Will we ever return to what might be called "Normal?"

 

Will we ever return to "Normal?"  That is a question that keeps coming to mind.  I used to be able to listen to the news and opinion channels without getting sick.  Now, I can only listen in small increments, as the news is so depressing.  The Orange Monster was tricked into making the one mistake which could (and probably will) destroy the American empire and its Pax Americana.  And I fear what will happen next.

America is no longer a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world.  The xenophobic policies of the orange monster have scared away the very immigrants we need to keep our country as prosperous as it has been.  What will that mean to pensioners such as me?  How could this affect my bank account and investments?  Although I have a potential exit route out of the USA if we become an authoritarian republic, most Americans do not have a "Get out of Jail Free" card in their pockets.  What will happen to them?

Our currency is losing its value, and our national debt is going up.  The "Leadership" in Washington is claiming that the increase of credit card usage is a good thing.  Yet, this is a lie.  People are going into debt in order to buy food - that's never a healthy thing for a society to experience.  America is heading for a financial collapse triggered by the orange monster, and I wonder what will be left afterwards.

What is happening to our justice system?  In the past, the Department of Justice (DOJ) used to be an independent part of the executive branch of government.  Now, it is a tool for the monster to extract revenge against his political enemies.  He does not distinguish between the people who were really out to attack him vs. the people whose jobs were to impartially enforce the laws he broke.  Couple this with the ICE "Gestapo" and America's system of legal "due process" becomes meaningless.  How many people will be destroyed in his pogroms?

Normally, our elections would be a safeguard against government overreach.  But now, with Gerrymandering wars going on, I'm not sure if the will of the people will have any power anymore.  Can we check and balance the power of an abusive government.  I'm not sure anymore.  Yes, there will be a few areas of the country that will be able to resist - at least, for a while.  But I am concerned about what America will look like when this ability to resist is worn away.  Will we look like a Christian Nationalist version of Iran?  Who knows?  But this would not be the kind of America I'd want to live in.

Yet, I still have hope for this country.  Soon, I plan to travel to a place where I've avoided travel for a while.  Although I expect no problems, who knows what will happen.  I'm hoping to see the seeds of normalcy being sown this autumn.  But if not, I have an exit plan, and hope to have my "letters of transit" for two by then.... 

April is no fool's joke this year!

 

Normally, I'd like to be pulling an April Fool's prank on my readers.  But this year, it's not a joking matter.  As I write this, the Orange Snowflake has openly stepped over the line, and attempted to take on powers not granted to his office by the constitution.  As of now, we are likely not a land where the rule of law checks and balances the power of a wanna-be authoritarian leader.

Why do I say this?

As I write this entry, the snowflake has claimed the power to revoke ALL of a prior president's pardons. The big question is: what will anyone be able to do about this?  He has already asserted that the right to protest against our government's policies is illegal for legally resident aliens, and may result in deportation.  Yes, I despise what this protester supports.  But he has a right to advocate for a cause if he is legally here.

The snowflake does not care about constitutional limits, as he has the same thirst for power that his authoritarian friends in Russia and North Korea have.  But has he noticed anything about their economies?  Neither is generating maximum wealth for the people or its leaders.  These regimes extract and consume wealth from an economy without generating enough new wealth to replace it.  These regimes will eventually self destruct.  Does the snowflake want to do that to America?

Do we have grounds for hope?

Strangely enough, we still have grounds for hope.  Although GOP leaders know that even MAGAs are against the extreme policies of this administration, they have not cracked under pressure.  But they will. They can't run away from their constituents forever, nor can they ignore the wishes of their big corporate donors.  Businesses do best during stable times, not when things are in flux.  Sadly, things are in a great state of flux today.

Hope can be found in ways to pressure the GOP leadership to change its tune.  Emails, written snail mail, and phone calls can be effective tools in getting one's voice heard.  One needs to know ALL email addresses, snail mail addresses, and phone numbers where one's complaints can be sent - and these people will eventually get the message.

The chilling thought for all authoritarian leaders is that the public can mount a successful revolt against tyranny.  There are more guns than people in America.  Most of these guns are in the "Red States".  And when MAGA people start seeing that the snowflake and GOP have betrayed them, watch out!  I expect that we run the risk of another "French Style" revolution which attacks the elite.  Hopefully, revolt will take place via the ballot box, and not with lead.  But as Fats Waller once said: "One never knows, do one."

Poly = Many, Tics = Flesh Eating Insects

 

As I write this, the House of Representatives has just elected a new Speaker - an ultra conservative lunatic. Why do I call him a lunatic?  Anyone who opposes late term abortions to preserve the life of the mother has to be crazy.  His policies, such as a total late term abortion ban, if enacted, will put the lives of many cisgender women at risk.  Even though I am transgender, and never will directly have anything at risk with this policy, I have to fight for those that do - else, I will have no excuse to ask cisgender women for help when these lunatics attack us transgender people.

The previous speaker was elected after 15 votes.  Before the election was over, no actions could be taken by the house.  Due to an action from a radical from the far right, the first speaker was removed from his position, and it took 3 weeks for a new speaker to be elected.  Since they didn't change the rule which allowed the former speaker to be removed, I fully expect that we will see someone invoke it to remove this speaker when the current spending bill expires.  (Will we have a government shutdown or not?  A House without a speaker when the spending bill expires will be a disaster. But I don't put it past the far right....)

So, where am I going with this?

Right now, the "right" is busy fighting amongst its allies.  Moderate "conservatives" are being coerced to give their votes to the radicals. (Look at how Jim Jordan's allies allegedly gave death threats to people who didn't support him for examples of this coercion.)  My congressional representative voted for the current speaker of the house.  This cemented my resolution to be part of the bloc that (hopefully) votes him out next year.

Given that transgender people will continue to be a target of the far right, I expect that attacks against us will resume soon.  This means that we must continue our efforts to get more trans people into positions of power, so that we (and our allies) to check and balance the power of the lunatic right until sanity (hopefully) can be restored to the GOP.

Most of us are not ready to "out" ourselves and be targets for the lunatics on the right.  But we can vote for our allies.  So, it's time to register to vote, and participate in local politics when possible.  As they say, all politics are local.  That's where we can make our first stand against lunacy.   And I intend to do just that....