The bawbag has left the building!
A massive 70 year old cheese puff Wotsit with tiny wandering hands.
Around this point I lost my coffee.
Does anyone know the significance of the US flag with vertical stripes? They have one in the field of flags. A mixture of stuff on Google, peacetime flag?
US flag with vertical stripes?
Chinese knock off?
This idea of a civil or peacetime United States flag, such as the one your neighbor is flying, is pretty much an urban myth. It also seems to be a favorite of various conspiracy or anti-tax groups.
Here's the deal: In 1799 the U.S. Treasury Department had something called the Revenue Cutter Service, charged with enforcing custom rules and stopping smugglers. It was the forerunner of today's Coast Guard.
Congress authorized the service to fly a flag of 16 vertical red and white stripes. Sixteen stripes because there were 16 states at the time. The idea was to distinguish customers-enforcement ships from military ships. That's where people today somehow got the idea there is an official civil flag separate from the military Stars and Stripes.
There were a couple different versions of the first customs flag, mostly involving the arrangements of an eagle and stars. Of course, there were also various versions of the U.S. flag until the design we use today (plus two more stars) was specified by executive order in 1912.
And something very similar to that original Revenue Cutter Service Ensign is used today by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Quite the rallying cry from Bernie here. If only we had someone like him in the UK.
Dunno. I can’t help thinking that if he believes that is what is best for his country, perhaps he should have got himself elected.
New Radicals re-forming for a one-off performance of You Get What You Give at the inauguration. 😀
fashion tips for the left leaning inauguration attendee
https://twitter.com/rubycramer/status/1351915535647330306
Quite the rallying cry from Bernie here.
Indeed, yes.
Would like to think that Biden was aware of what Sanders intended to write; it's not as if Sanders is just another Senate member - incoming chair of budget committee, strong personal and political support.
Must be tempting to use the reconciliation process given that McConnell is unwilling to cede the filibuster.
Quite the rallying cry from Bernie here. If only we had someone like him in the UK.
what, some out-of-touch unelectable old bloke? We've been there I think
though not having agent orange there is probably the best thing, it's kinda of going to reinforce the Don the outsider fighting the "swamp" in the eyes of the trumpist base. It's coming over as very chummy and happy that the cheese puff is off to florida.
Was anyone else hoping they'd just open the door of Air Force 1 and push him out? :p disappointed 🙁
I’d have loved to see him walk up to the heliclopter and for the door to remain closed while an Uber cab beeped at him from the front gate.
qanon are expecting the green goblin to show up on his glider and blow them all away with radiation grenade.
Kinda disappointed they didn’t leave an empty seat for Donny at the inauguration.
have foreign leaders ever been invited to this ? or is it always an all US affair.
imnotverygood
Full MemberDunno. I can’t help thinking that if he believes that is what is best for his country, perhaps he should have got himself elected.
Seriously?
what, some out-of-touch unelectable old bloke? We’ve been there I think
Yeah we chose the lazy, lying narcissist instead, and it's going REALLY well.
Just been in a meeting with some American colleagues. I congratulated them on having a new head of state and pretty much got a "meh".
To quote their jokes:
"Trump is deranged, Biden is just senile" and "Kamela will be taking over soon enough".
Edit: I think they were mostly Democrats too...
donnie bone spurs desperate to tweet somethin about size of the crowd, he must be going up the wall 😀
Love a bit of Laday Gaga but she's a bit lefty and I reckon Britney or that Pimp guy that toured with Trump woulda been better to unite the angry gun-toters.
@jimdubleyou - Kamela Harris becoming president would send the right-wing nut jobs completely mental!
and it's done
and it's good to see Pence there
Get. In.
Oh, nine minutes to go. Hang on, people!
How can you be pardoned for a crime you haven’t been convicted of? 🤔
A pardon can been given at any time after the act is committed, he can't pardon anyone for crimes they've not yet committed, but anything after the fact is fair game.
They're not supposed to be a 'get out of jail free' card for the mates of a President, although that has happened before, it's not really rare. Bill Clinton pardoned his Brother for Cocaine possession for example.
Doesn't mean they're off the hook completely, if they really want to they can still go ahead with Steve Bannon's case, he can still be found guilty and he would still be banned from doing certain things as a convicted felon, voting, he may also be banned from some roles in government. He just can't be punished for it.
Also, it's only a pardon for federal criminal crimes, he can still be tried on a state level, or in a civil case.
I'm hoping the news will cut to Florida at 5 past 5 showing Trump being dragged out of his club in handcuffs after having been tasered.
It's now noon in DC so it's official - President Biden.
So Biden's song of choice permits us to smash a merecedes benz? Cool .
get on with it, fbi on stand by ffs
what, some out-of-touch unelectable old bloke?
Which bits do you disagree with?
Are we done here? Are we all off back to the Donny thread for the orange jumpsuit shit?
Ah Garth Brooks for the Republicans. Green Goblin in disguise?
"out-of-touch"
Given his support from the youth, wouldn't that put him very much in-touch?
Sad to see this thread end. thank you to everyone who posted I really enjoyed following it.
Sad to see this thread end. thank you to everyone who posted I really enjoyed following it.
Very much this. Thank you, I have come back to this thread as events have unfolded, getting a kind of real time commentary from people that actually understand it has been invaluable.
And I also enjoyed chewkw's input.
It's been nice to see the end of Cadet bone spur.
He had no style,he had no class.
His big fat face was like a well skelped arse.
Now that he's gone, time for a fair and balanced assesment I think.
Watch till the end....
I very much enjoyed poet lady Amanda Gorman. Something you wouldn't catch me saying normally
Now that he’s gone, time for a fair and balanced assesment I think
Excellent vid as well, he's got skills
Thanks everyone for contributing to the thread. I never thought it would be so bigly when I started it. 😀 It’s been great fun especially on the first weekend as we all watched Biden start to overtake Trump in the key states. Special thanks to thols for his Twitter reportage.
Probably best let it sleep for four years and we can resurrect it again and rename it in 2024.
Onwards to the Biden thread I guess.
Office argument need settling.
Could a president who has served 2 terms then be elected as vice president further down the line?
Now that he’s gone, time for a fair and balanced assesment I think.
Watch till the end….
Well played.
@thepodge - no or maybe yes. The twelfth amendment states:
"no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
While the 22nd amendment states:
concerns qualifications for election, and thus (strictly applying the text) a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president (neither amendment restricts the number of times an individual can be elected to the vice presidency), and then succeed to the presidency to serve out the balance of the term (though prohibited from running for election to an additional term)
It's not been tested yet!
So probably but unlikely.
Gerald Ford is the only person to have served as president despite having never been elected to either the presidency or the vice-presidency (Nixon's VP, Spiro Agnew, resigned so Ford was taken on as VP. Nixon was then impeached in the Watergate scandal and resigned so Ford then became president). So could Ford have then served two terms? I.e. is a partial term counted for the purposes of the constitution as a full term?
Could a president who has served 2 terms then be elected as vice president further down the line?
The job that's "not worth a bucket of warm piss." No two-term President is going to waste their time as VP. Being an ex-President means 6-figure fees for speeches, book deals, etc. If the President dies, a two-term ex-President would be prohibited from taking over, so no party will ever nominate them.
What would be more interesting is if you had a team of Pres. and VP who agreed to swap jobs and actually share the decision making. That would give them 16 years of power if they could keep winning elections. Doesn't work if one guy does the first eight years, would only work if they agree to alternate the jobs.
Plus: Trump in a support role for anyone else in the entire universe? No chance!
I.e. is a partial term counted for the purposes of the constitution as a full term?
They are limited to 10 years, so they can serve two full terms as an elected President, plus less than two years as an appointed President. Or multiple terms as an appointed President if they kept ending up as VP and the President kept dying.
Proud Boys turning their back on Trump now
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/technology/proud-boys-trump.html
A potential mismatch between vaccine supply and demand “is not a commercial risk efficiently mitigated by the market or the MDBs,” the Citi advisors wrote, referring to multilateral development banks such as the World Bank.
Plus: Trump in a support role for anyone else in the entire universe? No chance!
Ivanka/Donald Jnr as president while he really calls the shots? I've got a hunch that was his grand plan all along (in the same way to Putin being Russian 'PRIME MINISTER' for 4 years while Medvedev was the 'president'), hopefully last weeks events have ended any chance of this, but in today's America not much would surprise me. I've said this before but if I was in Trumps position now, I'd be more concerned with some nut job, AR15 owning disgruntled former supporters than even thinking about running for office again
QAnon members confused - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-55746304
some in the QAnon community had an uncomfortable meeting with reality.
Lovely.
Q's been playing them all along!
Now that he’s gone, time for a fair and balanced assesment I think.
Watch till the end….
Well played.
Raised a smile 🙂
Raised a smile
He's good. On the back of that one I watched a few of his others. He's a big, white, bearded American in his garage - kind of stereotypical Trumpian. But he's not - anything but. In a time when most you tump content turns the rant dial to 11 he has a calm yet purposeful style.
I like those Beau vids, nice bite size informed opinion.
**SPOILER ALERT**
The one linked above is good, only thing missing is his explanation of why fascism is bad, I don't expect many Q or particularly right wing people are watching it but if they think those 12 points are then they probably think fascism isn't such a bad thing so why not give it a go.
Haven’t you heard? It’s not over yet. Trust the plan.
Here, let this nice, not at all nuts, QAnon lady explain how Trump will become “19th President” of the free United States in March 4th: the proper inauguration date.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSwMhpba/
"The one linked above is good, only thing missing is his explanation of why fascism is bad, I don’t expect many Q or particularly right wing people are watching it ..."
That's where we've got to unfortunately, having to work out how to explain to people that fascism is bad. Whilst I agree that it might not be reaching Q nuts and right wingers, I dont think he's trying to work on them. He's trying to work on us first, giving us the tools and some tips on how to start a conversation in a less adversarial (and entirely factual)way.
I've been following him for the couple of years he's been doing his channel and haven't seen another journalist or commentator come close to him in terms of precision, prescience and integrity. He is a fierce intellect with an philosophical and sceptical approach.
His weekly views must be in the millions now, so he's managed to become a self financing, independent journalist, (or as independent as anyone relying on YouTube advertising revenue can be!). Though given the programme format Im sure Jack Hargreaves would stand a good chance if he decided to sue.
It's like watching Willie Nelson presenting Newsnight.
If “beau of the fifths” curious george cap badge is upside down then you know its gonna be a howler of a video.
Election fraud you say?
The biggest fraud on the electorate is the various forms of voter suppression practiced by the republicans.
And ghost candidates....... candidates with no record, no platform and without even a photograph of them provided. The ghost candidate in Florida district 37 was found to be the cleaner for a Florda congressman's staffer, who paid his cleaner about 10,000 dollars to stand against the democrat contender. The democrat contenders surname was Rodriguez. Guess what the surname of the cleaner was? The cleaner still got over 7000 votes. The republicans won by about 50 votes. (The specific connection to the republican party was only discovered after this YouTube video was made. They're called ghost candidates for a reason you know!).
This happens a lot though seems little talked about.
ghost candidates
- yes, I remember reading about that at the time - scandalous.
The biggest fraud on the electorate is the various forms of voter suppression practiced by the republicans.
Couldn't agree with this more - it the Dems achieve one thing in the next four years, they must get a new law passed to stop the blatant ways in which republicans tried to suppress votes: closing poling stations in districts with the most Dem voters to the point that it was absurd, people waiting in line for almost a whole day to vote, literally removing post boxes and sabotaging the mail service to try to minimise the impact of mail-in ballots.
Whilst I agree that it might not be reaching Q nuts and right wingers, I dont think he’s trying to work on them. He’s trying to work on us first, giving us the tools and some tips on how to start a conversation in a less adversarial (and entirely factual)way.
I'm a Beau fan too. His videos are actually being used by (at least) one NGO in America to try to de-radicalize young people drawn to the extreme right. Good on him.
people waiting in line for almost a whole day to vote
Yeah I had a few incredulous conversations with Americans during the election where I pointed out that in the UK (and most other democratic countries) we don't need to take an entire day off work to vote, or show up with camping equipment to wait in line. But.. 'MURICA! Yeah! etc etc
I’m a Beau fan too.
He has just recently joined TikTok too (as @beauofthefifthcolumn) only five videos but already at over 6000 followers and 25k likes, which is good as there is a festering right-wing movement on there which is targeting young people.
inkster
Free MemberThe biggest fraud on the electorate is the various forms of voter suppression practiced by the republicans.
Of course. In fact there's a video clip of biden that right wingers love, where he says "we have the biggest voter fraud network in the history of the world". It gets reposted endlessly, because they've cropped it to make it seem like "we" is Biden and co and not what he's actually talking about, voter suppression and gerrymandering.
I guess I just don't understand how anyone that believes in democracy can also believe in voter suppression, it's black and white.
I guess I just don’t understand how anyone that believes in democracy can also believe in voter suppression, it’s black and white.
Again, it's the politics of grievance - if you tell people that stuff is being taken away from them by a specific group, while taking stuff away from them then they'll demand redress. Conservative voices are being silenced, don't forget.
It's also very, very easy to dupe folk with an edited video with no context.
voter suppression, it’s black and white.
I believe that is the point...
literally removing post boxes and sabotaging the mail service
They actually set up fake voting boxes to 'harvest ballots', and refused to take them down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/california-gop-drop-boxes.html
One theory would be that Republicans accuse Democrats of voter fraud because they themselves do it so they assume that their opponents are as inclined to act in bad faith as they themselves are.
Seeing the images of people waiting in line to cast their vote in the US election reminded me of the footage of the first post apartheid election in South Africa, although the context is very different.
In one country, a system of polling stations needed to be set up to serve the 90% of the population that had never had the opportunity to vote before. People waited patiently and with understanding. Other imagery from the US recently has reminded me of imagery from South Africa as well, most notably the policing of the Ferguson protests and the many subsequent paramilitary deployments. Only that imagery reminds me of the old apartheid South Africa.
It's worth remembering that the SA election ushered in the most progressive of constitutions with civil rights for all at its heart.
And the other country we call the beacon of democracy.
Pleased to see the Beau love and that he seems to be expanding his outreach. It felt like good karma when I posted that video and it popped up at the top of the page, his sitting there with a grin on his face for a month, knowing that the thread aint dead yet and that the thread remains valid for as long as the 2020 result continues to be disputed.
It's just a thought.....