Last night I had a dream that the votes were retallied in the middle of the night, and Kamala Harris was declared President. I awoke to a TV news reporter explaining that a miscalculation in the election results had been corrected. Due to concerns about violence or insurrection following the correction, journalists informed us there would be no further speculation on the nature of the error or the way it was handled.

Later it was announced that in the interest of national safety, President Biden signed an emergency order to prohibit all political rallies and protests until 20 January. Citizens who failed to comply with the orders would be subject to fines and penalties, placed on a “no fly” list and investigated for ties to domestic terrorism. Subversive materials on social media would be reported to the appropriate agencies to investigate.

I picked up my phone and checked Facebook. While most of my friends rejoiced that the Trump-supporting MAGAts were defeated (i.e., democracy had prevailed), my conservative friends who voted for Trump were uncharacteristically silent about the news. So, I created a post of my own. But when I went to submit it, Facebook/Meta informed me that my account was locked from posting or commenting. Reasons cited were concerns about public safety and the spread of dis-information.

With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I closed the app and opened my e-mail. There I discovered a message from the neighborhood HOA that political yard signs and flags were being removed by the community patrol, and that residents should not interfere with this process. It was also recommended that American flags be removed from public view, pending an association meeting on the provocative nature of such flags.

Just before I woke up, there was a knock at my front door.

What a wild dream. That kind of thing would never happen in this country.