Timberrrr by Nancy Ohanian
All this talk of a Trumpist coup can be scary, but I still think Señor Trumpanzee will be leaving office by Jan. 20, even if not like Indira Gandhi or Nicolae Ceaușescu. The coup may turn out to be more a comedy than a real threat. But the Trumpists are absolutely trying to take over the apparatus of the Republican Party.
This morning, CNN reported that Trumpanzee, Jr. and the psychotic crackpot who used to be married to Gavin Newsom and is now Junior's unofficial better half, "are making moves to expand their influence at the Republican National Committee." ROTFLMAO. I hope the assholes like McConnell, McCarthy, Cruz, Graham, Mike Pompeo, the two craven Georgia Senate asslickers and the others who have been backing up Trump's desperate pretend-coup, are enjoying this part of it. Jr. and Guilfoyle have made it clear to campaign and White House officials they are unhappy with RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who they view as not having done enough to win a close race."
For some in the GOP, as distasteful as Trump Jr. leading or having significant influence over the RNC may sound, it's seen as better than purging the outgoing first family, which could backfire with the President's base, two sources close to the White House said. "In order for Republicans to move forward they may have to do this," one of the sources said. If Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle do not ultimately assume formal positions at the RNC, the sources said somebody close to the Trump family, such as longtime campaign adviser David Bossie [unless he dies], could become chairman. "They don't want the ride to end," a Trump adviser said of Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle.
I mentioned the other day that a lunatic fringe Republican, Eric Early, in my deep blue district (D+23) has been whining that the race was stolen from him and that he refuses to concede. This is the state of the race, which was called within moments of the polls closing:
Schiff, who is super-popular-- even beloved-- in the district, could shed 100,000 votes and still beat Early, who spent over $3,000,000 on the race, including over $100,000 of his own personal money. In the March 3rd jungle primary, Early barely made it into the general, Having run neck-and-neck with a transsexual activist, Maebe A. Girl, who wound up with 22,129 votes (12.0%) to Early's 23,243 votes (12.6%). But Early made it, blanketed cable TV with laughably dishonest ads and won the same 20-25% of the votes than any Republican wins in this district. Turns out Early's refusal to concede is part of a silly Trumpist "strategy," that I first noticed in Michigan, where defeated Republican Senate hopeful John James is whining he's been robbed and refuses to concede, even though Gary Peters beat him by over 87,000 votes, with the remaining ballots all mail-in votes from heavily Democratic areas, likely to put Peters' margin of victory up over 100,000.
The writing for the Daily Beast early this morning, Will Sommer reported that it isn't only Early and James. He focused on another crackpot: Kimberly Klacik [who] became a star on the right in her bid for the Baltimore-area seat once held by late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and now by Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD). Klacik spoke at the Republican convention, earned a Trump endorsement, and raised a whopping $7.4 million, boosted by her viral campaign ad decrying urban problems in Baltimore."
A star in Trumpworld, Klacik never had a shot in the D+26 district. Right now, with 82% of the vote counted, Mfume is leading her 211,841 (71.9%) to 82,896 (28.1%). She conceded on election night and congratulated Mfume, and then... "with Trump refusing to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s win, Klacik has had a change of tune. Now, like Trump, she claims there’s something suspicious about mail-in ballots favoring Democrats and says her campaign has enough money to 'investigate.' Klacik quote-tweeted a Trump tweet about former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) claiming that 'big city machines are corrupt.'" She's now raving that she beat Mfume "on day of and in-person early voting, along with absentee," meaningless gibberish and absolutely untrue.
Q-Anon media clown Laura Loomer never had a chance to beat Democrat Lois Frankel in her Palm Beach County, Florida D+9 district (which Trump lost to Hillary by nearly 20 points in 2016). She ran because she's a publicity hound and a freak. With 93% of the votes counted and the race long-called for Frankel, 237,837 (59.0%) to 157,588 (39.1%), Loomer is running around shrieking that the election was stolen via absentee ballots. An infamous grifter, Loomer raised over two million dollars from hapless GOP suckers, who also contributed to 3 nutty right-wing SuperPACs that helped her, the American Liberty Fund, the New Journey PAC and a neo-Nazi outfit called the Stop Socialism Now PAC which spent money against 3 candidates: Lois Frankel, Cameron Webb (VA) and Eugene DePasquale (PA). Loomer who is generally considered a psychopath has been banned by Twitter and Facebook but posts on fascist sites where she claims there is "lots of voter fraud happening in America right now. We don’t have free & fair elections in America anymore!"
All of these candidates-- as well as looney-tunes Republican Luke Negron (better known as "The Young Wolf " in Nazi circles), who is currently losing to Democrat Michael Doyle in Pittsburgh 256,615 (69.1%) to 114,771 (30.9%)-- know they have no chance to win, hope they can continue lining their pockets with contributors' money and are all trying to advance Trump's spurious claim that absentee ballots are rigged and illegal.
Meanwhile, 6 academic political scientists released the result of a study today: Does elite rhetoric undermine democratic norms? In their introduction, they noted that "Democratic stability depends on citizens on the losing side accepting election outcomes. Can rhetoric by political leaders undermine this norm?"
As part of an experiment, they evaluated the effects of exposure to multiple statements from Trump attacking the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and concluded that "though exposure to these statements does not measurably affect support for political violence or belief in democracy, it erodes trust and confidence in elections and increases belief that the election is rigged among people who approve of Trump’s job performance. These results suggest that rhetoric from political elites can undermine respect for critical democratic norms among their supporters."
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