Lesser evil voting results in evil, not good.

 

I am amused at the people who call themselves "progressives" being hopeful that Joe Biden will in some way show that he is sympathetic to their cause.

Dream on, progressives, you are the unwanted relative at the "family" gathering. The "Democrats" put up with you because they want your votes. But they prefer money. The more money you can cough up, the more they suck up to you. 

It doesn't matter that Bernie Sanders can run a campaign on small donations because the "Democratic" Party isn't. They prefer the large donors who are the people who propped up the formerly dead campaigns of Creepy Joe and Horrible Harris. 

The "Democrats" preyed on your being suckers that they were in some way "better" than the Evil Orange One. Yet they ran candidates that were just as bad, if not worse. The tame media didn't allow for any scrutiny into the chosen ones, or you would have had a harder time voting for them than you did Clinton-Kane in 2016.

If you didn't Demexit.

The "Democrats" didn't bother hiding their disdain for the progressives this go round.  "Progressives" for whatever reason voted for Biden despite his being a male Hillary Clinton with a public and private position on the issues. And his private position is that he will stay the course which resulted in Trump.

I've moved on from the "Democratic" Party because I know that they do not have the motivation to actually do anything. Actually, neither of the duopoply parties will do much of anything other than make the US a plutocracy that rewards the likes of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, et al. There is a reason the tech companies supported Biden-Harris, and it's not because they are benevolent.

It's time for a change and one of those changes is to vote for a party that actually represents you.

Biden and Guns

OK, the main reason I didn't expect Biden to "win" the election was that he needed to win a few states which are pro-gun. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for those people to get on the Biden Bandwagon if Biden is going to tighten gun laws. Not to mention telling a UAW member to basically fuck off because "no one needs an AR-14".

Biden has a long history on the gun issue, which is contradictory to say the least. It went from being pro-gun and being involved with the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) to now saying he wants to get tight on regulating "AR-14s". Personally, I think Sanders would have been a safer bet to address this issue than Biden: especially since Bernie is from Vermont.

On the other hand, Bernie is a commie. And the Establishment Dems don't like him.

Biden's campaign was:

increasingly worried about the polling in Pennsylvania and fear that his previous, slim lead could be slipping away at the eleventh hour. But this doesn’t sound like a move that would help him much, if at all, on that score. The vast majority of Biden’s support in the Keystone State is going to come from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But the latter city is currently overrun by mobs and is going up in flames. Philly is one of the places where the demand for guns is off the charts in a Democratic stronghold and people can’t even get applications for permits, to say nothing of laying their hands on a legal firearm. Something tells me that even his base there doesn’t want to hear any gun control claptrap at the moment.

OK, I would like to believe that Creepy Joe and Horrible Harris will turn out to be a disappointment, but he has managed to surprise me by winning an election.

Despite the odds.

On the other hand, there is a lot of red in places like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina which might hold their nose and vote for the next Trump if Creepy Joe and Horrible Harris make good on their promise to ban guns.

And I am truly surprised that combination was able to pull off a win to begin with: especially with gun control on the agenda. 

But gun control is something which is talked about but rarely acted upon: especially by opportunistic politicians.

Not sure how to title this post about the presidential election results

I guess I should have known that the wrong conclusions would be made however the election turned out. I've already pointed out that the right/centre of the "Democratic" party is blaming the left for the poor results. No one is addressing that not having any real policy set out other than "orange man bad" might not be a good way to win votes.

While Fox News and Sky News Australia may try to paint Biden and Harris as extreme lefties: they are anything but. The Green New Deal, Fracking, Medicare for All and all those "lefty" ideas probably won't see the light of day, or will be transformed into something unrecognisable. FAIR's Counterspin pointed out:

After a historic election turnout, driven by mobilizations like Black Lives Matter, that signaled the longed-for end of the Trump presidency, it's sad to see corporate Democrats leap to blame the left, including activists, for denying the party a landslide—and call for immediate, compensatory overtures to the right. Sad, but not surprising, as that's been the practice of elite Democrats and their media abettors for decades.

    When Michael Dukakis chose Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate, he turned his back not just on Jesse Jackson, but on two decades of Democratic Party thinking. He sent an unmistakable message to the activist constituencies of the Democratic Party that the days of litmus-test liberalism are over.

That's the Washington Post's David Broder in 1988.

You could say everything old is new again, but corporate media's allegiance to an ever-drifting "center" gets more dangerous by the day.

Fair.org's Counterspin

In other words, AOC and Black Lives Matter can pretend all they want that there will be a leftward shift in the party. But the Dems will throw them under the bus as soon as they get their vote in favour of the big donors. "Creepy Joe" Biden and Hillary Clinton weren't chosen as front runners well in advance because they were popular or strong candidates. They were chosen because they brought the big money.

There were a whole lot of other black women out there who would have been a much better choice than Horrible Harris. Horrible Harris was the choice of the big donors in Silicon Valley. Black Lives Matter should have burned the country down the moment they knew Harris's record as a prosecutor if they had any real power. My guess is that Black Lives Matter will be forgotten until 2022, or maybe relegated to the dust bin because of the things that were said and unsaid in the Abigail Spanberger leaked phone call.

It was Groucho, not Karl, if the BLM person was a Marxist organiser. I was pretty certain that the "peaceful protests" were going to result in a Trump win, but the only thing those really generated was a run on "assault rifles" and "ammunition". Still, "Defund the Police" was enough to get some "Democrats" into squeaker situations. But was that actually the reason that people like Spanberger and Madeline Dean found themselves in tight races?

Nevermind, the "Democrats" have a long history of being anti-progressive and no matter of polling data that some of the ideas floated by the "socialists" were popular will change that opinion of the right/centre wing. The left needs to move on since the "Democrats" talk "big tent", but the reality is that one needs to follow the party line. Whatever the fuck that happens to be.

AOC, Black Lives Matter, and the rest of the vindictive branch of the "Democratic" party need to be careful. They go against the people with the power and they find they are the ones to be purged.

If they don't realise that they should exit the party to one more favourable to their ideals.

Voting Green Party, or Third Party, is not a waste

As the "Democrats" fall apart over whether they should pay attention to the Progressive wing, I have to point out that one of the many reasons I voted Green:

It tells the duopoly that we aren't part of their party.

The "Democrats" are currently feuding over whether progressivism is where they should be heading. Not whether the "Orange Man Bad" strategy actually works. The "Democrats" holding their centrist/Republican Lite position was my big fear for this election. How they react to it remains to be seen.

But it seems that turning on the progressive wing is once again the strategy: even though that is not a wining strategy. Not to mention it meant fielding two of the weakest candidates ever. And they will continue doing that because they know that like progressives will come crawling back like whipped dogs.

Lesser evil voting still nets an evil.

Voting your beliefs doesn't.

The squad, and other deluded progressives, may wake up to reality, but I don't have too much hope. 2016 and 2020 were the two elections where lesser evil voting really had no place. There was a choice of Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber if one chose a duopoly candidate.

I'm not happy because either of them was elected president.

Antrim County Controversy

 I have to question election results when they go against what I see in reality.

Pennsylvania is one, but Antrim County, MI also had me wondering. Andtrim County is about as red as a place can get. yet the election results were showing that it had gone for Joe Biden. That had me really wondering.

But what made this seem even stranger is that a little while later, the results from Antrim County went blank on the results map.

Definitely something strange:

Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy, a Republican who ran unopposed and won a third four-year term Tuesday in the strongly GOP county, said results on electronic tapes and a computer card were accurate but it appeared that some of the results were somehow scrambled after the cards were transported in sealed bags from township precincts to county offices and downloaded onto a computer.

In 2016, Trump won Antrim County with about 62% of the vote, compared with about 33% for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump beat Clinton by about 4,000 votes.

Wednesday morning, Antrim results showed Democrat Joe Biden leading Trump by slightly more than 3,000 votes, with 98% of precincts reporting.

Officials had not checked the results before posting them, but later asked: "How could Democrats take over this county?" Guy said Wednesday.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Source: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/michigan-antrim-county-election-results-trump-biden-blue/6162541002/

Joe Biden may beat William Henry Harrison for shortest term EVER!

Maybe figuaratively, if not literally. William Henry Harrison died after a month in office. Biden has many options for a short term, but the main one is that the honeymoon is over now that the election is.

For what it's worth, Alexandra Occasio-Cortez is flexing what little muscle she has in the party. She was super at first, but her importance waned quickly as is the fate of any real progressive. The "Democratic" Party has a long history of destroying true progressives. She can threaten that she will destroy the "Democratic" Party, but it will chew her up and spit her out putting her back as a waitress earning what paltry minimum wage exists.

Hey, AOC, Bernie couldn't do it. What the fuck makes you think you can do it? You should #Demexit as soon as possible and help the Greens grow. Because your home is not in the Democratic Party.

Next, the long held criticism of Biden will come out. The best of which is that the Impeachment may be redone. Except this time it will be about the REAL criminal in that farce: Joe Biden. The info on Hunter Biden has come out, which was something any REAL inquiry would have done.

And then there is Dementia Joe's health. Other than the obvious mental decline, it seems he's not a healthy man. I'm amazed all the excitement hasn't killed him off to begin with.

The "Democrats" playing on people's wishful thinking instead of offering real solutions will show that the "bad orange man" wasn't the source of recent problems. the "Democrats" 2016 strategy of having the Orange meanie be the straw man candidate to counter their failure to offer any real agenda was doomed from the start.

Alas, the squad helped push them along in a continued free fall.

It's PRESIDENT BIDEN! What a 'relief' for the whole world!

 OK, I am going to use First Dog on the Moon's title since it pretty much sums up how I feel about this event. Trump winning would be pretty much in their face that the "Orange man bad" strategy was a failure. Dementia Joe being president with Horrible Harris as a fall back seems like it will be a relief.

Until it finally hits people that this wasn't really a win.

Dementia Joe pretty much made it clear to the big donors that nothing would change. So any hope of progress is pretty much a pipe dream. Getting Kamala Harris as a "black woman" was pretty much like Bulworth in the black church in South Central.

Virtue signalling is the name of the game from the "Democratic" Party which has a long history of fucking over progressives and people. Bulworth is the state of the "Democratic" party. 

Trump winning might have hit home the message the "Democratic" Party needs to learn, but now we have what 2016 would have been had the Electoral College not been in the way. Dementia Joe is going to have to deal with an opposition controlled legislature which is good and bad.

Bad in that nothing will get done that people were hoping to get from a "Democratic" president. But it's "good" for the "Democratic" party in that they can play how awful those republicans happen to be. Not that their candidates happened to get slaughtered and the expected "blue wave" didn't happen.

This neglects that nothing was really promised. And what WAS promised was pretty much nebulous. Let's toss in that neither Dementia Joe or Horrible Harris took any of the scrutiny that they should have. 

It's truly amazing that a public official whose record of 45+ years wasn't really looked into. I mean people used to tell me that Bernie's vote for the PLCAA was a disqualifier.

Biden not only voted for FOPA: he fucking drafted the thing! 

I know full well that Dementia Joe will talk about strict gun laws and an Australian Style gun buyback, but he's the last person on the planet who could pull it off! Especially if he doesn't have a cooperative legislature.

Which takes us to rejoining the Paris Accord on Climate Change.  Sure, he could get the US back in, but the he U.S. also would need to submit a specific pledge to reduce emissions, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution. That's the fun bit: getting the US to change its lifestyle to cut down on Greenhouse Gas emmissions. 

And Covid-19? The Dems really think that can fight it without some form of national healthcare, universal basic income, with a little bit of surveillance tossed in for contact checking?

The "Democratic" party thinks it can knock the "socialist" and "socialists" in their ranks, but what is it going to do to make sure it can actually make good on the nebulous promises it made?

They can't blame the Russians, or anybody else, for their mistakes now. 

Biden Remorse

I seriously have a hard time accepting that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could win an election, but it seems we live in an age of miracles. 

 

Or is it because any criticism of Biden was not allowed. Glenn Greenwald quit the Intercept due to a blackout on the coverage of Hunter Biden's influence peddling. Likewise, Axios commented that "Joe Biden is the luckiest, least scrutinized frontrunner."

A deeply flawed candidate whose campaign was considered dead, until "Super Thursday" has suddenly become the likely president of the United States.

Even more amazing when you consider that the States that put him past 270 Electoral College votes were pretty much "pro-Second Amendment".  Not to mention how Nevada was hit hard by the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Unless there is the hope that Second Amendment sanctuaries in MOFN will see a rise in population due to Biden's making "AR-14s" and similar weapons NFA items. Seriously, I have a problem accepting that anyone in their right mind in some of these places actually voted for Biden.

And while I believe that there should be an Australian style gun buyback coupled with strong gun laws: the likelihood of that happening anytime soon seems far more impossible than a 78 year old, senile, has been politician miraculously winning an election.

Even if he does it by the skin of his teeth.

I'm not sure if there was election fraud involved, or if enough people hated Donald Trump to vote for someone who is as bad as Trump, but "nicer". Unless you happen to be a UAW member who gets into an argument with Biden about gun control.

I mean, Biden is someone who actually tells you to vote for someone else!

I took that advice and voted Green Party.

I knew what I was getting into. But I think a lot of people had no fucking idea what they were doing.

And they will regret it pretty soon.

Something stinks

There are five states which have to report final results as of now: AZ, GA, NC, NV, and PA. What stinks is that Arizona has been called with 88% of the votes counted. Likewise, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said that the Second (Allegheny) and Third (Montgomery) largest counties have come up with final results. Luzerne county is supposedly near in their final result. The red counties aren't giving final results yet.

The problem with Pennsylvania is that there are a lot of "Second Amendment" types. In fact, all of these states have a lot of "gun nuts". Why the fuck would those people vote for Biden who has made it clear that he would ban "AR-14s" with hi-cap magazines?

Nevada was supposed to have been announced at noon eastern time. Then it went to one. Yet Nevada supposedly has 24% of its votes yet to be counted.

These states are close in the possible outcomes. But something stinks.

OK, I am still going with a Trump win.

There are only a few states which haven't been called yet and here is a diagram of the State, Votes Left to Count, Current Margin, and Current leader from the Guardian. At this point Trump is the leader in most of these states.

Which takes us to what the current state of the electoral votes would be with the race being 272 to 268 with Biden winning.

Of course,Trump could flip Nevada or Michigan. There are also a few more absentee ballots out there which could help Trump get a close repeat of 2016 by winning AZ, MI, NV, and WI. I think that would be a stretch, but Trump winning MI and NV is a definite possibility.

The Guardian has a mail in ballot tracker which is useful to see how many registered voters there are and how many of those ballots have come back. It's also interesting to see since some of these races may turn out differently from the way they are currently being characterised.

I'm already seeing different results between the BBC and the Guardian coverage as to the margins of victory.

But we know this is going to be a close and contested election.