Extinction

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I’ve been thinking about the universe and what matters most. I begin with the knowledge that planet earth is just a small speck in a much, much larger universe, and while scientists debate the existence of a multiverse a la Marvel comics, all we know for sure is that this universe began with a bang, we have no idea what was happening before the bang which was theoretically before there was time, but since the bang, our universe has been expanding, with galaxies accelerating away from each other. In a couple of billion years if humans are still around the night sky will be dark as the stars will be too far away for us to see. Much more locally, our sun will eventually consume all the energy it has, and become a red giant that will be so large earth will be consumed. That is probably about 5 billion years away, but even so, it is coming. Planet earth will end. The universe will not notice. If humans are still around we will become extinct like all other life on this little blue marble.

So if we know that is our eventual future what should we be doing now? IMHO, we should start doing everything we can to preserve and improve our only planet and we should be doing everything we can to find another place to live. Failure to do either will end us. There will be no other life forms who will ever discover the existence of humanity and all we mucked up and accomplished. When 7 billion or more humans drop to their knees and pray for a god to save us, nothing will happen and we will finally accept that we made gods in our own image, then we will become extinct.

If my assumptions are true, and there is no evidence that they are flawed, then as a species we must learn to cooperate, tolerate and embrace humanity. No one nation can avoid these eventualities. What we consider “good” and “evil” must be redefined. We must accept that anything that benefits me but hurts you, or hurts others, or hurts the planet is evil. We must accept that collaboration is powerful, dictatorships, my way or the highway, top-down decision-making is evil. We must embrace each other regardless of race, gender, gender identity, beliefs, and income. When the end comes no one will care who has the most money or the most toys.

Organizations that grow rich at the expense of the planet must be seen as evil. We must stop global warming or we will never have the opportunity to find another place to live. That will turn economies and our social class system upside down, but upside down is better than not around.

And at the simplest level, we must honor truth, we must honor each other, and we must not insist on having our own way. We must, we absolutely must, recognize we are one species on one planet and we are racing to extinction. We have no time for the KKK, for Oath Keepers, Putin, Xi, Trump, or their ilk. Honoring those who would seek power and wealth is evil and is condemning us even faster.

5 billion years may seem like a long time to get our act together. I think getting our act together requires action much sooner than that. We may only have 100 years or so before our planet becomes uninhabitable.

So vote.

Tories

You might remember reading or hearing that in 1776 when our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence not everyone here was happy about it.  We glorify and glamorize the Patriots, those new Americans who took up arms against England and King George.  But, there were people who remained loyal to the King.  We called them Tories.  It was not good to be called a Tory, not in those barely united states.

But Tories were more in line with the rest of the world than were the Patriots.  Before our Declaration of Independence, governments fell into one of four general types:  a government that was ruled by a noble class and to be a ruler one must have been born into that bloodline.  Kings and Queens ruled by birthright and the thought of opposing such autocracies was rare and almost suicidal.  The second type of government was also autocratic and that was the military junta type.  In such governments, a strong-armed man would gain control of the military and beat everyone else into submission.  Again, it was not wise to challenge such autocratic authority.  Think of Napoleon as an example.  The third type was the demagogues using demagoguery to convince the common people that there were things to fear and things to be angry about, most of which were not true, but these men would use anger and fear to gain control and rule as autocrats.  Hitler was a great example of this type of demagogue and the government he set up was autocratic.  And finally, the theocracy form of government wherein religious rulers ruled by reference to some sort of holy book and threatened hellfire and damnation of the common people if they did not comply.  Think Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Tories in the Americas supported autocracies ruled by bloodlines and where the common man would simply maintain his place in society, peasant, skilled craftsman, artisan, or nobility.  The American Tories did not want to see anything as bold as a democracy.

And that was the term that terrified autocracies around the world.  Democracy was to be of the people, by the people, for the people.  Democracies believed all men were created equal.  Democracies believed that all men had certain rights, given them at birth, that could not be separated from their humanity.  (I use the term “man” because it took us a while to understand that rights applied to women and minorities as well.)  Democracies believed people should vote for their leaders.  Democracies believed the government existed with the consent of the people.  Democracy was a brand new thing!  And when our forefathers penned our Declaration of Independence from the nobility of England a revolt not just in government structure but in the philosophy of government was initiated:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

Had one studied Descartes, Hume, Espinosa, Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Bacon, and most importantly John Locke one would know this was a real revolution.  It displaced the powerful and wealthy by giving everyone the right to rule their government.  This was the opposite of an autocracy, it was a democracy.  It was the most liberal form of government ever conceived.  John Locke, the English philosopher is called the father of liberalism for his thinking.  Our Founding Fathers read every word of his and loved every word of his.  We are not a nation ruled by the nobility, nor a nation ruled by the military, nor a nation ruled by a demagogue, not a nation ruled by a specific type of religious leader.  We are a nation ruled by the people.  A liberal, secular democracy.  Wow. 

If you do not understand the above it is very difficult to understand America.

In a democracy citizens’ rights are protected, they are not dismissed.  They surely are not dismissed for religious reasons.  In a democracy, citizens are encouraged to vote.  They surely are not restricted or oppressed for voting.  In a democracy, no man is above the law.  Surely not the wealthy, not the pious, not the military, not anyone.  The law applies to all citizens.  In a democracy, truth matters, and respect for the law matters. 

It occurs to me as we approach the mid-term elections that the Republican Party has become a group of Torries.  They want their religious perspective to become law at the expense of citizens’ rights.  They only want certain people to vote.  If they do not like the outcome of an election they declare fraud.  They monger fear of immigrants and others in our society.  They foster anger along racial lines.  They seek to improve the wealth of those at the very top at the expense of everyone else.  They seek to put all the power in the hands of those at the very top of the capitalist ladder, rather than have citizens govern and restrain unbridled money-making.  Yep, Republicans are the Tories.  They are conservative.  They support a man who lost an election but falsely declared the outcomes fraudulent.  They have celebrated religious beliefs becoming the law of the land.  They do not support the civil rights of anyone other than their chosen group.  They even talk about a Constitutional Convention to rewrite our constitution so that it aligns with autocracies, not democracies.  They oppose supporting other nations fighting for freedom and democracy.  They oppose our membership in organizations that defend democracy and hold autocracies at bay.  Quite frankly, I can in no way see the signers of the Declaration of Independence supporting anything they stand for.  They are un-American.

Please vote on November 8.  Please vote for our democracy.  Be wise and careful:  Be a Patriot.  The Tories are coming and they want to take our democracy away. 

Sometimes it is Hard to Know

Sometimes it is hard to know. 

To know if you are on the right side of things.  You want to be a good person, you see yourself as a good person, but you want to be sure what you think and feel is the right way to think and feel.

Especially when there are those you love who think and feel so differently.  You love them, but you can’t be on opposite sides and both be on the right side, can you?  How would that work?  You see a movie you just love, or a song that touches your heart, or some beauty that brings tears to your eyes and peace to your soul, and you want everyone you care for to see it as you do, hear it as you do, feel it as you do.  When they laugh, frown, shrug, or scorn you are hurt.  Deeply.  How can they miss it?  How can they not see it?  You love them.  If they do not love what you love can they love you?

Sometimes it is hard to know.

This is how I know.  

Does your love include or exclude?  Is it only for some or is it for everyone?  Does it help you to hurt others, or hurt you to not help others?  Does your love promote, advance, and support all around you, or does your love insult, put down, belittle or use some around you?  Does what you love and hold dear advance all humans and all humanity, or does what you love and hold dear sort and select some humans who are worthy of what you love and deny other humans what you love? 

What I shall love, what I will know is the right side of things, will be those things I love that I use to promote all others.  I use to apply to all others.  I use to include all others.  I use to support all others. 

If those things I love are used to exclude some, hurt some, demean some, abandon some, deny some, blame some, and deprive some then I will know I am on the wrong side of things.  I am not following what my heart knows to be true.  I am living in fear and anger and selfishness and desirous of wealth at the expense of the poor and power at the expense of the powerless.  These things are not the right things.

When beauty touches the heart it does so differently for each heart.  When truth touches the heart, it does so for every heart.  Walk in truth, love your beauty and you will be on the right side of things.

Then you will know.

Lies

 During Trump’s 4 year term as POTUS, he told a remarkable 30,573 lies.  Wow.  His followers believed most of them.  And after being soundly defeated in the 2020 Presidential election the man continues to spread false and misleading statements.  Most amazing to me, he seems to avoid any and all consequences for those lies.

One of the lasting legacies of the Trump Presidency is the acceptance of lies and the telling of lies without consequences.  Seems to me that if Trump can get away with it, and we are a nation where everyone is created equally, then I should be able to get away with telling a few lies I would love to spread.  Without consequences, of course.  Here goes:

Mitch McConnell is outed as a female cross-dresser.

Greg Abbott’s daughter was raped by a Republican and is now pregnant.

Lauren Bobert’s nude photos of her using an AK 47 as a sex toy are leaked online.

Marjorie Taylor Green is outed as a trans female.

Rand Paul dies of Covid after refusing vaccinations.

Josh Hawley is gay.

Susan Collins diagnosed with Aboulomania

Steve Bannon’s shrine to Adolph Hitler was discovered in his closet.

Charges against Matt Gaetz were dropped when it is revealed he does not have a penis.

Proud Boys discovered to be a gay men’s club

The Koch brothers admit their name is pronounced: “cock.”

Ted Cruz failed his citizenship test and is now an undocumented immigrant from Cuba

Manchin reveals huge monetary support from RNC

Kyrsten Sinema caught in bed with Joni Ernst

Jim Jordan ambushed by white men with AK 47s

The rapture occurs leaving all evangelicals here.

Donald Trump’s DNA reveals he is an albino African American.

 

That was fun.  Open to more ideas:

The Big Guy Returns

The big guy returned from his sabbatical in the year of the earth 4,543,292,022.  (Earthlings referred to this same year as 2022 which he found quaint.)  He had been very busy creating new stars, new galaxies, new planets, new life forms, and new laws of physics when he grew bored and decided to check in on earth, one of his first efforts to populate the universe with sentient beings.  Frankly, he was shocked by what he found. 

Humans were mucking it up.  Given the gift of sentient life, it appeared that some humans who could not use their big-guy-given brains were propelling the planet toward extinction.  Sentient yes, sapient no.  Time to intervene.  He hated to do this, but he had done it before with a great flood, a parting of seas, walls at Jericho, Egyptian babies, etc., and even the creation of his de-facto self on the planet did not seem to have worked.  Some humans just did not get it.  Giving up their sapience for oblivious self-service, greed, and fear was reversing one of his most creative life forms to obliviousness and unconsciousness.  No, it was not time to wipe them all out again.  But yes, it was time for a wake-up call. 

After careful thought regarding what options would likely work best, he settled on a series of miracles that would happen simultaneously throughout the planet.  Perhaps a swift change in reality would awaken the selfish, squabbling idiots.

The ground rules would remain the same with just a few minor twists.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  (Who is your neighbor?  Every human, you dim wit.)  And, do to others what you would have them do to you.  The new twist would be, have done to you what you have done to others.  This should be enough to get them thinking, he thought.  When to implement his plan?  Should the implementation be sudden and universal, or one human at a time?  He chose sudden, universal, and without warning.  No prophets this time.  No one listened to them anyway.

He chose September 22 as the implementation day.  This was the fall equinox, and what better day to promote equality and universal love than a day when sunshine and darkness were exactly equal.  On that day the following will happen:

Every white person who harbored bigotry and fear of other people based on their race and/or skin color will awake to discover that their skin had turned fire engine red.  Other humans who were born in various shades of beige and brown found them laughable.  The newly colored humans will be totally freaked out and have nowhere to turn for help and no way to hide their new color.  Non-bigoted white people who fought for equality and justice and the end of discrimination remained “white.”  The KKK immediately disbanded, as did other supremacist and hate groups.

Every person who supported building barriers along national lines to keep people out will awake to find themselves outside those barriers.  Every person who supported building barriers to keep people in will find themselves stuck inside those barriers unable to leave.

Every person who believed that sexual identity and sexual preferences other than binary heterosexuality was a defect and not worthy of love or protection will awake to be anything other than binary heterosexual.  They will awake either homosexual, transsexual, pansexual, etc., and subject to the discriminatory laws regarding such groups.

Every person with accumulated wealth equal to or over $1 million (the global top 1%) will awake to find themselves penniless and homeless unless their efforts had been sincere to improve the status of living for those less fortunate.  Preachers were not eligible for this exception.  Evidence qualifying for exception included support of programs that fed the hungry, clothed the naked, educated everyone, and healed the sick.  To escape poverty each of these newly poor people will work three separate jobs at minimum wage.  Most of them will likely be bright red anyway.

Every male who opposed abortion will awaken with his sex organs exchanged for female sex organs.  Every woman who opposed abortion will awaken with male sex organs that would never become flaccid.  Every time an anti-abortion male wants to have sex he will have to find another willing male. Each coupling will result in a pregnancy for the anti-abortion male.  Every time an anti-abortion female wants to have sex she will have to find a willing pro-choice female to participate and each coupling will result in pregnancy for the pro-choice female, likely ending the possibility of sexual activity for anti-abortion females, which will likely not be much of a change. 

Every person who believed and voted as though their nation was better off in 1950 will suddenly and completely lose all advancements that have occurred since that time. Cell phones, TVs, microwaves, air travel, modern medicine, polio and other vaccines, automobiles built since 1950, dentistry and medicinal pain medication, internet, computers, air conditioning, etc.  These backward-thinking people will be forced to live the rest of their lives as though it was 1950.  Most of them will likely be bright red.

Every elected official who had consciously, malevolently, and selfishly lied to his or her public will awake to find their genitals and their noses had anatomically swapped places.  It would be obvious now who was a dick and who was a pussy, and those very politicians would have to actually smell their own crap.  All Trump judicial appointees will likely start wearing masks, as will Trump, McConnell, Cruz, Abbott, and the vast majority of conservative politicians.

Every male who supported unlimited weapon ownership and use will lose their genitals altogether.  The big guy figured that those males didn’t have much to lose anyway if they felt the need to have weapons to feel safe while around their neighbors.  Women who support unlimited weapon ownership will not lose their genitals, but their sex drive would increase even though they were likely now paired with a eunuch.

The leader of any nation-state who used his or her position to increase his or her wealth or used his or her position to attempt to increase the land mass of their nation, or used his or her position to decrease the liberties of other humans will lose both arms and both legs and be at the mercy of good-hearted anti-war, pro-liberty people.  These leaders will be powerless.  They could not go anywhere without assistance, eat without assistance, even go to the bathroom without assistance, etc. 

The combined impact of all these new rules would result in a large population of bright red people with their genitals all messed up or gone, their wealth all gone, and for some their arms and legs.  The world will turn to those who retained their original skin color, retained their genitals, retained the location of their genitals, and retained whatever financial comforts they enjoyed to serve as leaders and model humans.  Everyone converted by this implementation would be told that it was the big guy who ordained the changes and they better get right with the ground rules before his next visit.

The big guy left and the world changed.

The rules are simple:  Love your neighbor as you love yourself, and do to others what you would have others do to you.  No exceptions.  “Neighbors” and “others” include all human beings, all races, all ethnicities, and all sexual preferences.   Simple. 

Humans cannot have it both ways:  One cannot claim to love the big guy and not follow his rules.   

Nothing Supreme About Supremacists

The arrest of 31 members of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, before a Pride Rally in Idaho, (Idaho?) inspired me to attempt to understand where such foolishness arises.  The entire event is confusing to me as it appears not only are they anti any race other than Anglo from Europe, but they are also anti any people with different sexual preferences.  I cannot determine if they are just ignorant or hateful.  Perhaps both.

Just a few random facts reveal the foolishness of their position.  White Europeans invaded the Americas where millions of indigenous people already lived.  Carrying disease and superior weaponry the European Anglos killed over 2,000,000 native Americans, took their land, ignored their culture, refused to honor treaties, and marched them into reservations, aka, internment camps.  Why celebrate one of the most massive instances of genocide ever recorded?  If we want to return the US to its native people that’s one thing.  Attempting to return it to the invaders and overlords is another.  No grounds for such a move. 

Worse, now that many of the remaining indigenous people in this hemisphere are attempting to migrate to the US it is the very like-minded group that attempted to exterminate them in the first place that is blocking their return.  If the “patriots” truly propose a return of control to the settlers of this nation they should be promoting our native Americans and the Hispanic migrants.  But, that is not the case.

Meanwhile, it was the same white Europeans who imported black people from Africa.  This was not a migration from one continent to another.  This was kidnapping based on the obscene notion that anything that promotes profit is good; human rights can be denied if they conflict with profit.  Do you think the Patriots get that?  I don’t. 

Funny if one thinks about it in context.  Black people here had no choice in the matter.  White people here had no choice in the matter.  It is not as though white supremacists did a better job of picking their parents than anyone else.  It is just luck that genetically made them white folks.  The same is true for every person and every shade of pigment on the planet. 

There is nothing special about white supremacists.  They did nothing to earn their “whiteness.”  It was luck of the draw.  To claim another human being is inferior because of the degree and shade of pigment in their skin is ludicrous.  That makes as much sense to me as believing white horses are superior to brown horses.  They are both horses!

One of the themes I continue to see in conservative conversations is the theme of blame.  When things are not going their way there is always someone else at fault.  One wonders if any of these folks will ever stand up and say we have been wrong and now we will attempt to make it right.  Another theme is the consistent proposals for simple solutions to highly complex problems.  Immigration problems?  Build a wall.  Growing population diversity?  Deport non-Anglos.  Democrats winning elections? Make voting harder for Democrats and accuse them of fraud even if there is none. But, for other problems do not dare ask the government to help solve the problem.  Ha.

One might argue that anyone who judges people or fears people or hates people based on skin color is likely less bright than others.  The same would be true about judging people based on their sexual preference and sexual identity.  Or on their religious belief.  But people who practice those kinds of decisions may possess a “stupid gene” we have yet to identify.  And only in that way are the supremacists different than the rest of us. 

Someone may want to point out to these folks that Jesus was not a white person and, therefore, is subject to the same discrimination they advocate.  And while we’re at it, someone should point out that Jesus was also a Jew since the Patriot Front is antisemitic as well. Someone may want to point out that real patriots adhere to the notions embedded by our founding fathers including the notion that all men are created equal.  For this group to claim patriotism is like those guys in the bar who want to convince someone they were a Navy Seal when they most certainly were not. 

Pathetic.  Misinformed.  Bigots.  Perhaps dangerous.  But surely not “supreme” in any way they have earned.  They are neither patriots nor at the front.  They are more like the Fascist Butt than the Patriot Front.

If Vulcans Ruled

Great passions and tremendous pain abound in our nation after the mass shooting of children and teachers in Uvalde.  Such passion, so many thoughts, and prayers, and so much pain has occurred after each of the 213 mass shootings this year.  And after the 693 such events in 2021, and the 611 in 2020, and on and on.  If I never loved I never would have cried.  (Paul Simon) 

I love Star Trek.  And, I love the Vulcans, Spock in particular.  Imagine a culture where emotions have been mastered and do not enter into decision-making.  Imagine a culture where logic, reasoning, and science are the basis of all decision-making.  Wow.  I wonder what we would be doing in the USA if we were all Vulcans.  Allow me to hypothesize.

If we start with our core principles our task is made simpler.  One of our dearest notions is that all men are created equal.  That does not mean all men are created the same.  That does not serve as an endorsement of intelligent design.  It is simply the language used in the latter part of the 18^th Century.  Such a statement has now been articulated and clarified.  When the word “men” was used in 1789, it meant everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, political beliefs, or sexual orientation.  It meant everyone.  If we were Vulcans and given this notion it becomes clear that people who practice, espouse, or secretly hide bigotry are un-American and are likely mentally ill.  There is no evidence that any one of the groups mentioned above is somehow superior or inferior to other groups.  People who hold such views should be referred to counselors and denied the opportunity to be a candidate for public office.

The second part of the core statement is that after we accept everyone is equal we also assume everyone has rights; civil liberties that are attached to each person and cannot be denied or taken away without due process of law.  The theme here is equal rights.  So, if men earn more money than women for the same job that is not equal.  If white males control in a nation where white males represent only 31% of the population that is not equal.  If we deny admission to people from some countries then we are not promoting equal rights.  If law enforcement defends and protects some people, but not all, we are denying equal rights.  If we have evidence we are denying jobs, education, or housing opportunities to people based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation we are denying equal rights.  If we deny one gender the right to control their bodies but allow it for the other gender we are denying equal rights.  If we are denying rights and equality we are violating our core principles.  Again, folks who espouse or practice such behaviors are un-American and should be referred to counselors.

A third core principle is the separation of church and state.  Our founders knew all too well what happens when one religious belief is enforced by the government and other beliefs are thereby persecuted and discriminated against.  It is on that basis that churches are exempt from paying taxes on their revenue and their property.  However, once a religious group enters the political arena supporting one candidate over another, or one position on an issue over another, or seeking to have their beliefs enacted into law they have violated the core principle of separation of church and state.  Vulcans would immediately begin to tax those churches.

Further, any elected official who supports including a religious belief into law should be immediately removed from office and impeached.  Laws against abortion are based on the beliefs of religious groups.  Politicians who would take away a woman’s rights should be removed from office.  Politicians who ban books based on their religious perspective regarding sexual preference should be removed from office.  Politicians who attempt to re-write history based on their religious perspective should be removed from office.  Politicians who promote “putting God back in schools” or requiring children to pledge loyalty to a god should be immediately removed from office.  Why such un-American people are allowed to continue to serve as elected officials after they have sworn to protect and defend the US Constitution is illogical.  To be clear, religion, by its definition, is illogical.

The data is robust, and the science is clear:  where there are more guns there are more deaths by firearms.  When and where gun control becomes stricter the number of deaths by firearms decreases.  The US leads the world in deaths by firearm and in the relative ease of acquitting weapons.  Logic would dictate that the number of guns must be restricted, gun ownership must be monitored and the individuals seeking gun ownership should pass certification tests and be able to articulate the reason they need a gun.  Self-defense with no evidence of an attack is not a valid reason.  Fear is not a valid reason if the fear is irrational.  Living alone in the wilderness with predators is a justifiable fear.  Logically, the only people who say they oppose such regulations are the people who manufacture and sell guns as their income will decrease and the death of children does not mean as much to them as income.  The banter supplied by the gun lobby is ludicrous and illogical.  Only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns.  What a fallacy.  How does one detect a good guy vs a bad guy standing at the counter ready to purchase a gun?  We are all good guys and bad guys at some point in our lives so applying the logic of that statement means no one should have guns, or everyone should have guns.  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  That is misstated.  To be accurate and logical the statement could read, guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.  On and on, no motto justifies ignoring the data and ignoring the deaths other than the profit motive.  If one believes that the Second Amendment defends gun ownership one needs to take a course in constitutional law and American history.  Those who argue for unlimited gun ownership in the face of all the science and all the data could be labeled delusional and therefore not qualified to own a weapon.

We the people.  Of the people, by the people, for the people.  People rule in a democracy.  Corporations are not people.  The logical thing to do is to make corporate donations to political candidates illegal.  Likewise, PACs that exist to support one group over another should be illegal.  There should be a cap on the amount of money any one person can give to a candidate.  Our decision-making would start reflecting human interests, not corporate interests.

Climate change is real.  Global warming is real.  Logic dictates that if we want to continue to live on this planet (as though we have other options) we must immediately do all that we can to end the use of fossil fuels.  It will hurt, but it must be done, much as a leg with gangrene must be cut off, the oil industry and its subsidiaries must become illegal.  Cars must be electric.  Homes must use electricity, not gas.  Solar panels must be installed everywhere.  Wind turbines are installed everywhere.  Hot pursuit of fusion must occur.  Cruises must be canceled until a ship can demonstrate it is powered by something other than a polluting engine.  Same for airlines.  We must stop making plastic stuff.  We need to go through the industrial revolution again, this time with energy all coming from renewable sources.  Consumption of fossil fuels should be treated as an addiction to a controlled substance.  Help first, prison second.

We are a nation of laws, not of individuals.  Each individual must stand on equal footing before the law.  If a District Attorney, a Grand Jury, a Judge, or an arm of Congress issues a subpoena for documents and/or a person’s testimony, that evidence and that person must be delivered to the agent issuing the subpoena.  Arguing that some people are too important to abide by subpoenas undermines our democracy and our legal system. The punishment for failure to comply with a subpoena should be imprisonment.

Likewise, should the US House of Representatives pass articles of impeachment against a president, the Senate must conduct a trial, in public and before the nation.  To allow the Senate for purely political reasons to simply say no, we will not try this person, does not maintain the notion that we are a nation of laws, not individuals. 

Anyone who promotes the overthrow of our democracy, by law, has committed treason. Such folks should be tried as traitors whether they verbally encourage insurrection, or publicly deny the sanctity of the courts, the law, or the vote.

Those would be the first steps taken, I think, should we live in secular democracy governed by law, reason, science, and a constitution that defines how people will conduct such a government.  Spock would be proud.

Live long and prosper.