Below is my column from Fox.com on the boarding up of downtown areas across the country in anticipation of election rioting if Trump wins or the election is close. I have been long critical of both sides in fueling the anger and conspiracy theories on both sides. On the Republican side, President Donald Trump has been denouncing mail-in voting as a Democratic conspiracy to steal the election. On the Democratic side, leaders have been telling voters that there is no legitimate way for Trump to win. The fact that our leaders are trying to use such anger and fears is reprehensible. However, none of that excuses those people who believe that they have license to riot, loot, and burn. These are criminal acts being excused as “protests.” We now prepare for rioting like it is a natural result of contested elections.
Here is the column:
Driving around Washington, D.C. a couple days ago was a shocking experience. Block after block of businesses are boarded up and anything throwable or movable has been removed from the streets.
In the meantime, faculty, staff, and students at George Washington University (where I teach) have been told to stockpile medicine and food “as you normally would for a hurricane or a snowstorm.”
The reason? We are about to have a democratic election. The expectation is that is, unless it is a landslide for Biden, there will be rioting and arson in Washington and other cities. A warm front moving in with “possible election related disruptions” is being reported like an electoral meteorological event.
When exactly did election rioting become as forecastable as inclement weather?
The forecast for rioting with a chance of passing looting and arson is being repeated across the country as if it is now an inconvenient truth of the political version of global warming.
The most likely disruption would come a close election or Trump lead. That risk is heightened after Democratic leaders like House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. declared on Sunday that the only way Democrat Joe Biden could lose the election would be “for voter suppression to be successful.”
Thus, if Trump is close or winning on election night, it can only be due to unlawful conduct. When President Trump made such statements about stealing the election, the media went into full alert over his laying the foundation for a coup.
Yet, the media seems entirely comfortable with Clyburn’s pre-election declaration that either Biden wins or the election is invalid.
The fact is that the odds are against President Trump. However, the current polling shows a tightening of the race in critical states.
The country remains sharply divided with even the best Biden polls still showing a solid 45 percent for Trump. Yet, Democratic members like Clyburn are already stating that either Biden wins or the election is stolen.
No wonder officials are declaring a violent front moving into major cities with political doppler readings with developing protest vortexes and political depressions.
Yet, rioting is not an act of God, but the criminal acts of those who only embrace democratic elections to the extent that they result in the “right” outcomes. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham warned “it is widely believed that there will be civil unrest after the November election regardless of who wins.”
For those of us tasked with doing the legal analysis on election night and the ensuing days, the rising threat of violence only clouds the understanding of viewers. There is already pressure on many networks to shape legal analysis to meet the needs of the echo-journalism model.
People have little tolerance for analysis that does not reaffirm their bias. They want clarity and reinforcement like Clyburn assuring them that any close election or Trump victory is by definition a stolen election.
This expectation has been magnified by the unrelenting media coverage supporting Biden and his campaign. If you watch CNN or MSNBC, there is no other possibility than voter fraud if Trump comes close on election night.
I have covered presidential election nights for different networks for roughly 20 years. In each election, there have been irregularities and challenges. The greatest such controversy came with the 2000 election that was ultimately decided in the Bush v. Gore decision by the Supreme Court.
Yet, I do not recall any prior election where there were predictions of rioting, let alone such predictions in virtually every major city.
The legal forecast is not good. Absent a Biden landslide, this is going to be messy. We have never relied on this number of mail-in ballots. Even in a normal year with a fraction of this number of mail-in balloting, we have had inevitable challenges on when and how to count such votes.
This could be a perfect storm of such election issues. Both campaigns have assembled forces of lawyers that make D-Day look like a small intimate gathering. They are going to use those lawyers.
It falls into the old military adage that “when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” In any contested election, all these campaigns will have are lawyers and every problem will look like fraud.
Yet, the advantage of legal challenges is that lawyers do not throw their burning briefs through the broken windows of courthouses. We have a political system to bring democratic change and a legal system to make sure that such change comes from as the result of balloting, not rioting.
So here is my legal forecast. This constitutional system will survive this election even if our windows do not. Those rioting will be triggered by the exercise of democracy, not its denial.
For the rest of us, this too will pass.
7 When Judas’ men saw the army coming against them, they asked,
How can our little group of men fight an army as big as that? Besides, we have not eaten all day, and we are tired!
18 It is not difficult, Judas answered,
for a small group to overpower a large one. It makes no difference to the Lord whether we are rescued by many people or by just a few. 19 Victory in battle does not depend on who has the largest army; it is the Lord’s power that determines the outcome. 20 Our enemies are coming against us with great violence, intending to plunder our possessions and kill our wives and children. 21 But we are fighting for our lives and for our religion. 22 When we attack, the Lord will crush our enemies, so don’t be afraid of them.
1 Maccabees
New Jersey was called for Biden 5 minutes after the polls closed. ALL MAIL IN. HOW did they count them all in 5 minutes???
“When exactly did election rioting become as forecastable as inclement weather?” When one candidate decided to tell his supporters to go to the polls to watch for fraud, and stated that only the votes counted by the end of election day should be valid. It’s really pretty simple. Anybody who’s actually paying attention isn’t going to be fooled by your both-sidism, Professor Turley.
When one candidate decided to tell his supporters to go to the polls to watch for fraud, and stated that only the votes counted by the end of election day should be valid.
You have a talent for non sequitur.
no, actually, when Biden’s supporters have been rioting not just at the drop of a hat, but without any hats dropping. white cop kills an armed black man attacking him – let’s riot!!!
Nobody would be boarding anything up if they thought Biden had a chance.Your democratic party is dead. If you still think you are somehow voting for JFK, think again. Please.
I voted for Biden. I didn’t think I was voting for JFK. I was voting against Trump.
and that’s the problem i’m seeing. people voting against trump instead of for someone they believe will do a good job for americans. i don’t like a lot of what trump says, but the results have been very good. i like good outcomes.
Why?
They’d be boarding up. They’re hedging.
James, you and Kevin sound like Rhodes.
The Police have placed in damned position (damned if you do and damned if you don’t)! It’s all to do with the liberal white crackers who think they know best and are the Racist’s trolling for Black votes.
A side note. The boarding up of businesses in NYC and the other cities started several days ago. When I saw it reported, I immediately realized they were testifying to a sad change in our society. It is that our people have given up on the notion that the police are able or will be permitted to protect them and their property from the criminally violent. Think about that for a moment. We are losing part of the bedrock on which a civilized nation is build, that the innocent will be protected by their government from evil doers, no matter the costs.
SCRANTON TRICKS, MACHINES BROKEN, CHAOS
https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1323698656952766464?s=20
JOE’S PEOPLE TRYING TO SUPPRESS THE VOTE?
The Israelites were out of Egypt before the ink was dry on their release papers; deliberately headed for the Promised Land for the benefit of themselves.
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LINCOLN’S FEAR OF “RACE WAR”
A short time before his death on April 15, 1865, Lincoln met with General Benjamin F. Butler, who reported that the President spoke to him of “exporting” the Blacks.107
“But what shall we do with the [blacks] after they are free?,” Lincoln said. “I can hardly believe that the South and North can live in peace, unless we can get rid of the [blacks] … I believe that it would be better to export them all to some fertile country with a good climate, which they could have to themselves.” Along with a request to Butler to look into the question of how best to use “our very large navy” to send “the blacks away,” the President laid bare his fears for the future:
If these black soldiers of ours go back to the South, I am afraid that they will be but little better off with their masters than they were before, and yet they will be free men. I fear a race war, and it will be at least a guerilla war because we have taught these men how to fight … There are plenty of men in the North who will furnish the [blacks] with arms if there is any oppression of them by their late masters.
To his dying day, it appears, Lincoln did not believe that harmony between White and Black was feasible, and viewed resettlement of the Blacks as the preferable alternative to race conflict. ” … Although Lincoln believed in the destruction of slavery,” concludes Black historian Charles Wesley (in an article in The Journal of [black] History), “he desired the complete separation of the whites and blacks. Throughout his political career, Lincoln persisted in believing in the colonization of the [blacks].”108
Frederick Douglass, a gifted African American writer and activist who knew Lincoln, characterized him in a speech delivered in 1876:109
In his interest, in his association, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man. He was preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of the white man. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people, to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.
Allan Nevins, one of this century’s most prolific and acclaimed historians of US history, summed up Lincoln’s view of the complex issue of race, and his vision of America’s future:110
His conception ran beyond the mere liberation of four million [black] folk; it implied a far-reaching alteration of American society, industry, and government. A gradual planned emancipation, a concomitant transportation of hundreds of thousands and perhaps even millions of people overseas, a careful governmental nursing of the new colonies, and a payment of unprecedented sums to the section thus deprived of its old labor supply — this scheme carried unprecedented implications.
To put this into effect would immensely increase the power of the national government and widen its abilities. If even partially practicable, it would mean a long step toward rendering the American people homogeneous in color and race, a rapid stimulation of immigration to replace the workers exported, a greater world position for the republic, and a pervasive change in popular outlook and ideas. The attempt would do more to convert the unorganized country into an organized nation than anything yet planned. Impossible, and undesirable even if possible? — probably; but Lincoln continued to hold to his vision.
For most Americans today, Lincoln’s plan to “solve” America’s vexing racial problem by resettling the Blacks in a foreign country probably seems bizarre and utterly impractical, if not outrageous and cruel. At the same time, though, and particularly when considered in the context of the terrible Civil War that cost so many lives, it is worth pondering just why and how such a far-fetched plan was ever able to win the support of a leader of the stature and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln.
– Robert Morgan
I think a better reading of General Butler, and would help understand this supposed conversation is:—–https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0029.103/–benjamin-butlers-colonization-testimony-reevaluated?rgn=main;view=fulltext
What is history but the context of others recollection if not supported by facts.
Lincoln was elected by a majority, and then re-elected in the middle of the civil war.
It was the people of the United States who released the slaves, not just Lincoln, who was their representative.
why was a Poll watcher denied entry to polls in Philly?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-gop-poll-watcher-denied-entry-philadelphia-days-after-state-ag-says-trump-will-lose
DEMOCRAT SNEAKY TRICKS THATS WHY
GET OUT AND VOTE!
Kurtz, it sounds Ike that ‘Poll Watcher’ was from outside the community. It may have been some White Trumper wanting to slow down voting at a Black precient.
He was a COURT CERTIFIED STATEWIDE AUTHORIZED POLL WATCHER
illegal tactics from local Democrats playing games and tricks!
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1323702850711552001?s=20
Kurtz, it’s an Election Day dirty trick Republicans commonly pull. A so-called ‘Poll Watcher’ shows up at the polling place of a Democratic leaning community to challenge random voters. The whole idea is to create a long line that will hopefully turn-off ‘X’ number of voters. They were right to tell him to get lost.
They were wrong and their action was illegal. This is a dirty trick but it won’t matter in the end
Kurtz, he was there to jerk.people around. So they’re jerking him around.
excuse me it was a Philadelphia wide poll watcher not statewide, he had a right to be there
You are in rare form today, Kurtz. Maybe you should double up on the Xanax.
“The reason? We are about to have a democratic election. The expectation is that is, unless it is a landslide for Biden, there will be rioting and arson in Washington and other cities. A warm front moving in with “possible election related disruptions” is being reported like an electoral meteorological event.
When exactly did election rioting become as forecastable as inclement weather?”
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Biden voters riot and we all get tarred with it? It’s a radical Dem phenomena copied from the Marxists they do so love. (They ain’t too original are they?) And it became “forecastable” the exact moment the Dims in poer did absolutely nothing to quell the riots after George “Gun To The Pregnant Lady’s Belly” Floyd died from an meth/fent/whatever overdose with cops in close proximity.
” with cops in close proximity.”
I believe that “close proximity” was kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds while he said he couldn’t breathe. A few of those minutes were after one of the officers said he couldn’t get any vital signs. Might that have something to do at all with Floyd’s death? Inquiring for a friend.
was kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds while he said he couldn’t breathe.
He wasn’t kneeling on his windpipe, Enigma. The man was on the pavement because he had a panic attack in the vehicle. He was having trouble breathing because his lungs were filling up with fluid consequent to a fentanyl overdose.
AD3: “He wasn’t kneeling on his windpipe, Enigma.”
Neck/windpipe — close enough. Fentanyl? What fentanyl? That Floyd was a “combative suspect? More “disinformation.” That the neck restraint was consistent with that department’s policies on “combative suspects”? Irrelevant.
All such facts vanish in the desire to rationalize a false narrative (“systemic racism”) and nationwide riots.
You need to read up on the massive amount of fentanyl he had in his system. And how he was mewling about how he couldn’t breathe, just standing up with no handcuffs on.
Is enigma beating a dead horse? Inquiring for a friend.
Responding to idiocy, BTW, you might need new friends.
This is a very good opinion piece posted by Newt Gingrich on this subject:
In Lincoln’s “Special Message to Congress” on July 4, 1861, he posed the necessity of calling out the “war powers” of the government to resist insurrection, stating:
“It presents the question, whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control administration, according to organic law, in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth.
“It forces us to ask: ‘Is there, in all republics, this inherent, and fatal weakness?’ ‘Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?’ So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.”
Lincoln explained the results of resisting the mob in Baltimore: “I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me. This appeal of professed friends has paralyzed me more in this struggle than any other one thing.” In the spirit of President Lincoln, President Trump should issue the following warning to the violent and the lawless:
– All honest citizens will be asked to submit video of anyone they see engaged in violence, looting and destruction.
– Every business will be asked to share any pictures its security cameras produce of mobs and violence.
– Every TV news program will be scrutinized to seek to identify the violent and the destructive.
– All police officers will be asked to use their phones to record videos of every violent or destructive person they encounter.
– The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security will be tasked with coordinating with state and local authorities to track down, arrest and prosecute the violent, lawless, and criminal.
– Those local authorities who refuse to cooperate will have all their federal funding suspended until they are replaced by the voters with people who are anti-criminal and anti-looting.
Like Lincoln, we are going to ensure “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-lincoln-mobs-newt-gingrich
WHY CIVIL UNREST COULD BE UNAVOIDABLE
Years ago I was watching a documentary about policing in which one officer made an observation that stuck with me. He said, “There are people out there who will do exactly as they please until stopped by force”.
Donald Trump is one of those people the cop was referring to. Trump is going to do exactly as he pleases until stopped by force.
WRONG, four months of rioting from the Democrat shock troops BLM and antifa are those who need to be stopped by force, and where were the Democrat mayors to do it?
Grinning, laughing, chanting BLM, cutting police budgets, and spending their Soros money!
The vote today is going to help RESTORE LAW AND ORDER by confirming and ratifying TRUMP
Trump belongs in jail.
Here’s hoping he loses and gets indicted once he’s out of office.
Indicted? FOR WHAT. List the actual crimes with the actual state or federal code of conduct.
Donald Trump is one of those people the cop was referring to. Trump is going to do exactly as he pleases until stopped by force.
MBITRW, he co-operated with the Mueller crew even though he knew the whole exercise was a fraud and they were trying to spring a perjury trap on him.
Tabby, Trump obstructed justice. Ask Donald McGhan. ..Oh, that’s right, McGhan won’t talk..!
MORE VOTER SUPPRESSION TRICKS
POLLS OPENING LATE, BROKEN MACHINES SUCKING UP SPACE
https://twitter.com/willchamberlain/status/1323650873910845442?s=20
VOTER SUPPRESSION TRICKS AIMED AT THE TRUMP LOVING ORTHODOX JEWS IN BROOKLYN!
https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1323646555845402629?s=20