If YOU are a caring, decent human being; especially if YOU are a decent, caring American – then you MUST read “Now Is the Time of Monsters,” by Ezra Klein; January 19, 2025; New York Times.
The four monsters: “Donald Trump is returning; artificial intelligence is maturing; the planet is warming; and the global fertility rate is collapsing.”
“To look at any of these stories in isolation is to miss what they collectively represent: the unsteady, unpredictable emergence of a different world.”

First, Trump: “Democracy does not die in darkness. It degrades through deal-making…We have seen this termitic corruption consume democracies elsewhere…Orban’s Hungary..” For perspective read “How Democracies Die” [Levitsky & Ziblatt], “On Corruption In America” [Chayes], “How Fascism Works” [Stanley]

Then, seriously examine Trump’s first week in power. Pardoning 1,500 CONVICTED people who trashed the U.S. Capitol; injured, disabled, murdered police; hunted and intended to execute a Vice President and various Congress members – all in an unprecedented coup effort – which many said they were doing because Trump called them to do it.

Next, examine Trump’s efforts to suppress criticism of him and make him accountable. He’s conducted a 10-year war against ANY & ALL media that dare to point out his 30,XXX lies, his stupidity and incompetence, his cruelties, his illegalities and un-Constitutional attempts.

Next – examine Trump’s efforts to ensure “loyalty.” He and his allies intend to purge ANYBODY in government they can – legally or illegally – who aren’t “loyal” to whatever weirdness exists in Trump’s teenage mind. Witness his firing of government inspectors general. Look up WHY Congress created their positions.

Next – examine Trump’s unprecedented effort to purge government civil servants. For perspective, examine WHY government civil service employees were given protection from political hacks: “By the mid-1820s, government jobs were commonly used as political rewards. An incoming President would dismiss a large number of government workers..and replace them with members of his own party..to enhance the President’s control of the bureaucracy.” Laws passed in 1853 and 1855 to get competent people. In 1881, a frustrated office seeker murdered President Garfield – leading to the Civil Service Act of 1881. [World Book Encyclopedia]

Next – examine Trump’s relationships with billionaires, especially in light of his infamous 2017 tax cut law that primarily benefitted the wealthy – which he wants to renew! In spite of the fact it WILL increase the U.S. national debt by trillions [his 2017 billionaire’s tax cut is 25% of the current federal debt].

Next – examine Trump’s control of the “Republican” Party – now essentially a personality cult. Review the demands he’s made, starting with NOT approving CONSERVATIVE-created bipartisan immigration reform bill that would’ve substantially improved U.S. border enforcement. Trump ORDERED “Republicans’ to vote against it – so HE COULD CAMPAIGN ON IMMIGRATION in the 2024 election!!! [is this THE definition of corruption? ]

Next – review material, just in ordinary media, on hw Trump intends to operate on the basis of fear and intimidation – whatever it takes to BULLY people, including foreign governments, into doing whatever stupid, cruel, destructive, illegal or un-Constitutional thing he’s thinking of doing. For perspective, read up on dictatorships, fascism, authoritarianism, criminal mob bosses

And then – there’s “PROJECT 2025” – the FAR RIGHT’s wish list, some 900 pages, so extreme that 2024 voters didn’t like it – so in typical Trump fashion, he lied – saying that like Col. Klink – “I know nothing” about it. Major authors of “Project 2025” NOW are in key positions of his administration – so they can implement “Project 2025” over YOU.

Second – A.I. As with all technology, THE big issue: HOW will A.I. be used – for the betterment of ordinary people like YOU – or – for criminal things, for un-democratic things? Will it develop into a threat to humans because it can outthink us? Among its numerous flaws – it has shown great propensity to lie and make stuff up. America and China are in a race to be #1 – what if China wins? What happens if A.I. is owned and controlled by the same oligarchs now largely running much of American society? Only a strong, democratic government, can police this – BUT – it’s highly unlikely a Trump government, based upon lies, fear, deal-making, pro-oligarchy – is going to be that government. What can happen between January 20, 2025 – and – January 20, 2029. that is irreversible???

Third – Climate CRISIS. OUR world is breaking heat records virtually every month. We KNOW oceans are too hot by centuries of records – creating storms, etc. We are NOW getting all kinds of extreme weather that scientists have warned us about. If we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates – the earth, as we know it, is DOOMED Here is perhaps the ultimate example of GREED – some rich people determined to continue getting richer – when their actions will place their own children and grandchildren in peril.

Fourth – Population Collapse. All over the “advanced” world, countries are NOW not producing enough people to simply. replace themselves. Some are on a path to cease to exist as currently structured. Falling birth rates can produce instability – as currently seen in world news. And – for many countries, immigration is THE ONLY chance to survive successfully. BUT – now we have Trump’s war on the people doing the dirty, dangerous, work of American society. Work Americans have refused to do for decades – see comments by farmers, business people, economists.

In various fiction forms – fairy takes, comic books, movies – heroes ride in to save the day. WE SHOULD. BE. SO. LUCKY. Greed has already made climate CRISIS worse beyond scientific models and fears. Our “heroes’ will have to change to more creative power sources, or, we will either return to a new “ice age”, or, the earth will become uninhabitable.

Norms, policies, laws. COULD be written to control A.I. for ordinary people’s benefit – but GREED and weak/non-existent government action [paid for by the rich] WILL allow A.I. to be used to make some wealthy even more rich and powerful, and to create a nightmare society surpassing “1984.”

The BIG, largely unanswered question on population collapse: WHY are people all over the world CHOOSING to have fewer children? What has happened since 1960 that has led people to WANT fewer children? Is this, again GREED – is in the rich of America deliberately destroying the 1947-73 mass middle class mixed blue-white collar prosperity??? What kind of support will encourage people to have children?

And then. there’s an election in which the world’s leading “democracy” chooses to give power to an ACKNOWLEDGED, an PROVEN, cruel, selfish, greedy, liar, and un-democratic “man.” At a time demanding a Washington, a Lincoln, an FDR, an Eisenhower – America, and the world, must now deal with THE anti-Washington. A “man’ whose ego demands he be surrounded by sycophants and incompetents; a 78-year old teenage cult leader

Naughty thought: wouldn’t YOU love to be the “fly-on-the-wall” when all those billionaires, politicians, businessmen, oligarchs, etc. fly to Florida to kiss Trump’s ass – so you could see if he actually makes them do it!!!
Naughty thought #2: would you like to see if he makes them do any other acts while down on their knees?

Sobering thought: †here are 1,453 more days until January 20, 2029. What could possibly go wrong?

Literary thought: Don’t you wish Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken were still alive to write about all this? What could they do with Trump’s l/23/25 statement about the U.S. Federal Reserve bankers and economists: “I know interest rates much better than they do.” ?????????

Be kind to each other. And – hang on to people you love, and. your wallet.

!!!!***!!! “Trump transforms Ja.6 narrative” [D.Barry, A.Feuer; 1/6/25; New York Times]: “Violent, unprecedented assault on American democracy has become what president-elect calls a “day of love”…he and his loyalists have laundered the history of Jan.6..as his allies in Congress and the media play down the attack and redirected blame to left-wing plants, Democrats and even the government..violent rioters..somehow became martyrs…What happened and why seemed beyond debate..Tens of thousands of hours of video footage. thousands of seized cellphones..the largest digital crime in history…But sand was already being thrown in the eyers of history.”

*** “ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why would we let them have ideas.”
{ Soviet Russia dictator. Joseph Stalin }

1] “Reminders of Jan. 6 attack fading” [Mary Clare Jalonick; Assoc. Press]: “..many Republicans try to downplay it, echoing..Trump’s claims that the carnage of that day is overblown and that the rioters are victims. In some ways, it’s like the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, that shook the foundations of American democracy never happened.”
“Congress passed a law in March 2022 to require “an honorific plaque listing the names of all officers of the United States Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and protective entities who responded to the violence that occurred at the United states Capitol on January 6, 2021….But almost three years later, there is no plaque.” [***and no explanations!!!]
“In the days after the siege of the Capitol, Republican condemnation was near-universal…Then-House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy..said a week later that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack. But McCarthy soon made amends, traveling within weeks to Florida to meet Trump..a fateful decision, kicking off Trump’s return to power.”

*** “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” [Adolf Hitler]

2] YOU can review all reports of January 6, 2021 – LIVE, that 300 million Americans saw with their own eyes LIVE on January 6, 2021. YOU can listen to reports made LIVE by police who were attacked, injured. But, YOU can’t listen to some police reports – because they DIED, in the line of duty, defending YOUR national Capitol. In those LIVE recordings, YOU can observe some rioters carrying CONFEDERATE flags – an apt symbol for the treason that occurred.
YOU can search out some of the hundreds of confessions by now shamed rioters, some possibly in YOUR area. YOU can search court proceedings from all over America leading to 1,250 convictions – and what they were convicted for.

***. “Truth is the most precious thing. That’s why we should ration it.” [Soviet Russia leader. Lenin]

3] For perspective: “Erasing History..How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future” [Jason Stanley, 2024]: “Democracy requires a common understanding of reality, a shared view of what HAS happened, that informs ordinary citizens’ decisions about what SHOULD happen, now and in the future. Authoritarians target this shared understanding and leave us unmoored, resentful, and confused. By setting us against each other, authoritarians present themselves as the sole solution.”

*** “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” [George Orwell]

4] YOU can research recent attempts to rewrite American history, rewrite science, for political and ideological gains, for economic gains. THE greatest, BIGGEST LIE, in human history is climate change denial – in spite of the fact OUR world is changing – for worse – right in front of YOUR eyes.
Rewriting American history is done to maintain control for certain groups – by telling YOUR children what happened in the Americas, 1492 forward, didn’t happen or didn’t happen the way that’s inconvenient for certain people. Or, in 1981-2025 America, that things the FAR RIGHT finds “bad” or inconvenient are “fake news.”
Examples abound, especially in states controlled by Republicans. Attempts have been made to say American slavery “wasn’t that bad,” that Blacks actually had “a good deal,” that their owners [!!!] treated them with great “loving” care, etc.
YOUR children should NOT know about religion-justified “Jim Crow” segregation, 1865-1970s. YOUR children should NOT know the second most victimized group in 1619-19xx South was “poor white trash,’ many of whom died in the 1861-65 Civil War protecting the top 1% slave owners. YOUR children should NOT learn the slave-owning South [up to 2025] has historically been THE most poor, least democratic section.

YOUR children should NOT be taught about genocide conducted against native Americans from 1620 forward – the murders, massacres, broken treaties, government Indian boarding schools young native Americans were forced to attend – to WIPE OUT THEIR CULTURE, land theft, “The Trail of Tears,” the “reservations” they were forcibly confined to – the poverty, alcoholism, unemployment, female abuse, etc. that resulted.
For some, it will be inconvenient to teach YOUR children about the WW II Navajo “Code Talkers” who helped win the Pacific war, taking part in every assault the Marines conducted, sending messages in their language the Japanese couldn’t translate. [“Navajo Weapon,” S. McClain; “Yankee Samurai,” Joseph Harrington]

YOUR children might also NOT learn about Japanese-American Nisei who “helped shorten the Pacific War by at least two years, saving over 1 million lives.” Nisei linguists participated in EVERY battle from the Aleutians to Okinawa – translating, communicating, in intelligence. This in spite of 120,000 fellow Japanese-Americans locked up in concentration camps. [“Honor by Fire…Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific”, Lyn Crost]

YOUR children might also NOT learn about the extent of misogyny, persecution, restraints and limitations employed against American females, 1620-2025. NOT discuss “barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.’ NOT discuss the Salem Witchcraft Trials [all but one prosecutor a minister]. NOT discuss WHY American women couldn’t vote until 1920. NOT discuss “the glass ceiling” and wage differentials; and MUCH, much more…..

*** “Anybody who doesn’t take the truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
[Albert Einstein}

YOUR children might NOT discuss the war against American workers, 1865-2025. NOT learn about workers being persecuted, fired, jailed, murdered, for trying to form unions. They might NOY learn about WHY “American” companies, 1970s-2025, have either threatened to move factories, or DID move factories out of America to avoid paying living wages, avoid taxes, avoid regulations; bring in foreign workers at lower wages.
YOUR children might NOT learn that in 2025 America, billionaire owners refuse to negotiate with unions; that billionaire/millionaire capitalists, including manufacturing, have greatly inflated the ratio of employee-owner income in THEIR favor [ like from 30-40-50 to 1 to current levels of 200-250-300 to 1]. That at the height of American dominance, America had 1 billionaire [maybe] in 1956, and NOW there are over 750, not to ignore centi-millionaires

YOUR children might NOT learn that America was NEVER a “Christian Nation.” That there are MANY quotes from the Founding Fathers [!!! no “Founding Mothers”!!!!] in ABSOLUTE OPPOSITION to the idea of ANY kind of theocracy. Indeed, one of the Founders’ 4 primary fears was the misuse of religion. Start with “The Establishment Clause” [Leonard Levy, 1986]. Research Baptist Isaac Backus and Baptist John Leland; Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson; the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.
Research 1775-1800 state constitutions on religion [“Faith of the Founders,” Edwin S. Gaustad; 1987-1993-2011] – especially 1776 North Carolina, Articles XXXIV. 8 states BANNED an active minister from their government!!! 4 states banned a “religious oath of office” [Article VI !!!]. 10 states prohibited an “established church” [Bill of Rights !!!].
***!!!***!!! 1640s forward – “separation of church and state” is OLDER THAN THE U.S. CONSTITUTION !!!!!!!!!!

*** “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
[ Soren Kirkegaard ]

5]. And. THEN !!! – there is the daily rewriting of history, science, and much else – by the reactionary billionaire-funded RIGHT WING FAKE NEWS EMPIRE of radio, TV, internet, books, magazines, “studiers,” “commentators. A MAJOR reason WHY Americans are divided and confused is the BIG LIES emitted EVERY day by the FAR RIGHT communications NETWORK to brainwash good Americans. They have succeeded

The goal: a PLUTOCRATIC THEOCRACY. They’ve succeeded in moving America to “conservative” [actually REACTIONARY] positions on many things, and now, we’ve elected THE most unprincipled, amoral, greedy, liar, in presidential history to a second term. He will be surrounded by oligarchs enacting “PROJECT 2025” goals.
Whatever the Trump administration does, it will be “justified” by rewriting history, science, laws, the Constitution, American traditions, American culture. It is KNOWN – Trump’s tariffs, taxes, deportation scheme – DON’T ADD. UP. Farmers, business people, economists, tax experts have all testified against them. Because THEY WILL INCREASE YOUR COSTS!!! Trump already reneged [Nov. 25, 2024] on YOUR grocery bills being lower!!!!!

*** “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of men who can fabricate it.” [Hannah Arendt]