Next, the Reckoning
Project: Pioneer #60, November 8, 2024 Friday 9am
Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Half of all subscription/donation money goes to The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the other half pays for expenses. You can listen to the audio podcast version of this journal at Substack, Apple, Spotify, PocketCasts and others.
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Trigger warning: Much of this post is dark, but so is reality. It’s also about how you can survive, and how you can fight back. So, it’s important.
They say, “Breathe, relax, it will be OK.”
They say, “It’s only four years, we survived the first one.”
None of that is really true. Welcome to your new country, Wurstuvus. Trumpistan. People bought into a narrative about inflation, prison sex changes, eating pets, and tampons even though the first two were a direct result of the previous Trump’s administration and the latter two were just a made-up thing. The border was a big issue, but Trump blocked the solution and Biden had essentially closed it. The misogyny is simply too deep in this country. We’re too uneducated and ignorant to accept a woman leader, no matter how much better that’s turned out in the rest of the developed world.
Remember, 54% of American adults have a 6th grade reading level—that of an 11-year old. That’s Trump’s base in a nutshell; naïve people who are easily manipulated, prone to “entertainment” in lieu of boring factual information. This is why for so long, Republicans have fought hard against education. Add the ultra-wealthy, who want more damn tax cuts, and the evangelical right who want that theocracy. That’s your winning recipe.
The problem has been, for a long time, greed. The massive redistribution of wealth from lower and middle class families to the wealthiest. The massive and growing income inequality since Reagan’s 1980s. You’ve been getting screwed by the wealthy, by corporate welfare, all along. It was never the immigrants. And now, you’ve put them in charge, perhaps forever.
Forgive me, I may have missed the part where the raping, murdering caravans of illegal immigrants crossed the border and voted six times each? I thought there was all this voter fraud in America? Wut? Possibly, you were lied to, Trumpsters? Maybe the immigrants were busy eating the pets.
Giavana and I were hoping against hope, but in reality we’ve been preparing for this for over a year, as you know if you’ve been reading this journal. I tried to be optimistic in the last post, but my base instincts shouted deception. I let myself think America is better than this.
In that moment, I may have given false hope, so I feel bad, but for over a year I’ve been trying to help prepare others, as we’ve been preparing ourselves. We feel so bad for the young people, as we’ve had a lifetime of the best of America. We had it all here—a rip-roaring economy, best in the world, and we’ve thrown it away.
We had a candidate with clear, economist-blessed policies to help working people:
Buy a home ($25,000 down payment assistance)
Start a business ($50,000)
Lower prices for rent/food/healthcare/everything by building more housing and stopping price gouging
Pay child costs ($6,000)
Pass gun safety laws to stop school shootings
The people instead chose the criminal serial liar billionaire who had only fully followed through on one promise last time—to cut taxes for other billionaires.
We’ve reached the evolutionary tipping point of ignorance over education. The uneducated racist ignorant white male now rules over all of us. This is the dawn of a new era of anti-intellectualism, those times when the dictators, ignorant populace, and/or evangelically religious folks feel threatened and start killing off the educated. That never ends well. It happened during Franco’s dictatorship in Spain in the 1930s-1970s, in dictator Pol Pot’s Cambodia in the 1970s, in the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, and it’s happened a few times historically in Russia, China, and many other countries.
This is going to suck, but the delicious part will be watching these ignorant hateful bastards come to realize exactly what they voted for, and seeing them suffer along with the rest of us. Bubba and Mrs. Bubba are about to get body slammed by what they voted for. They’ll realize the pain of “owning the libs,” who all along were fighting for policies to make their lives better. Here’s how that will play out:
He will immediately push through his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
That will result in a massive new spike in debt, and massive decrease in tax revenue.
He will claim this is an emergency, and use it to justify massive cuts to services working people rely on, veteran’s disability benefits, Medicaid, and more. Robin Hood in reverse, like the Reagan raid on the Social Security fund to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
Put a pin in our incredible economic numbers a the end of the Biden/Harris administration: 2.2% inflation, full employment, stock market/401ks at record highs, gas under $3/gallon, mortgages at 6%. He’ll take credit for that, before it changes drastically, then blame someone else.
OK. This isn’t going to be just some melodramatic sky-is-falling post. We’ll take a practical look at what might be ahead, and what to do about it—how Giavana and I will prepare for what’s coming.
First, Kamala did everything right. God bless that woman. We could have had it all, they also say. In a good and decent world, this should have been a blowout win for her, as I had dared to hope. Instead, for the first time, we’ve elected a lifelong con man, rapist, twice-impeached, convicted criminal to be our leader. Yes, just like those s-hole third-world countries he’s always talked about. Remember, Hitler went to prison, before being elected again, and we know the rest of the story. To set the table for Trump, we eliminated any and all guardrails and ways to hold him accountable for past or future crimes in any way.
What could go wrong, right? He’s got the corrupt Supreme Court, big majority in the Senate, and the House of Representatives at his disposal. As well as anyone else with any kind of power who doesn’t want to end up as an example, hanging from the wall.
There’s no evidence of any fraud. Sure, Russia intervened with bomb threats to polling places, a years-long social media campaign, using its assets inside our country to influence. Bottom line is, this is who we are here in the United States. This country IS that hateful, horrible Madison Square Garden rally. We elected a cruel, racist, misogynist, corrupt, indecent man because the majority of our population see themselves in him.
You know those folks, by now. They’re easily identifiable by the red hats, flags, yard signs, nasty attitude. The bullies from school that have had all that pent up anger from not being able to hit or bully (other than their poor spouses, who now must suck it up per VP JD Vance, as no-fault divorces will be banned). They were enraged when a Black man was elected, and in their eyes became the boss of them. Further enraged when he was re-elected. Then along came the messiah figure, the daddy racist that gave them permission to be open and act on their feelings.
We are a country of entitled folks who for too long have been told and believed we’re this virtuous icon of the world, but in the end we’ve never risen above that basest instinct to hate and mistreat people simply because they’re different in some way. I’ve written about the illusion of America’s greatness before. In my last post, I wrote the shocking reality that Hitler himself was inspired in his evil by our genocide against Native Americans and treatment/isolation of the “other.”
The rest of the world are often complimentary of us, perhaps out of fear of that massive nuclear arsenal, but secretly aren’t big fans of the Ugly American, the entitled, drunken, obnoxious tourists that invade their lands. They look to us in pity over our allowing our children to be mowed down at their desks with military assault rifles, allowing faceless, greedy corporations to wield such power to screw us for basic human dignities like health care, allowing our people (especially children) to starve as the richest nation in the history of the world, while supposedly charitable “churches” are allowed to run mega-billion tax-free organizations.
Based on bond market activity since the election, they’re now skeptical we’ll be able to pay back our debt. This will result in higher interest rates for mortgage and car loans, and inflation. Just when Biden and Harris had that fixed, too. Watch what happens to this wonderful economy.
Make no mistake—I love my country and I love all of us who are better than all that. Perhaps this is the fulfillment of the prophesy that technology and social media as the catalyst of our demise. I’ve mused about that plenty of times as well.
Ok. Let’s look ahead to what may come. This is not hysteria or click-baiting. This is simply taking what has been promised, and what the effect on us may be. Sure, at different points there were promises not to do some of this, but those came along with frequent winking, nodding, and signaling they would. Let’s not forget these are folks, particularly Trump, that lie as they breathe. This is what I think we can expect, perhaps there will be some way found to prevent it, but I can’t see one, short of civil war.
Ukraine: Trump has made clear he’ll let Putin have Ukraine, and most of the Russian asset Republican party has been openly advocating for dropping our support and letting Russia have its way. As when we allowed Hitler to have Poland, this will enable Putin to plan and begin his march across Europe to rebuild the Soviet Union.
NATO: Trump’s long dream has been to kneecap the strongest military alliance in history. NATO is the primary reason we haven’t been speaking Russian for a few generations already. This also plays into the Ukraine scenario, as when Poland and other NATO members get invaded and invoke Article 5, we’ll ignore their pleas for help. It’s a shame as they came to our side immediately after we invoked it after 9/11 (we are the only ever beneficiary of Article 5). It’s kind of like when Trump abandoned the Kurds in Afghanistan, after they fought and died for us, when he surrendered to the Taliban.
Affordable Care Act/Obamacare: It’s another of Trump’s dreams to destroy this, and it will be gone. Millions of Americans suddenly without healthcare, at least not healthcare they can afford. Back to the days of uninsured people going to the emergency room at every turn, jacking up costs and reducing care for everyone else. Biden and Harris’ caps on drug prices will all disappear, meaning a huge burden on households, but great profits and executive bonuses for big pharma.
Inflation: Trump has promised to go wild with tariffs, which will be a cost to us, the consumers here in the US. The idea is to make imported stuff so expensive we just buy American stuff. The problems is we don’t make much stuff here anymore, and it will take years and years to be able to. The real purpose of this is to allow Trump to use these as an extortion cudgel, handing out exceptions in return for favors/gifts, as he did with Apple in his last administration. The other countries, of course, will retaliate with tariffs on our stuff, which will crater our economy since nobody else will be buying our stuff around the world. This tactic bankrupted family farmers in Trump’s last administration, requiring a very expensive taxpayer funded bailout. Barron’s, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and a slew of Nobel Prize winning economists have said this will result in financial and economic disaster for us.
Public Education: The promise is to eliminate it, meaning private pay-as-you-go education only. This has been disastrous and expensive when it’s been attempted before. It also allows your kids to be force-fed whatever curriculum is mandated, such as hard-core evangelical fundamental Christianity, and love of leader/state. They won’t be learning about their bodies and other cultures and so forth. Trump’s donor friend Betsy DeVos is going to make big bank on this one, and I’m sure he’ll get his cut.
Medicine: The promise is to put RFK Jr, or another anti-science lunatic like the Attorney General of Florida in charge. Both are anti-vax wingnuts. Get ready for the rapid spread of disease and pandemic, as Florida has experienced. Leprosy, anyone? Smallpox? Measles? After they make reproductive freedom illegal nationwide, we’ll see an even larger tidal wave of women dying.
Society: We’ll see the demonization and closetization of anyone other, as was the way back in the “good old days” that are the template and goal for all of this. Think “Mayberry RFD” where nary a person of color or LGBTQ+ was to be seen. Bullying will run rampant on our poor kids. Suicides will rise, and these folks won’t mind, like when Reagan laughed at the gay folks dying from AIDS. Social media will be highly monitored and regulated.
SS/Medicare/Medicaid/Disability/Unemployment/Veteran’s Benefits: These have been referred to by the right as “entitlements” and “socialism” for quite some time, a clear indication of attitude by the silver-spoon trust-fund baby set. Musk has said we’d have to go through some pain, and it’s likely this is what he was referring to, and more. Trump has often shown his disdain for veterans, a group he despises as he’ll never gain the respect and admiration he sees them receiving.
Legal: Justices Thomas and Alito will retire, to be replaced with two very young, very motivated evangelical Christians. I wouldn’t be surprised if they packed the court by adding more than nine. Get ready for more of the massive corruption we saw in 2017-2020, all at taxpayer expense. This represents a complete breakdown of the rule of law, because any case against a corrupt Republican can simply be pushed to the Supreme Court to be disappeared.
Financial: The self-proclaimed King of Debt added another $7 trillion last time. He loves spending our money. The next big tax cut for his billionaire friends will add about the same. We’ll pay that—our kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, if the country lasts that long, which is doubtful. They want to put our nation’s wealth into crypto, a dangerous, risky, imaginary currency backed by nothing. Russia, Iran, and North Korea would love that. Ca-Ching! Thank you very much. The climate impact would be huge—it requires a ton of energy and how do you transact when the lights go out?
Immigrants: After they get done rounding them up and deporting them, they’ll quickly realize these hard-working folks were holding up the bottom of our economy—keeping grocery stores stocked with fruit and vegetables, working in hospitality, as home aides/helpers, and other jobs our entitled folks don’t want to do or feel are beneath them. Our economy will be devastated, more inflation and product shortages.
Elections: Please. I’m sure we’ll have ones similar to Russia, in other words, just for show.
National Security: We can look forward to our critical agencies being led by people simply because they’re donors, golf club members, or syncophants. People with no actual experience or interest in, say, our health. People in many cases who despise those agencies and want them disbanded. People who will have security clearance and access to our nation’s most valuable intelligence but aren’t trustworthy and would never get them otherwise. This will cost lives.
Climate: Trump promises to drill, drill, drill. Says climate change is a hoax. This will exacerbate the very expensive and deadly nightmares we’ve been living, and speed up our eventual extermination.
Guns: My favorite part will be when they come for the guns. I can’t wait to see the look on all those MAGA bubba faces. No, you won’t shoot your way out. They will come with drones and military tactical vehicles and gear. I don’t care if you used cash at Cabelas. There’s plenty of camera footage with excellent AI-driven facial recognition. Yeah, they’ll pry your guns from your cold, dead hands. Meanwhile, school shootings will continue, as this group are firmly in the pocket of the NRA. We just have to get over it, Trump said.
Project 2025: Now we’ll see the truth about those lies of “Who? What?” Trump’s folks didn’t spend all that time building this dystopian vision of the future for nothing. This thing is a cornucopia of evil crap, too much to detail here. Read details here.
Oh, did you really think Trump was serious when he was talking about eliminating income tax, no taxes on tips, and no taxes on Social Security? Bless your heart!
It’s very sad what we lost. All those economist-endorsed plans to help working families start businesses, buy homes, get prices down, fight corporate gouging now up in smoke. Instead, the people elected the actual cause of all that—greedy, corrupt billionaires and their corporations. We feel bad for the youngsters that would have benefited from all these programs.
Over time, if things get real bad, pockets of commune-type communities of like minded people who provide security and barter and share goods and services with each other may form. More people will adopt isolation through homesteading. We’ll see more homes with multiple generations under roof, like back in the Great Depression, due to financial and security necessity. Hey, just like the immigrants live!
Some wise country (Mexico?) is going to realize there's a sudden huge populace of educated, decent, hard working people with some money who would jump at a package deal for a visa, job, and help with money/investment transfers, perhaps some land. Maybe 40 acres and a mule, but for real this time.
Ok, what about us? Giavana, Pia, and I just returned from our trip. It got off to a rough start as we had to rush home from a wedding on Saturday night as we got an alert that our area was on fire, due to the severe drought conditions. We took some unreplaceable stuff to storage and some of it with us, in case it happened again while we were gone.
It was nice to be away for a few days, even though we had to run that gamut of emotions as we got all excited on Tuesday night, settled in, and witnessed this profound disaster. We had a few days of nice breakfasts and jacuzzi tub baths. After staying up all night for the Tuesday debacle, we canceled our appointments and plans on Wednesday and hunkered down in the hotel room together, blinds closed to the dreary weather outside, but not escaping our dreary mood inside. It gave us a chance to talk and plan. We already adjusted our finances in accordance with this new reality, to provide some level of protection. There will be more to do along those lines.
We’ll spend this weekend carefully inventorying all our prepper gear and making trips to stock up on N95 masks, alcohol (not that kind), gloves, ammunition and other self-defense items and medical supplies. We may look to beef up our solar config on Black Friday and add a water purification system (our final exposure gap, other than possibly ham radio skills). We need a hard cap for Henrik the pickup truck to add additional storage and security to contents.
We’ll be stockpiling our prescriptions and attending to any planned medical items like checkups. In the first Trump administration, we kept thanking our lucky stars he had no crises to deal with. That was a blessing. Then COVID hit, and as expected, he screwed it up massively. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily. We likely won’t be as lucky this time around.
We won’t be buying any property in this country, that’s for sure. So, that log cabin dream is off the table, unfortunately. We may relocate our White House RV to a blue state, to have a better sense of security and community around us, for now. We’re tidying up the last loose ends on the second citizenship, although relocating anywhere in Europe might be going from the frying pan into the fire as Putin’s bombs begin to fly. We may buy a small fix-up property in a small town somewhere in Europe, to have shelter to flee to. We have trained ourselves to live minimally over this pioneer time. It’s our backup plan, for now.
I see tons of posts on social media about going to Canada or some other country. It’s not that easy. First, most countries don’t want us. They see it as the equivalent of soiling our own home and then moving into someone else’s, rather than cleaning it up. That Ugly American thing plays a part, as well. Most have tightened up policies against accepting us dirty immigrant refugees (oh, the irony!). By staying here in the US, we can leverage our pioneer RV mobility, and be able to leave for safer ground on a moment’s notice. We can (for now) keep our weapons to protect and defend ourselves. We may look to rent a piece of land to put the White House on for some privacy and space.
We were able to go home though, since there won’t be the post-election violence we worried about, because the bad guys won and good gal lost. This will be a slow-motion coup, the end of democracy, so we’ll have time to adapt, hopefully.
And, we’ll continue the fight, aligning with indivisible.org (please do as well!). It’s going to get ugly. I’m sure anarchists and a resistance movement are already forming up across the country. I’m looking forward to getting back to my Buddhism reading and finding a big, fat fantasy sci-fi novel to get lost in when I need a break from reality here in Trump’s Mordor. We’ll stay tuned to the news, but not as much, as it will likely be too much. We remember the non-stop drama from last time. We’ll do that for as long as we have non-state sanctioned news, anyway.
We watched Kamala walk onto that stage and say goodbye on Wednesday afternoon. It felt like the end of everything good, the end of the United States of America as we knew it. It felt like the dawn of the darkness, the new era of Trumpistan. She did an amazing job, almost perfect, but in the end, it didn’t make a difference. This is who the United States of America is. None of those other factors mattered. We now have a leader who lusts for dictatorship, with full immunity from any crimes he may care to commit in pursuit of that goal. He will bleed us of our wealth and resources, as dictators are wont to do.
The bottom line is that a lifelong con man, rapist, twice-impeached, convicted criminal is not going to be the one to solve your problems. They will only get worse. We will reap what we have sown, unfortunately. The pain will be slow, and non-stop for us here in America.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”—American Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
This pioneer journey continues…
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Intro music is Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby.
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