The Current State Of Our Union.

 Oh, did you think that I had forgotten about you all? 
No. 

As I stated back in the summertime-- we will get through this. But darker times are not completely over. 

Our nation is evenly split. We have People Who Want Their Team To Win No Matter What. We have People Who Are Gleefully Showing Shocked Outrage At The Other Team. We have People Who Have Checked Out. 

Our President will believe what is reported in his favor. He will strike out at anyone who reports something not in his favor, regardless of the veracity. He and his supporters have repeated the claims so much, it would be like denying faith to examine the claims with any eye toward critical thought, now. 

People, long convinced that their votes were dismissed by a tampered-with election, are acting out against the government which they feel has let them down. They believe that the government is enabling the  a fraudulently-elevated Biden to be President. They believe that this is life or death, and they have to act. 

They have stormed the Capitol. They broke things and hurt people. This is a riot. 

They were urged to show up by  President Trump. Today was the day on which Congress was to certify the electoral college vote. Somehow, interrupting that count was going to bring some power back to them.

It did not. 

What happened is that the pendulum swung a bit harder, separating and dividing us further. 

For days, our President has been issuing pardons. For the last couple of days, the discussion has turned toward a phone call which he made to the Secretary Of State in Georgia, whom our President urged to "do a favor," and "find some more votes."  Now, the discussion has turned to the issue of our nation's President issuing himself a preemptive pardon. This is ridiculous, because if  he can do this, he may act unlawfully with impunity. 

We have seen 62 courts throw out challenges to the elections, made by Trump's supporters, usually due to lack of evidence. Some of the judges were Republican appointees. Some even Trump appointees. No court yet tried has found sufficient evidence to intervene in the state elections for President. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R, KY) has called for a cease to the objections to the vote, by the Senate: "I've served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote I've ever cast," McConnell said. "The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken. They've all spoken. If we overrule them, it will damage our republic forever."
 Former President George W. Bush has made the call for the riotous demonstration to end.  Numerous Republicans who had pledged to vote to oppose the election results have reversed themselves, and are choosing not to raise objections to the vote. Lindsay Graham, long a Trump supporter, gave an impassioned speech in which he remarked that only Donald Trump could get him to stand with Rand Paul on such an issue.  Senator Paul declared that today's riot was "chaos and anarchy that needs to be stopped." 

It has been reported that the President's Cabinet has current members who are discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment. 

Now, you can say, "Matt, you've just provided links to MainStream Media. And they lie." Oh, I believe that MSM has biases, and gets some things wrong. But unlike your favorite blog or buddy on social media, or you, they actually have a stake in verifying what they say before they say it. We know that our President has lied.  We know that a swarm of competing news organizations have shown these facts.  Given a choice between our President's specious claims, and numerous professional news sources, I'll go with the news sources. I'll be right more often, if still occasionally wrong. 

If you tell me that you would have been up at the Capitol, storming the building, to interrupt the Constitutionally-mandated count today--- I will tell you that I don't respect that. 
And that I would have wanted to be up at the Capitol, stopping your unlawful interference. 

Shall we go on together, as a nation, now, and lick our wounds, and try to heal?