A cup of Joe. He is likable and seems to be a nice guy. Someone who you would like to down a beer with. But Joe Biden is not the great white hope to defeat Trump. We saw it in the first Democrat debate. No fire, no passion. He  is going through the motions like a guy who feels entitled to ascension. But remember, Hillary had the same thought and now look where we’re at.

To be fair, none of the candidates who would oppose Trump have a big enough presence. Bill Maher got it right when he proclaimed that the only person who can beat Donald Trump is Oprah. And she’s not running. So we are left to try and prop up a would be replacement. It is Trump’s game to lose and even though we know he is eminently capable of self implosion, we still need a viable candidate.

Biden just seems tentative. He has to dive in without reservations and show the strength of his spine. Perhaps he is cautious hoping to shield his family from the tweet Trump. Can’t blame him for that. But Trump’s closet is so full of skeletal remains he should be a prime target for criticism and critique. And Biden should be able to deliver. If he really wants it and I remain skeptical.

It’s still early enough for Biden to decide what he really wants. And then, he has to do us all a favor: stay in and be strong…or get out.

We have lost our way. And it is not our fault. The government that is supposed to represent us has turned against us. And that is not democracy.

So tell me. Where do we go from here. The painful reality is that we as Americans do not like each other very much. You sense it when venturing out on our roadways. People are angry, confrontational, hostile. And that is a reflection of the mood of the country. Trump lovers like the way he tells it like it is. And he don’t take no shit.

But Trump is a problem, not a solution. When he says he loves America, I will translate… he loves what America has done for him and what he has done to America. He is a guy who made nothing on his own but rode the coattails of his rich, scheming father. Because if nothing else, the wealthy in this country have learned to work the system to perpetuate their legacies throughout generations. Money. All about money. All about how to get it. All about being left out of it. Let’s be clear. The attraction of Trump is his ability to navigate the fringes of legality. His apparent no bullshit taking, tell it like it is, pussy grabbing persona  has grabbed the attention and adulation of a disenfranchised segment of society which is large and growing more angry and disgruntled with each passing day of Trump turmoil.

Chock full o’ nuts used to be a coffee but now it’s how the White House is staffed. It’s a whirlwind caused by the constant fanning from the revolving door on the West Wing. With the departure of Sarah Sanders we are left to endure endless, mindless Tweets and the occasional helicopter press conference. And that’s better than what we got from Sarah.

What we have here is an inability to communicate. Lots of talking but no capice. And now the upstart freshman Democrat element is beating the drum for impeachment. I, and it pains me to say this, agree with Pelosi: impeachment like revenge is best served cold. Cold, hard, factual links showing a straight line from Trump to Putin. And Pelosi knows, it’s not there because it’s not there. Oh Trump colluded, conspired and slept with the Russians but the slippery flim flammer left no bread crumbs. There may be crumbs, but as of yet undiscovered. Maybe the crumbs are in his tax returns or maybe in Putin’s video library. A perfect storm in a perfect world.

Stay strong my friends. Vote early, vote often.

I first heard the term when Mary Schiavo, head of the FAA, used it. Nothing gets done until someone dies. Of course, she was talking about safety in the skies. But I think the term can be applied to events on the ground. There will be around the clock coverage of the latest mass shooting, this one in Virginia Beach, where the debate will rage about gun laws and how we need to do something about this type of violence endemic to America. We in Vegas have some experience with mass shooting: October 1, 2017. Here’s how we have changed. If you are a tourist to our city and are staying in one of our fine hotel casinos, and you keep the Do Not Disturb sign on your door, you can expect an unannounced visit from security to see if there’s anyone dead in the room. Not kidding.

The sad fact is that we are just not good at spotting crazy. Jeffrey Dahmer’s neighbors viewed him as a quiet guy who kept to himself. Not the crazy guy who eats his house guests. Or Ted Bundy. He apparently seemed okay until he locked the doors on the Volkswagen. But these shooters…surely there must be some tell. And how might it manifest. We need a manual. Break it down to power points.

Remember, we are operating under tombstone technology. Nothing is done until someone dies. And once a person becomes a mass shooter, there is no learning curve, no chance for rehabilitation or redemption. Just a great deal of should have seen it coming. But we didn’t.

There is no avenue for dealing with crazy in the corporate environment. If you tell management you have concerns about the mental state of another employee, your concerns are either met with derision, apathy, or a sense that you are crazy. And it is a slippery dilemma, because it’s legally difficult to act until the individual actually commits a crime. Freedom. That same freedom that says anyone can own a gun. Realizing finally the folly, we have slowly begun to place restrictions on the right to bear arms. Is it everyone’s right, equally, to possess a gun. We have increasingly decided that gun ownership is not an equal right. So now we are back to that crazy diagnosis.

There remains to be a societal shift. Much the way we came to realize that drunk driving cannot be tolerated, we must decide to change our thinking regarding guns. That obsessive “collecting” of weapons may be a sign of a mental defect. May be in this case should be good enough to draw scrutiny. But how to do it. Many argue that it’s too late, that there are too many guns to successfully curtail the supply. But there must be a beginning. Registration and restrictions on who can sell is a start. And it cannot be tied to morality. Prohibition, war on drugs, war on poverty are all abject failures.

The NRA needs to be a willing participant rather than a constant opposing force. Convince their responsible gun owning members that legal registration is the only way to ensure a step toward curtailing mass shootings. The government cannot be the “bad guy with a gun.” We are the government and we can change the trajectory of our future selves. And the time is now.