2020 Presidential Election

[Crossbow]

Trump Tweets
To the great people of New York, California, and Illinois, your states are way too highly taxed, big crime, people fleeing, and just about every other problem you can have. VOTE TRUMP, I will turn them around for you, FAST!

I guess Trump has already forgotten that he was one of the people who fled New York.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets
Stock Markets will hit new highs if President Trump wins. Tremendous growth like never before. If Biden wins, it’s strangulation. Not good.”
@SteveKalayjian

@Varneyco
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
33m

 

[Segnosaur]

A couple of election notes:

- The supreme court has ruled that mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania can be counted up to 3 days after election day, even if received after election day. (Republicans were of course fighting against it, with unfounded claims of voter fraud.)

Although the Democrats won this victory, it is still disturbing... it was a 4-4 tie (which by default allowed the counting to proceed), and the only thing that prevented it from being a republican victory was John Roberts. Once the republicans manage to cram through another judge, rulings like this will likely go in favor of the republicans. (If you want any sort of argument in favor of court packing, this is it.)

From: CNN

- The democrats got an accidental endorsement (sort of) from ex-NFL football player turned broadcaster Troy Aikman.

From: Yahoo
Military jets have been flying over sporting events as part of the national anthem for years.... with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing teams to play games in empty or near-empty stadiums, putting on a big pregame display with a flyover doesn’t make much sense. Fox broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman pointed out just how much of a waste flyovers have become this year on Sunday afternoon, though they didn’t mean to be heard.
Aikman: “That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover.”
Buck: “That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work.”
Aikman: “That stuff ain’t happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket, I’ll tell you that right now partner.”

 

[JoeMorgue]

The Republicans are going to get their way in anything that goes to the courts for at least the next decade, probably longer. We need to accept that and start finding ways of dealing with it.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

this blatant partisanship was to be expected from Alito and Thomas, but it's a big disappointment to see Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on that side, too.

Luckily, ACB isn't on the bench, yet.

 

[Segnosaur]

this blatant partisanship was to be expected from Alito and Thomas, but it's a big disappointment to see Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on that side, too.

Ummm... why?

We saw during the Kavanaugh hearings that Drunky McRapeface is extremely partisan, with his rant about "revenge on behalf of the Clintons" and "outside left-wing opposition groups".

As for Gorsuch... well, his voting patterns in the supreme court have been to follow along with the other conservatives.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Ummm... why?

We saw during the Kavanaugh hearings that Drunky McRapeface is extremely partisan, with his rant about "revenge on behalf of the Clintons" and "outside left-wing opposition groups".

As for Gorsuch... well, his voting patterns in the supreme court have been to follow along with the other conservatives.

Yes, but they are not pure yes-men: they showed that they can make their own decision, but didn't do so here.

 

[Segnosaur]

Re: Gorsuch and Drunky McRapeface voting with conservatives to restrict ballot counting

Yes, but they are not pure yes-men: they showed that they can make their own decision, but didn't do so here.

Again, why?

The only case that seems relevant was when they joined the decision that being president doesn't protect financial information, but even then that wasn't exactly a complete victory... the supreme court kicked the can down the court by allowing Trump to make other defenses in lower court. (I should also point out that the ruling was fairly restrictive to what congress could do with the records, if they ever got them.)

 

[Firestone]

How Neil Gorsuch Became the Supreme Court’s Most Unpredictable Justice (Slate)

 

[Firestone]

Trump's campaign is short on cash.

Three reasons:
1) not enough donations (because some big donors don't trust him)
2) stupidly lavish spending (because they all are geniuses)
3) unsurprisingly, self dealing by family and cronies

Since 2017, more than $39 million has been paid to firms controlled by Parscale, who was ousted as campaign manager over the summer. An additional $273.2 million was paid to American Made Media Consultants, a Delaware limited liability company, whose owners are not publicly disclosed.

Campaigns typically reveal in mandatory disclosures who their primary vendors are. But by routing money to Parscale’s firms, as well as American Made Media Consultants, Trump satisfied the basic disclosure requirements without detailing the ultimate recipients.

Other questionable expenditures by Trump and the RNC that are included in campaign finance disclosures:

— Nearly $100,000 spent on copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s book “Triggered,” which helped propel it to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list.

— Over $7.4 million spent at Trump-branded properties since 2017.

— At least $35.2 million spent on Trump merchandise.

— $38.7 million in legal and “compliance” fees. In addition to tapping the RNC and his campaign to pay legal costs during his impeachment proceedings, Trump has also relied on his political operation to cover legal costs for some aides.


How Trump plowed through $1 billion, losing cash advantage (AP)

 

[Regnad Kcin]

The laptop story is a giant "No one cares" event. It has no traction.

Considering what Trump's nits who grew into lice have been up to, bringing up Hunter would be the definition of living in a glass house and throwing stones.

The Biden camp needs to get "Slayer Pete" out ahead of this and poison what there is of Trump's well on this topic.

I like it.

 

[ponderingturtle]

How Neil Gorsuch Became the Supreme Court’s Most Unpredictable Justice (Slate)

Is it that he is always drunk and so no one knows which way he will jump?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Trump's campaign is short on cash.

Three reasons:
1) not enough donations (because some big donors don't trust him)
2) stupidly lavish spending (because they all are geniuses)
3) unsurprisingly, self dealing by family and cronies

From the list:

Other questionable expenditures by Trump and the RNC that are included in campaign finance disclosures:

(...)

— At least $35.2 million spent on Trump merchandise.

wut. You're supposed to sell your merchandise to raise money, you're not supposed to buy it yourself .

I can just picture Trump.
Designer: here are our designs for caps, t-shirts, and buttons, and on the next page...
Donald: ooooh, bigly beautiful, look at my pretty face and my beautiful name! I'll take a thousand of each!
Designer: ehm...

Or is it the sum of all the merchandise they had made (to sell to the public)?

 

[JoeMorgue]

"And in other news Trump took half his remaining campaign money to Vegas and lost it all on blackjack after telling advisors 'Don't worry, I have a system' and then took the second half to a horse racing track and bet it all on the horse that peed the most before the race started, also losing everything."

 

[The Great Zaganza]

From the list:


wut. You're supposed to sell your merchandise to raise money, you're not supposed to buy it yourself .

I can just picture Trump.
Designer: here are our designs for caps, t-shirts, and buttons, and on the next page...
Donald: ooooh, bigly beautiful, look at my pretty face and my beautiful name! I'll take a thousand of each!
Designer: ehm...

Or is it the sum of all the merchandise they had made (to sell to the public)?

It's a way to launder campaign money into private profits.
The Trump Campaign is milking the donors not to win but to make some people rich.

 

[Armitage72]

wut. You're supposed to sell your merchandise to raise money, you're not supposed to buy it yourself .

It's nothing new. Trump used $55K in campaign money to buy copies of his own book in 2016 and the RNC spent $100K buying Junior's book last year.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

He's mentioned his son as a successor. Weee!

Which one, Ivanka's not a boy, Donnie Jnr's Bashar al-Assad's half brother, Eric's a wet blanket and Barron looks like he has more than three brain cells to rub together.

I think that leaves Tiffany.

 

[Segnosaur]

Trump's campaign is short on cash.

Three reasons:
1) not enough donations (because some big donors don't trust him)
2) stupidly lavish spending (because they all are geniuses)
3) unsurprisingly, self dealing by family and cronies

I thought one of the other reasons they were in trouble is because of their inefficient fundraising....they were spending a significant amount of money on fundraising itself rather than on political activities.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

In the southern USA, any ID that shows you with a darker skin will be considered invalid. You guys really don't seem to get the point of US voter ID!

I do, I've enough USian relatives that can tell me enough horror stories* (that didn't happen to them). It's just that I'm still boggling at the all of it.

In my time doing polling clerk (six elections and referenda) I only asked for ID twice and one of those was giving stick to a friend who'd recently turned 18. You'd get a good number of people you'd have to direct down the hall to the other booth and a few who came to the wrong station and one person who wasn't too sure if they could vote (a UK national, who can vote in all elections bar Presidential ones and bar referenda).

*And one relative who said in 2017 he'd vote for Trump again, knowing full well how bad he was for the country. My cousin's 401K was going through the roof at the time, and that's all he cared about. Typical mé féiner.

 

[Firestone]

I thought one of the other reasons they were in trouble is because of their inefficient fundraising....they were spending a significant amount of money on fundraising itself rather than on political activities.

Yes. I guess that the $273.2 million paid to American Made Media Consultants are part of these "fundraising" expenses.

Trump campaign representatives said AMMC was created to act as a clearinghouse for media spending that would otherwise be done by outside vendors who typically take commissions on media or ad buys. The Washington Examiner reported that the group was created after a push from Parscale for more “transparency” over the Trump campaign’s ad buys, in part as an attempt to subdue media controversy over Parscale’s firm being paid to handle the campaign’s media buying.

AMMC reportedly has an independent managing board, but the lack of transparency around how the entity is run and structured makes its composition difficult to determine from the outside looking in.


https://www.nationofchange.org/2019...payments-hidden-by-layers-of-shell-companies/

The Trump campaign is milking its donors for the benefit of ... who knows.