Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and, starting tomorrow, we begin the long march back towards darkness. Of course, there are those who would argue that we havve been marching towards darkness since January 20th, no matter what the relative positions of earth and sun happen to be and, given the news of the last week I am a bit inclined to agree. I don’t even know where to start any more when musing about politics and doings on a federal level. The brightest spot is that the center is not holding. As reality continues to intrude on ideology and science continues to trump wishful thinking, a government consisting of sycophants, toadies, and know-nothings seems to be buckling around the edges. Quelle surprise.
The administration’s positions on all major issues are sinking rapidly in every major opinion poll, including those put out by Fox News, leading to various mouthpieces attacking their favorite propaganda outlet for not toeing the party line. Pretty much every special election has had the Dems overperforming and Reps underperforming, often by double digits. This suggests that, assuming we have midterm elections, that there is likely to be a change in control of congress. Hopefully this will lead to a reinstitution of some of the constitutional checks and balances the current congress appears to be snoozing through.
Trump is, of course, trying to get the media spotlight back on himelf, especially after that sad little fiasco of a military parade. Attention is his oxygen. Ignore him and the tantrums get bigger and bigger until he’s back again center stage. The best way to deal with him would be for everyone to go about their daily business and ignore him no matter what comes out of whichever orifice. His current attempts to control the narrative include paving over the rose garden. (I’m not worried about that – it can be jackhammered up again and resodded – and if they sold chances to wield the jackhammer for substantial donations to The Kennedy Center, it would likely be properly funded for a century). He’s also installed flag poles so out of proportion to the White House that the design principle appears to be used car lot.
The Big Beautiful Bill is in definite disarray as there is more and more reportage on just what it will do, especially to the poorest amongst us. Even some of the Republican senators are backing away from some of the crueler measures. The Senate parliamentarian is providing political cover by explaining that significant portions violate the rules of reconciliation and must be stricken in order to use simple majority voting. I’m sure something will eventually emerge but whatever it is, it’s likely to be a Frankenstein monster with a few extra limbs rampaging across the Federal landscape for a while. With luck, a future administration will trap it in a burning windmill.
Speaking of rampages across the government, what has happened to Elon Musk? He was everywhere just a few short weeks ago and he seems to have fallen off the radar other than his usual activity of blowing up rockets on the launchpad. I think he has a long way to go before he can think about making us an interplanetary species. Unfortunately, the Muskrats are still embedded throughout federal agencies, vacuuming up all of our personal data for the benefit of Palantir, and cancelling out decades of scientific and medical discovery. Speaking of medical data, the right wing’s favorite judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk (judge shopping is just fine when they do it) has decided that your reproductive health and HIV health records are not private and can be shared with legal authorities. Expect pregnancy test centers at conservative state borders and confinement to prevent travel for any sort of termination services in 3…2…1.
And then there’s Israel and Iran lobbing ballistic missles at each other on the other side of the globe. The secretary of defense and director of national intelligence appear to have been sidelined due to general incompetence. The secretary of state appears to be unfamiliar with the most basic concepts of diplomacy. I wouldn’t be surprised if no one in the upper echelons has any understanding of Shia vs Sunni or why the split exists. The war hawks are careening one direction. The isolationists another. And the religious zealots seem to think the more lunatic ravings of Cyrus Scofield are becoming reality. At least Europe, after very publicly sidelining Trump at the G7 meetings, are being the adults in the room and dealing with the issues in the way in which they need to be to keep the planet from going up in flames.
So what’s next? Who knows. I look at the headline digest in the morning from the day before and just kind of shake my head, try to forget most of it, and put my clothes on and head in to work to save the world one patient at a time. It’s all I can do. Rehearsals start on Richard II Monday and I will soon learn if my ideas which work just fine in my head actually work when other people try to put them on a stage. I’ve also got a bunch of non-profit board work to do over the next few weeks to help raise funds for various worthy causes.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 