December 2025
Crappy New Year?
24/12/25 07:42
December 24, 2025 (Vol. 19. No. 49) - The year 2025 will not be fondly remembered by many. It was the year that Donald Trump returned to power and immediately began abusing it. Instead of stabilizing what he called a bad economy - one that was actually pretty good - he ruined it through a system of haphazard tariffs and by creating instability in American foreign policy. The man best known for the friends he keeps (see above photo) looted the Treasury for his family's benefit while graciously accepting bribes, er, excuse me, gifts, for foreign leaders. Economic anxiety, political division, environmental strain, and social exhaustion combined to make 2025 feel less like a single bad year and more like a warning. Economically, 2025 was difficult for ordinary people. Inflation may have slowed in some regions, but the cost of living remained stubbornly high. Housing, healthcare, and education continued to feel out of reach for millions. Thanks to the Republican Congress, healthcare costs for millions of Americans will skyrocket after the new year because of a stubborn refusal to continue subsidies under the Affordable Care Act a/k/a Obamacare. Wage growth lagged behind expenses, forcing families to rely on credit or deplete savings. Job insecurity persisted as automation and artificial intelligence reshaped industries faster than workers could adapt. Even those who were employed often felt trapped—working harder for less security and fewer prospects for upward mobility. Buying a new home - especially a first home - remained out of reach as housing prices and a housing shortage persisted.
If 2025 seemed bad, 2026 threatens to be even worse—not necessarily because new problems will appear, but because unresolved ones will compound. Economic pressures could intensify as government debt rises and public patience thins. Political polarization may harden further, making compromise even more elusive. Environmental damage, once done, cannot simply be undone, and its impacts tend to accelerate rather than stabilize. Perhaps most troubling is the psychological toll. By the end of 2025, many people were not just struggling; they were tired. Constant crises eroded optimism and resilience. When societies become exhausted, they are more vulnerable to fear-driven decisions, authoritarian impulses, and social breakdown. That emotional fatigue could define 2026 if meaningful change does not occur. The one hope is that there are signs of a growing schism in the MAGA movement. However, that hope is tempered by the knowledge that Democrats seem to have an inexhaustible ability to shoot themselves in the foot.
Yet acknowledging how bad 2025 was is not an act of surrender. It is a recognition that denial no longer serves us. If 2026 is to avoid becoming even worse, it will require deliberate effort, cooperation, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. Without that, the difficulties of 2025 may look, in hindsight, like the calm before a deeper storm and we will have a crappy, not happy, new year. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
18/12/25 07:13
December 18, 2025 (Vol. 19. No. 48) - You've got to hand it to Donald Trump. He doesn't care if the glass is half-full or half-empty as long as he owns the glass. In a rare televised national address last night, Felon 47 tried to convince Americans that this is not the season to rejoice in the coming of Christ, but instead a time to revel in the second coming of Trump. He failed miserably.Humpty-Trumpty started by saying he inherited a country last January with a failing economy - despite the fact that the U.S. economy at the end of Biden's term was, according to Bloomberg, the envy of the world. Trump blamed Biden for inflation - ignoring the fact that the inflationary spiral was created during the first Trump term when he destroyed the supply change by largely ignoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump said grocery prices are going down. While the cost of certain items has dropped in some areas, the overall cost of food shopping has risen. And let's talk about health care. The Republicans are willing to go home for Christmas without restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies cut by Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." That means that the cost of health care insurance for millions of Americans - a majority of whom are Trump voters - will dramatically spike after the new year. (Don't worry, Trump's fabulous health care plan is only "two weeks away," the same place it was nine years ago.) He announced $1,776 bonuses for the more than one million active duty service men and women. He says his tariffs will pay for it. Those are the same tariff receipts that are going to pay for the bonus checks he's promising American taxpayers and subsidies to farmers. The problem is that Trump's tariffs are raising far less money than necessary to pay for these and other Trump schemes. It also ignores the truth about tariffs: Foreign nations do not pay the tariffs. American businesses pay them and that fuels inflation.
What the nation saw last night was an angry, unhinged vulgarian masquerading as a president. He's also a lame duck who is losing control of the Republican Party. Trump was trying to convince voters that it was Biden, not him, who should be held responsible for an increasingly fragile and flagging economy. However, those voters aren't buying it. By an almost two-to-one margin, they have told pollsters that it is Trump, not Biden, who is to blame. Even worse (in Trump's eyes) is that he is beginning to lose his grip on MAGA Republicans in the House. Against his and Speaker Mini-Mike Johnson's wishes, some have joined with Democrats to force a vote on extending the ACA subsidies. (Unfortunately, Mini-Mike is up to old tricks. He's going to send the House home for Christmas to delay that vote. It's the same strategy he used to delay - but not stop - the release of the Epstein files.) Republicans are scared that they are going to lose big in next year's midterm elections. These MAGA minions are moving into self-preservation mode, one that does not include Trump in their futures.
The sun is beginning to set on Emperor Orange's reign of terror. But the midterms are still a year away and three years left in his term (assuming he lives so long). There are countless ways an unhinged, demented and self-absorbed wannabe dictator can make our lives miserable in the interim. We must remain vigilant. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.
Rhymes and Reasons
09/12/25 10:43
December 9, 2025 (Vol. 19. No. 47) - As this dreary and dark year 2025 enters its final days - death throws is perhaps a more descriptive characterization - I have been reminded of some lyrics penned by the late John Denver:So you speak to me of sadness and the coming of the winter. The fear that is within you now that seems to never end. And the dreams that have escaped you. And the hope that you've forgotten. You tell me that you need me now. You want to be my friend. And you wonder where we're going. Where's the rhyme? Where's the reason?
These are the opening lines of Rhymes and Reasons, one of Denver's earliest compositions that reflects the idealism/arrogance of the youth culture of the 1960s. I use those descriptors advisedly, because that was a time when the youth of our nation looked upon with sometimes self-righteous indignation at the supposed mess our parents had made of the world. It was a time of Vietnam, race riots, changing morals, the fear of nuclear Armageddon and outright disillusion. Truth be told, our parents didn't do all that badly. Their scientific achievements, combined with significant social and cultural advancements, weren't all that bad a track record. And, of yes, they survived the Great Depression and won the Second World War. However, people my age focused on the jobs left undone and the challenges we would have to tackle. And, of course, being young also meant that we were impatient as hell.
And now, it is we - the folks of my generation - being called to task by our children for our failings and the things we appear to have neglected. And, just as my generation did 50 years ago, this generation may have a point. Certainly the country is more divided than it has been since the Civil War - even more so than it was in the turbulent 1960s. However, my generation has also made scientific, social and cultural strides that have made life better. There are some things that are cyclical - although I can't imagine a more dysfunctional and incompetent president than the senile, feeble and immoral jackass we have now. That takes me back to the poetry of John Denver:
And its you cannot accept it is here we must begin to seek the wisdom of our children and the graceful way go flowers in the wind. For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers. Their laughter and the loveliness could clear a cloudy day. Like the music of the mountain and the colors of the rainbow they're a promise for the future and a blessing for today.
You may interpret those lyrics differently than I. However, I believe they are saying that everything we need to deal with the problems of the moment are available to us today. So, I choose to focus on the positive message even while sitting in the shadow and chaos of today's trial and tribulations. I am not being Pollyanna and naive. If anything, embracing the positive may be the only way we can maintain our sanity and become the problem solvers our society surely needs. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.