Hands on hearts, we all learn something in this Country about as early as anything else we are formally taught. While the effort is nothing more than parroting until the words can be internalized and made meaningful reciting The Pledge of Allegiance sows the earliest seeds of Patriotism and, once truly voluntary, of Duty and Service itself. It is the introductory Oath for anyone later called to Official Service and as we stand holding our hearts, beit for the Pledge or Anthem, a single reflection which may be common in all of us is a mournful gratitude or reverence for our Troops—fallen, former and fighting. That personal sacrifice of service on behalf of each-and-every one of us is the epitome of Patriotism so what, then, are we to make of a Commander-in-Chief whose worldview is so far removed from our own long-cherished values that such service and sacrifice is actually seen as a weakness of character? It does follow that a person who lacks the capacity to find any value or satisfaction from contributing to the well-being of anyone but themself would balk at the notion of personal sacrifice, charity or service to others but aside from being outright offensive what does that mean for the three-hundred-and-fifty million of us whom that person is supposed to be making decisions on behalf of and in the interest of? 

     As unlikely as it should seem that such a self-serving individual could gain the sort of popular approval necessary to be elected to the Highest Office in the Land with an expectation of enthusiastically serving everyone else, we now know that with a certain kind of targeted manipulation through both social and mass-media propaganda outlets we can find ourselves subject to a more corrupt "leader" than we ever believed possible. We can get a leader who actually bucks the system they're meant to uphold and represent; who weaponizes the levers of government to work in their own favor, demands every benefit of the doubt while extending none and challenges even the most-sacredly held norms throughout our system of government as additional loopholes for personal benefit. We can get a leader who works not for The People but for themself and at the expense of The People. We can get an Anti-President—Donald J. Trump.

     I feel a responsibility to promptly recognize the vast numbers of the voting population who were and are so strongly convinced that such a nakedly hostile administration is the correct approach to governance and can so readily overlook the total disregard of long-valued principles in exchange for empty promises and exaggerated ideals. With no expertise in herd mentality nor of the human psyche I am led to attribute this vulnerability to exposure to a predatory kind of messaging which would never have been conceived of without an Anti-POTUS at the helm, tirelessly regurgitated and escalated by nefarious actors within media and the now-complicit political party itself. For a mere toe-in-the-water example we might look to the contrived "War on Christmas," as if being considerate of the beliefs of others whom you don't know is an infringement upon one's own. The demonization of Political Correctness as a supposed violation of Free Speech or otherwise amounts to nothing but an attack upon decency which obviously looms quite large to begin with. Ongoing susceptibility to messaging like this by scores of millions critically impairs our ability as a Nation to make progress because a set of mutually-accepted facts is no longer on the table as long as party talking points, ad hominems and non-sequiturs rule the day. What was once a respected deliberative body is no more; contemptible exercises of raw political power do the deciding now.

     In the case of our Anti-POTUS himself we see a modus operandi centered entirely around his own personal interest instead of the National interest which was expressly laid-out in the Impeachment and probably the requisite criteria to sport the title. While I confess to a degree of anticipation for what might be viewed as a venting session I'd no doubt be remiss to avoid any detailing whatsoever of his exploits, misconduct and outright crimes. I also have no doubt that a truly complete catalog will not be possible without lengthy investigations far beyond my personal reach. I can therefor only relay information that is already on the public record but only wish to report the most-egregious acts which I think should be most-widely recognizable as such, too. Chronology aside, among the most-appalling of his schemes was a fundraising scam which took place during the 2016 campaign where millions of dollars were pilfered through a fraudulent charity claimed to be for Veterans. Unthinkable in a manner akin to a youngster going door-to-door after writing "Cancer Donations" on the side of a coffee can because they want money for candy or something, our President along with his adult children were forbidden from ever involving themselves in another charity—astounding enough on its own—in addition to being ordered to pay two-million dollars in damages in a 2019 settlement after it was shown in court that they's used donations intended for Veterans to help fund the campaign (including but certainly not limited to a ten-thousand-dollar portrait of who-else but Donald J. Trumpskin).

     As cringe-worthy and shameful as that is it's actually a pair of horrors taking place as I pen these words which are most devastating with an impact that will certainly out-live the man responsible: The first being his homicidal neglect and dereliction of duty surrounding the killer coronavirus and the second is his total disregard for the State of Our Union with he most anti-democratic and unapologetically-irresponsible attempt to undermine the Will of The People by overturning the results of the most-secure Election in the American History according to a joint-agency report from his own hand-selected officials.

Even in an administration which uses being as disruptive, dominating and disagreeable as possible as a strategy it is hard to overstate the wanton disregard for humanity that's been put on reprehensible display with Trump's utter denial, disinterest and dishonesty surrounding the most deadly virus we've faced in modern times. Thanks to Bob Woodward we have now heard what Donald Trump acknowledged in early February and was willing to discuss behind closed doors despite projecting a completely opposite set of facts on the National stage which he knew to be false. No matter how relentless the push-back nor how gut-wrenchingly life-and-death the gravity of getting the best information available out to warn The People he's supposed to serve obviously is, Donald J. Trump, in desperate smugnitude, looked everyone in the eyes and lied the kind of heinous lies that would only lead to careless, irresponsible harm and actual loss of life. There was no Service or misguided form of protection to his lies, only protection of his ego from ever having to admit powerlessness or subjectivity to anything, perhaps especially an "invisible enemy," and he wouldn't be our first Anti-President if he could be looked-to for empathy and understanding. So out of touch and incomprehensibly entitled, it's no surprise that the same Head of State who puts every facet of government to the test as a way of eking-out every bit of personal advantage possible and who puts his own self-aggrandizing, self-proclaimed image of strength above the well-being, indeed the lives of other human beings would also be the first to shamelessly contradict the legitimacy of an Election upon losing.

     Just as mortal to our Democracy and unimaginable only five years ago, his attacks on the Election are an outrage only equaled by the now-complicit supporting party-members. If and "coup" or "widespread fraud" exists as so boisterously and baselessly claimed by Republicans it is those false accusations on top of countless others from the administration that are that fraud and, with a total absence of evidence to their claims, lay bare the widespread disinformation campaign which stands in wild-opposition to the Truth on the ground and represents the most-pressing Constitutional crisis in ages. Years of calculated rhetoric widely distributed in "talking points" and strictly adhered-to by party members as to perpetuate the ongoing, entirely-contrived narrative has culminated in a political party, presently in power, that is approving of and even endorsing the overruling of millions of legal votes, disenfranchising entire populations of citizens in battleground States to actually reverse the true result of the Election. In doing so they have chosen personal loyalty to a demagogue over their Oaths to The Constitution. These aren't just empty words or hyperbole but loudly demonstrated through seditious legal actions in Courts across the Country including individual "amicus briefs" where an overwhelming majority of Republican House Members put their blind loyalty to Trump on record.

     It's often said of litigation that if the law isn't on your side then pound the facts, if the facts aren't on your side then pound the law, and if neither are on your side then pound the table. In administrations and times such as these instead of a volume of supporting facts and legal precedent we get the loud volume of partners in crime who will repeat the party-line talking points of the day which were determined by someone to fit a story-line that they actually expect to be accepted as true but has no basis in Reality. As insulting as that surely is, add insults and intimidation from the Highest Office in the Land to any person who questions the obvious inconsistencies one should point out in a made-up narrative coming from that High Office.

     A real hallmark of this and likely any Anti-Presidency which revolves around personality over principles is the rigorous efforts put forth to discredit any entity with the audacity to question or refute any of the wide range of claims made by the autocrat including the smallest opposition from within the party and especially against the media. Being our sole avenue for direct accountability of leaders between Elections it's clear that adversarial and investigative journalism are fundamental to Democracy and to be respected as also representing The People just as they were treasured by the Founding Fathers who drafted a Free Press into The Constitution as a First Amendment Right. The undermining of unflattering Truths by and for those in power is an absolute disgrace to The People whom they serve and whom elected them into power. Especially distasteful is how particular groups are pandered-to and preyed-upon whom Trump has said, "will believe anything" referring to Evangelicals and the religious in general in addition to his targeted appeals to any with ideals of superiority and/or prone to nationalistic messaging.

     In year 67c.e. the Roman Emperor Nero competed in the Olympic Games that he was hosting. To the surprise of exactly no one he won every event that he participated in including a chariot race in which he lost a wheel. Fortunately, the judges determined that had he been able to finish the race he'd certainly have won. These sycophantic enablers are key to the aspiring-autocrat's ascent to power. Along with open abuses of their official capacity such as the nineteen-State, one-hundred-twenty-six-Representative filing of a seditious lawsuit to try overthrowing a Free and Fair Election, the amplification of the party's daily talking points is just as important in capturing enough of the populous to exploit votes from and who, as a bonus, will also recycle the party-line message among themselves and beyond—almost like a virus—and what do we do when a sentences like, "If I don't win it means that they cheated," and "the only way we lose is if they cheat," can actually carry weight and resonate with an unacceptably-wide range of people.

     Exactly as if by design, there is more than just an air of independence between the three branches, fifteen executive departments and various agencies that make up our government which is a necessary part of 'checks and balances' therein but an Anti-President isn't about to concern themself with promoting the balance of power while their foot's on the scale. Instead, we see a twisted web of collusion encompassing all manner of elected representatives, appointed officials in both Cabinet and supposedly-apolitical positions to include many which are meant to provide oversight, along with an ever-growing like-minded judiciary because confirming as many "conservative" judges as possible into lifetime appointments has been the transparent priority of the "World's-greatest deliberative body" while under Republican control. This is another technique that the 'GOP" cooked up to play the system to their future advantage much like the absurd gerrymandering and Electoral Collage itself operating in their favor to soften the blow of how grossly unpopular their beliefs and methods actually are. After all, we know that Democratic Candidates have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight Elections but we have had a couple more Republican Presidents in that same period of time for some obvious reason.

     With this kind of leader at the helm even the Department of Justice is almost-freely micro-managed for personal gain as it is weaponized against perceived enemies with phony investigations to stifle any opposition, and with an Attorney General who is willing to participate in broad obstruction of their crimes the Anti-POTUS, for all practical purposes, becomes immune. All relationships and interactions are purely transactional and used as leverage. Executive pardons have been made available to supporters, donors and co-defendants at the same time that firing squads are restored and death sentences expedited with four times as many executions in a single year than in the last fifty-eight years combined. Donald J. Trump is also the first President to kill someone, (actually thirteen living, breathing someones) on their way out the door. This, from the pro-life party and the upside-down-Bible-posing Anti-President. It must've been the Old Testament with how this administration operates. In a society that places a strong value on fairness and is progressively striving for actual equality it's truly a wonder that such a figure could curry so much favor particularly with a religious, Evangelical base but the villain themself is expected to favor vengeance over forgiveness. With the available support, however, the corrupt, self-serving accomplishments can be unprecedented in scope and magnitude but only equate to institutional damage to any good-faith observer.

     There are indeed common values across this Country and common interests between parties. We all want the best for ourselves and loved ones and expect our government to be working for us to help ensure that we can not only survive which appears to be a real challenge right now and a neglected one at that but that we might thrive in pursuing any lawful interest and betterment free from harm. What may not be shared in common is the notion that in order to provide such guarantees to all citizens equally intrinsically implies personal sacrifice and an unacceptable cost. In a World that also operates transactionally it is understandable to prioritize fiduciary interests but it should go without saying not above any human cost nor in defiance of the Rule of Law.

     We all know that money-making has been a prominent centerpiece within this administration most-transparently used as a lure to gain followers with economic propaganda but more outrageously having profit be a primary interest in decision-making with so many opportunities to exploit positional power. First acknowledging the vast sums gleaned from corporate as well as individual donors who believe they share common interests, the Emoluments Clause appears to be among the least of concerns judging from the rivaling sums which have been funneled from taxpayers directly into the pockets of Donald Trump through his personal properties. He loves to so-humbly boast about donating his Presidential salary while accumulating hundreds of times that amount by charging taxpayers for the lodging and amenities of the entire entourage who he knows must follow him wherever he travels, and he just so happens to go to his own properties as often as possible. But Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm?! I dare say that the hundreds of millions of dollars being funneled to Trump are no small peanuts and the transferring of his assets to adult children during the original campaign is a far cry from divesting but this is merely another example of operating based on a strategy of I-dare-you-to-challenge-me which is fitting for the intrepid entitlement of an Anti-POTUS.

     Of our common values, another that could certainly be viewed as universal is Honesty or Truth itself. I'd argue that nobody likes being lied to and it's obviously impossible to solve any problems effectively without knowing the underlying information. Hence, treating Science as though it's another political party is a disastrous folly. It's committing to ignorant opinions as the self-proclaimed authority on every subject and surely a buttress in the authoritarian blueprints. The rigorous methods of scientific study are the single-most indispensable source of facts we have necessary for making the most-informed decisions. Science is a method of having methods. It is a strategy of using strategy, a proven system of relying on proven systems and the only reason to blindly set aside widely-accepted Science is for personal, nefarious gain. There is no reason to believe that the utter disregard, even denial, of credible information which has been scientifically proven, peer reviewed and accepted in a consensus could possibly be a winning strategy—not even for the party doing so in their misguided, sociopathic 'public affairs' efforts. This administration chose downplaying and lying to people in an ongoing performance to make things appear under control over their responsibility of providing the best information available to people to help them survive a deadly virus. The actual blocking on top of relentless contradiction of reports by the CDC and other Health Agencies for no other reason except to preserve some kind of public image screams psychopathy and is in no way compatible with government that works for The People.

     As vital as the preservation of power may somehow seem, our Democracy is one formed intent on fairness where majority rules, we all play by the same set of rules and the very purpose of which is to improve the lives of citizens. Allowing any leader to freely micro-manage any and all aspects of a wide array of government functions from Health Departments to the Department of Justice drastically upsets our fundamental Balance of Power, defeats the two-party system and in this case shows us that the 'Republic'an Party no longer supports or stands for a Republic but wholly endorses an autocratic form of leadership as shown in the 2020 GOP Platform Resolution. They continue to allow Donald Trump to elbow his way into having a much-broader reach than was ever intended for a single 'public servant.' It would be one thing if his many impositions were genuinely productive and provided for persons other than himself but blatant interference in public affairs for personal gain is as counterproductive as it is irresponsible and even more offensive.

     Much of the onus lies squarely upon the shoulders of the cult—or "base"— of sycophantic support who cheer-on a rebellious leader, a villain, and are able to rationalize suspending the Rule of Law for this one person, believing his word above all else and counter to reason so that whatever made-up ends somehow justify a holocaust of cruel, mortal and willfully-ignorant means. It is not normal to be working so hard and primarily out of political spite in the Courts to strip healthcare and food-stamp assistance away from millions of needy people instead of trying to help more in general but doing it during a time when a once-in-a-century pandemic has ravaged the Nation and spurred never-before-seen economic crippling is just plain criminal. No doubt many would jump to interject with the "get-a-job" party-line while briskly pointing a thumb back over their shoulder as if we really do have more jobs than people and empathy really is a weakness. This sort of sentiment is an intended product manufactured with the exaggeration and remolding of like ideals, fashioning them into more extreme and precise memes which are then widely-distributed and shared within the similarly-manufactured echo chambers of social media in particular. Democrats have been labeled "socialists" while the very nature of having our system of government is to serve, protect and provide for citizens, and everything from police, fire and rescue to schools, roads and municipal utilities are nothing short of purely-socialist endeavors but uncontested as basic functions of government. Consistency, however, is not to be expected from a group that decries mandatory mask-wearing during a pandemic to be an infringement of Liberty while also thinking that government-control of a woman's uterus is perfectly reasonable. One would think that the party that's so concerned with preserving "all life" would also want to prevent the spread of a deadly virus and for the scores of millions that this cult is comprised of to not recognize the wool being pulled over their eyes by the same entity that convinced them to be so distrusting of persons in power is a no-less cruel and mortal irony.

     The State of Our Union is dire exactly because of the Anti-President's following for he would be nowhere without the votes and the rebellious trends of those followers in many ways has actually guided if not taken the place of the strategies of fellow elected officials throughout the party. Having captured the 'Republican' electorate, the whims of the aspiring-dictator literally trump any individual ambition and render the entire party submissive to the same cult-base of support. Manifest in this arrangement is an inherently top-down system existing in abject conflict with the bottom-up foundation of Democracy. To be clear: a submissive, single-sourced and therefor uninformed party of voters willing to dismiss so much as "fake news" to avoid having to contend with any opposing thought or seriously consider evidence cannot be taken seriously and certainly does not represent a bottom-up system—you know, a Republic. So, again, the Republican Party is no longer Republican but the disembodied hands that carry the crowd-surfing Anti-POTUS through his destructive premiere.

     When we hear things like the recent, "Millions of people are concerned about fraud in this Election," we know exactly which people are concerned and why. The complaint itself is just reinforcement propaganda because he is the precise reason why anyone is concerned about supposed Election fraud so while the Anti-President claims he's, "just worried about so many people believing there's an 'illegitimate President'," a projection two-fer, there's no hiding the desperate and unspeakable lengths he continues to go to in order to cast every-last-bit of doubt in the Election that he can possible spin from nothing but whole cloth. All of this is just a sequel to what was the most criminally-engineered campaign in United States history by far, ranging from the international bribery which led to the first Impeachment of a President in their first term to the installment of a corrupt lackey to head-up and handicap the United Stated Postal Service knowing that more Democrats would vote by mail than Republicans and that there would be more voting by mail than ever before due to the pandemic. The party as a whole also worked pretty hard everywhere they could to ensure that votes could not even start to be counted until the latest lawful time they could make it which only serves as another exploit when the loser refuses to concede and falsely proclaims that the extra time counting is somehow fraudulent even-though it always takes weeks to certify election results.

     Conniving, counter-productive actions by the Republican Party did not arrive overnight with Donald Trump but did pave the way for him—along with an intense, cooperative campaign of messaging from Russia (See Mueller Report, Volume One). Gaming the system with dirty tricks must be a large part of the party's appeal but it's hard to then find solid footing when claiming to simultaneously "drain the swamp" of supposed "deep-state" actors. This, too, is obviously just more projection. Whatever amount of self-dealing may have existed in the past pales in comparison to what a bad-faith actor in the Highest Office of the Land allows a party to do on top of what the Anti-POTUS himself is capable of. The most-generous explanation that might be attributed to their actions could be a misguided principle of 'fighting fire with fire' however fighting corruption with corruption especially on a one-upping basis grants zero genuine credibility and accounts for worst hypocrisies ever perpetrated within the Chambers of Congress. I urge anyone who hasn't already to roll the tape on the positions of Republican figures like Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell in 2016 when they blocked Barack Obama's Supreme Court nomination ten months before the Presidential Election compared to recent statements made by those same figures in late September and October to try to weasel their way into getting a Supreme Court nominee from their own party confirmed just weeks from the Presidential Election. Then you may wish to see the indefensible hypocrisy of Lindsey Graham's words in the Clinton Impeachment versus what he said during the Trump Impeachment as well as that of Constitutional Law "expert" Alan Dershowitz.

     In fact, I would encourage anyone who hasn't already done so to watch a few specific documentaries, namely, Fahrenheit 11/9, Get Me Roger Stone, The Great Hack and The Confidence Man episode from season one of Netflix's Dirty Money as well as the Slumlord Millionaire episode from season two. It's unlikely that anyone can possibly understand the total breadth of just how desperate and criminally corrupt this administration is without the information laid out in these works. I can't imagine how the average Fox-viewer and the like are able to either discount or justify but definitely endorse the terrible actions of our villain-in-chief, no less by the millions, and I do not see any way of bringing them back to Reality as long as we allow those in and close to power to continue to lie to them. The First Amendment absolutely protects our treasured right to Free Speech but does not proclaim that any and all speech should be labeled, "News," something Fox cannot call itself overseas. False information by any source or entity cannot be given equal footing and presented as Truth to citizens on any platform when it's now been shown just how many, even here in the US of A, can find a populist, propaganda movement appealing. Hearing those people describe the radical, often-outrageous acts of Donald Trump as being some sort of 5-D chess may have been humorous but it only requires the simplest understanding to accurately interpret the motives of the Anti-President. For the guy who governs like a spoiled child who was given the wrong gift you need only look as far as "Stone's rules" to find such elementary strategies as "Deny, deny, deny," "Attack, attack, attack. Never defend," and "It's better to be infamous than never to be famous at all." It's actually an exploited pathology that's of particular service to Trump where he compulsively filters everything he says into what he believes will make him look as "strong and powerful" as possible to the given audience in that moment, and when all it takes is words and exposure to capture half of the political universe it is probably up to those who are informed to lead others to the Truth.

     Any plan would surely demand effectiveness in both offense and defense so the lies must be knocked-down with more than just counter-messaging alone. There is also something fundamentally wrong when the intended checks on power themselves are subject to the whims of the Executive. The firing of Inspectors General, Attorneys General, FBI Directors and so many more who dare choose loyalty to their Oaths to the Country, Constitution, and Rule of Law over personal loyalty to Donald Trump is a reprehensible display of corruption and not something we ever expected might be tolerated in the United States of America. The Founding Fathers could not have imagined that enough voters would ever be persuaded into willfully electing a hostile, bad-faith actor who doesn't respect Service, Truth, Science, Diversity, The Balance of Power, Rule of Law or even Human Life itself and it appears that sufficient safeguards are absent when an Anti-President can be protected from Impeachment by captive party-members, stack the Judiciary and simply replace any who do not tow the party-line as he sees fit. We're manifestly unable to reign-in and out-of-control Executive who's proven eager to utilize any foreign resources that arise to his personal advantage, who proudly voiced things like, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the twenty-thousand emails of Hillary Clinton. I'm sure our Press will reward you mightily," during his initial campaign and when asked in the middle of his recent, failed campaign what he would do about the bounties being put on the lives of American Soldiers in Afghanistan and actually paid to the Taliban by Russia in addition to the arms they were given responded, "Well, we armed the Taliban to fight them," like something from another era justified his own surrender now and constant pandering to Putin. The newly-uncovered cyber-attack by Russia on key posts of our government has gotten the same attention from Trump, "It's a hoax," "China is worse," and his classic, dismissive Russia-Russia-Russia refrain at the same time that the cyber-invasion into The Pentagon, Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, National Institute of Health, National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Postal Service, NASA, our own Cyber-security and Infrastructure Agency and The Office of Anti-POTUS himself among others is being called an act of war by renown experts, former military and intelligence personnel alike. As incredibly prescient as our Founding Fathers so brilliantly were our system is nonetheless critically dependent upon having good-faith actors in positions of power which in turn relies upon an informed and principled electorate. If our Democracy is to stand the test of time it falls on the generations to actively ensure that our Institutions evolve alongside and in concert with our ever-evolving society to most-efficiently meet the moment whenever and wherever threatening moments are met and if we seriously value our 'norms' than it's plausible that more should be enforced instead of expected.

     The lessons learned in how to deal with being confronted by such a combative leader, who's never admitted to making a single mistake other than lying that he misspoke whenever public backlash got a little-more heated than usual, will likely be it's greatest contribution in strengthening our Democracy against the same corrupt use of power in the future. Perhaps an Anti-POTUS Commission in addition to COVID and Election Commissions could best get to the bottom [and top] of the innumerable unknown abuses and, by extension, the full-spectrum of our vulnerabilities, also help to hasten the healing of the Nation and be the kind of finale to America's premiere Anti-President that just might prevent an encore.