The Frog in the Pot
Dear Neighbors,
it may feel like things are in limbo, staying at the same level of chaos. Don’t be deceived. The freedoms, institutions and information, data and even people, that this administration is rapidly “disappearing” from existence will take decades, at least, to reconstruct, and in the meantime we will not have safe medicine, safe vaccines, safe food to eat, safe air to breathe; we will not be safe in our homes or anywhere on the planet. Having persecuted, deported, imprisoned and alienated foreign workers – from day-laborers and farmhands to research scientists and doctors – apparently most of us are intended, perhaps destined, to resign ourselves to Howard Lutnick’s plans (https://fortune.com/article/commerce-secretary-howard-lutnick-tariffs-factory-jobs-robots/) for American employees, fulfilling our duty to MAGA. That future will be hastened by the ongoing destruction of American education, and if we don’t comply, perhaps we’ll end up in Alcatraz (https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5387239/trump-alcatraz-reopen). Tourism will be nonexistent – in both directions, now that we’re self-incubating virus mutations and exporting formerly-preventable infectious diseases. Even those of us who believe in vaccines won’t be able to get them.
I’m not going to bother with more links to the meltdown of democracy – you can look it up for yourself, and it is just too discouraging to revisit all the stories. But this is not hyperbole. It’s not a joke, and it’s not a drill. When people warned you to believe what Project 2025 laid out, they meant it. Unless citizens – OTHER THAN, AND IN MASSIVE ADDITION TO the ragtag groups currently protesting – begin to get involved in a variety of effective ways, there will be no going back. We have a “president” who isn’t sure it’s even his duty to uphold the Constitution (or, is actually SURE it isn’t), who has already created numerous constitutional crises – which no one wants to enumerate for fear of having the whole house of cards collapse at once. “The Democrats” will not “save” anything but their own figurehead positions in a one-sided and unworkable status quo, a runaway steam-roller obliterating the true American Values of our founders; everything we once held to be self-evident.
You may think you are still ok. But you’re the frog in the pot, and it’s already on the stove. I’ve said before, and I’m more convinced every day: anyone who still believes we will even have the capacity for fair elections in 2 years is living in a fantasy. Hell, thanks to Bobby Jr. we’ll be lucky to be alive by then. You don’t have to join ME – despite expressions of appreciation and support, only ONE neighbor has so far – but please, PLEASE get out of your comfort zone and find you own way to do SOMETHING. We’re one pandemic away from disaster, and running out of time.