A potential constitutional crisis

 

Most people know that I lean a little bit left of today's center.  By historical standards, I would have been a "Goldwater Republican."  That is, I don't want the government legislating or enforcing morality, I don't want government needlessly interfering with business, and I want to limit the functions of government to those things it can do well.  Sadly, the GOP has shifted to being a radical right wing party, one that looks to use government as a tool to quietly(?) reverse civil rights gains we've had over the last 60 years, one that looks to subsidize big business and billionaires at the expense of the working person, one that would use morality as an excuse to mistreat people whose looks and bahaviors differ from the fundamentalist White Christian Males who have historically had power in this country.

Our founding fathers understood that our nation was imperfect from the beginning.  The Preabmble to The Declaration of Independance opens with:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of  Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

They knew that men are imperfect, and that governments derive their power from the people.  It continues with:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

But here lies the problem with the January 6th insurrection.  The majority of the people were happy with our system of government.  They were not happy with the actions of a government that no longer seemed to care about their needs.  And they were ripe to become part of a cult which would enable a despot to overthrow the government while leaving a shadow of its structure intact.

The heart of the Washington, DC indictment of Donald Trump says that he was trying to overturn the electoral college election of Joseph Biden by interfering with the counting of the votes from the 50 states (plus DC).  Assuming that Trump is convicted, he could be considered to have engaged in an insurrection against the United States, as some conservatives are now posing.  Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the constitution reads:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Since there is no chance that the Democrats in either house will vote to remove this disability, what would happen if lunatics in the GOP make Trump its 2024 presidential nomines?  I pose that we could have a constitutional crisis if the following events occur:

1. Trump wins the GOP nomination.
2. Trump is convicted on January 6th issues (and maybe, Georgia RICO as well)
3. Trump wins the Electoral College.
4. Trump is ruled ineligible to serve as president during 2024 (case on rapid appeal to SCOTUS.  SCOTUS says Trump ineligible.)
5. Electoral college vote in chaos.

Since Trump would be ineligible to serve as president and the electoral college hasn't voted, what happens next?  Some states' EC election laws would commit electors to vote for Trump/President & Mate/Vice President.  Other states' laws might allow electors to vote for VP as President, but who gets VP vote?  Even more confusing, we could have issues of "Faithless Electors."  Could the election go to the house?  Could we see a President of one party and a Vice President of the other?  28 years ago, Jeff Greenfield wrote a book about this problem, albeit in an era where we couldn't dream of a criminal being elected as president.  Now, the electoral college risk is much worse, and people need to understand it.

Right now, we must start thinking of amending the us constitution to deal with the issue of what happens if a President/Vice President slate is elected by the 50 states (plus DC), and one member of the pair becomes ineligible to serve or unable to serve before the electoral college elects a President/Vice President slate, or before it takes office.  As part of this amendment, we also need to fix the anomaly of what would happen if the presidential election goes to the House of Representatives, and the vice presidential election goes to the Senate.  Currently, if this were to happen, we could see a President elected from one party, and a Vice President from the other.  Maybe we need to make sure that both legislative houses agree on both the president and vice president as a pair before the president is considered selected.

To impeach, or not to impeach, that was the question

As of early December, it looks like the Democratic controlled House will impeach the President, and that the Senate will vote to acquit him.  Our country is so polarized, that no GOP Senator would risk being "primaried" because s/he voted to convict him of "high crimes and misdemeanors."  We're seeing a political hypocrisy that we haven't seen since the Clinton impeachment. And it's so sad....  

Donald Trump is a narcisist. He will revel in the House presenting the impeachment to the Senate for a trial.  At that time, political hell will break loose.  The GOP will put their wagons in a circle and defend a president that most elected officials dislike, but our powerless to control.  (Shades of 1930's Central Europe....)   But there are ways that sane men and women from both parties could prevail if they gave the process some out of the box thought.

Many in the mainstream press report that most of the GOP Senators would vote to convict if their ballots were cast in secret.  There is nothing in the constitution that prohibits the Senate from making rules to allow this to happen.  Since politicians are in the business of lying to their constituents at times, saying that they were one of the handful of GOP Senators who voted to acquit should be easy for them.  Will Mitch McConnell take this way out of trouble?

An option that involves the House would be to impeach the president, but not send the articles over to the Senate until they are complete.  The house can approve a subset of articles based on current investigatory evidence, and hold off delivering the indictments until a full investigation is complete - sometime in late 2020.  This would prevent the president from getting the Senate acquittal he wants and allow the House to continue presenting public evidence through election season.  An added benefit for the Democrats would be to allow their presidential candidate Senators to continue their campaigns without having to be in Washington, DC for the Senate trial.

This nation has a serious problem.  Adding "Democracy" to the presidential nominating process has encouraged the bases of each party to grow more and more extreme.  When I was young, there wasn't that much that separated the left and right wings of American politics.  The party leaders would allow the base to voice its opinion, and prevent "extremists" like Lester Maddox and George Wallace (who later moderated his views) from getting on a nationwide ballot.  It is no coincidence that politicians pander to the base before the primaries, and move to the center afterwards. Over time, this process served to cull the centrists from both parties and leave people who want a winner take all process - and we all lose out because of that.

Given the polarized bases, might a middle road be chosen?  The majority of people polled want our president removed from power.  But this doesn't apply to his base.  It will accept no evidence that he has gone past tolerable political limits.  Do we have still have leaders in government who know how to finesse the system to deny the narcissist in chief what he wants - an acquittal?  The jury is still out on that verdict, but I hope they figure out something, as it doesn't bode well for people who have faith in the 2020 elections.

Thoughts on Impeachment

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Snake Oil for Sale

I find it amazing that so many people have been conned by this two-bit snake oil salesman who occupies the office of the President.  They have given their allegiance to someone who has no loyalty to any principles, shows loyalty only to family, and exhibits a strong affinity to authoritarian regimes, only because they wish to follow a bully from his demonic pulpit. 

Most politicians have to sell some "Snake Oil" in order to get elected. Pledging allegiance to a man with few (if any) principles wouldn't be too bad if he understood how power should be used, and that he was truly making America great again.   Instead, Trump is destroying the very things that helped keep America great in the economic world we shaped after World War 2.  

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In their effort to extract more wealth from the populace, our nation's elites have abandoned the most vulnerable in our society. Structural unemployment is damaging both rural and urban areas in America, as it is doing in the rest of the developed world.  And the populist insurrection that brought Trump to the White House is playing all over the world with "Yellow Vest" protests in Paris, Brexit in Britain, and the shift towards autocratic rule in Eastern Europe.  Trump is acting exactly as I'd want him to do if I were Vladimir Putin.  Every action Trump takes is geared to destabilize American political institutions, American social institutions, and American economic institutions.  It only makes sense for Trump to have done what he did, if he were a puppet of the Russians.

Sadly, in its leaders' lust for power, the GOP has lost its soul.  The base no longer cares about principles.  It is mostly a populist mob led by people who will deliver meager rations of bread and entertain them with meaningless political stump speeches geared to promote tribal identity.  The base has allowed its leaders to become irresponsible, enacting a so-called tax cut which is adding more billions to the budget deficit than if they left the tax code alone.  Even more important than this is their tolerance of a leader who shows them no loyalty as long as he is willing to pursue a retrograde social agenda.

Did the swamp get drained?  No, that was only a useful political slogan.  And yet, the base ignores the lack of progress in this area. I think this illustrates a greater social problem in our society. America has divided itself into haves and have-nots. It has also divided itself into well educated people and poorly educated people.  More importantly, it is divided into compassionate people and non-compassionate people. I feel sorry for those government employees not getting paid because of a pissing match between the House and Trump.  My Dad, however, has no compassion for them - he lived a hardscrabble life, and only has enough room in his soul to care only about himself and his immediate family.  Many of Trump's supporters are very much like my Dad - life has not allowed them the luxury of caring for others who are not doing well. 

Sadly, we have only ourselves to blame if this traitor is allowed to hold the office of the President much longer.  It is no longer a luxury to be well educated or compassionate.  The world has changed from a "Win-Lose" world into a "Win-Win / Lose-Lose" world, where education, communication, and compassion will be needed for future prosperity.  That means we have a choice: Continuing to let this traitor lead us astray, or to go in the opposite direction - where we can all work together to pursue common interests, making things better to pursue our individual interests as a result....

Regarding the possibility that Trump and the GOP Hierarchy are Traitors.

Regarding the possibility that Trump and the GOP Hierarchy are Traitors.


US Constitution: Article 3, Section  3 -

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

Note: This is the only crime mentioned in the constitution which requires the testimony of two witnesses for a conviction.  It is likely that Trump will be charged as a Conspirator if indicted.

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Conspiracy -

In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.

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Aid and Abetting in Law -

Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets in the commission of a crime. It exists in a number of different countries and generally allows a court to pronounce someone guilty for aiding and abetting in a crime even if they are not the principal offender.

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Let's assume that the heads of all of the US intelligence agencies are correct in the assumption that Russia has been interfering with American elections, and that they are trying to sabotage the Western Alliance. How could we determine that Trump was committing acts of treason, even if we could not convict him for treason under the law?  In the case of Conspiring with Russia to harm the United States, I think we could make a good case of it.

First, let's take a look at some of Russia's goals:

1. The destruction of the Western Democracies' belief in both the rule of law and the elections which seat their leaders in positions of power.
2. The destruction of the Western Alliance, freeing Russia from checks and balances that limit its use of economic power.
3. The destruction of global/regional free trade policies and regulations, so that Russia's economic competition can be divided and conquered.
4. The destruction of the United States' economy, eliminating the one power which could check and balance Russia's military power.
5. The destruction of treaties and agreements geared to remedy the effects of climate change, thus allowing Russia to develop its frozen territory in Siberia.

You'll notice that each of Russia's goals involves destroying something of value to the rest of the world.

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Russia has been using both money and propaganda to influence people in the Western Democracies to support extremist leaders. They do not care if leftists or rightists win. They only care that our societies are divided and our leaders are corrupted and beholden to Russia.  

Russia has taken advantage of Structural Unemployment in the West to sow dissent, and cause people who have been left behind because of the incompetence of mainstream political leadership to become more agitated and violent in their protests. Look at the people who voted for Le Pen in France, for Brexit in the UK, and for Trump in the USA, and you'll see quite a few people who have lost out because of globalization.  Many of these people are what we'd call racists in America, as all too many of them would not have the skills to survive in a multi cultural workplace, and would place the blame for their failures at the feet of "the others" and not consider that their value systems could be the cause for their failures.

Quite often, it is the under/unemployed who are fired up by bombastic leaders, and this is true around the world.  In Germany, they understandably complain about Muslim immigration from Syria, as there is a limit to how many refugees any country can safely assimilate. In France, it is the Algerians.  And in many cities in Europe, the governments ignore the "no-go" zones where the unassimilated migrants now live.  In America, these same people point at anyone with dark skin, especially if they speak Spanish, and look down on them - as if they are all illegal aliens and must be deported.  Strangely enough, there is a net outflow of Mexicans back to Mexico these days, and that most illegals are coming in by air and over staying their visas, working in the cash economy.  No wonder why people don't trust their own governments - they do not do their jobs.

Trump has taken advantage of this undercurrent, and claimed that millions of illegals have voted in our elections.  I'll cede the word "Thousands" to him for sake of argument, but this does not explain why Trump lost the popular vote.  Yet, he makes this claim, and all too many people are ready to believe him - as this explanation is simple enough for them to understand.  Until Trump came along, I never heard of a "Sore Winner".  But the chip on his shoulder indicates that he is uncomfortable with anyone knowing that he does not have the support of the majority of the American public. And this attitude only helps to reinforce the doubt his followers have in both the rule of law and that of honest elections.

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Next we must consider what Trump has done to the Western military alliance.Our president has sowed doubt with our Western partners.  For example, he has said that NATO is obsolete - even after Russia annexed Crimea.  Of course, Trump has rarely said a bad thing against Russia and its leaders. He has claimed that America is paying the bulk of the price for European defense, America's contribution to NATO expenses is under 30%.  He does not acknowledge the underlying reasons for NATO's existence:

1. Keep America in Western Europe
2. Keep the Germans from needing a strong military and threatening its neighbors.
3. Keep the Russians out of Western Europe.

By inserting us as a Western European peacemaker, America got to control the degree of how militarized Western Europe would get. Preventing a war between the Western European countries has allowed everyone to prosper by preventing a third European war which would destroy all of their economies, as happened in the Second World War.

Russia gains from Western European instability.  In the past, it has controlled Eastern Europe.  Several of the former Warsaw Pact countries are now part of NATO, and that threatens Russia.  Any doubt it can sow in the minds of the leaders of the Baltic Republics (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania), Poland, or other former Warsaw Pact nations in regard to US commitments to NATO is an asset to Russia, as these nations are more likely to capitulate to Russia's demands instead of supporting Western interests.

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Trump keeps looking to cut trade deals with individual nations, instead of working with existing trade blocs.  He is against NAFTA, claiming we could have gotten better deals by negotiating separate deals with Canada and Mexico.  He wants to cut separate trade deals with European nations, even though Europe negotiates trade deals as a bloc. He has scuttled the TPP deal, a framework of rules and regulations geared to give America a greater say than China will have in Trans-Pacific Trade.  In short, he is out to dismantle many of the economic structures which have given America and its trading partners greater prosperity through fair trade.

Sadly, Trump lives in a world that sees Trade as a win-lose proposition.  To him, America can win only if someone else loses. However, the best statement to refute Trump's position comes from John Oliver (Last Week Tonight) who said in a recent show:

“The overwhelming consensus among economists is that trade between countries, generally speaking, can create jobs, lower costs, and be a net benefit to both nations. That makes it a lot like sex. If you’re doing it right, it can be good for both partners, though the odds of that happening plummet as soon as Donald Trump gets involved.”

But we have to ask: Who gains from Trump's position?  And the answer still is: RUSSIA!  An economically weakened America and a weakened set of trading partners are less likely willing to stand up against Russia's interests. 

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Now we get to the destruction of the United States economy. And this is where Trump has done the most long term damage. Most businesses object to the tariffs Trump has imposed on imported items. Certain tariffs, such as those on Aluminum and Steel, are in violation of certain treaties - NAFTA is one of those treaties. We are seeing businesses such as Harley-Davidson relocate production outside of the United States, in order to sell product at an affordable price in countries Trump has targeted with his tariffs.  Other businesses, such as one last American factory producing nails has had to shutter a newly built plant, as its products are no longer competitive because of Trump's tariffs.

Trump has scuttled (or has attempted to scuttle) deals such as the Hudson River Gateway project, where new tunnels were to be built to augment two 100+ year old tunnels carrying passenger rail traffic between New York and New Jersey.  These tunnels are at the end of their useful life, and need to be shut down, so that they can be renewed/overhauled for long term use. What would happen if these tunnels had to be shut down without replacements being available?  What would happen to the nation's economy if millions of people could not make it to work in the New York City area?  If one was looking to cripple America, this would be an easy target.  Trump did this shortly after taking office, and I'll bet that Putin is quietly chuckling at how soon America will be crippled by one of its own.

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Next, we must ask what Trump's cronies have been doing to the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Education.  Each person in charge of these agencies is dismantling the associated department, and making it impossible for the department to accomplish its purposes. For example, the Energy department has called for a stop in the retirement of unprofitable Coal fired electric plants, something that upsets environmentalists, energy companies, and consumer groups.  Why should unprofitable plants be kept open?  It certainly doesn't add to the bottom line of energy companies.  It certainly doesn't improve the environment left for future generations. And it certainly doesn't benefit the average consumer.  The additional pollution caused by keeping these plants open will be in the thousands. Yet, Trump prefers to pander to a small number of loyal, but gullible voters instead of America's long term interests.  We could look at HUD,and we would find that the department is de-emphasizing  one of its main functions - to insure that marginalized groups have reasonable access to housing. And when we get to Education, we see the dismantling of protections for the LGBT communities. But what may be worse, is this department may be considering shifting some funds to arming teachers in the classroom.

Trump's policies are widening the gap between a corrupt GOP elite and the average American.  And this does not bode well for our economy, our environment, or to the long term health of our country.  Again, only one nation gains from hurting America in the way that Trump's cronies want to do, and that's RUSSIA! 

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At the time I started this entry, Michael Cohen had pleaded guilty to 8 felonies, 2 of them directly involve the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. Assuming Cohen is telling the truth, Trump has violated Federal Election Laws.  It has been stated that Cohen was also in the room when Trump jr., and Russian Operatives discussed how to deliver dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign that would be made public by Trump.  It was also claimed that Cohen had first hand knowledge that Trump knew about this meeting, making him guilty of another felony.

Paul Manafort was convicted of 8 felony charges at the same time Cohen was "singing his song" in New York.  Only one holdout jury member kept the jury from convicting him on all 18 counts.  Why is Manafort so important?  Well, he was a Russian operative who got paid to help a Russian Supported candidate win in a Ukraine election.  The Ukrainian was corrupt and was a puppet of Vladimir Putin.  It's very suspicious to see Manafort come to work on Trump's campaign (for free) just before the 2016 elections.  Where was he getting his money?  What was being delivered to Trump?

Of course, we must note the Alfa Bank connection in Trump Tower.  Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, was trying to establish a back channel to Russia, and it's amazing to see one of Alfa's servers in use to facilitate communication between Russia and Trump. Alfa bank has been sanctioned in the past for its nefarious doings, and the location of this server probably isn't coincidental in nature.

Do you remember Wikileaks?  I do.  And I wanted to see dirt on Hillary Clinton.  However, it never materialized.  Julian Assange and Wikileaks may be pawns of Russia, as Wikileaks rarely distributes any dirt on Russia.  Instead, it seems to get dirt from Russia to be redistributed when Putin's crew gives the word.

Recently, Trump scuttled a bi-partisan bill meant to fight election hacking by foreign operators. When both Democrats and Republicans support a bill, it's needed.  Yet, this White House wants to scuttle the bill for spurious reasons.  Why?  It's obvious that he wants to keep allowing Russia to have enough access to rig future American elections.  Again, this points to treason, but is it willing or coerced? The most important "tell" is that Trump rarely has anything bad to say about Russia.  Given that Russia likely has Kompromat on him (most of the Steele Dossier has been confirmed, save the "pee pee tape") since his Miss Universe and "Trump Tower, Moscow" days, it makes sense that Russia could groomed this man to do its bidding. And now that he is in office, he is reluctant to enforce even the most trivial of sanctions or other actions against Russian interests.

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Years ago, the GOP hierarchy ended up helping to force Richard Nixon out of power.  Today's GOP has seen much worse from Trump, but has done little to check and balance Trump.  The big question is why not?  Well, the answer is as simple as a desire to stay in office.

Trump has maintained a 40% approval rating since he took office.  Among Republicans, he has the highest approval ratings of any modern president. Among Democrats and Independents, no one approves of Trump.  Given that one can generally count on a 35% approval rate, no matter how bad you are, Trump isn't doing that well by normal standards. But these are not normal times.  America is extremely polarized, and the GOP has absorbed the racists who used to be Democrats due to a "Southern Strategy" introduced by Nixon in the late 1960's.

Leaders in the GOP are afraid of getting "primaried" off their tickets if they stray too far from supporting Trump and his crimes.  So they look the other way as Trump commits his crimes and do nothing to stop him.  The longer he stays in office, the more he harms this country. Yet, they do nothing.  They aid and abet by looking the other way.  They have an adequate Vice President (who I'd hate to see in office), but won't tell Trump to cut out all of his shit. When curious to find out why this happens, one only has to follow the money.

How many of you remember the name of Maria Butina.  She claimed to be a Russian Gun Rights advocate.  And much of the GOP elite were very friendly with this woman.  Russian money has been flowing through the NRA to GOP candidates, and any action to force Trump to behave might end up shutting off the spigot which funds many downstream candidates' campaigns.  This looks awfully suspicious....

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So we get back to the definition of Treason.  Do we have multiple witnesses? Probably. Has Trump aided an enemy of the US? Probably, given his actions. And when I factor in his refusal to acknowledge Russia's interference in our election, something that all of our intelligence agencies state as fact, I feel he is a traitor who will continue to betray this country while in office.

Next is conspiracy.  Do we have evidence of this?  Probably.  The Trump Tower meeting seems to tie this all together.  Throw in Manafort's involvement in the campaign, Trump's signaling to Russia to help expose Hillary's supposed misdeeds, and it is likely that the whole Trump family is involved.  (I'm not including Melania or Barron here.)

And then we get to aiding and abetting.  This is where things get very interesting.  Why is it that Devin Nunes has been trying to throw roadblocks into Mueller's work?  Why is it that Paul Ryan has not supported Mueller?  What about Mitch McConnell? Why hasn't he told the Senate committees to do an honest job in investigating Russian involvement in the election?  Again, when one is addicted to power, one does his best NOT to do the things that could get him voted out of office, or to land a good lobbyist job upon leaving office. Inaction in the case of the GOP held House and Senate may be properly described as aiding and abetting a crime. But I'll let lawyers discuss that in another forum.

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There are so many loose ends I've not bothered with in this thought piece. Could I have mentioned Carter Page?  Yes.  But his place in all of this seems immaterial right now. Could I mention the firing of James Comey?  Yes.  But he seems like the tip of the iceberg, and little needs to be said about him, save that his firing catalyzed the mobilization of a special prosecutor.

Johnathan Chait, in a New York magazine Daily Intelligencer article notes:

The only way to restrain Nunes’s anti-Mueller crusade, or to look at Trump’s tax return and see who was paid off by whom, is to replace the Republican majority with a Democratic majority, which will hold oversight hearings and use its subpoena power to probe the overflowing sewage spill of misconduct and lawbreaking surrounding Trump.

Chait's right about that.  The GOP has acted, almost in unison, to protect Trump while he continues to destroy the American polity for future generations. By aiding and abetting in Trump's continuing crimes, they no longer deserve the right to participate in the governing of this country.

I believe that Trump may survive until the 2020 election. But his presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will continue to mobilize the Democratic Base and hurt the GOP for at least a generation.  The GOP by its inaction may please its base. But it poisons the GOP brand for future Americans. And the longer the GOP stays in power, the greater the damage will be. For America's sake, I hope they are voted out of power soon.


PS: You might be interested in this interview with Craig Unger that posits that Trump has been owned by the Russian Mob for 3 decades.

PPS: John McCain snubbed Trump when planning for his funeral.  Both Bush #43 and Obama were invited to speak.  Trump was deliberately excluded.  

They seem like the Three Stooges. And they make Moe look like a good leader.

This week's entry will be relatively short.

As I write this, the AHCA act has yet to be brought to a vote before the full House. And it doesn't have that great a chance of passing. Then, if it does, it still doesn't have a ghost of a chance in the Senate.  What does this say about the GOP as a political party?

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For the past several years, the GOP has been stirring up its base, saying that the Affordable Care Act (A.K.A. "Obamacare") is bad for the American people and would be repealed on the first day that the GOP had control of government.  So far, it has been a little over 2 months since the GOP got its wish, and they were unprepared to do what they promised.

The key features of Obamacare (I use the word as a compliment to the man) are:

1. A mandated definition of what basic health care coverage is, so that people buying this care on exchanges could make "apples to apples" comparisons.
2. A mandated participation in the health care market (with subsidies, if needed) to insure that both the poor are covered, and that the insurance pool is large enough to absorb the expenses of the old and infirm who were unable to get affordable insurance.
3. A mandate that insurers accept people with pre-existing conditions and cover those conditions in their policies.
4. An establishment of government sponsored (state or federal governments) health care exchanges, so that people could easily buy insurance from a marketplace.

There are more features, such as the expansion of medicaid that could be mentioned here. But they only serve to make the discussion a little more complex than needed.

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The problem with health care is that many things dovetail with each other.  Take away mandatory participation in a health care market, and the insurance pools do not cover enough young and healthy people to absorb the expenses of the old and infirm. Isolate the old and infirm into assigned risk pools, and they will not be able to afford health care without subsidies. Take away coverage of pre-existing conditions, and the people who need coverage will not be able to get it.  Take away the public exchanges and mandated definitions of "coverage", and the public will not be able to make informed choices. In short, one has to address many requirements in order to maximize coverage across as many people as possible in a nation's population.

The GOP attacks the first two elements in the above list in all their proposals to repeal the ACA. They do not care that less people will be covered by insurance.  They do not care that insurance will become unaffordable to the old and infirm.  They only care about restoring a dysfunctional prior status quo.  The GOP has had several years to design a better health care plan than the ACA, and yet had not done so.  Instead they kept making noises about the free market being better than the ACA's "solution" - even when the other major industrialized nations have shown that "socialized medicine" has resulted in more available health care at a lower price to society.  In fact, one staunch GOP loyalist made the claim that if Stephen Hawking had to use Britain's National Health Service (NHS), that Hawking would be dead today.  Well, Hawking uses the NHS and is still alive as I write this.

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The GOP is now in charge of the Executive branch of government, as well as both legislative branches of government. And the three stooges in the above photo have yet do produce a health care reform that would be better than what we now have.  It should be the duty of any opposition party, that when it comes to power, that it has well thought out policies and actions ready to go.  This was not the case when the GOP gained power this year.

I don't need to say much about Trump, except that he is a malignant narcissistic sociopath who has no loyalty to anyone but himself, who has no taste, and who has no empathy with other people. In short, he is a social cancer that can cause damage when left unchecked. Paul Ryan is an idealog who can be very dangerous as he gets more power, as he does not believe that the fortunate in society have any duty to those less well off. And Mitch McConnell may not be an ideolog, as he has no ethics to guide him except a loyalty to his party.

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The public is enraged - and that includes many in the "Red States" who are seeing how the party they voted into power is about to betray them.  The GOP had no Obamacare replacement, so they slapped something together and called it reform. The public knows better, as they can see how they will lose their ACA benefits when what they derisevely called "Obamacare" is repealed. They see that giving away park lands in places like Montana will hurt their local economy. They see that polluting the water with mining waste will take away their clean drinking water. In short, they are willing to the Democrats if the Democrats have leaders who will address the needs of the people in "Fly Over Territory".

Luckily, we're seeing the Democrats get energized, as they are getting ready for the 2018 elections. But do they have enough of the right people in place for the future?  I doubt it. Their leadership is getting long in the tooth, and they don't have enough young leaders who can energize the public. The one person who can lead them, Bernie Sanders, is an older man who has captured the imagination of youth. He is the same man, when in a forum of Trump supporters received the ultimate compliment from a person in mining country. This compliment took the form of being told that Sanders, from the Northeast, is doing more for people in Coal Country than Mitch McConnell next door. 

My question is: Will the Democrats be ready in time to topple "Larry" and "Curly" in 2018, and take care of "Moe" in 2020?

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PS: After I wrote this, the GOP Bill went down in flames.  As expected, Trump had to find someone else to blame the failure on, and he blamed the Democrats for not working with him.  Hmmmm.  The GOP refused to help when Obamacare was passed 7 years ago. So why should the Democrats respond any differently.  Trump claims that Obamacare will implode, and it may yet in some states. But if it fails in 2018, it will be an election year, and I doubt that Trump will be able to stop the upcoming disaster that an honest attempt to repair what was in place could have prevented.

There are 3 kinds of lies about Healthcare

Mark Twain once said that "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics." And in the case of Obamacare, Trumpcare and the Healthcare debate, all three kinds of lies are in play.

When the Affordable Care Act was enacted, it had no support from the GOP, even though the design came out of a GOP think tank. The GOP was so focused on making Obama a one term president, that it became an extremely polarized opposition to anything supported by Obama. And this included the beginnings of a national health care system based on free market principles, yet tempered by the realities of unequal wealth distribution and unequal health across subgroups of our nation's population.

I was surprised to find that a president and party would have spent so much political capital oh health care. And in retrospect, I am reminded of LBJ who noted that by standing up for civil rights, he was giving the "Old South" to the GOP. It seems like healthcare reform may symbolize something similar for Democrats, as the GOP has used Obamacare as a tool to rally the base.

Over the past few years, the Democratic party has been losing seats in both the House and the Senate. In 2016, the Democrats finally lost the presidency, which gave the GOP a chance to remake healthcare in ways that may reflect either an ideological purity or a pragmatic recognition of reality. Unfortunately, the first important draft at a reform bill will only serve to double the number of uninsured people, and give excessive tax cuts to the rich.

Designing reforms to a health insurance system is not something that can be done in days. It took the Democrats months to flesh out a plan, and then they had to pull out all stops (including bringing in a sickly Ted Kennedy to help break a filibuster) to get the bill passed. Even then, the bill was far from perfect - and was signed into law with known problems. The Obama administration figured that Healthcare reform was now in play, but repeal would be political suicide once the average citizen started to receive the benefits of this new entitlement.

President Trump promised that he would sign a repeal of Obamacare the day he took office. It's been roughly two months since he took office, and no repeal or replacement bill has been signed into law at the time I'm writing this entry. The GOP never thought that they would be in a position to fulfill its promises to repeal Obamacare, and now they are caught between keeping this promise and doing the right thing.

The GOP is saying lies of varying magnitudes in regard to the ACA. What they are not saying is that their lack of cooperation in congress and in their statehouses helped to cause major problems in the "Red States". Obamacare is in trouble in many of the Red States, as quite a few did not accept federal monies for Medicaid expansion.  As a result, many people who could have gotten medical care were caught in a gap - between Medicaid eligibility and being able to afford healthcare. So they got screwed by their own leaders, just because of a political game that was being played.

In the "Blue States", we see a system that is relatively successful. Yes, there are problems. But people are accessing healthcare who could never have afforded it in the past. So, what's going to happen to them now that the GOP is in charge? Trump and the rest of the GOP do not want to look at the statistics regarding Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office did predict a $370+ million savings due to the GOP's most recent health care reform bill. But it said that the number of uninsured would more than double. This means that the GOP will need to tell big lies to mollify its base - a base which is finally coming to terms with the Affordable Care Act, not realizing that it is one and the same as the dreaded "Obamacare".

There are Senators warning GOP house members that the current bill will be DOA if it reaches the Senate. Both the President and the Speaker of the House are saying that this bill is the only one that might pass muster in the House. Yet something more may be going on here.  Could a bad bill be written up, making it possible for purists to say they voted for an acceptable bill that will never come to law - and please their constituents?  Could a future bill be designed to "repeal" the ACA, but merely be a set of tweaks to make the existing law more palatable?

What is most telling is that TRUMP, a man who puts his name on everything, boils red when he hears the phrase "Trumpcare". He doesn't want his name associated with a GOP suicide pact. And yet, that's what seems to be happening right now - GOP Congressmen and Senators are avoiding their constituents in order not to address their fears of losing affordable health care.  Does this mean that because of ideological concerns that the GOP may commit political suicide?  Who knows?

The other night, Bernie Sanders held a town hall in "Trump Territory". And it is amazing how he addressed the concerns of West Virginia voters better than that of their own leaders.  In fact, one person there said that he was amazed that Sanders was looking out for retired coal miners more than Mitch McConnell, a Senator from a nearby coal mining state. What does this say about our 2 party system? To me, it says that if a party ignores the concerns of people who are minorities in the party, it will lose the votes to the other party - even if the only things given are lip service and lies, as the GOP has done for years.

Even in a state that bleeds red, the ACA has shown to be useful. It made sure that coal miners suffering from Black Lung disease got the benefit of the doubt when claiming benefits - something that would be lost in an ACA repeal.  People in Trump Country see this, and do not want the ACA repealed - they want it fixed.  Even so, our VP went to Kentucky and talked about all of Obamacare's failures - even when the little guy is starting to see the benefits of the law.  I can only imagine what would happen to the GOP if more people started seeing the lies for what they are - mistaken tribal and ideological opposition to a "lesser of evils" law.

In the major Western nations, there is no country which has free market health care - not even us.  In a free market, people would die if they were taken to the hospital without money or insurance coverage. Out of humanity, we require hospitals to treat all people regardless of ability to pay, and then those hospitals shift their unreimbursed costs to those least able to pay "rack rate" for medical care. And yet, the GOP keeps arguing that a free market can work with health care when there are no examples in the world of a free market working for health care.  What lies will they tell to bamboozle their base to convince them that a return to healthcare's past is what is needed in a "reform" effort?

Luckily, there are a few GOP Congressmen and Senators willing to buck party ideology and demand that a replacement bill actually be better than the system we have now. It's not important that they dress up their verbiage in fantasy talk or pragmatic statements. Instead, it's important that they are realizing that if the GOP breaks Obamacare without having a better Trumpcare ready to roll, then the GOP could lose both houses in the next election, and possibly start losing the statehouses as well.

I predict that we will hear a lot of misinformation spouted over the next few weeks while ACA repeal is being discussed. Luckily, the Democrats still have the ability to filibuster many bills that come through the Senate, and have an effective veto that can be used for most half-assed attempts to repeal the ACA. Hopefully, the Democrats will use what little power they have left in both a wise and effective manner.  And I hope that in the middle of this political game being played, that people lose the ability to purchase healthcare that they once enjoyed under the ACA.

Is he insane, or is he just evil?

I'm not sure what to believe anymore.  As much as I want to hate the man, something is triggering pity in me for him.  And it started with an article in Eater.

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The Eater article, "Actually, How Donald Trump Eats His Steak Matters" caused me to start thinking of how insecure Trump really must be inside, and why his view of the world resonates among many Americans. Trump always eats the same type of steak - a dry aged strip steak, has it cooked "well done", then adds ketchup to make up for the lost flavor. "Adults who won’t eat pink-hearted steaks might lean on any number of reasons for their position, but almost always it comes down to an aversion to risk, which is at its core an unwillingness to trust the validity and goodwill of any experiences beyond the limited sphere of one’s own." And I'll bet at the core, most of Trump's base has similar fears. Can I blame anyone for being fearful in this day and age?  No. But I'll bet that Trump's fear goes back to his youth, and may be related to the loss of his brother.

But I don't want to dwell in that area of his life.  I am not a psychologist, and I am not trained to diagnose mental illness.  The New Republic states that "a debate is raging among mental health professionals about Trump’s mental state, and whether it’s unethical of them to speculate publicly about someone whom they haven’t examined." It goes on to mention that "Trump was potentially exposed to syphilis based on his own statements that he was sexually promiscuous in the 1980s, a period when syphilis cases were rapidly increasing in the U.S.."  If Trump has this disease, he'd be in notable company, as Al Capone (a man who I respect more than Trump as a businessman) also suffered from syphilis.

Of course, we could take syphilis out of the equation, and still be dealing with mental illness. The N.Y. Daily News notes that "The American Psychiatric Association says that anyone exhibiting five of the following nine egotistical traits has Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

3. Believe that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with other special or high-status people.

4. Requires excessive admiration.

5. Has a sense of entitlement.

6. Is interpersonally exploitative.

7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.


9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes."

Do you agree with me, that Trump shows 8 of the 9 characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

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I still believe that Trump should be removed from office as soon as possible. Even a disastrous 3+ years under a "sane" President Pence would likely be preferable to the chaos created by Trump. Is Trump mentally ill, or is he just evil? It's hard for anyone to say, as it is easy to argue for both possibilities.

There is a part of me that could feel sorry for this man and his family, as he is not able to have any empathy towards others. Sadly, he is only interested in himself, and seems very lonely as a result. Even with this being said, I still must raise the question: Why has much of the GOP sacrificed its principles and whatever integrity it has left to be loyal to a man who will not be loyal to them or care about them?

I'm not sure about to write about this week

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The "Gray Lady", as the New York Times is often called, had a lot to report on the day I wrote this post.  And I was unsure about what was the most important thing out there.  Was it the resignation of Michael Flynn, after less than a month into Trump's regime? Was it Trump's statement that Israel need not pursue a "two state" solution with the Palestinians? Was it the revelation that senior Trump assistants were in constant contact with Russia during his campaign?  Was if the assassination of Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia? Was it the revelation that Russia broke one of the nuclear anti-proliferation treaties, by testing a new type of missile? Or, was it the revelation that the American intelligence agencies no longer trust Trump or his staff to keep America's secrets secret, and are now withholding information from the president?  Any one of these things could be major news items in their own right.  But all of these things happening at once has gotten me worried.

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Our current president is as inept as he is corrupt.  Couple this with a GOP that is ethically bankrupt, and wants power over doing things for the public at large, and we are in serious trouble. One Republican that I once respected, Rand Paul, has just lost any support I might have given him.  He would prefer to dismantle the ACA (Obamacare) than to determine how close a relationship the Trump Campaign had with the Russians.  Paul believes that no Republican should be investigating other Republicans.  Paul Krugman notes that the GOP would rather choose treason to give tax cuts to the wealthy, as corruption is endemic to the GOP. Whether I'd go this far, I don't know.  But it seems as if the GOP wants power for power's sake, and not to exercise it wisely.

I am concerned about giving Netanyahu options NOT to pursue a two state solution in Israel/Palestine. This region is dangerous enough now.  Why give extremists any more fuel to add to the fire?  Our previous Secretary of State noted that Israel could be either a Democracy or a Jewish State. But it could not be both if a two state solution is not pursued. If we support Netanyahu's actions, we may just light the fire of the next Middle Eastern war without realizing it.

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Often, what North Korea does is an interesting side show to the world.  They tend to make bellicose statements, but can't do much to cause trouble elsewhere.  Yes, they have forged $100 bills so perfect that the Federal Reserve told US banks to honor the "funny money" until they had a reliable way to detect the bogus bills. Yes, they have hacked into many computer systems, and caused organizations such as Sony Pictures much grief. But now, they have started to assassinate people outside their borders.  Can this be tolerated? Yes, the fellow who was poisoned was the half brother of the "supreme leader". But who might be killed next?

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Russia has tested a new cruise missile that the US says violates previously signed treaties. Would this have taken place had Hillary Clinton been in office?  I doubt it.  With Trump in office, Putin can do no wrong. Now that US intelligence agencies no longer trust the president to keep secrets, I wonder what comes next.  

These are scary times, and I don't trust our leaders to do the right things, nor do I trust the system of checks and balances to work in the presence of this much corruption in the system.  I could be wrong.  But when Joe Scarborough started worrying about the White House and its lack of respect for the Judiciary, we should see this as the canary in the coal mine alerting us to big problems ahead.  No president should have unchecked powers, and Joe makes this clear after reviewing Steven Miller's comments on the power of POTUS.

I'm not sure of what to think

Does adding a second bible add any substance, legitimacy or truth to what Trump swore to on Inauguration Day?  I doubt it.  It only serves to create an image of false piety for a man from whose mouth only comes lies - including the words "And" and "The".

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As I write this entry, less than two weeks have expired since Trump took office, and we're already seeing chaos in the land. Previously approved refugees, legal residents/green card holders, and other vetted people are being denied entry to the USA, because of Trump's latest executive order. How does this make us any safer? How does this make us appear to the rest of the world?  To me, it only gives nations such as Iran a propaganda advantage, as they will not reject previously approved holders of American passports from visiting their country. And to make things worse, the 3 Arabic speaking countries which are exempt from Trump's executive order (Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia) are those in which Trump has business interests.  Two of these countries (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) are countries that supplied the 19 hijackers that commandeered the planes on 9/11/01, killing almost 3,000 Americans.

An op-ed piece in the Huffington Post is already.talking about the inevitability of impeachment. But is that what a Democrat should be looking for?  Each day that Trump is in office, he tarnishes the GOP brand and helps to mobilize more potential Democratic voters - people who could be very useful in 2018 and 2020. When the Women's March gathered 3 times on the National Mall as many people as Trump's inauguration, one has a potential movement.  But when one takes into account the other 1,500,000 people protesting around the world, it's easy to see that a raw nerve has been touched.  We have to make sure that the reaction gets us the results we want.

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It is no accident that ALL of Trump's appointments have been to the extreme political right. His deal with Pence is likely the same he offered to John Kasich: You run both foreign and domestic affairs, while I make America great again.  Kasich has some ethics, Pence does not. He is a religious wingnut, someone more dangerous to us than Trump - something that I found hard to believe at first.  If we are stuck with a President Pence, he will follow the GOP policy with no compromises allowed. This is different from Trump, as he can easily be manipulated with flattery.  

The Huffington Post piece noted that Trump suffers from Malignant Narcissism.  Otto Kernberg characterizes it by an absence of conscience, a pathological grandiosity and quest for power, and a sadistic joy in cruelty. And everything said about Trump indicates a diagnosis of Malignant Narcissism would be one of the things high on the list of possibilities. Can we afford this in a national leader?

It is possible to manipulate someone like Trump.  It has often been said about him, that if you are the last to give him an opinion, he will often lean your way - as long as he feels in charge and feels that he is the strongest alpha male in the room.  However, it is much harder to manipulate someone like Pence, as his currency is power. Pence is smart enough to wait around until someone self destructs. And that's what Trump seems to be doing, seeing how much work and thought goes into being president.

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But I go back to the title of this entry, as it raises an important question: Is it in our best interest to help get Trump out of office, taking an immediate gain? Or, is it better to help Trump stay in office until the 2018 elections, preventing a potential President Pence from serving more than 6 years as President in his own right?  Can we afford the damage that Trump will do to this country in a little under than 720 days?  

I've already accepted that Trump will destroy as many external checks and balances as he can, regarding those we have on large businesses.  I've already accepted that Trump will be a disaster for the environment, given his belief that Global Warming is a Hoax.  And I've already accepted that he will be a disaster for human rights. Do we know ALL the risks of removing him from office either via impeachment or via the 25th amendment to the constitution?  I don't think so.  And that worries me.

By now it has happened

Obamacare.  The GOP promises that we'll have something bigger and better.  With all the rhetoric that has been spewed to the party loyalists, I doubt that they can deliver anything that is half as good as what they pledge to destroy, if only because they never have worked to design something that can replace Obama's signature accomplishment.  It saddens me that the only thing unifying the GOP has been a pledge to destroy healthcare for millions. Yet, it could be much worse.  We don't know what the "new normal" will be in the near future.  

Recently Meryl Streep came out and protested the president elect's style in a recent speech at the Golden Globe award show. She didn't even have to mention him by name.  Was she justified?  She decried the bullying that passes for strength nowadays, and attacked a subculture that wants power for its own sake, and not to do something good with it.  What is wrong with that?

There is a rush to undo the gains made in society over the past 8 years.  We have a president who is likely owned by the Russian government.  He is already breaking some of his many promises, pledging to build a wall along our Southern border with our money, then convincing Mexico to pay for it.  Does anyone really believe that they will do so?  I doubt it very much.  Strangely enough, some of his nominees have more class than Trump has, including Jeff Sessions.  Sessions is willing to say that Waterboarding is torture, something that Trump can't bring himself to say.  Why is that?  Could it be that many Trump supporters only care about their rights, and not the rights of humanity?  Could it be that they have no empathy for others, and like Trump, are on a narcissistic ego trip?  

It is troubling how extreme how today's GOP seems for a centrist.  Abortion should have been a question settled 40 years ago, and it is still in play because of cultural politics. White supremacists have cleaned up their message, and use phrases such as "Southern Heritage" when they fly the Confederate Battle Flag.  (Heck, most of these people don't know that the "Stars and Bars" referred to a different flag, the flag the South wanted to use for its national standard.)  Centrists fear a government led by people who would shut down polling places heavily used by poor people.  Centrists fear a government who would take rights away from the GLBT community because it angers a small religious minority. Centrists fear a government run by people who can not compromise in any way.  And now, we will get to see what a "Right Wing" government will do.

There is a big problem in America, and it is the Urban/Rural divide.  Maybe it is about time that we think of dividing this nation into three separate nations: (1) States along the Pacific Coast, (2) States along the East Coast, and (3) The "Heartland" states.  Each would inherit the US Constitution, but would make its own laws following the dissolution of the America we once knew.  Only then would we be able to see which nation's laws makes the most sense.  But until then, we have this social conflict that can not be resolved, and can result in a second civil war. Hopefully, we will not see that happen....

Thoughts on the coming change in control.

Like it, hate it, but Obamacare (or, the Affordable Care Act) has been a political hot point for the last 6+ years.  If it had been enacted by a Republican administration, the Democrats would be looking to dismantle it.  But it was enacted by Democrats, and the GOP will soon be in charge of that den of iniquity called Washington, DC.

This year's group of Republicans is worse than most one-party governments.  They have already set their sights on dismantling programs designed to help the poor and needy. And they have decided to eliminate a non-partisan ethics office that helped keep politicians in check. There are very few GOP politicians willing to check and balance the incoming president and his tangled web of conflicted interests. And there are even fewer in congress who want the Office of Congressional Ethics keeping an eye on their affairs. What is surprising to me is that the President Elect has chastised congress for not having its priorities in order - they should be focused on things like healthcare instead of the Ethics Bureau.

The President Elect has been amazingly friendly to Russia, given that both the CIA and FBI have stated that the Russians have hacked the computers of the DNC.  I'd bet that Putin is calling Trump a "Useful Idiot" in private circles. Unlike many loyal Americans, I am not angry at Putin. He is acting in the best interests of Russia as he sees it.  Instead, I am angry at many in the GOP who refuse to stand up and tell the President Elect that he must take the hacking allegations seriously.  

Right now, the entire GOP appears to be like a kid in a candy store.  They can have anything they want, and as much of it as they want.  The big question is: Will they over do it?  Given current behavior, the answer appears to be "Yes".  Only time will tell.

When did America stop being great?

When did America stop being great?

The false prophet always plays his siren's song to the same type of people - those who have lost many benefits of privilege, but don't see that they didn't deserve them in the first place. Trump appeals to those who want to return America to the 1950's, where "White America" ruled the world. Of course, they gloss over evils such as "Jim Crow" and enforced conformity to get there.

It is right to fear what will happen in this country. We're already seeing violence committed by Trump supporters who think they have the right to force others to submit to their will. (We never saw this with the Bushes, Clinton or Obama.) We've opened the social equivalent of an infected pus ball under the skin, and have only started to see the ugly mess come out. There is a lot of repressed hatred coming out from people who could not properly articulate or manage their problems. And it will go somewhere, causing a lot of damage.

We can't expect ignorant people to educate themselves. They often think they have more knowledge than they have, making it impossible for them to see how ignorant they really are. (See: Dunning-Kruger effect.) Think of the person who says: "God said it, I believe it, and That's it!" First, how can he prove that God said something? Next, how can this person know that his preacher or rabbi is telling him the right way to understand the holy book? And then, why is he absolutely sure that his beliefs are correct? Has he tested them? (Even Christ had to undergo tests of faith in the Bible.) These are among the people who have supported Trump, and still follow this extremely flawed leader only out of tribal loyalty.  And now, they have gotten what they want - a messianic leader even more flawed than they are.

Sadly, the worst will likely happen in this country over the next few years. We've already seen the North Carolina legislature go back on a deal involving their law authorizing discrimination against the GLBT community. We've seen that same legislature strip away power from the governor, to keep it in the former executive's party's hands. We've seen that same legislature make it impossible for the opposing political party to have an effective check and balance in the bureau of elections - making sure that the opposition party only has power in non-election years. This is the kind of behavior that signals the end of a republic, and the Trump supporters have "drunk the Kool-Aid."

The "Thousand Year Reich" only lasted 12 years. Who will lead the world when America falls? China? We are unprepared for the loss of what we cherish most, and many of us don't even see what is happening yet. I never experienced fear like this before, as I didn't understand what could be lost. Now, I see evil for what it is, and we've gotten way too close to the fires of Hell not to get burnt. I hope we will reverse this course towards the destruction of our country, but I doubt it.

I am lucky to have experienced America close to its greatest period in history. I am lucky to have known an America that looked outward to the world. I am lucky to have grown up in an America that welcomed diversity. Yes, it was a very flawed America, but one we could be proud of. My sincerest hope is that we will weather this coming storm, and that our children's generation will restore the greatness America lost during this coming era of darkness.