My fear also is that the trial risks giving him a megaphone again, after it was taken away after Jan 6. There's no fucking way the media will be able to hold itself from publishing and disseminating all his blather in this situation, which puts him back in the driver's seat.

My hope/fantasy is that he does announce his planned run early, if for no other reason that to keep all the money he's been laundering in public by asking for donations for a non-existent campaign, and that this wakes people up to the absurdity of voting in this batch of Republicans to any kind of power in the Federal government. If the Dobb's decision and Trump declaring he's running again doesn't get people worried enough to overcome midterm apathy, I can't imagine what will.

If, and this is a ginormous if, the Dems somehow manage to hold the House and get enough additional Senate seats to eliminate the Filibuster, maybe they finally pass enough of their agenda that they can kickstart the virtuous cycle of actually passing bills, or at the very least having them discussed openly rather than allowing a pocket filibuster from stymying even debate.

At that point, I'd rather Trump run again and lose than see him barred. The Democrats would have enough power to actually kick start the democracy reforms this country needs to keep other demagogues at bay. At that point, I'd honestly be fine with the Dems primarying Biden, even.

The last few months has made one thing clear to me: there are many things that are hard to change in the US, but the easiest thing that can be done is clearing away the old guard of leadership at the Democratic party. They're reacting like it's 1980 even now, and they're completely incapable for meeting this moment.

And I don't mean just the centrist old guard. I want plenty of centrist new blood. But without the old battle lines that have hardened among the senior leadership.

Of course, the more likely course is they indict Trump, there's a real civil war, and some kind of partition, accompanied with mass genocide and death, is what we get.