I received in the mail a flyer looking to hire "U.S. Postal Inspectors". The picture is of an armed agent with the words "U.S. Postal Inspector POLICE FEDERAL AGENT" on his back. It touts "positions available nationwide" and promises you can "make a difference". My first thought was that the ICE crew would be sent to steal mail-in ballots. I'm thinking there aren't enough ex-Jan6ers or ICE agents to interfere in enough local sites to make a difference. I honestly believe the National Guard and our (OUR) thoroughly DEI armed forces would largely balk at attacking their neighbors.
HOWEVER, I think it not beyond the pale to wonder if Bibi's boys, or Putin's special ops people might be helecoptered in.
Please tell me to chill my fevered imagination and that none of the above is possible.
ADNK...the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is a real...longstanding federal law enforcement agency (founded 1772) that routinely recruits armed agents...and actually guards election mail rather than seizing it. The flyer is normal.
On your scenarios: Postal Inspectors number only...1,200 and sit under USPS's independent governance...so redirecting them to ballot interference is a weak vector.
On the military balking...I wouldn't bank on it; service members generally follow orders...and as a former military man...I can tell you...that's exactly what you should expect to happen....and mass refusal is the exception.
On foreign operators being helicoptered in: that one I'd let go. No evidence base... catastrophic costs...and the U.S. has ample homegrown capacity for democratic backsliding without importing any.
Stay alert on the real institutional questions....the actionable response is poll working...election observing...and supporting local election officials.
Jack is correct that the most important sentence in this piece is not about redistricting or executive orders. It is this one: the goal isn’t implementation — the goal is the chilling effect. Students of democratic backsliding will recognize the pattern immediately. Governments that intend to hold power do not need to execute every threat. They need citizens to believe the threats are real enough to alter their behavior in advance. File the date the mail-ballot order was signed — not because the order will survive the courts, but because the people it was designed to reach do not follow the litigation. They see the order. They feel the uncertainty. They stay home. That is the mechanism. It has worked before, in places that also believed their institutions were strong enough to absorb it.
Jack is correct, too, that what happens between Election Day and certification is the question that should be keeping people awake. Note which of the tactics described here require winning: none of them. Redistricting shifts the baseline. Purges reduce the eligible pool. Confusion suppresses turnout. And if the wave comes anyway — if the arithmetic of a genuinely angry electorate overcomes the structural advantages built into the map — the certification fight is already being prepared. The people who refused to certify in 2020 and 2024 have not been removed from office. They have been watching. We have six months to understand that this is not a campaign story. It is a story about what a minority government does when it calculates that the rules no longer protect it. If you are reading this and something in you has shifted — if the pattern is now visible to you in a way it was not before — that is not the end of the work. That is the beginning of it. Find the place where your presence changes something. The history of moments like this one is not written by the people who understood what was happening. It is written by the people who understood what was happening and then did something about it.
Jane...the closing line is the right one. Understanding the pattern isn't the work...it's the prerequisite. Find the place your presence changes something...and go there!
Jack, thank you for this and a huge thanks for the specific suggestions as to what we can all do.
I don’t have words for the brazenness of the effort to tilt the table for minority rule. Never in my lifetime did I ever think we’d be here and yet…..
In conclusion, I WILL be calling to volunteer with at least one organization. All while I work to 86 Bill, my beloved (sarcasm intended here) maga House rep. I, for one, am really over and sick of all this bulll💩. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
Deb...reading this one nodding the whole way through.
The brazenness is the part that still catches me too...the open-faced quality of it...like they've stopped bothering to disguise the project. Because...they did...LONG AGO.
Good on you...for moving from sick-of-it to signed-up!
Volunteering...plus working to unseat your MAGA rep is exactly the right two-front approach: defend the system...while also replacing the people breaking it.
Thanks, Jack. I can’t stress enough how incredibly helpful it is to have concrete suggestions for ways to get into the thick of it and work to make a difference.
I’ve been sick of all of this for a while now and haven’t known where my efforts would be best placed…. This whole thing has been a little like watching a mass casualty event in slow motion. All I can say is not on my watch if I can help it. Thanks again!
It is very confusing. I usually mail in vote because it is easier and I like to travel. I fear that they can cheat at the in person votes. I think the most important thing we can do is figure out how to vote that is "safe". If I get a mail in ballot, should I drive it in. Is the early voting (in person) method to vote better than day of election voting. Once we have guidelines we need to share, share, share (but only with blue voters). We also need to share how to make sure we are registered and some states allow you to check your vote after to make sure it was counted. It is so sad that it has come to this.
Charli...you're asking exactly the right questions...and the honest answer is that the "safest" method varies by state... there's no one national rule.
A few general principles that hold most places: if you vote by mail...hand-delivering your ballot to an official drop box...or election office...is more reliable than mailing it...BECAUSE you eliminate postal delays...and most states let you TRACK IT.
Early in-person voting...tends to be the most resilient option OVERALL...shorter lines... more time to resolve any registration issues on the spot...and...a paper trail.
Day-of voting works fine...BUT...eaves no margin...if something goes wrong.
Two universal action items:
1. Check your registration status now at vote.org or your secretary of state's site (purges happen quietly)
2. After you vote, use your state's ballot tracker if it has one.
For state-specific guidance worth sharing...the League of Women Voters (vote411.org) is the cleanest nonpartisan source.
Sad that we're here, agreed...BUT... the share-share-share instinct is the right one!
Jack, thank you for this and especially for the what-we-can-do suggestions. I’m that person who has to DO SOMETHING in order to keep from falling into hopelessness, which is the last thing I plan to do.
I’ll make that call and see what they need that doesn’t require a law degree. I have time on my hands. Maybe I can even get a friend here to help. Also, I have friends in other southern states who might be willing to do some of this. Tennessee and Louisiana especially. I’ll forward this and see.
Trump is desperate so there’s nothing he won’t try. That concerns me greatly but I won’t let it stop me.
Susan..the doing-something instinct is the right one...and...it's also, practically...the ANTIDOTE to the hopelessness.
They feed each other in BOTH directions.
Your plan is solid: make the call...recruit a friend locally...ping the Tennessee and Louisiana folks.
Southern networks matter ENORMOUSLY right now....because that's where some of the most consequential ground game is happening...and...out-of-state friends often underestimate how much a forwarded email actually MOVES SOMEONE.
Buckle up, Susan... indeed. Glad you're in the seat!
I believe Trump is desperate enough to avoid his impeachment, to stay out of jail, to avoid being tried as a traitor, that there are no limits to what he will do as the vise closes--or just threatens to close. Starting a war didn't get him the diversion he wanted. He might yet start another war. Or (attempt to) use some form of a nuclear option.
Personally I think it’s way past time for these blue state governors/AGs/SoSs/etc. to tell SCOTUS and I guess their state SCs to pound sand, just do the thing, and dare anyone to stop them!
This is precisely what the fascists in the red states (like mine-AL) are doing.
Chuck...the frustration is completely understandable.
Watching one side play by rules the other side has OPENLY abandoned...feels like unilateral disarmament.
And...you're right that RED-STATE officials...have been testing what they can get away with for YEARS...often successfully.
I'd push back gently on the "just defy the courts" instinct, though.
The legitimacy of court orders is one of the few REMAINING guardrails...and...it cuts both ways: if blue states normalize ignoring rulings they dislike...they hand the other side permission to ignore the rulings that do still protect voting rights...civil rights...and basic democratic process.
The asymmetry is real...BUT...it's also load-bearing.
What blue-state AGs can do...and some are doing... is move aggressively at the edges of what's legal: proactive litigation...interstate compacts...refusing to cooperate with federal overreach...using state constitutions as a backstop.
That's the lane. Less satisfying than "pound sand,"...BUT... more durable.
Alabama is a hard place to be doing this work. Hang in there, Chuck!
We received mail in ballots in my state but will not mail them back. We’re waiting for the election drop off boxes to be available at our assigned locations. We also get emails and texts from our county of ballot receipts thereafter.
I saw Ballot Boxes already out, this weekend, in several places in California! A good sign!
When you DO go to vote, try to take a couple of friends with you or go with a local group if you have any worries.
If you vote by Mail, take your ballot into the post office and have the postal employee Time and Date stamp your ballot, AND take a picture of it on your phone, before you drop it in the box. It only takes an extra minute. I have done this many many times.
If your state has Ballot Tracking, sign up for it online. Ballot Tracking follows your ballot from the time it's accepting at the post office to when it's dropped off at the election office and actually counted. You get an email or a text with all the information that follows your Ballot.
Jack is right... that things are ONLY going to get exponentially WORSE as we get closer to the November midterms.
The GOP is fighting for their lives! And will hold back on NOTHING illegally to INTIMIDATE ALL of us!
trump AND his GOP maga regime ARE OBVIOUSLY AFRAID of the MAJORITY of Americans!!
WE NEED to be aware of this AND OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE anyway!!
It's going to be hard... BUT WE MUST PRESERVE.... because WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED!!!
WE just saw that it WORKED in Hungary where orban got VOTED OUT by a 30% margine! WE CAN do it in America, too!
**If/when I can no longer submit my responses here, know that I WILL continue to Restack Jack Hopkins' analysis and missives!
Sky Blue, you are exactly right on the date and time stamp at the post office!!
They have changed their procedures and what you put in a drop box does NOT get dated and time stamped until it hits the processing center which could be a couple days out from when you thought you’d mailed it. Huge implications for not only votes but bills, taxes, etc. Anything I’ve mailed, I’ve walked into the office and asked for the manual stamp.
CC...that's the gold standard approach, honestly...drop box delivery PLUS the tracking confirmations....means you've eliminated the postal variable and you have RECEIPTS.
If more mail-in voters did EXACTLY what you're doing...a LOT of the manufactured "mail ballot" anxiety....would lose its grip!
Worth sharing the workflow with anyone in your state...who's wavering on how to vote.
Concrete examples from neighbors...land better than general advice!
Yes, the chilling effect is the point. It is time to stay vigilant and find ways to help educate, advocate, volunteer to help make sure those voters get to the polls! Thank you Jack for posting resources!
The loudest voices are trying to chill the vote. Those they don't chill, they'll challenge. Vote in numbers too large to question. Don't let a challenge go unanswered. Support your election board and democratic party.
Jo..."Vote in numbers too large to question" is the WHOLE strategy in seven words.
Margins are the antidote to challenges...every vote past the threshold of plausible dispute ...is a vote that CAN'T be litigated away.
You're right that the challenge infrastructure is ALREADY built...and waiting.
Supporting election boards (who are often under-resourced and personally targeted) and the local party apparatus...is exactly where individual effort compounds.
I have done poll monitoring in a state that has a history of voting irregularities for 20 years. Intimidation happens, since 2016 from MAGA's who show up in minority neighborhoods in trucks with Trump flags and rifles. Cannot imagine what November will be like.
On another note the Supreme Court has hit an all time low. Insisting that the intention of a district gerrymander is what is to be analyzed is disingenuous and a lie. the statute requires that it is the effect of the redistricting on a minority group that is to be analyzed for compliance with the law, not the intent of those doing the redistricting. This opinion is not compliant with the statute on its face. The R's can't win on a fair field so they fix it so that no one else can. I am sick.
Jack, agree with pretty much everything you wrote here except this part about cancelling the midterms: "... most Republicans in Congress would balk." Why would they start now?
I wish I had your confidence, but I just don't see it. Intra-party opposition has been rare, and this feckless group of traitors hasn't given us any real indication they'll stand up to him in any meaningful way; instead, we have countless examples of them working in lock-step to undermine everything this country is supposed to be.
Please help me understand what makes you think this is the line they wouldn't cross -- I trust your analysis, but I'm just not seeing this as even a remote possibility right now.
Well, the press is unlikely to stop bothsidesism and I suspect there will be more fuckery from SCOTUS before the smoke clears, maybe late postmarking, another war...probably every thing in the toolbox. I keep an eye on this for progress reports.
I received in the mail a flyer looking to hire "U.S. Postal Inspectors". The picture is of an armed agent with the words "U.S. Postal Inspector POLICE FEDERAL AGENT" on his back. It touts "positions available nationwide" and promises you can "make a difference". My first thought was that the ICE crew would be sent to steal mail-in ballots. I'm thinking there aren't enough ex-Jan6ers or ICE agents to interfere in enough local sites to make a difference. I honestly believe the National Guard and our (OUR) thoroughly DEI armed forces would largely balk at attacking their neighbors.
HOWEVER, I think it not beyond the pale to wonder if Bibi's boys, or Putin's special ops people might be helecoptered in.
Please tell me to chill my fevered imagination and that none of the above is possible.
ADNK...the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is a real...longstanding federal law enforcement agency (founded 1772) that routinely recruits armed agents...and actually guards election mail rather than seizing it. The flyer is normal.
On your scenarios: Postal Inspectors number only...1,200 and sit under USPS's independent governance...so redirecting them to ballot interference is a weak vector.
On the military balking...I wouldn't bank on it; service members generally follow orders...and as a former military man...I can tell you...that's exactly what you should expect to happen....and mass refusal is the exception.
On foreign operators being helicoptered in: that one I'd let go. No evidence base... catastrophic costs...and the U.S. has ample homegrown capacity for democratic backsliding without importing any.
Stay alert on the real institutional questions....the actionable response is poll working...election observing...and supporting local election officials.
Lastly...breathe...and sleep deeply tonight.
-Jack
Jack is correct that the most important sentence in this piece is not about redistricting or executive orders. It is this one: the goal isn’t implementation — the goal is the chilling effect. Students of democratic backsliding will recognize the pattern immediately. Governments that intend to hold power do not need to execute every threat. They need citizens to believe the threats are real enough to alter their behavior in advance. File the date the mail-ballot order was signed — not because the order will survive the courts, but because the people it was designed to reach do not follow the litigation. They see the order. They feel the uncertainty. They stay home. That is the mechanism. It has worked before, in places that also believed their institutions were strong enough to absorb it.
Jack is correct, too, that what happens between Election Day and certification is the question that should be keeping people awake. Note which of the tactics described here require winning: none of them. Redistricting shifts the baseline. Purges reduce the eligible pool. Confusion suppresses turnout. And if the wave comes anyway — if the arithmetic of a genuinely angry electorate overcomes the structural advantages built into the map — the certification fight is already being prepared. The people who refused to certify in 2020 and 2024 have not been removed from office. They have been watching. We have six months to understand that this is not a campaign story. It is a story about what a minority government does when it calculates that the rules no longer protect it. If you are reading this and something in you has shifted — if the pattern is now visible to you in a way it was not before — that is not the end of the work. That is the beginning of it. Find the place where your presence changes something. The history of moments like this one is not written by the people who understood what was happening. It is written by the people who understood what was happening and then did something about it.
#HOLDFAST
Jane...the closing line is the right one. Understanding the pattern isn't the work...it's the prerequisite. Find the place your presence changes something...and go there!
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
Jack, thank you for this and a huge thanks for the specific suggestions as to what we can all do.
I don’t have words for the brazenness of the effort to tilt the table for minority rule. Never in my lifetime did I ever think we’d be here and yet…..
In conclusion, I WILL be calling to volunteer with at least one organization. All while I work to 86 Bill, my beloved (sarcasm intended here) maga House rep. I, for one, am really over and sick of all this bulll💩. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
Deb...reading this one nodding the whole way through.
The brazenness is the part that still catches me too...the open-faced quality of it...like they've stopped bothering to disguise the project. Because...they did...LONG AGO.
Good on you...for moving from sick-of-it to signed-up!
Volunteering...plus working to unseat your MAGA rep is exactly the right two-front approach: defend the system...while also replacing the people breaking it.
It's going to be a summer. Glad you're in it!
-Jack
Thanks, Jack. I can’t stress enough how incredibly helpful it is to have concrete suggestions for ways to get into the thick of it and work to make a difference.
I’ve been sick of all of this for a while now and haven’t known where my efforts would be best placed…. This whole thing has been a little like watching a mass casualty event in slow motion. All I can say is not on my watch if I can help it. Thanks again!
It is very confusing. I usually mail in vote because it is easier and I like to travel. I fear that they can cheat at the in person votes. I think the most important thing we can do is figure out how to vote that is "safe". If I get a mail in ballot, should I drive it in. Is the early voting (in person) method to vote better than day of election voting. Once we have guidelines we need to share, share, share (but only with blue voters). We also need to share how to make sure we are registered and some states allow you to check your vote after to make sure it was counted. It is so sad that it has come to this.
Charli...you're asking exactly the right questions...and the honest answer is that the "safest" method varies by state... there's no one national rule.
A few general principles that hold most places: if you vote by mail...hand-delivering your ballot to an official drop box...or election office...is more reliable than mailing it...BECAUSE you eliminate postal delays...and most states let you TRACK IT.
Early in-person voting...tends to be the most resilient option OVERALL...shorter lines... more time to resolve any registration issues on the spot...and...a paper trail.
Day-of voting works fine...BUT...eaves no margin...if something goes wrong.
Two universal action items:
1. Check your registration status now at vote.org or your secretary of state's site (purges happen quietly)
2. After you vote, use your state's ballot tracker if it has one.
For state-specific guidance worth sharing...the League of Women Voters (vote411.org) is the cleanest nonpartisan source.
Sad that we're here, agreed...BUT... the share-share-share instinct is the right one!
-Jack
Jack, thank you for this and especially for the what-we-can-do suggestions. I’m that person who has to DO SOMETHING in order to keep from falling into hopelessness, which is the last thing I plan to do.
I’ll make that call and see what they need that doesn’t require a law degree. I have time on my hands. Maybe I can even get a friend here to help. Also, I have friends in other southern states who might be willing to do some of this. Tennessee and Louisiana especially. I’ll forward this and see.
Trump is desperate so there’s nothing he won’t try. That concerns me greatly but I won’t let it stop me.
Buckle up.. it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
#Holdfast
~Susan
Susan..the doing-something instinct is the right one...and...it's also, practically...the ANTIDOTE to the hopelessness.
They feed each other in BOTH directions.
Your plan is solid: make the call...recruit a friend locally...ping the Tennessee and Louisiana folks.
Southern networks matter ENORMOUSLY right now....because that's where some of the most consequential ground game is happening...and...out-of-state friends often underestimate how much a forwarded email actually MOVES SOMEONE.
Buckle up, Susan... indeed. Glad you're in the seat!
#HoldFast
-Jack
Thank you, Jack!
I believe Trump is desperate enough to avoid his impeachment, to stay out of jail, to avoid being tried as a traitor, that there are no limits to what he will do as the vise closes--or just threatens to close. Starting a war didn't get him the diversion he wanted. He might yet start another war. Or (attempt to) use some form of a nuclear option.
James...the desperation framing is right.
Once someone calculates that losing power means prison...the cost-benefit on every escalation shifts.
I'd rank the threats...though.
A manufactured foreign crisis...or domestic emergency declaration...is genuinely on the table and has historical precedent.
Actual nuclear use is a different category; the command chain...has more friction there than people assume.
The most likely dangerous moves are the ones that look almost-legal...not the apocalyptic ones.
-Jack
Personally I think it’s way past time for these blue state governors/AGs/SoSs/etc. to tell SCOTUS and I guess their state SCs to pound sand, just do the thing, and dare anyone to stop them!
This is precisely what the fascists in the red states (like mine-AL) are doing.
Chuck...the frustration is completely understandable.
Watching one side play by rules the other side has OPENLY abandoned...feels like unilateral disarmament.
And...you're right that RED-STATE officials...have been testing what they can get away with for YEARS...often successfully.
I'd push back gently on the "just defy the courts" instinct, though.
The legitimacy of court orders is one of the few REMAINING guardrails...and...it cuts both ways: if blue states normalize ignoring rulings they dislike...they hand the other side permission to ignore the rulings that do still protect voting rights...civil rights...and basic democratic process.
The asymmetry is real...BUT...it's also load-bearing.
What blue-state AGs can do...and some are doing... is move aggressively at the edges of what's legal: proactive litigation...interstate compacts...refusing to cooperate with federal overreach...using state constitutions as a backstop.
That's the lane. Less satisfying than "pound sand,"...BUT... more durable.
Alabama is a hard place to be doing this work. Hang in there, Chuck!
-Jack
We received mail in ballots in my state but will not mail them back. We’re waiting for the election drop off boxes to be available at our assigned locations. We also get emails and texts from our county of ballot receipts thereafter.
I saw Ballot Boxes already out, this weekend, in several places in California! A good sign!
When you DO go to vote, try to take a couple of friends with you or go with a local group if you have any worries.
If you vote by Mail, take your ballot into the post office and have the postal employee Time and Date stamp your ballot, AND take a picture of it on your phone, before you drop it in the box. It only takes an extra minute. I have done this many many times.
If your state has Ballot Tracking, sign up for it online. Ballot Tracking follows your ballot from the time it's accepting at the post office to when it's dropped off at the election office and actually counted. You get an email or a text with all the information that follows your Ballot.
Jack is right... that things are ONLY going to get exponentially WORSE as we get closer to the November midterms.
The GOP is fighting for their lives! And will hold back on NOTHING illegally to INTIMIDATE ALL of us!
trump AND his GOP maga regime ARE OBVIOUSLY AFRAID of the MAJORITY of Americans!!
WE NEED to be aware of this AND OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE anyway!!
It's going to be hard... BUT WE MUST PRESERVE.... because WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED!!!
WE just saw that it WORKED in Hungary where orban got VOTED OUT by a 30% margine! WE CAN do it in America, too!
**If/when I can no longer submit my responses here, know that I WILL continue to Restack Jack Hopkins' analysis and missives!
WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED!!
WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!!
WE SHALL and MUST OVERCOME!!
Sky Blue, you are exactly right on the date and time stamp at the post office!!
They have changed their procedures and what you put in a drop box does NOT get dated and time stamped until it hits the processing center which could be a couple days out from when you thought you’d mailed it. Huge implications for not only votes but bills, taxes, etc. Anything I’ve mailed, I’ve walked into the office and asked for the manual stamp.
CC...that's the gold standard approach, honestly...drop box delivery PLUS the tracking confirmations....means you've eliminated the postal variable and you have RECEIPTS.
If more mail-in voters did EXACTLY what you're doing...a LOT of the manufactured "mail ballot" anxiety....would lose its grip!
Worth sharing the workflow with anyone in your state...who's wavering on how to vote.
Concrete examples from neighbors...land better than general advice!
-Jack
We do the same here in Florida. Also call to verify vote was tabulated
Last night’s nightmare was a whispered, “Lax security lets just one lunatic go off during FIFA and we’ve got martial law.
Our city offices have had drop boxes in the past.
Yes, the chilling effect is the point. It is time to stay vigilant and find ways to help educate, advocate, volunteer to help make sure those voters get to the polls! Thank you Jack for posting resources!
Kristine...exactly right!
The chilling effect ONLY works...if it ACTUALLY chills...which means the counter is visible...organized...persistent presence.
Education, advocacy...rides to the polls...poll working: NONE of it is glamorous...and ALL of it MATTERS.
The resources are a good on-ramp. The next step is just picking one and starting.
-Jack
The loudest voices are trying to chill the vote. Those they don't chill, they'll challenge. Vote in numbers too large to question. Don't let a challenge go unanswered. Support your election board and democratic party.
#HoldFast
Jo..."Vote in numbers too large to question" is the WHOLE strategy in seven words.
Margins are the antidote to challenges...every vote past the threshold of plausible dispute ...is a vote that CAN'T be litigated away.
You're right that the challenge infrastructure is ALREADY built...and waiting.
Supporting election boards (who are often under-resourced and personally targeted) and the local party apparatus...is exactly where individual effort compounds.
#HoldFast
-Jack
I have done poll monitoring in a state that has a history of voting irregularities for 20 years. Intimidation happens, since 2016 from MAGA's who show up in minority neighborhoods in trucks with Trump flags and rifles. Cannot imagine what November will be like.
On another note the Supreme Court has hit an all time low. Insisting that the intention of a district gerrymander is what is to be analyzed is disingenuous and a lie. the statute requires that it is the effect of the redistricting on a minority group that is to be analyzed for compliance with the law, not the intent of those doing the redistricting. This opinion is not compliant with the statute on its face. The R's can't win on a fair field so they fix it so that no one else can. I am sick.
Jack, agree with pretty much everything you wrote here except this part about cancelling the midterms: "... most Republicans in Congress would balk." Why would they start now?
I wish I had your confidence, but I just don't see it. Intra-party opposition has been rare, and this feckless group of traitors hasn't given us any real indication they'll stand up to him in any meaningful way; instead, we have countless examples of them working in lock-step to undermine everything this country is supposed to be.
Please help me understand what makes you think this is the line they wouldn't cross -- I trust your analysis, but I'm just not seeing this as even a remote possibility right now.
Well, the press is unlikely to stop bothsidesism and I suspect there will be more fuckery from SCOTUS before the smoke clears, maybe late postmarking, another war...probably every thing in the toolbox. I keep an eye on this for progress reports.
https://www.project2025.observer/en/visualize/timeline
Here’s an interesting video that shows that 1971 was the beginning of the end.
https://youtu.be/iQEpL0P8qgY?si=PtFjAJyjJMBC7F0X