Journal
3/6/25
I’m going to start journaling here to record my thoughts on the unfolding disaster that is the second Trump administration. We all wish we would have done this all along, but now is as good a time to start as any.
Where are we? DOGE has been working for a month to dismantle the federal government. Trump has started a trade war with Canada, Mexico and China. Trump has made numerous statements to the effect that he wants to annex Canada. Tuesday he confirmed his ambitions toward Greenland, saying we will have it one way or another. He also confirmed we will be taking control of the Panama canal, placing Sec State Marco Rubio in charge of that.
I believe his end-game is to unite North America into a single country, with Greenland guarding our eastern flank, and along with Canada, guarding the Arctic. I believe his ambition is to eventually control North America all the way to the canal.
I do not believe he came up with this strategy himself. Either his billionaire backers or the Project 2025 people presented this to him and he signed on. All they had to do is appeal to his narcissism.
I also believe he intends to eliminate elections and basically institute a monarchy to continue his legacy. He keeps floating a third term, and has said there won’t be any blue states soon, and that a big surprise is coming. My guess is that he would try to persuade Ivanka to succeed him, possibly with a view to Barron eventually sitting on his throne. Who knows maybe he thinks Barron will be old enough by the time he dies. I’m far into tinfoil hat territory now, but this is all based on public statements. The Christian Nationalists backing Trump absolutely do not wish to go back to rule by a Democrat.
I wrote a story last weekend on the current attacks on public lands by DOGE and various states. There is absolutely an effort afoot to divest and sell public lands, but it’s kinda small potatoes in the overall picture of the methodical destruction of our government, Trump turning his back on Ukraine and Europe, while actively provoking allies like Canada and Mexico. It’s a real shit storm heading nowhere good. I’ll try to spend at least ten minutes a day journaling about it. Not yet sure I’ll publish it. Do I really want my real thoughts out there in the public sphere? Not sure.
3/7/25
Heading out fishing today. Will be glad to leave the screens off and the earbuds out of my ears. I have always been puzzled by runners who have to have earbuds in, since for me shutting everything off, tuning into my body and the landscape are part of the experience for me. I don’t really find music inspiring for running or working out. It distracts me. I love hearing the birds, seeing the deer and other wildlife. It’s common to see runners, earbuds firmly in place, run right past wildlife without seeming to notice. I don’t see the point of that.
I don’t know if theirs any Trumpy news. They’re now directing agency heads to fire employees marked by DOGE since DOGE doesn’t have the constitutional authority to fire anyone and courts are rescinding the firings. USFS is reportedly hiring back fired workers, a reprieve. The fallout from Trumps blowup with Zelensky continues. US has paused all aid and intelligence sharing, ordering the Brits not to share either. EU has announced an 800 million euro military budget. Russia is openly gleeful at the US pivot. Sec Def Pete Hegseth has ordered US cyber command to cease all activities to counter Russia.
In the short term Trump has again eased tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the behest of the auto industry who stand to have massive losses due to the interconnected nature of the North American auto industry. Trump has given them 30 days to bring manufacturing home, which of course is impossible. It takes a couple years to set up a plant, get it working properly, get all the supply chains in place, hire and train all the personnel.
This week Trump’s 27 year old MAGA Fox News host press secretary stated the real purpose of the tariffs- she said it can all go away if they just become the 51st state. A president can only impose tariffs without congress by stating an emergency purpose, thus Trump has declared a fentanyl emergency at the border. This has some merit with the southern border, but not our border with Canada. Canada has agreed to spending $1.3 billion on helicopters, increased patrols, and increased searches to head of fentanyl. Last year Canada stopped 43 pounds of the stuff, compared to 20,000 pounds coming across the Mexican border. Good thing the press secretary let us know what this is really about.
Anyway, I’m going fishing. Gonna spend the day not thinking about it. The rage I’m feeling right now isn’t healthy, and isn’t accomplishing much. Time to finish my cereal and hit the road. Maybe some trout will make me feel better.
3/9 I didn’t write anything yesterday. Not enough seemed to have changed. It rained overnight last night, and I woke up at 6, but the time changed this morning. More rain on the way. The horses are in stalls, but I have a couple hours.
Trump again postponed tariffs on our neighbors to give the auto industry time to adjust. The Canadians have not reciprocated, and rightly so. They should not be reactive to the whims of a petty tyrant who has insulted their honor and enraged their populace. Not to mention Trump still intends to enact the tariffs. Below is my response to an alarmed Canadian on Reddit.
Get Fontinalis Rising’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
“A lot of this has to do with the way Trump looks at the world. He thinks everyone is cheating and taking advantage of him.
As president he projects this to the world. He doesn’t see alliances like NATO as mutually beneficial. He sees it as Europe sponging off the US. He sees NAFTA and whatever followed as Mexico and Canada taking advantage. Everything in his world is zero sum. You either win or lose and if you negotiate an agreement and the other side is happy it must mean you lost. He doesn’t see NORAD or Five Eyes as strategically beneficial. Just more nations benefiting from the money the US spends on defense.
He sees everything as transactional. The US built the Panama Canal, so the only reason we don’t have it is Panama stole it. We gave billions to Ukraine in military support and now he wants repayment in minerals. He feels Canada has benefited so much from US trade and security that we practically own it already. He is a small man with small ideas and a thug mentality.
It may be unfortunate that Trump was surrounded by establishment Republicans his first term. Maybe if Americans saw him in the raw form we see now he wouldn’t be president again.
There will be muscular resistance in the US to further aggression against Canada. War in North America will benefit no one, and I suspect many US service members will not bear arms against our brethren to the north. Regardless, massive damage has already been done which will take decades after this clown is gone to repair. Stay strong.”
Musk is annoying Trump’s cabinet. It’s one thing to cheer his reckless government cuts from the sidelines. It’s another to be a cabinet secretary with your own agenda and necessary duties, only to have this outsider slashing or demanding cuts to the agencies and personnel you need do your constitutional duties. Rubio and Musk fought in front of the cameras this week, though I haven’t seen the video yet. Musk has demanded that all 2 million government employees text him each Monday with five bullet points explaining what they did each week on pain of termination. Several cabinet secretaries and agency heads instructed their workers not to respond. When asked Trump equivocated, saying workers didn’t have to respond but they’d probably lose their jobs.
That’s all the shitshow I can stand to write about today. Elsewhere I’m trying to keep an eye on the push to sell off and divest our public lands.
3/11/25
Below is a comment I wrote in Reddit. Maybe I’ll flesh it out later, but I’m rethinking the outline of who I believe Trump is.
“I’m developing a new theory on Trump. I think he may only be fascist adjacent. This is the Trump Organization 2.0.
Trump has never run a public company with board members and shareholders. His companies have declared six bankruptcies. His charitable organization was disbanded by the state of New York and he and his children are banned from running any charities there again.
All of Trumps enterprises have been various half-assed scams. Trump ran his development businesses by stringing his contractors along then refusing to pay them at the end. Trump would tell them to sue him if they wanted their money, then use his wealth to outspend them in court. He drove a lot of small contractors into bankruptcy and failure.
During his first term Trump was surrounded by establishment Republicans in his cabinet and the military. They served as a brake on his worst impulses. This time around he got savvy and got rid of the establishment types and installed loyalists.
So now we see Trump in his natural state running Trump Organization 2.0. He’s not fascist, because he lacks the capacity for ideology. He has always run his organizations by the seat of his pants to serve his whims.
Shady people like Trump always believe everyone is taking advantage of him because that is what he has always done. He doesn’t see the states as entities in his care- he sees them as taking from him, and so he wants to eliminate FEMA. He doesn’t see NATO as an ally, he sees them as sponging off the US. He sees every negotiation as zero sum, so if our trading partners are happy with an agreement it’s because they’re taking advantage of us. You either win or lose, there’s no such thing as a partnership.
So there is no real ideology, only the whims of a man driven by a sense of grievance. He’s fascist inasmuch as the people most aligned with him who he has placed in his government ARE fascist. What’s difficult for them is that while they definitely are driven by ideology, Trump is not, and he makes decisions according to his whim of the moment. He’s currently working on his next big bankruptcy.”
