A Prescient Warning

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2024, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, voting rights

I have been saying for more than two years now that the name “Trump” should not even be on the ballot in the next presidential election.  More and more, it seems that name is the most likely to be on the ballot with a big “R” next to it in 2024.  I am not alone … our friend Robert Reich agrees and perhaps his words carry more weight than mine …

Warning (if you needed it): Trump is nuts, and he’ll do anything — anything — to win

His name should not be allowed on the 2024 ballot

Robert Reich

24 April 2023

Friends,

The most obvious question in American politics today should be: Why is the guy who committed treason just over two years ago being allowed to run for president?

Answer: He shouldn’t be.

Remember? Donald Trump lost reelection but refused to concede and instead claimed without basis that the election was stolen from him, then pushed state officials to change their tallies, hatched a plot to name fake electors, tried to persuade the vice president to refuse to certify Electoral College votes, sought access to voting machine data and software, got his allies in Congress to agree to question the electoral votes and thereby shift the decision to the House of Representatives, and summoned his supporters to Washington on the day electoral votes were to be counted and urged them to march on the U.S. Capitol, where they rioted.

This, my friends, is treason.

But he is running for reelection — despite the explicit language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits anyone who has held public office and who has engaged in insurrection against the United States from ever again serving in public office.

The reason for the Constitution’s disqualification clause is that someone who has engaged in an insurrection against the United States cannot be trusted to use constitutional methods to regain office.

Can any of us who saw (or have learned through the painstaking work of Congress’s January 6 committee) what Trump tried to do to overturn the results of the 2020 election have any doubt he’ll once again try to do whatever necessary to regain power in 2024, even if illegal and unconstitutional?

Sure, the newly enacted Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 (amending the Electoral Count Act of 1887) filled some of the legal holes — creating a new threshold for members to object to a slate of electors (one-fifth of the members of both the House and the Senate), clarifying that the role of the vice president is “solely ministerial,” and requiring that Congress defer to slates of electors as determined by the states.

But what if Trump gets secretaries of state and governors who are loyal to him to alter the election machinery to ensure he wins? What if he gets them to prevent people likely to vote for Biden from voting at all?

What if he gets them to appoint electors who will vote for him regardless of the outcome of the popular vote?

What if, despite all of this, Biden still wins the election — but Trump gets more than 20 percent of Republican senators and House members to object to slates of electors pledged to Biden, and pushes the election into the House, where Trump has a majority of votes?

Does anyone doubt the possibility — no, the probability — of any or all of this happening?

Trump tried these tactics once. The likelihood of his trying again is greater now because his loyalists are in much stronger positions throughout state and federal government.

Yes, they were held back in the 2022 midterms. But in state after state, and in Congress, Republicans who stood up to Trump have now been purged from the party. And lawmakers in what remains of the Republican Party have made it clear that they will bend or disregard any rule that gets in their way.

In many cases, the groundwork has been laid. As recently reported in The New York Times, for example, the Trump allies who traveled to Coffee County, Georgia, on January 7, 2021, gained access to sensitive election data. They copied elections software used across Georgia and uploaded it on the internet — an open invitation to election manipulation by Trump allies in 2024.

If anything, Trump is less constrained than he was in 2020. “In 2016, I declared I am your voice,” Trump said in a speech last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference and repeated at his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas, a few weeks later. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

Filing deadlines for 2024 presidential candidates will come in the next six months, in most states. Secretaries of state — who in most cases are in charge of deciding who gets on the ballot — must refuse to place Donald Trump’s name on the 2024 ballot, based on the clear meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

What do you think?

35 thoughts on “A Prescient Warning”

  1. Pingback: A Prescient Warning — Filosofa’s Word – THE FLENSBURG FILES

  2. There will be a very interesting year in 2024. There are also elections to the European Parliament (Presidency of the Commission), the elections of the presidency in Russia and possibly a continuing war in Ukraine.;-// Some prayers can’t be wrong. Best wishes, Michael

    Liked by 1 person

    • My hope is that all of those elections have outcomes that will help bring peace to this planet before we destroy it. Sigh. If I believed in prayers, I’d be doing a lot of it these days. Take care, my friend. xx

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  4. Robert’s problems all come from his desire to fix a broken system. He doesn’t see that his beloved system has been sabotaged and economics is now a game to be played by manipulating the rules instead of following them.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Mr. Reich comes from a different time. So do I. Personal integrity had meaning. It no longer seems to mean much!
      I still try to maintain my own integrity, but I also realize that if another person, such as Trump, doesn’t care about his integrity I won’t worry about “his” integrity either. The man is dumb as an ox, so a dumb ox lummox who bullshits his way through china shops. He doesn’t care what he breaks or who he injures. So I don’t care who breaks ir injures him either.
      Mr. Reich, on the other hand, does not deserve to be broken or injured. He is trying to do things the best way he knows how.

      Liked by 3 people

  5. As far as I’m concerned, we get what we deserve. Over two years later, after causing the insurrection, Trump is still out there lying deceiving and free. It’s people that we have all elected and thought that they would do their jobs correctly that are letting this happen. It is absolutely ridiculous. Frustrating.

    Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

    Liked by 1 person

    • True, but sadly others who don’t deserve it are stuck with the same. Yes, it has always been so and will always be, but never before in our history have we had such a dangerous megalomaniac running for president. He is even more dangerous now than before, as he has learned and won’t waste any time turning a presidency into a dictatorship. And who will stop him? Kevin McCarthy? Clarence Thomas? Sigh. Yes, it is both ridiculous and frustrating.

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  6. Jill, you know I would prefer not to name call, but his actions and words do not exude truthfulness, seriousness of purpose, or rational footing. Our problems are many and complex, so we need people who will be leaders and not just actors. We deserve better than what the former president has to offer. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • Hey, Keith. we the People may deserve better, but We the People are no longer a unified force! I am not afraid to call a MAGAt a MAGAt, and what they deserve is a leader who doesn’t care about them the way they don’t care about anyone else.
      unfortunately this causes a disconnect. Most don’t deserve a fool as a leader, but many do. And that is what will be decided at the ballot box. Who deserves better? Let’s hope We the People want good government better than They the People want bad government.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Rawgod, I hear you, but while name calling may make you feel better, if we truly want to be heard we must give like we want to get. Trust me, some of these folks make you want to curse and I do, but I try to not curse in print nor when I am pushing back on someone’s argument. That is why what Fox News did is do bad, as people believe that BS. Keith

        Liked by 1 person

        • On this blog, Keith, I am not expecting many Republicans to be listening. And the ones that are? They are usually here to be disruptivve, and I want them to know I don’t respect them. I give them what they deserve.
          If, on the odd chance they respond in a respectful manner, then I can change my methodology. For now, I use all tools at my disposal. If Jill wants to shut me down all she needs do is ask.

          Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, you are much kinder than I am, my friend. He is a liar, a conman, a racist, and a megalomaniac. And that’s not name-calling … that’s just speaking the truth. The U.S. … nay, the WORLD … cannot afford Donald Trump to set foot in the Oval Office ever again.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Yes, Trump’s an egomaniacal narcissistic @$$hole!
    BUT
    He’s good for global peace! For whatever reasons. Prolly to save the American economy or sumfn. I can’t care less about that but peace is cool anyhoo.
    Let’s not forget that.
    And I, just speaking for myself, love to be alive and well and healthy, get cheap Russian gas and not too expensive Saudi oil and super duper cheap Chinese tech than becoming a particle in a mushroom cloud. And that is the way the Biden administration has planned for most of us. Or the way they are going without noticing.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Orca, I do not agree with your assertion he was good for peace. His actions harmed the impact of NATO and the EU, he tried to extort Ukraine for campaign help, he acquiesced too much to Putin, and he elevated Kim Jung Un’s platform. What he failed to realize is a strong EU helps prevent conflict as mutual commerce builds bridges when other forays cannot. He pulled the US out of a Trans Pacific Partnership that went on without us and then later lamented how to compete better with China which the TPP was designed to do. And, he pulled us out of the Paris Climate Change accord and Iran nuclear agreement which went on without us. I never felt safe with Donald Trump as the US president. I am sorry to disagree. Keith

      Liked by 2 people

    • How afraid does someone have to be to contemplate using a nuclear weapon? The first two were an experiment the 1st did the job the 2nd was clearing a shelf of a time sensitive product with a lot of sunk cost if unused. MAD works if “ordinary” people are in charge. Keep scanning the horizon for the mushroom cloud but please note that your feet seem to be wet all the time now. Know what’s going to kill me? Me neither.

      Liked by 1 person

    • “Global Peace”, Orca? Hardly. In fact, he stirred conflict with our allies, did as much damage to our international standing as any one person has ever done, and we’re still picking up the pieces from the damage he did. But again, you and I do not see the world from the same perspective. I don’t know if it’s because we live half the globe apart, or because of our different backgrounds/educations, or what, but your views and mine are 180° apart.

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      • “he stirred conflict with our allies”
        And that is a bad thing?
        Everybody who allies with America has it coming for them. let’s not forget it’s not even the countries who ally with you – it’s a very small clicque of govt aholes who drive their countries into irreparable despair. Told you over 60% of Germans would vote for Putin as our chancellor (if he was eligible there), not the warheads Scholz and Baerbock.
        We have our own problems, don’t wanna pay for our leaders’ psychotherapy.

        Jill, you must learn the world at large isn’t with America. And the world at large isn’t interested in pumping billions of Woolongs into a corrupt fascist poorhouse like Ukraine. The world at large loves the Moscow-Beijing axis and the prosperity they bring. The world at large wants peace. The world at large wants to conduct good business. The world at large can’t give 2 fux about the USA, Ukraine, NATO, the former colonialists of the EU or an Americentric UN.

        In short: The collective West had its time. They had more than a millenium to rule the world and try to shape it in their image. Now they’re declining. They fukked it up. Royally! They’re going down like Rome before them.
        Now it’s the beginning of the Asian century … and it all looks fine and dandy to me. They start right, with trade and business and the Belt and Road initative. For the benefit of the whole planet. Not with war and invasions and pillaging.

        That’s how the West lost Latin America, Asia and Africa in the matter of just a few years.

        tucker Carlson is just an odd figure in the big picture. We shouldn’t give him more attention than he deserves.

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  8. Pingback: A Prescient Warning | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  9. It should happen but it won’t. What the USA sorely needs is an independent election commission running both presidential and state elections and drawing electoral boundaries. Because you don’t have one, you’re going to be fucked, unfortunately.

    Liked by 5 people

    • the US is an outsider in this regard, allowing politicians to gerrymander electoral boundaries for their own benefit. In most democracies, the running of elections and the drawing of electoral boundaries is performed by independent commissions. For example in Aotearoa New Zealand, elections are run by the Electoral Commission, while electoral boundaries are the responsibility of the the Representation Commission, which is required to redraw the boundaries after each 5-yearly census.

      Liked by 2 people

    • You are quite right about the need for an independent election commission, but in today’s highly-charged political environment, I’m not sure we could find anybody truly independent to sit on such a commission! Rather like the Supreme Court that is supposed to be non-partisan, but is now just another vehicle of the Republican Party. I still have hope that the coming charges against Trump will be enough to keep him off the ballot, and if not, that the people … a large enough majority to override gerrymandering effects … will have the good sense not to vote him into office a second time.

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  10. Trump might get on the, Republican ticket, simply because, there’s, no other, candidates, and besides, based off of the history of thing, he’s the kind that will, do everything that he can, to get what’s, beneficial, to, only him, and, most of the members of the, Republican Party, buys into, what he is, selling to them, and, that is, all Trump’s, good for, getting the crowd, fired up, and, nothing more…and, the blind, still, followed him.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Oh, there are plenty of other candidates … already there are Pence, Hutchinson, Haley, and at least 20 more have announced their ‘intention’, so I suspect it’ll be a crowded field, but Trump will still likely land on top of the dung heap, for the masses are ignorant of the things that really matter.

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