In general, I’ve managed to keep a level of self-control when it comes to posting about the current debacle headed by our President. However, the recent announcement that my representative to the Alaska legislature has put forward an initiative for Alaska to join the Texas Attorney General’s ridiculous Supreme Court petition to overturn the Presidential election has made me rethink my relative silence on this absurdity. There is a conspiracy to defraud the American voters of the election, and it is being led by our President.
 
First, I want to acknowledge that there were well-documented fraudulent aspects to this election. Interestingly, our President and his sycophants have been silent about them. These incidents included fake drop boxes for early voters in California that the GOP set up—with no accounting for what happened to the votes they erroneously received. That isn’t even close to the voter disenfranchisement caused by the bizarre gerrymandering in Texas (among others), as well as the removal of polling places in Democratic districts in Texas and Georgia. There were people who had to travel from their home for miles past another district’s polling location before getting to their assigned polling spot. Not content with that level of systemic racism (the districts in question are predominantly Black and Latino), the Republican legislature in Georgia has even further removed drop sites for early votes in their run-off election for the two Senate seats. During the Presidential election, lines in some of those districts made it so people had to wait for hours to vote. Meanwhile, they are trying to curtail mail-in votes to make certain that many eligible voters do not get a say.
 
However, those clear attempts at fraud aren’t what has my representative in this embarrassing tizzy. That would be practical and ethical. Instead, he is trying to show his undying loyalty for a would-be dictator by attempting to overthrow a lawful, and secure, election.
 
Before getting to the election itself, let’s set the scene. The defining event of this year was not the forest fires, not the impeachment trial, not the protests against racism, not the shift in the Supreme Court, not even this attempt to overturn the election, but COVID-19. By far, Republicans have been less likely to believe that COVID is a concern, let alone take action to prevent its spread, than Democrats. Our President has been a central reason for that denial, openly mocking those who take precautions and holding large-scale in-person events with minimal precautions. It was clear that Democrats would be far more likely to use mail-in or other voting options rather than to stand in line (as noted above, often for hours) in a public area during a pandemic. Noticing that, our President—despite previously using mail-in ballots for his own voting—began a campaign against mail-in voting and started making frequent (and frequently disproven) claims of voter fraud.
 
Now would be a good time to take a breath and consider the larger situation. Trump had claimed voter fraud in the 2016 as the reason that Clinton had won the popular vote in the election. Despite that accusation, four years later, with Trump as President, including two years where he had a Republican Congress, NO moves were made to secure either the 2018 or 2020 elections. Personally, considering where signs of election manipulation were pointing, I think it’s pretty clear why he would not want people looking closer at the overall system.
 
Anyway, let’s look at that election. Prior to election night, every major poll had Biden leading Trump in both the popular and electoral vote counts. While this was similar to the situation that Clinton was in four years ago, Biden’s lead was substantially larger; in many battleground states, he was well outside the statistical margin of error. Now, we all know that polls are an approximation, but I feel it would be more suspicious for a candidate to somehow defy the expectations of multiple polls in multiple states by amounts greater than their margins of error. The switching in results from their polls in states such as Ohio, Texas, and Florida do raise my eyebrow. In fact, I wonder if our President’s current calls of fraud are a way of distracting from more local levels that surprisingly went in Republican favor.
 
As stated before, it was already known that more Democrats would be voting through mail and that substantially more Republicans would insist on voting in person (especially since the President had outright stated that they should). Those votes tend to come in and get counted later (in Alaska, they are not counted for a week later). Thus, it was not surprising that Trump would have a lead in some of the battleground states prior to those votes being counted, nor was it surprising that most of those later votes would be for Biden.
 
Here's where the attempt to overthrow the election comes in. Before the votes were counted, our President tried to stop states from counting all of the votes. Interestingly, by the time he tried to do so, the current vote counts would have already given Biden a victory. This interference in an election is unprecedented, but it didn’t stop there. He then began to make wild claims about voter fraud, all based on “eye-witness” testimony of his flunkies. Based on this “bombshell evidence” he has spent the past month (and more) trying a variety of tactics including bullying state leaders to switch the votes for him, bullying electoral officials to not certify the results, demanding recounts where he could place “observers” who continually harassed the counters, and filing over forty legal challenges in the courts.
 
What has been found? Election officials have recounted and found nothing beyond the normal discrepancies. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency found that this one of the most secure elections ever (soon after which, our President fired the director and replaced him with a toady). Outside agencies who are brought in to make certain that elections are fair have certified that the election was secure. Even Trump’s own hand-picked Attorney General has stated that his office found no evidence of fraud. The term “fraud” has not even been used in the court filings. All, I repeat, EVERY SINGLE ONE of the court cases that tried to overturn the election have been thrown out [note: one case in Pennsylvania was found in Trump’s favor, but it was a procedural issue that, while it did make some votes not count in the end, did not change the results in that state as those votes had been set aside. They were not fraudulent]. Not even one piece of evidence regarding voter fraud has been deemed admissible by the courts.
 
Why, then, does our President continue this historic attack on our democratic republic? Putting aside the crimes that he, his family, and his fawners face once he no longer has the power of the Executive Branch to protect them, I think we do not have to look farther than his pocketbook. Before the election, his campaign had a serious cash shortage. Now, a little over a month later, it has about a quarter of a billion dollars at its disposal—most of it in donations of less than $5,000 from people who want to “fight the corruption.” He’s milking his minions for every bit he can get.
 
I wonder how much my representative has contributed.

There is something about the immense vastness, and thus unlimited potential of space that has driven my imagination for as long as I can remember. Whether in the form of science fiction or factual space exploration, the depths of space and the secrets that lie within have enflamed my curiosity and helped to guide my intellectual, and even moral, development. I include "moral" development, because I truly believe that we need to work together as a human society to truly explore and discovery the majestic wonders that space has to offer.

I've been thinking about this today in light of Elon Musk's remarks about manned missions to Mars in the near future, Rowen's informative essay on some interesting aspect of space, the upcoming release of season five of the Expanse, and our recent watching of Star Trek: Discovery, The Orville, Picard, and The Mandalorian. I would very much like to see humanity soar among the stars, exploring "strange new worlds," seeking out "new life and new civilizations," and boldly going "where no one has gone before." I truly believe that we, as humanity, have that greater destiny ahead of us.

For, despite the current feelings of division and despair, despite setbacks like the destruction of the Arecibo Observatory, I feel that we are nearing the cusp of great achievements and defining moments in the history of our species. With all of the negativity surrounding us, like the vast emptiness of space, I see the bold beacons of light of possibility calling to us in the stars that shine, proving that space is not so empty after all. When I look into the sky, I know that we have a fantastic future calling for us, beckoning us to unite and seek it out together. ​