It will beautify the country and make the air smell better, but the power structure will still be intact. They're in the process of creating the catastrophe that will destroy them, so I refer you all to the conclusion of the 70s BBC series "I, Claudius" where the aged emperor Claudius, sickened at the bottomless corruption of the Empire, declares he will encourage the rottenness to bloom so that it will inevitably fail.

And accurate.

I also think of the millions of people who have allowed themselves to be taken in by these hucksters. Rather than admit they've made a mistake, they will find a way to rationalize their mistake or blame someone else.

And here we are.

. . . that I doubt it can ever be expunged. It's in our political DNA.

I am so sorry for what we have left our children and the survivors.

Thinking who will be here to help in this future life of chaos? While we are here we just try to fill him with love, kindness and books! The fear is real. The beauty and promise of children. They don’t deserve what is coming.

who wrote the book The Fix talking about how this regime is operating like a crime family. Haven't read it yet but everything she said was spot on and she talked about how we can address the corruption and restore our government.

Clinging to a small shred of hope that we can leave a better world behind before we leave.

ONE - partition the country into 2 or 3 states or a confederation of city-states and rural exurbs. For territorial integrity, the city-state idea is likely a non-starter.

TWO - fight a bloody second Civil War in an attempt to stitch together the land mass of the North American continent into a viable state, which just MAY include all of Mexico AND Canada in a years long conflict that would likely end with a treaty and massive problems integrating the defeated faction into a contiguous nation.

There is not really a viable option to repair what the GOP has done to this country since Reagan was elected in 1980. Everything that has followed had its genesis in the response to Watergate and the Carter administration and the malaise of the late-1970's era. Since then, we have have been saddled to supply-side economics and trickle-down economics and essentially unrestrained purchasing of political power and gerrymandering where Democrats THOUGHT they were keeping up, but in fact were being silently trounced repeatedly. We are at a point of no return now... the system and its levers of power are tilted into directions that may never be undone if we fail right now.

Since Reagan:
1981-1989 Reagan
1989-1993 Bush Sr.
1994-2001 Clinton
2001-2009 Bush Jr.
2009-2017 Obama
2017-2021 Trump
2021-2025 Biden
2025-today Trump

We will NEVER be able to explain this to the future. NEVER. If you had 10 lifetimes to explain how a country could allow itself to be co-opted by the most devious and corrupt human being in history not just ONCE, but TWICE??!?! You would fail miserably. But what is certain is that the failed policies of the past 4 decades are coming home to roost and the problems are systemic, structural and non-recoverable without major changes to the status quo - that EVERYTHING is fine-tuned to protect. Without an immediate and sustained (20+ years) reversal, the damage is permanent and the republic is dead.

Gerrymandering, Electoral College and Citizens United.
These three things alone are major players in the structural issues we face. But before we can even contemplate them, we have two other priorities that are just as existential and urgent - 1) retake legislative control in the House AND Senate; and 2) rebalance/repair the Judicial Branch by stacking the SCOTUS to 15 bench seats and appointing an 8-7 Democratic Controlled court to kick start the necessary reforms. Without this, there is no hope because without power to enact laws AND have them upheld by a less partisan court, we are cooked.

So, BEFORE we can attack Citizen's United's bastardization of our system and BEFORE we can re-establish representation of the people BY THE PEOPLE (instead of each district's fucked up beyond all recognition lines), we MUST retake the Senate and the House and MUST do so resoundingly.

There will NOT be another chance to do this. Its not a 2026 - "eh, we'll get them in '28" situation.

If the Trump term is allowed to continue as ANYTHING but a steady stream of hearings and no shows from Trump officials - we LOSE permanently. If we gain the ability to hold him accountable, he will resign and flee instead of remaining to spend the final days of his life fighting to stay out of prisons. There will be massive election interference and claims of "cheating" from the right in November. It is vital to not engage them in arguments that are established to distract from the reality. We must be prepared to demand paper ballots and revotes and recounts if necessary to thwart the Republican playbook. Vote counting should be prepared to be done live in public and on TV broadcasts if necessary to demonstrate that no fraud if being committed. Get ahead of the GOP shit avalanche that is coming and do not cede a single vote to them. Winning is not enough. Winning in PUBLIC, in the OPEN and meeting ANY stupidity bar laid in front of us is MANDATORY to take back the narrative that our elections are 'rigged'. Without restoring faith in the basic process, we cannot FIX THAT PROCESS. The public must BELIEVE in this system or its going to keep falling prey to charlatans, grifters and thieves until it all implodes.

Once the Congress is retaken, the next order of business MUST be to clear the runway for the next Democratic administration to hit the ground SPRINTING in January of 2029 (if we make it that far...there is a real possibility of economic collapse and chaotic wars that make the future a lot murkier than anyone should be comfortable with). The first 100 days of the next administration need to make FDR seem like he was taking a leisurely vacation. Here is a partial list of things to undo and repair starting Day One, but this cannot wait until then to start setting up the plans and actions... it needs to be NOW, much like Project 2025 was written and ready BEFORE the 2024 election, RESTORE 2029 MUST be ready to go before a single vote is cast in November of 2028. That leaves us less than 2 years to develop all of this (and a lot more):

1) NSA, CIA, FBI restructuring and reorganization to restore functional competence and operational integrity. The Departments of Justice, State and Education are all in massive need of reform, restructure and repurposing. There MUST be concrete plans laid out to free these cabinets from the grip of servitude to a cult of personality ever again.

2) Restore FDA, CDC, NSF funding and leadership to be based on scientific merit and public health instead of the existing disaster and non-functional circus it has devolved into. This is not up for debate either, it is necessary and should not be delayed or slowed down under ANY circumstances. Science is not a judgment call, it is a system of determining the cause and remedy for many things. What it is NOT is a popularity contest, a religious rite or support system or a puppet for the whims of a moron. This is utterly essential - China educates more engineers per year than the USA educates college graduates of all degrees. Within 25 years that ratio is a recipe for total subservience to the Chinese Communist Party's whims and designs. If people care AT ALL about remaining a world leader of any kind, addressing this flaw in our valuation of education is absolute and needed yesterday.

3) Immunization schedules and vaccinations are to be returned to the scientific consensus and those refusing to participate are free to educate their children at home, segregate themselves from society and remove themselves from contact with the external world - but they will do so in government facilities converted from ICE detention centers to Homes for the Disease-at-risk population. They will be allowed free decisions to enter and will be forcibly retained and prevented from leaving UNLESS they are vaccinated and current. This is not negotiable either. Its a choice - choose wisely, or be excluded from all future reindeer games, period.

4) Maximum wealth accumulation threshold established. The MINIMUM Wage is to be forever tied to the MAXIMUM WEALTH levels. Anyone with ASSETS (not salary or benefits or Trusts or other sources of WEALTH) above a threshold of 15,000X the minimum wage required by law for full-time employment (to be reestablished as 32 hours, more on that later) will face a sliding scale of taxation commensurate with their net-worth/holdings.

15,000 x $20 minimum wage? Taxation increases start after the first $300,000 in accumulated wealth for a given year. It starts at 1% of the excess wealth above the total minimum wage ($20/hr. x 2,040 hours = $40,800 annual - a largely UNLIVABLE WAGE in many areas but we must start somewhere) so $300,000 in wealth versus $40,000 annual minimum wage earnings leaves $260,000 in wealth subject to a 1% surtax or $2,600 in taxes added to the federal taxes on wages or income. That 1% surtax rises an additional 1% for every $250,000 in wealth up to $100,000,000.00 (100 Million) - beyond which, an extra levy of 15% will apply to all wealth accumulated up to $1,000,000,000.00 (1 Billion) and one you surpass $1,000,000,000 in wealth accumulation, you are now in the super tax bracket and will face 50% taxation to $10,000,000,000 and an extra 10% for every additional $1,000,000,000 until you reach the total taxation bracket of 100% of all wealth beyond $100,000,000,000. Sorry, but if you need $100 BILLION to survive, we simply cannot afford to have YOU and a stable society, so either hand over the money or leave, but if you leave instead of paying taxes, we will bankrupt your companies, freeze your assets and remove you from the banking system for 25 years. It will be difficult I am sure to survive on that first $5,000,000,000 that will not be taxed further, but you'll just have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps I guess...

It is well-past time to correct the imbalance of taxation on wages but not on investments or inheritances at commensurate levels. Taxes that ignore the wealth imbalance and the Citizen's United abomination are antithetical to a functioning republic. This does not have to follow ANY of my silly ideas, but it 100% MUST be addressed. NOW. Not tomorrow, not in 2032 when Social Security is cut or runs out of funding, NOW.

5) Rebalanced Supreme Court (simultaneous to all of items 1-4) - immediately have confirmation hearings scheduled for 6 new justices, to be named by the President on January 21, 2029 and to be seated no later than May 1, 2029. These can be persons of any particular political inclination, but I would recommend all 30-something bleeding heart liberals that are so Blue they are mistaken for Smurfs all the time. The first order of business will be to get reproductive rights into law and before the court immediately. After that, there will be a tsunami of legislative remedies for the executive branch and judicial branch repairs that will be 100% necessary and fast-tracked into law ASAP. I would also support a complete SCOTUS reset - where all 9 current justices are impeached and removed and then a new court is seated, but that would be very messy and likely too slow. Stacking and acting are the only remedy with the dexterity to fix the issues.

We need to return a sense of law and consequences for breaking that law, a inherent respect for the rule of law and the social contract that allows society to function - specifically that one man has one vote and that ALL persons in the USA are subject to the laws of the USA without exception. To that end, every single criminal act of the Trump family AND administrative goon squad must be prosecuted and adjudicated swiftly - no more 6 month continuances, we're getting a trial, evidence, a judge or jury and verdicts on ALL of their acts, not allowing them to run out the clock. This rebalanced court must be put to the question / reconsideration of Presidential Immunity for all acts in office on day one and on day two should be hearing arguments for the Trump crime family' pending trial schedule.

Crime is crime, whether in office or out. Trials and charges may have to wait until a resignation or election removes a future president from office, but universal and eternal immunity is an affront to the very concept of rule of law and must die fast and ugly. It must be stripped from Trump and outlawed from EVER again being used as a shield against accountability for the Executive Branch. Reign in the unitary executive NOW and put it BACK in the co-equal branches box that the framer's always envisioned and enshrined in the Constitution.

After all of THAT repair and reconstruction, we can START to address programs and laws for education costs (end of usuary interest on college loans - existing loans will be restructured to require repayment of principle only and all interest charges will be eliminated. Then we need to tackle the extreme inflation of university costs above inflation and restructure public education to cover a Bachelor's degree or 2-year Trade school apprenticeship. Being "American" has to mean something, has to provide something of value to the young - starting with universal access to the colleges and universities that today are out of reach or are actively educating foreign nationals and their kids. That motivation and love from our youth starts with a sense of possibilities and a future worth fighting for - not another trillionaire or centi-billionaire waxing on about AI and a jobless future of endless subscription holders.

There is so much wrong right now and so much hateful nonsense and constant gaslighting and lying about this from the powers that be that I fail to see how it comes about without a total (and VERY ugly and destructive) breakdown of the current power structure and systems. They have all failed to make life better for the people and they have to go, period. These actions are almost universally dead on arrival today because money still talks, and bullshit still walks...but if we wish to live in a free society, that needs to change ASAP as well.

I hope Gen Z and beyond are up for this fight. I hope they have another gear that seems to be missing at times, because those who are 30 and under are inheriting a world of absolute depraved inequity and hoarding, of laws for the protection of the rich and their property and to restrict or eliminate the rights of the poor or non-poerful. Everyone is going to have to demand change and then force it to happen or we'll get rounded up, placed in camps based on our relative threat to the power structure and eliminated.

Its no game, but our current system is broken and in it's endgame stages already, before most of those it will hurt the worse have even had a chance or a clue that its happening rapidly. So there it is...a warning shot and clarion call to action. Fight the system or be consumed by the same... the choice is there, but the decision is nigh and there is no time left to lose.

For your thorough and thoughtful response. I think you should make it a "stand-alone" post in GD.

You outline the serious problems we face ahead. I hope someone is working on the plans to fix this mess?

It seems as if everything is broken and will need to be repaired or dismantled?