Hang on tight! By Jeff Kamen

I was coming out of the gym, which means I was pumped. Blood was flowing powerfully through my body. My brain was awash in positive feelings courtesy of exercise associated endorphins. As I headed to the car, I felt good about my own personal future and that of our country because the overwhelming number of our brother and sister citizens are decent and kind in their personal interactions. Contrary to the views of Elon Musk, empathy and compassion are still highly regarded as markers of character worthy of respect. I confess that I cling to that as cause for my optimism.

At the same time, it struck me as to how much life has changed in only six months. Famous universities, law firms, and news organizations have been intimidated into paying barely legal bribes to the president. Access to healthcare is being ripped away from millions of Americans taking effect after the upcoming elections. Then there is the legalized theft of billions of dollars from hard-working people and pouring those funds into the bank accounts of the wealthy with all of that masquerading as tax cuts.

By moronically shutting down USAID, our country has participated in the murder of thousands of some of the poorest people in the world by suddenly denying them access to the healthcare we had been providing to say nothing of the half a billion dollars worth of emergency food aid for children that has been left to rot in warehouses because the people who would normally have been paid by USAID to distribute the food were all fired. In our name. Meanwhile, more than 2000 individual medical research projects which had been underway, funded by the national Institute of health have all been shut down. This isn’t smart economics. It’s massive stupidity that will cost untold and utterly unnecessary suffering. Meanwhile, thanks to the leadership of RFK Junior, childhood diseases are coming roaring back along with preventable afflictions for mothers. All of this is Donald J Trump America, and he loves it. Because it’s not Obama’s it’s not Biden’s. it’s his.

When I saw that an old friend had posted something very angry online, I felt compelled to reach out privately and advise the friend to take it down out of legitimate concern that the next time they decided to visit the United States they could be stopped at the airport, their phone seized and subjected to an AI scan for comments hostile to the president which would then be used as cause to deny entry to America. My concern followed by my recommendation, was not born out of paranoia. I wish that it had been.

I think that it is extremely important for us to be very conscious of the fact that there is a calculated nationwide campaign of fear and intimidation designed to gradually crush the spirits of those who oppose the cruel and corrupt policies of the regime. Clearly, that campaign is part of the strategy behind having ICE agents operate with their faces covered. They have thus become symbols of darkness instead of light, objects to fear instead of cops to whom you can teach your children to turn to for help if they ever are lost or frightened.

I have had friends in local and federal law-enforcement for decades. I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that most of the FBI and DEA officers who are being pressed into supporting brutal performative ICE operations are nauseated by them because they know that they’re being pulled into a politically motivated and directed propaganda campaign. That is not what they signed up to do when they swore to defend the Constitution and put their lives on the line to protect Americans.

Some thoughtful observers believe there is a chance that if the midterm elections appear to be going against Trump that he would try to find a way to declare martial law, indefinitely, suspending the elections, and further solidifying his increasingly dictatorial grip on the nation. At this point, I think that’s highly unlikely but I’m not ready to dismiss it out of hand. And that is sad and scary.

Just the other day, congresswoman Nancy Pelosi made me feel less hopeful that Republicans in Congress will awaken from their current trance and take some responsibility for what’s happening in the country. Pelosi said she thinks Republican members of Congress are afraid that if they were to speak out against the president, “they and their families” could be targeted by the kind of violent Trump supporter who attacked her husband with a hammer and almost killed him.

By the time I got home, all those sweet endorphins had pretty much faded away, and I was left with the facts.