Katsukawa Shunsho 勝川 春章: Man Falling Backward,
Startled by a Woman’s Ghost over a River (c. 1782)

"Did I mention that beer prices have increased by about twenty percent in the last hundred days? "

I wondered what it might be like to live in the Third_World, though I never felt any need to try to experience it. I felt fortunate that I was born in a place and time where I'd not have to cope with those humiliations. I felt no intimation that my nation might one day choose to join the ranks of the steadfastly downwardly mobile, yet here we are, guided by a self-proclaimed billionaire into despair. The price of beer has increased about twenty percent since he took office because he's so ignorant about international trade. He slaps a tariff on aluminum because we use more than our trading partner, this to encourage domestic production of a mineral of which only others have adequate deposits to support an industry. Similar idiocies abound.

Essential services have become optional, often unavailable at any price. Employment has become increasingly difficult for people to find. Prices soar while wages remain flat or falling. Stores have been closing along our Main Street. Supply chains remain disrupted, with some completely broken. The likelihood of not finding something I'm shopping for has become a virtual certainty, whatever the commodity, product, or service I might seek. I called the paint store to learn that I can't buy another two gallons of the paint I need to finish my porch project because the supply truck didn't arrive. No, they have no idea when it might appear. I was hoping to start hanging the railing this week, but without paint, I'll have to wait instead. Oh, the paint costs forty percent more than it did a year ago, too. I wait for a 40% off sale before I buy because otherwise I can't stomach the price: a hundred dollars a gallon and climbing.

The value of the almighty dollar has plummeted since these idiots took charge. They've squandered generations of goodwill and devalued the world's reserve currency. Who knows how much longer our former trading partners will stand by waiting for some rationality to come from these clowns? Those of us here, on the ground, have found no reliable source for anything, either. Innocent people get arrested and deported for the crime of being more human than their captors. The war on once-common human decency continues in earnest. Their captors will eventually be arrested, convicted, and receive well-deserved sentences; their Following Orders Defense will be worthless in the face of real justice. In Third_World nations, the rulers eventually become the victims and the victims eventually become the rulers again.

Lazy people despair over what the opposition doesn't seem to be doing, as if they could see what was happening. Things are not as they seem. The junta has been steadily losing authority since it took the oath, having never had any intention of upholding it. Each betrayal has resulted in a lessening of power. They're frantic now, frantic and probably even more dangerous, but futilely so. They don't know how they'll manage to retain power for very much longer. They know best how tenuous their hold has already become. We can tell by how little attention issues we really care about get mentioned. Beer costs twenty percent more now than it did a hundred days ago. Milk has seen even greater increases, as has the all-American cheeseburger. I now eat lentils for breakfast, having permanently given up on eggs.

The uncertainty soils the day. Will I be able to paint, or will my painter and I sit idle, unable to work because some jerk had a conniption over aluminum? What about those increasingly concerning Jeffrey Epstein files? We all know the truth will eventually come out, and it will prove damning, though the party of pedophiles will probably circle their wagons and muster a collective So What? Their self-proclaimed “Christian” faith seems primarily self-serving. Did I mention that beer prices have increased by about twenty percent in the last hundred days?

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