MARCH 13, 2025 – As are a lot of people I know and respect, I’m at the end of the leash. “What to do?” as my Grandpa Holman would say to preface a protracted account of how he solved an imponderable business problem back in the day. Except in our day, I have no idea what to do. Should I . . .
. . . Plead for admittance to the psychiatric unit of the nearest ER facility? Climb up on our roof and shout amplified obscenities until the neighbors call 9-1-1 and I’m taken into custody (for admittance to the psych ward)? Race down to the nearest bar and drink myself into oblivion? Tell my spouse to pack a bag, do the same myself, scribble out a text to our kids, drive straight to Winnipeg, Ontario and apply for asylum? Submit a bid (to DOGE) to buy abandoned ICBM silos in North Dakota, then sell tickets so that via Zoom, my fellow Democrats can scream into the empty chambers, “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!” until we all go deaf from the echoes?
Or should I simply emulate the flightless ostrich and join a flock with heads in the sand and signs on their rears that read, “I’m not political”?
Currently, I feel as if I’m living in the Dystopian Republic of Nonsense, where every coin toss comes down to heads – Trump is a narcissistic Russian Agent; tails – he’s clinically insane. In either case, what does that suggest about the profile of his wide cast of minions, sycophants, supporters, apologists, enablers—inside and outside Congress? As to those inside Congress, what does the current state of affairs say about the voters who put those elected officials in office—and to this day are cheering the nonsense?
If you ask Democrats, you will hear a range of disunity and righteous indignation, starting with an angry discourse about why “things went wrong” last November. Honestly, some of my Dem friends are as angry with everyone including Obama, Biden, Harris, Progressives, and Moderates, as well as everything, such as this tactic, that strategy—the list goes on—as they are cranked up over Musk’s outsized chainsaw and Trump’s over-reaching executive orders.
The grounds for condemnation of Trump and Musk require no exposition here. To list their dangerous lies and disqualifying faults would simply trigger the ironic beratement, “I told you a million times not to exaggerate!” Besides, people far smarter, far more attentive, far better informed than I are keeping score—by the hour. From the vantage point of my lesser abilities and capacity, what I do know is this: The past decade is replete with evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that we occupy an age wherein too many people can’t or refuse to distinguish between “right” and “wrong”; between “cause” and “effect”; between “up” and “down”; between “truth” and “falsehood”; between “deliberation” and “shoot first, aim second (if at all)”; between “empathy” and “incivility”; between “expertise” and “B.S.”; between “crushing a Capitol policeman between the doors” and “lawful exercise of First Amendment rights”; between “simplistic” and “complex”; between “published peer-reviewed scientific findings” and “internet junk science;” between “conflict of interest” and “interest on principal.”
In short, given the widespread susceptibility to superficiality[1], I don’t anticipate Trumpers changing their views before the ship founders. I don’t see the minions, et alia waking up with shoulders pinned to the mat and saying, “Gee, I think it was all a mistake.” And I certainly don’t see Dems capitulating; inhaling the foam off their lattés as they lay down the latest news alerts and declaring, “If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
With full license from Trump, Team Musk has ripped a deep gash—below the waterline—in the hull of the ship we all share. Seawater floods the engine room. With boiler workers and engineers washed from their stations, the giant screws that propel the vessel have already begun to malfunction. Soon the ship will list, the bow will dip, then . . .
But who on board will sound the alarm? Not those who man the bridge. They’re the crew that intentionally rammed the iceberg! Even if mutineers transmit an SOS, who will respond? Our adversaries are all too happy to see us in distress. Our closest friends were told to get lost.
At the rate we’re losing buoyancy, without extreme measures the ship will founder well before November next year.
At a minimum, the Court and Congress will need to remake themselves into rescue teams, just as the Constitution fashioned them to be. Republicans can get first dibs on uniforms, Navy or Coast Guard—it doesn’t much matter, as long as every damn Republican makes haste and throws everything they’ve got into the rescue.
But what on earth (or water) would prod Republicans into such action? Musk’s biggest blunder: the iceberg rammed. What is more likely than anything else to turn the tide is disruption of social security payments as the result of Musk’s recent chainsaw commando raid on the Social Security Administration (SSA). In a recent extensive interview on PBS, Martin O’Malley, Commissioner of SSA under Biden and former governor of Maryland, had this to say:
But I do believe that people should—I know that people depend entire—some people depend entirely on Social Security, but they should start saving for what I believe is the inevitable cratering of this agency and the interruption, for some time anyway, of the benefits.(emphasis added)
With confidence I can say that people who “depend entirely on Social Security” will not be able to “start saving” for an interruption of benefits, however brief.
The total number of SSA beneficiaries currently receiving benefits approaches 70 million. Twelve percent of male recipients and 15% of women beneficiaries depend on SSA for 90% or more of their income. Many of those fully dependent have close relatives. Tens of millions of the 70 million have sons, daughters, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, and grand-nieces and nephews . . . of voting age, a significant percentage of whom, it’s safe to assume, will know and care if their elders’ incomes are interrupted. It’s not a stretch to imagine that as many as 100 million Americans would be affected directly or indirectly by a system-wide failure of the SSA payment system. When—not if—that occurs, all political hell will break lose, as Musk mounts an emergency escape plan to Mars and FoxProp attempts to blame the fiasco on Democrats. (Excuse me?) While Trump plays pinball in the White House rec room (for him life is all about making the pop bumpers ding and the flashers light up), a nationwide barrage of calls and emails will light up Congressional iPhones as they’ve never been lit before. More than anything else on the horizon, Social Security in mortal distress will unify massive opposition to the dangerous dismantling of government.
That will be the last chance for Republicans in House and Senate to mutiny against the Admiral with no Clothes and salvage the ship—provided Trump in league with Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and pardoned J6 convicts, don’t stage a coup, be it preemptive or reactive. In such circumstances, who among U.S. Marshalls and the military—both under the purview of the executive branch—will honor their oaths to the Constitution? “We shall see,” as it is said.
When will the mutiny and potential confrontation occur? How long before SSA’s antiquated computer system falters because the COBALT programmers have been fired[2]? Once it does falter, how long will it take to restore it? A month? Three months? More? How much pain, suffering and disruption will that cause across the country? At what cost will it take to reassemble Humpty-Dumpty? (Talk about “waste”!)
But of course, a massive interruption of SSA payments isn’t the only potential crisis brewing. In case you forgot, here’s a mnemonic for another explosive problem: “TNT” (“Trump’s Nonsensical Tariffs”)—the closest thing to a “strategy” that Trump has ever devised (that’s a joke, by the way).
Now go tell your Republican friends to call their Republican reps and senators . . . and encourage your Republican friends who are collecting SSA benefits to “start saving.”
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
[1] I’m thinking of cable “prop” (propaganda vs. opinion), unvetted social media, and podcast propaganda, all of which affirm (the Canadian!!) Marshall McLuhan’s famous insight from the 1960s, to-wit, “The medium is the message.”
[2] One bit of silver in the lining here is the recognition that SSA IT needs a major upgrade—as does the IRS. But don’t blame the Democrats—blame the “anti-government” Republicans who won’t fund the necessary upgrades and improvements in staffing. This is part of a long-standing cycle whereby parsimonious legislators won’t appropriate sufficient funds for efficient administration, but then complain about “slow, lazy, inefficient, uncaring, etc. government bureaucracy.” That assessment, in turn, is used to justify further cutbacks in appropriations—and service—in a vicious downward spiral.
2 Comments
Well said. But, what are we to do? You certainly can’t keep up the rant on a daily basis. Unless, that rant is sent to your representatives in Congress.
Curious, do you think the Dems should vote for the CR or not?
You’re quite right, Connie–no one can maintain the daily rant and preserve mental equilibrium.I do believe, however, that ideal citizenship entails staying well-informed, which is different from staying in “rant mode.” Ranting to our reps is important, of course, but in metro MN that pretty much means singing to the choir. As to the CR, I understand both sides of the argument for Dems voting for vs. against. I do believe, however, that Schumer made the better choice. In this instance, I’m afraid that the Dems would’ve paid a heavy price politically. A government shutdown is exactly what the Reps wanted to occur. They set a trap, and Schumer wisely refused to walk into it. Given how Musk and Trump operate, I don’t think we’ll need to wait much longer for them to create conditions much more favorable for the Dems to leverage to the latters’ advantage. As I mentioned in my post, it could well be as simple and straight forward as the collapse of the SSA payment system. Next after that will be the farmers, and when Q1 investment account statements show big declines, people will begin to connect the dots between “TNT” and endangerment of our retirement savings. By early summer, Congressional Dems will have their backs to the political winds. I’m not sure that now’s the time quite yet to launch a counterattack–e.g. force a shutdown. But maybe I betray my age and corresponding risk aversion by siding with Schumer over AOC. I do think the Dems need to step up their strategic game, however. Right now there’s no unified or coordinated plan. There’s a lot of finger-pointing and “solo” efforts–e.g. Chris Murphy (CT) going in one direction; AOC another; Jeffries yet another; Schumer – who knows? (And he’s minority leader of the senate, for crying out loud!); and our own Governor Walz going on the town hall circuit. But what’s the central message and the common platform from which all voters can hear a stirring message?