Donald Trump does it again. Every day there’s something new with him. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!!!

I had zero plans to write today. ZERO! But as part of his daily tweet storm, Donald Trump did it again. He came up with this beauty:

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

Okay…okay..okay. Everyone relax. Neither He nor any President of the United States has the power to delay a federal election. The constitution says that Congress sets the election date. Even if you’re a hard core Trumpster, you can’t believe that a solidly Democratic House of Representatives is going to even think about doing this, do you? Okay…okay…okay…do you feel better about this now, If not, try some deep breathing. Glad to be of help.

BUT…..

What if the election was postponed? Who would be POTUS on Wednesday, January 20, 2021?

Trump obviously thinks that he would continue in the job. As usual, he thinks wrong. His term comes to an end that day. So let’s take a look at the presidential succession chart to see who would be in charge…

President-Trump’s term is over. He’s out!
Vice President-If Trump is gone, so is Mike Pence. He’s out, too.
Speaker of the House-Don’t get too exited, kids. If there’s no election, all members of the House will see their terms end. Sorry, Nancy…you’re out, too!
Secretary of State-Mike Pompeo? I would think his job also ends on this day, so if Trump is out, Pompeo is too. Bye, bye!
President Pro Tempore of the Senate-That gig is now held by Chuck Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa. He’s not up for election this year, so is he your next Potus?

To quote “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights”, “STOP RIGHT THERE!!” Here’s where it gets interesting.

There are thirty-five Senate seats up for election this year. Twenty-three are held by Republicans while twelve are controlled by Democrats. If there’s no election, all of their terms are over. If there’s no election, all of their seats are empty. Doing the math, that leaves the folks in red with thirty senators, while the peeps in blue have thirty-five. Control of the Senate goes to the Democrats. By the way, can you imagine the Senate without Mitch and Lindsey, but I digress.

Chuck Grassley will not be your next President! PHEW!

Your next POTUS will be whoever the Democrats choose to become President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Who that would be, I don’t have a clue and I doubt any of the Democrats do either; although being politicians, they’ve probably thought this through in great detail and probably for a lot longer than I have. Can you imagine the infighting for this usually useless gig?

I know all of this is really a convoluted exercise. I know he does this shit to make us forget about the pandemic, the economy, Putin and everything else that is occurring in the world of Trump. But that’s what happens when Donald Trump starts tweeting. It’s what happens every day when Donald Trump is President. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!!!!

Related Post: How far will Donald Trump go to get reelected?

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That’s the board of the union representing Chicago Tribune workers that gave a whole new meaning to “solidarity.”

Turning from the traditional role of rattling management’s cage, the Chicago Tribune Guild’s leadership turned on a fellow employee, the Tribune’s lead columnist John Kass. In a widely circulated letter, the executive board accused Kass of writing a column that was racist and anti-Semitic. The charge, of course, was not just inaccurate, but wildly so. Also malevolent and a flat-out lie.

As a former member and officer of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, at the time representing workers at the Sun-Times and Daily News, I find the board’s action to be condemnable. Way outside of the bounds of organized labor. Never in all those years did the Chicago Newspaper Guild take any official action against a fellow employe because his or her views were different than ours. Even if we thought the views  damaged the paper’s readership numbers. Our job was straightforward: work in our members’ interests.

Sure, Kass has exercised his right not to join the Tribune Guild, so I suppose the executive committee (let’s call them The Nine) is not obliged to get him a raise, improve his working conditions, secure his job and so forth. But having reviewed the Guild’s mission statement, I find nothing in there about sitting in judgment of a columnist’s views.

The Nine argued that Kass’ views undermine the Guild’s efforts to build readership, but the action has angered so many readers that it seems to have backfired. (See, for example, the many supportive comments on his Facebook page.)

Further, the action violates its own stated mission of “…protecting Chicago Tribune journalism. We are committed to establishing a productive relationship with the company and, together, creating the conditions under which we can continue to produce excellent journalism for our readers.” Maybe The Nine could explain how what they did establishes a productive relationship with the company.

Sure, solidarity means mutual support of members of a certain group–namely the Tribune Guild–so it doesn’t strictly apply to non-member Kass. (That raises suspicions that the action is retaliation, but I have no evidence of that.) But using the Guild’s institutional powers to target a co-worker is reprehensible. It is a gross misuse of the Guild’s power and grounds for new leadership.

It’s not my job to tell the Guild membership what to do. But I could not hide my amusement if The Nine became a victim of the same cancel culture that spurred them to tar Kass. But that assumes that individual Guild members are motivated to remove them for the unjustified  attack on a colleague because of his views.

There’s ticking in the walls.

It started a few weeks ago. A tick-tick-tick. Steady and incessant in the wall of our bedroom. The sound is not from a clock nor is it the whirring of our ceiling fan. It is loudest at night; at least that is how it seems to me.

Barb hears it too. But she has a portable fan on her nightstand. The fan keeps her cool and as an added benefit drowns out the sound for her and the kitten at her hip. But I still hear the tick-tick-tick every night.

There’s more ticking in the walls.

We think it is coming from one of the air conditioning vents. It’s the vent that we relocated so it wouldn’t be obstructed by the dresser and the flat-screen TV.

So I unscrew the vent cover. It isn’t that easy to do. The hex screw heads are small and I don’t have a wrench that works with them. I find a pair of needle-nosed pliers. With those, I can grasp the screw heads and carefully turn them counter-clockwise to loosen them. I release both screws and take off the vent cover. I feel around but can’t detect any obstructions or any material in the duct that might be knocking and ticking. I can’t find a thing. But when I screw the vent back on there is blissful silence.

And then–it’s another night and I am awake at 4 a.m.

There’s still ticking in the walls.

I am imagining the possibilities. Is the noise something in the bowels of the HVAC system? Or something buried deeper under our house? Is that why this was the last unbuilt lot in this development of 300 houses? Did something keep other potential buyers away?

Perhaps the ticking is signifying not the past but the future.  Maybe it’s a doomsday clock counting viral particles spreading through the atmosphere or measuring the micro degrees the planet is warming. At 4 a.m. it all seems possible.

In the light of the day I know it is all nonsense. The sunrise was magnificent this morning as I sped down the Tollway. Reds and oranges and dark grey clouds. I know the house can’t warn me of catastrophe. As long as we are careful, all will be well.

But why is there ticking in the walls?

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The media is going wild because Trump seemingly just put the nail in his own coffin by asking if the November election should be delayed because of the potential for voter fraud due to mail-in voting. Check out some of these headlines and article openers –

Down in Polls, Trump Floats Delaying Election, Which He Cannot Do  “Trailing badly in the polls…” – New York Times

Trump Floats Delaying Election Despite Lack of Authority To Do So “President Donald Trump explicitly floated delaying November’s presidential election on Thursday, lending extraordinary voice to persistent concerns that he would seek to circumvent voting in a contest where he currently trails his opponent by double digits.”– CNN

How Trump Could Subvert the Election “Despite fears, the president likely won’t be able to cling to power in defiance of the results.” -Brennan Center for Justice

Can Trump Delay the 2020 Election? Here’s What the Constitution Says “If the president’s lawyers gin up an argument that he can, we will be witness to authoritarianism in its defining form.” – Bloomberg

Every time he says something particularly outrageous, my first thought used to be, “here he goes again”. It always baffled me, how someone who was so successful in the business world could be so…undisciplined.

Then I started paying attention.

Trump is a master chess player who understands the long game better than his opponents. Trump makes what appears to be a brash, ill-considered move out front, knowing his opponents will take the bait. While they’re busy celebrating taking his piece and mocking his intelligence, he is setting up checkmate.

Trump – and many – believe he will win, and that it will be a massive victory.  Every one of the above articles state as categorical fact that Biden is way ahead in the polls, inferring the election is a foregone conclusion in favor of the Democrats. These are the same polls that predicted the same result – Trump losing – in 2016.

The Democrats and pundits are still trying to figure that one out. The answer too many have come to is that Trump supporters are “A basket of deplorables”. You know, racists, homophobes, misogynists, xenophobes, anti-Muslim, anti-abortion, anti- fill in the blank.

Trump was elected in 2016, or rather Hillary was defeated, by the “Silent Majority” that occupy 95% of the Nation’s landmass that was Red after the last election. Trump – and many – believe the “Silent Majority” is more silent now than ever, and more are daily, quietly joining their ranks. Because many believe that even more so than in 2016 people are afraid to say they will vote for Trump, or rather, against the Democrat.

The rhetoric leveled against Trump supporters in 2016 has morphed into our current cancel culture where even the suggestion the above characterizations are unfair or inaccurate is tantamount to a confession of holding those beliefs. Many feel that attempting to have a conversation about what those accusations even mean is like being forced to answer, “Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?”.

People have lost their jobs, are blocked from social media, have been verbally – and in more and more cities – physically attacked for daring to disagree with the woke, the self-righteous, or the social justice warriors. Have a Trump sticker on your car? Don’t be surprised when your car is scratched, the windows are smashed, it’s spray-painted with slurs.

Have an American flag in front of your house? You’re warned to take it down so you don’t become a target. This happened to me and was recommended out of genuine concern for my safety. Of course I responded with not just no, but with a heartfelt Hell No!

Drive down the street with Gold Star license plates? Be prepared to get screamed at and harassed by those who think your plates have something to do with the police. Yep, this has happened to me and to many Gold Stars I know across the country. More than one Gold Star has chosen not to drive their vehicle into Chicago or other cities.

I don’t know of a single Gold Star family member who does not proudly state their loved one died for the free and full expression of rights – including the right to protest – enshrined in our Constitution. In several of these instances, the Gold Star family member innocently tooling down the road was an ardent supporter of the cause they’re being attacked over. “Was” being the keyword in that sentence.

In other words, if someone even thinks you might not be all in with the accepted narrative, it is their right to make your life difficult, unpleasant or even destroy you in any way they can. How many elected officials, and self-appointed leaders of the various protests have proudly, unashamedly exhorted their followers to harass anyone they perceive as possibly holding a different opinion?

“Chase them out of restaurants, grocery stores, anywhere and anytime you see them in public. Make them pay for supporting this President, make them uncomfortable enough to change their support”. That, by the way, is a direct quote from an elected Democrat that has been repeated, albeit paraphrased with a lot of profanity, by many self-appointed leaders of the social justice movements. Go ahead and try to find it. I’ll give you a hint…it was buried on the fifteenth page of an internet search engine. Two other search engines failed to find it at all.

It has become dangerous to question the socially accepted narratives…dangerous for your job, your family, your home. The viciousness of the attacks on anyone who doesn’t say the right thing and say it in the right way is staggering and horrifying. Trump knows this. The Left knows this as well. After all, that is their point. Vilify, harass, demean, browbeat, attack until you either accept their righteousness or at least accept the inevitability of their win, long before the vote can be counted.

There really is no counter to this strategy. Trump knows this, too. So, he is playing a different game while pretending to play theirs. He moves a piece, making what appears to be a really dumb move. They take the bait and too late realize he just put them in check.

What Trump has done is guarantee that his win in November cannot be questioned, cannot be called a result of voter fraud due to mail-in voting. Because for the next four months, all the media will be talking about is how he wanted to cancel the election.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get the opposition to play chess like pigeon. I now return you to your regularly scheduled protests, rioting and quarantines.

Next week will see former Vice-President Joe Biden announce his running mate for the 2020 Presidential Election. What we do know for sure is that Biden’s VP candidate will be a woman. This decision is certainly an astute one, as it truly was women who decided the 2018 mid-term elections, and it’s likely will again in November.

So who will it be? Will “suburban moms” be the swing vote bloc that most influences the 2020 election? If so, who does Biden go with in order to reach them?

It’s almost certainly going to be a name that you’re already quite familiar with. According to Sports Betting Dime’s latest political betting news, California Senator Kamala Harris is the -180 favorite to be named 2020 Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate. Like Biden himself, Harris appeals to the moderate lane of the left, as she holds some positions that are closer to the center. She’s certainly a strong pick, as she has past experience in several high profile positions within government.

A former prosecutor and presidential candidate herself, she was one of the first notable names to drop out. Harris struggled to convey her Presidential platform in a clear, concise manner to the electorate, but she did see a lot of momentum early on. Of course the lead story right now, regarding a potential Biden-Harris partnership, are the notes used by the presumptive Democratic nominee during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday.

Photographers zoomed in on the paper in his hands, and they saw Kamala Harris’ name present, beside such phrases as “Do not hold grudges,” “Campaigned with me & Jill,” “Talented,” “Great help to campaign”, and “Great respect for her.” Was this a poker player getting his cards shown while still at the table?

We’ll see next week, as Biden’s staff refused to make a statement on it, but one can definitely infer that Biden was, at least in some capacity, referencing the heated exchange the duo had during the last round of Democratic debates. It’s not a big deal to bridge the gap from that moment to the decision that appears imminent. It’s the nature of our two-party political system, unfortunately, and it happens every four years. 

The two parties are at each others throats during the primaries, then reconcile and come together for the general. Last time out, probably the most extreme example of this standard practice was former Texas Governor Rick Perry calling reality tv host Donald Trump “a cancer” on their political party, then later endorsing him. And then Trump’s team appointed Perry the Secretary of Energy! 

So Kamala Harris is the strong favorite to get the nod next week, but if it’s not her, then Susan Rice, Ambassador to the United Nations when Biden was Veep under President Barack Obama, is the most likely other option. 

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.

You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.

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