Election 2020: Mercifully Briefer Tonight!
The Trump administration seems to be looking for a way to climb down from the tree Donald climbed up into. The legal actions being taken are either ludicrous -- entire elections are to be de-certified because someone made a face at a poll watcher -- not nearly enough to affect the result -- in every court case where actual numbers of ballots are given, including the one success with setting aside some mail ballots in PA, the numbers are far lower than Biden's margin of victory -- or in most cases, both.
It's also becoming increasingly clear that rather than a brave stand at the barricades to defend the rights of the lonely MAGA voter, Trump's intransigence is, in large part, driven by the same thing that drives almost everything else he does: shameless grift that would make a boiler room operator blush. His team's relentless fundraising drive to ostensibly fund the poll challenges actually went to paying down the campaign's debt - since that was paid off fairly quickly, money is now going to "Save America", Trump's brand new leadership PAC. By the rules of such things, the money is essentially a slush fund for whatever Trump wants to spend it on. So, that's great. By all means, let's do manic fundraising to benefit billionaires. I'll go start a GoFundMe for Jeff Bezos.
The Trump Show is already damaging Republican attempts to hold on to the Senate in Georgia. Ronna Romney McDaniel, the GOP chair, had to delete a tweet today threatening voters with a 50/50 Senate split being dominated by a Vice President Harris, because Eurasia has always been at war with Eastasia. Holding those seats is absolutely critical to the Republican's chance of staying relevant without constantly convincing to Manchin, Sinema or other wavering Democrats to break ranks, and instead relying on Romney, Collins, and other wavering Republicans not to break ranks. Our dysfunctional democracy is so very awesome, especially when we vote 50/50 ties for everything.
This all is fairly meaningless when considered before Pestilence's pale horse: America added 1 million new cases of COVID-19 in the past 10 days, and the death curve is likely to sharply increase after the Thanksgiving holidays. It's going to be a jolly merry Christmas, assuming you can breathe. Biden named Ron Klain, who ran Obama's Ebola response, as his chief of staff today, so at least someone vaguely connected to government is taking this seriously.
And last and least, the Proud Boys are fighting amongst themselves over whether they're crypto-Nazis or just plain Nazis. Let. Them. Fight.