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We Win, They Riot
The hysteria about the process, outcome and follow-up to the upcoming November 5 election is ramping up. Given the riots of June 2020, we have reason to be concerned. So, it’s gratifying that some people are being proactive in anticipation of political violence.
A small group of active and retired law enforcement officials, intelligence officials and national security analysts and legal scholars gathered to discuss the best ways to be prepared:
The result is ‘Addressing the Threat of Political Violence in the 2024 Elections,’ a 70-page summary report I wrote that serves as both a warning and a playbook for those charged with overseeing public safety at the federal, state and local levels.
If they aren’t already, authorities should be collecting intelligence and devising plans for a range of possible disruptive scenarios. These could include attacks on — or abductions of — candidates, major public disturbances like riots, actions aimed at disrupting voting like cyberattacks or attacks on critical infrastructure as well as bombings, arsons, shootings or other violence at or near polling places.
The primary concern of the writers of this report was to try to reassure citizens that they could safely participate in elections; they would also be communicating to other nations that we are determined to conduct safe and fair elections. That commitment to integrity could only help our reputation internationally, given the battering we have taken globally.
The report recommended that state “fusion centers” be created to coordinate responses to violence:
Drawing on the fusion centers’ work and a reexamination of existing law, playbooks could guide authorities from the state level down to the polling station level. Chains of command should be established, public hotlines set up and press strategies devised.
The work of these groups should be networked to share intelligence, information and warnings, as well as best practices.
The degree to which these recommendations, which were distributed in August of this year, have been activated is unclear. But it makes sense to try to create an environment for citizens to not only vote without fear, but to feel safe before, during and after the election.
Still, the Left insists on implicating the political Right when it comes to disruption:
Now, Donald Trump’s political comeback has revived a sense of dread among the officials and institutions who stood in his way last time: Could it happen again?
Dozens of interviews with people deeply familiar or involved with the election process point to a clear consensus: Not only could Trump make a second attempt at overturning an election he loses, he and his allies are already laying the groundwork.
I suspect that the Left is projecting the steps they would like to take onto Trump:
Politico states that the potential disruption is dire:
— He will deepen distrust in the election results by making unsupported or hyperbolic claims of widespread voter fraud and mounting longshot lawsuits challenging enough ballots to flip the outcome in key states.
— He will lean on friendly county and state officials to resist certifying election results — a futile errand that would nevertheless fuel a campaign to put pressure on elected Republican legislators in statehouses and Congress.
— He will call on allies in GOP-controlled swing-state legislatures to appoint “alternate” presidential electors.
— He will rely on congressional Republicans to endorse these alternate electors — or at least reject Democratic electors — when they convene to certify the outcome.
— He will try to ensure Harris is denied 270 votes in the Electoral College, sending the election to the House, where Republicans are likely to have the numbers to choose Trump as the next president.
I think it’s unlikely that these strategies will be carried out by the Trump camp, since I believe he’s not interested in creating this type of disruption, and he has a good chance of winning the Presidency.
And I predict that the Democrats are likely to adopt these destructive strategies to make sure that chaos reigns.
Published in Elections
Did anyone happen to read Sunday’s Doonesbury? Granted it’s just a comic strip but he floats the idea that Biden could simply lock up Trump until after Kamala’s sworn in.
In his dreams, Joseph. In his dreams.
I hope by ” normal ” you mean at least a month of supplies at all times.
My beloved and I will leave our bucolic rural Minnesota home and travel to Minneapolis on election day. We have volunteered to be election judges in our former home city. Minneapolis is woefully short of Republican judges and state law requires each precinct has a judge from each major party. My beloved is a long time respected election judge and since retiring I have no excuse but to join her. So we spent last Saturday night in Minneapolis in election judge training.
That’s a long story to say we will be in the big city on Election Day.
Since our shift will not end till about 9pm that day we considered staying overnight at a hotel (or relatives) but given our hope for the election…I want to get out of Dodge as soon as possible. So at 9 pm we will drive another 2 hours to get back to our home in the reddest of red MN counties.
Like others here we always have a month of provisions but this November we definitely have a bigger stash. If things go really bad, we might have others fleeing the big city and staying with us.
If Trump wins the illegal migrant jets into the US will look like the Berlin Airlift.
That would be a call to civil war.
Also, those NCOs and officers who spent their entire officer years have long established habits of keeping their politics hidden.
Is more than a dream. They would have done it by now except for fear it would cost them the election.
I have maintained my Covid stash. I have a safe place to be during election week. More on that later.
number one rule: get off the X. In this case the X will be any major American city. Perhaps it’s time for that early fall vacation to Zion National Park (Glacier is my favorite but not this time of year).
Western Washington and Oregon are already seeing violence.
I plan to be in the Appalachian mountains on election day.
Probably a wise and safe choice.