The General Election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

Your superpower is your vote! Use it on a ballot – early voting or election day. Be a hero.

Results of the election not be decided on November 3, 2020.

I. Coup. Coup. Coup.

Thursday, October 28, 2020 – Merriam-Webster’s dictionary word of the day, was ‘Cassandra‘, “one that predicts misfortune or disaster.” And if the Cassandras of our time — “endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated never to be believed” are to be believed, we should maybe prepare for a coup?

In my lifetime the peaceful transfer of power between Presidential Administrations has been a given. A coup d’ etat which is full French for coup has not seemed such a strong possibility or something that we even considered in the struggle for a more perfect union.

In answer to the question, “what do we need to know to stop a coup?,” read this article — Waging Nonviolence: People Powered News & Analysis “10 things you need to know to stop a coup“, by Daniel Hunter, September 18, 2020.

Point 2. Do call it a coup.

The second point made in the article addresses how to recognize a coup.

“We know it’s a coup if the government:

  • Stops counting votes;
  • Declares someone a winner who didn’t get the most votes; or
  • Allows someone to stay in power who didn’t win the election.”

There are actions we can take. We are not consigned to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale scenario: “There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.” Again, the article is recommended required reading. It is filled with wonderful rabbit holes and background on coup history from other countries. It offers comfort we do not sit passively when faced with an undemocratic power grab.

There is action to take good citizen!

Tossing around the likelihood of a coup with Mr. Viva, he reassured me that “to be successful, a coup would require the military.” So last evening l relaxed into that thought.

Fine. Everything’s fine.

II. Cue coup. Cue coup. Cue coup.

Sedition. Definition: Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.

A subversive twist in the definition of sedition is that a wannabe dictator or monarch can incite his followers or cult to rebel against the authority of the state. In this moment, we have a blatant wannabe despotic potentate role-playing as POTUS who for months has shot his mouth off about election security — election rigging, absentee voting, ballot issues — inciting his parishioners, his cult, to rebel against the authority of the state. Sedition’s call is coming from inside the house. The White House.

And then on cue this morning:

Screen shot. Trump is calling to his army. I do not want the Teflon Cheeto’s website to get any traffic from this blog.

Army.

For tRump. He wants his own “army” and though the words say one thing, the dog whistle is the call of the wild to the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois, the KKK, the “very fine people” #MAGA congregants of the locked and loaded white supremacist cult of Trump.

Fight.

He will start a Civil-not-civil War.

Simulation: graffiti photoshopped on the Rock in a House, Fountain City, WI.
A rock fell from the bluffs into the house.
Rock in a house. 
It's along the Mississippi River.
Maxine and Dwight Anderson were watching TV in another room.
1995. Too soon for The Handmaid's Tale. Seinfeld maybe?
The Andersons survived.

The house?
Eh. Not so much.

And is the Teflon Cheeto1TM organizing a militarized insurrection? or not? I would like to say not. But in my lifetime, there has not been a POTUS that undermines election integrity. His disregard for the country he leads is unparalleled. He is our first Prescedense.

III. Pollyanna. On the other hand …

She wore a glove.

Pollyanna is “an excessively cheerful or optimistic person.” In the chiaroscuro of personality types, Cassandra and Pollyanna are Yin and Yang and oh I love me mixed metaphor.

As a counterpoint to the ‘prepare for a coup‘ folks, there are legal scholars, professors and pundits with historical events and arcs in their knowledge arsenal that give current events perspective and context. Two experts I highly recommend:

I am beating the ‘I BELIEVE‘ button on this perspective piece in the Washington Post by Teri Kanefield on the daily: “Trump can’t avoid a transfer of power. He just wants us to think he can.”

Stay tuned. Election outcomes and events will likely fall somewhere between Cassandra and Pollyanna. We had a rock fall in the house. The house needs repairs.

Citizens will argue how to fix the house but we struggle a more perfect union.

IV. Veiled attempt at humor: Word Scramble

My cousin sent word that she’s decided to cut back on political posts for a bit. Instead she shared some word scrambles:

  • erango tish nibbog
  • k*cf *mrtp
  • neflon oheetc

General Election is Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Your superpower is your vote and your pen is mightier.

Use it on a ballot!

Wear a mask. Maintain physical distance. Be kind. We are human.

1Teflon CheetoTM: In an effort to honor and preserve a familial relationship, earlier this year I dropped referring to the current POTUS as the Teflon CheetoTM. Relationships fail. Teflon Cheeto is a name fits and for me, sticks. Teflon be damned.