First let me say that we will forego the quiz this week. Writing the quiz weekly is an exercise that allows me to review lots of different aspects of the previous week, often in a whimsical mood where I can slide in a joke and watch a cat video while making fun of pompous asses like Trump.

This week I am hardly whimsical and frankly I fear for our future as I fear for the futures of my family and particularly of friends who are gay or people of color. There is an impending cloud on the horizon much like must have been on the horizon in 1933. Right now is a scary time in America.

There are some things that I have noticed trending over many years that keep gnawing at my innards. This seems to be a good time to at least throw them out to let other folks chew on them. So here we go in no order. 

The first thing is that for several decades there has been a huge move to the right among democracies worldwide. The video below gives a kind of a sampling of what is going on: 28 minutes:

As noted in the video once right wing leadership takes power they seldom relinquish it. I am sure we can expect that from the next Trump regime. While the trappings of democracy often still exist, the mechanics of how the system works will be drastically altered. Elections take place, but the rules only allow certain people to vote. They are able to build a permanent election victory machine within the confines of their constitutions.

You may have also noted that many of the talking points in Europe and other right wing countries around the world focus on very similar takes on problems that the RW blows into catastrophes. Immigration, information sources, victimization of the party – all just like the MAGAs in the US. 

Along with the major world wide turn to the extreme right as the go to saviors on political problems is the continuing concentration of money in a few hands. Among those few hands are people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. One of the major problems of having such a concentration of money in few hands is that the rich want to use their money to rig the system so they can get even more money.

The best way to rig the system so they can continue to pile up money is to buy the politicians who make the rules. Having those who make rules making rules in your favor because they owe you something is probably the best way to do it. Those same rule makers can make rules that hurt rivals or force poor people into selling their souls for nearly nothing just in order to survive.

Money is the lifeblood of politics and the extreme right wing around the world has the money spigots of rich pouring into their coffers. For such “donations” the right wing in any country is usually more than happy to do what they need to pay the rich back.

Which brings us to something I fear will be among the first actions of the coming administration and that is the destruction of the ‘administrative’ state here in the US. Those federal agencies that the country depends on to keep businesses from killing or screwing us all for a profit is literally on the chopping block.

Got a pill you got to take? Right now we depend on the FDA to keep the drug companies honest as to ingredients, dosage, purity and manufacturing standards. Well, boy, that’s a lot of money that the company could keep for profit if the damn Feds would get off their back.

Such deregulation was hardly mentioned during the campaign, but this may be the single most critical thing MAGAs will destroy. The assurance that consumer goods are made honestly and that someone is actually watching them allows us freedom to purchase and consume with little worry. Just imagine the fear of eating out if eating out may come with death due to a restaurants cleanliness standards.

Corruption, corruption, corruption is the right’s lifeblood. And it could kill you.