Reign of Chaos: Act II Preview

Soviet Russia in the 1990s

This has happened to me more than once recently:  I'm coming out of an involving dream, not yet awake but becoming aware that what I've just experienced was in a dream, not reality, with a sense of relief.  Then I am jolted awake by the sudden awareness of what reality looks like these days, more dangerous and unreal than a nightmare.  And that's what it feels like: a waking nightmare.

"Every day since January 20 has felt like utter chaos," begins a summation signed by the New York Times Editorial Board. On April 29, Democratic members of the US Senate held the floor potentially through the night for a discussion backgrounded by the logo "100 Days of Chaos."

One way I look at this reign of Chaos emerges from my days as a theatre columnist and erstwhile membership in the Dramatists Guild: I see it as a three-act play.  The first act--comprised of the first 100 days--is coming to a close.  Alas there is probably no intermission before the Second Act begins, and it is a much longer one--it won't end until November 2026. However the congressional elections turn out--whether they are truly elections at all--will set the stage for Act III, the final act of this drama.

The three act structure is also employed in movies and more loosely in television, so Act I can be seen as a version of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (with a Justice Department oozing  injustice, a Health department degrading health, and now a Civil Rights division zealously attacking civil rights) crossed with a satire of The Godfather as directed by Stanley Kubrick in full Doctor Strangelove mode, but including scenes of real tragedy that foreshadow conflicts in future Acts.

Creating the characters would have challenged even Kubrick: an Attorney General named Pam and a director of Homeland Security called Kristi, both seemingly qualified mostly by their appeal to the roving eye of Boss Chaos, along with their clinging loyalty and vicious robotic tongues.  

Not long ago a hint that a Cabinet aspirant had once inhaled some cannabis fumes would cause a scandal, but here we have a Health Secretary who was (or is) an admitted heroin addict, and a Secretary of Defense who was (or is) a notorious fall-down drunk and sexual predator.  An Education Secretary qualified by her years of organizing fake violence for sweaty World Wrestling entertainment leads a list of those running powerful government bureaucracies with none of the usual qualifications or experience. They alone are living definitions of tragi-comedy.  Just for a moment stage in your head a Kubrick-directed cabinet meeting, headed by Boss Chaos who proclaims, "I run the country and the world."  

Kubrick could also deliver not only the degradation and stupidity but the tragic edge--for instance the updated Gestapo that may or may not be ICE.  But he might need Don DeLillo to write the character (and make up the absurd name) of Elon Musk.  

But enough about Act I.  We've all seen it as it rushed by in--what was that word the Times and the Senate Dems used?   Oh yeah: Chaos.  Also it presented lawlessness, racism, open corruption, institutionalized cruelty and callousness, and more destruction to nearly every institution, principle and facet of America than any enemy nation could have dreamed of wreaking, and none could ever accomplish.  We see a federal government being run as a cartoon criminal enterprise. 

If tragic history is repeated as farce, does the opposite apply? Does this tragic farce become utter tragedy?  That's one of the questions to be answered in Act II.

So maybe now's the time for that novel concept, a spoiler alert. No one knows what horrors and insanity await, but here are some possible plot points and dramatic questions for Act II...

Soviet Russia

Act II will inevitably be characterized by consequences of actions taken in Act I.  The tariffs are already wrecking the economy at the level of business planning, which is resulting in shrinking inventories and orders as well as the beginning of layoffs. 

 In summer the tourist industry will feel the effects of both fewer foreign tourists and less travel by Americans.  By fall one of the plotlines will likely be panic over the Christmas shopping season, with fewer imports, empty shelves and higher prices.  By the first of the year if not before, the economy could well be in deepening recession.  

Chaos will have spread to other countries, and politics in the US will be feverish.  Some time in the Second Act, perhaps sooner rather than later, the Supreme Court will have to deal head-on with the refusal of Boss Chaos to obey court orders, including its own.

Other possible consequences will have their moments.  The cumulative effects of the blind destruction of federal support and capacity to respond to both routine needs and sudden crisis may well show up, often in lots of individual stories of economic and health hardships and life-changing injustices, or more widely shared stories of disasters and epidemics.

  An international and/or military challenge could dangerously expose the incompetence and inexperience, intemperance and emotional instability of decision-makers--and here we are in real Doctor Strangelove territory with the potential to literally stop the show.  

But in addition to consequences of Act I, there will be new and perhaps bigger actions by Boss Chaos and his minions, furthering their lawless power grabs and dictatorial powers.  Already there are fears that the next step in the Hitler playbook will be taken--after establishing ICE or whatever entity it really is that sends masked bullies to brutalize people as the Chaos Gestapo, that next step is Chaos deploying US Armed Forces within American borders and against American citizens.  Meanwhile the data stolen by the Muskovites might be combined in a massive database (and if their many examples inept inaccuracy as well as ICE's continues, leading to many tragic mistakes) that will weaponize Big Brother and then some.  

Public demonstrations in Act I were widespread and eloquent, as well as peaceful and even playful. They were like big production numbers in a musical.  These almost inevitably will change, especially if they seem not to be having the desired effects (through not only administration intransigence but congressional Republican cowardice), and especially as Chaos continues to escalate.  Resistance could become more disruptive, maybe even massively disruptive, which may result in Chaos unleashing his Gestapo, his paramilitary gangs he saved from prison, and even the US Army doing ostensible "crowd control."  

Resistance on other levels will need to involve combined efforts within institutions of civil society, education, science, the economy and the law.  State and local governments could form alliances, as some already are, and take bolder action.  There are few precedents for how this would look in America, so a certain creativity as well as courage, resolve and leadership will need to emerge.  If it does, Act II could be quite a show.

All of this will culminate as Act II draws to a close with its major dramatic question:  Will Chaos have successfully manipulated the electoral system to deny a fair vote in congressional elections?  Will there even be elections?  

By then we may know the nature of this play.  It certainly has tragic events in it already, but will it be a total tragedy?  Will there be even the possibility of some redemption in Act III?  

Many playwrights have found that the Second Act is the hardest to write.  In this play it may well be the hardest to live through.  And considering what living through the First Act has been like, that's saying something.

But since we're characters in this play, we need to plan ahead.  The First Act was a blitzkreig on reality. But now we've seen it, and we can anticipate what might come next. If we're going to take any part of control in Act II, we need to do that: anticipate and plan what will we do in particular circumstances.  We need to write our own lines, script our own actions, often with fellow spear carriers and members of the chorus.  We aren't going to awaken from this nightmare anytime soon. We're a captive audience as well as contracted actors.  Maybe we can duck out into the lobby once in awhile, or take a break backstage.  We need to do those centering and breathing exercises.  But basically, the only way out is through.  

The Surprising Resistance to the Reign of Chaos (Act I)

 

When the most recent New York Times poll asked respondents to select the word that best described the current administration's reign so far, the winner was "chaotic," chosen by 66%.  

As the end of the first 100 days of Chaos approaches, an avalanche of new polls uniformly reflect majority and supermajority opposition to its policies and actions.  Apart from the historic nature of this disapproval and opposition, a few things jump out at me as significant surprises.

The political professionals on both sides have for years told us that all the American voters care about is their own pocketbook, that they will support anyone and anything that makes the economy and especially their economic situation better.  Only those who are comfortably well off will care about "special interest" issues, which the professionals defined as anything except bread and butter economics.

This was never true.  But the extent to which these polls measure response to other "issues," and the size and frequency of demonstrations against Chaos, how they occur virtually everywhere, and through the eloquence of the signs the demonstrators carry--more eloquent than any politician, shows how untrue it was and, under mortal threats of today, how untrue it is now.  And regarding some issues, frankly how surprisingly untrue.

Certainly people are seriously worried about the economy and the economic consequences of the Chaos tariffs.  Some worry about the economic impact to themselves or family members of the deteriorating Social Security system and the threats to Medicaid, to Head Start and school lunch programs, and many other relatively small deprivations that add up for the people involved.

But some of the most lopsided poll results--with 60, 70 and 80% opposition to Chaos actions and policies--are in other areas, that don't necessarily or directly affect economic circumstances. And the widespread support for some programs suggests it is not their own economic benefit they are considering.  These numbers not only reflect the depth of opposition to Chaos, they contradict the conventional wisdom on what people do and do not care about.

For the conventional wisdom is that people see no value in the federal government, but only a bloated and wasteful bureaucracy.  They disdain universities as playgrounds of the elite.  They see foreign aid as wasteful spending.  They'd rather have a tax cut.

Perhaps it was seeing what destroying the federal government really meant to the services they depended on, or people they knew and people in their community depended on--people who are their neighbors and customers.  But the epic and ignorant slash and burn devastation wreaked by the Muskovites turns out to be deeply unpopular, reflected as well in the hostility against Musk himself.  

But it goes beyond that polarizing figure. It turns out people want Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.  They want Veterans to get the services promised to them.  They want Head Start, Meals on Wheels and school lunch and breakfast support.  They want their food tested and scientists working on preventing and treating diseases.  They want National Park Rangers and environmental protections.  They want the Post Office.  They want libraries.

FDR's right hand man Harry Hopkins famously said during the Great Depression, "People don't eat in the long term.  They eat every day."  These are all everyday services.  But the polls show more.  People want long-term medical and other scientific research to be funded.  They want a clean energy future.  They want a robust Department of Education.  They want friendly relations with allies in the world.  They support Ukraine.

As for all those elitist universities, some 70% oppose federal government interference ( attempt to take total control is more accurate.)   Who knew that 70% cared at all?

Of all the issues the professionals would have selected as having least popular support, right at or near the top would probably be foreign aid.  But a vast majority of those surveyed in every one of these polls that asked the question, oppose the Chaos devastation to foreign aid.

What is remarkable to me about this issue and others is that the words "foreign aid" are a kind of abstraction.  Giving money away to foreigners is the broadest interpretations.  Yet somehow a large proportion of the voting public associates it with providing food and medicine to people in dire circumstances very far away.  And they support doing that.  Did any politician even know that?

Apart from the inflation-fighting he promised to do but never even attempted, Chaos believed he got elected for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.  So the federal government is embarked on a reign of terror, using the Chaos version of the Gestapo to brutalize every brown person and foreigner from non-white "shit-hole countries" they can lay their hands on.  So sure of themselves that they squirm and twist interpretations and outright defy court orders.  

While a lot of voters may have bought the rhetoric about insecure borders, it turns out that most do not want to see immigrants brutalized, let alone people whose status is unclear or taken by mistake.  They oppose Chaos immigration policies and actions, and they strongly support the Constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.

And this may be one of the bigger surprises: they care about and support the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.  True, not enough voters seemed to care enough about them before the election, even as they were warned that electing Chaos would put them in jeopardy.  But the polls (as well as the demonstrations) show they strongly support the rights spelled out in the Constitution grouped under the term "due process of law."  They support them being applied to everyone.  This argues for a fundamental commitment to fairness, and an implied empathy--in those denied equal justice under law, they see themselves. 

Moreover, the protest signs reflect what may go even deeper in this widespread opposition: a pained resistance to cruelty, a consciousness of compassion.

So where are Americans getting these views?  I've heard many voices raised against the decline of civics courses in schools, and the absence of economics classes.  Somehow however something has sunk in.  We could list and speculate on how that information has become knowledge, but I think this is worth noting: that when it comes to current information on violations of due process and inhumane treatment, as well as on these other issues--well, it's not coming from Fox News.  It's certainly there in the much maligned mainstream media. And it evidently is considered credible, trustworthy information. 

Maybe it's out there in social media too, but it seems that the complete domination of the far right echo chamber is not so dominant after all, at least not at the moment.  It's the mainstream media and everyone writing or talking or being interviewed in and on it, that's telling Americans what tariffs really do, and where the economy is really headed--and who is at fault.  All of which is reflected in these polls.

The other intriguing element is that it is still very early in the process for much of this: for instance, the effects of the cuts and the tariffs have yet to be felt.  But people are anticipating those effects.  They see them coming.  They are engaged.  People are focused.  And they are--in the word most respondents selected in an NBC poll--"furious."

In public perception, Chaos has gone from a wearily elected president to a monster in 100 days. Many voters may want change but they do not want chaos; they want humane and efficient and Constitutional stability.  Words like "fascist" and "dictator" have gone from rare and generally derided in public discourse, to commonly spoken in the media and on the street (maybe even Wall Street.)  All this sets the stage for Act II of this improbable and uncomfortably real drama.  More on that anon.   

We Need Rachel

 We are coming to the end of the first 100 days of the King Chaos reign, and therefore the previously announced end of the Rachel Maddow Show's return to five nights a week on MSNBC.  For these unfathomable weeks, we have looked to Rachel for news coverage, but we have also found in her a principal voice of the Resistance.

By reporting not only the Chaotic actions but daily emphasizing the resistance among the population out in the country, she has in effect become a beacon of hope for an anxious public and a de facto leader--perhaps the most influential and certainly the most visible.  

In his first media appearance immediately after his epic 26 hour speech addressing the wholesale destruction wrought by King Chaos and his minions, on the Rachel Maddow Show, Senator Corey Booker acknowledged the inspiration she provided him and others with her relentless coverage of those relentless demonstrations. 

 What appears to be her conscious choice to accentuate the positive is one chief element in this de facto leadership.  She has shaped the resistance with how she reports it, and her narrative theme of how sometimes "pushback works," and without resistance, nothing will slow this catastrophic attack on the American government and national security, the world economy, America's alliances and standing in the world, American values and American democracy.  

Another element is her choice to report what others are not reporting or emphasizing, in ways that only she can.  Her authentic presence, on-air chops and the historical depth she brings to each story illuminates and therefore inspires.

There is simply no one else like her or her show.  And we need her there--five nights a week, or anyway more than once a week, as was the announced plan.

There is apparently a lot changing at MSNBC, and it may not be her preferred platform anymore.  On the other hand, it's hard to see MSNBC surviving without her.  Her ratings are carrying the network, and challenging the top numbers elsewhere in cable newsdom. 

I doubt I'm the first to say it nor is it likely I will be the last, but I add my small voice: we need you, Rachel.   Stay with it.  Stay with us. 

April 19: Heard Round The World

 

April 19: Eureka, CA

Dubuque, Iowa

New York City

Boulder, Colorado

Poulsbo, Washington

Naples, Florida

Nashville, Tennessee

More from Eureka (from Lost Coast Outpost)

Richland, Washington

No Kings

 Maybe you recognize the name and face of David Brooks.  He's a conservative columnist for the New York Times and the intellectual conservative voice paired with a liberal on the Friday night news commentary on the PBS News Hour.  Even if he's not actually one of the Brooks Brothers, he looks like he was born in a Brooks Brothers suit.  He is not exactly a revolutionary guy.  The strongest banner he could come up with for his latest column repeats the words "Not Normal."

Nevertheless his latest Times column says this: "It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement."

He makes his case at some length and ends with a line that echoes words by someone he may never have quoted before:  "We have nothing to lose but our chains." 

He is of course referring to organized resistance against King Chaos.  And he is saying pretty much what Rachel Maddow has been saying every day on MSNBC.  Consider Rachel and Brooks on the same side of the barricade. That's where we are at the end of this week.

This week has been notable for several rhetorical threats to basic Constitutional rights by King Chaos and his minions, including Chaos and his Lord High Executioner Musk saying they would "love" to send American citizens to El Salvador gulags. And please note this non-technicality: it is not a prison.  It is by strict definition a concentration camp: it is a place where inmates "are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process," according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia. Inmates there are not "incarcerated" which means confined after trial and conviction for a stated period under law, and with legal rights.  In El Salvador they are held indefinitely and incommunicado without the most basic legal and human rights.  The term for that is "liquidated."  Just as they were not "deported," which requires hearings and a finding and a legal process. These men were kidnapped and disappeared.

This week has also been notable for two strong court decisions and three very strong and very clear federal court opinions, two of them in the case of Abrego Garcia, including the most important so far by an honored conservative judge of the 4th District Court of Appeals appointed by Reagan.  They are clear and direct. 

This week will also be remembered for the publication of two documents: a letter sent by the Chaos White House to Harvard, expressing its comprehensive and self-contradictory demands, and Harvard's letter in response refusing to accede to those obviously unconstitutional demands. Those demands were then clearly revealed as extortion, when the Chaos administration withdrew a couple of billion dollars of federal support for Harvard (including support for its Public Health school and Medical school and research), and then threatened to revoke the university's tax exempt status and disallow its international students, more violations of yet more laws.  

Harvard's stand emboldened other universities, some of which are planning ahead of time and banding together in mutual defense treaties, or academic NATOs.  A couple of big law firms have also resisted and taken Chaos to court--and won.  Now others are looking to create self-defense alliances, and even some that capitulated are taking another look at their agreements.

Less publicized but perhaps just as consequential, the state of California has sued the Chaos administration because their tariffs are unconstitutional. California is the country's leading agricultural and manufacturing state, and seeks relief from economic harm caused by these illegal tariffs.  That counts a lot in court.

The chair of the Federal Reserve reported on the economic outlook, placing his considerable authority behind the predictions of likely stagflation caused by the tariffs.  King Chaos responded by vilifying him and calling for his removal.

But it is the Harvard refusal that is causing the most excitement, and has the greater symbolic power, not only because it is the premier university in the country with many powerful alumni, but because it is the oldest--it is about 150 years older than the Constitution--and it is in that part of the country where America first rebelled against the tyranny of a king.

This weekend also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the first engagements in that rebellion: The "one if by land, two if by sea" lanterns in Boston's Old North Church and Paul  Revere's ride, and then the battles of Lexington and Concord.  

This Saturday is another nationally scheduled day for demonstrations across the country, at state houses and court houses in all fifty states.  This time the theme is simply: No Kings.  Consider this your Paul Revere alert.

Where We Are (part 2)

This is part 2 of 2.  Part 1 is here.

5.  The Rest of the World

With malice aforethought, the Chaos administration immediately set out to wreck America's relationships with virtually every country in the world (except Russia), beginning with our closest friend and most steadfast allies.  Employing his characteristic badgering rhetoric, King Chaos pushed the absurd notion of annexing Canada as the 51st state.  After offending its national honor, he threatened Canada's economy (and that of Mexico) with tariffs.  

Canada responded promptly and decisively, and I don't mean just Canada's leaders. The call to boycott American products was answered, and the igniting of national identity propelled the Liberal Party in power from likely defeat to almost certain victory in upcoming elections.  Its new Prime Minister Mark Carney is just about the perfect person to organize Canada's defense, a financial expert who helped steer the UK through the disaster of Brexit (though it was not a total escape by any means.)  Right now he's hardening his anti-US rhetoric in advance of the election and it is a popular stance.  Canadian travel and tourism to the US is way down.

At the same time, Chaos all but abandoned Ukraine, with Chaos and with his v.p. tag-teamed their bullying of its president in the Oval Office, surely one of the most shameful moments hosted there.  This and other veiled threats to the western alliance alarmed the UK and European allies.  Very soon nobody was even trying to be polite anymore. Scorn for Chaos was and is public and harsh.

So now the EU countries and Canada in particular are talking about joint efforts that circumvent the US.  For instance, more European money for self-defense is likely to be a boon to Canadian manufacturing, so when the US finally backs off, those same markets and supplies of steel and cars from Canada may well be already taken.  

The absurd tariffs imposed on China remain from the proposed absurd tariffs on the rest of the world, though even the remaining 10% is higher even than the 1930s tariffs that led directly to the Great Depression.  But China is much smarter at this game, politically and economically. China has begun a number of ways to target Red State economies in the US, and now key tech industries that weaken the nation as a whole.  When it comes to the spiraling effects of these tariffs and counter-moves, the Chinese are likely to be far more resilient.  Just ask yourself which country is more likely to bear the pain?

What's interesting about the rest of the world is, unlike some Americans and American institutions, they don't respond to bullying and extortion.  But other countries may well make deals that are face-saving for Chaos, especially if these countries are used to dealing with corrupt regimes.

On the PBS News Hour, conservative columnist David Brooks recently described it this way, speaking of both other countries and businesses within the US begging for tariff exceptions: "What do businesses do who want to stay alive?  They have to bribe the political leaders who run the tariffs.  What do we have to give?  Who do we have to give it to?"  This puts King Chaos, Brooks said, "in the center of a web of corruption."

If there is any global or domestic strategy to Chaos creating chaos, it is this: America and the world depend on the US for "clear laws that apply to everyone," Brooks said.  "We no longer live in that system."  It is pretty much the definition of criminal rule.

6. Chaos

I don't know how productive it is to seek motives for the chaos that Chaos is producing, but some are plain enough.  As David Brooks indicates, chaos creates the condition for corruption--meaning money, perks and power.  Few barely notice how openly Chaos and his minions misuse their offices to make money.  Widespread chaos plus his unassailable power make him the biggest Crime Boss in the world, and he is acting like it.

King Chaos spent four years in mortal fear of dying in prison, and now he is unleashing his terror-born retribution against any person or institution that made him feel that fear.  He appointed  inept toadies with no qualifications except greed and personal loyalty to him--they stuck by him in his days of trembling.  

That extreme right ideologies provided him a blueprint for destroying the federal government was highly convenient, but the purpose--besides a generalized revenge--is also political.  Government workers and government unions are a powerful force that aligns mostly with Democrats.  A recent Atlantic article maintains that it is broader than this: that the  professional/managerial class as a whole has turned away from his R party to Democrats and their issues, more than symbolized by support for diversity, equity and inclusion.  

Chaos is himself too chaotic to do all this by himself.  After all, his chief strategy in life and politics is to get himself and his photo in the news every single day--even every single hour.  He does this by being as outrageous as possible, and the media eats it up every time.  This was obvious again in the 2024 campaign coverage.  But his outrages are talk, and very often lies, even about what he is doing or intends to do.  That's been true since he broke into political awareness when he got lots of attention questioning President Obama's birthplace.  He knows that the follow-up story (if it ever appears) won't get as much attention, and anyway he's said or done something else outrageous to blot out everything else.

He leaves the details to others, most obvious his Lord High Executioner (as the now former Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson calls him), Elon Musk.  But others have identified the Chaos whisperer in the White House as Stephen Miller, an extreme right ideologue to the point of fascist racism.  Naturally he is in charge of immigration policy, but he does much more than that. It's suggested he is the real chief of staff. I look at photos and video of him and I clearly see Roy Cohn, once Joe McCarthy's right hand man and a personal mentor to Chaos himself.  It's especially clear in those dead eyes.  He is the voice of evil behind the Chaos.

If there is any surprise in the Chaos cabinet, it is secretary of state Rubio, who is proving to be a lot more fascistic than expected.  He vociferously defends arbitrarily disappearing people, even to El Salvador hellhole prisons, and reportedly has instructed state department employees to inform on each other if any "anti-Christian" views are expressed.

 And I cannot tell you how personally painful it is to me to observe the actions and hear the words of the son of a political figure I deeply admired and still mourn.  I still consider myself a Robert Kennedy Democrat, though now I have to add "senior" to the name. 

It was not hard to see what was coming, at least in outline.  It's why I re-named him Chaos even before he took office.  But the extent of it, and the daily barrage of ever more basic attacks on the foundations of this democracy, the stability of this country and the world, continue to escalate the shock. 

 Among the latest, this regime is admittedly declaring living people as dead.  Declaring them dead to Social Security, which is a direct attack on their identities, making them non-persons, unable to work or bank or anything that requires the Social Security number.  It is an SS attack on Social Security, and the victims--as with other lawless Hitlerian moves, are alleged immigrants. But who believes they will stop there.

This chaos attacks the foundations of the national and world economy as well as our government and its functions.  For working economies need stability.  Nobody is going to invest in chaos.  The stability of US government bonds (for example) has been a consistent strength through every crisis, until now.  Nobody knows what the rules are anymore, or if there are any.  Just as nobody knows what the tariffs are or will be, or who or what is exempt. (Over the weekend various members of the administration have had different though equally tortured explanations of the technology exceptions that do or do not exist.)

It is impossible to even find something that Chaos has not wounded or destroyed: support for education, science crucial in many ways, for veterans, disabled and elders on Social Security, for healthcare, and for immigrants and asylum seekers or anyone on a visa.  For the government's own ability to collect the taxes that supports it. For equal justice under the law, and several of the Bill of Rights. They used force of arms to destroy a little non-governmental agency whose sole purpose was to help resolve dangerous disputes and foster peace in the world.

 By stopping food and medical help to poor and distant countries, and with cuts to such programs and offices as those monitoring cyber warfare from abroad, as well as scary incompetence, they have made  America less safe and more vulnerable in the world.

To my knowledge no one else has said this yet but me, so I will repeat it once more: No enemy--in war, terrorism, cold war, subversion or economic attack--has done more damage to the US government than Chaos has in less than three months, and is continuing to do.  Though the rest of the world will feel damage from tariffs and so on, it will not be as devastating as the damage to the United States.

7.  What We're Not Talking About

The daily assault of devastation is all but impossible to keep up with, let alone absorb in any way.  But among the things we are no longer talking about is abortion.  Anti-abortion laws and policies in various states are just as oppressive, cruel and demented, and women and families continue to suffer because of them.  But women and the issue of abortion did not win the election for Kamala Harris, so there is silence.  Besides, it's probably too "woke" to mention.

But the obvious thing we aren't talking about is the onrushing catastrophe of climate distortion, the single greatest threat to the future. Chaos is working with vicious intent to reverse the Biden administrations efforts, which qualified as a good start and surprisingly effective. Chaos is intent on doing as much additional environmental damage as possible.  And once again, climate distortion doesn't exist by edict of King Chaos.

Unfortunately it does exist. Gathering and disseminating information--even about the weather--is curtailed or forbidden at the US federal level, but many states and lots of other countries are doing it. And the onrushing is rushing even faster.  The effects soon will be unignorable, and we will be less prepared to deal with them.  And less able to even try to save the future from the end of life as we know it.  But we don't talk about that.  How could we?  Other catastrophe seems much nearer.  

But some people will be talking about it: at the San Francisco Climate Week gatherings, beginning next weekend.

This is part 2 of 2.  Part 1 is here.

Where We Are (part 1)

1. The Big Picture

More and more basic destruction to American democracy and America's place in the political and economic fabric of the world continues at head-spinning speed.  The American people--perhaps surprisingly--seem to largely be aware of the fruits of Chaos already, and largely disapprove.

But as fast and unrelenting as the destruction is, we may look back at this period as one of relative calm, before the consequences of all this destruction dominate even daily life for most of us.

For many of us, that will probably begin happening in a matter of weeks.  The complete destruction of the Social Security system is underway, and already for the first time in its 90 year history--through World War II, the tumultuous 1960s, every recession, the stagflation of the 70s etc.-- some Social Security recipients are not getting their checks on time, or not at all.  Only a trickle has been reported so far, but an increase is all but inevitable this month or next.

Because of the tariffs that are still in place, businesses that depend on imported products and parts will be stressed and even destroyed within weeks. Even a relatively quick end to these tariffs may not be soon enough to keep some businesses (manufacturers, farmers, retail and services) from going under.  Everyone will feel higher prices.  Consumer confidence is tanking, almost everyone is expecting a recession, fueled in part by inflation-- together what in the 70s we learned to call stagflation.

Spring brings storms and flooding to many parts of the country, summer brings heatwaves to many more and fires, while the federal infrastructure for dealing with all of this is being systematically destroyed.  Medicare and Medicaid cuts will have immediate consequences on people unlucky enough to get sick, while the chronically ill are most threatened.  Large-scale health threats like epidemics, outbreaks caused by various kinds of pollution and poisoning, etc. will find no expertise or resources to control them or to help either victims or those who could become victims.  

In the rest of the world America has quickly become a pariah state.  We have no friends to come to our aid, because Chaos has pushed them away with gleeful contempt.  

In America, Chaos is asserting the right to disappear anyone at all without warning or anything more than the usual generalized rhetorical charges that all dictatorships have used.  The federal government is very quickly becoming a collection of living Orwellian Newspeak institutions--a department of Health that works against health, a Justice department that institutionalizes and weaponizes injustice.  The President is openly using investigative and law enforcement agencies against individuals he targets.  Racism and cruelty constitute the Chaos morality, which the federal government zealously enforces, with self-righteousness where there should be shame.

And already, the underbelly of dictatorship is showing: greed and corruption. 

All of this--and more--has happened in less than three months.  This is not the same country it was and has been since its founding before noon EST on January 20.  

2.  The Zeitgeist

Demonstrations against Chaos policies and actions have been large and relentless.  Polls show majority disapproval for almost everything Chaos has done or advocates, with fully three-quarters of polled Americans who believe tariffs will wreck the economy.  

So far those demonstrations have been remarkable not only for their size and frequency but for their wit, for their basic good-naturedness underlying the anger and distress, and for their peacefulness.  It's now pretty certain that several million Americans participated in demonstrations on April 5, with unusually large crowds everywhere, exceeding 100,000 in several cities.  But on that day there was not one reported act of vandalism, and not one arrest.  There also were few reports of counter-demonstrations or harassment by law enforcement or unofficial thugs. But as consequences begin and outrages continue, much of this could change.

The opposition is notable, but so is the rampant cowardice and attempts at appeasement.  Major and very wealthy law firms are leading the way in attempted appeasement and so-called deals, which are little more than giving into the extortion demands of a mob boss. As disappointing as this may be, these kind of firms don't have much of a reputation to lose.  Much more disillusioning are the universities, making their naive deals that they seem to believe will sate the appetite for Chaos control.  I used to admire Columbia University--I would have liked to gone there if I could have afforded it, and I retained my boyhood respect for the Naval Academy, now engaged in a purge of anything not white enough in its library.  No longer.

And for what?  The tech billionaires who engaged in their premature groveling are getting nothing for it, at least until they go groveling again for individual deals sparing them from tariff pain.  And they and all the other wealthy look like they will get their tax cuts, paid for by the suffering and deaths of lesser Americans, including those who helped make them rich.

Dealing with shock and anxiety and the feeling of helplessness now underlies daily life and manifestations of the Zeitgeist. King Chaos is destroying the federal government and taking an axe to the world economy.  The time may not be far off that chaos is injected into American society as a whole.

Then we will see if we can summon some poise, and value where stability lives.

 3.  The Other Two Branches

Electing King Chaos was not enough. The Chaos administration could only be doing what it is doing because Republicans won just enough seats to form majorities in the House and Senate.  And they are not the Republicans of 1974 whose withdrawal of support caused the Republican president to resign because of high crimes and misdemeanors; not the Republicans of even 20 years ago.  They are the terminally irresponsible children of Mitch McConnell and especially the frightened and greedy incompetents owned and operated by Chaos himself.  

Among the sources of shock that Americans feel are the many acts of the Chaos administration--from policies and pronouncements to serious breaches of national security--any one of which would have promptly brought down any prior administration, resulting in at minimum lots of resignations of top officials, with some leading directly to impeachment, have come and gone with no consequences.  That's happened in large part because of the catatonic Congress and its dissembling leadership.

If the Democrats held just one of the houses, there would be a dozen ongoing investigations with public hearings and proposed legislation.  Given the public mood, these would be hard for the media to ignore--even those eager to please der Fuhrer.  Things would be quite different.  

As it is, Republicans (especially in the House, where they perpetually run for reelection) must weigh their prevailing mortal fear of King Chaos and his past ability to conjure up primary opponents that defeat them even in heavily R districts, against the likelihood of public sentiment turning so strongly against them that their Democratic opponent will defeat them.  Or that their donors will turn against them, with the same result.

Congress is itself a kind of autocracy, run by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader respectively.  Very little gets considered that they don't decide will get considered.  Mike Johnson in the House is going to extraordinary lengths to prevent the House from reasserting congressional power over tariffs with a dubious technical maneuver, weighing the power of King Chaos' support against open rebellion of a few R Members, either of which could easily cost him his job.  On such considerations does every basic principle of American government and equal justice under law as well as the world economy depend, with this crew of TV-ready automatons with less intelligence that the artificial kind.

The only clear constitutional remedies for a lawless executive are action by Congress (reclaiming its rights over legislation it passed, and the ultimate power to remove the president from office) and the federal courts, ending with the Supreme Court's power to interpret law and the Constitution. With the R Congress abdicating its responsibilities, the federal judiciary has been at the center of the action. 

 Many lower court judges have at least slowed some of the illegal and immoral acts of the Chaos administration.  The Supreme Court finally appeared this past week with two unanimous decisions that went against Chaos but only barely, and were ambiguous enough in part to create unjudicial confusion. This seems to be the price of unanimity, and a likely characteristic of this court--not given to strong opinions in opposition to Chaos.  Chaos is acting defiantly while promising to respect court decisions, apparently trusting that media covers the pious words and not the inaction.  

Meanwhile, Congress is trying to limit the purview of federal district court judges, and may succeed.  The Supreme Court is at least jealous enough of judicial powers to rule against it, maybe, someday.  But more damage will be done, just as more damage has been and is being done as cases make their way slowly to various courts.

4. Democrats

A number of prominent Democrats--including CA Gov. Newsom, Colorado Senator Bennet--have parroted the line: "The Democratic brand is toxic."  So much so that it's already a meaningless cliche.  But it reflects the post-election polling showing the Democratic Party with its lowest approval rating since the Big Bang.

But along came Chaos, and one thing that Chaos is doing assiduously is electing Democrats. All the Democratic "brand" has to be is: we're against what he's doing.  And it's about time Democrats realize this.

Democrats don't need a new identity.  They forged a new identity at their last convention and during the Harris campaign, when they brought in significant support from former Republicans who couldn't stomach Chaos.  Those elements of the supposed "woke" Democratic brand were imposed by the forces of Chaos, which include their Russian tech friends.  With just enough success, apparently.  I don't remember anyone running on pronouns.  

That the Democrats couldn't break through to the media is partly their fault and partly the media's, and the Chaos strategy of relentlessly keeping the attention on him, even if it is propelled by outrage.  The news media apparently just can't help itself.  Social media is maybe something else, which I'm not qualified to analyze, though I recognize the insidious power of algorithms.

But notice that the anti-Chaos demonstrations are happening all over the country.  That people in R districts are showing up en masse for their own town meetings where their R representative won't show up, and it may be run by Democrats.  On the ground, the power now is and will be in articulating opposition.  And it will start locally, in congressional districts, where news media has been covering protests.

And proposing vague changes and complex programs for improvement won't be necessary.  Americans are learning the hard way all the good things the federal government does, as they are disappeared.  Restoration is becoming a winning theme.  An electoral key however will be new candidates, younger candidates, more articulate candidates.  If the Hitlerization of America hasn't been totally accomplished by November 2026.  

Here's a recent national poll result to ponder: when asked if they considered themselves a MAGA member, all of 11% said they did.

Meanwhile, there is a lot that Democrats in office at the state and local levels can do and should do right now.  An intriguing San Francisco Chronicle piece  suggests that Gov. Newsom is running the Republic of California like a country, and with some success.  (Living here I don't really see it, but it's interesting if true. As a predicted resistance leader he's been a bust.)

But a more practical example of the kind of thing that must be done as fast as possible is this: Rachel has highlighted two states (Arizona and Michigan) where the Attorney-General is posting a simple online form for Social Security recipients to report their problems that the agency is too depleted and chaotic to address--in particular, those checks that don't arrive. More states must do this, and they must do more than this. They must protect and advocate for their people, against the corrupt dictatorship in Washington.   

Which leads us finally back to the beginning: the King Chaos administration itself.  But that will require another time.

 

Hands On Deck for Hands Off! UPDATED

South Bend, Indiana

Update 4/7: As information continues to be gathered about the Saturday protests, the numbers keep going up.  It's now estimated that upwards of 1400 communities participated, and that crowds either exceeded 100,000 or came close to that number in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, St. Paul,MN and elsewhere as well as Washington.  It now appears that the number of participants exceeded a million--maybe millions.  Photos continue to circulate on social media and online, though--even more than usual--the established press (including the NY Times and Boston Globe) downplayed these demonstrations, even in their own coverage area. 

In her Monday show, Rachel Maddow ran video as well as still photos, with more of both at her Bluesky site.  She noted that mass demonstrations have brought down authoritarian regimes when they are recurrent and persistent.  Another day of protest has been called for April 19.

Portland,Oregon

Columbus, Ohio

Tippecanoe County Indiana

Utica, NY

Peoria, Illinois

ORIGINAL POST 4/5:  In more than a thousand communities in all fifty states as well as elsewhere in North America and the world, hundreds of thousands answered the call to show their resistance to King Chaos and his minions on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

In Washington DC, a crowd of 100,000.

Demonstrators filled twenty blocks of New York City.

There were large crowds in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburgh, Denver, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, San Antonio and other cities, and impressive participation in smaller cities like Akron, Ohio and Ames, Iowa, Salisbury, Maryland and Lansing, Michigan.

Crowds displayed their signs in red states and blue, in smaller places as well as big cities.  For instance, here in Eureka, California.  (Thanks to Lost Coast Outpost for photos.Click on them to enlarge.)

The Eureka event was among the largest demonstrations ever held here.

All hands on deck in Eureka.

Final thoughts from NYC

And one from Eureka...