Like bracing for a tornado

Have any of you watched that video of the people sheltering in a beer cooler in Joplin, MO during a tornado? They could see the sky darkening, then the windows start to break and they all head for the cooler. Then they brace for what’s to come. It’s terrifying.

Well, it’s getting stormy out here in Allegheny county. There are store fronts boarding up in downtown Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Damn, I was supposed to get a haircut near ground zero tomorrow. How much you want to bet that never happens?

And AG Bill Barr is sending the Justice Department to look for voter fraud.

The United States Department of Justice is sending voting rights monitors to Allegheny County for the election. https://t.co/IEMKIRSoeN

— KDKA (@KDKA) November 3, 2020

Yep, right here in Pittsburgh. I don’t know what that’s going to look like or what they’re planning but I’m agin’ it. We’ve never had issues before and I don’t know why this year would be different but there you go.

Barton Gellman lays out several possible scenarios in The Atlantic:

THE LAW-ENFORCEMENT OPTION

What “I do worry about,” the senior Biden adviser said, is an operation that combines federal law-enforcement forces under Barr’s command—as Barr arranged for the photo opportunity in Lafayette Square in June—including “some combination of DHS and the marshal service.”

In this scenario, federal authorities would purport to be investigating voter fraud and take steps to stop the counting. There is not much plausible authority to do that under federal law, but the law would not really be the point. If the FBI or U.S. Marshals showed up at a county election board with orders to seize the ballots, local officials would probably comply.

When I asked Lisa Manheim, a University of Washington law professor, about this scenario, she figuratively threw up her hands.

“Baked into your question is the idea that the president would somehow use legal means to then commit unlawful actions, so I understand why you’re asking it, but conceptually speaking, you’re not really asking a legal question,” she said. “You’re asking more just a question of power, when [legal pretexts] lend legitimacy to that exercise of power.”

The legal experts Gellman talked to can’t see it happening where Barr seizes all of the mail in ballots in Allegheny county because he gets reports of voter fraud. How could he physically remove all of those ballots? He wouldn’t really do that.

Really? REALLY??

This is Trump and Barr we’re talking about. They’re ruthless and there hasn’t been a principle they haven’t been willing to violate.

I voted in good faith and so did 2,000,000 other people in this state. There’s no reason for anyone to believe that there’s anything wrong with the ballots. Each one has a tracking number and we know the status of most of them. All we’re waiting for are the ballots that are postmarked 11/3.

This is insane.

Hence the boarded up storefronts.