I’m actually a bit skeptical of the effect indictments of Biden family and associates would have, other than exciting the base. How many people who aren’t already inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt will see a Presidential candidate’s administration arrest people close to his opponent and think, “OMG, that means the opponent must be crooked!”?
Non-zero, obviously, but more than the barest blip on the radar? I dunno. I mean, while it kind of worked on Hillary Clinton, the then-current administration was run by her political allies.
“Change the subject” will be more than usually important for this particular incumbent President, for whom the answer to the question ‘are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ is not likely to be a positive.
In addition to indictments of All Those Bad People Who Oppose Glorious Trump, there will be more efforts to drum up rioting and looting and other useful video. Only Trump Can Save Us from the Mayhem Trump Created!
If those fake indictments don’t succeed, Barr can be arrested and prosecuted for false indictments. The Votemaster has discussed this question. And they will be seen as so blatantly political that they will be ignored.
For several reasons, I’m predicting that Barr will suddenly, just days before the election, release the results of an investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell which directly implicates Biden in the Epstein pedophilia ring.
Firstly, Epstein isn’t around anymore, due to suicide or having been suicided. Right now, Maxwell has every incentive in the world to implicate anyone Barr wants her to.
Secondly, Trump is doing everything he can to fight against voting by mail. For this plan to work it’s got to hit right before Election Day. Mail-in voting effectively blurs the election line; for a big shocker like this to work, you need a single election day, not weeks of voting. You know, just like what happened to Hillary the week before the election- Comey’s announcement hit her electoral chances like a bag of bricks.
Thirdly, there’s nothing that motivates the more conspiracy-minded conservatives like pedophilia does. On any given day, there’s at least one pedophilia-related story on the front page of many of the conservative and conspiracy subs on Reddit. Biden is almost always implicated- even though he’s never been charged, he’s constantly being referred to as “Creepy Biden”. If Barr does this, he’ll have an army of internet warriors ready to spread the story far and wide.
So yeah, I’m fully expecting Barr to suddenly announce an investigation into Biden, if not an actual arrest, just days before the election.
Many of us will have voted by mail in September, making an October surprise insignificant.
Trump is strong at negative campaigning and may pull out a win more or less the way he did four years ago.
But, if not, a likely scenario is an uneventful October followed by outrageous post-election-day actions that Democrats will consider cheating and Republicans will say are a return to the original intent of the U.S. Constitution.
I will take my mail in ballot signed and sealed to the early voting places or at the assigned polling place the day of the election. Besides not depending on the US Mail, there are no lines to deliver your sealed ballot.
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(Then again, I usually do it that way, I’m a big procrastinator. )
It has yet to go through crucial Phase 3 trials where it would be administered to thousands of people.
So, not an October surprise, but now we’ll see whether Trump & Co. can spin this into some kind of “Only I can do this!” salvation for the nation, where his personal ties to Putin (oh, yeh) mean we’ll get it quickly thanks to our Dear Leader.
I doubt whether this will make much difference, though. First, too much time from now to the election; whatever boost it provides is likely to fizzle out by then. Second, as noted above, most folks tend to discount Trump’s blather anyway. Third, any vaccine’s not going to be coming in any time soon. Fourth, given how preliminary a stage the vaccine is at, as well as its foreign origin, it’s hard to see how even the corrupted FDA could approve it fast enough. Fifth, there’s enough distrust of vaccines already, let alone some foreign goop, that I doubt a lot of people will be clamoring for it.
I don’t want to say Trump is sure to lose – clearly, what can be done once can be done again. But I think there’s very little he can do at this point to alter the dynamics of the race. There are things a conventional politician would have done, and could still do now, to turn the race around. But such things — mainly, coordinating a sweeping, top-down program for containing the coronavirus and helping stricken communities to weather its effects — are beyond both his capabilities and his interests. If there were any skeletons in Biden’s closet scary enough to sink him, we’d probably have an inkling of it by now. There really don’t seem to be.
Trump’s only reliable path to victory is vote suppression, combined with undermining the public’s faith in the entire electoral process. It’s already happening and it’s the one thing keeping me awake at night these days.
He drags Biden down into the Shitshow that is US politics currently. Only ratcheted up to uber shitshow level by November.
(If you’re thinking how much worse can it get, truly? He’s just getting started, he’s got plans I’m pretty sure. You ain’t seen nothing yet, is my guess!)
In the end, Americans are so appalled they write in, and elect Kanye!
Trump is going to sign an executive order declaring that breathing is as American as “Apple Pie and Voting for Me!” the day before the election.
All around the country hundreds of thousands of people will pass out and hit their heads on the ground potentially preventing them from actually going out to vote.
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