To borrow a line from Sully, can we get serious now? Can we possibly see a connection between escalating hostilities in Iran and the Trumpian/Heritage Foundation vision of having a reason to postpone or cancel the elections?

Maybe there’s no Iran connection, and Republicans at Trump’s goading will try to invoke the Insurrection Act because they aim to please their fearless leader and maybe are convinced that our election system is porous and riddled with fraud—even though it’s long been established that there is relatively negligible fraud.

The alarm bells should be sounding, as our own federal government appears to be testing and hinting at an increased presence of ICE agents and who-knows-who-else at polling places ahead of and on November 3.

These are desperate people now, and we need to see them for who they are and have always been—impostors and weaklings intent on sabotaging and destroying the institutions that have sustained us for a quarter of a millennium.

They’ve been loitering and taking up space long enough. It’s soon time to kick them out.

What’s to keep Republican voters—even MAGA voters—from voting to send Trump and the rest packing? What’s in the way of Republican voters simply not voting across-the-board Republican in the upcoming election?

Isn’t there potential for the trusted base and other diehard conservative voters—even in the designer, gerrymandered districts– to simply look at their options and decide they’ve had enough of the drama and lying and incompetence?

Isn’t there the potential for an awakening, a realization that Trump and the rest have no intention of addressing actual needs, that this has been, all along, an exercise in retribution and self-enrichment and that it had very little to do with actual governance? That Project 2025 has never been a blueprint for a return to “greatness” but instead a bald-faced assault on the institutions that have held us together for all these years?

What’s to keep Republican voters from confounding expectations and helping to put a stop to this seemingly interminable nightmare?

A bad news President in a time when things look to be falling apart. What a time to be alive!

The center may still be holding, but it is being stressed and challenged, especially now that Trump is desperate and the November election is getting closer. He’s scurrying and worrying, ready to turn the screws and do increasingly desperate things. We should all be ready to assist with his demise, but this depends on the validity of the ballot process and the willingness of election officials to ignore the tantrums and threats and assaults on free and fair.

The potential outcome doesn’t bode well for Republicans, so the rest of us have to raise our vigilance to a 12 out of 10 for the rest of this lead-up to November 3. Trump and his League of Assholes are going to try and take it away from us. This is what they’ve been wanting all along— an outright assault, leaving us without recourse, without options for change, without a voice. We can’t let that happen.

The Liar-in-Chief is going to squawk and blab and emit some sort of guttural mishmash from the front of the disturbing grimace that passes for a face tonight. I don’t know why anyone would want to tune in. Don’t we already know what the gist is?

He’s gonna whine and complain and accuse and try to weave some tale of woe about voter fraud and how the Save America Act will right all perceived wrongs—at least as they rattle around in his damaged brain.

He’ll drum up some irrational fear, eviscerate people in his own party, berate and demean Democrats and minorities. Maybe he’ll threaten to sign a couple more Executive Orders banning the flashing lights and arms that drop at railroad crossings when a train is coming, or traffic signals at busy intersections. It’ll be the usual parade of tactics and heavy-handed verbiage and hair-brained nonsense that we should all be treating with a grain of salt by now.

If it’s delivered in front of Congress, half the room will be standing and cheering, while the other half will be embarrassed and enraged. If it’s from the Oval Office, the gold leaf will begin to tarnish of its own volition, and the gaggle of sycophants off-camera will be flashing him thumbs up and mouthing “You’re doing great!” Or maybe they’ll be looking at the floor and questioning their life choices and wishing they had shoes that fit.

Either way, some will still find it to be Must See TV, though I’m not sure if all the networks will actually be airing it. No loss if they don’t.

We should know one thing, though: the assault on our right to vote on November 3 and beyond is likely to be kicked up a notch or three tonight.

So, the new summertime normal includes massive wildfire action in northern Minnesota and Ontario, among other places, and the smoke drifts eastward and southward.

We’re getting a dose today here in northeastern PA and it smells stronger than it did two years ago, when the sun turned red and it was unwise to spend much time outdoors.

I know some will hate to hear this, but it never used to be this way. The regularity of it should serve as a clue, don’t you think, or maybe confirmation that unwelcome change is in the air?

The agonizing, rage-inducing reality is that no one in positions of authority appears to have any intention of doing anything about this, claiming… what? It’s just a cycle, nothing to worry about, a libtard, tree-hugger’s fever dream?

Tired of this bullshit yet? Pretty soon it’ll be too late to even care.

Rachel Maddow isn’t averse to sounding the alarm. Nor does she hesitate to share signs of hope and resistance in these times when we might be wondering if America is going to survive this intentional attempt to tear it apart.

I was thinking last night that if shows and networks like hers were to go away, then that would be the last sign of the apocalypse. Nobody should wait for that to happen, though. We’ve seen enough already to be more than alarmed. We’re on to Trump and the Heritage Foundation, but the question becomes whether we can be as driven and methodical and relentless as they have been.

They are driven by hate and mistrust and greed, along with a lust for control and power. We must be driven by what they obviously consider pie-in-the-sky naivete and wishful thinking: equity, justice, compassion, patience, and the zeal for defending these things.

It’s time to gird the loins and prepare for the midterm elections, because Trump and the rest are very aware of what’s at stake, and they are not going to go gently into that good night without making things as difficult as possible for people to vote in November. They already know where national sentiment lies (most of us have had way more than enough of these lightweight incompetents and their “Christian” values) so they will be ruthless and tireless in weakening our institutions ever further and protecting their interests during the remaining months before the elections.

The stretch run is upon us, and we best sustain ourselves and each other in anticipation of the marathon that is certain to commence ahead of November 3.