US Election 2020: President Elect Biden and VP Elect Harris

[Chief]

This thread is continued in... The Aftermath

US Election 2020: President Biden and VP Harris - The Aftermath

Now we have most of the main players confirmed its time to start the thread on this Pence I assume will be Trumps VP - but I will leave the ? until confirmed https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20210120T09&p0=900&msg=Inauguration+2021&font=sanserif

www.bigfooty.com

 

[QuietB]

The saddest part is it exposes the weakness of free speech, free "press" and an individuals right consume information freely and apply that to their role in the democratic process. As much as I hate the censorship in China with their Great Firewall, running this level of interference simply isn't an option there.

After decades of America and democratic Allies interfering with governments around the world, the internet has left us all wide open to manipulation, particularly in countries where the leaders themselves are more intent on self serving manipulation and disinformation than protecting their institutions.

credit where it is due. The Chinese realised pretty early how dangerous the internet and social media is.

not only did they ban it, they also supercharged it as a weapon the other way (with Russia)

 

[Malifice]

Serious question: could Trump just decide to go full dictator and refuse to remove himself from office and have plenty of yes men do his bidding? Or is that impossible?

He could try.

The Secret Service would (should) escort him the * out of the White House though, or the actual President (Biden) could order any Government agency to do so.

 

[madmug]

Would you risk your reputation and maybe even legal license running Trump's "not fair I didn't win" defence. Even Lionel Hutz wouldn't touch that.

Probably more the point that he's prone to not paying his bills. His 'business' reputation precedes him.

 

[Roby]

Serious question: could Trump just decide to go full dictator and refuse to remove himself from office and have plenty of yes men do his bidding? Or is that impossible?

Nope. On inauguration Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president and will have the top chain of command not only for the army but in a way the secret service.

Military won't be needed, Biden will be escorted into the Whitehouse, and Trump will be removed for trespassing if he is still there. Which you'd think he will just leave before that scenario.

 

[CrowBloke]

Soros and Gates are trying to microchip us via a COVID Vaccine

That's a new one. Recent?

The 'love' emoji doesn't cover how much I loved your post.

 

[sherb]

He could try.

The Secret Service would (should) escort him the fu** out of the White House though, or the actual President (Biden) could order any Government agency to do so.

Or they could lock him in the Oval Office, put meals through the door three times a day, cut off the phone, wi-fi, etc......

Meanwhile Joe could operate out of another office.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

What a freak show America is

The fallen superpower

Well they've still got a lot more nukes than anyone else.

 

[Present Not Past]

Yep, Thursday last week.

So let’s see, he went Arlington Cemetery to pay respects to fallen US soldiers, went back to the White House and announced “l want to be a war hero too, I want to nuke Iran, wwaahh, wwaahh, wwaahh”
Mmmm.
Maybe it’s safer for everyone if he just stays on the golf course.

 

[Royces Hart]

Or they could lock him in the Oval Office, put meals through the door three times a day, cut off the phone, wi-fi, etc......

Meanwhile Joe could operate out of another office.

Why meals?

 

[JP Sauce]

Actually interesting he said this considering he’s been on news shows declaring his support for trump.

Sadly it’s not interesting at all. Many of Trump’s biggest supporters were “never Trumpers” just 4 short years ago. It’s just scum following the money and the power.

 

[Proper Gander]

How would you describe Lindsay Graham's attempts to lean on a Secretary of State to throw out legal ballots, or Trump's reported inquiries about getting faithless electors in place en masse?

Just curious.

Pretty damn sure he has looked up Lindsay Graham for the very first time today, so the answer to your enquiry might be somewhat unconsidered

 

[JP Sauce]

Or they could lock him in the Oval Office, put meals through the door three times a day, cut off the phone, wi-fi, etc......

Meanwhile Joe could operate out of another office.

Only 3 meals? Poor guy would starve.

 

[campbell]

So let’s see, he went Arlington Cemetery to pay respects to fallen US soldiers, went back to the White House and announced “l want to be a war hero too, I want to nuke Iran, wwaahh, wwaahh, wwaahh”
Mmmm.
Maybe it’s safer for everyone if he just stays on the golf course.

Is there a golf course in the bunker?

 

[William Wonka]

It's on Hunter's laptop. 2 weeks away.

Tucker just dropped it in the post.

Serious question: could Trump just decide to go full dictator and refuse to remove himself from office and have plenty of yes men do his bidding? Or is that impossible?

Its been done before.
Not (as ive posted here before) without the support of these fellows

 

[Generalissimo]

Is there a golf course in the bunker?

In capitalist America, bunker have golf course!

 

[The Passenger]

Tucker just dropped it in the post.

Its been done before.
Not (as ive posted here before) without the support of these fellows
View attachment 1013484

Not that I'm one to overrule a General of the United States army on things that happen in the military, but the military oath does explicitly mention obeying the orders of the President.

Wiki
Army.mil

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God)."

Is obeying orders the same as supporting and defending? I would think technically they are actually different things and the oath to support and defend the constitution is first and foremost. It probably doesn't get given much widespread thought because in practice they have always amounted to the same thing - defending the constitution on orders of the President.

There's a morbid curiosity about me that would love to see how it plays out if Trump just unilaterally declared himself President for Life (he won't - at least I'm 99% sure of it). The House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court are supposed to be able to prevent that from happening, but in any coup if the person taking over has large enough military support, it will happen. Trump wouldn't have the military support though as they know they are essentially instigating a civil war.

 

[madmug]

Not that I'm one to overrule a General of the United States army on things that happen in the military, but the military oath does explicitly mention obeying the orders of the President.

Wiki
Army.mil

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God)."

Is obeying orders the same as supporting and defending? I would think technically they are actually different things and the oath to support and defend the constitution is first and foremost. It probably doesn't get given much widespread thought because in practice they have always amounted to the same thing - defending the constitution on orders of the President.

There's a morbid curiosity about me that would love to see how it plays out if Trump just unilaterally declared himself President for Life (he won't - at least I'm 99% sure of it). The House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court are supposed to be able to prevent that from happening, but in any coup if the person taking over has large enough military support, it will happen. Trump wouldn't have the military support though as they know they are essentially instigating a civil war.

I think they'd be something about 'lawful' orders in their somewhere. And a definition of what that means somewhere else.

 

[Suspense]

The problem is the speech is used as a tool of manipulation. In the same way defrauding or misrepresentation is not allowed under freedom of speech, neither should this.

Of course, then we get to the difficult question of what content to moderate, and how do we police it. At the moment we're leaving it to social media platforms to moderate their own content and they haven't been all that fantastic at that role, and are in no position (as private companies) to do so. Thats the role of the Government to regulate, not the role of companies to self regulate.

And yes, I realise the irony of me critiquing moderation of social media platforms as a moderator of a social media platform.

Stifling free speech will never be a successful medium-to-long-term strategy to countering misinformation and misleading conspiracy theories. Not only do these theories find a way to "spread elsewhere" - they gain more credence and validity in the eyes of those being misled as this can be misrepresented as "the powers that be are trying to keep the truth hidden from you".

The solution is, and always has been, in education and critical thought. Though we teach language analysis and persuasive writing in compulsory VCE English, we don't really teach proper Critical Thinking until university (and even then, it is mostly in the Humanities) - meaning that a substantial proportion of the population has to rely on 'self-directed education' to learn how to think critically - resulting in many people simply not having the necessary tools to effectively combat quite insidious misinformation themselves.

IMO, along with core financial literacies (like "how can I tell if my boss is screwing me on my SG contributions?"), no student should be leaving compulsory schooling without covering something akin to Area of Study 3 from VCE Philosophy:

 

[bok_party]

Good to hear then that it isn’t a possibility. I was thinking that he’d possibly be able to do it all before the inauguration. I never really even thought about anything like this happening until this whole debacle.

 

[William Wonka]

Not that I'm one to overrule a General of the United States army on things that happen in the military, but the military oath does explicitly mention obeying the orders of the President.

Wiki
Army.mil

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God)."

Is obeying orders the same as supporting and defending? I would think technically they are actually different things and the oath to support and defend the constitution is first and foremost. It probably doesn't get given much widespread thought because in practice they have always amounted to the same thing - defending the constitution on orders of the President.

There's a morbid curiosity about me that would love to see how it plays out if Trump just unilaterally declared himself President for Life (he won't - at least I'm 99% sure of it). The House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court are supposed to be able to prevent that from happening, but in any coup if the person taking over has large enough military support, it will happen. Trump wouldn't have the military support though as they know they are essentially instigating a civil war.

You are no doubt correct, however the fact that this General went out of his way to state the military is loyal to the constitution and not to a king or dictator when he could have said nothing at all is a massive statement.
If he had talked about voter fraud its panic station time.

 

[Balls In]

That last king hit was shameful, that sort of thing can kill. But then again, being the instigator of the whole situation is not the wisest move.

I'd also point out that when he got involved, he pushed the bloke with the megaphone from behind, and then pushed him again from behind and then tried to tread on him while he was defenceless.

So I'm not seeing much in the way of toughness or courage on his part either.

The instigators of the violence were overwhelmingly ANTIFA and BLM. Its all over social media. Not debateable. They arrived at the Trump march en mass to cause trouble and bashed * out of a bunch of innocent folk. Some of the hotter headed types retaliated. I expect captain healing and unity will get involved shortly to diffuse the situation.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

The instigators of the violence were overwhelmingly ANTIFA and BLM. They arrived at the Trump march en mass to cause trouble and bashed fu** out of a bunch of innocent folk. Some of the hotter headed types retaliated. I expect captain healing and unity will get involved shortly to diffuse the situation.

That's false. You have been corrected on this previously.

After the Pride Rally, around 500 trumpers decided to march down BLM Plaza, where BLM have been present for months.

DC voted 93% for Biden. The Trumpers (mostly from other states) went there to cause trouble.

 

[Balls In]

That's false. You have been corrected on this previously.

After the Pride Rally, around 500 trumpers decided to march down BLM Plaza, where BLM have been present for months.

DC voted 93% for Biden. The Trumpers (mostly from other states) went there to cause trouble.

That was the first thing I've ever said on that matter

 

[Ghost Patrol]

That was the first thing I've ever said on that matter

Maybe it was FK. You all sound the same.

Regardless, try and keep up.

 

[Roby]

Good to hear then that it isn’t a possibility. I was thinking that he’d possibly be able to do it all before the inauguration. I never really even thought about anything like this happening until this whole debacle.

Yes because up until now, we haven't had so called "normal" presidents who duly conceded. Not a megalomaniac, sociopath man-child who has the maturity of a three-year old.