I cannot believe we have less than a week to go until Election Day!!! I have been drowning in emails (over 90 yesterday alone!) and texts every day asking for political contributions, petition signing, voting in online polls, etc., which I can’t wait to have stop soon! The last four years have seemed like an eternity in Purgatory, if not hell itself, of course drastically worse this year due to the pandemic and associated recession, not to mention the racial and civil unrest. Even though the results in many states will take days or longer to be determined, and things may get very dicey and possibly even violent during that period, one way or the other the end is in sight!

Following up on my last post, no one should be surprised that after recovering from Covid himself, Trump has become even more defiant and unhinged in his denial of the harsh reality of the worsening pandemic. At this point, despite all of the outrageous smear attacks and non-stop lying by Trump and his surrogates about both Biden/Harris and the pandemic, and even despite our 2016 PTSD, the polling remains encouraging for a Trump loss, even if there is some tightening of polls in some swing states. It is beyond sad on many levels that it took a pandemic and Trump’s catastrophic response to it with all of the ensuing unnecessary death and suffering to sink his chances for reelection… nobody is even talking about his historic impeachment at this point! The record early voter turnout is clearly partly driven by the pandemic and the unprecedented volume of mail-in ballots, but also by tremendous determination and enthusiasm, with lots of in-person early voting, and it seems clear that there will be a blowout record total voter turnout. The early voting is significantly weighted toward Democrats (although less so in swing states), including a relatively large number of young voters, meaning that the voting on election day will be skewed toward Republicans, who will be subjected to long lines and other inconveniences in many places, not to mention Covid risks, which many of them don’t seem to care about at all. That means that early tallies on Election Day which do not include mailed ballots may yield a "red mirage" in many critical states, including the must-win trio of PA, MI and WI. Also, significant risks remain in regard to rejection of absentee ballots due to late arrival through the mail or non-compliance with regulations such as using security envelopes. It will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court with its new ultraconservative justice decides the repeat Republican appeal of Pennsylvania’s s Supreme Court decision to allow receipt of mailed ballots three days beyond election day if postmarked by that day (previously 4-4 allowing it to stand), which could invalidate a significant number of ballots if the Republicans get their wish. It is also a foregone conclusion that Trump et al will litigate the results in any state that they lose wherever possible, and the lengths to which he and his cronies may go to try to steal the election remains to be seen. The only way to avoid that is a decisive Biden electoral victory... fingers crossed!!! Fortunately the expected Trump October surprise which came in the form of the uncorroborated Hunter/Joe Biden Ukrainian/Russian corruption scandal reported by Fox and the NY Post, both Murdoch-owned, never gained widespread traction beyond Trumpworld despite Trump’s best efforts to re-create the 2016 Wikileaks phenomenon, probably because it is widely viewed as Russian disinformation by the mainstream media and irrelevant by non-Trumpites. Next, the current significant worsening of the pandemic, particularly in the Midwest and upper Midwest, with all of its consequences, is obvious to most rational people despite Trump’s blatant lies to the contrary. This complete denial of reality does not play well beyond Trump’s cult following. Even the stock market is now turning sharply lower in view of the projected scope and impact of the worsening pandemic and failure of a new fiscal stimulus package to materialize. Another factor is Biden’s financial advantage of about $100 million over Trump in combined campaign and PAC money to spend, partly thanks to generous spending by Michael Bloomberg in Florida and elsewhere. In the end it will all come down to voter turnout and the effectiveness of various types of voter suppression and widespread litigation both before and after Election Day. Enthusiasm is clearly amped way up on both sides, and no one, particularly in swing states, can afford to be complacent! Fingers and toes are all crossed for a blue blowout!!

As far as control of the Senate goes, which is almost as important as the White House, it is looking hopeful for swinging control away from the Republicans, particularly given the large number of vulnerable Republicans this cycle. However, many of the critical races are uncomfortably close, and both of the races in Georgia will almost certainly go to runoffs. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we will be able to get rid of McConnell, who is about 5 points ahead in the polling, and Doug Jones will definitely lose in Alabama. 

I actually just got an email from someone offering to sell me the empty domain name “dumptrumpusa.com”, and it wasn’t until then that I realized that I will hopefully and probably soon have the great satisfaction of no longer needing either domain name! I won’t take this site down until it’s time to renew the domain name, and then will be sad to say goodbye to all of the effort I have put into it. Even without Trump, there will be more than enough challenges to our lives, health and safety to keep us all occupied for the foreseeable future!

In so many ways the future of our lives, our country and the world is literally at stake in this election! This should go without saying, but if you haven’t done so yet, GET OUT AND VOTE NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!!!! THIS IS IT!!!!