The groundwork for the coup is being laid

[Scooter]

[ex-khobar Andy]

"It will be a great embarrassment to the USA."

Whoever said that Americans don't do irony wasn't paying attention. Or maybe it used to be true.

[BoSoxGal]

No, it’s not. He has no power to delay or change the election. It’s never been done in the history of the country. Even Mitch McConnell went on TV within hours to scoff at the suggestion. It isn’t going to happen because it requires a majority of both houses of Congress and that won’t happen. Beyond that, it wouldn’t serve him any useful purpose because if he read and understood the Constitution he’d know that his term is over on January 20, 2021 even in the absence of a lost election. His powers go *poof* and he becomes illegitimate after that date. And hopefully the fallout from June 1st showed us all that whatever the attitude of some of the grunts in the military, the command leadership does not support this person and they are not going to ditch lifetimes of dedication to the Constitution for the likes of the orange idiot. Jared and Ivanka and Jr. and Eric and even Barr and his other cabinet sycophants are not sufficient forces to withstand the power of the American people.

Our concerns should be for the usual ways elections get stolen, through voter suppression. We should all be determined to participate in get out the vote activities if we are at all healthy enough to do so - every little bit counts.

Doubtless this will be the ugliest election aftermath in our country’s history - worse than 2000. Trump and his ilk have so seeded the American public with the poison of conspiracy theories and distrust of our institutions that many of them are willing to believe in demon sperm from astral rapists before they’ll believe doctors from our own CDC, NIH, et al. So certainly many will believe that ballots were fraudulent because they were mailed, despite many millions having voted this way for decades before now. We will struggle with the fallout and the divisions in our country for years to come, I’m sure.

But there is going to be an election on November 3rd, 2020. No question about it.

[Scooter]

Delaying the vote is not the goal. Creating a climate in which the election results are delegitimized to create the circumstances in which he can claim the right to cling to power is the endgame.

[Joe Guy]

Then there is the possibility that Trump is just laying the groundwork for a reason to use for losing the election. The funny thing about this is that by saying it will be the most fraudulent election ever, he's predicting that he going to lose. The idea about him refusing to leave office is not realistic, in my opinion. The thing I'm concerned about is that when he loses there will be a lot of outrage among stupid people who carry weapons and do stupid things. There will be white riots and a lot of finger pointing by Trump's conspiracy-minded followers. Hopefully, many of them will be drunk and accidentally shoot and kill themselves and their sibling spouses.

[BoSoxGal]

Delaying the vote is not the goal. Creating a climate in which the election results are delegitimized to create the circumstances in which he can claim the right to cling to power is the endgame.

Cling to power how, exactly? I know you know our electoral system and constitution pretty well for a non-citizen; please explain by what means you think Trump can stay in the WH if a certified vote has Biden the winner of the electoral college - whiny crybaby cultists refusing to accept defeat aside.

[Scooter]

I don't know what will be possible, but I can imagine what he might try. A million Trumpanzee miltia descending on Washington armed to the teeth? I wouldn't put anything past him.

[BoSoxGal]

Good luck to them in a face off with the several federal law enforcement agencies in DC and the several military bases in close proximity. The vast majority of militia types are red necks without the skills to stand up to real soldiers and marines in a combat unit under effective leadership - the desk jockeys at the Pentagon could take them on.

Honestly the only way a US president becomes a dictator is if he has the loyalty of the military command sufficient to override what is in most cases a lifetime of idealistic commitment to the Constitution and our system of peaceful transfer of power. This president just doesn’t command that loyalty. I’d like to believe no president ever would.

[Big RR]

Delaying the election (even if he could, and I don't think he can as it would require an act of Congress) won't help much--he'd still have to be out by the inauguration date, and if no one is elected by then, Pelosi (or the House Speaker) would become president. However, if he screws around and does things like stopping the mail due to the covid problem (it looks like the administration is possibly setting this up pretending Trump has inally seen the light), it could end up being in the laps of the states to select electors, in which case it could be anyone's game; this may make W v Gore look like preliminary bout.

[Econoline]

From Paul Krugman in the NYT: "[...] they could produce a lot of chaos and quite possibly some violence across the nation. And anyone who doesn’t think disgruntled Trump supporters would try to sabotage a Biden administration — including its efforts to deal with the pandemic — hasn’t been paying attention."

(Link to today's column, which is well worth reading.)

[BoSoxGal]

[BoSoxGal]

This is why Democrats have to take the Senate back in addition to ousting Trump; short of that, nothing will get done.

I won’t say pray because I don’t believe in fairy tale magic, but everyone needs to vote and work as much as their health allows to help others to vote, too.

I feel like the only path to real healing in this county is to block the current Republican Party from any meaningful power for at least 8-16 years, until all the collaborators who enabled Trumpism have been voted out of office. The awfulness of this horrifically mismanaged pandemic and an economy more destroyed than at any time in our nation’s history provides one bright spot: the opportunity for that kind of fundamental shift in politics. Because the pandemic is now out of control - with nobody to blame more than Trump and his cronies - before it runs its course and/or widespread vaccination is available, it is going to kill hundreds of thousands more citizens and quite likely many of them will be adherents of Trumpism. Hopefully this horrific death toll will begin to override the insane conspiracy mentality of many of these folks and they will begin to support more moderately minded Republicans as we move down the path toward healing. What little hope I have in this regard comes in part from listening recently to a couple of never Trumper podcasts and coming to understand just how many establishment Republicans are very ready to see rejection of the insanity that has gripped and destroyed the party in recent years. I believe there are many people inside the party, and very willing to rejoin the party, who have the skills and experience to nudge the party back toward sanity.

This is really the only hope for the future of this democracy; if someone even more a demagogue than Trump takes the reins of the GOP, we are well and truly fucked. They cannot allow Tucker Carlson to be their nominee in 2024, for instance.

[liberty]

It is not going to happen, it takes a lot to start a war, and losing an election is just not enough. Most people have to feel seriously threatened before they are willing to resort to killing people. If you want to start a war, threaten the second amendment, first amendment, tenth amendments, and property rights those are the kind of things that could start a war or at least an insurgency.

[Crackpot]

....and liberty knows a little something about being senselessly frightened....

[Long Run]

Squirrel.