Today on The Daily Rose, I’ll be talking a little about Mitch McConnell (aka evil incarnated) and what things look like one week to Election Day 2020, the good, the bad, and the shameful.
Listen (above) or Read (below)
I woke at 5am and was unable to get back to sleep. Between it being a week from the election and the shameful push to pack the Supreme Court in the final days, my anger grew enough to get up and start working on this episode.
By the time I sat down with my hot cup of coffee to write out my thoughts and gather the articles for the SOURCES section, it was 6am. I had left Facebook open overnight, and one of the first things I saw this morning was a post from a friend in CO that said:
Hell is too good for Mitch McConnell.
Yes. Yes it is.
I’ve often referred to Mitch McConnell as evil incarnate, and I stand by my assessment. When I look at his smug face and dead eyes, I get physically nauseous. His is the face of today’s Republican Party. White. Old. Liar. Hypocrite. Sociopathic.
This man laughed when confronted as to why he felt the Senate could take a recess in the middle of the worst pandemic in the past century. He spoke out loudly against Obama appointing a Supreme Court Justice in the final days of his presidency back in 2016 (as did Trump). McConnel said, “The American people may well elect a president who decides to nominate Judge Garland for Senate consideration. The next president may also nominate someone very different. Either way, our view is this: Give the people a voice.”
Have you noticed that Republicans want people to have a voice only when they’re speaking for them? Only when that voice benefits them?
In February of 2016 when Scalia died, Obama had 11 months left in his presidency—almost an entire year—and nearly 9 months before the election. Before I continue, I want to make a correction to something I said in a previous episode. I had said that when McConnell and other Republican Senators blocked Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee that the vacancy was filled with Kavanaugh, but I was mistaken. That seat was filled by Neil Gorsuch, another old white dude. Barrett is Trump’s 3rd confirmed nominee, and I wish I could say “at least she’s a woman” with any hope whatsoever that her appointment would benefit women in any way whatsoever.
Three lifelong justices confirmed on the highest court of the land in just the past four years when American has been descending with increasing speed into fascism. This is court packing.
With a conservative 6-3 majority, this could set the country back decades and be a nightmare for civil rights, people of color, and women.
So, back to 2016, McConnel said 9 months was too close to the election to fill that vacancy, but apparently ONE WEEK before the election isn’t too close to fill the vacancy left by the death of Ginsburg this year. This is court packing, by the way…in case anyone is wondering. This is court packing—jamming an ultra-conservative justice in a week before the most important presidential election in over a century—greatly tilting the Supreme Court to an overwhelming conservative stance. This isn’t the fair and balanced judiciary required for a functioning democracy, but the GOP isn’t concerned about being fair or balanced.
It is so clear that the GOP doesn’t want to hear America’s voice. What’s also clear is that the GOP as a whole engages in what psychologists call “Projecting,” meaning that what they’re accusing others of doing, they’re actually doing themselves—something Trump does with great regularity, but you also see it in McConnell and the GOP as a whole. Thus the repeated-ad-nauseum phrase “court packing” thrown at Biden at every turn. Republicans know how to stick to talking points. That’s for sure. They repeat the same thing over and over again so it’s what people remember.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
-Joseph Goebbels
Frequently the lies they tell are these “projections,” so the next time you hear them saying something over and over and over again, take a closer look at what they’re saying to see if it’s what they’re also doing. The difference is that their actions aren’t in the spotlight because often when the left points out these projections or calls attention to the hypocrisy or points out their wrongdoing, they are viciously attacked with cries of “Innocent Until Proven Guilty,” “Witch Hunt,” and accused of being “Vindictive.” As a survivor of sexual violence, I’m all too familiar with these words and this type of derailing rhetoric.
These powerful republicans are everything we teach our children not to be.
They’re bullies. They’re ruthless. They’re cruel. They’re liars. They win at any cost.
Do we want these people to continue to be the face of America?
The election is one week from today, and the GOP are doing their very best to interfere from the highest levels of government down to their armed “MAGA Army” on the streets.
No other party does this. The Democrats or Green Party or even Libertarians don’t tamper with elections. They are not instructing people to show up armed at the polls. They’re not putting out fake ballot boxes. They haven’t needed a court order for the past 40 years to ensure they didn’t tamper with elections—a court order that expired this past summer, as I discuss in a previous episode.
In fact, it seems that everyone except the Republicans want a fair election. Why do you think that is? Could it be because they know they are a dying breed? If America spoke freely and clearly, would they be voted out?
So, ask yourselves… are they the patriots they claim to be or are they self-serving assholes? Do they want the people’s will realized, or do they want their own will be done?
Please refer to my former episodes on the Election—Episode 15: Election Fraud and Episode 8: Trump’s Planned Election Coup for more information leading up to this last week. In fact, I’ll copy those sources into the show notes for this episode as well.
I’ve talked about all the horrible things in my past episode from “unofficial” ballot boxes to armed militia at the polls to directly calling voters for personally-delivered intimidation, but today I want to talk about what’s going right: the American Voice rising up despite the GOP trying to silence them at every turn.
- Texas might go BLUE! While Trump is still leading there, it’s by a small margin—only 4 polling points. Record numbers of voters have already voted, far exceeding those who voted in 2016.
- As of yesterday, 66 Million Americans and counting have already voted.
- Journalists are finally calling Trump on his bullshit and lies
….all this is good news, but it’s not over yet. VOTE! You’ve got to get out there and vote. If we’re ever to have a voice that’s heard, we have to speak. Don’t think “my candidate’s ahead, so I’ll just stay home and watch Netflix.” Please. Go VOTE.
Remember that Hillary Clinton was ahead and the presumptive winner up until election night. Even Trump thought he lost, as described in Cohen’s book Disloyal. Trump never expected to win the presidency, and of course he wouldn’t have won a fair election without Russian interference. This time both Russia and Iran have been caught tampering with the election. It is in their best interest for Trump to stay in office.
More information from The New York Times today:
- Election Day is one week away: The Postal Service recommends mailing your ballot today to ensure it arrives by Election Day.
- The Supreme Court refused to extend Wisconsin’s deadline for receiving absentee ballots to after 8 p.m. on Election Day. The ruling broke down on partisan lines: It was a win for the Wisconsin Republican Party, and all five Republican-appointed justices were in the majority.
- Joe Biden will campaign in Iowa and Wisconsin on Friday, visiting states Obama won twice and President Trump flipped in 2016. Polls show a neck-and-neck race in Iowa, while Biden leads in Wisconsin.
- Trump campaigned yesterday in Pennsylvania and mocked Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, in personal ways.
- Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, is funding a roughly $15 million advertising blitz to boost Biden in Texas and Ohio.
- Daily polling diary: Trump leads in Texas — by four percentage points— despite a collapse of support from suburban white voters, according to a new Times/Siena College poll. Crucially, Trump has not lost ground among Hispanic voters.
We must remember a few things:
- Again, Hillary was ahead in the polls at this time in 2016. We cannot let up.
- Election fraud is rampant on the side of the GOP. We must continue to speak up on social media and to our representatives about this.
- Encourage people to vote, even if you believe our vote doesn’t count or won’t make a difference. We could be wrong. It’s not worth the price of what’s left of our Democracy to take the risk. Vote early. Vote NOW if you can.
- Sign up to track your ballot if you’re voting by mail. Many states have systems in place to do this. I’ve signed up in Oregon for this service, and I voted 10 days ago, and I’ve never felt so good about voting than I did today, despite my doubts about the process.
- With Trump’s interference with the USPS, don’t trust your ballot will make it in time for Election Day. Physically take your mail-in ballot to a polling drop, an official one. Then track it if you can.
- VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. VOTE. VOTE.
VOTE! Prepare for a long wait if you are going in person. Bring a device full of movies and some snacks. Come with a buddy so you can keep your place in line when one of you need the restroom. If you’re able to vote early, please do! The waits will be longer on Election Day. Please don’t let those long waits deter you from voting, as this is the most important election in our lifetime—in centuries, really.
If you are able to vote early, please do!
SOURCES
USA TODAY: Senate Republicans Move to Confirm Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee but Blocked Obamas
Washington Post: Videos show closed-door sessions of leading conservative activists: ‘Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor’
USA TODAY, “Republicans already opposing any Obama Supreme Court nomination”
CNN: Why the GOP Hold on Texas is Loosening
NPR: 66 Million And Counting: Americans Are Breaking Early Voting Records
Let us not forget…
Washington Post: The parents of 545 children separated at the border still haven’t been found. The pandemic isn’t helping.
SOURCES from EPISODE 8: TRUMP’S ELECTION COUP
The Atlantic: The Election That Could Break America <— most important read
Forbes: Trump Campaign Actively Discussing Radical Measures to Bypass Election Results
Vanity Fair: The Trump Campaign is Reportedly Plotting an Election Coup to “Bypass” a Biden Win
Salon: Investigative journalist Greg Palast: Here’s how Trump will steal the 2020 election
Business Insider: Election Timeline
The Atlantic: The Deadline That Could Hand Trump the Election
CNN: Top US general tells Congress the military won’t play a role in the 2020 election
Mayo Clinic: About Sociopathy, Symptoms and Causes
Medium: President’s Diagnosis
The Atlantic: The Mind of Donald Trump
CNN: 200k American’s Dead from COVID
The Independent: In 2014, Trump said he wanted riots because they would “make America great again”
Twitter Trend on Trump’s Coup
Brian Karem’s (reporter from WH Press Conference) Comment on Trump’s Answer
Trump’s Tweet about needing the election results on election night.
SOURCES from EPISODE 15: ELECTION FRAUD
Columbus Dispatch: Voter Intimidation: Ohio may pursue pair already charged in Michigan for voter intimidation in minority areas
Washington Post: GOP Installs Unofficial Ballot Boxes
OC Register: Unofficial Ballot Boxes
NYT: Republicans Admit to Placing Unofficial Ballot Boxes
Slate: After Complaining About Voter Fraud, the California GOP Commits Election Fraud
CNN: Fiona Hill says Putin has America ‘exactly where he wants us’
NYT: The Assault on Election: How Trump’s ‘Voter Fraud’ Lie Is Disenfranchising Americans
The Atlantic: How Ugly Politicking Ate Election Oversight
CNN: The biggest election fraud story you haven’t heard about
Vanity Fair: Pro-Trump Twitter Army Strategically Throttling Biden Ads
Washington Post: Videos show closed-door sessions of leading conservative activists: ‘Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor
Christine Rose 