WARNING !!!!!

The four most dangerous things in our country right now are Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, and Donald Trump.

First, the most obvious: his total incompetence and unwillingness to deal with important issues like covid 19 or Russian bounties on US troops and interference in our elections. But we know all that stuff. It's old news.

Second, there's the way he's working to eliminate Medicare. It's not bad enough that he's trying to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, in the middle of a pandemic. He's trying to top it off by threatening to veto any stimulus legislation coming through Congress that doesn't contain poison pills like not collecting taxes from paychecks to cover Social Security and Medicare. With no funding, the disabled and seniors will have neither program to help ensure their survival. Not only will the poor not survive, the medical establishment itself will also be unable to stay in business.

Third, the camouflage Brownshirts he's sending into Portland to "protect" federal buildings from the "violence" of ... graffiti? They gas, beat, and shoot rubber bullets (not non lethal, just less lethal!) into peaceful crowds, and kidnap people off the streets. They wear no identifying badges or insignia, refuse to give out information of who and why they are there, or tell where they are taking these people. Their very presence is illegal, as no mayor or governor has requested federal "assistance" within their sovereign boundaries. Next he's threatening Chicago, or any of a whole list of other city locations in states with Democratic governors and women mayors!

So, you're holding your breath and counting on the November elections to fix the problems? Let me introduce you to danger #4.

Louis Dejoy, Trump's appointment to lead the US Postal Service, is actually there to wreak havoc to the system. Complaints are coming in about employee hours being cut. One report is of employees being forbidden to come in before 8:00 AM, and required to leave their routes at 4:00 PM whether they have finished picking up or delivering their mail. Undelivered mail returns to the Post Office, piles up, and puts the service even further behind the next day. On and on. Packages are piling up, often a couple weeks late. (Sound familiar? Yeah, me too.) Imagine the snarls by November! Ironically, rural areas with their long driving distances, and their preponderance of conservative voters, are likely the ones to be the most affected. And that's just his first step, Constitution be damned.

Knowing this, we can prepare. In addition to making sure we've not been deleted "accidentally" (yeah, right) from the voter rolls, we can get our absentee ballots early at the registrar's office, should we live in states where they are not automatically sent out. Any lines there will be much shorter, thus safer, than at the polls on Nov. 3. Whenever our ballot arrives, make sure we've done our research early and have our decisions made so we can immediately fill it out and return it. Returns can usually be made to the registrar or, in some states, to the polling site. Check it out for where you are. These things allow engineered shenanigans to do the least harm possible.

And when you meet or call and talk to people, pass on this information and ask them if they have their voting plan for this election.

Finally, to prevent repeats of this havoc, for this election, even if just for this election, VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO! Just this one time. Corruption doesn't start and stop at the top. It's filtered down and pushed up both, or the Republicans would have put a stop to it long ago.  It used to be a party with honor, one worthy of and able to show respect. That's gone, sliding away while you were busy living your lives, keeping under the radar until Trump and a bunch of other dimwits made it blatant. Whatever your preferred policies, this fall a vote for the Republican Party is an endorsement of incompetence, malice, cruelty, corruption, racism, no checks and balances on any malfeasance, no stopper to treason, no upholding of the Constitution or the rule of law.

That's not the country I want to live in. Do you? We desperately need a balance, a loud voice telling them that this stops here!

Or it never will.