Now, I hope you’ll agree that that is a wonderful clip.
If you disagree, then you should simply click elsewhere now, because you won’t want to listen to what I have to say.
Which is: the game is still not over.
Joe Biden has won the US election. At this point, that is simply indisputible. Arizona declared in his favour just hours ago, taking Biden to 290 electoral votes (and he only needs 270 to win). The supporters of T****’s failed regime will disagree: they will continue to assert ‘widespread electoral fraud’ — without providing any evidence at all for it, because that is what cults do.
But that’s not the end of the story. Biden needs control of the US Senate, or his presidency will be largely ineffective. The Democrats control the House of Representatives (by a narrow margin) — but they do not (yet) have control of the Senate. There is a slim chance that they will be able to control the Senate, if (and it is a big if) the Democrats are able to win the two Senate seats in Georgia. Doing so would tie the Senate — and in the case of a tie, the Vice-President gets the casting vote. Which means that those two seats are crucial.
… and that, my friends, is, I believe, why the Republicans are pandering to T****’s petty refusal to concede that he has lost. Why? Because it’s a distraction.
Let me take you back to Tuesday, 6 June 1944. The Allied invasion of Normandy: the beginning of the end for the Third Reich in World War II. A major contributing factor to the success of the landings in Normandy was the effort on the part of the Allies to convince the Axis that any invasion would take part farther east: this subterfuge depleted the defence to the west. Without that misdirection, the invasion might well have failed.
Classic Sun Tzu: attack where the enemy isn’t. This is exactly what the Grand Old Party is trying to do, here and now. They don’t care about T**** and his fragile ego: but they’re quite happy to indulge his egotistic, narcissistic tantrums because these are a wonderful distraction from the Senate run-off elections in Georgia, that take place on 05Jan2021 (voter registration deadline: 07Dec2020).
If you can vote in Georgia,
please find out more!
Now, I’m a Brit, not a USAn. But I, like many others, have watched in horror at what’s been going on in the ‘United’ States of America for the last four years as this mendacious, malignant, egotistical narcissist has perverted power to his own ends. Enough is enough. It’s time for the USA to get back on track and resume its position as a front-runner for global democracy: but to do that, it first needs to focus on Georgia, and not get distracted.
The game’s not over. Keep your eyes on the ball, Americans!
Wibble 
Love when foreigners who have no idea what they’re talking about spews rhetoric they clearly do not understand. What’s happening in the US is…well, really none of your business as you’re not American. You are merely mimicking what’s been driven into your head by liberal media so you believe it’s true. What an anomaly that Trump should have ever been elected?!
Had the I
Us gone mad?
No. It was a statement…a big one! The people had gone sick of the corruption of politicians growing ultra wealthy in office, doing little except campaigning on all the same issues and actually fixing none of them. These do not want to give up power and they are not democratic in the least. They are socialist which on it’s face, seems utopian but when you dig deeper, you realize its meant to impoverish and cobtrol the citizens but will not effect the elite who will grow richer. Take Bernie Sanders for instance. He’s openly a socialist….take from the rich and disperse the wealth…..but why doesn’t he live what he’s pushing? Why does he have 3 mansion? Why hasn’t he sold them and given the wealth to the poor?
What about Nancy Pelosi? You think she’s giving up that $26,000.00 Ice cream freezer she was just showing off on tv?
No, this isn’t a fight about Trump. It’s a fight to determine whether we will remain a free republic where the government is a servant of the people or become Venezuela or Cuba, where the public serves their government.
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It’s true that I’m not in the USA. But that doesn’t make me blind to what’s been happening over there since you idiots elected that complete nincompoop to be the ‘leader of the free world’. Yes, there’s inequality, and it needs to be addressed, but the egotistical megalomaniac narcissist you put in power has proven that he’s not the one to deal with it. Get a grip!
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Grow up. You know absolutely nothing.
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I don’t think its possible for anyone to know less than a Trump supporter, that would likely create a singularity that would swallow the earth.
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Except someone who believes that the very person who wrote the bill in the 90’s that disproportionately imprisoned (none violent drug offenders) African Americans calling the super predators and who fought against desegregation schools saying black students in white schools would “create a racial jungle” that he didn’t want his kids growing up in…AND has had 47 yrs in government including 8 yrs as vise president, is the guy to finally fix things? Maybe only boomers were around to remember it though his VP choice stated all the above during her bid to win the nomination. Or maybe that the guy in office for only 4 yrs . Is the problem instead of the one that’s been creating problems for 47.
And if you think young crackgead Hunter who married his brothers wife, cheated on her with a prostitute, denied the child, refused child support..but DNA pegged him, who landed big positions in foreign countries where he didn’t so much as speak the language, in fields where he had 0% experience or education, making millions, wasn’t selling his VP fathers influence…your off your nut.
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The destructive legacy of the science-denying, racist, bigoted, misogynistic ‘previous president’ speaks for itself and will live on in infamy. President Elect Biden isn’t perfect, but I concur with the overwhelming majority of the US electorate that he is the better choice at this time. The main thrust of my post here was to highlight distractions from the Senate run-off elections in Georgia, the results of which could enable Biden to more readily undo at least some of the harm that T**** has done.
Laura, you are perfectly entitled to your opinions. However, your comments here are a further distraction from the crucial Georgia run-off elections. I’ve now had two private messages about this post, both indicating that they weren’t willing to comment here as they didn’t want to risk engaging your ire. After struggling with my conscience, I have enabled moderation for your future comments. (In over a dozen years of running this blog, I’ve only ever done this once before, for a rabid, deranged climate science denier.)
I fully expect that you’ll scream “cENSoRshIp!!!!1” and “fReE sPeeCh!” — but I feel it’s important not to feed the trolls.
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Friend,
You are perfectly free to moderate as you wish and I’ll have no ill feelings because of it.
I propose this: you, a citizen of another country and I, one from elsewhere….I am in no position to really comment overly much on the issues you face in your country. I can’t possibly understand them. I don’t live there, it’s not my experience and complexities of the issues, I cannot possibly fully understand and on a governmental level, those laws etc, do not effect me, I don’t have to live under them and who am I to infringe upon how you wish to live in your own country?
At best, I can only form an opinion based on whatever media shows I see, whether that is complete truth, partial truths or all out lies…I only “know” what I am told.
We can go back and forth of the damning evidence against BOTH of these candidates. Possibly, neither are ideal and quite frankly, I think as a whole we are just sick to death of choosing the lessor of evils. On the whole, we are growing weary of parties altogether because they no longer serve the purpose intended but has become like a sport team rivalry, my team versus your team and those elected are only serving those on their team instead of trying to serve the all their citizens. We are set back a hundred years and it began prior to the last 4 years.
Here is the problem between us as a people and clearly extends far beyond our borders…..we no longer know how to communicate with one another. We are to busy talking at each other instead of to each other, to interested in being heard instead of listening, more interested in being “right” than wanting to understand.
IF, we were to take the opposite approach and truly discuss the issues instead of launching into a war over them, at the end of the day we may still not agree but we would at least understand where the other is coming from and realize we are very much like two parents with differing parenting styles….we disagree with each others handling of things but there’s no denying that they each love the child and wants what’s best for it…..they simply disagree on how to achieve the same thing.
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Laura, thank you for not taking umbrage at being put into moderation here, and for taking the time to compose a thoughtful response. It would be churlish of me to bin this comment. You do raise some good points (even though — *sigh* they’re still a distraction from the Georgia run-off elections).
I have to disagree with your implied assertions that I am not entitled to comment on the situation in the USA simply because I live elsewhere. We do, in fact, live in the same place. We all share the same home planet; the boundaries between us are historical and largely arbitrary. The USA recently withdrew from both the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. I feel I am entitled to have a say on these misguided actions because they affect me, too, even though I don’t live there. You say we need to communicate, and I agree: but the current POTUS clearly has a far more insular view.
And as daryan12 said earlier:
I agree with you that party politics is flawed and in dire need of restructuring. That’s been true for decades, and it’s as true here in the UK as it is on your side of the Pond. I have serious doubts that it will ever be possible to successfully address this, because those in power will never agree to change a system that has empowered them — and the obscenely wealthy individuals who pull their strings will never allow this either.
It’s true that our realities are forged by our interactions; and there are malign influences that actively seek to bend our beliefs to their ends. It’s up to us to recognise such influences, and act accordingly. It seems clear to me, however, that far too many lack critical thinking skills. Some lines need to be drawn: those who consistently lie, fail to live up to their promises and indeed who deny responsibility for their actions need to be taken to task for that — and certainly not elevated to, nor maintained in, positions of power.
And so, while I completely agree with you that it is good to talk, I’m sorry to say that this current situation is one where I think we will simply have to agree to disagree.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a brilliantly thought out response. It certainly brought up very lucid points of concerns that gives me pause to ponder.
On global issues that effect the world beyond our personal borders, I agree that we all have the legitimate right to have concern. In this light, my initial statement to you appeared rude and in fact was extremely rude. It is unlike me to be so. While there may be reasons, namely the climate here, where anything short of complete agreement with the most radical left, even if you are a member of them that dares to question or disagree, is met with personal attack and even violence (which only serves to push the receivers even farther from any middle ground and creates reactionary response to the slightest rub.) THERE IS NO EXCUSE, and I apologize completely for both treating you so rudely, disrepectfully and beginning what has become a wonderful conversation, in such an offensive way.
I don’t know how things are where you are but here, more than 90% of our media is owned and ran by a polical party affiliation that is both political as well as money driven (the more incendiary, provocative, the higher the ratings = more money. The more discord they cause, the more money they make.) the majority of us no longer feel we can trust anything called news on any front.
We are in crisis here. A crisis created by powerful people profiteering off the division and chaos designed to propel their agenda. It’s beyond shameful.
The only way we are going to survive this, is between us. We have to communicate with one another, listen, consider, refuse to be divided, find our own common ground and while we may end up still disagreeing on some points, we may continue in love, friendship, respect and understand at least where the others concerns come from.
I think our conversation, while off to a rocky start of which I claim responsibility for, is a remarkable example of how if we are willing to really communication with one another, we are by far more capable of uniting ourselves.
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Hi again Laura. Sorry that this message has been held up in moderation for so long.
I agree with you on your main point here, ie that we have to be very careful what our media sources are. Some of them, as you point out, are subject to (sometimes insane) bias. I think it’s up to each of us to accept our individual ‘information streams,’ for want of a better phrase, with a highly critical eye, and to cast our nets wide to avoid the danger of getting locked into echo chambers of disinformation.
A huge problem that’s been ongoing for years is the ‘think-tanks’ that are funded by wealthy vested interests. They’re well aware how to manipulate the masses. (See for instance the book ‘Merchants of Doubt‘ by Oreskes and Conway.) And of course there’s the pervasive Rupert Murdoch empire.
I feel fortunate that in the UK we have the BBC; an organisation which, over the years, I’ve come to trust. It’s funded by the state (which I know is a red flag to many of your kinfolk because of a knee-jerk reaction towards anything that even has a hint of ‘socialism’ — something I don’t think I will ever understand); and that means that, in theory at least, we ‘the people’ have a say in how the BBC is run. Sadly there seems to be a growing number of voices who believe that the BBC licence fee is ‘just another tax’ that they want to avoid paying (everyone always seems to want all public facilities for free!). I think (but don’t know) that we also have pretty strong rules here in the UK that govern journalistic behaviour as it applies to privately-run news outlets, too.
And then of course, there’s the Internet, which at this point is still pretty much like the old ‘Wild West’. I think that’s part of the problem: the nutcases can easily find like-minded fruitcakes to bounce their lunatic ideas off; they get together and form echo-chambers of total nonsense (the ‘flat Earthers’ are a classic example).
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Lol that is too true! Thank you for the lovely conversations. I will definately have to read your suggested book.
Wishing you all the best. Stay well & safe.
Laura
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All the best to you, too, Laura :)
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quod erat demonstratum, by spouting crazy conspiracy theories and making contrarian arguments you simply prove my point. Republicans are not a political party, but a dangerous cult. And like all cults the sheep do what they are told and believe anything the high priest tell them, while those at the top drive around in their limo’s and private jets that you paid for.
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It becomes the world’s business when you elect an incompetent and dangerous leader and put him in charge of the nuclear codes.
Oh so the solution to corruption and inept government is to vote for some even more corrupt and incompetent whose got more of his own citizens killed with Covid than died in all the wars the US has fought since WW2.
Venezuela? Cuba? And who is their main ally, oh yes Russia, the ones who have your hero pvt Bonespurs in their back pocket.
The only statement that Trump represents is that republicans are sheep who will believe anything dumb they read on the internet and will vote for whatever racist demagogue they are told to vote for by Fox news.
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Hahaha you are both young and ill informed.
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ok boomer
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i find the fantastic, often rabid conspiracy-theorising about the Democratic party supposedly being a haven of America-hating One-Worlder socialists truly mind-boggling. Where do people get that? i’ll say this clearly: the Democratic party of today is nearly indistinguishable from the Republican party of the Eisenhower era! At the very best, they’re Centre-right. Yes, there are some who seem leftist (as if that were a bad thing) under the lights of our Nation’s current heavily right-wing political climate. Good lord! Even centrists (yes, “Centrists”) like Clinton, Obama, and Biden look “left” when one considers how deeply the country has been dragged into the ditch on the far right side of the road. Biden is essentially an Eisenhower Republican. Sanders is about the only current figure who actually calls himself a socialist (of some type)- but he is NOT a Democrat. If the Democratic party were supposedly socialist, how would anyone explain Bernie’s having been “sent to Coventry” during the primary season & essentially not being taken too seriously by the Democratic party? (“That’s nice, Bernie, thank you for sharing- now bugger off…”).
i ‘ll add that most Americans wouldn’t know from socialism if it trod on their toe. The Republican party of today has sold our Nation a bill of goods and done nothing but stoke fear and division ever since the Reagan years. These last four years under Mr.Trump they have raised it to their art form.
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Actually a lot of these conspiracy theories are just rehashing of old far right ones. The whole Qanon is just a repacked version of the old anti-Jewish blood libel, the deep state stuff is a rip off of the protocols of Zion (a favourite of the nazi’s) and alot of the anti-Muslim propaganda (great replacement for example) is pretty much identical to what was directed at Catholic, and other minority immigrants, who came to the US in the 19th century.
Basically, they are just repacking the same racist myths that have been around for hundreds of years (some of these go back to the time of the crusades) and made them more Facebook friendly. Because they know that once you far enough down the far right rabbit hole its very difficult to crawl back out. We have the same problem here in the UK with brexiteers,
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Also “sent to Coventry”, its a pretty awful town yes, but its by no means the worst to live in the UK. Places like Peterborough or Doncaster tend to be considered worse:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-top-10-crap-towns-14031127
That said, “sent to Peterborough” doesn’t quite have that same ring to it.
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Trump used his office to make millions and it’s all out there in black-and-white… not to mention the overt nepotism. Trump is corrupt to the core…
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I agree!
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I’ll never really understand Trump supporters. I think Trump allowed them to feel that it was okay to demonstrate hatred. It will be nice to have arrogance, egotism, and hatred leave the White House – traits that should have never been elected in the first place. We the people voted and voted for normalcy. Trump will leave and go deal with all the lawsuits that have been piling up against him these past four years. You are on point. Hopefully, the “United” States will be able to come together once the finger-pointing Twitter fan has gone.
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I too hope that the people of the Divided States of America will be able to peacefully resolve their differences and move on. The next hurdle in this saga is the ‘counting of the electoral college votes’, which doesn’t take place until 06Jan2021. My guess is that T**** will continue to be in the State of Denial at least until then. To my mind, that’s far too long.
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Hey, Wibbler! Who is in the state of denial, the guy who is president, or the guy who claims to be president-elect before the election is certified? Just one teeny tiny discrepancy… And I think you are perfectly welcome to comment on our country.
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….Ah because that’s how US politics has worked for centuries, the person who won the most votes (by +5million votes as I recall), starts forming a government so they can take over at the end of the transition period. I’d ask if you’d prefer he wait and risk a chaotic handover that would put lives at risk, but if you are a trump supporter, we already know the answer to that, you voted for 4 years of that….twice
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If Sports Start Playing Out Like The 2020 Election
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Daryan, we got rules. Biden is not president-elect. He can still work on assembling his teams.
Btw, I understand that many people dislike Trump. He’s a showman, not a statesman. But to profess to like and promote Biden? EEEWWW.
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I’m not keen on the Democrats; they are too far right of centre for my taste. Biden would not be my first choice — but from the options available*, for me there is absolutely no contest. Here’s a video clip: I challenge you to offer me one that shows Biden’s challenger revealing any evidence of humanity.
* And that, my friend, is where the ‘democratic’ electoral systems the world over are failing us all. Many USAns are now blaming their woes on the Electoral College. But I’m pretty sure that if they do manage to get rid of that, they’ll still be left with the main problem: two-party politics, but decided by ‘first-past-the-post’ majority. We’ve had that here in the UK for far too long, and it hasn’t worked out all that well for us (says he, pointing to the Brexit referendum as a prime example). We all need better politicians, but what we need still more is a better political system.
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Rules? Where does it say he can’t start preparing for government, given that he’s clearly won the election? Republicans are just sore losers. And I find it funny how they are quick to ignore the rules when it suits them (you know like Trump did, or G.W Bush) or the infamous Biden rule they totally forgot about. I think you are in no position to lecture anybody about the rules.
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And again Trump supporters voted for chaos, corruption, racism and government mismanagement, which has gotten more Americans killed (+250,000) than in every US war since the 2nd world war. And you voted for that…twice!
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Comparing two psychopaths is a thankless task. But since you’ve opened that can of worms… how many wars has Biden co-started as vice president? How many failed states has he co-created? Do you care?
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That was for Wibbler. :-)
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So… this was a real question.
How many wars has Biden co-started as vice president? How many failed states has he co-created? Do you care?
Do you have a real answer, Wibbler?
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Leavergirl, to reiterate what I said to Laura earlier:
It was a choice between ‘a rock and a hard place’. The real problem is two-party politics, which is what we in the UK suffer from as well. In my opinion USAns need to get rid of this bizarre — and undemocratic — ‘Electoral College’. If they do, I hope they don’t go for what we have (‘first-past-the-post’ elections that result in the same flawed two-party system) and instead opt for proportional representation, which might encourage more participation from the multitudes who feel, quite rightly, that they are disenfranchised by the current system.
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Fair enough. You don’t care.You may remember when Democrats were NOT the war hawk party. Or maybe not. They certainly are today.
Onto the Electoral College. Do you understand that it was created to give voice to small states like Rhode Island so that those citizen votes would matter? (Or later Idaho, or Montana, et al) Without it, America will become a one party state. The coastal cities plus Chicago will bag everything. Is that what you want?
Proportional representation is not on the table here, I am sorry to tell you. And it’s a separate issue.
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Just prior to the 2016 election I was on holiday and overheard some republicans talking and they were saying how awful this Trump fellow is and its terrible that we have to vote for him! That was their attitude, we have to vote for whoever is the GOP candidate and come up with whatever BS excuse or fake news needed to justify that decision afterwards. Its completely tribal.
If Jesus was the democratic candidate and the devil the republican candidate, they’d still all vote GOP, justifying it on grounds of it being the christian thing to do and go to hell convinced it was just heaven with central heating.
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I hear ya – my parents are Trumpers only because he said he was Christian. Yet he exhibits the least Christ like behaviors. I watched one of the documentaries about Trump being elected that followed the theme – how the heck did this happen?! Even the Republicans were shocked. And the thing is, I don’t really follow a party, I follow the better candidate. At this point I would take Bush again or a person like McCain. But Trump? I think the amount of people that showed up at the polls this year speaks for how upset the country is about their “leader.”
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A Bush??!! Eewww. Another smirking chimp would send me to emigration.
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