Day: April 9, 2025

We are fucked

jeffcnichols

We are so fucked. I spent some time at my local winery this sunny afternoon, having a glass of good Italian wine and bringing pasta home for dinner.

At the table next to me, well within a reasonable eavesdropping limit, were two 25ish women. One of them spoke loudly about the privileged people who disgusted her. Not sure who she was referring to. I don’t have background, I don’t have context, except for this – two twenty-something white women drinking wine at a posh place, 4pm in the afternoon, railing about the injustice of other folks’ privilege. What is wrong with this picture?

Full disclosure and disclaimer: I’ve spent my life on the Easy Mode in the game of Life. White, male, healthy, educated; rode the real estate equity train to Easy Street…I’m the definition of privilege. I get it. But that’s the point – I get it. I understand that I could have been born in the Sudan suffering from cholera and starving to death. Like millions of other less fortunate people. But I got Easy Mode.

These two women had no thought, no concept, that drinking wine in the afternoon in a free country, having others wait on you, soaking in the sunshine, is privilege by definition. All they see is “the other”, someone they want to demonize because of race, sex, religion, or politics. When the war starts, when we need all hands on deck, I don’t expect these two to be much help. They’ll be dealing with the surprising immediate reality that the world can be a hard place, and they’re not prepared.

I think this is the norm for the US, not a random observation. That’s why I think we are fucked.

Dark days

jeffcnichols

I have enough emotional cushion today to write a bit about Mad King Donnie’s crusade to tear down America, but where to start? It’s a target-rich environment – I’ll just toss a few things out:

  • A stock market that has lost 10% value over the last month, erasing SIX TRILLION DOLLARS of investment gains. (Including way too much of our retirement fund.)
  • Former international allies like Canada, France, the UK, and of course Ukraine, giving up on us. They understand that we are lost to them, perhaps enemies, as long as MKD is in charge.
  • Donnie musing thoughtfully about ways to deport US citizens. I’ll say it again, deport US citizens! This is the next step in the US becoming the Soviet Union circa 1960.
  • Ongoing wanton, random destruction of the IRS and the Social Security Administration by the DOGE boys. I guess the logic is that SS will become more solvent when we can’t send checks to anyone.
  • MKD’s ongoing attacks on universities, withholding hundreds of millions in grant funds unless they bow to the king. The culture wars writ large. Same for news organizations and law firms. Behave as MKD dictates or suffer the consequences.
  • Deportation of anyone MKD’s orcs declare a threat to the El Salvador hell-prison continues, with no due process, now authorized by SCOTUS. That includes those unfortunate souls proven to be there by mistake. “Oops, sorry, we’ve lost your baggage loved one somewhere in Central America. Call this number to see what your options will be. Thanks for flying ICE Air.”
  • MKD declares that the Nazi’s treated some of their Jewish prisoners “with love”. Yeah, they lovingly rounded them up, placed them in cargo trains, tortured and starved them, then gassed and cremated six million of them. Tough love, Donnie. Your kind of people.
  • Our unnecessary US measles outbreak continues, undeterred, perhaps even enabled, by wacko anti-vax health services leader RFK Jr. The fox is definitely guarding the hen house.

And all that’s just off the top of my head. These are dark, dark days. It’s going to take something significant to change course now – riots, a civil war, an uprising in Congress – maybe all of the above.