We live in two worlds. In one world, they think and question. In another world, they believe and don’t question. That is easily seen when we look back on history. For example, the Earth isn’t flat, and the Earth isn’t the center of the universe or even our solar system. Galileo, who thought and questioned got into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church in 1633. Galileo bought into the facts of science over beliefs in religion. Galileo faced being tortured and/or being burned at the stake unless he recanted his heliocentric theory.

A couple centuries later, Protestants had issues with Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published in 1859. Darwin and science were in opposition to Protestant fundamentalists who bought into the six-day creation narrative. They also didn’t buy into evolution. In 1925, the Scope’s Monkey Trial was an attempt to push personal beliefs over the facts of science.

Today, scientists believe that Homo sapiens evolved ca. 300,000 years ago. It should be noted the term, Homo sapiens, comes from Latin and means intelligent human. Scientists calling all of us are intelligent humans is a bit of a stretch. We live in either a fact world, or we live in a Trump fake world. In fact, Trump is the paradigm for fake fact believers.

On January 1st, we began a New Year. Nonetheless, on the 6th, there was an attempted coup d'état, which failed. The Trumpers wanted to stop the Electoral College from certifying that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would become President and Vice-President of January 20th. Had it not been for Officer Eugene Goodman, Trump and his white supremacist minions could have stopped the Electoral College from reporting their results by taking over the government.

Fortunately, a failed coup d'état

An interesting historical aside, in April 1940, Vidkun Quisling orchestrated a coup d'etat and took over Norway’s government. Quisling asked the Nazis and Hitler for support. Hitler installed someone else as the German Commissioner of Norway, but Quisling was appointed as the Minister President in February 1943.

Quisling and Hitler

Returning to the US, on January 16th, the House impeached Trump. Now, for the second time in a year, the Senate will decide whether or not to convict Trump for his attempted coup.

The facts are obvious. It really seems like a no-brainer. However, only 10 Republican members of the House voted to impeach Trump, and 197 didn’t. Now, had Obama done the same thing, how would they have voted?

On the Senate side, Democrats need 17 Republicans a vote to find Trump guilty. There is only one, Mitt Romney, which will. He did vote to convict Trump on the first impeachment trial. None one else has said how they vote. Lisa Murkowski and Pat Toomey, who is retiring, have both pushed Trump to resign. Telling the guilty party to act is the proverbial kicking the can down the street. Senators are there to decide on the guilt or innocence of Trump…not Trump. Susan Collins and Ben Sasse might. Chuck Grassley, Richard Shelby, Richard Burr, and James Inhofe are considering retiring. If they retire, they can’t lose an election.

Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that only Romney will cast a vote to convict Trump? It has been two weeks. The facts are in plain site since the failed coup. If all 11 of these Republican Senators vote for ratifying the article of impeachment, the Democrats still need a half dozen more Republicans to remove Trump. Time will tell how many Republicans have the guts to vote for conviction. “Crowds die many times before their deaths,” and they are afraid of their base.

Therefore, the Republican Senators know the truth, but they are chickens. So, what did they do? They could face the facts, or they can lie in the face of the facts. During the first impeachment trial, they did what their Chicken-in-Chief always did. Lie.

To be honest with you, Trump doesn’t know Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Reich Minister of Propaganda. Nonetheless, Trump instinctively did what all white supremacists would do. They all did what Goebbels said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

Want proof? Politico reported that 70% of the Republications believe that the election was rigged and fraudulent. Essentially, Biden, Harris, and the Democrats stole the election. Facts don’t matter.

Facts like, over 50 state and federal judges dismissed all claims of that Republican’s presented that the election was rigged. Here are the facts. Two appeals to the Supreme Court got absolutely nowhere by unanimous votes, and Trump appointed three of the nine judges. The governor and secretary of state of Georgia, both Republicans and who voted for Trump, told Trump that he lost the presidential election in Georgia. In addition, they weren’t going to lie about finding 11,000 votes.

Facts don’t matter in America’s other universe. Nevertheless, the coup attempt caused many American to wonder. How can so many Republican claim fraud without any evidence? Yet, thousands marched to the Capitol on January 6th and many stormed into the Capitol. Had it not been for Officer Eugene Goodman, things could have gotten far worse.

America thanks you, Officer Goodman.

Many Congressmen and women along with their staff could have been killed by the white supremacists had there not been brave Americans who put their lives on the line. These Americans had chosen a purposeful life.

It is up to each of us, at the local level, to have a purposeful life, which will necessitate dealing with facts. Bobby Kennedy, the most important mentor in my entire life, said, “The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.” Life isn’t about lying, stealing, and living in an alternate universe when it comes to facts.