We can talk about certain things with breathless vigor, as if they are consequential. Football (not the beautiful game) and auto racing come to mind, along with video games. Most sports, actually. It’s all serious business, I know, but this doesn’t mean there’s not an air of undue importance attached to all of it.

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy, sure, but does anyone else get the sense that many of us are living vicariously through someone or something else? Playing make believe and rationalizing that what we’re doing has real-world applications? Or are we just avoiding real life, content in a make-believe world where we can feel better about ourselves because we prevail in a “quest” or a board game, or our team wins a Super Bowl?

It’s an admittedly cynical take on things, but I can’t shake the feeling that we spend a lot of time convincing ourselves that what we’re doing is somehow important, when it’s not.

What good is the party in power when all it wants is power, when all it wants to do is look for loopholes and get away with stuff? What does this say about its confidence in its platform—what it stands for and what it has to offer the citizens of this country—when it has to resort to such underhanded tactics?

Rigged districts, a President who is attempting to control the results of the 2026 mid-terms by, among other things, demanding a mid-decade census be taken. It all reeks of desperation.

Haven’t we seen way more than enough already? Where is the resistance to this? Where is the common-sense reaction that clamps down on the shadow brain trust and stops this ridiculousness in its tracks?

There can be no let-up. Trump and his cronies must keep the pedal to the metal to have any chance of leaving the Epstein debacle in the rear-view mirror.

Trouble is, everyone’s familiar with the MO now. Misdirection and distraction no longer seem to be working quite as well. One might think that Trump’s tactics will evolve, but for now, there’s not much he can do or say that keeps his ties to Epstein from popping up in conversation.

So be it. What on earth is being hidden from us?

Surely it has dawned on many by now that this is no way to run a government—a constant stream of lies, denial, delays, needless drama, grift, fraud, extortion, bribery, undue homage, frivolous litigation, misdirection, smarmy alliances, not to mention a bald-faced attempt at consolidating power and destroying America.

Trump is in it for Trump, that much is clear. And he’s making the people at The Heritage Foundation pretty happy, too.

Holy shit, everybody.

Complicity, capitulation, weakness, opportunism. Nefarious actors with a plan and the will to carry it out have been able to get a lot “accomplished” in a short time, thanks in no small part to a contingent in Congress that seemingly has no problem with rubberstamping the swill that’s passing for legislation.

Well, that and a constant stream of Executive Orders signed by a President who’s always testing limits, willfully obliterating the rule of law, wielding an inordinate amount of power he can’t handle.

Scary times in America. The safeguards and checks and balances appear to be no match for a well-oiled machine determined to force its will. The last line of defense is the rest of us, who have to decide whether or not we’re ready to suffer the consequences of dissent.

Saying that last sentence out loud is almost otherwordly.