One of the most chilling statements made by any of the players in the Trump drama was when Michael Cohen, in Congressional testimony, told the committee that, should Trump lose the election, “he won’t go peacefully.”  How prescient was that statement.  As of this moment, Biden is leading Trump 264 to 212, and there is a strong case that Biden will easily get to 270 and possibly as high as 306 should he land GA and PA.

Last evening, Trump took to the podium in the WH briefing room and spewed such nonsense, lies, and conspiracy theories about the vote count that every single major network pulled away from him documenting the lies he was repeating and pointing out that he was making completely unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud.  Fat Elvis was singing My Way for the 300th time.  It seems that this moment was the tipping point.  After his tirade, some Republicans FINALLY began to pull back from Trump even as Lindsey Graham was full on brown nose.

As Trump’s red mirage dissolves, expect him to get even more outrageous.  Why?  Two reasons: 1) He’s a toxic narcissist who cares about NOTHING but himself; 2) He sees jail looming in New York and years of legal battles over his career-long corruption.  Both the State of New York and the City of New York have already built a portfolio of charges against Trump, his family, and his cronies and it ain’t going to be pretty.

How will this end?  I expect him to fight until the last gasp and last lawsuit is exhausted.  Then, he may try to seize power to keep in office (I believe that will fail massively) or he’ll do a deal with Pence to get at least federal pardons for him and his people and then flee.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he even tries to get out of the country to avoid prosecution.  At any rate, I certainly don’t expect to see Trump at the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.  The painful thing is that we had several opportunities to rid ourselves of threat of Trump and we blew it.  Can you imagine what a different conversation we would be having today had Senate Republicans grown spines and convicted Trump in January?  Maybe fewer people would have died in the pandemic.  Maybe wouldn’t be leading the world in cases.  Maybe 10 million Americans wouldn’t be unemployed.  Maybe some of our diplomatic ties and alliances could be repaired.

Trump’s infestation of the WH has cause untold and long term damage to our democracy, our system of governance, our alliances, and our standing among nations.  It’s time to start building back.

MUST READ.  LONG, BUT MUST READ.

The Atlantic is reporting that the Trump campaign has been conspiring for MONTHS to steal the election, no matter what the will of the voters.  The plan is much like we’ve talked about before, but even worse. Trump’s nonsense is now starting actually make sense; his continuous ranting about mail in voter fraud has been a signal for loyalists to vote in person, because millions of mail in ballots will be declared fraudulent, justifying his refusal to concede an election he’ll clearly lose.  Trump has been coordinating with Republican lawyers and legislatures in the battleground states to ignore the popular vote (citing said alleged fraud) and appoint electors to vote for Trump no matter the actual vote in those states.

This report is bone chilling, but connects all the dots.  Michael Cohen was right; Trump will never leave office willingly, and is depending on corrupt politicians in the battleground states to violate their oaths to the Constitution and the people to keep him in office.

Spread this far and wide.

Seven of Ken Paxton’s senior staff sent a letter to the director of human resources of their agency accusing him of taking bribes, improper influence, abuse of office, and other potential crimes.  The Austin American Statesman obtained a copy of the letter today.  The staffers state they’ve already provided evidence to law enforcement.

In true form, Paxton denied the allegations and then threatened the staffers with prosecution.  This should be entertaining.

Trump has announced that all Medicare recipients with be receiving $200 cash cards to “buy their prescriptions”.  It’s yet another brazen example of Trump’s mafia tactics, this time trying to buy votes from seniors.  AND, it’s yet another subversion of the rule of law and use of taxpayer money to personally  benefit himself.  How’s he doing it?  He’s using a provision in the Social Security Act that allows agencies and even the private sector to test programs to improve Medicare.  That provision is NOT intended to just give away money to buy votes.  This provision allows for demonstrations of new programs, but requires extensive review and approval; as well such demonstrations are supposed to be revenue neutral.  In bypassing the law, the administration is waving away questions saying that his executive order on prescription drugs (which doesn’t actually do anything) magically makes this $6.6 billion vote buying scheme “revenue neutral”.

The lawless Trump corruption train continues barreling towards the abyss as this latest brazen attempt to rig the election in his favor with him shouting from stages all over the country that it’s actually Democrats doing the rigging.

I’m so tired.

The Washington Post started releasing audio tapes of 17 interviews Bob Woodward held with Trump since last December.  They are blockbuster, including Trump actually admitting ON TAPE that he lied to the American people about the severity of the Coronavirus pandemic for months.

Woodward’s book also quotes Trump as saying of US military leadership, “my fucking generals are a bunch of pussies”. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.”

In other news, Brian Murphy, a senior career DHS staffer, filed a whistleblower complaint against senior current and former DHS political appointees, former DHS Secretary Nielsen, Chad Wolf, who is serving as acting DHS secretary; and Ken Cuccinelli, the deputy DHS secretary. The complaint details orders from said appointees for DHS to lie to congress and downplay Russian interference and other foreign threats that would “make Trump look bad.”

To add insult to injury, today Trump named right wing nut bags Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton to his list of potential Supreme Court nominees.  No shit.

Yesterday, Bill Barr’s Justice Department announced that it was taking over the defense for Trump against E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him in relation to her charge of a 1990’s rape she alleged.  The Justice Department has claimed that Trump calling Carroll a liar was within the boundaries of his official duties as president.  No shit.

Lastly, the House Oversight Committee has announced the beginning of an investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy into an illegal reimbursement scheme that paid his executives back for making contributions to Trump and other Republicans, a felony.

Happy Wednesday!