...besides the corrupt demented draft-dodging rapist at the head of the Republican Party.

...besides the silent Senate, and the humiliated House, who took from the poor and gave to the rich, and have vanished from their voters like thieves in the night.

...besides the price of gas at the pump, and diesel everywhere thanks to blundering hubris in Iran—and with plans being drawn to restart military operations after the election.

...besides the relentless up-escalator of grocery prices, and car prices, and you-name-it prices, brought about by ruinous tariffs and picking ignorant fights with our friends and partners.

...besides the millions of struggling seniors and parents who suddenly find themselves and their children without health care and food assistance while Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk cackle and cash in.

...besides the violent, heartless, anti-American racism at the heart of ICE.

...besides the grift and the graft of seemingly every Trump appointee who are looting the public trust in plain sight.

...besides the disgusting betrayal of our allies, and the inhuman abandonment of the citizens of Ukraine, who are being murdered in their homes and parks while our chief executive stuffs his pockets, and luxuriates in the thrall of a Nazi-emulating centi-billionaire, and a Russian war-criminal dictator.

...let's talk about France...or Italy...or Spain...

...or scary trans Muslim socialist commies under the bed...

...or anything, anything, anything but what is real.

...anything but what is staring every one of us right in the face.

But after we're finished talking, come next Tuesday, let's do something about the shambles.

Let's sweep up the ashes, and take out the trash. It's time for every one of the enablers and the cowards and the creeps to be held to account.

It might be our last chance.

In the blizzard of AI and bots and 24-hour state propaganda, the voice of the voters this November is going to be everything, or it's going to be nothing.

Please vote. And please vote Blue.

Electing Donald Trump to the presidency for a second time has made America the laughingstock of the world, except nobody's laughing. We are a heavily-armed clown with only one capacity left, the capacity to frighten.

I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but seriously, how much worse do you think things can get around here?