WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT(S)

Skyler's existential meanderings

Winter rumblings

For the dog it's just another winter in exactly the same place as last year.  

For humans, well, I wouldn't call it contentment, and it certainly ain't gemütlichkeit.

But really, for most of us white people, at any rate, it's okay.  We're going to be okay and those of us who happen not to work for the federal government in one capacity or another, or aren't migrant workers or would-be emigrees, or transgenders, or recipients of international aid, or medical researchers or recipients thereof, or ripped-off consumers, or poor people, or those in other categories that haven't yet been named yet for cuts or abolition or prosecution, they'll probably be okay, too.

I worry about the free press  (Major networks being sued; PBS, NPR threatened; daughter-in-law installed on Fox News; a little pressure here, a little pressure there goes a long way.)    

 I worry about climate change (Forget about renewable energy; EPA gutted; NOAA–weather service!–threatened)  

I worry about justice (Too many instances to enumerate.)   

I worry about the fate of many people.                                                                                                                                                                                            

I fear for the natural world.

Of course Trump isn't himself doing much of this, he's just throwing open the gates.  He has Elon Musk to do the dirty. So he will be able to take credit or deny, depending on how things go.  The eagerness of so many elected and unelected happy warriors who now have permission to carry out their darkest prejudices is endlessly shocking.  (See VP Vance:  "Judges aren't allowed to control Trump's legitimate power.")

Then there's the Gaza thing, removing the inconvenient occupants, buying the real estate.  That comes straight out of the New York Tycoon playbook. (See "The Apprentice," for the origin story. The film, not the TV series.)  Overlook the suffering, the history, whatever––it's oceanfront property.  Real estate. There's money to be made.  Power to be exercised. 

There was a moment when Trump said he was stopping all aid to South Africa because of racial persecution that I thought, well, at least there's a good thing.  Then I realized he meant white Afrikaners.

For those who paid attention, there are no mysteries here.  None of this was hidden.  It was in the plan (Project 2025) and it was in the man.  Narcissists never have enough.

Winter ramblings

Having feelings of awe for small things keeps all that other stuff iat bay.  At least for a while.  

Found in the woodshed

Yesterday found this soft clump of stuff in my woodpile. A bit bigger than a handful.  Light as the finest eiderdown, bits of grass woven along with many tiny blue-gray feathers.  How soft and cozy it must have been to whatever nestling it enclosed. It was clearly made during the summer when grasses were dry and snakes were shedding their skins (see below).  A safe spot too, as once stacked in June, the wood would be untouched until late fall. What did it shelter?  The tiny bird feathers suggest a bird nest, but the fact that I found it half way down a stack under many split logs makes that seem improbable.  Both chipmunks and songbirds have been reported as nesting in woodpiles, but still.  I'm going with chipmunks.  As for those bird feathers, it's a mystery. 

Pieces of snakes shedded skin complete the decor

I know it wasn't a big deal.  Just a small thing.  

Bird traffic, plus ?

This is where winter has it over other seasons, at least when there's snow.  You learn what other creatures besides yourselves have been up to.  I can usually identify the tracks, but there's often mystery in that as well.   In this case, what look like deer tracks can't be, unless the deer was headed from the bird feeder to the front porch.  I'm going with dog.

IT'S BEGUN

The photos 

Deliberate poses.  What are we supposed to take from these?  What's the message?

Think it might be "Be scared"? 

 

Remember a recent leader of a country who projected an image that said I'm scary!" 

Just a for-instance:  Remember Duterte, the repugnant president of the Philippines, 2016-2022, the one who ordered over a thousand vigilante killings?  That one.  Tough guy.  Invited to the White House in 2017, by the way.  Where he and Trump had "a friendly conversation."

The film

I spent the evening of the inauguration watching "The Apprentice."  Not that TV series that brought Trump to his first big media audience, but the movie.  It's been widely unseen, and like many others I admit I hadn't planned on seeing it, ever.  But I'd heard an interview on NPR with Jeremy Strong (the feckless son in "Succession") who plays lawyer Roy Cohn, and I got interested in seeing his performance.  Strong, who appeared physically tall in "Succession," looks as if he shrunk for this role,  playing creepy Cohn who is so immoral his ugliness manifests in his face.  The film is as much about about Cohn, evil incarnate, as it is about you-know-who.  It's about what Roy Cohn created.

From a Guardian review:

Having untangled the Trump Organization’s knotty legal woes in his inimitable way, Cohn sets about moulding young Donald into a winner. He rattles off his three rules for success. No 1: attack, attack, attack. No 2: admit nothing, deny everything. No 3: always claim victory, never admit defeat. Donnie gazes at him like a newly hatched chick imprinting on its mother; he swallows Cohn’s wisdom whole and turns it into a personality. And with an All About Eve-style inevitability, the protege usurps the mentor and a force is unleashed.

There it is:

1. Attack, attack, attack

2. Admit nothing, deny everything

3. Alway claim victory, never admit defeat.

Number 4 should have been added:  Say it's all for America, though it really just for you.

Watching I'd expected would be unbearable, like listening to the meanderings of present day Trump.  But it was like watching any movie. If it's any good–and it was good–you get caught up in the plot.  It's a true story, but it's not your story.  Not your present.  It's only history.  

The reality

The present, however, really is our story.  And the road ahead is looking kind of grim.

Four years to go and it's just beginning.  That is, it's supposed to be four years.  What happens in year five is anyone's guess.

Everything is turning upside down.  MAGA cult rules.  

Cabinet nominations to make your head spin.  Have a beef with the DOD, DEA, HHS, FBI, IRS ? Appoint  new chiefs who will tear them apart, remake them in your image, to your liking.  Ditch respect.

Here's a story that could have come right from the film: drug kingpin Ross of the Silk Road illegal drug marketplace, sentenced to life––life––is pardoned.  He had no special connection to Trump, so why did this one happen?  Easy.  It was a deal. (The Trump bio was called The Art of the Deal.)  Ross had support from libertarians that included a bunch of the crypto currency bros.  The head of the Libertarian party promised its support, along with the crypo guys, in exchange.  A good deal.

So it goes.

Living with it

Still have a sign from 2020.  I voted for Biden/Harris against Trump.  In 2024
voting against wasn't enough; there needed to be something stronger to vote for.

Easy for most of us who haven't got actual skin in the game.  Like, a government job.  Like a company that depends on foreign products or foreign workers.  Like someone already living on the edge. Like someone of the wrong color or from the wrong country.  

The better off we are to start with the less pain we're likely to feel.

You could ask yourself:  Who benefits from our going backwards?  Rejecting a clean energy future?  Could it be one of our rivals?  China, maybe?  Other countries who will sell the stuff we're not going to be selling?

 

You could ask yourself:  Why is our country such a magnet for so many people?  Could it be that our country is prosperous and has a lot to offer?  That democracy is compelling?  That it isn't actually in decline or needing to be made Great?

You could ask yourself:  Who's going to be making out, really?

***

Can't wait to see the movie about this when it's all over.