CNN is currently broadcasting a piece by Fareed Zakaria that we should all be paying careful attention to:
We need to prepare for this deeply worrying scenario.
Multiple models suggest that the most plausible and most likely scenario, based on current polling, is that when the in-person ballots are counted on November 3 — and when just 15% of mail-in ballots are counted — Donald Trump will appear to have a 408-130 electoral vote majority. Four days later, when 75% of the mail-in ballots are counted, that will shirt to a 280-258 EC vote in favor of Joe Biden. By the time all mail-in votes are counted, Joe Biden is likely to win by 334-204 EC votes.
We already know, from the 2018 mid-terms, that Donald Trump and the Trumpists will claim that this is evidence of massive fraud. In all likelihood the mainstream media will contribute to the crisis by reporting the election night results and by continuing to report the aftermath as a political process played by partisan actors. Mr. Zakaria asserts that the election will ultimately be decided by John Roberts. I suggest that any of us who think I am being “paranoid” need to open our eyes and look at what is happening.
The constitution provides two mechanisms for removing an unfit president — impeachment and the more recent 25th Amendment. The first was tried, and it failed. The second makes the failed assumption that the cabinet is comprised of honest and loyal Americans. The US constitution does not contemplate what has already happened — the takeover of the executive branch and Senate majority by a hostile power.
My wife’s family of origin lived in Eastern German, Austria, and Bavaria up to and through WWII. The “War Years” were VERY different for them than for any American. Her older siblings have vivid memories of that region in the immediate aftermath of the Allied victory. This is not ancient history, these are real people still seared by their first-hand real experience. More than anything else, they remind us that things happen FAST. East Berlin was sealed off literally overnight, with essentially no warning.
This battle is already lost — it is time to look at what happens next. It is time for us to prepare for life under a Trumpist dictatorship. I think it’s time to start talking about what we actually DO in February 2021. How do we protect ourselves in a culture where the most powerful government in human history is controlled by tyrants? How safe are we in New England? In Massachusetts?
I write this because I literally do not know what to do next. I fear that a year from now we will look back on this as the final collapse of a golden era in human history. I wonder what we will say when our children and grandchildren ask us whether we could have done more.
It isn’t like we didn’t see this coming.
OK, we need a primer on state election law. Only a few states even wait for ballots after election day and fewer of those have questionable outcomes in terms of who is likely to win. All states start processing mailed ballots on or before election day so if anything they may get a head start this year. Here are the states that allow delayed ballots if they are postmarked on election day or the day before:
The other 33 states all require ballots to be turned in by close of polls, and many can even start counting before then. There is no reason those states can’t be called on election night with as much confidence as any other year. I see the most likely holdouts as IA, NV, NC, and OH, with the last one having the most potent combination of close margin, long wait, and Republican control. Current state polls show Biden with much more room to play with (and yes even moreso than Clinton at this point in 2016) than Trump. Only 4 states may make us wait longer than a week. These states all have laws expressly allowing them to keep counting so there is absolutely no reason for them not to do exactly that.
Geoffry Skelley at fivethirtyeight.com is not nearly so optimistic as you (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-if-trump-loses-and-wont-leave/):
I’m not simply being pessimistic — I truly will rest easier if SOMEONE could paint a realistic picture of what happens when Donald Trump is on the losing end of a close and or contested election.
I’ve seen several reports of various high-faluting organizations gaming the scenarios and guessing at what might happen.
It seems to me that all of humanity deserves a better answer than that when it comes down to who holds the nuclear launch codes.
And I am saying that most states will have most votes counted by election night. I think chief among your faulty assumptions is that there will be a huge delay in the counting itself. 2/3 of the states require all ballots to be in by poll closure and can be run through the machines with all the other ballots. The other 1/3 have specific laws requiring that ballots received in the next few days be counted. Having just worked a poll in a primary with record turnout I assure you it is possible to keep up with the counting and we had plenty of time on our hands if even more had come in. I don’t know what else to say without sounding like a broken record and I’m not sure a palace coup involving the 82nd Airborne is even worthy of a response. Even if enough shenanigans take place in the 4 states I mentioned above, Biden still gets the Electoral College. Even 538 says Biden is favored. The article should not have used PA as an example. It may be a late night there if the election is close, but it does not allow ballots after election day and the mailed ballots are counted along with the rest. I consider articles like the one you linked to be largely clickbait.
I hope you’re right.
My wife and I will be voting in person. Like Jury Duty, I actually LIKE to go vote. It’s her first vote in a national election and she’s looking forward to it. When we stand at the scanner and watch it tabulate our votes, we KNOW that our vote counted.
We are two of those unusual Democratic voters who very much prefer to vote in person on election day.
I find Christopher’s view to be the more likely, because Skelley just assumes that mailed-in ballots will be set aside until after the polls close. I’m not at all sure that this is the case, unless one is just making generic assumptions.
In which 2020 US elections with a significant number of mail-in and/or absentee ballots have those ballots been counted on election day?
It appears to me that Mr. Skelley is assuming that mail-in and absentee ballot counting in November will be about the same as it’s been all year.
In my experience the mailed ballots are in fact counted on election day, often by running them through the same machines as those marked in person.
Isn’t your experience specific to MA?
In which of the 2020 primary elections with a higher than usual share of mailed ballots have those ballots been counted on election day?
I offer the 2020 California primary elections as an example of what Mr. Skelley is referring to. I don’t think that’s imaginary, and it isn’t the only one.
MA had a higher than usual turnout, including of mail ballots, and did just fine counting them on election day. From what I can tell every state opens and counts their ballots on election day if not before.
Massachusetts is one state of fifty.
The Washington Post has just now posted a graphic with relevant data (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/how-long-election-results-2020/).
BEFORE MARCH 17:
There primaries in 24 states before Mar 17. That means that these results were before the pandemic hit. Of those 24, five had a significant number of mailed-in ballots:
MA: 2.8 days
CO: 5 days
AZ: 5.8 days
WA: 9.6 days
CA: 10.0 days
In fact, it took MA 2.8 days to release the final counts from the 2020 Democratic primaries. So the MA ballots were NOT all counted on election day.
For these 24 states, here are the average times for states with and without a high share of mailed-in ballots:
With mailed-in ballots: 134.4 hours
Mostly in-person voting: 15 hours
AFTER MARCH 17:
There primaries in 23 more states after March 17, when the pandemic was widespread. Nearly all those states relied on in-person voting.
The average of those 23, was:
FOUR DAYS
In New York, the first 94% were counted within a few hours. The final 6% took MORE THAN TEN DAYS to count. Multiple races were too close to call a MONTH after the election (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-month-later-this-new-york-city-primary-is-still-a-train-wreck-and-a-warning-to-us-all/2020/07/25/1c19f9c4-cb68-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html).
In Wisconsin, the same federal judge that is currently handling the November election ordered that no results be released for nearly SIX DAYS after the election.
I encourage you to scroll to the bottom of the linked piece and look at what has actually happened in elections this year, especially after the pandemic impacted society.
Your optimism is not supported by the reality of what has already happened. It is likely to be worse, not better, in November.
What you say does not concern me. I did not mean to suggest everything will be perfectly known by midnight everywhere. There have always been races that take a little more time, particularly if close. There is almost always a bit of a delay between unofficial and official results. The Markey/Kennedy race WAS called that night, but CD4 wasn’t – happens all the time. My imagination I admit is failing me as to why some take quite so long, unless there are so many ballots that require a hand count. Mostly this is basic arithmetic.
In this comment, you agree that the scenarios I began with are at least possible even if not likely. You write ” I did not mean to suggest everything will be perfectly known by midnight everywhere” and “There have always been races that take a little more time, particularly if close”.
We already know that “a little more time” has actually meant days or weeks in this year’s primaries.
The point remains, therefore, that Donald Trump’s supporters are much more likely to vote in person while Joe Biden’s supporters say they prefer to vote by mail.
The result will be a slim margin for Donald Trump by the end of election night, with a significant win for Joe Biden by the time the ballots are all counted — days or weeks later.
That IS the scenario I started with.
Donald Trump and the Trumpists will claim that the mailed-in ballots are evidence of “massive fraud”. By the time the resulting legal chaos reaches the Supreme Court, there will be newly-appointed Trumpist justice replacing RBG.
I have little doubt that Joe Biden will “win” both the electoral college and the popular vote, each by large margins.
I think that Donald Trump will nevertheless be inaugurated on January 20.
Trump will be inaugurated on January 20th ONLY if he affirmatively qualifies for it. There is no default to incumbent rule in the event of a questionable result. I actually don’t buy the assumption that Trump will have an apparent lead on election night. I also think lots of mailed ballots will be in well ahead of time.
I think you’re mistaken.
I understand, of course, that there is no “default to incumbent rule”. I’ve never suggested there is.
Mr. Trump and his cabal are doing everything in their power to manufacture a path to his inauguration on January 20. I see no evidence that they are paying serious attention to winning the election at all. I do think there is a tiny chance that he may be removed after November and replaced by Mike Pence.
It is no accident that he and his supporters are explicitly talking about “sedition” and threatening armed violence if he does not win. Steve Bannon wants right-wing crazies to sign up as “election officials” (https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/09/23/steve-bannon-urges-republicans-to-sign-up-as-election-officials-and-contest-every-mail-in-ballot/#5760b5676a27)
Do you really think Mr. Bannon is working to protect the integrity of the election?
Everything you’re posting here assumes that Mr. Trump and his supporters obey the law, all the way down to the state legislature level. You have not yet described how the laws that govern all this will be enforced.
The point is that whatever law stands in his way will be ignored. The law says that his administration was supposed to produce documents and witnesses. That never happened. There have no consequences. He and his administration have broken a long and growing list of major and minor laws. There have been no consequences.
When virtually all federal agencies, a majority of the Senate, the DoJ, and a 6-3 majority of the Supreme court all either determine that the law doesn’t apply to him or ignore his actions altogether, how is he going to be stopped?
I haven’t yet seen a concrete description of how Mr. Trump is removed from office if his strategy fails and he still won’t go.
If all else fails there’s always force I suppose, but it won’t come to that. What YOU haven’t explained is how you expect this massive conspiracy will work. As I have repeatedly explained your scenario would require the complicity of lots of people in all the branches at both the state and federal levels. Voting has already started in I believe almost half the states and I expect the experience of those who choose to vote on 11/3 will mostly match what it has always been. Honestly, you are playing right into Trump’s hands by displaying a lack of faith in our system – that is exactly what he wants! Trump and Bannon can talk all they want. They are certainly good at it, but that’s all it is. What Bannon is proposing is not allowed, at least when obviously done in bad faith. Again, you seem to assume that there is nobody willing uphold, enforce, or fight for the current election laws. Also, broadcasting their threats ahead of time only serves to make people extra vigilant and more likely to either vote early in person or mail their ballots way in advance (and why not since not many are undecided?)
If things are tied up in courts long enough that not all electors can vote on the second Monday in December, and neither has a majority, then the election is decided by the House on a one-state-one-vote basis. The current House I believe is evenly divided, but that may not be the case with the next House. If Dems make gains in both chambers then they will be able to elect the ticket. The Senate electing the VP is easier and if as predicted now the Dems take control they will elect Harris, who will in turn become acting President on 1/20 if neither Trump nor Biden has qualified. Then there’s the matter of current polls showing enough of a buffer in his electoral lead that shenanigans in the most likely states may not matter anyway.
What men and women apply that force, under whose direction, and with what legal authority?
“ Donald Trump and the Trumpists will claim that the mailed-in ballots are evidence of “massive fraud”. By the time the resulting legal chaos reaches the Supreme Court, there will be newly-appointed Trumpist justice replacing RBG.”
So you’re right on the first half, and I actually agree with you a Democrats and the media have to be way more vigilant and overt than they have been about explaining this possibility so that they aren’t drowned out by Fox News it and when we don’t have a clear winner on election night. The Biden campaign is sleeping on this and I think they need to prepare themselves for the MAGA equivalent of the Brooks Brothers riot in 2000. I’m grateful Ron Klain is on their team and Biden won’t be inconsistent like Gore was.
Your second half is where you lose me. There is no legal basis to throw out mail in ballots from a first count of the vote. The Supreme Court cannot do this. I agree Bush v. Gore was a bad decision but it wrested on stopping a statewide recount before an elector certification deadline to end the constitutional crisis. There cannot be a similar order to stop an initial count of the vote or to throw out over 40-60% of the ballots. I do not doubt this 6-3 majority will do bad things, but it has to work within the framework of constitutional and legal plausibility.
Even if there is a Blue Tsunami that is overwhelming and obvious on Election Day, lame duck Trmp and McConnell will still have from November to January to wreak havoc. I believe they’ve already said that they’d appoint a new Supreme Court Justice if one dies or retires (Clarence Thomas is one retirement possibility I’ve heard) between election and inauguration.
These days, I am beginning to believe that we do not live in either a democracy or a republic. We are ruled by kleptocratic kakistocrats in an hermetically sealed oligarchy.
Voting is not enough. But, please, please, please, vote.
I wouldn’t call filling a Court vacancy wreaking havoc. There is only one President at a time and, Merrick Garland notwithstanding, Trump would have every right in the world to send a nominee to the Senate until the day he leaves office. At least replacing Thomas would be a wash ideologically.
It’s much more likely to be RBG.
So far as I can tell, living with “Justice Ted Cruz” for the rest of my life at least moves the needle on the “havoc” meter even if it doesn’t pin it on full-scale.
That would be the height of hypocrisy since McConnell insisted over and over again that the reason Garland was not even given a vote was because ‘the people had to vote’. If the people vote fro Biden, it is obvious whom they want to select their justices. Using McConnell’s logic to quash Garland, the people voted for Hillary Clinton to appoint justices. I would hope every Democratic senator puts the brakes on that possibility. This is also why Barack should have had a nice conversation with RBG back when he had the votes to replace her. I know her granddaughter who insists the mind is as sharp as ever, but the body is definitely not as strong as it used to be. Her becoming a millennial folk hero has not made the decision any easier. I hope she retires under Biden and a post-filibuster majority Democratic senate.
Of course it’s the height of hypocrisy, which they obviously are not above, but constitutionally Trump gets to nominate justices as long as he remains President. I do think the Dems should try to stop it, but I’ve lost track of the reforms which may no longer allow that.
Any nomination will be steamrolled just like the Brett Kavanaugh nomination was steamrolled. Democrats won’t be able to stop it.
A GOP House and Senate blocked many or most of Barack Obama’s judicial nominees. That meant that the Trump administration was able to fill an unusually large number — many with unqualified partisan hacks.
Donald Trump and the GOP have essentially gutted the federal judiciary and turned it into a patronage haven.
I get all that, but this subthread started, at least as I inferred, with the suggestion that Trump nominating and the Senate confirming a Justice during the lame duck period would be a grave offence against the Constitution. That just isn’t the case.
It is an offense against common decency, humanity, and a functioning democratic republic.
Its constitutionality is irrelevant — these criminals shredded that long ago without even an attempt by Democrats at action to protect it.
What congressional subpoenas have been enforced? Which of the many officials in flagrant contempt of Congress have been jailed or fined? Which appropriations have been blocked? Which constitutional levers have actually been actuated, beyond the failed impeachment (which itself was little more than a TV show)?
We are doing NOTHING to block these criminals and traitors from destroying everything America has always believed in.
You worked very hard to miss my point. I appreciate the effort.
I have had this conversation with many and to those who tell me I am overreacting, I ask “What leads you to believe Trump will leave without a fight?” No one has yet to offer a reply other than, “He will, he has to”
It’s interesting that you’ve chosen the Cape for your retirement. My best friend of 20 years retired to the outer Cape some years ago. He now says that although he didn’t realize it at the time, he now values his isolation from the mainland as a real advantage. He said he feels much less exposed out there than if he had stayed in the Metro Boston area.
Congratulations on your retirement, by the way. Mine was much less graceful — my conflict with my management (at Experian) got so intense that I literally could not avoid resigning on the spot rather than do what I was being ordered to do.
I’ve heard Trump practically admit that he talks up the idea of staying beyond his welcome just to troll us; don’t take the bait.
I am somewhere in the middle. I do not think Trump can pull off a dictatorship since the military and intelligence services cannot stand him. While they have been too gutless to criticize him or put their names to the Goldberg piece, I suspect a lot of active duty and former military commanders would go public if he tried to nullify the results or use the military for political purposes. The St. John’s church showdown was a disaster in civil military relations and the Pentagon brass immediately walked it back since they recognized the danger. The rank and file might be MAGA, the college educated officer corps which would be in charge of giving the orders would not be. The Military Times actually suggests a pro-Biden tilt in its polling.
What I am more worried about is rogue state legislatures sending competing slates of electors to gummy the works. NC and WI may have Democratic governors, but their legislatures have already succeeded at stripping them of power and may continue to do so. It would also depend on the Supreme Court from preventing an initial count and I do not trust AG Barr, Thomas, Kavanaugh, or Alito on this front with their unitary executive fetish. My hope is Roberts and Gorsuch signaled with their ruling on Title IX that they take the law as written very seriously and would insist on an initial vote count.
There are also a lot of scenarios that could produce electoral ties or a disputed outcome, and the vote by majority of state delegations currently favors Republicans. There are a few house districts in PA and TX that might tip the balance to a tied 25-25 vote. It is unclear what happens then. I’ll also add a similar scenario of multiple states with lengthly recounts is what happened in 1876 and led to the twin tragedies of the end of Reconstruction and the precedence of an extraconstitutional partisan commission to resolve these disputes by the deadline.
The saving grace is that on January 20th at noon, Donald J Trump will cease to be president. Whether he is replaced by Biden after a clear win, Pence after an electoral tie is resolved by the Republican Senate, or Pelosi if no winner was chosen and the Speaker elevates to the presidency is an open question. He can also clearly close and do a lot of damage during the transition period.
So we should gameplan for the realistic scenarios, I think the war gaming political professionals have done is far more alarming than the hyperbolic claims of dictatorship or the non chalant, and at this point in this presidency, naive faith that the system will work and norms will trump the presidents ego.
The point remains that the St. John’s Church episode HAPPENED. The time to show courage is BEFORE, not after, obeying orders like that. When people are dead, it’s too late to “walk back” acts that should have never been done.
It is those “war gaming political professionals” that I’m referring to when I express my dismay about what is and is not happening. Many of the outcomes of those exercises can only be characterized as “dictatorship” — hyperbolic or not.
The “realistic scenarios” are what I’m asking about. Every comment and post every one of us has made here at BMG is available to a variety of federal agencies including the NSA and FBI. In a scenario, whether “hyperbolic” or not, that results in Donald Trump and William Barr remaining in power in February of 2021, are you confident that none of us need to fear being on the receiving end of a multi-million dollar slander suit or an outright arrest for “sedition”?
I’m not. So far as I can tell, this administration demonstrates complete confidence in its belief that it can do whatever it wants — including shooting people on the street — without fear of ANY legal consequences. I see no evidence, so far, of any effective limits being imposed on that belief.
When I see any of these criminals investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and jailed — without pardon or commutation — then I’ll be more confident.
Roger Stone and Michael Flynn are still walking around. So far as I know, the prosecutions of Lev Parnas, Igor Frumin, and Dmitri Firtash are on hold. I am not aware of ANY consequences for any of the dozens of administration officials who ignored lawful Congressional subpoenas.
Meanwhile, heavily armed federal troops occupied Portland Oregon against the expressed wishes of local civilian authorities in a dress rehearsal for November 3.
NOTHING has been done about that. NOTHING.
I wonder if Christopher downvoted this because he feels I’m mistaken or because he doesn’t like me to talk about it.
This followup comment is specifically directed to Christopher. Do you disagree with my comments about the outrage at St. John’s Church? Was something done about military takeover of Portland OR this summer that I missed?
What I see is thugs doing whatever they please and the rest of my government clucking its collective tongue about it — and nothing more.
Which of the many congressional subpoenas was actually enforced? Which executive branch officials were actually prosecuted for contempt?
I don’t like what has happened (though I don’t recall anyone getting killed on the way to St. John’s Church), but I frankly find each comment of yours about prospects progressively paranoid and I really do think deep breaths are in order. Yes, this is a dark time in our history. We have been through dark times before. We WILL come out on the other side. We may have to rethink the Justice Department’s relationship to the rest of the executive branch. Maybe there’s a reason so many states directly elect their AGs rather than making them answerable to the Governor. I do hope that in the Biden administration there will be a laser focus on some of what you cite.
It is not “paranoid” to talk about what is actually happening.
The Attorney General is talking about charging protestors with SEDITION, for crying out loud.
Each time you find yourself wanting me to take deep breaths, I encourage you to LOOK AT WHAT IS HAPPENING!
Are you paying attention what whistleblowers are saying about the debacle at St. John’s church? This administration ordered a military assault against a peaceful protest in the nation’s capital.
Are we supposed to feel better because nobody was killed? Tell it to people in Kenosha, Detroit, Milwaukee, Dallas, Portland, and so on.
You said “when people are dead” in a paragraph about St. John’s. I know what happened and I agree it’s upsetting, but unlike you apparently I have not given up hope in our country’s ability to progress toward a more perfect union.
People are dead all over America.
When Donald Trump orders DHS storm troopers into Democratic cities on election day, people will die — and he knows it.
That’s the scenario I’m talking about.
OK, time to back down again – I am NOT anticipating storm troopers in cities on election day. Godwin, call your office stat!
I guess I’m being pedantic, but I was taught that paragraphs been with topic sentences which tell what the rest of the paragraph is about. Your 1st paragraph a few comments above was:
Since the 1st sentence is about St. John’s I interpreted the rest of the paragraph to me as well. Even the other cities have not experienced mass deaths that it sounds like you are implying.
I’m glad that nobody died in Lafayette Square.
RBG is dead, Mitch McConnell is promising to ram through a replacement before the end of the year, and I’m contemplating a trip to Washington DC to join the growing crowds.
You have the audacity to bring up Godwin in this exchange? I encourage you to reread Mr. Godwin’s own words about what he did and did not have in mind.
This is Rosh Hashana. We are entering the high holidays. The Holocaust happened. It happened in no small because “civilized” people sat by and did nothing during the ascent of the Nazi government.
If we fail to stop Donald Trump and his thugs, then those who come after us will look with contempt on Americans who saw all this unfold and did absolutely nothing to stop it.
My advice to all of us is to work like hell to avoid these nightmare scenarios in the first place. We cannot sit idly by. A friend on the Biden campaign is organizing a phone bank tree and I’m happy to connect anyone here to that. We have to convince every single decent American to vote.
I believe that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but what bothers me about your commentary is that you talk as if we have already lost. For the umpteenth time we are NOT either the Weimar Republic or Nazi Germany, which I was required to extensively study for my political science and history degrees. I do believe we will have to wait for a new administration to have a true reckoning about some of the things you cite.
I commend to you an exchange from a site I read daily. On Saturdays they do Q&A and explain why your fears are likely unfounded better than I can. The questioners can give you a run for your money with the nightmare scenarios they come up with.
I’m not contemplating any of the scenarios you present.
I expect armed brigades of DHS thugs to invade Democratic cities on election day, just as they did in Portland, under the guise of “protecting the election”. I’m talking about Chicago, New York City, Milwaukee, Detroit, and others.
I think they’ll be deployed in minority neighborhoods, and I think they’ll be pulling minority men and women off the streets, hooding them, and transporting them “elsewhere”. This all happened in Portland this summer. The difference is that in November, they won’t be released a few blocks away a few minutes later as they were in Portland.
I think the purpose will be to force minority voters to stay home or be arrested. I think it will succeed.
I think there will be a concerted media effort led by the White House and loudly repeated by Fox News, Breitbart, and the rest of the right-wing echo-chamber to say that “radical Antifa mobs” disrupted in person voting and forced the deployment of “heroic” federal troops to “maintain order and protect voters”.
I think there will be chaos with mail-in ballots. I think USPS will “lose” millions of them. I think it will take days or weeks to sort out the mess.
I think there will be a simultaneous flood of lawsuits claiming that the election results are impossible to determine because “radical leftists” and “mobs of Biden supporters” prevented legitimate voting.
I think outrage after outrage will be committed by the GOP. I think that some of them will be loudly objected to by Democrats and various legal actions will be taken.
I think those will all be brought before a Supreme Court that will include an extreme Trumpist instead of RBG, by as early as December. All will fail, the Supreme Court will support and allow all of the important actions of the Trumpists.
I think Mr. Trump and the Trumpists will claim that they have won the election. I think they’ll stage an inauguration on Janurary 20th, regardless of the election results.
I think the Trumpists purges will begin after that.
That’s the scenario I see unfolding.
You’ve gone ’round the bend!:(
Interesting that Bernie Sanders seems to be walking alongside me…
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-trump-transfer-of-power/
He sounds more vigilant than paranoid, and is telling us what we have to do to ameliorate this (vote in record numbers) rather than conceding that Trump’s palace coup is already a fait accompli.
Also as NY Mag laid out, Trump is fighting for his freedom. He needs to win by hook or by crook to avoid a jail cell.
It is worth noting that Silvio Berlusconi, the example chosen in the lead of that piece, is alive free and well in Italy today. Convicted in 2013 and again in 2015, he was nevertheless re-elected to Parliament in 2018.
I see no evidence that anyone is going to be jailing Donald Trump anytime soon.