he is going to contest it for sure.

So far the returns aren't good for him. Could not happen to a more deserving chap.

Despite all the evidence that democrats are managing the economy better and typically, are saddled with fixing the screwups of the previous republican administration, I have yet to encounter a single republican who believes that.

Every time I point this out, they think I am lying. If I pull out my cellphone and show them the graphs from government records, they resort to "its fake news".

Where have we gone so wrong in the messaging that it is now a gospel for many that democrats waste money while republicans are good for the economy ?

Can we figure out how the Republicans own messaging and use the same tactics ?

What they decide can't be appealed.

They are a separate entity.
In theory they could use their power to rule like a king would .

What mechanism is there to stop this ?

Were the founders thinking it could never happen because only people of impeccable morals and credentials would be sitting on it ?

It looks like we have many loopholes like that in our constitution.
For example, what is to stop a president ( like Trump) to do anything they want if they also control congress and the judiciary?
Is it just norms ?

This appears to be the case and Trump and his ilk no longer fear exploiting it.

Some of these are incredible. For example:

Matt Schlapp to Mark Meadows
Pls get 4 or 5 killers in remaining counts. Need outsiders who will torch the place. Local folks won't do it. Lawyers and operators. Get us in these states. Worried that ronna not in mi.

What the heck is he talking about ? Operator's, killers ?

I have dual citizenship and the French consulate sets up voting sites abroad for expats. On the first round two weeks ago, there were a few people. Today, it was crowded.

Hundreds of French expats swarmed the voting booths to vote. From what I gathered chatting with them afterwards in the parking lot, most were there to vote for Macron. They were horrified that we could lose France to Le Pen.

We lost America for four years to Trump, it was traumatic, we do not want that to happen back in France. Many of the people I spoke with were not involved with politics or following it carefully before.

This changed when it looked like Le Pen could win. On a similar note, I was reading an article in le figaro (big french newspaper) giving the participation relative to where voters are in France. On average 20 or so percent of french voters did not vote (meaning 80 did) on the first round.

What struck me more is not so much that number but the fact that the areas with low participation were all in RW strongholds (east of France and south of France as well as Corsica).


You can see these charts here :

https://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/presidentielles/presidentielle-2022-tous-les-resultats-en-chiffres-et-en-cartes-20220411

How on earth is it supposed to work ? Here in the US, nco's are the ones who keep everything going. They have the expertise, the respect of the troops and are invaluable. Same is true in most western military ( like the French one where I was an officer)

You quickly learn this as a young lieutenant fresh out of officer school. Without your staff Sgt you are screwed and you better listen to him.

No wonder the Russian army is beyond incompetent. Apparently they compensate by throwing soldiers in the fight not caring if they die it not. The meat grinder approach I guess..

is concerning. If she is found to be eligible to hold office, she will say she was vindicated and use it to further fundraise and as a mandate to double down.
On the other hand if the judge recommends that she be disqualified from holding office it could set a dangerous precedent that is equally bad.
She has not been charged , let alone convicted of insurrection or anything like it.

If states can decide that somebody is not eligible to hold office based on the fact they think that person violated the 14th amendment, what is there to stop dumbfuckistan states to declare democrats should be disqualified because they stole the election and violated the 14th amendment by denying Trump his presidency ?

A number of things were revealed today making me think that. First, the main issue in providing the Ukrainians with weaponry was that one had to find soviet Era things still in working order and transfer it to them. There is a limited supply of that.

A good example is the artillery. Ukraine was using equipment firing 152 mm rounds like the Russian ones do. We are now sending them howitzers shooting 155 mm rounds, US and NATO standard.

We have a vast supply of this kind of ammo. It's going to be a game changer. With NATO behind them Ukraine will outsupply Russia.

They also now have state of the art drone systems so new its classified and was custom designed for them.

Today, one of the senators on the Intel committee was interviewed by Nicole Wallace and also said Ukraine had a lot of assistance from the US on intelligence gathering. He did not want to elaborate for obvious reasons.

I just finished reading the whole thing. I honestly do not think it's going to be that impactful in terms of indicting any of them. Obviously, they were trying to find ways to overturn the election but were very careful in these texts to emphasize it had to be via legal challenges and pass muster in terms of the constitution.

You can clearly see, they were desperately hoping that somebody would find a justification to send an alternate slate of electors, challenge the elections in states one way or another.

However, as it became clear it was just a shit show and neither Powell or Giuliani could back up what they were saying with actual proof, both Roy and Meadows started to freak out realizing they were going into coup territory.

If anything, with a good lawyer these two would be able to use that as a defense if they were accused of conspiracy.

It's not so clear that it helps Trump for his defense. They clearly portray him as completely willing to push false claims in order to overturn the election. So, that may be the silver lining there.