April 16, 2025

I’m back. It’s been five days since I last rambled, so I hope you weren’t worried that I had been snatched off the street by masked state agents and sent to El Salvador for making critical statements about the current state of affairs in this country. I just had to take a break and decompress from the daily chaos, gaslighting, and destruction being thrown at us. I’ve read dystopian fiction, but always considered it just that – fiction. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that what I was reading would happen in America. Yeah, I know. What a sucker. How about you? Did you ever think that it could happen here? I always thought that our government had checks and balances that would ‘kick in’ if we were in a situation like this that we are currently experiencing. A president who has no intention of following the Constitution. A president who thinks he is an untouchable king or dictator. A president who tells the El Salvadorian dictator that he wants to send “homegrowns” to his gulag, so “you’ll need to build more prisons.” A president who is intentionally cratering our economy because he believes “trade is bad.” A president who wants the FCC to kick a broadcasting corporation off the airwaves for doing an interview that he didn’t like. A president who is dismantling government and the services they provide for many of the people who voted for him. I thought Trump 1.0 was bad, but right now it feels like we’ve gone from an irritable leaky faucet to a ship that is sinking. And, unfortunately, those checks and balances that I thought were in place haven’t kicked in. Congress hasn’t done squat to contain the lawlessness, and from the MAGA side of the aisle all I see is clapping and encouragement to ‘keep it up, bro.’ Some members of the judiciary leg of the 3 legged- stool have tried, but have basically been given the finger and mocked with “what are ya gonna do about it?” And, right now there aren’t any adults in the room to hold him back like General Mattis, General Milley, and John Kelly did during 1.0. He had four years since then to prepare and now has surrounded himself with sycophants, who will only bow and kiss his arse. I guess the only good news I have seen over my five day recess was the approvability numbers from even more conservative pollsters showing a growing number of people not happy with the job he is doing. As the hole in our ship gets bigger each day, the leaders of China and Russia are sitting back giving a rah, rah, and laughing as they watch the U.S. implode from the erratic behavior of our leaders. I’m not exactly sure who we would list as our allies today. If I’m not mistaken, Canada, the European Union, the UK, and Mexico all see us as I’ve said in the past – that dog that just crapped on your carpet. While we have pulled aid to third world countries, cut funding to NATO and the UN, started a global trade war, and sent farm crop workers out of the country creating immense problems in our agriculture industry, China has seen this as an opportunity to become a leader in the world order. Chinese President Xi has been making the rounds in Europe and Asia to create some economic partnerships that our president has decided to scrap. So, here we are today. Enough of this doom and gloom. The sun is out. I think I’ll take a little walky poo so I can be as healthy as Don. Have a great evening. Ziggyman