4349 replies to this topic

[LFC]

While I think this author overstates their case it is interesting to see how many Democratic groups worked in concert to help Biden win the election.

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As I chronicled at Salon back in October, with help from activists doing this work, defeating Trump required an organized, calm, and persistent response from Democratic voters. For instance, activists recognized that Trump was going to use the partisan divergence on voting styles — coronavirus-concerned Democrats would vote by mail and COVID-denying Republicans would vote in person — as a wedge point, and try to get mail-in ballots thrown out in large numbers. The counteraction to that was to convince Democratic voters to vote as early as possible, on the theory that ballots that arrived before Election Day were easier to protect from Trump's legal assault.

The strategy was effective.

In Pennsylvania, so few mail-in ballots arrived after Election Day that even if Trump had been successful in arguing that they should be thrown out, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the election. The result was swifter court decisions shutting down Trump's challenges, depriving him of the momentum needed for a successful coup. As Burns notes, the activists had a nearly impossible task, of striking a balance between taking the coup seriously but also projecting an air of confidence that Trump would fail. Defeating a coup is very much about convincing the public that your side will prevail. This balance was struck, but not by accident. It took lots of hard work by activists, often working quietly behind the scenes, to organize progressives in a way that showed concern-but-confidence. The result was events such as one night in Philadelphia when pro-democracy crowds ran off Rudy Giuliani and Eric Trump from the convention center, where the two men were trying to whip a right-wing crowd up to harass vote counters. After Giuliani and Trump took off, the protest broke out into a dance party.

It's important to learn from this recent history for a very simple reason: The effort to end democracy isn't over.

Trump may run again, and as he did in every election he's been in, he will cheat and encourage others to cheat on his behalf. But even if Trump doesn't run again, he's empowered a movement of anti-democracy Republicans who will look for every advantage they can to nullify the results of elections they lose. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is already doing this, with his plot to keep the Senate from even beginning business unless the Democratic majority simply relinquishes the power given to them by the voters.

To defeat the longer-term assault on democracy, it's critical for everyday voters to understand that they do have power, and that, by taking action, they can help preserve and restore democracy.

The reason why Republicans have gotten so far in their efforts to undermine democracy is that they've trained ordinary people into believing that efforts to stop them will all be in vain. The true story of how Trump was defeated, by regular people who fought for their democracy, is empowering. It can convince people to keep up the fight. So while no one should doubt Trump is an idiot, it's important to give credit where it's due for his defeat: On the progressives who fought him, every step of the way.

[HockeyDon]

Wasn't sure where to put this.

McConnell folds on objection to new Senate rules.

[LFC]

The Trump-Giuliani election high point at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, right near the sex shop and crematorium, is going to be immortalized in a documentary. I'd love to be able to look forward 100 years from now to watch some historians viewing this and wondering "W...T...F???!!!"

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The now-infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia — which served as the backdrop of Rudy Giuliani’s press conference in November pushing then-President Trump’s bogus voter fraud claims — will return to the spotlight with a new documentary in the works.

News outlets projected that Joe Biden would win the presidency during Giuliani’s last-minute press conference outside the garage door of the small business, which sits between a crematorium and a sex shop. Thanks to a miscommunication, Trump himself had initially assumed the press conference would be held at the ritzy Four Seasons Hotel, according to the New York Times. Not so.

The director of the film, Christopher Stoudt, described his project in a statement as “apolitical” with a “feel-good tone.” The documentary —“Four Seasons Total Documentary” — will supposedly give a firsthand account of the small business’ rise to fame when it agreed to host a political press conference on the week of the presidential election.

[andydp]

LFC, on 08 February 2021 - 05:13 PM, said:

The Trump-Giuliani election high point at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, right near the sex shop and crematorium, is going to be immortalized in a documentary. I'd love to be able to look forward 100 years from now to watch some historians viewing this and wondering "W...T...F???!!!"

It has already become immortal. Did you see the SB ad ?

Fiverr Super Bowl ad spins Trump campaign's Four Season press conference incident

The talent marketplace tool is borrowing from the Four Season's Total Landscaping kerfuffle during the election to cleverly promote its affordable resources mission.
The commercial features Four Season's Total Landscaping expanding their business to include a press venue. The owner and president of Four Season's, Marie Siravo then enters a a hidden science fiction scene where experts work to improve and expand the Four Season's Total Landscaping brand.

"Is this a lobby," someone in the commercial asks at the end of the ad. "This is not a hotel," Siravo responds.

The ad's message is expected to be that there is more to Four Season's Total Landscaping than what the public now knows of it from the quirky Nov. 6 mix-up. And, that's part of the mission behind Fiverr, to connect the public with small businesses by helping them learn more.


https://www.10tv.com...da-9e75b2288104

[LFC]

indy, on 08 January 2021 - 09:22 AM, said:

Sydney Powell sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion voting systems.

https://www.bloomber...on-fraud-claims

Looks like Sidney was a runner, and across state lines at that, but private Investors hired by Dominion caught her.

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Dominion Voting Systems hired private investigators and tracked the pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell across state lines after she evaded service of a massive lawsuit for “weeks,” attorneys for the voting machine company claimed in a Tuesday filing.

Powell was ultimately served late last month, but only after an alleged chase of sorts that an attorney for Dominion, Tom Clare, detailed in the filing.

“Powell evaded service of process for weeks, forcing Dominion to incur unnecessary expenses for extraordinary measures to effect service, including hiring private investigators and pursuing Powell across state lines,” Clare wrote.

Oh, Sidney. Looks like your legal costs just went up as your chance of settling with a public apology dropped.

[LFC]

Don Jr. is keeping The Big Lie alive and well.

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Former President Donald Trump’s eldest son is boasting about his father’s unwillingness to accept defeat in an election which ultimately fomented an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Less than two months after his father provoked the deadly siege, Donald Trump Jr. said on Thursday that the former president’s efforts have shown that defeated candidates don’t have to “lose gracefully.”

During a Fox News interview on Thursday, Don Jr. described what he called an absence of “natural push-back,” among apparently spineless Republicans who in fact spent months (with few exceptions) defending his father’s false claims and baseless conspiracies about a stolen election that culminated in violence.

“The Republicans aren’t willing to do it. They’ve shown that over the decades. They’d just rather lose gracefully, I guess,” the younger Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“Donald Trump has shown that you don’t have to do that,” he added.

[Probabilistic]

LFC, on 26 February 2021 - 02:28 PM, said:

Don Jr. is keeping The Big Lie alive and well.

The biggest lie that Don Jr. keeps alive is "Daddy loves him".

[baw1064]

Probabilistic, on 26 February 2021 - 03:05 PM, said:

The biggest lie that Don Jr. keeps alive is "Daddy loves him".

That's probably been the primary motivation for his entire life: to do something that will make his daddy love him. Which will never happen, because his daddy had the same relationship with his father.

I must say, these past five years have been quite an education in dysfunctional psychology and family dynamics.

[LFC]

A bit of leftover crazy.

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Katrina Pierson, a Trump campaign aide in 2016 and adviser in 2020, is planning to enter the race for the U.S. Congress seat in Texas left vacant when Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) died after contracting COVID-19 earlier this year.

She is expected to get the former President’s endorsement, sources told the Hill.

The jungle primary is scheduled for May 1, and candidates have until Wednesday to file. If no candidate gets over 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff between the two candidates with the highest vote shares.

Pierson has run for Congress before, losing in a primary to Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) in 2014. She also spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6 that morphed into the Capitol insurrection.

“Americans will stand up for themselves and protect their rights and they will demand that the politicians that we elect uphold those rights, or we will go after them,” she said then. She added on stage that she meant going after Republicans through the ballot box.

She also served as a liaison between rally organizers and the White House, the New York Times reported.

Wright’s widow, Republican activist Susan Wright, also plans to run, as does Sery Kim, who worked for Trump’s Health and Human Services department, and state Rep. Jake Ellzey ®. A smattering of Democrats have also announced, including Jana Lynne Sanchez, who lost to Wright in 2018.

While Republicans seem to be early favorites to hold the seat, it may look tantalizing to Democrats: the district has gotten progressively bluer in presidential elections, with former President Donald Trump only winning it by three points in 2020.

“The district is almost like a tug-of-war,” J. Miles Coleman, associate editor at the University of Virginia’s Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told TPM in a recent interview. “Tarrant County makes up about 70% of the district, and Biden carried that part by 11% last year. But the other 30% of the seat comes from Ellis and Navarro counties — both more exurban/rural and are very Republican.”

[andydp]