It struck me as a bolt (probably because I am losing so much sleep) that I am now living in an alternate reality. I now know what it feels like to be divorced from a fact-based universe. The frisson that comes from realizing that all that I believed in, that has ordered my existence for over 50 years, is inapplicable to existence anymore is staggering. I thought it was Donald Trump who was out of touch with the world, but now he is sucking us all into an existence that we don't recognize. Even if we don't occupy the same fevered swamp of his imagination, his impact is reverberating like a scene from Inception or Doctor Strange.

I've experienced something like this before. Once I had a client suffer a psychotic break during a conversation. It took a great deal of will to stay grounded and translate what was going on in her head with what I knew to be "real world." To maneuver her actions within her virtual reality to accomplish parallel action in my grounded existence.

I'm sure Trump's staff has to manage that same feat daily. Working with what used to be called a "functioning lunatic" is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting. The difference now, though, is it is hard to contain the damage such a person can do when they exert control over you, rather than the other way around. Surviving this undamaged is going to be tricky indeed.

A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich