Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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figmentPez
Staff member
No one would throw soup. They need it to feed their families.
I watched a long video earlier from a conservative constitutional lawyer, who put up listings of all the rules and clauses of the Constitution and it's amendments to explain how limited Trump's options actually are, even should he reach most of his goals. The thing I found interesting? He says with the Democrats still narrowly owning the House, it's impossible for Trump to carry out a soft coup.
He gave two worst case scenario examples which he said are so unlikely to be nearly absurd, but lets say should Biden get over 37 faithless electors, or the Supreme Court, somehow, throws out a huge chunk of the votes from various states, then these two things can happen that would still prevent Trump.
First, should Trump somehow convince enough electors to go faithless and knock the electoral vote down to a tie, pushing it to the legislature to vote, the Democrats can simply do what he called "stacking the deck". He said this is a nuclear option, but is technically legal under the Constitution. What is stacking the deck? When Congress begins the swearing in process for the new term, the Speaker of the House is sworn in first, then other representatives are sworn in after, at which point they would caucus and move to the Presidential vote on the first convening of the new Congress with the states rep majority assigning who gets the vote. All Nancy Pelosi would have to do is swear in all the Democrats first, then once it's time to swear in the Republicans, she would put in a call to "investigate the fraud" before she can continue her swearing in process, buying time till the first convening of Congress. When the time comes for the first convening, since all the Democrats were sworn in and the Republicans were not, they would have the majority in most states for the vote, thus voting for Biden, and then would "end the investigation" to continue swearing in Republicans. He said it's highly unlikely they would need to ever do this.
The second option he gave, should they not want to follow the first one to get Biden in, is to simply stalemate the entire system once the Electoral Votes are being cast. The way he explained it, was that Electoral Votes are counted during a Joint Session between the House and Senate. They go through each state alphabetically until they reach the last state and then tally the votes. Here is the thing, while most representatives do oral "objections" to various Electoral Votes for show, if a sitting Senator and Representative jointly sign a written objection to a specific states Electors (Say, Alabama, as it's one of the first on the list for counting) then the Joint Session immediately ends and both the House and Senate take the objection, consider it, and vote to either approve the electors or reject them based on the objection.
If both the Senate and the House approve the electors, it goes back to the vote. If the Senate approved the Electors, but the House rejects, then the Governor can write a formal letter saying the states Electors are valid (a sort of tie breaker), and it once again goes back to the vote. But what if the House simply does not even vote on the objection? Well, then nothing happens, because the Senate nor the Supreme Court can force the House to vote, and if the House throws the investigation of the objection to committee and then never convenes that committee, they basically lock the entire process down. They can theoretically hold this stalemate until Jan 21st, at which point the line of succession would mean Acting President Nancy Pelosi. Think of it like how Mitch held the SC nomination for months by simply not taking it to a vote, Nancy would basically be doing the same for the Presidency itself.
He points out how extreme these options are, but should Trump actually attempt a soft coup, then all bets are off, and the House holds all the electoral cards by design.
It was very interesting.
He gave two worst case scenario examples which he said are so unlikely to be nearly absurd, but lets say should Biden get over 37 faithless electors, or the Supreme Court, somehow, throws out a huge chunk of the votes from various states, then these two things can happen that would still prevent Trump.
First, should Trump somehow convince enough electors to go faithless and knock the electoral vote down to a tie, pushing it to the legislature to vote, the Democrats can simply do what he called "stacking the deck". He said this is a nuclear option, but is technically legal under the Constitution. What is stacking the deck? When Congress begins the swearing in process for the new term, the Speaker of the House is sworn in first, then other representatives are sworn in after, at which point they would caucus and move to the Presidential vote on the first convening of the new Congress with the states rep majority assigning who gets the vote. All Nancy Pelosi would have to do is swear in all the Democrats first, then once it's time to swear in the Republicans, she would put in a call to "investigate the fraud" before she can continue her swearing in process, buying time till the first convening of Congress. When the time comes for the first convening, since all the Democrats were sworn in and the Republicans were not, they would have the majority in most states for the vote, thus voting for Biden, and then would "end the investigation" to continue swearing in Republicans. He said it's highly unlikely they would need to ever do this.
The second option he gave, should they not want to follow the first one to get Biden in, is to simply stalemate the entire system once the Electoral Votes are being cast. The way he explained it, was that Electoral Votes are counted during a Joint Session between the House and Senate. They go through each state alphabetically until they reach the last state and then tally the votes. Here is the thing, while most representatives do oral "objections" to various Electoral Votes for show, if a sitting Senator and Representative jointly sign a written objection to a specific states Electors (Say, Alabama, as it's one of the first on the list for counting) then the Joint Session immediately ends and both the House and Senate take the objection, consider it, and vote to either approve the electors or reject them based on the objection.
If both the Senate and the House approve the electors, it goes back to the vote. If the Senate approved the Electors, but the House rejects, then the Governor can write a formal letter saying the states Electors are valid (a sort of tie breaker), and it once again goes back to the vote. But what if the House simply does not even vote on the objection? Well, then nothing happens, because the Senate nor the Supreme Court can force the House to vote, and if the House throws the investigation of the objection to committee and then never convenes that committee, they basically lock the entire process down. They can theoretically hold this stalemate until Jan 21st, at which point the line of succession would mean Acting President Nancy Pelosi. Think of it like how Mitch held the SC nomination for months by simply not taking it to a vote, Nancy would basically be doing the same for the Presidency itself.
He points out how extreme these options are, but should Trump actually attempt a soft coup, then all bets are off, and the House holds all the electoral cards by design.
It was very interesting.
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figmentPez
Staff member
That assumes that Democrats are willing to be "partisan" and actually throw their weight around. Something they've been far too reluctant to do.
Because they still think the nation isn't too broken to mend back together.
I really don't know if that is true.
Biden's certainly been willing to stuff his fucking transition team with corporate CEOS and announce they are locking Bernie and Warren out of the Cabinet.
Glad my LGBTQ friends won't be (legally) murdered in their homes by authorized religious extremists but I'm so fucking tired of this broken ass system.
figmentPez
Staff member
Even if the nation can be mended and brought back together: If you try to let a broken bone heal without setting it properly, then it will cause chronic problems, and an infected wound can't heal without getting rid of the infection.
This isn't something that's going to heal by just leaving it alone and letting time pass. Letting Trump get away with a coup would be like letting an attempted murderer twist the knife in his victim because you're too afraid that trying to get his hand off the knife will cause further damage. Even letting him go without prosecution would be like trying to help a gunshot victim recover by giving them chicken soup and diffusing some essential oils, because surgery and blood donations are extreme measures that set a bad precedent.
I always told people I was not voting for Biden, I was firing Trump. Biden isn't even my seventh pick out of the primary. In the end, lesser evils and all that. Oof.
Preaching the choir, my man.
Can we PLEASE make sure orange boi is shoved out the fucking door first? I'd like at least one month of not wanting to blow my brains out.
The people of Guatemala are NOT fucking around.
Really wish I stayed in my bubble. Things were looking up so I loosened my embargo and then that whole Michigan junk happened today and my heart can't take it. Think I am going to go back to ignoring this stuff till the day the electors vote, or just till Biden is sworn in. It's just too much.
First on CNN: Key government agency acknowledges Biden's win and begins formal transition
The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to a letter from Administrator Emily Murphy sent Monday afternoon and obtained by CNN.
www.cnn.com
Dave
Staff member
Nope. It's because major big businesses and GOP donors started saying they'd withhold money. And they are worried such a move would lose them the Georgia runoffs.
www.nytimes.com
Business Leaders, Citing Damage to Country, Urge Trump to Begin Transition (Published 2020)
At the urging of New York’s attorney general, business leaders in New York pushed for the Trump administration to begin a transfer of power.
People are so stupid.
"Did you hear all that damning evidence at the hearing today?"
"You mean the press conference?"
"No, it was a hearing!"
"So the witnesses were sworn to speak under oath?"
"Well, no. But it had state legislators there!"
"Oh? What did the democrats say when cross examining?"
"There were no democrats there, only republican."
"So it wasn't a hearing."
"Dude you are not listening! They spoke with a witness that spoke with a guy who knew a family that overheard the family of Hugo Chavez admit to voter fraud!"
"So, in other words, they knew a guy who knows a guy that talked with a man that overheard something."
"They signed a sworn affidavit!"
"And submitted it to a court?"
"No they are waiting for the Supreme Court to unload all this evidence!"
"Did you hear all that damning evidence at the hearing today?"
"You mean the press conference?"
"No, it was a hearing!"
"So the witnesses were sworn to speak under oath?"
"Well, no. But it had state legislators there!"
"Oh? What did the democrats say when cross examining?"
"There were no democrats there, only republican."
"So it wasn't a hearing."
"Dude you are not listening! They spoke with a witness that spoke with a guy who knew a family that overheard the family of Hugo Chavez admit to voter fraud!"
"So, in other words, they knew a guy who knows a guy that talked with a man that overheard something."
"They signed a sworn affidavit!"
"And submitted it to a court?"
"No they are waiting for the Supreme Court to unload all this evidence!"
Affidavits......grrrr.
Dave
Staff member
In the first ruling of the new Supreme Court, it was ruled 5-4 that mayors and governors can’t put limits on churches or religious gatherings because of COViD. This was from a couple New York City cases. It is worth mentioning that before RGB died the court ruled on two similar cases from California and Nevada. These bans were upheld...5-4.
figmentPez
Staff member
Amy COVID Barrett is trending on Twitter.
