the mendacious racist Trump has a number of characteristics that make me wonder whether he might conduct a reputéd Putin false flag attack to influence a significant vote in his own favour. I hope not.

But we can take heart from the fact that the US presidential election system has a safeguard built in to prevent demagogues getting election. The presidential election actually elects delegates to an Electoral Collage, which itself elects the president (and vice–president). If Trump was mad enough to cause terrorism to be committed just before a vote, and even if he got a gadzillion votes, the month between the vote and the college should allow enough doubt to creep into the opinions of the delegates, and should allow time enough for a police investigate to get somewhere closer to the truth. There would be a clear risk for the Trumpeters that some delegates would vote against their mandate and kybosh a Trump victory. There’s certainly no guarantee, but the college introduces a great risk to a dark campaign strategy. We’ll see.