TO UNDERLINE THE POTENTIAL CIVIL DAMAGE THAT CAN RESULT from continuing our present presidential leadership, I note the following crucial bulletin:

“County Official In Missouri Calls Obama ‘Domestic Enemy’ — But Then Says She Bears ‘No Ill Intent’,” by Darrell Lucus, Oct. 16:

“The Republican recorder of deeds in Jefferson County, Missouri is in full damage control mode after word got out that she called for President Obama to be overthrown by the military because he was a ‘domestic enemy.’

“Debbie Dunnegan is one of only two elected Republican county officials in Jefferson County, a mostly suburban county south of St. Louis. Last week, Progress Missouri noticed that Dunnegan took to Facebook and made this post:

“‘I have a question for all my friends who have served or are currently serving in our military … having not put on a uniform nor taken any type (of) military oath, there has to be something that I am just not aware of. But I cannot and do not understand why no action is being taken against our domestic enemy. I know he is supposedly the commander in chief, but the Constitution gives you the authority. What am I missing? Thank you for your bravery and may God keep you safe.’”

And three cheers for a true patriot unafraid to face reality and demand action! Surely it is long past time for this nation to face that reality and to take that action … whatever is required! Perhaps the first step following the coup might be to abolish the Democratic Party … and perhaps elections, too, for that matter — only temporarily, of course, until our troops can secure Washington, install a white patriot and settle things down!

“I first found out about this,” Lucas continues, “via an email blast from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the campaign arm that works to elect more Democrats to state legislatures. I have to admit, I thought it was snark. I know that there is a certain element on the fringe that doesn’t think any Democratic president is legitimate. But to openly call for a coup? I thought that would be a bridge too far for a Republican elected official, no matter how much tea that he or she has swilled.

“Dunnegan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it was all a big misunderstanding — or as she put it, something ‘innocent and simple (that) got twisted into a disaster.’ She said she bears ‘no ill intent toward the president’” — hey just kidding, big fella! — “and that she was merely asking her military friends about the oath they took when they joined the service. Apparently Dunnegan has a very short memory. Remember, she referred to Obama as ‘our domestic enemy,’ and said that the Constitution ‘gives you the authority’ to overthrow him. If she seriously thinks anyone who read that rant will believe she bore ‘no ill intent’ when she made that post, there’s a bridge in St. Louis I’d like to sell you.

“Almost as telling is the deafening silence on this from prominent Missouri Republicans. I searched for any comment on this from Senator Roy Blunt, Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, and the five Republicans in Missouri’s House delegation. Absolutely nothing. … You’d have thought that somebody in the GOP would have spoken out against this outrageous statement. Unfortunately, no one has so far. I knew the level of civility had dropped to an all-time low in this country. But apparently it’s sunken even lower than even I suspected.

“… If Dunnegan has anything left in her, she will resign and give up her bid for re-election. This kind of talk is simply not acceptable, regardless of party affiliation. And I’d be saying the same thing if it were a Democrat calling for the military overthrow of a Republican president.”

But hey, now, you’re not totally closing off that option in case the 2016 election goes sour? Surely there are limits to forbearance! A Republican president!?

Next internal rumble: “South Miami is so fed up with climate inaction, it just voted to secede from Florida,” subtitled, “As the nation’s 51st state, ‘South Florida’ would address climate threats head-on,” by Lindsay Abrams, Salon.com, Oct. 22:

“It’s come to this: pissed off at the state government’s lack of concern about climate change and frightened by the very real threat it’s facing from sea level rise, the city of South Miami has made moves to secede from the rest of Florida.

“This is a real, serious proposal, and it recently passed the South Miami City Commission with a 3-2 vote. The new state would consist of Florida’s 23 southern counties and would go by the name South Florida. Becoming its own, separate political entity, the city commission members explain, would allow it to devote its full attention to taking climate change seriously.

“The ‘situation is very precarious and in need of immediate attention,’ the resolution reads, noting that many areas of South Florida are as low as 5 feet above sea level, putting them within the range of the projected 3 to 6 feet of sea level rise over the next century. North Florida, on the other hand, has an average elevation of 100 feet above sea level, leaving that half of the state unsympathetic to their plight. The creation of a new state, it argues, is therefore necessary to ‘the very survival of the entire southern region of the current state of Florida.’

“The resolution notes, as well, that this lack of attention to South Florida’s needs comes despite the fact that the region generates more than 69 percent of the state’s revenue and contains 67 percent of its population. South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard was even more explicit in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel: ‘It’s very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean,’ he said. ‘They’ve made that abundantly clear every possible opportunity and I would love to give them the opportunity to do that.’

“Oh, and they’d be taking Disney World with them.” (Oh my God, not that! Is there no mercy or justice in the hearts of those folks?)

“The irony, alas, is that even if this admittedly far-fetched proposal never comes to fruition, it’s possible we’ll lose the southernmost tip of Florida.”

And so it goes in these (occasionally) disunited states of America!

Jerome Page is a Benicia resident.