Primal Scream

I admit my imagination failed. 

I couldn't imagine how bad this second Trump administration would be, and I now know it will get worse. (Did you hear he has appointed a penile-implant doctor to head the hanta virus response, and one of Don Jr.'s hunting buddies to head the FDA? And those are just minor notes on a day ending in y, as they say.) 

A few days ago, Radley Balko reposted something he wrote the day after the election in 2024:

Fearing most:
- mass deportations, police state required to try it, resulting death/suffering
- severe recession or depression from tariffs, deportations, ensuing civil unrest
- violence against protesters 
- weaponization of DOJ, IRS, FCC
- “unleashed” cops & vigilantes
- Baltics, Poland, Taiwan 

And we're there, pretty much. The Baltics, Poland, not so much, but everything else on his list, yes, plus a lot else. The corruption that I feel foolish even trying to come up with adjectives to describe. RFK Jr and Elon Musk directly and indirectly killing millions of children. The complete reinstitution of Jim Crow. 

Withdrawing troops from Europe to let Putin in. Could you have imagined an American president doing that? 

Burning everything behind them, making it so, so hard to rebuild.

But at the same time, they are running scared. As political philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò is fond of saying (and is often found quoted on BlueSky): I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.