And So the End Begins...

Today is the first day of the new Congress. Senate and House both controlled by Republicans. Johnson retains his speakership after a little bit of showmanship leading to some arm-twisting to change votes for a few holdouts. He's made his speech about what they will be accomplishing, think dismantling voting rights and consumer protections, no watchdogs for corporations or for the environment, and kissing the ring as expected for Trump.

Speaking of Trump, Judge Merchan said he is going to hand down sentencing from the hush money conviction before inauguration and that.... he gets an unconditional discharge. What's that you ask? It's nothing. He gets nothing. No punishment at all. He gets away with it. Yes, he will always still be a convicted felon, but he will be able to claim that the unconditional discharge means that the court knew he was wrongly convicted. Expect to hear that as a talking point. Judge Merchan has stated that jail time would have been appropriate, but it's not practical now. But that is a moral victory at best and we all know that Trump has no morals so...

The whole reason he was running for president was to avoid punishment in any of the state cases, and it worked. He didn't have to get elected to avoid punishment in any of the federal cases since the Supreme Court said he gets to do whatever he wants there so those cases had already been dismissed. The bonus is he gets to enrich himself, his family and his cronies.

So the Congress is set. Trump is a little over two weeks away from retaking the office. And we are screwed.

I really do believe that. I believe the country as we knew it is done. I believe we missed our chance to pull everything back from the brink. We tried back in 2020 with the election of Biden and he did SO MUCH good stuff in his four years that he got zero credit for (expect Trump to take the credit next year for programs and the economy that are Biden's accomplishments). But because people couldn't be bothered to vote for Harris we are toast.

In three days the election will be certified for Trump. Four years after he staged an insurrection. Four years after so many republicans swore that THAT was it! They were done with him. Four years after we all sat and watched in horror as it unfolded and he did nothing to stop it. There was and is literally nothing he could do that would be odious enough to prevent them from crawling back and pledging fealty.

I wonder now when the time will come when images from January 6th are completely memory holed and censored. When they become Tiananmen Square uprising in China images. He's already got people saying it wasn't that bad. People who swore he had gone too far. That he'd never be in power again. Well...

He's survived that and been voted back in, now he has Elon Musk whispering in his ear and lining his nest with very expensive feathers all while threatening to primary anyone who stands in their way.

I don't know what comes next. I really don't. I have no benchmarks to look to to say, this is what happened when, so...

I don't think there are any guardrails like there were in his first term. I think Project 2025 planning will make sure of that. The billionaires he's nominating for his cabinet and to represent him don't have any loyalty to the Constitution, these are not public servants, these are corporate leaders. Late stage capitalism officials with a loyalty to nothing but profits.

Super pessimistic, I know. But I do believe this to be true. If I'm wrong, if it all holds together and works out, if things are still okay in four years, if all of that happens, I will be glad to say I was wrong. Really glad. Like I'll own that shit proudly.

If I'm wrong.

But I don't think I will be.

So, my advice is to do what I'm doing. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Fight for your joy and your peace and savagely hold on to it.

Joyful Warrior.

As in I will cut a bitch with a smile on my face...

Protect your hearts, my loves, whatever is coming we need to be strong.

Our best case scenario is that the OG Magas will abandon ship as the TechBro Magas make their lives worse off and we can switch the House and Senate in two years. But, fuck, I'm not sure what will be left in two years to fix and save.

Welcome to the first day of the end.

Know that you aren't the only one looking at all of this thinking it's just insanity.

Protect yourself however you need to. Find joy wherever you can.

Good luck to all of us.