Counting

I donated to an effort that I think will fail.  Why did I do that?

The effort, as the few people who read this blog likely suspect, is the one initiated by Jill Stein, asking for a recount in three swing states.  Her motivation for this is murky, though, given that the 'required amount' has bumped up twice, it is possible that this is merely (!) a scheme to help pay off her own debts from her election campaign.  She had said it would cost about a million dollars, and now that's up to three.  Amazingly, she's raised it each time, and quickly, too -- the first in a matter of hours.

From this, I conclude something that is roughly equivilent to concluding that the sun rises in the east:  a lot of people are still pissed at the results of the election, and they want to reverse it.  I do, too.  I don't think it will happen, for three reasons:

First, it has to happen that each of those three states has a provable error in the  counting of the popular vote, sufficiently so that there is no question of the error.  That seems unlikely to me. One, even two states?  Maybe.  All three? 

Second, having proven it, the electors would have to be directed to vote for the new winner, not the old winner.  Given that people like me were and are clamoring for the electors to switch from Trump even if they are committed to him based on party loyalty, that seems unlikely to occur.  I know that the electors are picked based on which party won the state, though, so it's not out of the question.  But now we're into I don't care what the rules say, this is what we're going to do territory.

Third, if the election gets reversed, there's going to be a lot of very angry people.  A LOT of very angry people.  I think of how I'd feel if Clinton had won and then this happened, with the Trumpsters saying see, see, we won, we won.  At the very least, it would end up being a question for the Supreme Court, which could be deadlocked, since the brigands of the Congress refused to vote on a ninth justice.  The inauguration is two months away, and it could get delayed.  Who's President then? Why, the Congress gets to pick.  The severely Republican Congress.

So I don't think it will happen.  But god, I hope that it does.