A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Lord Darlington in Lady Windermer's Fan, written by Oscar Wilde, 1892
A Foundation In Need of Repair
Of course a lot of Americans are feeling unsure, insecure and nervous about their future, and well they should. Something like 45 percent of American households will run short of money in retirement, according to Thasunda Brown Duckett, president of a company that provides insurance and financial services.
Owning your own home has been the quintessential American dream, yet, with rising property taxes, home insurance premiums and astronomical maintenance costs the vision has lost its automatic clarity. For many, many others home ownership is not even a small dream, not even a blip on the horizon.
See, I Feel Trapped: Home Ownership
See, Where Are Property Taxes Rising the Most
See, How to fix retirement insecurity
America Is Not An Island
To think that the U.S. can wall itself off, throw up generalized tariffs, bully countries and believe all relationships are transactional, you must be delusional and in need of serious psychological intervention.
See, The Death of the World America Made
For anyone interested in history, especially European history and the critical role America plays see the video, The Future of American Democracy with Timothy Snyder
For some historical similarities worth considering see, How Hitler Came to Power with Timothy Ryback
It’s Your Government; You Are the Owners
See, The People Carrying Out Musk's Plan At DOGE
Your Ruler, Long Live
No, not a collection of profiles in courage are these Republican politicians. But when a mob boss threatens your family you need to take it seriously, at least initially. Certainly you need a moral backbone from the start in order to prevent thugs taking control in the first place. This goes for most of us. See, Republicans Terrified of Physical Threats From Trump
See, Was 40 year old Trump recruited by KGB
See, Trump's Assault On Social Security
The comedian John Oliver and his special brand of satire on our ruler and the billionaires who merely grovel. See, An Absolute Sewer of Hatred
See, Trump doesn't Believe In Much
Guess who was in the Oval Office when the “dear leader” has his meltdown with Zelensky. See, A Visitor from Moscow
A Final Thought
Yesterday I saw the Brazilian film I’m Still Here. The movie was inspired by the disappearance of an actual Brazilian congressman in the 1970s, when in 1970 a brutal military junta took power and created a reign of terror. It’s the story of Eunice Paiva, the wife, who made it her life’s work to find out what happened to her husband and who later became a human rights attorney focused on indigenous people.
I lived in Venezuela at the time and recall the coup in Brazil, but didn’t know then just how brutal the regime was. Fernanda Torres, who plays Eunice Paiva, has been nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress.
It’s a story in many ways about what can happen to any of us, especially those “normal” middle class people that end up taking so much for granted and have difficulty imagining how darkness and oppression can occur, often with little notice or explanation. Best not take anything for granted at this point in the United States.
It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law. (Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and scientist, 1588-1679)
APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT, ESPECIALLY AT A TIME WHEN AUTHORITARIANISM AND DARKNESS DESCENDS ACROSS THE U.S. IT’S NOT YOUR IMAGINATION.
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