{"id":166182,"date":"2026-10-27T08:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/27\/the-elections-grab-your-popcorn-and-stay-near-your-fallout-shelter\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T08:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:05:07","slug":"the-elections-grab-your-popcorn-and-stay-near-your-fallout-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/27\/the-elections-grab-your-popcorn-and-stay-near-your-fallout-shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elections: Grab Your Popcorn, And Stay Near Your Fallout Shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Image via Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The elections in Israel will be held tomorrow, October 27.<\/p>\n

Election Day in the United States is a week from tomorrow, November 3.<\/p>\n

Grab your popcorn, and stay near your fallout shelter.<\/p>\n

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu urgently needs the electoral support that an active war would garner for him.\u00a0Bibi apparently tried to\u00a0talk Trump into restarting the war<\/a>\u00a0in Iran, but Trump wants to delay until after the midterms.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.\u00a0Well, any port in a storm:\u00a0There was a skirmish in the West Bank last week, and Netanyahu intends to use that as an excuse to light things up.\u00a0He\u2019s in the process of locking down\u00a0the entire West Bank<\/a>\u00a0and demolishing local buildings.<\/p>\n

What did I say:\u00a0Any war in a storm?<\/p>\n

The Iranians, of course, would love to screw around with the Israeli elections.\u00a0Who knows what they might have planned for election day?\u00a0Perhaps a relatively small attack on Israel by Iran or its proxies would make Israelis lose confidence in Netanyahu\u2019s recent security achievements?\u00a0Perhaps some well-coordinated cyber attacks could make transportation impossible on election day?\u00a0Who knows?<\/p>\n

Election Day in America follows one week later. Trump may decide that he needs a war in the next week, too.\u00a0So far, his advisors have talked him out of starting the Iranian bombing runs in October, but as the polls grow worse, Trump\u2019s need to do something \u2014 anything! \u2014 to change the discussion may yet prevail.\u00a0If Trump doesn\u2019t restart the war before November 3, he\u2019s basically promised that he\u2019ll restart it shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

The Iranians, of course, would love to monkey with the American elections just as fiercely as they\u2019d love to disrupt the Israeli ones.\u00a0I don\u2019t know what Iran might have planned for next weekend, but my advice stands:\u00a0Grab your popcorn, and stay near your fallout shelter.<\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s only on the international front. Domestically, things are likely to take longer to play out, but they\u2019re sure to be just as weird.<\/p>\n

Trump instructed the Department of Justice to file\u00a0a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0to prevent certification of the election results in the Alaska Senate race if the Republican loses in a close contest.\u00a0The DOJ is now concerned that voters will be confused because two guys named \u201cDan Sullivan\u201d are on the ballot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look:\u00a0File as many lawsuits as you like to challenge ballot access\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0an election is held (and in state court).\u00a0Make sure the electorate is choosing from among permissible choices.\u00a0But don\u2019t hold off on filing ballot-access lawsuits until\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0an election as a hedge against a result that disappoints you.\u00a0Once the election has been held, don\u2019t retroactively challenge the names of the candidates.<\/p>\n

Can you challenge miscounting?\u00a0Sure.\u00a0Fraud?\u00a0Sure.\u00a0Other errors in the electoral process?\u00a0Sure.<\/p>\n

But if you want to challenge the names of the people on the ballot, do that before the election is held, so that those issues are resolved at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n

That takes us up to a week from Tuesday.<\/p>\n

After the elections, Trump will have lost at least one house of Congress, and he\u2019ll feel unrestrained in his new lame duck status.<\/p>\n

An unrestrained Donald Trump?<\/p>\n

Grab your popcorn \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Mark\u00a0Herrmann\u00a0spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The Curmudgeon\u2019s Guide to Practicing Law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>inhouse@abovethelaw.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The post The Elections: Grab Your Popcorn, And Stay Near Your Fallout Shelter<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Image via Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The elections in Israel will be held tomorrow, October 27.<\/p>\n

Election Day in the United States is a week from tomorrow, November 3.<\/p>\n

Grab your popcorn, and stay near your fallout shelter.<\/p>\n

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu urgently needs the electoral support that an active war would garner for him.\u00a0Bibi apparently tried to\u00a0talk Trump into restarting the war<\/a>\u00a0in Iran, but Trump wants to delay until after the midterms.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.\u00a0Well, any port in a storm:\u00a0There was a skirmish in the West Bank last week, and Netanyahu intends to use that as an excuse to light things up.\u00a0He\u2019s in the process of locking down\u00a0the entire West Bank<\/a>\u00a0and demolishing local buildings.<\/p>\n

What did I say:\u00a0Any war in a storm?<\/p>\n

The Iranians, of course, would love to screw around with the Israeli elections.\u00a0Who knows what they might have planned for election day?\u00a0Perhaps a relatively small attack on Israel by Iran or its proxies would make Israelis lose confidence in Netanyahu\u2019s recent security achievements?\u00a0Perhaps some well-coordinated cyber attacks could make transportation impossible on election day?\u00a0Who knows?<\/p>\n

Election Day in America follows one week later. Trump may decide that he needs a war in the next week, too.\u00a0So far, his advisors have talked him out of starting the Iranian bombing runs in October, but as the polls grow worse, Trump\u2019s need to do something \u2014 anything! \u2014 to change the discussion may yet prevail.\u00a0If Trump doesn\u2019t restart the war before November 3, he\u2019s basically promised that he\u2019ll restart it shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

The Iranians, of course, would love to monkey with the American elections just as fiercely as they\u2019d love to disrupt the Israeli ones.\u00a0I don\u2019t know what Iran might have planned for next weekend, but my advice stands:\u00a0Grab your popcorn, and stay near your fallout shelter.<\/p>\n

Of course, that\u2019s only on the international front. Domestically, things are likely to take longer to play out, but they\u2019re sure to be just as weird.<\/p>\n

Trump instructed the Department of Justice to file\u00a0a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0to prevent certification of the election results in the Alaska Senate race if the Republican loses in a close contest.\u00a0The DOJ is now concerned that voters will be confused because two guys named \u201cDan Sullivan\u201d are on the ballot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look:\u00a0File as many lawsuits as you like to challenge ballot access\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0an election is held (and in state court).\u00a0Make sure the electorate is choosing from among permissible choices.\u00a0But don\u2019t hold off on filing ballot-access lawsuits until\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0an election as a hedge against a result that disappoints you.\u00a0Once the election has been held, don\u2019t retroactively challenge the names of the candidates.<\/p>\n

Can you challenge miscounting?\u00a0Sure.\u00a0Fraud?\u00a0Sure.\u00a0Other errors in the electoral process?\u00a0Sure.<\/p>\n

But if you want to challenge the names of the people on the ballot, do that before the election is held, so that those issues are resolved at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n

That takes us up to a week from Tuesday.<\/p>\n

After the elections, Trump will have lost at least one house of Congress, and he\u2019ll feel unrestrained in his new lame duck status.<\/p>\n

An unrestrained Donald Trump?<\/p>\n

Grab your popcorn \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Mark\u00a0Herrmann\u00a0spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The Curmudgeon\u2019s Guide to Practicing Law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate links). You can reach him by email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>inhouse@abovethelaw.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The post The Elections: Grab Your Popcorn, And Stay Near Your Fallout Shelter<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Image via Getty) The elections in Israel will be held tomorrow, October 27. Election Day in the United States is a week from tomorrow, November 3. Grab your popcorn, and stay near your fallout shelter. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu urgently needs the electoral support that an active war would garner for him.\u00a0Bibi apparently tried to\u00a0talk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}