Dear Friends,
While it’s justified to get all festive about Joe Biden’s victory, please celebrate with your eyes wide open. I’ve never doubted for a minute that Donald Trump would exhaust every option to contest the election. Since last Tuesday, Trump and his peeps have already filed ten lawsuits.
(Image: randompixels blogspot)
In the days and weeks ahead, expect a veritable assault of judicial Trumpedoes. Most of these lawsuits will fail. But eventually, the barrage of legal challenges will land the election before the US Supreme Court. That’s where Trump expects to win reelection.
If that fails, he’s now working on a backup plan. By firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper — plus the heads of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the US Agency for International Development — Trump further solidifies his power over key components of US national security. Other agency heads purportedly in line for Trump’s chopping block include CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Anybody else just a wee bit nervous about all this post-election department cleansing?
Last month, I wrote that for Trump to win, he would have to pull it off in the courts. I thought then that a good old-fashion military coup wouldn’t work because so many high-ranking officials were anti-Trump. Yet with Trump tightening his grip on the various tentacles of national defense, appointing solid Trump loyalists to key positions, a military coup may be his backup plan if the judicial coup fails.
Again, I hate to throw a wet blanket on the Biden victory party, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
Birds & Bees Urban Farm artichoke plot, 2020.
So, what do democracy-loving folks do while we wait to see how this scenario unfolds? Besides continuing to pay close attention and speaking up at every opportunity — we plant artichokes!
Seriously, there is no plant on Earth that brings more joy to my farmer’s heart than this cousin of the much-maligned thistle. Why? Perhaps because I was an Italian artichoke farmer in a past life. Or perhaps because I embrace any excuse to eat more butter. (Note: Kathy and I have each consumed the equivalent of one Iowa State Fair butter cow in our life. We’re now eagerly working on our second.)
A monarch butterfly visits one of our artichoke blossoms, 2020.
Some say you can’t grow artichokes in Iowa. Well, they’re wrong, as Kathy and I discuss on this week’s Fallon Forum. But if you’re going to grow artichokes up north, you’ll want to start them indoors soon.
Here’s a link to this week’s podcast. Our artichoke convo starts at the 53:00-minute mark.
Here’s a link to the Facebook video version of the program, complete with cute pictures of plants, flowers, and a butterfly. (Sorry, no gratuitous cat photos … this time.)
Check out the full program on this week’s Fallon Forum. Here’s the line-up, with time stamps:
(01:45) Democrats victory party may be premature;
(14:40) Kelcy Warren’s pipelines land another lawsuit, with Matthew Borke;
(27:50) Energy Districts offer great potential for jobs and climate mitigation, with Andy Johnson;
(40:45) Burden of federal climate action rests, in part, with the media;
(53:00) Artichokes in Iowa? — who knew!, with Kathy Byrnes, Birds & Bees Urban Farm.
Watch our final segment with Kathy Byrnes on Facebook.
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Ed Fallon