The Plan

The pieces of this have been floating around for a while, but this brought it all into focus:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday would not commit to providing a peaceful transition of power after Election Day, lending further fuel to concerns he may not relinquish his office should he lose in November.

"Well, we're going to have to see what happens," Trump said when asked whether he'd commit to a peaceful transition, one of the cornerstones of American democracy.

(Via Joe.My.God.)

This isn't the first time he's said it, but I started thinking about all those pieces:

1) Railing against voting by mail, since, because of the way he's bungled the federal response to the pandemic, it's going to be the only real option for millions of people.

2) Gutting Post Office operations, because #1.

3) "Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!" While pointing at Democrats. As it turns out, the very few cases of voting fraud and election tampering that have been discovered are almost all committed by Republicans.

4) Threatening to send federal troops to "protect" polling places.

5) Rushing through his nominee, either the Handmaid or the kiddie porn sympathizer, to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court, because he's covering all his bases: if he doesn't win, he'll challenge the result, with pictures of Bush v. Gore dancing in his head. And don't be surprised if Moscow Mitch dispenses with hearing and debate and just calls a floor vote: time is of the essense.

6) And the latest wrinkle, having state legislatures bypass the voters and appoint electors directly. Someone pointed out that this will only work in states that Trump would likely win anyway, but given the way his approval ratings have been dropping, even in so-called "battleground" states, I'm not sure that's the case.

7) And of course, there's always the white supremacists, neo-nazis and other assorted lowlifes to call to arms, just in case.

And the "free, independent, adversarial press" is not calling him out on any of it.

Good-bye, America. It was nice while it lasted.

Footnote: Under the heading "Great Minds. . .", this post from Mustang Bobby.

What's New at Green Man Review

Yes, the move to a new host is done (and the less said about it, the better) and we're back again with a new edition. Note: we're going to biweekly review editions, with the stories alternating, so needless to say, this edition is packed full of neat stuff. This is just the tip of the iceberg:

Autumnal Folkmanis Puppets, Demon Detectives, British Mysteries, Soundscape Designers, and more

So hop on over and enjoy.

In Memoriam

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)

I think she would have appreciated the image, which is a collage by Ghillermo Rojo titled "Annunciation".

Damn!

There goes the Court:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas. The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, D.C., surrounded by family. She was 87.

Moscow Mitch and the holy rollers are licking their chops, because you know McConnell will ram through some brain=dead Christian Dominionist, or worse, to fill the vacancy.

There's much more to the article -- go ahead and read the whole thing.

Via Joe.My.God.

Critter Chronicles: We Still Have Cicadas

Although the noise at twilight is not quite as deafening as it was. We have here, in addition to the world-famous seventeen-year locust, annual cicadas as well, so every summer we get serenaded. And it turns out that there's also a thirteen-year cycle for some species.

I suspect, because of the noise level, that we'be hit a congruence of broods, although I don't think the seventeen-year bugs are quite due.

Today's Must-Read: Our "Free, Independent, Adversarial" Press

Digby does a major take-down of a piece by Dan Balz at WaPo that I think illustrates one of our major problems. She sums it up:

This bland recitation of Trump’s corruption as if it’s just another tactic is as “norm-breaking” as Trump himself. The Village is alive and well.

Read the whole thing. It's devastating.

It's No Secret

That Trump will do anything to retain power, and it's no secret that Roger Stone is nuts, but this is over the top even for him

Roger Stone is making baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and is urging Donald Trump to consider several draconian measures to stay in power, including having federal authorities seize ballots in Nevada, having FBI agents and Republican state officials “physically” block voting under the pretext of preventing voter fraud, using martial law or the Insurrection Act to carry out widespread arrests, and nationalizing state police forces.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. While I would expect Trump and his minions to be a little more subtle -- although subtlety is not one of Trump's defining characteristics -- I can actually envision something like this happening, although I would expect Trump and the Republicans to try to tie the election up in the courts, since stacking the courts is the only thing Moscow Mitch and his pet Senators have done in the past three-and-a-half years -- aside from giving the richest a free ride. (On second thought, Stone's "recommendations" are really just what Trump's been threatening without the pretty wrappings.)

Read the whole article, but do keep in mind that it's Roger Stone speaking to Alex Jones, another certifiable loon.

Via Balloon Juice.

I'm Back

Being so fed up with Wordpress that I've decided to stick with the new, "improved" (hah!) Blogger.

Actually, it doesn't seem to be stalling my computer the way it was, so maybe something's corrected itself.

In other news, Green Man Review is back, and has a new edition up. Our Coda this time is a couple of songs by Cameron Hawthorne; you can see the videos at the link. Here's one I wanted to include, but that would have been overkill. It's a nice change of pace from the two in the Coda:

And, as you can see, in addition to being a talented musician, he's a real cutie.