Tuesday, December 24, 2019:   Are The Bad and The Ugly Behind Us?
As we come to the end of 2019, I ask myself this question. Have we reached bottom or are we still in free fall with no bottom in sight? I think the answer is that we have no idea where the bottom is, but we know we haven't reached it yet. Trump has the uncanny ability to screw things up in ways that that can only be imagined in nightmares. Just when you think that he can't do one more incredibly dumb thing, he proves you wrong.

But Trump is not the real tragedy here. The real tragedy is what is going on behind the scenes at both the Federal and state level. Immigration, trade, the environment, social support systems, women's and minority rights, health care, and federal judiciary have all become victims of the extreme right who use Trump as a distraction for their nefarious ends.

I don't believe we have reached the tipping point beyond which we cannot recover as a country, but I know that point is out there. My hope is that the electorate has had enough and will overwhelmingly vote Trump out of office in 2020. I want to believe that a good number of those who voted for him in 2016 now realize that he is just a charlatan – that he has no real skill and is only in it for the money he can make and to get his fragile ego stroked at his rallies. Even better if his 2016 supporters now realize that a sociopath in the Oval Office leads to immeasurable damage to our environment, our economy, our civil rights, our democracy, and our status in the world.

This is a time of the year when we pray and hope for peace. So let's hope and pray that 2020 ends with a clear and resounding victory for democracy - that sanity prevails and we regain our dignity and the confidence of the rest of the world.