[conspire] Tim Wirth's end-game scenario

Mon Jul 20 17:44:44 PDT 2020

----- Forwarded message from Laurie Forbes <laforbes at telus.net> -----

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2020 11:09:31 -0600
From: Laurie Forbes <laforbes at telus.net>
To: skeptic at linuxmafia.com
Subject: Re: [skeptic] In Portland?

On 20/07/2020 9:49 a.m., James H.G. Redekop wrote:
> https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-meadows-trump-democratic-cities_n_5f14c04fc5b6d14c3368cdda
> -----
> The Trump administration is preparing to roll out a plan this week to
> send military-style federal assault squads already in Portland,
> Oregon, into other cities, warned White House chief of staff Mark
> Meadows, who only named locations with Democratic mayors.
> 
> Attorney General William Barr is “weighing in on that” with acting
> Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Meadows said Sunday on Fox
> News.
> 
> “You’ll see something rolled out this week, as we start to go in and
> make sure that the communities — whether it’s Chicago or Portland or
> Milwaukee or someplace across the heartland — we need to make sure
> their communities are safe,” he added.
> 
> All three cities named are run by Democrats.
> 
> President Donald Trump also indicated that federal squads would likely
> target cities run by the party that opposes him. He said on “Fox News
> Sunday” that “violence” was on the increase in “Democrat-run cities.”
> -----
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 

Why do I keep getting the disturbing feeling that Anus-orange is
preparing for loss of the election?

He may declare the election null & void or martial law on some pretext
and, back it up with these quasi storm-troopers he appears to be
training.

He is likely sufficiently desperate to stay in office to avoid jail
and bankruptcy.  I suppose another possible motive for these tactics
is to intimidate democratic voters and candidates.

Or maybe I'm getting paranoid...

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----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2020 17:40:14 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: skeptic at linuxmafia.com
Subject: Re: [skeptic] In Portland?
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting Laurie Forbes (laforbes at telus.net):

> Why do I keep getting the disturbing feeling that Anus-orange is
> preparing for loss of the election?

Realism?

> He may declare the election null & void or martial law on some
> pretext and, back it up with these quasi storm-troopers he appears
> to be training.

Here's a scenario, which former Colorado US Senator Tim Wirth suspects 
(https://www.newsweek.com/how-trump-could-lose-election-still-remain-president-opinion-1513975)
is an actual plan:

Plan A is to try to stack the deck with voter suppression: purging voter
rolls[1], limiting mail-in voting, encouraging eliminating almost all
polling stations in inconveniently anti-Trump voting precincts.
Obviously, this is already in full swing.

Plan B, if that doesn't work, _starts_ with the Toddler claiming, if the
results are close, that the vote was rigged by Chinese election
interference and fraudulent mail-in ballots that were somehow impossible
to vet.  (That latter claim makes no sense, but it doesn't need to, nor
does there have to be any evidence of interference except by Russia,
which of course wouldn't be deemed of interest.)

He would then claim he's declaring a national emergency and order the
deliberately corrupted Justice Department to conduct an investigation to
'find out what's going on'.  The purpose of this alleged investigation
would not be to determine anything, but rather to run out the clock,
preventing results of the election from being certified in certain swing 
states -- Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, for the sake
of present discussion -- by December 14th, when the states plus DC
(three electors) are required by the Constitution[2] to appoint their
Electoral College delegations and have them cast ballots in their
respective capitals.  Because those four key swing states have both
upper and lower legislative bodies controlled by the GOP (courtesy of
gerrymandering), this fakery would then be used to justify the swing
states refusing to certify their electors on deadline day.

(The inevitable court challenge?  Just rely on John Roberts's
established pattern of kicking anything requiring leadership down the
road.  Easy.)

This, in turn, would then result in the Electoral College meeting
without the swing state delegations, deliberately causing neither major
candidate to receive an Electoral College majority.  _That_, in turn,
would move the election to 'contingent election' in the House of
Representatives, with each delegation being able to cast one vote per
state.  And there are said to be 26 state delegations controlled by
Republicans, versus 23 controlled by Democrats.  (The 50th delegation,
Pennsylvania, has a House delegation split down the middle.)  

So, the 26 GOP state delegations then elect Trump.  Voila!

> He is likely sufficiently desperate to stay in office to avoid jail
> and bankruptcy.  I suppose another possible motive for these
> tactics is to intimidate democratic voters and candidates.
> 
> Or maybe I'm getting paranoid...

I don't think so.

[1] According to data-collection by _Mother Jones_, between 2016 and
2018, over 17M names have been purged from certain states' voter rolls.
Across all 50 states as a whole, the average state purged 7.6% of its
voters over those three years.  Maine, Oklahoma, and Massachussetts each
removed between 11 and 12.1%.  Virginia and Wisconsin each removed 14%.
Indiana removed 22.3%.

[1] Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2-4 -- as modified by the Twelfth
and Twenty-Third Amendments, and with deadline dates modified by the
Twentieth Amendment.  The 23rd, adopted in 1804, is the one that
gave DC three (currently) electors.  The 12th slightly rejiggered the
original, poorly designed Electoral College selection procedure, to
avoid any repeat of the 1796 and 1800 debacles where the President and
VP ended up being from opposing parties and working to sabotage each
other.  The 20th was a calendar tweak to reduce the 'lame duck' period's
duration, and provided for further rules if the President or VP hasn't
been picked before deadline.

Even greater chaos is possible if the contingent election in the House
deadlocks on picking a President.  If that doesn't happen by March 4,
2021, then whoever the House picked as VP becomes President (as if
succeeding a President who died in office).  If they also deadlocked on
picking a VP, then the Senate gets to pick the VP from among the two
highest-ranked candidates in the House's attempted contingent election,
and that person then ascends to the Presidency.  Whee!

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