Banjo,

You started this thread by claiming the US democracy was flawed because people won the Electoral College and therefore the presidency while not winning the popular vote.

But now Trump has won the popular vote as well. And your response? The US democracy is flawed. Clearly you just want to claim its flawed and the reason is, as far as you're concerned, mere window dressing.

There are some who adopt the view that if a vote doesn't go the way they want, that means its flawed. Not very bright - rather childish actually - but not uncommon

Talking about America's flawed democracy?

Vice President Kamala Harris has urged supporters to
accept the 2024 presidential election results and
has committed to a peaceful transfer of power
following Donald Trump's win.

President Joe Biden has congratulated Trump with a
telephone call invited Trump to a meeting at the
White House which will take place shortly.

President Biden also expressed his commitment
(along with Harris) to ensure a peaceful transition
and emphasized the importance of working to bring the
country together.

There's a gargantuan difference between the behaviour
of Donald Trump when he lost the 2020 election.
And the behaviour of President Joe Biden, and Vice
President Kamala Harris at their loss of this election.

We can only hope that this election's win will not be
a loss for America, her people, her allies, and
the rest of the world.

We must accept finite disappointment,
but never lose infinite hope.
(Martin Luther King, Jr).

The difference between 2020 and 2024 was that these elections were reasonably fair whereas the 2020 election was clearly fraught.

Why the change. Did the Democrats suddenly decide to play by the rules? Hardly.

The differences were three fold:

1. Too big to rig. Whereas 2020 was close and allowed the Democrat machine to play at the margins to get their man over the line, this time the margins were too great. Its one thing to fiddle a few tens of thousands of votes to win Pennsylvania in 2020 but quite another to create 200,000 to overturn 2024.

2. Part of the reason for this was that the GOP had worked hard to get new laws passed and then enforced that made such cheating more difficult.

3. The legal flying squad that I talked of earlier. These people were able to move quickly to stop any shenanigans before they occurred. Some jurisdictions wanted to stop counting early as they did in 2020 in contravention of the law. The GOP put a stop to that. In one case they wanted to bar GOP observers from viewing the process. The GOP lawyers put a stop to that. In another case suspicious boxes of votes turned up at 11pm from unknown sources in unknown vehicles. The GOP was able to monitor that. Lara Trump deserves a huge thanls for her efforts in this regard.

But we need to remember Trump isn't president yet. I'd be willing to bet that the deep state is in deep conversations about what to do to save itself from annihilation.

Dear Banjo, Paul,

If you feel sad about this election outcome, just remember -
there are people out there pulling a door that
says "Push".

I joined a live blog from the US yesterday to cover the election as it unfolded. All very exciting. But a few things left me laughing out loud....

"I live in constant fear that Trump will deport my latina mother-in-law who lives at 1837 3rd st, LA 90023. Blue house. She gets off work at 6".

"I was going to vote for Jesus but then I realised I couldn't because he's a convicted felon".

Conan the Barbarian when asked what are the best things in life answered..."To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!" (http://tiny.cc/zx1uzz - Pelosi).