Have you cruised the channels on your TV set recently? It is hard not to watch, almost like racing fans glued to roaring machines in anticipation of a crash. We know something is going on in politics. We don’t know what, or who, or where it will happen. But like diehard NASCAR fans, we know, sooner or later, someone will crash.

Are we watching "Game of Thrones" without the dragons? Is it a fictional play starring the Shogun or Caesar or Henry VIII, maybe a modern version of the Red Queen’s command: off with their heads.” Someone once said: “Politics ain’t beanbag." It ain’t Boothbay seniors playing pickleball at the Y, either.

We say politics is about right and wrong. But it is about power. Who has it, who wants it. What will they do to keep or acquire it?

Six months into DJT’s second term have been all about power and the exercise of it. That is, until this week, when the topic of the day became a dead sexual predator named Jeffrey Epstein and his real or imagined circle of friends. For years, POTUS and his hardcore followers donned their conspiracy caps, demanding answers to questions like: Who staged the fake moon landing? What about Area 51 and flying saucers? Who killed JFK? Does drinking bleach stop COVID-19? Is there still gold in Fort Knox? One of the most persistent versions has to do with a shadow cabal of Epstein-linked pedophiles who secretly run the government and the economy.

As a candidate, DJT demanded that the government open the Epstein files and expose the secret band of bad guys. When he was elected, the president said he would expose this secret Epstein cabal. His Attorney General said on TV that she had the secret DOJ files on her desk. And she was working on it. Next, she and her top aides reversed course and said there is no there, there. Then Elon Musk and others speculated that DJT's name might be in the files, and the MAGAsphere sniffed another conspiracy saying: Wait a minute, you promised to open the Epstein files. What are you trying to hide?

No wonder the House Speaker, faced with a revolt in his own hand-picked Rules Committee (and realizing he was caught between a rock and a hard place), told his members to take a time out. Maybe if they had a six-week vacation, they would come to their senses and get back in line, and it would all go away, he thought. Maybe?

The White House trotted out a time-tested tactic to deflect this Epstein pickle. They blamed someone else, like the fake news, Democrats, including Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and a host of other possible candidates. They trotted out once powerful ammo like Russia, Russia, Russia, and bogus claims of stolen elections. Still, the MAGA myrmidons, DJT's ace cyber and online pals, insisted he was hiding lots of nasty dirt on big shots. And, of course, the smiling Democrats couldn’t waste a chance to pile on and poke an open political wound.

Now, if you are a faithful Fox customer, you wouldn’t see much news of that Epstein/Trump furor, as the network is in a pickle after DJT filed a $10 billion damage suit alleging the Wall Street Journal (which is owned by Fox honchos) faked a story about a bawdy birthday message DJT allegedly sent to Epstein. And that was before "South Park" eviscerated him in ways unfit for description in a family newspaper.

No wonder DJT got out of town, hopping on Air Force One for a taxpayer-funded tour of his two golf courses in Scotland and a trade deal with the EU. In Scotland, he found both in-person protesters and a hostile tabloid press announcing (in big bold type) “Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland. Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses.” Wow. What a welcome for Mr. President.

In addition to Epstein, POTUS faces major domestic turmoil over tariffs and taxes, floods, fires, and fumbling political hacks running important departments. Overseas, he deals with starving babies in Gaza and Africa, a thousand-year-old religious war in the desert kingdoms, and Mother Russia trying to gobble up its neighbor, Ukraine.

The bottom line is our planet and our nation are in a mess, and it will take time and grownups to fix it. Andre Malraux, a French novelist, once asked an old priest if he learned anything from listening to 20 years in the confessional. His reply: There are no grownups.

I pray he was wrong.