Trump is determined to steal the election. We know this because he's told us.
And he's already ginning up his supporters to defend it in the streets
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Donald Trump has attacked the integrity of the election over and over again for months, but this past few days the assault is escalating dramatically, as he’s become more desperate.
He attacked the Supreme Court — including his newly installed justices — for not stepping in to stop votes being counted in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, calling it “horrible.”
Trump said we need to have the winner decided on election night — as if television projections are the determining factor — because he claims that’s how it’s always been. This completely defies the reality of many close races each year — including states in the presidential race — being undetermined into the next day, and sometimes for days after that as ballots are counted.
And his campaign advisor Jason Miller — a discredited aide who was paid by Steve Bannon’s group that is linked to alleged fraud who shouldn’t even be allowed on TV —- went on ABC’s “This Week” and actually implied that if Trump is winning on election night, meaning, the tally of in-person, Election Day votes makes it appear that he is winning — counting all the ballots that had come in by mail prior to Election Day would amount to trying “steal” the election back. This is outrageous and ludicrous, as those are all votes that must be counted before any determination. George Stephanopoulos seemed like he didn’t even hear it, or decided to ignore it — either of which is dangerous and unacceptable.
Media critic Eric Boehlert offers a cogent analysis of this in his newsletter, PressRun, and the way the media has all along treated Trump’s willful, stated attempt to steal the election as just another part of a normal election.
What is further alarming now is Trump encouraging his supporters to get into the streets — in their trucks, vans and cars — to defend his authoritarian actions. There was the aggressive actions by Trump supporting convoy of motorists on the Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas, which the FBI is now investigating — which Trump applauded in a tweet. More prevalent have been Trump supporters taking to the streets and highways all across America, blocking traffic, engaging in vandalism of Biden signs and intimidating Biden supporters and voters.
I had heard from friends in Los Angeles about Trump convoys coming through the city, honking horns and destroying lawn signs from a few days ago. (The stealing of signs has been going on for months all across the country, and I’ve heard this from many of the listeners to my SiriusXM show). And some here in the comments on my newsletter have discussed the ominous convoys coming through town, in places like New Mexico. I sent out a tweet about it, and asked people to respond if they were seeing the same thing.
The responses came pouring in from everywhere, from Colorado to Minnesota, Texas to Florida. These were often in smaller communities and conservative areas, but a lot are happening in big urban centers. These incidents ranged from signs and property being vandalized to cars and trucks adorned with Trump flags blaring through town, harassing people, blocking traffic and entirely shutting it down. One man in Northern California said his car was rushed — what he described as “almost car-jacked” — when what seemed like 300 vehicles driven by flag-waving Trump supporters had surrounded a two block area of his neighborhood on Halloween, while kids were trick-or-treating. (I’ll be asking listeners to my radio program about this today, and I’m sure we’ll hear many accounts.)
Trump has inspired all of this as the GOP has gone to court to stop votes from being counted and as Trump said that the moment the polls close in Pennsylvania he’ll “going in with our lawyers” to stop votes from being counted. While he tries to stop the counting and announces he won, these supporters will be on the streets intimidating people and claiming victory.
It could get very ugly and Trump will likely try to promote more violence. This is nothing short of fascism, complete with thugs ready to engage in intimidation and violence on the streets on behalf of the wannabe dictator.
We must pressure the media to take a stronger stand as the response has been pathetic. And we have to be determined to make sure Trump doesn’t steal the election — which begins with having massive turnout, which will make it all the more difficult.
So much rests on tomorrow. Everyone has to be alert and ready. Call your legislators but also hound the media into doing their jobs. Our very democracy depends on how we collectively respond right now.
In our beach cities of Los Angeles huge truck and car rally 1 weeks ago. The noise was horrific. So many women for Trump signs which I will never understand. Is that solely based on misguided greed and economics? It makes ZERO sense ! My husband drove by an ammunition store yesterday and the line was a block long. I’m scared and am on pins and needles. My anxiety is through the roof. Given he loves TV and reality TV no doubt he will try to highjack the election and announce tomorrow night. The world is watching and I hope after Biden takes office and I am being positive and letting the universe hear that , that Trump is investigated again along with all of his cronies and pays for his endless crimes!
Over the past few years, experts in journalistic experts and best practices provided playbooks and warnings to MSM. Their warnings and guidance have been blunt, as have been their predictions of the dangers of allowing unfettered and unquestioned propaganda to be spread on their platforms. To no avail. At this point, it's impossible to point to naivete or ignorance. The press has repeatedly shown that, with few exceptions, there is no one that won't be hosted, no proposition that will go unchecked, no 'alternative facts' allowed to muddy the waters. At a certain point, cowardice becomes complicity. As with Facebook (delete your accounts to deprive this malicious entity of oxygen), the answer is the same. Stop watching the programs that amplify propaganda (ABC, NBC, CBS, even PBS is often surprisingly weak), stop supporting the NYT (Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker are just absurd reporters, the former spent years as stenographer to the WH's strategic leaks, the latter pretended that objective journalism required equal weight to lies and truth). There are a plethora of independent journalists, experts podcast hosts, and excellent sources of news: The New Yorker, The Atlantic, ProPublica, as well as foreign newspapers that usually have blunt, insightful, and objective assessments about the decay and moral rot throughout American society and institutions. As long as the public supports those cynical journalists who financially benefit from our descent into madness, we feed the monsters that aid in our destruction.