The dissonance comes as I look at the vehicles people are driving to the food banks. Maybe one of the reasons folks are low on funds is because many are driving vehicles or living in houses they can’t actually afford.

They may not have much money, but they have some sweet wheels.

Paycheck to paycheck. No margin for error. Inadequate contingency funds. Just a razor thin buffer between getting by and disaster. Along with a buy-in of the rotten, detestable mantra about having it all and having it now.

How different might things be at this point if there had been a more aggressive, competent pandemic response from the beginning?

Shorter food and testing lines? Fewer funerals? Less grumbling and whining about restrictions? Would hospitals and their staffs be crying “uncle” as frequently as they are now?

A proper response from Trump and his cronies might have paved the way for a second term, though.

So, will Trump and the minions be prosecuted over the next four years? Biden doesn’t seem too interested in that pre-occupation. Keith Olbermann, on the other hand, does. Vociferously.

One could argue that he makes some salient points. I just wish much of what he says isn’t said at the top of his lungs. It’s max volume, most of the time. Makes him come across as just another loud, slightly crazed talking head.

If he could say pretty much the same thing with an inside voice, maybe it would be more effective.

Often times I don’t really know what I’m talking about. This space is an outlet for giving voice to feelings and opinions that aren’t always informed by facts. It’s sometimes a place I come just to vent my anger and frustration.

When it comes to Donald Trump, I often feel that despite the attention he gets and the noise he makes, he is ultimately inconsequential and destined for the bone pile of history– once people make the effort to really listen to him and take a closer look. He is one of the few people in such lofty public office who has hardly ever said anything truly meaningful or edifying. He is an empty suit who somehow made it all the way to the White House. Nothing more than a conduit for other peoples’ dimness and sickness and anger.

He appeals to a certain white demographic that feels unnoticed and unheard, and threatened by the country’s changing complexion. These are the ones who propelled him to Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s no small number, and they can yet do damage, with their mindless buy-in of cockamamie conspiracy theories, their gullibility and ignorance, and their reluctance to embrace the changes. Their numbers will eventually wane, but not anytime soon.

When Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20, it will be a good day for many. But the MAGA crowd will still exist. They will still be a force to reckon with. They will be more than willing to fall in behind anyone who speaks their anachronistic language, or feeds their fears.

There are rumblings of Trump returning for another run in 2024 (as an Independent?), because he craves the attention and will always be motivated by a need to save face, along with an inability to handle defeat. His presence has and will always have nothing to do with a hopeful vision for the country. It will always just be Trump saying “Look at me.” Maybe that should have been the slogan on those damned red hats, accompanied by a picture of Trump and his shit-eating grin.

“Make America Great Again”? That was never going to happen. You didn’t even come close, Donald. You couldn’t. You just didn’t care. You’re incapable of caring.

And let’s face it– as slogans go, that one really sucks. It’s vague and uninspired, and has no real-world resonance.

We certainly are a fallen humanity.

Sin, or inescapable brokenness- whatever we want to call it- creeps in, manifests itself in endless ways. The gap between ideal and real will always remain. We will continue to elect people who promise real solutions to real problems but end up getting distracted and delivering something far less. It’s like they promise the world just to get elected or something…

What’s currently happening in Washington is no longer just painful to watch. It’s scary, because Trump’s reach and influence appear to be growing. More people seem to be coming under his spell, seem to be willing to bend to his desires. He’s playing the long game, he appears to have a plan. He is intent on wearing people down, intent on stealing the election from an actual majority of Americans.

He is a hateful and hate-filled person, motivated by a fear of losing, by a need for vengeance, by a need to stay out of jail. Motivated by all the wrong things. Someone must put a stop to this guy and the mindless bots around him.

Where are we heading with all this?

The litany of accusations and wrongdoing seems endless, though it’s obvious that none of this matters to Trump. If anything, he thrives on our anger and disenchantment. He enjoys having enemies, having someone to badmouth and gripe about, someone to try to piss off.

The thing is, how can we continue to put up with this, even for another 60 days or so? When has this nation ever seen such ice cold negligence and hell-bent self-preservation from its President?

No need to wait until January 20. With a different mindset among congressional leadership, we could be looking at calling the 25^th Amendment into play right now.

What is Donald Trump doing, if not behaving like a spoiled brat? And let’s add evil, detached, deranged, cornered rat.

The fact that he’s STILL got 72 million people eating out of his hand is mindblowing and frightening. It’s obvious that he doesn’t care a bit about the country or those who for some reason still support him.

He’s totally ignoring the ravages of a pandemic, crying over an election loss, risking a descent into hellish chaos, and 72 million people are ready to go there with him? This can’t be happening.

But it is.

How can Republican members of Congress continue to walk on eggshells around the Toddler-in-Chief? How spineless can these people get?

I get that they’re looking out for their own political futures. But maybe they wake up some morning very soon and decide to throw caution to the wind. They decide they just won’t cower anymore. They take the power away from the son of a bitch in the White House, because he doesn’t warrant or deserve it.

Take your honor back, Mitch and Lindsey and the rest. Stand for something other than sham religious piety and whiteness. Or are you too far gone, too?

America is quite ill.

Looks like maybe the chink in Trump’s armor turned out to be his own ego. No surprise there.

His handling of the pandemic may have been the biggest miscue, but his general unsavoriness- his unwillingness to take advice or listen to anybody- hasn’t helped him, either. He seems to be his own worst enemy. Again, no surprise, and this is offered with just a trace of sympathy for the guy.

It’s more pleasurable than it probably should be to watch him implode, though this satisfaction is tempered greatly by knowing that all the stall tactics and whining are hurting the country, sabotaging and delaying the transition process as a pandemic rages, among other things. Trump seems intent on leaving things in as much of a mess as he can possibly orchestrate. He’s always been good at sowing chaos. But that’s bad, right?

This is absolutely nuts.

Many will look back on these days with a mix of revulsion, anger, embarrassment, and astonishment at the depravity of the person who took up space in the Oval Office for four years.

Unfortunately, his “cologne” is going to linger for awhile.