Category Archives: Government

Behavior, Government, Justice, Opinion, Personal, Politics, Protest, Racism and Prejudice, Security, Trump

Hate

03/10/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

Earlier today, someone shouted an old Spanish nickname of mine. It was an odd place to hear an old nickname. I remembered him immediately because he had the same smile, although it was hidden behind twenty additional years of hard-earned wrinkles. I will call him Sonrisa.

He told me he works with my old friend Carlos. After joking about the unlikelihood of Carlos working much and sharing a laugh, Sonrisa told me that Carlos was giving up on getting the citizenship that he had been promised for years. Both Carlos and Sonrisa are incredibly hard workers. Sonrisa told me a version of the same story I’ve been hearing repeatedly over the last few months: most of their cohort has given up on the United States being the promised land it once was.

They’ll probably return to El Salvador. It will be a loss for everyone. Not only are they hard workers, but they’re funny even in English.

They didn’t used to be prone to cynicism. Sonrisa remembered that I was one of the few gringos who actively stood out in the crowd in recognition of the contribution of Latinos.

He wasn’t surprised when I told him that there was not much hope in sight to feel respected as long as the current crowd of political idiots get their way.

I’m paraphrasing, but Sonrisa added, “You know he’s an idiot when he starts a fight with a friendly white country like Canada. I know if we go back to El Salvador we’ll experience similar authoritarian BS like we do here. But at least it won’t be based on prejudice.” He added, “I remember years ago when you said it was better for people to curse you directly to your face because then at least you knew who they were. We had a few great years here where the racists mostly kept to theirselves. We always knew it was there. But now? He gave them permission and gasoline to act openly.”

There’s no need to explain what people mean when they use the word ‘HE.”

I waved goodbye to Sonrisa and asked him to tell Carlos hello for me.

I silently hoped that 47 and the people who support him don’t get their way. But on the other hand, as always, a little part of me also hoped that they would continue to f*** around and find out.

Not only about the absence of a sufficient workforce to prop up our economy, but also the unavoidable consequences of believing that you can denigrate one group of people without harming the respect threshold for everyone else

Hate breeds hate, and distrust contaminates everyone.

There is no “them.” They are us and vice versa. You’ve simply avoided being targeted. Yet.

Authoritarians and those who believe they have the right of superiority are never content. Fear-mongering is an appetite that never lessens.

Government, History, Justice, Opinion, Politics, Social Rules, Trump

Over

03/04/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

47 himself said any president who presides over a 1,000 point drop on the DOW should be impeached immediately. We owe it to a man of such high honor to be held accountable to his own words. Unless they were just one in a million examples of the fatuous bullsh*t he’ll say to dupe enough people to be king.

He’ll offer his hateful brand of politics at the State of the Union address. Countless people who know better but feel like they have no choice will line up behind him to defend the nonsense he manages to enunciate.

Meanwhile, the country is in disarray. It certainly was not perfect prior to the second coming of 47, but it was manageable and subject to the terms and conditions of rationality and sometimes broken cooperation.

The carnage he creates will continue. The water will grow hotter and he will continue to create divides among those of us who would otherwise disagree passionately but still proceed about the business of living our lives in this country.

Donald, as Justin Trudeau correctly named him today, will destabilize our government sufficiently to render it unrecognizable. Even to those who support him. He’s already managed to destroy decades of relationships with our allies. Mathematically speaking, two points are sufficient to draw an infinite line. Likewise, the arc and trajectory of what he’s doing can only end in one place.

I catch myself wishing he would just get it over with and succeed in his ultimate goal to destroy the history and authority of the government we’ve all enjoyed until this point. So that in this manner, we would have no choice but to turn our eyes towards survival instead of feeding our souls with the foolish hope that the people we elected will stand up and demand that the Constitution be followed and to tell him that no man has the authority to circumvent the political process.

If we continue on this course, 47 will be the last president of the United States as we know it.

Chicken Little no longer has the energy to run amok and squawk that the sky is falling.

For all his supporters, I hope you get what you wish and deserve in your choices. That this paragraph sounds like a warning should itself be a worthy indicator of what you’ve chosen.

X
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Behavior, Government, Opinion, Politics, Psychology, Safety, Security, Social Rules

The Danger of Uncertainty

03/01/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

One of the reasons apocalyptic shows and books are so fascinating is that they share the themes of human morality. When deprived of food, comfort, or stability, our prefrontal cortex surrenders to the amygdala, the lizard part of our brains. One of the truths of human nature is that much of our morality is built on the foundation of having our basic needs met. When your brain overwhelms your critical thinking, it takes a massive effort to overcome the instinctive response that results. People underestimate how complex our instinct mode is – or fail to appreciate how our brains misinterpret danger signals, even in everyday life. In short, you can’t think about goodwill toward men or write poetry when your belly growls.

The above partially explains why judging someone is easier when things get complicated.

This is one reason massive social change is a losing bet. While people might be fed, they lose their sense of continuity, security, and stability. Going hungry pulls the nail out of human decency. Too much change takes away people’s ability to cope. This is true even if the changes are favorable. It’s no accident that rapid technological change and its consequences bring anxiety. Because we’re all sitting in the same soup pot, we frequently fail to see the bigger picture because we focus on the symptoms rather than the central issue.

This is obvious to those of us who were threatened by the absence of our needs being met growing up—those who haven’t don’t experience the same reality. Your body and brain don’t forget the trauma caused by feeling threatened or in danger.

If a person or people in society reach the tipping point toward helplessness, things get ugly quickly. The 4% rule stipulates that only a tiny portion of the population can trigger massive social movements or react to sudden changes. It’s as if our collective subconscious realizes that the status quo isn’t working. We often seek a resolution, even a bad one, over continuing in the current state. We sometimes burn down the house to get rid of the houseflies.

This is another valid argument for ensuring that we care for everyone’s basic needs. If we do not strive to meet people’s basic needs, chaos will bubble up – and often universally trigger a volatile reaction.

Some are blind to the ideal of the American Dream that most of us grew up believing: work hard and be rewarded. Or that government is the cohesive force behind it all to provide stability. Current events have put these components in jeopardy. You can’t effectively destabilize the government without hitting the hornet’s nest of societal upheaval. If you monkey with the stability variable, you’ll get some nasty results. People will set their metaphorical houses on fire instead of rationally attempting to adjust to what feels like uncontrollable chaos.

It’s fascinating to watch the younger generations react. They are the critical ones, watching and learning invisible lessons. It falls to them to decide what will become of the mess the dinosaurs of today are creating. They don’t see themselves as the future because, like us, they mostly grew up thinking that society’s undefined “adults” had things in check. We do not. We are winging it and ignoring the dangers of continuing on this path of uncertainty.

These are just thoughts that not everyone understands.

X
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Fool’s Wish

Praying isn’t going to help my helpless and hopeless friends
God slept through the Holocaust, so I doubt he cares how this ends
He might have put all this in motion, but he’s left the building

Though you think you’re on the side of righteous
The other side thinks you’re completely wrong
Ain’t no use competing with deafness and fervor

We have to run and jump in the water no matter how deep we find it
Some of us are going to get pushed and experience confinement
But that’s going to happen anyway, even if we keep our hands at our sides

What you don’t know about bullies is that they don’t need an excuse
They’ll punch you even if your arms are at your sides
It’s a lesson learned by millions of women throughout history

Some people need enemies no matter how they find the world
Others take pleasure in inflicting harm and constant pain
You can’t placate or talk them down from their thrones

Bullies are hard-wired to respect nothing but violence
It takes a greater force to shut them up for good
Waiting for someone to step in is a fool’s greatest wish

No logic, compassion, or love will reach them
Wishing it won’t make it so
The only thing understood is karmic retaliation

God slept through the holocaust, so I doubt he cares how this ends

Government, History, Opinion, Personal, Politics, Safety, Trump

JD And DJ Rage

02/28/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

The lady listening to JD and DJ give a master class on narcissist idiocy accidentally gave the world a recap of what the people in the room were witnessing.

Watching the videos of JD and DJ attacking Zelensky made me embarrassed and infuriated. There’s a reason such behavior shocks. Presidents do not behave that way. Raging alcoholics might. Narcissists definitely do, but usually in private.

How anyone versed in history or politics could see this behavior as anything other than a huge red flag baffles me.

It’s not strength. It’s toxicity.

People who demonstrate this type of behavior have no place in politics or government.

JD was already pissed off because the special sofa he asked for was not made available for the meeting.

DJ oozes the type of demeanor and behavior that defines him.

Our previous allies were already on a razor’s edge about the mountain of incredible things that have come out of the mouths of our administration.

Because I follow a lot of international news, I can tell you that while the United States might be feared, this is the equivalent of waiving a gun around in a room. Our previous allies are no longer looking at Trump as a buffoonish distraction. They understand that he is leading our country toward something unrecognizable and as a threat to world stability.

Government, History, Opinion, Politics, Protest, Trump

The United States Of Gilead

02/25/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

In the TV show Handmaid’s Tale, there’s a scene of the traitorous Gilead commanders bragging about the fact that China, Russia, and North Korea backed them to be included in the world economy. The news out of the UN yesterday made me feel like I had shifted to an alternate reality. In part because it’s the first time the United States has openly sided with dictatorial countries.

Ronald Reagan would spin in his grave like a gyroscope.

JD Vance, meanwhile, has his eye on a new LazyBoy recliner.

Elon Musk is so busy saluting these moves that he probably has tennis elbow.

X
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Behavior, Government, History, Justice, Opinion, Personal, Politics, Psychology, Social Rules

Blessed Be The Fruit

02/20/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

Blessed Be The Fruit

People are discussing the complexity of the human capacity for collective evil. Whether one section of the population likes to acknowledge it or not, Germany’s example constantly pops up.

How can so many people stand by and watch the country descend into madness?

The best way to visualize this capacity is to watch the movie The Stanford Experiment. If you’re even slightly interested in the psychology of collective misbehavior, this is the easiest shortcut to benchmark how things go astray so deeply, even with intelligent and otherwise kind people.

The same effect applies to police, the military, or even people making decisions in business.

Anyone who’s never experienced the environment of a production line might not understand it. Each employee is present to earn a living and mostly do a good job. Those who own the production line want to profit while providing a living for those who work there. An interesting thing often happens, especially in poultry and similar industries.

The need for profit puts those in charge of the environment, the efficiency, and the speed of the production line often blurs the line of humanity by increasing the demands on those working it. It becomes hard to perform the job safely over time. People suffer the indignity of sometimes being able to exit the line long enough to take care of their basic bodily needs. For some, it becomes easier to dehumanize those who perform the jobs in order to be profitable and efficient.

The above can’t be explained to someone who hasn’t experienced it.

The same effect applies throughout our society. We justify less than a living wage, even though we know these jobs are necessary and that our collective decision to fail to pay sufficiently to live even a basic life is causing misery. All of this is based on economic concerns rather than the primary focus of human happiness and dignity. It is a them problem rather than an us problem.

We don’t provide universal health insurance, even though doing so would cost less than our current system. But this does not stop us from passively watching as millions of people suffer from a lack of health care or go bankrupt.

We put on our hats of authority and often forget the results of callousness. It’s our job, we think. Society apparently wants it to be that way, or we would have intervened to change it. We make decisions without consideration for how they impact people, or we are put in a position to be powerless to change things.

We marginalize certain groups. Over time, this gives us a silent yet undeniable tendency to view others as lesser. This justifies our collective behavior that often results in denigration or harm to the people in those groups.

My upbringing gave me an unholy understanding of the possibility of violence inside people. Even the pious in my family found ways to justify turning a blind eye toward what can only be called evil. Family who could observe a child being hurt and find ways in their minds, especially based on the societal norms around them, to fail to act to protect them, were they evil? Or were they just the product of their environment? Several of them held dear their holy books – and did not react well when I grew up and became confrontational about the disparity between their alleged message of love and kindness. That message had justified their deliberate choice to do nothing.

People in history are no different from us, even if we want to think they were. This gives us a pass and carte blanche to continue to behave inhumanely, even if we are technically just doing our job or fulfilling our role as citizens.

Love, X

Government, History, Justice, Law, Opinion, Politics, Protest, Security, Social Rules, Trump

Dear Us

02/19/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

*Yes, I know that “goodbye” is misspelled.

I’m not Chicken Little, nor am I crying wolf. The wolf that some of you chose has eaten the chicken and now sits in our living room.

You’re wasting time focusing on daily firings, closings, and executive orders. One of his latest orders indicating that he and the attorney general are the sole arbiters of the law and its application needs no further examination to see how dangerous he is to the concept of democracy and governance.

He and his people have said the goal out loud – and I don’t understand why you’re not acknowledging it.

The federal government is being systematically dismantled.

What will take its place?

Several labels are applicable. Each with Trump in charge, absent accountability, court review, or congressional oversight. This sort of governance is never benign, nor is it accountable to or concerned with the will of its populace.

Your right to religious freedom will be upheld only if it aligns with the predominant one – and only if it’s convenient. They’ve repeatedly told us that the government must be deleted and replaced with political religion. (Their description – not mine.)

Civil rights? Gone. Workplace rights:? Vanished. Freedom of Speech? Eliminated.

You don’t have to guess whether I’m right. Our closest allies are saying it unilaterally. I consume a mountain of foreign news. Every country which stood with us is ringing the bell of alarm.

All the people driving these changes are saying it out loud.

It can happen here. And it is.

There will be no safeguards, protections, or system to stop him.

The only solution is to do as much as possible to remove Trump from office by any legal means available. Sometime in the future, a warning post like this will be deemed treasonous, even though my intent is to preserve our democracy, as flawed as it may be.

Anything short of legally removing him from office is a waste of time and effort. Even his removal will inevitably result in a rift that might still break our union. Continuing on this current path certainly will.

I held out judgment. Not long ago, it crystallized.

Courts can’t stop him. Congress won’t.

The Presidency isn’t about one man.

It’s about our collective system of laws. They mean nothing with someone like Trump in charge.

Those who support him will read this and think I’ve lost my mind. That’s expected. They mostly ingest the superficial explanation for what’s happening. The rest do like most of us and ignore politics.

I am not reading between the lines. His people have said the quiet part out loud, and the incremental dissolution of our federal government as we know it can only be explained through the alignment of their stated goals and the daily reality of what is happening.

When our democracy fails, I will fall silent, as people must do once safeguards and the checks and balances of presidential power have fallen.

I’ll be the obedient and angry citizen of whatever comes next.

It’s almost over.

Behavior, Government, History, Justice, Law, Opinion, Personal, Politics, Social Rules, Trump

Lost

02/17/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

It is the office itself that yields the honor and respect, rather than the person temporarily assuming its duties.

The expectation of someone behaving in a presidential manner is one that’s been shattered. For some, this is a welcome change. For others, it’s a chaotic and devastating reality.

We have demonstratively proven that anyone can become president.

Growing up most of us were superficially exposed to the civil war. Almost all we learned was of dates and places and broad themes. We did not then viscerally understand how a nation could become so irreparably shattered.

We go about our lives because that’s what we can do.

Regardless of your political affiliation, those of us paying attention now unfortunately feel it in our bones. Whether you’re excited about the upheaval recently brought to Washington or you’re onvinced that our government is in jeopardy, I don’t think people will generally deny that this is something much different.

We are united on paper much in the same way that Jefferson’s hollow words about all men being equal applied only to white wealthy men.

The intelligent people I trust are saying the same thing. Countries who were once allies are unilaterally warning one another and the world. People have shouted that the sky is falling and cried wolf before. It feels different this time because it is.

This isn’t Clinton refusing to resign even though he should have. Or Bush demonstrating incompetence.

I will be surprised if the end of February has not brought us to cataclysm.

People need stability, as does the economy, and society in general.

The struggle through the generations to create a reality in which all people, regardless of belief, religion, skin color, or their sexual identity could coexist in peace now resembles a dystopian fantasy.

Power and progress are both unstable. The problem with authority and authoritarianism is that they both fall into chaos.

Chaos is inevitable. Entropy governs the universe.

Those who currently seek to redefine America will learn the lesson.

Government, Justice, Law, Opinion, Protest

Social Security

02/03/2025 X Teri Leave a comment

PSA

The Social Security income threshold is about $176,000. In simpler terms, no income above this amount is subject to Social Security taxes. Anyone fretting about the future of available funds should take note of the billions of dollars we could raise by removing the cap entirely. That there is a threshold cap is one of those things that most people paying into Social Security don’t know about. For most of the people I know, this means you’re paying 6.2% of your total income, compared to those who make a staggering amount more. You’re paying 6.2% of every dollar you earn while the wealthier contributors are not. And of course since I recognize that no system is without complexity, there are issues inherent in raising the threshold. {Such as dropping the additional burden on the employer.} I have this weird feeling that if the average person had this explained to them one on one, their attitudes about the lack of equity regarding Social Security pay-ins would be quite different.