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WHAT NEXT? [1]

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Date: 2025-03-18

Mar 17, 2025

I’m a Boomer. (Sophomore class, 1947). I had the standard American education. We learned that Christopher Columbus discovered America. George Washington could not tell a lie about chopping down the cherry tree. We were taught that all men were created equal, but “negroes” were only three-fifths of a person, and white Europeans were manifestly destined by God to spread across America—killing and displacing its native populations. We learned America was the “Great melting pot” where immigrant cultures blended harmoniously into a new American culture. “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”--Paul Simon, Kodachrome, 1973 By the end of World War II, the United States was the world's leading economic power. Unlike Europe and Asia, America had been spared the physical destruction of war, and the economy was booming for us Boomers. I grew up in that golden age—back when rich folks paid taxes and the nation could afford to build schools and

bridges, and an interstate highway system. The United States of America was the richest, most powerful nation on earth. Everything was good and getting better.

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Little did we know that many of us would live to see the day the great American experiment in democracy came to an end. Things do not always get better. A lot of things (good and bad) happened during our lifetimes: hot wars, cold wars, transistors and television, assassinations, moon landings, civil rights protests, computers, terrorist attacks, scandals1, and a pandemic.

A few events stand out as crucial to our downfall:

Sometime during the nineteen-seventies, the richest Americans must have decided they were tired of paying taxes and they wanted all the money; so, they hired an actor, Ronald Reagan, to play the part of President (POTUS) while they sucked all the wealth out of the middle class.

Reagan won the election by conspiring with Iranian kidnappers to keep holding American hostages until after the election—to make President Carter look weak. It worked. Reagan won the election and “ Operation Suck It Up ” was in motion. It works the same as the “Trickle-Down Theory” . Either way, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine, allowing people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, etc… to broadcast a message of unadulterated hate and division, mixed in with right-wing talking points, disinformation, and outright lies. Fox News went so far as to argue in court that their First Amendment rights permitted them to lie to their audience because the shows were for entertainment purposes. Fox won the case and continued to spread their brand of bull sh*t with the court’s blessing, and they continued to call themselves “News”2.

Working together, the Republican Party, Fox News, and hate radio amassed a huge following of misinformed voters, foaming at the mouth and ready to spring into action at the next dog whistle.

Democracy’s days were numbered on the day SCOTUS handed down its decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission on January 21, 2010. This landmark decision struck down bans on independent expenditures by corporations and unions, opening the floodgates of spending in political campaigns. The court ruled that corporations had the same First Amendment rights of free speech as a person (LOL), and money is considered speech (LMAO). So, now we have a few Billionaires with very loud voices—drowning out the voices of everybody else.

Elon Musk, alone, spent over $200 million dollars to help Trump get elected. He has also spent more than $8 million in an attempt to sway the upcoming election of a Wisconsin Supreme Court judge.3 That is why no Republican dares to speak out against any of the insane things Trump has proposed.4 They know they will be kicked off the gravy train in the next election—if not sooner.

Through all this, the United States managed to remain a Constitutional Republic and a nation of laws. The federal courts stopped much of Trump’s illegal plans and attacks on the U.S. Constitution during his first term, but then came the insurrection on January 6 th , 2021.

After losing the election to Joe Biden, Trump sent his MAGA mob to storm the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow our government. They failed, but instead of prosecuting Trump, the plutocrats and their minions in Congress and on the Supreme Court did everything they could to obstruct justice and delay prosecutions—eventually giving the soon-to-be-President (again) unlimited immunity and putting him above the law—like a King.

In his first six weeks in office, the King has done more damage to America than a dozen terrorist attacks like 9/11.

“In office less than two months, Trump has dismantled government agencies and fired tens of thousands of government workers, then scrambled to hire hundreds of them back back because they held crucial jobs like managing the nation’s nuclear weapons.”—USA Today, 3/15/25

Nobody is against cutting waste, fraud, and abuse; but not the way Trump and his sidekick, Elon Musk, are doing it. The ongoing chaos is unnecessary and deliberate. You can’t just fire thousands of federal civil service workers for no good reason—unless you are a King.

So, with a wave of his magic sharpie, King Trump changed the status of all the federal civil service personnel to a schedule F status5--a classification that allows the President to fire them as he pleases. A federal judge has ruled that thousands of these firing were illegal and the people should be re-hired. Trump has appealed the ruling, and I am sure he is prepared to take the case all the way to his hand-picked Supreme Court—since taxpayers are footing all the legal bills. At least 126 legal cases have already challenged Trump’s executive orders and other illegal actions (as of 3/8/25).

The result of all the legal wrangling is that nobody knows what is going on—let alone what might happen in the distant future (like next week). The US Economic Policy Uncertainty Index has hit a record high (pandemic-excluded) due to widespread confusion over tariffs, firings, funding cuts, and random brain-farts issued by the King, himself.

*****

Apparently, the Plutocrats are ready to take the next step and destroy the government that taxes them. Republican administrations don’t usually crash the economy until they are about to make their getaway; but Trump and Musk are on pace to set a new record of how fast an administration can crash an economy. What do they plan to do for the next three years and ten months with a crippled government? Nobody knows, and that includes the people who crippled it. Maybe Trump will cue up YMCA by Village People and dance around for a couple of years.

Whatever happens, the members of the Billionaire Boys Club will still be rich, so don’t be surprised if they offer to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, buy our national parks, and take over government services that no longer serve—since Trump & Musk cut their budgets and fired their workers.

*****

Keeping in mind that I predicted Kamala Harris would win the 2024 presidential election, I am going to make another prediction—not on the economy, but what is going to happen to the Chosen One. Donald Trump has fulfilled his purpose and will not be around to serve that third term he covets so much.

J. D. Vance is the poster boy for Project 2025, and right now, Vance is a heartbeat away from the presidency. Do you think the Billionaire Boys Club wants to take a chance on Vance winning a national election after four disastrous years under the Trump/Vance administration? I don’t think so.

Trump is old, fat, doesn’t eat right, doesn’t exercise, and a lot of people have been wishing he would drop dead for years. Who would be surprised if he had a heart attack or stroke? I’m betting sooner than later. Maybe we could start a pool to predict the date?

Going forward, we don’t need to watch or worry about Trump’s three-ringed sh*t show. That is just what he wants you to do, so don’t let him “own” you. One way or another, Trump’s days are numbered. We need to concentrate now on taking back the House and Senate, so President Vance won’t be able to complete any more of Project 2025 or have time to rig the 2028 election.

We need to elect people who believe in government and want to make it better—not people who want to corrupt and destroy it. I think the elections in 2026 and 2028 will determine if our great-grandchildren grow up in a woke America or something more like The Handmaid’s Tale or Orwell’s 1984.

*****

1 I will never forget the day President Obama wore that tan suit to a press conference. A day that will live in infamy—August 28, 2014.

2 People who get their news from Fox News know less than nothing, and what they do know is wrong.

3 Despite spending so much time tearing our government apart, Musk still finds time to meddle in German and South African politics. Only he knows what is wrong, and only he can fix it. Sound familiar?

4 Trump has proposed making both Canada and Mexico a state in the USA; buying or stealing Greenland; and taking back control of the Panama Canal—to name a few.

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