Oh. My. God! What is it with us Democrats? In 2016, Hillary got complacent and lazy in the rust belt states, minorities got lazy and complacent in the urban areas, and a guy who shouldn’t have been able to get elected to the camera crew of Blues Clues ended up in the White House. Get over it. Life sucks, get a fucking helmet.
In 2018, the Democrats had the best of all possible leading indicators of a blue tsunami, the GOP themselves. After all, nobody walks away from a 6 figure, part time job with world class bennies unless they’re terrified. And they did, in near record numbers. And still the Democrats wailed and moaned, gnashed their teeth and thumped their breasts, and fainting couch factories had to go to overtime to supply the demand.
And now we’re in 2020. Biden has built a sturdy lead, on an average of 10 points nationally, and leads in every battleground state, including some that shouldn’t even be battleground states, largely outside of the margin of error. It’s time to put the pedal to the metal, but the goal is in plain and clear sight. Even the worst 2016 nervous Nellie Democrats are having trouble trying to stoke the kind of insanity that they did in 2018. But being Democrats, we have to have something to fret and obsess over. And led by comedian Bill Maher, the latest craze is Trump not leaving office in January if he loses in November.
Oh. Fucking. Please. There are so many reason’s why this is absurd. For starters, it doesn’t require the sitting presidents approval, nor should it to certify the results of an election, or the electoral college vote. Will Trump kick up a stink and try to cause trouble? Of course he will, it’s what he does. But can he stop it? Absolutely not. Right now, there are a bunch of different reasons people are quoting, and I’ll deal with each in turn.
The Secret Service – Fucking fuggetaboudit! The Secret Service serves and protects the President, not the man. And at 12:01 in the afternoon on January 20th, 2021, Donald Trump becomes a trespasser on White House property. And look at it this way. As shitty as Donald trump treats everybody else, how do you think he treats a bunch of what he considers hired janissaries like the Secret Service? I’m betting most of them are just praying for His Lowness to give them an excuse to perp walk him to Marine One for his last trip back to Florida.
The Military – Again, fucking fuggetaboudit! We’re dealing with Donald Trump here, which means that he could fuck up a one car funeral. In August of 2019, 5 months before the first Democratic primary votes were cast, Trump tried to strong arm the newly elected President of the Ukraine to dig up dirt on his likely opponent, Joe Biden. The whole thing was so ridiculous that not only did Trump get impeached over it, it was so thoroughly dis-proven that it became useless as an attack weapon for Trump during the campaign.
More recently, in the middle of the Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd, Trump decided that he wanted to have a photo op at a graffities church. He conned JCS Chief Mark Milley into following him like some complacent sheep, in full fatigues over to the church. Milley spent the next three weeks desperately trying to crawl out from the mess, assuring the American people that the military stood for the United States, and not for the President. If Trump loses the popular vote, as well as the electoral college, there isn’t a military unit in the country that would depart it’s billet.
The Courts – Guess what, third times the charm Fucking fuggetaboudit! Yes, I know, the RNC has a $25 million slush fund for court action in battleground states if Trump loses on election night. It won’t matter. Believe me on this, it won’t make the slightest bit of difference.
In 2000, Bush v Gore went to a federal circuit court over a dispute on the legality of ballots in Florida. Who knew how long it would take. But without waiting, Chief Justice John Roberts took over the case, and decided it. You can say what you like about the decision, but I honestly believe that Roberts took over the case for one reason, and one reason only. To ensure the smooth, timely, peaceful transition of power.
If Trump loses both the popular vote, as well as the electoral college, he can file all the lawsuits he wants in battleground states. If he gets lucky enough to find a Trump appointee that will issue a temporary restraining order to delay the results, Roberts will once again assume the case, and the court will rule in favor of Biden. Because that’s what the court does, rule on the constitution to ensure a smooth and orderly transition of power.
The very best reason of all – You can forget all of the shit above, because it doesn’t matter. When it all comes down to push-comes-to-shove, we already have direct testimony on how things will go, and by the most authoritative person on the subject alive, one Donald John Trump.
Just read Tony Schwartz’s ghost written best seller, The Art Of The Deal. In that book, Trump lays out his favorite negotiating tactic. Basically it came down to, go into the room bellowing like a bull with it’s nuts caught in a grinder, and if the other side didn’t capiitulate, wa;lk away from the table. Because at his core, when the chips are down, and reputations are on the line, that is exactly what Donald Trump always does, walk away from the table.
Look at all of the sexual harassment allegations, from all of those fat pigs, and ugly dogs, that the night before the gavel dropped on opening arguments, were suddenly quietly settled, with non disclosure agreements. Look at the Trump University case, which Trump swore a mighty oath that he would never settle. Before trial, a settlement, with no admission of guilt. Trump publicly admitted that he would gleefully shut down the government to obtain funding for his wall. And after the Democrats danced a jig over his blunder, he went ahead and did it. And before the effects could be felt, he capitulated. Because when push comes to shove, that’s what Trump always does. He walks away from the table.
Donald Trump is at heart a craven coward. And when pushed, he backs off, rather than risk any kind of substantive defeat. Here’s how I see it going. Trump loses both the national vote as well as the electoral vote. He does everything in his power to stir up power. After the mail in ballots are counted, the states certify the results. Speaker Pelosi certifies the results as well as the electoral college vote. When congress blows out for their holiday recess, Trump goes to Mar-A-Lago. And he stays there! He doesn’t resign, he just stays in Florida, tweeting madly and pouting. And on January 20, 2021, Trump spews bile all over the place while Biden is sworn in.
So please, Democrats, stop looking for boogeymen underneath the bed, and monsters in the closets! Just do the job. Keep the faith, gin up the vote, register everybody you can, and get them to the polls. At his core, Donald Trump is all fucking hat, and no fucking cattle. Ignore him, and get on with the business at hand. We have a lot of work to do.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
Hillary was on the receiving end of 25 years of attacks by people who will lie about anything if it gets them closer to their own goals. Also, Russian help for Himself.
Himself is trying to get help this year, and he’s got a cabinet willing to let him break everything as long as they get a cut of the money.
I suspect Putin is just going to let him twist in the wind this time.
Or as Vonnegut’s character, Newt, states in the book, Cats Cradle, “no damn cat, no damn cradle.”
“When congress blows out for their holiday recess, Trump goes to Mar-A-Lago. And he stays there! He doesn’t resign, he just stays in Florida, tweeting madly and pouting. And on January 20, 2021, Trump spews bile all over the place while Biden is sworn in.”
This has been my prediction forever, which I bring up when I see the doomsters/conspiracy theorists at DailyKos, who are currently so out of control about everything I’m thinking of taking another break. They are so convinced he has some sophisticated, diabolical plan to screw us all over. He doesn’t. He’s going to leave the day after the election to fly down to Mar-a-Lago, sulk and tweet. He’ll abandon the job whining about ho unappreciated he is, despite being “perfect.”
Also, I do not want to hear intricate theories about how it could all come down to the House choosing the president and whether they would hand it to Trump blah blah blah. This is a made-up media fantasy.In 2012, it was the tied electoral college. I got so sick of hearing about it.
What has been wrong with Democrats in the last week or so? It started with the loop-de-loops declaring instantly that the shooting of the judge’s son in NJ was clearing engineered by Putin or had Trump’s fingerprints all over it, and it went downhill from there.
I ignore the wet blankets there – there are people I routinely read, and there are people whose posts I ignore.
Last year I gave it up for Lent. During another period I read only Denise Oliver-Velez’s posts. Even with the worst Bernie Bros gone (Tom P! Subir!), there are still too many gullible people ready to believe anything to stoke some arcane conspiracy theory.
You have a point about the intricate theories. And Murf is absolutely correct that he is a coward. On the other hand, we have also seen that he play angles. I think we would be prudent to cover all the bases.
His brains leaked less when he played those angles. Now he’s just flailing.
Yes he is, which is the fatal flaw in all these leftie scare ideas of what he might do. He cannot hold a thought for a day.
Maybe he cannot hold a thought, but people around him can, particularity Barr. An essential of all good planning is to plan for contingencies.
What’s wrong, Anastasia, is that they’re acting like typical Americans when it comes to threat assessment. For a supposedly forward thinking people, we have a lousy tendency of thinking the next threat will be exactly like the last successful one. Then they’re shocked when something ELSE happens that they’d have seen coming if they’d bothered ACTUALLY looking.
I have nothing but contempt for such right now. Compared to TN being a Red Zone state for COVID 19 which makes me scared as hell when an innocent kid runs up to me yelling despite my precautions of mask and gloves, that BS don’t make my top 100.
Again, Trump has no plan. Everyone knows he couldn’t organize his way out of a paper bag. It’s Barr and Putin who have the plan. And that should REALLY scare all of us. They would scorch the EARTH to keep their power!
No…they…won’t. Barr’s plan from here on out is to stay out of jail. Putin had a plan to get his frozen assets back that is pretty much a bust and made his next door neighbor more powerful to boot.
Agreed. Suppose on Inauguration Day Trump barracades himself in the Lincoln bedroom. His Secret Service detail is not going to battle it out with Biden‘s Secret Service detail.
No, they’d band together to pull him out of there and load him on the helicopter. But he’ll be long gone to Mar-a-Lago. He’s not going to be anywhere near D.C. on an Inauguration Day which isn’t all about HIM.
Murf, about this: “But without waiting, Chief Justice John Roberts took over the case, and decided it. You can say what you like about the decision, but I honestly believe that Roberts took over the case for one reason, and one reason only.”
That would’ve been incredibly amazing for “Chief Justice John Roberts” to have achieved since, at the time of Bush v Gore, he was in private practice (with the firm Hogan & Hartson) as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
The actual Chief Justice at the time was William Rehnquist. But, it was actually Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy who took up the case and granted the Bush team its initial writ of certiorari for the case to eventually be heard by the full Court.
I’m not worried that he won’t leave if he loses. I’m worried that he, with the aid of Putin, may cheat his way to a win.
**eye roll** That’s practically the same thing. And I’ve no such worries for this time, given the fractured state of the GOP. The Mercers and Kochs sitting this one is your sign that it’s an unfounded fear.
How? No, seriously. There has to be a concerted campaign of propaganda, and so far this year, they’re behind. Where are the DNC emails? Where are all the social media pages devoted causing Bernie Bros to loathe Biden and not vote for him? They’d better ramp up fast. because that essential Bernie Bro contingent has evaporated and the hate campaign against Biden is flailing. And that is 100% of what they did last time. No, they can’t hack machines. Period.
I’m looking forward to telling every Cassandra, Gloomy Gus and Eeyore “Believe me now?” when all this goes down just like you say, Murf. In fact, I might skip today’s news cycle just to avoid hearing more of the same BS on this front when Tubby The Ewok testifies in the House. I REALLY don’t need this crap…at all.
Tubby is lying his *ss off this morning.
I’m shocked…really. From what Bill Palmer has said, sounds like he’s trying to introduce enough reasonable doubt for his eventual trial on grounds of incompetence.
I think doubt as to his competence is 100% clear.
Just another morning in America.
Facts we know. Trump is a con man, a liar, a grifter, a coward, & maybe the stupidest human alive, especially given the resources he grew up with. He has no real plan, never has, no more than the moth that flies into the light(money). No one can predict jackshit, another manifestation of arrogance upon reviewing history & limited information about the present. Our culture was founded on self righteous self delusion that we are special, & so is this where we are after building it with genocide, slavery, & the consumer culture. Truth never was in the equation, except to recognize how to lie to the masses to fill them with false narratives, & whitewashed history. Now we have a fascist dictator running rodshod over our democracy with stormtroopers shooting moms with rubber bullets & tear gas. WE ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN DUE TO OUR LAZINESS ABOUT TRUTH & THE BLOOD SPILT TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE AT FREEDOM. We will see if we want to really live or sit in the living room easy chair while the house burns down,( look up Venus’s climate).
You have no idea how much I would like your rant to be the truth, but here’s what I’m afraid of Joe. There IS a boogeyman under the bed, hiding in plain site, and he DOESN’T want to lose. It is not Trump I’m afraid of, it’s his boss Vova (Putin’s Russian nickname) who scares the fuck outta me, and Vova’s henchman Barr. Barr is all kinds of pure evil. That fat ugly evil bastard is a REAL danger to the world, and he knows he could be in a world of hurt if he loses his power in this lifetime (I can’t believe the ABA hasn’t ALREADY pulled his license and Bar membership!!!) and between Barr and Putin, who knows what could happen. Those two are ALL KINDS OF EVIL and while Trump is a total chickenshit worthless piece of excrement, Barr and Putin are not. They REALLY scare me because they would not hesitate for a femtosecond to instigate a REAL U.S. Civil War with Trump (and I believe by now he is a real figurehead), Melokon (a Star Trek amalgam of Vova and Barr) already REALLY IS in total power, somehow convincing Trump that he is still in charge, when it is almost certain he is too drugged up to actually be in power about anything. No, it’s Barr and Putin who are running the United States, and killing millions in an instigated civil war such that Trump must stay in Power to save everyone is TOTALLY NOT outside the realm of conceivable possibility. Sorry to be such a debbie-downer, but I REALLY don’t trust Barr. Or Putin.
Sorry, Bryan, but I refuse to give either of those asshats the Bond villain status you just conferred upon them. However sorry you may be about being a Debbie Downer, I’m even MORE sorry that you bought into the “political power by magic wand” POV those creeps NEED you to believe. IMO, the most vital lesson anyone should have pulled from living through the W years is THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS…at all. Look no further than the party Trump took over for proof, gone from dreaming of a new American century to living in the nightmare of their own obsolescence.
Everything you just said has been said by every goddamn boogeyman that loomed larger in the mind than in actuality. Leave that game for the Qanon morons and the MAGA maggots who feel it all slipping away from them. There’s better wastes of your time.
OK, Murphy. Good points, all. But DON’T YOU PROOFREAD? You’re supposed to be a journalist, fer Chrissakes! Typos and misplaced apostrophes are grade school stuff.
Also, are you guys aware that, at least on my regional feed, your site is awash with right-wing ads? Not exactly your advertisers’ target audience and not a philosophical alignment you would want, either.
All this makes me wonder exactly WHO is in charge over there?
Well said, Paul – including praise for Murphy’s good points. Typos and misplaced apostrophes, etc., are distractions in otherwise well-written opinions.
You’ve been here a while, Nancy. You’ve had the reasons for such explained to you. Ergo, THERE WAS NO EXCUSE FOR ANY OF THAT. Back off.
**glower** Paul…I’m going to assume you’re new here. You would otherwise be quite aware of Murf’s glaucoma which is the source of the typos. Likewise, you would ALSO be aware that the rightwing trolls have been slamming this site for a month to a month and a half just because. Kindly bear these things in mind going forward, okay?
Thanks, Bareshark ((((((((())))))) you just saved me an inordinate amount of typing!
Nobody messes with or slanders our Murf, Old. I consider the above community service.
Thank you Bareshank. I didn’t know these things. My admiration for the Murfster just hit the stratosphere. I know people with glaucoma. Damn.
And those insights are worth the typos, right, Gaelsdottir?
Worth ten times the typos, if only that didn’t mean worse problems for Murf. Repeating myself, but: damn.
Had Barr’s first 30-40 minutes of BS on today while I did 12 other things on my “plate” and even with all those distractions I couldn’t stand it. He lied; he cajoled; he pandered; he justified. Never mind “wrestling coach” Jordan in his opening statement helped Barr by putting up an inflammatory video about the protests that had bypassed House Committee rules. This. Was. A. Cluster. Fuck.
These folks are more than desperate and would like to cheat their way to another four years; but in agreement here with my colleagues–this ain’t gonna happen. Or as Glenn Kirschner says, we have to vote in numbers “too big to rig.” And which it appears we will do, despite the coronavirus and too few polling places in areas of states with higher numbers of black and brown voters.
Further. Agreed–too many doomsayers right now on Daily Kos. Sometimes I think folks just need more to do than to spend their time hand-wringing and obsessing over the orange monster. He wins when we let him get into our heads. He loses when we boot him out. Of our heads and the White House.
I hope that you are correct about traitortrump. However, yourcomment about “minorities being lazy and complacent in 2016” is someracist sh*t and you need to check your own racism. As an African American whose ancestors were FORCIBLY brought to America to WORK for over 250 years for FREE while white people reaped FULL financial benefit, I do NOT appreciate POC being called lazy and complacent in 2016 or in ANY year starting in 1619. You need to check the HISTORY of African American voter participation from the late 1800s going forward- then LEARN- and NEVER CRITICIZE.
I think we should be careful before leveling the charge of racist. Murf would have been on firmer ground if he simply said, “Democrats being lazy and complacent 2016” because of course while some of those Democrats who stayed home because they thought Hillary had it in the bag were minorities, some were also white. Murf was probably making an inference from the facts that urban counties are no longer majority white and most minorities vote Democratic. I agree that it was a clumsy sentence, but probably not racist.
Good points all, Murph! You’re right – he’s a coward, and when he can’t have his way, he pouts. Like a little kid who, when they can’t get their way, who takes his ball and goes home. I still think he’ll do something to screw things up, but he’ll be at Mar-a-lago for tee time. And I, for one (million??) can’t wait to see the back of him!
I was asked if I thought he’d refuse to leave. My reply was No because he’s a coward but that it didn’t matter. As soon as he leaves the WH bldg, the staff will turn it over even if they have to put his stuff on the lawn. That is what they do. There’s a great bit on it in the book on WH staff called “The Residence.” I do think it’s possible he won’t attend the swearing in, etc. And I’m pretty sure he won’t be gracious about handing over the keys. But nobody cares. He’ll be out, one way or another.
All very good points, but there is one major little thing. William Rehnquist was the Chief Justice in 2000, not John Roberts. Rehnquist didn’t die in office until 2005. So we really have no way of knowing what John Roberts may or may not do. What we do know is that he has a habit of being moderate on the “little things” (yes I am being sarcastic) like gay marriage and LGBTQ rights and going hardcore right on the things that truly matter to him, like keeping the GOP in power no matter what.