S4 E27 — Who Cares If It’s The Right Thing To Do Anymore?

They promoted the Pence Card as a contingency similar to the 1960 presidential election, in which two slates of electors were prepared pending results of a late recount of ballots in Hawaii

“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “To believe in your ability to sense what the right thing to do is and trust yourself to act accordingly promotes confidence in who you are now. For even more confidence, extend the same courtesy backward to Past You. No regrets.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 27th Episode in Season 4 of “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 16th day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E26 — What Happens If No One Asks a Question?; S4 E25 — Accountability?; S4 E24 — Another Spooky Role to Play on the Outside

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E27 — What the World Needs Now Before It’s Too Late; S3 E26 — Following Alice Down the Rabbit Hole; S3 E25 — Art Lives Upon Discussion, Upon Experiment, Upon Curiosity …; S3 E24—Reunion on the Edge of the Pacific Ocean near Legoland? Hell Yeah!

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E27 — Why I Have to Keep Leo da V on a Leash and So Should You; S2 E26 — Rethinking the N-Word ; S2 E25— Are You an Innie or Outie Thinker?; S2 E24— Working Remote from KnowWhere Atoll;

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E26 — Day 26 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E25 — Day 25 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E24 — Day 24 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

If you haven’t been following along, the previous 6 episodes illustrate political turmoil in this Disruptively Resilient Year which add to our summary in S4 E18.

Our last episode follows Trump’s announcement for the 2020 nomination after his election denying followers in the 6 battleground states lost when the red wave failed to materialize. Today we pick the continuing story with the “Pence Card”.

What started as the “Pence Card” floated as a legal theory by Ivan Raiklin in a two page proposal, then championed by National Security Adviser Michael Flynn tweeted to the former President.

Raiklin asserted then-Vice President Mike Pence had unilateral authority to reject electoral votes from states deemed to be fraudulent.

So Boris Epshteyn worked with Rudy Giuliani in December 2020 to persuade Republican officials in seven states to prepare certificates of ascertainment for slates of Trump “alternate electors” to be presented to Pence for certification. — Wikipedia

They promoted the Pence Card as a contingency similar to the 1960 presidential election, in which two slates of electors were prepared pending results of a late recount of ballots in Hawaii, according to Wikipedia sources.

Both parties agreed to that recount, which ultimately resulted in John F. Kennedy winning the state, though the outcome of the election did not hinge on the Hawaii results. By contrast, in the case of the 2020 election, the stated need for slates of alternate electors in multiple states was predicated on persistent false claims of nationwide election fraud. — Wikipedia

The Epshteyn Show

Epshteyn asserted the slates of alternate electors were not fraudulent and “it is not against the law, it is according to the law.”

In on the ruse, dozens of Republican legislators from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wrote Pence on January 5.

All Pence had to do like the loyal former Vice President he had done many times in the past was to delay the January 6 certification for ten days.

When he did, those 5 key states would have time to replace the elector slates.

Pence did not act on the request and that day also rejected a proposal made by Eastman:

That a vice president could simply choose to reject the electoral college results; a vice president’s role in certifying the results is constitutionally ministerial. — Wikipedia

Command Center

The Washington Post reported on October 23, 2021 that the Willard Hotel, was a “command center” for a White House plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Epshteyn told The Washington Post in October 2021

That he continued to believe Pence “had the constitutional power to send the issue back to the states for 10 days to investigate the widespread fraud and report back well in advance of Inauguration Day, January 20th.”

Epshteyn was subpoenaed in January 2022 to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, according to Wikipedia

Pence didn’t fall for the “Pence Card”

But it was in that context, that during the January 5 meeting at the Willard Hotel, Eastmen laid out the details in his January 4 memo describing his theory that Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to certify certain state elector slates the following day, and hand Trump a second term instead.

Actually, there were two memos. The infamous six-step plan and a second, a more extensive plan, with multiple scenarios for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election according to Wikipedia:

- The first memo described the constitutional and statutory process for opening and counting of electoral votes under the 12th Amendment and Electoral Count Act, alleging that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional.
- The memo further claimed that the Vice President, who also serves as President of the Senate and presides over the joint session of Congress, “does the counting, including the resolution of disputed electoral votes… and all the Members of Congress can do is watch.”
- The memo refers to the actions of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson during the presidential elections of 1796 and 1800 as evidence for this claim; some supporters of President Trump, such as Congressman Louie Gohmert, had falsely claimed that Jefferson’s counting of Georgia’s electoral votes in 1800 indicated that the Vice President could unilaterally accept or reject electoral votes.
- The memo then laid out a six-step plan for Pence to overturn Biden’s election

Behind Memo Number Two

The second memo laid out a more extensive plan with multiple scenarios for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election:

- The first section outlined fictional illegal conduct by election officials in six states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin).
- The second section again alleged that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional, and that Pence had the power to unilaterally accept or reject electoral votes.
- The third section referred to “7 states” and outlined various alternatives for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election.
- Slates of electors declaring Trump the winner actually were submitted from the seven states, but the National Archives did not accept the unsanctioned documents and they did not explicitly enter the deliberations.

If all went according to Eastman’s plan, Pence would have declared Trump the winner. He would have won more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, 232 votes to 222.

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “We want what seems somewhat, but not entirely inaccessible. Complete inaccessibility inspires derision. Desire will be ignited where beauty meets the unfinished or unpolished. Rawness makes a thing accessible.” Scorpio

Can I be honest? I just don’t know how to interpret this observation. But, somehow I like it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:

You’ll experience many environments and get the best of every world. Chaotic challenges shape you; calm, supportive places allow for intensive, focused work. You are brilliant without trying to be or do anything other than what comes naturally. Someone will travel far to see you — the ultimate compliment.

Really? Can’t wait!

“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Life is bustling and you’ll do what you can. As for the rest, instead of saying “I don’t have time,” try more empowering language like, “this is not my priority right now” and feel like an absolute boss.”Aries

This is not my priority right now.

“4” Steve Howey, 42: “You’ve a talent for understanding just how much you can and should take on. It’s natural to want to distance yourself from a harsh reality or distract yourself from pain.” Cancer

Haha. A life lesson I learned the hard way. I never could estimate just how much time it would take to achieve a goal for a client in my consulting practice. So crafting winning proposals was hardly my strength. Then, you’re stuck with a contract that pulls more time and energy out of you than is necessary.

“5” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “To believe in your ability to sense what the right thing to do is and trust yourself to act accordingly promotes confidence in who you are now. For even more confidence, extend the same courtesy backward to Past You. No regrets.” Leo

Wow, this like a novel took an unexpected twist at the end. I felt I’d apply it to how Emma the Baroness and I roll our eyes at what isn’t right, but has been going on for Three Seasons now on the national scene. But instead it’s a reminder to identify those hard won lessons from the past and not make it so hard on myself. Here’s to the next manuscript!

“3” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “As you make more of a distinction between what you have to do and what you choose to do, you understand that the list of ‘have-to’s’ is actually quite small. You’ll examine your reasons for continuing with certain responsibilities.” Virgo

Somehow I feel cheated. Here you started out with a great premise, and then it dissipated. Really? I hoped for more insight.

“5” Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53; Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “Even though a job is nearly complete, the refinements take almost as much time as the job itself did. Tending to details is hard work, but also very worth the effort.” Capricorn

See, this is what I had hoped for on a day like today.

Holiday Theme for The Day:

Albert Camus said it’s necessary to fall in love, “if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway.” Can you think of times when you felt a certain way first and looked for reasons later? … The opposite directive — claim hope and watch it blossom in your life.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12559 this week to 12654 organically grown followers.
- Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
- David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
- “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President.
- “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.
- “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden.
- “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION