December 16, 2020: Trump Still Stuck in the Sixteen Stages of Grief

 

12/16/20: An iceberg the size of Delaware, which broke loose in 2017, is floating in the South Atlantic. It may soon plow into the island of South Georgia and get stuck, melting slowly (perhaps over the next decade). If it does it will release enough fresh water into the ocean to drastically alter the environment around the island. According to scientists, the berg “weighs hundreds of billions of tons.” 

Asked about this development, President Trump tells reporters, “I won the election in South Georgia with ease.” 

(Satire, of course.)

Waldron, during an appearance on Lou Dobbs' show.

 

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LOOK, WE KNOW Mr. Trump refuses to accept the fact he lost, and seems to grow angrier by the hour. He now faces ignominious removal from the White House in just 34 days. We have been updating the “Stages of Grief” as necessary. The original six became nine. Then yesterday: eleven. 

An astute former student, Mark Napier, suggested adding “grifting” and all of the Seven Deadly Sins. All seven apply at some point, but not necessarily to the current situation. We highlight those which do apply in italics, and add another from Mr. Napier, plus one or two of our own. 

We now have: 

The Sixteen Stages of Grief 

Denial

Tweeting

Anger

Golfing

Grifting

Envy

Hiding out

Desperation

Stupidity

Hallucinating

Bargaining

Lying

Depression

More Lying

Wrath

Acceptance

Inauguration

At this point, it’s clear the poor president is never going to get to “acceptance.” So, we have a new final stage of grief. (See: 11/25/20, 12/15/20, 12/16/20 and 1/22/21 for the original, intermediate and final lists.)

 

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CREDE BAILEY, director of the White House security office, was in intensive care for three months and had part of his leg amputated after contracting the coronavirus. No explanation for why the White House kept his condition secret until now.

 

(We can guess.)

 

Bailey faces steep medical bills. An online fundraiser has been set up on his behalf. People familiar with the situation tell ABC News he was hospitalized in September. No word if Trump contributed to his fund.

 

Highly unlikely. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: The president is not the only proto-fascist to be having trouble accepting the election results. On his show today, Rush Limbaugh tells listeners that Biden “didn’t win this thing fair and square, and we’re not going to be docile like we’ve been in the past, and go away and wait till the next election.” 

He goes on to exclaim, “Seventy-four million plus Americans are not going to shut up, and you tell them that their views don’t matter? You do not know what you’re creating. You do not know the enemy you are manufacturing.” 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: The New York Times will later do an analysis of transcripts from his show, between 11/22/20 and 1/5/21. Limbaugh will refer to the election as “fraudulent,” “stolen,” “rigged” or “illegal” on 32 of 45 episodes.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE #2: We won’t know this until February 2022; but on this date, December 16, 2020, Trump allies are already drafting a plan which would allow President Trump to seize voting machines in several states in an attempt to prove the election was stolen. 

A draft report circulating states: 

I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find that the forensic report of Antrim County, Michigan voting machines, released December 13, 2020, and other evidence submitted to me in support of this order, provide probable cause sufficient to require action under the authorities cited above because of evidence of international and foreign interference in the November 3, 2020, election. Dominion Voting Systems and related companies are owned or heavily controlled and influenced by foreign agents, countries, and interests. The forensic report prepared by experts found that “the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results. The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors... The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud.” The report found the election management system to be wrought with unacceptable and unlawful vulnerabilities—including access to the internet— probable cause to find evidence of fraud, and numerous malicious actions.

 

This order would have given the Department of Defense authority to seize all the machines in states Trump lost. Such as Georgia. 

For some reason, no one on Team Trump wants to examine the voting machines in, say, Florida, where Trump won. 

Or North Carolina. 

Or Ohio.

 

This email is the work of retired Army Col. Phil Waldron, and retired Army Gen. Michael T. Flynn. 

Fortunately, when the idea of seizing the machines is broached to the Department of Defense, the plan is shot down. (See 12/17/20.) 

We also know that in June 2021, a report produced by a Republican-led Michigan Senate committee blows to bits the idea that there was any significant voter fraud in Antrim County, which people like Waldron and Flynn believed there was. As the GOP chair of the committee explained, “We must all remember: ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof’ and ‘claiming to find something extraordinary requires first eliminating the ordinary.’” 

Yet, Flynn and his crew, with the support of President Trump, had plans to overturn the vote for one fundamental reason. 

Trump lost.