-- -- -- To Your Election Day Bunkers! -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- For the fourth cycle in a row, I'm starting up the election day thread. Unlike last year, it's not going up early. Learned that lesson ... Usually, I use this post to talk about all the weird down-ballot races I'm interested in. This time, there's only one thing I'm interested in. Everything else is an afterthought. -- -- -- HAIL GRIMES! -- --
As usual, Kentucky and Indiana polls are the first ones to close. Both states are expected to go with Trump and may be called fairly early. The Kentucky Senate race could portend what kind of night it will be for each party. If it's called for McConnell in the first 30 minutes or so, it might indicate a decent night for Republicans. If it hasn't been called for him after 45 or 60 minutes, it could indeed be a signal for a big night for the Democrats, even if Amy McGrath were to lose in the end.
Anxious...... I’m prepared for an unremarkable night, all the way to full on Go-Bag evacuation with my firearms. I have two M80 gas masks that have been maintained, and pretty much a whole combat load of gear, prepared for 6-7 days. I’m not some crazy survivalist, I just never got rid of my gear when I retired. I told my wife, if she sees me in my gear, it’s go time. But i hope it’s an uneventful rest of the week.
Do you guys have any plans for tomorrow? Myself, I am planning to go for a nice hike in the morning to clear my mind. Then will do a last round of phone banking to Fl. Will try to take a nap in the afternoon and will have some friends over in the evening for what could be a long night. If it happens to be a short and winning one, I may head downtown to Black Lives matter Plaza!
I, months ago, had resolved to go down there on election night. But in this climate, I am staying far away from that area. Honestly, you should probably find another way to celebrate. Leave the Plaza to the kids.
The way I see it, if Biden wins ANY of NC, PA, GA, or FL then this thing is over early. I'm not necessarily expecting that but it would make things a lot more straightforward.
I blocked out the whole day ages ago because I knew I'd be useless at anything else. My plans: sleep in as late as possible (seriously), go get coffee at my favorite coffee place (it's takeout with COVID, but you can still sit outside), do a little work around the house, hunker down in my election bunker, drink bourbon, eat leftover Halloween candy, and hope for the best.
I put off a bunch of mindless work so I can burn through much of the day, then getting drunk, win or lose. I also can't go outside because I'm quarantining in NYS.
Stay safe if you go down there. I have no idea whether there'll be "uprest" or not, so I don't know whether one should worry about that; but I have no doubt that there'll be people in a position of authority who'd like to crack down on a crowd regardless, so one should definitely worry about that.
My understanding is that we we won't know about PA tomorrow night -- too many uncounted early votes. And then there'll be the Trumpian legal challenges. Dunno about the others.
I almost forgot. Folks were asking in the pre-election thread about news stories about the fencing around the WH, and I described the concerns amongst both government and business folks here about there being unrest regardless of the result. But I forgot one other interesting tidbit around here. We live on Capitol Hill, and we get a shit-tonne of helicopters over our house every single day anyway; but it's been really bad in the last few weeks. Apparently the Nuclear Emergency Search Team -- the folks responsible for finding and disarming a terrorist nuclear device -- have been gridding DC in helicopters doing a radiological survey so they have even better background radiation maps available, so they'll have a better chance of spotting anomalies in case someone decides to plant a dirty bomb or nuclear weapon here. Wheeeeeee.
On the one hand, I believe that there's very little chance that Biden loses PA and I simultaneously believe that Republicans will ultimately cheat their way to PA's electoral votes some bullshit way or another. On the bright side, Biden winning any of NC, FL, or GA would make PA academic. But if those states go to Trump, it's brown pants time. There are still some avenues to victory but all of them include assumptions that the Republicans won't cheat the voters in states in which they control the legislature. And that is a bad, bad assumption.