“PATRIA” AND ETA, SPAIN’S TERRORISTS, A BOOK REVIEW

Aramburu, Fernando. Patria (Barcelona: Maxi Tusquets, 2016), pp.646. [See English below] Considero esta novela sobresaliente, humana y compasible a la vez. A grandes rasgos, se ubica en la región vasca de España y trata del impacto que el terrorismo de ETA ejerce sobre las vidas de personas ajenas a la subversión.

El autor dibuja la vida de dos familias vascas que fueron amigas en un tiempo, pero las que se apartan y se ahuyentan de sí mismas cuando surge el ETA que busca la independencia de Vizcaya, parte de España, presionando su objetivo a base de actos sangrientos y destructivos. El hijo de una de las familias se vuelve abertzale o “patriota, partidario de una patria vasca independiente” y dispuesto a lo que sea necesario. Éste asesina al padre de la otra familia. He allí la trama. ¡Argumento excelente!

Además, el autor demuestra una capacidad impresionante de describir no solamente el entorno urbano cercas de San Sebastián, no lejos de Bilbao, sino también los pormenores personales y familiares de las dos familias y sus amigos y allegados. Su representación de las jefas de las dos familias, por ejemplo, Miren y Bittori, su manera de ser y de expresarse, su perspectiva hacia ETA, son contundentes y persuasivas, la hija que cae de un derrame cerebral, todo elocuente y creíble. No hace falta ser vasco para aceptar las características humanas de los personajes en esta novela.

Encontré la manera de escribir amena y libre de expresiones complejas y distintiva también, porque contrae la narración con el dialogo de un modo singular y relajante.

Aramburu es ganador de varios premios nacionales e internacionales y han llevado el libro a la pantalla de televisión.

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This novel is outstanding, humane, and compassionate. It takes place in the Basque region of Spain, and it addresses the impact that ETA’s terrorism had on the lives of people unrelated to the subversion.

The author describes the lives of two Basque families who were friends at one time, but become estranged when ETA arises, seeking Basque independence and presses its objective by committing murder and destruction. The son of one of the families becomes an abertzale, meaning a patriot supporting an “independent Basque homeland,” and he is willing to do whatever is necessary. He murders the father of the other family. And there you have the plot. Excellent story line!

The author demonstrates an impressive ability to describe not only the urban environment near San Sebastián, not far from Bilbao, but also the personal details of the two families and their friends and relatives. His depiction of the maternal heads of the two families, Miren and Bittori, for example, is persuasive; the way they behave and express themselves including their views towards ETA, the daughter who suffers a stroke, and so on. I found it all eloquent and credible. You don’t have to be Basque to appreciate the characters in this novel.

I found the author’s writing enjoyable and free of complex expressions. I also liked the way he blends the narrative with the dialogue in a unique and relaxing way.

Aramburu is the winner of several awards, national and international, and his book has been converted into a television series.

La biblia de barro / The Clay Bible, a book review about Iraq

Navarro, Julia. La biblia de barro (Buenos Aires, Plaza Janés, 2005) Este cuento de 767 páginas refleja el conocimiento de la autora sobre temas antiguos los que trata en otras obras y que también he leído con gran satisfacción. Pero aquí juegan un papel limitado pues la gran parte del libro enfoca sobre relatos contemporáneos y muy extraordinarios, vale la pena decir. [La biblia de barro is translated into English.

See English version of this review below]

Los acontecimientos principales en esta novela se llevan a cabo en el Iraq de Saddam Hussein en los días previos a la invasión norteamericana cuyo propósito fue, como sabemos todos, el derrumbe del dictador ya mencionado y la matanza de miles de iraquíes y la vil destrucción de propiedades.

Estos sucesos proporcionan un fondo a la frenética búsqueda de la supuesta biblia de barro que se cree contener el relato de la creación del mundo del mismísimo profeta Abraham. Dicho descubrimiento promete una fortuna, por supuesto y en eso radica la trama que involucra a personajes muy disimilares. Pero esta búsqueda también resulta ser una artimaña enredada para ejecutar un robo de proporciones asombrosas que por sí vale la pena contemplar.

Esta obra merece su lectura pues la encontré amena y apasionante a la vez.  [March 2023]

—

This 767-page story confirms the author’s knowledge of the ancient world about which she has written elsewhere and which I have also admired. But here it plays a limited role, because most of the book centers on the world we live in today and it also involves some very extraordinary stories.

The main events in this novel take place in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the days before the US invasion whose purpose was, as we all know, the overthrow of the aforementioned dictator and the killing of thousands of Iraqis and the despicable destruction of properties.

These events provide a background to the frantic search for the putative clay bible believed to contain the account of the creation of the world by none other than the prophet Abraham himself. Said discovery would promise an indisputable fortune, of course, and therein lies the plot that entangles a large handful of unlikely characters. Moreover, this quest also turns out to be a complicated ruse to pull off a heist of staggering proportions that is itself worth contemplating.

The Clay Bible plot merits the time and effort to read. I also found it very entertaining and exciting at the same time.

Refugees from the Spanish Civil War persevere in Chile, a book review

Allende, Isabel. Largo pétalo del mar (Nueva York: Vintage Español, 2019), Segunda edición, pp. 378.  Este libro trata de una relación de amor entre los protagonistas españoles, Víctor y Roser. Pero más que nada, nos hace consciente de lo que es ser un refugiado. Ellos llegan a ser refugiados de la guerra civil española, él un médico republicano y ella una arrimada que le cae del cielo. [See English below]

Es más, aquí entra el papel de Pablo Neruda, poeta chileno, quien, según la autora, arregla el rescate de cuantiosos españoles perseguidos por los franquistas, ellos también refugiados que llegan a Chile descrito por el poeta como “el largo pétalo del mar.” Esta actuación del famoso poeta fue inesperada para mí y reconfortante a la vez porque le confiere un aspecto más trascendental aún.

Los pormenores que atienden a la guerra civil y el golpe militar resaltan dramáticamente pero no fueron nuevos para mí, aunque sí aproveché de ellos una sensibilidad personalizada que me ayudó a comprenderlos mejor. Este libro representa otra obra excelente por parte de la escritora.

—

Allende, Isabel. A Long Petal by the Sea (New York: Ballantine Books, 2020) Tr., pp. 370. This book is a love story between the main characters, Víctor and Roser, both Spaniards. But more than anything, it serves to remind us of what it is to be a refugee. Victor and Roser become refugees from the Spanish civil war, he a republican medic and she a guest who falls on his lap, so to speak.

It is at this point in the story where Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, comes into play. According to the author, he arranges the rescue and transfer to Chile of many Spaniards who were being persecuted by Franco’s soldiers. This is where Neruda refers to his country as “the long petal of the sea.” I did not know about this accomplishment on his part which I confess I found reassuring because it gives his life an even more transcendental glow in my eyes.

The details surrounding the civil war and the military coup though not new to me were presented dramatically, nevertheless. They helped me understand these events more so because they provided a personalized feeling about them. This book is another excellent job by the writer.

Brothels in the Chilean desert, a book review

Rivera Letelier, Hernán. La reina Isabel cantaba rancheras, novela (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1998), pp. 253. See English below. La vida de las meretrices que se dedicaban a aligerar la existencia de los trabajadores salitreros en el norte de Chile es el tema de este libro. La época es la década de los 1950s y puedo decir que la obra refleja un profundo conocimiento de las mujeres que atendían a los hombres que se dedicaban a extraer el salitre del despiadado desierto. Se entiende que la condición tórrida de las tierras atacameñas limitaba la sobrevivencia de familias normales y por lo tanto atraía a hombres solteros con sus trabajadoras sexuales.

El autor nos ayuda a apreciar el papel compasivo que las mujeres ejercían en relación con sus hombres-clientes, un trato que pasaba más allá de lo simplemente libidinoso y lujurioso. La soledad del desierto ayuda a entender este tipo de relación. Es probable que este conocimiento se debe a que el autor vivió muchos años en las comunidades desérticas lo cual le da un tono bastante autentico y sensible a la obra. También encontré los apodos que el autor la da a estas mujerzuelas y sus consumidores absolutamente geniales y graciosos, así como La Pan Con Queso, La Cama de Piedra, La Ambulancia, y, por supuesto, La Reina Isabel. etc. Vale notar también el sentido jocoso y irónico que entreteje el autor.

Como amante de la canción ranchera, me llamó mucho la atención este tema que desarrolla el autor en su recuento de la vida de los obreros salitreros chilenos y sus respectivas amantes, porque sirve confirmar la extraordinaria preferencia que gozó ese género musical más allá de las fronteras mexicanas. Me cayó con mucha gracia leer que el personaje protagónico de fondo en este cuento, la Reina Isabel misma, se animaba con las canciones de Cuco Sánchez y José Alfredo Jiménez, cantantes máximos de esa calaña musical, lo mismo que con sus compañeras y compañeros.

Otra dimensión de esta obra impar que merece mención es el estilo pulido de escribir. El autor utiliza sustantivos, verbos y auxiliares fuera de lo común y apropiados por supuesto. Las descripciones de sus personajes son de maravilla y sus retratos del desierto se puede decir que son mágicos, lo cual merece respeto porque siendo hombre trabajador, solamente logró un título de maestro de secundaria y, no obstante, fue galardonado en su país y fuera.

—

This book is about the prostitutes who brightened up the days of the nitrate workers in the north of Chile in the 1950’s. I can say that the work reflects a close knowledge of the women who tended the men who, in turn, devoted themselves to digging saltpeter from the merciless Atacama Desert. We are led to understand that the torrid condition there limited the survival of normal families and attracted only single men who paired up with their sex workers.

The author indirectly leads us to appreciate the compassionate role that these women exercised in relation to their men-clients, an approach that went beyond the simply lustful and libidinous, the desert’s isolation helping the reader understand this type of connection. It is likely that this knowledge is due to the fact that the author himself lived in these desert communities for many years, all of which gives the work a fairly authentic and sensitive tone. Also, I found the nicknames that the author attaches to these women and their customers both touching and hilarious: La Pan Con Queso, La Cama de Piedra, La Ambulancia, and, of course, La Reina Isabel, and others. The author’s use of humor and irony is also noteworthy.

The author’s employment of the cancion ranchera theme, included in the book title, caught my eye because I am a fan of this musical genre. In the story, the Reina Isabel and her fellow prostitutes and the men they served verily enjoyed the cancion ranchera, a fact that served to confirm in my mind the exceptional preference that this musical genre enjoyed beyond the Mexican borders. I was very amused to read that the Reina herself and her companions, took pleasure in the songs by Cuco Sánchez and José Alfredo Jiménez, for example, also my favorites.

Another dimension of this unique work deserving mention is the polished writing style. The use of uncommon nouns, verbs and adjectives is striking and convincing. The descriptions of his characters are marvelous, and his portraits of the desert are magical, something that deserves respect in my view because the author was more of a working man, reportedly, who earned only a teaching credential yet was awarded prized recognition in his country and abroad. Good job in my view. There is no English translation as yet.

A CHINESE CITY IN SOUTH VIETNAM, A BOOK REVIEW

De Poncin, Gontran. From a Chinese City in the Heart of Peacetime Vietnam (Palo Alto: Trackless Sands Press, 1957) tr., pp. 256.  “A portrait of a civilization,” wrote the editors of The New Yorker. And right they were. This is a wonderful travel account by a gifted writer, in French, translated into English. “A French traveler describes “the spirit of ancient China” as it is manifested in a city in South Vietnam.

The Chinese city in question is Cholon, a small urb near Saigon in 1955, now it’s Chinatown. It was mentioned many times during the Vietnam war and here it is delightfully described in its pre-war condition. It is only in the last chapter that the author includes war time events by describing the arrival of bombings and other acts of a guerrilla-driven conflict which, in this case, marked the struggles against French colonial forces. U.S. involvement beginning about ten years later cost millions more lives including those of thousands of American soldiers.

The main topic of the book, however, is not the war but the people of Cholon. The author, a dedicated traveler-journalist-sketch artist, describes and sketches the people of Cholon, a Chinese enclave. In order to provide the best possible description and explanation he takes residence in a hotel there and slowly immerses himself ever more deeply and studies the language and the culture at the same time.

Even though I am not an expert on China but having read many other travel accounts for other parts of the world I concluded that De Poncin’s work comes very close to an anthropological and sociological account of the people he encountered: waiters and waitresses, bartenders, hotel managers, rickshaw and taxi drivers, prostitutes, professionals of various sorts, and so on. His descriptions and narrations are nothing less than exceptional for their detailed portrayals, all aided by his selected sketches. He concludes that the Chinese population of Cholon, at this time, were representative not only of Chinese people in general but, more importantly, Chinese society before the rise of Communist China.

The Moor’s Last Sigh, a book review

Rushdie, Salman. The Moor’s Last Sigh (New York: Vintage International 1995) pp. 434.

I got tired of the author’s writing, famous though he may be, so I did not finish this book.

It is the story of a dynasty of Indian traders from the Malabar Coast of India beginning sometime in the late 1800s. 

The pages I read are so filled with the narrator’s ancestors’ psychopathic relationships that they became tiring for me; the narrator is the Moor. He describes his grandparents and their two sons in a way that reminded me of the old Charley Chaplin movies mixed with doses of maniacal magical realism some of which lightened the text a bit, but not enough.

Rushdie’s writing also vexed me because he writes sentences that are excessively long, filled with parenthetical thoughts and/or complex verbal embroidering. And his style is snooty, high literary. I bet the reviewers who gushed over The Moor’s Last Sigh didn’t stay to the end either. But I admit he is regarded as one of the best writers of our time and a very controversial one too, but I think he is overrated.

A MULATA SLAVE GIRL GOES FROM HAITI TO NEW ORLEANS, A BOOK REVIEW

Allende, Isabel. La isla bajo el mar (New York: Vintage Español, 2010) pp. 511. See English below.

Fácilmente esta es una de las mejores lecturas que he hecho recientemente. La portada de este libro anuncia que la autora es “una de las narradoras mas populares de nuestro tiempo” y yo lo confirmo.

La autora nos ofrece la historia de Zarité, una esclava mulata traída como niña a la isla de St. Domingue ahora conocida como Haití donde crece y sirve a Toulouse Valmorain, un finquero francés que le da un hijo y una hija. Los detalles que pintan el mundo de Zarité como esclava sobresalen ante mis ojos porque los encuentros históricamente auténticos. Esto incluye el papel que matiza la autora acerca de los esclavos cañeros dirigidos por un agrio capataz y el rol de las mujeres esclavas curanderas.

La relación entre dueño y esclava antecede la revolución haitiana que sabemos fue provocada por la revolución francesa. En todo caso, logran sobrevivir el caos sangriento y el desgobierno consecuente. Y como miles de finqueros de azúcar y esclavos, Valmorain traslada sus bienes y su familia a Cuba y después a Nueva Orleans incluyendo a Zarité.

Alli Valmorain establece una nueva plantación de azúcar y esclavos pero diferente a la que tenía en Haití. Las relaciones entre dueños y esclavos, por ejemplo, sufren ajustes requeridos por la esclavitud norteamericana que resulta un poco menos malvada que la versión haitiana. Allende nos ofrece también excelentes detalles de lo que fue la esclavitud en Luisiana.

La isla bajo el mar es nada menos que un tesoro literario debido a la historia humana que presenta y además está bien preparado y escrito, fácil de leer. [May 2022]

Allende, Isabel. Isla bajo el mar (New York: Vintage Spanish, 2010) pp. 511. This is easily some of the best reading I’ve done recently. The cover of this book announces that the author is “one of the most popular storytellers of our time” and I confirm it. The English language version is known as Island Beneath the Sea. I read the Spanish version.

The author brings us the story of Zarité, a slave mulatta brought as a child to the island of St. Domingue, now known as Haiti, where she grows up and serves Toulouse Valmorain, a French plantation owner, who gives her a son and a daughter. The details that sketch out Zarité’s slave world stand out in my opinion because they appear historically authentic to me. This includes the living and working conditions of the slaves who cut sugarcane driven by a testy foreman and the merciful role of female slave healers.

The relationship between Valmorain and Zarité predates the Haitian revolution which we know was triggered by the French revolution. In any case, they manage to survive the bloody chaos of the revolution and the consequent misrule. And like thousands of other sugar slave owners, Valmorain moves his family and everything he owns to Cuba and later to New Orleans, including Zarité. There he establishes a new sugar slave plantation. However, the relations between everyone, including owners and slaves, are subject to adjustments required by an American slavery system that turns out to be a little less evil than the Haitian version.

Isla bajo el mar is nothing less than a literary treasure because it offers a story of human relations which is also well-written, easy to read.

HOW THE SPANISH INQUISITION WORKED, A BOOK REVIEW

Aguinis, Marcos. La gesta del marrano. Una novela (New York: Vintage Español, 2020), pp. 680. See Spanish below. This Argentine writer offers us the best explanation I know of about how the Spanish inquisition worked, at least in seventeenth-century South America. It is published in English as Against the Inquisition.

Lest we forget, the Spanish Inquisition was the Catholic Church’s mechanism to weed out non-believers. It was an agency inside the church filled with white cloaked monks who venerated St. Dominic—Dominicans. The church rulers were so filled with arrogance that they openly maligned people to the point of burning them at the stake. It started in Spain in 1478, and it spread to the new world—Latin America.

The word marrano carries a heavy meaning in this book. It is an uncouth word for pig. In imperial Spain the word was used to refer to Jews who declared themselves Christian but practiced their faith covertly; they were also known as crypto-Jews. Marrano became a dirty word.

The author characterizes La gesta as no more than a novel, but the reader slowly realizes that it is a well-founded biography magnified with pertinent novelized details.

The main character in this work is Francisco Maldonado da Silva, a Jew of flesh and blood who lived in Chile, Argentina and Peru until the year 1639, apparently the first doctor in the land of Bernardo O’Higgins.

The author examines the life of the Chilean doctor to offer us unexpected details about the ill-advised cruelty that Dominican monks unleashed on thousands of individuals through their infamous inquisition. The group of people who served as a target for their multiple forms of torture was the Jews and Francisco seems to have served the white cloaked friars as the patron of the Jews, or the model offender, or the ideal marrano to justify breaking him—or rather burning him.

La gesta del marrano chronicles Francisco’s survival against a siege that the so-called Christian fathers placed on him almost his entire life until he could not take it any longer—all because he insisted on saying, this is me, not what you want me to be. He had the audacity to identify himself before the inquisitor judges as a Jew who was faithful to his religious and cultural values ​​instead of repenting like others. For this he died in a bonfire in the central square of Lima, Peru.

I delight in reading about the lives of other people, especially when they are interwoven with worthwhile historical information or cultural explanations. The length of this work required patience and dedication, but it was worth it.

—

Este escritor argentino nos ofrece la mejor explicación de cómo funcionaba la inquisición española, por lo menos en la América del Sur del siglo diecisiete.

No olvidemos que la Inquisición española fue el mecanismo de la Iglesia Católica para eliminar a los no creyentes. Era una agencia dentro de la iglesia llena de monjes de túnicas blancas que veneraban a Santo Domingo, eran dominicanos. Los gobernantes de la iglesia estaban tan llenos de la arrogancia contra la que predicaban que ellos abiertamente calumniaron a sospechosos hasta el punto de quemarlos en la hoguera. Comenzó en España y se extendió al nuevo mundo—a América Latina.

El autor caracteriza La gesta no más que una novela, pero el lector se da cuenta poco a poco que se trata de una biografía bien fundada y amplificada con detalles pertinentes novelizados.

El protagonista de esta obra es Francisco Maldonado da Silva, un judío de carne y hueso que vivió en Chile, Argentina y Perú hasta el año 1639, aparentemente el primer médico de la tierra de Bernardo O’Higgins.

El autor examina la vida del medico chileno para ofrecernos detalles inesperados acerca de la crueldad desacertada que los monjes dominicanos desataron a miles de individuos por medio de su infame inquisición. El grupo que sirvió de blanco para sus múltiples formas de tortura fueron los judíos y Francisco parece haber servido a los frailes como el patrón de los judíos o el infractor paradigmático o el marrano ideal para justificar quebrarlo, o mejor dicho quemarlo.

La gesta del marrano es la crónica de la sobrevivencia que Francisco logró a pesar del asedio que los padrecitos dizque cristianos le impusieron casi toda su vida hasta que no pudo más, por el solo hecho de decir, este soy yo, no lo que ustedes quieren que sea. Tuvo la osadía de identificarse ante los jueces inquisidores como un judío fiel a sus valores religiosos y culturales en vez de arrepentirse y por eso murió en una hoguera prendida en la plaza central de Lima, Perú.

Me deleita leer sobre las vidas de otras gentes especialmente cuando se presentan entretejidas de momentos históricos o explicaciones culturales que valen la pena. Lo largo de esta obra requirió paciencia y dedicación, pero valió la pena.

The Case of Pablo Neruda, a book review

Ampuero, Roberto. El Caso Neruda (Bogotá: La otra orilla, 2008). Esta obra es sustanciosa y está bien escrita, toda una novela histórica trazada con tino y consideración al sujeto. (Ver inglés abajo.) Existe versión en inglés.

El autor chileno, con muchos galardones, ofrece un excelente esbozo de la vida del gran poeta chileno, Pablo Neruda, desde una perspectiva que le cabe muy bien: sus relaciones con las mujeres que lo inspiraron. Cuando menos la página del Contenido nos guía con sus nombres: Josie, María Antonieta, Delia, Matilde y Trinidad.

El armazón literario es la ristra de descubrimientos que hace un joven cubano a quien el poeta le asigna la responsabilidad detectivesca de encontrar una de sus exmujeres que tuvo una hija con él. Moribundo quiere terminar asegurándose de haber tenido un vástago.

Es más, Ampuero, avala el relato principal con un telón de fondo fidedigno, históricamente, de lo que yo conozco: el golpe de estado contra el presidente Salvador Allende. Sus descripciones de las calles de Santiago y Valparaíso a medida que avanzaban los soldados golpistas en el momento que agoniza el poeta son aterradoras incluso hasta hoy día. Esta combinación le otorga a la novela un sentido trágico doble, el del poeta que muere lentamente y la inmolación del presidente y de su gobierno.

Según Ampuero, los dos hombres eran amigos y mueren sin ver el fruto de sus anhelos.

—

This work is solid and well written. It is a historical novel indisputably, one that portrays its sensitive subject matter with care and consideration. An English language version is available.

The Chilean author, an award-winning prose writer, offers an excellent sketch of the life of Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, from a perspective that fits him very well, I think: his relationships with the women who inspired him. At minimum, the table of contents guides us with their names: Josie, Marie Antoinette, Delia, Matilde, and Trinidad.

The literary framework is a string of discoveries unveiled by a young man, a Cuban, to whom Neruda assigns a detective-like responsibility: locating one of his former lovers who gave birth to his daughter. On his deathbed he wants to go down making sure he had progeny.

Moreover, the author, strengthens the story with a historically reliable background as I know it to be, the coup against President Salvador Allende. His descriptions of the streets of Santiago and Valparaiso as the insurrectional soldiers get underway, and as the poet comes to an end, are frightening even to this day. This combination of Neruda’s yearnings and Allende’s martyrdom provides the novel with a double tragedy: the poet who dies slowly and Allende who comes to a violent end along with his government.

According to Ampuero, the two men were friends and they die without realizing their aspirations.

YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS MIGHT NULLIFY YOUR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024

YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS MIGHT NULLIFY YOUR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024 IF TRUMP AND HIS REPUBLICAN ALLIES GET THEIR WAY.

How would they do that?

Right now, for presidential elections, the U.S. Constitution directs each state to appoint electors to the Electoral College who then vote for president and vice president. The vote of the College makes the results of the election official. The historical practice has been that the Electoral College electors vote for the candidates who earned the highest votes in each state. President Biden won both the votes of the Electoral College and the popular vote in 2020.

Trump and his allies want to change this. They want to nullify the popular vote. In other words, your vote would not count. This is the kind of guy he is.

Trump and his cronies would pressure as many state legislatures as possible to appoint electors who in 2024 would vote for Donald Trump or his designee instead of the candidates with the highest votes. More broadly, this would convert state legislators as the true electors of our president and vice president which means that our collective popular vote would no longer count.

How would Trump achieve this openly anti-democratic maneuver that would kill democracy in America?

According to the January 2022 issue of The Atlantic, Donald Trump has organized a band of his lawyers to promote the so-called “’independent state legislature’ doctrine” if the 2024 election produces a draw. The idea is to give his lawyers the opportunity to argue the matter in front of the Supreme Court where it would wind up in a draw. The author of The Atlantic article believes Chief Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas would support the move. That’s four out of nine. Barrett could possibly do the same. That would make five out of nine. A majority.

If the national vote is not quite a draw, Trump and his allies stand ready to deny the validity of the 2024 vote just as they continue doing with the 2020 vote and they could mount another assault on Congress like January 6th.

If the “independent state legislature doctrine” succeeds it would mean that American democracy based on the popular vote would come to an end and we would begin an era of some form of American dictatorship.

See The Atlantic article in the link below. Its subtitle is: “Donald Trump is Better Positioned to Subvert an Election Now Than He Was in 2020.”

It is a lengthy, very sobering, and frightening piece written by Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize author. You will find the key segment from which I drew my words above on page 24 where it begins with the words, “Amid all this Ferment…” FYI, The Atlantic stood against slavery when it was founded in Boston in 1857, before Abraham Lincoln became president.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/

Let’s not forget that a second Trump administration would further attack the FBI, the CIA, America’s judicial system, promote abortion bans, seek the end of Affordable Care (Obamacare), intensify anti-immigration policies, continue to encourage racism, weaken our relationship with Europe, return to mollifying Russia, further provoke China, neglect global warming and knuckle down the Pentagon.