Is the Trump Coup underway?

There'll be some way to get them out.
Backbench them if need be, but no way Trump gets his hands on inside intel that he has no business of knowing. God knows where he'd send that info. He certainly had no need for the intel community while in office.

 

Also I think its a bad loophole in the system to allow 'burrowing'. You should not be allowed tobecome a civil service employee after serving as a political appointee under the same administration. Its simply festering of partisanshipin the service.

There should be a minimum timeoff (maybe 2yrs) between being a political appointee and joining the civil service, and it should be under different administrations.

 

I'd like to agree with you, but I've been caught repeatedly in overestimating people's patriotism. Almost the entire Republican Congress refused to consider the impeachment charges when the dude was caught red-handed. Very few are ever willing to criticize when he's done obviously immoral things or breaks with party values. And they now are afraid to acknowledge that Biden won the election. I haven't seen any indication that I should expect they will magically develop a backbone if Trump tries to stay in power.

He has also been precedent-setting in asserting the President's power to make personnel decisions in the agencies. If Biden has the courage for it, I think he has a window where he would be able to get away with yanking those people out of staff positions and firing people who were customarily autonomous, like the FBI director.

I think she's maybe the one person justified in not yet recognizing Biden's victory. I think it is reasonable for her to insist on waiting for the certified results on Dec 14 because her recognition has practical and irreversible impacts on governance. The recognition from a Senator or Governor is only political.

 

The EC was implemented to prevent a populist like Trump from gaining power. This is actually the first test of that implementation.

 

What Policies benefit the majority? Cutting Taxes for the rich?

 

True, and it failed (in the sense that a tyrannical populist came into power). It also was written when there was no way presidential candidates could practically reach their message to the people on farms everywhere.

 

That was never the point of the EC

Perhaps, but again the intent was to put as many checks as possible on potential tyranny. While today the popular vote would have defeated Trump, that will not always hold true. We have to consider not just the situation today, but the situation in 100 years which will likely look completely different than today's division.

If you want to get rid of the EC, just make sure we replace it with something that's better not just in the here and now, but will be strong enough to ensure that a demagogue doesn't gain power again. Before we replace what we have, we have to ask, what kind of system would have stopped Trump?

 

+1 So much this. Many of my friends, even or especially the more liberal ones, now think transfer of power will be trivial, and it may well be. A coup is very difficult in a country this large and this free. Yes.

But in terms of supporting whatever he attempts to do, the GOP establishment has shown zero backstop so far. Emoluments, obstruction, egregious lying, and now disputing a clear election result. Where is the backstop?

Could Trump, for instance, convince enough of the military to "protect" him from the "coup of Joe Biden," encircling the White House in a Jan. 20 standoff, while Hannity and Fox give a biased or even "both sides" argument to the standoff. All cable news would love this for the ratings.

I know this sounds crazy, but it also sounded crazy when I said months ago that I couldn't see him conceding an election defeat. That sounded really crazy. Bill Barr's ongoing behavior would have sounded really crazy. Sec. of State publicly disputing a clear election result? You guessed it, that would have sounded insane too.

 

Good points.

It was an experimental exercise of putting a compromise into practice. The theory of intellectual electors was based on the assumption that the masses were dumb and hard to reach. The former is still true, but definitely not the latter.

And it completely changed as a check when parties developed 14 years into our grand experiment. Over the next 20 years, independent electors disappeared and became push button monkeys for parties, which they still are today (reaffirmed 9-0 by SCOTUS last year when faithless electors sued Washington for fining them for not voting for Hillary).

So for all practical purposes, how is the current EC a check on anything? All it is a power booster for small states.

If George Wallace would have won enough electoral votes to prevent Nixon or Humphrey from getting 270, he would have used his states to give him the power of king-maker. He would have sold the presidency to whoever would have kept segregation alive in the deep south.

How is that scenario any worse than popular vote?

None of these ideas are great inherently, and wholly dependent on the people who implement them.

 

Esper was going to be fired after the election anyway. I'm surprised Wray still has a job since the FBI has disgraced itself. I'm not sure why Hasper is still there considering her Steele connection while she was the London Chief.

Here's a link to a theory on why Pilgar pushed out:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blo...y_the_msm_narrative.html#.X6v611C82TY.twitter

 

How is it a clear election result when there are recounts going on? I'd call it 'seemingly', not clear. But it's a free country.

 

If some of you are uncomfortable with recounting and auditing an election... ask yourself why? This will ensure our democracy is functioning correctly. If Biden won fair and square like you all claim, then there is nothing to worry about. There is no need to freak out and start COUP threads when there is a simple legal matter to attend to. I see a lot of loud talk and chest beating about Biden winning, but these actions indicate that the confidence I see if merely surface level. Deep down some of you know what's comin'. Deep down you know a court case where Trump's team may reveal serious election fraud is on its way. Enough to possibly change the perceived outcome. One that has not yet been finalized in any legal way.

I will remind you all that the media does not determine the outcome of elections. They are actually a small group of rich entities that want to push an agenda. The same agenda. And they have biases. However, the government does determine the outcome. That includes our judicial branch which will play a role now. I look forward to the outcome no matter who wins. Because it will reveal the legal winner and ensure our democracy. Shouldn't you?

Or ask yourself... would you be comfortable with Biden as president solely as a result of fraud? Would you be OK with ending our Democratic Republic over this?

 

Give me a break.

 

You’re a full blown troll.

Biden did not win because of fraud. He won because Trump is a historically unpopular and hated President.

By denying the validity of our fair and free elections you’re effectively engaging in sedition.

 

Don't fear something if you're in the right brother.... common what is there to worry about... Biden didn't cheat so why would there be something to worry about?

Unless they did.



But why would they openly admit it? Stupidity? Dementia? Or it's so brazen they are telling you so it is unbelievable? I don't know... but hey they guy said it. There's evidence. And it's goin' to court.

And the evidence goes beyond this BTW. But there is a confession right there. There is an army of witnesses coming forward as well.

 

It's not sedition when there is evidence. Actually, it's not even sedition to have that opinion. It's a free country... still... unless you and yours get your way and start throwing people away for disagreeing. Tons of people have come forward on this. They are called witnesses. The ballots that will be looked at will be the evidence. There is something called a discovery period and I expect more to come out.

Who are the modern nazis? Def. the ones trying to remove people for disagreeing. People like you buddy. You're as authoritarian as they come with that comment.

Now everyone can see what an authoritarian psycho you are. Good job.

 

And impeachment was the guard rail against a criminal POTUS. How dd that work out?

 

It failed, and we've seen too many Republicans encouraging states to send Pro-Trump voters to the EC and ignore the election result. Get rid of it and we need massive election and judicial reform, IMO. What Mitch McConnell has done is damaging to our Democracy. What many Democrats want to do with the courts, is damaging to our Democracy. What Trump is pushing is damaging to our Democracy.

 

I'm completely comfortable with the audit and have faith in state and federal judges as a whole (even if some may be looney).
I'm actually comfortable with Trump being Trump and claiming the only reason he lost is due to fraud, but I get the argument that his words undermine our democratic institutions.

I'm a courts junkie, so I've been following a lot of these cases. And while most are laughable in the sense that Trump lawyers are basically pissing off judges with dumbass claims, there are some legitimate ones that have legal ground - mainly Pennsylvania ballots postmarked by election day and received after. All reports say that those are only in the thousands and make no difference in who wins the state.

The main theme of Trump supporter arguments is about absolute access. And I think the Nevada judge had the best summary against that argument and why these cases won't win throughout most states courts (in addition to lack of evidence and much frivolousness):

Basically, every state has its rules in place already. Most states are run big Republicans in all three branches (senate, house, governor), with the rest about equally split between Democratic control and bipartisan government. States have been given the right to run elections for the most part by the Constitution (elections clause) and intrepretated to have much discretion by SCOTUS.

So basically you have elections going forever under this format, and now you have massive objections by one party saying they don't have enough oversight power. That's just not going to win. Maybe in the future, both parties will rewrite the rules through Congress. But Biden can make every single claim for access that Trump did in red states, saying they didn't see enough to their party's standards. There's no legal ground to throw out results based on states following their own rules unless there's a clear violation of the 14th amendment or something (like Florida's recount in 2000).