trump is still acting as if he's relevant

@hartfire ... and he will be a footnote in history as an oddball who will be forgotten... thereby irrelevant.

@hartfire It's easy to have a low-optimistic view if you become overwhelmed by "today." The sad commentary about humanity is there have been many dark "today's" throughout history. Humans have been scarring the land in far worse ways than even Cry-Baby-trump and his cronies are angling to do. There have been brutal dictators and dictator aspirants throughout history... even in the good ole USA. While Cry-Baby-trump is among the worst, not every former president has been great and even the universally recognizable great ones: Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt (both), etc. have not been perfect: Washington owned slaves, Lincoln was political, Roosevelt (both) had super-huge egos, etc.

This is not to say there are not significant problems coming out of the havoc and extreme corruption created by Cry-Baby-trump and Republican complicity that encourages it. But, the Earth, humanity, the global economy, and the USA have been through these types of damaging times before, enacted by maniacs who were desperate to feel relevant because they didn't get the love (and hugs) they needed (and wanted) as children.

No, it won't be easy. It won't even be fun. And there will be damage. But don't count out resiliency... and the experience of history. "We" got this. I am sad by all the loss, failure, and inhumanity that Cry-Baby-trump and his swamp cronies are unleashing on the world (not just the USA). I am optimistic that his irrelevancy will be his defining legacy and we will get past him.

@MarkPaul I agree that a wider and longer perspective helps somewhat. Pol Pot, Mgabe, Tito, Mussolini, many dictators have been far worse.

However, humanity en mass has not sufficiently faced the tasks of reducing global warming, nor yet faced the realities of the costs of increasingly catastrophic weather events like droughts, fires and floods -- nor the diminishing insects, lessening crop fertilisation, increasing crop failures, and increasing species extinctions.

Although each of us can make a small and cumulative difference by creating an ecologically healthy lifestyle (and it takes drops to make an ocean,) this on its own is no longer enough.
On the larger scales, we need all of industry and all governments to coperate on building renewable systems and phasing out fossil fuels. And simultaneously we need to renew all the major forests and carbon sinks, and every other means available. For this, the whole world needs better leadership.

@hartfire That is certainly true, but as you know humans (like animals) are not very good at preventative maintenance whether it's their own teeth or other parts of their bodies and overall health, their automobiles, their homes, their relationships, and their mental well-being. They need a crisis to force them into action. And, then the human spirit fueled by self-survival does tend to kick in.

Even under the best leadership, the majority of people across multiple cultures are not going to sign-up for massive lifestyle changes based on inconvenience. Certainly, there are things that can be done with baby-steps, but the world is not going to embrace a Greta Thunberg scale of change... until that crisis actually hits. And as much damage we are doing to the planet now, that "crisis instinct" has not kicked in.

In the meantime, efforts and results are being made as restoring parts of the Amazon Rain Forest, limiting plastic in the oceans, and cleaning up toxic sites. It's definitely not enough, but it is something. And when dealing with self-serving humans... and animals that just might be the best we can hope for right now.

I remain optimistic.

@MarkPaul I happy for you that you're optimistic.
It's healthier psychologically, generates greater resilience.