And I thought the Bush-Gore election of 2000 was surreal, since it took a Supreme Court ruling to decide it (or steal it, more likely). No, this one makes the nightmare of hanging chads and butterfly ballots look like a perfectly sane, normal election year. Today, we go straight off the rails into the Twilight Zone.
Sometime this afternoon, all the major news outlets (I think starting with PBS, but eventually followed by CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc) called the election for Biden. The writing was on the wall when the predictions showed Biden with 253 electoral votes and both Nevada (6) and Arizona (11) likely to be won by Biden, making exactly 270 electoral votes and barely enough to win. PBS had called Arizona for Biden sooner than the other networks, but then it became obvious that Pennsylvania would turn blue along with them, easily making it a Biden victory unless something really screwy happens in the legal arena.
But no, in case you are wondering, that is emphatically not where we go straight off the rails into the Twilight Zone. That is here as evidenced by the following tweets:
Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — 11:30am!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
(Original text mentioned only Four Seasons, leading most to believe it would be the hotel.)
To clarify, President Trump’s press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia.
It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping— no relation with the hotel.— Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center (@FSPhiladelphia) November 7, 2020
(News articles covering this: The Mirror (UK), The Mary Sue, Huffington Post, among many others I’m sure)
The news media had a field day with this, for obvious reasons. I had to double check to make sure the story wasn’t from one of those joke/spoof/satire websites. I mean, this has The Onion or The Babylon Bee written all over it. But no, this is the real thing. This actually happened: a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, not the famous hotel. Next to an adult novelty/book store, across the street from a crematorium. Perhaps the dumpiest place to have a presser.
That this is perhaps the perfect metaphor for DJT’s entire tenure as occupant of the office of president is not lost on me. (At least I hope it is his entire tenure, he has mentioned running in 2024 and I really, really hope we have enough smart people to ensure he does not get re-elected.) This is someone who has his name on resorts and hotels. That he couldn’t just use one of his own hotels speaks volumes, and is perhaps a telltale sign we’ve been dealing with a much bigger fraud than most would believe.
What’s most worrisome to me, though, is what the orange guy with a dead rat on his head can do as a lame duck president. To be honest, a lot of the questionable decisions he has made and things he has said make me wonder if he didn’t intend to tank any chances at re-election from day one. I head read or heard that the original plan was to run, lose, and profit from the book deal. Unfortunately I can’t find the source anymore but this certainly passes the smell test for the Trump way of doing things.
Buckle your seat belts, America. The plane hasn’t landed yet and we are headed for what may be some real turbulence.