Gah! I've said the same! Especially in government...so much is just a wink and a handshake.

"Dragged" hehehe...I see what they did there.

I need this!

Have we crossed the Rubicon?

I always had an expression "I don't want to survive anything that I can't eventually laugh at." Until this year, I'd never actually found the thing that I couldn't eventually laugh at. This is that thing.

In WWIII we won't be on the correct side of the fight, and we need to figure out sooner rather than later what we're willing to chuckle over as our world crumbles.

It's all well and good to roll our eyes and chuckle over the horrifying mistakes they're making - but this is the USA - the world is watching - and they're uniting against us - against him.

Mark Zuckerberg paid Trump $25 million to keep himself out of jail - because he knows Trump can do it. He and too many other oligarchs are aware that they need to fall in line or feel the wrath of the new monarchy.

Some have been excited by the court rulings, but there's one problem - the courts' enforcement arm is the DOJ - and that body is not likely to enforce those rulings. Trump is "immune" for actions related to his official duties, no matter how much we hate them, he's taking these actions as POTUS.

I wish I had a more positive outlook. I only have another couple of decades on this planet, but some I love have much longer, and I worry for them. We're all acting as if this coup is "business as usual", but it's not. And it IS a coup.

The problem is, the left is still clinging to those gentlemen's agreements, acting as if this is temporary and we'll return to normal soon. I don't believe we will. Bernie Sanders is looking positively prescient for all his warnings and is one of the few still standing up for democracy in DC.

Now, the world knows that the US' word is only as good as who is in office, which used to not be the case.

The "gentleman's agreements" that our country has relied on for 248+ years have been eradicated, and we now have no guardrails in place to ensure even the most basic mores remain in place.

America is no longer the leader of the free world. We may never be again, at least not in the lifetime of anyone currently living - if we last that long.

The world watched us elect a madman 8 years ago, and they might have forgiven the transgression if we hadn't done it again last year.

Democrats have left the building.

After Trump's first foray into the Oval Office, I worried the world would never trust us again. When we kept him to one term, I was hopeful we could mend those fences and resume a place of respect in the eyes of the world. Now those hopes are long gone.