US President Joe Biden has said he is not confident there will be a peaceful transition of power if Donald Trump loses the presidential election in November.
"[Trump] means what he says, we don’t take him seriously. He means it, all this stuff about ‘if we lose it will be a bloodbath’.”
Mr Trump’s comment that it would “be a bloodbath for the country” if he loses the election, made as he was talking about the auto industry in March, triggered a wave of criticism.
The Trump campaign, however, said the comment was specifically about the auto industry and had been deliberately taken out of context. It sent a fundraising email which said Trump’s political opponents and others had been “viciously” misquoting him.
What’s there to transition if he loses?
Of course he’s gonna try it again, you took it far too lightly last time. Maybe Kamala will enforce the law
She is a former prosecutor and former AG. If anyone would, it’s her.
It’s also a bit of a delicate matter though. No matter what the government attacking a group of people is a bad look.
Typically, the crowds don’t fight back, or half the police force switches sides, or who knows what may happen.
Rolling over and capitulating to murderous treason is a bad look too.
There’s a chance he drops the hammer if they try to storm the capitol again. He has the legal power to deploy the federal military to protect D.C.
Gee, you think the guy who was the first president not to support a peaceful transfer of power, who tried to subvert the government by an organized mob, and who hasn’t expressed any wrongdoing at all might not be nice about it this time?
My only quibble is that the transfer of power itself will be fine, because it would be between Biden and Harris. Trump wouldn’t have any official power, and anything he and his supporters do couldn’t be interpreted as official acts.
I think Biden, being freed up and all, should spend some time fortifying the election results. I know the election is inherently flawed but there should be systems in place to stop another Jan 6th. Do some maintenance. Get commitments from the states themselves. Jus saying.
I think Biden, being freed up and all, should spend some time fortifying the election results.
100% agreed.
I know the election is inherently flawed
Aside from Trump and his ilk getting his ilk installed as election workers who have vowed to disrupt the election any way they can, how exactly is it “inherently” flawed? Pretty sure this way of thinking is why these people feel emboldened to question the elections. There was no inherent flaw in 2020. And every single court ruled as such.
They may be talking about the fact that you can win the presidency with a minority of votes. They’re right about that, but the actual vote counting is pretty secure, as the courts have decided.
first past the post is kinda a shitty system, it results in a two party system, which isn’t good. but to start fixing that you’d need to redo all of politics and that’s never going to happen.
Sorry, I meant the mechanics of the election isn’t inherently flawed (except in GA now where counties can just decide not to certify at will). I would agree that voting should be changed, nationwide, to ranked choice.
This relies on the States acting in the best interest of the country as a whole, which as we have seen, has not been the case for many southern states
Ditch the electoral college, certify the election with a popular vote, adopt ranked choice.
But then the 1% would become the 10% and I’m sorry but that just won’t do, it’s a very nuanced system that boils down to Rich good Poor bad. /s
Ranked choice is just another way for people to game the system. I wish people understood this.
If we can only afford one candidate, they can afford 30. Ranked choice is like the very last possible thing that should be implemented in a supposed democracy. You don’t believe me, the Conservative party of Canada has ranked primaries. You have 4 crazy people and 1 moderate. Who gets more votes? The crazy people. You’re literally sealing your fate if you implement ranked voting in a mass-lobbying environment like the USA.
Ranked choice is just another way for people to game the system. I wish people understood this.
Vote for the candidate you want, and then put the moderate as your second choice, shuffle them all together and oh look the moderate got the nom, but has to campaign in such a way as to please the democratic plurality of a multi party system.
How many “crazy people” have been put forth as the Canadian Conservative Party candidate? As the general elections went in 2021, one of the most contentious in recent history, it looked like there was a plurality there. The outcome, and current scandals not withstanding within the Canadian governemnt, there aren’t assassination attempts creating articles from reputable sources giving serious credence to civil war.
Seems like a two party system might create some tribalism there, let’s look back at the Canadian Parliament, with a lot of different parties in the parliament compromising and doing politics. Looks like a lot of pluralism there.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/votes
Now let’s take a look at what the US Congress has been up to recently
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/votes
Weird, outside of a universal vote to go on vacation, I don’t really see a plurality there. Mostly along a two party line.
I wonder how we got there? I bet someone smarter than I has thought of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger's_law
Oh they did.
Moving back to the threat of political violence, which is a much larger conversation than ranked choice voting. Could a two party system contribute to that? Could other countries with a binary politcal system face the same issues?
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/rising-tide-political-violence
Huh could the very nature of a two party system, encourage political tribalism and disincentivize political collobaration?
https://voices.uchicago.edu/dangerousthoughts/2016/05/14/political-tribalism-and-identity-politics/
What does the future of the US want?
Huh, thank goodness we don’t have to deal with those pesky crazies in the Canadian Conservative Party ranked primaries.
Ranked choice is just another way for people to game the system. I wish people understood this.
I don’t see why you skip my entire point of it just increasing the number of shitty candidates. You say the “moderate” gets chosen, but what’s the mean when 4/5s of the pool is poison?
The fact you just straight to Trump-assassination whataboutism is fucked, and this whole mathematical law regarding duopoly again flies past my point. Providing more candidates that are shit only ratchets the equation towards shit. That’s not to say having more than two parties is bad… I’m saying the political foundation in America is so bad that implementing ranked choice before destroying the influence of capital only increases the chance of capital winning.
Do you know how Ranked Choice works? I explained it in a sentence. You keep agreeing with my points. The Moderate wins and has to take the 4/5ths into consideration. What you’re describing with your pool of poison is a problem with the conservative party and not with ranked choice voting. You can happily look at the voting turn out in Australia, and Australian exit polls to directly refute your point of poison.
Whatboutism? You didn’t even read my post. I’m saying that a First Past the Post voting leads to tribalism that can lead to political extremism and violence. Which is clearly illustrated in every research paper, article, and government report I shared with you.
You’ve responded with an opinion, and your opinion of one minor part of a much larger Canadian political system. Again.
More choice breeds better results for a larger portion of the population. The fact that our extremism here in America cannot even take any serious root in Canada is a great point to that. But sure. Whataboutism .Yeah.
It’s “whataboutism” because using a closed Republican-on-Republican violence is kind of ridiculous when you say my point about “poisoned pools” is only a problem within the Conservative party.
I’m saying ranked voting only helps when it’s backed by a legitimate and healthy political environment. One that America and Canada do not have. Man we’re just talking past eachother, cause some ignorant Aussie (you) thinks he understands American politics. Brother, I understand math, but these people can legally throw money at the literal Supreme Court and it’s completely legal. That’s not a healthy environment. Citizens United would mean every pool in the USA would be full of poison.
The Balkanization of the Republican Party is driven by political tribalism. I don’t think you have a very strong grasp on political theory or how absolutely fucked we are down here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization
I’m not the person who said
Nope, it works great here in Australia.
That was @BigBoyBarry
Look at my comment history, I was born in America and have lived here all my life. I’ve voted in every primary I qualify to vote in and every presidential election since I turned 18.
You might want to read the usernames of the people you’re replying to.
Nope, it works great here in Australia.
FPTP is the worst system, and couple that with a system like the electoral collage and you have a system designed to make as few voices heard as possible.
Is lobbying legal in Australia? Considering the sway the oil and gas lobby has in AU, i don’t know if your point stands. I just can’t see it helping a shitstorm like USA, when I can see it impacting Canada negatively
The goal posts, you move them sir.
That was always my point, idk what youre saying
That you’re moving the goal posts?
He can’t just change the Constitution.
That’s absolutely true. However with the SCOTUS rulings as of late regarding the Executive branch, it could be fun to try.
If we ever get a trifecta again we need to kill the filibuster and then pass a law to expand Congress so the EC is effectively locked to the national result. As a bonus it seriously hurts lobbyists and gives us better representation.
what happens when we lose the trifecta?
Historically we’ve never gone backwards in the number of representatives. It would be very hard for a party with a majority in The House of Representatives to make that case.
Roll back Citizens United while we’re at it.
I think it would be a worthwhile exercise to draft up some amendments to fix the SCOTUS and lopsided representation problems.
It won’t pass. 0% chance. But , it would serve as a blueprint of what could be if voters gave them a super majority. And a foundation for a time in the distant future if both parties could actually govern in good faith again.
And it would signal to voters that the Dems are looking to improve our government, not just cling to the status quo like many voters (here, at least) seem to think.
Jan 6th only happened because Trump let it happen.
If Trump wins, Biden will transfer power. Of that, I have 100% confidence.
If Trump loses, he has no authority to command government personnel, so him riling up people to storm the capitol this time will almost certainly be met with resistance.
I’m actually much more confident that nothing as bad as J6 will happen again, at least not this election cycle. I do think he needs to spend some time putting safeguards into place to prevent the abuse of the clear weakspots in our election system, namely the certification process itself being flawed if controlled by partisan sycophants.
Not as long as there are red states. Ensuring electors may be a major fuck you to the whole process
I have faith that when the lawsuits come down hard on those guys, they’ll drop their tough guy act and certify.
The supreme court is lined with heritage foundation lackies. The courts are beyond useless.
Cool. Put machine gun nests in the capital this time.
It doesn’t do anything when those behind the trigger believe in the cause of desecrating and destroying the government, regardless of the irony of their employment
Those that join forces are the same that burn crosses
Me neither
Granted, I’m not president of anything at all, but I’m very confident that there will NOT be a peaceful transition if Trump loses.
Do you anticipate any violence if he wins?
Yes, are you familiar with the fascist playbook? It’s not the first, second, or even third time this has happened in history and you can bet the people in charge know their history. First it’s the disabled, mentally ill, and queer people. Then the out crowd just keeps expanding until the whole thing collapses but a lot of people die along the way.
I am unapologetically anti-authoritarian in every way. I fear Democrats almost as much as I fear Republicans. Yes I know the playbook. Everybody has somebody they want to disenfranchise.
For sure both sides are exactly the same. I suffer from amnesia can you help me by reminding me of all those Democrat-run violent insurrections?
Yeah that’s what I said. Tool.
Another amnesia issue I’m having: can you remind me which “vermin” the Democratic nominee has vowed to “exterminate”? And also I forgot about the times she called for the use of violence. Can you jog my memory on that as well?
If he wins, it’s open season on any and all political opponents, and any critics, really. So yes.
If he loses, it’ll be “rigged,” and they’ll try another 1/6. My prediction is they’ll try State Capitols this time around…
So, looks like violence is back on the menu, boys.
“Taken out of context” MFers when they actually read the primary sources of the Confederacy (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
“Read.”
…
LOL!
But there’s been so many.
“Dictator on day one”
“You won’t have to vote anymore”
Those are just the two off the top of my head as I’m heading back into work on my lunch break.
Everything bad Trump ever says is either “a joke” or “out of context.”
Weird how often he says things that everyone things he means and then he doesn’t mean them. I sure wouldn’t vote for a guy like that. He’s weird.
This is his one strength. He can dog whistle as much as he wants because he always carefully chooses his words to add some sort of plausible deniability or innocent interpretation. So his base hears what he can’t fully say out loud yet and the media has to carefully tiptoe around interpreting it or lose credibility to his base
There’s nothing carefully chosen about it. He just vomits so many words it overwhelms the brain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop
What’s even in context for him? He jumps around so much there is no context.
It sent a fundraising email
Trump’s response to everything, good, bad, indifferent, or wildly spun
You and me both, Joe.
Well, he’s got the most powerful “security” apparatus in the world under his command. The charge of the yokels on mobility scooters shouldn’t be a problem to deal with.
Well - why would he be? Trump didn’t accept it last time, and this is well and truly the end of the road for him if he doesn’t win. He’s 77 as it is, but zero point zero zero zero zero percent chance he gets this close again.
And the cost of not winning is monumental. It’s victory or destruction for the vulgar talking yam. If he’s no longer of any use to Russia, imagine what information might come out about him, especially if they themselves descend into instability.
Trump never accepts any defeat, ever. It’s always a disgrace, the worst, most nasty this and that that’s so unfair to him. Of course he’s not going to accept a defeat. What the adults do about it is the important variable.
Given his legal trouble, he very truly could either be president or imprisoned. he probably has less money than he wants us to believe, fleeing to Russia or Venezuela etc isn’t really an option. His money will just be seized by the state and he will be disposed of as an impotent, toothless old hippo, only capable of making noise, with no more use to offer anyone.
If he’s no longer of any use to Russia, imagine what information might come out about him,
Jeffery Epstein didn’t kill himself.
Yeah it’s pretty obvious to everyone that it’s all or bust for trump. He’s desperate. Nothing to lose.
They’re already strategising how to steal the election. They’re already on record saying they know exactly who to call when it’s time to validate the results from each state.
lol classic biden
come on joe, it’s been established that you can “say it like it is”:
trump is going to incite riots and violent insurrection, he’s going to demand the military stage a coup, he’s going to call for civil war. trump is 100% going to attempt 1/6 ver 2.0 and there isn’t a human being over 5 on the planet who doesn’t know that to be the case
The military is going to laugh at him. And then line up to protect the capitol from him. Some idiots might try to do something but the military as a whole is not going to obey Trump unless he gets elected.
I think the chaos will be happening at State capitols this time. National Guard (generally, with some exceptions) report to each state’s Governor. Many Republican Governors will be all to happy to start shit up and look the other way just as Trump did on 1/6.
Fun fact, if you don’t deploy your national guard then the President can do it for you, or even deploy national forces. This is what Trump was threatening to do with CHAZ in Seattle.
My dad is in his 70’s and doesn’t believe the gravy seals will try anything again. He thinks they learned their lesson the first time. I wish i was that confident/delusional.
The one thing I am fairly certain about though is that, assuming riots like that are happening in D.C., Biden will not hesitate to send out forces to stop it. Trump could have but didn’t want to.
There might be a few more Ashley Babbits this time.
My dad tried to talk about how “they just killed her” a while back…
I was like: they gave her a lawful order. She was literally breaking into one of the most secure facilities in the world. She saw the trained men with the loaded firearms pointed at her and proceeded to move through a broken down door…
And then don’t forget that oath… From all threats foreign and domestic… she was a domestic threat. And the agent removed that threat.
Shut him right up.
These idiots want to fafo? I hope dark Brandon is waiting for them.
And she had military training and knew exactly what orders that guy had, so she knew it was going to happen, she was just betting that they wouldn’t dare or that their group of insurrectionists would overpower them. But she failed on every count and paid with her life.
It’s not just a lawful order though. Let me handcuff you is also a lawful order. They warned her, and everyone else at that door, that it was off limits and they would shoot.
ah gotta love the old “just try breaking into my house and i’ll introduce you to my shotguns!!!” crowd lamenting over the cold blooded “murder” of someone breaking into not-her-property
and yea. if these maga chucklefucks think DC is going to be the same soft cushy environment it was in 2021, then they’re even dumber than i thought. which is pretty fucking dumb. in addition to the dozens of snipers (that are visible), i’d be surprised if there’s a square inch of space in the whole motherfucker that isn’t covered by at least 4 cameras.
ah gotta love the old “just try breaking into my house and i’ll introduce you to my shotguns!!!” crowd lamenting over the cold blooded “murder” of someone breaking into not-her-property
Well said! It’s almost as if they lack in ye olde critical thinking and self reflection departments.
Translation: There will be enough military force there to snuff out any bullshit Dementia Don the weird racist rapist with 34 felonies brings.