Donald Trump is a person who has been catered to all his life. Many people and institutions have had opportunity to stop his illegal and immoral activities but in 73 years no one has. Not his parents, not banks, not law enforcement, and especially not the the Republican led sentence. After each interruption in his chaotic life Trump has come back and done more and worse.

Remember what (soon to be former) Senator Susan Collins of Maine said after she was just one more in a long line of tragic cases who failed to stand up to Donald Trump? In an interview with CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Collins replied to O’Donnell’s question saying Trump learned a lesson:  

O’Donnell: But the president says he did nothing wrong. Why do you think he learned something?

Collins: He was impeached. And there has been criticism by both Republican and Democratic senators of his call. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.

Seriously Susan. Just a pinch of due diligence would have revealed that the only thing Trump ever learns is to be a bigger asshole and destroy what he sees as enemies with even more force. Thanks to you, Susan Collins, and colleagues like Joni Ernst licking Trump’s boots and letting him free to have his revenge. Here was Joni Ernst’s pathetic reasoning: 

Sen. Joni Ernst said on Sunday she’s confident President Donald Trump will not solicit foreign interference in another U.S. election if he’s acquitted as expected in the Senate impeachment trial.

“I think that he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things, whether it’s ferreting out corruption there, in Afghanistan, whatever it is, he needs to go through the proper channels,” the Iowa Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Apparently Ernst never thought to ask Trump if he was going to wreck the Post Office. Of course had she, Trump would have lied. That is what Trump does – he lies. Oh and by the way, Ernst, Trump is still working with foreign powers to rig the election. And to think, you were fool enough to believe him.

So without warning to anyone, Trump hired a henchman by the name of Louis DeJoy who could stand to make a huge amount of money if the USPS should go under to run the USPS. That would be like Walmart hiring the CEO of Target to run Walmart also at the very same time. DeJoy knew what his job was. Destroy the USPS.

An added bonus for both Trump and DeJoy is that if the USPS is hamstrung at this crucial time in the election cycle it could greatly affect the election. By Trump’s calculations, trashing the USPS will give him an advantage in the election.

So DeJoy with the blessing of his boss Trump immediately went about removing and now destroying the the machinery and changing the rules that are vital to the running of the USPS. The United States Postal Service is, I mean WAS, one of the most efficient and admired businesses in the world. Trump and DeJoy destroyed that in about a week on purpose.

If you think destroying one of the most admired entities in the world is the very worst thing Trump can do, better hold on to your seat because it is about to get much, much worse.

One of the reason that the Post Office was established IN the constitution was that the founding fathers wanted citizens to be able to get material on candidates and issues of the day. A way to safely move mail was seen as a basic building block of a true democracy. While destroying the USPS yields two immediate rewards for Trump –  rigging the 2020 election and making rich men richer –  there is a long range reward also.

Destroying the USPS is one of the basic steps in dismantling democracy. Like the mail sorting machines DeJoy had ripped out of post offices around the country, Trump has been ripping out pieces of our government and hamstringing other other pieces of our government.

Now we see the mail sorting machines being dismantled and made forever useless, turned into junk to be thrown into dumpsters and ingloriously hauled to the dump. Similarly Trump is dismantling pieces of our government, making them no longer able to do their jobs through executive orders and cabinet department heads just simply stopping their functionality.

Republicans have also taken over 3 of the 4 sections of the federal government – presidency, senate and judiciary – in such a way that as the government is dismantled none of the “checks and balances” that were such a unique way to stop the acquisition of power by one branch from happening. Now the aggrandizement of power is to the Republican Party and the three branches of government are cooperating in that.

Once the checks and balances were dispensed with – the impeachment sham in the senate was the epitome of this happening there was nothing to stop Trump. The party is now Trump and Trump is the Party. Now he can move ahead with almost no opposition. The next thing after rigging these current elections will be to make elections obsolete.

Think it can’t happen? All those checks in the constitution haven’t stopped Trump from doing what he wants. If he steals this election that will be it.

Get your vote in for Democrats from the White House to the courthouse. Check your registration, request an absentee ballot and vote early so you know you have voted. Take your absentee ballot to your county courthouse and put it into the absentee ballot receptacle or hand it in to your auditor. This is a live or die election.