The Snake
I haven't spoken much here about the disaster that is the Trump presidency. I find it depressing to detail the myriad concerns I have about it. But I do want to occasionally mention some of the nonsense and cruelty we're dealing with, if for no other reason than so my grandsons can one day read what I had to say about it and know I was on the right side of history.
Trump's ill-conceived and disastrous war in Iran has sent fuel prices, especially for diesel, spiking upward. So little oil is moving out of the Middle East to global markets, and worse yet, there is no plan to return to what we had before the war. Iranian leadership has made fools of Trump and his administration, rendering them incapable of finding a solution that allows them to save face. Their pride and faux patriotism won't allow them to admit they have been beaten. They lost the war in Iran and cost us untold billions, perhaps trillions, by the time it's over. It's such a waste.
Higher fuel costs are driving up prices for moving any commerce that involves diesel, and that's pretty much everything. Those higher prices will spark inflation, and who knows where that will lead us. This seems like an appropriate time to have a national discussion about moving away from fossil fuels and toward green energy, but that won't happen with our current leadership.
Trump has his followers convinced that fuel prices are merely "short-term pain for long-term gain," and many believe him. They also believe him about a nuclear threat he said Iran posed, but a threat that our intelligence agencies refuted and said doesn't exist. Trump's sons are getting obscenely rich from the war as they grift the government by being awarded no-bid contracts for nascent companies they're partnered with. Trump's family will come out of this war with vast sums of amassed wealth because of it. Could that have been one of the drivers of the decision to go to war; something in addition to distracting the country from what's in the Epstein files?
The war has cost us on many fronts, and will continue to for decades. Trump has distanced us from our allies around the globe, especially our neighbors and vital trading partners, Canada and Mexico. Even after Trump is gone, the damage he's done will last as long as we continue to have an electorate immersed in propaganda that has no problem voting for a man who tried to stage a coup/insurrection on the very government he led. As long as that ilk exists to the degree it does, we cannot be trusted to act as the faithful partners we once were in relationships we'd worked lifetimes to establish. It's all gone in a matter of months, and we're not mad enough about it—about any of the criminality coming out of this administration.
About 20% of the world's fertilizer moves through the Straight of Hormuz. Higher prices for farmers, on top of the hit they're already taking from higher fuel prices, will likely bankrupt many who were already struggling with costs. Yet, those same people will find a way to keep Republicans in office no matter how much hurt it brings on themselves. That is the power of propaganda.
Trump used to often recite a poem during his campaign rallies titled The Snake, as he demonized immigrants, despite the fact that 2 of his 3 marriages were to immigrants—but they were White—that's the difference:
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