Well, here we are. Trump. Musk. DOGE. 2025! We’re being constantly inundated with stories and chaos, and that very phenomenon is a story of intentional chaos in and of itself. But that’s not what we’re trying to cover here, nor are we trying to play catch up with analysis of it all. No, here we take our first short general assessment of the State of the Nation under the New Administration, and we consider the unique part of the American psyche now fully on display. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” - Napoleon Bonaparte and now, Donald Trump!

The rumor mill is firing off that Elon Musk, Certainly Not Our President (CNOP), has had his thirteenth child, this the first with this mother, a new mother for him, Ashley St. Clair. She is a conservative influencer personality type and author of such works as Elephants Are Not Birds, see from its synopsis - “Follow Kevin as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird even if Culture insists that he is.” Oh boy! Capital “C” Culture!

Meanwhile, we continue to have daily stories such as, from the BBC: “US government tries to rehire nuclear staff it fired days ago”. Trump, Musk, et al (Trusk) fired staff from the Department of Energy last week, which apparently included staff from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Apparently, the Trusk Administration realized after the fact that firing staff from the National NUCLEAR SECURITY Administration may adversely impact NUCLEAR SECURITY! To quote a memo subsequently sent to NNSA employees - “The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel. Please work with your supervisors to send this information (once you get it) to people’s personal contact emails.” Right! Leaving the surely not redundant parenthesized “once you get it” aside, this portion of the memo is necessary because the fired employees were locked out of their federal email accounts. So, the Trusk Administration fired employees that they now realize they need, and now they can’t reach the employees to rehire them! GOVERNMENTAL EFFICIENCY! And so we have yet another fine example of what happens when you bring the tech world / startup / venture capital mentality to the federal government.

MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS!!! Well, sure, when it’s your own personal hellscape of a startup company, when you have a small contingent of hardcore dedicated employees, I suppose there is an argument to be made. But when it’s the federal government responsible for a nation of some 350 million people? Perhaps a small bit of deliberation first would be appropriate. Perhaps rapid movement isn’t an inherently laudable trait, and perhaps, as an average citizen, I’d rather not have my things broken in the name of “progress.” Progress for who?

But, CIRCLING AROUND and bringing the above points together, I want to touch on the uniquely American flavor that is potently present in all of this. We find ourselves at a truly foreboding precipice, a precarious perch with a vast chasm of darkness below, the bottom not even visible, the potential length and depth of the fall unknown. Our President quotes an infamous dictator and preaches of his perceived lack of legal limitations on executive power. The Certainly Not Our President (CNOP) is the richest man in the world, a man with a personal wealth greater than entire nations’ GDPs, and he has apparently largely unchecked autonomy and power to gut the agencies that are responsible for administration to the average citizens - “How has Medicaid touched your life, sir, with that net worth of ~$395 billion?”

And on and on and much more to say and elaborate upon, cc: Venture Capital Extremism and The Dark Enlightenment and its adherents in Trusk World, but right now it’s this: as we find ourselves at this newly terrible and real point of potential slide into oligarchy and autocracy, we still find ourselves in a flamboyant carnival of garish horror attractions. “Ah, the richest man in the world has eliminated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, buuuuut he also just had CHILD NUMBER THIRTEEN - NOW HERE’S AN EXCERPT ABOUT HOW KEVIN IS NOT FUCKING TRAN - I MEAN - A BIRD!!!” Queue big band!!

Somehow, even when the stakes are so high, even when our democracy is being pummeled by truly dark forces, the show is outlandish and corny and absurdly kitschy. It’s a hellscape, but it’s campy! WELCOME TO THE FASCIST CARNIVAL, FOLKS, YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT!!!

Our President quotes Napoleon and then slams a McDonald’s fish fillet and a Diet Coke. You won’t have healthcare soon, but you won’t be able to help but laugh at some of the things he says! JUST THE DARNDEST THINGS!

We’re getting trans women out of women’s sports - and we’re getting REGULATION OUT OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY FOLKS!!! SPORTS! And, hey, hey, who didn’t love the Great Recession!? ***LAUGH TRACK***

Measles?? Measles, anyone? Hey, I hardly know her, but I’D LOVE TA!! ~audible groans~ We’re now seeing measles outbreaks in our country due to parents not having their children vaccinated due to their distrust of vaccines based on, well, their feelings of distrust. And now, we have RFK Jr. as US Health and Human Services Secretary. Don’t worry - he’s not against vaccines; he’s not even really skeptical of vaccines; he just has some questions! As did Bernie Sanders during RFK’s confirmation hearing - an actual quote from Sanders,

“You started a group called the Children’s Health Defense. You’re the originator. Right now, as I understand it, on their website they are selling what’s called onesies. These are little things, clothing, for babies. One of them is titled ‘Unvaxxed Unafraid.’ Next one – and they’re sold for 26 bucks apiece by the way – next one is ‘No Vax, No Problem.’” Right. Merch! Measles!

Well, and to make matters worse, just when you were thinking about taking that sweet little vacation time you’ve been saving up for a year… there seems to have been a disturbing rise in plane crashes and aviation incidents, no? Particularly the tragedy over the Potomac with the plane full of figure skaters and the Army Black Hawk with no survivors? We, The People, in the wake of these things hear tell that the FAA is short-staffed and overworked… and so, folks, Trusk and DOGE bring us - CUTS AT THE FAA!!! WOOOO!!! Fear not though, we’ve been assured that the agency has “retained employees who perform critical safety functions.” When further pressed, they said they would have to look into whether the fired radar, landing, and navigational aid workers were considered to handle critical safety functions. I imagine it went something like:

“SHUT UP! We wouldn’t fire anyone IMPORTANT to SAFETY you idiots!”

“Well, uh, what about radar? Navigation? Laaaaandddinngggg, perchance?”

“Hey now, ha ha, well uh, shucks… landing, eh? I see. Well, uh, we’ll get back to ya on that.” Spokesman dead pans into the camera with a quizzical shrug and smile. Curb Your Enthusiasm music begins to play.

We are experiencing the dismantling of our government by robber barons under the leadership, true or symbolic, of a would-be-dictator with the assistance of an eclectic cast of ideologues and charlatans - the stakes are high. And yet… it’s all done with the uniquely American flair for SHOW! Showmanship and absurdity - a flaming downward spiral but ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??? Does the fanfare not cover up the starkness? Will we not laugh and make light all along the way down? Laugh up until the moment it’s truly, unmistakably, unarguably not funny anymore?

It’s laser lights and pyrotechnic flames and motley animatronics, and it’s clowns and jugglers and STEP RIGHT UP carnival barkers, and you’ve been laughing but also cringing and also confused, and then you’re in the maze and the chainsaw man begins to manically laugh and chase, and you scream and you laugh and you joke to your friends, “Oh, no, he’s gonna get me!” And then he does, and he chops you in half with the chainsaw, running straight down between the shoulder and the neck and out the groin, and your blood and your guts splatter out all over your friends’ dumbfounded faces as the two halves of your lacerated dead body hit the ground with a sickly squelch. A couple of your friends run, quickly seeing it for what it is, but most of them stay rooted to the spot, disbelief the most potent emotion, and a couple of them even begin to laugh, thinking it’s time for this surely garish prank to be revealed. They die next. The chainsaw man turns on them quickly, and more chainsaw men appear, apparently having been there close by in the shadows all along, and now the laughter is long gone and the disbelief is gone too and then there is only screaming and horror and stark terrible realization and whatever running away there can be, but none of that really matters because now it’s too late. Then your friends suffer and die as the chainsaw men do what they came to do - what they were there to do all along. Welcome to the Fascist Carnival, folks. You’re gonna love it.