A vast majority of Americans are sick to death of the daily in-your-face corruption, chaos and unbridled insanity that is the Trump family and complicit Republicans. They’ve got some serious nerve to subject the country to the crazed and hurtful whims emitted from the pitifully twisted “mind” of such a dangerous buffoon.

Joe Biden is the complete opposite of 45, in every way. He’s time-tested; and he’s “pre-disasterized” in that his past goof-ups are known, so there are no surprises down the road. He looks for the good in others, and yeah, his empathy has been “touchy-feely” at times, both with women and men. But unlike 45, I take Joe at his word that he’ll be more mindful of that.

I understand the longing for a younger, more progressive candidate— and in normal, average circumstances, I’d probably support such a person. But clearly, America has been pushed radically off course, both at home and in relations with other countries. My sense is that Biden is best qualified, both in temperament and experience, to lead a 45-damaged country in a return to normalcy, as a first step.

The one hitch I have in supporting Biden, is that, should he emerge on top, he’d make a grave mistake if he didn’t share the ticket with a younger, more progressive candidate, ideally a woman, who’d be positioned to play a much bigger role than the usual veep, with the idea in mind that Joe may only have one term in him.

All food for thought, while it’s still very early in the game. The best thing is, there are several really terrific Democrats who’ve announced. Whatever happens, there’s little chance of producing a weak candidate.

Common sense dictates “yes,” but common sense took an extended hike in 2016 and hasn’t been seen since. There is a number of variables stacking up, far broader than usual, all due to Trump and his unshakable loyalists:
-Will the 2020 election be free and fair? Will it even occur?
-What form and degree will Russian interference take place? (Because it’s the one certainty.) There are rumblings about China and other countries getting in on the act as well.
-Can Democrats come up with a strong, broad-appeal candidate who can beat Trump in the usual “battleground” states, which is where the 2020 election will be decided, as lousy as that is.

It pains me deeply to say it, but I no longer have faith in the American people to do the right thing. Thus, there is a chance that Trump could be re-elected, if he gets the same lucky bounces he did in 2016. That’s a scenario that spells doom for democracy.

All of which is why I’ve come to favor impeachment proceedings. A popular talking point asks, “Why impeach when there’s no chance for a conviction?” Because conviction should not be the immediate goal. Rather, the focus should be on enumerating the lawbreaking, and repeating that message to the citizenry. What’s important to illustrate to the American people is that NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Without the rule of law, there is chaos (as we’ve seen for two-plus years), and chaos is an open invitation to authoritarianism— R.I.P. America.

Save our democracy: IMPEACH NOW.

Rachel Maddow was discussing this yesterday. Almost all of the Trump situations / transgressions / potential criminal involvements that Muller investigated occurred in 2017. The statute of limitations on these events lapses in five years— 2022.

If impeachment is not pursued now, and if, for some extraordinarily crooked reason, Trump should retain the presidency, he will run out the calendar on the investigated incidents (which comprise the basis for impeachment), and he would, effective 2022, become a free man. (Not factoring in the New York State investigations.)

Using the frustrating Mueller guideline that one “cannot indict a sitting president,” should Trump lose the 2020 election and become a private citizen in January, 2021, he can still be prosecuted for what’s already on the books.

Think Trump wants to stay in office much? He will fight like a cornered animal, because losing could mean a trip to prison.

Start impeachment proceedings immediately. Chasten that bastard NOW. No conviction possible? Screw it, that’s not the goal, which is to keep him on the defensive, put him under stress and pressure from multiple directions to exhaust that monster, and have his approval ratings tank lower than ever. If his people and Russia conspire again to throw the election, America will be screwed beyond recognition...forever.

Impeach now. It’s not a sure thing, but it’s the right thing to do. And I seriously doubt that it’d “hand the election over to Trump.” That notion presupposes that there are scads of Trump voters out there who are considering voting for a Democratic candidate. That’s such a bullshit line— as if those who worship their white-nationalist Neanderthal figurehead could be lured away from their fuhrer.

An extreme example is, of course, Nazi Germany. No amount of love could divert those ideologues from their murderous course.

And while Republicans haven’t gone completely full-fascist just yet, they’ve taken some alarming steps in that direction, and are accelerating the placement of partisan appointees to government posts that heretofore have functioned strictly as non-partisan (the Attorney General, for instance). This is a foreboding sign, as it’s obviously clearing the way for more lawlessness and corruption.

My opinion is that it’s past time to fight, tooth and nail, to retain what democracy remains. Kindness, looking the other way, generosity of spirit and taking the “high road,” while noble, have led us to where we are today— a sharply divided country with an autocratic, racist ruler who’s likely suffering some form of diminished cognitive function, supported by a gaggle of freakish, twisted men who, having no conscience or empathy whatsoever, would welcome a right-wing totalitarian government. They already speak of us as some sort of evil, foreign element that has no place in America. If 45 gets a second term, by rigged election or decree, I’d advise younger people to get the hell out: go to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc. in a hurry, because the U.S. will not be a healthy country, to say the least.

So fight back. Fight back hard. Do NOT let these lunatics win. They are already killing people with their heartlessness and greed. PUSH BACK WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT. Speak up and out. Avoid infighting with Democrats and progressives. VOTE BLUE in 2020!

And it’s ALWAYS someone else who’s whizzing in the cornflakes. It’s Obama, it’s Hillary, it’s (gasp!) socialism, it’s the “Democrat Party” (sic), it’s “union thugs,” it’s the “communists” (a classic), it’s John McCain, it’s “government schools,” it’s Jeff Sessions’ recusal, it’s the CARAVANS of murderous barbarians headed this way, it’s the “liberal colleges that crank out more liberals,” it’s “death panels”....Any one of us could go on and name many more RW-paranoia-borne hobgoblins that they can never stop yapping about.

Think how MISERABLE it must be to have hitched your misery-wagon to 45’s dim star. Hate this, hate that, get all ginned up while listening to Rush and Hannity, just chugging down a steady stream of rage and being “informed” about how OTHER people (make them African American, for greater effect) are getting free stuff, all paid for by YOUR TAXES! Blah, blah...blah...

I do not underestimate the danger posed to our country by those who actually believe these whacked-out ideas. But their victimhood is second to none. Every day brings another wave of anger and fear to them. Snowflakes? They’re absolute slush.

It’s reached the point where Democrats are stuck in the roles of caretakers/civic minders for these folks when they do insane shit like start wars or elect Trump. Think of the heavy lifting done in these past two-plus years, just trying to hold the line, playing for time, (still) hoping that our democratic republic will survive this wild ride of lawlessness, corruption, and an authoritarian, white nationalist “government.” Thankfully, least some brakes were applied to this insane administration by re-taking the House.

Where does it go from here? Every day brings another crisis, gaffe, embarrassment, outrage, and always more worry about a free and fair election in 2020. So we continue to hold fast, and push back as hard as humanly possible. It’s all we can do, for now.

Not that he would, but imagine Barack Obama wanting to put high-profile liberals on the Federal Reserve board, with the sole qualification being that they’re “good guys” and “friends of mine.”

Or holding rallies in Oakland, Detroit and Chicago, where the audiences were predominantly POC— Obama up in front, ripping Republicans for two hours-plus every time, calling them “sick, very sick people.”

Or installing his family in positions requiring security clearances.

Or saying, “I could shoot somebody and not lose voters.”

Or eating cheeseburgers in bed, while talking nightly to a network “news” personality who can further his agenda while on-air.

Or tweeting insane shit in the dead of night.

Just pick anything off the Trump menu of “behavior,” and Obama would have been crucified for it. As it was, Republicans treated him like shit, stonewalled him, criticized him for wearing a tan suit, blocked his SCOTUS pick, dug around endlessly for birth certificates, harassed his Secretary of State for years, etc. And the ACA was characterized as a ”power grab...trampling the Constitution.”

And there’s Trump, idiotically hobnobbing with the world’s worst (and most lethal) dictators, sometimes behind closed doors with no witnesses. Doing something outrageous every day— what Steve Bannon called “flooding the zone with shit.”

This is NOT okay. None of it is okay. Under Trump, America has been transformed into the world’s bully: xenophobic, racist to the core, intolerant of dissent, dismissive of women, belligerent toward long-term allies.

Why does Trump get to be the freest man in America (for now)? Because he’s THE world’s biggest white “victim” of (gasp!) imagined liberal oppression?