This is escalating pretty quickly.
Things are getting pretty testy here in Chicago this week. There’s tear gas being fired at elementary school children, and journalists are getting shot in the face with pepper balls.
On election night, when it became apparent that Donald Trump would be elected President of the United States with a majority of the popular vote, I figured it would take longer to reach this point (military in the streets of multiple American cities, the administration ignoring court orders, foreign gulags for hundreds of people, mass firings in government, Trump enemies indicted, etc.).
I thought it would take until somewhere in Spring 2026 to get here. But they were ready from the jump with the Project 2025 plan that they vehemently denied was the plan, but actually was the plan. And here we are. What I didn’t count on was the complicity of the media, tech billionaires, and all sorts of institutions (colleges, law firms, etc.), and the massive transition of wealth from the poor, working class, and middle class to the ultra wealthy and billionaire class via One Big Beautiful Bill (its offical name).
Sprinkle on top some tarriffs, AI eliminating a couple hundred thousand mid-level positions, and rampant graft basically legalized by the SCOTUS. Now we’re at a place where there’s an enormous cleavage between the haves and have-nots. The Trump administration has systematically undermined the competence of any African-American, woman, or disabled person working in government– and especially in the military. We’re at a place where the historic notion of social mobility is being beaten and kicked by thugs and left to bleed out in the gutter.
So I feel like I have to leave this country. It’s not for me anymore. It’s not just because of politics in this moment or cumulatively, it’s also because of culture, attitude, crass commercialism, garbage TV, low-life boors elevated to cultural icons, and mechanized fast food mindsets infecting the few areas of quality artistic expression we have left.