Farewell

This has been a wonderfully therapeutic experience. I signed up for a trial of Beehiiv a few weeks ago in order to try a daily writing exercise to try to gather and organize my thoughts. I also figured it might help me process the day by letting some vitriol and negativity out. Perhaps some friends and folks might find what I had to say interesting, entertaining, or even informative.

I’m at the end of my free trial and not sure it’s worth paying to continue. If I’m honest, it’s also a bit of a challenge to crank out a few hundred words worth reading at night while I’m trying to balance four jobs and be as good of a husband as I’d like to be.

The last month has strengthened my resolve in some ways, helped me refocus on my faith and mindfulness, and definitely contributed to my ability to reframe. Everything is truly Upside Down. And terrifying.

Today’s great examples - “No man is above the law” - apparently tweeted by Elon Musk, who is breaking so many laws daily that it’s hard to track. His business practices have repeatedly run afoul of the law and national governing bodies, but he doesn’t seem to believe that he is a “man”. I’m not sure what that makes him - either hypocritical (though that word has lost meaning) or perhaps something subhuman?

We also learned that Don Junior, he of hunting and snorting fame, was paid something like $800K by the Trump Media Group. If you haven’t been obsessing about terrible things, that’s the Trump grift that has lined his pockets through bizarre financial gymnastics that reverse normal capitalistic business practices. That entity lost well over $100 million dollars last year on a little more than $3 million in revenue. Junior was paid 25% of the entity’s revenues in return for his contributions as a member of the Board, though he only attended 40% of Board meetings. This is the failson of a failed businessman currently dismantling the government and wrecking thousands of lives by firing people making a pittance for “not showing up at work”. That’s upside down.

We also learned this evening that the Republican House of Representatives voted to move forward a budget proposal that kicks poor people to the curb, taking away healthcare and food subsidies, not in return for reducing government spending, but in order to support tax cuts that primarily go to the richest 1% of the country, e.g. the patrons of the Republican Party. There is zero evidence that giving rich people tax cuts promotes economic growth or creates prosperity for anyone but the rich people - it has never worked and that terrible economic theory has been entirely debunked. When it’s been tried, it has only dramatically increased the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest and Republicans have decided to accelerate that trend for no discernible reason. Not a single one of them had the courage to say no to objectively horrible public policy.

Perhaps that’s the most upside downiest part of the Upside Down. Once upon a time, way back in the mid 20th century, we taxed rich people a lot. They still did just fine but we used the tax proceeds to create public support programs that saved millions of lives, significantly increased life expectancy and quality of life, and actually stimulated the economy because middle and lower class people spend much more of there income buying things, especially when they’re not worried about their next meal or rent payment. With a truly impressive combination of racist enmity and class resentment, the extremists running the country have unwound nearly a century of advancement because they don’t like the direction the country was moving in. We were imperfect but on the path of becoming more pluralist, more equal, and more prosperous. All of that is now going in the opposite, upside down direction.

That sounds and feels dire, but I’m oddly hopeful at the green shoots of resistance and anger that these idiots have inspired because of their incompetence, lack of empathy, and bloodthirsty rush to exercise power. Better times lie ahead and I will commit daily to being a source of light, staying present, not catastrophizing, and supporting those without my privilege. I’m elated to have had the opportunity to know so many people in my life on the same journey and I thank you for listening!