Thanks for your intelligent analysis! Where I have only provided a summary of the facts you have distilled them into a potion to foretell the future. And it's a bleak and scary prospectus. I don't disagree with your assessment. However, I think there is still a good chance that American institutions (like rule of law, democratic elections, etc., will withstand this stress test. Remember, Donald J. Trump is essentially a coward and a dolt. The immigration issue, while important, is being used to distract us all from more pressing issues like climate change and the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is possible that the truth will become apparent to a critical mass and we will oust this pack of miserable, mangy curs from power. Half the country already sees that this emperor has no clothes. All we need is a few percent more to have the scales removed from their eyes. And as time goes on the facts on the ground (and in the air and water) will become more visible to more people. Also remember that the core of Trump's base is evangelical Christians, who are predominantly ignorant old farts whose tired ideas are, by and large, not being embraced by younger people. So there is hope. We ain't done yet!

Alas, a lie that many believe to be the truth. This, to me, is most unsettling. For in a world where lies are truth, anything goes. If not somehow checked, over-ridden, or outnumbered, the acceptance of lies for truth is the end of democracy. So the question then is, how do we change minds in a media environment that includes (allows) Fox News, Infowars, a plethora of fake news websites (some Russian state-sponsored), and a Facebook that refuses to take responsibility for the content it publishes? Who can act as an arbiter that all sides will trust? Or do we have to devolve into civil war? I have always known that it was theoretically possible for a Nazi-style rise of fascism to take shape in this country, but I never thought it would actually happen. I thought we were too wise, too sophisticated, too modern for that. And yet here we are. Jack-booted thugs are on the march. And a bold liar occupies the Oval Office. His impeachment, however damning the evidence, is unlikely to result in his removal. Not where supine senators are in the majority. How do we cut this Gordian knot? Who will be that little kid whose voice everyone will miraculously hear when he cries, "The Emperor has no clothes!"?

Yeah it's like they don't have the bandwidth for any issues beyond immigration.

Thank you for that succinct summary of the Biden angle! Did those details come out in the Congressional hearings? I actually saw very little of them in real time. Most of what I have learned so far is from watching the PBS Newshour.

@Flyingsaucesir They have been brought forward in many arenas when conservatives do not cut them off with obscucation.

Ha ha, yes! And I'm only laughing because it's better than crying.

How far we have come from "better dead than red!" Pretty much a 180. I'm not saying that the old position vis-avis Russia was quite right. McCarthyism was certainly a stain on the American body politic. But this present threat is not from socialism; it's from organized crime.

@Flyingsaucesir I fear Bill Maher is right, that it won't matter if he is impeached, if another is elected, or 8 years go by, he won't leave, he is such a narcisist that he believes he should be king and the his base wants that, and to him his base is America, the rest are not Americans they are democrats or never trumpers.

@Davesnothere
If he can get away with using American treasure to bribe a foreign entity to help with his election, do it in plain sight and not suffer a consequence, then democracy in America is dead and we have ourselves a dictator. What Trump has done surpasses Nixon's crimes, and if our elected officials, Senators who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, will not call him out, then we are well and truly screwed.

@Flyingsaucesir I agree, if the GOP does not stand on the ethics of the Constitution, we are no longer a representative democracy. I don't think we are anyway, I think we are a representative oligarchy moving to an open kleptocracy.

If they give him a pass it creates precedent for everyone to do the same thing.
If he is re-elected its even worse.

If he is not re-elected I fear what Bill Maher says is valid, he won't leave office and will say "Its all rigged by the deep state"

This from a man who dodged his responsibility 5 times.

I cannot fathom vets who support him when he spit on Gold star Families.

@Davesnothere
Roger dat homie. You know what's up!

@Flyingsaucesir Glad to know I'm not the only vet who did not let their "military mind" die off

@Davesnothere
I'm not a vet but salute your service (and articulate good sense).

@Flyingsaucesir Sorry, confused threads. I asked in the service member group today "I wonder, how many other vets are as disturbed as I to hear the Rhetoric of the FSB coming out of the mouths of the GOP?"
and got mixed reviews which read a lot like this thread.

@Flyingsaucesir Noting your name, did you see the Joe Rogan episode where he interviews the Pilot who filmed and chased the "Tic Tac"?

@Davesnothere
No, I did not see it; I will look for it. Were you not able to make any headway among the vets?

@Flyingsaucesir No, was a three way split, no one supporting Trump but one seeing the Dems as modern McCarthyism.

@Davesnothere
Huh! Trump makes Tricky Dicky look like frigging choirboy. How can they miss that? I mean, how can they fail to see that Trump's actions are so egregious, they had no choice but to impeach.

@Flyingsaucesir Because many of them are under the influence of "The Family" (Jeff Sharlet wrote a great book on this years ago, now a netflicks doc)

The Family is an evangelical sect based in DC, which keeps a house (expensive piece of property) to groom both sitting politicians and groom future politicians.

They think whomever is elected is of course God's plan, as all things are. Don't matter if he's Ghandi or Caligula, that is what God wants.

And it was pretty blatant that Russia was behind Trump, even before he was made the main choice for republican pres campaign. But we were drowned out by news & social media when calling it out. My friends & I were yelling into the wind. None could hear it, There was so much noise & distraction from even the most basic facts.

@KittensandSage So you got hoarse screaming "look out!" too eh?

@Davesnothere lol yes. It was long post, sorry. But you guys are spot on. & much if what I’m reading from the thread I didn’t know! Thank you for sharing knowledge.

Yeah sorry about the length of that post; I just cannot find a way to fit all Trump's multifarious mendacity into a neat little sound bite. This is part of his genius: he always keeps it real simple (e.g., "Witch hunt!" )

Yeah, 'cause right now they're looking a lot like the guy from down under --- and I don't mean Australia.