Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Why Has Barr Launched A Probe Into "Voting Irregularities"? Ans. To Justify Trump's Failure To Concede

"Under no circumstances should the attorney general or the Department of Justice be serving as the president's personal lawyers in a campaign to undermine an election in which he clearly received fewer votes in the popular vote and the Electoral College."  - David Becker, legal specialist on CBS this morning.

That Trump is a tinpot dictator wannabe became evident from the instant the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden.  Like most dictators, e.g. Somoza, Papa Doc Duvalier, Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, he flipped out on learning his power had been stripped bare, effective early next year.  Since then he's flailed at the loss and by some reports even contemplated offing himself  (according to a report by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker) :   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/why-trump-cant-afford-to-lose

Excerpt  from César Chelala | November 9, 2020 - 6:48am | permalink

The President was despondent. Sensing that time was running out, he had asked his aides to draw up a list of his political options. He wasn’t especially religious, but, as daylight faded outside the rapidly emptying White House, he fell to his knees and prayed out loud, sobbing as he smashed his fist into the carpet. “What have I done?” he said. “What has happened?” When the President noted that the military could make it easy for him by leaving a pistol in a desk drawer, the chief of staff called the President’s doctors and ordered that all sleeping pills and tranquillizers be taken away from him, to insure that he wouldn’t have the means to kill himself.

This is what Jane Mayer, one of the most prestigious American journalists, wrote in the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine (Gaming the Endgame). Her article serves to illuminate one of the most tragic and decisive moments of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. .

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Which w0uldn't be a bad thing given how much hate, division and even destruction of our electoral system this deranged mutt has accomplished.  (And reports are he's even claimed to be considering running again in 4 years.   Which I will believe when I see it.)  Anyway,   as author Chelala also observes in the above linked piece: "What happens between now, after the victory of Joe Biden, and the new president’s takeover on January 20, 2021, can have enormous consequences for the future of the United States and the world. No possibility can be ruled out."

As I told Janice, given the level of Trump's derangement we can't even rule out the possibility he'd take the whole nation down with him.  One horrific possibility given his malignant narcissism?  Using a pre-emptive nuclear strike  - say on the Chinese or Russia - similar to what the Greg Stillson  character did  in 'The Dead Zone'. See e.g.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9M34DzAKo&t=21s

So one would hope that those hiding his pills (for his self-preservation)  are also hiding the nuclear football- for all of ours.  Hyberbolic paranoia, you say?    Well, maybe you hadn't heard - in the midst of the celebrations - that Trump fired Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who had overseen the nuclear weapons stockpile.  An ominous signal?  You tell me. 

 In the meantime, the maggot has continued to take a flamethrower to the 2020 election and our electoral system via a blizzard of specious lawsuits, none of which have any heft other than to distract and subvert the electoral process. He also has sicced his lapdog and toady Bill Barr into the election subversion mix.  Barr has authorized federal prosecutors to begin investigating "substantial allegations" of voter irregularities, despite a total lack of evidence  of any significant fraud having been committed  But consider this the last gasp of Trump's authoritarian regime which would have been on steroids had he won re-election. (Amusing in itself to see his daft supporters chanting "USA! USA! USA!"  despite the fact Trump is taking a blow torch to everything sacred about this country.)   

What's really norm -breaking about Barr's memo for DOJ vote investigations is that he's ordering it before the  states' votes have been certified. The Toad even admits in his letter that such efforts to intervene are "frowned upon".   Then why do it? Well, to satisfy the dictates of his master, Dotard, and that includes continuing to throw shade on this election which, btw, was generally conducted smoothly given the vast volume of mail ballots.    

Of course, this unhinged move was greeted with jubilation by Trump's delirious supporters still living in fantasyland.  But these zombies will cling to any faint hope in order to try to escape the cold, uncompromising reality closing in:  that over 4 million more of their countrymen voted to oust Trump, not keep him. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that the justice department official overseeing voter fraud investigations, Richard Pilger, had resigned from his position.   Pilger reportedly told his colleagues in an email:

"Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications. I must regretfully resign from my role as director of the Election Crimes Branch.”

Bravo to a courageous citizen, so unlike the miserable lapdog, ass licking  Repukes who continue to coddle and enable Trump.  Meanwhile, all this unfolding BS shows again why one of President Joe Biden's first moves in office must be to fire Barr - along with any of his acolytes at DOJ.     

Be aware that this cynical judicial flimflam move by Barr - given there's no evidence for fraud - is designed to allow Trump to continue denying reality and dividing the nation.  When pressed to give it up and concede he can now say, 'Look, the Justice Department is investigating'.    Thereby  continuing to undermine trust in the outcome of this election, and making it nearly impossible to reach the "healing" Biden wants with each day's obstruction. (Even now using a lackey at General Services Administration to deny team Biden access to transition resources.)

Stay tuned!  It's not over until we actually see Trump, his wretched family and cronies, leave the White House on January 20th.

See Also:

The election is over, but there’s no end to Republican bad faith

And:

by Cody Fenwick | November 10, 2020 - 8:35am | permalink

— from Alternet

AND:

by Robert Reich | November 10, 2020 - 7:53am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Blog

Joe Biden has won. He will be our next president.

Normally, the loser of the race would give a gracious concession speech, and accept the results.

That won’t happen this time around, because Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist who will never admit defeat. But there’s no legal requirement for the losing candidate to formally concede - it’s just another tradition Trump will choose to ignore.

He can bluster and protest all he wants, but like it or not, the Constitution and federal law establish a clear timeline of how electoral votes are processed, and when the new president takes office. Here’s how that process normally plays out, how Trump might try to undermine it, and why he is unlikely to succeed.

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