What if?
What if Trump loses the election but refuses to accept the results?
What if he continues to say, as he will, that the election was rigged? He has actually said that the only valid election is one that he wins. He has prepared the public to believe that the election is a fraud.
Here are some suggestions from a group that’s thought about this dilemma. I don’t know the individuals involved but I think many people should be thinking hard about a potential and likely crisis of our system. Trump rules by creating chaos, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that he would cling to power by any means necessary. I picture him clinging to the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, his tiny hands grasping it to his large belly.
Read the report here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s not just Trump we have to be concerned about. It’s the entire Republican party. Remember 2000, when John Roberts helped George W. Bush craft the argument that the Supreme Court, not the Florida court, should decide the election, and we all know how that turned out.
We must prepare for the same outcome, that the results may be contested all the way to the Supreme Court. We must not back down and not concede, as Al Gore did, until EVERY vote is counted.
I sometimes listen to a progressive podcast by Egberto Willies in Texas. He also blogs on social media. Egberto often has both local and national guests on his show. One of his recent guests was, Greg Palast, a journalist and election consultant, who has written extensively about voter suppression and attempts to undermine democratic elections. Palast believes that Trump’s team is looking for ways to circumvent the electoral process. According to Palast there is an insidious loophole in the XII Amendment that can provide this loophole even though this amendment has never been invoked before. While it all seems too conspiratorial to me, I do believe that Trump and his band of deplorables will do anything to win. We should be prepared for a variety of possibilities including the XII Amendment. To understand the specifics, read the link below. https://egbertowillies.com/2020/09/20/warning-trump-and-his-rioters-can-win-using-the-xii/
If there is no majority of electors, then the House votes first from among the top three chosen by the electors. Only if this vote fails for one reason or another does the vote go to one vote per state.
Oops. No. That’s wrong. The vote in the House is one per state!!!!
Trump is already contesting the election and we still have weeks to go until Nov. 3. Because so many people will be voting by mail, we won’t know the results for weeks, time in which Trump can disrupt and or stop the actual count. In NJ, when you vote in person, you will be given a provisional ballot, because they will have to check and verify that you haven’t voted twice (by mail and in person). All this takes time which works in Trump’s favor.
Yes, that is the crazy thing — hearing Trump supporters already spewing conspiracy theories about voter fraud and mail-in ballot fraud. Trump has already primed them — they will not accept any results that aren’t “Trump wins”. Trump doesn’t plan to leave.
It is very possible that there will be a Constitutional crisis. And rioting in the streets.
And, in other news, the absolutely predictable surge in Covid-19 cases has begun. I wonder how long it will take people to figure out that this is due to the reopening, in person, of schools, pushed by Trump and DeVoid.
I don’t know whether recent upticks were due to school openings or not, but I’m pretty sure that the people who have been calling for school reopenings will never admit that it contributed to new cases, regardless of how strong the evidence might be.
If students and/or teachers get sick, these folks will simply claim the virus was contracted outside school.
What if Trump won’t go? That’s not the question. The more realistic question is what will we do if he is reelected, because there is a very strong chance that he will be. This does not look good. Then who will be be, continue to be, and become? THOSE are the questions to be asking, planning, and acting upon.
Cx: Who will WE be, continue to be, and become?
Like any good strategist or tactician, both questions should be considered. Either way, there will be blood and death. And COVID will still be with us.
I wouldn’t call it a “strong chance” that Trump is going to be re-elected. The last time I checked (last week) FiveThirtyEight was giving Trump a 30 percent chance to win the election through the Electoral College.
That is not a strong chance. It is a weak one, so Trump can win.
But, according to American University Professor Allan Lichtman who has predicted the winner in every presidential election since 1984 and predicted Trump would win in 2016, Trump will lose and Biden will win in 2020.
I watched one of his interviews and Lichtman said his method to predict the winner doesn’t take into account cheating. That means, in an honest election, Trump doesn’t stand a chance. Since Trump has never been honest for most of his life (probably starting the moment he got his first tooth), this already isn’t an honest election.
“Each state’s electors meet in their respective state capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December to cast their votes. The results are counted by Congress, where they are tabulated in the first week of January before a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives, presided over by the vice president, as president of the Senate. Should a majority of votes not be cast for a candidate, the House turns itself into a presidential election session, where one vote is assigned to each of the fifty states. Similarly, the Senate is responsible for electing the vice president, with each senator having one vote.The elected president and vice president are inaugurated on January 20th” If a candidate receives 270 electoral votes on December 15th they are elected, although the Congress still must formally “count” the votes ….
Thanks for the clarification, Ed. I reread that Amendment hastily and wrong.
So perhaps we have good reason to be concerned about the XII Amendment, and Greg Palast is not too out of touch. I just read the following Florida post. DeSantis is introducing a bill to crack down on rioters and penalize communities that try to “defund the police.” https://weartv.com/news/local/desantis-moves-to-prevent-defunding-of-police-stiffer-penalties-for-rioters-09-21-2020
But this time it’s really true!
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2007/07/31/will-bush-cancel-2008-election
Those crazy Democrats. Just listen to them. They should just stop it and do what their authoritarian leaders tell them to do–Donald, Vlad.
Bob, you are just way too bothered by little things like Donald Trump filling his 3rd Supreme Court Justice seat with a right wing sycophant. Don’t you know that is not important? Why can’t you accept the truth? Having a Supreme Court that rubber stamps the Barr/Trump takeover of democracy is not something to worry your little head about, and it’s long past time for you to accept it.
Why don’t you spend more time doing what those who aren’t much bothered by Trump do and spend your time finding links to articles to diminish and demean concerns expressed by Diane Ravitch? That is truly the work that one can be proud of and is certain to help make this country more progressive.
NYC Parent. Yes. Nothing a lobotomy wouldn’t cure, this problem I have.
ha ha!
I think people are scared.
Here is an unusual take on why Trump might win and some of his recent campaign bait to amplify on his long-standing “Sleepy Joe” label. The writer of this opinion piece claims that the perceived “energy” of the two candidates favors Trump. He has a point, at least if you have listened to Biden and are aware of major criticism of his campaign, like not having yard signs, local campaign headquarters and more.
There are countless reasons to think that this election has been rigged and Trump will pull every trick possible to stay in office. He will be aided by Bill Barr’s belief that the Executive Branch has unlimited power and with only minor exceptions. Barr is poised to through around criminal charges around this election and to intimidate federal prosecutors who fail to comply. https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2020/09/why-trump-will-win/
I can’t help but think of two parties as dogs. The Democrats are labrador retrievers, loyal, playful and good natured. The Republicans are pitbulls that only seek to find the juglar vein on their opponent. I am tired of Democrats always getting outflanked by the other side.
The latest polls have Biden and Harris down by two points in Texas and up by two in Florida. Democrats, get off the sofa and get out and campaign more in those states. This is a blood sport, not a walk in the park. Those states are high value targets. Campaign the Latino areas in Florida. Campaign at least in Houston and San Antonio where there are lots of Latinos. Also, go back to Pennsylvania where Democrats lead by two points. tps://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
“[T]here’s probably, possibly, drugs involved,” Trump told host Jeanine Pirro. “I don’t know how you can go from being so bad where you can’t even get out a sentence. . .” he speculated without finishing the sentence.
I like to check in on what the ed reform “movement” are doing for the 90% of students who attend public schools in the pandemic:
“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been a longtime champion for school choice, but the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered schools nationwide put her vision to give students more education options into greater focus.
“This period of time with the pandemic is really helping encourage a lot of new thinking about the way we’ve always done things,” DeVos said in an interview with Fox News.
As DeVos and the Trump administration insisted schools reopen this fall for in-person instruction, she also backed school choice funding within the pandemic relief response she says could help students stuck with closed schools find new opportunities.”
Appearing on Fox News bashing public schools. This is the sum total of the “work”.
They didn’t lift a finger to assist any public school student in the country- instead they saw it as a golden opportunity to push the anti-public school message.
You’re paying thousands of these folks in government. Why? They contribute absolutely no value to 90% of US students.
So far President Trump and his team have accomplished….what, exactly, for public school students?
Nothing. They have contributed nothing. Periodically, say every three months, they hold a press event to bash and denigrate public school students and advance one or another of their campaign slogan goals. Apparently this counts as “productive work” in ed reform and requires thousands of full time public employees.
What would happen if we started hiring people in government who actually valued our kids and schools, instead of people who are realizing their personal ideological wish lists with our money?
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Learn what Trump is going to do to win even when he loses the November election. Trump will not go quietly into the night. Trump is going to use every dirty, dangerous trick possible to become the first president for life.
If Ugh! loses the Electoral College and won’t leave January 20, 2021, 12 PM, what happens? Does the military remove him? 🤔😮🔔
I was hoping for a real answer. 🤔☹️
What’s all the hubbub? When he loses the election, we’ll just pick him up from his crib, wrap him in a blanket, and give him back to his mommy. I’m tired of babysitting this president — Republicans nowadays are a handful — so when it’s done, it’s done.
Where would Trump go?
If Trump can’t merrily go
To lovely Mara Lago
Then Trump can ill afford
To go to New York court
If somehow he fails to fix the election,
then Trump must arrange for his own defection,
for the countries in which his clubs await
can extradite him back to the states.
Which raises the question he thinks about most,
would Vlad be willing to serve as his host?
but not even Trump, of course, truly believes
that loyalty holds among murderous thieves.
This just in: entry-level Department of Housing and Urban Development clerk Walter A. Smurf was terminated on Tuesday after a review in which it was brought to his attention that he was the only Trump maladministration employee who had not violated the Hatch Act. “But violating the Hatch Act is against the law!” said Mr. Smurf, to which his supervisor replied, “Haaaaaaaaaaa. Hee hee hee. Haaaahhhhhh! OMG! Rich. That’s rich.”