Time Flies...

...or is that crawls? Something to do with unpleasant insects right now for sure.

Yesterday marked two months since Trump took the oath of office. Which he has ignored every day since. It was also the first day of Spring here in the Western Hemisphere. Time for new beginnings and all that.

It is still a parade of what the fuck was that over here in these United States. Every day I wake up thinking "today I will just not think about it," and every day he does something, or his administration does something, or the Democratic Senators don't do something, that makes me angry, worried, sick to my stomach, in fear for our country, any and all of those.

The dismantling of our government continues in spite of court orders to stop it. And I truly mean in spite of. The contempt that this administration is showing to the judicial branch is jaw dropping. They aren't even pretending that they will be held back by the court system. If a ruling comes out that they disagree with they are ignoring it and calling for the impeachment of the judge.

They are deporting people and revoking legal resident status of folks who dared to protest, or even just post on Facebook about being pro-Palestinian. They are snapping people up at border crossings and holding them in detention for...reasons? Germans, Canadians, tourists, workers, spouses of Americans. It doesn't matter, you aren't safe. If you are lucky you get sent to the detention center in Louisiana (judges there that will rule in their favor so they can pretend they aren't breaking the law), if you aren't lucky you are on a plane to prison in El Salvador.

Oh, and Trump has announced that he will send those who protest Tesla to El Salvador as well. Yeah, that's right. Protesting Tesla is now domestic terrorism.

I see people overseas wondering why there aren't more mass protests. More people in the streets. Well...there are protests. There are people in the streets. There are people at town halls. But yeah, no, there aren't 100,000 people flooding the capitol like you would see in France. I'm going to give you two reasons (maybe more, lets see what happens when I get going).

First off, there is a profound lack of imagination for those who are aware of what's happening and a profound lack of awareness for a large section of the country who has no idea what's happening. (I'm counting this as one reason, but it's probably two all on it's own) We here in the US as a whole have been comfortable for a long time. Yes, there is incredible wealth inequality, yes, there is a good chance you will go bankrupt if you get sick, but we still have had freedom to scream about these issues. We've not seen our neighbors disappear in the night. We haven't seen political opponents suddenly decide not to run for health reasons.

It's been a wounded, but still functioning democracy. And even those of us who see what's happening, and are worried about it, still have a hard time imagining our country being like Russia or Turkey, or Hungary, or Nazi Germany. We suffer from a profound lack of imagination. It doesn't seem real so we are going to pretend it can't happen here. Even as it's happening.

For those that have no idea, they are either just profoundly disconnected, which a large portion of the population is, or they are watching Right Wing media and being told this is all good and fine. These things that are happening are the things that the Right has been campaigning on for decades after all. Shutdown the government. Trash regulations. Mass Deportation Now! (as the signs at the RNC read) They are thrilled that this is happening, and have no idea what it actually means for them.

That shutting down the government means the end to farm subsidies. Which means the end of SNAP benefits. Shutting down medicare and medicaid means you don't get medical insurance anymore. Closing Social Security offices and firing most of the staff means your SS check isn't coming on time. They want all the benefits of the government but none of the government part. It's never made sense, and they are about to find out why.

The other reason is that the United States has been a militarized police country for a long time. In Portland our police bureau has paid out millions of dollars worth of judgements due to police brutality during protest marches. But that brutality still happened. And even the news about the judgement is a reminder that you are in danger from the police every time you protest. And that was before the President declared protests to be domestic terrorism.

My friend Raquel just got back from Mexico and there were a couple big demonstrations while she was there. She talked about how smoothly it was all handled. How peaceful. And yeah, you see that in a lot of other countries. Masses of people in the streets, very little violence. Not as much here.

Every time you protest you have to be aware and careful. And not everyone is up for that.

So here we are two months in and the destruction is moving right along. The next big thing I'm watching out for is the culmination of one of the EO signed right after inauguration. The one that directed the military to review the southern border and decide if it should be declared an emergency due to invasion. It was one of the many he signed about border security but there is a section in it that after 90 days the Treasury Secretary and the Homeland Security Secretary needed to submit updates and recommendations for further needed action.

So, fun fact, that time line puts us at the decision being handed over on April 20. That's Hitler's birthday for those of you who aren't aware of the nazification of our government and don't know way too much about those sorts of dog whistles. But the really scary thing, for me, is that Bessent and Noem will recommend further steps that would end up giving Trump war footing. Like, declaring that we are under attack so the president has a lot more power. Curfews, lockdowns, limiting of gatherings, on and on and on. Basically the final step in our slide.

I don't suffer from a lack of imagination. But even I have a hard time grasping how bad it's going to be. I see it coming, but I'm not exactly sure what it is.

But yesterday was the first day of Spring. My flowers are still growing. We have a busy weekend with sports and friends and a play. I have things on the calendar happening much later in the year. Lack of imagination or just imagining a better future?

Our world is crashing, and yet it still spins.