Yesterday three barometers that sample the health, the wealth, and the prospects for human justice fell. The Novel Coronavirus spread outward from China in all directions toward an unknown toll on humanity; the wealth of nations fell significantly as world markets were rattled downward; and the soul of liberty and justice took a battering as timidity and cowardice carried the day in the United States Senate. At least 213 people have died from the coronavirus while the World Health Organization declared a global emergency; the direction of impeachment for President Trump took a sharp turn away from justice; and major markets around the world plunged in response to all of the day’s news. Most notably, the United States, heretofore the enshrined home for freedom and justice, moved incrementally in the direction of totalitarianism. All in all, today ushered in a host of reasons for recalibrating our resolve, while patriots from near and far issued their calls for action that history has awakened within us. It is a time that once again will try humanity’s souls.

The parliamentarian Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Today, for the first time in our history, 51 U.S. Republican Senators did nothing when called upon to allow evidence and witnesses to come before the impeachment tribunal and answer questions about the conduct of President Trump. It was enough to stop the impeachment trial in its tracks. His acquittal is now a mere formality. His 16,446 lies of the past three years will mount to soaring new heights as the campaign for re-election heats up. Our sensibilities will be assaulted again and again as he takes credit for positive economic news that he did nothing to advance; for renewable energy sources that he has tried to halt; for educational opportunities that he has thwarted; for climate change that he has denied; and for health care that he has shut down for the sick, the poor, and the disadvantaged—all tasks too big for the narrow-minded cult leader of timid little men and women.

If my calculations are correct, the odds of his 2016 presidential win were about 200 to 1 that it was rigged with the help of Vladimir Putin and his gang of monarchs. That issue remains at the heart of the matter for us, the 75 percent of Americans who want to see Trump defeated this coming November. Our flawed electoral system, created to preserve slavery, needs to be replaced by the actual vote count of the people. Until that happens, we need to support candidates—tried and true —who respect life liberty and equality. No more puppets who dance to the tune of plutocrats. We need to vote in large numbers, come what may. And we need to reject propaganda from any source.

Make no mistake, propaganda is evil, pervasive, and effective. It is the composite activities of ideologues hellbent on serving up mountains of lies, deceit, and misdirection to an unsuspecting public. Its medium goes beyond television, although that is still its main venue for infiltrating minds. Others include social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and more sources that find ways to deliver false, misleading, and dumb-downed drivel to unsuspecting carriers. My only “device” is a cell phone. I use it only to place calls. I do not answer incoming calls with it. The "mute" button on my television remote control is second only to the "off" button for effective blocking of messages that my mind does not want or need. In the words of a former television detective, “it works for me.”

Voting used to be a civic duty. Now it is our best hope for survival.