Much ado is being made over
#NeverWasMyPresident King Donold John Trump's
disastrous and criminally reckless first 100 days back on the throne (meaning, of course, the Oval Office, not the gilded
crapper from which he poops out his social media rants).
Following that second link (here it is again), or typing
in your own search criteria, will lead you to zillions of words
about the profound and in some cases possibly irreparable damage
Trump and his minions have done so far, either maliciously,
stupidly, or both. It will also lead you to boatloads of steaming stool about
how The King is truly making America greater and greater by the
moment.
Fortunately the latter view -- that Trump's total disregard for
the Constitution, the rule of law, and all that is fine and
decent is actually making Murica significantly better -- seems to
be dwindling among all but the most devoted/ignorant MAGAts and
the most cynical power grabbers. A growing majority of ordinary
Americans are giving Trump a failing grade. Don't believe me?
Well, maybe you'll believe God Himself.
Even so, the Trumpists are still a significant enough force to
topple what's left of American democracy.
In any case, I'm not going to waste your time or mine with
passionate opinionating that you can easily find both in more
brilliant and infinitely stupider form in scads of other places.
But in the humorously brilliant category, I did want to highlight one of my
personal favorite commentaries, the April 30, 2025 offering from Jeff Tiedrich, one of my favorite foul-mouthed pundits. "America
staggers as Mad King turns the crazy up to eleven," reads
the blurb under the headline. Alas, it seems abundantly clear
that the level 11 crazy is the new abnormal:
why all the fuss? it was a day no different from any other. Donny continues to grab the world’s economy by the haunches and give it a vigorous clownfucking. Putin continues to laugh his ass off. China continues to eat Donny’s lunch. those rat-bastards up in Canada continue to refuse to be our hat.
Being a short piece, it only scratches the
surface of the crazy, but Tiedrich gets his point across. It's
well worth your time to read it, if you don't mind a few naughty
words here and there.
Tiedrich's overarching message, however -- as well as the message
from countless others who are in despair -- is that we mustn't
give in to that despair.
Which brings me to another piece that struck me, this one from The
Bulwark. As William Kristol, Andrew Egger, and Jim Swift
explain in their April 30, 2025 Morning Shots,
there is, along with ample cause for alarm, room for hope about
the road ahead, although admittedly there's probably more reason
to be alarmed than hopeful at this point.
It’s been an exhausting 100 days.
And we have 1,361 more to go.
Or, to put it another way: We’re only about 7 percent of the way through Trump’s presidential term. The overwhelming and decisive part of the challenge we face lies before us. It’s important not to be overwhelmed by the realization that this major assault on the rule of law, on our government institutions, on civil society, on the international order, has only just begun.
It’s also important not to succumb to wishful thinking that we’ve seen the worst of it...
...Public opinion is turning against the Trump administration, which is important. But a determined president with loyal and unprincipled subordinates in charge of a large executive branch, with a Congress controlled by his own party, a party that in turn is wholly subservient to him: That is a Godzilla that can keep moving ahead even with valiant attempts to interrupt its progress.
If Congress starts to weigh in, that can really make a difference. But that would require defections from the forces of appeasement and acquiescence that control the Republican party. This could happen. It hasn’t yet.
But, the Bulwark trio adds, the one thing we absolutely must not do is allow the alarm to keep us from fighting for what's right.
...alarm need not be, it should not be, paralyzing. It needs to result in, as Longfellow wrote of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, “a cry of defiance and not of fear.”
I'm definitely one of those who believe that there is still hope. It might seem that we're stuck in a neverending nightmare. But we don't have to be. With a helluva lot of determination and collective effort, we can midnight-ride our way back to a true morning in America.
Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, it can make them
far easier to bear -- particularly personal nightmares. In the
wake of my husband Ron's passing in February, I have had significant income loss and am scrambling
to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken
over by AI, it has been a challenge. Now more than ever,
donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here
are some ways to do it:
- New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
- New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
- Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.
NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please
specify that your contribution is for "friends and
family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction
fee.
Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this
Whirled.
