In Case You Missed It (v61)

Let's dive in to your recap of last week's posts, starting with Sunday School, where Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar joined Chuck on MTP. 

Todd asked her how much patience we'll need.  She reminded him that "elections have never been called election night," mentioning military and overseas ballots having a full week after Election Day. 

So, I just want to set that straight, that this is a process, and we want to make sure that every single vote of every valid voter is securely and accurately counted.

That said, she expects the "overwhelming majority" of mail-in, absentee, and in-person ballots will be counted "in a matter of days" and that, "for the most part," counties are planning on counting 24/7 until they're done. She did say that ballots received by Friday that are postmarked on or before Election day will be segregated, but they will be counted. And, she hopes that people will "Ignore the lawsuits, ignore the hype. Just get your ballots in today."

And we know, of course, that the lawsuits have started pouring in already; several of them were dismissed, although there was a court order addressing that last part, about segregating the late-arriving ballots. 

Next up was the Election Eve post, which I update every year. It always includes a story, told in quotes from thinkers, scholars, religious leaders, and yes, politicians. And it also includes some commentary, because it's my post, after all. This time out, I spoke of the president's efforts to involve the courts - in advance of Election Day - as he set the stage for what I obviously hoped would be his defeat (and I think he was preparing for that, as well).

And, of course, in his rallies, in his tweets, in his constant feeding of his propaganda machine - the talk shows on Fox - the president is both complaining about the Supreme Court deciding in favor of voters, instead of in favor of voter suppression, and he is thanking the Supreme Court in advance for their anticipated rulings against voters - against you and me - and looking forward to them handing him the election. That's why, of course, it was so important to get Amy Coney Barrett on the Court before the election. 

Please, let it not be said of you that you sat back and waited for the Supremes to (again) pick the president for us. They have lifetime appointments, sure - but so you do you and I! We have a lifetime of opportunity to vote, to record our decisions. Don't give your voice, on purpose or out of neglect, to a group of political appointees.

I also offered my Middle-aged White Lady Perspective on why I vote.  Here are a few reasons:

I vote for American ideals. 

I vote because people are trying to take away my right to. 

I vote because I'm a middle-aged white lady, and that's what we do.

I vote because I am a patriotic American. 

I vote because people tell me to shut up.

I vote.

I did not post on Wednesday or Thursday - I was quiet, and staying below the fray as much as possible, while we watched and waited and counted and the the nominees made their wildly conflicting statements. 

But on Friday, I had to share the president's full remarks as his "update for America." His words, only the best words, beautiful words, the best words since Abraham Lincoln, I'm sure he'd suggest, are poetry. Pure, unadulterated OrangeVerse.

Whining for the Litigation and Corruption

There are lots of litigation, 

even beyond our litigation. 

There’s a tremendous amount of litigation 

generally, because of how unfair 

this process was, and I predicted that. 

I’ve been talking about mail-in voting for a long time. 

It’s really destroyed our system. 

It’s a corrupt system 

and it makes people corrupt, 

even if they aren’t by nature, 

but they become corrupt. 

It’s too easy. They want to find out 

how many votes they need, 

and then they seem to 

be able to find them. 

They wait and wait, and 

then they find them,

and you see that on Election Night.

Yep - so much whining, I'm tired of the whining. And I'm tired of this, the fomenting of violence, which is another of his calling cards.

Whining for Unhappy and Somewhat Violent People

In Philadelphia, observers have been kept far away, 

very far away. So far that people are 

using binoculars to try and see, 

and there’s been tremendous 

problems caused. They put a 

paper on all of the windows so

you can’t see in, and the people

 that are banned are very unhappy and 

become somewhat violent.

For last week's TGIF, we have your good week and bad week lists, and it felt like it was pretty easy to allocate folks to the right list this time.  On the good week list? Front-line workers in the fight against the pandemic, and poll workers and election officials, among others. 

On the bad week list? These guys, among others.

Republicans who are standing by the president as he makes a mockery of the integrity and sanctity of our election process, that integrity and sanctity which he's been calling into question almost daily since February. Those who are standing with him have nothing to gain - literally, nothing to gain. He cannot hurt them anymore. He cannot threaten them anymore. He cannot denigrate them, or call their spouses ugly, say hateful things about them, and endorse their opponents instead of them. It's time for them to stand up, to stand up to him, and to help him slink away.

My opinion only, of course, and based on the projection that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election.  And here's the thing: the Rs can walk away from him at any time. All they have to do is get sick of his nonsense, and put the country first. If they don't, they're admitting that their policies and ideology - things that Trump does not believe in - are worth nothing. And if that's the case, they shouldn't be in office in the first place. 

One last note. While I didn't post on Friday, I did add a new countdown to the blog. It's ticking down the days to the peaceful transfer of power in January. I guess I'm an optimist after all.

That's last week in a nutshell. I'll be back later with Sunday School. Oh - wear your damn masks, will you please?