{"id":1064,"date":"2020-08-01T13:24:50","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T13:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2020-08-01T13:24:50","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T13:24:50","slug":"august-1-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1064","title":{"rendered":"August 1, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the one hand, this is simply part of Trump\u2019s ongoing strategy to discredit the election results in the case that he should lose the election.\u00a0 As an aside, should he win, I wonder if he will continue to question the legitimacy of the election results?\u00a0 Hmm! Perhaps he hasn\u2019t thought that far ahead.\u00a0 \u00a0Regardless, he continues to rant about the potential fraud associated within mail in voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, is an ardent Trump supporter and major campaign donor.\u00a0 He has no experience, whatsoever, in the postal business.\u00a0 He has already, since his recent appointment, instituted new policies that appear to be delaying mail delivery and creating a backlog of mail.\u00a0 Given that mail-in ballots must be delivered according to strict timelines to be counted in an election, that would seem to be a potential problem coming into the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the potential adverse impacts on these new policies were questioned, a spokesman for the Postmaster was insistent that there is no coordination between the White House and DeJoy, and that the Postmaster operates completely independently from the White House.\u00a0 We can certainly take comfort in that statement.\u00a0 Of course, Attorney General William Barr is adamant in his independence from Trump although his actions seriously undermine that argument.\u00a0 Why should we believe that DeJoy is any different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you put this all together, one could draw the conclusion that the biggest adverse impact to this election caused by mail-in voting will not be caused by any foreign entity, but rather by the Trump administration itself.\u00a0 It is a given that low voter turnout tends to favor Republicans, e.g. Trump and that a larger voter turnout tends to favor the Democrats.\u00a0 If thousands, or tens of thousand ballots, in key districts were \u2018lost\u2019 or \u2018delayed\u2019 to such an extent that it affected the election, and challenges were mounted in court, that would probably take months to work through the process.\u00a0 Think it\u2019s not possible \u2013 think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The postal system is now under the control of an ardent Trump supporter and has also recently been forced to have closer ties to the Department of the Treasury under Secretary Steve Muchin, also an ardent Trump supporter.\u00a0 What could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I stated in the beginning, it seems that the more Trump rants against something, the more likely it is he is engaged in the same behavior \u2013 only worse.\u00a0 There is almost zero credible evidence that mail-in voting is subject to wide spread fraud, but there could very well be a huge threat from within this administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Final Word:\u00a0 There was an article published in Vanity Fair stating that early in the pandemic a team led by the president\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, developed a national testing plan which was about to be rolled out.\u00a0 According to the report, the decision was made to not roll out the plan because, at that time, it appeared that the areas most affected by the coronavirus were primarily \u2018Blue States\u2019 and it would be politically advantageous to be able to blame the governors of those states.\u00a0 The reporters and Vanity Fair stand by the veracity of this story and, if true, is unconscionable.\u00a0 The result of this calculated political decision was the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.\u00a0 If true, people responsible for this decision should be prosecuted.\u00a0\u00a0 What kind of a country have we become where American citizens are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency and the desire to retain power at all costs?\u00a0 \u201cMake America Great\u201d \u2013 what a joke!<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"