I apologize for my pre-occupation with Trump and what’s happening to our country. It’s just that it’s all so hard to watch. While we gasp and wonder how he gets away with it, he and the Heritage Foundation architects, and whoever else, just keep trying to mold America into something it was never intended to be.

Ideals, hopes, and dreams are nice to talk about, but at the moment, they seem no match for this crew of cretins and hoodlums intent on hijacking and destroying. The level of disqualification and ineptitude is aided by a disturbingly well-executed plan and a laser focus, a drive to double down on the insanity.

We’ve needed a zero tolerance policy from the start—we all should have smelled a rat from the time he descended that fucking escalator—but instead, enough of us got sweet-talked and bamboozled and otherwise sucked into the ruse. So now we all pay for the self-involved, entitled, emotionally damaged adolescent taking up space in the Oval Office, along with the aiding and abetting crew who’ve grabbed onto his coattails.

The trouble with the gerrymandering tit-for-tat exists on at least two levels. First, it’s wrong and a sign of desperation. Second, where and how does it end?

Trump and company bring out the worst in us, don’t they? They’re instigators who probably enjoy watching those they perceive as do-gooders and holier than thou get dragged into the mud. The fact that Gavin Newsom and California have responded may feel good at the moment, as in “finally, the Democrats are giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine.” It’s just that I can’t help but think the real Republican brain trust figured this would happen, and they’re already plotting their next devious moves that will only add to the huge amounts of energy expended and time wasted in these unnecessary pursuits.

It’s all monumentally infuriating—that this is the road we’re on, where instead of debating actual policy and working on solutions to societal problems, we’re mired in minutiae, distracted by this unraveling of the rule of law, this maddening, unwanted race to the bottom.

Imagine how hard he’s working to make this go away. What’s he got up his sleeve in the way of diversion tactics? What does he have left in his bag of tricks that will throw the press and everyone else off the Epstein scent?

It seems it’s only going to be an escalation of some sort—more ICE agents and more troops in more blue cities, more oppressive or wildly short-sighted moves that startle the pundits and have them falling over each other trying to voice their shock and concern.

Maybe he’ll issue an EO renaming the District of Columbia “Trumpton.”

Israel-Hamas appears intractable, but I guess he’s pretty focused on winning himself a Nobel Peace Prize. So maybe we can look forward to news about a half-assed Ukraine deal. That might set him up for a trip to Stockholm.   

We should be beyond weary of people who spend their days devising ways to dominate, ways to shut down free expression and dissent, ways to ensure their own continued lofty status and comfort and influence.

For example, why does Russia need more land? It’s the largest contiguous land mass under one flag in the world. It covers 11 time zones, stretches from its border with Finland and Ukraine, among others, all the way to the Bering Strait, near Alaska. Why this infernal need for more territory? Is it simply about conquest and land acquisition, or some antiquated mission statement?

We can try to understand Putin’s motivations, but having that, should it make what he’s doing any more palatable or proper, or right? We can’t possibly fathom the suffering he and those around him have wrought, and all in the name of… what?!

All we can still manage is that we must fight fire with fire. That’s the best we can come up with. Always a layer of suspicion and mistrust, and wildly, shamefully misallocated funds spent on war, or the fear of it.

Meanwhile, people the world over go without, and never have the chance to move beyond struggle and mere existence, to really live.

So, some—not all?—of the Epstein files will be released to Capitol Hill on Friday. This must mean they’ve had time to scour the pages and remove any hint of Donald Trump’s involvement.

Bondi and the rest must feel comfortable releasing these to a press corps hungry for some delicious tidbits. I wonder how much of each page will be legible.

People are making choices– ICE agents hiding behind their masks and probably making good money, law enforcement, people in the military, members of Congress all kowtowing to traitorous demands. They can always rationalize that they’re just following orders, or saving their careers, or acting on behalf of their constituents. But in the current moment, this all seems a convenient ignorance, a selfish and inaccurate assesessment of the situation and challenges forced upon us by Donald Trump and the puppeteers pulling his strings.

What we saw in LA, what we’re seeing in Washington, DC seems irresponsible, cowardly, and unforgivable.

We’re getting a first-hand look at how fascists and authoritarians work, how they get a foothold and eventually access to the seat of power: they create alternate realities and scapegoats, they lie, they make empty promises, and offer only unattractive and seemingly untenable choices. They force us to make decisions most of us dread ever having to make. They force us to consider our stores of courage, or lack thereof.

Betrayal is the word du jour. There’s enough to go around.