IMAGINE OUR 21ST CENTURY AMERICAN FLAG WITH ONLY 49 STARS. OR 48. OR 47. OR LESS.

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      If Republicans in Congress and Republicans nationwide continue to take as the gospel truth, and then promote "The Big Lie" of a criminal sociopath, it's possible that, at some point, the cherished emblem of our nation will be painted with fewer "bright stars."  And although the red, white and blue of "Old Glory" will still "wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave," it might not fly over certain meadows and metropolises that are now part of the United States of America.

     The unscrupulous Donald Trump and his brainwashed Trumpism cheerleaders

- some of whom are revolutionists - are slowly, but then again perhaps quickly, shredding our Star Spangled Banner.  The narcissistic Trump is hellbent to take command of our country; not as its president, but as its supreme ruler.

    

      While in The White House, Trump envisioned his power and position of our republic to be exactly the opposite to what our Founders created.  Instead, he believes in a dictatorship, comparable to that of North Korea, and that he sees himself in a role on par with Kim Jong-un.

     Remember that on June 15, 2018, Trump - with a serious tone - told Fox News that he wants Americans to treat him as North Koreans do Kim.  "He's the head of a country, and I mean, he's the strong head.  Don't let anyone think different.  He speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same."  Republicans wanted to spin it that Trump was joking.  It is not at all funny for the president of the United States to jest that he wants to be dictator.  But Trump has proved time and time again that it is undoubtedly his desire and his goal.

     Trump has given birth to a loyal, yet volatile, society that may spawn the formation of a non-democratic government with the evil tyrant Trump as its imperial monarch.  It's apparent to me that Trump's aim is to somehow pattern a polity and culture with he as its high priest, and his disciples the populace.

     Republicans who embrace Trump and his deceptions are delusional; and to put any truth in his inane and insane conspiracy theory is a stab in the back of American patriotism.   

     Trump's national popularity became more prominent - when from 2004 until he announced his presidential candidacy in 2015 - Trump hosted a reality competition television show.  NBC's The Apprentice catapulted Trump's public persona to super-stardom and, as a result, skyrocketed his political celebrity.  But in true reality, Trump should have fronted a program called The Sorest Loser.  Because that's what he is.        

      It was a futile attempt when thousands of Trump's treasonous worshippers tried on January 6, 2021 to overturn the 2020 presidential election after Trump incited the armed insurrection at The U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.  It was a day in United States history that will be remembered forever as hideous and dark; and the atrociously sinful Donald Trump needs to legally be held accountable for directing this seditious scene.  

     It's what the then President-elect Joe Biden called a "mob of thugs."

    

      At the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, GOP nominee Trump didn't tell his supporters - and Americans overall - to put their faith in God, or to have confidence in Trump's entire administration after he's elected.  Trump didn't even suggest that the people of our great nation trust each other in helping to move our country forward.  But the egomaniacal Trump boasted, "I alone can fix it."  Well, he failed.  Instead, he alone broke it.  In addition, it was Trump - and he alone - who is responsible for domestic terrorists to uncontrollably rampage our sanctuary of liberty in a bloodbath of ugliness.  

     For weeks before, Trump solicited his cult-like, die-hard devotees to swarm our national capital city as if they were wild killer bees.  He emblazed with fire and fury an unconscionable explosion of irate rioters who savagely orchestrated a siege on the predominant citadel of America's democracy.  Trump betrayed his presidential pledge to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" when he provoked a bloodthirsty band of beasts to brutally and barbarically invade the hallowed halls and the stately and sacred seat of our federal government's legislative branch.

    

     When the crowd gathered for a rally on the Ellipse outside The White House in the noontime hour of January 6, Trump - in essence - gave a direct order to his troops.  "We will never concede.  It doesn't happen.  You don't concede when there's theft involved.  Our country has had enough.  We will not take it anymore...  You will have an illegitimate president...  This is what you will have (with Joe Biden) and we can't let that happen...  We will stop the steal...  If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

      

      So the pandemonium and mayhem of January 6 was Donald Trump's fault.  His malicious motivation caused obscene and unrestrained disorder by a gang of goons, which led to diabolical destruction and the death of seven people, including two U.S. Capitol Police officers and one policeman from DC's Metropolitan Police Department.  These people would probably still be alive today if Trump had graciously conceded the election to the now President Biden.  But Trump - the dangerous demagogue and villainous madman - stimulated an incendiary disruption of our democracy when our

congressional legislators and the
then vice president of the United States - Mike Pence - were scheduled to perform their constitutional duty under the 12th Amendement to certify and confirm the 2020 Electoral College votes.  Any American who applauds Trump's ruthless, reckless, and sadistic behavior needs to re-think their own citizenship, because defending Trump is tantamount to being a traitor to our country.

     But now - more than six months since Democratic nominee Joe Biden was declared the winner - dozens of Republican state legislatures are attempting to enact measures that will make it much more difficult for people to vote.  Lawmakers have introduced upwards of 300 or more bills with restrictive provisions as Republicans lodge an outright attack on American democracy.  And that's exactly what this is.  As such, I make reference to the word democracy several times throughout this column.     

     Limiting mail-in ballots, ending early in-person voting, and reducing Election Day voting hours are only a few of the vulgar proposals that are included in the  Republican state measures.  Meanwhile, three Republican governors in particular - Doug Ducey of 

Arizona, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Brian Kemp of Georgia - have each already signed in to law, voter suppression legislation that clearly represent an anti-democratic and sinister intent.  These laws are not what the general citizenry wants.  It is a threat to silence Black, Brown and other minority communities, and it's a danger to the fundamental rights of all Americans as it assaults the constitutional process.  And yes.  I will use this  

word too.  It's racism.  As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer - Democrat from New York - tweeted on May 10, 2021, "We should make it easier for people to vote - not harder."

     Donald Trump and his "Big Lie" have concocted a colossal calamity that must be crushed by

Congress.  H.R.1: The For The People Act of 2021 passed in the House of Representatives on March 3.  Before President Biden can sign the measure in to law, it must pass the Senate.  But 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell isn't going to make it easy.  The Kentucky Republican isn't giving President Biden and the Democrats anything on a silver platter.  Therefore, the archaic Senate filibuster has got to be abolished.  However, it will still mean that all 50 Senate Democrats need to 

agree, and that way Vice President Kamala Harris can break the tie to defeat the 50

Republicans.  It's Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California who is absolutely accurate with his ardent analysis from May 7.  "We need to ensure the Grim Reaper of the Senate (Mitch McConnell) can't add hundreds of progressive bills to his legislative graveyard.  The filibuster is not a healthy check and balance.  It's a roadblock to progress."

     Despite the fact that there has never been any evidence to prove Trump's claim that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him, 76 percent of self-identified Republicans are convinced there was "widespread fraud," and that President Biden was not legitimately elected in November of last year.  It's mind-boggling to think that more than three-quarters of Republicans across America have come to the illogical and irrational conclusion that Trump's fabrications and fantasies are not lies, but truths.  The recent Quinnipiac University national poll shows that three of every four Republicans are in lockstep with Trump and his venomous falsehoods; notwithstanding that at least 60 lawsuits contesting election processes, ballot counting, and vote certifications, were lost by Trump and others who filed on his behalf.  But those lawsuits were doomed from the get-go, as Trump's vile allegations were - and still are - baseless and bogus.  That's why judges in multiple states - including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - threw the suits out of court due to lack of evidence.  In addition, constitutional and legal scholars described the lawsuits as everything from "frivolous" to "without merit."  Ironically, most of the jurists who either dismissed or dropped the cases were on the bench because they had been previously appointed by Trump.

     Trump is so mentally deranged, and so enraged with animosity, that he's determined to seek and get revenge.  Of course Trump is wrong to want any retaliation against President Biden and the Democrats.  Anyone with an ounce of credibility and integrity knows that Mr. Biden legally, morally, and ethically beat Trump in the 2020 election.  But Trump's toxic tongue has poisoned the minds of millions of Americans, and he has infected our democratic process with the rabidness of a mad dog.   

      More importantly to Trump's ego is not the win of the presidency itself, but Trump making certain that his legacy is protected.  Trump's success - and whatever is best for him - is all that Trump ever cares about.  If he can overthrow the government of a state - perhaps a state like Florida, where the current governor wants nothing more than to be the heir apparent to the Trump throne - then it could be the beginning of Trump's reign of terror as emperor of his own principality.  And afterwards, Trump is capable of attempting to follow Adolf Hitler's playbook by invading other adjacent states.

     Donald Trump needs to be stopped.  He is not above the law; although he may think so.  The United States Department of Justice cannot allow him to escape prosecution for his past crimes, nor can Trump be permitted to have any possible opportunity to either run a campaign for president in 2024, or to design, organize, and lead a coup, whereby he could gain control of a state government and take power as its sole authority.  Our country is a democracy, not an autocracy.

     Since the summer of 1959, America has 50 states.  Imagine our 21st century American Flag with only 49 stars.  And what if Trump could take over the government of more than one state?  Imagine our Stars and Stripes with only 48 stars.  Or 47.  Or less.   

      Some of you may think that I'm writing a totally fictional and far-fetched fable for a Hollywood motion picture screenplay.  Just remember that nobody (oh, maybe there were a few people), but basically nobody who thought there was a snowball's chance in hell for Hillary Clinton to lose to Donald Trump.  Even Trump himself - who hadn't prepared a victory speech - didn't think he'd end up with the keys to The Oval Office.  Former Secretary of State Clinton was expected to be elected the 

first woman president of the United States.  Well, if Trump does have a notion to somehow seize one or more states for his own corrupt colony, federal law enforcement officials need to quell such a rebellion before it even gets started.  And prosecuting attorneys, a judge and a jury need to provide the flagrantly wicked real estate wheeler-dealer with a long-term lease at a house that's jam-packed with roommates and decorated with lots of bars on the doors and windows.  Otherwise, who knows what could happen?  We were wrong about Trump in 2016.  Let's not be wrong again.  

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

 

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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Photo credits:

1 - ChamberOfCommerce.org (American Flag with 46 stars)

2 - Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press (Donald Trump)

3 - NBC News Screenshot (Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un)

4 - NBCUniversal and Mark Burnett Productions (The Apprentice) 

5 - Jon Cherry/Getty Images (The Capitol Siege)

6 - Susan Walsh/The Associated Press (President Joe Biden while he was President-elect)

7 - PBS News Hour Screenshot (Donald Trump)

8 - Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call (The Capitol Siege)

9 - Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press (Donald Trump with rally crowd)

10 - Stephanie Keith/Reuters (The Capitol Siege)

11 - Getty Images (Former Vice President Mike Pence)

12 - NBC News Screenshot (Arizona Governor Doug Ducey)

13 - Wilfredo Lee/The Associated Press (Florida Governor Ron DeSantis)

14 - Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images (Georgia Governor Brian Kemp)

15 - MSNBC Screenshot (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer)

16 - Stefani Reynolds/Pool/Getty Images (President Joe Biden)

17 - Leah Millis/Reuters (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell)

18 - Bloomberg via Getty Images (Vice President Kamala Harris)

19 - Joshua Roberts/Reuters (Representative Adam Schiff)

20 - Gage Skidmore/Flickr (Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler)

21 - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton)

22 - Yves Herman/Reuters (Donald Trump)

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