# The American Coup: 11.9.2020 - **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182 "2020-11-09T23:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 87
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1723 "2021-01-01T19:36:56Z")
The president’s lawyer, who believes that he [might be Jesus](https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lin-woods-ex-law-partners-claim-he-was-taped-admitting-to-assaults-asserting-he-may-be-christ-coming-back-for-second-time/), is calling for the [arrest of the vice president](https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1345085438936150022), and the appointment of a new vice president who will be willing to take over the government on behalf of the president. So, normal stuff, Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1724 "2021-01-01T19:50:20Z")
This is what passes for Republican policy now. It’s time for Republicans to reclaim their party - relegate the mentally ill like Lin Wood and others to the new Trumplican Party. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1725 "2021-01-01T20:01:23Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Lin Wood Unfortunate little bit of trivia: when he was a youth he came home from a school dance to see that his father had beaten his mother to death. (Wonder if that might have been a formative experience.) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1726 "2021-01-01T20:09:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It’s time for Republicans to reclaim their party - relegate the mentally ill like Lin Wood and others to the new Trumplican Party. I don’t know any Republicans who speak against this shit. This IS the Republican party. They’re proudly delusional. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1727 "2021-01-01T20:25:20Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Even though Pence is declining to claim the unilateral authority to put forward whatever electors he wishes, he could still follow the existing process to allow objections to the states’ choices. Nothing in the law suggests he has an option on this. If a Senator and Representative submit a written objection, the objection must be voted on. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1728 "2021-01-01T20:28:50Z")
McConnell himself has come out to say that Biden is the president-elect. He has said the upcoming vote to affirm Biden is the most important of his career, which is probably hyperbole but that is surely rejecting the CT. The DOJ has rejected the lawsuit against Pence in no uncertain terms. I am not happy that the GOP has given Trump and his minions so much rope; I hope they get hammered in GA. I agree that some damage has been done to our country but let’s not go overboard. Lin Wood does not speak for the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1729 "2021-01-01T21:07:29Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Lin Wood does not speak for the Republicans. Lin Wood is the perfect Republican now, and fully represents the majority of the party. He represents the current Republican president. This is what the Republican party is now. There are outliers to be sure, but they have been successfully sidelined, and are “Republicans in Name Only” now. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1730 "2021-01-01T21:14:03Z")
The strategy of stirring up doubts in people’s “minds”, then using the doubts that you’ve stirred up as grounds for questioning the election was derisively described by one Republican Congressman as “a self-licking ice cream cone”. If I remembered who said that, I’d credit him. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1731 "2021-01-01T21:15:06Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > McConnell himself has come out to say that Biden is the president-elect. Well, really he said that the electoral college has spoken. Sure, by implication he said that Biden is the president elect. And how many Congressional Republicans signed on to the insane Texas AG suit to the Supreme court? And then how many Congressional Republicans spoke out against that bullshit? Lin Wood speaks for Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1732 "2021-01-01T21:21:27Z")
You guys really think the GOP wants to arrest Pence? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1733 "2021-01-01T21:25:40Z")
No, the majority of Republicans and many (140) Republican elected House officials want Pence to unilaterally declare Trump the winner. The fact that he has no ability to actually do that is something that is beyond their capacity to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1734 "2021-01-01T21:26:55Z")
And I think that Republicans would be in favor of arresting ANYone who would oppose The Dear Leader. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1735 "2021-01-01T22:11:36Z")
> **[Self-licking ice cream cone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licking_ice_cream_cone)** > > In political jargon, a self-licking ice cream cone is a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself. The phrase appeared to have been first used in 1991–1992, in a book about Gulf War weapons systems by Norman Friedman, and On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones, a paper by Pete Worden about NASA's bureaucracy, to describe the relationship between the Space Shuttle and Space Station. > Since then, the term has been used to describe the purported habit of government-funded or... > The phrase appeared to have been first used in 1992, in _On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones_ , a paper by [Pete Worden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Worden) about [NASA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA)’s bureaucracy. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1736 "2021-01-02T00:05:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Pro-Trump Lawyer Bizarrely Suggests Jeffrey Epstein Is Still Alive | HuffPost Latest News](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lin-wood-antonin-scalia-john-roberts-jeffrey-epstein_n_5fee0bfbc5b65a92290dc2e4) In the UK, there is a political party called the Monster Raving Loony Party. Virtually all British people recognize that this particular political party is a joke–an intentional one. In the USA, we appear to have no such powers of recognition. > **[Official Monster Raving Loony Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_Party)** > > The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow, or simply Lord Sutch. It is notable for its deliberately bizarre policies and it effectively exists to satirise British politics, and to offer itself as an alternative for protest voters, especially in constituencies where the party holding a safe seat is unlikely to lose it. > Starting in 1963, David ... ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1737 "2021-01-02T00:14:45Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > > [@Sherrerd](#): > > > > It will become GOP tradition. Currently many on the right openly deride the concept of democracy > > “A republic not a democracy” > > Example: Sen. Mike “liberty not democracy” Lee. Of course some of that was dimwitted word-play: _'the name of the opposing political party has “Democra” in it, therefore we don’t like Democracy_’ and the like. And the formulation ‘a republic not a democracy’ is notably unintelligent, given that the the opposite of a Republic is a Monarchy (or a Dictatorship)—not a Democracy. And claiming that “liberty” and “democracy” are opposites, as Mike Lee does, is definitely sub-average-IQ stuff. But then “stoooopid” was always part of the GOP brand. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1738 "2021-01-02T02:20:53Z")
> **[Federal judge throws out Gohmert lawsuit asking Pence to interfere in...](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/01/01/politics/gohmert-pence-electoral-college-lawsuit-thrown-out/index.html)** > > A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and several Arizona Republicans seeking to force Vice President Mike Pence to help throw the election to President Donald Trump next week when Congress meets to count the... ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1739 "2021-01-02T02:24:55Z")
What a surprise. I’m just sorry the judge did not unload on Asshat Gohmert and call him a moron. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1740 "2021-01-02T02:35:11Z")
Another Trump-appointed judge throws out a lawsuit designed to overturn the election results. The greatest trick Mitch ever pulled was convincing Trump that he was loading up the federal judiciary with “his” people when he dutifully nominated the Federalist Society judges that Mitch put in front of him. And it turns out they could not give less of a shit about him. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1741 "2021-01-02T02:41:35Z")
Looks like even the Secret Service wasn’t immune to the siren call howl. > **[Secret Service Switching Up Agents Over Concerns About Trump Allegiances: Report](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/secret-service-trump-ties-biden-shake-up_n_5fee9e2fc5b6fd33110d9582)** > > One agent took a leave to help arrange Trump's controversial Bible photo op in June when peaceful protesters were attacked by federal officers. > In an example of the concerns that spurred the change, one agent assigned to Trump was allowed to take a leave to become a White House political aide and became enmeshed in a particularly contentious, controversial incident marking his presidency. Anthony Ornato, who worked as [White House deputy chief of staff](https://in.news.yahoo.com/trump-names-anthony-ornato-deputy-chief-staff-operations-225543421.html) earlier this year, helped arrange the photo opportunity in June when [Trump posed with a Bible](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bible-tear-gas-protesters_n_5ed58beac5b6449ef9663fa1)across Lafayette Square in Washington as peaceful protesters were [attacked by federal officers](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/trump-walk-lafayette-square.html). The protests had been sparked by the police killing of [George Floyd](https://www.huffpost.com/topic/george-floyd) days earlier in Minneapolis. > > Ornato also helped arrange Trump’s dangerous political rallies where — often in violation of local laws — maskless supporters were jammed elbow to elbow. The rallies were linked to [COVID-19 case spikes and deaths](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-rallies-coronavirus-cases-deaths-study_n_5f9d85f9c5b60eefc8532067) from the disease. > > In another instance, Secret Service agents assigned to Trump tried to [persuade their colleagues not to wear masks](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/11/13/610eebcc-2539-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html) on trips in order to please the president, contradicting recommendations from administration health experts, the Post has previously reported. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182/1742 "2021-01-02T02:44:52Z")
Minor quibble. You did not say “Moscow Mitch.” That should now be required. I hate to stoop to the level of the Repub Party, but we have to get down in that mud, until we have cleaned it up. “Crooked Hillary” may have made the difference in 2016. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182.md?page=86) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-american-coup-11-9-2020/925182.md?page=88)