Nobody knows exactly what November 3, never mind the 4th or 5th, will look like. That includes Trump. He doesn't know either. So, all we can do is look at what is happening now. The main events include:
- SCOTUS prohibition of the postal service's implementation of Trump's executive order regarding mail-in ballots. The court's prohibition ignored the postal service's flagrant violation of the previous injunction against the implementation. The court thereby leaves open the possibility for the Trump administration to continue to violate future court orders. - Vast expansion of ICE coupled with DHS head Markwayne Mullin's admission that ICE agents will be deployed to polling places. - Presence of some 200 election deniers on various local and state election boards. This includes the Georgia state board, where election deniers now constitute the majority. - Trump's flagrant violation of the court order prohibiting him from banning certain media (CNN, MSNow, Axios) from the White House. This violation continued for nearly twelve hours. This delay is critical in the case of court orders on Nov. 3. If a court makes an order on election day, all the feds have to do is wait 12 hours (meaning after voting has ended) to obey. - The possibility that House Speaker Johnson could install a new and partisan House clerk who would subvert the outcome of the election on the House. (See the second half of this NYT article <https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/opinion/trump-midterms-worst.html> for the details.) It's possible that there could be some hiccups but that the election more or less runs as in the past, but we would be extremely foolish to count on that. Even if Trump loses control over one or both houses, the chaos and confusion he creates will benefit him and MAGA for years to come. What John O'Brien reports from LA is exactly what I'm seeing here in Oakland. It's also nation-wide. There are no statements from the National Political Committee nor did the recent national DSA convention consider the issue. Just one minor point regarding Hegseth: He won't only "obey" Trump's orders. He will be and already is an important part of the decision-making process. If Steve Miller replaced Musk at the center of the Trump administration, Hegseth has at least joined Miller. The two are real idealogues. Hegseth is a committed white christian nationalist. Some have been put off by my criticizing the Palestine rights movement. I personally know a local leader of the Students for Justice in Palestine. I followed them closely during the 2024 election. Along with the majority of the socialist left, they focused almost all their energy on attacking "Killer Kamala" with hardly a word of warning about Trump. That was the same for most socialists. There is another aspect to this: Many of them promoted the claim that Epstein was an agent for Israel. Who else do you think promoted this idea? The Nazi-friendly crowd around Tucker Carlson! The whole claim is ridiculous. Epstein had connections with all sorts of global figures, including the British royalty. Popular support for the Nazi-friendly crowd is far more widespread than many of us would like to think. If and when Trump tries to steal the elections, he will be supported by Netanyahu, and Carlson et al will use this to claim that Israel is behind it all. For Carlson's tens of millions of followers, this will mean "the Jews". However much this might offend some, yes the pro-Palestine movement will also probably make similar claims. Already "progressive" figures like Sanders and Khanna are appearing alongside prominent Nazi-friendly figures like Steve Bannon and Ted Massie. It is entirely reasonable to think that many pro-Palestine groups will do something similar, if not in person than at least line up politically alongside them. It would not be the first time. Finally, please note: I don't think calling for a "general strike" is realistic at this point because too much of the working class - especially the white working class - is part of the Trump cult. The latest Times Siena poll shows that that's especially true among white blue collar (equals non-college) workers. (Some years ago, a few of us in the Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign spent several months arguing with Anthony Boynton and a few others who claimed that there was no major support for Trump within the working class.) But there are important pockets of resistance, especially among workers in the major urban areas. I think organizing there should be at the center of any serious working class organizing. The possibility of shutting down major cities through workplace walk offs/wildcat strikes is a starting point, I think. That would have to mean coming into direct conflict with and organizing against the entire union bureaucracy, including its "progressive" wing. John Reimann -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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