It's Awful That Trump Is Still in Office; It Might Get Even Worse When He Isn't

At the Washington Post, Aaron Blake has put together a comprehensive explainer on all the major ongoing investigations of Donald Trump: The 7 Big Investigations of Trump, Explained.

Useful. Also: Depressing.

Trump has been continually investigated for all two years of his presidency so far. Much of the evidence of his collusion, corruption, and obstruction (for a start) has happened right out in the open, for all of us to witness with our own eyes and/or ears.

Still, Trump and all his co-conspirators — including those, like Jared Kushner, who are known to have broken federal law — are still unhampered in their ability to wreak malice and ruination across this nation.

It's dreadful. I am furious about it every moment of every day.

And yet.

With every fresh report that investigators are "zeroing in" on some piece of Trump's criminal mayhem, I see things like "oh this is gonna be good!" and "grabs popcorn" and "delicious" and all the other variations on how excited and delighted people are at the prospect of Trump being removed from office, and it is profoundly annoying me.

Even if that happens, which is still no sure thing, it's going to be a complete nightmare. Trump won't go easy. There will be massive upheaval. The government is fucking shambolic already. So many agencies will be permanently gutted, if Mike Pence takes over.

(And the ubiquitous idea that Trump and Pence will both go is pure fantasy.)

I don't understand what people are thinking, acting gleeful about all of this. We'll be lucky if Trump doesn't launch a nuke on his way out the door, or to prevent himself being shoved out the door.

Even smart people are failing utterly to grasp how these first two years of Trump aren't just about Trump. The Republican Party is going to exploit every single erosion of democratic institutions and norms that he's enabled, and that they've enabled, and that they will continue to pursue aggressively and ruthlessly.

Trump was the culmination of a long-term plan, and everything that's he accomplished will be used to move on to Phase 2, which is the complete annihilation of the U.S. democracy.

The architects of this plan don't even need Trump to do that.

And then there is this chilling reality: The subterranean internecine struggle between the anti-democratic dominionists and the anti-democratic oligarchs is going to be horrendous to live through.

And guess who's figured out how to marry those forces? Putin.

Which is why he's courting both sides in the U.S.

So whoever wins will be beholden to him.

And so will whoever loses.

Yes, friends, we have to keep fighting to remove Trump from office, legally and swiftly — but even if that day comes, there will not be time to celebrate.

On that day, new grotesqueries which have been hiding behind Donald Trump's carnivalian vulgarity will reveal themselves. It will not be a cause for glee.