Big Dogs Weblog

Presidential Conjecture

by LCDWIN01 on Feb 3, 2021 at 22:11 Political

The following statements are pure speculation.  I have no ‘inside info’ to draw from, just my overactive mind, stacking assumptions upon assumptions.  That these wild-ass theories have even a smidgen of potential of happening in real life is a bit unsettling.  Consider this a work of plausible fiction.  Let’s dig.

It is January, 2016.  President Barack Obama is entering into the final year of his second term.  He knows the Constitutional limits of his office, but he really DIGS being in charge.  Keep in mind Obama’s background:  he really hasn’t had any real job exposure—he went from college to law school to community organizer to US Senator to US President.  He did a small stint as ‘visiting lecturer’, but that doesn’t even require putting together a class plan.  Barack has made his living, his entire adult life, talking.  But as President, things he says HAPPEN.  That is quite an intoxicating power!  He would love to extend it beyond his eight years in office, but how?

The presumptive Democrat candidate for President in 2016 is former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (whom Obama edged out in 2008).  Other than Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont, there really is no competition for the nomination.  But a funny thing happened along the way:  Sanders has TONS of support, especially with the young, malleable voters that are completely ignorant of the systematic pitfalls of Socialism.  All they see is free stuff: healthcare, ‘living’ minimum wage, and forgiving of their largest future expense—student loans.  To the young folks, Sanders is a much more preferrable option than HRC.  The problem:  the big donors of the DNC are not about to set Sanders loose in the White House!  Sanders’ anti-wealth rhetoric is as disconcerting to the wealthy as can be—they simply cannot let him pay for his wild schemes, some with greater price tags than the entire yearly tax collections, by increasing THEIR tax burdens!  So, the DNC and Obama make the decision:  HRC will be the next President.  Sanders will be placated with whatever it takes to make him go away quietly.  And Obama can run his proxy third term directly thru HRC.  Perfect.

The GOP opposition is in complete disarray.  There appear to be dozens of folks in the GOP primary debates, from Senator Ted Cruz, to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, to NY real estate (and reality show celebrity) Donald Trump!  All of them have issues of one sort or another.  Cruz has very little likability outside of his home State of Texas.  Bush is so boring, he may fall asleep during his own speech!  And Trump is Trump—bombastic, caustic, and abrasive, with literally NO political experience.  Clinton should beat any of these ‘challengers’ handily, even though her likability factor is not high, her speech style is harsh and grating, and she seems to be not much more than riding the coattails of her ex-President husband.  Let’s just say that she isn’t the ‘ideal candidate’, and leave it at that.

The GOP primary is as crazy a season as ever.  After the dust settles, the GOP select that reality show real estate dude, Donald Trump as their candidate!  This is a complete wildcard, as Trump has never run for public office before.  The DNC has no idea what Trump’s campaign strategy might be, as he is a complete political unknown.  The DNC has a wild-ass idea:  pay for a smear-campaign ‘Russian dossier’ on Trump, using completely worthless source, Christopher Steele! Then the good news hits:  Carter Page is on Trump’s team!  The CIA uses Page as a Russian contact, but the FBI can work with that.  The FBI has a lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith.  He can ‘modify’ CIA emails to make it look like Page is NOT a CIA asset that deals with Russians!  That, along with the fake dossier, will be enough to convince the weak FISA courts to issue a wiretapping warrant.  Since Page is now considered a Russian asset (bogus, but the FISA court doesn’t know that), the warrant is issued.  FISA is allowed to issue such warrants if either party is considered ‘foreign’.  The underhanded dealings work, so the DNC is literally listening in to GOP phone calls!  This should be an easy election for the Democrats.

Except the DNC underestimates the public’s dissatisfaction with the entire political landscape.  Middle America (fly-over country) has felt flat-out ignored for the last several election cycles, and they are not happy about it.  Donald Trump plays directly into the anger of non-coastal America.  His brand of populism, focused on border security (“Build The Wall”) and America First (jobs and economy), is right into the wheelhouse of those voters who feel illegal immigration and offshoring jobs is the biggest problem facing them.  In spite of Trump rallies garnering packed houses, regardless of the size of the venue, the DNC still feels confident.  The double error of underestimating their opponent, and overestimating their candidate plays out—Donald Trump defeats Hillary Rodham Clinton, and is sworn in as the 45^th President of the United States.

This completely thwarts Obama’s plans to control the Presidency via proxy.  Obama sets up a new office in Washington, DC, named Organizing For America (OFA), comprised of many of Obama’s former staffers.  They keep their same fundraisers, and contacts within and without government circles.  OFA allegedly instigates rioters from the moment Trump is declared winner.  Overturned burning cars, broken windows, and violence mar many large cities.  This will get worse over the next four years, as EVERY purported racial injustice will be blamed on the Trump administration, implausible as it may be.

Inside of government, the Democrat-installed functionaries work hard to create chaos.  The Steele dossier is ‘leaked’ to the Washington Post by FBI Director James Comey.  This is used as confirmation to the powers that be that a Special Prosecutor MUST be appointed to investigate Donald Trump!  So, the Mueller Probe begins, investigating not only Trump, but anyone that works for or has ever worked for Trump.  Over two years and $30M later, the probe admits they have NOTHING on Trump.  Behind closed doors, Democrat Congressmen admit, under oath, that they never had evidence against Trump.  But publicly, those same Congressmen kept the mainstream media breathless with accusations and revelations that the downfall of the entire Trump criminal enterprise was about to collapse!  This story and storyline dominated the news cycles for the entire two plus years of the investigation.  The fact that it was patently false had no bearing, as it served its purpose:  to discredit the Trump administration, and distract from any good results Trump’s policies may cause.

And there WAS good news:  Trump’s tax rate cuts, especially for business, created an economic boon that had not been seen in decades—unemployment rates for nearly every minority sector were at or near historic lows.  GDP growth rates exceeded 3%, after Obama had declared 1% growth ‘the new normal’.  Many manufacturing jobs, over 400K of them, repatriated from elsewhere back to the US, several due to improved tax treatment.  Minority leaders were declaring Trump the best President for their specific communities in many years.

But while the Mueller Probe was distracting much of the US, Obama and the DNC decided to play the long game, and NOT have a repeat performance!  Trump’s re-election campaign must fail, at all costs.  Obama so badly wanted to reign with Presidential authority, all avenues must be pursued.  So, the DNC took a political autopsy of the 2016 election, and determined where they went wrong.  Solid Blue (Democrat) States could be counted on, no matter what.  Solid Red (GOP) States were likely still out of reach for the DNC.  But, the swing States, the ‘battleground’ States, those normally Blue States that Trump won in 2016—THOSE will be the Democrat target efforts!  In those States, especially States dominated by large urban areas (MI by Detroit, WI by Milwaukee, Virginia by suburban DC, AZ by Phoenix, NV by Las Vegas), a plan was hatched.  Buy Dominion voting machines and software—they are easily manipulated, and can ‘generate’ as many votes for your candidate as needed.  Remember the demographics:  carry the urban centers by large margins, it doesn’t matter what the other counties do, your guy wins that State.  Make sure that the people running the precincts in those key areas are Democrat loyalists—they may be required to do some shady things on election night to hide the rule-bending.

Meanwhile, the Mueller Probe was an absolute dud.  No dirt could be found on President Trump, even after arresting some Trump loyalists, hoping to get them to flip on him.  No dice.  General Michael Flynn was railroaded into a guilty plea of lying to the FBI.  Roger Stone was arrested SWAT-style at 4am, even though he offered to surrender peaceably to whomever wanted him.  Neither would implicate Trump on anything.  The Probe did arrest and imprison Paul Manafort on an old tax evasion charge, but he did not flip, either.

By this time, it was 2020 Democrat primary season, to pick the candidate to run against Trump.  Once again, Bernie Sanders pulled the same enthusiastic support from young voters nationwide, for much the same reasons as 2016.  History repeated itself, as the DNC chose former Obama Vice President Joe Biden as the candidate, pushing Sanders to the side yet again.  Note that Biden had an incredibly unspectacular 47-year career in DC.  Biden withdrew in two prior attempts to run for President—once due to plagiarism of a campaign speech, once due to complete lack of support.  Biden is most famous for incredible verbal gaffes his entire career.  Biden even picked Kamala Harris as his VP running mate, even though Harris accused Biden of being a racist in the primary debates.  No matter, the ticket became Biden/Harris.

Just like the Democrat doctor ordered, President Trump was overheard on a phone call to the President of The Ukraine.  The gist of the call:  would the Ukrainians investigate Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings with a Ukrainian oil and gas company, Burisma?  The DNC cried that this was nothing more than a witch-hunt, to besmirch their new candidate.  This was the event the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives needed:  they immediately filed Articles of Impeachment against Trump, claiming ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’—neither of which are criminal acts.  The House filed the impeachment articles anyway.  The Senate, with one exception, voted along Party lines, for acquittal.  Still no damage to the Trump re-election prospects.

As if on cue, by accident or on purpose, while the failed impeachment process was running its course, the US was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The immediate reaction to prevent widespread sickness and death was to close down the economy for two weeks.  The intention was to ‘flatten out the curve’, to avoid overrunning hospitals and staff nationwide.  The guidelines were severe:  limit gatherings to 100 people, then 50, then 10.  This effectively closed all sporting events, bars, restaurants, hair and nail salons, and just about all small businesses.  While these guidelines were advised by the President and his staff of experts, they were administered by the Governors of each State.  Trump declared a State Of Emergency, but that just makes it easier to allocate and disburse assets.  The initial two-week window turned into several MONTHS!  The net effect was to stop the economic boon that Trump’s tax policies started.  The US economy ground to a halt.  Unemployment skyrocketed.  More importantly, it gave the media another topic to blast Trump:  his handling of the pandemic.  Case and death tolls were on chyrons on many news channels and networks.  Some non-COVID deaths were reported as COVID-caused, even without testing the deceased.  Blue State Governors enacted more and more stringent shutdown orders, even as some Red States were opening back up.  Real pain was felt by the US population, and the blame was pointed at Trump.

Now we had the 2020 Presidential Election.  Due to the scare of COVID-19, Biden almost didn’t campaign at all.  He put a ‘lid’ on his activities most days, giving statements via videophone from his basement.  Trump continued to have stadiums-full rallies, with thousands of rabid fans in attendance.  The enthusiasm gap between GOP and Democrat candidates was obvious, with Trump support still quite strong, in spite of the dire newscasts of the prior four years—from the Mueller Russa Probe, to Impeachment, to COVID-19—Trump looked unbeatable.

States across the US used the COVID-19 pandemic to usher in acceptance of mail-in ballots.  Now, some States, like Oregon, have been operating with mail-in for years.  And absentee ballots, where the voter requests the ballot with identity validation information, have been in use for years, especially for deployed military and folks that are hospitalized or out of country on Election Night.  But in this case, ballots were mailed to everyone on the voter rolls, with zero ID validation.  Some of those folks were deceased, but the ballots were sent out anyway.  Many States waived even the most perfunctory signature check on incoming mail-in ballots.  This led to unheard-of voter participation percentages.  Where normal high participation rates were in the 50-60% range of registered voters, some States recorded 70-80%!  Some districts recorded more votes than registered voters, claiming a flood of same-day registrations.  These mail-in ballots were counted by Dominion Voting Services hardware and software.

Remember those swing ‘battleground’ States?  On Election Night, the US went to bed around midnight, with Trump comfortably ahead in EVERY ONE of those States!  If Trump carried MI, WI, and NC, there was no mathematical way he could lose the Electoral College to Biden.  All of the States stopped vote counting at midnight.  At 3:30am, they all resumed (for some reason)—but now, Biden overcame the leads Trump had in each State!  Biden was now ahead in every ‘battleground’ State!  Several of the key voting precincts somehow counted votes without the necessary (and legal) poll watchers present.  Just a twist of fate—the guy who did not campaign at all, did not really even have a specific platform, recorded the most votes ever for President in US history!  In fact, Trump also garnered the record number of votes, surpassed only by Biden in 2020.

Upon being sworn in as the 46^th President of the United States, Joe Biden did something no other President ever had:  within two weeks, he signed FORTY-SEVEN Executive Orders!  By comparison, most Presidents sign between 40 and 100 EOs their first YEAR.  EOs are intended to be Executive Branch clarifications of law enforcement of existing law, not as a method of creating new law.  Note that the Democrats nominally control both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  One would think that President Biden could usher in more permanent laws thru both houses, and EOs would not even be necessary.  The net effect of Biden’s 47 EOs was to reverse all of the policy directions from former President Trump back to the era of former President Obama.  Now, if one were inclined to imagine that those EOs were pre-written policy that just needed a Presidential signature to enact, dictated in one form or another by Obama or his folks, then Obama could realize his dream:  run the White House via Joe Biden proxy.  Welcome to Barack Obama’s third term as President of the United States—the four-year interruption by the unexpected term of Donald Trump was just a mistake, quickly corrected.