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Comment by botswana99 | Hacker News Reader

We'll check another website, no biggie

Even if every single news site went down on election night, it would be fine. People aren't gonna die if they don't find out who won the election until the next day or even the next week.

If every single news site went down, I would expect Trump to declare himself winner and put into motion a coup.

I mean, that happened without sites going down.

Correct.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_coup

Follow that train of thought out of the station. With either candidate or entity.

And then...

Directs the military to strike on [target] and the military says "Not my Commander" and no strike is carried out.

There is no Coup unless the powers are transferred.

It cannot happen.

Trump tried it already. I couldn't envision Harris even attempting it.

Not all coups are military.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_coup

Harris doesn't need to "attempt it", she somehow became the Democratic choice without a single vote for her, replacing the man who said it'd be ridiculous after all the millions of votes he got

Did the delegates not vote at the Democratic convention?

That's like saying the Chinese had a vote

Like it or not (I don't!), primaries are internal functions of membership organizations. The law has found this again and again. In these contests, it is the party delegates who are given the right to choose the party nominee.

A candidacy is not an elected position.

> the military says "Not my Commander"

The President remains Commander in Chief for several months, from November until late January.

(And now enjoys absolute immunity for official acts performed under that hat.)

In such a case, it'd be a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup

The results of this election will not be knowable the night of the election anyway. There are way too many people currently preparing too many different ways to challenge the results regardless of what actually happens.

Finding out the winner on election night is really just a modern illusion. Media "calls" have zero legal weight, and they rely on predictable geographical voting patterns and large enough win margins to build confidence on the outcome before all the unofficial tallies are in. That's way more difficult these days.

The fastest state to certify actual official results takes 2 or 3 days (Delaware), and most states are closer to 2 or 3 weeks.

Exactly this.

The NYT ceased being the paper of record a long time ago.

[Citation missing]

It's hard to get past their cheerleading for the Iraq war, for example.

It really wasn't. It wasn't difficult for anyone to get past their cheerleading for the Iraq War other than Judith Miller, who (for her service) was given a fake job at a fake conservative paper for a time that I'm sure paid her enough to retire comfortably. The Cheneys and Bushes are media and political darlings. No one paid a price for going with the herd, and doing what the administration demanded.

It was and is difficult for people who failed to cheer on the Iraq War.

The NYT has always been on the administration's side when asked, and "corrects" the record about 5 years after it could make a difference for anyone. Everyone involved gets cush editor-in-chief jobs at "liberal" magazines, or professorships at quarter-million dollar J-schools.

That doesn't make it not the paper of record.

ok, what DOES make it the paper of record?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_of_record

...which says that it's based on reputation. I presume the previous poster's opinion is that the NYT is no longer deserving of that reputation. It's weird that you asked for a citation of their opinion.

One person's opinion doesn't make it not the paper of record. It's more like a state change that requires some critical mass.

And the more recent example of "Screams without words".

https://web.archive.org/web/20240817191751/https://www.semaf...

Shit they aren't even the "New York Times" anymore because they officially made their focus national and have jack shit for New York coverage.

It might be a biggie for NYT management, that's how labor negotiation works.

Given the disinformation campaign that will take place (at the very least from russian bots flooding social media), I would much prefer all sources of information be fully available throughout the election. Of course this is their highest leverage moment, but it is also critical for the future of the country (at the very least). It is somewhat akin to ambulance drivers choosing to go on strike on Memorial day weekend. I am not a fan of the tactic, since they could strike any other time and get the same thing, perhaps striking 2 days more than they would have to at this time.

Then management might want to offer a compelling deal before the day of, right? Ideally high leverage strike doesn't even have to be carried out.

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