And the bronchitis wanes just in time to be replaced by seasonal allergies. It’s pollen time and I have the pale green coating on my car to prove it. Perhaps I’ll take it in for a wash and detailing this weekend. It’s overdue. Hope is now 7 years old, has 75,000 miles on her and I was kind of thinking about replacing her this year but with tariffs about to crash through the automobile market, I think that may have to wait until some sanity returns to the economy. Given the rate we’re going, that may not happen until sometime around January 2029.
So what’s happened this week? The most senior members of the cabinet were caught texting each other on an unsecured app about battle plans that should have, by definition, been classified data. There are protocols for handling this sort of thing, put in place to prevent leaks, foreign peeking and interference, and appropriate adult decision making over things that have life and death consequences. Texting them back and forth with emojis like a bunch of middle school girls trying to plan a group outing to the mall doesn’t strike me as being particularly wise. But then wisdom does not appear to be a strong suit in federal circles at the moment. A quick reading of project 2025 shows that the idea for using Signal as a means of communication comes right out of their playbook. It bypasses data and communication retention laws on the federal government and prevents those pesky FOIA requests so beloved of journalists. Of course when you mistakenly (or was it a mistake – could it have been a set up?) add a journalist to the group chat…
Today’s announcement is that FEMA is being wound down and, after October 1st will no longer be available for long term rebuilding following national disasters. My guess is the play here is that special exemptions will be passed in the future to assist red states after the usual vagaries of wind, water and weather but that no such exemptions will be issued to blue states. The politicization of the federal government continues with an authoritarian executive rewarding friends an punishing enemies. It’s also very apparent in DOJ which seems to be focusing it’s resources on going after law firms that dare to represent clients suing the government for various illegal acts and violations of civil liberties, preventing potential plaintiffs from retaining competent counsel as the big firms circle their wagons to protect their interests.
Meanwhile, out on the streets, people are being snatched up and disappeared into various ICE hellholes without charge or warrant for having opinions critical of official administration policy. Those who suffered rendition to El Salvador on minimal evidence have been erased from ICE databases. They no longer exist. I have also heard from a number of sources of cases of native born US citizens having been stopped for driving while brown and a demand for proof of citizenship. We’ve never had to carry our papers or passports in the past but that may be changing.
Now that the war on the trans community is pretty much won, the MAGA machine is turning its sights on the LG and B. The drumbeat is on to overturn Obergefell, prohibit and nullify adoptions, and repeal the laws that on local and state level protect us from discrimination (there is no federal law and there won’t be under this administration). It is, of course, all being done ‘in the name of the children’ which resurrects the old canard that gay people should be equated with pedophiles. I read the news. I have yet to see a drag queen arrested for child abuse. I’ve seen plenty of preachers, teachers, and scoutmasters. Most pedophiles are heterosexual and gravitate to where children can be found, which is not the local gay bar. One trend I have noticed over the last month is corporate America pulling back en masse from sponsoring Pride festivals or other LGBTQIA events. We’ll survive without their money. But it’s emblematic of a sea change in the culture which is going to leave the community very exposed over the next few years. If you’re not LGBTQIA yourself, are you truly an ally? What will you do when bit by bit there is a crackdown on what gay people can do with their lives? Will they be banned from certain professions? Will they be forbidden from joining the military? Will their ability to travel be restricted? Will landlords be given incentives to turn them out of their homes? Will their safe social spaces be raided and closed? Don’t think it can’t or won’t happen.
RFK Jr. is planning on firing 10,000 people from Health and Human Services and taking the FDA, CDC and NIH and rolling them all up into a new agency AHA (America Healthy Again). My major objection to this is that the very defined missions of the older agencies will be left to wither and die while we chase after some sort of impossible nirvana made up of untested supplements, nutritional recommendations that cannot be afforded by a significant part of the population, and deliberate discrediting of various areas of proven science for political reasons. Big food and big agra and big pharm will be salivating as they’ll be able to figure out cheaper (and potentially far more dangerous) ways of getting their products to the public and there won’t be the watchdog eyes to stop them. I never dreamed we’d be in danger of going back to the days of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle but it’s a very real possibility. Buy your stock in Lydia Pinkham’s Tonic and Carter’s Little Liver Pills now.
After writing all of that out, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Time to get out my optimistic nihilism glasses. (I had my annual eye appointment last week – my eyes haven’t changed in nearly twenty years and the freckle on my retina remains exactly the same). I have two performance things to work on the next few weeks. I’m doing a supporting part in the play Second Samuel for Bell Tower Players which goes up Mother’s Day Weekend and I have a symphony concert in two weeks singing Bernstein’s Missa Brevis and Chichester Psalms. My inability to sing due to bronchitis from hell seems to have been a blessing in disguise with my singing voice. Now that it’s back, I’ve made some huge strides in my voice lessons. I’m also still plowing through Covid writings. What they will end up as I’m still not sure. More news on that later.
I need a prolonged break from work. I’m going to take some time off in late May and or early June. I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with it. I’m planning my big trip for the year for September/October. Don’t have specific plans yet for that one either. A lot will depend on how the taxes fall out and I should know that in the next two weeks.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 