As a minimum, deny valuable benefits after they leave office
Now that Joe Biden has won the 2020 election, one of the political mysteries going forward is whether or not President Trump will be improperly pardoned for crimes that he may have committed.
A US president has never pardoned himself before so there’s no case law that instructs us as to whether the nation’s chief executive can successfully immunize himself from prosecution in this way. Of course, Nixon was pardoned by Gerald Ford.
Either way, it would be a frustrating conclusion to Trump’s tumultuous tenure if he were to escape accountable for any actual criminal actions on his part. It’s one thing to pardon someone who has paid penance for their crimes in some way and who shows remorse, it’s an entirely different matter for someone who is actively abusing their power to escape accountability. …
A new era of hope and realignment is upon us
I am not a religious person. Not particularly spiritual either. So the following sort of comes as a shock to me.
At this stage, everything that can be done to turn back the approaching darkness has been done — except two things: We all have to vote, and we all have to believe everything will turn out alright.
The voting part will take care of itself. Everyone knows what needs to be done. We know we must vote early and, if possible, check that our ballot has been received. …
Getting out of the Matrix would be easier
I recently posted this comment on my Facebook feed:
“After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to permanently leave Facebook. FB is bad for me, bad for the country, and bad for the world. May the force be with you.”
A day later — after some suggestions from several of my shocked friends — I decided to merely deactivate my Facebook account (content temporarily disappears) until after the election rather than delete it entirely (everything is zapped forever).
I know. I’m a coward. There I was, with a chance to irrevocably escape the Matrix and I took the blue pill (blissful ignorance) instead of the red pill (painful truth). …
Fewer border crossings, for now, but at what cost?
President Trump’s persistent loyalty among his supporters is based in large part on his aggressive policies toward immigrants and other minority groups, such as Black Lives Matter, Muslims, and LGBT.
They clearly believe any amount of collateral damage, deception, or any tactic is okay so long as he remains contentious toward those groups. He knows that.
And so they adore him, although he disarmed America’s ability to fight pandemics after taking office and then bungled the coronavirus response so badly that tens of thousands of Americans, so far, needlessly perished. Never mind that he also delayed the economic recovery for an untold number of months by refusing to take firm and steady action early on, causing irreparable economic harm and causing us to lose a good chunk of our lives. Trump didn’t start the pandemic, but today he’s largely given up trying to do anything about it. How do his supporters react to all this? …
Two moments of mystery. A lifetime of wondering.
Two times, it happened. Yep, twice. I was a buck sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and it was 1979. I was stationed at Osan Air Base, South Korea.
I had first heard talk from several squadron mates that UFOs had sometimes been tracked along the DMZ, the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. I was a member of the notorious Skivvy Nine, as the locals called my unit, or, more officially, the 6903rd Security Squadron.
We weren’t MPs — Military Police — as the squadron name sort of sounds like. Rather, we were a unit of high-tech spies. We were a front-line air intel unit at the tip of the tactical spear, and our mission was to ensure the Land of the Morning Calm remained that way. …
Meet the next-generation election system that can keep elections honest and save the union.
Eighty-one percent of Americans use smartphones. Over one million miles of internet fiber cable have been laid. And 5G is coming, like it or not. So, why are we stuck with election systems designed to fail us? My fellow Americans, it’s time we build the next-generation election system — the Anonymous Ballot Election system (ABE).
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” — Abraham Lincoln
I’m not sure if that quote helps or hurts my case, but it sure is potent. Either way, ABE has the potential to save democracy by making elections honest and by supercharging voter turnout. How so? …
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