All Because of a Lie

They came in answer to a lie, told by a tiny man with pointed them at out democracy and said ‘sic’ em’. Photo by Jessica Griffin.

2024. The election is a decisive one, the Democratic candidate wins the popular vote by some 8 million, the electoral by 30-40 points. Maybe even enlarging the senate control. Everything will be fine… right?

What happens when local GOP controlled election boards in both red and purple states decide they don’t like the way their own voters have voted, when Republican controlled state legislatures refuse to certify Democratic wins, sending instead their own slate of electors to Washington? What happens when a GOP House refuses to certify the presidential vote, when the GOP refuses to seat Democratic senators?

What happens?

Think this nightmare scenario can’t happen? Remember January 6th. We believed it couldn’t happen then. Well, maybe “believed” is too strong a word, “hoped” is better. We already had all the signs, the right-wing violence and threats against officials, the storming of state capitols and city councils, the lies from top officials, Trump on down. It was building, making the violent insurrection on the DC Capitol inevitable. It was a mad rush and build, an escalation to madness and attempted coupe, and then they all went home, contrite and regretful… right?

No. It’s not over. 1/6 was prologue. It was the person before the play, it was Shakespeare, sending his actor out on the stage to tell you what you will be soon seeing, that while you are witnessing this, there is so much more you don’t see. When you see fights, please, gentles all, imagine wars.

This is the GOP; they start fights but they are planning for wars.

All for a lie, all because the huge ego of a tiny man could not deal with the obvious fact that he lost an election, could not admit he was not the god of his speeches but the grifter and con man the election revealed him to be. So, he decided he didn’t have to admit it, didn’t have to accept it, and that his voters and members of his party would back him up. And they did, to the great disgrace of this nation and the weakening of our democracy.

A lie and a man’s ego has managed to kill people and brought us where we are today. It’s… crushing, the shear stupidity of it all. Here we are, still dealing with the muck and suck of the hate and violence. Because it ain’t over, as Yogi maybe said, ‘til it’s over.

Because the insurrection didn't end with the Capitol Hill police ushering the violent insurrectionists out of the Capitol. Like an out-of-control AI, they have learned, absorbed, pinpointed where they failed and are shoring up the weak spots; ridding themselves of anyone moral enough to say ‘no’ to Trump’s election lies, casting out anyone who might have enough principle to stand against a naked power grab, and readying for all-out war on a democracy that stands in the way of total power.

Citizens don’t want to vote for them? Fine. They’ll just take that little voting problem away, thank you very much.

No, the insurrection continues with the nearly 300 anti-democratic voting bills being introduced and passed around the country, with the 'forensic audit' being conducted by the GOP version of the 3 Stooges in Arizona for no other intention than to undermine a fair election and to bolster lies. This is all leading up to the 2024 presidential election where the GOP will try, once again, to steal an election.

This time, with those objecting purged, who will say no? That's a big thing that saved us; many in the local state GOP didn't go along. These are officials who I’m not so sure were brave, but defending a system that they set up to elect Republicans that failed to do so. Not sure much ‘brave’ as defensive and indignant. But they were there and they stopped it.  

Republicans are in the process of fixing that. Stefanik for Cheney, censure and eventual expulsion of anyone who pointed out the lies (listen, I have no love for Cheney, who supported wars and torture, but in this stand, she’s actually right) anyone who might slow the Trump train to election must be crushed, whether Trump is the engineer this time or not.  

The clear message the GOP is sending to its representatives is: you stand up for the Constitution and democracy, we’ll knock you down, hard. We’ll erase you not only from the face of the GOP but the earth. Scorched earth against their own party. The reps hear, and obey.

That's what this is about; hobble democracy with even more restrictive voting laws to make themselves completely voter-proof, and if somehow that's not enough, just take it. Claim victory anyway and this time with the entire GOP on their side, they're that much closer to succeeding. 2022, 2024, they will try until they succeed.

That's the plan; permanent Republican rule, voter proof. Will it work? doesn't matter, it's what they'll try. They've been setting it up for decades.

How can they be stopped? Through attention paid, taking them seriously and heading them off though public opinion and the courts (Trump and McConnell have made that much harder, but not impossible).

This is why there are and will be constant lawsuits filed against these bills, playing a legal whack-a-mole, that's why more grassroots are forming to re-register the people the GOP are purging from the rolls. It's why the spotlight has to keep shinning and pinning them down like an ant in the sun, paying attention to the state and national GOPs and their efforts to kill democracy and snatch power.

They love to work in the dark, the bright daylight gives them away.

They’re probably working on blocking the sun.

Trump Gives Up

Trump walks away, just like he’s walked away from everything worthwhile that didn’t have something in it for him.

296,637+ dead from covid as of today, 15,817,962 infected. Numbers spiking all over the country, the so-called 'red' states are getting slammed. Nearly every day we’re beating Pearl Harbor numbers. Every day setting new records, and the man who actually wants to handle the virus relief, Joe Biden, is being denied the information he needs to start helping the country on his first day. Why, because of pure, unadulterated, pettiness.

The guy whose response to the threat has put us at nearly 300,00 dead, put us into the vast and deep hole of despair, what’s he doing? Holding ‘vaccine conferences’ that the vaccine makers refuse to participate in (feeling it’s just another political grandstand, it was), where he takes laps for a vaccine he had little, if any, involvement in, and playing golf.

He’s walked away from everything important and worth caring about, shrugging his shoulders at the cratered job reports, the surge of unemployment, at the deaths. He’s done. He’ll keep working and milking the election grift for everything he can get, but he’s done.

He doesn’t care, and never will. Now that the election is over, he can just drop all pretense, bitch about the election and play golf. Screw the virus, and screw you.

Rudy Giuliani’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis has now led to a shutdown in the Arizona legislature. Doctors are saying since he had to be hospitalized now, he's probably be sick for days and had the chance to infect hundreds of people. His co-counsel, Jenna Ellis, has also tested positive and, like Rudy, has been attending White House staff parties, meetings, hearings. Both have exposed probably hundreds in their failed quest to overthrow a fair election.

This administration is irresponsible and utterly incompetent, they can't keep us safe, or even their own people. Covid has burned though the White House staff twice now, both because of arrogant maskless 'events' held at the WH, infecting everyone from the First Family, to members of congress, their staffs, the WH staff, insanity.

Because, of course... of course. What else should we expect?

They even had a plan. Back in the spring, a national plan was formulated but Trump and Kushner refused to go forward with the comprehensive plan to battle the virus because 'it only affects 'blue' states. Idiots. It's like passengers on the Titanic not worrying about abandoning the ship because their cabins are dry.

So, Trump just did little to actually help, taking over his task force briefings and treating them as if they were ‘The Trump Show’, contradicting his own experts, dispensing complete lies

This is utter cruelty, psychopathic indifference to the pain, deaths, and grieving of others. This is also typical of Trump's approach to everything; what's in it for me. He ignored the pandemic, as to fight it (he thought) it would hurt his reelection. He was wrong. To fight it, hard and public, would have been seen as heroic, to ignore and downplay it was seen as callous and cruel. It's probably the biggest reason for his loss. 

Since his electoral drubbing, he has completely given up caring about either the virus or the economy, or anything but trying to erase the label 'loser' from his name.

He doesn't care, he never cared.

And 296,637+ Americans are dead.

The Last Whine

Dude, buddy, calm the fuck down.

Trump voters, you need to try harder.

I don’t mean marching-in-the-streets-with-your-pet-AK-and-Trump-flags harder, no. You need to try harder to accept the loss, to ‘take the ‘L’

“The Lame-stream Media doesn’t say who is president!!” 

Uh huh.

Listen, because you need to hear and take this in. Ready?

President Donald J. Trump lost. By, the count so far, some 6 million votes. When all is said and done, it’ll probably be more like 7 million.

“But the lawsuits! We need to play out each and every lawsuit because fraud!!! Oh, the terrible, horrible, no-good fraud!!”

No. Sorry. The lawsuits have failed, the lawyers are all embarrassed (those that have enough morals left after working for Trump) and the judges have had enough.

The courts have all come down against Trump. I tell you, you Trump supporters are so far into right wing grievance you can't/won't see the truth. There just is no evidence of wide spread voter fraud, none, nada, keiner. My friend, stop listing to what the right-wing talking heads are saying and take a look at what the Trump lawyers are actually saying and doing in court, where they can't make stuff up. The judges are catching them every time: yes, there were observers in the polling places and tabulation halls, no, 'sharpies' didn't matter, no, no voting machines switched votes, nobody switched dates on ballots, no 'Biden/Harris' vans showed up in the parking lot of a polling place, then opened ballots and filled them out (in broad daylight, in a logoed van, where everyone could see!), and the rest of the nonsense they've been spouting, why haven't they gone to court? Filed complaints? For the most part, they’ve either dropped the claims (in Pennsylvania), are just making them on TV (the 'van' story on Laura Ingraham) or have watered their claims down to the equivalent of a shrug. It’s nonsense. Besides, if the evil Democrats could steal the presidency, why didn't they get the senate as well?

It literally makes NO sense. Come on, think about it, buddy. It just doesn't.

And now if he wants a recount in Pennsylvania, he’ll have to pay for it himself. 8 million, by Wednesday. You think he’s going to pony up that amount? Donald Trump? Pay for something?

Sit down, breathe. You want a soda, huh?

It's over, Biden won, Trump lost.

I know, you tell me over and over again, “look at the documents! Look at the facts.” Okay, that is what I'm doing. Trump is racking up loss after loss in the courts because he literally has no proof of fraud, like I said, none. Rudy, Jr., Eric, and Trump himself are spreading lies about our election they literally cannot back up. If they could, they would be winning in the courts (before several Republican appointed judges, btw), they would be backed up by the Republican election officials instead of having to smear them to bolster their own scheme.

He lost, the American people have rejected, soundly, Donald Trump and no amount of crying, screaming, and whining is going to change that. No, I’m not saying you’re doing any of that, friend. He is. He looks like an idiot, holding his breath, stamping his feet and saying 'nuh uh'.

Time to give it up.

Remember, Hillary, (now calm down) conceded the day after, and she had a better case for contesting than Donald (having won the popular vote), and the next day Obama had Trump and Melania to the White House, and the transition began. But they both have more class that Donald ever did, evidently. 

Yes, that was a dig, sorry.

Seriously. It's over. This isn't about the evil, evil media, but about reality. The right-wing media has never been about reality, but about helping Republicans, any way they can. Now that Fox News is actually trying to push back against the crazies they have on their airwaves in the evening (see Tucker have to apologize to a lady he accused of voter fraud? He wasn't gracious about it), people aren't getting the fix they need and are going to Newmax and OAN, there they will get told what they want to hear, regardless of the truth, or reality.

Is that what you’re doing? It’s okay, we all like our bubbles.

The reality is, Joe Biden (not a socialist, or controlled by them) and Kamala Harris (also, not a socialist, but a moderate like Joe) are the President and Vice-President Elect, and will be taking office noon, on January 20th. Donald Trump, if he does not leave, will be a trespasser and will be escorted from the grounds.

I know, it sucks, I was there in 2016. I feel ya.

You can take it.

No, you can keep the hat.

Donny, We Need To Talk

Loser Donny, the losing-ist loser in a family of losers. You don’t have to go home, Don, but you can’t stay here.

Donny, dude, you need an intervention, so let me ‘intervent’.

Donny, all this ‘voter fraud nonsense your pushing, even you know that’s crap, right?  You just come up with a crazy claim out of thin air (or your ass), and then go looking for evidence of your made-up claim, smearing election officials and voters as you go, and encouraging your supporters to continue to harass and threaten them? That doesn't seem to be how that is supposed to work… at all. In a real investigation, you investigate, find out what going on (you know, find evidence, facts, proof) THEN you make your judgement. Right now, you're just spewing nonsense ("I won the election... by a lot!" classic tweet there, Don, but not true).

I know, I hear you, you say I’ve been told ‘Trump is a liar’ over and over (anyone ever tell you this ‘talking about yourself in the 3rd person’ thing is weird? Cause it is). Ya see Donny, I have not 'been told' Trump is a liar, I see you lie ALL THE TIME. I have eyes and ears, almost every time you open that mouth, you lie. Sometimes I think you lie just for the practice. Now you’re claiming your election watchers were not allowed in the counting rooms? Come on, I mean, come on… Your own lawyers admitted in court that the watchers were in there, watching. Didn’t they tell you? You say there were 'massive' irregularities? What evidence is there? Investigate, find evidence, THEN you can make those claims, otherwise dude, you're just spewing. Seriously, if those vile, evil DemoRATS were going to steal elections, why didn't the steal the senate as well? They didn’t think of it? Uh… right.

All this yelling about fraud in the counting is dangerous, you know that, right? You heard about the death threats against the Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt has been receiving over the ballot counts? From your supporters?

No Donny, the evil 'progressives', ‘socialists’, and AOC are not making death threats in an election they won. You realize that makes zero sense, right? They aren't hiding anything. Seriously, you've bought into this so hard you don't realize you're talking and pushing baseless conspiracies.

Or do you..?

No one stole this election Donny, there is just no evidence of fraud, none, nada, zilch, just a lot of butt-hurt whinny Republicans who didn’t get their way. Even the Republicans in charge of the elections in their districts and states are saying it was a clean election, unless.... OF COURSE!!! They're only pretending to be Republicans! They've spent years undercover, knowing someday Biden would need them to smuggle in millions of ballots, disguised as Fox New camera equipment. Then, when all the aggressive GOP poll watchers' backs are turned... BAM! All those pre-marked ballots are thrown into the sorter. Election... STOLEN!!!

OMG… it’s all true!

Pre-tty nefarious. Really. See what I’m getting at here, Donny? See where it is allllll heading? Nutsy, coo-coo squirrel land. Yes, I'm making fun of the idea, but mine makes as much sense as what you, your family, and the GOP is selling. You do know Biden is up by 7 million right now. All fraudulent, I suppose? Donny, Donny, stop screaming. You want a soda? Press your Diet Coke button, buddy. Use it while you still can.

That better? Good. Where were we… Ah, yes, facts. Did you know that Republicans have struggled to win nationally for decades? Since 1992, only ONE Republican has won the popular vote. No, that wasn’t you pal, you lost by nearly three million votes. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Donny, there is no evidence three million people voted illegally, none. No, there isn’t, No… Here I’ll press the button this time. It’s true, without the Electoral College saving them, Republicans can't win. You’re running out of angry White people. No Donny, it's not a conspiracy, it’s called ‘demographics’, and you’ve known it was coming for ya for years. And since you refuse to court POC, it's going to be harder and harder to win a national election.

Yes, even you, Don.

Come Donny, you know this nonsense is designed to undermine fair elections, undermine democracy (on the ‘Trump’ brand there), rile the armed far-right up (the ones making anonymous death threats, because classy) and give them a narrative to sell in 2022 (don't let them steal THIS one)…crazy.

You must know you can’t win, but you want to tear the whole place down out of spite. If you can’t have it, then no one can.

Like I said, on brand.

Movers will be here in January. Have your shit ready.

One Night, Four Years in the Making

Count every vote. We now have to actually demand, and make sure, that all the votes are counted. 2020 folks.

Four years ago, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes. That was when the folks who weren’t around for the 2000 fiasco got a lesson in the Electoral College. I had already had that lesson, staying up all night in November of 2000 watching the vote totals shift and the cable news anchors sweat. It was not pleasant, and the fact that the recount of the vote in Florida was never completed due to Republican shenanigans on the ground and the most ridiculously biased ruling in the history of the Supreme Court made it even more unpleasant.

No. “Unpleasant” is too mild a word for a stolen election. I don’t really have a word that can describe that one. It radicalized a lot of people, probably on both sides; the GOP saw what they could do, what they could get away with because the other side believed in ‘norms’, ‘rules’, and ‘laws’ and pushed forward into new frontiers, and the Democrats and liberals learned just because there are ‘rules about such things’ doesn’t mean the other side will follow them.

No, I take that back. The Democrats didn’t learn that, as the last four years have shown us. The GOP and Trump have mowed down the rules once more, and that there was little they could do except to point out that there are, yes, ‘rules about such things’. Ten years of the GOP pulling this crap, twenty if you start at 2000 (which I do), now maybe they’re finally learned that the GOP, as a party, are not their friends.

Now, here we are, another election night, after four years of nearly constant turmoil in this country, fueled by Donald Trump and the Trump (formerly GOP) Party. 237,000+ Americans didn’t live to see this night, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd didn’t live to see this night, and many more who should be here will not see this night. This is our mission, a sacred one, to change this country, change this government, change this world, so there will be fewer virus deaths, no more Floyds, no more Taylors. And no more demagogues like Donald Trump.

It seems silly to say we have to save democracy, but that’s exactly what we have to do. It was hurting and fractured long before Trump came on the scene.  We had taken poor care of it, allowing evil men to steal parts of it, not extending its cover to all that deserved its protection, selling off bit and pieces for money, security, and because of cowardice. If Trump and enablers are allowed to hold onto power, I fear we won’t have a country in four years’ time. At least, not with a semblance of the democracy we have left.

Why is this night like no other?

Because tonight is election night in an election like no other, a chance to change, to fix, to take back.

These past few weeks we have been voting, praying, huddling together on social media, drinking, and fretting with anxiety. Today, some of that will end, but new anxieties will come as we have to watch Donald Trump act like a firehose, spraying us all with anger, lies and bile. I believe he’s going to lose, and lose big. And, insane as this is, we all now have to see just what the hell he’s going to do about it. We have to wait, tense and with jaw clenched, while the President of the United States figures out what he will do about losing.  

We are living in a new version of the infamous Chinese curse:

May you live in unprecedented times.

Take care of yourself. We will see each other again, on the other side.

Here’s the Deal

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the end-dream of the far-right move to control the courts.

Here’s the deal, as Joe Biden would say. The moderates in the Democratic Party constantly complain that the progressive wing won’t support them, won’t turn out for elections featuring moderate candidates, and complain that the moderate policies they push are, well, too moderate.

The progressive wing says that they have no seat at the table, that their ideas are consistently ignored, even ridiculed, and their support, when granted, is rarely rewarded. Why bother when they’re not listened too, are given no power in return for your support, and left out of major policy decisions?

In the past, campaigns have been won using the progressive’s ideals and style: Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign was a progressive (for its time) campaign, and Obama’s 2008, and especially his 2012 campaigns were as well. And then they turn into moderates. It’s almost a bait-and-switch. What happened?

Clinton ran hard into a wall GOP hate, constant bogus investigations, and he quickly tacked right. Obama was always more moderate than he campaigned, and was only too happy to run a center left administration. He also faced strong GOP opposition, taking too long to take their threats seriously, not believing the Republicans when they said they wanted to destroy him.

The deal is? The Republicans DO want to destroy you! Believe them when they say this, they’re serious. And they have been working towards this for decades. Denying Obama more than a hundred judicial nominees, and a SCOTUS seat, to pack the courts with far right (and unqualified) judges. It was a major, long awaited play for them and now this last rush to pack the Supreme Court is endgame, probably checkmate.

How does our moderate Democratic candidate want to address this? With a plan to take back the stolen courts with a legal expansion, to protect rights and laws that have been passed?

No.

He wants a blue-ribbon, bi-partisan committee.

Joe.

Pal…

No.  

Buddy, you’re a nice guy, I like you, already voted for you. But this is not the way to handle what the Republicans have been up to. This is pretty much what they (barring killing it altogether) want you to do. It’s like this; you know when you would ask your parents “can we go the movies” or “have pizza tonight” and they would say ‘We’ll see.” “We’ll see” was always “No.”

Always.

It’s a parent’s way of saying ‘no’ without have to disappoint expectant, hopeful faces by slapping them with a blunt declaration.

A ‘committee’ is the “We’ll see” of government.

This is just a way to get the subject off the table and kill momentum. This is exactly why the left has had it with the moderates and why the Democrats have gotten steamrolled by the right time after time. The moderates seem to think they're dealing with a reasonable, functioning GOP, and no amount of evidence will convince that they face a party of radicals, intent on destroying them and repealing the 20th Century. Haven't they been paying attention to the hearings going on right now?!

The moderates will dither, think, investigate and when they finally decided to act, it'll be a year too late. The right has no compunction to follow rules and will be throwing case after case at the now far-right SCOTUS to kill voting rights, healthcare, kill gun restrictions, and destroy protections for the LGBTQ community. They’re achieved their dream, and they’re giddy with power. They will move as fast as they can, while a bi-partisan, blue-ribbon panel meets, drinks coffee and snags Costco poppy seed muffins from the muffin basket. And talks and talks…

The GOP is seeing their electoral power shrink as the country changes and diversifies, and instead of trying to appeal to a larger majority, they doubled down on what they have, and threw themselves into a decades long quest to install their minority power in such a way that they can still control the country without being elected by a majority. Packing the courts (as McConnell himself called it) would do just that.

If the GOP insists on going forward and voting in this last attempt to killing the Living Constitution, the Democrats must take steps to reign them in, using every tool at their disposal. We have to hit the ground running, prepared to contain and repair the damage done by righting the system and restoring some fairness to institutions that have been deliberately broken.

We don’t have time to stop and think too much about it, and I doubt that are any sane Republicans who would participate in such a committee (the party would never forgive them).

It’s up to us, Joe, don’t tie our hands when we need them to fight.

Hunter Biden is STILL Not Running for President

Former VP Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Only one of these guys is actually running for president.

The NY Post ran a story Wednesday that claimed they had ‘secret’ Hunter Biden emails. Within minutes, the story was crumbling to pieces. Sketchy, untraceable documents, an even sketchier chain-of-custody, the involvement of known bad actors (Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani!), a bottom-feeding newspaper, with the byline of a Hannity producer (their first, evidently).

Sounds totally legit, right?

Trump and his associates have been going around and around on this Hunter Biden/Ukraine nonsense for the past couple years, or more. Where did they dig it all up? Russia, where else. It started off as Russian propaganda (someone to blame for the actual Russian interference and hacking in the 2016 election), and Trump latched onto it as a way to excuse his Russian pals and put the blame on Hillary and the Ukrainians. Somehow (stay with me) Hillary conspired with Ukraine to take down the Trump campaign because, that’s something an American presidential candidate would do, right? They also claimed Ukraine ended up with the server that had been hacked at the DNC (they didn’t, it’s still at the DNC).

It’s pretty crazy, right?

Once they bought that, then the Russians started with the whole idiotic ‘Hunter Biden’ nonsense. That story goes Hunter got a job on the board at a Ukrainian energy/gas company, Burisma (that’s true). They claim the county’s prosecutor, Viktor Mykolayovych Shokin was investigating Burisma, and Hunter used his father, Vice President Joe Biden, to pressure the president of the Ukraine to fire Shokin and end the investigation. The problem with this is, well, reality.

Viktor Shokin was corrupt, and the international community was calling for his ouster. He wasn’t investigating Burisma, which was part of the problem. With Shoklin dropping investigations and opening political ones, the western democracies took note and wanted Skokin out, as did the Obama administration. In fact, it was the policy of the Obama administration to get rid of Shokin. President Obama dispatched VP Biden to get the job done. Biden, again with the support of the international community, demanded the Skokin be fired. He was.

And of story.

Except that Skokin, angry at his dismissal, cooperated with the Russians in helping spread disinformation about his career, about the Ukraine, about the Bidens. The far right lapped it up, with ‘reporter’ John Solomon, through his position at the right-leaning The Hill newspaper, helping disseminate the story here in America. From there, it went to Trump who called in Rudy Giuliani (his personal lawyer) and dispatched him to the Ukraine. Once there, Rudy met for help and introductions with a couple shady ‘business men’ (now in federal custody) who illegally contributed millions to the GOP and Trump (hence the federal custody). It’s an ugly mess, made worse by deliberate disinformation and politics.

Trump, he seems to sincerely believe all this nonsense.

Culmination of this stupidly? Trump threatens to withhold needed financial aid (voted on and passed by congress) to Ukraine unless the new president announces a sham investigation into… Joe and Hunter Biden. Withholding aid for a personal foreign contribution to his re-election campaign. Word gets out gets out, complaint is filed, knowledge of the complaint is leaked, transcript is released (take that!) and Trump is impeached. The GOP-controlled senate let him go, of course. And then, the same GOP senate, to help out Trump, held a weeks-long ‘investigation’ that found… nothing. But spent a lot of tax payer money doing it. They released a report in which they shoved every extraneous, embarrassing detail they could find about Hunter Biden, smearing a guy who is not even running.

Not a great moment for a Republican senate that was already an embarrassment to the country.

So, here we are again. More Russian disinformation about Hunter Biden, dripping with sketchiness and pushed to try and affect an election in the last couple weeks. And it’s about emails as well! It’s like Trump figured ‘it worked once, it’ll work again!”

This is not 2016, and no one, beyond the heavy breathers on the far right, cares about Hunter Biden’s fake emails.

Go. Vote.

He Makes Everything a Train Wreck

Biden and Trump, the New Odd Couple

Good lord, that was a train wreck.

Seriously, what did we just watch?

Over at CNN, Jape Tapper called it “Horrific.” Co-anchor Dana Bash went one better: “You used some high-minded language — I’m going to say it like it is: that was a shit show.”

Shit show. Dana for the win.

Chris Wallace struggled hard to maintain control, but no one can control Trump. He was spewing nonsense on his time, on Biden’s time, talking over Wallace and at times, even interrupting himself.

Insanity. It was supposed to be 90, but it felt like hours. Trump was all over the map, rarely answering the actual question, insulting, lying, arguing, constantly interrupting. Just being an asshole, just being Trump. He was treating the whole thing as a monologue, as if it was a Trump rally.

And when was the last time you saw a moderator tell a sitting president to shut up? We did tonight, several times. Poor Chris Wallace, poor audience. And when Trump was finally, briefly, quiet, he sneered and pouted unable to keep still.

As usual, Joe Biden was, mostly, his calm and affable self. Trump was a bully, verbally shoving and pushing. Even Joe blew up a couple times. Telling Trump to ‘shut up” told him “You’re the worst president America has ever had. Come on!”and criticized his comments calling soldiers ‘suckers’, with Biden’s voice rising in anger, telling Trump that his deceased son who served in Iraq was not a ‘sucker’.

So, did we learn anything?

Well, Biden did fine, and will do fine. He stood up under the Trump blizzard of lies about as well as you can, the verbal vomit coming fast. He wasn’t thrown off too much. Trump is desperate to get attention and has a list of far right-wing conspiracy talking points that he got in regardless of what the actual question was. Biden tried to stick pretty much to the question and get through the constant interruptions.  

Some key moments?

To me, the key moments came towards the end, when Wallace asks both candidates about mail in ballots. Trump went off on his usual slurs and lies about the process, claiming non-existent fraud, and ended with “not going to end well.” It sounded like a threat. When asked if both candidates would pledge to call for peace from their supporters while the counting was going on, and to support the result once the votes were counted. Biden said, outright, of course he would. Trump?

Trump said he would send his supporters to the polls, to ‘watch the polls’ because of ‘fraud’. And he refused to answer the second part, about respecting the results. He said he might have to go to the courts, to the Supreme Court to ‘have the look at the ballots’. So, flood the polls with ‘watchers’ and try to get it in front of the Court where three of the Justices owe their seat to him. Of course that’s what he wants to do. Of course.

Tried to this is the other moment of the night, when Wallace asked Trump to denounce his violent supporters, the white nationalists and ‘militias’ that show up armed to protests. Both Wallace and Biden pressed him, and he hemmed and hawed, and said violence is “not a right-wing problem” and then finally, “Who, who? Give me a name”

Both Wallace and Biden suggested the ‘Proud Boys’, a white nationalist group that often threatens, and does, violence. “Sure, Proud Boys, stand down and stand by.” 

“Stand down and stand by” is not a condemnation. It’s telling armed thugs to ‘wait’. Maybe go to those polling places, with your guns. You know, to ‘watch’ and make sure everything is ‘fair’. Trump kind of ‘fair’.

Trump is dangerous, Trump is trying not to win an election, he knows he can’t, but he’s letting people know how he will try to steal it, and how they can help him do it. The Proud Boys erupted on Twitter at Trump’s ‘shout out’.

Biden won the night, but it wasn’t much of a night. He showed the world a contrast of decency versus angry bullying, clear competency versus incompetency, planning versus no plan. And I hope that will be enough

Dana Bash was right, total ‘shit show’.

Let’s go vote.