An appropriate time to begin this discussion.   Today is the day chosen (hoping folks would forget) to begin the impeachment (redux) of Donald Trump.

I bet you are thinking how we basically lucked out on 6 January.  Oh sure, if we were in the Capitol during the White Christian riot incited and abetted by TheDonald and Rudy, we may still be experiencing PTSD.  But, otherwise, we could be thinking, since nothing much has happened since that date, the chance of civil war has passed.

I mean, after all, did not McConnell agree that TheDonald was a prime instigator in this riot.  Oh, wait- that was only true for less than a fortnight.  Or, the House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy resorting to the BS that TheDonald spewed…. OK, in reverse. McCarthy started by assuring the USA that TheDonald ‘bears responsibility’ for the ‘attack on Congress by mob rioters’.  And by that very week’s end he resorted to (instead of saying there were good people on both sides [sorry, Donald, there weren’t]), a claim that “both sides” were responsible for the riots.

Except- there was only ONE side in the riots.  Only the White Christians and the NeoNazis were there; not a soul from the opposing point of view was storming the Capitol.  (By the way, there is a tremendous confluence between White Christian Terrorists and ‘gun rights’- a constant thread throughout American history.  It’s why TheDonald kept egging on folks saying their guns would be taken away- another dog whistle he proffered the terrorists.  [On the other hand- and there really IS another hand here, there are many who advocate for ‘gun rights’ that are not White Christian terrorists.])

We also now have a crazed QAnon terrorist in the House, egged on to run for office by the GOP establishment.  Marjorie Taylor Greene walks around Congress carrying a gun.  And, she’s already avowed  action against Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress- as well as former President Obama.  (She’s but one of many such nutcases that permeate the GOP establishment now.)

And, then, of course there’s the sycophantic chameleon, Lindsay Graham.  Who averred (only at first) that he had enough of TheDonald and his antics.  (Donald could “count him out”.)  But, now, he’s coaching TheDonald- he even attempted to hire a lawyer for his impeachment.  But, even that lawyer knew it would be too dangerous to defend TheDonald.

And, while Republican, elected officials refused to capitulate to TheDonald’s demands to overturn the free elections held in November, I fear the next election will not have such stalwarts of democracy to resist overturning an election.  (Especially, as the GOP establishment in Michigan and Arizona have been purging their electoral committees of these [GOP] officials.)

Or, in Nevada, which has censured Governor Doug Ducey, Senator Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain (Senator McCain’s widow) for their failure to kowtow to TheDonald.  By refusing to agree that his baseless claims that he won the vote have any merit.

Don’t think for a moment that Governor Kemp won’t change the votes of Georgian citizenry in the future.  Right now, Georgia is considering legislation to outlaw mail-in ballots for folks who won’t be out of town.  And, work to make it even more difficult for a Black or a Jew to win a statewide election in the (rotten) Peach State.

You do recall the reason that there even were special elections for Senator in Georgia is because rules were enacted during the Civil Rights era to require run-offs should someone not accumulate 50.01% of the vote.  To ensure that if there were a contested election between two White candidates, a third (Black, Jewish, or other minority) candidate could not sneak in with a plurality.

Or, Mississippi that still has the law from Reconstruction times to ensure Blacks or Jews can’t win statewide elections.  It employs a pseudo-electoral college voting system to ensure the disenfranchisement of minority voters.

Which means now is a pretty good time to review this salient fact about America and our Electoral System.  This picture above tells a very interesting story.  Those 329 electoral votes come from parts of the US that in total comprise fewer citizens than those that reside in Los Angeles County.

Right now, the Brennan Center for Justice (NYU) notes that there are 106 bills in our state legislatures to restrict voting.  To make sure that Black votes aren’t counted and the GOP can rig the election.

No, folks, we did not escape from this turmoil.  We’ve just postponed the reckoning for a while, unless we can garner control of our nation and its symbols.

There’ll be no fat lady singing the Star Spangled Banner.