To the Editor:
A year ago …. who would have thought …
That the richest man in the world who helped elect the president with $290 million would be appointed to a bogus government agency and then walk in to real agencies with his teenage hackers with handles like “Big Balls” and fire thousands of government employees, destroying decades of institutional knowledge and dismantling agencies and parts of agencies that work on behalf of and protect American citizens.
That legal immigrants, those with misdemeanors, expired visas, or no involvement with the justice system would be kidnapped off the streets by masked “agents” and sent to places like “Alligator Alcatraz” or to third world foreign countries — with no due process and no legal representation. Or that the president would cruelly rejoice at these kidnappings and threaten to send his political “enemies” like journalists or anyone who disagrees with him there, too.
That the “Justice” Department would be cleaned out of those working for the American people and stacked with those beholden only to the president and those who cater to his whims.
That laws would be passed to give more money to the richest and take food and medical care away from those who need some help; that money Congress has already allocated for programs benefiting real (but not wealthy) people would be taken away; or that Congress with very few exceptions would really just go belly up to do the bidding of the president no matter how damaging to real people.
That cryptocurrency would be enshrined to be reimbursed first with my real money if it caused a bank run as occurred many times in 2023; or that the president would set up a crypto scheme he can use for untraceable bribes.
That the acting head of FEMA, David Richardson, would say he “didn’t know there was a hurricane season,” but FEMA is on the short list for demolition anyway.
That Russell Vought, the main author of Project 2025 — the blueprint for dismantling the U.S. government, would be in charge of the Office of Management and Budget and able to make his dreams come true and the chaos, cruelty, and corruption permanent, with all of the above rubber stamped by the supreme “court”.
No one would have believed these things a year ago — but our democracy is being systematically dismantled according to Project 2025 and a dictatorship installed instead, with citizens marching in the street to object. Let’s keep marching — truth is so much stranger than fiction.
Phyllis Jarvinen
Waynesville