I just got out of my Thursday morning breakfast group meeting, and have an eye doctor appointment for which I have to leave in less than thirty minutes. My eyes will be dilated after that, and I probably won’t be in position to stare at a computer screen for a while, so I am going to write something now. It will be short, if not sweet (of course, it may be sweet, as well).

I am trying to hold myself back when I look at the Trump transition and see what might be expected over the next few years, and I am not going to let myself go and, instead, wait to see how things will turn out.

I do think that we are in for some big changes, and then some more big changes after that. I agree with the incoming administration that there is a lot wrong with the country; I am only afraid that they will make it worse, and not better.

For example, I agree that government payrolls are probably larger than they need be. But will cutting government employment help or hurt? Will the savings be offset by losses occasioned by so many families losing so much income? And will government job cutting mean that government will be doing less, or does it simply mean that more government work will be farmed out to the private sector, helping people like Musk and “neutral” Jeff Bezos?

We now have a pretty good number of billionaires, and a very large number of millionaires, in this country, and as you drive around and look at all the big houses and all of the big second and third homes in resort areas, you see that. And that is fine for the 10% of Americans that fall into this category. But the other 90%, yes 90%, fall into very different categories, and the wealth differential here is expanding exponentially. That is fine if you want to replicate Southern plantation society – without legal slavery of course, but with the majority of people being, in effect, economically enslaved to the top 10%. But is that what we want.

One of the effects of this, in addition to homelessness and the like, is that differentials in health outcomes, which show the vastly different lifespans of wealthy Americans and those with fewer resources. Is this what we want? If Bobby K, Jr. is our new HHS Secretary, he will be pushing for a large number of initiatives (some good, others awful)k, but equality of treatment and outcome does not appear to be one of his priorities.

I had been saying for three years or so that the Democrats were setting themselves up to lose the 2024 election by their handling of the border and immigration, and I have been proven correct. But splitting up families (ones with a citizen or legal spouse and one who is not in the country legally) can’t be the answer we want, and certainly using the American military (or the state National Guards) to knock on doors and arrest people can’t be what we want either. But I don’t hear any alternative being proposed.

Regardless of whether his goals are laudatory or condemnatory, the goal seems to be the implement a form of federal bullying, to cow people to submit to the whim of the new president, or face dire consequences. And the dire consequences will come through the full politicization of the Justice Department, which will be going after those who fail to comply with legal or questionable orders from the top. We don’t know how the courts will respond to all of these challenges, but what we do know is that those who are targeted will lose not only their equanimity, but also much of their financial resources, in defending claims, whether or not the claims are valid. Once again, the lawyers (many of whom are of course already in that top 10%) will be the winners.

And – though there is much to write about – let me end with pardons. Biden is criticized (unjustly in my opinion, as you may know) for pardoning his son, but Trump will undoubtedly pardon the hundreds in jail for Jan 6 related convictions. Using his immense power, Biden has been said to be considering broad pardons for those whom Trump has announced he is going to target, something never done before (on either side); I hope these pardons don’t happen, and I hope the targeting threats don’t materialize, but one or the other, or even both (leaving it to the courts to sort out) might.

Okay, off to the eye doctor. I believe my eyes may be beginning to catch up with the age of the rest of me. We will see. (But will we see clearly?)