I'm slow. I've just come to the conclusion that Trump in the White House is more a symptom than a cause, just as Agent Orange being deployed over Vietnam was (when I used that term for the little offender in question, my subconscious was firing on all six). Consider, gentlecatters:

Congress (from what I can see from this side of the puddle) is terminally polarised, and finely balanced between two irreconcilable parties. The main beneficiary of this is Big Business: corporations lobby hard; each one supports *both* sides with campaign contributions, precisely so that whoever gets in is beholden to them. Meanwhile, while both parties are at each others' throats, they're too preoccupied to regulate Big Business properly (example: the FCC is basically being run now by the cable companies it's supposed to regulate).

And along comes someone who considers himself an apex predator, but who is actually an apex bullshitter. (This perfectly fits into my thermodynamic argument that wherever there's a potential difference, something will evolve to exploit it.) Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

Let there be flames.