Call It What It Is.....

Let's, for the moment, put aside the political issues in this past election and simply accept the facts that a) this was a fair election with the least amount of irregularities in any election since the beginning of our republic, (which is the conclusion of several bi-partisan experts including Brian Krebs, recently fired head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and b) Joe Biden received the most Electoral College votes and popular votes.  

 

Now I know that 70% of the 74 million voters for Donald Trump simply don't accept those facts because of the right-wing media machine, misinformation by the Trump Campaign, and out and out lying by the President of the United States.  I, frankly, don't know if any of us can do anything about that.  The people who simply accept those lies as gospel are probably not reachable right now.  However, I want to focus on something else which is far more frightening and nefarious.

 

Donald Trump and his henchmen are attempting a coup d'etat  in our country....more specifically

something called an auto-coup, technically.  This is similar to the actions taken in Turkey by Recip Erdogan and in Hungary by Viktor Orbán.  The definition of an auto coup:  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.  

 

Sound vaguely familiar?

 

What we are witnessing in the United States of America is Donald Trump simply rejecting the will of the people and trying to maintain his presidency by negating the majority voting decision of 80 million people.  His legions are intimidating state legislatures, poll workers, canvassing boards and most egregiously, elected Republican legislators in the Congress and state houses coast to coast.

 

I have referred to the Republican Party as the 'party of death' for their mute conspiring with the President for lying to the public about the Covid pandemic which has now left us with over a quarter of million dead bodies at the hands of the administration because of the rank incompetence of Trump's handling of the crisis.  I will now add to that indictment by accusing the Republican Party at large for being the party of fascism, autocracy and anti-democracy.

 

The Republican party has stood mutely by as this President has attempted to invalidate millions of votes, specifically from the African American majority voting districts of Detroit, MIlwaukee and Philadelphia.  He has mobilized a legal effort to raise fallacious claims of fraud, election rigging, and election 'stealing' without a shred of actual evidence.  All of his lawsuits have been thrown out of court, many with prejudice, which is like the court saying, "Get the hell out of here before I kick you out on your ass!".

 

Trump's legions continue to lie about the fraud in every form of media they can commandeer, while refusing to offer any evidence in court, because that would open them up to censure by the judicial system for lying.

 

In sum, they are attempting to invalidate an election and maintain power by corrupting and trying to overthrow our democracy.  That is their aim.  Take a step back and see it for what it is and don't be afraid to label it for what it is. Trump's Republican party is trying to invalidate our election and is willing to reject democracy and accept autocracy and fascism.  For those who want a definition: fascism-- a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

 

Does THAT sound familiar?

 

So, I want you to ask yourself what the Republican party has to say about all this.  With only a few

exceptions, they remain mute and permissive to this assault.  Our Majority Leader of the Senate, McConnell, purses his lips and says, "Don't worry, we'll have an inauguration on Jan. 20th"...but he doesn't say who it will be.  Other Republican leaders want to give Trump 'time to get used to losing the election and pursue all his legal options'.  Never mind that in this election Biden got the exact same amount of Electoral Votes as Trump in 2016 and 3 million more votes in the popular vote.  In 2016, Hillary Clinton immediately conceded and Obama immediately initiated the transition to a new government and a peaceful transition of power.  Do you see the Republican party doing the same thing?

 

That is what is happening in America right now.  And by the skin of our teeth, our institutions seem to be holding together to reject this assault.  Apparently, the Republican party will fail in its attempt to support the auto-coup---this time---, but that will not end the problem we have as a constitutional republic.  Those Republicans are still in power...and rest assured they will not relent in their constant effort to kneecap the new Biden administration.  Remember, they are the party of Autocracy, Fascism and Anti-democracy.  Never forget that!  And the next time when the margin of victory might be much smaller, they might succeed in totally rejecting and abandoning our democratic republic for something else...something that will be a shredded image of what the founders of this great nation envisioned.  

 

We must do everything we can going forward to guard against this effort.

 

 

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Gag Me With A Spoon!

 

It is a sad commentary that after all the lies and drama, we have an administration that simply is not concerned about the people they represent.  Donald Trump is only concerned about his own rage and continuing to spread misinformation about the results of the election.  He has abandoned any pretense of being involved in the job he was elected to do, instead spending every waking moment on the golf course or tweet raging about his failed election bid.  

 

But most nefarious is his effort to halt any transition effort simply for spite.  America be damned is his mantra:  National Security--"Ha!"  Economic relief--"Nah! " Plans for vaccine distribution---"Let 'em die!"  And still his cultish followers believe his lies and think he won.  Good Lord, we have a problem!

 

Then there is the stuffed pig of a woman who single-handedly is stopping the transition because she is apparently a cult queen!  Emily Murphy, the GSA administrator, incredibly has the sole power to 'ascertain' the election which would permit the incoming administration have access to critical

information with departments of the current administration to better prepare for the handoff.  Her attitude is 'Fuck America--I am a Trumpist and Republicans will give me a high paying job when I leave here, so what do I care?'  She is actually breaking the law, but is not able to be prosecuted because the law is technically not 'actionable'.  Well guess what, this traitorous bitch needs to be prosecuted anyway, even if it simply is an action to make her life miserable.

 

And what about all the Republican senators and congressmen?  Don't they fill you with pride?  Amnesia about their oath of office is rampant.  Their attitude is also 'Fuck America'.  Is there a patriot in the whole lot of them?  I doubt it.  Their fear of this miscreant President and their own craven motives to remain in power supersede any thought of commitment to the Constitution of the United States.  Oh, they are all so disgusting!  Especially Lindsay Graham who was nabbed committing a crime by interfering with the

electoral process by asking the Sec. of State of Georgia if there was any way to 'lose' some of the mail-in ballots in the recount.  How grotesque!  I wonder if the people of South Carolina are satisfied and filled with pride with their sending this bozo back to the Senate for another six years.  He is a criminal.

 

I am sad for our country.  Unless the Democrats can mobilize to win the two senatorial seats in Georgia on January 5th, we are in store for at least 2 more years of inaction at the hands of Mitch McConnell, that paragon of patriotic virtue--(only to himself)!  Stacey Abrams and Tom Perez need to pull off the gloves and beat the crap out these liars and criminals.

 

I was ready to open my arms to my countrymen even though I didn't agree with their actions leading up to the election, but what I have witnessed in the election's aftermath is the sickening depths of depraved behavior they are exhibiting in their denial of fact.  Fact about the election; fact about the pandemic; and fact about the damage they are all causing our nation....and for what?  For Donald Trump???  History will not be kind to any of them.

Sore Losers!

In my last post, I tried to assume the posture of reconciliation.  I wanted to look forward to unifying our country and bringing some calm to the frenzy of vitriol being hurled from the Republican electorate.  Instead, it appears that the best we are going to do is to get spit in the face by those who seemingly are willing to reject democracy and embrace fascism.

 

Facts don't matter to these Republicans.  This election was decisive.  The margin of victory eclipses that of Trump in 2016, who heralded his claimed mandate.  Biden will have the same amount of electoral votes and double the popular vote margin, yet the Trumpists (including virtually all the Republican legislators in Congress) cry foul, cry fraud, cry rigged, and would rather coddle this poor excuse for a human and let him 'get used' to the fact that he lost.  One has to ask what they are afraid of.  To choose supporting a demagogue over their oath to the Constitution is revealing and horrifying at the same time.

 

So , what is the end game for these people?  The general public are ingesting the disinformation and lapping it up without any regard to reality.  And the politicians?....Are they so afraid of Trump that they are cowed into submission because of their belief in his position or because they are simply afraid he will

still be the power behind the Republican party and will somehow spoil their chances for re-election?  On a more tactical level, they probably are positioning to affect the upcoming runoff in Georgia for what will be control of the Senate.  Certainly, that is why McConnell is bending the knee.  They want to keep egging on the lemmings so they get a massive turnout from their base in Georgia.  It is so incredibly disgraceful that almost to a man none of these awful people have congratulated the new President-Elect and Vice President-Elect out of fear of pissing off their Trumpian base and their 5-Year Old-in-Chief.

 

With Trump's firing of people in the Pentagon and replacement with 'loyalists', and the gross and anti-democratic statement by Mike Pompeo the other day, one has to wonder if there is another plan afoot.  Does it occur to anyone that they might be planning to try to effect a coup to stay in power?  As much as all the pundits say that could never happen, there is real fear on the part of people like former Admiral Barry McCaffery that this kind of maneuvering is a prelude to coup d'etat.  It is sickeningly similar to efforts in foreign countries with autocratic governments to invalidate elections by claiming fraud and then simply seizing power 'in the interests of fair elections'.  That's pretty scary folks!

 

In the meantime, we the people are suffering from an out of control pandemic and the completely unreasonable stalling of the transition between administrations.  The result is that the rest of the world is laughing at us, and our enemies are gleeful at our inaction and chaos, which only serves to offer them opportunities to create more chaos and disunity in our country.

 

I am so sad for our America.  And I am angry at the man who has fomented all this chaos.  I thought I could be forgiving and empathic about the loss Trump's supporters are feeling.....but I can't when they all apparently reject the concept of democracy.  The only thing to do is to somehow eliminate the source of their idolatry.  Therefore, it is imperative that when Trump leaves office, if he ever does, the US legal system needs to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law possible for as many of his crimes as possible.  The only thing Trump deserves is a cell in prison, and I encourage the New York Attorney General and state and national prosecutors to throw the book at this miscreant.  Put him away so he can't run again and can't foment again.  Let him try to mobilize his base from prison....Nelson Mandella he is NOT!

 

In addition, the Democratic Party needs to plan and execute an overwhelming electoral effort on Georgia voters to elect the Democrats in the upcoming runoff on Jan. 5 to the Senate.  Frankly, if they don't do that, the Senate will still be in control of the Republicans and Biden and the majority of the country will still be under the thumb of Mitch McConnell and his anti-democratic cabal.  Do what is necessary to overwhelmingly defeat Perdue and Loeffler, who are criminals anyway. Wipe them out!

 

As far as the rest of his followers, most specifically Trump's GOP legislators who pledge allegiance to him

rather than democracy and our Constitution, exile or elimination in any way possible should be our goal.  Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell are traitors--they deserve a traitor's reward.

 

A majority of America voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  Majority rules.

Where Do We Go From Here?

It is not easy to lose an election.  But as Joe Biden pointed out last night, the time has come for us to remember that while we may oppose each other's point of view, we are not enemies.  We are all Americans.  The time has come for us to abandon the vitriol and figure out a way to move our country forward to meet the challenges and solve the problems of a complex society that has pressing issues to resolve....climate change, income inequality, systemic racism, medical inequality, and most urgently, an out of control pandemic that is growing stronger and literally killing our citizens, no matter what party they belong to.

 

I appeal to all my Republican friends with whom I have locked horns over the years.  As reality sets in with the winning of the election by Biden, I am confident all of us yearn for a new beginning.  Our democracy works...even when we all think it will fail us!  We are counting every vote, and contrary to all the accusations of fraud and illegality, there has been no mass illegality committed.  No one has created boatloads of fake ballots and no examples of harvesting have been presented.  Trump's accusations are baseless, and all his legal obfuscations are being rejected.  

 

Instead, I am filled with a relief that is unexpected and surprisingly palpable.   I didn't realize how

burdened I was with the seemingly endless daily need to endure the tweets, the chaos, the division.  As the people celebrated in the streets, I felt the lifting away of the oppressive anxiety that was always under the surface.  As I watched the faces of the young children in the crowds today with their wide eyes taking it all in, I was grateful that this new generation of Americans would have a different role model; a much gentler, empathic image on their TV screens, and a lightheartedness in the spirits of their parents.  

 

What has become apparent to me during the past 6 months is that the sacred nature of our ability to make our voices heard and for us to choose our leaders is at the heart of our democracy.  No one person is our 'ruler and maker of rules'.  We elect our leaders.  And to put a fine point on that, we are the ultimate authority about who governs all of us....  We the people.  That is what has been demonstrated over the last week.  At some fundamentally unconscious level we ALL realize that it is that principal which is the ONLY thing that truly separates us from the autocracies and dictatorships of the world.  Our founders brilliantly enshrined this bedrock idea of our republic, which too many of us have taken for granted. If we ever deny or reject that principle, then we will be truly lost.

 

The vote of all the people over the last week has demonstrated that our voice can be heard.  A majority of us have decided to seek change...to choose a different path than the one we have been on for the past 5 years.  However, we must accept the fact that half of us don't want that change.  So we must seek accommodation and compromise between our opposing points of view in the interests of all of us.  We are not enemies, as much as some would seek to maintain that myth in our politics.  We are all Americans.

 

The time for reconciliation is here.  Joe Biden said last night that he will be the President of all of us, not just those who voted for him.  Why not believe him, or at least give him a chance to demonstrate that he is a man of his word?  We can be better, and we must be better.  The moment to grasp that new possibility is here.  I am ready to join hands with sincere people who hold the best interests of our country at heart.  We are all Americans, citizens of perhaps the most successful experiment at self-government the world has ever seen.  We need to believe in ourselves and find common ground with our fellow citizens to make our lives better.

 

I am willing to do my part to practice a new civility....are you?  

Moment of Truth

Many of us have been looking forward to this election moment knowing that it is essentially the 'last exit before the toll', the toll being the re-election of Donald Trump as President.  If he is re-elected, I am convinced that we will see the end of democracy as we know it in America.  In fact, our condition is so precarious right now that even if Trump is defeated this coming week we will teeter on the edge of chaos until inauguration day.  Beyond that, only if Democrats can secure a majority in the Senate and hold the House, will our democracy have a prayer for continued existence.  Alternatively, if Trump wins and Republicans maintain control of the Senate we can expect a much more fraught four years going forward, after which America will not be recognizable as we remember it. 

It is a sad reality that our country is the victim of pre-meditated usurpation of majority rule by a Republican party only concerned with retaining power at the expense of any moral compass.  To witness the complicity and hypocrisy of the current Republican party as our Constitution has been shredded by this administration is to see the presence of moral rot on the part of the people who were stupid enough to elect them.  The current Republican Party has stood there--- mute ---as our system of law was corrupted by the Trump administration while they all ignored their oaths of office.  Consider that all the literally hundreds of lawsuits currently being filed to suppress the vote, are being forced by Republicans in state legislatures, PACS, and other support groups.  The Republicans simply can't win by allowing everyone to vote.  What does that tell you about the Republican party?  They simply don't believe in democracy and the sacred right of everyone to vote!

 

Our court system has been systematically stacked by a Republican Senate that has been on a

mission to deny judge confirmations by Democratic administrations and jam an endless procession of arch conservative judges into the court system since 2016, culminating in the hypocrisy of sending Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last week.  Our court system and most especially the Supreme Court is now wildly out of step with the wishes and desires of a clear majority of Americans.  Once decisions against the ACA and Roe v. Wade are effectuated, there will be a huge movement to change the judicial system, and if the Senate is in control of the Democrats there will be significant change over the howling of the remaining Republicans in the Congress...too bad!

 

Trump is only part of the disease afflicting America.  The people who are part of his cult do not appear to have any beliefs other than those of the cult leader.  They ignore blatant facts about his performance leading us through the pandemic; they ignore the science of virus transmission and the simple facts of increasing numbers of Covid cases and the acceleration of hospital admissions.  There is no 'opinion' here, only the stats which are frightening.  When you add to that the constant lies being told by Trump at every one of his 'super spreader rallies', it is no surprise that we are on the cusp of disintegration.

 

An additional 4 years of what we have had since 2016 will see further isolation of America from the rest of the world; continued rejection of life preserving environmental regulation; disintegration of the rule of law at the hands of a corrupted Justice Department; and the rise of a level of corruption that will destroy any remnant of democratic ideals enshrined in the  founding documents of this republic.  The rise of authoritarianism, the destruction of the free press, the pursuit of political enemies will be the symptoms of the destruction of our system.

So, the issue for all of us who still retain our hope that our constitutional republic will survive must use this moment to encourage all of our friends and family to vote.  Unless we can mobilize all those people of good will and intelligence to make their voices heard, we will be bequeathing a very nasty future for our children and grandchildren.  What thousands have sacrificed with blood to protect over the past 240 years will quickly evaporate in a cloud of lies, deceit and tragedy.

 

I choose to believe in the strength of the majority, and to be clear, a majority of Americans believe as I do.  It is simply a matter of honoring that majority and encouraging it to make its voice heard.  It is our moment of truth.