The Friday Link for 11/13/20

No need to fear Friday the 13th this year!  Earlier today the final states were awarded in the Presidential race (with Georgia for Biden and North Carolina for Trump) meaning Joe Biden, the President Elect, now has 306 Electoral College votes, the same exact amount as Trump got in 2016, something Trump referred to as a "landslide." 

I bet he doesn't regret that at all!

Trump has suggested he can somehow appoint himself to a second term, something he clearly can't do.  Not saying he won't try.  The problem for him is he needs to get multiple states to throw out their vote totals, undermining the voters of their state, and install him as their state winner.  Arizona and Georgia are run by Republicans and they've already called their states for Biden.  It'll be an interesting trick to convince everyone the Republicans of those two states were actually in the bag for Biden.

That doesn't leave a lot of options for Trump.  Sure the states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have blindly loyal Republicans running their state Legislatures, but both states have specific rules about Electors.  Setting aside the fact that both states also have a Democratic Governor, a person who clearly has a say in the matter and who won't go along with throwing out the state's election tallies, the WI and PA Republicans themselves know this would be political suicide for them to actually throw out their election results.

But for argument's sake, let's say Trump convinces Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to throw out their vote totals and pledge their loyalty to Trump.  That's still only 30 Electoral College votes, leaving Biden with 276, still enough for the Presidency. Nevada is the next most likely state but they only have 6 Electoral College votes, so Trump would still need one more. He could try to flip the one Electoral College vote in Nebraska that went for Biden, or Michigan, but both are highly unlikely considering their margins for Biden.  

There is no where else to go. Trump will be anger eating the next few weeks.  Delicious!

Tonight for the Friday Link let's start off with Robert Reich addressing Trump's coup thoughts, and why they won't go anywhere. 

I've heard some Trump supports insist there is a fix in for Biden because his vote totals didn't follow something called Benford's Law.  I had no idea what Benford's Law actually was but the best Mathematician I know, Matt Parker, and his channel Stand Up Maths, had heard of this alleged conspiracy and he made a very informative video about how Benford's Law is unreliable and doesn't apply here. 

Finally tonight, let's move away from politics to something that stunned me.  Britain used to be connected to the European mainland, but I'm not referring to millions of years ago.  Around Eight Thousand years ago, a natural disaster of cataclysmic proportions occurred which destroyed the land bridge connecting England to Holland and The Netherlands.  What could have done it?  Simon Whistler at Geographics has the story. 

Have a great weekend everyone!