The end is coming. You can feel it. I can feel it. While this White House has been a den of absurdity from the start, the legal pressure is ratcheting up, and the current nonsense on display portends to an ugly demise of this presidency. Robert Mueller’s final report is thought to be coming in the late winter or early spring. The White House has added 17 new lawyers to prepare for the congressional oversight that is nearing for this administration and for whatever is looming in the report.

Earlier this year I thought it was possible that the report could very well show nothing linking the president to suspected crimes during the 2016 campaign. Mueller has had a stellar reputation during his career, and if he didn’t find anything, then that’s the way it would be. However, the drips of information over the last few months, which have been major, make it clear that good news is not on the way for the president. And more bombshells are likely coming. The final verdict and the fallout are going to be highlights in the history books my child studies years from now.

In the meantime, we’ve got a ridiculous partial government shutdown where the president is proving how lousy he is at being a deal maker. He’s not getting the wall he so desperately craves, but he is determined to destroy everything in an attempt to force it into being. He has no leverage and the majority of the country is not on his side with any of this. Once again, he has created a crisis (long government shutdown) out of a manufactured crisis (demanding a border wall to keep his shrinking base happy). It’s a spectacular display of recklessness, but it’s about the only thing that keeps — for now — the headlines off whatever is coming from the special counsel investigation. We’re seeing the angry defiance of a president whose reality show is lurching toward cancellation. He feels it too.

Recently I saw a picture taken of a message on the reader board outside of Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. It read: “Rather than a wall, America needs to build a giant mirror to reflect on what we’ve become.”

The last two years have been noxious in politics. The United States has been working overtime to destroy its reputation with the world and its own citizens. It has been succeeding. Racism, bigotry and audacious lying are in vogue, and there were alarming echoes of 1930s Germany running through the just completed campaign season.

The president of the United States has proudly been the head of this dark version of the country. His sycophants in Congress have allowed him to run unfettered over and through the norms and expectations of American leadership. To them retaining power takes precedence over issuing anything but tepid responses — when they aren’t behaving as cretins themselves — against the president’s worst instincts. Voters, however, have seen enough at this juncture to want a counterweight. Perhaps we’ve begun looking in that mirror. Real oversight of the television star with poor impulse control is coming.

Yesterday’s election was ultimately a referendum on the president’s performance. Granted, not as much as many preferred but enough that there will be accountability going forward. The House can start to slow the wrecking ball that is this administration and current version of the GOP. This can be done effectively but must be done without abusing power.

My hope is that we avoid self-induced calamities as a nation, especially on the international front, for the next couple of years before voting this president out of the White House and back to his golden throne in New York. He can take his enablers with him. In the meantime, the bend in that arc of the moral universe is becoming visible. The national nightmare isn’t over, but it’s soon to be assuaged. Keep fighting for the truth and for what’s right, both of which have been casualties of this administration. Don’t let this flicker of light go out. Onward.

This has not been a good year for the United States. Elections have consequences, and the country is bearing the full weight of November 8, 2016. The president and his merry band of obsequious robber barons, in their often breathtaking incompetence, have created a mess that will likely take years to clean up, regardless of which political party takes the White House next. The swamp wasn’t drained; it was merely diverted into the Oval Office.

What we have witnessed has been mind numbing: persistent lying, preposterous bravado, poor response to anything requiring a “presidential moment”, excessive bloviating about fictitious achievements, depressingly regular and unnecessary scandals, constant saber rattling, and so on. It’s been quite a display this administration has put on — similar to a lousy reality TV show (surprise!) but with consequences.

Our country has lost its stature in the world, creating a dangerous foreign policy situation and allowing adversaries to assume roles of greater strength. The United States just can’t be counted on anymore…at least for now. Reputation can be rebuilt, and from what I’ve read, some overseas think that America has only momentarily lost its mind and will come to its senses once the current occupant of the Oval Office is out.

The damage this administration has done domestically is significant, too. We are defined by division, acrimony, and a sense that our worst instincts have been given a nod of approval, or at the very least a shrug, from this president. His job approval rating of 37 percent suggests he’s detested as much as he disdains the norms, decorum and responsibilities of the office.

Then there’s Congress, they of the 13 percent job approval rating. Republicans control both chambers and have had a banner year of doing nothing of note. The unpopular attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act failed, so they next turned to tax reform, which quickly morphed into a giant mess that’s less reform and more scam — hurting far more than it helps in the long run. Also consider the enormous deficit explosion that comes along with this farcical plan. It’s not sustainable and opens the door to epic cuts down the road in Social Security and Medicare. The GOP is determined, however, to ram a bill through as fast as possible so they can claim a legislative victory in 2017 and keep the donor coffers open. Serious work done by nonserious people. I suspect this will be viewed as a Pyrrhic victory come the 2018 midterm election.

As a registered Independent, I’ve not been afraid to vote for a moderate Republican in the past, but that’s unfathomable now. There aren’t any moderates left. Frankly, can they even be called Republicans at this point, or have they turned into something else entirely? That’s a rhetorical but serious question.

Eventually this house of cards in Washington, D.C. is going to come tumbling down. The only question is what’s the tipping point and what does the ensuing implosion look like? That’s frightening to think about. I’m struggling mightily, as I have throughout this year, about where we’re heading. Among other things, I fear this administration leading us into a foreign policy misadventure with dire consequences. I’ve had to avoid the news on several days to avoid sinking into a depression. This is what I wrote in January. So much still holds true.

It’s very easy to feel gloomy right now, but here’s a bit of optimism. There’s an opportunity to start cleaning up the mess next November in Congress. The stench of rot emanating from the White House will take longer. It also may be shorter depending on the Robert Mueller investigation that has suddenly heated up. Eventually though, our rapacious president will be shown the door, and we’ll get much needed fresh air and a bright light shed on the full damage he’s done. Then, we’ll make the necessary repairs and leave him as an unfortunate footnote in our history.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 

The trash is piling up, but Garbage Day is coming.