Trump feeds his followers a constant diet of promises of power: power to hate, power to destroy, power to rejoice in the sufferings of others. Their lust for the power to destroy is their addiction, and Trump is their fentanyl.

1. Why do some people go through the legal process while others skip the line and break the law?
2. Why would we ever reward breaking the law?

In answer to the first question, see:

https://www.cato.org/testimony/why-dont-they-just-get-line-barriers-legal-immigration

In answer to the second question, well, we have a candidate for president who praises people who break the law: those that stormed the Capitol on 1/6; those who assault election workers; Putin, who committed an illegal war of aggression against Ukraine…. He even pardoned his friends who were convicted of breaking the law, and promises more pardons to people convicted in the J6 invasion of the Capitol. So why do we reward right-wing extremists for breaking the law?

And it goes further than that. We have a lot of people who claim to be Christians, yet are casting stones. People of faith ignore this: “Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

Years ago, I taught in a public school. One of my students watched their mother drown crossing the Rio Grande. Desperate people risk their lives to escape violence and starvation from extreme poverty. They come to the U.S. in hope for a chance to survive. Many do not survive the journey. And the U.S., with many of its citizens who claim this is a Christian Nation, turns its back on them.

We let the rich, through their corporations, cross the border freely, so they can gain even more wealth. We turn away the poor, yet boast of our faith.

So, when it comes time to certify the votes in Congress in January 2025, there won’t be enough certified votes to declare a winner in the Electoral College. The House then votes for the President, with each state getting but one vote. Trump wins.

The only way this won’t happen is if Democrats win the House. But if those election results are not certified also??? Trump wins.

Trump promised to be a dictator, on day one, for one day only. In that day the military chiefs of staff will be fired and replaced with loyalists. The civil service employees will be fired, and replaced by loyalists. The coup will be complete.

Trump wants to deport millions of immigrants, even to the extent of revoking protected status of those here legally. What will happen has happened. States that enacted laws in the past that targeted their migrant population saw their crops rotting in the fields due to a lack of labor. Remove millions of farm laborers from the workforce and prices at the grocery store will skyrocket. But the mainstream media is remarkably silent about the fairly recent history of Red States cracking down on migrants, only to see their agriculture industry take a big economic hit.

So, with a mass deportation of farm workers, the United States will be forced to import food on an unprecedented scale. The results will be seen at the grocery store by June of 2025, if not sooner.

Then there’s Trump’s Revenge Tour. Trump promised bloodshed. There, I agree with Trump. He will likely charge his political enemies with treason, and have them arrested, and demand they be executed, following a military tribunal. He’ll do the same with journalists, judges, lawyers, and anyone who has ever posted anything online critical of Trump (present company included).

With the immunity granted to Presidents by the Supreme Court, Trump will have free reign to do whatever he wants, either as a ‘core Presidential Power’ or through executive orders. An executive order can only be overturned by a super-majority in Congress, and that’s not going to happen. So, whatever Trump wants, Trump gets.

So, if Republicans succeed in refusing to certify the vote and in electing Trump the President, following the Constitution, then those who oppose or have been critical of Trump will have a very narrow window of opportunity to leave the country. The time is now to check your passports.

The wild card in all of this is the military. Will the top brass – – and the rank and file – – accept Trump and the Republican Party’s coup? Or will we see the first military coup in this nation’s history?

Whether Trump wins or loses the vote in November, this country is headed for civil war. Perhaps the greatest irony will be the right-wing’s support for the 2nd Amendment, and the Second Amendment Solution. Twenty years ago, this author had a vision of the eastern seaboard of the United States engulfed in flames. It is looking more and more inevitable with each passing day.

I hope I am wrong.

Premise: The more educated a person, the greater benefit to society that person becomes.

Premise: Slavery is immoral.

If the premises are true, then the moral question is: who should pay for the education of one to enable that one to benefit society? The individual, or society?

Is it moral for a society to make the cost of an education that benefits the society so high that the individual must become indebted through loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, loans that are amortized over 30 or 40 years? In such a society, does not the society reap the benefits of the individual’s education yet place the burden on the individual?

Analysis: A society that forces individuals to bear the burden of the cost of their education is based upon placing their educated members of the society in economic slavery.

Conclusion: If slavery is immoral, economic slavery is immoral.

Moral societies bear the burden of educating their members.

Thoughts?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

245 YEARS LATER…

The Supreme Court tacitly approves political gerrymandering, guaranteeing a minority of the population legislative majorities across the country. The Electoral College, designed to give more power to less populated states, has resulted in electing presidents who were not chosen by a majority of the people.

The minority rules, the majority suffers taxation without representation.

The people no longer have a Constitutional right to privacy. Although the 9th Amendment reads “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” only those rights then in existence are retained by the people.

Once, the governing philosophy commanded majority rule, while protecting the rights of the minority. Now the governing philosophy is: minority rule, and the rights of the majority be damned.

When, in the course of human events….

Twenty-five years ago the Supreme Court declared that women don’t have the right to bodily autonomy, and that States are free to prohibit abortions from the moment of conception. This was followed soon thereafter by allowing States to prohibit any form of birth control. The burden fell most heavily on poor women who lived in Republican-controlled States. Women of color bore the brunt, if you will, of the ensuing population explosion.

A quarter of a century ago, a large faction of white Americans believed that minorities were trying to take over the country by weight of sheer numbers. The Dobbs decision turned this fear into a reality. The birthrate for minorities jumped significantly in 2023 and has climbed ever since. Meanwhile, the birthrate for white, suburban-class families either stayed the same or decreased slightly. By 2040 these unwanted minority children were old enough to vote. Now, they represent a demographic of such proportions that the most extreme gerrymandering is unable to dilute their influence at the polls.

The minority has become the majority, and the pro-life faction that opposed every measure to care for these “Dobbs Babies” are finally losing their advocates on the Supreme Court and in Congress. The demise of the United States as a “Christian Nation” is at hand, due in no small part by white evangelical Christians getting everything they wanted.

Four commercial jet liners crashed on dry ground, all in the same day, and vaporized. Not enough pieces were recovered from any of the aircraft to piece together the jetliner. Engines, landing gear, seats, luggage, etc. vanished.

Big Lie #2:

The 2020 election was stolen through election fraud committed in several states. No trace of the fraud could be found.

The divisions:

Some people rejected both big lies.

Some people accepted both big lies.

Some people accepted Big Lie # 1 and rejected Big Lie #2.

The similarities behind both Big Lies are striking. In both instances there was precious little evidence to support the Lie. And in both instances, millions accepted the Lie and rejected any contrary explanation.

There is a passage for those who accepted the first Big Lie but condemn others for accepting the second:

Matthew 7:1-5

If the security checkpoints at schools takes hold, the union plans to expand its scope to include shopping malls, Walmarts, grocery stores, movie theaters, places of worship, and freeway on-ramps.

The draft recognizes that currently only deranged, mentally ill people are arming themselves to the teeth with assault rifles and committing mass murders. By arming everyone, Republicans figure to even the equation by providing lethal firepower to all “responsible” citizens. The group acknowledges that Congress is unable to pass any law restricting gun ownership and thus the only solution is to allow citizens to take the law into their own hands.

The enclave hopes to push the bill through this winter’s lame-duck session of Congress in time to ship assault rifles to every household for Christmas.

By the start of the 2022-2023 school year, all children who attend public school and all people in prison will trade places. “That way,” the governor explained, “no one will care if there’s a mass shooting at a school site. Our children will be safely locked away in a maximum security fortress where they can learn about the history of the Second Amendment in an environment free from worry about outside attacks.”

The GOP controlled legislature initially signaled its approval, but then squabbles erupted over the fact that each “classroom” had only one toilet. A committee was proposed to study the bathroom issue and submit a report by the end of June.

The Texas Prison authority had no comment, but a prisoner’s rights group immediately complained – about meals. “Anyone who’s ever had a school lunch knows,” a spokesperson said, “it’s inedible. To force prisoners to eat school cafeteria food morning, noon, and night is cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Eighth Amendment.”