Location: US Intermountain West, solid MAGA territory

Went for a walk the other day. Wife and I might have been the only people actually looking up and around instead of straight down at a phone. I’m surprised I don’t see pedestrians physically colliding more often. Passing motorists also, more often than not, were looking straight down at their laps instead of at the road. The roads were congested with cars sitting directly in front of “NO PARKING” signs, occupied with drivers and passengers staring at their phones. Walkways are littered with dog shit and empty beer containers.

It’s like the second half of Wall-E, minus the floating Rascals and cleaning robots.

All the Trump flags have gone down since the election, but not because of shame. I think they just don’t feel the need to get vocal anymore. They’re comfortable now, having thoroughly owned the libs, and knowing that 85% of this place voted for the New Gilded Age.

Our desert aquifers continue to empty. Most houses have lush, water-logged, even mushroomed bluegrass lawns. Domed up, to roll off excess water pumped up from the ground, fertilizer and all, into the storm drains and down river. We don’t even have meters. It’s all free.

Federal dollars fund the largest employer in the region–bigger than the second largest by a factor of five. Trump could send this whole region into anarchy overnight with a stroke of his pen, or more likely, DOGE pulling the wrong Jenga block.

Looking forward to seeing the spring and summer flowers, not just in my yard, but around town. I’m pretty sure I and the local birds are single-handedly re-seeding the town with native flowers that were wiped out.

Location: Germany

For me it’s the shift to the right in culture and politics that is making me anxious. It not just the US. In Europe there are several countries that have been shifting towards the far right. France, Germany, Netherlands, Finnland, Sweden, Italy… and more. It’s a matter of time untill one of the major player, either France or Germany, will have a right wing government. In both countries the current government has failed and on both countries the main reason has been right wing propaganda doing it’s work.

This will habe some consequences on many levels, climate deniers beeing in charge and not only stopping, but working against the progress the world has achieved beeing one of them.

You can feel it in the people too, here. It feels like people are staring to dial back on the progressive ideas they express on public. It’s going to be harsh world our there for us, who are not amongst the majority.