President Trump is busy stowing chaos as presidential election votes keep rolling in. He said that he has won the state of Pennsylvania (he has not), that election fraud is afoot (there is no proof), that voting in Michigan should be halted (the Associated Press has claimed the state for Democratic candidate Joe Biden), and that votes in Wisconsin should be recounted (AP has also, conveniently, called this state for Biden). And his loyal fascist foot-soldiers are dutifully spreading the word, asserting that fraudulence and Democratic corruption abounds.
In what can only be described as “Brooks Brothers Riot: The Redux,” a slew of Trump supporters stormed the Detroit Department of Elections Central Counting Board Voting, chanting “stop the vote!” They pounded on the glass windows and doors where remarkably transparent ballot counting—represented by Republicans and Democrats—is occurring.
The Trump camp has filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Court of Claims. In a statement, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien claimed that the campaign has, “not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.”
Again, the AP has called Michigan for Biden. There is no proof of fraudulent vote counting or disposal. This is clearly part of the Trump meltdown, and his followers are following suit.
Take a look at this moment in Nevada, where votes are still being counted. Biden is currently in the lead.
Luckily, in Pennsylvania, protesters are marching in support of counting all the votes.
And similar protests are occurring across the country.
Geese for democracy!
Even if Biden wins the presidency, the Democrats have taken a shellacking in Senate and House races. Republican incumbents have overwhelmingly maintained their power by slim margins, despite polling suggesting otherwise. Who was expecting Sen. Susan Collins, for example, to maintain her Senate seat? The polls sure weren’t! And now, Democrats are reportedly eating each other alive and clamoring for changes in leadership.
Politico reports that Democratic representatives, aides, and strategists suspect that a “significant overhaul” in leadership is in order.
[…] party officials and the rank and file were in panic mode as they awaited the results of nearly 20 members of the Democrats’ historic freshman class that handed the party control of the House just two years ago. And already they were saying goodbye to at least a half-dozen of their centrist Democratic colleagues […]
The full extent of fallout was just beginning to become clear on Wednesday morning, with lawmakers and aides expecting a far tougher internal leadership process, with Pelosi herself facing trickier math as she attempts to seal another term as speaker.
None of the roughly dozen Democratic lawmakers or aides interviewed said Pelosi should step down or would face a challenger. But several of them privately speculated that what was just days ago expected to be a glide path to the speakership will be more difficult as Democrats lose seats in the House.
Additionally, according to the Politico report, Democrats have reportedly blamed progressive colleagues for their losses, claiming that they were unable to escape their “socialist” shadow. Others in the party have accused the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee of overlooking vulnerable incumbents and abandoning a cohesive campaign message beyond beating Trump.
There will be plenty of blame to go around in the coming months, if not years, about what the fuck went wrong. But there’s one thing I know for sure… I can definitely imagine Rep. Katie Porter and her little whiteboard as Speaker of the House. Just saying.
- Buried in the absolutely nuts news cycle was the fact that Puerto Rico has voted for statehood. [New York Times]
- California voters supported of some truly awful ballot measures. [SF Gate]
- This was nice though:
- Rhode Island has voted to remove the word “Plantation” from their official state name. [New York Times]
- Rihanna says count the fucking votes!
- We’re not getting any new Nevada numbers today because God loves suffering:
- Eric Trump, like you, didn’t get much sleep last night and looks like shit:
- Period.