There is not much to say at this point about the state of our affairs in the U.S.A. It seems there are three camps at large: MAGA, the rest of the U.S., and the rest of the world. To be clear, the “rest of the world” camp is concerned, if not frightened. Well, I take that back. Putin is heartened. Other authoritarian and far right leaders are encouraged. Billionaires the globe over rejoice. MAGA cultists in the U.S. are busy buying Trump watches, Trump sneakers, and any other thing Trump is literally selling right now in direct violation of the Emoluments Clause, except our utterly corrupt Supreme Court gave him broad authority to do as he will without threat of penalty (Trump v. United States 2024).

Never mind that no other private citizen in the United States has a, “get out of jail free” card. We just elected a convicted felon, who incited an insurrection against the Capitol of the United States in an effort to thwart the results of a free and fair election declaring him NOT the President of the United States anymore as of January 20, 2020. He tried to have his own V.P. killed. He was also impeached, less anyone forget, for good reason. Then we, as a nation, elected him President again.

I’m pretty sure we just saw to our own undoing. I said that long ago, but I find that, as a woman in America, my thoughts, opinions, and warnings are largely ignored. Until my predictions come to pass. Then they are credited to men. And my “predictions” are not particularly prescient in any magical or prophetic sense. They are predictable outcomes if stated intentions are put into play. Regardless, allow me to be clear: I do not believe our guardrails will hold this time.

When Trump was in office previously, his administration was largely ignorant, slow to get up to speed, and undisciplined. And even though Republicans held a majority in Congress at the time, they were in disarray, fighting amongst themselves, and undisciplined. Those factors limited the damage they could do to our Democratic Republic. I do not think that will hold this time.

With the exception of Matt Gaetz, Senators overseeing Cabinet appointments appear to be capitulating to Trump’s ill-conceived desires, which include appointing unqualified loyalists to high-level cabinet positions. That is in no small part thanks to Elon Musk, who has successfully threatened with his billions of dollars to primary incumbent Senators like Joni Ernst, who apparently is going to okay the appointment of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense as a result of the interference of a foreign-born unelected billionaire. If none of what I just said worries you, you really do need to read more, and apply some critical thinking and game theory. When President Biden warned of an oligarchical structure taking shape in America, he was not speaking hyperbolically. We already witnessed the unelected, foreign-born billionaire Musk control Congress’s most recent budget negotiations. It’s terrifying.

This evening, my husband mentioned only half tongue-in-cheek that we should attend the Home Depot show tomorrow, Monday, 1/20/25. When I asked what he meant, he said that it has been rumored that the Mexican workers that hang out there to get construction work will be rounded up. I asked if he was serious and he soberly responded that yes, that is the rumor. I said, “You can’t possibly think they are going to start rounding people up that quickly?” He shrugged and said, “It’s possible.” He’s not wrong. I guess we’ll see.

So, let’s give this just the tiniest bit of thought. We won’t extrapolate out terribly far to all the obvious places. Let’s keep it limited to rounding up “Mexican-looking” people looking for construction work. Who is going to fix your shit? Who is going to trim your trees, tend to your yards, clean your houses, pick your fruits and veggies, pack meat, build houses, install solar, and tend to many other laborious jobs the rest of us take for granted? More to the point, how much will we have to pay white people in this country to do those jobs? Because, lets be honest, most white people won’t do those jobs because they don’t pay enough. Even Texans are worried about who will work their oil fields, because yes, Hispanics do those jobs too.

So, again, not stretching out too terribly far, what exactly does that do to our economy? Short term, we are going to have some small shortages. Long term, we are going to experience inflated prices and shortages galore. You thought the great toilet paper debacle of 2020 COVID was something else? Try finding strawberries and broccoli next year. Or possibly, this year.

We haven’t even gotten to the tariffs Trump has threatened. If he does anything on the level he’s threatened, well, I encourage you to look into what the Smoot-Hawley Act did to our country in 1930. Or watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Either way, you’ll learn something.

Women like me in this country, who cut our teeth working in male-dominated industries and had to suffer the many indignities inflicted upon us by our male counterparts and bosses just because they could, are the canaries in the coal mine. We know how horrible people can be when they know they can get away with it. We have better imaginations about the effects of malignant leadership because we’ve been broadly subjected to it. We know that the most twisted fucks out there are often the ones that present with extreme piety and/or declarations of much they care about those they are leading. Those representations are sickeningly false. They do not care about you at all. Billionaires especially have already functionally extracted themselves from society writ large by virtue of their extreme wealth. They are incapable of empathy on the level the vast majority of the country needs them to have.

They are coming for everything. They have wanted to take away Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security from us for years, and now the time is ripe to do that. But that is not the only devastating thing they intend to do. The price of groceries everyone was so worried about that Trump promised to fix is actually going to skyrocket with the one-two punch of mass deportations and tariffs. More broadly I am deeply concerned about the coming reorganization of the world order. There will be drastic changes, and you would do well to listen to those of us sounding alarm bells. You need to do your best to prepare financially, physically, mentally and emotionally for the coming drastic shifts. We are going to see a curtailing of rights, and possibly a form of Christian “Sharia Law” take shape. It wouldn’t shock me if they managed to wrest women’s right to vote away from us.

Please listen to the warnings, and do what you can to secure your position. It’s going to be a rough four years for many of us.