It affects everything—knowing that Trump will be POTUS again. When I’m driving to the grocery store or to see family, or sitting on the couch reading a book, that unsettling thought will be close at hand.

The reality that such a thoughtless, calculating, cold-hearted, hapless oaf will once again be the visible figurehead for America looms over every aspect of my life.

We can’t ignore the guy, despite what I said, mostly jokingly, in an earlier post. We can try to carry on as if his presence doesn’t matter, but that won’t work, because his presence exposes a whole ugly, forceful movement toward coarseness and paranoia and isolationism and rampant self-interest.

Even if we personally revile him, don’t respect him, his presence still makes one think differently about who we are collectively, and what we value. His presence makes it easier to give up on hope and optimism.

He is a black hole from which no light escapes. He is darkness personified.

WTFH, America?

Most any advancement in technology, apart from military armaments, I consider potentially useful. But for the sake of the prompt, I’d have to say social media outlets, which are considered technology– I checked with Chat GPT.

I can’t blame smartphones, because they have become indispensable in ways apart from being the carriers of social media content. But social media themselves have become omnipresent weapons in the wrong hands. They’re kryptonite to the emotionally unstable. They’ve perhaps inevitably become tools for those who want to disseminate empty-headed and hateful rhetoric. They’ve become a huge distraction and the means for people to simply boast and brag and waste peoples’ time with pictures of and stories about how great their lives and children are.

I guess this is a general criticism I have for a fair amount of what we see and use on our devices. It’s one thing to get an update on approaching weather or important events in the news, or to use GPS to find our way home. It’s something else entirely to wile away your hours in a chat room or on a text thread talking shit about someone or otherwise engaging in inane and empty conversations and activities.

I’ve been giving this one some thought, and it’s been difficult to come up with anything that fits the bill.

I guess, if I’m being honest, the hardest decision was one I used to make on a daily basis when I was on call as a substitute teacher. When one principal or another would call first thing in the morning, I would get a pit in my stomach and reluctantly get ready to go in and face kids who, like me when I was their age, would lick their chops at the sight of a substitute.

Getting married? Not difficult at all. Uprooting and moving to seminary with three small children? Made sense to us, with a manageable amount of trepidation but not overly difficult. Retirement? Yes, please!

Maybe the hardest decision I never made was to apply myself, find work that was more up my alley, and earn enough money in the course of my working years to enjoy retirement more than we are.

All the President’s men… and women. They’re the ones who end up taking the fall instead of Trump. I guess you can forgive him for thinking he leads a charmed life. The trail of jailed sycophants and hardliners and underlings is long.

And poor Rudy. He does Trump’s bidding like a lap dog, and now is being bled of all his earthly possessions. Seems excessive and grossly disproportionate to me. Besides bad-mouthing a couple of poll workers, what did he do that many others haven’t? They’ve all prostituted themselves and ended up diminished somehow.

But not Trump. Trump always emerges seemingly unscathed, lives to annoy another day. How does he do it?

And now we get to watch as he attempts to run roughshod over our system of governance. Nobody home in the White House for another four years.

Super job, America.

Tariffs… Trump 2.0’s attempt at mitigating the flow of immigrants and fentanyl. How convenient. Seems more like taking a stick to a hornet nest—not advisable, unnecessary, and producing predictably undesirable results.

Baby and bath water, throwing spaghetti at the wall. Dumb, unwinnable– and avoidable– battles. It’s probably the best they can come up with, though.

What would I do with the extra time if I didn’t have to sleep? Probably fret a bit, because I have a fair amount of time on my hands as it is, and I don’t do much with it.

In a perfect world, maybe I’d work a graveyard shift somewhere, so I could have the extra money to furnish a decent wood shop, with projects lined up and the tools I’d need to make things. I’d probably read, practice piano, find a place to stargaze, learn to cook so we’d have a healthy and varied menu each week. I’d continue writing, maybe learn a language or two. And I’d probably still build in some downtime, quiet time, because I can’t imagine not needing some of that.

Interesting premise. Makes me tired, though.

What the hell are Musk and Ramaswamy gonna be doing?

The whole approaching Round Two of Trump has the air of bull in the China closet about it. We get to watch a bunch of derelicts and rich kids play with the levers of government without having a clue regarding what governance looks like or what it entails.

They’re gonna run the country like a business, or attempt to. They want to tighten belts and streamline, cut jobs and get rid of whole agencies and departments. I wonder if they realize that demolition is a lot more fun, and easier, than building something new and functional.

There’s a troubling air of folly about this transition, like Trump, or more likely the Heritage Foundation, is telling the minions, “Have at it. Have fun.” The goal is chaos and a consolidation of power.

Whether there is a functioning government that is responsive to needs looks to be beside the point. Get ready for survival of the fittest.

People make astounding concessions when it comes to picking their leaders. It’s not that there’s no capability when it comes to making wise choices. I need to believe that in other aspects of their lives, they try to do the right things.

It’s just that sometimes deception plays an outsized role in politics, and the result looks like a groundswell of support for a corrupt real estate so-called magnate because a sizeable portion of the electorate thinks he’s got what it takes to “get things done.”

They’re willing to overlook the corrupt part because he talks a good game and people believe the biased news network that’s putting him on a pedestal while simultaneously lambasting the opposition in a ruthless, contrived, never-ending fear and smear campaign.

Their guy will be back in the White House in a couple months, and this time around it looks like he’ll be hitting the ground running, with hopes of kicking ass and taking names. One of a million problems with this is that he and the powerbrokers pulling the strings are trying to implement plans that will render America unrecognizable and likely impotent and more vulnerable in the world.

And all the people who voted for Trump may end up looking more like accessories to a crime. Or, at best, enablers.

It’s such an empty-souled, hateful thing he’s been doing to us for too long now. May he get resistance at every turn.

People who make a conscious choice to park their asses in the passing lane; people who pull out in front of you and then dog it; entitled, pretentious snobs.

These are the first things that come to mind. It could be a totally different list tomorrow. I don’t know if there could ever be a perennial Top 3. Well, with the possible exception of entitled, pretentious snobs– that one might always be there.

OK, one more– fickle technology. Or opening a sleeve of crackers without ripping the packaging. Or opening a box of Bel Vitas or cereal without tearing the closing tab apparatus. Or cracking an egg and having to pick out pieces of shell. Or wimpy, under-cooked bacon. Or most diner coffee.

OK, that last one probably inched me closer to pretentious snob. But once you try Starbucks or Rock City, there’s no going back.

Another four-year endurance test. Four more years of the rest of the world back on its heels while Putin licks his chops and plays Trump for the sucker that he is. Four more years of bluster and a no-longer-inconceivable lack of expertise and stunning ineptitude and obvious disqualification.

Needed change, or intentional chaos? So you’ve blown things up. Now what?!

What’s the end game for Vance and Miller and Roberts and the rest? Is it truly about dictatorship and some sort of desired return to a “Christian” nation? Or is it simply more of the same– pure power play, the rich getting richer while need goes unaddressed and the classic struggle between highly contrasting visions continues to play out?

One being dystopian, the other yet more hopeful. And equitable. 

Caution: toddler behind the wheel.