Trump Didn't Declare an Emergency But Wants Dictatorial Powers

Captions: 1. A cardboard representation of Pres. Donald Trump presented on a bicycle ride in Iowa in the woods of one of the rural counties that voted for him. 2. On the same ride, Hillary's cardboard representation had her head ripped off. I asked Jim, my husband, to hold her head on so I could take a photo of her. 3. A cardboard bear in the same woods must have represented the Russian bear, allegedly conspiring with Trump aides to help Trump secure an electoral victory, though he lost the popular vote.

We're so fortunate to have Donald Trump as president of the United States. Otherwise, the Republican Party, now the cowardly, lemmings-jumping-off-the-cliff party of Trump, might still be credible. The danger, of course, is that Trump might destroy our democratic republic and continue to undermine the rule of law. I expected him to declare a national emergency last night, 1/8/2019, and assume or try to assume emergency powers, barring judicial intervention.

It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't deploy the military to build his "wall, steel slat fence, whatever they want to call it" as though the military were his personal servants. He used to refer to "my generals," who now have left his administration, either voluntarily like Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump's former Secretary of Defense, who criticized Trump for his impulsive tweet ordering a U.S. withdrawal from Syria, or involuntarily like Gen. John F. Kelly, his chief of staff, who didn't get along with First Lady Melania Trump and others in the administration.

It's hard to read the newspaper these days, though I do because it's my duty as an American citizen. I don't bathe myself in horrors like Jamal Khashoggi's torture and murder, which was celebrated with big grins and high fives by Trump's best friends, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. I already know more than I want to know.

I want Trump's term as president to end, but I don't want vice president Mike Pence to become president. The elf on the shelf is a homophobic evangelical Christian who sits silently as Trump defiles truth on a daily basis and attacks the press for doing their jobs as journalists.

The elf on the shelf is losing respect by the day, so I'm hopeful that he wouldn't be elected even if Trump is impeached, which would require two-thirds of the Senate, which has a Republican majority, to convict on articles of impeachment brought by the Democratic majority in the House.