"Nineteen summers ago, when counterterrorism analysts warned of a coming attack by al‑Qaeda, they could only guess at a date. This year, if election analysts are right, we know when the trouble is likely to come. Call it the Interregnum: the interval from Election Day to the next president’s swearing-in. It is a temporal no-man’s-land between the presidency of Donald Trump and an uncertain successor—a second term for Trump or a first for Biden. The transfer of power we usually take for granted has several intermediate steps, and they are fragile."- Barton Gellman. 'The Election That Could Break America'
"He's criminalizing dissent on one level. With the FBI, he's attempting rhetorically to criminalize the execution and mechanics of the rule of law. It's not a heck of a lot more complicated than that... He's using a charged term to create a sense of anxiety and paranoia to get his supporters in a place where assent for Trump is a patriotic act. By doing so he's throwing 243 years of constitutional history away.
The framers had this right. They were worried about demagogues, they were worried about exactly this type of person." - Historian John Meacham, in May, 2019 (on MSNBC)
The framers had this right. They were worried about demagogues, they were worried about exactly this type of person." - Historian John Meacham, in May, 2019 (on MSNBC)
"Foreign actors seeking to do us harm will seek to undermine our confidence in the election by telling us that it is a hoax and any ballots counted after election day are some sort of scam. Foreign actors seeking to do us harm will stoke that - as per the FBI statement. Trump is doing exactly what the FBI just warned us is being done - by foreign powers hostile to us- trying to undo our democracy. They're doing it covertly, our president is doing it out loud right in front of us. "
Rachel Maddow, last night, MSNBC
Thanks to a new Atlantic article by staff writer Barton Gellman, e.g.
we are now alerted to the potential for an attempted Trump coup on November 3rd. This is not being histrionic or hyperbolic, the threat is as real as the first splitting chest pains preceding a heart attack. As Gellman warns us, refocusing our attention after so much has been written about Trump simply refusing to leave office:
"The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold on to power.
Trump’s state and national legal teams are already laying the groundwork for postelection maneuvers that would circumvent the results of the vote count in battleground states. Ambiguities in the Constitution and logic bombs in the Electoral Count Act make it possible to extend the dispute all the way to Inauguration Day, which would bring the nation to a precipice."
This ought to scare the bejeezus out of every sane and sentient American - at least those not numbered among the Trump zombies. We already know the swine fouling the White House is indirectly responsible for over 200,000 dead Americans because of his mishandling of the Covid 19 pandemic. But now we know he wants to kill American democracy as well in the coming general election by carrying out a coup. Indeed, he is already in the process of doing it with every attack he makes on mail -in ballots, and with the very words uttered last night:
"Get rid of the ballots, and there won't be a transition but a continuation of power."
This was in response to a reporter's question of whether this fungal imp would respect peaceful transition of power, i.e. if he loses. Just Trump babbling with no import? Nope, as Maddow put it last night:
"This isn't some inarticulate blurt or verbal misfire from the president speaking at the podium at the White House tonight. This is what he is saying consistently now over the last few days. This is what he means. This is not verbal glitching or idle musings. This is insistently and consistently where we are at now. Two hundred and forty -four years to stand this Republic up, four years to cut it down."
Indeed! And Maddow is spot on correct about his intentions. There is no "bungling" of a response as blogger Cody Fenwick claims. (See link below). What Trump means when he barks "get rid of the ballots" is that he intends to prevent as many mail- in ballots as possible from being counted, to give him his best chance to sneak into power again. A veritable coup, and as Gellman's Atlantic piece notes, he has the machinery in place to carry it out - read it. Let's recall here Russian -born journalist Masha Gessen's essay Autocracy: Rules for Survival wherein she warned:
“Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization.”
Former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice - in a NY Times piece about national division, polarization - already called out Trump as the national security threat he is to our election:
"Trump daily tosses gasoline and matches on the bone-dry tinder of American politics. Whether reprising discredited eugenics theories of white racial superiority, stoking fears of “low income” people invading white suburbs, demanding “patriotic education” in public schools that whitewashes slavery and institutionalized racism, falsely declaring mail-in voting corrupt or expressing contempt for “blue state” America, Mr. Trump seeks to perpetuate himself in power at great cost to our national cohesion. No wonder Russian state media and politicians are gleefully predicting an imminent civil war in the United States.."
Sadly, this same security threat also has useful idiots in the media (like Peggy Noonan, WSJ, Sept. 19-20, p. A13, 'Get Ready For An Election Crisis') who try to denigrate or downgrade the value of mail voting compared to voting in person at a polling place. These fellow misinformational travelers (of Trump) insinuate we choose not to vote in person because of "inconvenience" or we fail to perceive the "civic and ancestral nature of voting in person." Actually, it's a lot simpler: we have always voted by mail in a state for which casting mail ballots has attained a gold standard, e.g.
So why the hell do anything differently, just to posture as a paper patriot, especially when a pandemic is raging and positive infection rates are up in 33 states? (Also given wifey and I are both past 70 and vulnerable citizens - for different reasons.)
There are ways this electoral calamity and national debacle can be headed off but it will require all 'hands on deck' - namely the anti-Trump coalition making sure they have their act together. The first priority is ensure you are registered to vote - wherever that may be. Second, if you need a mail ballot or absentee ballot now is the time to request one if your state isn't automatically sending them out like here in Colorado. (Where wifey and me are both proud mail- in voters and have been for nearly 7 years.) Then, be sure to vote as early as possible - whether using mail in ballots or going to the polls in person. The earlier you go the better, to avoid mishaps or long lines, wait times.
Also, it's time to leave the purist pussyfooting behind.
You're maybe a young voter who's about as excited about Joe Biden as a bowl of cold porridge? Grow the hell up, put on your big boy pants, hold your nose and vote for him anyway. This ain't a prom king contest, for god's sake, and no one's emotions ought to determine a vote. Especially when said vote might avert a crisis that brings the country down.
The key then to routing this pestilence - this proto-Nazi scum authoritarian and his cabal, including Bill Barr, Lindsey Graham, Stephen Miller and the other vipers- - is a historic voter turnout delivering a massive landslide. Also, taking from 6 to 7 Senate seats from the Reepos in the process. We need to make the bastards pay for rushing to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat. We also need to have serious numbers that will make it difficult for Capt. Bonespurs to contest. As it is, true to his M.O. now he will try to halt any continuing vote count on Nov. 3rd, given mail ballots will almost certainly be still trickling in. But this roach can't be permitted to stop the ongoing righteous count (which he will certainly try to impugn as a "scam" or "rigged"). And if he tries to pull in a "kangaroo" court tactic to validate his theft, we need all citizens to take to the streets by the MILLIONS - not thousands.
But let's be clear that evicting this criminal scum will take more than will power or even numbers. It will take ultimate attention to the voting process - especially in completing a mail -in or absentee ballot. There is NO room for fuck ups! As Michael Waldman from the Brennan Center for Justice explained on ALL In last night:
"All of us a citizens have to do a bit more to make sure we are ready, especially that we are registered and that our vote counts."
As Mr. Waldman observed "all of us citizens" includes the media, which needs to be smarter about reporting on election night. No more "suspense calls" or "this just in" egging viewers on to believe events might wrap up by midnight and a winner called. NO, they likely won't, so don't create the expectation. That plays into Dotard's paws.
Making sure your vote counts in this election will mean tracking your mail ballot online if you need to (only 4 states don't allow this: Texas, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.) It also means make sure your ballot is signed, and also you don't forget to put the sealed ballot into the regular mail envelope - thus avoiding the notorious "naked ballot" - which is unlikely to get counted in many states. To plan your vote in a competent manner the site below will be of inestimable value:
Failure to effectively act in concert to dispel this venal virus from power will be a pox on all of our lives - and our nation - for the remainder of time. We already know from history what transpired when too many foolish Germans let Adolf Hitler crash the corridors of power in the then Weimar Republic. Within a short time of being made Chancellor, Hitler forced through the Enabling Act, i.e.
http://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839
And that marked the end of Germany's experiment in democracy at that time. It would take a world war and the loss of more than 60 million lives to restore it.
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