Let's Talk About My President
What in the absolute fuck is going on?
The man I did NOT vote for, never ever, is once again my President.
I Could Live With Some of the Fuckery
Pick a couple, or even a handful…1
I can minimize the January 6th coup attempt and pretend to believe that most of the voters’ lack of faith in the 2020 election was ill-informed hypocrisy (as opposed to pure corruption) as I look at the results of the 2024 election.2
I’ll laugh off the aim to acquire Canada, Greenland, and Gaza.
I’ve forgotten the contradictory campaign promises & vile attacks on his opposition.3
I'll continually shake my head at his lack of character. Grimacing at his boasts about his power to perv out on women non-consensually, his regular mocking of those with disabilities, and his use of stereotypes as a rallying cry.
I'll take advantage of the bear market and amplified volatility caused by his ineptitude.
I’ll ignore his corruption and personal enrichment since everyone does it. Ironically, he’s just blatantly honest about it (his tactic is more focused on diminishing the implication of the action rather than hiding the action).4
I know that the ideals of America with all of its promised freedom were never achieved and I’ll shut my eyes to hide the reversal of progress we’ve made.
I can stomach the anti-immigrant, anti-journalist, anti-globalism, and anti-science rhetoric (to name a few) since I am unaffected.
I’m resigned to the era of idiocy we eagerly welcome by now observing coordinated attacks on the experts we were told to be like when I grew up.
I accept his ignorance of history and his willfulness to purposefully have history repeat itself as being such a human thing to do.5
I am able to ignore his preference for authoritarians.
I shall feign ignorance at Trump’s own authoritarian behaviors like making judges and lawyers bend the knee (or go to jail), going after university & media First Amendment freedoms, sending citizens to other countries, and using his governmental powers to attack individuals who opposed him.
It’s easy enough to forget about the rest of the world and how we're letting it down after positioning ourselves as the ones to rely on and the aspirational place for them to live.6
I know that globalism dramatically improved the lives of the oligarchy with much more pain for the “average American” and I recognize the rage from the margins as a result of the pain being ignored for too long.
I accept the oligarchy (the top 1%, and the top 10%) as nothing new under the sun and I blame Democrats for surrendering the middle class for rich elites just as much as the cronies now in charge.
I’ll forget he manipulated his base to mask the actions of his inner circle and accept it as just another corruption that’s to be expected of Washington D.C.
I see that the American opulence should be punished and will cherish that his tariffs require us to be choosey.
I can just shut off the news and forget this stuff because it doesn’t affect me!
I’ll withhold my disdain for the rise of American Evangelical Christianity and its corruption of all that is supposed to be holy.
I acknowledge the spirit of efficiency as something to aspire to, although the means and ways it is currently happening is the farthest thing from legitimate “cost cutting” efforts and is rather full of corruption too.
I'd be able to handle the dismantling of one or two governmental programs that support the disadvantaged.
I understand the polarization that comes from Americans protesting and can ignore the hypocrisy of MAGA Jan 6th sympathizers.
I can deal with a judicial, legislative, and executive system that is slow and self interested (as they have been for decades).
I recognize there’s always some ethical and moral imperfection shadowing us all (in other words, I see some validity of whataboutism and won’t refute it outright although when talking to MAGA they refute our use of whataboutism…).
I could handle some of these. Maybe up to half.
I struggle the most with the blatant corruption.
I can’t live with the return to form (vis-à-vis all of the racism, homophobia, religious persecution, and demeaning of women that he is making publicly acceptable).
I can’t accept the flagrant denial of rights that this administration is putting upon those who are the least advantaged.
I can’t handle all of this.
The New Regime IS Temporary
Trump of a decade ago was someone who was still involved in the normal business cycle. He has since been removed from many normal investments given his presidency, his scandals, and his (inter)nationally polarizing reputation. He has surrounded himself with more reprobates and grifters than ever before.
I am doubtful that the financial markets will have the controlling effect on him as it once did, but so far it seems he backed down from his most harmful economic plans.
He wanted to make himself immune to prosecution. CHECK
He wants to get back at those who betrayed and belittled him. ONGOING
He wants to use his position to enrich himself and his family. ONGOING
One can hope that number 3 is the type of thing that acts like a rising tide (and lifts all ships) rather than what I fear is his goal (to drown those who aren't with him).
I fear number 2 is actually much more important to him these days. I believe him when he says he wants revenge. That specific desire is likely driving him more than people are giving it credit.
Trump is also notorious for many other abnormal things, chief among them being that he invents problems and later declares an arbitrary victory (primarily by rescinding the things he did to make these problems in the first place).
He says he believes God saved him from the assassination attempt to have him do these things. A narcissist with this actual God complex running the supposed leading nation of the free world is how we become not free…
All that to say, my general assessment is still counting on an eventual reversal of most of his policies… At least if his policies are only implemented via executive order, because that’s where they can be most easily challenged, which is already happening as I edit this given ongoing court decrees… but he is also just ignoring the courts, even those orders that have come from his own elected judges… DAMMIT WHY DIDN’T BIDEN IGNORE THE SUPREME COURT??? I could have been saved from my student loan debts! I didn’t know checks and balances could just be ignored….
America has survived ineptitude, corruption, cruelty done unto its citizens (and those who deserved to be protected regardless of citizenship), and vindictive leaders. Many individual people (or certain groups) didn’t… But I’m not talking about individuals.
Inherent in the strength that sometimes holds us together is the chaos that tears us apart. We are individualistic, diverse, massive, powerful, hungry. As a matter of faith I believe we (as in the collective) will be fine, eventually. But as individuals, there are many who are facing a riskier world that will kill them. And we are allowing their death.
Trump and his cronies will do and have done wild things. The system will respond, slowly. The reinstatement or restoration of the norm will be attempted. But damage will have been done, waste exponentialized, & the real problems only further ignored.
You do not create meaningful change through the execution of executive actions. Even though he has control of EVERY branch of government, he is still acting alone. IMO, that speaks to the overall flimsiness of the policy aims of this administration.
Governing Norms
There are these things that informs how the US government operates called norms. These norms serve(d) as a sort of handshake agreement between our various governmental forces. Some examples of these norms and how Trump has circumvented these. I’ll note that well before Trump, these handshake agreements have been tested. But he’s exposed how weak these norms actually are.
The majority of politicians are motivated by special interests, power aggregation, and/or pure wealth ABOVE serving their constituency. These politicians have rarely been contained by the norms or the system; only through external intervention (press, citizen protest, etc.) do these bad actors come to light. And even then the system doesn’t deliver just punishment (The pardoning of Nixon was a massive failure in preserving the controlling force of American laws).
Outside of the individual politician’s shift toward prioritizing their own self-interests rather than aligning interests, the branches of government have worked to empower themselves rather than restrict the power of the other branches. Excluding the opposition party, there have been very minimal checks and balances. The courts themselves were the last to fall (but fall they have).
The Democrats have protected themselves and often take advantage of the paths Republicans blaze. It stings more when the Democrats (who claim the moral high ground) also have significant blind spots, conflicts of interest, have gained while their constituents lost everything, and/or are plainly corrupt.
Democrats also tend to package their efforts to insulate themselves and their many special interests, thus diminishing the effectiveness of the good they aim to do. They have been responsible for the evolution of the word compromise, which was once a word to be proud of (“we compromised to the satisfaction of both parties”) and has now become a word of weakness (“we are compromised and collapsing”).
Meanwhile, Moderate Republicans (Mitt Romney) championed the reduction of governmental spending but generally refused to make changes to the way government generates revenue / manages expenses that negatively impact them (they always want someone else to pay the bill, and refuse to pay taxes7). Conservatism has always served as a tempering force for progressive change.
Republican States are well known to have benefited from major Democratic initiatives, but somehow the voter base continually credits their Republican governor and/or Republican representative instead of the Democratic party that initiated and implemented these initiatives.
MAGA Republicans are too confusing to me to assess at this point… The most obvious thing is that they have been less willing to compromise and more willing to go personal with their attacks on the opposition and even internally (if people don’t fall in line). But they’re just a more extreme version of the politicians we’ve all come to expect.
Overall, the political climate was predictable in the sense that it was slow, ineffective, and the pivots would exist to maintain status quo. If a party happened to get multiple branches, it would aim to make a few bigger changes… until Trump. He is not looking to make just a few changes. But we’ll come back to him later.
As I am trying to understand this moment, I also think it is extremely important to talk about how we got here.
Aside #1: How I think America got to now
Disclaimer: Not an all-inclusive answer, just some of the puzzle pieces that I feel aren’t as recognized in the discourse I observe & participate in.
Puzzle piece number 1: American infrastructure has been purposefully built as a facade to isolate individuals from their communities and communities from other communities. The only initial benefactor of the American socialist & labor revolution of the 1930s was the straight, white man. It has also ingrained a sense of competition that takes advantage of our worst instincts (such as the desire to gravitate towards us-vs-them mentalities). The revelation of this facade in recent decades has created a discomfort most refuse to face and are instead channeling that toward others.
When I try to understand the Greatness that MAGA yearns for, I pick up two distinct decades. The 1940s (American Hero centric view of our rescuing of the world) and 1950s (a straight, white family with a home, yard, white picket fence, and beautiful blue Buick Century, Chevy Bel Air, or Ford Thunderbird).
So with the 1940s - 1950s as the “vibe” of this MAGA yearning, I immediately realized that which was not being explicitly said. They deliberately moved past the racist underpinnings that enabled the opulence for the white man. They don’t think about how the American economy was propped up by government spending. They refused to acknowledge the massive PROGRESSIVE reforms that preceded this vibe. They forget the union power that protected them:
Puzzle piece number 2: The Civil War never ended. Although there was a military surrender, the South shifted its focus to winning politically rather than militarily.
In the 1960s, the religious left (prioritizing the poor) united with the liberal/socialist students, and the labor unions worked together to dramatically flip the US toward a progressive future. These groups were then separated in the decades to come.
Labor unions were demonized in nearly every industry by the Republicans (except for the police unions, but the police unions were motivated to go Republican because they weren’t held accountable by Republican governments as compared to Democrat governments).
We started charging tuition for public colleges (which is already taxpayer-based) which basically became a controlling force to dramatically minimize student protests.
Republicans also went to evangelicals and asked “What’s worse, abortion or starving?” and the evangelicals said abortions and shifted to the Republicans.
Puzzle piece number 3: Local elections have been dominated by lack of voter turnout and/or lack of opposition. That is to say that the vast majority of local elections are won because voters don’t participate (I believe, but not proven, that many of the voters that do show on the local & even state level are predominantly single issue, special interest motivated) and/or the person “voted for” ran uncontested and won by default (in 2024, across all levels of government, 70% of races were uncontested).
Puzzle piece number 4: Governmental preferences for corporations at all levels (local, state, and federal) and extremely lax anti-trust practices caused significant manipulation of our political and economic system, thereby creating a kleptocracy and oligarchy.
Puzzle piece number 5: Political sentiments themselves… What exactly is American? What is unAmerican?8 We’re seeing people being treated in ways that to me, feels extremely unAmerican. The ideals of the America I love are, I believe, oriented toward a necessity for us to have a universal level of caring for others. A world where all are guaranteed universal rights and equitable opportunities. Being on this land, in this country should guarantee you certain rights.
But I am also aware of history. The actual America… has always been this way. Until the Civil Rights movement, it was very American to have a class system informed by racial and ethnic prejudices (even within the white race). It was the most American thing to rip brown people out of their homes, isolate communities that weren't white, and turn the poor whites against these other races to prevent class consciousness & collective action.
The Founding Fathers created this culture. The original Democrats (the slave owning ones) solidified it. The Robber Barons capitalized (as capitalists) on it. The Friedman CEOs (think Jack Welch) took the Robber Baron approach to the international stage.
The Gilded Age proved to be the peak of their time and the subsequent national (and global) crises forced progressive reforms amid massive losses of life, ill-equipped (and corrupt) governments, and emerging communications technologies that drove populist movements.
We are repeating that history (or rather rhyming with it).
Tense Global Backdrop
We have experienced multiple generational disasters that were directly caused by humans in such a short period of time: a global pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, Hamas-Israel war, and now a global trade war.
Alliances and relationships are being destroyed by us and will be redefined by others.
Artificial intelligence, social unrest (global rightward, xenophobic nationalist political shift likely informed by record refugee migration), and climate change chaos are further complicating humanity’s approach to existence.
It seems the peace we’ve grown used to is over. And this era feels especially similar to the dynamics of the world from the 1910s - 1930s happening all over again.
But actually was the world stable prior to Trump grabbing the globe and giving it a spin? Have Africa, South America, the Middle East, most of Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia experienced stability as we Westerners experienced it? And was the world stable when the US & USSR had their many proxy wars?
No. No. No.
We are returning to the norm. And we are paying for our sins.
The global order was peaceful for US (as in the United States specifically). We generated global peace and stability for us. So that we could have our businesses conquer the globe. So that we could maximize the resource collection at the cheapest prices. So that we could travel the world and be welcomed everywhere.
The 1960s through to the early 2010s were the exception. That era was our best attempt at multiethnic, multiracial, and secular governing while exporting our ruthless imperialism.
That was the closest we got to achieving our stated ideals and it only took raping the whole rest of the world to do it... Yet we are still unsatisfied.
As stated above, the revelation of the facade has come with the consequence that some people want to go back to life before the facade was broken. They fondly remember a time when they were more ignorant and yearn for that ignorance again.
Aside #2: Uncertainty is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump administration
Financially: I hate "wait and see" but as much as possible, that should be the default for the next few months with your financial planning. If anything, try to allocate a little more to your retirement plan.
The current winners appear to be those in the digital world. Avoiding tariffs. Unaffected by many of the government’s efficiency projects. Entirely out of the mind's eye for Trump.
I’m skeptical that the world will continue to use these digital creations of ours when we have so brutally attacked them. Why would Europe use our social media apps or watch our entertainment (which are highly profitable for us to scale up) when we deliberately attack the low profitable items they sell us?
I also expect Trump will eventually go hunting certain tech bros, but honestly have no clue how that will shape up. Bezos, Musk, Pichai, Nadella, Zuck, etc... all bent the knee much more deliberately and even kissed the ring. But Trump is a sensitive sort and I wonder if he'll question his own forgiveness at some point.
He's mad at his own tax plan. He's mad at his own trade agreements. He's mad at the courts he's significantly packed. He’s mad at the Fed Chair he appointed. He’s mad at the staff he hired in the past (I wonder if he’ll turn on those around him this time too). He's mad at programs he implemented (like Women, Peace, & Security for the DoD). He hates himself as much as he hates everyone else, and hate runs him these days.
I have this underlying expectation that Trump will claim tariff victory at some point and he has such a power to spin anything that happens / happened to his advantage.
He may even have one of his kids take a public stance semi-against him. As someone so actively praising loyalty, it would speak to his kids’ ability to separate themselves from him and carry on the Trump dynasty in earnest if they gently challenged him. But maybe I’m just grasping at straws.
There is always uncertainty, it’s just how much that is the question.
I think of the approach to (un)certainty like the Rumsfeld quote "there are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns."
When these three parts of (un)certainty change, modern humanity responds rather rapidly.
How do these changes in (un)certainty impact the real world? Let’s look at the financial markets. When those 3 categories dramatically change shape, the market climbs or crashes accordingly.
AI wasn’t a new phenomenon when it broke out as a market-wide priority in 2023 & 2024 but with a breakthrough product (ChatGPT) that could deliver better responses faster than Google Assistant or Siri, the implication created an AI “arms race”.
Trump was perceived to be a known unknown after the election results came in until he came into office. The market roared after his election because it imagined the known unknowns. Trump would maintain the TCJA (or make it slightly better for rich people & corporations). He would diminish all regulatory efforts. He would open the floodgates for big businesses to run things how they see fit.
We all knew there was going to be chaos in word but still doubted it'd be in action.
But then Trump actually worked towards following many of his crazy words. He proposed sweeping tariffs overnight. He cratered entire industries with his immediate removal of illegal immigrants9.
Trump is once again more of an unknown unknown. His chaos of word remains. But his chaos of action is more intense than we first imagined. We ponder the duration of his actions and his energy level instead of the potential for him to be reined in.
Does his base remain loyal?
So far. To them, Trump is truthful with his lies. He doesn't "pretend" to be something he isn’t (in the eyes of his supporters). To his base, he represents a deeper truth they're yearning for. A truth that basically allows his corruption, ineptitude, and self-interested hypocrisy to be a shield for him rather than a liability.
A majority of these voters distrust the whole system. They believe they’ve always been lied to. And if they’ve lived their life in a rural community, they’ve also felt entirely ignored by the broader government. Remember, many rural communities tend to rely on one major business or one industry, and globalization (which is also seen as a liberal effort, although that’s not entirely accurate) objectively left rural Americans in the dust.
The Bright Side?
How fortunate am I that the financial markets are where I primarily feel the pain (so far)?
Honestly for me all of this is likely a buying opportunity given my long time horizon and the privileges I inherently possess. I believe this chaos is also emblematic of the need for power transfer away from the Boomers and to Gen X / Millennials. The Boomers are rushing themselves to irrelevance in a last dash to return the world to something they understand (rather than further educate themselves).
At the beginning of 2025, I expected cyclical rotation rather than blanket market decline. Even in that assessment I recognized that because of how the average American is positioned, it would’ve still meant they could see 5~10% down this year.
Recently we went well past that correction and were basically in bear market territory but it has been oscillating every day… There seems to be an underlying desire to buy so maybe we can recover by year end? Seems questionable.
I also believed that the tech sector was only under temporary threat (easiest to sell your winners) but the market itself has plenty of promise. International looks attractive, especially if we get a restoration of peace (Russia-Ukraine, Hamas-Israel)…
But I wonder if the economic war will destroy / or already has destroyed that promise.
Aside #3: On the tech sector & the American economy
Expectations are high for AI, and although it is developing fast, it will not have meaningful consumer implications for another ~3 years (optimistic) / 5 years (realistic) / >8 years (pessimistic). This means we've overestimated the potential for AI and the market will be less forgiving throughout the next few quarters. The Magnificent Seven failed in their metaverse pivot and by and large will fail again. There are a lot of assumptions that they will remain in power for the next decade. I predict only one or two of the Mag 7 will remain as a pinnacle of corporate America in a decade from now.
Economic conditions have been rough for years and that hasn’t been a meaningful factor in sustaining market underperformance (that is to say that the market has persisted and valuations remain elevated), spending, or employment.
It is possible that this will finally catch up to us but some of that would be a healthy return to trend. Tariffs threaten margins and companies will want to pass it on to further preserve their margins, but will they be able to?
Let's remember that corporations have preserved or expanded their margins in recent years already during the bout of global inflation we all suffered from. Companies used inflation to their maximum advantage but have run out of rope. We have continued to see a lack of price competition (the economists and teachers lied yet again) and instead there has been price coordination. This is not sustainable. Market share laggards will divert from the pack and I believe we will finally see price competition.
I do not see most companies being able to pass tariff expenses. I see consumers getting choosier and the bankruptcy grim reaper will eventually come calling for corporations (its worth noting bankruptcies were under trend for years, and only just recently got back to trend).
And with M&A wide open, I expect that to absorb this variance in corporate outcomes. This economic backdrop actually gives me hope in the longer term10, regardless of the governing ineptitude that happens along the way.
American Exceptionalism Isn’t Dead
Yet.
We are THE global superpower (we have negotiating power that, as much as I cannot stand the person who Trump is, was shown even to our allies during his presidency the first time around. He is overstating it this time… but I think he will get more appeasement than my fellow leftists want).
We control THE global currency (even our enemies trade and back their economies with the USD).
We have the largest and most robust equities market in the world (with global demand only exponentializing).
The US still has the highest GDP of any country in the world.
The global perspective of "debt" is US-defined. The IMF is our proxy institution.
The highest percentage holder of US debt are our own citizens with varied timeframes that will not lead to our immediate end.
We have every ability to redefine the terms and many options for unique negotiations.
There is no end to the demands of the ordinary human, especially in America. We already live in the time of too much. The Millennial and Gen X generations are poised to inherit the most unfathomable level of wealth ever imagined.
Without all of the information collected in the web 2.0 era, we wouldn’t have the underlying data necessary to create meaningful AI.
Without cloud computing functionality, we wouldn’t be able to distribute data storage & computation for the most rapid response in the most resilient manner.
Without the mobile web build out, we wouldn’t have the consumer applications that drive over half (57%, as of 2024) of all retail commerce.
Without smartphone popularity, we wouldn’t have the variety of content to consume at the most affordable prices (per unit) than ever imagined.
Without all of the slowness in the web 1.0 era, we wouldn’t have invested in international communications in the way that we did.
I could go on.
What I am trying to demonstrate is that there is a zoomed out view that makes this feel perfect. Obviously it isn’t perfect. I never voted for the man who is now in charge of the nation I love. I am enraged at the unnecessary harms that will (and have) come from him. I do not like the change in direction: it is not the change we need and it is taking away the precious time we have to handle the proper set of problems.
But we are where we are. There’s nothing to be done about what was. There is even very little to be done about what is. What we must focus on is what will be because we made it so, survive as long as we can to get there, and do everything in our power to help those around us get there.
Remember, only pain gets a cure. And Trump is bringing the pain. We will cure it. It is what we do. (We suck at preventing, I suck at preventing… it’s a human condition).
Conclusion
I see pretty objective evidence of Trump’s excess corruption, his manipulative powers, and his hypocrisy.
Not to excuse the current man in change: but American history has a long record of insulating the powerful elite. And America is no stranger to bad presidents. Richard Nixon, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, James Polk, Millard Fillmore, Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, etc.. I would argue that 1/4 of our presidents are objectively bad for America, 2/4 are meh, and the final 1/4 are good for America (to varying degrees).
1/4 of American Presidents have been really bad. Historically, on so many measures, bad. Trump is on that list already. And with time it'll be clearer that he deserves to be on this list of horrible presidents.
And it is through the badness of these presidents that US has seen reform. It will again. I believe it to be so. I must (it is one of the only things that is keeping me going right now, to be honest).
Time horizons are everything. A person in retirement and dependent on social nets that are being threatened is in an entirely different boat than a 28 year old who has a solid job in a profession that is (at least currently) pretty high in demand and critical for operations, especially during economic & political turbulence.
Attacking safety nets in conjunction with cutting taxes for the rich while rapidly raising costs for the vast majority of business & consumer transactions through the implementation of broad tariffs and creating legitimacy for the most corrupt businesses & people that are feeding off of the least advantaged… is a poisoned soup that will kill many. My optimism is not ignorant of this realistic picture.
I am very disappointed, upset, and/or enraged (depends on the day) with the way our country is going. But I think its important to admit that I will likely be fine (because I am a straight, young, white, giant man that unjustly has the world move out of my way). This isn’t some humble brag, this is necessary acknowledgment of the privilege I’ve been granted through no fault of my own.
I am not an activist. I generally do not find myself to be singularly motivated enough to die on any particular hill. I imagine myself as a man who loves a dialogue. But Trump is changing me. He makes me sick.
Eagle eyed readers may notice I posted a shorter version of this list on Facebook.
Shockingly the 2024 presidential election seemed to be totally safe. So was 2016… Nothing stolen this time. Biden really did a phenomenal job restoring the integrity of the vote.
He said Kamala would crash the economy (yet he is the one doing exactly that).
Trump’s gift to America is his open corruption. He has revealed to us that the actual controls within our political system are not to the standard they need to be. Humans only reform after enough harm has been inflicted (and obviously 1. Trump supporters see him as the reformative cure and 2. There hasn’t been enough harm experienced to motivate this type of conflict-of-interest reform).
WE MADE THIS WORLD TO SERVE US! We get the upper hand of every deal. We let the extremely rich collect it all and placate us with entertainment like Netflix, give us countless digital dopamine hits from social media, and shackle us with immense debt chasing pipe dreams we’d never get to experience. They have retained their hold over us even in their age while refusing to heed the warnings about the world they’re leaving us.
That road in poor condition is a tax. The threat of medical bankruptcy is a tax. The lack of walkability in most American communities is a tax. The growing wealth inequality is a tax. We’re paying taxes one way or the other.
I think a huge problem with the America we now live in is this divide over what matters, how it matters, the order in which the things that matter get addressed, and the incentives (also disincentives) that inform how we ought to address the things that matter, and the difference in consequences as well as our understanding and experience of those consequences for acting and/or failing to act.
I’m not saying that our immigration practices were perfect, but the rashness of the reversal is like being in a car going 100 miles an hour then slamming it into a tree to get it to slow down. That’s not a correction, that’s a life ender.
I have said for a long time that I feel aligned with true conservative values. I believe myself to be a moderate but in order to be a moderate, one must counter the prevailing force. Liberalism will moderate this country. It is inevitable.
This is a lot. But so is the time in which we live. I appreciate you for reading, even in part.