No Longer the Party of "Law and Order" As If They Ever Were

Whether it is fear of Trump or lack of conviction--or a combination of both--it appears that there will not be enough Republican Senators willing to convict Trump in the most recent impeachment trial.  I think most Democrats probably knew that, though you'd think being in the line of fire when the security of the Capitol building was over-run would bring some of them back to their right mind.  If the partisan political divisiveness has become so bad that most of the Republicans were actually hoping to see some assassinations and were pulling for the Trump insurrection's success, as some Senators clearly were, then we are already over the brink and on the road to dictatorship.  

The trial is going to move forward, in spite of McConnell's dishonest duplicity and crazy Rand Paul's ranting.  From the public reactions of Republican Senators, it is clear that the effects of the presentation of the evidence are going to be devastating.  The Democrats control the White House and both branches of Congress because of Trump's incompetence and corruption.  It's been on display for four years.  I'm on the record, on a message board, of predicting that he would lose the House in 2018, would at some point do something corrupt and illegal enough to be impeached, and would be beaten to the ground in the 2020 election.  

What I couldn't imagine was the spot in which Trump would put the entire Republican party.  The smarmy, self-righteous bigots have been exposed for the power hungry hypocrites and despots that they are.  Law and order?  What a joke!  Law and order is for someone else, not for them.  Everyone knows that now and we are about to get a two week long reminder of it on prime time television and in social media everywhere.  What we didn't get to see in his first impeachment trial, because the "law and order Republicans" refused to allow evidence to be presented (that alone is enough to scuttle any image they may have previously projected about being for law and order) is now going to be on full display because they can't stop it and they are going to have to sit through it and listen to it all again.  

The damage was done during the first impeachment.  Only one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, emerged with his integrity intact.  Romney has followed the party line, but he has very carefully avoided committing any loyalty to Trump.  Sometimes that's been hard to see, but from the social media blasting and death threats he gets from that peace-loving, non-violent  MAGA mob, his stand is clear.  He's been joined now by Sasse, Murkowski, Toomey and Collins. McConnell once again exposed himself as an opportunistic, duplicitous liar.  So the prospects for a conviction are very slim.  

But the trial will go on.  The Republicans can't stop it, nor can they vote to avoid seeing any evidence and they can't keep everyone else from seeing it either.  There it will be, the videos of the horrible scenes of the Capitol being stormed by traitors and insurrectionists, some of whom were aiming at murder, some of whom actually committed it while they were inside, including the murder of a police officer.  But in spite of their "law and order" stance, and their empty shouts of "back the blue," they'd rather side with the criminal whose orders caused the officers death than pursue justice on his behalf. 

So what does the vote on Rand Paul's motion tell us besides the fact that 45 of the Republican senators in Congress are spineless cowards?  It tells us that they are scared spitless of the political consequences they are going to face which result from another extended period of time in which the corruption and crimes of Donald J. Trump will be on public display.  

There are some Democrats who are bemoaning that in spite of the fact that Trump was exposed as a traitor to Democracy and an enemy of the American Republic, he still has a base within the Republican party.  It is genuinely concerning that after the Trump Insurrection, there are still Americans who are willing to support him, who, in spite of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, still buy the lie that there was massive voter fraud and the election was stolen from him.  It is disconcerting and concerning that there are so many conspiracy theorists, extremist and anti-American anti-Patriots left.  But there aren't enough of them left to elect him again and in fact, the shambles they have made of the Republican party means that even if the senate doesn't convict him this time, the voters will do it for them. Again. The Democrats won't have to worry about making sure the Vice President is around to cast a deciding vote after 2022.  There won't be any room to doubt the repudiation of Donald J. Trump after that. 

So regardless of the outcome, there will be some good things that come out of this trial.  The American people will be reminded, once again, of the horrific, seditious, treasonous Trump insurrection and the law and order hating, unpatriotic, anti-American, self-serving demagogue of a President who fanned the flames and instigated it with his outrageous lies.  Trump goes down in history as the only President to be impeached twice, which is a stain on the Republican party for its failure to see the evil the first time around. It will be very costly, in terms of votes, for many of the Republican senators who will be sitting there seeing and hearing the damning, incontrovertible evidence that the man they supported as President tried to destroy American democracy and its constitutional republic.   

Frankly, I have trouble understanding how it is that the MAGA mob is not able to understand the absolute contempt and complete disrespect Trump has for their intelligence.  The one person who knows for certain that a lie isn't true is the liar.  There may be clear evidence supporting the truth, but it takes intelligence and objectivity to see it, examine it, and draw a conclusion.  Trump knows there was no "massive fraud" and he knows that he lost the election.  He knew where it was headed when he first started floating the idea of fraud to his MAGA mob even before the first impeachment.  But he also knows that most of his supporters will simply believe whatever he says.  So by continuing to feed them lies, Trump is demonstrating the fact that he thinks his followers are incredibly ignorant and bottomlessly stupid.  

We are at a point where we are going to have to decide, as a country, whether our Republic is worth saving and whether democracy is the best form of government for the nation.  We have to decide where the lines need to be drawn, how to examine our candidates and determine whether they really do have the character, the morality, the integrity, the honesty and the commitment to the American Constitution that is required to serve in public office and are capable of setting aside their personal loyalty and selfish ambition in order to serve.  This is a government of, by and for the people and we can make some rules that we think are necessary to make it work better, like term limits, restoring the balance of power where it has become lax in the executive branch and putting limits on the power of the executive branch.  

And we need to decide that those members of the House and Senate whose actions gave aid and comfort to the enemies of this country who stormed the Capitol and threatened to destroy the country must be held accountable.  Some rear ends need to be kicked out as soon as possible and the Democrats do have the power to make that happen.  

Trump was impeached twice.  Look at the life he led before he ran for public office.  You can see this disaster coming from a long way off.  If the Democrats ever elected someone as despicable and deplorable as that, do you think the Republicans would take the position they've now put themselves in and just give him, or her, a pass?  

Latest Social Media Lies From the Right

Seen on social media---

"National guard members turned their backs on Biden on Inauguration Day."  

False.  

"Democrats forced our great troops to sleep on the floor of a parking garage after dragging them to DC for photo ops."  

False.  First of all, it was not the Democrats who ordered the guard to DC, it was the military command of the Pentagon, at that point under the Trump administration, which did so at the request of the Mayor of Washington.  The parking garage order also did not come from any Democrat in Congress and in fact, when the House and Senate leadership heard about it, they ordered an immediate reversal.  Guard troops on duty are housed in the Capitol and Senate office complex, off duty are in local hotels. 

"Democrats are trying to pass a bill to force vaccinate children without their parents' consent."  

This one earned a "pants on fire" from PolitiFact.  NO, there is no such bill anywhere in any state or in the federal government.  Vaccinations and the legislation that governs  them are state legislative issues, not federal and no state has a law requiring vaccinations without parental consent.  

"Vice President Harris put her purse over the Bible so she wouldn't have to touch it while being sworn in."  

False.  There are several versions of this being tossed around, but if you look at the actual video of the inauguration, you can see this is absolutely false.  VP Harris was an active member of a Baptist church in Oakland, California prior to her election to the Senate and regularly attends  worship services.  She brought het own Bible as did President Biden.  

"By revoking the Keystone Pipeline, President Biden is destroying 11,000 jobs." 

False.  The contract is with a Canadian company which says it will put about 1,000 workers out of a job, not 11,000.  But within two weeks, the company says, most of those workers, who are from Canada, will be back at work in other locations.  

"A video shows President Biden saying 'salute the marines' right after he hears the words in an earpiece he was wearing at the inauguration." 

False.  You have to wonder where this stuff comes from.  Then again, we've had four years of some of the most outrageous lies coming from Trump and everyone associated with him.  So that explains it all.  

And these right wing extremists claim that mainstream media is biased?  😐😆

 

Talk Radio's Role in the Insurrection

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."--Edmund Burke

Much of the blame for the single-minded ignorance and hatred of divergent political views in this country can be laid at the feet of Rush Limbaugh.  He's about as un-American and unpatriotic as you can be in his deliberate intentions to foster hatred and build support for the white supremacist, white Christian nationalist, fascist agenda he has pushed.  He expresses hatred for anyone who disagrees with him in a variety of ways including name-calling and mockery.  He advocates for a dictatorship of the right that would relegate anyone who isn't a white conservative who thinks like he does to second class citizenship.  

The first time I heard his radio program, I was stunned by the bigotry and vitriolic hatred that was spewing out of the car radio speakers.  Normally, I never listen to the AM side of the dial, time and technology has passed up most of those radio stations, but I was driving from New Orleans to Nashville and was on I-59 in Eastern Mississippi during a very stormy afternoon with tornadoes and golf-ball sized hail dropping down out of multiple thunderstorms.  I found a news radio station that was giving weather updates every 15 minutes, in between segments of Limbaugh's broadcast.  

He was in the process of making fun of the way African Americans pronounce certain words, belittling their intelligence because many of them pronounce the word "ask" like "axe".  After ten minutes of that, he launched into a monologue about African Americans and welfare, claiming that Clinton's budget proposals would include generous doses of welfare so that he could secure the black vote and hoping that Clinton's liberal immigration policy letting thousands of Mexicans across the border would cause a race war as they tried to grab their share of the free money.  I switched back to the FM side of the dial, deciding I'd just keep an eye out on the weather myself and enjoy music instead.  

Limbaugh's broadcasts laid a foundation for what Trump would be able to turn into his base and successfully capture the 2016 Republican nomination.  By then, Limbaugh and his wannabes in right wing extremist media, along with his Fox News sycophants, all following the pied piper because they could share the same audience to boost their ratings, were able to turn the GOP from its heir apparent Jeb Bush toward Trump.  He wasn't on their radar when he ran in 2000 as a "reform party" candidate, but they lined up in 2016 in time to jerk the rug out from under Bush.  In typical Limbaugh fashion, he claims not to have jumped on the bandwagon so fast, but ideologically, he was on the Trump train long before the GOP field narrowed in 2016 and you don't have to use the word "endorse" to accomplish that purpose. 

Limbaugh has proclaimed loudly and clearly his complete support for the January 6 insurrection since it happened.  But then, he's no patriot and is not a supporter of either the American Constitution or the Democratic Republican form of government.  The question is, did he say anything prior to the coup that directly advocated it or that would have encouraged people who specifically participated in it?  That needs to be investigated.  

I am a firm believer in the Constitution and in the guarantee of free speech.  But free speech does not guarantee the right to commit sedition, advocate the overthrow of the government or come without any responsibility attached to it when people listen to what you say, form a mob and commit a crime that you encouraged, even if you deny that it was your fault.  There's a new sheriff in town who has the ability to appoint a leader over the FCC and I think its time for some new, constitutionally-tempered new rules to make the extremist right wing media accountable for the damage it causes.   It's not censorship if the rules apply equally to everyone.  

Inciting a seditious insurrection intended at overthrowing a government that derives its power from the people is unconstitutional and illegal.  It is not guaranteed free speech."  

Limbaugh claims he's dying from cancer and I don't think any of his potential successors have the ability to draw the kind or size of audience he once did.  But there are others to whom they will scatter, some of them worse.  This is a mess that needs to be cleaned up.  Social media permanently disabled the tweeter-in-chief days before he left office.  There ought to be a way to hold Breitbart, Newsmax, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and the rest of the right wing extremist media to a standard that protects the free speech the founders intended and makes the extremist right wing media face the  choice between spouting off and paying a high price for it, or being responsible

 

The Perversion of the Christian Gospel and the Hijacking of Christian Churches

"For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."  Matthew 24:24 NRSV

"And what I do, I will also continue to do, in order to deny an opportunity to those who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in what they boast about.  For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder!  Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.  Their end will match their deeds."  2 Corinthians 11:12-15 NRSV*

In 1993, right after the election of President Clinton, Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, one of the largest and most well known congregations in the SBC,  preached a sermon entitled, "Does Character Count."  Dr. Rogers did not mention the President by name, but many Evangelical Christians who used his words in their own criticism of the President, and in their arguments that Christians should not support him by voting for him, certainly did.  

Evangelicals laser-focused their criticism of Clinton's Presidency on their stated character requirements for someone to serve in any public office and based it on their personal judgment that he did not measure up.  Their standards and expectations were indeed expecting the President to be the "Pastor-in-chief," in fact, their expectations represented higher standards than most of them would have expected of the pastor of their own church.  It renders that recent cliche hypocritical. 

I'm not sure that Dr. Rogers would have walked his 1993 sermon back when Trump came along, like most other Evangelical Christians immersed in right wing politics have done.  He passed away several years ago.  But the pass on character and morality that most Evangelical Christians, including quite a few self-appointed leaders, have given Trump is a definite abandonment of the same standards to which they held President Clinton.  They've been led astray.  The "elect", if they really are that, have been deceived.

Trump's Fame Was the Result of His Debauchery

Trump flaunted his lack of character in order to build his fame and reputation.  But there was more to it than that.  His niece, Mary Trump, in her book Too Much and Not Enough:  How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, points to behavior which indicates deep personality flaws and behavior that indicates mental illness.  She accurately predicted the fit that he would throw and the lengths to which he would go to deny losing the election and she was right.  But his niece wasn't the only person who put out warnings about Trump.  

What is hard to understand is how so many white, Evangelical Christians were convinced to support this man in spite of his past behavior that includes two divorces to marry the "other women" he was involved with in affairs, bragging about having "hundreds" of illicit sexual relationships, business fraud, thousands upon thousands of lies, and a whole long lifestyle of what the Christian scripture describes as "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Though few Evangelical leaders involved in right wing politics stepped back from pronouncing judgment on Clinton's spiritual condition, I'm going to step back from doing the same regarding Trump.  I'll just say that his actions and behavior have not shown any attitude of repentance, which would be the first step toward redemption, and his own words on this subject would indicate that the conversion experience most Christians require to justify bad behavior never occurred.  The fact that Trump himself has frequently proclaims that he hasn't done anything for which he needs to ask forgiveness is a self-judgment.  But most Evangelicals would deny, or blow right past that statement, even though the proof is pretty clear. 

To be frank, Trump's lack of character, and obvious personality flaws making him incapable of handling the Presidency rank far higher on my political priority list than issues which are never going to be much more than platform planks for the GOP anyway.  I'd have never voted for him, not for public office of any kind and that decision is based on the Biblical guidance I get from my own, personal Evangelical Christian faith.  Events of the past four years have proven my decision to be the absolute right one based on Biblical values and Christian faith.  

Leading the Elect Astray

It has been more than disappointing and discouraging to see how Evangelical Christians have completely abandoned their core convictions in cult-like fashion and have not only given Trump their support, but have, with their own lies, turned him into some kind of paragon of virtue and in many cases, a "savior," echoing Trump's own words that he is "the only one" who can solve these problems.  I guess they have, sadly, forgotten who their savior really is.  But don't try to make that point in a conversation with a Christian Trump supporter.  It'll be the last time you ever hear from them. 

Matthew 24:24 kept popping into my mind when Trump was first running for President in 2016.  That phrase, "to lead astray, if possible, even the elect," kept running through my mind.  I know the literal context of the verse is different and you can get into major theological arguments over the use of the term "elect," but it's clear that for right wing, politically involved Evangelical Christians, the values system has drastically changed.  And so has the preaching.  

Evangelical Christians are characterized by the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy.  That is the belief that the text of the Bible, both Old And New Testament, are without error in either the transmission of the words from the original authors or in the application of the content.  Some Evangelicals require an interpretation that considers the historical context of the author's original words while others, mostly Fundamentalists, prefer a literal, "word for word, verse by verse" interpretation.  Honesty and truthfulness are core values.  Forgiveness and grace are abundant gifts but they are connected to conviction of sin and repentance.  

But the caustic criticism and vicious lies which many in the "religious political right" use to attack opponents, mostly Democrats like the Clintons and President Obama, are no more consistent with the scripture they claim to believe than their giving a pass to Trump whose behavior is a litany of consistency with Galatians 5:19-21. Some give him a pass and blithely dismiss it with the "I'm not voting for a pastor" line, which is hypocritical.  Others either ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, or they are completely blind to it and have turned Trump into some kind of paragon of virtue.  That kind of denial is the sign of a cult, brain-washing, radicalization or whatever you want to call it.  

And in most cases, it's willful and deliberate.  

It Keeps on Going

There's been no repentance.  Most of the Evangelical supporters of Trump don't seem to be capable of seeing his lack of character, incompetence, or immoral behavior.  The simplistic dismissal of it is that he's being picked on by his opposition who won't leave him alone and let him do his job, or it is just an attack from the mainstream media.  More disturbing than the blindness is that there are those who are willing to step outside of their Christian worldview to actually defend this evil man.  

I was raised in a very conservative church that had a lot of solid "rules" when it came to the kind of outward behavior which gave evidence of the spiritual transformation that had taken place within the soul.  A distinction was made between "worldly" behavior and "spiritual" behavior in things like the way you dressed, your hairstyle, your language, being truthful and not lying, whether or not you smoked or drank alcohol, how many times a week you passed through the doors of the church for worship, prayer meeting and Bible study.  Things like adultery and divorce, fornication, were at the far end of the "bad" spectrum.  So it is very difficult for me to wrap my mind around people who were raised in similar kinds of churches with similar guidelines for behavior giving someone like Trump, who characterizes all of that bad behavior into a single personality, a pass and as a result of that, having to own his bad behavior because frankly, that's exactly what people will think they are doing. 

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them and turn and attack you.  Matthew 7:6, ESV

And if you ignored all the bad behavior over the past four years, and for most of Trump's life before that, it's impossible to ignore the past two and a half months.  The lies, which have literally been a daily part of this Presidential administration, and which have done enough damage already, have turned deadly and dangerous to the American Republic.  The lies about voter fraud in the election, not only provably false but proven completely false by evidence, still manage to convince many of his supporters that he is right and the election was stolen.  What's been stolen are thousands of churches, from their Biblical mission and purpose.   

Is God writing "Ichabod" over the door to Evangelical Christian churches? 

https://time.com/5932014/donald-trump-christian-supporters/?fbclid=IwAR3aCVv0iGyYTNUXcNju9R4-EDC1MwJBMyir1GV5xRWW0Wm74AIx-oxVGMk 

The Election Wasn't Stolen

"If  you believe the lie that there was massive voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election, then you have absolutely no idea how elections are conducted.  If you ever worked in an election, you'd know exactly why that claim is false."  

That's a quote from a 56 year old grandmother of 4 who is a friend of mine.  She asked to remain anonymous when she said that.  She's a Republican and voted for Trump both times.  She's been an election volunteer for 25 years in one of those six battleground states that got lots of attention this election.  She's also been an employee of the Secretary of State where the votes and registration records are kept.  

You might have noticed, if you are honest and had really paid attention, that not a single election commission volunteer or employee in any of those six states ever said anything except that the election was accurate and the count was legitimate.  That's a fact that you can check on your own without the assistance of either the extremist right wing propagandists or the mainstream media.  

You will also discover that those "witnesses" Giuliani and Powell paraded around on television never signed in as an observer or volunteer anywhere.  They are also not found on any of the witness lists in any of the 60-some odd court cases filed by the Trump campaign to testify about alleged fraud.  That's right.  They were not put in front of the court.  The attorneys representing Trump know the rules about putting knowingly false witnesses in front of a judge.  You get disbarred.  They know the MAGA  crowd believes anything, so they're using these people to raise money.  But they didn't put them in front of the court.  

If there had been "massive voter fraud" wouldn't the official observers and volunteers that were Republicans and Trump voters have seen it?

The technology of an election precludes the old idea of someone sneaking in during the dark of night and stuffing ballot boxes.  Accountability is too high and the criminal penalties are stiff.  Aside from that, too many people are watching.  If there had been "massive voter fraud" it would have required multiple observers and auditors who were Trump supporters to be in on the conspiracy to undermine their own candidate. 

There are always "irregularities."  But unless an election is abnormally close, inside a couple hundred votes difference, irregularities do not make a difference in the vote total.  The actual number of reported irregularities in this election was well below where it was in 2016.  States have learned from their own mistakes and those of others, like Florida, 2000.  Technology has made voting far more accurate.  The idea of virtually any kind of fraud is precluded by the security procedures followed in every state and by the fact that it would take a massive conspiracy involving hard core partisans who are appointed to be observers to help their candidate lose in order to commit "massive fraud."  The accusations and list of "evidence" presented by Giuliani and the Trump legal team don't hold water.  The conclusion can only be that there was no massive voter fraud and that this election was not stolen!

Mail-in ballots, contrary to the perception fostered by Trump, are the most secure way to cast a ballot.  When you request a mail-in ballot, your voter registration is marked as if you already voted.  You cannot show up at a polling place on election day and vote unless you bring your ballot, which has a bar code to identify it as the one you got.  When you mark your ballot, you put it in an inner envelope, which you sign on the outside.  Then you put it in the envelope with the address where it gets returned.  In some states, it is stored until election day, in others, it is opened and counted when it arrives.  The signature on the envelope must match your signature on your voter registration record.  Otherwise, the ballot is set aside until your identity can be established.  The bar code and the signature identify your ballot as unique.  It would be impossible to forge.  

Touch-screen ballots no longer send your vote directly into the data base.  There were too many complaints about that, so a touch screen ballot simply creates a printed ballot that you put in the ballot box.  This prevents marking errors.  It also allows the voter to check the ballot and make sure it is accurate.  Since each ballot has a bar code unique to the polling location and the voter registration, they cannot be forged or reproduced.  When they run through the counting machine, the bar code is recorded and the ballot cannot be run through and counted again.  And there are always observers and volunteers, an equal number from both parties, watching the process.  

Audits make sure the machines that count ballots are doing it accurately.  Conspiracy theories about the "programming" of ballot-counting machines to count the votes of one party twice and only count every other ballot of the other just don't hold water.  The machines cannot be programmed to do that.  Machines are audited prior to the count, certified and then audited after the count and certified.  Observers are told not to sign off unless the audit is accurate.  

Every ballot box is identified when it arrives and is not opened until state law specifies when and how it can be.  All boxes are accompanied by observers.  With the addition of "drop boxes" for mail-in ballots in most states, extra time was needed to pick those boxes up because poll workers had to deliver the election-day ballot boxes first, so many of the drop boxes didn't get picked up and delivered until the early morning hours.  Those must also be accompanied by observers and cannot be opened until they arrive at the counting location.  There is no record of an unaccompanied drop box or of a box not being delivered in any state. 

"But all we want it just an investigation to make sure all legal ballots were counted accurately and no illegal ballots were counted" 

Translated, "We want to put pressure on election officials to throw out enough Biden ballots so that Trump wins."  

How many audits, investigations and recounts are necessary to establish the accuracy of the election?  Why would "just one more" be the one that satisfies you?  

The Justice Department, under then Attorney General Barr, an obvious Trump loyalist who used the position to shield Trump from the results of two investigations, conducted a full investigation of the election in all 50 states.  He sent out agents who examined touch-screens, other voting devices, the counting machines and they went through literally millions of ballots.  They ordered recounts in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan based on a handful of "irregularities" they found.  In Arizona, they determined that the election was as accurate as an election could be.  Their examination of ballots and counting machines found that there were no inaccuracies and no illegal ballots cast.  The largest number of votes that changed in any recount was in Wisconsin, which was off by 68 votes.  

In Nevada, the accusation was made that "dead people voted."   A list of alleged "dead" voters was given to the investigator by the Trump attorney.  One individual who voted was found to have voted a couple of weeks before the election but died before November 3.  Under Nevada law, his vote counts.  Every other person on the list was contacted and as requested, showed up after being summoned to the county courthouse.  

In Pennsylvania, the accusation was made that state officers--the governor, secretary of state and attorney general, had illegally allowed an expansion of mail-in voting, basically dropping the requirement that a voter who wants a  mail-in ballot must verify that they have a valid reason to vote absentee which was a violation of state law, and asked that all mail-in ballots, something like 3.5 million of them, almost 70% of the Democratic vote in the state, be invalidated.  The court noted that the state legislature, with Republican majorities in each house, had passed a law in March allowing the expansion of mail-in voting, dropping the requirement to provide a reason and prescribing security provisions for storing ballots until election day.  

What wasn't clear was whether or not ballots that were postmarked before election day but received after election day could be counted.  Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered that all ballots postmarked by election day, but received afterward to be set aside and not counted until the court could rule on the law.  In every county, these ballots were set aside, a total of more than 10,000 of them, and not included in the total.  Biden wound up winning the state by almost 90,000 votes, and even though the court ruled that a postmark was a legal confirmation and the ballots could be counted, Pennsylvania certified its results beforehand.  

Another incident which points to the dishonesty of Giuliani and the whole Trump effort to claim voter fraud occurred in Michigan.  Playing on the racist perspective that African-American communities can't be trusted with a democratic election, he first tried to point that there was an "overvote" in Detroit and that more people voted than were registered to vote.  The problem with that is the city of Detroit is not a political unit that conducts a federal election.  Detroit's vote totals are not counted separately or reported separately from those of Wayne County, in which the city of Detroit is located.  We're not sure where Giuliani got his numbers from, but there is no separate vote count kept for Detroit.  Wayne County, which has 1.7 million people, reported 875,000 of its 1 million registered voters cast ballots in the election.  

Then there is Edison County.  Trump Attorney Sidney Powell noted in the lawsuit she filed in Michigan, that she had noticed something irregular in the vote totals from "Edison County."  I'll bet she did.  Edison County, Michigan, was completely missing from the state's report.  That's because there is no such place as Edison County, or Edison anything, in the state of Michigan.  In fact, other than an Edison Township in New Jersey, there is no Edison County anywhere in the United States.  When you're lying in front of a judge, you better hope he is not familiar with the geography of his state.  Unfortunately for Powell, this one was.  He was also familiar with a lot of other things that she was lying about and she has now been duly charged with perjury and the Michigan Bar Association is in the process of revoking her law license in the state. 

In Arizona...

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs anticipated lawsuits and challenges to the vote totals by Trump supporters who gathered in threatening and sometimes violent demonstrations outside the building in Phoenix where the votes were being counted in Maricopa County.  The demonstrators, good, non-violent MAGA folks, shouted threats, intimidated the vote counters and poll workers, vandalized their cars in the parking lot and tried to bully their way inside to "watch" and make sure things were being done right, that in spite of the fact that several Trump supporters were already inside watching like hawks.  

Hobbs brought in auditors and attorneys to help supervise the vote count.  They made sure each ballot was verified and the counting machines were verified as being accurate.  They documented everything.  When the court challenges came up, they were ready with mountains of evidence.  The Trump attorneys had nothing but baseless conspiracy theories.  Arizona's vote count was verified by an independently conducted recount that noted a discrepancy of just 11 votes, closer than the verified recount in Wisconsin, off by 68 votes.  

Georgia is the Clincher

Georgia's state government is as thoroughly controlled by Trump-supporting Republicans as any of the states challenged in the election.  Both the governor and secretary of state openly supported and endorsed Trump.  The Republican  margins in Georgia have narrowed considerably as large numbers of people from the Northeast have moved here because of the job growth and the climate and voter rights activists have worked to increase registration among African Americans who make up a larger share of the state's population than anywhere else except Mississippi.  

The presence of Stacy Abrams and her organization, which literally registered hundreds of thousands of mostly Democratic voters was the tipping point.  They got their people to the polls.  The counties of the Atlanta metro area, where more than half the state's population now lives and which are heavily Democratic, and the predominantly African American counties that stretch across the southern part of the state produced enough votes to give Biden an 11,000 vote edge.  With Trump MAGA Republicans in charge of this election, it is hard to claim fraud.  

Two things underline the fact that voter fraud is a big lie.  One, Trump put incredible, withering pressure on the Secretary of State and Governor to overturn the results of the election regardless of the outcome.  He didn't hide the fact that he didn't care about the vote count, he just wanted them to use their authority to pick the electors themselves.  When that didn't work, he pressured them to "find" enough votes for him to win.  If you have a brain and you're a thinking person, you should notice the irony immediately in shrieking and hollering and whining and crying about "massive voter fraud" costing you the election and asking a secretary of state to commit massive voter fraud on your behalf to overturn the legitimate results of an election.  

The confirmation of the accuracy of the election results nationwide happened in Georgia on January 5.  In the runoff election for both of Georgia's senate seats, caused when no candidate got more than 50% of the vote in the general election, both Democrats won by margins that exceeded Biden's victory in the state.  The vote totals for Raphael Warnock were the highest achieved in a Georgia statewide election and no one was claiming "massive voter fraud" in this one.  Aside from the historic flip of a once deep red Southern state to two Democrats in the Senate, the runoff confirmed the accuracy of the Democratic party vote totals and underlined Trump's lies and attempt at corruption.  

More Irony

Republican members of the House of Representatives who were recently sworn in are in Congress because they won election or re-election on the same ballots that Biden won the White House.  That's right, the same ballots.  How many of them do you hear saying their election wasn't legitimate because of "massive voter fraud"?  If Biden's election is based on massive voter fraud, then so is theirs, along with every Senator elected in 2020 and every governor and state representative across the country.  Illegal ballots are illegal ballots, right?  So if this is an illegitimate election, a lot of Republicans are illegitimately occupying their office.  Either that, or they know the claims of massive voter fraud are a lie and they are just afraid to challenge the dishonesty because some MAGA party members won't vote for them if they do.  

Trump's been whining about voter fraud since 2016.  Even though he won, he hasn't been able to endure the fact that Hillary Clinton bested him in the popular vote.  That inability is more than just a personality flaw, it's a psychotic obsession.  The result of that was the expenditure of millions of taxpayer dollars on a commission to find and eliminate "election fraud."  The commission looked everywhere and found nothing.  In fact, their work did more to undermine Trump's claim of fraud than all of the evidence that doesn't exist to prove it in this election.  Basically, and of course quietly and without much attention, they found plenty of evidence which proves that American elections are the most secure, accurate and fair in the world.  

But I'd bet that you won't find Trump taking credit for that as an accomplishment of his presidency, which has almost nothing else to claim.

This is not for Trump supporters who are unable to handle truth and exist in the real world.  It is for people who actually respect and appreciate the truth.  This is an editorial.  Like any editorial, its readers should have a means by where they can verify the factual nature of its claims.  

Some Silver Linings in the Dark Clouds of January 6

I'm going to start out here by making a few statements so that you will know whether you want to continue reading this post or not.  I'm not interested in engaging in a discussion with anyone who won't acknowledge or recognize facts, so before you read on, here's what you need to know. 

• I am an Evangelical Christian and that is more than just about where I go to church.  It's who I am.  I do not believe that any genuine follower of Jesus who has repented, been forgiven and restored to God through faith in Jesus could have taken part in what happened on January 6 with a good conscience or without experiencing conviction. (*See the note at the end of this article for a further explanation)
• I believe that character is the most important aspect to consider when I vote for anyone running for public office (See Dr. Adrian Rogers, former pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis for a great sermon explaining why character matters, particularly in Presidential candidates).  Therefore, the statement "I'm not electing a pastor in chief, I'm electing a commander in chief" is hypocritical. 
• There is absolutely no evidence to support any claim that the election was "stolen," that there was "massive voter fraud" and that Trump really won.  What the facts and the evidence indicate is that this election actually had fewer irregularities than most past elections because the technology and the accountability are better than they ever have been.  All that so-called "evidence" you are seeing on extremist right-wing media and social media are phony.  Go look at some of those court records.  Do you know that Giuliani and Trump's legal team knew how bad some of that phony garbage looked that they never presented most of it, including almost all of the so-called eyewitnesses and their affidavits, in their court cases?  They're telling you they did so they can get into your checkbook, but they knew all of that was a lie.  Believing a lie just makes you a liar like Trump and Giuliani.  
• There were no "Antifa" infiltrating the seditious insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.  That's another lie. Maybe the extremists in right-wing media think that their audience is bottomlessly naive and hopelessly stupid.  Trump tweeted to the MAGA mob while they were sacking and vandalizing the Capitol that he loved them and that they were special people.  I don't think he would have said that to Antifa. Who was there?  People wearing neo-nazi shirts with anti-semitic, racist slogans including racial epithets aimed at Latinos and African Americans, people wearing shirts and carrying KKK flags and Confederate flags, and many of them looking like barbarians who hadn't had a bath in half a year.  This mob was incited by Trump, Giuliani and Don Trump Jr., among others and it was an attack on the United States of America, the Constitution and all that we stand for.  These people are anti-American cultists. 

OK.  Now that we have that straight, here are some of the possible silver linings that either already have, are in the process, or will happen in the future.  

Silver Lining #1: Donald Trump's Hold Over the GOP Has Weakened Considerably

The shock of a MAGA mob of Trump supporters getting into the Capitol and aiming at attacking members of Congress while they were performing a constitutional responsibility helped open the eyes of a lot of Republicans to reality.  I don't think they were caught completely unaware, but they've kept their opinions to themselves.  Trump lost the rest of the fence sitters on January 6, along with a good chunk of traditional, conservative Republicans.  The insurrection gave them an excuse to bail, and a lot of them did.  It remains to be seen, as this shakes out, how much gas gets let out of the Trump balloon but he lost enough on January 6 to bring it down to the ground and start to collapse inward on itself.  

As far as the Congress itself is concerned, after the House and Senate reassembled, the loss of support for Trump could be measured in the votes that were taken.  Trump has been pressuring Vice President Pence and many Senate Republicans for weeks to figure out how to disrupt or stop the count of Electoral Votes.  He had members of Congress and the Senate who, in order to boot-lick and show their loyalty to the President, were planning to challenge the votes from the battleground states in hopes of preventing President-Elect Biden from getting what he needed to win.  With a Democratic majority in the house, such a move was not possible, but Trump pressed it anyway.  After the insurrection, only two of the six battleground states were challenged and the votes went heavily against the President.  In the case of Arizona, the Senate voted 93-6 against Trump and to accept the state's electoral ballots.  In the Pennsylvania case, it went 92-7 against the President.  

Would that have happened if the vote were taken a day before the Trump insurrection?  

The biggest signal of this major shift was the speech that was given by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when the Senate returned to the chamber after the insurrection.  His words, which were carefully chosen, made it clear that the break with Trump was complete and that they were moving on.  Lindsay Graham's response was another sign.  It is a rift that will widen once Trump leaves office.  If the Trump Insurrection had not occurred, the difficulties of the transition that the sitting President has caused would have still pushed a lot of marginal Republicans off the fence.  

I'm not so sure that he would have had as much influence and power as some pundits thought.  The Trump Insurrection was a shocking event, as much as 9-11 or perhaps even Pearl Harbor.  The effects of it are going to last a long time.  In just a matter of a few hours, all but a few Republican Senators and about 80 Republican congressmen were raising their hands and declaring their frustration.  Other than some of the extremists in the house who have joined the MAGA cult, most Republicans in Congress considered Trump a liability and knew there was always something right around the corner that had the potential to blow their own political ambitions out of the water.  

Well, here it is.  

Silver Lining #2:  The Democrats Have A Wide Open Field to Expand Their Congressional Majority to Record Size

 

Hear me loud and clear.  No political party is capable of resolving all of the problems faced by our nation.  And that's really not what this is all about.  This election is going to bring some relief from four years of nothing.  Biden served as VP in the Obama administration which, while it took awhile, got the economy roaring.  FDR and Clinton are the only other Presidents in the modern era to see larger drops in unemployment during their term in office.  

In just a few hours, public opinion shifted dramatically.  The reaction around the country from horrified Republicans, most of them Trump supporters, has been widespread.  The mob in the Capitol, contrary to erroneous reports of some Trump apologists, has largely been identified as extremists.  There were clearly a lot of Q Anon conspiracy theorists, a huge contingent of Neo-nazis who sure didn't mind showing off their anti-semitic, anti-African American, anti-Latino slogans and who carried confederate and KKK flags into the rotunda.  There weren't many "real" Americans in the mob, no patriots for sure.  Some eyes were opened.  After all, it's tough to claim that Trump isn't anti-semitic or a white supremacist when he attracts people who won't support anyone that they are convinced does not share their ideology.  Misplaced patriotism is loyalty to a person, not to the country.  So there is now a rift between the MAGA mob and the mainstream GOP.  And it is not likely that one side will vote for the other's candidates. 

But the Democrats need to be smart and realistic, not idealistic.  Biden is a centrist and that's where the party needs to be if his goal of healing the country is going to be achieved.  The MAGA mob isn't going to participate, but they have little power at the ballot box without the rest of the GOP.  People say things at emotional moments when things are happening but I anticipate several Republican Senators leaving the party and becoming independents if they feel the leadership isn't moving far enough away from Trump and Trumpism.  In those places where the radicals made up a higher percentage of the GOP vote, Democratic candidates will do very well.  

At just about the moment that the Trump Insurrection was turning violent at the Capitol, news came that Jon Ossoff had captured the second Georgia Senate seat to give Biden a Democratic majority in both Houses.  Raphael Warnock set a vote total record in his win against Kelly Loeffler.  Arizona also elected it's second Democratic senator this time around, as did Colorado.  So there's momentum.  The next two years need to be a genuine effort at healing.  If you are going to use the term "socialist," then please go find out exactly what that is so you can participate in a discussion and not make yourself look silly.  

Silver Lining #3:  Goodbye, Ted Cruz.  Goodbye, Josh Hawley.  Goodbye, Matt Goetz.  Goodbye  Louie Gohmert.  Goodbye Mo Brooks.  

The Trump MAGA cult members of Congress and the Senate are on the run.  Not towards the Presidency or some other federal office, but away from the anger and disgust that is growing daily because of their insensitivity, continued perpetuation of lies and deceit, and the role they played in helping spread the lies that led to the Trump Insurrection.  

Ted Cruz is probably the most duplicitous, dishonest, conscience-deprived opportunist in the Senate.  During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump pulled one of his most disgusting mud-slinging lies out and threw it at Cruz.  He baselessly accused Cruz's father of being a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination.  He insulted Cruz's wife, calling her "ugly" and leaving the impression that she had a checkered past.  Cruz was pretty upset about it for a while until he realized what direction things were going and saw Trump starting to gather support.  It wasn't long before the offense was forgotten and sucking up to a narcissist became Cruz's priority.  

After the Trump Insurrection, Cruz continued his baseless challenge to Arizona's electoral votes.  In spite of the fact that Arizona conducted two full audits of its two most populous counties, checked every signature on every envelope of every mail-in ballot against the voter registration database twice, and conducted three full audits of its vote-counting machines with members of both parties signing affidavits that they observed no irregularities, "Lyin' Ted" (Trump's nickname for Cruz) continued his effort to keep Trump's favor.  Let this sink in.  Forty-three of Cruz's colleagues in the Senate, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, voted against Ted Cruz.  And now, many of them are calling for his resignation.  

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, also a duplicitous opportunist who flips and flops in the direction he thinks will get him the most support, made a calculated error that will likely prove fatal to his future, and also likely to force him to resign his Senate seat.  He got caught in a photograph with a raised clenched fist saluting the approaching traitors as he headed into the Capitol.  It's not very likely he didn't know what was coming.  He also had Presidential ambitions that fell by the wayside when 44 of his fellow GOP senators voted down his baseless challenge to Pennsylvania's electoral vote which had been upheld a few weeks ago by a unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court.  Contrary to Trump and Guiliani's lies, Pennsylvania's vote was the most audited, checked and counted of any of the six battlegrounds stated they tried to challenge and the Secretary of State dutifully set aside over 10,000 ballots on Justice Alito's instructions because they arrived after election day.  Those ballots have still not been counted.  

Gohmert and Goetz, among other extremists in the House, signed on to the lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general demanding that Pennsylvania's votes not be counted.  They offered no evidence and of course, the court rejected the challenge, not because of a lack of evidence, but because it was a complete violation of the United States Constitution.  States are given full authority, under the Constitution, to pass any laws they feel are necessary and which will help them organize and conduct an election.  These baseless challenges alleged that Pennsylvania's state officials illegally bypassed the state legislature by expanding the mail-in, absentee balloting beyond what the law allowed.  But that was a lie.  In fact, the Pennsylvania legislature, both houses with Republican majorities, overwhelmingly passed that law in March of 2020.  There is no deadline in either the US or Pennsylvania constitution for passing election laws.  

Brooks, well, Brooks is just Brooks.  He'll be ousted. 

The court threw the case out because the basis of it was a lie.  Those members of the house who signed on to it are now subject to censure, or to the possibility of not being seated and it appears that the leadership is giving serious consideration to the latter.  Yep, we certainly do have free speech, but with free speech goes big responsibility.  Trump is a pathological liar and those who have learned to imitate him are about to find out that they are going to be held responsible.  I'd suggest that the House throw all 140 Republicans who signed on to that frivolous and baseless lawsuit out.  After all, no one is above the law.  

Silver Lining #4:  The Extremist Right-Wing Media is Paying an Immediate Price

You didn't expect any kind of repentant humility from the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or Tucker Carlson, did you?  I didn't either.  But their continued insistence on promoting the lies that led to the insurrection, and pushing the same phony "evidence" that even clueless Rudy wouldn't take to the courts because it was so obviously phony, has led to a steady decline in their ratings.  Hannity got pretty shrill about it yesterday, which was also the third straight day his show's ratings lost to MSNBC and CNN, which posted record numbers for their weeknight news shows.  Rachel Maddow has consistently been at the top of the ratings 70% of the time since just after the mid-term elections, but on Thursday and Friday, every MSNBC and CNN commentator's shows beat their Fox counterparts.  Yes, I said CNN.  MSNBC moved into direct competition with Fox and has stayed there for most of the Trump administration.  But CNN is now there, too.

But the best part is that advertisers and sponsors, not wanting to be associated with lies that caused a mob insurrection against the United States Capitol and the Congress, are canceling their contracts.  Fox, of course, is silent but the list of sponsors who are telling them to drop the lies or they are leaving is growing every day.  A lot of extremists have moved over to propaganda outlets Newsmax or Brietbart, but those numbers are tiny compared to the number of Americans who now access the New York Times and the Washington Post every day.  

There is a mountain of evidence that proves the accusations of massive voter fraud, and the more lunatic accusations of Venezuelan conspiracies and the company that manufactured the vote-counting machines to be baseless lies.  There were more Trump supporting Republicans who served as official poll watchers in this election than ever before and none of those who actually signed in as poll watchers reported any irregularities.  The people who made those allegations were paid by Giuliani to lie and he carefully avoided putting them in front of a judge where he could be disbarred and they could be arrested for perjury. Free speech is a precious right, but it goes hand in hand with responsibility.  You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater and not receive consequences.  Likewise, you can't whip people up into a frenzy by lying about massive voter fraud, incite them to commit sedition by an armed insurrection against the Capitol and Congress which caused the deaths of five people and get away with it.  Any media outlet which has continued to promote these baseless accusations is subject to the full extent of the law.  

Oh, the current administration doesn't care.  But the next one does, and as of Wednesday, it has the power to shut down the liars.  There are options for them to bring criminal charges which I hope they do.  Twitter, Facebook, and other social media cut the President off, and they went to court first to make sure they could do it.  They can, legally.  The extremist right-wing media has been lying and creating this divisiveness in our politics for decades, going back to Rush's very first lies.  It is time to fine them until it hurts and shut them down.  That's not censorship, it's responsible free speech.  

It's My Country Too!

I was extremely disappointed in 2016.  Hillary Clinton bested Trump by three million votes, but a narrow margin of fewer than 60,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan gave Trump enough electoral votes to win.  There were irregularities, especially with electronic voting machines in two Pennsylvania counties which delayed the count for hours.  In Wisconsin, there were some concerns that voting machines may have been hacked.  By then, there was clear evidence of Russian interference and there were those who felt that was enough to challenge the results of the election.  I certainly did.  

But Mrs. Clinton said no, even under those circumstances.  Her words of concession were gracious in spite of the fact that Trump had been, well, his usual nasty self.  In a matter of just a few days, Trump was sitting in the White House as a guest of the Obamas, who welcomed him and immediately began to facilitate the transition to the new administration.  As a patriotic, loyal, proud American, I did what other patriotic, loyal, proud Americans who were disappointed with the election did.  I accepted the results, went on with my life, kept informed and aware of what was going on and waited for my next chance to vote because that is how Americans do it.  

After two years, it was clear to me that Trump was incompetent, inept, corrupt, and lacked the character to serve as President of the United States.  When the mid-terms rolled around, I cast my votes for candidates who held similar perspectives and who I knew would not enable or support this President.  Both the Senate candidate I voted for and the Congressman won their elections.  Two more years of Trump and I did not change my mind.  Long before the nomination process was over, I was committed to voting for whomever the Democrats nominated.  In November, I voted, and along with 80 million legal votes of other Americans across all 50 states, Joe Biden succeeded in gaining enough electoral votes to win.  

How is it that people think Trump was more popular than he really was?  His Presidency was a failure all the way around. 

• That border wall that was going to be built (during his first term I might add) and that Mexico was going to pay for has not been build, and Mexico has not paid a dime, especially not in the "trade deal" where Trump said it would happen.  Our trade deficit with Mexico has grown during the past four years.  There are about 58 miles of "new" wall construction along the border, most of what has been spent has gone to segments of the wall that already existed and the project, which stole money designated for military family benefits, is bankrupt.
• Eighty percent of Americans, most of them making less than $100,000 a year, had their taxes increased while the wealthiest 0.01% had theirs reduced by trillions.  Fail. 
• Trump moved the unemployment needle from 4.5% to 3.8%, er, ah, 7.0%.  Obama moved it from 10.5% to 4.5%.  Clinton moved it from 9.6% to 3.9%.  
• There's no question among almost two thirds of the American people that Trump has miserably failed in his handling of the biggest crisis his administration faced, the COVID epidemic.  It's hard to say how many lives could have been saved, how many jobs, how much of the economy, if we had executive branch leadership.  What has been accomplished has been done by governors and those who were most pro-active got overwhelmingly re-elected.  
• The attempt to get dirt on Biden by bribing the Ukrainian government, for which Trump was impeached, is one of the most corrupt acts by an American President in history.  His incitement of the insurrection at the Capitol was the single worst thing any American President has ever done.  So much for patriotism and "law and order." 

When the Senate refused to hear any of the evidence presented against Trump during his impeachment trial and simply refused to remove him from office even though the House proved its case, I was disappointed.  Actually, I was outraged at the sheer partisan political wall that protected criminals and refused to hold them accountable.  But at no point would I have ever considered responding to a social media invitation to try to overthrow or disable the government.  There were no such invitations.  All of that frustration and energy was channeled into the 2020 election where it accomplished what the Senate wouldn't do.  The people removed Trump from office, legitimately, peacefully, and in a patriotic, American way.  That's because I love my country.  I may disagree with some of its politicians, even passionately, but I would never seek to do harm to anyone who is serving the public as a member of Congress, the cabinet, the presidency, the judiciary.  

Maybe, just maybe, in the aftermath of this horrific, anti-American, Trump Insurrection, the shock will help get us back on the path of reconciliation, healing, and healthy political debate.  Well, I can dream.

*Note on the opening statement

Some of the response I've seen from readers of this piece prompt a further explanation.  I am not judging anyone who may identify as Christian and who participated in this insurrection.  There were, according to eyewitnesses, some indications that Christian slogans and symbols were worn by some of those entering the Capitol.  I don't doubt that, Christian symbols are part of the culture and are found everywhere, not always meaning the same thing to the person using them as they do to you.  

From my perspective, being a Christian is an experience defined in the Bible's teachings.  It is a spiritual experience that is more than just intellectual assent to an idea.  It involves believing that God exists and that he interacts with his human creation through the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin which  separates us from Him, that the conviction brings about repentance and that repentance leads to restoration with God through the person of Jesus who was God in the flesh and whose purpose was to bring about redemption through the sacrifice of his death.  Restoration to God is a gift of grace, not a human effort.  The human response is gratitude for forgiveness and restoration and faith in God's presence, guidance, protection and interaction with us, and demonstrating this by following those principles and precepts found in the Bible leading to a life with a fulfilled purpose and blessings from God.  

So if you got this far, there are some specifics of Christian faith and practice that relate to behavior which should be a visible characterization of someone who claims to be a Christian.  These are more specific to the subject at hand: 

• Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Matthew 5:9
• You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.  Matthew 5:43-48
• You have heard that it was said, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."  But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.  But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  Matthew 5:38-40
• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23
• Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?  But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.  Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you; yet do this with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.  I Peter 3:13-17
• If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him:  whoever loves God must also love his brother."  
• And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.  Mark 12:30-31.  (Note:  Jesus defined "neighbor" in the parable of the good Samaritan.)
• Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.  Colossians 3:11

That's enough to develop a consistent perspective of what behavior and practice identifies one as a Christian. I'll be the first to admit that I experience lapses in judgement and failure to live up to these principles and expectations.  I am not going to make a determination that someone who claims to be a Christian and who pushed their way into the Capitol on Wednesday isn't a true believer.  What I am saying is that the behavior and intentions exhibited by the rioters in the US Capitol Wednesday is contrary to any principle governing Christian life found in the Bible and would be, for any Christian involved in it or watching and being supportive of it, clearly a matter of conviction and conscience.  

Holding the Constitutional Line and Stopping the Insanity

 So far, the Constitutional protections of the American Republic have held against the worst assault against them in our history.  Holding, but with some clear weak points that need to be corrected immediately during the Biden Administration.  One of our core values, the peaceful transition of the Presidency, has been seditiously attacked by a President who lost an election and can't accept the loss.  It's the closest thing to a coup that we've ever experienced  The problem is that while there are ways to stop this tantrum, those who are in a position to do so are crazier than Trump.  

I had to laugh at a social media post I saw yesterday, criticizing Biden's speaking ability.  Biden has done a great job of overcoming a stutter, and he's laid out the most coherent plans for trying to unify the country and fix the damage from Trump.  Yes, he does still show signs of a stutter, but then, so did Thomas Jefferson.  There's no comparison between Biden's speeches and Trump's long, rambling blabs in rallies and spontaneous comments to the media where he can't put two sentences together, slurs words, squints his eyes and pinches his lips, never actually presenting a clear, coherent thought and mis-pronouncing and mis-using every third or fourth word.  He looks and acts demented.  Or insane.  He's definitely out of his mind.  

All of his references to voter fraud, and now to attempting to pressure state election officials into just recounting votes in such a way that he wins are ridiculous.  If he really believes what he is saying, which is stuff he pulls out of thin air, then he is genuinely insane by clinical definition.  The election is over, the states have constitutionally conducted their elections according to state law and have certified their ballots.  The electors have cast theirs and there is no way those votes can be altered or nullified.  But every time he utters those ridiculous lies about voter fraud--and if you're paying attention, you notice that the numbers, alleged facts and information he cites are always different and never the same which is a clear sign of a lie--he is openly opposing the Constitutional Republic.  Ignoring the will of the people is something Communists do, not Americans. Trump is acting in a manner which is, by definition, sedition.  

So far, the court wall has held.  I find it encouraging that many of the judges who honestly looked at the "evidence" and discovered that no facts could be found in the Trump lawyers' case ruled in favor of Constitutional law instead of loyalty to Trump even though he appointed them to the bench.  The very definition of "corrupt" would be a judge ruling out of loyalty to the President who appointed him or her instead of following the law.  Trump lost every court case because they didn't have a single piece of paper with evidence of their charge of "massive voter fraud." It was all fantasy conspiracy theory trash, so obviously false that more than half of his legal team quit rather than risk being disbarred for presenting evidence in court that they knew was false.  Well, if you know anything about the protocol under which each of the 50 states conduct elections and count ballots, you would know that the accusations made by Trump's lawyers are ridiculous and do not represent reality.  That's why he lost every court case.  

A lot of the "evidence" that extremist right wing news outlets are showing and pushing never made it to the court because the lawyers who represented Trump knew that they were false and didn't want to lose their law license for violating a legal standard.  Very little was ever presented in court, including the claimed "eyewitnesses" who saw strange things happen.  None of the names of any of those witnesses could be found on the signature page of any precinct voting or counting location where there were observers from both parties.  None.  Zero.  Nada.  On the other hand, each of the states where ballots were challenged brought massive amounts of evidence to verify the accuracy and security of their voting process.  There are always irregularities, but they are not anywhere near enough to overturn an election, even in one of the states where it was close.  The audits and recount in Wisconsin wound up adding about 60 votes to Biden's total.  In Arizona, only five ballots had an "irregularity" that could be challenged in court.  Georgia's ballots had two recounts and three separate audits to insure accuracy.  In short, no evidence of massive voter fraud was ever presented in court.  None.  Trump lost every court challenge, including SCOTUS, unanimously.  

That is overwhelming proof that this election, which has been labelled the cleanest in American history, is legitimate, accurate and represents the will of the people.  It shows Trump to be a pathological liar and completely insane because the fact of the matter is that he cannot overturn the results of the election and he will either leave office on January 20, or be escorted out by the FBI. His conversation with the Georgia secretary of state was a direct attack on the Constitution and the rule of law. Ue has now openly committed treason by attempting to pressure the Georgia secretary of state into altering the results of the election and nullifying legitimate, legal ballots cast by voters.  It's probably a pipe dream but shortly after noon on January 20 he should be arrested and charged with treason against the United States of America because that is exactly what he did in that phone conversation.  And it's too late to change it.  Georgia audited its ballots three times, without any number changing, check its counting machines and had no Republican observer that raised a challenge about anything.  Their election was entirely in the hands of Trump-supporting Republicans.  As much as they may have wanted him to win, they wanted an honest ballot count more, and that's exactly what they got.  

The founding fathers, especially after the example that George Washington set by stepping down after his second term and providing for a peaceful transition of the Presidency, could not have envisioned someone like Trump.  We've had our share of selfish, incompetent and inept Presidential leadership but Trump is the first to attack the Constitution directly and trash the Republic that it supports.  There needs to be a much stronger check and balance on lame duck Presidents.  Their pardon power should end the day before the November election, they should hand over the nuclear "football" the day before the election and the role of commander in chief with power to declare martial law should end the moment a President-elect is certified.  The last days of a defeated President should be limited to ceremonial roles with congressional leadership assuming the executive office powers until the President-elect is inaugurated. 

The Republican Party is doomed.  This stretch of Trump insanity is narrowing his support down to his most ignorant, uninformed, kool-aide drinking followers.  We're up to 70% of all Americans, including somewhere around 35% of Republicans, believing that the election was legitimate, there was no fraud and disapproving of Trump's behavior.  Some eyes have been opened.  There is a growing, active group of former Republicans, now political independents, who are raising money to defeat those in the Senate and Congress who have gone along with this stupidity.  You thought the 2018 blue wave was crushing?  Wait until you see what is going to happen to the GOP in the 2022 midterms.  Even if Biden doesn't get the senate in tomorrow's Georgia election (and I think the Democrats are going to pick up both of those seats) he'll get a cooperative congress in two years.  I don't believe the Republicans can recover from this.  

To believe that there was massive voter fraud in this election is to believe a lie, and that makes the believer a liar too.  Anyone who believes that cannot call themselves a patriot.  They are seditious enemies of the American Constitutional Republic and the rule of law.