2020 U.S. Presidential Election - Took place November 3, 2020. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assumed office January 20, 2021.

[HumanHive]

Those government programs only function because of the middle class. If more in the middle class become poorer, eventually it will implode because there wouldn’t be enough providers compared to users. Take away the middle class, and government programs won’t work.

The government functions from monopoly money. Their yearly income is whatever the fed says it is.

 

[A Security Guard]

I'm not a doomer though. I concede the election is over, and am positive to look forward to the future. I'm probably the happiest person ITT, the way it seems.

Live in a pod. Eat the bugs, bigot.

 

[jje100010001]

GOP already turned on Trump, predictably.

My optimistic take is that like any senate vote, some safe senators and the like are allowed to express their opinions to ride the ‘popular mood’.

In the background though, the GOP cannot throw Trump under the bus and wash their hands of him. Even though I don’t doubt many of them would prefer a Trump-free government, they absolutely need to work with him on Georgia and Michigan at the minimum to save the seats there.

 

[big ups liquid richard]

Live in a pod. Eat the bugs, bigot.

Seethe, cope, dilate. Biden is still the President.

 

[Gehenna]

To expand on something I said earlier, power comes in two forms. Direct and Indirect. Direct power is your ability to directly interface with something. For analogy, think of it as the muscles in your arms. Indirect power is your ability to move that power in ways beneficial to you, its a force multiplier. Think of it as a crowbar.

If I want to open a crate which holds something I want, I could try to rip the lid off with my hands but... I'd probably not get anywhere. But if I had a crowbar to leverage in, I might. At the same time, if I have the crowbar and tiny noodle arms, I ain't getting that crate open.

Biden has a -ton- of indirect power behind him. The crowbar he is wielding is the size of Olympus. But... the fraud was brazen, he himself has the charisma of a wet sock, and everything looks funny. The 'muscles' he has legally and politically are fairly weak.

Trump meanwhile has the power of POTUS, in our analogy he has the biggest damn arms in the world. But, he has issues with leverage. A shaky ally in the form of the GOP, a ton of autists who lack any real individual power, but he does have the most solid legal case.

So the question boils down to "Can Biden's leverage overcome Trump's raw strength".

I won't pretend I think that'll go in Trump's favour, but neither is it guaranteed to fail. It really does come down to whether Trump can use his lesser leverage to greater effect with his higher starting strength.

 

[Tomboy Respecter]

No - a few aberrant GOP people have supported, everyone else turned.

Rick Santorum is not an important GOP member.

 

[Aidan]

Are there vote counting livestreams or something? How are people getting footage of the counters who are filling out ballots on camera?

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

To expand on something I said earlier, power comes in two forms. Direct and Indirect. Direct power is your ability to directly interface with something. For analogy, think of it as the muscles in your arms. Indirect power is your ability to move that power in ways beneficial to you, its a force multiplier. Think of it as a crowbar.

If I want to open a crate which holds something I want, I could try to rip the lid off with my hands but... I'd probably not get anywhere. But if I had a crowbar to leverage in, I might. At the same time, if I have the crowbar and tiny noodle arms, I ain't getting that crate open.

Biden has a -ton- of indirect power behind him. The crowbar he is wielding is the size of Olympus. But... the fraud was brazen, he himself has the charisma of a wet sock, and everything looks funny. The 'muscles' her has legally and politically are fairly weak.

Trump meanwhile has the power of POTUS, in our analogy he has the biggest damn arms in the world. But, he has issues with leverage. A shaky ally in the form of the GOP, a ton of autists who alck any individual power, but he does have the most solid legal case.

So the question boils down to "Can Biden's leverage overcome Trump's raw strength".

I won't pretend I think that'll go in Trump's favour, but neither is it guaranteed to fail. It really does come down to whether Trump can use his lesser leverage to greater effect with his higher starting strength.

I believe the term you're looking at is "soft power".

Are there vote counting livestreams or something? How are people getting footage of the counters who are filling out ballots on camera?

Observers got kicked out of some places, not all, and it seems they got a LOT of footage where they could. We also had multiple democrat observers and even vote counters that had a crisis of faith when they saw how rotten it had got and made videos about it. One of them even made a declaration with his name and station. Yeah the Dems fucked it THAT bad.

 

[Syaoran Li]

OK, this is too far for me. You think people are going to starve to death on a major scale in the USA, a country with over 30% obesity rate. Hollywood Hulk Hogan has a point to be honest, some of the right wingers here are crazy. This is not Ethiopia.

And I really don't like Biden either and I can't stand Harris.

We'll probably get more food deserts and maybe some actual food shortages in very poor places like the coalfields of Appalachia, Injun reservations, and some of the really decimated Rust Belt ghettos like Gary, Indiana.

I do think we'll see a massive trend in suicides and drug overdoses (intentional and otherwise) that will have a major knockdown effect on an already weakened economy and society if these lockdowns continue past March 2021 at the absolute latest.

Full-on famine is damn near impossible, except maybe in a few specific areas and even then it'll be more short-term as opposed to something on par with Holodomor or The Great Hunger

GOP already turned on Trump, predictably.

Wait, when?

When I checked this morning, Cruz and Graham were definitely backing him, McConnell was too but in a way that seemed like was hedging his bets, everyone else stayed quiet, and only the largely irrelevant Rick Santorum was denouncing him.

Fuck, we really are doomed, aren't we?

 

[deeplyhigh]

Looking for other voter registration databases, I noticed that the searches for “Michigan voter...”, “Nevada voter...” “Minnesota voter...” and “North Carolina voter...” all autocorrected to “...voter fraud”.

Uh oh.

This was written in March 2020. Trump lost Minnesota by 200,000 votes.

I see Trump flags, though?

The thumbnail yes, but if you watch the stream you will see both sides. They are currently separated by barriers and police.

 

[Gehenna]

I believe the term you're looking at is "soft power".

I do use both of these interchangeably, but opted out of it because it gives the wrong mental image. Saying google has "soft power" does not gel with most people mentally, but "Indirect power" gets the better mental image of the point.

 

[BlueSpark]

Those government programs only function because of the middle class. If more in the middle class become poorer, eventually it will implode because there wouldn’t be enough providers compared to users. Take away the middle class, and government programs won’t work.

That'll take decades to happen. The United States is the richest country in the world, it has a lot of money and resources to burn before the fire goes out.

 

[JambledUpWords]

The government functions from monopoly money. Their yearly income is whatever the fed says it is.

Not quite, too much disparity between the classes is what gets you things like the French Revolution. Eventually, people get fed up and call for death of the elites. It’s not successful every time, but if people get desperate enough, they will try it.

 

[Meat Target]

Seethe, cope, dilate. Biden is still the President.

Not until noon on January 20th. Trump and is lawfare teams may lose in the end, but until it is proven that Biden won fair and square, we cannot surrender.

 

[Gehenna]

Wait, when?

When I checked this morning, Cruz and Graham were definitely backing him, McConnell was too but in a way that seemed like was hedging his bets, and only the largely irrelevant Rick Santorum was denouncing him.

Fuck, we really are doomed, aren't we?

He's doomering without any backing. Hell, I am WAITING for them to pull out the knives. I trust them as much as I'd trust a snake with a tooth infection. But they haven't yet.

 

[alreadyhome]

The GOP has no integrity whatsoever and if you think they were and tentatively are supporting Trump for anything other than to increase their own advantage than you are deluding yourself about the nature of politics.

 

[deeplyhigh]

Michigan GOP is standing by Trump.

 

[Gehenna]

The GOP has no integrity whatsoever and if you think they were and tentatively are supporting Trump for anything other than to increase their own advantage than you are deluding yourself about the nature of politics.

I point to where I say I am waiting for them to pull out the knives. You are just a bit premature with your statement.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

Do you think Trump should pardon Julian Assange to spite the neocons before he goes?

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Not until noon on January 20th. Trump and is lawfare teams may lose in the end, but until it is proven that Biden won fair and square, we cannot surrender.

If Trump ultimately pulls a win out of this, expect the current smugness to turn into absolute smoldering about "stolen elections" pretty quickly.