History will remember this period not so much for the by now almost boring rehearsal of the personal moral, ethical and legal shortcomings of this corrupt and compromised individual, but for all those, knowing better, who have become his partners in crime.

It is perhaps only from the standpoint of personal character that this new phase in the drama of the Trump presidency and its death throes can be measured and its outcome predicted.

It turns out that almost all the accounts, the independent investigations by the media and Congress, turned out to be spot-on. Yes, it is every bit as bad, and unsavory, as we’d been led to believe.

For persons who make it a point to cultivate mindfulness of the role of our planet in the context of a universe so unimaginably vast, the image is downright stunning, awesome and fearsome.

It was at first hard to prove, and word of such a nefarious plot doing in the highest official in the still fragile democracy could have been disastrous.

I took a keen interest in all of this in the wake of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, and my research quickly brought me to what I think would have been an appropriate hypothesis.

Typical of Trump and his types, the momentary perceived vulnerability was exploited to jump onto an offensive, like that moment when a cat looks the other way so that it can be grabbed, nailed to a garage door and set on fire.

This is not a pretty picture, and if you think that all his allies would scurry to leave him standing alone, think again.

Society normally calls this the personality of the thug, of the bully, of one who has no regard for anything but his self-interest. In our culture today, these traits have become the markers of success.

In this anniversary year, with so many celebrations planned to mark the occasion, I am working on my own contribution to the history in the form of a new book of collected writings from that era, tentatively entitled, “My Gay Activist Days in San Francisco, 1969-1972” (watch this space for further news on publication plans and dates).