Roads through the wilderness

A lot of people would be too frightened to take the trip we did yesterday.  In a truck that is too large for the back roads we took off on Forest Service road 49.  The road is a dead end at a couple of tanks.  Around here ranchers call the small stock ponds tanks.   Up until a couple weeks ago the road was impossible for even the motorcycle, but the Forest Service road crew used the bulldozer to make a passable road.  After a few rains the road will be back to the state of useless.  It is amazing how big the wilderness is when you can actually get back into it on some of these Forest Service Roads. 

Matt and Winky had never made the trip from the visitor center over the mountains to Apache Lake so Kadizzle showed them the trip he has made on the motorcycle many times.  Again the road is not for the weak.  If Kadizzle had to choose the most treacherous road in the Tonto National Forest the part of the road that goes down to Lake Apache might be the winner.  The road crew made it passable for a pickup, but prior to their work it was treacherous.  About a week ago before the road was fixed Kadizzle went down it on the motorcycle.  He was with another rider and we feared we might get down away and be able to go either up or down.  We made it down, but it did involve a minor crash for Kadizzle.  The problem is the road is extremely steep.  Now imaging sprinkling tiny bb like pebbles on a very steep road.  Now you have a steep downhill road that does not allow you to stop even if you put the brakes on.  This also creates another problem with a motorcycle.  If the engine is in a low gear the back wheel will lock up and that is even more fun.   Matt was driving for the first time down the gravel covered sliding board.  Although the bulldozer had fixed the road Matt's exhaust was puckering going down.  Well we made it.  Winky says she does not need to make the trip again. 

The road is a great test of motorcycle skill.  If you make the entire trip on the motorcycle without going down once you get an A.   Kadizzle has made it a couple times, but the majority of the trips involved going down.  A lesson Kadizzle has had a hard time learning is don't make the trip alone.  The biggest problem traveling along is having the motorcycle fall to the downhill side.  Getting the cycle upright on a steep hill in this condition is not for a 70 year old goat. 

There are a whole lot more roads to explore.  If you have a good dirt bike and want to give it a try, come on down.  Young men preferred who can do the lifting.  Kadizzle did come up with a plan.  Al is younger than Kadizzle.  On a trip up in the mountains Kadizzle just stopped and had Al ride his Yamaha across the tuff part.  That worked pretty well.

Excitement for idiots

Winky and Kadizzle just came back from some pizza at a local spot.  The waitresses and the owner were all excited that they might get to see Trump.  Perhaps he is coming to Phoenix.   Imagine busted flat waitresses in a hopeless financial mess supporting Trump.  Trump and his buddy Mitch are trying to cut the very social security that is the very lifeline of these woman who stand outside to smoke. Seems incredible that the slaves on the plantation love the plantation owner and the slave driver.  Well after all the plantation owner gave them jobs and tells them that the welfare cheats are the problem.  This country is upside down.  Yesterday Kadizzle drove through a large are of slum settlement near Tonto Basin he had no idea existed.  The number of people living on the edge in slum shacks is amazing.  These people are hanging on by a thread.  That thread is social security.  These idiots are supporting people that are trying to eradicate them.  The level of stupidity in this country is rising faster than the oceans and the CO2 level.  Stupidity will kill us long before anything else.  Trump is a master of firing up idiots.  Trump is like the clever preacher that bilkes the fools and old ladies.  Kadizzle recently went into two casinos.   Kadizzle goes into the casinos to pick up his free ten or twenty dollars.  All casinos will give you ten or twenty bucks to play their machines.  You get your money and every time you win you cash out. Usually you will be able to walk out with some amount right around what they gave you. This is just an explanation of why Kadizzle was in a casino.  There is no better way to tax stupidity than gambling.  Now to the point.  When Kadizzle went in both casinos there were hundreds of people playing bingo.  Imagine all those people slowly giving their money away.   Kadizzle will bet that 90 percent of the fools were Trump supporters.  These people live on illusions.  Social security enables these dolts to play bingo and Trump is trying to take away their bingo money.  These people do not understand simple math, statistics or reality, yet they vote. 

Find Rush Limbaugh

As mentioned before, how low can Trump and the Republicans go?  Trump has taken all honor out of the concept honor. 

How low can you go

Little sister sent Kadizzle a fake census form the Republicans are circulating.  Patty was pissed about how the Republicans are trying to deceive the old people .  What first got Patty's attention was the note on the envelope that said " Official document do not destroy".  In the simplest terms the survey is the old classic push survey.  The so called survey ask loaded questions.  It seems the deviousness of the Republican party has no bottom.  Trump had to put icing on his idiocy by firing Vindman and Sondland.  A rat the magnitude of Trump is amazing. The moor crooked and childlike he is the better the Hoopleheads like him.  Who can cheat the best seems to be the new norm. 

Mother of all rides

Up, up and up Kadizzle went to the top of a new set of mountains.  Kadizzle rode the Yamaha about 70 miles yesterday.  A good forty of those miles were through the mountains.  The size of the wilderness here just keeps getting bigger.  For years we have explored the Tonto National Forest, but always every new road proves the forest to be bigger than thought.  Kadizzle had a wonderful ride along a forested road for mile after mile.  The fear began to crop in his head that he would run out of gas.  This would be a hell of a mess way, way back in nowhere.  The gas held up well, but there was one strange problem.  Somehow a piece of granite got into the chain and just about tore the chain from the rear sprocket.  After some tinkering Kadizzle got the rock out, but had to retension the chain.

The trip turned out to be huge loop that encompassed about seventy miles.  There were so many side roads that need to be explored.

Cannot find the tablets

Kadizzle went up the mountain yesterday.  No tablets found, but there must have been a lot of them.  The bushes were not burning, the bushes had already been burnt.   The fire last fall burnt up every bush on the mountain.  God could not set a bush alight, so Kadizzle got no tablets. We need a new set of tablets. Trump busted up the old set so badly.   Lying is OK,  a little adultery now and then does not hurt,  we have a false idol for president.  What would the new tablets suggest.

Thou shalt lie if it is convenient or profitable.

Put no other God before you unless you have a red hat on.

Grabbing and adultery in moderation may help you get elected.

Keep the sabbath holy and use the simple minded fundamentalist as fools.

Honor thy father, he was a racist, and you should be one too.

Thy shall not kill except on Fifth Avenue to prove you can get away with it.

Thy shall not steal anything but elections and then only with the help of another country.

Thy shall not bear false witness,  Oh what the hell thy shall have no witnesses.

Don't just covet thy neighbor's wife move on her like Trump explains.

Covet thy neighbor's goods,  get thy neighbor in the scheme then go bankrupt.

I love Russia more than Trump

Kadizzle just checked the stats.  Wow, Russians are tuning in to the blog at a ratio of 2 to 1 Americans.  Over one thousand Russian views have now showed up.  Can one thousand Russians read and understand poorly written English?  Please, please some Russian send me an email and let me know why you would ever want to read this crap.  Email dakotaquinn@gmail.com.  If you email me I will tell you how to manipulate Trump.  I will tell you how to make Kevin Cramer, and John Hoeven dance.  I will help you hack the Republicans.  You brought us Trump.  I want Bernie.  Now if you damn Russians will work with me we can get Bernie elected.  Just think what it would be like to have a socialist president.   OK, even if you don't work with me I still want verification from a Russian.  I think a Russian hacker was disguising themself as a person in Dickinson. 

Now a survey for you Russians.  Tell me what you like on this blog, tell me what you don't like.  Tell me about Putin.  Tell me what it is like to be a Russian hacker.  Does it pay well, do you believe in what you are doing.  Now as a bonus if you send me any videos of Trump with a Russian hooker I will will buy you the vodka of your choice.  Also if you Russian hackers will agree to hack Kevin Cramer, Hoeven, and Armstrong there could be a mixed drink for you.  Surely you drink Moscow mules.  Well send me the goods and drink up.  If any of you Russians want to come over and meet with me I will give you free food and lodging.  It would really be interesting to know how this all works.  The best thing is I cannot get in trouble for communicating with you guys. Trump showed even the FBI, and CIA could not touch him.  If it looks like I might get in trouble I will just become a Republican.  With our new trial system without witnesses this will all be do da.  I am to lazy to look up how to say have a good day in Russian,  so have a good day and stay tuned to the Kadizzle Blog it is great having you. Boing,  Kadizzle just got an idea.  This blog make me no money. If Kadizzle monetizes the blog will he get credit for Russian viewers?  Are you Russians interested in a youtube video? Could you send me two of those Russian nesting dolls.  One I will give to Sylvie, and the other one I will use to demonstrate how Cramer and Hoeven fit into Trump and Armstrong fits into Cramer and Hoeven.

Even a blind hog will root

There are a few sayings that will get you through life.  An old favorite is " Even a blind hog will root".   Kadizzle at one time worked for an old southern buzz cackler, Hubert Myers.  Kadizzle's office was right next to Huber's office who was in charge of the mining operations in North Dakota.  Because his door was open Kadizzle could overhear his conversations.  Art went into his office.  Art was a bull of a man. Art was a great big guy in charge of maintenance.  There had been some dispute about how to repair a large piece of equipment.  Hubert and Art got into a shouting match and in the end it turned out Art had been correct in his diagnoses.  Hubert ended the conversation by saying to Art " Even a blind hog will root".    Kadizzle had never heard that saying before, but looked into it.  The meaning is anyone can accidently find an acorn or even be right by accident. 

Well Kadizzle and Winky have adopted the saying.  Often when a dispute occurs and one of us is proven wrong we might have to admit we were wrong.  There is nothing worse than admitting you are wrong.  There is a simple way out.  All you have to do is say to the person who happened to be correct " Even a blind hog will root".   Unfortunately in our country you can vote blind hogs into office.  Trump says all the economic good news is due to him.  There is an apple tree in our yard.  Kadizzle claims he has provided all the apples.  No the guy who planted the tree provided the apples.  We just harvest them.  Obama planted the apples Trump is harvesting, but " Even a blind hog will root".

What happened to the Undertaker

Yesterday Kadizzle was wandering up the road to help Cliff cut and clean up some brush in our camping area.  Over on the hill something strange was it looked like something moving strangely in the wind.  Looking closer it appeared two people were over on the hill at a camping site.  Yes it was two people and it must have been the Undertaker and his wife because it was their dog.  What was that strange blue thing going up and down and waving?  It stopped then started again.  Kadizzle thought maybe they were in distress and trying to signal him so he pedaled the ebike over there.  As he got closer he could see the Undertaker laying on the picnic table with his knees up.  Oh no, Kadizzle thought the Undertaker has had a heart attack.  As Kadizzle pulled up the Undertaker sat up.  He smiled and seemed fine.  It turned out he was exercising on the picnic table.  The blue Kadizzle had seen waving around was his legs.  The Undertaker was fine.

We met the Undertaker years ago.  With his wife he has been coming to Windy Hill every winter for years.  He likes to hunt quail.  Back in Montana he was the Undertaker.  Praise be unto Jesus the Undertaker is a good liberal.  In the sun we launched into our tirades on the new King Trump.  Both Kadizzle and the Undertaker are distressed as we enter the dictatorship.  Somehow we got on the topic of Romney and Mormons.  Kadizzle brought up the sacred garments Mormons wear.  The Undertaker said he was familiar with Mormon customs since there were a lot of Mormons in his area.  Undertaker told Kadizzle that it was the custom in the Mormon Church that the local church president dress the deceased before they were buried.  Kadizzle had never heard of this before, but it makes sense that you don't want to show up in heaven poorly dressed. 

I wonder what the King is doing tonight

What could the King be doing tonight?  Remember that old song from Camelot? Maybe the King is with Stormy Daniels, Maybe he is tweeting some insults, maybe he is grabbing some genitals or perhaps he is cheating on his taxes.  Ah to be King and make the little kingdoms help you cheat in elections. It is good to be king.  There is a burger king, and our king might be a cheeseburger king.  The King can dispose of his wives like Henry the Eighth.  The King is infallible.  The King will build walls to protect us from invaders.  The King can have big parades, the King can knight court jesters like Rush, and Rudy.  The King can have royal wipers like Kevin and John.  How nice to be King.

Camelot: I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight

Photo mystery

Kadizzle was set to spend the day burning some brush, but Helen messaged Kadizzle and asked if he wanted to search for the missing spot one more time.  Sure, that would be more fun than burning brush.  What is the missing spot?  The Forest Service has some strange research project where they take a picture in exactly the same spot every so many years.  It is easy to find the spot if you have the GPS coordinates, but without them it is a puzzle.  The reason for this is so the vegetation from 1995 can be compared to the vegetation in 2020.  How do you find the spot without the coordinates?  What you do is take the photos from 1995 and try to figure out where the person stood when they took the pictures.  With good pictures this might not be too hard, but with poorly reproduced pictures it is no easy task.  The last time we tried we had to give up. 

At eight we set out this morning to try again.  In the jeep we traveled way back into the mountains in the area the map did give us clues to.  Someone marked a spot on a topographic map 25 years ago.  The trick would be to get everything to line up.  That meant standing in a spot where two mountain peaks lined up and just a small smidgen of the lake showed.  The spot on the topographic map was way off.  After wandering around we began to get things adjusted.  To make more of the lake disappear we needed to go lower.  To line up the mountains we needed to go farther east.  There were some other clues in the photos including an old dead tree.  Kadizzle was about five hundred yards too far East when Helen called out over the radio she found the spot.  The spot was marked with a piece of rebar.  Kadizzle had been thinking from the pictures it was a fence post.

Once you discover the spot new pictures need to be taken from the exact same position as the originals.  With our mission accomplished we headed back to the ranch.  The whole process is kind of fun. It is like looking for a treasure.

A Chilling Feeling

Awaking this morning and reading about Trump's speech last night leaves Kadizzle with a chilling feeling our democracy is over.  The fact that Republicans are shamelessly 100% greedy rats means we are well on our way to a Hitler style country.  The cult has succeeded.  When Trump puts The Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh and Republicans nod in agreement we are done.  Rats praising rats a sad sight.  We have clearly reached the state where our government is of the rich, for the rich, by the rich.  The saddest thing in this whole affair is finding out about friends who have swallowed the poison.  The other day a lady made a comment to Kadizzle that mirrored his own observation.  Trump has shown us how many truly ignorant people there are.  Everyone knew we had simple minded people, but few knew how far up into our society the rot went.  Trump mined the vast pool of ignorance and hit the motherload.  Trump knew exactly the right bait to hook the idiots.   Fear, paranoid lies, and greed brought the cult all he needed. 

Think about this.  The hard core stupid make up about 27% of our country. That hard core group of idiots belongs to Trump.  All Trump has to do is suck in a few more people driven by greed and he has a lead that cannot be overcome.  Idiocy is the currency of the realm,  and Trump has a pile of idiots.

Can you judge character

This morning Kadizzle did his usual reading of the Bismarck Tribune letters.  A person Kadizzle knows well had a letter in the Tribune.  The letter praised a fellow legislator, Jeff Delzer.  Jeff Delzer is a Trump style rat.  How did Kadizzle come to this conclusion?  Years ago Kadizzle ran for the board of directors of the local cooperative phone company.  At the annual meeting the election was held.  The Republicans used every dirty trick in the book to defeat Kadizzle.  Jeff Delzer went through the crowd telling people to vote against Kadizzle.  It was a moment that Kadizzle cherishes because of what happened.  Delzer the rat went up to an old dear neighbor who happened to be a hard core Republican and also sat in the legislature.  Delzer said to Pat,  " You need to vote against Kadizzle".  Pat responded by saying " You can go to hell, no one is going to tell me who to vote for".   Pat made Kadizzle so proud of him.  Kadizzle and Pat had many political arguments, but this sealed our friendship.  Pat had what every Republican lacks a sense of morality. 

Now this brings Kadizzle to his theme for the next letter to the Bismarck Tribune.  Donald Trump is like a black light.  If you ever used a black light you know it will reveal things you didn't think were there.  A black light will reveal blood, urine, and semen, along with many other things.  Trump is the black light. You think you know a person who is normal, honest, and a good person, but their support for Trump shows you the ditris in their mind.

Forgive me for I have sinned

Winky and Kadizzle went to a huge grocery store in Mesa today.  Of course Winky loves grocery stores so that left Kadizzle with nothing to do while she shopped.  Kadizzle decided to troll Trump goofs. That is what happens when you leave him unattended.  Kadizzle roamed the store pretending to talk on the phone while loudly saying what a worthless rat Trump is.  A red hat went by but Kadizzle did not catch him quick enough.  Finally Kadizzle tired and sat on one of the benches in front of the store and did some trolling.  Kadizzle sat by a lady and pretended to be speaking to someone.  The nasty talk about Trump shot out all over the place.  Just like yesterday the woman smiled and agreed.  Just like yesterday Kadizzle asked where the lady was from.  Kadizzle knows a native redneck would never disrespect Trump.  Sure enough the woman was from Wisconsin and had as little use for Trump as Kadizzle.  Yesterday the lady was from New York.  She said the people of New York have known for a long time what con man Trump is. 

As Kadizzle waited for Winky a real red hat with his wife were in the checkout line. Kadizzle could not resist. Quickly go in line and did the fake phone call.  Kadizzle was close to Mrs Red Hat and he bellowed out all the nasty stuff he could think of about Trump.  Mrs Red Hat could not take it.  She turned to Kadizzle and said are you going to buy anything or are you just going to talk on the phone. Kadizzle explained that he was just looking over the breath mints that he wanted to buy.  What could she do?  Mr Red Hat wiggled the red hat and said something.  Once they moved forward to grab the groceries.  Kadizzle said to the clerk what a menace Republicans were and she needed to help rid the country of them.  One final good shot at the Red Hat gang.  If you hear of a political killing in the Phoenix area you will no why this blog ended.  Kadizzle wants to go down in service for his country.  Not sure if Kadizzle will get a purple heart, or a lead filled heart.

Another Big Find

The fire that went through the Tonto Basin Forest made a lot of things more visible. Kadizzle took off for a motorcycle ride he had done through the mountains before, but this time he noticed something he had not seen.  It was the sign of human habitation.  On the top of a knoll there appeared to rocks in an orderly fashion.  As Kadizzle got close he found his first pot shard, the sure sign it was a dwelling.  Kadizzle's eyes about popped out as he realized the scope of the site.  It was the perfect location the former inhabitants had a commanding view of the area.   It was a very large site.  Always a question when these sites are found is where are they getting water.  Off in the distance a little way Kadizzle could see water running down the mountain.  There was a nice valley and with the water they could have farmed.  The more you explore here in the Tonto Basin the more you realize the extent of the civilization that was here.  There could have been a few thousand people living here.  The question arises what happened to these people?  Did they overwhelm their environment?  Did some other tribes drive them out?  It seems to be the common thought that these people disappeared suddenly. Could it have been disease? 

Americans know wealth inequality is a problem, but what does it look like?

Up in the mountains

Our band of four took off for the big mountains, the Sierra Ancha mountains.  Hiking in the tall pines was a nice change from the lower elevations.  Little patches of snow were around, but the day could not be more perfect.  The drive to the trailhead was tricky.  Fortunately someone had been there before and cut a path through the felled trees on the road.  After four slow miles of tricky driving the road was block for the last three hundred feet by a tree that had fallen over the stream we had to cross with the truck.  It seemed possible we might be able to drive under the tree, but better judgement prevailed.  Turning the truck around on a narrow mountain road was no easy task, but we managed.

Ken and Kadizzle stopped frequently to just soak in the scenery.  One topic was the people who never get to see the amazing parts of this country. The United States has a remarkable landscape.  There is so much to see.  The Southwest alone has kept us hiking for twenty years.  Kadizzle has chosen Utah as the ultimate state.  Arizona has a lot, but no state can beat Utah for sheer variety.

When we got as far as one day would allow we realized by looking at the map how close we were to major Indian ruins.   This realization meant they must have come the same way we were hiking.  We were in their backyard.  Kadizzle always wonders on these paths if they are original Indian trails or more recent trails made by the white man.  This trail seemed to be an ancient pathway.  There are certain gaps in the mountains that had to be used by game, and people for centuries.

The Most AMAZING commercial ever!!! - Coleman Sweeney

Clay Jenkinson summarizes

Four things happened on the last day of January 2020.

1. We crossed the Rubicon - The United States was envisioned as a republic. In a republic, the protection the people have against tyranny is our system of checks and balances. The judiciary checks the legislative branch when it passes unconstitutional laws. The executive has the power to veto Congressional legislation, but the legislative branch can over-ride that veto with a super-majority. When the President overreaches in a fundamentally dangerous way, Congress and the courts can check his or her will to power. On January 31, 2020, the Senate of the United States abdicated its Constitutional responsibility to conduct a thorough trial after the House of Representatives sent a bill of impeachment against a sitting President. The President's attorneys argued that what he did, if he did it, does not rise to the level of impeachment; that there is virtually no act that this President could commit that would deserve impeachment; that the President has essentially unlimited authority to behave in any way he wishes, including pressuring foreign governments to announce an investigation against his principal political rival. In this situation, Congress was the people's last guardrail against Presidential excess, and the Senate decided to kick down that guardrail. In doing so, the US Senate greatly diminished its constitutional authority. We now have what amounts to an elective monarchy in the United States. Tennessee's Lamar Alexander at least had the honesty to acknowledge that what the President did was irresponsible, unacceptable, and a violation of the trust we put in our chief executives. The Senate has now signaled to this President that if he uses other nefarious maneuvers to win re-election in November 2020, he will not be held responsible by the primary branch of the US government, the Congress.

We have crossed a Rubicon. The tragedy is that tens of millions of American people either don't know what just happened to the very foundation of our republic, or they don't care because they are caught up in the cult of this darkly charismatic individual. Or perhaps just the Super Bowl.

It may sound over-dramatic to say that January 31, 2020, marked the death of the American republic, but as a scholar of Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution I believe that is precisely what has happened. We will, of course, continue to be a rich and powerful nation. The Walmarts will continue to be full. The gas pumps will continue to deliver fuel. The Kardashians will continue to entertain us. But the republic, as republic, is now dead.

R.I.P. American Republic.

2. On the question of the impeachment trial alone, the allegation was that the President pressured a foreign government to announce an investigation of his chief rival, by withholding desperately needed military aid to a nation that has been invaded by Russia. The President's attorneys argued countless times that no evidence links the President directly to the shakedown scheme. When a material witness of unimpeachable integrity--a uncompromising lifelong Republican partisan and insider--came forward to announce that he had direct evidence of the President's complicity based on actual and unambiguous conversations he had with that President--the Senate voted not to hear what he had to say under oath. In what sense can this be called a thorough or fair trial when the United States Senate refused to listen to someone who could speak directly to the validity of the charges leveled at the President? It defies all logic, violates the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, and ensures that no rational observer can ever conclude that the President has actually been exonerated. He has been protected by a slim majority in the Senate, but he has not been exonerated, because the most material witness in the whole affair was not permitted to tell his story under oath. When the history of this sad episode is written, there will always be a ring of illegitimacy and even Senate coverup in the Impeachment of Donald Trump. Put it another way: if the President is innocent, what does his administrative have to fear from a material eyewitness?

3. Trump supporters will celebrate his acquittal, but they are also unknowingly celebrating the death of Constitutional restraint, due process, accountability, Congressional oversight, checks and balances, the separation of powers doctrine, and the guardrails and backstop of the US Constitution. This story is no longer about Donald Trump, who will leave office at some point. But the damage done to the Constitution and the Idea of a Republic will outlast this and many future Presidents, perhaps all of them. Will it have been worth it to protect this one individual, this President who can serve no more than eight years at most, at the expense of the foundational principles of American life established in 1787 and preserved as inviolable for 233 years? The principal result of this impeachment episode is to render the Constitution's impeachment clause a nullity, which means that future Presidents will be able to violate their oaths with impunity.

4. The conclusion of the Trump impeachment drama is also the final death of Thomas Jefferson's vision of America: that in a republic the people are sovereign; that the people guard their liberties, rights, and prerogatives with stern vigilance; that they restrain and rebuke their President whenever he breaks faith with the people and exceeds his authority as outlined in Article II of the Constitution; that they err on the side of liberty rather than power. Jefferson believed that the people of the United States would be sufficiently well-educated and well-informed to know what was at stake in the way their government acted and that they would vindicate his belief in their civic understanding in times of political and constitutional crisis. If in this situation the American people stepped back to analyze what it means for the US Senate to curtail an impeachment trial before all the material facts were brought to light--particularly when the most material witness is denied his opportunity to clarify the very allegation at the heart of the impeachment--they would see that they have crossed a Rubicon, in this case an apparently invisible Rubicon, from which it will be exceedingly difficult to return to due process, checks and balances, and constitutional order. In his famous Kentucky Resolutions (1798) Jefferson wrote, "In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." We have failed to bind President Trump "down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

Jefferson thought we were up to it. If he could see what we have done, I believe he would say one of two things: either that Adams was right and we are not really up to the grave challenge of protecting our rights and liberties; or that we must double and then double again civics education, so that the people understand what a dangerous threshold we have now crossed, perhaps forever.

I repeat: this crisis is no longer about Donald Trump. Whatever you think about Mr. Trump is now immaterial, because what has been on trial is the capacity of a republic to self-correct before it is too late. In a strange and ironic sense, Donald Trump is now the least of our worries.

When historians look back at the decline and fall of the American republic, Friday, January 31, 2020, will now inevitably be one of the most significant, if not the most significant dates.

I know that what I have written here will be regarded by Mr. Trump's partisans as an attack on the President they revere. That will only prove that they do not see what is actually at stake here.

The die has been cast.

Clay Jenkinson