Trump drums up the fradulant election claims so state legislators will pick Electoral College slate.

[skip fox]

That's the plan, the real reason for more rallies, and many Republicans seem on-board with that strategy.

Ken Starr was on Fox's Mark Levin (Life, Liberty, and Levin) show last night and like Levin he spoke of the constitutional "responsibility" of state legislators choosing a different slate of Electoral College electors. They can only do so if they can claim the election was a fraud.

That's the plan. Simple and deadly.

How do you think it will play out?

[Just_Vote_Dem]

1. State legislatures don't choose electors

The political parties do.

You can be sure that the electors chosen by the Democratic Party are not going to flip.

[skip fox]

2. I wish I was so sure.

But this is the avenue outlined in Vanity Fair and elsewhere, like in the fever swamps of Fox.

[BlueMTexpat]

10. Please check the laws in each state

wrt to the selection of electors in a Presidential election.

Unless a state's laws specifically provide for its legislature to select Presidential electors, it simply cannot be done.

I am not aware of any states that have laws to allow for this.

Just asking Google that question will get you this answer: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/legislatures-override-electors/

In relevant part:

[W]hen a candidate for president wins a state’s popular vote, that party’s slate of electors will be the ones to cast the vote for president of the United States in December. For example, Florida has 29 electoral votes. If President Donald Trump wins the state’s popular vote on Nov. 3, the 29 electors nominated by the Republican Party in Florida will be selected. These 29 people will gather on Dec. 14 to cast their votes for president of the United States.

[Iliyah]

3. The American people have spoken . ..

There is no fraud.

Biden/Harris are the next President and Vice President of The United States of America.

[Fullduplexxx]

4. That or it's just an accusation to get the election to scotus

[skip fox]

9. I think he realizes (and soon will be certain) that his journey through the courts is a dead end.

He's coming to realize fighting in the courts won't get him to The Supreme Court, so (although I don't understand the mechanism) you may be right.

[BlueMTexpat]

15. It won't work.

Even with this SCOTUS.

[liberalla]

5. Many discussing this here yesterday, as seen in this post:

John Dean- Trump plans to use the nuclear option to blow up the EC

Does your son believe this is where drump is headed?

[skip fox]

13. I had a wonderful talk with him last niight but this didn't come up.

We spoke of his psychological need for rallies and he said Trump will announce campaign for 2020 to collect campaign contributions and continue rallies.

Later in the night, the news broke the story about Trump's plan for grievance rallies, claiming fraud, and trying to get his supporters' even more outraged.

And later I saw Starr agree with Levin's position on trying to get state Republican legislators to ignore the vote.

This is what Trump is listening to and it corresponds with what he wants.

I can't remember if Tucker and Hannity have taken the same position but I wouldn't be surprised.

[Jarqui]

6. With the shifting demographics, as we've seen in a number

of recent elections where the winner of the popular vote doesn't win the White House, the electoral college is the GOP's only way to have a shot at the Presidency while retaining it's current policies.

If they undermine the will of the people by a legislative body snatching electoral votes that were lost in a democratic election, they will be ending the electoral college and flirting with civil war.

Trump is already flirting with violent civil unrest doing what he is doing.

[hlthe2b]

7. This has been addressed multiple times. The state laws that cover selection of electors CAN NOT

be changed post-election. This is just stirring up unnecessary hysteria.

Please Read this word for word (from the National Task Force on Election Crises from among our best legal authorities) and then decide if you want to continue in this vein:
Read our @ElectionTask legal primer here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e70e52c7c72720ed714313f/t/5f625c790cef066e940ea42d/1600281722253/State_Legislature_Paper.pdf

Link to tweet

[skip fox]

16. This makes me feel better, but I'm not sure.

I'm hearing (and Trump is hearing) more and more of these nuts. They seem certain their strategy will work.

[hlthe2b]

17. I'd advise you to not play poker. You are too susceptible to bluffing. n/t

[sunonmars]

8. This piece of shit is dragging everyone to civil war. Military should arrest him.

If it comes to it.

[greennewdeal350]

12. Things Will Settle Some After The Ballot Counting Finishes

I believe the latest date for receiving countable ballots is Novrmber 10th. Not sure which state has that ballot reception deadline date though. As you know, each state can pick its own cutoff date for receiving ballots that were postmarked on or before Election Day. SCOTUS cannot control that.

[uponit7771]

14. That's what Putin wants, a civil war similar to Spains

[Frustratedlady]

18. He may use that argument for his rallies, but his main concern is raising money for himself and his

family. He has a ton of expenses coming up with the lawsuits and he'll do whatever he needs to do to fill his pockets. Never doubt that. It may not be legal, but in his book, it's quite reasonable and he has a lot of practice.

[Fiendish Thingy]

19. State legislatures cannot act unilaterally

Educate yourself:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e70e52c7c72720ed714313f/t/5f625c790cef066e940ea42d/1600281722253/State_Legislature_Paper.pdf

[skip fox]

20. I LOVE this document

but I also know what Trump is hearing and understand his strategy.

And with former federal judges like Kenneth Starr endorsing that plan I think they will try to play it out.

They might not be successful, but they will ignore and/or twist any document that that might impede them.

Trump is a cornered rat (electorally, legally, financially) and a cornered rat knows no rules.

[Fiendish Thingy]

28. So far his team is 1 for 10, and the 1 win allowed observers to move from 10 to 6 feet

The other 10 cases, including one just this morning, were laughed out of court for insufficient evidence or incomplete paperwork.

[EndlessWire]

21. It would be very simple

For a Republican legislature to draft and change their own state law, including whether they can change the law after the election. Whether they can get enough electoral votes to beat Biden is another thing.

But, based on what we know of how Trump operates, his intent is to find a way to get the issue in front of the SC, where he is favored.

I just object to the characterization of people's observations as "hysteria." This is not Chicken Little's "the sky is falling." This is reasonable people taking a look at the possibilities and, given the fact that Trump is not quitting, and given what he and his cronies have said, it is probable that this is what he is intending.

In view of the situation that we will lose our country if Trump prevails, reasonable people will keep a sharp watch on this. Trump isn't fooling anyone with his tactics.

We all hope that this isn't so. But, it's not fearmongering, hysteria, or ignorance that causes us to examine the law, the history, or the possibilities.

[skip fox]

22. Right.

We need to know the enemy and be ready for his anti-democratic maneuvers.

Realizing what someone may do is not crazy, especially with this man.

I'm only contending that this seems to be one of their major plans and that's why he's not stopping rallies. (Of course he's also not stopping because his ego won't let him.)

[Statistical]

25. Even if an ex post facto law change was allowed (super dubious)

of all the states Biden won the only one the Republicans have the trifecta (both houses and governorship) is Georgia and New Hampshire. If the Republicans overturned the will of the people in such a blatant move successful or not there would be consequences for those legislators and it wouldn't be enough to alter the election.

https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas

[ooky]

23. Levin's show should be called "Lies, Lies, and More Lies."

For those who say they don't understand what makes Magats so stupid, well, consider that this is the programming they regularly watch.

Yeah, I watched that. It's alternate reality baloney. It so violates our principles as a country that if they did that then we no longer have a democracy or even a country and I would hope to see states start seceding. That would be nothing short of a fascist coup.

[Statistical]

24. There is no state that currently allows legislature to pick an arbitrary slate of electors.

In the few states where Republicans control both houses and the governorship they could try to pass a new law doing that. However SCOTUS has ruled over and over and over that election laws can't change once voting starts. So any new law would only go into effect for 2024 onward.

Still lets say SCOTUS allows an ex post facto change to election law. I would point out the states where Republicans have the "trifecta" are mostly states Trump won anyways. Anywhere else it would require a Democratic governor or a Democratic house to go along with this conspiracy.

https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas

Of states that the Republicans 'could' modify election laws AND was won by Biden I only see:
Georgia
New Hampshire

If you want absolute 100.0000000000000000000000000% mathematical certainty well you will need to wait until the electoral college meets in little over a month but realistically none of this is going to happen.

[skip fox]

26. So maybe we needn't prepare for this possibility. Good.

Last edited Mon Nov 9, 2020, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

But we should know what they are saying and what the President hears and how his egotistical desire for rallies fits into this.

Maybe we needn't worry. Maybe it will prove to be laughable. Be we've said this about a hundred things in the past 5 years before he as tried them, . . . accomplishing some.

But we should remain aware. (Especially as a former federal judge comes on board.)



****************************************************************************

By the way, Starr is a former nemesis of mine. In 1998 a Ph.D. student and I debunked the "Talking Points Memo" which Starr use to be granted by the D.O.J. an extension of authority to look into the "Lewinsky affair." (Just Google "Skip Fox" or "Jack Gillis" and "Talking Points." )

Over eighth months with our essays (which got us on CNN's "Burden of Proof" and dozens of radio programs (Pacifica did hour-long interviews!) and covered by NY Times, NY Observer, Boston Herald, and elsewhere) we slowed down Starr's report (which no longer relied on the "Talking Points Memo" ) by three weeks which may have given time for cooler heads in the Senate to prevail at Clinton's impeachment trial.

https://www.journalism.org/1998/10/20/the-talking-points/

"On the 7/6 CNN Burden of Proof, English Professor John Gillis discussed his report, co-authored with Skip Fox, on the origin of the talking point. He believes there were two authors: "Our hypothesis is that it was some lawyer that was working on Linda Tripp's behalf very conscientious, albeit in haste. The second author seems to be some friend or confidante of Linda Tripp, and you can make your own guesses. We believe the most likely candidate would be Lucianne Goldberg." They speculate she emailed parts of the talking points to Tripp. In an online report on "The Real News Page" on Sept. 17, Gallagher and Fox asserted that sometime subsequent to this TV appearance Lucianne Goldberg reported her hard drive failed."

"While Slate draws no conclusions, two academics -- English professor Skip Fox and his assistant John Gillis of the University of Southwestern Louisiana -- have applied literary forensics to the talking points documents to point their fingers squarely at Tripp and her cohorts.

First of all, they note, there appear to be several versions of the talking points document, indicating multiple authors. Secondly, they say, the content of these various versions does not suggest that Lewinsky was trying to get Tripp to lie about the Willey incident, but only to speak up about doubts that Tripp herself had expressed publicly about Willey's account.

Then, these literary sleuths note, there's the fact that the talking points contain information that Lewinsky and the White House could not have known at the time -- namely that Tripp had been secretly talking to Jones' lawyers from the time she received her subpoena for that case on November 24. To bolster their contention, Fox and Gillis point to what they call a "telling paragraph" in the document in which the anonymous writer says: 'By the way, remember how I said there was someone else that I knew about. Well, she turned out to be a huge liar. I found out that she left the WH (White House) because she was stalking the P (president) or something like that. Well, at least that gets me out of another scandal I know about.'"

So I know this s.o.b. inside and out for what he is and I'd NEVER turn my back on him.

[Statistical]

27. The more worrying long term thing is MAGAts will now never accept the outcome of the election.

That is the plan here. The GOP is weaponizing their stupidity and anger. They are hoping that will cause them to turn out in record numbers in 2022 and 2024 by nurturing this false grievance from now until the next Presidential election.