rolling “Trump is gonna win” containment thread

Like throwing bricks at a brick wall afaict

always got that huffy pouty look of a toddler who knows you know he's lying, but trying to bluff it out

this whole thing is crazy right? https://www.newsweek.com/how-trump-could-lose-election-still-remain-president-opinion-1513975

pretty cursed

does it make you feel better or worse to know that "obama will refuse to step down after his terms end" was a staple of hysterical right-wing fantasy?

talking about how a President could retain power due to using voter disenfranchisement is a worthy discussion.

talking about how a President could retain power in the context of shitty Tom Clancy fanfic that has zero chance of materializing is not only tedious by now, but should be read by nobody.

I blame umair haque for its resurgence, fair or not.

like I seriously want to know what people get out of it. It's not "telling uncomfortable truths" because it's not based in any fact, just unhinged speculation. and it's described in ways that clearly indicate that the "people" would have no way of stopping it, and it keeps imploring people to "act now", but how can you "act now" against a threat that nobody has actually made?

umair haque is such a worthless idiot. I read one or two of his interminable Medium posts and couldn't believe I had wasted time I could have spent watching actual pornography.

if we do manage to beat this motherfucker i am luxuriating in the certainty that none of the republicans will learn the tiniest thing from it. they won’t reflect on the unpopularity of their policies with the broader electorate. they’ll find excuses in the pandemic. good.

xxpost and almost every one of these writings seems to come from people that think Trump could steal the election by calling Mr SCOTUS on teh phone and saying "I disagree with the results" and them replying "OVERTURNED, UR STILL PRESIDENT". or that he could snap his fingers and the entire US Army will show up

Tracer brings wisdom

none of the republicans will learn the tiniest thing from it. they won’t reflect on the unpopularity of their policies with the broader electorate. they’ll find excuses in the pandemic. good

And in the inevitable howls of "mAiL VotE Fraud!!!eleventy!!!"

I tend to agree that they will double down on the three-legged stool of white grievance, crony capitalism, and evangelical death-cult shit.

Remember the Obama-era "postmortem" report where the GOP was like, "hey maybe we need some outreach to minorities and woman?" Didn't happen, of course - but I don't think the broad R camp could even be able to formulate thoughts like that anymore (apart from yr fringey George Conway types whom everyone hates).

While I'm not in the mood to rule out anything at this point, it seems like that entire newsweek spec fic piece hinges on this sentence, which is just doing way too much work:

Attorney General William Barr, known for his extremist view of the expanse of presidential power, is widely believed to be developing a Justice Department opinion arguing that the president can exercise emergency powers in certain national security situations, while stating that the courts, being extremely reluctant to intervene in the sphere of a national security emergency, would allow the president to proceed unchecked.

"Widely believed" by whom? And who is the subject of "while stating that the courts..."?

newsweek's really gone to shit huh

I am 95% sure that this is mostly a fantasy, however that 5% chance of being a hubristic fool is enough to stop me tempting fate and mocking the article.

does it make you feel better or worse to know that "obama will refuse to step down after his terms end" was a staple of hysterical right-wing fantasy?

― Mordy

worse. conservatives, and especially trump people, have a habit of projecting their own desires onto their enemies. they were worried that obama would refuse to step down because they can easily imagine a scenario where their own favorited candidate (*cough cough, trump*) refused to step down.

i had Republicans telling me Kerry was "dictator material" in 2004

i then schooled them and asked them how my dic-tate

I thought we all new that current day Newsweek was click farm crap like forbes.com

Remember the Obama-era "postmortem" report where the GOP was like, "hey maybe we need some outreach to minorities and woman?" Didn't happen, of course

And turned out they did not, in fact, need to do that. Repeated lesson for republicans in recent decades has been, don't give an inch, just get more mad, and the pendulum will swing back soon enough

The Democratic Party needs to sort the fuck out of its nominating procedure

Hillary in 2016, and Joe this time.

Brilliant work everyone

is that a leftover post from February?

It's evergreen my friend

The pendulum keeps swinging back because we keep sucking

Hold on, Biden is a Catholic? How did he slip through the net?

If only my dad was still around he'd be on the first plane to the States to campaign for Biden in person.

Alfred I realise I'm not breaking any ground here but I see this as a venting thread of sorts

I'm just beyond fed up with the national party

And turned out they did not, in fact, need to do that. Repeated lesson for republicans in recent decades has been, don't give an inch, just get more mad, and the pendulum will swing back soon enough

― Appleman Appears: 20/2/2020. Whose Cider You On? (Bananaman Begins)

republicans haven't read poe

last word's redundant

Vent away!

I'm in the minority but I think Trump will walk away pretty quickly, he'll say that the election was fake news etc but I think he's really looking forward to monetizing his base even more, basically becoming a traveling tent revival show, the also probably start some kind of television effort, maybe with OANN

you can see him do this when things don't work he'll be venting while it happens but then two days later he'll be like "Well, it was very unfortunate, very unfair, but we'll see what happens" type stuff

Ultimately he doesn't have any core beliefs other than "people should say nice things about Donald Trump" so it's not like he cares about any of this

Agree with that 100%

I think this is the likely scenario but that it will follow a sustained bout of protesting, cries of rigged, demands for recount etc. In order to remain on brand for whatever comes next he needs to keep the base ginned up and feeling cheated.

He'll have amped them up for so long abt a rigged election by Nov. that he'll really have no choice but to follow through at least for a spell

yeah I agree with ums, as fashy and power hungry as Trump is his defining characteristics have always been stupidity and laziness. his shtick works way, way better when he's not actually in charge of anything.

The initiative here is not going to come from Trump because, stupid and lazy. But if the republican party organisation is prepared to do the work and desperate enough to cling to the presidency, he'll front it out

He'll have amped them up for so long abt a rigged election by Nov. that he'll really have no choice but to follow through at least for a spell

Lol this is true too

He should be a blast when he really has nothing better to do and the dementia truly kicks in.

Well, this is something.

President Donald Trump is now an underdog to win a second term, and Republicans’ Senate majority is in serious danger of being swept out with him, according to the latest edition of POLITICO’s Election Forecast.

A series of crises over the past three months has seen the political environment deteriorate markedly for Trump and his party. The percentage of voters who think the country is headed in the wrong direction is hitting new highs — a record 75 percent in the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll — and Trump’s approval rating is settling near his all-time lows.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s lead over Trump is swelling to roughly 10 points nationally — and for the first time, our forecast classifies Biden as the clear favorite in the race.

The national atmosphere is toxic enough that Senate Republicans, who currently hold a three-seat majority, no longer have a significant edge in their quest to retain control of the chamber next year. Democrats have both built leads in states that were previously considered up-for-grabs and put new states firmly on the map, expanding their path to a majority and potential unified control of government in 2021.

gotta forget i read that lest i jinx the future

honestly I think the majority of the Republican party will start saying "Donald who??" the moment he loses the election but I may be wrong

Oh we’ll remind them.

Again and again for the rest of their lives.

WE WERE JOKING!

no doubt, many republicans, maybe even the majority, will do that. there will be the marco rubios and the john thunes and other complete bastards who will pay lip service to moving toward a new republican party, there will even be a few trump-alumni like nikki haley who people can gravitate to. mitt romney will be around. kasich might get some air-time again.

but if even 20% of their base takes the trump/8chan path, semi-permanently, the GOP could be in big trouble. especially if - here comes my wild prediction - trump ends up being a precursor to someone that is similar, but actually smart and competent. a competent troll fascist who has a sense of humor would be a very popular politician. i feel like there's a whole room of incredibly dumb people waiting to be scooped up

Trump's motivation for trying to hold on to the office after a clear loss would probably be the Presidential immunity from legal peril he thinks the Supreme Court will provide him (although he may be more unsure about that after recent days). On the other hand, I remember last year when he couldn't even win a standoff w Pelosi about what day to give the SOTU address.

I still stand by my assertion from years ago that a candidate who is in every way similar to Trump but who hasn't been a ubiquitous pop cultural reference point for decades wouldn't get within spitting distance of the WH.

but if even 20% of their base takes the trump/8chan path, semi-permanently, the GOP could be in big trouble. especially if - here comes my wild prediction - trump ends up being a precursor to someone that is similar, but actually smart and competent. a competent troll fascist who has a sense of humor would be a very popular politician. i feel like there's a whole room of incredibly dumb people waiting to be scooped up

that's the future I see for the usa

I'd worry about the same thing if there seemed to be someone waiting in the wings. I can see a guy like Dan Crenshaw maybe taking on that role but people fucking hate that guy right now. Trump's stupidity and shamelessness is part of his appeal.

Turning point USA has been grooming the next generation of charismatic fascists