Contradictions

Happy Thursday, everyone…the work week is almost over!

When I was a kid, I recall vividly coming to the realization that, in order to survive in this world, I was going to have know how to fight!  And I don’t mean gathering one’s inner strength and persevering, I mean actual physical fights!

Suppose that was a byproduct of most of what we watched on TV in our household, lots of Western shows and movies, detective and police shows and movies and generally a lot of action.  Seemed to me that I was going to have to fight it out with people, and frequently, in order to get anywhere in this world!  Not only that, but quicksand seemed to be an imminent threat as well!

Of course, none of that was true then or now.  “Fighting” in real life is more about sticking to one’s principles, standing up for one’s self and one’s family, too.

Thank goodness!

But let’s face it, life is full of contradictions, and it seems now that we are in the second term of President Trump, contradictions abound!

This group of government employees is hereby terminated….oh, wait, that’s not true, we need those people back!  We’re putting tariffs on this country or that…..but not yet.  We’ll settle the Russia-Ukraine war on day one…..but we still have to get everyone on the same page.  And so on.

To be fair, Trump never seemed fully prepared to govern in 2017, since he likely didn’t expect to win the election the prior November.  So a lot of actions were half measures that didn’t have much impact or were rolled back quietly when they did not bear the results desired.

In this instance, Trump has largely been guided by Project 2025, an extensive plan complied by quite a few conservatives to outline a broad but detailed plan of what the incoming Trump administration should do, including the dissolution of certain governmental agencies, dismantling social service programs like Medicaid, SNAP and Head Start, and begin carving into traditional don’t-touch programs like Medicare and Social Security—the last two being of some concern because my wife is already a recipient of both programs and I likely will be in a couple of years!

That blueprint did not include appointing mega-donor Elon Musk to head the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which is a euphemism and not an actual agency.  Best I can tell, Musk and his band of twenty-something programmers have found their way into government computer systems and databanks, but don’t appear to have done much permanent damage.  And since so much of what they have done has been challenged and overturned in court, they apparently have not found and undone very much “waste, fraud and abuse” as had been implied.  

But let’s be clear….so much of this activity by the current administration is designed to distract us from what they’re really doing….grifting their way through as many processes through which they and their benefactors can become even more wealthy.  There’s no real interest in reducing the size of government, it’s just window dressing to disguise massive tax cuts for those who don’t need them, and reduction in traditional safety net programs for those of lesser means.

Trump has now gained substantial control of much of the mass media in this country, with major newspapers and other media outlets becoming cautious about criticizing the administration and its actions.  With that being the case, it’s hard to be sure of all of what’s happening, since there are likely things happening that are not being reported.

In other words, it’s an ongoing series of contradictions.  As many things are.