Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon suggests his old boss will win the next election with 400 electoral votes.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

Steve Bannon has a message for “the good folks at Vanity Fair”, stating Donald Trump will “not only finish his term” but gain a landslide 400 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. 

Speaking at the controversial Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, Bannon hit back at a report from Vanity Fair that suggested he did not have any faith that his former boss would finish out his first term. 

The former White House chief strategist said on Saturday in comments carried by ABC News: “The populist, nationalist, conservative revolt that’s going on, that drove Donald Trump to victory, that drove Judge Moore to victory, that will drive 15 candidates to victory in 2018, and well, I hate to break the news to Graydon Carter and the good folks at Vanity Fair, but yes, President Trump is not only going to finish this term he’s going to win with 400 electoral votes in 2020.”

That is almost a hundred more electoral votes than Trump "won" in 2016. That number was 306.

In order for Trump to achieve something like that he would have to....well he would have to either run as somebody completely different, or the Russians would have to do a much better job of hacking our election.

Of course this statement came in retaliation to the Vanity Fair article which quoted two sources saying that Bannon had only given Trump a 30% of making it through the first term.

This could simply be a case of Bannon attempting to do a little damage control, or he could in fact be this delusional.

As for that last possibility Bannon also said this during his appearance at the Values Voter Summit.

Bannon slams GOP senators for not denouncing Corker, who "has mocked and ridiculed a commander-in-chief when we have kids in the field." pic.twitter.com/moI5pt0HzH

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 14, 2017

It should be pointed out that there was long line of Republican politicians who were criticizing President Obama while he was the Commander-in-Chief and we had "kids in the field."

In fact didn't Bannon's former boss suggest that Obama was not a legitimate president? 

Hillary Clinton calls for the end of the Electoral College.

This was a few days ago, but I just saw it today and wanted to put my two cents in as well.

I DEFINITELY think that it is time for us to discard the Electoral College as it has now cost the Democrats two separate presidential elections and clearly does not adequately represent the will of the people.

What's more I think that doing away with the Electoral College will inspire more people to vote, since their vote will CERTAINLY count and they will not be disenfranchised by the knowledge that no matter who they vote for their state ALWAYS goes for either the Republican or Democratic candidate.

It will also make it MUCH more difficult for foreign nations (I'm looking at you Russia.) to hijack our elections, or for machines to change enough votes to steal victory away from the candidate with the most support.

The downside of course is that it will certainly take longer to tally the votes and in fact we may not be able to determine a clear winner for several days.

However I would much rather practice my patience and KNOW that the person who throws the victory party a few days late had the most votes, rather than wonder for months who had actually chosen the person preparing their inaugural address.

Bipartisan legal team finds that more than 50 illegally seated Electoral College members cast a vote for Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Salon: 

More than 50 Electoral College members who voted for Donald Trump were ineligible to serve as presidential electors because they did not live in the congressional districts they represented or held elective office in states legally barring dual officeholders. 

That stunning finding is among the conclusions of an extensive 1,000-plus page legal briefing prepared by a bipartisan nationwide legal team for members of Congress who are being urged to object to certifying the 2016 Electoral College results on Friday. 

“Trump’s ascension to the presidency is completely illegitimate,” said Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action, who is promoting the effort. “It’s not just Russians hacking our democracy. It’s not just voter suppression at unprecedented levels. It is also [that] there are Republicans illegally casting ballots in the Electoral College, and in a sufficient number that the results of the Electoral College proceedings are illegitimate as well.” 

"Republicans like to talk all the time about people voting illegally,” Clayton continued. “We have a list of a bunch of Republicans that allegedly voted illegally in the Electoral College. Pam Bondi is the attorney general of the state of Florida and the Florida Constitution says that you cannot hold two offices. And she holds the office of Attorney General and she holds the office of federal elector in the Electoral College. That is a violation of the law. That is a violation of the Constitution. And the vote that she cast in this election is illegal.”

I think that anybody who feels this election was legitimate is simply lying to themselves.

I really do not feel that we can reveal anything at this point that will keep Trump out of the White House, but if we fail to recognize the despicable tactics that the Republicans are willing to use we will never be prepared for what they do the next time.

That sense of foreboding you felt a little while ago was Donald Trump's election being certified by the electors. Something wicked this way comes.

#Breaking News: President-elect @realDonaldTrump has garnered the 270 #ElectoralCollege votes needed to become president. pic.twitter.com/e8xIf1NOQq

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 19, 2016

Courtesy of NBC: 

The Electoral College formalized Donald Trump's election victory on Monday despite protests around the country to encourage GOP electors to abandon the Republican. 

The president-elect easily racked up the 270 electoral votes needed to send him to the White House. Interest in the normally mundane voting process spiked this year as opposition to Trump continues to fester, fueled by Clinton's success in capturing more than 2.6 million more votes than her Republican opponent.

Anti-Trump protesters descended on state capitols throughout the U.S. in a last-ditch effort to persuade so-called "faithless electors" in states Trump won to change their vote. Many of the Republicans casting ballots said they were inundated with calls and emails urging them to switch their votes.

All I can say is that we fought out little heart's out, but in the end I think this was all but a forgone conclusion.

The time to keep this megalomaniac out of the White House was back in November, and for a variety of reasons, most of them mistaken, people did not vote in sufficient numbers to make that happen.

For the record I will NEVER refer to this guy as President Trump, and when I do use the word "president" when referring to him it will always remain in lower case, because let's face it he is a tiny, insignificant, stubby fingered, vulgarian, and the title of "President" is too prestigious a title to ever apply to him.

We must never forget that he did NOT win this election.

He, his Russian puppet masters, the useful idiots of Wikileaks , and the FBI cronies, STOLE this election from, here let me take this term back, We The People.

He is not now, and never will be, my president.

And in four years we are coming to take our White House back from this Russian backed interloper.

Count on it!

Inauguration Day will be a National Day of Mourning. Protest, wear black, boycott tv coverage, flags at half mast. More info coming soon. pic.twitter.com/NbkYeiLZXa

— George D. (@xdelmar59) December 19, 2016

A last pitch by Hollywood to appeal to the conscience of the Electoral College.

Donald Trump has not been elected president. The real election takes place December 19, when the 538 Electoral College Electors cast their ballots – for anyone they want. 

If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, in 14 of the states in Trump's column, they can vote for Hillary Clinton without any legal penalty if they choose. 

We are calling on “Conscientious Electors” to protect the Constitution from Donald Trump, and to support the national popular vote winner. 

Mr. Trump is unfit to serve. His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic. 

I have to admit that I was not on board with this attempt to get the electors to change their vote, but the closer we get to D-Day (January 20th) the more I am looking for must about ANYTHING to stop the inevitable from being inevitable.

Here is the petition if you feel the same.

Forty members of the Electoral College demand an intelligence briefing before casting this vote, while Trump campaign threatens members with a "political reprisal."

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Forty members of the Electoral College on Tuesday signed a letter demanding an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the election ahead of their Dec. 19 vote. 

Ten electors originally signed the letter when it was published Monday, and 30 more have since added their names. 

The open letter — led by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — urged Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to give a detailed briefing on President-elect Donald Trump's ties to Russia. 

“We further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States,” the letter read. The Clinton campaign applauded the effort Monday, saying it had repeatedly warned about Russian interference aimed at swaying the election in Trump’s favor.

Now there are 538 electors altogether and it only requires 270 electors to give Trump the presidency, however if enough of these electors receive a briefing and then decide that they cannot in good conscience cast their ballot for Donald Trump that could throw a monkey wrench into this whole thing.

And as unlikely as that scenario might feel, there is at least some concern on the part of the Trump campaign.

Courtesy of Salon:

Donald Trump’s campaign is pressuring Republican electors into voting for them under “threats of political reprisal,” according to a member of the Electoral College who spoke to Salon under the condition of anonymity. 

“We have gotten reports from multiple people,” the elector said, “that the Donald Trump campaign is putting pressure on Republican electors to vote for him based on . . . future political outcomes based on whether they vote for Donald Trump or not.” 

The elector emphasized that these reports had come straight from the Republican electors themselves, with the threats steering clear of violence but instead focusing on “career pressure.” 

“It’s all political, basically,” the elector said. “If Trump becomes the president, he’s going to be able to put pressure on the state parties and they won’t be involved anymore.”

Sounds like somebody might be a little worried.

Interestingly enough I happened to catch a little of MTP Daily on MSNBC the other day, and after discussing the fact that the Electoral College was created in order to protect America from a candidate put in place and controlled by another country, Chuck Todd made this statement:

"If we are not going to use the Electoral College we should abolish it."

His point being that if the Electoral College was created to prevent the very thing we are witnessing right now, and it fails to stop it, then what use is it?

And while I rarely agree with Chuck Todd on anything, I thought that was a very valid point to make.

Clinton campaign publicly supports an effort by the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing concerning Russia's involvement with the election before casting their ballots.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Hillary Clinton’s top political adviser John Podesta said the campaign is supporting an effort by members of the Electoral College to request an intelligence briefing on foreign intervention in the presidential election. 

“The bipartisan electors' letter raises very grave issues involving our national security,” Podesta said in a statement Monday. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”

“Each day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,” he said. “Despite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.” 

Podesta's statement is the first public statement from the Clinton campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of Donald Trump's victory.

This is a great idea.

I think that knowing for sure that your election was legitimate is a good idea before you cast your vote for the President of the United States.

But hey, that's just me.

By the way it should also be pointed out that Hillary's popular vote victory is now over 2.8 million. (2,843,860 to be exact.)

Courtesy of the Independent:  

Donald Trump lost the popular vote in last month’s US presidential election by a bigger margin than any other US president in history. 

The Republican is currently trailing Democrat rival Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes as the last remaining postal ballots are counted – despite him winning the November 8 election because of the Electoral College system. 

That deficit is more than five times bigger than the 544,000 by which George W. Bush lost to Al Gore in 2000 - the second biggest popular vote deficit in history for a candidate who has still gone on to become President. 

It appears that James Comey, Wikileaks, and Vladimir Putin did not do such a bang up job of stealing this election after all.

Petition urging the Electoral College to choose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump now has the most signatures in Change.org history.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A petition urging the Electoral College to make Hillary Clinton the president of the United States is now the largest in Charge.org history. The petition, started by social worker Daniel Brezenoff last month, has received more than 4.6 million signatures. 

Millions of people have added their names to the online petition calling to block President-elect Donald Trump from taking the White House. The petition called on 149 electors to ignore their states' votes and instead cast ballots for Clinton on Dec. 19. 

 "Donald Trump is a danger to the Constitution," Brezenoff said, in a release, "and the electors have the power to stop him." The petition argues that Clinton should be president because she won the popular vote.


Damn 4.6 million is nothing to sneeze at!

It kind of makes me wonder how many of them were third party voters or former Bernie Bros who decided to sit this one out and are now desperate to somehow repair the damage done by their ignorance about the political system.

Not that it makes much difference, the chance of this actually changing the outcome of this election is incredibly unlikely.

Which is something that the Clinton campaign understands all to well:

"Believe me if there was anything I could do to make Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States I would," said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a longtime Clinton supporter. "But this is a big waste of time."

If this whole election debacle makes any positive change whatsoever, I would hope it would be to  finally convince Americans that voting third party or sitting out elections opens the door for the very worst candidates to win an election that they have no business winning.

Donald Trump has just put to rest any question as to whether he is mentally fit to be president. (He is not.) Update!

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

Now just roll that around in your head for a bit.

Currently Hillary is ahead in the popular vote by over 2.2 million.

Is Trump REALLY suggesting that ALL of those votes were cast illegally?

(Yes he is and here is where he got that idea.)

But hey, its gets even better.

It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4--

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

states instead of the 15 states that I visited. I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

So you see Donald Trump was not really trying to win the popular vote, but if he HAD been trying to win the popular vote then buy God he WOULD have won the popular vote, which actually he DID win if not for all of those totally illegal votes.

Which begs the question, just exactly what COULD he have done to win that popular vote, which he totally already won?

Rigged the election even harder perhaps?

I'm sorry but this is not a well man.

He is clearly worried about something, and it is causing him to crack even before he takes he oath of office.

So now here's a question. You know just for shits and giggles.

Hillary Clinton's popular vote lead has now reached over 2 million. Just a little ammo for you as you head off to face that conservative uncle this Thanksgiving day.

Our real President at a Rhode Island bookstore.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in the popular vote surpassed 2 million Wednesday morning, according to Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 

Clinton has garnered 64,223,958 votes, compared to Trump’s 62,206,395 votes. 

By Nov. 15, the Democratic nominee’s advantage had crossed the 1-million mark and ballooned to 1.5 million by Sunday.

This is now the largest discrepancy between the electoral college and the popular vote in American history.

So when that conservative family member starts strutting around the dinner table crowing about how your side lost and their side won, remind them that it is only because of our archaic voting system. And that in hearts of the majority of the American people Hillary Clinton is the actual winner.

Also remind them that Hillary Clinton was unjustifiably investigated and attacked by the Republicans over her private e-mail server in the early days of the campaign, even though the Bush administration also used private servers and destroyed 22 million e-mails that the American people were never allowed to see.

That led to a completely unprecedented FBI "investigation" which ultimately exonerated her. 

Then remind them that the Russian government hacked the White House, the State Department, the DNC, and the Clinton Campaign all in an attempt to get a hold of Hillary's e-mails, most of which she managed to keep out of their clutches by utilizing that private server.

You might also remind them that the Russians then leaked what they DID find to Wikileaks who distributed it for media consumption in an attempt to help Donald Trump win this election.

At that point you should mention that when it looked like that might not be enough, and Clinton was handily leading in the polls, that FBI Director James Comey then broke longstanding protocol to essentially suggest that Hillary Clinton might still be under investigation due to new evidence that might or might not exist. (Of course it did not exist which is something Comey could easily have discovered well before his announcement.)

You may or may not inject into the conversation at that point the fact that there are also a number of top computer experts who are urging the Clinton campaign to call for a recount after finding numerous troubling discrepancies in the vote count.

To sum the whole thing up you might look into that smug face of theirs and declare that maybe Trump won, and maybe he didn't.

But what we know for sure is that he not only lied about his opponent at every opportunity, but that also he benefited from the criminal cyber attacks against our country by a foreign nation and the interference of the FBI, without whom he would NEVER have had a shot at wining.

In other words he would have lost if he had not cheated, and if others had not cheated on his behalf.

Then you reach over and grab that last serving of pumpkin pie, because you just won the argument and you totally deserve it.

Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump in the popular vote by almost 1.7 million.

Courtesy of Slate: 

Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over President-elect Donald Trump keeps growing and currently stands at 1.677 million votes. On Election Day, Clinton received 63,541,056 votes compared to Trump’s 61,864,015 while other candidates received 7,034,595 votes, according to the latest numbers published by the Cook Political Report. So far the numbers show Clinton obtained 48 percent of the popular vote, compared to Trump’s 46.7 percent. 

The numbers mean that Clinton’s lead in the popular vote is, so far at least, much greater than Al Gore’s advantage when he won the most number of votes but still did not become president. In 2000, Gore received 50,996,582 votes compared to 50,456,062 for George W. Bush—an advantage of 540,520 votes.

This of course is unprecedented and it frustrates the crap out of a whole lot of us who think the electoral college is now interfering with our democracy. 

However I really believe that petitions like this one encouraging members of the Electoral College to become "faithless electors" and vote their conscience instead of representing the outcome in their state are a waste of time, and very short sighted.

Remember something that seems like a good idea while partisan passions are high, might come back and bite us in the ass when the shoe is on the other foot.

Should we ultimately do away with the electoral college, as Senator Barbara Boxer is proposing?

Sure I think that it is well past time to do so.

Will it happen?

Nope, not while the Republicans are in charge of the House and the Senate.

But someday, yes I think we need to bring back the concept of one person one vote.

As it stands right now we appear to be the least democratic member of the democratic nations of the world.

And for America that is a very troubling position indeed.

Hillary Clinton now has more than one million more votes than Donald Trump.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Hillary Clinton has surpassed 1 million in her popular vote margin over President-elect Donald Trump, according to a Tuesday tally from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 

Trump won the White House via the Electoral College a week ago, while the former secretary of State is now the fifth nominee in American history to win the popular vote but lose the presidency. 

At first I was a little confused by this post because the numbers they used actually did now show Hillary ahead by a million.

However when I clicked this link it proved that she was indeed ahead 62,414,099 to 61,255,290, so yes she is comfortably ahead by well over a million votes.

Of course in our current system it doesn't mean anything. And no, signing petitions and arguing against the electoral system is not going to change that.

However it does provide a least some solace to those of us who voted based on reality, that the majority of American voters are not slack jawed simpletons who actually believed that Donald Trump would make a better president than Hillary Clinton.

Don't get me wrong, it still means that almost half of the Americans who bothered to vote probably can't tie their shoes without referring to the manual, but at least it's a little better.

Cold comfort from Nate Silver.

Clinton will finish with widest popular vote margin among Electoral College losers, excluding years (1824, 1876) where not all states voted.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 13, 2016

Well great, so now we know that America did NOT chooses Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

And yet due to our ridiculous electoral college the tangerine colored internet troll is packing his bags to move into the White House.

Something needs to change.

Hillary Clinton not only won the popular vote, she won the popular vote by a large margin.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Hillary Clinton didn’t just win the popular vote. She won it by a substantial margin. 

By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points, according to my Times colleague Nate Cohn. She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000 but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.

You notice that when I write about the Trump presidency I will use a lower case "p," whereas I also used the upper case "P" when talking about Obama.

The reason for that is President Obama was indeed our duly elected President, while a president Trump is Putin's choice for president. 

The American people elected their first female President in 2016, others such as the FBI, Wikileaks, and Russia used terrorist techniques and an antiquated electoral system to put the guy headed to the White House into office.

#Notmypresident

Two former Bernie Sanders supporting members of the Washington state Electoral College are threatening to vote against Hillary Clinton, potentially throwing their state to Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

In the looming election, a solid majority of the American people could cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton. Yet, thanks to two guys from Washington state, Donald Trump could be sworn in as the next president of the United States. 

Two men who were selected as members of the Electoral College in the likely event that Clinton wins the state of Washington, are, at the very least, uncertain that they will honor the will of the people of their state. Robert Satiacum told the Seattle Times that he is “absolutely not” voting for Clinton and that “I hope it comes down to a swing vote and it’s me,” because then “she ain’t getting it. Maybe it’ll wake this country up.” 

The other likely elector, Bret Chiafalo, says that he has “not ruled out that possibility” of voting against Clinton.

The article goes on to point out that it is not impossible that this action could throw the state to Donald Trump.

So how does it happen that two simple minded dipshits like this got elected to the electoral college?

Simple.

The fact that two men who think they have the right to override the will of their states’ voters were chosen as Democratic electors appears to be the fault of an utterly reckless method the Washington Democratic Party uses to name those electors. Electors were chosen at the state party convention in June, an event where so-called Bernie-or-Busters were overrepresented. 

In other words, rather than, say, allowing the party’s nominee to name reliable electors, the party chose to select electors during an emotional primary season at an event that could be gamed by a minority faction that was willing to sabotage the party if Democrats did not chose that faction’s preferred nominee.

Well I think my opinion of the Bernie Bros is fairly well known, and this does nothing but reinforce my belief that I was right about them all along. 

The very idea that any progressive would throw the election to a thin skinned megalomaniac merely out of spite demonstrates that these morons are too immature and under educated to participate in the election process.