Chaos = grounds to challenge

I pulled out some old reading material for sitting in the bathroom. I read an article that resonates now quite differently than it did the first time I read it. The article is in the Michigan Christian Advocate, which was the United Methodist news magazine for Michigan. This particular issue was October 2007.

One could reasonably argue that it doesn’t make much sense to keep an issue that old. And, indeed, I’ve recently thrown out a few other issues from that era. I’m keeping this one because it includes a letter I wrote to the editor about the un-Christian theology of a conservative group within the denomination. Over several years I wrote several such letters. But that soon ended. Even though the MCA had a publishing history since the 1880s conservatives forced a funding change which soon put the MCA out of business. The reason was to eliminate a forum for people like me to criticize them.

However, that’s not my reason for writing. Elsewhere in the issue was an article by Rev. Ken Horne of the Society of St. Andrew. This is a gleaner organization that gets food that can no longer be used by grocery stores and makes sure it gets to the poor. It’s a big organization with chapters in 22 states.

Horne talked about being penny wise and pound foolish. We might seem to be penny wise by not adequately funding SNAP (food stamps). But there are costs when people don’t have enough food. One cost is charities, such as St. Andrew, have to run food pantries. Charities can’t cover the need. Hungry people get sick more easily and they can’t afford health care, so end up in the expensive emergency room. Hungry people are less productive. Horne said those three things cost about $90 billion a year (in 2007 dollars). Yet for $10 billion we could solve the hunger issue. That, he says, is being penny wise and pound foolish.

The difference for me in reading it again 13 years later is my understanding of supremacy. Supremacists aren’t being stupidly stingy. The reason why SNAP isn’t funded enough is because that forces those at the bottom of society (yeah, that means black and brown people) to suffer. Supremacists want that suffering. To them the extra $80 billion is worth it (though they’re not the ones paying it).



Leah McElrath tweeted about a big reason why the Postal Service is slowing down:

Trump’s postmaster appointee is literally having sorting machines REMOVED from post offices.

Some of the greatest impact falls on election swing states.

Houston, Texas, alone now faces a capacity reduction of 470,000 pieces of mail PER HOUR.

She’s referring to a regional processing center. The one near me, the center in Pontiac, Michigan that’s been slowed by 394K pieces per hour.

SemDem of the Daily Kos community supplies details, adding:

I would love for someone to explain to me how taking away mail sorting equipment, which stations already have, will 1) save money 2) do anything but hinder the mail going out in a timely manner. But that is the entire point, isn’t it?

Though it may be quick to get the machines out the door it won’t be quick to get them (or their replacements) back in.

Tea Pain tweeted:

It only took Trump two weeks to break the Post Office.

That tweet included a link to Rawstory in which USPS warned Pennsylvania it may not be able to deliver mail ballots by the legal deadline.

McElrath again:

Trump is openly trying to sabotage the election so that he can then turn around and claim the results are invalid.

Trump’s actions sabotaging the Post Office are MORE than voter suppression.

He’s sabotaging the Post Office while simultaneously encouraging HIS OWN SUPPORTERS to use absentee ballots.

He’s trying to throw into question the legitimacy of the entire election by creating chaos.

The chaos is the point.

Just like the point of all the lying is to wear you down until you start to believe there is no truth, the point of all the contradictory messaging and actions is to wear us down to trust no part of the process—or the results.

McElrath quoted Marc Elias, a lawyer fighting for Democrats and voting rights, who I think is quoting someone else:

The campaign plans to have lawyers ready to mobilize in every state and expects legal battles could play out after Election Day in such states as Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, and Nevada, they said.

Laura Clawson of Kos reported how corrupt Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is. He holds stock in companies that are competitors and contractors to the service he leads. Some of that stock he bought after he took the USPS job.

Jon Cooper, a Democratic operative, tweeted:

The more Democrats in Congress weakly say that Trump is destroying the US postal service & getting Putin’s help to rig the election without DOING anything to stop it, the more Trump, Barr et al will revel in Dem weakness and double down on destroying democracy & the rule of law.

The Postal Service is so important they … went on vacation.



McElrath tweeted a thread with the thought to prepare yourself:

Most people do not seem to be mentally prepared for how much worse things can and likely will get over the next few months or for how fast things will happen once they do.

I despair about how better to help people open their minds to this reality.

We must both act as if the system is intact enough to enable us to remove a tyrant from power through the electoral process AND we must recognize the tyrant has no intention of respecting the electoral process or of participating in a peaceful transition of power.

It’s not easy.
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The first step is to understand the election is CRITICAL—but it will not be the end point.

For tonight, just try to sit and let your mind wrap around that much.

We are almost certainly NOT going to cast our ballots on election day and wake up the next morning to—uncontested—results.

That’s going to be traumatic in and of itself if you’re not prepared for it.

Not only are Trump and the GOP engaging in voter suppression and disenfranchisement—they are proactively planning to engage in “weeks-long legal fights in an array of states” after election day.

Hence their DESIRE for chaos.

Chaos = grounds to challenge.

Trump and the GOP will do everything possible over the next six months to consolidate political power and put restrictions on civil liberties.

Whether the restrictions are legal or not is irrelevant. They’ll be in effect until there are court rulings otherwise, which takes time.
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So, yes, donate to Biden and Harris and help GOTV. Leave it ALL on the field for this election.

And start to prepare yourself mentally for the reality that this election will likely be...different.