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DR: I have been following your updates and the information you post regularly, and I have found you to be insightful and rational in your thoughts. I have a lot of respect for your input.

But let me say this about the political angle: Everything I'm seeing indicates that any fraud in the election process was minimal, and President Trump himself even said it was the most secure election in history. Yet, despite that, he still claims it was rigged.

Nevertheless, is it possible there is a grand left-wing conspiracy to steal the election and take Trump down? If I am to remain honest with myself and everyone else, I have to admit it's possible. To do otherwise would make me a blind believer that the system works, and I have seen too much of the system to go down that rabbit hole. The level of governmental corruption I have witnessed in my lifetime from both parties has soured my belief in America as a shining example of democracy to the rest of the world. That America no longer exists. Perhaps it never did.

One question that someone needs to answer to my satisfaction is: If Democrats truly did rig the election in their favor, why do Republicans still have control of the Senate? It seems to me that if you're going to commit a federal felony by rigging the Presidential election, it's only a small step further to rig the Senate races too. Why would they not give themselves both the White House AND Congress??? As it stands now, Democrats control the White House and the House, but Republicans still have the Senate and SCOTUS. And that means Biden will not be able to accomplish a damn thing that Republicans are all concerned about.

However, all that being said, the observation I'm going to share with you is one I have been making since summer. I honestly do not think it mattered who "won" the election - the violence you are predicting was going to happen no matter what. This country has been on a path to destroy itself from the inside out for a long time, but it really started to ramp up with the George W. Bush and Barrack Obama administrations. In my mind, that is when we crossed the point of no return and the country become so polarized that recovery is now impossible. Whether it happens this year, or in 2024 when Trump runs for a second term, or in 2028 when Democrats and Republicans both put extremist candidates in play rather than moderates, it's going to happen.

As with most conflicts, it will start with a single incident. Something will be the spark that ignites all the gasoline we've been pouring on ourselves for the past two decades, and the country will erupt and descend into total chaos. It is possible the virus is that catalyst, but that remains to be seen.

When Americans turn on Americans, this country is lost. America's enemies will have succeeded in destroying us without launching a single missile. China will most likely emerge as the new global economic and military hyperpower.

As for me, I will refuse to pick a side. The Republican and Democrat parties of today have no resemblance to the Republican and Democrat parties I grew up with, and in my mind they are both equally responsible for what is about to happen to America. I will not be party to firing on fellow Americans based on nothing more than their political ideology. That is NOT what this country is. My wife and I have contingency plans in place to weather the storm out of sight and out of mind, after which we will most likely quietly leave the country, refugees of a failed experiment 250 years in the making.

I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope people start to wake up to the fact that no matter which political party they support, they are being played by both sides. But I am not optimistic. The damage is severe and the wounds on both sides run deep.

I wish everyone here - both conservative and liberal (as well as us centrist moderates) - the best of luck in what is coming. I hope you are prepared for what's about to happen. It's going to make the American Civil War look like a minor skirmish.