Not my word for it, but Heather Cox Richardson’s.
Nor was it an “it” that Richardson was describing, but rather that always-present him—Donald Trump. The fact that a respected scholar and the quintessential measured voice has no other word for the president of the United States (and formerly leader of the free world—remember that?) was jarring. That she thinks it will get worse is horrifying, but inescapably true.
Before I tell you about Richardson, let’s just outline what’s going on in the world today, 15 July 2026.
1. The war in Iran continues, as it has for the last 4 or 5 months, despite the alleged “Memo of Understanding, (MOU)” that was to lead to peace talks last month. In fact, a couple of days ago, the president said the MOU was kaput, Iran is controlling the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is bombing Iran cities and infrastructure, and has just submitted a second notification to Congress, as required under the War Powers Act. The war violates all international law, and…
2. …so there is now a push to eliminate the World Court by Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State. Smart move, since everyone who is complicit with Trump will be investigated, if any sort of normalcy returns to the world.
3. ICE continues to kill people in traffic stops—this time a guy in Houston and a legal immigrant from Colombia in Biddeford, Maine. Maine happens to be where the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee (which funds ICE), Susan Collins, lives and (putatively) represents. The last anybody saw of Collins, she was being roasted in a ribbon-cutting ceremony by her constituents, who were shouting “SHAME!” constantly. She is a disgrace to the seat she holds, which once graced Margaret Chase Smith.
4. ICE is now claiming that the Maine shooting was necessary, since the agent claimed that the Colombian guy had “weaponized his vehicle,” and the agent feared for public safety.
5. (Translation of item 4 for those unversed in Totalitarianism: driving a car if you’re brown is illegal, since you are dangerous by birth and will turn your car into a speeding behemoth plunging into a crowd. For that reason, you have to be sent to a…
6. … concentration camp, of which we have over 200. These are almost always built by the prison “industry,” which tend to be controlled by rich guys who like Trump. They should—he’s providing a wonderful income stream from poor immigrants who have NO access to the US court system, who can be detained indefinitely in subhuman conditions, and have essentially been “disappeared.” Richardson, by the way, foresaw the pearl-clutching that would follow her use of the word “concentration camp,” by crisply pointing out that the term simply meant a place where people are concentrated. It’s one step down from an extermination camp, if that’s any consolation. That, along with the fact that…
7. …we are only in authoritarianism, not totalitarianism (fortunately, I don’t have to capitalize these awful words). Good news, maybe—in authoritarianism, I just have to do what the Dear Leader says, I don’t have to believe it. In totalitarianism, I have to believe that…
8. …the 2020 election was stolen! Yes, and Trump has new “evidence” to prove it, which he will reveal tomorrow night in a major address to the nation. Fortunately, he has the SAVE act, which will effectively make it impossible for married women and trans people to vote. Which means that the mid-term elections in less than four months are in real jeopardy, since there is no way that Trump could win legitimately. So we have that to worry about, as well as the fact that…
9. …we have run through our reserves of oil, which was the only thing that has kept gas prices from truly skyrocketing, in the way that German inflation was out of control just before World War II. That, and who knew that…
10.…25% of the fertilizer we need to grow the “food” that we eat comes through the Strait of Hormuz. So what food there is is gonna be very expensive, though none of us need to worry, since…
11.…the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C., has been drained, once again, and will be painted with the same stuff by the same company that made the original mess under a highly profitable and non-public contract. A third of the White House is gone, the south lawn is still ripped up after Trump’s July 4th event, the All-American State Fair was an utter failure, and it’s clear that we will be suffering the inevitable…
12.…corruption and shoddy work that comes from an authoritarian ruler. The only question is whether it’s a good thing or a bad, this inability to run even the Roman Circus in some reasonable manner. But honestly, can any distraction disrupt the true corruption, which is…
13.…that Trump and his family have engorged themselves with real estate deals in the Middle East, cryptocurrency deals, market manipulation by timing sales / buys to current events. Good to know he can do it, since nothing else about Trump suggests that he’s at all cogent or thinking linearly. He’s falling asleep everywhere, staying up all night reposting deeply-worrisome nonsense on “Truth Social,” unable to recognize world leaders or to get himself seated in the right delegation of G7 leaders. Which means that…
14. …we’re right back to the Nixon years, when our president was getting sloshed every night, abusing his wife physically and emotionally, and stumbling through the White House delivering maudlin, drunken speeches / excuses in front of the oil portraits of his predecessors. Pat Nixon, presumably, was asleep in bed at the time, but who knows where Melania (Trump’s wife) is, since she only drops in when she has to (birthdays, Fourth of July, etc.) This means that Trump is completely nuts, deteriorating fast, and nobody is around to monitor, much less stop, him. Not that Melania may be the best choice, since…
15. …look, I hate to shame the victim, even if the victim has done very, very well for herself. Melania was a beautiful girl from a repressive and poor country who came to the US and was one of the “models” surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. I don’t know what she did, or had to do, to survive—but the “artful” pornography of seeing her in handcuffs and half naked in Trump’s private jet told the story. She’s not a lady you take home to mother, or at least to my mother, who would be horrified to know…
16. …that the essential fabric of American society has been ripped up and burned. I don’t trust anybody anymore, and that trust means that I go from sleepless nights wondering what will happen to Social Security to mornings where I sit with drunks in a room discussing God. These people think I’m crazy, which is true, and irretrievably lost in my rabbit hole. I am, of course, but I also would like a government that has weathermen who have access to buoys which can measure water temperature and atmospheric conditions, since it is blazingly hot here in Puerto Rico, and we’re in hurricane season. But Trump and Elon Musk have slashed all of those services, as well as funding for a whole host of necessary things like getting the sea lampreys out of the Great Lakes or taking care of Ebola outbreaks. We had basic trust in each other, even after the 60’s and Vietnam. We could agree on shit, like getting the eels out of the lakes, or reducing our reliance on foreign oil. Now, we can’t, and every gringo I meet carries an unseen burden: prove to me that you’re not a Trump supporter. If you’re wearing any religious paraphernalia, like a hajib or a crucifix around your neck, you’re my enemy.
17. …Punto! Which means that…
18. …the one defining and valuable thing about the American Experiment (as my High School History text titled itself) is finished. Good will is lost, and if I loved truth, good will was infinitely more…precious? Important? Or maybe just…
19. …comfortable. Easy. Sane. We will get rid of Trump, but we will also never get back what we had—a sense of trust and belief in the better nature of our fellows. Sorry, but we’re all enemies here, not brothers, which means that we’re all…
20. …alone. We have our tribes, perhaps, but those too will prove illusive. If I can’t trust my deepest enemy, my closest friend is worthless.
Did I mention that the cat died?
