S05.E04: Chapter 56

[Athena]

Quote

With a tight race and low voter turnout on Election Day, things look grim for Frank. But he's still got one more trick up his sleeve.

 

[DoubleUTeeEff]

How on earth do the Underwoods think they are going to make it to 2036? They really are long term planners. It seems like they've always got a plan that is 10 steps ahead of everyone else. I hope that they are planning for Claire to be prez during some of those years. Not that I think they can make it that long. How can they sustain their power for that long when they are so cruel to so many people?

[Michichick]

4 hours ago, DoubleUTeeEff said:

How on earth do the Underwoods think they are going to make it to 2036? They really are long term planners. It seems like they've always got a plan that is 10 steps ahead of everyone else. I hope that they are planning for Claire to be prez during some of those years. Not that I think they can make it that long. How can they sustain their power for that long when they are so cruel to so many people?

Apparently they've got a plan that involves doing away with Presidential term limits, since there's no way for them to have an Underwood presidency until 2036 with current laws even if Claire does get the top job herself after Frank is done. I put nothing past them!

[Primetimer]

Or will an election and some new characters spice up this slow season?

View the full article

[Miles]

There probably isn't any law that governs this (although there might be and if so, I'd like to hear about it), but isn't it usually over when a candidate concedes, no matter the actual votes? Gore conceded to Bush. It didn't matter that Bush actually didn't have the votes and that Gore technically won. It was done and Bush became president. Won't there be hell to pay for these shenanigans?

[Michichick]

23 minutes ago, Miles said:

There probably isn't any law that governs this (although there might be and if so, I'd like to hear about it), but isn't it usually over when a candidate concedes, no matter the actual votes? Gore conceded to Bush. It didn't matter that Bush actually didn't have the votes and that Gore technically won. It was done and Bush became president. Won't there be hell to pay for these shenanigans?

Per this NPR article, concession has no legal meaning and it's only the votes that count: http://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2010/09/02/129600434/ (and as they mention, Gore retracted his concession before ultimately conceding again later). As we were all reminded in the last election, when it comes to the Presidency it's all about electoral votes, so having more of the popular vote makes no difference.

[Miles]

Gore had the electoral vote though.

[Michichick]

14 minutes ago, Miles said:

Gore had the electoral vote though.

No, he didn't. The Supreme Court determined Bush won Florida and thus Bush had more electoral votes than Gore. Gore did have the popular vote.

[Miles]

Guess I didn't really express myself correctly. Gore would have had the electors for the electoral vote, if there hadn't been some shenanigans as he won Florida, by a number of votes. I didn't quite remember the surpreme court part.

So the concession had basically nothing to do with the final result. Good to know.

[hincandenza]

14 hours ago, Miles said:

Guess I didn't really express myself correctly. Gore would have had the electors for the electoral vote, if there hadn't been some shenanigans as he won Florida, by a number of votes. I didn't quite remember the surpreme court part.

So the concession had basically nothing to do with the final result. Good to know.

Yeah, concession is something that the Bush team jumped on in those early recount days, but it was just one of those media blitzes or "firehose of falsehoods" tactics to make people think it mattered, and thus any legal challenges were somehow moot (appealing to that Joe Sixpack mindset that thinks major political or governmental decisions should be made with the same handshake ethics and rules of a pickup basketball game or weekly poker night at your buddy's place).  The actual election occurs in December when the EC meets and formally selects the winning candidate, so in a sense the president-elect isn't the president-elect until that event occurs, no matter what concessions, media stories, or assumptions we make.  We just presume it's a foregone conclusion that the electors will reflect the votes in their states, though not all states require their electors to do so- which is odd, since in two of the last five elections there were legitimate concerns that issues like "faithless electors" would arise to shift the outcome.

From the wikipedia of this season, it says filming started last July, but did not complete until February, so the bulk of the show and plotlines likely were crafted, written, and filmed well before the 2016 election itself.  Presumably some rewrites, modifications, and new/reshot scenes were then done, but they probably couldn't significantly alter the major plotlines such as the horribly broken election process/deadlock, which I suspect was done partly as their own prediction of how they saw the 2016 election turning out.

[knaankos]

On 5/31/2017 at 2:15 PM, DoubleUTeeEff said:

How on earth do the Underwoods think they are going to make it to 2036? They really are long term planners. It seems like they've always got a plan that is 10 steps ahead of everyone else. I hope that they are planning for Claire to be prez during some of those years. Not that I think they can make it that long. How can they sustain their power for that long when they are so cruel to so many people?

And I really hope this show isn't numbskulled enough to allow that to happen. I mean it's called House of Cards not house of stone 

[hincandenza]

2 hours ago, knaankos said:

And I really hope this show isn't numbskulled enough to allow that to happen. I mean it's called House of Cards not house of stone 

Preach.

[NutMeg]

I'm up to this episode and I'm left cold so far. I think the main reason may have to do with the fact that previous seasons were fiction with the frisson of what could happen if our world twisted just a little on its axis, but now it doesn't feel like a remote fiction anymore. We're now in a world where reality is weirder than fiction, and the only thing the Underwood team still have going for them is their brilliant mind, rather than random play.

Going forward, I'm counting on the secondary characters to make the difference because, as much as I found the Underwood interesting before, they're not fun to watch now that the real world has outrageous-ed them. 

I feel bad for the main actors who signed up for a groundbreaking series that might peter out because real life events make it irrelevant. 

[Dots And Stripes]

So what is with the deja vu thing? Leann mentions it to Doug and then we see Claire call Doug and Leann in the exact same way she did earlier. Is it just to reinforce that the Underwoods plan to keep pulling the same stunts or is there something bigger that the show is getting at?

[Anela]

10 hours ago, NutMeg said:

I'm up to this episode and I'm left cold so far. I think the main reason may have to do with the fact that previous seasons were fiction with the frisson of what could happen if our world twisted just a little on its axis, but now it doesn't feel like a remote fiction anymore. We're now in a world where reality is weirder than fiction, and the only thing the Underwood team still have going for them is their brilliant mind, rather than random play.

Going forward, I'm counting on the secondary characters to make the difference because, as much as I found the Underwood interesting before, they're not fun to watch now that the real world has outrageous-ed them. 

I feel bad for the main actors who signed up for a groundbreaking series that might peter out because real life events make it irrelevant. 

I'm having trouble with it being so close to reality, as well. 

I also want to see Frank and Claire have their house of cards fall down. How much are they going to get away with? 

[Dakisela]

Ann Curry!!!!

[knaankos]

On June 4, 2017 at 9:06 AM, NutMeg said:

I'm up to this episode and I'm left cold so far. I think the main reason may have to do with the fact that previous seasons were fiction with the frisson of what could happen if our world twisted just a little on its axis, but now it doesn't feel like a remote fiction anymore. We're now in a world where reality is weirder than fiction, and the only thing the Underwood team still have going for them is their brilliant mind, rather than random play.

Going forward, I'm counting on the secondary characters to make the difference because, as much as I found the Underwood interesting before, they're not fun to watch now that the real world has outrageous-ed them. 

I feel bad for the main actors who signed up for a groundbreaking series that might peter out because real life events make it irrelevant. 

The events of the show are still way more crazy than real life. An execution broadcast live throughout the USA? Americans turned into "ICO" agents wreaking havoc on the country? Using terrorist "events" to alter elections? People really overrate the realize craziness. I mean most of the stuff is happening in the Middle East and Europe right now, not domestically. 

[TV Anonymous]

On 6/7/2017 at 11:40 AM, knaankos said:

The events of the show are still way more crazy than real life. An execution broadcast live throughout the USA? Americans turned into "ICO" agents wreaking havoc on the country? Using terrorist "events" to alter elections? People really overrate the realize craziness. I mean most of the stuff is happening in the Middle East and Europe right now, not domestically. 

You think, we think that the show is still crazier than real life because we do not have visibility to what is really happening in real life. We see Frank, Claire and their inner circle work. Do you know what the conversations are between Bannon, Kushner, Conway, Miller and Spicer?

[Dobian]

The colossal arrogance and self-importance of Frank and Claire is absolutely staggering.  Only they know what the American peons want.  Right.

I've so had it with Doug Stamper bullying and manipulating everyone including an endless parade of spineless and stupid politicians to do what he wants.  What chief of staff has ever had that much power where he was literally changing presidential election outcomes?  Why would any governor give credence to the president's chief of staff on an election day, no matter what files were sent to him?  If it was real, they would be talking directly with the CIA and Homeland Security, not Doug Freaking Stamper.

I'm game with all the strategizing and machinations, but this show is really pushing beyond the boundaries of believability. 

[Mindthinkr]

"Meet your Daddy"... I lol'd at that line

 Coin tossing from Donald Duck? Really? 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 6/4/2017 at 9:40 AM, Dots And Stripes said:

So what is with the deja vu thing? Leann mentions it to Doug and then we see Claire call Doug and Leann in the exact same way she did earlier. Is it just to reinforce that the Underwoods plan to keep pulling the same stunts or is there something bigger that the show is getting at?

Claire calling Doug and LeAnn into the Oval Office is not really déjà vu (at least not in the way that LeAnn meant it in her conversation with Doug). The first time it was shown, we only saw Claire call them into the office so the audience had no idea what happened immediately preceding that or what was said to Doug and LeAnn after they were called in. The second time we saw Claire call them into the office was a flashback (Claire is wearing the exact same outfit as before) except this time we saw Frank and Claire's conversation behind closed doors first, and after seeing everything that Doug and LeAnn did throughout the episode, we now know what Frank, Claire, Doug, and LeAnn discussed/planned during that meeting.

[millennium]

I can't stand the smarmy writer guy.  

Nice to see Campbell Scott though.    I didn't recognize him without his Boris accent from "Royal Pains."

[Hanahope]

I didn't get the election years being ticked off either.  But I guess they want to somehow overturn the 2-term limit amendment.  Yeah, good luck with that.  Scary when you think about it, what they'd have to do to America that they'd allow that.  Course, all you have to do is destroy the foundation of democracy and declare yourself its leader for life, akin to Putin, or start WW3 with North Korea.  yeah, lets hope this does remain fiction.

the manipulation that Frank is able to use on various governors is simply amazing.  "No you will not close voting centers" knowing full well that is exactly what they will do.  Wonderful reverse psychology.  And we knew the voter suppression would backfire, because even the Dems don't want to come out to vote for Frank.

And again, given current events, I can believe Doug Stamper is able to bully his way around.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Hanahope