Fiction or non-fiction ?

If you  have spent any time at all in your local library, you probably have noticed that the vast majority of the books that the building has  on the shelves would be classified as “fiction”, which brings up a valid question:

Is there value in reading fiction?

I have run into a few people in local schools who don’t read fiction because they think that it is a waste of time – but I beg to differ.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 reasons why it makes sense to read fiction:

1)   You can learn something. My favorite authors are Steve Berry, Clive Cussler, John Grisham, Ken Follett, and Jodi Picoult. All of them incorporate either current or historical facts that can easily be verified, and all of them primarily write fiction rather than non-fiction

2)  You can improve your vocabulary and your writing skills

3)  Fiction provides a necessary respite from the nonsense that we hear on the news literally every day.

Over the last 50 years, these are the 10 most popular books sold in the world:

1)   The Bible – 3.9 billion copies

2)  Quotations from Chairman Mao – 820 million

3)  Harry Potter – 400 million

4)  The lord of the rings – 103 million

5)  The Alchemist – 65 million

6)  The DaVinci Code – 57 million

7)  The twilight saga – 43 million

8)  Gone With The Wind – 33 million

9)  Thing and Grow Rich

10)       The Diary of Anne Frank

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-most-read-books-in-the-world-infographic-2012-12

Six of the books listed above would be considered to be fiction, but the most popular book on the list (which most people would consider to be non-fiction) raises some interesting questions. Although 30% of our population considers the Bible to be inerrantly true, it is full of contradictions. If you don’t believe me, take the Bible quiz at the link below:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/09/bible-told-me-so.html

In addition to that, 60% of our population believe that Noah’s ark actually existed, but I’m  reasonably sure that it is nothing more than a great fiction:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/04/noahs-ark-and-othe-rfairy-tales.html

Although I am confident that my reasons for reading fiction are valid, I wondered if there were other advantages that I had missed, so I Googled “what are the advantages of reading fiction”, and found a website that listed NINE advantages.

  

https://open.buffer.com/reading-fiction/

1)   Empathy :Imagining creates understanding. Multiple studies have shown that imagining stories helps activate the regions of your brain responsible for better understanding others and seeing the world from a new perspective.

2)  Disengagement: Reading is most effective for stress. Your brain can’t operate at maximum capacity 24/7—far from it. We all need periods of disengagement to rest our cognitive capabilities and get back to peak functionality. Reading is far more effective in releasing stress than listening to music, drinking a cup of tea, going for a walk, or playing a video game.

3)  Sleep: regular readers sleep better.

4)  Improved relationships: books are a reality simulator. Fiction is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.

5)  Memory: readers have less mental decline in later life

6)  Inclusivity: stories open your mind – one study shows that reading Harry Potter can make us more tolerant and open-minded

7)  Vocabulary: fiction readers build more language – people that read a lot, and especially people that read a lot of fiction, have a larger vocabulary than just about everyone else

8)  Creativity: fiction allows for uncertainty, where creativity thrives

9)  Pleasure: reading makes us happier

73% of the American population attempted to read at least one book last year, but 25% of our population did not read ANY books. If you combine these two statistics, you’ll find that the AVERAGE Americana only read 4 books last year, but the TYPICAL American (the ones who at least attempted to read a book), that number jumps to 12.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/182106-do-you-read-more-books-than-the-average-american

I’ll have to admit that our household reads a lot more than average (about 150 between the tow of us) but I also understand that not everybody has as much free time as we do.

So, if you are one of the people who tries to read at least one book a year, why not make it a book of fiction?

Should English be America’s official language?

58 countries have English as their official language. 18 of them are in Africa, and one of those countries is Barack Obama’s birthplace, Kenya. (That’s Barack Obama SENIOR, not our 44^th president.)

There are only 7 countries that do not have an official language. Two of them are America and England.

English has become the world's lingua franca, or second language, but it is not the 'official' language of its birthplace. The de facto official language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken by approximately 59.8 million residents, or 98% of the population, over the age of three. An estimated 700,000 people speak Welsh in the UK, an official language in Wales, and the only de jure official language in any part of the UK. Approximately 1.5 million people in the UK speak Scots—although there is debate as to whether this is a distinct language, or a variety of English.

https://medium.com/@eslreading/which-countries-do-not-have-an-official-language-1d2385633f8f

In America, the Founding Fathers didn't see a need to have an official language. English was pretty much the dominant language of the United States at the time so there really wasn't a need to protect it, and they didn't want to offend their fellow Americans who helped fight for independence.

People in this country have been speaking languages other than English since before the founding of the republic. In fact, common languages spoken throughout the 13 colonies included Dutch, French and German, not to mention the many languages spoken by Native Americans (roughly 300). In the early part of the 18^th century, there were at least 18  languages spoken in New York City.

In June of this year, a New York lawyer berated staff members of a restaurant for speaking Spanish to customers. He also threatened to call ICE because he assumed they were undocumented. By threatening to call ICE, he equated speaking Spanish with illegal immigration.

Although the United States, as a country, does not make English the official language the majority of the states in our country do. At last count, there were 31 states that did exactly that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/12/states-where-english-is-the-official-language/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.87b2903f29ed

Folks living in other countries are often REQUIRED to learn at least one other  language. The people living in Switzerland need to be able to speak FIVE languages by the time they graduate from college. Since we live in a town that is only 60 miles from Mexico, many of the employees at local stores can easily switch from English to Spanish and back again.

It’s been more than 50 years since I studied Spanish, but I know enough to be able to say, “Yo hablo un poquito espanol”. If you wanted to learn Spanish, there are LOTS of ways to do so, including the online course called babble.com. Since our grandson will be bi-lingual (due to the fact that his mom is) learning to speak at least a little Spanish will be very useful in the future.

https://www.babbel.com/

Do I think that English should be the official language of the United States?

At last count, there were 350 languages spoken in our country, so making English the official language seems like a really dumb idea.

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/04/at-least-350-languages-spoken-in-us-homes-new-report.html

I am my own grandpa

In the year that I was born, the singing duo of Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe released a song titled, “I am my own grandpa”. A later version was recorded by Ray Stevens (one of many people, including Guy Lombardo, who also released versions), which you can listen to at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw

If you follow the diagram in the video, you can see that it IS possible for a man to be his own grandpa, even though it is highly unlikely.

Obviously, I am NOT my own grandpa, but (as of last week) I AM someone’s grandpa, due to the arrival of a little boy named Alexander, who was born on the morning of September 13.

My wife and I had long resigned ourselves to the fact that the only grandchild we would ever have was our daughter’s dog, Cody, who officially was our grand dog.

However, nature sometimes has a way of throwing us a curve, so the Brennan surname will live on for a lot more years.

Being a parent, of course, has its rewards, as well as its challenges, but being a grandparent is even better because you don’t have to worry about the 3 a.m. feedings and the dirty diapers.

When Brian was born in 1976, he had a touch of jaundice, so the hospital kept him and his mother in the hospital for about a week, several days longer than the normal stay in the early 1970’s.

Brian and Kim had decided that the birth of their child would be as natural as possible, so they made plans to take delivery at a birthing center in Tucson. On the morning of September 13, they DID make it to the birthing center, but little Alexander got impatient, and Kim gave birth before she had aa chance to get into “the birthing tub”. Kim was in labor a total of 2 hours, and all three of them were able to go home a mere 4 hours later. That’s not quite a “drive through” delivery, but it is pretty darn close.

So far, our grandbaby seems to be a very relaxed individual, as evidenced by the picture show below:

Welcome to the family, Alexander !

The mosque at Ground Zero - the update

Prior to the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11, there were two mosques located close to the site that would eventually be named the World Trade Center. The New York Times profiled two mosques that have been in existence for years not far from ground zero. Masjid Manhattan, founded in 1970, is four blocks away from the World Trade Center site, on Warren Street, and Masjid al-Farah, which used to be on Mercer Street, is 12 blocks away on West Broadway. Prayer services have actually been held at the 45 Park Place location since the latter part of 2009. According to the Park51 website, one of the main reasons for including a mosque in the new center is that the previously existing ones aren’t large enough. These mosques, of course, were in addition to the prayer rooms that were in each of the towers when they were completed in 1970.

 Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a development that was originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater community. Due to its proposed location two blocks from the World Trade Center site, it was widely and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque" . 

That title, obvious, attracted a lot of negative publicity, which you can read about at the link below:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/09/mosque-at-ground-zero.html

The project would replace an existing 1850s building of Italianate style that was damaged in the September 11 attacks. The original design was by Michel Abboud, principal of SOMA Architects, who wrestled for months with the challenge of making the building fit naturally into its lower Manhattan surroundings: on the one hand, it should have a contemporary design, and, at the same time, it should look Islamic. His design included a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, and memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks. It also included a prayer space for the Muslim community, which would accommodate 1,000–2,000 people.

In late September 2011, a temporary 4,000-square-foot (370 m²) Islamic center opened in renovated space at the Park51 location. In summer 2014, it was announced that there would instead be a 3-story museum with a prayer space, as well as condos, at 49-51 Park Place. The plans were changed again in September 2015, when the owner announced a 667-foot (203 m), 70-story luxury condominium building at the site. In May 2016, financing was secured for a 43-story condominium building with room for an Islamic cultural museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51

One of the primary opponents to the Park 51 development was a woman named Pam Geller, who felt victorious when plans for the original site were changed. Her column, on the less than reputable site called Breitbart, is shown below:

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/26/its-official-ground-zero-mosque-defeated/

Pamela Geller (born 1957/1958) is an American political activist and commentator. She is known for her anti-Islamic writings, opposition to the proposed construction of an Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center, and sponsorship of the "Draw the Prophet" cartoon contest in Garland, Texas. She describes her blogging and campaigns in the United States are against what she terms "creeping Sharia" in the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center have described Geller as "Islamophobic".

Pamela Geller has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists, including most notably a plot inspired by an ISIS supporter as retaliation for her "Draw the Prophet" cartoon contest. She is currently the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) which she co-founded with Robert Spencer. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (also known as Stop Islamization of America) has been designated an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The British government barred Geller's entry into the UK in 2013 saying her presence would "not be conducive to the public good."^[ She and Spencer co-authored the book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America in 2010. Multiple media outlets have called her "far right", while others, such as the BBC, contrast her right-wing support for small government with her culturally liberal positions on abortion and same sex marriage.

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump also tried to take credit for the change of plans at the Islamic Center at Park 51. An article titled, “How Donald Trump Stopped the Building of a Mosque at Ground Zero” turned up on a website titled “stumpinfortrump.com”. When I tried to open it up, tough, the computer I was on said that it was blocked due to the strong possibility that it contained a virus. Again, I am not surprised.

One of the prayer rooms in the World Trade Center was in a stairwell just outside the restaurant known as Windows On The World. To my knowledge, there is no restaurant planned for the new Liberty Center, but there are PLENTY of dining options close by. For a trip down memory lane, though, here’s a magical view from a place that no longer exists:

Although Pam Geller will likely be pleased that there will be no mosque at Ground Zero, the rest of us can rejoice in the fact that the Muslim community is finally becoming an accepted group in American society.

Allah be praised.

Was Trump chosen by God?

There are a surprising number of people who believe that Trump was chosen by God to lead our country. To me, that makes no sense at all, but there is actually a historical explanation why people who consider themselves very religious are ardent supporters of Trump.

Trump’s approval rating varies widely by religions groups. The religious group that supports him the most are the Mormons, who STILL give him a 61% approval rating, the only group that gives him higher than a 50% approval rating. For obvious reasons, his lowest approval rating (18%) is with Muslims.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900007499/mormons-give-trump-highest-support-of-any-religious-group-in-poll.html

During the 2016 Presidential election, Trump received 80% of the vote from people who considered themselves to be evangelical Christians, and they STILL support him today in spite of the many controversies surrounding his administration. Their support is NOT driven by economic issues, but is due to the fact that evangelicals are far more conservative on a wide variety of issues than any other group.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/19/white-evangelicals-still-support-donald-trump-because-theyre-more-conservative-than-other-evangelicals-this-is-why/?utm_term=.683783a6c740

To give you a better perspective on the reasons for the evangelical support of Trump, you need to go back to the 6^th century B.C., when a man named Cyrus, a historical Persian king, conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity, a period during which Israelites had been forcibly resettled in exile. This allowed Jews to return to the area now known as Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in which he appears as a figure of deliverance.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+45&version=NIV

While Cyrus is not Jewish and does not worship the God of Israel, he is nevertheless portrayed in Isaiah as an instrument of God — an unwitting conduit through which God effects his divine plan for history. Cyrus is, therefore, the archetype of the unlikely “vessel”: someone God has chosen for an important historical purpose, despite not looking like — or having the religious character of — an obvious man of God.

For believers who subscribe to this account, Cyrus is a perfect historical antecedent to explain Trump’s presidency: a nonbeliever who nevertheless served as a vessel for divine interest.

For these leaders, the biblical account of Cyrus allows them to develop a “vessel theology” around Donald Trump, one that allows them to reconcile his personal history of womanizing and alleged sexual assault with what they see as his divinely ordained purpose to restore a Christian America.

Among a certain subset of evangelicals, even innocuous details seem to be evidence of prophecy. The most famous biblical verse about Cyrus as God’s “anointed” is found in Isaiah 45 — and Trump is the 45th president. A spokesman for the Christian Broadcasting Network  made this connection explicit, telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that God spoke to him directly to tell him, "Isaiah 45 will be the 45th president ... Isaiah 45 is Cyrus.”

The link below goes into MUCH more detail about the connection between Cyrus and Trump, but the paragraphs above give you a reasonably good summary of the article.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda

One of the strengths of our country is that freedom of religion is embedded in the 1^st amendment of our Constitution. As a result, we are free to worship (or not worship) as we see fit. Technically, it is actually unconstitutional to criticize someone for their religion, a fact that is ignored altogether by our fellow citizens who criticize Jews and Muslims.

An article from Politico in January of 2018 goes into more details about Christian support for Trump, and part of it has to do with their embrace of the prosperity gospel:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/27/millions-of-americans-believe-god-made-trump-president-216537

I am absolutely opposed to the beliefs of the evangelical Christians, but I support their right to hold their beliefs, in spite of the fact that those beliefs helped to elect a man who is totally unqualified to be the president of the United States. The good news, though, is that that error will be corrected some time prior to the 2020 election, when one (or more) factors forcibly remove Donald Trump from office. You may under the impression that that's wishful thinking, but the most recent ABC poll found that Trump's DISAPPROVAL rating just hit a high point of 60%, and a clear majority support Robert Mueller's investigation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-60-percent-disapprove-of-trump-while-clear-majorities-back-mueller-and-sessions/2018/08/30/4cd32174-ac7c-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.1b49ece3a2bb

When that change finally comes to pass, it will be time to, once again, sing Leonard Cohen’s best known song.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRP8d7hhpoQ

 When that change finally comes to pass, it will be time to, once again, sign Leonard Cohen’s best known song.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRP8d7hhpoQ

Hillary Clinton, our 46th president

William G. Stinson (born circa 1945) is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He was elected to represent the 2nd senatorial district in the Pennsylvania Senate in a 1993 special election.

However, Federal District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer declared him the loser of that election after finding that Stinson had engaged in election fraud. and ordered Stinson's Republican opponent, Bruce S. Marks, be seated in his stead. The latter took office on April 28, 1994.

The fraud was conducted using absentee ballots, often in the names of deceased people. The decision was notable because it shifted control of the state Senate from the Democratic party to the Republican party, the first time such an event had occurred at the order of a federal judge.

By now, you are well of the fact that history often repeats itself, so allow me to bring the story shown above into the modern era.

On August 21, 2018, Michael Cohen (Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer) pleaded guilty to 8 felony charges in a Manhattan court. At almost exactly the same time in a Virginia court, Paul Manafort (Trump’s campaign manager) also pleaded guilty to 8 felony charges. In addition to pleading guilty to the felony charges, Cohen also admitted to the court that Trump had instructed him to make hush money payments to both Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels so that the affairs would not affect his results in the 2015 Presidential election, which would be a violation of campaign finance laws:

https://usat.ly/2BAnUOM

In addition to Cohen and Manafort, three additional associates of the president (Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos) have either pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes since Trump took office:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-manafort-cohen-mueller.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

In addition to the legal problems of the five individuals listed above, the fact that White House Counsel, Don McGahn, has been cooperating extensively with Robert Mueller’s legal team will mean that the 45^th president will be under even more pressure than he was before, a fact that was brilliantly illustrated by editorial cartoonist Steve Benson on the morning of August 22:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/us/politics/don-mcgahn-mueller-investigation.html?action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

Ominously, the cartoon has been removed from the electronic pictures on the Arizona Republic, which means that the paper undoubtedly received a LOT o flack for printing it.

Rudy Guiliani, of course, is making Trump’s position even shakier:

Despite yesterday’s stories about Cohen and Manafort, Robert Mueller’s investigation is far from over. In June, Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians for their role in hacking the DNC website. In July, it was revealed that the National Rifle Association has deep ties to accused Russian spy Maria Butina. (since the NRA contributed $30 million to Trump’s campaign, the legal term for the situation they are in is called “deep doodoo”), but things are going to get REALLY UGLY from this point forward:

On June 9, 2016, a meeting was held in Trump Tower in New York City between three senior members of the Donald Trump presidential campaign – Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort – and at least five other people, including Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was arranged by publicist and long-time Trump acquantiance, Rob Goldstone on behalf of his client, singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov. It was disclosed to U.S. government officials when Kushner filed a revised version of his security clearance form. Although the initial excuse for the meeting was to discuss the adoption of Russian children, the true purpose of the meeting was to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russians:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_meeting

According to 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, the Russian government definitely interfered in our 2016 presidential election. Although the Obama administration became aware of the Russian involvement prior to the election, and disclosed it to members of Congress, Mitch McConnell suppressed evidence of the collusion so that it would not effect the election results, and act that would likely be considered obstruction of justice, and would force McConnell out of office.

To get a better idea of what could happen next, we need to go back in time, to the year 1789, when the Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers.  The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html

As Alexander Hamilton wrote in “The Federalist Papers,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” The point of the Electoral College is to preserve “the sense of the people,” while at the same time ensuring that a president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”

Since the establishment of the Electoral College, 5 men have lost the popular vote, but became president due to the actions of the Electoral College. Here they are:

John Quincy Adams, in 1824

Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1876

Benjamin Harrison, in 1888

George W. Bush, in 2000

Donald J. Trump, in 2016

If you analyze the list of our best and worst U.S. presidents, you will notice that the quality of the winners has declined over time. Here are the rankings of the 5 men shown above:

John Adams - #14

Rutherford Hayes - # 29

Benjamin Harrison - # 32

George W. Bush - # 30

Donald Trump - # 44

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/19/opinion/how-does-trump-stack-up-against-the-best-and-worst-presidents.html

Let’s back up a minute, and repeat a key sentence about the Electoral College that I mentioned above:

” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications”

In the fall of 2016, more than 100 of American newspapers published editorials stating that Donald Trump was not qualified to be president. One newspaper, the Arizona Republic, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the first time in the paper’s 126 year history that it had NOT endorsed a Republican for president:

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-arizona-republic-newspaper-endorses-hillary-clinton-2016-9

The opening paragraphs of the paper’s editorial is worth reading again:

Since The Arizona Republic began publication in 1890, we have never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican for president. Never. This reflects a deep philosophical appreciation for conservative ideals and Republican principles.

This year is different.

The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified.

That’s why, for the first time in our history, The Arizona Republic will support a Democrat for president.

The complete article is listed below:

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/09/27/hillary-clinton-endorsement/91198668/

In view of the fact that many of candidate Trump’s rallies were pretty rowdy affairs, it’s not surprising that the editors of the newspaper received death threats because of their comments about Donald Trump. It’s also not surprising that a Trump supporter shot and killed 5 employees of the Capital Gazette in June of 2018:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-gazette-shooting-20180628-story.html

 During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton received 65,845,063 votes. Donald Trump received 62,980,160 votes, a margin of nearly 3 million votes less. Due to gerrymandering by Republican legislatures, and active voter suppression practices of the Trump campaign, Donald Trump received 304 electoral votes, and Hillary Clinton received 227.

https://www.270towin.com/2016_Election/

Wisconsin, along with Ohio and Pennsylvania, proved to be critical in Trump’s victory, since the popular vote margin was razor thin in all three states. The link below goes into more detail on how Hillary Clinton was robbed in Wisconsin:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/

If you have read Hlllary Clinton’s most recent books, “What Happened?” and “Hard Choices”, you’ll recognize the fact that not only s she one of the most qualified presidential candidates our country has every had, she was also cheated out of a victory that was rightfully hers.

Most, if not all, Trump supporters have likely forgotten the fact that Donald Trump was VERY supportive of Hillary Clinton in both 2008 and 2012.

http://time.com/3962799/donald-trump-hillary-clinton/

As ugly surprises continue to result from the Mueller investigation, it is rumored that even leaders in the Republican party would be in favor of impeaching Donald Trump, but it is highly unlikely that impeachments proceedings would start before the 2018 mid-term elections. Even if impeachment eventually came to pass, it would not be the most ideal situation, since Mike Pence would not actually be much of an improvement over Donald Trump. Although Mike Pence called for an end to the Mueller investigation as recently as May, there is strong evidence that he was ALSO involved with the collusion with Russia, which would also make him ineligible to hold office.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/mike-pence-calls-for-an-end-to-the-mueller-probe-what-is-he-afraid-of.html

Barack Obama has been rated as the 8^th best president our country has ever had, but Donald Trump seems to be determined to erase as much of Obama’s legacy as possible while he is still in office. In order to protect Obama’s legacy as much as possible, and to repair our relationship with our allies, there is only one logical way forward,

As I mentioned in my first paragraph, there IS legal precedent for removing a public official from office due to “irregularities” that jeopardize the validity of the election. As a result, the BEST approach for our country is for Congress to remove Donald Trump and his ENTIRE administration as soon as possible, and swear in Hillary Clinton as the 46^th president of the United States BEFORE the election of 2020. Since it will take more than 2 years to repair the damage done by the Trump administration, her term of office should run from the time that she is sworn in until January 20, 2025, but she would not be eligible for another term after that.

Her inauguration would make the majority of the country (especially Hillary) very happy.