>These US events are not a force of nature over which nobody has control. What are you going to DO about it? Hand-wringing on UT is equivalent to doing nothing AFAICS. Evil triumphs when good (wo)men do nothing.

Well, believe it or not, once in a while I actually learn something by exchanging gripes.

I do quite a bit locally, where I can make a difference.
I'm campaigning now for- shudder- a Republican running for the town council.
Nationally, the only candidates who got me to go out soliciting votes and raising money were JFK, RFK, and Obama.
It starts with good leaders.
I personally think that the crop of stiffs we've had is partly a generational thing and will pass.
Draft dodgers like GW Bush, Clinton and Trump and takers like Hillary are fairly typical of the boomer crowd that came of age during the sixties. Not much character there. They're one of the reasons I got out of managment. They asked for a lot and gave little.
It would be great if this the last we see of that crowd.

Obama came from a younger, more idealistic generation. I see that in my children and their friends and to an even greater extent in my grandsons and their friends.