US Election 2020

[pErvinalia]

Is it over yet?

[laklak]

Unfortunately not.

[macdoc]

ever ...

[Scot Dutchy]

Cant blame them.

'How to move to Canada': Americans rush to Google after unwatchable debate

Google reports peak number of searches for ‘How to apply for Canadian citizenship’ after chaotic Trump-Biden skirmish

If you watched Tuesday night’s presidential debate thinking it was the height of civility, you’re probably in the minority. For many Americans, it was enough to trigger a potential mass exodus.

Following a debate derailed by interruptions, people speaking over each other, and insults hurled back and forth, Google reported a peak number of searches for “How to apply for Canadian citizenship” in the US.

Some people seemed in such a hurry to get out they couldn’t even get the name right: searches for “How to move to Canda” also spiked alongside the correct “How to move to Canada”.

Searches initially peaked about an hour into the debate, at about 10.30pm, according to the search engine. But it looks like the news unsettled people into the night – there has since been a second wave of searches on how to get Canadian citizenship – with most of the searches happening in the early hours of this morning.

The search was most popular in Massachusetts, followed by Washington and Michigan.

[rainbow]

Lol the Trumpists are convinced he won, y'all are convinced Biden won. What a shambolic clusterfuck. All y'all are just whistling past the graveyard.

All Biden had to do was pitch up, and let Trump make a twat of himself.

Personally I look forward to seeing Comrade Kamala taking control.

[Scot Dutchy]

Is Britain being sucked into the same rabbit hole?

The Trump-Biden debate revealed the dangers of Britain's 'special relationship'

If the US no longer stands as an inspirational model for the world, where does that leave those who defer to it?

Ever since the pioneering Kennedy-Nixon encounter in 1960, the questions that political journalists pose after US presidential debates have been the same. Who performed best? Who had the better of this or that part of the argument? Who exceeded expectations or fell short? Who had the best lines and delivered the best zinger? And has any of it changed the election odds?

They are still being asked after the first televised match-up between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. With five weeks to go before the US votes, the questions still matter. But after Tuesday’s verbal roughhouse they also feel crowded out by other uncertainties that seem more epochal, more dystopian and more pressing, not least when seen from this side of the Atlantic.

It can seem overblown, but it now makes sense to ask if America is on the edge of becoming ungovernable, or if the rule of impartial law enforcement still commands respect. It is also possible, in ways that were not true in the past, to consider whether the US can be relied on internationally, and whether it is realistic to continue to regard it as an ally. But if it is not an ally, what follows from that? The answers are increasingly uncomfortable.

Perhaps most potently, it has to be asked whether America, with all its fabulous energy, wealth, liberty and ambition, still offers the inspirational model to the world that it did to so many, for so long. Or instead is today’s America, defined increasingly by its inequalities, violence, fundamentalism and racism, becoming a model to be rejected, to be guarded against and even, in some cases, to be resisted?

[Tero]

Republican site, and outfit, devoted to stopping mail in votes. The map shows the states they have legal cases ongoing
https://www.protectthevote.com/

[Scot Dutchy]

Dictator Trump:

When Trump defends armed rightwing gangs, his rhetoric has echoes of fascism

Signalling to his base, as he did referring to the Proud Boys on Tuesday, the president is following a playbook from 1930s Germany

You can imagine the men as they prepared for the showdown. For days, the papers had been predicting a “great sensation”. Press photographers besieged the entrance. No one could enter the building where the debate was due to take place without a special permit. In his dark blue suit, one question above all troubled the party leader, and with the help of his advisers, he puzzled how best to answer it. What if he was accused of links to fascist street gangs?

This wasn’t the United States in September 2020. It was Germany in May 1931.

For as the historian Benjamin Hett describes in his book, Crossing Hitler, the summer of 1931 saw Hitler being summonsed to court and accused of being complicit in the work of gangs who had beaten – and killed – their anti-fascist enemies.

Hitler’s response was to play a double game. First of all, he was worried about looking weak in front of his supporters, who had called him a coward and a conformist. So he needed to signal that the gangs still had his support. Second, he tried to pretend that any harm caused by his supporters was necessary since the country faced a much more threatening enemy: the far left.

[laklak]

Biden got his antifas, Trump got his Proud Boys. It's gonna be blood and hair in the streets soon. Unfortunately we don't get Berlin in the '30s. At least they had decent cabaret.

[JimC]

Biden got his antifas, Trump got his Proud Boys. It's gonna be blood and hair in the streets soon. Unfortunately we don't get Berlin in the '30s. At least they had decent cabaret.

Somewhat inaccurate, lak. Biden, unlike some more radical elements, has no time whatsoever for antifa or left-wing protestors in general. Connecting with them in the same way Trump has connected with the proud boys and their ilk would harm his chances of election. Even aside from such pragmatic issues, Biden is a very middle of the road politician, whose instinct would be to avoid the extremes like the plague...

[Tero]

Trump inspired activists sent thousands of robocalls in MI and other states. "Bad things will happen to you if you vote by mail."
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/01/91930964 ... ority-vote

[JimC]

This article makes a serious case that Trump is making serious plans to de-rail the election process:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-02/ ... e/12721240

I fear me the US may dissolve into chaos after the election. Seriously.

[Scot Dutchy]

That was plan A Jim; Total chaos in order to call martial law and suspend the elections. Testing positive for the virus plan B?

[Tero]

Legal language on the outside envelope of my ballot.

I have voted. My wife is taking them to a box by the library some 4 miles away by bike. It's some 55 degrees F. Have not figured out about the rest of the day.

[Tero]

If Trump and Biden drop dead, voters will decide between Pence and Harris. Need new poll!