TRUMP, trump, trump, trump, trump: it’s the drumbeat of anti-democracy Republicans marching in lockstep to acquit Trump at the impeachment trial. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Read why here.)

We already know that no matter what the Democrats say, the Republicans, to a man, will not vote to convict him for abuse of power, bribery, extortion, violation of the election laws (foreign assistance), and violation of the laws around impoundment of Congressionally mandated appropriations.  Not even if he stepped out on Fifth Avenue and shot someone in front of a hundred witnesses.

So why are the Democrats so engaged in reciting their evidence of bribery/extortion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?  They’d do just as well playing a loop of someone reciting the “transcript” of that notorious July 25, 2019 phone call.  The truth is that the Democrats are just as deluded in their way as the Republicans.  They think that by going through lawful, reasonable, logical steps of investigation, discovery, subpoena of witnesses and documents, and by reciting their evidence for all to hear, that they are going to accomplish something.  The Republicans are deaf to their pleas.

It is clear that the only thing the Democrats can hope to accomplish is to defeat [redacted] at the polls in November.  Until then, Don the Con will continue to run wild, doing anything he pleases (as long as it doesn’t break with his base).  He’s quite likely to be even worse than he was before the impeachment, based on his mistaken idea that he has been publicly exonerated and that he can now exact revenge on those who opposed him.  Don’s base is sure to approve of cruelty towards the disenfranchised, and they won’t notice the moves he takes to consolidate his power and further subvert the power of votes, the ability of people to vote, and the effect of the House’s attempts to control his excesses.

We can hope that there is substantially more evidence that can be uncovered regarding Don’s extortion in Ukraine; already, it seems that there has been a steady drip of relatively minor but damning revelations.  The latest is audio of Don saying, “Get her out tomorrow” [Marie  Yovanovich, former ambassador to Ukraine, appointed under Reagan] — but a year before she actually left.  Why would Don not just fire her way back then??  He surely had the authority.  Either he did not know that he had that ability (which is entirely possible, given the depth of his ignorance) or there was some political reason he couldn’t do it.

In the same audio recording (courtesy of Lev Parnas, under indictment for funnelling foreign campaign money to Republican candidates) Don has a number of other disturbing things to say, but they are overshadowed by his reaction to Parnas’ claim that Yovanovitch bad-mouthed him.  Parnas is heard saying that Yovanovitch told people Don was surely going to be impeached, and to “just wait for it”.  He immediately says “Get her out tomorrow”, but oddly she was not forced out until May 2019.  Why did he wait?  We don’t know.  Perhaps his aides just slow-walked it without realizing the true motives behind the bad-mouthing: they didn’t know that she was threatening to prevent the corrupt moves that Giuliani’s group wanted to make (a money-making scam, probably).

Someone said, “The Republicans will not accept being democratically defeated at the polls.  They will abandon democracy instead.”  This is my greatest fear: Don the Con will narrowly lose the Electoral College (and lose the popular vote by 3 or 4 millions) and will then attempt a coup.

If he wins in November, look for a steady erosion of democracy through targeted voter suppression.  Look for additional chaos in our relations with foreign governments.   Look for expansion of the federal government’s support of religious conservative groups, particularly in subsidies for private religiously-oriented schools.  Look for further deterioration in public schools as a result.

Look for economic problems: the stock market is way overdue for a “correction” after ten years of relatively steady growth.  The Great Recession made things worse for a third of America, and the 1% profited by it handsomely.  Another recession will add to the losses sustained by lower-income people in the last one, from which they have not fully recovered.   The economy is dangerously imbalanced: wealth inequality is the worst it has been since the Great Depression, and as a result, workers can’t buy more stuff to make the country grow.

Don’t look for relief on prescription drug prices because the pharmacy lobby has Don the Con completely under its spell.  Pharmaceutical companies have spent more on lobbying than any other, with the possible exception of military suppliers.  As a result, there will be no action to relieve price increases, which have averaged double inflation or more for years.

Look for more military spending.  Look for attempts to reduce Social Security spending and no action on taxes other than another phony “tax cut”.

Look for open warfare in the courts between Republican and Democratic viewpoints on every subject imaginable.  Eventually, the courts will force Don the Con to reveal his income taxes based on a plain reading of the law– or else they will go completely off the rails, declare the law unconstitutional, and risk being impeached later.  Someday the court cases over Don McGahn’s testimony (and many others) will be resolved.  If they are forced to talk, another impeachment could be in the offing.  If not, there will be further consolidation of the President’s powers and regardless of who is elected thereafter, there will be a distinct risk of fascism ascendant.

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.