Bolsonaro has the benefit of death squads and the military willing to back them. Trump’s minions can’t even go 3 months without a hairdresser without trying to shoot state politicians.
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If there is no election, The next after the President and Vice President- the Speaker of the House. At the moment, Nancy Pelosi.
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“But we punched so many Nazis! Why didn’t that stop them?”
This is why we have the 2nd Amendment. If they take away the ballot box, the ammo box is on deck.
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“Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.” —Varys
The last several years have clearly illustrated how the laws and conventions that form the checks and balances of our government are only as good as the people tasked with enforcing them.
We’ve never had a President who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of an election result before now. To this day Trump insists his opponent in 2016 only won the popular vote because millions of votes were cast illegally. If Trump refused to accept the legitimacy of an election that put him in office, how likely is it that he would accept the legitimacy of an election that removed him from office?
Make no mistake, if Trump and his allies decide to make this ugly it could easily create a Constitutional crisis if not a full-fledged civil war.
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That’s the one point I agree with in your post. States and Congress need to put in place a plan to address the scenario.
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Are you crazy? The military are all in for Trump. Have you ever looked at the polls?
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The ones that say that he has <50% approval rating in the military? Much less military leadership.
ETA:
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Its so obvious that trump is doing everything he can to make the pandemic worse, and ensure a fall resurgence of the virus, just so he can declare a national emergency.
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Yeah, but it’s not about a majority of states, it’s about the electoral college. If the election is still conducted in every state with a Democratic Secretary of State, plus DC and Hawaii (which doesn’t have a Secretary of State), and all those states go for Biden, then the Dems will have enough (270) electoral college votes to declare victory.
Though I admit I don’t know the specifics of the electoral authority for each state’s Secretary of State—the situation is probably a little more complicated than this.
Furthermore, it should also be noted that for some GOP Secretaries of State, cancelling the election might be politically risky, so we can’t assume that all GOP Secretaries of State will do what Trump wants.
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No, it is most certainly not. The Founders were quite explicit in their reasoning for the Second Amendment and “killing us in the event we get out of control” wasn’t on the list.
The mechanism the Founders created for dealing with a corrupt or out-of-control President was impeachment and removal, but that only works so long as our elected representatives choose to uphold the rule of law.
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Funny story:
usually I try to avoid posting nonsence and
commentary about this ridiculous
kleptocrat, but I believe this time he’s taken it
Too far. I mean
really. It’s going to take us years to
undo all of the things he’s
messed up. I just really hope that
people notice this fact and vote accordingly.
Now just read the first letters of this comment down, and you’ll find out how I really
feel.
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No problem, except that the majority of states are Republican controlled and so is half of Congress.
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We still care what Micheal Moore says?
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Micheal Moore has quickly burned through any credibility he may have earned with me. Planet of the Humans was a gift to the oil industry. Why progressives should pay any more attention to what he says, is beyond me.
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I expect he will more likely do all kinds of apeshit interference-- more Biden rumors, more Russian troll army maneuvers, more voting restrictions, more hacking.
But even with the GOP propping him up I don’t see how he can suspend or cancel the election. I’m sure he’ll try, and there may be a way to do it, but I can’t see how from this vantage point. It would be very messy, and would end up hurting him whether he pulled it off or not.
He wants to be a dictator, and he’s certainly wrung a lot more power out of the office than previous presidents, but he’s not one yet. Something like this would still mean using existing laws to advance his desires, and the Supreme Court would end up ruling on it. I suspect in such a scenario even the conservative judges would err on the side of democracy.
I could be wrong.
It’s not going to stop me from trying to vote. That’s for sure.
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No, I really think you missed the point, just like most democrats missed the point when Moore told them Trump was going to win in 2016. Not saying you should pay attention to him, but he’s said his purpose in the article - what we have been doing to forstall global climate change will not forstall global climate change, had not forestalled change, so how about we face that and plan accordingly. The only way this helps is if you are not really listening, which apparently is a real risk.
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F YEAH. That’s the kind of thing I needed to hear today.
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Because Michael Moore is known to be a sober, completely truthful source of political analysis.
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I simply can’t with anyone who is willing to just give up now.
My ancestors endured worse than this current fuckery, and we’ve survived every attempt to annihilate us from the face of the planet… because we persevere, no matter what.
Broken clock theory - he was right about 45 being POTUS.
It’s up to us to make sure he’s wrong this time.
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The GOP Secretaries ODFW State in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Maryland will not cancel the election. They would literally be dragged out of their offices by mobs, at this point. So there’s another 35 electoral votes for Biden.
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