What’s Happening and Four Things You Can Do About It
Lots going on these days, though I’d toss in some thoughts.
Trump is quite isolated, surrounded by the usual collection of not-very-smart sycophants who are afraid to help him deal with the truth — that he lost. Typically, he has instantaneously reframed his loss into a money-making opportunity. In this case, by pretending that the election was rigged against him and floating these court cases that are all quickly being shot down, it gives him the excuse to raise funds from his base, most of whom actually believe him that the election was stolen and that it can somehow be saved in the courts.To see what the base is being fed, Google or monitor #StopTheSteal
At the same time there is a slim chance that the “gum it up on the courts” plan could work. A very tiny chance, but some chance if they are extremely lucky. The idea is to delay the counts as much as possible and/or keep it going in the courts beyond the state certification date which for most states is the 23rd or 24th of November, Wisconsin a week later. They hope to somehow delay beyond when the Electoral College meets on 14 December. If that happens, then it could go to the House, where each state gets one vote, and the Republican’s have more states. All that is possible but extremely unlikely.
In addition to the long shot, and the direct fundraising goal, the other is to keep the news, social media particularly Twitter, and the public focused on the election certification uncertainty rather than the theft taking place. The clearest example is the $23 billion weapons sale to the United Arab Emirates. Jared Kushner will likely be paid handsomely if it goes through, which would be against the wishes of the Pentagon. Monday several very senior Pentagon officials were fired bringing about rumors of some sort of coup, in reality it is just part of covering up the enormous volumes of cash that Trump is diverting to himself and his family on his way out. Trump is personally on the hook for 400 million to Deutsche Bank soon, and he will need funds to pay millions for lawyers for that and the many many crimes he will be charged with as soon as he is out of office.
The Republican leadership wants to keep the charges of election theft going but for a different reason. They know that the Republican Party base is loyal to Trump not to them, and they want to be sure that they support Trump enough not to illustrate disloyalty, but they also want to avoid a backlash after he is out of office which will be an increasingly difficult needle to thread.
But mainly they are laser focused on winning the two Georgia Senate run-offs. Republicans normally win run-offs because they turn out more for off-year and off-November elections than Democrats. But the stakes are higher for these two Georgia runoffs than probably any single Senate election in history. The Republicans’ message to their base in Georgia is, “The Democrats stole this election from President Trump and the US Senate is the only thing keeping them from destroying our way of life” They need to keep that up until the Georgia run-off on 5 January, and the more uncertainty the better.
So what can we do about all this?
1) Stay calm like Joe Biden, that guy is cooler than the other side of the pillow. Just relax.
2) Good time to listen to well informed lawyers, those who have worked in relevant fields. Find the best lawyer blogs and the original court documents and statements by judges. They are oddly soothing. When you start to get frustrated or freaked out, pick an aspect of this that is bumming you out and learn tons about it. Find those who have technical knowledge, read them, and listen to their podcasts.
3) Pick a place you have a connection to in one of the states being discussed and go local. Find out the local news sources and reporters in that state, who cover state politics, follow them, read them and listen to what they have to say. Geographically specialize. Great time to pay for a subscription to a local paper in one of these places.
4) The Georgia runoff is really really important. Think about who you know in Georgia and connect them with www.TurnoutNation.org or ask them how you can help them do whatever they think is the best way to win that election.
