Dear President Trump,

I wish I could feel good about how likely it is that both the House and the Senate will pass a resolution to nullify your bogus emergency declaration (update: the House did pass it earlier today). Yes, it’s necessary that we go through these motions in response to your reckless, asinine actions, but holy crap what a waste of precious time and energy! Now, I might feel differently if there was some hope that enough members of the GOP would pull their heads out and vote in support of the resolution so that said resolution would be veto-proof. That would be an exercise worth carrying out; it would signal all sorts of more hopeful stuff, particularly ahead of the release of the Mueller report. But since you and Mitch and your various mouthpiece minions are busily scrambling to ward off “GOP defections,” which basically says it all right there, this is yet another situation in which you’ve been able to manipulate the nation’s attention and priorities in a make-work way.

So nice work, dude. Or should I be extending the props to Vladimir? You may not be the sharpest tool in his toolbox, but this really is another stellar example of his strategy for systematically dismantling a democracy (he doesn’t even have to specifically instruct you to act like a moronic jerk since you have that territory covered handily on your own). I know these things are playing out across Europe and that your bud Vlad is instrumental in driving those situations. He’s doing a bang up job of sowing distrust, confusion, fear, and hate along racial and citizenship lines and is managing to keep liberal leaders on their heels while helping to install authoritarian leaders in key spots across the continent.

I feel like an idiot, but it just dawned on me that Vladimir is supporting regimes in the Middle East and Africa that are fomenting refugee crises and at the same time agitating rightwing protectionists in the countries to which those recently created refugees have fled. In the process he is creating massively destabilizing forces that have the Western world reeling. I’ve probably not been watching or reading the right stuff, but I’ve not seen this analysis before even though it seems pretty damn obvious. If this is correct, I’m not sure what is to be done about it, but at the very least we need to be shouting it from the rooftops and making a huge racket about it.

May we be safe from would-be overlords and their efforts to herd us out of the frying pan into the fire.
May we be willing to oppose them and their tools.
May we keep ourselves healthy in these over the top stressful times.
May you and Vladimir not resort to war, full stop.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson