Is this the pattern we need to be aware of?

A week or two ago, the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a supposed defeat when they ruled against him on the mail-in ballot question. But yesterday the court gave Trump a win by allowing him to use some sort of controversial voter verification system.

And the question becomes, “Was this the plan all along?” Throw the general public a bone, make it look a bit like they’re not in Trump’s back pocket, and then lower the boom a short time later?

The fact that we need to be suspicious of the Supreme Court is a sad and dangerous place to be. Yet this is what we’re in for leading up to November 3. I’m sure there’s more aiding and abetting, more sabotage to come. In fact, this latest ruling may come back to haunt us when the angst-ridden lead-up to 2028 commences on November 4, or shortly thereafter.

Trump will have to have a go at the midterm results first– you know, the usual litany about rigged elections and hoaxes and fake news and such.

Something I’ve never understood is why Trump gets away with what he’s been getting away with. There may be several reasons: he’s done a better job of surrounding himself with sycophants this time around; the media, though less so lately, have treated him as an anomaly, a fascination. And there must be an aura around the office of POTUS itself.

It seems that people have an almost innate respect for the office and pay less heed to whoever is holding the office. But how can this be the case here? How can the Justice Department and the Supreme Court and other agencies and leadership not consider who is currently sitting behind the Resolute Desk?

Is their loyalty born of respect and admiration? How is that possible?

It’s as if there is no thought given to the possibility that the majority of voters got it wrong in 2024. Like it’s more a matter of working with what we’ve been given and making the best of it?

According to NPR, most voters agree that the 2026 midterms are all about Donald Trump. And voters disapprove.

How can it not be all about Trump? How could it have ever been about anyone else since the campaign for 2016 began? We’ve been watching, in real time, the dismantling of our nation at the hand of a spoiled brat with daddy issues, and all we’ve been able to muster is a paltry, “Hey, he can’t do that.”

But then he does it– “It” being a million different things that have brought us to a point where he can unapologetically kick media reps he doesn’t like out of the White House Press Corps and then all but admit that he’s aware of what he’s doing. It’s a press ban, in full violation of the First Amendment, and what are we gonna do about that?

All we’ve ever been able to do about any of it is lean on good sense and lawyers and judges with a conscience, and demonstrations in the streets. But can’t you see, on the horizon, a moment when things are going to change quickly from voicing our dissent to fighting for our way of life with more than just words and signs?

Now is when we can expect the foreign influences, the Heritage Foundation and MAGA nuts and their minions—including Trump, because I refuse to believe that all that’s unfolded has come solely from the witch’s brew of spiders crawling around only in his soul—will really turn the screws.

Doesn’t anyone else have the feeling that when it comes to the lengths these people will go to jeopardize outcomes in the upcoming midterm elections, we haven’t seen anything yet?

That should tell us everything we need to know about their overall intentions.

Daily writing prompt

How do you write what people actually want to read?

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I write mostly about what’s on my mind and hope a few people take note and find it meaningful. I guess I’m less concerned with what people want to read than treating this outlet as exactly that– an outlet, most of the time, for what’s roiling around in my brain.

The Daily Writing Prompts help me focus a bit and provide a built-in variety of topics, which keeps me from writing most often about what’s happening on the political front in this country that has been slogging through an identity crisis since at least 2015 but most likely long before.

I’d love to have a thousand subscribers, which is probably a very modest number, but am doubtful that day will ever come. For better or worse, I think it’s always been more about what gets under my skin, or just gets my attention and gives me the opportunity to try and explain myself.

The show of solidarity is nice to see. I’m glad the folks at Fox News joined the boycott of White House coverage with their mortal enemies at NBC and such. But… isn’t there now a vacuum?

Is this another example of the MAGA “brain trust” anticipating a reaction, or did someone come up with Trump TV on the spur of the moment? In Donald’s mind, all Trump all the time probably sounds like a dream come true.

I guess on the other hand, it’ll be nice not to have to suffer through every speech and mindless remark from the guy who so adores the sound of his own voice. But who’s minding the store now? Is there a risk here? How long is this standoff going to last? I guess we’ll find out.

Off balance. That’s the condition MAGA Republicans and The Heritage Foundation want to keep us in. Always one or two steps behind. Reactive, distracted, not quite knowing which way to turn or which fire to extinguish first.

Never mind governing, never mind consideration of duties and responsibilities of elected office, never mind the expectations and needs of the people who put them there.

We’ve watched so many things get frittered away, programs and departments needlessly yet purposely gutted, rendered practically impotent and irrelevant. And the whole time, members of Congress are kowtowing, riding coattails and kissing ass.

I don’t know if we’re living in a constant state of shock, or just disbelief. We’re watching things happen that we may have never thought we’d see in a lifetime.

But there’s the thing—this attempt at a constitutional republic, at self-governance and relative freedom has never been a sure thing. It’s fraught with variables, vulnerable to assault from without and within, along with the still unevolved penchant of human beings to default to survival mode, to stay stuck in old thinking, to indulge our worse angels, to get lazy and give up on floating more boats than one’s own.

What’s been unfolding for the past 11 years or so is perhaps something we somehow still can’t believe is real. After all, how could someone so clueless, so self-absorbed, so driven by vengeance and base urges get elected—twice—to the highest office in the land? Someone so unabashedly and obviously unfit?

I don’t know. But it has happened. It is unfolding. And it seems highly unlikely that there is any change of heart in the offing. Besides, it’s too late for that.

Donald Trump is a sniveling, devious, dishonest 4-year-old who tells himself that he’s strong. So, somehow dangerous nonetheless.