Comments on: The Presidential Race Tightens Even As Many Assume It Is Over

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 01:58:00 +0000

Gerrit, the election is fair and clean. In the voting booth.

Before that, not necessarily.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 01:57:00 +0000

RickA, yes, this assumes that the Senate goes DEM.The new senate makes this decision.

By: Obstreperous Applesauce

Obstreperous Applesauce — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 00:44:33 +0000

I also would point out that you would naturally expect things to heat up near the end of a close, contentious election, and add that there is an element of strategy in this to GOTV.

By: Obstreperous Applesauce

Obstreperous Applesauce — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 00:11:39 +0000

Gerrit,

You maybe picking up on some sub-currents that have been there all along: anger and frustration–not panic. You shouldn’t misinterpret this. It is bad, but ‘bad’ relative to what we here expect, which is to say that some of us expect better of ourselves and don’t like how things are trending.

The situation in the Republican party is chaotic. That may be potentially dangerous in some respects, but it’s nowhere near like, say, when Sadat was assassinated on the parade grounds.

Nor is it even like the business of the National Guard at Little Rock. I suspect that any trouble we see at this point is more likely to resemble the Bundys in Oregon or lone butheads doing stupid shit.

However that’s not to say that an isolated bunch of hooligans (you know, American sports fans) breaking shop windows and overturning cars couldn’t prompt action from riot police, who these days are over militarized as a matter of course.

By: RickA

RickA — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 23:33:19 +0000

Gerrit:

Don’t panic.

I still think Hillary will win.

I don’t think there will be any intervention by the army or a third part.

Power will be turned over peacefully – as usual.

By: Gerrit Bogaers

Gerrit Bogaers — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 23:25:43 +0000

The tone of this blog is changing in a somewhat panicky way. Keep your heads cool. What did I ask a few days ago on this same blog according to a rumor I picked up? I rephrase my question: might there be any chance that the army (and I add now: or another party), will intervene in the election process? I gave you some advice how to organize fair elections in these days. You thought this very unlikely by stating (paraphrase) ‘we are in the USA not in a banana state’ and or ‘we have taken care for that, we are a civilized state with a firmly rooted democracy’. Now a few days later I ask you with other words: will there be a new elected President sworn in in 2017 ? A nightmare scenario might unfold itself if you are not vigilant in these conditions. I ask you: Who is responsible for the war on e-mails? In the wording of Amnesty International: Words are deeds, they can kill. In this case e-mails and the opening of the lit of the bottle holding those e-mails. First we had the Trump-tape, now we have a revival of Clintons e-mailia. Not coincidental. I have to think of another saying of Amnesty International from Dutch poet Jana Beranová : If nobody listens to no one, death may fall instead of words’. From: a poster of Amnesty International, 1975. Also printed in Geen hemel zo hoog, (No sky so high), Bussum Agathon 1983. This enlightening thought might be very appropriate in a time like this. Is this overdramatic? I hope so, but we will see. Wish your selves and the world luck. We all can use it. Light a candle. Laren NH, Sunday 30 October 2016, 1.24 AM Dutch Summer time, nearly Wintertime.

By: RickA

RickA — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 23:21:49 +0000

Greg:

I think I understand all of your theory except the Kaine part.

Are you assuming the Senate goes to the democrats?

What if they vote for Pence before Jan. 3rd (when the newly elected take their seats).

If you are not assuming the Senate goes to the democrats, why Kaine and not Pence?

Just curious.

By: Obstreperous Applesauce

Obstreperous Applesauce — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 22:17:48 +0000

No argument from me on that point, D.

Colin Powell’s hacked e-mails laid out (allegedly) the lay of the land in restrained terms: that Trump is a national disgrace, and that Clinton gets tripped up by her own hubris.

As it stands, I’d rather see a Clinton presidency forced to compromise with a wall of Progressives than a wall of Republicans and a shift of the Overton window toward a more sensible position.

Of course the situation is unlikely to be that unambiguous. I expect that politically it will be pretty ugly, probably for the rest of my days.

By: Desertphile

Desertphile — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 21:07:28 +0000

Ms Clinton and the DNC insisted they did not need the votes of liberals and progressives; that attitude might end up electing Trump.

By: Obstreperous Applesauce

Obstreperous Applesauce — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 19:08:25 +0000

Vote. It’s as close as you’re ever likely to get to smacking (metaphorically, of course) Trumpo’s punk-ass, smarmy, wise-guy, smug, whiney, autocratic, greedy, pissant, arrogant, self-entitled, ignorant, mean-spirited, tacky, blowhard, hypocritical, sexist, lying, socially stunted, hate-filled, creepy-coiffed, pervy, graceless, grandiose, small minded, self regarding, inarticulate, incoherent, self-unaware but totally self-absorbed, racist, fat, toxic orange face. And that’s just for starters.

Time to take the Republicans down. Hard. You may not get another chance to do it.