Meyers, Colbert, and Noah take closer looks at Trump intervening in Georgia's elections

One late night talk show host was missing in last week's compilations of monologues making fun of the news, Seth Meyers. That's because he was taking the week off. He returned to the airwaves last night in fine form with Trump Tries to Overturn Georgia's Election Results: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump focusing on overturning the results of the 2020 election and counter-programming Joe Biden’s inauguration while the nation weathers the worst stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As I've written many times and repeated again yesterday, "I'm looking forward to not having to pay attention to Donald Trump again. I'll just have to wait until January 20, 2021 for that to be completely true." Unfortunately, Seth may be right; Trump will likely try to keep attention on himself and I might have to put even more effort into ignoring him. Sigh.

Stephen Colbert focused on most of the same topics, while being funnier and less obviously outraged in his monologue, Georgia Holds The Line Against The President's Attempt To Steal Its Electoral College Votes.

The president's coup attempt isn't working out too well in Georgia where Gov. Kemp rebuffed his personal appeal to overturn the election results and the state went ahead with certification of the vote, cementing Joe Biden's win.

Strictly speaking, what Trump is attempting, however ineptly, is not a coup d'état; it resembles watered-down version of an autogolfe or "self-coup", although it would be lacking some of the characteristics of even that.

A self-coup (or autocoup, from the Spanish autogolpe) is a form of putsch or coup d'état in which a nation's leader, despite having come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures taken may include annulling the nation's constitution, suspending civil courts and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.

Trump and his allies are trying to overturn the results of an election to keep him in power, but they are not trying to assume extraordinary powers for themselves or dissolve legislatures and courts. The entire effort requires democratic and republican structures to succeed. In fact, they're attempting to get the courts to assume extraordinary powers, which the courts are refusing to do, and their scheme requires legislatures increasing their powers to make it work, which, so far, they are also declining to do.

After all, Trump and the people advising him know that, as I also repeated yesterday, "The real election is the Electoral College, which votes on December 14, 2020. That's followed by a joint session of the new Congress on January 6, 2021." Trump is trying to game those steps to get electors who will vote for him. If that fails, Republican Representatives and Senators will challenge the electors during the joint session. Both could result in Trump being re-elected while thwarting the will of the voters. That would feel like a coup, even if it technically isn't one.

Speaking of the will of the voters, both Meyers and Colbert talked about the runoff elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia as a secondary topic (maybe tertiary after the COVID-19 pandemic, but Trevor Noah made that the primary focus of Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims May Hurt Republicans' Odds In Georgia | The Daily Social Distancing Show.

Trump resorts to talking about vegetables at a rally, Senator Perdue doesn’t show up for his debate, Senator Loeffler uses the American dream to dodge questions about her shady stock trades, and the GOP’s election fraud claims may discourage Republicans from voting in Georgia.

I have two reactions to this. The first is to repeat what I wrote last week.

Nothing like a conspiracy theory shooting its supposed beneficiaries in their feet. Normally, I would try to debunk the conspiracy theory while making fun of it. In this case, I'll just make fun of it. As Napoleon is reputed to have said, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Don't listen to me, Georgia Republicans. Just keep drinking the Qool-Aid.

The second is that all three comedians called Kelly Loeffler a robot. She certainly sounded like one, but if I want to watch a woman doing an impression of a robot, I'd rather watch Dolores and Maeve from Westworld or the fembots from Austin Powers. Better yet, how about one of Pete Davidson's famous ex-girlfriends Ariana Grande transforming into a fembot in 34+35 (official video)?



The official “34+35” music video by Ariana Grande.
I'd rather watch and listen to Grande acting like a robot than Loeffler. How about you?