I have been following this since the start. This is how Trump wins: congressman in the House challenge the vote, then they just need 1 Senator to go along (which they have), then it throws the entire thing to VP Pence. He decides if there is fraud and there is a debate, then Congress is forced to vote along party lines, that means 1 Vote per state. That means 30 Republican States vote for Trump and 20 Democrat states vote for Biden. It is a little more complex than I just listed, but this is the basics on how I understand it. If Pence will follow the Constitution, then Trump is in. — Rafaella Leon

I'm not sure where you learned this, but it's a little wrong. The House and the Senate must first vote to reject a state's electors, and then if enough state electors are rejected, and so Biden doesn't have the necessary 270 votes to win, the one state one vote process follows (with the Republicans having a majority of 26). See Trump loves Rep. Mo Brooks' election objection. But Congress can't overturn Biden's win.

The House won't vote to reject a state's electors. It's impossible for Trump to steal the election.

Also, Pence asks judge to toss GOP lawmaker's bid to overturn election results

Vice President Pence on Thursday asked a federal judge to reject a bid by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and other Republicans to broaden Pence's powers in a manner that would effectively allow him to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win.

Pence wants no part of this craziness.

This is not going to happen but I really hope enough Trump supporters believe it is as I will immediately bet large amounts of money against them and increase my net wealth significantly.

The House won't vote to reject a state's electors. — Michael

The Senate won't either. Not a hope in hell Romney, Collins and Murkowski, for a start, will vote for a coup. Even McConnell won't.

So, what's up in Trump-verse these days?

:D

L. Lin Wood ← cracked pot

Should be noted that the Trump White House, disfunctional and seditious as it might be, has ‘distanced itself’ from this particular escapee from Trump’s Pandora’s Box. I mean, threatening the Vice President with being shot for treason might sound a little, I don’t know, inflammatory, even by their lights.

I wasn't sure if I had heard of this Lin Wood person, so I just googled them, and the top result was:

Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Said He 'Might Actually Be' Second Coming of Christ

He’s a total nut. Just the kind of specimen that gets drawn into the outer orbits of Trumpworld. On the bright side, he’s doing his level best to ensure the Dems win the Georgia run-offs.

Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Said He 'Might Actually Be' Second Coming of Christ — Pfhorrest

I'm buying.

All together now, "Crucify him, crucify him!"

Trump really is trying to orchestrate a coup.

A self-coup, or autocoup (from the Spanish autogolpe), is a form of putsch or coup d'état in which a nation's leader, despite having come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances.

This is exactly, exactly what Trump is attempting this week by having Congress refuse to certify the Electoral College Vote. All of the commentary says it will 'almost certainly' or 'probably' fail or has 'almost no chance' of succeeding. But latest reports are that:

11 Republican lawmakers said they intend to support an objection to the Electoral College votes, if one is brought, and propose an election commission to conduct an "emergency 10-day audit" of the election returns in the "disputed states." The group includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Mike Braun of Indiana, and Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. — CNN

If this is not sedition, then there's no such thing. And, where's the outrage? Why are there not massive street protests over this? A sizeable proportion of the Republican Party is attempting to overthrow the democratically-elected President.

If this is not sedition, then there's no such thing. — Wayfarer

Unfortunately these lawmakers will need to be removed from office according to a democratic process, which is ironic since they are pledging their support to an effort that undermines a different democratic process.

Via Corey Robin:

"On the "Trump completely controls the GOP" claims...

So I've been closely following Congress's overriding Trump's veto on the defense bill. I've pointed out that previous presidents have vetoed these bills, and they've extracted concessions, whereas Trump got overridden by his own party.

I've also pointed out that one of the reasons Trump vetoed the bill is that Congress had required military bases to no longer name themselves after Confederate generals. Which is an interesting issue to confront Trump over.

But here are two new elements of the bill that I didn't know about.

First, it restricts the ability of the president to divert military funds for emergency construction purposes. This is a major rebuke of Trump's diversion of military funds for the purpose of building the wall.

Second, it puts restrictions on the military's sending of equipment to local police forces (thereby limiting certain federal attempts to militarize the police) AND it requires federal officers to display their insignia (in order to avoid a repeat of the Portland fiasco).

These are among the issues that the Republicans not only overwhelmingly put in the law but also overrode a Trump veto on."

+

More relevant for Trump, the NDAA attacks his business model. It “includes a measure known as the Corporate Transparency Act, which undercuts shell companies and money laundering in America. The act requires the owners of any company that is not otherwise overseen by the federal government (by filing taxes, for example, or through close regulation) to file a report that identifies each person associated with the company who either owns 25% or more of it or exercises substantial control over it. That report, including name, birthdate, address, and an identifying number, goes to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The measure also increases penalties for money laundering “.

https://billmoyers.com/story/reading-the-fine-print-what-trump-didnt-sign

Unfortunately these lawmakers will need to be removed from office according to a democratic process, — Garth

Unfortunately, that seems completely unlikely.

Thanks, very insightful article.

What do you people think of the possibility that Trump, maybe has issued the famous executive order to counteract foreign interference in U.S election, under highest classification?

This would mean that the public, wouldn't even know that he has already, put it into effect and sounded the alarm, to homeland security and the entire intelligence apparatus. If this is true, the United States is currently in a national state of emergency, meaning that every corrupt legislatures or possible conspirators, will basically walk right into a trap and being surveiled 24/7 by agents.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-imposing-certain-sanctions-event-foreign-interference-united-states-election/

According to the predefined executive order it states, that it should be issued no more than 45 days before the presidential transfer of power. A quick calculation tells us that this order should have been issued around 4-5th of December.

Do you find this theory plausible?

↪StreetlightX Thanks, very insightful article. — Wayfarer

I second.

But it leaves a question, which imo has been hanging since even before day one. Who runs Trump? It seems clear that he would not have scrutinized the bill himself and found his own objections. And the nature of his objections are such that they do not surface of themselves, but have to be looked for under a special kind of light. And he doesn't look, nor has any light.

His concerns, whenever exposed at a granular level, where resides the truth of the matter, are always skewed and particular in unnatural ways. But who drags them up for him to decide? Or does he even decide?

And, where's the outrage? — Wayfarer

A question that has been fairly asked countless times this century, starting with W's outright theft of the election. (Just imagine if the roles had been reversed there!)

I think there are many factors. Two salient ones, IMO:

First, the relationship of Republicans to the rest of the country has become outright abusive. Trump is the perfect incarnation and avatar of this, he could not be a more archetypical American bully. (This I think is the true source of his popularity). But the trend hardly began with him. We have been lulled into accepting more and more outrages, hoping to forestall the bully's wrath, in the pattern of the abused everywhere.

The second is where the "both sides" chestnut really is relevant. Not only is the funding of both sides from monied interests, both sides are themselves, monied interests. There is never one "-archy" that exclusively characterizes any state. But among all the "-archies", oligarchy most strongly characterizes this one, at this point in time. This is homogenous across both party's leadership, indisputably. Therefore, the Democrats really do agree with the Republicans more than they disagree, their core ideology is the same.

This best explains the incredibly muted and ineffectual reaction of Democrats to all of Trump's outrages. It is really a cozy relationship, playing Blue good cop to Red's bad, in an ironclad two party system. If crazy Red wins again and imposes yet more extreme wealth redistribution to the top, ultimately they win too. They are at the top as well.

Great credit to Raffensperger for not bending to someone who can destroy his career.

The good news is that we have an honest politician. The bad news is that simple honesty is an act of heroism.

"Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”

This best explains the incredibly muted and ineffectual reaction of Democrats to all of Trump's outrages — hypericin

I don't know about that. I was glued to the screen during the impeachment trial, and I think they did as well as they could, given that the Senate was always going to acquit. I wasn't very impressed with Nadler, but I thought Adam Schiff was as effective as he could possibly be. And I don't buy the 'they're all crooks' narrative, that is a corrosive form of cynicism. American politics is certainly corrupted by the holy $$, but no president has ever been near as corrupt as Trump.

Who runs Trump? — tim wood

Nobody. I'm sure he's a rogue elephant. He hardly reads anything, so when he's delivered a 1500 page bill, he'll leaf through it until he finds something he doesn't like, and bellow about it. The COVID bill and the general expenditure bill had been combined, and he didn't understand that, he kept saying there's all this stuff not about Covid. Duh.

That was the lead story, or second behind the covid updates, in the national news bulletins this morning in Australia.

The bad news is that simple honesty is an act of heroism. — Hanover

Let's hope he doesn't get shot.

Thing is if Trump approached one of his sycophant supporters and admitted straight out to their face "I am 100% totally and utterly corrupt", all they would hear is "MAGA!" and cheer him on.

I don't know about that. I was glued to the screen during the impeachment trial, and I think they did as well as they could — Wayfarer

Really? We have President High Crimes and Misdemeanors himself. After two years of dismissing impeachment entirely, Pelosi finally consented to one of innumerable impeachable offences Trump had committed. Not only did they not get him convicted. They couldn't even get the Republicans to bring witnesses!

After the sham trial, Trump emerged completely unscathed. pathetic. But they did get some screen time, provided you some political theater. This, to you, is an effective response?? This just proves that you are already conditioned to expect zero from the "opposition party".

And I don't buy the 'they're all crooks' narrative, that is a corrosive form of cynicism — Wayfarer

Kleptocracy is also apt, but I will stick with oligarchy. They are not all crooks, only by virtue of the fact that the bribery they receive is (bizarrely) legal. But they are all rich, their friends are rich, their connections are rich, their donors are rich. The ruling class is all rich. This is an oligarchy, and it is it in none of their interests to destroy the most oligarchic party, even though they could have easily chosen to do so, against the most ludicrous world leader we have seen.

Gosh he really sounds like a pathetic pleading dog.

This, to you, is an effective response?? — hypericin

The impeachment was never going to be effective (although don’t overlook the fact that he was indeed impeached, and his acquittal by the Senate doesn’t undo that). It was about what was possible. I don’t blame the Democrats for anything to do with the whole sorry affair, the fault was all with Trump who had already corrupted the GOP to the point that they were always going to absolve him, no matter what the charges were.

Perfect Trumpian phone call. I love it. Though I cannot see how the gutter-press and their base are making a big deal of it, it’s not unusual that the palace intrigue and deep-state gossip has them in a huff. More of the same.

More of the same? When was the last time you’ve heard an audio recording of an American president criminality threaten a Secretary of State to “find” 11, 780 votes?

‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’ ~ Donald Trump, Jan 2021

‘I just want to find $462,987,383’ ~ Donald Trump, Mar 2021

Obviously if he thinks he won, he wants to find the missing votes, like you would if you lost some dollars you would want to find the missing money. Different from asking to forge money or manufacture votes.

I read through the entire transcript proudly hosted on CNN. Apart from giving all the countries of the world a recording of a phone conversation between the President of the United states and the Georgian secretary of state, which is undoubtedly useful to I*** and C****, it makes you wonder how many other conversations have been recorded, I mean since the Republicans are such terrible people, as the story goes, it only makes sense that they would share secret recorded conversations, that is where this is going.

The acid test of character will come on January 20th, when Trump steps down. That means he accepts the opinion of the courts and the rule of law. Everyone is so darn sure that Biden will be sworn in, and be the next president, which means that everyone is sure that Trump will step down, following procedure. Following that reasoning, it means that Trumps efforts will be ultimately futile and he will accept defeat, finally. Quite the coup.

Seldom do we get a chance to test a conspiracy theory.

Gotta say, I'm surprised at the outpouring of coverage over the recordings. Like - did anyone expect anything different? I keep saying - the only morons are those who are continually surprised at the depth to which Trump will sink.

What struck me most was the pleading tone in Trump's voice. This was not a man confident at wielding power. This was a sore loser begging for help. It was pleading and pathetic.

Everyone is so darn sure that Biden will be sworn in, and be the next president, which means that everyone is sure that Trump will step down — FreeEmotion

Biden doesn't need Trump to step down to be sworn in.