Standard Operating Procedure

 Quid pro quo. 

"I want you to do us a favor though." 

Those were the words used by the former game show host to try and coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by suggesting that Ukraine might receive much needed military aid from the United States if they would dug up some dirt on Joe Biden. You may remember this as one of the reasons that the forty-fifth "president" was impeached. 

He has a history of lying, cheating, and stealing. And somehow, when it came down to a vote in the United States Senate, it was determined that he should stay in office. The United States Senate, dominated by Republicans, many of whom had spent 2016 referring to the former game show host as a liar and a cheat. 

So the former game show host was around to completely botch America's response to the global pandemic. By the time he packs up his desk and heads out the door, more than three hundred fifty thousand Americans will have died from COVID-19. Is it possible that the numbers would have been the same regardless who was in the White House, but given the maskless road show that has taken the place of actual governance in the past six months that seems doubtful. And once the election took place and the campaigning should have been over, the former game show host turned his attention not to saving lives but to making unfounded claims about election fraud. 

Lying, cheating and stealing. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” the former game show host in a phone call to the Attorney General of Georgia on Saturday. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.” 

Nothing wrong? Where can I begin? 

Better yet: When will it end?