Remember back when Justice Kennedy announced his retirement and we all screamed....

[Haggis for Breakfast]

40. Excuse me . . .

Maybe YOU have been spared some of the more egregious examples of reprehensible behavior in this nation.

But right now, there are thousands of people all over this nation who are suffering roll backs in their health care services, especially WOC/people in rural areas/marginalized citizens. Unable to obtain critical (and sometimes even basic) care due to cut backs in services available in CBOCs and their satellites, they have no where else to turn.

Right now, Muslims are being harassed and tormented in this country at unprecedented levels. I guide you to the CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) website. The stories will horrify you.

Right now, Border Patrol Agents have increasingly become worse than any Wall could ever prove to be. The arbitrary fashion in which they "process" people borders on the barely legal. The lawsuits are revealing just how far these agents will go to push the limits of their authority. Worse, they are permitted to stop anyone, anywhere within 50 miles of a border/coastline/boundary water to question them about their citizenship.

Right now there is an all-time high number of children in internment camps across the nation. And the administration is cooking up new policies to circumvent the laws on returning these children. They are being separated from their parents as young as SIX MONTHS OLD. They are housed in dirty and cold environments with sub-standard nutrition/water. Children who have been released have been in filthy clothing, covered in lice and bruises and scabs and some have been seriously ill enough to warrant medical attention, which they are NOT getting in their caged surroundings. They are not getting mental health services. They are not permitted to call their parents - who frequently do not know and cannot find out where their children are being held. They are being sexually abused. Some by the "guards," others by other children, some of whom are known to be predators.

Don't even get me started on the issues surrounding the MeToo movement, except to say that the WAR on WOMEN continues every day and that in the past few weeks women all over this nation have been re-traumatized by the ugly politics of the geriatric, white men of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Right now, the EPA - having been gutted of its scientists - is under perpetual attack, as corporations, more concerned about their bottom line than the air we breath, the food we eat and the water we drink, are getting a sweepstakes in the undermining and roll back of pollution controls designed to keep us healthy. Talk to the people in Flint, MI ask them if their water is drinkable yet.

The office within the WH that coordinated policy on cyber-attacks on our nation's voting grid has been decimated by John Bolton. I'm sure the Russians are pleased.

So pardon me if I'm not dancing in the street with a glass of Dom Perignon in my hand. It is this kind of "whew, we're almost there" rhetoric that makes people sit back, thinking that we've accomplished something and becoming complacent about the future. The operative word here is "almost."

We are "almost" one vote away from the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

We are "almost" one vote away from seeing minority rule by the rich, white, privileged, self-entitled elite.

We are "almost" one vote away from being told that a sitting president in above the law, and therefore, untouchable, by justice.