US Election Week 2020

[Caliga]

In the US the "paper bag test" means that your skin must be lighter than a paper bag to get into a place.

I thought it was used by racists in the South back in the day to determine if someone was 'black'.

EDIT:  I guess we're probably saying the same thing.

[Malthus]

In the US the "paper bag test" means that your skin must be lighter than a paper bag to get into a place.

Never heard that one before - I guess US litigators must use a different term!

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm not American or a litigator - but I think there's a reason Trump is using the law firms he's using for these claims.

Edit: Although probably the two other big considerations for taking a client is that they won't actively make your life more difficult by publicly contradicting you etc and will they pay. I'm not sure Trump comes out very well on either of those fronts.

Both observations are sound.  the Trump campaign has retained some larger firms but they seem to be staying more in the background.  The new big Penn case seeking to stop the certifications was brought by a mid-sized firm based out of Columbus,OH and they have experienced internal dissent and pushback. Jones Day has also received heavy backlash even though they haven't appeared in any cases.  None of the first tier election lawyers want to touch these cases either because they perceive them as reputationally damaging.  What is left are politician-lawyers and lawyers that specialize in right wing advocacy litigation.

[The Minsky Moment]

. I imagine the better litigators in the US would either be preparing claims that are narrower and based on the evidence, but that wouldn't meet Trump's PR needs

Actually most of the litigations fall into this category.  In fact if the campaign got everything they were asking for in all the cases they brought - including the Michigan one - they would still lose (assuming the GA recount goes Biden as expected). There is a big disconnect between the allegations made in these cases- even the exaggerated and unsupported ones - and the crazy off the wall nonsense Trump is tweeting every hour.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've heard it called the "paper bag test".

As in, never make an argument or bring a claim that makes you wish you were wearing a paper bag over your head with eyeholes cut out so no-one can see who you are while you are making it ...

Usually just called the "laugh test" here.  We lack the metaphorical creativity of the Ontario bar.

[crazy canuck]

I have never heard of the paper bag test.

We are more like the NY Bar - won't get laughed out of court.

[Sheilbh]

I've heard it called the "paper bag test".

As in, never make an argument or bring a claim that makes you wish you were wearing a paper bag over your head with eyeholes cut out so no-one can see who you are while you are making it ...

Usually just called the "laugh test" here.  We lack the metaphorical creativity of the Ontario bar.

So I do deal with regulators and I've heard the similarly simple "red face test".

[OttoVonBismarck]

FDR was a wealthy patrician from an old established family, but he used to say stuff like this:

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.

The American people know from a four-year record that today there is only one entrance to the White House—by the front door. Since March 4, 1933, there has been only one pass-key to the White House. I have carried that key in my pocket. It is there tonight. So long as I am President, it will remain in my pocket.

Those who used to have pass-keys are not happy. Some of them are desperate. Only desperate men with their backs to the wall would descend so far below the level of decent citizenship as to foster the current pay-envelope campaign against America's working people. Only reckless men, heedless of consequences, would risk the disruption of the hope for a new peace between worker and employer by returning to the tactics of the labor spy . . . The very employers and politicians and publishers who talk most loudly of class antagonism and the destruction of the American system now undermine that system by this attempt to coerce the votes of the wage earners of this country . . . Every message in a pay envelope, even if it is the truth, is a command to vote according to the will of the employer. But this propaganda is worse—it is deceit....

But they are guilty of more than deceit. When they imply that the reserves thus created against both these policies [social security and medicare] will be stolen by some future Congress, diverted to some wholly foreign purpose, they attack the integrity and honor of American Government itself. Those who suggest that, are already aliens to the spirit of American democracy. Let them emigrate and try their lot under some foreign flag in which they have more confidence . . .

So it's funny but I have actually been doing a lot of reading about FDR's campaigns in 2020. Mainly because while I feel like I'm decently well read on that era of U.S. history, I had never done much of a dive into the specifics of FDR's campaigns, and to a degree I assumed Hoover's mismanagement of the economy and the widespread blame the country laid on the GOP for that kinda set FDR up for an easy walk. While some of that is true, if you follow his New York gubernatorial campaigns and some of his more contested Presidential campaigns, the guy really was in my opinion an amazing political messenger. I don't think you can just copy and paste stuff from the 1930s into the 2020s, but some of the tone and underlying ideas behind those FDR campaigns are universal and I think you could really argue for the Democrats making more arguments like this in the future. Most Democrat campaigns I have observed in the past 10 years come off as too wonky, too mired in complex policy issues most voters don't take the time to understand and etc.

[alfred russel]

For those who didn't believe me that Schumer's comment was stupid, it took all of a week for it to be made into the new ad that is up now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcY3xE6Bsk

[Berkut]

For those who didn't believe me that Schumer's comment was stupid, it took all of a week for it to be made into the new ad that is up now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcY3xE6Bsk

Damn. That is definitely proof that he should never have spoken. If someone can take your words, deliberately mis-interpret them, then create a political attack ad, you should definitely never speak those words.

[Habbaku]

WOW! A SENATOR SAYING HE'S GOING TO TRY TO TAKE A STATE!

[crazy canuck]

For those who didn't believe me that Schumer's comment was stupid, it took all of a week for it to be made into the new ad that is up now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcY3xE6Bsk

Change is bad was always going to be the Republican message.  Change is good was always going to be the Democratic message.  I am not sure what believing you has to do with what was always going to happen.

[Sheilbh]

I'm with AR. I get what you're saying but the messenger and messaging matter and this still seems like an own goal.

Would Ossof and Warnock invite Schumer to come and campaign in Georgia? No - so he should just shut up beyond "we've got great candidates and I look forward to working with them after they've won". There's no need for him to insert himself into this.

[Valmy]

Yeah if Mitch McConnell commented on how he needed these seats to stop Joe Biden, or whatever, that would be getting big air time as well.

So much of this is performative bullshit and Schumer failed us here by not doing the performative bullshit correctly.

[Admiral Yi]

Trump wins NC.