Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Hellscape

Luminous and Ashen, 7th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): "Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!” the president-elect claimed last week on social media. But as Peter Baker pointed out in the New York Times a few days ago, by most traditional metrics, America is actually in better shape than at any time since 2001 ("Great," the online cynics noted, "On the last month of his Presidency, the Times finally reports that Biden actually did a pretty good job!").

For the first time in 24 years, no American troops are at war overseas. Murders are down, illegal immigration at the southern border has fallen to even below the level when Trump left office in 2020, and the stock market finished its best two years since Y2K. The economy is growing, jobs are up, wages are rising, and unemployment is as low as it was before the covids. Domestic energy production is higher than it has ever been. 

Not to sound like Steven Pinker, but the manufacturing sector has more jobs than under any president since Bush the Younger, and drug overdoses have fallen for the first time in years. Even inflation has returned closer to normal, although prices still remain higher than they were four years ago.

Trump's dark vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats simply does not reflect reality. 

We've completed out first week of Childwinter yesterday. Weeks in my New Revised Universal Solar Calendar are six-days long, and the days are named alphabetically for stars: Atlas, Betelgeuse, Castor, Deneb, Electra, and Helios. The F- and G- are skipped so we can name the final, triumphant day of the week for our star, the Sun. Today is the second Atlas of the year 525 of the Modern Era.

I got my second walk of 525 in today, despite the cold (34° F when I started), despite a trip to the supermarket, and despite a 3:15 doctor's appointment (I'm fine, just a routine follow-up). In other words, every excuse to just bag it, but I got 6.0 miles in anyway. My phone measured the exact same route as 6.9 miles on Sunday, and 7.7 miles last month, but the Earth continues to contract, I guess.  


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