Rankin Fitch and Donald Trump

 In reading a recent op-ed by Frida Ghitis from CNN.com I'm struck by a thought. Her Op-ed is about the tide turning against Donald Trump. She says "Trump will end up crushed by either his bullying ways or by his loyal followers, with little support from the rest of the GOP." which leads me to the end of the film Runaway Jury.

For those wondering, Runaway Jury centers around two people Nicholas Easter and a mysterious woman named Marlee. Both clearly have skeletons in the closet as they try and sway a jury to find a gun company guilty after their product is used in a workplace massacre. On the opposing side is Rankin Fitch, a cold calculating man used to getting his own way. Fitch is wealthy, and he has no qualms about bullying others into doing his bidding. Or attempting to make them feel inferior, as he tries to do with Wendell Rohr, the attorney for the widow of one of the victims. I will try my best not to spoil it for those that haven't seen the film, but there is a scene at the end where Easter and Marlee confront Fitch in a cafe. Though Fitch is seemingly defeated, he tries to turn the tables, saying that Nick and Marlee in effect didn't accomplish anything and the money they received from Fitch in hopes of swaying the journey will become an addiction. That they wouldn't be able to stop and in the end, they'd actually have nothing. He screams the word nothing at Marlee and Nick as they leave, and the other patrons look on. Suddenly, it dawns on Fitch that he was the one with nothing. His self-assured nature that he could make anyone tremble, anyone bend to his will was gone. And it was he who was left with nothing.

Which brings me to Donald Trump, the disgraced former president of the United States. Trump looked at the oval office as his way to assert the ultimate power. In fact, he might have looked upon it as his way to dominate the world. It was achieving this office that he learned that his powers were limited by the framers of the country, men who knew enough that the power had to be curbed, curbed to prevent men like Trump who sought to pervert the office into their own source of limitless power over helpless masses. When he found that he could no longer makes others do his bidding, for they were bounded by the U.S. Constitution from carrying out his illegal edicts, he lashed out. The boiling point being January 6th, when reeling from a loss he could not accept, he opted to try and make people bend to his will. Bend to his will in a power grab not seen in this country by a person in his position since Aaron Burr. Trump unleashed a fury that cost lives and shattered the sanctity of the U.S. Capitol. And while Trump has some fringe media outlets that favor him, the public tide may be turning against him. 

Which brings me back to the image of Rankin Fitch in that cafe. Sitting alone, his minions nowhere to be found. That could very well be Trump's destiny. A man who thumbed his nose at the law and hobnobbed with the likes of John Gotti (which by the way, was the genesis for Trump's war against the FBI) now finds his power fading, his cloak of invincibility shrinking. He lashes out, claiming he's the victim of some deep state conspiracy. And the dwindling number of believers he can rally to his side view themselves as his soldiers. However, it's just nothing than the last grasp of a man refusing to accept defeat.

When the true history is written, and the epitaph struck, Donald Trump's ranking on who was the worst president won't matter. It may not even matter that much that he tried to stage a coup in order to maintain power, doing so in the fashion that Castro might be proud of. In the end Donald Trump could serve as a cautionary tale for those willing to listen. That the goal of achieving the ultimate power comes at a price. Especially for those with evil desires, a contempt for freedom of speech and they who seek to make themselves into a messiah. 

What we can learn from Willard Herschberger

 

It is really hard to fathom the hatred that is being spewed from the likes of Charlie Kirk and his ilk. All of their venom directed at Simone Biles because she actually values her mental health is such a sickening display. Then again of course, these are the same folks that stood and applauded when Donald Trump mocked P.O.W.’s. Kirk has led his followers to call Biles unamerican, simply because she bowed out of the Olympics to focus on her mental health.

And this brings me to Willard Herschberger. Herschberger was a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds before World War II. He was born in California and was a high school baseball teammate of Richard Nixon, who’d go on to infamy as president of the United States. In high school Willard was a star player not only in baseball, but in football as well. It wasn’t long before the scouts showed up, and Willard found himself playing in the minors for the most popular baseball team at the time, the New York Yankees.

However, good times were marred with a tragedy. Upset over family finances, Willard’s father took his own life via a handgun. Willard navigated his way through this and despite early struggles, began to show some promise as a minor league player. The Yankees however, had a future hall of famer player named Bill Dickey blocking Willard’s path to the majors. The Reds called the Yankees, since they were looking to have a capable back-up to Ernie Lombardi, who was one of the top stars of the era. Not only did Willard perform well, he almost took the starting job away form Lombardi. And Willard would even get a chance to take a shot at the New York Yankees, the team that had traded him away. The Reds faced off against the Yankees in the World Series. Willard drove in the game tying run in game four, but the Reds lost the World Series to the Yankees.

In 1940, Willard was secure in his position behind Lombardi. However, events would take a tragic turn in July of 1940. The Reds dropped a double header to the Boston Bees (now known as the Atlanta Braves) with Willard going 0-6 in game two. Willard blamed himself for the loss, confiding to teammate Billy Werber that had Lombardi caught that game, the Reds wouldn’t have lost. Willard blamed himself for calling a terrible game for the pitchers. He even made reference to taking his own life, just as his father had done years before. Reds manager Bill McKechine talked to Willard and soon it seemed that Willard had calmed down. McKechine then made a tragic error, he assumed Willard would be fine.

The next day Willard missed batting practice. A Reds official contacted the hotel Willard was staying at, and was informed by Willard that he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to play. It was agreed upon that Willard would at least be at the game in street clothes and would cheer on the team.

The first game of the double header with the Bees had come and gone, no sign of Willard. So the Reds called a childhood friend of Willard’s that lived nearby and had him go to the hotel and check on him. When he arrived, Dan Cohen, the man whose duty was to retrieve Willard, was welcomed by a locked door. He then went to the front desk, and explained he was sent there by the Cincinnati reds to check on one of their players. The manager, with Cohen, was able to gain access to the hotel room, where they found Willard dead in the bathroom. He had slashed his own throat. After the Reds finished the second game, Bill McKechine gathered the team together, and informed them of Willard’s suicide.

Willard Herschberger lived in a time where no one gave any thought to mental health. You just picked yourself up, dusted yourself off, and went about your day. The traditional role for a man was that you never gave into emotions. You had to be tough at all times.

Willard is a cautionary tale. Donnie Moore is a cautionary tale. Donnie Moore never got over giving up the game winning home run that cost the Angels the shot at the World Series. Three years later, he was dead, took his own life after a failed murder/suicide attempt.

Freddie Prinze seemed to have it all back in the 1970’s. He ended up taking his own life.

And this is why finally we take mental health seriously. There is a lot of pressure in our daily lives. The amount of pressure on a professional and Olympic athlete, especially in the time of social media, has become tremendous. We need to support Simone Biles, not scold her. We need to let her know we’re there for her, not there to mock her. Clearly, Charlie Kirk and his ilk have a base to play to. A base of rabid patriots who consider the slightest gesture as a challenge to the flag. To them, Kirk has them believing that Biles is a traitor on par with Benedict Arnold or Aldrich Ames. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Simone Biles is a brave woman. Many struggle to admit to themselves in private what she admitted to the world. Hopefully this starts a positive trend. A human life is more important than a sporting event, even such as grand as the Olympics. And it’s about time we remember that.

Winning The Argument For Police Reform

 

The following blog was inspired on May 24^th thanks to a discussion I became part of on a thread on Facebook. A woman had posted her distress over someone stealing her car. She mentioned she was going to call the police, despite not being overly trusting of them. Cue one person that had to chime in with “See, you don’t like cops, but who do you call when you need help? The cops.”

I decided to engage in the conversation, and brought many of the points I’ll be talking about in this blog. The woman responding was entrenched in her original argument, her responses became circular and thankfully, the moderator ended up closing off comments. However, thanks to this woman I was finally able to craft the perfect way to defuse those who claim you can’t seek police reform and still ask for their help when needed. So, if you feel that serious police reform is needed, and you post about an incident where you needed police assistance, and someone pulls that line on you, there’s several ways you can defeat their argument. And here it is.

It’s not police as a whole that you distrust, it is the bad apples that manage to paint police as a whole in a bad light. It really is high time that we find a way to remove these folks from service before the overall image of police is damaged to a point no one trust them as a whole.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the loopholes that allow an officer with a history of use of excessive force and other rules violations to essentially gypsy from department to department. There was, for example, a case that made national news in Ohio a few years ago where a man was shot in the back by an officer who’d transferred from another department in another state. This officer had a long record of use of force violations and questionable shooting incidents. He’d also been fired from a third department for those exact reasons.

You could also mention your fears about the equipment that departments have been able to acquire. For example: There’s no reason that a city with a rather small population should have a fleet of military SUV’s that the department will most likely never use, and will sit in a garage collecting dust. While these vehicles may make for some cool and intimidating photo shoots, they have no practical use for this department. Not to mention it was your tax dollars that most likely paid for this vehicle. And when they mention some unique setting in which the vehicle will be needed, simply reply that the odds of such an event actually occurring are rather remote, so remote that it still does not justify the purchase of said vehicle.

Over the last several years, it feels that departments have placed diplomacy aside and instead feel the need to intimidate instead. Yes, granted, there are cases where crowds are unruly and drastic matters need to be put in place. However, showing up at protest you know the odds are that it won’t become violent, and your department opts to show up dressed in tactical gear, you’ve already turned up the heat and by the actions of the department, inflamed tensions. It is almost like the department has shown up looking for a fight.

No one wants to engage an angry person. People tend to take insults to heart. However, police in these cases must set personal feelings aside and simply allow someone to vent. And for those that think this is a wild and impractical idea, allow me to use an incident that happened in Toronto, Canada back in 2015 as an example.

A man, angry at life in general, pulled a knife on a cop, and threatened him. The officer sat on a nearby desk and engaged the man in conversation. No one ended up getting shot, no one was tased and most importantly, no one died. The officer, without any use of force, was able to actually get the man calmed to the point where the man gave the cop the knife and surrender to police.  I have to admit, I was amazed at the poise of the officer to never once lose his cool and how he was able to defuse the situation. Feel free to use that as example if you ever engage someone really entrenched in their if you don’t support cops, don’t call them if you need them argument.

As you can see with the example, force doesn’t always need to be the first option. And that is part of the problem people seem to have. A frustration over the fact that we’ve seen countless Body Wore Camera footage where a police officer engages a person and the officer is already at an eleven as far as their emotions go. No calming voice, just get on the ground or I’ll shoot you. And that in many cases, is only going to make a bad situation worse. Why is it police in other countries can defuse a situation with words and we can’t? Is it our training methods? Is it our desire to prove were the alpha dog in the situation? Could it be that were already so stressed as a culture, we don’t know how to react without overreacting?

And it doesn’t have to be in an internet thread that you use the above talking points. You could use them with a friend or family member that sees your calls for police reform as an attack on police themselves. It should not have the death of George Floyd to spark change. Change should have not just started with Eric Canter. It should have started when Bull Connor turned firehoses on children as young as six years old who used their voice to protest. To think that serious reform is not needed is simply not accepting that facts before you. Seeking police reform, and rooting out police officers that are more Hollywood cliches than actual cops should not be a controversial topic. When you present the argument that it is in the best interest of police to root out these cops, and to no longer purchase surplus military equipment as a tool to instill fear in the citizens, you’ll seen the relationship between the community police improve to heights you could not imagine right now. And how knows, once someone sets emotion aside in favor of intellect, they’ll see the issue as well. And an adversary will become an ally.  

Dr. Seuss and The Origins of Cancel Culture

 Scrolling through social media and seeing conservatives outraged at “Cancel Culture” amuses me in a way mere words cannot do justice. They act as if this was something created by liberals and social justice warriors. They say they are trying to control what people watch on T.V. and what type of books they can read, and so forth. And of course, these people, the likes of Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens get applauded by their legions of fans, many of whom are clueless to the fact. Clueless to the fact that the seeds for what conservatives claim to despise were planted year ago. To be frank, crying about cancel culture is just conservatives yelling at the tree they planted.

Now, I should say the books written by Dr. Seuss that are being discontinued are books that I’d never heard of, not a single one of them. And some of the images in the book are wildly inappropriate, but they fit the times in which they were written because that was the mindset of society. I’ve had to research the books and looking at them through the prism of modern times, I get why people are offended. As someone of Sicilian and Italian heritage, I get why people are upset. Me, I just roll at laugh at the stereotypes I see. I don’t let it bother me at all. I get that many times, the stereotypes exist because they fit the narrative of the story or the joke.

Let’s address cancel culture. It’s a rather new buzzword that is completely meaningless. Yeah, it gets clicks on the internet and gives news networks something to fill T.V. time with. It is, however, something that has its roots with conservatives and it’s something much more sinister than what exist today.

Lenny Bruce is one of the greatest comedians of all-time. Bar none, just bar none. He’s the guy that started it all, the counter-culture humor that gave us George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Sam Kinison, among many others. Bruce was arrested for saying the word ‘cocksucker’ on stage. Conservatives, especially the Christian conservatives, set their sights on him. They didn’t like that he poked fun of religion. And when Bruce faded away, they set their sights on Carlin and Pryor. And each time, they used children as pawns, saying that they unbridled comedy of these men would destroy impersonable children. It would lead to the breakdown of polite society. Simply because they found it offense, they felt it gave them license to set the tone for everyone else. And it wasn’t just comedians these conservatives tried to cancel.

M*A*S*H and All In The Family were like no sit-coms before them. Yeah, sit-com provided great entertainment and provided and escape, but in no way shape of form going to address social issues. Star Trek used thinly storylines to address issues like racial tensions and other social issues. M*A*S*H may have been set in Korea, but its attempts to show the true horrors of war were clearly aimed at Vietnam. And All In The Family addressed racism, and other social issues. And because conservatives did not like these shows, these shows became the targets of write-in campaigns, if not to get the shows canceled, but perhaps to get the shows utterly revamped to fit their taste.

If you need a modern example, The Simpsons has been the bane for conservatives since the 1980’s. Same goes for South Park. Conservatives have been trying to cancel comedians and shows for decades. However, they want everyone to forget their history. They seek to re-cast themselves as the protectors of the first amendment, when they are the same ones that literally put Larry Flynt on trial over a parody interview of Jerry Falwell.

One thing that the likes of Candace Owens, Tomi Lahren, and Ben Shapiro don’t want their follows to do is to research. If they did their own research, they’d see that the very people they follow and though were champions of freedom of speech are themselves products of those that created what would become cancel culture in the first place. Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, of the conservative news outlets as well will declare this an assault on the first amendment, yet they are the ones that champion and take pride in the fact that Colin Kaepernick has been blackballed from the NFL. And all Kaepernick do was take a knee during a song to shine a light on police brutality. Funny how they fail to mention Kaepernick, they man they tried to cancel. I guess its okay for them to cancel someone. And that’s just it, when you boil it down to the essentials. Conservatives started something years ago, and when the tables get turned, they don’t like it. So next time a conservative gets angry and cries cancel culture, just mention Colin Kaepernick, and see what type of response you get.  I’m sure they will come up excuses and do a lot of verbal tap dancing to avoid admitting they are guilty of doing that which they decry.    

Cancel culture is just a buzz word, created by social media as a way to separate what is going on now, from what they did for decades. And it’s time that their ruse becomes expose

To save themselves, the GOP must vote to convict Trump

 

I’ve got an idea that will save the GOP. Now hear me out, because this will benefit the country in the long run. The Republicans would be best served voting for impeachment. Now, I get that there are members of the GOP who aren’t taking the impeachment trial seriously. I get that conservative media would like us to ignore the history behind the ability to impeach an elected official after they’ve left office. I understand that. And I fully understand that their first instinct is to put party over the best interest of the country. However, now is the time to abandon that dangerous mindset.

To fully understand what I’m talking about, we’re going to have to travel back in time. We’re going to travel back to 1974. It was the year the Cleveland Indians staged Ten Cent Beer night, one of the most disastrous promotions of all-time. It was the year the fighter jet, the F-16 was born. Patty Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a group she later joins with. Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record, and author Stephen King publishes the novel Carrie. And in August of 1974, a first happened in American politics. A president resigned the office.

Richard Nixon, exposed in plotting the Watergate break-in, was facing impeachment. Well, to be honest, the impeachment was set in motion when Nixon decided to fire several staff members and others resigned in what was to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Not wishing to become the first president since Andrew Johnson to be impeached, and knowing a conviction would end his prized political career, Nixon quit. He resigned, he left office. This occurred on August 9^th, 1974. With his Vice President Spiro Agnew having already resigned in disgrace, Gerald Ford, who became Vice President after serving as House Minority Leader, would become president, thus becoming the first president to serve despite never have been elected directly by the people.

It could be argued that Nixon, a shrewd political mind, might have opted to resign as part of his grand scheme to save his political career. After all, he was defeated in his efforts to become president by John Kennedy, and wouldn’t so easily surrender an office he’d always had his sights set on. However, on that August night, that’s where the country was, history made with the first president to resign from office. One month leader, Gerald Ford made a critical error. It was ill-conceived from the start to be frank. What was known as Proclamation 4311, on September 8^th, 1974, President Gerald Ford issued a full pardon to Richard Nixon. Needless to say, the press had a field day, calling the pardon Ford’s crooked deal. Many felt the friendship between Ford and Nixon played a role in the pardon. Many felt that Ford had cheated the American people out of the trial they so richly and rightfully deserved to see play out. Richard Nixon escaped being impeach simply by quitting. Gerald Ford, in his prime-time address to the nation, said the pardon was issued in part, to help America move on from Watergate and to put it in the past. That mindset might sound familiar, because it’s the same argument that is being used in the Trump impeachment. Ford often cited the Supreme Court case, Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915) which essentially stated that should a person accept a pardon, it meant they were acknowledging guilt. So, per the logic applied by Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon accepted guilt for the Watergate scandal by accepting the pardon. I find multiple flaws in the logic used by the court to reach that decision, but that’s neither here nor there.

The fallout from the pardon was easy to predict. It angered the nation, it failed to heal any wounds. Any notion that it would heal anything was quickly disproven. And it would end up paving the way from Jimmy Carter to become president. The nation as a whole was so angered by the pardon, the GOP ended up being rejected by them.

And that brings us to 2021. Donald Trump has taken over the role made famous by Nixon. And the evidence shown in the first two days of the trial have been damning. Trump supporters using the American flag as a weapon. Trump supporters yelling “Fuck you pigs!” to the police and making chants about not only killing the cops, but chants about hanging then Vice President Mike Pence and shooting Nancy Pelosi. And the video evidence has been chilling, however not as chilling as another factor. Setting aside that the people that stormed the Capitol in the attempt to overturn a fair election process, those very people have made public statements, both then and now, that they fully believe they were acting on an edict set forth by President Donald J. Trump. Please take time to re-read that sentence because it’s important. The very people who took part in a criminal act said themselves they were under the notion that they were carrying out the desires of Trump himself. And they are saying this in their court pleadings. And that could very well be more damning than any video shown.

The only difference is that there was no cult like admiration of Nixon like there is of Trump. I’ve often joked that Donald Trump is the modern era Golden Calf. Many modern Republicans call him the true leader of their party. They view him as a new messiah. It’s quickly going from being a political party to becoming a cult.

As I harken back to Nixon and Watergate, now is the time for the GOP to not allow history to repeat. They must cast aside their loyalty to Trump and any fears of what his followers will do. They must put country over party and vote to impeach Trump. History demands that they do. And just as President Biden should steer clear of the errors of Gerald Ford, the GOP should heed the call of history, and vote to impeach Trump. Because if they don’t, they very well could fall by the wayside, just as the Whigs did in the 1800’s. To help heal the country, to save their party, the GOP must vote to impeach Trump. If not, we’re going to relive the post-Watergate era all over again. And the GOP could very well find themselves replaced by the Green Party in the political landscape of America.

A Transfer of Power Unlike No Other

 

I’ve racked my brain at least a couple hundred times this week. I’ve tried in vain to seek out that time when a transfer of power was held any circumstances such as these. As we go about our day, there are scores of military personnel in Washing D.C. to see that the transfer of power from the out-going Donald Trump to the duly elected Joe Biden is completed. Trump, not to be unexpected, as opted to skip out of the inauguration and go golfing. Even after a sound defeat at the hands of FDR, President Hoover at least went to Roosevelt’s inauguration. And Hoover let the country sink into a national depression because he, being a small government minded Republican, opted not to make the needed investments that would have created jobs. Which is much like Trump, who opted to fiddle while America burned and descended into a chaotic state unlike, we’ve ever seen before.

I tried to picture John Kennedy’s inauguration. Kennedy took on the old guard in Richard Nixon and handed him a defeat. Much of Kennedy’s policies, such as equal civil rights, angered the many in the Southern states who viewed him as public enemy number one for what they felt was an attack on their traditional lifestyle. However, not even that inauguration was held under times as tense as these. We are living in a time that saw the Capitol Building assaulted and briefly seized by homegrown terrorist inspired by Trump, whom they view as their unquestioned winner and rightful president, even though he was defeated in the election. Those terrorists and that is the right term, even took to social media to brag about their exploits, and each and everyone of them claimed the same thing, they were on a mission at the behest of Donald J. Trump.

Thanks to the rhetoric from Trump and his sycophants like Matt Gatez and Ted Cruz, those minions are taking to what ever social media platform they can find and proclaim they are coming to disrupt the transfer of power. Though evidence clearly says otherwise, these people actually think there is a deep state that has deprived Trump from office.

If you pitched this to a movie executive, you’d get laughed out of the building. This sounds like a plot to a B-movie, it’s just too insane to be real. Alas, that’s where we are. Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president of the United States while the military states guard against easily lead sheep who have vowed a bloody revolution. Another factor that doesn’t help is that Sean Hannitty and Tucker Carlson are willfully acting as Trump’s cheerleaders, happy to parrot Trump’s misinformation as they try to fend off conspiracy driven pseudo news networks like Newsmax and OAN to keep Fox News as Trump’s favorite media outlet.

I cannot gaze into a crystal ball and predict what this perfect storm is going to do. We’re pretty much as a place that has no historic paroral in American history. Never before has this nation experienced a president whom before leaving office, is doing everything he can in order to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new administration. Not even Richard Nixon, in his most drunken fits of anger and rage, ever spewed the combination of anger and insanity Trump has. One could only imagine what damage he’d be doing as we speak, if he hadn’t been banned from Twitter. Trump losing his social media platform isn’t going to silence him. Trump is a man who has dined with the mafia. Trump is a man who showed admiration for Putin a man who either jailed his critics (like he did to the members of the band Pussy Riot) or flat had them murdered. He’s skillfully learned how to manipulate people and he’ll find away to keep doing that. Even if it means tearing the country asunder, because America as a free nation, is something Trump is willing to sacrifice in order to feed his ego. And that’s something we need to address before it’s too late.

Trump's war against Democracy

 

Somewhere, Aaron Burr, who was Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President, is smiling. If he could be here, he’d gaze upon the likes of Ted Cruz and he’d be proud. And that in itself is not something one should be braggadocios about. Aaron Burr slayed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, though dueling by 1804. Burr had been dropped by Thomas Jefferson on the ticket, so he opted to run for governor of New York. He lost to his opponent; an obscure candidate named Morgan Lewis. Burr claimed that his political rivals had staged an attempt to rig the election so the lesser-known Lewis would win. This led to an exchange of words between Hamilton and Burr, which led to the duel, which led to Burr Killing Hamilton, who missed shooting Burr on purpose. Burr himself would later stage a coupe against the United States, thought he’d be found not guilty, and he’d then flee the United States.

Which brings us to 2020. After losing the election, Donald Trump fulfilled a promise he had in 2015 when he was running against Hillary Clinton. That if he lost, it was because the election was rigged and he’d do whatever he could to delay the transfer of power. Trump was elected and proceeded to destroy America’s relationship with our allies, some of which stretched all the way back to when we were just coming out of British rule. Trump sided with Russian president Putin at every turn almost, even butting heads with the U.S. Intelligence Community when it was learned Russia was attempting a disinformation strategy to turn the 2020 election in favor of Trump.

Many Americans, tired to the dissention and racial divide Trump seemed almost orgasmic to see he created, elected Joe Biden. Trump instantly claimed fraud, despite there being zero evidence. Nothing, zip, zero, nada. Nothing to show any malfeasance regarding the election. Donald Trump lost. Instead of being a gracious loser, he’s instead turned his attention on doing what he can to remain in power, which includes convincing Republicans like Ted Cruz to demand the electors not seat Mr. Biden as president, and instead, declare the election null and void in a sense.

Let’s be clear, this is a war, declared by Trump, with his minions like Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn and Tommy Tuberville happily doing his bidding. It’s a war on democracy by a man who views himself as a czar. With Cruz and his cohorts willing to hold democracy hostage in order to ensure that Trump remains in power. Despite re-counts and investigations that have shown there was no widespread voter fraud, Trump and his band of devoted followers insist there was.

Trump in his last days in power is doing what he can to sow the seeds of distrust in the democratic process. In his last days in office, he’s doing more damage to the country than any terror cell overseas could even dream of doing. He’s attempting to tear the country asunder, and he’s using the myth of a rigged election to do it.

America has been through a lot, but this is a first. A sitting president who declared war on democracy simply because he lost the vote. He saddled himself with conspiracy fanatics like Lin Wood and Rudy Giuliani. He’s driven a wedge between people in this country that will be very hard to fix.

Then again, this is what despots do to remain in power. He’s taking a page out of the playbook of men like Fidel Castro. We are at a very dangerous juncture in this country, make no mistake about it. Joe Biden won the election fait and square. Trump’s attempts to subvert the election process laid forth by the founding fathers cannot succeed. Or the America you once knew would be relegated to the dust bin of history, and a brand new, unrecognizable country would be it its place.

I don’t think it can be explained any more bluntly than that.