Chaos

Everything everywhere all at once

Chaos.

We were watching Mare of Easttown yesterday (full limited series on HBO Max), when — harkening back to my own childhood — I was reminded about what life can be like among the MAGA branch of the working class. Many of our neighbors and fellow citizens are scraping by, living in rentals and the last generation’s housing, often in debt, beset by doubts, depression and anxieties, under pressure from their bosses, their spouses, their children, and their own expectations, sometimes searching for and occasionally finding the kind of short-term relief that translates into long-term consequences (drugs, booze, sex and sports betting) — in sum, many of the people in this United States live in near-constant chaos. I know my family did. I can (but won’t) describe an almost seamless series of events that illustrate that experience.

Under such conditions, do you honestly expect folks to care what goes on in American politics? In the disarray of everyday existence, the only government many of us know is the police officer, the tax collector, and the city guys who come around to shut off the water when you haven’t paid your bill. That version of government is the enemy.

Now the worm has turned. The Trump government is attacking the “others” — the educators and educated, the doctors and lawyers, the so-called elite, the immigrants and people of color whom talking heads on Fox condemn for a variety of fictional wrongs: Favored treatment and jobs theft, violent crime, malfeasance, tax and welfare fraud, false facts. Rupert Murdoch speaks, and the MAGA cult thinks they are getting their revenge. For once, chaos is infesting the all-too-comfortable.

Chaos, as we like to say these days, is a feature, not a bug.

There’s a conventional wisdom among the liberals/progressives that all the current uproar — Venezuela and Greenland and Minnesota, oh my! — are attempts to distract from the Epstein files. Realistically, the Epstein Files are themselves a distraction. Our “President,” recognizing that his base is the dog and the Epstein Files is the bone, has reverted to form. Instead of balking, he switched up the pitch and threw a curve. “Release them all,” he commanded, believing (apparently correctly) that his mafia would make sure they never, in any constructive form, see the light of day.

On one hand, the non-release of files become yet another source of distraction. On the other hand, near-daily outrages are a function of various non-competing entities trying to accomplish their own goals. Steven Miller wants the U.S. to rule from a position of super-power, and to diminish or destroy any weaker, lesser rivals, e.g., Venezuela. Miller wants to reduce and perhaps “purify” the population by killing people. (Miller is probably the most evil, and least venal, of the group.) The tech bros believe that they are the ordained future, and want a corporate-style government that best serves their own interests, through DOGE and the privatization of government agencies. “Corporatism,” as I have mentioned a couple of times now, is the term Mussolini preferred to “Fascism.”

Others (Steve Bannon, for example) have similar interests, e.g., advancing nationalism and dismantling the “administrative state.” The Veep, formerly known as, well, several names, is a chameleon. He’s on board with whoever is the most powerful person in the room. Little Marco Rubio wants Cuba back. The department heads for the various federal agencies all have their own agendas, with subservience to Donald and self-promotion the common denominators.

Trump himself is purely transactional and virulently greedy, aiming to divvy up the world into three spheres of wealth and influence among Russia, China and the United States. For as much as he is in Putin’s thrall, it seems clear that on this score he and Putin are of a mind. For Trump, everything in the Western Hemisphere is on the menu (Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, etc.), and he’ll sell out Ukraine and NATO in exchange for Putin’s blessing.

The true goal —installing a autocracy — is becoming less opaque by the day, as indicated in one of our dear leader’s latest threats:

The Insurrection Act has been and continues to be DJT’s ace in the hole. In response to his threat, Jim Wright, at Stonekettle Station, wrote:

It’s not like you weren’t warned it would come to this.

Trump is going to send in the Army to put down the “insurrection.”

Camps are next. That’s not hyperbole or hysteria. Camps are next. Because if we’re insurrectionists, then by definition we’re enemies of state and concentration camps are the next step. All you have to do is look to the literal NAZI slogans now being used by this administration. Camps are next.

You can figure out what comes after that.

Meanwhile Trump told Reuters correspondent James Oliphant during an interview yesterday in the Oval Office that “We shouldn’t even have an election” in 2026.

The camps are already underway. Alligator Alcatraz was the prototype, but there’s also another and more insidious version. According to the official State of Utah website, “Located on a 15.85-acre parcel . . . the planned facility will provide approximately 1,300 beds, creating a sustainable and transformative solution to address homelessness in Utah.” The camp proposes to include mental health services and employment, which is another way of saying “re-education and labor.” Shades of the USSR. Remember the gulags?

As Wright points out, “You think you’re safe because you drive a truck and fly the Confederate flag? You think you’re safe because you wear a MAGA hat and you hate the rest of us? You think you’re safe?

You’re not.

They’ll come for you next.”

Wright has grown weary — as have I — of trying to convince people that what we have here are the early days of a full-blown fascist state. We (I presume to lump Wright and myself together) are accused of being “alarmists,” but if you search back through our posts, you’ll see that virtually everything we predicted about this administration has now come to pass. In that regard, here’s Trump, running his latest up the flagpole: “We shouldn’t even have an election.” He likes to circle around with things. It starts as a joke, and then it becomes a question, and then it becomes a solution. Then it is done. A suggestion made is a fact accomplished. That’s the routine.

“But, but. . .” you say, “what about Congress? what about the Courts?”

Congress is hamstrung and dysfunctional. There are some brave souls in there, and some who like to burnish their bravery credentials now that they’re on the way out. Realistically, Congress serves only Trump’s interests. That’s why Trump didn’t care whether the government was shut down or not — he and members of his mob saw the shutdown as an opportunity to advance the dismantling of democracy. AND, that’s why there will be no midterms. The guardrails are gone.

Ditto the Supreme Court. They will stand up on matters of minor importance, but otherwise reject, interfere or delay - largely through the shadow docket - any effort by the legitimate judiciary to slap down the boss.

It is no accident that Trump mentioned the midterm elections and shortly thereafter brought up the Insurrection Act. What better excuse to delay/cancel an election cycle than a full-blown “insurrection” in — some, probably several — blue states? A key feature of a Republic is that citizens are free to vote. How can you have free and fair elections when your state is under siege (largely by the elderly and people in animal costumes)? The use of federal troops to quell an insurrection is the one opportunity he has to interfere in the conduct of election activities that are nominally organized and conducted at the state level.

In short, the chaos will continue until it has served its purpose.