Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-sues-alaska-election-dan-sullivan-b3072470.html

Attorney General Todd Blanche has declined to pledge DOJ’s independence from the White House and would not rule out similar suits in other states

Donald Trump says he ordered the Department of Justice to sue the state of Alaska in an effort to block the results of a U.S. Senate election from being certified, unless the incumbent Republican wins.

Government attorneys filed a lawsuit Friday arguing that the presence of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the ballot would confuse voters who support the sitting senator, Daniel S. Sullivan, in the unusual matchup of two candidates with the same name up against a Democratic candidate.

“I’m the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters Friday. “They have two Dan Sullivans.”

Trump’s admission of an extraordinary intervention in the nation’s elections follows the president’s threats to overhaul election administration and assert federal control before critical midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress, and fate of his final years in office, at stake.

Right, then every election will have multiple candidate with the same name and no election results will ever be valid again.

First of all, the headline focuses on Trump's order but fails to inform people of the more important fact that a lawsuit has actually been filed.

Government attorneys filed a lawsuit Friday arguing that the presence of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the ballot would confuse voters who support the sitting senator, Daniel S. Sullivan, in the unusual matchup of two candidates with the same name up against a Democratic candidate.

Second, this has already been adjudicated, it's a matter of state law, and the case isn't ripe because they are suing over a hypothetical that has not happened yet.

But even if there weren't all those other reasons to toss out the suit, the whole thing is nonsense anyway because Alaska has ranked choice voting. Anyone who is confused can pick both Daniel Sullivans. The only way it could possibly become an issue is if the two Dans come in first and second, which has effectively no chance of happening.

It's so weird how the cons have to rely on all this sort of shit.

Instead of, you know, running on a record where they are actually doing something for all of the American people.

Not just stealing the country blind and enriching themselves to the tune of billions, while throwing bones to the rabid right wing that they think will "make liberals cry again".

Nazi fucks are going to be Nazis.

Its also nuts that no one seems to take any notice.

I feel like everyone's spare kidney is being harvested and no one actually notices.

no-one is going to enforce the constitution so perhaps it’s time to get used to living a christian nationalist nazi confederacy

Civil War is the real Halloween horror movie choice for October 2026.

If that moron had any neurons at all, he'd know to keep his plots quiet. How can someone simultaneously so stupid and evil become President of the United States?

One of the ways to fight cancer is to cut it off with blades

He does it because there are absolutely zero consequences for him doing it.

The dude has effectively gotten away with being a rapist and a paedophile. A little thing like election interference won't stop him.

Your body came with a spare?

Doesn't everyone's?

You seem to have an awful lot of faith in the law of a country that has a pedophile felon president.

I like that there are a few ways that involve shooting it with a laser.

I knew they wouldn't do shit after J6. It was just disappointing to know all those "Tree of liberty needs to be watered" folk were the real bootlickers all along. Glad I got out of the US, so I don't have to deal with that theocratic shit hole Reich that's embedding itself into government

He knows he doesn't need to keep quiet because nothing is going to be done about it

Look how tiny his stupid little hand is

His words are drivel.

The answer is enough stupid and evil people chose it. They literally chose the rapist, traitor liar.

Their platform sucks so they have to cheat and lie, always been this way, but enough keep choosing to make things worse and regress every other time.

Because a lot of Americans are fucking stupid and racist

You filled a bag and ran bro. Not sure why you're so proud of that. You're a beneficiary of the burg reich who timed things well enough to avoid consequences smugly dismissing those of us still being tread on as bootlickers and it really rubs me the wrong way

No, no. You don't understand. Ranked choice voting is Dumb! And confusing!

/S

So say the advertisements I have been subjected to for the last 4 months. (Some morons are trying to repeat it, again, and their advertising campaign is LITERALLY that it is "dumb, dumb, dumb"

They did a nice job labeling the different Dans. I early voted, and apparently, I am not Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, because I am 100% certain I was able to rank the Dan I wanted to, and not rank the Dan that is a giant PoS, as one was clearly marked "incumbent".

I can't blame the bro for leaving. The Jewish people who stayed in Nazi Germany until it was too late, mostly died. There was no virtue in staying, no bravery, no solidarity with the other victims. It didn't change anything, except for them dying instead of living. It didn't help anyone except the nazis to kill them. There was no reason to stay.

Every one of the victims would have been better off leaving while they could, so anyone staying behind and saying "no guys, stay behind with me or else I'll call you all cowards" harms their fellows far worse than the ones saying "I'm leaving while I can, and you should too."

Besides, bro can still vote by mail. There's literally no reason to stay if you have somewhere else you can go. Not leaving does nothing to help the people who can't leave.

And if I'm reading their comment right, they didn't call you a bootlicker. Unless, that is, if you were at J6. In which case, well...

I'm glad for you that you were able to get out, but still vote by mail if you can!

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" is the full quote he used there. It's a call to revolutionary action by Thomas Jefferson. He's condemning the lack of some kind of violent response to the Jan 6th stuff while himself big chillin somewhere cozy on the wealth he managed to extract from the USA (read: it's victims around the world). Feels a lot less like a persecuted jew taking flight, and a lot more like someone's nephew setting up shop in Argentina.

Whether or not you can make a difference by standing your ground and showing a little solidarity is a whole other can of worms, more debatable but I'm stuck here and can't help resenting someone who's clearly got the resources to help for bailing instead. If you can't see any virtue bravery or solidarity in the people who helped one another survive ghettos and concentration camps, the people who smuggled those actually in danger to freedom, or the people who formed literal armed resistance movements I really don't know what to tell you

Bigotry of all kinds (racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, etc...) are a symptom of stupidity. Only stupid people cling to uneducated beliefs and refuse to believe the information that explains why they're wrong

Most people are born with an extra kidney, that's why you can donate one and still live

I would leave too if my wife wasn't insistent on staying here. Dunno where I'd go, but it seems like it's about to get bad, and I'm honestly afraid there's going to be a lot of needless deaths in the near future.

Wherever you go, there you are. Start a garden, learn first aid, get a gun, and most important of all meet your neighbors.

e: oh yeah and if you do make it to paradise maybe avoid talking shit about those of us left behind

OP isn't talking shit about you. Their comment is nothing but the truth. Dunno why you're so sensitive about this. We are all stuck in the same boat right now.

This is how you know someone else is controlling him. He loves taking credit for someone else's idea.

I know the quote. The point the commenter was making is that the people who always chant it (i.e., 2A folks) were, in the end, the ones who stormed the Capitol at the behest of their favorite dictator.

You don't know that the commenter is chilling on a pile of wealth. He might be a sysadmin and got a job at some startup in Estonia for all you know. Try not making uncharitable assumptions about people while preaching from your high martyrdom horse.

Whether or not you can make a difference by standing your ground and showing a little solidarity

Solidarity isn't unilateral, and unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere where that actually exists among your neighbors, then no exertion of willpower on your part will make it happen. And yeah, standing your ground alone is suicidal.

I'm stuck here and can't help resenting someone who's clearly got the resources to help for bailing

That sucks, I'm stuck here too, but I don't resent people who get out while they can, because if I could I would too. Your resentment is your problem, not theirs.

If you can't see any virtue bravery or solidarity in the people who helped one another survive ghettos and concentration camps, the people who smuggled those actually in danger to freedom, or the people who formed literal armed resistance movements

That's a misreading of what I said. When did I say that? I said the people demanding that others stay did more harm to anyone foolish enough to listen to them. Bringing a few dozen extra neighbors to the camps with them wouldn't save anybody. Are we crabs in a bucket?

Which one of those things are you doing, by the way? Are you helping anyone survive? Are you smuggling anyone to freedom? Are you forming an armed resistance? And if the other commenter stayed, do you think they'd be in any position to do those things either?

Or is all you're doing demanding that people stay and keep themselves in danger? If I offered to let you climb over me to escape the bucket, wouldn't you take me up on it? Would you remain behind just to keep pulling others down when they try to climb out?

...they're calling everyone still stuck in the US who hasn't gone out in a blaze of glory a bootlicker from whatever comfy bolthole they've been blessed with. Not an option for the vast majority of us, especially those who actually need it. They aren't stuck in the same boat, they're very clear (and smug, and self-righteous) about that. It's exactly what irritated me. Dunno why you felt the need to involve yourself, or what truth you're finding so resonant

they’re calling everyone still stuck in the US who hasn’t gone out in a blaze of glory a bootlicker

No they’re not? You’re putting words in their mouth and then getting mad at them over something they never said.

The bootlickers are the MAGA dipshits who voted these chucklefucks into office. Reread their comment, and stop reacting to shit people never said.

My state population was genius enough to vote for ranked choice voting to be illegal. How we still managed to make abortion accessible at the same time I'll never know, but then we're voting on that yet again this election -- this time with the added attempt to outlaw transgender surgery for minors in the same amendment! Which is already illegal here...

This fuckin state drives me crazy

This is honestly too much for me to reply to through a phone, so here's a few poorly articulated bullet points.

Assuming everyone who thinks a state monopoly on violence is bad is against you is idiotic and self defeating. Even on a reread (which I did before replying to you earlier and again just now) I'm pretty confident they're making the equally dumb assertation that there should have been an armed response to the J6 bullshit and that the lack thereof is somehow hypocritical.

It's expensive as hell to move at all, emigration moreso, and anyone able to make it out of here was doing pretty well in the first place to pull that off. Community is pretty much all I've got, and I build that every day through consistent participation. Whether I want to or not, because we need each other. It absolutely takes 'willpower' and has nothing at all to do with luck. That's exactly what makes it happen and the only thing that can.

Re: resentment? Nobody's perfect, said I couldn't help it, their attitude and the criticism coming down from such a privileged position got to me. You have no idea how life changing even the price of dude's plane ticket out itself would be down here. He's the crab who made it out and is kinda being a dick about it, where I'm committed to tipping the bucket if I want to live (solidarity/collective action is the only hope of pulling that off).

You literally said there was no virtue, bravery, or solidarity in staying behind and doing so changed nothing, wish I could quote.

The attempted callout is deeply hypocritical a couple lines after telling me not to make uncharitable assumptions, and I'm not about to dox myself to validate the efforts I make to you. Absolutely working my ass off to get myself and others through this though, despite often failing to do so. The tendency for anyone with the resources to do so to put the Rational Self Interest we're conditioned for above the needs of the many really doesn't help. They're in a much better position to help than I am and chose not to.

Begging, pleading, entreating would all be better words than demanding for whatever the hell it is I'm doing here. Not exactly operating from a position of power. I've turned down opportunities for myself because of the position it would leave my community in more than once, it's what makes me a part of it and what lets me feel like a good person.

As the least confrontational person to say this, can you help me find my way to a better interpretation of that comment? I genuinely cannot see another way to parse it, and I've gone back and tried more than once today. Who are "they" that failed to do shit after J6?
The only way I can parse it is as a pretty clear statement everyone with a gun who didn't respond by going out and blowing a maga hat off someone's head is a "bootlicker" for failing to do so, and they're pretty obviously speaking from a comfortable remove

I could see the MAGA fucknuts having problems reading the name and the party that appears after the name. Tough shit and hopefully they lose the Senate seat.

Blasting it with explosive radiation is fun

Let's reread what they said:

It was just disappointing to know all those "Tree of liberty needs to be watered" folk were the real bootlickers all along.

That reads to me as: "The people who quote that line turned out to be the ones who support fascism." In other words, "The don't tread on me people turned out to enjoy being treaded on/treading on others."

Maybe you read it differently, but if my reading is correct, then I'd say the other commenter wasn't lying. Calling that "assuming everyone who thinks a state monopoly on violence is bad" is... a take...

Community is pretty much all I've got, ...

Okay. That's a privilege. If you think everyone in this country has that opportunity, you're assuming everyone is in a similar situation as your own, which is ignorant.

Do you think a trans person in Alabama could build community solidarity by an act of willpower alone? Or a gay man in Nebraska, or a lesbian woman in Utah, or a Latino person in Mississippi?

I'm assuming from your words that your neighbors are mostly anti-maga. Do you really think that's the norm everywhere in this country? Because if it was, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

And by the way, are you assuming that the other commenter is a cishetero white man? Because if literally anyone else were to get out while they could, would you still be so opposed to it? I didn't see anything in their comment that indicates one way or another.

their attitude and the criticism coming down from such a privileged position got to me.

Let's look at the rest of their comment:

I knew they wouldn't do shit after J6.

Obviously talking about the government here, who failed to prosecute the leaders of that insurrection.

Glad I got out of the US

I would be too.

so I don't have to deal with that theocratic shit hole Reich that's embedding itself into government

They ain't wrong.

What about this sounds condescending to you?

You literally said there was no virtue, bravery, or solidarity in staying behind and doing so changed nothing, wish I could quote.

Doing so literally changes nothing, ergo there is no virtue or bravery in it, only stupidity (if it's done by choice when there's an alternative option, at least).

You might be able to argue that there can be solidarity in that, but it's the solidarity of crabs in the steamer. There's no shame in climbing overboard, but there is shame in dragging someone back down when they're trying to climb out. Not sure how you don't see that.

The tendency for anyone with the resources to do so to put the Rational Self Interest we're conditioned for above the needs of the many really doesn't help. They're in a much better position to help than I am and chose not to.

The cost of a plane ticket is not enough to fix this mess. Just because they got outta here doesn't mean they could have done anything to help even if they had stayed.

Not exactly operating from a position of power.

None of us are, dude. That's why some of us leave.

I've turned down opportunities for myself because of the position it would leave my community in more than once, it's what makes me a part of it and what lets me feel like a good person.

Would you do the same if 90% of your community were malicious, ignorant magas?

He tried to take credit for Obama's economy he inherited 90 days into his first term.

Hmmm... Missouri? That place really seems like it sucks.

I think it's where they tried to confusingly phrase a ballot initiative to repeal the state constitutional amendment they'd passed to guarantee abortion.

They have ranked choice voting, so as long as those two are your top choices, it really doesn't matter. And the "real" Dan Sullivan has his party and "incumbent" after his name.

My brother in Christ, you're ignoring pretty much all of what I already made my best effort to communicate and this doesn't feel productive or fun. If you're going to rehash the original comment, maybe quote the whole thing instead of just the lines that, out of context, support the point you want to make. I'm here for a conversation, but you're treating it more like a contest and that just makes me want to forfeit. Calling community a privilege "is... a take...". I'm a fuckin bigshot in mine because I have this phone and a car to sleep in. It's the one thing available to literally everyone that can't be bought, sold or taken away and is maintained exclusively through participation. Fuck your fixation on identity too, you have no idea who I am or where I'm coming from or what life is like for the constructs you prop up so glibly to make your point. Community is absolutely available to every one of those people and exactly how they survive those environments. You can find it in a prison and I have. You can find it in a concentration camp and I will. I guarantee I have a much closer relationship with the human beings behind the shallow strawmen you present here than you do and that the kind of "support" you're offering would piss them off. Community is about shared purpose and meeting needs, not performative politics. Ignorance is entirely forgiveable, most things are. Just have to be genuine, well intentioned, and in this together. If you want to see what that's like, try leaving home without your wallet for a while.

He is one of the most litigious men in history. Is it really a surprise at this point. He has already sued himself and was declared the winner so the sky is the limit apparently.

He has been a defendant over four thousand times. That just boggles the mind.

you're ignoring pretty much all of what I already made my best effort to communicate and this doesn't feel productive or fun.

I literally addressed every point you made; meanwhile you ignore everything I said and merely go on the attack, and you accuse me of arguing in bad faith?

Literally everyone who has responded to you has told you that you clearly misread the original comment, and you refuse to concede that maybe you were mistaken from the start?

I don't know why you were expecting this to be "fun" though, did you think we're here to entertain you?

If you're going to rehash the original comment, maybe quote the whole thing instead of just the lines that, out of context, support the point you want to make.

I quoted the entire comment. You read it wrong from the start and you won't just admit that.

I'm here for a conversation, but you're treating it more like a contest

Am I? I don't think I am, but you're the one framing it as "forfeit" so apparently you're viewing it that way...

Calling community a privilege "is... a take..."

It is a privilege. Not everyone has that. If you can't even grasp that other people's lived realities may be different from your own, then you have as little empathy as a republican.

Fuck your fixation on identity too,

I'm not fixated on identity, you're just making assumptions about the other commenter and I called you out on it.

you have no idea who I am or where I'm coming from or what life is like for the constructs you prop up so glibly to make your point

I never claimed to know anything about you other than what you've volunteered. I'm not the one making assumptions about you.

Also, what do you mean by "constructs"? I asked you if you're against various kinds of vulnerable minorities leaving the country if they can, or if it's only because you're assuming details about the other commenter that you're so against them leaving.

While you're dodging the question, and referring to those minorities as "constructs," you accuse me of "propping them up" and claim I don't know what life is like for them? You seem to be the one devoid of empathy here.

Community is absolutely available to every one of those people and exactly how they survive those environments.

You don't know what life is like for queer people living in right-wing areas, and it shows.

guarantee I have a much closer relationship with the human beings behind the shallow strawmen you present here

What fucking strawman am I presenting? You have a close relationship with the people in your community, sure, I never denied that. But where you err is in assuming every town in america is exactly the same as yours and trying to generalize your experience to encompass everyone else whom you don't even know. That is lacking empathy.

than you do and that the kind of "support" you're offering would piss them off.

First of all, you don't know a thing about me or the support I offer or to whom. Second of all, you're talking about "them" as if "they" are some a abstract category, that happen to also be a monolith whom you can personally speak for. That's only more evidence that you lack empathy, and you're the one using "them" as a prop.

All I asked you is if you would feel the same way about someone leaving the country if you knew they were a vulnerable minority (which, by the way, you still haven't answered), and how you expect people who are vulnerable minorities to build solidarity when they're isolated in communities that don't support them (which again, you refuse to address and simply assert that it isn't a real problem and I somehow just made it up?).

Community is about shared purpose and meeting needs, not performative politics.

So being queer in a right-wing area where everyone wants you dead is "performative politics" to you?

In this entire thread, you're the only one being performative. All I've said is to have some freaking empathy for others, and you refuse to understand or even acknowledge that some people's circumstances could differ from your own.

And also, I might add, you tend to assume that whoever you're arguing with is some caricature of some privileged, out-of-touch, ignoramus, without ever inquiring about the details of who they actually are. Makes me strongly feel this might be projection on your part.

If you want to see what that's like, try leaving home without your wallet for a while.

I've been homeless, jackass. Don't preach to me about what it's like to struggle.

Not sure why you're making this about me, though. I sure as hell wasn't making this about me. I simply came to bat for the commenter you initially replied to, because I saw that you were treating them unfairly. Everyone else here sees it too. Other than that, I've got no horse in this race.

You know though, at first I thought you were serious and could actually be reasoned with, or might be worth the time. But now I see you're just a troll. So I'm done wasting my time on you.

He's a one day old account who has to be deliberately misreading the original comment at this point, as multiple people have pointed it out to him and he just keeps doubling down on some gish gallop of sealioning, strawmen, and ad hominems.

I tried engaging with him rationally and then he just turns around and starts projecting and accusing me of all the bad faith shit he's doing. He's a fucking troll, here just in time to try to spoil another election. Not even worth the time.

It's all above board. Why would anyone think otherwise? Corrupt piece of shit said something… oooh, that news!