It is stunning—the lengths he will go to cover his own ass. Stunning! Donald Trump knows what’s in the Epstein files, as do other members of his entourage.

Is it as we suspect? Is most everything that unfolds in this interminable slog in service of distracting the public from the files? Would an actual shooting war, where lives are lost and billions are spent, not be a bridge too far if it serves to avert our gaze from the files?

Let’s add all the talk of a ballroom, an arch, a helipad, a reflecting pool “fix,” wanting your bust added to Mt. Rushmore, and your ugly mug and signature on coins and paper money; renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and straying off-topic and talking about water flow and magnets, and carting out the old chestnut about election fraud in 2020, and the spelling of “dumb,” and more tariffs for Canada because of the wildfire smoke, and threatening to revoke the licenses of networks who decided not to cover his most recent screed this past Thursday.

Well, that last one might be more indicative of the ongoing vindictiveness and power trip that have marked Trump’s time in office from the beginning, not to mention being part of the blueprint of Project 2025. But it all gets lumped together at some point. It’s all bad and ugly and tiring and sad.

The excruciatingly infuriating reality is that he is President of the United States, and all he’s done for the 11 years he’s been front and center–even while out of office– is embarrass us, string us out, lie to us, waste our time, abuse his privileges and the people he was elected to serve, while willingly serving as figurehead for those who would love nothing more than to reduce America to just the next failed state.  

How on earth could we let a perpetually angry, greedy, misogynistic, lying narcissist and possible pedophile get this far?

To borrow a line from Sully, can we get serious now? Can we possibly see a connection between escalating hostilities in Iran and the Trumpian/Heritage Foundation vision of having a reason to postpone or cancel the elections?

Maybe there’s no Iran connection, and Republicans at Trump’s goading will try to invoke the Insurrection Act because they aim to please their fearless leader and maybe are convinced that our election system is porous and riddled with fraud—even though it’s long been established that there is relatively negligible fraud.

The alarm bells should be sounding, as our own federal government appears to be testing and hinting at an increased presence of ICE agents and who-knows-who-else at polling places ahead of and on November 3.

These are desperate people now, and we need to see them for who they are and have always been—impostors and weaklings intent on sabotaging and destroying the institutions that have sustained us for a quarter of a millennium.

They’ve been loitering and taking up space long enough. It’s soon time to kick them out.

What’s to keep Republican voters—even MAGA voters—from voting to send Trump and the rest packing? What’s in the way of Republican voters simply not voting across-the-board Republican in the upcoming election?

Isn’t there potential for the trusted base and other diehard conservative voters—even in the designer, gerrymandered districts– to simply look at their options and decide they’ve had enough of the drama and lying and incompetence?

Isn’t there the potential for an awakening, a realization that Trump and the rest have no intention of addressing actual needs, that this has been, all along, an exercise in retribution and self-enrichment and that it had very little to do with actual governance? That Project 2025 has never been a blueprint for a return to “greatness” but instead a bald-faced assault on the institutions that have held us together for all these years?

What’s to keep Republican voters from confounding expectations and helping to put a stop to this seemingly interminable nightmare?

A bad news President in a time when things look to be falling apart. What a time to be alive!

The center may still be holding, but it is being stressed and challenged, especially now that Trump is desperate and the November election is getting closer. He’s scurrying and worrying, ready to turn the screws and do increasingly desperate things. We should all be ready to assist with his demise, but this depends on the validity of the ballot process and the willingness of election officials to ignore the tantrums and threats and assaults on free and fair.

The potential outcome doesn’t bode well for Republicans, so the rest of us have to raise our vigilance to a 12 out of 10 for the rest of this lead-up to November 3. Trump and his League of Assholes are going to try and take it away from us. This is what they’ve been wanting all along— an outright assault, leaving us without recourse, without options for change, without a voice. We can’t let that happen.

The Liar-in-Chief is going to squawk and blab and emit some sort of guttural mishmash from the front of the disturbing grimace that passes for a face tonight. I don’t know why anyone would want to tune in. Don’t we already know what the gist is?

He’s gonna whine and complain and accuse and try to weave some tale of woe about voter fraud and how the Save America Act will right all perceived wrongs—at least as they rattle around in his damaged brain.

He’ll drum up some irrational fear, eviscerate people in his own party, berate and demean Democrats and minorities. Maybe he’ll threaten to sign a couple more Executive Orders banning the flashing lights and arms that drop at railroad crossings when a train is coming, or traffic signals at busy intersections. It’ll be the usual parade of tactics and heavy-handed verbiage and hair-brained nonsense that we should all be treating with a grain of salt by now.

If it’s delivered in front of Congress, half the room will be standing and cheering, while the other half will be embarrassed and enraged. If it’s from the Oval Office, the gold leaf will begin to tarnish of its own volition, and the gaggle of sycophants off-camera will be flashing him thumbs up and mouthing “You’re doing great!” Or maybe they’ll be looking at the floor and questioning their life choices and wishing they had shoes that fit.

Either way, some will still find it to be Must See TV, though I’m not sure if all the networks will actually be airing it. No loss if they don’t.

We should know one thing, though: the assault on our right to vote on November 3 and beyond is likely to be kicked up a notch or three tonight.