Bleeding Edge

Vote counting is still underway in states where Trump leads, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina, and the final tabulations needed to determine a winner with 270 electoral votes may not be known for days.

Because ballots continue to be tallied in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit and Atlanta and their suburban areas, the presidential outcomes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia have not been determined.  

In North Carolina and Pennsylvania, ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can still be received and counted this week.

The uncertain dynamics after polls closed however, did not stop the current US President Mr Donald Trump, from asserting victory in the early hours of today while speaking in a gathering of his die-hard supporters gathered in the East Room. Speaking at 2:29 am, Trump stated: “We did win the election,” threatening to head to court to challenge the ongoing ballot-counting process, which could take a few more days to be completed.

The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Presidency hinges on tight races in the three battleground states Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan.

The president said he wanted to stop the counting of votes and put the outcome of the election in the hands of the Supreme Court. “As far as I am concerned, we already have won it.”

“This is a fraud on the American public,” Trump told a crowd gathered indoors at the White House, many not wearing masks. “This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win the election.” 

“We want all voting to stop,” he said, inaccurately suggesting a rigged presidential contest. “We will win this.”

President Trump also said, that he wants the counting of votes to continue in Arizona, which handed its 10 electoral votes to Biden, becoming the only state as of press time this morning to shift from a 2016 Republican win to the Democratic column after Tuesday. The president suggested he wants to see ballot counting stop in Pennsylvania and Georgia, two states in which he hailed his momentary leads while precinct tabulations remained incomplete. 

The vaunted United States of America Democratic Election day has come and gone, and we don’t yet have a clear winner.

This, of course, is not a surprise, because as far too many experts, election officials and journalists had anticipated precisely such an outcome, and sought to counsel people to exhibit patience, respect for the process and maintain their civility — all in order to keep the Peace in this country.

Ask anyone who knows and they will tell you that an election after all, is not a day’s celebration, but it is a long process fraught with dangers, shoals and wild beasts all militating to scupper our Democracy — and today the only thing certain is that the electoral process is not yet complete.

And indeed the US elections, shall not be deemed counted, certified and complete as a legitimate poll — until all the eligible votes have been counted.

And that is the essence of Democracy. All votes need to be counted before we call the winner of the contest.

Since the early Athenian Democracy this has been the only honest practice of tabulating the polls… and 2,400 years later, we are not going to destroy that ethical and morally correct process that defines what we have come to recognize rightfully as the Best Method of Government:

A government by the people, for the people and from the people.

Yet, because today and especially in America, we are unaccustomed to having to wait for the results (being a fast food society), as we are also unaccustomed to voting in a time of an epidemic of panic, and under the nasty influence of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic that ravages the fragile minds of many people, far more than their bodies — we stand art a disadvantage for Democracy as many of or brethren look at China and other tyrannical totalitarian governments with awe, all too willing to trade their hard won freedoms for a semblance of safety under the jackboot of the Tyrants of the Politburo who are firmly in control hiding behind the vast ramparts and the mile think walls of Beijing’s forbidden city.

And the situation is indeed grating — with One and a half million Americans having attempted suicide (many successfully) during this pandemic of fear and panic — we have far more important things to consider than who might be the next figurehead of our country, when we are forced upon such limiting choices — such as choosing amongst the two heads of Janus.

And for those people that are mentally uncertain, fragile and easily spooked — the fact remains that we don’t yet know who our next president will be. Yet that realization should not become a clarion call to arms, as some harpies and conspiracists are calling for by claiming that the right thing for all patriots to do is go out on the streets and protest and burn it all down — while in the background the security forces of China are eagerly fomenting rebellion, rioting and mayhem by financing, arming and directing the rogue elements of the American political fringes to start the new Civil War 2.0…

So rightfully some people are afraid that the “system” is broken.

Yet they should not be because indeed Democracy is messy.

But that is not an indictment for the obviously best system of governance that we as people have ever invented and innovated upon, since the Golden Era of Athens under the democratically elected Pericles who gave us clear leadership as seen from the incredible panegyric speech he shared with the Athenian citizens upon the graves of the fallen soldiers who fell fighting to protect Democracy from subjugation to the Totalitarian Oligarchy as supported by Sparta back then…

How History repeats itself is quite uncanny…

Yet back in today’s electoral outcomes — we should not fret about the ultimate outcome, because in my mind, the delay for the completion of the vote counting, is not evidence of a system malfunctioning, or of electoral shenanigans, and corruption — but rather it is further proof that this large Democracy of ours is working in all corners of the country, and in all states, as election officials throughout, are taking the requisite time to make sure that all ballots, including those cast by mail, are properly tabulated, tallied and posted for the rightful winner.

This is Democracy in Action.

In opposition to that ethical understanding of the Democratic process — our President declared early this Wednesday morning this unimaginative trope: “Frankly, we did win this election.”

This fits with his earlier call at a campaign rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, where President Trump had direly predicted that if election day passes without a clear winner … then:

“You’re going to have bedlam in our country.”

Such fearmongering is nothing new for the president.

And he knows that our Democracy is fragile and if her flame goes out — we might have a dead resemblance of Democracy but not the real thing for the next generations of American to come…

Yet, more troubling was the opinion penned last week by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, supporting the US supreme court’s refusal to extend the date for the receipt of mail-in ballots in Wisconsin. In a sloppy concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh spoke about: “the States’ interest in avoiding the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after election day and potentially flip the results of an election. States, want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter.”

In warning of “chaos and suspicions of impropriety”, Kavanaugh appears to be simply repeating, in modified language, Trump’s baseless attacks on mail-in voting, amplified early Wednesday when Trump falsely declared that the continued count of mail-ins constitutes a “major fraud in our nation”. On the same day that the court issued its opinion, the president tweeted:

“Big problems and discrepancies with Mail in Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3.”

Indeed there is some value in these comments because the topic of fairness & anti-Democracy electoral fraud is awfully clear in certain cases. And because we all know that Democrats historically make up the majority of early mail in votes, they assume the result is fixed. Yet in this elections far too many republicans send their votes by mail this year as well. Mainly because of COVID19 fears of going to the polling stations.

So, where are their votes?

In other words, why are the mail in votes numbers drastically (and I mean drastically) slanted in favor of Democrats.

How is it even possible that 95% plus in some areas of the country are just for the democrat party? Yet with so many republicans asserting that they chose the mail in vote route this year, instead of in person voting due to COVID19 fears — this cannot be correct mail-in-vote counting.

Because those republican votes should help balance (at least somewhat) the ratio of republican versus democrat mail-in-votes returns?

Furthermore, mail in votes are a traditional breeding ground for stuffing ballots, vote cheating & electoral fraud. And today it is the mail-in-votes that seem to be what the final result of this election hinges on…

This is a historical factual reality that no one can justifiably refute. And since we all know that in past electoral contests — opposing parties’ votes were found dumped — tossed away — 100’s of thousands of ballots in some cases that were never counted, one wonders how are we going to figure this electoral outcome out in a just and honest manner?

Please tell me the truth:

Do you think in your heart of hearts that there is such thing as fairness in a real election anymore?

One wonders because Biden seems to be awfully certain of the mail-in-vote outcome…

Speaking a few hours before Trump, ex-VP Biden projected an air of confidence in the results set to arrive in the coming days… : “We feel good about where we are. We really do,” Biden said. “I’m here tonight to tell you we’re on track to win this election. …I’m optimistic about the outcome.”

“It may take a little longer,” Biden told a Wilmington, Del., parking lot full of drive-in supporters who honked their horns. “As I’ve said all along, it’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who won this election. That’s the decision of the American people.”

Counting early ballots, from almost “One hundred million Americans” who had voted by mail well before November 3rd on Election Day – is not only labor intensive, but is also a process fraught with dangers, corruption and upheavals…

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

So what we now need is a great deal of patience and respect for the others who might not feel as we feel in this electoral contest.

Be Cool folks.

Be Cool and be chilled about it all.

God Bless You and please keep the PEACE today and tomorrow when its Guy Fawkes day and some people celebrate the incredible strength of Democracy’s flame with a bonfire to remember for the rest of the year…

And please do join me to say a Prayer for our country because that is what we all need right about now.

PPS:

My close friend and dearly departed Leonard Cohen had given some thought on the subject of democracy and his thoughts are especially relevant today.

Indeed Leonard simply said this: “Democracy is the great religion of the West – probably the greatest religion because it affirms other religions; probably the greatest culture because it affirms other cultures. But it’s based on faith, it’s based on appetite for fraternity, it’s based on love, and therefore it shares the characteristics of a religious movement. It’s also like a religion in that it’s never really been tried.”