An incentive structure to cheat as big as possible

Back in 2015 the newspapers in Michigan were full of the story of he Flint water crisis. The city switched water sources, didn’t properly treat it, and many residents got all kinds of illnesses, including a lot of kids with lead poisoning. It was the coutry’s worst public health disaster (until COVID came along).

Aysha Qamar of Daily Kos discussed the settlement Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced. The state will pay $600 million. That sounds like a huge amount (especially for a struggling state budget).

But, that is a mere $6,000 per resident. For the number of years this has dragged on and the severity of damage to human health, this is not nearly enough.



Mark Sumner of Kos reported that the nasty guy ignored the tradition of staying quiet while the other party holds their convention. He held a rally in front of the home in Scranton, PA where Biden grew up. The nasty guy tossed out a few nonsensical attacks on Biden. Then he ranted about mail and voting. Wrote Sumner:

In the midst of a pandemic, Donald Trump has done everything he can to sabotage the safest means for Americans to cast their votes. He’s put a man in charge of the Post Office who is determinedly tearing down that institution, slowing mail delivery, and flat-out telling states that their ballots won’t arrive on time. Trump has also waged a concerted, evidence-free, campaign on the reliability of mail-in ballots, making hundreds of false claims about fraud. His efforts have definitely succeeded among his supporters, with a majority of Republican voters not just saying they’ll vote in person, but telling pollsters that they won’t accept an election decided by mail-in ballots.

Big scary red flag right there!

All of that is disturbing and infuriating, but what if it’s not enough? What if Democratic voters decide to follow the advice given by Michelle Obama—to put on their masks, pack a lunch, and stay in line as long as it takes to cast a vote? Even as Joe Biden was delivering a fantastic speech to accept the Democratic nomination, Trump was signaling to Fox News that he had that base covered, as well, by making sure that polling places were flooded with “law enforcement.”

That law enforcement probably isn’t local police. More likely the kinds of people we saw in Portland. Or just citizens with an attitude wanting to take it out on someone. And they certainly won’t be at white majority polling places.

Trump’s threats are intended to have the same effect as his lies about mail-in ballots: intimidation. Trump wants to create a situation where Republican voters, and only Republican voters, get to vote. It’s up to everyone to see he is disappointed.

As one does when browsing on the web I followed link to link and ended up on a page for NDN, a “leading liberal think tank,” with an article by Simon Rosenberg titled Taking Trump’s Ongoing Assault On Our Democracy Seriously. He discusses the nasty guy’s ongoing crime spree. This bit caught my attention:

As [Glenn] Kirschner [of MSNBC] predicted, there is no reason once you start cheating to do it at the margins of an election – you just have to go for it. For if you cheat and lose, you and your team can be indicted. Immunity only comes from winning or staying in power illicitly.

In another article by Rosenberg on NDN he wrote:

It’s our hope that in the coming days there is a national uprising against the President’s purposeful sabotaging of one of America’s most important institutions, one created by the Constitution itself, the United States Postal Service.

NDN is encouraging every government jurisdiction in the nation to begin a formal process to challenge what the President is doing – hold hearings, demand/subpoena Postmaster General DeJoy to testify, investigate and sue/prosecute if necessary. This has to be an all-out, universal push back from every corner of the country.

Why? Because by holding back monies and taking other steps to undermine the USPS, the President is harming people in every town, city, and state in the country. He’s making it harder for businesses of every size to operate, thus slowing the economic recovery; he’s making it harder for people to receive their life saving medicines, and people will surely die in every state from unnecessary delays; every election in the country for every single office, not just the Presidency, will be degraded, and potentially millions of Americans could see their votes invalidated.

In a time of social distancing and a raging pandemic, we are all relying more on the mail and package delivery to keep us safe. Frankly, there is something depraved and even sadistic about the furious disabling of the postal service we are seeing right now.

Rosenberg adds we can use the nasty guy’s statements from the last few weeks against him.

Rosenberg tweeted a thread on all the illegal campaign stuff the nasty guy is doing – this year, not 2016.

* He has erased the line between what is a government action and what is a campaign event. The government is paying for things his campaign should pay for.

* The campaign has laundered perhaps $170 million.

* His attacks on the Postal Service are to benefit his campaign. Again, this is using the government to benefit his campaign.

* He has said he sent troops to Portland to benefit his campaign.

* He is meddling in the census to benefit the Republican Party.

* He has encouraged foreigners to intervene in our election and has blocked legislation that would make it harder.

* He is abusing power by using government money to cook up October Surprise scandals.

Reviewing all this it's clear that cheating is central to Trump's re-election strategy. It is how he won in 2016, how he's run his professional career. It's what he knows, who he is. But it is wrong, and an extraordinary, ongoing historic betrayal of our democracy, of America.
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The President is in the midst of a massive crime spree. He's not even trying to conduct his re-election campaign legally. He's just going for it, and knows w/Barr there he can't be prosecuted. His lawless campaign represents a total break down of rule of law in America.
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In a very prescient @NBCNews piece, the great @glennkirschner2 predicted that if our system cannot prosecute candidates for cheating IF THEY WIN, then we are creating an incentive structure to cheat and cheat as big as possible. What we are seeing now.

From Bill in Portland, Maine’s collection of late night commentary:

Just remember: Joe Biden goes to church so regularly that he doesn’t even need tear gas and a bunch of federalized troops to get there.
—Night 4 Emcee Julia Louis-Dreyfuss

We know Kamala Harris will make a great VP because she believes there will be a 2021. That’s the kind of optimism we need in this country.
—Samantha Bee