The End of Election Season

In most years when there is an election people go to a place in their neighborhood and vote on election day, but it's different now. This year election day is more like "the end of the election season." Fifty-seven million people have already voted. Any October surprise that Trump might have hoped to pull out is not going to have any effect.

They had planned to have the "Durham report" by now, documenting the shocking truth of Obamagate, remember that one? The Trump administration was investigating the Mueller investigation, and maybe also something to do with Hillary's emails. They were going to prove Obama spied on the campaign, FBI agents were biased, Steele dossier blah blah blah. Unfortunately the investigation found that everything Obama had done was legal and normal, and now they are not even going to release the report. Even William Barr could not find any way to spin this to make Democrats look bad.

Trump refused to participate in the second debate because they were going to have a mute button. So when Biden scheduled an event for that time slot, Trump scheduled something, too, for the same time. Biden was on one channel, Trump was on three, and hilariously Biden's ratings were better than Trump's -- the one measure that means something to the reality-TV frontman.

Rudy Giuliani planted a story in the New York Post about Hunter Biden, intending to convince people that Joe Biden is corrupt and makes millions under the table off foreign governments while he's doing special favors as Vice President for his own kid. But the story was discounted immediately and disproven after a few days, it was such a transparently political move that nobody paid any attention to it. Did you realize they had a press conference right before the last debate, intended to slime Hunter Biden? Trump mentioned it in the debate, other than that it had absolutely no impact, it was somebody who had worked with Biden's son and is mad at him now. And the big bombshells Trump tried to explode in the debate, referring to Hunter Biden and millions that Joe got from foreign countries, were simply duds. The accusations were false, nobody believed them, and Biden easily turned the tables on Trump, who got a well-deserved round of attaboys for acting nearly like a normal person for an hour and a half. He needed to kick butt in the debate, to rescue his campaign from crashing and burning, and he failed. He was not as obnoxious as he was in the first debate but he still looked like a noisy, ignorant liar, especially compared the the cool and calm -- and truthful -- Joe Biden.

By the way, one year ago this week Joe Biden commented on a Washington Post article about pandemic preparedness:

Do you remember last year? Businesses were open, we could go places, we even had a thing last year called "Hallowe'en." But even though everything seemed fine, somebody was concerned about our vulnerability to a pandemic and Trump's lack of preparedness for it.

Of course Giuliani's part in Borat's new movie overshadowed his political contrivances. That sure was a big grin on his face in that hotel room with that fifteen-year-old girl, pretty much proving how easy it is for the Russians or anybody else to get dirt on him. And even worse for Trump, the coronavirus decided to rampage through the red states of the Midwest in the weeks before the election, reminding everyone of his devastating failure to lead America out of the pandemic. I think we are still seeing reverberations from Sturgis. Today I see that five of Mike Pence' aides have it. We are now heading into our third wave of deaths, more every day as tragic records are shattered.

There is some tiny chance that Trump will win the election honestly. Maybe his followers will turn out and vote for him in the states he needs for the electoral college. If that happens it will be the end of one period of American history and the beginning of another as he plays out his get-rich-quick ideology for real. I don't know what liberals' response will be, I suppose some demonstrations and a lawsuit or two in front of a Trump-appointed judge.

There is a bigger chance Trump will lose, and then the question is whether it will be close or not. If it is close then we can expect every trick in the book and a year of chaos. Trump will declare the election to have been rigged and will do what he can to undermine the transition. We can look forward to rightwing militias acting out their insecurities on the streets of our cities -- did you realize that they have now found evidence of plots to kidnap governors not only in Michigan, but in Virginia and Ohio, too? We can expect these bozos to be shooting things up everywhere you look.

If it is a Biden landslide then I'm afraid Trump is going to have to exit stage left. Some speculate that he will screw things up until the end of his term and then resign and let Mike Pence pardon him. That will keep him out of prison on his federal charges, but there are some states' attorneys general watching for his protected status to lapse. I do not want to see some Biden mamby-pamby about "looking toward the future." I want to see everybody who has gone along with this criminal regime subjected to the laws of the land. This time we need to not only return to normal but to make sure this doesn't happen again.

VOTE

The intensity of the craziness is increasing. The president is using the White House and "his" generals and federal officials as props for political events. He is spreading the virus, going insane, saying things, cheering on the lawless militias and encouraging waves of police violence.

The election is going on now and, as a minority, the Republicans are doing all they can to disrupt it. Of course they would like to discourage Democrats from voting and show vote-counts that give them a win in the electoral college, but they can also try to win by creating chaos and doubt in the voting process and then tossing it to the Supreme Court, which by then should be packed with a nice secure 6-3 conservative majority. Or perhaps Trump will simply declare a "continuation," as he has suggested, and try to stay in the White House illegitimately. It is that crazy. We just don't know. No other President has ever even threatened such a thing, and nobody knows what would happen if he tried to go through with it.

There is one way out of this darkness and that is a Biden landslide. Yesterday in Georgia, Republican voter suppression led to people standing in line for early voting for eleven hours. That is discouraging and I am sure it worked, I'm sure a lot of people decided not to endure it. But thousands did. By the way, you will read about how "inspiring" the voters are who stayed in line and what a great day that was for democracy but I don't buy it. Yes I agree those people are inspiring, but it is a terrible day when the election is so corrupted that it makes the citizens stay home and not participate in the one moment when a democracy counts on them.

In Maryland we have early voting and we have vote-by-mail. You know the administration is trying to cripple the Postal Service, so I myself am hesitant to put my ballot into a mailbox, but you can take them to secure drop box locations near your home. Note that at least in California the Republicans have been putting out fake dropboxes, so check the list that is sent with your ballot or, if you're in Montgomery County, check this site: DROP BOX LOCATIONS to be sure you are going to a valid place.

The Republicans are set to lose pretty badly now, but they are in control at the federal level, so you can expect some heavy-handed tricks in the days to come. The country is more polarized than it has ever been, the President and his hierarchy are cranking up the volume, and we just don't know what lawlessness they are capable of.

If Trump will want to challenge vote-counts, saying mail-in votes don't count, or that the polling places were corrupt, or whatever, then a Biden landslide can't really be challenged. You can't have a Brooks Brothers riot unless the counts are close. You can't send it to th Supreme Court unless it's close. It is clear now that the majority of the country wants Trump's insanity to end, and it is also clear that he will do anything to stay in office, where he can avoid his financial liabilities and criminal prosecution.

So it is more important than ever to VOTE. Make sure your family members and neighbors vote. That is the fundamental activity that defines democracy and if we have another Trump administration it could be the last time he opportunity is offered to you.