People are ready to do what is hard

Kos of Daily Kos did a rundown of the current polls showing Joe Biden with a comfortable lead (but keep fighting anyway) and that Texas – Texas! – is now considered a tossup by the Kos election team. I’ll let you read the polls and study the map. I’ll quote one paragraph Kos wrote, something many others have been saying and I’ve probably quoted frequently:

No, he’s not trying to win the election, he’s trying to stay in power. He’s not even hiding his goal anymore. So keep that in mind every time he opens his mouth. Nothing he does is geared toward winning a majority of the vote. Rather, it’s all geared toward sowing doubt, division, inviting foreign meddling, and installing a friendly judiciary that will allow him to steal the election. The quicker everyone understands this, including the media, the better we’ll be able to handle this serious threat to our democracy—a democracy that is far more fragile than we could’ve ever believed.

Mark Sumner of Kos reviewed what the nasty guy has been doing to make people think democracy is fragile. Though the White House issued statements that the nasty guy would go along with a “free and fair election” we know who defines “free and fair” and how they’ll define it, so this is no reassurance. If the nasty guy leaves, just escort him out – that’s a phrase much discussed (I’ve probably written about it too). Who will do the escorting? He and Barr, head of DoNJ, have already demonstrated they control the thugs in the Border Patrol, ICE, US Marshalls, Dept. of Prisons, and Park Police. The actual military? Yeah, senior military leadership is pondering what to do if the nasty guy pulls out the Insurrection Act and orders them to fire. The top leadership may resign. Then … what? The nasty guy has been making a big deal of fraudulent elections for quite a while now. He’s been feeding his supporters fake polls showing him way ahead with the line that the only way he can lose is if there is a “big scam.” He could order his armed supporters to harass election officials while blaming Biden for trying an “antifa coup.” A Biden win is not the same as wresting power from the nasty guy. People, including ourselves, should plan for a hostile transition. Heather Caygle of Politico tweeted:

PELOSI on Trump's transfer of power comments: "That the president of the United States would place in doubt the idea of the peaceful transfer of power, well it’s not a surprise. But I have confidence in the American people."

Bree Newsome Bass responded:

What does this mean? The American voter does not dictate whether there is a peaceful transfer of power. They have no response to the coup that’s happening.

I take “they” to mean Pelosi and Democratic leadership. It certainly sounds like she is saying, I don’t have a plan, you’re on your own. I hope I’m wrong about that. David Neiwert of Kos reported that Proud Boys, one of those groups of armed nasty guy supporters, will “invade” Portland, Ore. this weekend. Local police are scrambling to keep the Proud Boys and counterprotesters in separate parks a few miles apart. Proud Boys applied for a permit for their rally. They were denied because virus restrictions limit groups to 50 people. They’re going to gather anyway. One slogan used in their advertising is “No bag limit on antifa scum.” Oregon State Police tweeted:

At 9:00 A.M. this morning, members of @PortlandPolice Rapid Response Team were deputized as Federal Marshals. This will allow federal prosecutors to charge allegations of assault on a federal officer to anyone who attacks Officers.

Alex Zielinski responded:

This means anyone arrested today may be charged with a felony.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos is more upbeat.

The New York Times' Michelle Goldberg is right: Trump wants you to think you can't get rid of him. He's successfully scaring us, but he's also giving away the game so we can prepare. Ultimately, he's a bully and I feel certain that if he is stood up to, he will back down.

I like your optimism, though I’m not convinced he’ll do that. It would require a significant crowd to stand up to him and that crowd would face his gun toting supporters itching for an excuse to pull the trigger. There’s also the GOP leadership and their donors who have been working towards this moment of one party rule for 40 years and won’t want their bully to back down. Back to Eleveld and those standing up to the nasty guy. Primarily it would be military leadership, state election officials, and us. We are the ones who would prevent the nasty guy from claiming he has the people behind him. We need numbers in the streets. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation tweeted:

Right now, a majority of the country is pissed off and motivated against Trump. Most people see 200,000 dead Americans, and unprecedented attacks on our democracy. We are ready to DO the hard things. We’re being told “go vote.” And we will. We absolutely will do that. But if there was ever a time to massively reform our system of justice, it is NOW. The murder of George Floyd, the death of RBG, people are READY too look at a new way of doing things. People are ready to do what is hard.

Yeah, some of my browser tabs hang around for a while. A month ago Gwen Snyder tweeted towards the end of a long thread:

If you're paying attention and mad, you're Antifa now. If you're thinking about protesting racism, you're BLM now. If you just live in a major Democratic city at this point, you're one or both. Congratulations. Welcome to life as an "extremist." … If you're anti-Trump and willing to act on it, Barr now has you in his "extremism" sights. This is what makes security & surveillance statism so dangerous, even to folks in the mainstream. It only takes one fascist to launch you on the world's s***tiest cruise. Welcome aboard.

And from three months ago, Kelly Hayes tweeted (in response to a private company taking over COVID data reporting):

All of this time I have been trying to explain to you all, a war with fascism is a war over reality. Fascism itself requires the obliteration of the truth. The erasure of the impacts of a plague that is devastating the country is the kind of thing only an authoritarian could do.

Jen Hayden of Kos listed all the ways you can help on this election. She gives details on how. The categories are vote, encourage others to vote (a variety of ways), protect the results, become a poll worker, be a part of election protection. This isn’t a good time to sit out.