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I had breakfast with Anthony Starr, the longtime president of the South Texas Independent Journalists Association (STIJA). We met at The Toddle Inn for huevos rancheros.

"It's cold and gloomy," he pronounced as we both took off our jackets and settled into a booth.

"The weather is the least of our worries," I responded. "Donald Trump is cold and the COVID prognosis is gloomy for the next several months as the death rate in the country has now exceeded 285,000 people. But nobody seems to care as Trump with his goofball attorney Rudy Guiliani are stopping at nothing to overturn the election. As foolish as Guiliani appears on television with hair dye running down the side of his face, wiping his nose and then wiping his mouth with the same handkerchief and last but not least farting during a hearing, his witnesses to support his fraudulent election results have less credibility than convenient store clerks. It won't be long before Trump and Guiliani claim that Martians were spotted transporting Biden ballots from outer space to earth. Trump is the king of chaos and he is sowing so much confusion with his empty charges he hopes that even his fellow Republicans who are questioning his facts and conspiracies will throw their arms up in frustration and surrender to his wishes. As crazy as this evil of a man who has ever existed in American politics is, his followers defy logic. Religion must have lobotomized them and made them susceptible to false prophets. They probably believed that God created the world in six days and equate Trump with Kings David and Solomon who fornicated with hundreds of women because they could kill and rape and none of their subjects would dare protest."

"How much coffee have you had this morning? You're on a tear."

"How much longer can we keep it together with Trump and COVID threatening our sanity on a daily basis? We've lost our health and wealth as a country under him. He tries to sell himself on his past record, but he doesn't understand that politicians, like athletes, are judged on the present performances. You can argue that you hit 50 homers last year, but if you're striking out every time you appear at the plate this year, you're on the next plane departing for Mudsville and the minor leagues. Trump resides in a fantasy television world in which everything is staged. He can't face reality and that the consequences of his innumerable failures culminated in him losing the presidency by more than seven million votes and nearly 100 electoral votes although this electoral college is a sham. We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy and yet the only office in the land--and the most important--isn't decided by popular vote. There were many ideas approved by our Founding Fathers in the late 18th century that aren't applicable today and the electoral college is at the top of the list. Most citizens don't realize that we don't have a pure democracy. We have a representative democracy, which means individuals in power can annul our votes and choose for president whomever they want. It's a blatant farce, but it's a blatant farce that Trump is exploiting. He wants to throw out thousands of votes and leave the selection of the next president to state houses and the House of Representatives populated by spineless politicians and ideological idiots."

"Why didn't we learn about the government's assault on true democracy in our high school civics class?" posed Starr who wanted to keep me spewing no differently than the right-wing Republicans promoting their own conspiracy theories. "Are you saying that we are no different than the brainwashed serfs in Russia and China who are bombarded by so much propaganda that they think they are greater than the greatest county that has ever inhabited this earth?"

"I know that you are a worthless motherfucker who never takes anything seriously," I answered, aware that Anthony was amusing himself by egging me on in order to hear that I would become so extreme in my denunciations that I would soon be comparing Trump to Hitler, but I wasn't taking that bait although I believe that Trump is an evil man who as a dictator would be capable of any action since he finds his hero Putin's killing of journalists expeditious. 

"How can so many intelligent people be so ignorant about this malevolent man? Don't they see through his hypocrisy when he wraps himself in the flag and holds the Bible high in the air over his head! He only uses these symbols to expand his power which enhance his access to riches. He couldn't recite a line from the National Anthem or quote a verse from the Old Testament if his life depended on it. And the millions of god-fearing people who have joined Lucifer's legions. Incredible! The man traffics in nothing but hate because his survival is based on dividing and conquering."

"He has successfully turned you into a hater," poked Anthony.

"Why do you say that?"

"Your hate for Trump is palpable in your contorted and twisted countenance."