Trump Train - Never Mind, Trump is DRIVING the Train After All

DaveSchmidt said:

Steve said:

Well, we may find out about faithless electors today (my money is that the Constitution permits faithless electors).

I respect your comments, Steve, but it looks like nine justices had other ideas.

States May Curb ‘Faithless Electors,’ Supreme Court Rules (NYT)

ETA, an excerpt from the decision:

“... the power to appoint an elector (in any manner) includes power to condition his appointment, absent some other constitutional constraint. A State can require, for example, that an elector live in the State or qualify as a regular voter during the relevant time period. Or more substantively, a State can insist (as Ray allowed) that the elector pledge to cast his Electoral College ballot for his party’s presidential nominee, thus tracking the State’s popular vote. Or—so long as nothing else in the Constitution poses an obstacle—a State can add an associated condition of appointment: It can demand that the elector actually live up to his pledge, on pain of penalty. Which is to say that the State’s appointment power, barring some outside constraint, enables the enforcement of a pledge like Washington’s.

”Nothing in the Constitution expressly prohibits States from taking away presidential electors’ voting discretion as Washington does.”

 Meh.  They frequently get it wrong.

drummerboy said:

It’s hard to overstate just how crazy this is. For years, Republicans have been on a cynical rampage against (virtually nonexistent) voter fraud, but there’s always been one thing they didn’t attack: vote-by-mail. Why? Because absentee voting is used mostly by older, whiter voters who vote Republican. The voter fraud cops were interested only in making it harder to vote in person, which is used more by younger, non-white voters who are likely to vote for Democrats.

In other words, Republican strategists know perfectly well which kinds of voting favor which candidates. And the answer is that voting by mail favors Republicans. But Donald Trump didn’t know that because Donald Trump doesn’t know much of anything. So when he saw Democrats demanding vote-by-mail during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, he just naturally assumed it was because vote-by-mail must be good for Democrats. It never occurred to him that this might have been nothing more than a genuine concern for the health and safety of voters. After all, that kind of thing would never occur to him.

So now Republicans are stuck. It’s in their best interest to encourage vote-by-mail, but Trump—and therefore Fox News, talk radio, the Wall Street Journal, etc.—are busily undermining confidence in it. It’s hard to imagine a mess they deserve more.

 as I mentioned in another thread, Trump is likely just trying to lay the groundwork for lawsuits in states where he loses.  I doubt he's thought about it beyond that.  We should remember that in 2016 he was also saying the election was rigged, and wouldn't say that he'd accept the results.  So mail voting is probably just a different pretext for what he was doing the last time.

drummerboy said:

It’s hard to overstate just how crazy this is. For years, Republicans have been on a cynical rampage against (virtually nonexistent) voter fraud, but there’s always been one thing they didn’t attack: vote-by-mail. Why? Because absentee voting is used mostly by older, whiter voters who vote Republican. The voter fraud cops were interested only in making it harder to vote in person, which is used more by younger, non-white voters who are likely to vote for Democrats.

In other words, Republican strategists know perfectly well which kinds of voting favor which candidates. And the answer is that voting by mail favors Republicans. But Donald Trump didn’t know that because Donald Trump doesn’t know much of anything. So when he saw Democrats demanding vote-by-mail during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, he just naturally assumed it was because vote-by-mail must be good for Democrats. It never occurred to him that this might have been nothing more than a genuine concern for the health and safety of voters. After all, that kind of thing would never occur to him.

So now Republicans are stuck. It’s in their best interest to encourage vote-by-mail, but Trump—and therefore Fox News, talk radio, the Wall Street Journal, etc.—are busily undermining confidence in it. It’s hard to imagine a mess they deserve more.

There's always Option 3 - Talk out of both sides of your mouth.

Dishonesty IS their best policy.  

While President Trump has continuously railed against voting by mail, a Republican National Committee robocall in April voiced by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump said voting by mail could be done "safely and securely" https://t.co/Su61NzZ2hD pic.twitter.com/g1C1HMgkBg

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 8, 2020

nohero said:

There's always Option 3 - Talk out of both sides of your mouth.

Dishonesty IS their best policy.  

 

 Well, she married Eric.  She chose him.  That's all anyone need know about her. 

Red_Barchetta said:

 Well, she married Eric.  She chose him.  That's all anyone need know about her. 

 The position of "Mrs Trump" is strictly a temp job anyhow.  Lara is closing in on 40 so Eric is probably out shopping for a new model as we speak.  Brother Don Jr. dumped his first wife moments after her 40th birthday.

Klinker said:

 The position of "Mrs Trump" is strictly a temp job anyhow.  Lara is closing in on 40 so Eric is probably out shopping for a new model as we speak.  Brother Don Jr. dumped his first wife moments after her 40th birthday.

 In the event of a break-up, Lara Trump gets custody of the rest of the Trump family and Eric is cut loose.

Klinker said:

 The position of "Mrs Trump" is strictly a temp job anyhow.  Lara is closing in on 40 so Eric is probably out shopping for a new model as we speak.  Brother Don Jr. dumped his first wife moments after her 40th birthday.

 while this is true, Jr dumped his wife for someone even older than he is.

ml1 said:

 while this is true, Jr dumped his wife for someone even older than he is.

 You "date" the MILF, you marry the 17 year old model/KGB operative.

(after you secure immigration for said model and her extended family with genius visa)

Klinker said:

 You "date" the MILF, you marry the 17 year old model/KGB operative.

(after you secure immigration for said model and her extended family with genius visa)

 Right.  And the milf in question is the ex wife of a prominent Democrat (Gavin Newsome) so there's an element of sticking it to the libs in dating her.