Like a lot of people, even some of those in his own party, I was never happy about Joe Biden being President.

I was just a tad too young to vote in 1988, but I vividly remember how big an ass he was during his failed bid for the nomination that year. Hey, if you can’t lie and steal ideas in such a way that it takes at least a little effort to catch you, you should have the grace to commit political seppeku to expatiate your guilt.

Obviously, the Senator from Delaware didn’t have that sort of fortitude, because we’re still dealing with him.

I watched as Biden showed just how big an ass he could be a few years later during the Senate hearings confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The good Senator’s snide insinuations, insults, and denigration of the nominee’s character should have meant that no proud American of African descent would ever vote for him, much less any American with an ounce of decency.

And yet, here we are.

While I’m just cynical enough to admit that there are vanishingly few politicians as clean as the driven snow, Joe Biden has the reek of decades worth of dishonesty, vice, and graft wafting from his personage. The fact that he has been as corrupt as he is, for as long as he has been, leads one to realize that no amount of debauchery and debasement will ever suffice to get a sitting member of the Senate ejected. That is, of course, if the Senator in question makes sure to voice the right platitudes, vote the right way, and have the right dirt on the right people.

To be honest, when Biden announced that he would not be seeking the presidency in 2016, I thought we would hear the last of him after the inauguration the following year. He’d become a footnote in some history book somewhere while the stain his career brought to our society would be papered over with the stains of the next generation of slime mold accomplishments of those who came after him.

But, in their infinite wisdom, for the 2020 election the Democrats decided to pull Biden out of cold storage, fill him to the gills with what was likely a historic level of pharmaceuticals, and pull out all the stops to install him in the White House.

Since then, we’ve been treated to a view of an old man’s decline from being a washed-up excuse for a Washington swamp dweller to a used-up shell of a human being. Part of me actually pities him as he is pushed out into the spotlight by his harridan of a wife and the usual gang of idiots to mouth some rehearsed lines, answer some pre-ordained questions, and try to get off the stage without tumbling in front of the cameras.

Yes, folks slow down as they get older. Maybe he can be productive for a few hours every day, but the presidency isn’t that kind of job. Biden has to be able to be a decisive leader at any time, day or night. He has to be able to provide direction, sometimes in a chaotic situation, without any preparation.

And he has to be able to do it today, tomorrow, and every single day from now until noon on January 20, 2025. As bad as his condition is now, he has to be able to perform for another seven months. If he should win reelection, he has to be able to do it for almost another five years.

Joe Biden, now more than ever, is not that kind of President.

Go watch a Biden interview or press conference from 2019, then watch last week’s debate. You’ll see the impact the last five years have had on the man. Regardless of what you think of Joe Biden or his politics, do you think he’s going to crawl out of that hole and be good enough to do the job until 2029?

I see several possibilities for the next few months –

1. Biden stays in office and continues his candidacy.

It would cost them, but the Democrats may go with this just to keep from admitting that they’ve been exploiting a senior citizen for half a decade. They may even see something honorable about dancing with the one they dragged to the party.

I don’t see any way that Biden could pull off a win as Trump’s polling numbers start to consistently show a lead that exceeds the margin of cheat. Assuming that Trump still draws breath on Election Day, he is likely to beat Joe Biden.

2. Biden withdraws voluntarily

If you’re waiting for Joe Biden to do the honorable thing and bow out, don’t hold your breath. He would likely have to resign from the Oval Office for ‘health reasons’ as well. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but I would be more surprised to read about this in the news than I would if the headlines proclaimed that the Pope had registered as a Republican.

3. Biden is removed from office and the candidacy

This one is tricky. Maybe the President passes away peacefully in his sleep, as people with his years and condition are known to do. I don’t wish death on President Biden, but it is well within the realm of possibility that Kamala Harris becomes President, and the Democrats have a clear lane to putting a new name on the ballot.

More likely, I think, would be for Mrs. Harris and the Cabinet to remove Mr. Biden from office through the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. I’m sure some way to word their declaration could be found that deflects charges that they’ve covered up for the President’s decline for years, and Joe Biden is put out to pasture. Maybe they’ll even give Mrs. Biden some of what they’ve been dosing the President with so that she’ll go quietly too.

As the clock ticks down to the convention and the election, I see Mr. Biden being removed from office as more and more likely.

But if Biden isn’t on the ballot, what happens with the election?

First, I think, the Democrats would sigh in relief and nominate someone else. Perhaps it would be an orderly, carefully orchestrated process, done in a spirit of collegiality and willingness to forego personal ambition for the good of the nation. However, I don’t think the disparate wings of the party will go for that.

In normal times, Kamala Harris would be the presumptive substitute for her boss. If Biden dies or is removed from office, she becomes President and can use what little success the Biden administration has had as reasons for her own election. She’d certainly get at least some portion of the African American vote, as well as support from those who would reflexively vote for any female just so they could say they did. Perhaps she could get a few piercings, color her hair, and declare herself an ambisexual, left-handed, countercultural foxself to appeal to younger voters who would otherwise listen to ugly rumors of her incompetence.

California governor Gavin Newsom is also a possibility as a replacement. He has executive experience, looks relatively good on camera when ordering dinner at a fancy restaurant, and can safely declare that he accelerated the decline of California into the failed state that he wants to transform the entire country into. He could hold the Golden State up as a shining example of the future under a Newsom dynasty.

There are other non-player candidates that could be put on stage to wave for the cameras and parrot whatever pablum the poobahs of the proletariat want them to. Governor Whitmer of Michigan comes to mind for this role. Hillary Clinton could be reanimated, but she was past her prime in 2016. The intervening eight years have not been good to her. Outside of their core supporters, however, I don’t see much enthusiasm for them or anyone like them. It’s just too late in the election season to (re)introduce someone and get momentum moving.

I don’t think any of these folks could beat Trump.

To me, the wild card is Michelle Obama. Now, she’s never done a day of public service that I know of, she’s never been elected to anything, and she has no history of leadership in the private sector. She’s known for being the wife of a former president, and not much else.

But she has that Obama name, and she has her husband to campaign for her. Love him or hate him, Barack Obama gives an excellent stump speech. The moment she announces a candidacy, you will hear his voice on every news station and political YouTube channel. The DNC and the progressive side of the Democrat party would line up behind her, and the full might of the information and entertainment industries would sing her praises to the masses.

Mrs. Obama would probably have both the black and woman vote, reversing the inroads that Trump has made with those groups. She could point to her husband’s legacy and promise a return to that, gaining her the nostalgia-for-mediocrity vote. Without even the scant political resume her husband had when he ran in 2008, she would be the perfect blank slate upon which voters could project whatever they wanted. Whether or not she would be the perfect marionette for the people who have been pulling Biden’s strings would remain to be seen.

In the face of that, could Trump win? That, I can’t predict. It would be at least as hard a fight as 2016, and I believe even he was surprised he won then.

No matter what, we are moving through uncharted political territory. These are the sort of days that get written about in history books, and I’ve read enough history to know that most folks who live through such times don’t enjoy them.

Buckle up, brothers and sisters. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

The term “Full faith and credit” is part of a clause to the United States Constitution that obligates all states to recognize and support the decisions and licenses of all other states.

In a way, it’s also the only thing holding up the willingness of the American people to recognize and support the actions of those we choose to lead our nation.

Any time someone from the government says that something must be done, they must be prepared to show their work in a way that everyone can understand. “Trust me” is never good enough when we are asked to, voluntarily or not, give up rights and change our lives.

Government officials must also be prepared for transparency when questioned about motives, reasoning, and benefits. “Cui bono?” must always be answered fully and truthfully.

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, government disrupted the way the people of our nation lived:

• Closing of schools and businesses
  • How many years will it take for our children to recover from the loss of two years worth of meaningful eduction? Emailed worksheets and virtual learning are no substitute for time spent with a teacher.
  • How many small businesses shut down in early 2020 and never returned.? How many families lost investments, income, and their dreams when the government forced them to close their doors?
• Imposition of isolation, both in public and in homes
  • Children, denied the interaction with their peers crucial to their development, were kept at home with only caregivers, siblings, and screens for company. Even the joy of a day at the park, the zoo, the beach, or even short walks through their neighborhoods were denied on pain of arrest for their parents.
  • People in the last moments of their life, whether they suffered from Covid-19 or from the myriad other things that bring us to the end of our mortal coil, died in isolation. These unfortunate souls were denied even the last touch of their family or anointing of their body by clergy.

At the core of all this was the direction provided by the public health apparatus of the state, principally the ex-cathedra dictates of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. With little to no explanation as to why such measures were necessary in so broad a stroke, government officials turned our nation and our way of life on its head and demanded obedience.

Now, due to testimony to Congress, we learn that even the so-called experts had no evidence to support such things such as mandatory masking, social distancing, and other measures taken during the epidemic. You were directed to mask your children and isolate them so that they would not spread the disease to elderly teachers and grandchildren. You were forced to mask yourself and keep six feet away because of some idea that a cough or sneeze could force virus upon those around you.

Common sense measures such as “If you don’t feel well, stay home.” or “The elderly or those with other health problems should take extra measures to protect themselves, but everyone else should continue with their lives.” were replaced with “14 days to flatten the curve. I mean, make that 3 months. Well, maybe until Christmas, but don’t you have anyone over for Thanksgiving. And stay out off the beach, because fresh air and sunshine might kill your children!”

Our nation and the world in general were turned upside down by a group of people who didn’t want to admit that they were making it all up as they went along.

The most frustrating part of this, to me, is that there is no way to right the ship. We cannot turn back the clock. We cannot give two years of education back to our children. The millions of people who had their livelihoods stolen from them can never be made whole. Most of all, there is no way this side of the grave for us to comfort the souls of our loved ones who perished, alone and unattended.

Government only works when the governed trust the government. Every time that trust is abused, it diminishes on a scale equal to or greater than the impact of the abuse. Once lost, that trust will not easily be restored, and only at a great cost of time and treasure.

The actions of elements of both the Trump and Biden administrations over the Covid-19 pandemic eroded public trust to a huge extent. We will be dealing with the ramifications of those actions for decades, but the most impactful will be the loss of trust between our people and our servants in the government.