Truism #1: “You May Hear Statements Detrimental to Our Republic”

2020 Election Truisms

#2) Joe Biden is the duly elected, legitimate president-elect. He will be inaugurated Jan. 20, 2021.

#3) Donald Trump has successfully created another lie that won’t die: “The stolen election.” Trump and GOP enablers are endangering national security, weakening the republic, and emboldening world autocrats.

#4) The polls were wrong — again: legions of voters still were embarrassed to admit their MAGA support, even to pollsters.

#5) “Press is the enemy of the people” worked — almost. It made the election closer than warranted.

#6) Massive, shameless lying — even when all your supporters KNOW you’re lying — worked — almost. Having zero integrity is a yooge advantage. Virtue, decency, and honesty ultimately won, but 48% of the country doesn’t accept it.

#7) Bernie Sanders would have been obliterated. I love Bernie. But the effective sot-takeover disinformation campaign, to which he opened the door, hurt down-ballot Democrats. As I said all along, we could not risk another four MAGA years with anything less than our strongest presidential candidate. Even Donald knew that was Joe.

#8) The U.S. is severely divided. Half its citizens believe in truth, reason, and character. Half believe any lies that support personal grievances. Instituting standardized critical thinking instruction in the American K-12 educational curriculum remains essential.

#9) Even a loser Trump maintains tremendous power over Republicans, through control of his base supporters. GOP incumbents and candidates will fear his tweet-attacks for years to come.

Tuesday, There Was an Election

The election occurred Nov. 3, 2020, Tuesday. There was a so-called red mirage Tuesday night and Wednesday day as Trump-friendly in-person votes were counted first, creating a temporary Trump scoreboard lead. Then Biden-friendly mail-in ballot results came in slowly but consistently over the succeeding 48 hours. On Thursday night, Joe Biden became president-elect by almost all practical assessments.

President Trump, sensing his imminent loss, went on national television to comment on the state of the race. Based on recent tweets, previous statements, and Donald’s inherent personality traits, one pundit remarked to viewers while prefacing Mr. Trump’s remarks, “You may hear statements detrimental to our republic.” The president did not disappoint. He claimed massive fraud where there was none. He weakened a country. He was a temper-tantrum-throwing 74-year-old 2 year old.

“If you look at the legal votes, I win very easily. They’re trying very obviously to commit fraud [in Philadelphia and Detroit]. … We were winning in all the key locations, by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away, in secret. … I’ve said very strongly that mail-in ballots are going to end up being a disaster. … It’s really destroyed our system. It’s a corrupt system. … It’s getting worse and worse every day. … [I expect] a lot of litigation. … We can’t be disgraced by having something like this happen. There’s been a lot of shenanigans, and we can’t stand for that in our country. … The voting apparatus of those [contested] states are run in all cases by Democrats.”

(Trump, Donald, R-Fla., U.S. president; White House Brady Briefing Room; 11/5/2020.)

[EDITORS NOTE:] Mr. Trump was wrong on all counts.

Saturday, the Election Was Called Officially

I stand with comedian Dave Chappelle and President-Elect Joe Biden: It’s not a time to gloat. Almost half the country is disappointed and in pain. It is a time to practice good sportsmanship, to be gracious, humble winners.

But it’s also time to face reality, to accept the results — as we always have when they’ve gone the other way — and do the best we can to prepare for the next administration, for the good of the country. Only four Republican senators (Romney, Murkowski, Collins, Sasse) have congratulated Biden on his win, effectively accepting the election results. The rest of them still are choosing selfish political expediency, fearing a Trumpian tweet, over national security and protecting our republic. Unfortunately, this is a really bad sign.

C’mon, people. Even Fox News has accepted that 1) Trump lost, 2) Trump’s lawsuits are without merit, and 3) Trump’s lying, traitorous fraud accusations — leveled even at Republican-run states and GOP vote-counting secretaries of state — are undemocratic and show clear disdain for the American people and the United States Constitution.

Fox News wryly ridiculed the president’s accusations of election fraud last Thursday night:

“Trump, meanwhile, accused Democrats of trying to ‘steal’ the election in remarks he made from the White House. ‘Our goal is to defend the integrity of the election, we will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election or any election for that matter,’ Trump said, though the only specific accusation of voter fraud his campaign has presented — one woman in Nevada — was disputed by the voter registrar in the county where the campaign made the allegation.”

(Olson, Tyler; “Where the Race Stands: Biden Erases Trump Lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Nears 270 Electoral Votes”; FoxNews.com; 11/6/2020.)

Dog-Bites-Man News

President Trump is the ultimate sore loser everyone expected. Donald never “grew into” the presidency, like so many allies had hoped he would. And he certainly won’t grow into the maturity and patriotism required for an orderly, nationally secure, democratic transition of administrations. He will be eased out of his other-worldly reverie and denial only as his aides, family members, and GOP enablers figure out a way to massage his ego and help him mentally turn acceptance into selfish benefit.

I empathize with Trump voters. I’m sorry for you, that your guy lost. But I have zero patience or empathy for GOP lawmakers whose self-serving mendacity continues to impede the work of government, endanger national security, and prolong the pain of suffering Trump supporters. Those poor bastards deserve better. ■

COVID-19 Deaths

02/06/2020 — U.S.: 1 | World: 620
11/12/2020 — U.S.: 241,808 | World: 1,286,322
Conservatively estimated Trump malfeasance deaths: 120,904 (50% of total U.S. deaths)*

The United States accounts for 4.2% of Earth’s population, 19% of world COVID-19 deaths.*

“PANDEMIC: New 1-Day U.S. Record: 121,000+ Cases” (11/5/2020)
“ELECTION: Trump Makes Late-Night Statement Alleging Baseless Election Fraud Charges; Universally Panned, Though GOP Lawmakers Muted; Some Networks Cut off Pres. Lying Statements” (11/5/2020)
“ELECTION: Very Close but Trending Slowly, Consistently Toward Joe Biden” (11/6/2020)
“PANDEMIC: White House Associated Cases Up to 35, Including Chief of Staff Meadows” (11/7/2020)
“ELECTION: By Noon ET, Joe Biden Is Declared Pres.-Elect by all Major News Outlets” (11/7/2020)
“ELECTION: Upon Biden Win, Cities Erupt in Celebration; Trump Defiant, Retreats to Golf” (11/7/2020)
“PANDEMIC: New 1-Day U.S. Record: 126,000+ Cases” (11/7/2020)
“ELECTION: Trump Refuses to Concede; Most Republicans Back His Claims of Voter Fraud” (11/8/2020)
“ELECTION: World Congratulates Biden, Who Won Most Votes Ever Cast in U.S. Election” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: Joe Biden Establishes COVID-19 Task Force, Other Teams, Reassures U.S.” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: WH Insiders, GOP Lawmakers Secretly Massaging Trump’s Ego for Concession” (11/9/2020)
“A Fired Trump Does His 1st Turnabout, Tweet-Fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: Trump Blocking all Transition $, Cooperation; Biden Presses on Presidentially” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: Only 4 GOP Senators Have Congratulated Biden, Effectively Conceding Win” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: Even Fox News Cuts off WH Press Secy. Kayleigh McEnany’s Lying Fraud Rant” (11/9/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S. Exceeds 10 Million Virus Cases; Experts Warn Worst Phase Is Coming” (11/9/2020)
“ELECTION: McConnell, Other Republicans Supporting Trump’s False Claims of Fraud; Ga. GOP Senate Candidates Calling on Ga. GOP SOS to Resign, w/ No Evidence of Malfeasance, Fraud” (11/10/2020)
“DOD Protest Resignations; Trump Elevates Unqualified Loyalists, Endangering Nat’l Sec.” (11/10/2020)
“SCOTUS Begins Hearing Arguments; Most Believe ACA Is Safe After Justices’ Comments” (11/10/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S. Virus Hospitalizations Hit All-Time High” (11/10/2020)
“PANDEMIC: New 1-Day U.S. Record: 148,000+ Cases” (11/11/2020)
“ELECTION: Trump Still Won’t Concede, Continues Blocking all Transition Processes; any Mention of ‘Biden,’ Evidence of Job Searching = Termination; National Security Greatly Endangered” (11/12/2020)
“ELECTION: At 3.7%, Biden Has Biggest Win Over Incumbent Pres. Since FDR Over Hoover” (11/12/2020)
“ECONOMY: 22M Jobs Lost Since Feb., Worst Since WWII; ½ Returned; 50% GDP Rebound” (11/12/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S. Has 4.2% of World Population, 19% of World COVID-19 Deaths” (11/12/2020)
“PANDEMIC: U.S./World: 10.4M/52.2M Cases; 241.8K/1.3M Deaths; 7:04 a.m. ET” (11/12/2020)

*(Redlener, Irwin, MD, Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness director; MSNBC’s Deadline: White House; 10/1/2020.) (Gupta, Vin, MD, MPA, MSc, University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation professor, global health policy expert; “Dr. Vin Gupta: 70% of Lives Could Have Been Saved if Trump Acted on COVID-19 Earlier”; MSNBC.com; 9/23/2020.) (Glanz, James & Robertson, Campbell; “Lockdown Delays Cost at Least 36,000 Lives, [Columbia University] Data Show”; The New York Times; 5/20/2020.) (as conservatively extrapolated from COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; 11/12/2020.)

Trump Corruption Chronicles — We Must Never Forget