We live under the cloud of a person whose goal is to exhaust us, who demands an inordinate amount of attention, and who is forcing us to resort to attending No Kings rallies, where we must waste a portion of a perfectly good Saturday demonstrating our distaste for behavior so childish and vile and inappropriate that it boggles the mind.

He’s dangerously vindictive, full of hate, full of himself and at the same time an empty-souled vagrant wandering the halls of power. He’s at the mercy of people more legitimately crafty and evil than he is.

He has always been a spoiled, needy and deprived thug wannabe, enamored of shiny things, wielding power for power’s sake. Shallow, uncaring, unapologetic, bereft of a healthy sense of humor, indifferent to the damage he and those around him are inflicting.

He’s behaving like somebody who eventually sees the façade, all the manufactured “greatness,” come crashing to the ground.

I’ve been indulging the idyllic lately.

With everything that’s frightening and concerning going on the world, I am reveling in the sheer joy of our grandchildren’s laughter and innocence, as they go through their days mostly oblivious to ugly humans who insist on violence and power grabs and misery.

I find myself hoping they never know what the people of Ukraine have known for four years now, or what the people of Israel or southern Lebanon or Sudan or Iran have faced on a daily basis.

Their eyes will be opened over time, exposed to the burdens and challenges of an imperfect world. But for now, may they only know the great gift of parents and extended family who love and protect them, who feed their imaginations and allow them to be kids.

I’ve never totally understood why it hasn’t been more obvious to a larger number of people.

I think I’m grasping the dynamic of standing one’s ground—it’s what the different sides have been doing since Trump descended from on high. Still, over time, it surprises me that support for policies and for the person himself hasn’t eroded further than it has.

If for no other reasons than Trump’s personality and demeanor, many have thought since the outset that he would be a flash in the pan—he’s shallow, self-involved, lazy. We’ve apparently underestimated how far anger and vindictiveness could carry him, along with the racist whispering and Savior complex, and the cadre of misfits and sycophants feeding him sound bytes and offering up the daily dose of compliments and kudos that feed his narcissism. Not to mention the Playbook.

It’s been ten years of a perfect storm—even when he was out of office! Think of the army of attorneys he’s had to employ. Think of how badly he wants victory at any cost. Not victory in an unwarranted war, or over nagging domestic challenges, but victory for himself, in any form—whether it’s someone else’s Nobel Peace Prize, or putting his name on buildings, creating his own NIL scheme, tearing down a whole wing of the White House, demeaning people left and right, or in general usurping power and abusing privileges.

Policies—or lack thereof—notwithstanding, one might dare think, “How is it possible for such a vacuous, emptied-souled cretin to hold sway for so long?”

The answer lies, in no small part, in an unsettling reality: he’s had help. He’s got a largely impotent Congress, and “friends” in high places who think he’s either a business genius or a sap who’s easy to play. There’s a whole cadre of alternate universe thinkers who possess a horrifying vision for America, and they see Trump as the one through whom they can extend their reach.

He and a cadre of Republicans will denigrate Democrats for holding up funding for DHS, but the reality is that he long ago planted the seeds of peoples’ opposition to the draconian measures that have become a hallmark of this administration.

He often reaps what he sows, but he refuses to learn.

It doesn’t matter what the polls say, where public sentiment lies. Trump and Netanyahu will get their war, because war will be good for somebody’s business and take the focus off their misdeeds.

Public sentiment may lean in a totally different direction, but it hardly ever matters. We can demonstrate, make clever signage, voice our anger and discontent, then Trump will double down and try his damnedest to remove our last best hope—a blue wave in November.

Where on earth is Congress? How can Republicans still be so intentionally blind?

Congrats, Donald. Looks like you and your top-notch lieutenants—along with Benjamin Netanyahu—are angling for a world war. Armageddon finally becomes more than a word used for dramatic effect.

The Middle East is where it’s at, in terms of being a likely locale for a precipitating incident, always there to serve as perpetual flash point. This is what religion has gotten us– hate that consumes, along with spasmodic violence and misery.

Prophecy is somehow fulfilled. God observes, eventually picks a winner. And Vladimir Putin reaps the spoils. How crazy is that?

Through it all, Donald, you somehow manage to hold onto the title of Conniving Dumbass.