Just assume Trump will not cooperate.

The GSA is not allowing the Biden/Harris team to begin the transition process. This is mandated by law. There is money allocated to initiate the process and the GSA is to provide office space and other resources. But when has the law ever gotten in the way of what the Trump admin wants to do:

The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner.

It amounts to a formal declaration by the federal government, outside of the media, of the winner of the presidential race.

But by Sunday evening, almost 36 hours after media outlets projected Biden as the winner, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy had written no such letter. And the Trump administration, in keeping with the president’s failure to concede the election, has no immediate plans to sign one. This could lead to the first transition delay in modern history, except in 2000, when the Supreme Court decided a recount dispute between Al Gore and George W. Bush in December.

“An ascertainment has not yet been made,” Pamela Pennington, a spokeswoman for GSA, said in an email, “and its Administrator will continue to abide by, and fulfill, all requirements under the law.”

The GSA statement left experts on federal transitions to wonder when the White House expects the handoff from one administration to the next to begin — when the president has exhausted his legal avenues to fight the results, or the formal vote of the electoral college on Dec. 14? There are 74 days, as of Sunday, until the Biden inauguration on Jan. 20.

Well, let’s hope that the incoming Biden/Harris team is not flummoxed by this (completely predictable and expected) turn of events. They didn’t really think that the administration that refuses to acknowledge that it has been beaten and intends to challenge its beateness in court is going to make it easy for them, did they? The incoming administration should just assume that the government it inherits is going to look like the hotel suite of a notoriously boisterous and destructive 80’s rock band after its last gig on the farewell tour.

The furniture will be smashed, “FUCK YOUR BROWN m&m’s!!” will be written on the walls in feces and the lighting fixtures will be festooned with used condoms.

What am I thinking?? Jason Miller doesn’t use condoms.

Oh, there’s a little more in the article about Trump’s contract for his hotel in the old Post Office building buried in paragraph 20, and how delays will prevent the timely distribution of Covid vaccines, along with other things the Trump administration might want to burn before leaving:

Biden People: what is that smoke coming from the woods behind the parking lot?

Trump people: oh, just some leaves after we decided to rake the forest floor. You know, to show CALIFORNIA HOW IT’S DONE. {{sniggering, high fives, looks of utter adolescent contempt}}

Biden people, Please, please, please, tell me that you’ve had your team of psychologists and former chess masters game this shit out in your strategic bunker in a SCIF location. Do you need more money? We can gladly send you more if necessary.

Surely you’ve tapped former Obama era department heads and have brought the recently fired inspectors general onto your team. Colonel Vindman and Fiona Hill should be able to fill you in on national security matters. You know all this.

Just assume the worst because that’s what we’re going to get. Assume that the media will naively allow for Trump’s surrogates to spout enough nonsense and disinformation about “election irregularities” that almost half of the public will be confused and think it’s ok to leave the hooligans in charge while the courts sort out this mess that really isn’t a mess but the outcome of a well ordered and perfectly executed election process in Pennsylvania. But the perpetually confused and systematically enraged won’t reflect on that while Chuck Todd interviews both sides and ignores historical precedents. (See, Trump admin people? Some of us have been paying attention and know exactly how you operate.)

The government we paid for and thought we owned will need to be reconstructed from scratch by the time Trump and his droogies have hidden their stash and have split the trashed floors in the early morning hours sometime between December 14 and January 15.

Ehhh, make it closer to January 15. They’ll be laughing in their limos about how Biden’s team will have to put together whole executive branch departments starting with the piles of shredded documents suitable for stuffing mattress covers made from ethically sourced and sustainable bamboo fiber ticking fabric. Hey, remember how they drank bubbly in the back seat and laughed so hard they peed their pants about adhering to the Governmental Records Act? Too funny. Good times, good times.

🙄

Biden’s team should just use all that transition documentation they gave to the Trumpers back in 2016. It’s probably better than anything the Trumpers are going to leave behind.

But you already know this.