We have a new president. After all that we have seen and endured, amidst pain and outrage, loss and danger, we now will enter a new chapter in our national story.
The nature of our electoral system had a nation, and the world, waiting anxiously on the vote in a handful of states, nevermind that the general will of the American people has delivered a much more overwhelming verdict. There will be a lot more to say in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Amidst the fatigue and the uncertainty of the future, we must stay steady and resolute in finding a way to heal and move our nation forward to tackle its many challenges.
There are a lot of looming dangers, political and otherwise. There are senate runoffs and a raging pandemic. What will Donald Trump do? What about his enablers in the Republican Party? What about our public health and our national sanity? The questions start gushing like an open fire hydrant. But for now, the voting system held, a president-elect has been declared and America has a different destiny. #Courage.
Bells were rung in Paris and Germany for the Biden win
"About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…
Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.
Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.
And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.
That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift.
And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.
More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.
It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.
And then another corner would lift, and we would go there.
And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.
But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.
And we did.
And we still do, all of us. You and I.
Children holding hands, walking with the wind. . . . "
NN’s Anderson Cooper compared President Donald Trump to an “obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun” after his misleading, falsehood-ridden remarks at a press briefing on Thursday.
“That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over, but he just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country,” Cooper said.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from a president of the United States and I think as Jake [Tapper] said, it’s sad and it is truly pathetic and, of course, it is dangerous and, of course, it will go to courts, but you’ll notice the president did not have any evidence presented at all. Nothing. No real, actual evidence of any kind of fraud,” the CNN anchor also said.
Trump’s Thursday evening remarks — in which he baselessly said he was being cheated in the election, spread misinformation about voter fraud and falsely claimed he won the election if only the “legal” votes were counted — were interrupted on multiple networks as anchors and correspondents leaped in to fact-check the president’s statements.
“Here we are again, in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States,” Brian Williams said as MSNBC cut away. “There are no illegal votes that we know of, there has been no Trump victory that we know of.”
“We have to interrupt here because the president has made a number of false statements, including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting. There has been no evidence of that,” NBC News’ Lester Holt said.
“We’re not going to allow it to keep going because it’s not true,” CNBC’s Shepard Smith said as his network interrupted Trump’s remarks.
An American President telling the world the American election can’t be trusted.
If a Russian screenwriter had pitched the idea to Putin he would have been told to come back with something more plausible.
But that’s what happened tonight as Trump gave a rambling, low-energy, fact-free press conference in which he claimed he was being cheated out of victory in Tuesday’s election because the votes were being counted. Except in Arizona, where he would be cheated out of victory unless the votes were counted.
On NBC News, Lester Holt cut the Trump Show off to tell viewers: “We have to interrupt here because the president made a number of false statements including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting.”
On CNN, Jake Tapper said: “Frankly, watching him flail like that, it’s just pathetic.”
The press conference came at the end of the day in which Facebook shut down a fast-growing ‘Stop the Steal’ group which had accumulated 300,000 members and was circulating calls for violence, while Twitter was compelled to repeatedly label Trump’s tweets for being misleading.
Trump’s tweets are also dangerous. As actor John Cusack wrote:
Trump is already signaling he wants to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, where, according to one of his legal advisers a quid pro quo is fully expected.
It seem like a weird strategy to openly admit that the case Trump wants to take to the United States Supreme Court is basically, “You guys owe me. Don’t let me down.”
Two days after the polls closed, Trump keeps repeating the claim that he won the election because he was ahead at the half-way point and that’s all that matters.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s pathetic.
And even top Republicans are saying so. Larry Hogan, the GOP Governor of Maryland said “there is no defense” for what Trump said. GOP rep Adam Klinzinger called it “insane.”
Of course, the psychopathic Trump is frantic. He has been humiliated by his second crushing defeat in the popular vote. And even as he may fear the legal jeopardy losing the presidency will put him in, he is still trying to sell his poorly educated marks on the idea that he’s being cheated. If he does relinquish power, he wants his supporters to cling to their grievance as tightly as they do to their racism and their religion. Because as long as he and his grifter family stay out of prison, they will be looking to monetize that grievance.
But even Fox News isn’t buying Trump’s foot stamping. Despite Tucker’s and Hannity’s best efforts, the network is no longer willing to blindly push Trump’s reckless conspiracy theories. Most of their coverage since election night has been guiding viewers toward acceptance of a Trump loss.
I can’t tell you for sure the final outcome of this election. But right now, it’s clear that Emperor Donald has no clothes.
A man interrupted a live on-air election update from Nevada’s Clark County on Wednesday, screaming that Democratic nominee Joe Biden is “stealing the election.”
The man appeared behind Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria as the official was answering a question about how many ballots were left to count in the county that includes Las Vegas.
“As I mentioned, we are not prepared to give that information out, ” he said before being interrupted.
The man, wearing a white tank top that read “BBQ, BEER, FREEDOM,” yelled three iterations of “The Biden crime family is stealing the election. The media’s covering it up.”
“We want our freedom for the world,” he added. “Give us our freedom, Joe Biden.”
“Joe Biden is covering up this election. He’s stealing it,” the man said before walking away.
If you went to bed at a reasonable hour last night—and congratulations on your excellent judgment if you did—here are some developments you missed:
Neither candidate crossed the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, though Biden appears to be narrowly ahead.
Every state projected so far has remained unchanged from 2016, except Arizona (according to Fox News) and a single electoral vote from Nebraska (according to NBC), which seem to have flipped to Biden, with seven crucial states left to go.
Trump staged an illegal 2 a.m. press conference in the White House’s East Room in which he declared victory, called for “all voting to stop,” and pledged to use his newly packed Supreme Court to certify him as the winner.
What’s that, you say? Sounds a like a coup? The same sort of autocratic delinquency that the United States has used as a pretext to cut off aid, topple leaders, and invade less powerful nations for over a century?
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
"This is a major fraud on our nation ... so we'll going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop." -- Trump is counting on SCOTUS to help him steal the election
November 4th 2020
478 Retweets1,434 Likes
Yes, exactly. That.
OK, so what now? The consensus among the overnight commentariat is that he can’t do that. Several analysts pointed out immediately that it is not up to him: The states’ tabulation of legal votes will continue, as it does past Election Night in every election. (For instance, everyone remembers the Florida debacle in 2000. Fewer recall that there were four other states still outstanding the next day, including Oregon—whose “count was delayed because of a mail-in ballot system.”)
He can’t automatically go straight to the Supreme Court either. He’d need to have a case—brought by someone with legal standing—in each state whose results he wants to overturn.
But Trump’s followers waking up to this news will have no problem understanding what the president wants from them; a president who recently told one of his loyal neo-fascist boy gangs to “stand back and stand by.” As Fox News’ Chris Wallace said immediately after the press conference: “This is an extremely flammable situation. The president just threw a match into it.”
This is the moment those of us who were paying attention feared for the last four years. Trump is a fascist by temperament and philosophy. He is backed by a party that—facing the electoral headwinds of, most likely, a fourth straight loss of the popular vote, even with its incredible voter suppression efforts—has taken to rejecting the idea of democracy itself. And, don’t forget, that regardless of the ultimate outcome of this election, Trump and his autocratic, kleptocratic, racist, misogynist self did garner the votes of millions of Americans, many of whom will eagerly take up whatever call for action he puts out in the next couple of days.
That still leaves the rest of us, to calmly but firmly insist that every single vote gets counted, and the results of the election respected. This isn’t a gameshow. It doesn’t matter the order the votes get counted in, or when the people on TV put the right color in the state. Every one of us has to watch each move from here on out closely, demand justice, fairness—and recusal, if necessary—from every still-standing institution. And, speaking for myself, to get some rest in the meantime. There are likely some long days ahead.
I am both disappointed in America and angry that drumpf is such an insufferable piece of shit.
I slept while the orange one made a speech in violation of the Hatch Act (again and again) and glad I was. CNN has fact checked all this B.S. and I am putting it here.
Trump said, "Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people. And we won't stand for it."
Facts First: This is false. While Trump didn't identify the "very sad group of people," his opponents and elections officials were not trying to "disenfranchise" -- deprive of the right to vote -- the Trump supporters who voted for him. Democratic leaders were simply calling for all of the votes to be counted.
Trump said, "We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything, and all of a sudden, it was just called off."
Facts First: This is false; Trump was never "winning everything." At the time Trump spoke, Trump and Biden were both projected by major media outlets to win multiple states, with several key states still too close to call. (Media calls are unofficial; official results come later, from governments around the country.)
Trump said, "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."
Facts First: This is false, at least at the time Trump spoke. While Trump may well prove victorious once the votes are counted, neither he nor opponent Joe Biden had yet reached the 270 electoral votes necessary for a victory; prominent media outlets had not projected a winner in key states including Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Trump said, "It's also clear that we have won Georgia." He added that, given his margin at the time, "They're never gonna catch us. They can't catch us."
Facts First: We aren't privy to Trump's internal vote modeling, but it was not "clear" from the vote count at the time he spoke that he had won Georgia. With votes remaining to be counted from some strongly Democratic areas, it was still mathematically possible for Biden to catch him.
Trump said, "Most importantly, we're winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount." (It sounded like he may have added "of votes," but he was drowned out by applause.)
Facts First: This was highly misleading. While Trump was leading in the Pennsylvania vote count at the time, the outcome in the state was entirely uncertain because there were hundreds of thousands of votes remaining to be counted from strongly Democratic areas, including Philadelphia.
Facts First: It was false that Trump had "won" Michigan at the time. Again, hundreds of thousands of votes remained to be counted in the state.
Trump said, "And all of a sudden, I said what happened to the election? It's off. And we have all these announcers, saying, 'What happened?' And then they said, 'Ohhh.' Because you know what happened? They knew they couldn't win, so they said, 'Let's go to court.'"
Facts First: This is false -- though also so vague it's hard to know exactly what Trump was saying. Nobody called off the election. Democrats did file various pre-election lawsuits related to voting rules, but so did Republicans.
Trump said, "This is a fraud on the American public."
Facts First: This is false. There was no evidence of any significant fraud at the time he spoke. Counting the votes is not fraud.
Trump said, "We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we'll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay?"
Facts First: This is false. Voting had been over for hours at the time Trump spoke. What was still happening was the counting of votes -- which always continues past Election Day.
I've been a little distracted by goings on with the election. Today is the day and I'm avoiding live news reports. Praying for a good end to all of this.
Here's how to check if your mail-in ballot has been received and counted
From Mashable https://mashable.com/article/how-to-check-if-mail-in-ballot-received-counted-presidential-election/
To check on the status of your ballot, click the link for the state in which you're registered. If your state supports it, the link will explain how to check on your ballot. Otherwise, the link will take you to your state's elections page which will explain how to reach out to local election officials with any questions you may have.
There's also a littler reminder by each state about its particular deadline, because in this country a late ballot decidedly does not make a sound.
Alabama — Anyone can vote by mail in Alabama, but you have to request a ballot. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 2.
Alaska — Anyone can vote by mail in Alaska, but you have to request a ballot. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Arizona — Voters in Arizona were mailed applications, but not automatically mailed ballots. Your ballot must be received by Nov. 3.
Arkansas — Anyone can vote by mail in Arkansas, but you have to request a ballot. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
California — Anyone can vote by mail in California. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Colorado — Anyone can vote by mail in Colorado. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Connecticut — Voters in Connecticut were mailed applications, but not automatically mailed ballots. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Delaware — Voters in Delaware were mailed applications, but not automatically mailed ballots. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Florida — Anyone can vote by mail in Florida, but you had to request the ballot by Oct. 24. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Georgia — Anyone can vote by mail in Georgia, but you have to request the ballot by Oct. 30. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Hawaii — Voters in Hawaii were automatically mailed ballots. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Idaho — Anyone can vote by mail in Idaho, but you had to request the ballot by Oct. 23. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Illinois — Voters were mailed applications. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Indiana — Not everyone can vote by mail in Indiana. If you can, your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Iowa — Voters were mailed applications. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 2.
Kansas — You have to request a ballot by Oct. 27 to vote by mail in Kansas. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Kentucky — You had to request a ballot to vote by mail in Kentucky. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Louisiana — Not everyone can vote by mail in Louisiana and the deadline to apply is Oct. 30. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 2.
Maine — You have to request a ballot to vote by mail in Maine by Oct. 29. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Maryland — Voters in Maryland were mailed applications. If you applied, and are voting by mail, your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Massachusetts — Voters in Massachusetts were mailed applications. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Michigan — You have to request a ballot to vote by mail in Michigan. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Minnesota — Voters were mailed applications. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Mississippi — You have to apply to vote by mail, and not everyone is allowed to do so. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Missouri — You have to request a ballot to vote by mail Missouri. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Puerto Rico — You have to request a ballot in Puerto Rico, and not everyone is allowed to vote by mail. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3. Notably, Puerto Rico doesn't get any Electoral College votes, even though it is part of the United States.
Rhode Island — Voters were mailed applications. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 3.
Texas — You had to request a ballot in Texas by Oct. 23, and even then not everyone got one. Your ballot has to be received by Nov. 4.
Utah — Voters in Utah were sent ballots. Your ballot has to be postmarked by Nov. 2.
Vermont — Voters in Vermont were sent ballots. The Vermont Secretary of State says the following about return deadlines: "All ballots must be returned to the town clerk's office before the close of the office on the day before the election, or to the polling place before 7 p.m. on the day of the election, in order to be counted."
Virginia — Voters in Virginia need to request a ballot. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Washington — Voters in Washington were sent ballots. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
Washington, D.C. — Voters were sent ballots in D.C. Your ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
