his 1963 peace offensive toward the Soviet Union. No president wants an encore concerning Russia!. . . Although Trump came close, saying nice things about Russia which got him impeached (not shot).
I see China shaping up as the next major bogeyman, and no president better shirk his/her duties to be nasty to the dragon.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 5 2020 23:30 utc | 178

People seem to think that the Trump team is looking to win on these lawsuits. They know they aren’t going to win. They’re doing it to introduce doubt in the election process. It’s an awful abuse of the judicial system and does nothing to serve their goals, so I have no idea what they’re hoping to get out of this other than a fucking civil war.
Posted by: Nick | Nov 5 2020 23:06 utc | 175
Indeed, the outcome is dividing society into groups that mutually loath each other and collect slights and injustices, both real and perceived, so elections become cycles of revenge. What is missing are paramilitary groups trained abroad or financed by competing business tycoons. Perhaps it is an early stage of the process, the drift of Roman Republic toward Empire through a sequence of dictatorships, civil wars and temporary power splitting like Triumvirates took about 100 years.
On the “plus side”, this serves interests of plutocrats because no one bothers with reforms that would reduce their profits.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Nov 5 2020 23:35 utc | 180

“The race is nowhere near where the Democrats and their supporting media had expected it to go.
That the Democrats lose House seats, do not win the Senate and barely manage to drag their demented presidential candidate towards a stalemate tells a lot about their lack of sane policies.”
Posted by b on November 5, 2020 at 12:06 UTC
…
Who gives a flying fuck about the race not going where the Dems expected !
They seem to be winning, so why do you give a shit?
Your “Supporting Media” comment is rubbish- What about your supporting media here? Nearly all american Media is propaganda for profit info-tainment. US media is paid advertising supporting Lies of the Empire.
“demented presidential candidate” – HA and Trump isn’t a demented narcissist liar, and complete scum. What sort of tabloid horseshit are you spewing?

Posted by: CitizenX | Nov 5 2020 23:42 utc | 182

Posted by: spudski | Nov 5 2020 23:45 utc | 182 Sounds like a prediction of “Anything other than a Trump landslide.”
That’s exactly what it was. Jackrabbit insisted that the Deep State had orchestrated a landslide” win for Trump. I told him he had zero evidence of that because he doesn’t have access to the Deep State or any actual evidence of Deep State actions. He insisted on a landslide, only doing a little waffling when b pointed out that Clinton had reason to want Biden to win so Harris would replace him and give Clinton a job; so Jackrabbit had to admit that the Deep State likes Clinton, so maybe Biden would win. But he still stuck to his landslide Trump victory.
C’est la vie!
At this junction, I just go up and haven’t checked what’s going on, but I’m inclined to call the election for Biden. Maybe I’ll revert to being agnostic after I check what’s happening (if anything is happening.)

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Nov 5 2020 23:56 utc | 184

Confidence In Our Electoral Process
– We have met the enemy and it is us
—-
The blather was everywhere, all the time, not just for months, but years:
Examples a plenty,
“Fiona Hill warns of Russia undermining confidence in U.S. democracy before elections”
October 27, 2020
‘Chaos Is the Point’: Russian disinfo undermining confidence in democracy
NED, National Endowment for Democracy January 10, 2020
Russia remains more potent threat of election interference despite administration focus on Iran
WaPo Oct. 22, 2020
“The FBI said late Wednesday that Russia and Iran have taken action to undermine US confidence in the upcoming elections.”
CNet Oct. 22, 2020
——
We have met the enemy but will we learn?
And will the Deep State pundits ever shut up?
You already know the answer.
——
While searching out the above quotes I came across an amusing quote
from a CIA funded Russian dissident
now living in New York. What do you suppose the CIA would have
their paid mouthpiece say?
“Russian democracy is a farce.”
Garry Kasparov 7/5/2020
(made me laugh, how about you?)

Posted by: librul | Nov 6 2020 0:07 utc | 186

@Posted by: Circe | Nov 6 2020 0:08 utc | 186
Maybe they can put Trump in a room next to Hillary. Wouldn’t you luv to be a fly on the wall listening to those two screech at each other.😁🤩😂🤣
https://imgur.com/LnUChXD

Posted by: librul | Nov 6 2020 0:13 utc | 188

From FiveThirtyEight:
Dan Hopkins Nov. 5, 8:14 am
What We Know About The Remaining Vote In Pennsylvania
With 20 Electoral College votes, Pennsylvania is the biggest prize left on the table, and we’re following it closely as it continues to count votes over the next 24-48 hours (or so).
Trump and Biden are now separated by about 164,000 votes, with Trump leading. But the more than 460,000 outstanding mail ballots left to be counted are likely to lean heavily Democratic. And at least 116,000 of them come from Philadelphia, a very Democratic-leaning city where mail ballots so far have gone to Biden by more than a 9 to 1 ratio. If Biden wins those outstanding mail ballots by something approaching the margins he has been winning mail ballots statewide, those mail ballots should give him the lead statewide.
Still, there’s some uncertainty here, with different sources showing different numbers of outstanding mail ballots. The New York Times’ dashboard, for instance, may overestimate the outstanding votes in places like Philadelphia; its current estimate implies turnout for the two major parties in excess of 800,000, a sizable increase over the roughly 693,000 votes cast for major parties in 2016 at a time when lots of college students aren’t in town due to remote learning. That discrepancy could reflect a lag in adjusting for mail ballots that have already been counted. Or it could reflect provisional ballots — or the fact that mail ballots can arrive after Election Day, too.
And it’s hard to know how many total provisional ballots are out or how they are likely to break given all the voting by mail, although Biden won the large number of provisional ballots in York County, a GOP stronghold. The upshot: The votes are certainly out there for Biden to take the lead, and that’s my best guest, but there’s no guarantee. Caution is the word of the day.
Nathaniel Rakich Nov. 5, 8:44 am
After saying earlier this AM there are fewer than 25K absentee ballots left, Georgia’s secretary of state has corrected the number to the same count the data shows: About 50K left. That doesn’t include provisionals, military and overseas ballots & ballots that are cured. #gapol https://t.co/fi7deRupx5
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 5, 2020
Nathaniel Rakich Nov. 5, 10:15 am
The Georgia secretary of state keeps revising the estimate of the number of absentee ballots remaining: The latest word is 61,367. That means Biden has to win at least 65 percent of them in order to take the lead.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Nov 6 2020 0:17 utc | 190

From FiveThirtyEight:
Nate Silver Nov. 5, 4:33 pm
If 90 percent of the remaining ballots are from Clark County, Nevada should be projected for Biden, IMO.
JUST IN: Nevada’s Secretary of State says there are approximately 190,150 ballots left to count, 90% of which are from heavily-Democratic Clark County. h/t @StevenTDennis
— Emma Kinery (@EmmaKinery) November 5, 2020
Nate Silver Nov. 5, 4:53 pm
Biden now within 10,000 votes of Trump in Georgia.
GA Presidential Election Results
Trump (R): 49.48% (2,439,678 votes)
Biden (D): 49.29% (2,430,153 votes)
Jorgensen (L): 1.23% (60,821 votes)
Trump Margin: +9,525 (-3,246)
Estimated: > 99% votes in
More results here: https://t.co/xlHf7GZUxJ
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 5, 2020
Geoffrey Skelley Nov. 5, 6:13 pm
A new update of around 37,000 ballots just came in from Pennsylvania, of which Biden won about two-thirds. This reduced Trump’s raw vote margin to about 78,000 votes, or 1.2 percentage points (50.0 percent to 48.8 percent). Most of that was 30,000 votes from Cumberland County just west of Harrisburg, the state capital. While Cumberland is Republican-leaning — Trump leads there 55 percent to 44 percent now — Biden won nearly 70 percent of this tranche of ballots, which look to have made up most of the county’s remaining mail votes. Heavily Republican Blair County (home to Altoona) also reported more than 5,000 votes, but Trump only won a narrow majority of those.
And finally:
Nathaniel Rakich Nov. 5, 3:56 pm
An Update On What’s Still Left To Count
We’re going to take a bit of a break on the live blog until this evening to actually feed ourselves, bathe, etc. Here’s where things stand in the presidential race in the key remaining states:
Where we’re expecting more data tonight:
Arizona: Biden currently leads here by 68,129 votes, but there are around 430,000 left to count, according to KNXV-TV analyst Garrett Archer. We are expected to get more results from Pima County (Tucson) early this evening and from Maricopa County (the Phoenix area, where the bulk of the uncounted ballots are) at 9 p.m. Eastern. It’s unclear whether we’ll get a projection here. (Some outlets, such as Fox News, have already projected Arizona for Biden, but most media outlets have not, including our colleagues at ABC News.) But so far, Trump has been gaining in late-counted ballots, but there is reason to think that may not be true going forward.
Dribs and drabs, but we’re watching closely:
Pennsylvania: Trump currently leads Biden by 108,367 votes here, but that lead has been narrowing as more ballots have been counted. Approximately 340,000 mail-in votes are left to count, and the secretary of state said earlier on CNN that she thought the networks would be able to project a winner here today, but we don’t really have a good sense yet of timing: The outstanding votes have been trickling in slowly.
Georgia: Trump currently leads here by a razor-thin margin (12,768 votes) with 47,277 ballots left to count. Most of those are expected to be counted today, but at least one county (Chatham, where about 17,000 ballots are outstanding) says it will need until tomorrow. So whether we’ll get a projection here later today is murky, too.
No big updates until tomorrow — or later:
Nevada: After a recent update, Biden still leads here by 11,438 votes. Although about 140,000 late-arriving mail ballots or provisional ballots have yet to be counted, these ballots are expected to lean Democratic. Clark County (home of Las Vegas), where 90 percent of the outstanding ballots are, will release its next update on Friday and should have the bulk of the counting done this weekend.
North Carolina: North Carolina has counted every ballot it had in its possession as of Tuesday, and Trump leads by 76,737 votes among them. However, the state has announced that about 117,000 mail-in ballots and 40,766 provisional ballots are potentially outstanding, although not all of them will count. Mail-in ballots have until Nov. 12 to arrive, and only at that point will more results be released.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Nov 6 2020 0:19 utc | 192

I think this belongs to a paradox category:
The orange man just said: “there is voter fraud in US.”
Considering all the lies he’s told, do I believe him?

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Nov 6 2020 0:50 utc | 194

Yeah kinda flagged this one early up in the comment section myself… glad GG has more on it.
Seriously, wtf is up with not being able to count votes like any other normal country in the USA??????
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-us-inability-to-count-votes-is

Posted by: Et Tu | Nov 6 2020 1:02 utc | 196

Richard Steven Hack @Nov5 23:56 #183
My prediction was wrong. I’m happier to be wrong than right! A landslide for Trump (possible only via DS manipulation) would’ve been a terrible sign of what’s to come.
I’m waiting for the final election result before writing an assessment of the prediction.
For now, I’m enjoying my popcorn.
=
Jackrabbit insisted that the Deep State had orchestrated a landslide” win for Trump.
“Insisted” is waaay too strong.
I made a prediction based on my belief that 2) Deep State actually supported Trump much more than we are led to believe; and 2) that the odds of a major war in the next four years is fairly high.
A landslide win by Trump would’ve enabled him to lead the country into war much more easily than a close win.
=
… Jackrabbit had to admit that the Deep State likes Clinton, so maybe Biden would win.
IMO Clinton is a powerful force in the DS but not a decisive force.
b’s description of the possibility of Clinton as VP made some sense.
In some ways Kamala-Clinton might be better than making Trump into a type of ‘Glorious Leader’. And the effort that it might take to manipulate the elections to such a great extent might’ve been deemed too risky.
And let’s not forget that Biden is also a pro-Empire Deep Stater. In the end, I agree with those that say that the Deep State EMPIRE FIRST agenda will not change.
<> <> <> <> <>
PS I would think that Biden-Kamala or Kamala-Hillary is preferable (to the Deep State) to a President Trump that clings to office with election gimmicks (verbal attacks, lawsuits, confounding the count via violence, etc.).
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Nov 6 2020 1:35 utc | 198

Now for a bit of Schadenfreude comic relief…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8919195/House-Dems-cry-feud-wild-conference-call-leaks-live-Twitter.html
House Democrats savage Nancy Pelosi and say she needs replaced after election disaster then feud with the Squad for backing socialism in wild conference call which leaks

* Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Democrat, ripped into party leaders on a conference call on Thursday after House majority shrank
* No one should say ‘defund the police’ ever again,’ Spanberger said, referring to one of The Squad’s demands
* We will get f****** torn apart,’ she added
* Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the party, saying Democrats held the House
* Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost, her race, cried during call
* She said colleagues couldn’t pronounce her name and were mean on Twitter
* Details from the call played on live on Twitter as those on it leaked details to the Capitol Hill press corps, who promptly tweeted them
* As details from the conference call emerged online, lawmakers demanded the guilty leakers be found

Posted by: gm | Nov 6 2020 1:42 utc | 200