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Showing posts with label Electoral College. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electoral College. Show all posts

Monday, December 14, 2020

FIRST MONDAY AFTER SECOND WEDNESDAY IN DECEMBER

 We know our readers. They are a loyal and special bunch. We know the majority of them awoke today and said "Today is the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. That means under the law, the electoral college votes today."   See 3 USC 7. 

In December 1960, having lost to Senator Kennedy, Vice President Nixon, in his role as the presiding officer of the Senate,  went to the Senate and announced the Electoral College vote announcing his loss. Southern States had made a fuss about having its slate of electoral college voters not vote for Kennedy unless he affirmed his support for "States Rights" which back then was a code word for segregation. In the 1960's the south routinely voted for Democrats (Nixon changed that and sent the south into the Republican party  for the next sixty years with his "southern strategy" in 1968, but that's a topic for a different blog post). Kennedy won the south, including Alabama which voted first. Alabama unfaithful electors voted for the South's favourite son West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd.  Nixon had a sense of humor. As Nixon announced the first votes for Senator Byrd, he dryly remarked "The Gentlemen from West Virginia is in the lead."  

Today President Trump will lose yet again, as the electoral college votes for Senator Biden.  The president plans to immediately ask Georgia for another recount. See 32 QAnon 24: "Georgia shall recount its presidential vote on every day in December that is a prime number if the state votes for a Democrat". For those robed readers that is days 2,3,5,7,11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31. 

Additional Republican strategies include Texas succeeding from the Union- we would miss their brisket and we cannot legally opine if that would affect the Cowboys' playoff chances this year; Hialeah suing California (a little known codicil to the Faber College Constitution vests jurisdiction in the Hialeah Branch Court in any lawsuits between Hialeah and a State); and finally the old tried-n-true "we had our fingers crossed when we voted so we get to do it all again" dicta from multiple election briefs authored by Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. 

Covid wise, Prime Minister Angela Merkle followed Judge Soto's lead and shut down Germany for a month to flatten their curve. Miami has canceled Jury trials until the First of February. Florida's infection rate is rising faster than an Elon Musk rocket. You can't eat inside a restaurant in NYC anymore, but you can hang out in any Bar or Bowling Alley in Florida sans mask because we just don't believe in science which gives rise to our new motto: "Florida, the Sunshine and No Mask State". California is closed until further notice, but the good news is ....

Pfizer shipped their first round of vaccines on Sunday. The vaccines are arriving at hospitals throughout the nation today. Of course there is some cause for concern in Florida because a few janitors and security guards for the advanced medical center in Two Egg Florida signed for the shipment last night and left it on the front lawn: "we don't know nuthin about that keepin it cold stuff."  So avoid getting your vaccine in Two Egg, or any place in Florida where they don't believe in masks or science. A key tip would be the presence of "Fire Fauci" bumper stickers on many vehicles in the doctors parking lot of the hospital. 

So America as is ends 2020 is a tale of two nations- it was the worst of the times, it was the dumbest of times. 

The nation suffers from a devastating pandemic. 300,000 of our citizens are dead from Covid. These are the worst of times. 

70 plus million Republicans do not believe in science and believe Biden stole the election. These are the dumbest of times. 

Do not think for one moment that our nation will not pay for its stupidity. Icebergs are melting and we deny climate change. People are dying and we deny science. 

That's your Monday cheer-up message. Have a great week. 


Thursday, November 10, 2016

ELECTION RESULTS 2016 ..... Can Somebody Please Explain the Electoral College to me


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION DAY 2016 ...............

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES .......

DONALD TRUMP ELECTED
AS THE 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Historic, unprecedented, shocking, and clearly the biggest upset in American political history.  Nobody could ever have seen this moment coming when Trump announced his run for the presidency 17 months ago.  In an historic year, (with the Cubs winning the World Series), it should have come as no great surprise, that a person never to have held elected office, and whose claim to fame was "acting" as the host of a TV show called "The Apprentice" was elected as our next President.  For many decades to come, political scientists will analyze and dissect every aspect of this election to figure out how and why Donald Trump won.

But we have a more important question:  What the hell is the Electoral College and why does it still exist? 

Picture this.  You are a tourist in a foreign country, say Paris, France.  You are sitting in a cafĂ© and discussing the US election with your French waiter (who speaks fluent English).  He asks you the following question: "So, I understand that your election was recently decided and that Hillary Clinton received 59,814,018 votes and Donald Trump got 59,611,678 votes.  By my math, she garnered 202,340 more votes and she is your next President, No (that's how the French speak)? But I read in Le Monde (it's a French newspaper- ask Rumpole about it) that Donald Trump won the election.  How can tis be (think French accent)?

I'm curious, enlighten me on how you would explain to your friendly French waiter what the hell is going on in the greatest country in the world that claims to have the most successful democracy where your country was founded on the principal of "one man/person, one vote". 

This is the fifth time in America history, where the elected President will have received less popular votes than their opponent but enough electoral votes to win the presidency.

It happened in: 1876 (Rutherford B Hayes over Samuel Tilden - and boy was that a mess of an election); 1888 (Benjamin Harrison over President Grover Cleveland); famously in 2000 with Bush v. Gore; and now again in 2016.  In also happened in 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, but that election was decided in the House of Representatives under the provisions of the 12th Amendment).***

We thought about inviting Rumpole to debate His Honor Judge Milton Hirsch on this topic.  Maybe they can email each other and take a side and each post an argument on why we should or should not continue to decide our presidential elections by the Electoral vote instead of the popular vote.  Gentlemen, are you all in???

For now, we'll just ask our loyal and faithful Justice Building Blog readers to chime in on their arguments for and against the EC.  Have at it.

In other election news (winners in BLUE):

MIAMI-DADE CIRCUIT COURT

GROUP 34 RUNOFF

Mark Blumstein v. Luis Perez-Medina
393,437 ..................   375,531

GROUP 52 RUNOFF

Carol "Jodie" Breece v. Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts
372,480 ..........................  376,551


NORTH OF THE BORDER .....

Circuit Court Group 15 Runoff

Barbara Duffy v Miami Dade ASA Abbe Rifkin
356,839 ..................................  232,254

SOUTH OF THE BORDER .....

In Monroe County, former Miami-Dade ASA Catherine "Cathy" Vogel, who was elected to the job of State Attorney for the 16th Judicial Circuit four year ago, lost her job to the man she beat in 2012, Dennis Ward.  Final totals: 20,525 - 19,173.

***The Twelfth Amendment requires the House of Representatives to immediately go into session to vote for president if no candidate for president receives a majority of the electoral votes (since 1964, 270 of the 538 electoral votes). In this event, the House of Representatives is limited to choosing from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes for president. Each state delegation votes en bloc – each delegation having a single vote; the District of Columbia does not receive a vote. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of state delegation votes (i.e., at present, a minimum of 26 votes) in order for that candidate to become the President-elect. Additionally, delegations from at least two-thirds of all the states must be present for voting to take place. The House continues balloting until it elects a president.

The House of Representatives has chosen the president only twice: in 1801 under Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 and in 1825 under the Twelfth Amendment. (In the election of 1800, candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each ended up with 73 electoral votes). (In the election of 1824, none of the four candidates for President received a majority of the electoral votes. This election is the only time since the passage of the 12th amendment that the House of Representatives decided the outcome. Andrew Jackson 99 and John Quincy Adams 84 were the top two vote-getters with Adams getting the nod from the House).


CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com