Starting the avalanche

      I don't know if it's true, but it is commonly thought an avalanche can be started by the weight of a snowball thrown at the right spot.   Something similar is now happening on the streets of America.  The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis 10 days ago has been the snowball which is starting a political avalanche aimed at the present occupant of the White House and the political party he has usurped.
      As tRump and the sycophants who surround him prepared to unleash the full might of America's armed forces on the nation's cities, at least a few four star retired generals and admirals added their voices to the growing chorus of those who feel the whole idea is abhorrent and a betrayal of our ideals.   James Mattis, once tRump's Secretary of Defense stated the president* is the first in our nation's history to make no effort to bring the us together.  Instead, Mattis said he strives to divide us into hostile partisan camps.   Others, including a former head of the joint chiefs of staff deplore the plan to use the military against their fellow citizens, absent an invitation by a sitting governor.
      I read an essay by Annie Applebaum in The Atlantic yesterday.  In it, she compared the present administration to some of the countries of eastern Europe after the second World War.  Most of them were run by men who were groomed for the job during the war when they were brought to Moscow by Stalin and indoctrinated by the Communist Party.   A few of these men finally realized the error of top down communism and defected to the west, but most became eager collaborators in the subjugation of their countries.
      Applebaum feels much the same way about today's republican party and sees the spineless denizens of the Senate who enable tRump's authoritarian dreams as the latter day Quislings and Petains of the Second World War.   The Mitch McConnells and Lindsay Grahams will be judged harshly by historians, assuming they are allowed to publish in the America of the 2050s.
      Meanwhile, tRump's poll numbers continue to plummet as the weight of his incompetence and anti democratic tendencies become more and more noticeable.   By November, I hope the avalanche of votes will sweep him and his enablers from the scene by such an overwhelming defeat that no manipulation of the results can save him or the GOP.