1. It’s Thursday, August 17, 2017.

2. It’s the 103rd birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt Junior, the son of the 32nd President of the United States and Eleanor Roosevelt.

It’s also the 29th anniversary of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt Junior.

I guess there’s a 1-in-365 chance that this sort of thing happens. It’s still a little weird.

3. Republicans are becoming more and more uncomfortable with their Frankenstinian creation in the White House.

This morning’s tweets lamented the damage being done to our urban landscapes by the idea that monuments to traitors are getting taken down. With that, Trump continues his embrace of creatures who his victory empowered to emerge from under their rocks.

4. Despite all this, impeachment seems highly unlikely.

I know that there are people chanting it and hashtagging it and what have you. But Trump was right the first time – if he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, the idiots who support him and the party officials who have hung on would be unfazed.

And as much as I hate Trump, I don’t think impeachment is a great solution. It might, in fact, make matters worse.

Mike Pence is just about as horrendous a human being as Trump. This is a guy who once wrote a piece that was pro-smoking! This is a guy who looks at “The Handmaid’s Tale” as utopian.

But he’s not going to tweet nonsense at 3 in the morning, so people would be able to sleep through the night again. Thus, he’d put more of a smiling face on the horrid things this administration has tried to do – particularly in matters such as health care and civil rights.

So let’s say the Republicans – who, because of their majorities in the House and Senate, have to be on board for any impeachment to succeed – decide Trump’s longterm impact on the party is to smash it to pieces.

And they think, we can be heroes. Get rid of Trump, and his mid 30s approval ratings, and get Pence, who’s right in line with how we think about the world anyway.

5. If this happens, here is what I want Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to say:

No.

The Republicans cannot get rid of Trump unless they also get rid of Pence.

I mean, let’s face it, there isn’t anyone in the current line of succession that I want to be president. But I’d rather take my chances with President Paul Ryan, the House Speaker being next in line, or even President Orrin Hatch, the president pro tempore of the Senate who’s after Ryan.

If Trump is thrown out of office, it will be a trauma, as loathed as he is. Unless Robert Mueller’s case is even stronger than we think, Trump was duly elected under the existing rules. He received a majority of the electoral college votes, if not the popular vote.

Even people who want Trump dumped would be saddened by it.

OK, maybe just some of them. But enough of them to create a vacuum of leadership that his successor will automatically step into.

That’s true even if that successor is Pence. There will be a tendency for the country to unify somewhat behind him as he steers America through this constitutional crisis.

And that would be unfortunate. Because Pence has been a Trump apologist, sucking up to him to get on the ticket when other Republican politicians shunned the idea.

Pence is on board with all of the horrendous Trump policies. And he has been a staunch defender – even in the past week, when Trump pretty much gave his blessing to Nazis and secessionists.

Pence is complicit with everything Trump has done. He should not get to play the role of hero.

The problem for Republicans is that while as much as a majority of them might get to the point when impeachment is a political expedient, not all of them will. Can you imagine a Neanderthal such as Steve King of Iowa or one of those Texas knuckleheads voting for impeachment when Trump is supporting the same crap they always have?

Impeachment would need Democratic votes.

And that’s why Pelosi says no way – not unless we get Pence along with Trump. A President Pence gets a honeymoon in which he gets to pass some of his godawful legislation. And Democrats shouldn’t live with that.

It’s a tough spot. It’s hard to imagine three and a-half more years of this crap every single day.

And yet, as hard as it is to believe, there are worse things. Mike Pence as president is one of them.

I’m no Paul Ryan fan, but I like our chances of survival better. Without a twofer, it should be no go.