And You Thought the Election Was About Inflation

Before we get to anything else, please do not ever forget that Donald Trump only won 49% of the popular vote in the election. He is supported by a minority of the country. He is not broadly popular. Opposing his policies puts in you good company. And as a white guy who firmly believes that he is entitled to the presidency despite not being even remotely qualified or the best person for the job, he is the living, breathing reminder of why we need programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in this country. 

Remember when the country was talking about Project 2025 and Donald Trump said he never read it and didn't support it? To be honest, I believed the first part because the Project 2025 document is over 900 pages, and I have a serious doubt that President 49% has read a cumulative 900 pages in his entire life, much less a policy document of that size. As for the second part, the answer is that Project 2025 was the guiding document it claimed to be, and the administration is committed to implementing it in its entirety over the next four years.

But as we know, it's one thing to have a plan, and it's quite another to think it through, and President-Less-Than-50% has, unsurprisingly, done little thinking about how these policy changes will affect the American people. His executive orders have upended people's lives by giving them a scant two weeks to decide whether they want to leave their jobs or possibly get fired, interrupted Medicaid and other government obligations that Americans rely upon to live and work, and threatened the rule of law by firing or demoting anyone in the government who had the audacity to follow the law as it related to the president's illegal and unconstitutional actions the last time he was in power. And, of course, he pardoned everyone who took part in his attempted January 6 coup, even those who were responsible for the deaths of police officers. 

In just two weeks, President 49% has proven to be the same president he was during his first term. There is no softer, more responsible version. He still believes in the most noxious lies about the election of 2020, where he was legitimately beaten by a very wide margin, and he still, in spite of the scientific evidence that even other Republicans deem credible, believes that climate change is a hoax, which puts our air, water, and national security in danger.  And his victimization of transgender Americans, legal immigrants, and people who are in this country under the terms of legal statutes is a disgrace. Imagine a president who blames a tragedy in which scores of people are killed on the fact that the female, Black, and Hispanic employees are responsible for it, and that it wouldn't have happened if white men were in charge. Oh, wait. We don't have to imagine that.

Vile.

And if you really thought the election was really about inflation, then get ready for the increasing likelihood that there will be more of it. New tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China will raise prices if they stick. Just what we need. 

But remember that if you didn’t vote for the president, then you are in the majority.

The Fun Begins

Republicans always hated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) when it came to hiring. 

It looks like they've replaced it with Incompetent, Unqualified, and Dangerous (IUD).

Yes, those cabinet picks, and the ones to come, will stock the federal government with a host of people with absolutely no qualifications for the jobs they've been nominated for. 

And that's the point. Because while you were worrying about grocery prices and immigration policy, and rightly so, the real winner in this election was the idea that the federal government should be chopped up and flushed down the drain. That's been the guiding principle of the conservative movement since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, and now we've come to the point where we have a shameless president who is committed to slashing programs and rewarding his rich donors with tax breaks that will starve the government of its ability to serve the people.

If Donald Trump and his cabinet get their way, they will eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, because it makes it more expensive to do business, what with all of those pesky regulations having to do with clean air and water, the Department of Education, because public schools are a cesspool of liberal ideas, never mind the billions that the department gives to states to finance special education, nutrition, and civil rights programs, weaken Social Security by not taxing tips, overtime, and a portion of Social Security payments, which will deprive the system of the funds it needs to pay retirees, all the while turning it into a 401(k) system that will endanger your retirement when the market slides, rather tahn keeping it a solid, guaranteed income you can rely on in your golden years.

In addition, done poorly, and with this group of undistinguished sycophants I don't see how they do their jobs well, there are other dangers afoot: Higher inflation because of high tariffs, massive deportations causing a labor shortage, major cuts to social programs that regular people use to survive in an unpredictable economy, cuts to health care, and, perhaps most tragically, a turn towards drilling for more oil and gas, more carbon emissions, a rollback of tax credits for buying cars and household appliances that pollute less, dirtier air and water, and a rise in chronic childhood diseases. 

Forget about this not ending well. This isn't even starting well. And if you listen to the gibberish emanating from Trump's transition team about his having a mandate from the people, you're likely to forget that he only won this election with 50.1% of the popular vote. 

This is not a mandate. 

But this is where we are, so we'll have to wait and hope for the best. In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to the stories that uncover the unsavory doings of Trump's nominees, how their business dealings create conflicts of interests, their contributions to fringe/racist groups, how many undocumented immigrants they've hired (and a bonus if they didn't pay them fairly or at all), and their dismissal of all previous instances where they've called Donald Trump unfit for office.

Yes, the fun begins. And it isn't even Thanksgiving.

On Immigration: The Fear and Loathing Takes Its Toll

Is this really the way we're going on immigration? Are we really going to base our policies on xenophobia, intolerance, ignorance and hatred?  Is the nation that is utterly defined by the immigrant experience going to follow someone who brings out the very worst in us?

Because what Donald Trump has said about immigrants, from the time he began running for President in 2015, is absolutely vile. And yet people cheer his hatred and threaten people who are here under the law. Instead of trying to fix the problem, he has stoked it and demanded that Republicans in Congress vote against an immigration bill that they helped negotiate, because it would hurt...Donald Trump. 

What's worse is that here we have a candidate for president of the United States who has demonized and victimized people who are here legally. He has created a climate of fear in Ohio and Colorado so extreme that Haitian immigrants, who have done nothing except work hard, educate their children and contribute to their community, fear going outside or socializing with their neighbors. 

This is someone who wants to be president again. It's outrageous. And unbelievable. Unconscionable. But people support it. And believe his wild tales.

Even more, I've seen posts on social media that ask why we don't spend more money and resources on American citizens. Why are we giving money to immigrants and foreign governments when we should be keeping that money here in the US. 

You want to know why? Because Republicans have voted down most bills that would provide more money and support for Americans. Republicans have opposed every bill having to do with providing health care, child care, parental leave, raising the minimum wage, expanding Medicare and Medicaid.

 Opposed. Every. One.

That's why many Americans are falling behind. It's not that we give an inordinate amount of money to immigrants, it's that we don't have programs that support our citizens. And it's the Republicans who are responsible for this denial of help.

But who is stoking the fires of inequality? Who is telling people that immigrants are a threat? The very same Republicans who are voting against every law that would help, including an immigration bill negotiated by conservatives and liberals alike that would begin to address the border. Why? Because Donaled Trump believed the bill would be bad for his campaign. Never mind that the bill would go a long way towards helping the situation at the border. Helping Americans is not Donald Trump's concern. The bill would be bad for him. So he told Republicans, even those legislators who agreed to the negotiations, to vote against it. And they did. 

Oh, the humiliation.

The problem is not immigrants. These are people who want to escape violence, have a well-founded fear that their political views will get them jailed or killed, or who live in countries where they belong to the wrong social, ethnic or religious group. 

The problem is the victimization of people the Republicans have deemed as not worthy of becoming Americans. It's also the stoking of hatred against any group of people for political gain. And the man who has no trouble with that hatred, the man actually leading the charge, wants to be president again.

Madness.