Trump's shtick, much like Old Yeller himself, has gotten old, repetitious, tired, and boring. Which only highlights this creature's status as an energy vampire of the very worst sort. And nobody needs energy vampires.

The Trump Epstein Coverup, while holding for now, is an ongoing mess that keeps dominating and damaging his presidency. Like his promise to release his tax returns, the Trump Epstein Coverup shines spotlights on promises made, promises broken, and one big question: If there's nothing to hide about Trump's association with Epstein, why is Trump sweating bullets trying to keep as much information about it as possible from seeing the light of day as he can?

And then there's Trump's War of Choice, which he initially explained as being conducted at the behest of what appears to be the single nation with which the US actually has a "special relationship" - Binyamin Netanyahu's expansionist, ethnonationalist Israel. Given that the Trump end of Netanyahu's war - Trump, of course, always blames his many failures on others - got bogged down and has remained so ever since US war planners appear to have suddenly discovered the location/vulnerabilities of the Strait of Hormuz, this cockup is another ongoing, festering problem. Such a monumental screwup cannot be playing too well with Trump's acolytes and enablers. To be sure, they're happy as pigs wallowing in their own mess if bad stuff happens to other people. But, hey, what the hell, this is affecting them, too.

Welcome to what happens when the Republican Party knowingly paralyzes and destroys the system of checks and balances so carefully created by people so much more clever - but far less venal - than they.

Happy 250th, folks.