In last-shot bid, thousands urge electoral college to block Trump at Monday vote

[inanna]

Source: Washington Post

December 17 at 6:38 PM

Pressure on members of the country’s electoral college to select someone other than Donald Trump has grown dramatically — and noisily — in recent weeks, causing some to waver, but yielding little evidence Trump will fall short when electors convene in most state capitals Monday to cast their votes.

<snip>

The role of elector has intensified this year, in the wake of a bitter election in which Trump lost the popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million and a secret CIA assessment revealed that Russia interfered to help Trump get elected.

Amid the uncertainty caused by Russian influence, 10 electors — nine Democrats and one Republican — asked for an intelligence briefing to get more information about Moscow’s role. Their request was endorsed by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.

“The administration should brief members of the electoral college on the extent and manner of Russia’s interference in our election before they vote on Dec. 19,” Podesta wrote Thursday in a Washington Post op-ed.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-last-shot-bid-thousands-urge-electoral-college-to-block-trump-at-monday-vote/2016/12/17/125fa84a-c327-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html

[Jacob Boehme]

1. Metaphorically speaking....

...Trump may hold on to the ‘Watering Hole' for now, but We-The-People have the Winchesters.

[nini]

2. Sadly they won't have the guts to do it

Our country will officially die on Monday.

[PatrickforO]

9. Well...

Germany crawled back up out of the ashes. It took decades, but they rebuilt.

[nini]

10. I'm 3 years from retirement

I don't have time to play with these assholes and changed my retirement plan to move out of the country. Portugal is calling.. I'm gonna answer.

[brooklynite]

11. NO need to hang around in the meantime...

...the rest of us will be busy here.

[nini]

16. I'll move when I'm ready

thanks though

[PatrickforO]

12. Can you make it on a decent pension in Portugal?

I had been thinking of Belize.

[nini]

15. yes.. I'm looking in the Algarve

rents are cheap -even buying is an option. Weather isn't too hot either.

Lots of Brits and ex-pats there so it's not too much of a culture shock. I'm part Portuguese and always wanted to go there for a while. Now it's a real option. I am excited.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. "I am excited"

I'm happy for you. At 48, though, I don't think retirement will be a viable option in my future. Wall Street is going to get that Social Security money eventually.

[nini]

19. I can't afford to stay where I'm at

I don't want to move to the south so moving overseas makes the most sense to me at this point.

I also have a 12 year grandson who needs somewhere to run if war becomes the orange one's game and he gets old enough to be in the middle of it.. I am doing this for him too.

I will still do what I can from there as my parents and grandparents did before me. I just have to make sure I can afford to survive in the first place to do it.

[7962]

21. No it wont. A 4 yr bump in the road. We've had 'em before.

And on tuesday I'll get up and go to work like i usually do.
I'm not giving trump credit for having so much more power than he actually does

[nini]

28. The electoral college will fail us

That is what I meant about the country being dead. That safety net put in place by our fore fathers won't work due to the lack of courage of the electors. I hope I'm wrong but integrity is a thing of the past.

Trump's power isn't the problem as much as what congress is going to do. He'll just be the signature to seal the deal

[mainstreetonce]

3. If the ones with conscience

Just don't vote.


I know it doesn't change anything,but it sends a message.

[yeoman6987]

26. We've been going through this for almost 6 weeks

The recounts were a fail. I predict tomorrow will be too. Heck 2000 the electors all went in lockstep and bush didn't even win the electoral hardly. I am sick of disappointment but reality has to become valid. I predict 305-229 tomorrow. 1 electoral will not vote for trump.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. All through the primaries

Trump admonished the GOP that the results better be 'fair'

How is it fair to invite a foreign power to hack an opponent, hack
an election? To rig the votes, and not follow up on undercounting,
vote suppression, voter fraud? To rush through the post election
transition and dismiss all facts on a tilted election?

How is this fair?

[Plucketeer]

5. I'm afraid

we live amidst reasonable folks who are scared of rocking the boat.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. I suggest a very close watching of

the movie "Spy Game"

to see how the headlines always have a story behind them

But I too fear - that the good guys only win in the movies

[pandr32]

29. Excellent point

I wish this would be brought up by the media and discussed in the way you framed it. Trump kept demanding "fairness." What he meant was favoritism.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. There have been reports that individual GOP electors have been warned of dire consequences if

they vote against Trump in any way. This is beyond the threats of political and professional reprisals made by various state and national GOP officials.

If I were one of them and had doubts about voting for him I would indeed have a very tough time going against the stream of invective and the anger I associate with some of his supporters, especially if I had family who might be harmed. I'd expect to need a witness protection level of security for some time after the vote. I am also aware that many who were assigned this task are passionate supporters who fervently believe, however falsely persuaded, that he is the best candidate to have the job, and who resist all conflicting facts and petitions to reconsider as a conspiracy to derail their version of a just outcome.

[JudyM]

8. Just one more very disturbing aspect of his ascension to total domination.

We need a far more coordinated front.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. One thing I am not sure of...

are the votes of the electors public info?

[Ford_Prefect]

20. I believe that they are since they meet in each state in one group to vote and the results

become public record once they are reported. Electors would hardly be effective if the vote was not recorded or verifiable. There would be no possibility of party discipline if the vote were not made public or made in public at some point. Threats would not be viable if the vote was secret, either.

[onenote]

23. Link?

[Ford_Prefect]

24. Electoral College members from Pa. issued state police protection

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141643259

[sarcasmo]

13. I wish 38 Republican electors had the stones, not holding my breath.

[nycbos]

14. To quote Andy Borowitz.

Only one of these is a realistic scenario:

1) The Electoral College, which has a storied history of paying close attention to Facebook petitions, will vote to keep Trump out of office

2) Trump, a towering narcissist, will decide he does not like being the most powerful person in the world and will abruptly resign

3) Congress, which is controlled by spineless members of Trump's own party, will rise up in moral outrage and impeach him

4) Concerned citizens will try to limit the damage Trump wreaks on the country by doing the hard, often boring work of political activism in the 2018 midterms and again in 2020


https://www.facebook.com/andyborowitz/photos/a.312831060680.191322.38423635680/10155061842295681/?type=3&theater

[yeoman6987]

27. 2018 we have 8 GOP candidates to beat

Cruz being number 1 on the list. Of course the GOP may take care of him in the primary. He's hated right now.

[cstanleytech]

22. Now that I think about it I have come to party support Trump and his idea of a wall.

Last edited Sun Dec 18, 2016, 08:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Yes indeed a wall on the southern border is just what we are going to need all right...........a wall of shame so that in 10 or 20 years for now every elector, every senator, ever congressman, every person that donated money to Trumps campaign and every idiot that had a Trump/Pence yard sign can have their name etched on it and considering how many idiots there were we are going to need something the size of that wall along the southern border with mexico.

[Kotya]

25. GOP electors will not only vote for Donald Trump,

They will do so enthusiastically.

How is it everyone is deluding themselves into thinking that Republican electors are somehow morally troubled about voting for Donald Trump? Rest assured, they're not. The GOP will enter Washington DC early next year the most powerful it has ever been; in control of a majority of statehouses, state legislatures, the senate, the house and the presidency. A vacancy on the Supreme Court and three liberal or swing justices 78 or older.

State electors are partisan Republicans. They don't care that Hillary won the popular vote. They don't care about allegations of Russian funny business, if they believe it at all. They hate Martin Sheen. They can't stand Hotlips Houlihan. They don't even know who the rest of those people in that maudlin, weepy, silly, contemptuous, and totally clueless video even are, but they're laughing their asses off at them anyways.

Donald Trump is forming the most conservative cabinet this country has ever seen and everyone one with an (R) after their name, from the President down to the local dog catcher is salivating at the opportunity to undo decades of progressive legislation, and these partisan, vetted Republican electors are looking forward to nothing more than being part of this juggernaut.

Honestly, I'll be surprised if there is more than a single faithless GOP elector. It's just not going to happen.

[dhill926]

30. Agree

We have to get used to the hard work of resisting the repubs and limiting the damage.

[briv1016]

31. This isn't a movie or fairy tale.

No one's going to save the day; the electors aren't going to "see the light." America is fucked along with the rest of the world. And once they stack the deck for 18' and 20' we aren't going to be able to save it ourselves through peaceful means. Violent means will result in Donald nuking major cities.

This is a global extinction event. Pick your poison and hope that it's quick.