Tag: Electoral College

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News Round-Up: January 5, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• Wild and woofy Prince Harry covers Town & Country for the magazine’s “Hottest Bachelors” issue for his work on behalf of wild animals in Africa.

• Former American Idol contestant Bo Bice literally cries over being called “white boy” at a Georgia Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant. Seriously?

• More than 50 Electoral College voters were sat illegally which could delay ratifying Donald Trump’s election results.

• Just a day after Megyn Kelly announced her move to NBC News, former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren shares that she is heading to MSNBC to head up a new 6PM show, For The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

• British Prime Minister Theresa May has sent two senior aides on a quiet mission to attempt to improve her already frosty relationship with Donald Trump.

• But enough about “frosty” subjects, let’s take a look at these hottie Australian firefighters 🙂

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Celebs Ask Electoral College Members To “Vote Their Conscience”

Celebrities unite for this message asking the members of the Electoral College to “vote their conscience” on December 19th, meaning any “qualified” candidate for president.

They make it clear they’re not advocating a vote for Clinton, just “any eligible person” they trust to be competent as president.

From Unite For America:

They’re not asking you to vote for Hillary. 37 Electors can be American heroes by voting their conscience for a real leader. Find information for vigils and local rallies here.

Thank you to Martin Sheen, Debra Messing, James Cromwell, BD Wong, Noah Wyle, Freda Payne, Bob Odenkirk, J. Smith Cameron, Michael Urie, Moby, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Richard Schiff, Christine Lahti, Steven Pasquale, Emily Tyra, Talia Balsam and so many more who lent their time and voice to create this message of unity.

The Electors Trust provides free and strictly confidential legal support to any Elector who wishes to vote their conscience. Visit http://www.electorstrust.org/.

To be clear, IF enough members of the Electoral College did shift their votes in such manner that Donald Trump did not have the requisite 270 votes, the decision would go to the Republican controlled House of Representatives.

Even if that were to happen, I don’t see the Republicans in the House not choosing Trump.

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News Round-Up: December 14, 2016

Some news items you might have missed:

• The brilliant indie film Moonlight received 6 Golden Globe nominations which means even more of the world will be exposed to one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, GO!

• Scientists are downloading and copying government climate data as quickly as possible out of fears a Trump administration might destroy any info showing the reality of climate change.

• Politico is reporting that upwards of 20 GOP Electoral College members are considering not casting their votes for Donald Trump on December 19th. The most EC members to change their votes in one year was 6 in 1808.

• More from the Electoral College – 40 members have asked for an intelligence briefing before December 19th regarding information that Russia actively moved to help elect Donald Trump.

• Oklahoma lawmakers have approved a bill that would require businesses to post anti-abortion signs in their bathrooms.

• Following an acclaimed 4 night concert production at City Center this past October, Jake Gyllenhaal heads back to Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George for ten weeks at the Hudson Theater.

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Texas GOP Presidential Elector: “Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump”

Powerful personal essay by Christopher Suprun for the New York Times.

In the op-ed, Suprun declares that as a Texas Republican firefighter who is a designated presidential elector for the Electoral College, he cannot vote for Donald Trump”

I am a Republican presidential elector, one of the 538 people asked to choose officially the president of the United States. Since the election, people have asked me to change my vote based on policy disagreements with Donald J. Trump. In some cases, they cite the popular vote difference. I do not think president-elects should be disqualified for policy disagreements. I do not think they should be disqualified because they won the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. However, now I am asked to cast a vote on Dec. 19 for someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.

Fifteen years ago, as a firefighter, I was part of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks against our nation. That attack and this year’s election may seem unrelated, but for me the relationship becomes clearer every day.

George W. Bush is an imperfect man, but he led us through the tragic days following the attacks. His leadership showed that America was a great nation. That was also the last time I remember the nation united. I watch Mr. Trump fail to unite America and drive a wedge between us.

Mr. Trump goes out of his way to attack the cast of “Saturday Night Live” for bias. He tweets day and night, but waited two days to offer sympathy to the Ohio State community after an attack there. He does not encourage civil discourse, but chooses to stoke fear and create outrage.

[snip]

Fifteen years ago, I swore an oath to defend my country and Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. On Dec. 19, I will do it again.

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Donald Trump Claims He “Won” The Popular Vote

Donald Trump is so rattled by the idea of a recount of the vote in three battleground states that he began defending his own victory in the presidential election via Twitter.

Kellyanne Conway – this is where you take the Blackberry out of the Trumpster’s tiny hands…

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Hillary Clinton Leads Popular Vote Tally By More Than One Million Votes

Heavy.com is reporting that, as of yesterday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote count has now exceeded one million votes.

The Cook Political Report and Dave Wasserman have compiled a continually updated popular vote tracker. Both candidates are still gaining votes as states count absentee and provisional ballots, millions of which were still uncounted after the election, especially in California.

Here are the updated popular vote totals as of November 15:

Clinton: 62,318,079
Trump: 61,166,063

That means Clinton now leads the popular vote by 1,152,016 votes and 47.8% to 46.9%.

The issue for Clinton, though, according to the Wasserman/Cook Political Report numbers: Trump leads in the swing states. That gave him the Electoral College by a 290-232 margin and made him president-elect. Defenders of the Electoral College say it forces candidates to compete for the hearts and minds of Americans in all states, giving all states a voice in the presidential election.

Clinton’s vote total is a historic achievement. Clinton now has the third highest number of votes of any presidential candidate in U.S. history (she also became the fourth presidential candidate to win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College). She is behind only Barack Obama’s two historic elections. However, she just surpassed the tally of George W. Bush.

Without the Electoral College, a few large cities and states (New York, L.A.), would determine every presidential election. Indeed, Clinton’s popular vote edge was boosted by millions from New York and California alone.

There are now calls to abolish the Electoral College in that more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.

There is a petition over at Change.org with more than 2 million signatures calling for electors to defy the EC and vote for Hillary since she garnered more votes.

I don’t see the EC going anywhere anytime soon. Especially with the Republican controlled Congress in office.

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News Round-Up: November 15, 2016

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Some news stories you may have missed:

• Mark-Paul Gosselaar beefed up for his new role as the captain of the first baseball team to hire a female pitcher on Fox’s Pitch. Batter up!

• Donald Trump announces the leader of a white nationalist movement to be chief strategist in the White House. What could possibly go wrong?

 • Sen. Barbara Boxer files legislation to repeal the Electoral College as Hillary Clinton nears 1 million more votes than Donald Trump in presidential election.

• Gwen Ifill, co-host of PBS Newshour passes away at 61 after a battle with cancer. She will be missed – what a class act.

• Trump supporter shoves anti-Trump protester down stairs at peaceful rally in Ohio.

• RuPaul on the Trumpeter as prez: