So, Goodbye yellow brick road. Where the dogs of society howl Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
As we speak, Professor Lawrence Tribe, on Reid Out on MSNBC just laid the final mail in the Trump illegitimate election scheme. And I mean final in the way that would make GOP heads literally explode. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
As I noted yesterday, Trump’s even floating the idea of delaying the election was a direct admission that he is getting his ass kicked. When you’re leading in the race, you can’t wait for election day. If Joe Biden were in power right now, he’d be mandating for the election to be held on August 4th. But reporting that broke today made it a whole lot more clear as to why he is throwing everything at the wall he can find, including Jared’s thick skull, hoping for something to stick.
Trump’s campaign has pulled all of their advertising off of the media. And right now have no ad busy scheduled for the month of August as we speak. When pressed by enterprising reporters on the issue, the campaign warily said that it was reevaluating and retooling their messaging, and would be back up and running shortly.
They pulled the advertising because the shit ain’t working. Normally, you run two ad sequences in a campaign. Once a nominee is apparent, the campaign runs compelling argument ads to get the public to want to vote for the candidate. And once about half of the country has mailed out their mail in ballots, and early voting is ready to start, you switch to voting urgency messaging to get your side to fill out their ballots or show up to vote.
And Trump’s messages aren’t either convincing nor compelling. His inspirational messaging is so chock full of bullshit that you need a clothespin for your nose to watch it. And his panic messaging is stilted and obvious, obvious to the point that even scared old white people don’t get into the scenarios. So now, three weeks until their convention, and 95 days from election day, they’re trying to retool their entire advertising output. Good luck with that.
Which is why Trump is jumping the gun with starting so early on not only threatening to delay the election, but for getting a head start on trying to cast doubt on the validity of mail in votes, to claiming there may never be an official result posted. But it all comes to naught in the end.
Professor Tribe was brilliant. In talking to Joy Reid, he went through a whole roster of worst case scenarios, from late results, incomplete state total results, to court challenges to states with inconclusive results, to GOP led legislatures in GOP states trying to install Trump electors in a state that Biden won. And it all ends up in the same damn place. A dead end for Trump and the GOP.
See, it turns out that the constitution means business. And it means that the founding fathers were even smarter than anybody ever conceived. They literally thought of everything. With all of those possible circumstances either on or off of the table, January 20th, 2021 is Inauguration Day. Period. Full stop.
It all boils down to the line of succession as listed in the constitution. If Trump is to remain President, he must win the election, and have the results certified. If for whatever reason that fails, then the Vice President is next in the line of succession. But Trump was not dead or disabled, and he didn’t win the election, so Pence is toast. As a result, if there is no clear winner to the election on January 20th, 2021, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, none other than Nancy Pelosi, will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. That’s it. That’s how the constitution treats a contested election, black letter law as The Supreme Court would put it if asked.
See why I said it would cause GOP heads to literally explode The GOP hates Nancy Pelosi just one degree less than they hate Hillary Clinton. I live in Nevada, and in 2018, GOP Super PAC’s were running ads in Nevada trying to tie every Democratic House candidate up as s stooge of Pelosi and the liberal California elite. And now, if Trump and the GOP irretrievably fuck up the election, then they alone will be responsible for putting Nancy Pelosi in the White House next January. Stupid is as stupid does.
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
Yes, just saw Tribe. They should have never let Nixon walk, nor Reagan, nor Bush. Republicans have never been punished for their wrongs. We should never have gotten to such a convoluted point.
Well, they’re about to get a lot of punishment handed to them that is long overdue, with interest attached, I wouldn’t wonder.
Wouldn’t hurt my feelings none
In short, checkmate.
I keep hearing this whole “it would be bad to prosecute members of a former administration”, that it would be bad for the country and set a dangerous precedent. It makes me want to scream “DOES ANYBODY BESIDES ME REMEMBER WATERGATE?” My numbers might be a bit off but roughly sixty people were prosecuted and 48 were convicted including former AG John Mitchell and the guy (Richard Kleindienst) who replaced him after he resigned although Kleindienst wasn’t convicted over a Watergate offense if memory serves. Lots of people went to jail too. Somehow, “miraculously” the Republic survived! The only reason Nixon didn’t wind up in jail for Obstruction of Justice (at least that much) was Ford pardoning him. Reagan people wound up being prosecuted too, and again if I’m not mistaken some of that happened after Reagan was gone. More would have been prosecuted and likely jailed had none other than current AG Billy “Needs-To-Be” (dis) Barr (ed) not engineered a blanket set of pardons for Bush 41 to sign to kill off investigations. Just like he’s surely hard at work preparing for Trump for during the transition. He’ll need to include one for himself, although if Trump gets his ass kicked because the October “Surprise” even the village idiot knows Barr intends to spring falls flat and Trump doesn’t just lose but loses “bigly” he might not be in a forgiving mood. Jeff Sessions can give Barr tutorials on how Trump deals with an AG who fails to completely and totally shield him from all harm. Thinking of the look on Barr’s face to see the clock strike noon on January 20, 2021 with no Trump signed pardon brings a smile to my face. Ok – once again I’ll admit to having weird fantasies but while I don’t think it’s likely to work out that way I think it’s somewhat more than a remote possibility.
But the bottom line is that former administration officials have been prosecuted in the past and things went on without all that much fuss. Except of course for the folks convicted and their cronies & the politicians who made the mistake of sticking by them and have to keep raising hell to try and salvage their own re-election prospects. Yes, we are in a different and more intense media environment but still, if Trump and the GOP get the kind up ass kicking they deserve, something as good as or better than happened in 2008 and even at the state level major changes take place the political coast should be clear to build good cases and prosecute them.
Should be but- Nixon’s worse offense was going backdoor on LBJ and postponing what would have been an agreement to end the Vietnam war. He and his RNC cohorts should have been charged with treason. And Reagan and his cohorts did the same circumventing the Carter administration with the now recognized arms for hostages deal. Seems to me our politicians cannot or will not go that extra step when our constitution is tested. But they will proclaim those in the streets with documented grievances as a threat to their liberties.
I should have finished this sentence as “will not go that extra step when our constitution is tested BY THEIR OWN”
Doesn’t Nancy Pelosi’s term end on 3rd January 2021? What will happen then?
It’s cute how you assume that a) she won’t be reelected for a final term, b) won’t get the Speaker’s gavel or c) the swearing in of Congress folk has anything to do with the above.
I am sorry that you assumed I was being ‘cute’. I am following politizoom from the UK as I am interested in what is happening in America. It was a genuine question, but I will take care not to ask any more. Thank you for your reply.
While I’m not speaking for Bareshark (who was, perhaps, a bit snarkier than necessary), ‘shark probably responded that way because you’re an unfamiliar name here. If you’ve followed the site for a while, you might notice that the site occasionally has the misfortune of getting Trump supporters whose sole motive is to “mix the muck” (that’s a nicer way of putting the phrase).
Bareshark might’ve been a bit less snarky if you’d prefaced your original comment with that little “following Politizoom from the UK” bit.
My turn to apologize, then, Tee…sincerely. Had I known about you being UK-based, I certainly would have been less vicious. While ignorance is a curable condition, that brand of snark is far from said cure. Sadly, the ‘cute’ approach is all too common with too many American commentors–be they Trumpists or hysterical conspiracy peddlers–I’ve had the misfortune of encountering here and other sites. That’s why I assumed–wrongly–that your question was more of the same.
So…mea culpa for the misunderstanding!
Thank you
As I posted above, California won’t cancel its elections no matter what. Her opponent in a laughable Bernie Bro with a terrible man bun so she’ll easily be reelected. She’ll be re-sworn in.
Please continue to ask questions. We have to know here in the USA that this is far more than merely of interest to our Brit friends. We haven’t treated our most important ally at all well of late and with all that is happening now with the pullout of ~12,000 troops from Germany, Great Britain also must be quite alarmed by the scary and irresponsible behavior going on here. It wasn’t after all very long ago that Brits were thinking that the Germans couldn’t get a foothold in Britain, but they got as far as the Channel Islands and wreaked havoc on all of Britain itself. Why couldn’t Putin and his ilk also pull off something like this? After all, fascism has no boundaries and no conscience.
So. Ask away. And stay with us.
That question has been raised as though no other national election would or could be certified if the presidency is not. I think that is not the case. While awaiting Scalia’s late appointment of GWB in 2000, Congressional races were nonetheless “called” as counted. So unless the election itself were not held — which is not possible without blood in the streets — the down ballot races will probably be figured out by the day after election day.
The other option is a really convoluted one that puts the leader of the Senate in the WH but that is even more far-fetched IMHO. Though clever.