Trump Kicking and Screaming Transition Thread

My guess is that a lot of them, if pressed, would say that technically he is not president-elect until the electoral college votes. That way they can give the answer that their constituents want to hear, while at the same time saying later on that they weren't buying into any conspiracy theories or anything.

At this point, I am willing to believe that the Republican Party in the USA is beyond hope. I can hardly believe the party I used to consider as "my party" has come to this. I'm still not willing to become a Democrat (once burned, twice shy, they say) but I sure don't see how any intelligent person who looks at the facts objectively can honestly say that the Republicans as a party (with a few exceptions, I admit) are actually a reasonable political force.

I guess that depends on what you mean by "reasonable political force." If you are about any of the cluster of issues that the Republicans care about in theory or practice (lower taxes, anti-abortion legislation, stricter immigration, less regulation for businesses, opposition to gun control, freedom for both kinds of religion: evangelical Christianity AND Judaism, pro-military and pro-police stances, conservative judges and owning the libs) and you are willing to hold your nose/close your eyes as to the problems with Trumpist Republicans (such as, but not limited to, racism, misogyny, homophobia, hypocrisy, anti-democratic and anti-intellectual sentiments, incompetence, conspiratorial paranoia, indifference/lack of empathy, corruption, deliberate polarization of the electorate, vindictiveness, etc.), then I think it's fair to say Republicanism is a reasonable political force.

When you have to put that many caveats on it to make it fit the definition of "a reasonable political force", you have pretty well proven that it isn't even in the same ballpark as "a reasonable political force". A political force? Sure, absolutely. Reasonable? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

It will be a long time (almost certainly much longer than my life expectancy) before I would consider going back to the Republican Party. On the few things they promote that I agree with, their approach is such that in practice they accomplish the exact opposite. So I'm done with them. Haven't considered myself "Republican" for 20 years (and even then, it was "holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two evils"), and not willing to do so again. I live in Europe and am married to a German, and we are both history nuts. I know too much to turn a blind eye to fascism just because in a few small areas it accomplishes what I would like to see done (especially when it is explicitly opposed to a lot of my ideas, such as gun control, national health care, freer immigration, and so on).

It's amazing how abortion became the pearl of great price for so many Americans.

I know you meant "pearl" but, interestingly enough, in medieval art and literature the pear was a symbol/metaphor for pregnancy... for the obvious reason.

Abortion became a dog-whistle for those who know nothing about history, and the fact that it was unremarked by any major religion until doctors and $ got involved.

Now I want The Pear Of Great Price to be a "Veggie Tales" character.

I hope she didn’t pay good money for her IT degree because she doesn’t know the first thing about internet security based on this article.



And buried in the replies was this gem.

So hot!

I mean, it's really only one caveat that can manifest itself in different forms. There has to be an issue or a value that you feel is in severe jeopardy such that you will cling to anyone who offers to preserve it. Because of overlap, in the case of the Republicans, it boils down to two groups: culture warriors and "i've got mine" libertarians and business types.

CNN is reporting that Trump called Georgia Governor Kemp today and basically asked him to fix the election in his favor.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/12/05/politics/trump-georgia-brian-kemp-phone-call/index.html

Doesn't that break some election laws?

I don't particularly know about election law, but I would tend to think it depends on the nature of the conversation.

"Hey, I have concerns about the election. I think you should do a signature audit to make sure there is no fraud. I want you to lobby the legisltature to consider choosing electors who would vote for me instead of Joe Biden" seems perfectly legal if beyond skeezy. Part of the, let's charitably call it "quirks" of the Electoral College system is that votes "for president" are votes for slates of Electoral College voters who actually elect the president, and different states have different rules for how much leeway the Electoral College voters have in making their votes. Asking a slate of EC voters who are supposed to choose Biden to defect and choose Trump instead doesn't seem to be inherently illegal, and nor would asking someone to ask for this.

Illegality would enter the picture if Trump offered an incentive or made a threat to the governor to take action in regard to the election.

SNL weighs in on Karen's testimony.

Now I want "The Pair Of Great Price" to be a XXX movie featuring busty babes. Just sayin'

Tasteless to the end.

Meanwhile, there's a rumor that Joe will ride into town on Amtrak, as he has for decades.

Frankly, I hope he does that and follows it up with a simple swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office with just himself, Harris, their immediate families, and John Roberts. Then says "okay, now let's get to work."

Agreed. All that pomp and circumstance with people waiting in the cold for hours is antiquated and really unnecessary. Not to mention expensive in the midst of a recession, and fucking dangerous in terms of COVID.

IIRC, although it's traditional for the Chief Justice to do the swearing-in thing, it can technically be anyone Biden wants. So Joe could have former President Obama do it. *snerk*snerk*snerk*

Wouldn't that be cool!

It would amuse me greatly.

Even better if they're all wearing masks.

If Trump uses Air Force One to get to his event and Biden is sworn in as POTUS during his event, surely he isn't allowed to use it to fly home, since he's no longer POTUS? Has he thought this through?

FL is his main house.

It's common for former POTUS to get flown home on one of the aircraft as a courtesy, although it loses its AF1 designation.

It might help to remember that "Air Force One" is the call sign for whatever plane POTUS is riding on. It could be a two man hang-glider and it would still be designated "Air Force One". So before the inauguration he might be taken wherever he wants to go on one of the fleet of planes the Air Force reserves for "Distinguished Visitors" and it would be "Air Force One". After the inauguration, if he were eligible for a ride somewhere else that plane would be identified by whatever call sign they use for him. I think we all tend to identify "Air Force One" as the 747, when in reality it's only Air Force One if POTUS is on board. The designation "Air Force Two" is whatever plane the Veep is on.

Not that he generally seems to think much of anything through that goes beyond what iron he might want to use or what to rage-tweet. But in addition to what has been said before, it may be that he flies back the night before the inauguration, the better to have one last instance in which the Secret Service has to stay at one of his properties before he is done.

Well, since he gets lifetime Secret Service protection, he can keep milking taxpayers in that way right up until he either keels over or gets sent to prison.