THE FUTURE OF THE USA

It was a rough night.  Nightmare became reality.  Not only will Donald Trump again become president, but the U.S. Senate will be Republican controlled.  Probably the House too.  Said Time:

Trump campaigned on an authoritarian agenda that would upend America’s democratic norms, and he is already preparing to deliver on it: mass detention and deportations of migrants; revenge against political enemies via the justice system; deploying the military against his own civilians. How far he chooses to go with the power the public has handed him is a question that will shape the fate of the country.

A good look at Project 2025 provides you the Trump agenda.  

• Global warming?  While it might not be a hoax anymore, the U.S. will not be cooperative, citing the actual recalcitrance of China and India as reasons.  Trump is also beholden to fossil fuel interests.  The world will suffer.
• 
  Freedom?  
• Abortion rights will be minimized and restrictions maximized, leaving much up to the states.
• LGBTQ+ rights will similarly be reduced.
• Criticize the White House?  Think Russia and what they do.  Free press?  Forget that.
• If you are an immigrant you, or someone your family will get deported.
• Social welfare of every kind, from medical benefits to family assistance to liberal practices will be reduced, if not dismantled.

• 
  The poor will become poorer.  The middle class will suffer.  The rich will become richer.
• Every head of department will need to be totally loyal to President Trump. Much of the bureacracy will be replaced by similar loyalist.

• 
  It will take a few years, but as Commander in Chief, Trump will only place in Department of Defense leadership positions those with this same loyalty.  He failed to do that the last time when he attempted his coup, and will not this time.
• The list is long and troubling.  What you see above is just the beginning.

All his court decisions and cases?  He will find a way to make them disappear.  Those convicted of the 6January21 attack of the Capital will be pardoned.  Far-right MAGA supporters will be provided special privileges and funding, especially the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois, Patriot Front, Atomwaffen Division (or National Socialist Order) and so forth.

Democracy?

• He might keep Democracy as long as Congress supports him.
• Otherwise, you should worry about whether there will be any mid-term election or any next presidential election in 2028.  And if permitted, will there be controls as in Russia, China and North Korea.
• Vladimir Putin allows for elections, but only candidates that support him,
• China has voting, but there is only one party, and those who run are loyalists.  Xi Jinping will run the country as long as he wants through a bureaucratic process.
• Kim Jong Un of North Korea is president for life, and he will appoint his successor.  There is the equivalent of a congressional election, but each candidate is pre-selected by the authorities, and there is no option to write in a different name.

From Freedom House, the U.S. is just part of the adjustments ongoing worldwide.  Democracy is under attack by populist leaders and groups that reject pluralism and demand unchecked power to advance the particular interest of the leader and supporters.  Even Wikipedia has a Democratic backsliding page.  What does the map show?  Read that link.

The irony to all the above is that voters believed Donald Trump's lies.  The latest The Economist report shows that the U.S. is the envy of the world:  The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust.  And here is a reinforcing CNN business article:  Why the U.S. economy is doing so much better than the rest of the world.

While our economy is doing well, there is too much about our country that is lagging.  

• Our infrastructure is decaying.  Traveling to see global mass transit systems, airports, highways and the like, I feel like like I live in a second-rate nation.  
• Skytrax ranks the best world airports.  Seattle-Tacoma is the best at #24 and Houston Hobby at #29,
• The U.S. ranks #69 in global health care.  Armenia, Trinidad/Tobago, Iran, Thailand and Cuba beat us.
• The U.S. has one of the worst public transit systems in the world.
• U,S. pharmaceutical prices across all drugs are 2.78 times higher than other countries and 3.2 times higher for brand drugs.
• The U.S. is the 12th most expensive country for grocery shopping.
• The U.S. ranks #23 in the World Happiness Index.  People in Lithuania and Slovenia are happier than us.
• The United States is #132 in the Global Peace Index.  Papua  New Guinea is #115, Belarus is #112, China is #88, Iraq is #74 and Jordan is #67.  A high number is bad.
• The U.S. ranks #57 of 197 countries in crime.  The lower the number the better.  Iran is #56 and Mexico is #40
• 
  Earlier this year Time indicated that America has actually been declining since 1945!  
• In that year we represented HALF the world economy and had a monopoly on nuclear weapons.
• Russia surged ahead in space with Sputnik in 1957.
• By 1970 the U.S. GNP had dropped to 25% of the world.
• However, in 1992 we beat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
• We have been at the forefront in key technologies like bio, nano and information.
• But:  America has many problems—polarization, inequality, loss of trust, mass shootings, deaths of despair from drugs and suicide—just to name a few that make headlines.
• If the new Trump Administration can improve on the above, that would be a plus in making America Greater.

So what will Elon Musk get for his obvious assistance?

• Will he gain a cabinet  nomination?  Would he even want one?
• Turns out that his Hyperloop was not very serious, so forget more mass transit.
• He still wants to go to Mars, so see space projects heading his way.
• There are more important social media and financial rewards that will become obvious into the next few months.

Are you ready for Robert F. Kennedy as Secretary Health and Human Services?  He has been told he would become Trump's health czar.  He says he is not anti-vaccine.  He is weird.

While I remain concerned, Republicans are ebullient and Wall Street is enthusiastic.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1500 to close at an all-time high of 43,730.

About the future of the USA, you can be optimistic, pessimistic, realistic, visionary or whatever.  My guess would be worse than yours.  I won't even try.

Hurricane Rafael has strengthened to 110 MPH, would be right over our ship if this were three days ago, and is now projected to head towards Texas.

In the West Pacific, Typhoon Yinxing has strengthened to 130 MPH, will tomorrow pass across the northernmost part of the Philippines, and head for Vietnam.

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