[url=https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-putin-election-russia-275d5b3306bce272a77c17eb05d54b84]Kremlin: Putin won’t congratulate Biden until challenges end[/url][quote]The leaders of China, Brazil and Turkey also are holdouts in offering congratulations. And Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he would wait to comment until the legal challenges were resolved.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;562719][URL="https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-putin-election-russia-275d5b3306bce272a77c17eb05d54b84"]Kremlin: Putin won’t congratulate Biden until challenges end[/URL][/QUOTE]

Some sources say Putin will step down because of Parkinson's Disease. Others say it is not true. He wanted Trump to be re-elected. China wanted Biden to be elected. Something to do with their trade situation, I imagine. Some get what they want and others do not. The way of the world.

Putin is waiting [URL="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-immunity/new-bill-set-to-expand-russian-ex-presidents-immunity-from-prosecution-idUSKBN27L1JD"]for this[/URL].

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;562683][URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gsa-letter-biden-transition/2020/11/08/07093acc-21e9-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html"]A little-known Trump appointee is in charge of handing transition r...[/URL]
"The administrator of the General Services Administration has declined to sign paperwork officially starting the transition to the new administration."[/QUOTE][url=https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-transition-ascertainment-238c8bd1733abb9d5419678e427ea4de]What's ascertainment? The green light to launch transition[/url] (my emphasis) [quote]The formal presidential transition doesn't begin until the administrator of the federal General Services Administration ascertains the "apparent successful candidate" in the general election. [b]Neither the Presidential Transition Act nor federal regulations specify how that determination should be made.[/b] That decision green lights the entire federal government's moves toward preparing for a handover of power.[/quote] Great. There's no way to ascertain what "ascertains" means. Getting the transition started depends on an arbitrary decision by an unelected bureaucrat. Who in the present instance is a toady to the 24-carat jerk who refuses to admit he lost the election.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;562776]Getting the transition started depends on an arbitrary decision by an unelected [STRIKE]bureaucrat[/STRIKE] [U]appointee[/U].[/QUOTE]
Fixed that for you. Bureaucrats are civil service people. Appointees are part of the spoils system.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;562682]Robert Caro describes this in great detail in [U][I]"The Passage of Power"[/I][/U]. Sarah Hughes was chosen specifically because her appoint had gotten blocked while he presided over the senate.

During the first one he used 2 Bibles stacked. One was a family Bible and the other was Lincoln's Bible.

IIRC Washington placed his hand on the [B]opened[/B] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Inaugural_Bible"]Bible[/URL].[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/trump-seriously-considered-taking-the-oath-of-office-on-his-bestseller-the-art-of-the-deal-1.4381770[/url]

[QUOTE]Trump seriously considered taking the oath of office on his 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal.[/QUOTE]

I watched that BBC documentary recently. It really shows what a weird world we live in.
Either "Fate" or some "God" is laughing his/her ass off, or we just took a wrong turn somewhere in the quantum mechanical "many worlds" series of parallel universes.

So, the American Adventure ended. They down-voted the clown.

From which you can see that the average American is, surprisingly, :razz:, more clever than the average Romanian. They could not stand anymore the buffoon smiling on screen, lying and insulting people all in the same time, for four years, and punished him with the ballots. Contrary to my fellow countrymen and countrywomen who still voted a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Iliescu"]buffoon[/URL] again, for the second time, after he smiled on screen for about six years and continued to lie and to [URL="https://apnews.com/article/c25c610ef5e9ab19a25cd27efc5c69f8"]insult the people[/URL] (to give just one example), insult their intelligence, dragging the country back with about 20-30 years. They would almost vote for him the third time too, if allowed...

Hip-hip-hooray to American people.

[QUOTE=LaurV;562783]So, the American Adventure ended. They down-voted the clown.

From which you can see that the average American is, surprisingly, :razz:, more clever than the average Romanian.
<snip>
Contrary to my fellow countrymen and countrywomen who still voted a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Iliescu"]buffoon[/URL] again, for the second time, after he smiled on screen for about six years and continued to lie and to [URL="https://apnews.com/article/c25c610ef5e9ab19a25cd27efc5c69f8"]insult the people[/URL] (to give just one example), insult their intelligence, dragging the country back with about 20-30 years.[/QUOTE]
Dragging Romania back 20-30 years was quite an accomplishment, given that Nicolae Ceausescu had been in power before him.

If memory serves, Ceausescu and his wife were kicked out more emphatically -- they were stood against a wall and shot.

[QUOTE="Stephen Falken"]
Joshua, what are you doing?[/QUOTE]
.

[url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-voting-fraud-and-irregularities-4eeb9e0c97301a23ae8d05b54c3144fd]Barr tells DOJ to probe election fraud claims if they exist[/url][quote]WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities, if they exist, before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Barr's action comes days after Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the outcome. It gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is certified.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;562816][url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-voting-fraud-and-irregularities-4eeb9e0c97301a23ae8d05b54c3144fd]Barr tells DOJ to probe election fraud claims if they exist[/url][/QUOTE]

I was reading about this earlier today. Someone high up in the DOJ resigned after getting this memo from Barr. It is highly unusual for the DOJ to get involved when none of the allegations have been shown to be credible. This is like a hammer looking for a nail.

The real goal is to prevent states from certifying their elections so that the state legislatures in Republican controlled states can choose the Trump electors instead of the Biden electors. The aim right now is to prevent Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Wisconsin from certifying their elections and I'm sure there are others. If the results are not certified it basically means that the popular vote is thrown out. This hasn't happened in nearly [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College#Appointment_by_state_legislature"]150 years[/URL] and there are reasonable explanations to the exceptions since the Civil War.