As troubling as Trump’s non-response was when Chris Wallace confronted him with an opportunity to speak out against white supremacy, did anyone really expect a different outcome?

A made-for-TV moment that Wallace was most likely hoping would be a feather in his cap turned out to be a real “moment” for a different reason—Trump wasn’t going to take that bait and concede anything. He wasn’t going to let someone put words in his mouth.

What he ended up doing instead was legitimizing a hate group, fanning flames and paving the way for things to get really ugly around and after November 3.

Regarding the presidential debate…

Why bother?

Let’s declare everyone- participants and viewers- losers. I can’t see how declaring a “winner” means anything when there’s nothing but loudness and shouting going on. Partisans will declare winners, but I can’t imagine most people learned anything they didn’t already know— Joe Biden is a decent guy and Donald Trump is a bullying asshole. You’d think by now most will have had their fill of him.

It’s pretty clear that Trump’s intent is to make a shambles of ground rules and decorum. If this is what his supporters have meant by him shaking things up, then they have it all wrong.

Donald Trump, of all people, doesn’t get to be the one who throws out the rule book. In fact, no one does.

As a close acquaintance suggests, just interview the candidates one-on-one and see if they can elaborate on their platforms in a manner that actually helps. Or turn their mics off after two minutes if they’re just gonna yell and interrupt.

If a person seems most suited for operating in the midst of chaos, what might we learn about his fitness to lead, or his intentions? We shouldn’t be impressed with Donald Trump’s ability to stand mostly upright and function in the midst of all that is going on right now. We should be alarmed by it, because he’s causing much of it, or at least allowing it to flourish.

He either plants or allows seeds of doubt to be planted, then fertilizes them with his endless tweets and the steady stream of empty and troubling verbiage that emanates from the front of his contorted and bitter countenance. He and the shadowy figures wanting him to stay in power have created a situation where many people are being convinced of the pandemic’s use only as a political tool to be wielded against him. In related news, a picture in the paper this morning showed a crowd in London demonstrating against virus restrictions, with someone holding a sign that read, “The reason why the UK is getting a second wave is because it fits the political agenda and narrative.”

First of all, kudos for fitting a complete sentence on a demonstration placard. But really? It couldn’t be that the virus is enjoying a resurgence because people are buying this line of propaganda, and acting as if covid-19 doesn’t exist? Kool-aid consumed.

If this alternate reality attitude is widespread enough, then there is little hope for us. For many, there is no such thing as reason or logic, or trusting people who make their life’s work dealing in measurable and quantifiable facts.

Donald Trump and Co. don’t like such facts. Facts aren’t useful to them unless they can be twisted and weaponized.

So the concept of herd immunity has taken hold among Always Trumpers, including Scott Atlas, the radiologist now in charge of the Coronavirus task force. This country really is skydiving without a parachute.

From what can be observed, it would seem the President is quadrupling down on his decision to downplay the severity of the virus and going with the “easy” route of just letting it take its course through the population. Driven by his obsession with bolstering the economy, he has consciously chosen to take the heartless course of action that will, with no shadow of a doubt, continue to cause untold, unimaginable, unfathomable, unnecessary loss and grief.

This is what good leadership looks like? How on earth can there be anywhere near enough people still willing to vote for this monster? How can polls tell us that things are close and getting closer?

Do the mindless, brainless numbnuts who show up at his rallies have even a whiff of a clue of what it means to take this route to immunity? Are they really willing to watch their neighbors and family members suffer or die- or risk getting sick themselves- just so they can remain “free” of government interference and the heinous inconvenience of wearing a fucking mask?

They’re all idiots. Every one of ’em. No matter how smart they might otherwise claim to be.

Amy Coney Barrett.

Already, the mere mention of the name conjures that running gag in Young Frankenstein. She sounds like the perfect fit for the Republican dream of a conservative court, and the perfect nightmare for progressives. She’s presumed to already be in the President’s pocket, the missing piece that will secure the votes needed to strike down the ACA, repeal Roe v Wade, turn the clock back on environmental regulation, and potentially pave the way for a stolen election and Trump’s second term. Who knows? They may even feel emboldened to repeal the Equal Rights Amendment.

And by virtue of all of this, return us to the 1950s. A grand minority vision for the majority, courtesy of the Grim Reaper.

If the whole nomination and confirmation process gets fast-tracked before the election or even before Jan. 20, 2021, then even if Democrats by some miracle secure both chambers and the presidency, damage will already have been done. And the spiral of revenge tactics will continue, with pushes for statehood for D.C. and maybe Puerto Rico, and additional justices for the SC.

The bad blood and retribution, doing and undoing, are never going to stop. Pent up Covid craziness will erupt, along with all the other reasons people are pissed off, and this country will explode with unrest and violence, the likes of which will make this past summer and 1968-70 look like child’s play.

If Trump is somehow able to secure a second term, we can say goodbye to the Great Experiment. At the very least, America will be rendered unrecognizable for decades to come.

Cue the neighing sound.

There are no leaders among them, just followers and opportunists. They refuse to stand up to Trump because… they see nothing off about him? What more do they need to see?

Are they operating on the notion that Democrats are merely still sore about 2016, their concern just thinly veiled sour grapes? 

McConnell and Co. are willfully ignoring the signs, apparently ok with putting up with this tyrant so they can keep their jobs, wield the power. It seems criminal now.

Are the people at Fox News as alarmed as Rachel Maddow? I should probably gird my loins and tune in, just long enough to see if there is any trace of concern over what Trump has been saying lately about ballots and a peaceful transition of power.

I feel like maybe we’re headed off a cliff. Trump is as bad as his niece says he is. He’s evil and maniacal, not well, and he’s going to fight tooth and nail to stay in office, even if he is voted out.

And if this is all just an act? We shouldn’t have to put up with such insanely erratic, destabilizing behavior.

It’s hard to believe that overshadowing all of this is over 200,000 deaths from coronavirus. But maybe this is how Trump and his entourage want it to be played. Say crazy things about the election to take the focus off a staggering death toll? Seems plausible. Anything seems plausible anymore, including a Supreme Court vacancy filled in record time for a ruling on a “contested” election.

Will anyone on the Republican side finally wake up and say “This is nuts!?” Finally recognize the gravity and put a stop to this death train that is the Trump administration?    

I’m tired of Kayleigh McEnany’s snide cockiness. I’m tired of Bill Barr’s infuriating smugness, and that of others in the Trump orbit, as if they hold all the cards, are untouchable, somehow above reproach. They are ripe for a comeuppance, a day of reckoning.

In the Trump administration, alternate realities are the order of the day, lying is profligate, and what many of us are seeing with our own eyes and hearing with perfectly good ears is somehow… not real?

It appears that it’s ever only a matter of who can come up with the best words, spin the best yarn. Truth be damned. 

Everything is too loud. There is no civil tone. We’re all shouting at each other. To really get our attention, we need that sound of sheer silence.    

What is troubling about the push to fill the SC vacancy is that it has such huge implications for legislation and policy that a majority of us agree with and many benefit from.

This is what is so maddening- that a minority viewpoint will hold sway potentially for a generation or longer. Largely old, white, narrow-minded Old Testament Republicans are wielding power to make impactful decisions for the majority. Legislating morality, dictating the direction they and their small-minded constituents think the country should be going.

Our only recourse is to vote the dinosaurs out in November, so we don’t end up reliving the 1950s. 

It seems we are a nation stuck in a vortex of anger and revenge, which one might rightly think is unsustainable.