Right now the United States and the world are facing four massive trends that, in combination, we haven't faced since the 1920s. We are seeing the rise of a new and brutal form of governance with extraordinary industrial capacity and power in China, much as Nazi Germany rose in Europe.

There is a very simple reason why some Republicans voted for the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, but none have so far broken ranks against Trump.

That reason is a corrupted U.S. Supreme Court.

Young Americans are dying in record numbers because we are reaching peak "Reagan Revolution." Ronald Reagan altered the American political and economic system in 1981, destroying worker rights and changing our tax code to radically increase the political and economic power of the very rich.

More Americans are now going bankrupt because of medical bills because of a scam the Donald Trump instituted, thinking it will help him get reelected.

According to Ivana Trump, the book her husband had on his nightstand next to his bed during the years they were married had a passage in it that said: "The masses more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.

The current issue of the Atlantic magazine - itself founded in the years just before the Civil War - is ominously titled, "How to Stop a Civil War."

The main lesson that we've learned so far from the impeachment hearings is that if Richard Nixon had had a billionaire like Rupert Murdoch with a television network like Fox News behind him, he never would've resigned and America would have continued to be presided over by a criminal.

Colonel Vindman's testimony pretty much proves that Trump was trying to shake down Ukraine for information on Biden, and that the Republicans are doing everything they can to cover up this extortion attempt.

Not many people are buying Trump's story that he just kind of on a whim, decided to go visit Walter Reed Hospital in a motorcade without even first calling his doctor because he thought it would be a good time to start his February annual check up.

The two most prominent theories right now are that

There is a very simple reason why some Republicans participated in the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, but none have so far broken ranks against Trump. That reason is the US Supreme Court.

Either it's an act of a master manipulator, or he has the best luck there is. Donald Trump wanted the Fed to lower interest rates, knowing that that would provide a solid and multi-year boost to the economy. But when Trump came into office, rates were already low and the Fed was not inclined to help.

Well, now we know. The way for Democrats to win is by campaigning on the Green New Deal, debt free college, strengthening Medicare and letting it negotiate drug prices, free insulin, and covering every person in the state who doesn't have health insurance with Medicaid.

The favorite phrase in the media right now is "Quid Pro Quo," which is Latin for "this for that." but in the law there is a different word for what Donald Trump and his buddies did: Extortion.

Reporters for the Spectator are reporting that the House Intelligence Committee has seven different whistleblowers.