We listen to, read and watch a constant stream of deeply disturbing events that this lawless regime is deliberately imposing on us to wear down our resolve and discourage dissent. The level of mental anxiety and exhaustion grows by the day as we are faced with an ever increasing intensity of cruelty and injustice. It’s all part of the plan to break our will and silence us. It is vitally important to understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. The defeat of tyranny comes at a huge mental cost, and it’s important that we know when to take a mental time out.
A voice that often comes to mind when I think of a calming influence is Lori Corbet Mann, whom I connected with early in my journey here on Substack. I find that the pieces she writes are not only calming and informative, but also reflect the kind soul she is. If you’re reaching overload, I’d direct you to a piece Lori wrote entitled, “The Secret to Staying Oriented and Avoiding Overwhelm”.
As someone in the trenches every day, often spending hours researching and prosecuting the case against the monster crime boss leading a transnational extortion gang from the Oval Office, I want to assure you that I, too, feel levels of stress and mental anxiety I’ve rarely experienced before. It can manifest in so many different ways, and no two people are the same when it comes to recognising and dealing with it. From making you feel physically sick, to mental disorientation and insomnia. It’s also not unusual to experience mood swings and the need to seek refuge in a dark room.
I am blessed to have had the love of my life in my corner for 46 years, a soulmate who recognises the symptoms, makes a cup of tea, opens a packet of biscuits and sits with me, as she closes my laptop, takes away my phone, and says ‘Let’s talk about it’. She understands and supports the passion I have for my work, and NEVER makes an issue of how I feel in the moment she decides to intervene to protect me from myself. She’s always maintained that if you are hurting outwardly, then that’s the overflow of internalised mental distress spilling out. You have to know when to switch off and retreat to something you love doing.
It’s about indulging in a mental sorbet as an emotional palate cleanser. For me its music and walking in the countryside to appreciate the wonders of nature. I dare say in my younger days, I might have indulged in more reckless escapes, but as I begin the long and winding path to the departure lounge, my escape needs are a little less demanding. I’m looking forward to spring and a chance to enjoy the wonders of new life in the garden with thoughts of warmer, longer days to bathe in the hope that summer so often brings after a cold, dark winter. I’m hoping this year will prove to be a metaphor for better things to come.
What I’m trying to say, is that you need energy to fuel the fight for social justice and the belief in your ability to help deliver a better tomorrow. You can only get that fuel by stepping away from the chaos of the political battlefield. I can tell you from personal experience that you fight better with a full tank to power your engagement.
I wanted to take a break from preaching today (at least for a paragraph or two) and connect with you, as a reader, to share some feelings about this fight for what is fast becoming the soul of not just America but the world. You’re not going to find links to research and the political arguments for what I speak of in this collective fight for survival; it’s just me and you sharing a moment to appreciate the fact that while we have never met, we are joined in a common mission to be part of history in our unceasing efforts to create a more equitable society in which everyone has a fair chance to succeed. It’s something that you and I can be proud of together. Something we can tell our grandchildren we achieved when they ask, ‘What did you do to save democracy?”
I regard myself as a thinker, not a fighter. Always remember, the pen is mightier than the sword, not that the pen is much use if you have a gun pointing at your head, of course. Trump is a man who has torn up the rulebook and is on a mission to redefine the world in his own repulsive image. Let’s be honest, not all of this is on Trump; He’s just a symptom of a cancer that has always existed in society.
Don’t think I’m pointing the finger, because, to a lesser degree, we have seen the same creeping, malignant societal disease in the UK and Europe too. Greed is at the root of it all and is part of the human condition. It’s what results in many becoming addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling and social media, punctuated by a willingness to step on others. It’s in our DNA. Our tribal instincts are what have led us to this moment. We are a ‘pick a side’ species at our very core, but Trump has learned how to weaponise our worst instincts in order to enrich himself and his friends. Millions have become powerless to his lie-induced hypnosis, to the point of voting against their own best interests.
It’s long been a standing joke in Europe that Americans are an arrogant, self-obsessed nation of legends in their own lunch hour. For all the criticism and obsession the US has had over the decades with communism and Marxism, it has itself operated one of the most effective indoctrination models in history, to convince its population that America is the greatest nation on earth and social responsibility is communism, asserting that nobody does anything better than the USA, USA, USA.
The fact that many Americans have not ventured beyond their own town, let alone their own country, and 54% of the population has a literacy level at or below sixth grade, is, frankly, an indictment, not a celebration of American achievement. The absurd statements made on social media, fueled by white nationalist narcotics, suggesting America can take what it wants and nobody can stop it, fly in the face of the fact that the US has NEVER won a war on its own, including the war of independence.
It’s worth reminding people that much of America’s wealth came from heavy manufacturing boosted by the consequences of the Second World War and the reconstruction of Europe; just as China is now the manufacturing capital of the world, the US once filled that role, providing materials for Europe's reconstruction. The war never touched American cities, so the economy was never hindered by the need to reconstruct. It simply built factories to meet the seemingly never-ending demand for materials to reconstruct countries devastated by the Nazi war machine. It’s also worthy of note that had Japan not bombed Pearl Harbour, the US would likely not have entered the war at all. Isolationism is not a new American trait.
The US was the biggest economic beneficiary of World War II. It emerged from the war as the world’s most dominant industrial, financial, and military power. Growth ended the Great Depression and reduced unemployment to 1.2%. The Bretton Woods system saw the US dollar emerge as the world’s reserve currency. The UK didn’t pay the final instalment of $83 billion on the $3.75 billion lend-lease loan from 1945 until 2006. The key point is that the US forged ahead of Europe not because it was better, but because Europe lay in ruins after the war, creating huge economic opportunities.
Many Western democracies have become exceedingly wealthy from the suffering of others, none more so than the UK, which at the height of its Empire owned 25% of the world's landmass. The US got an economic jump on Europe for no other reason than European business had to dust itself off and rebuild from the wasteland left behind by Nazi Germany. The arrogance I spoke of earlier was never more on display than in Trump’s absurd statement that the US invented everything. I won’t bore you with a long list of British inventions, but if you are interested, you can check out the Interesting Engineering site.
Rest assured, the seven wonders of the world were not built by a casino in Vegas; they were built by cultures that long predate the adventures of the founding fathers in stealing land from the indigenous population and committing genocide to deliver the American experiment. While Trump seems obsessed with decorating buildings to look like jaded brothels. Class has a whole different meaning in Europe. From the couture world of Paris to the Italian artistic supremacy of Michelangelo and the architectural mastery of Ictinus, architect of the Parthenon, European culture is woven into every corner of the continent and remains the envy of the world. While Trump loves to imitate in his fairytale world, the work of European masters still defines the gold standard for cultural excellence after centuries.
His attitude reflects the American ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ exceptionalism that sounds great in political soundbites, but always falls short in reality. The US economy is currently a turd rolled in glitter, part of a fabricated alternative reality in which it’s assumed the US has already won the AI race, when in reality, China is simply biding its time and using an open source strategy, and decades-ahead energy infrastructure, in preparation to deliver a killer economic blow when the opportunity arises. If you take AI out of the equation, US growth is far from robust, relying almost entirely on consumer spending. This, while burdened by $38.4 trillion in debt and a limited appetite among foreign investors to buy more. Trump’s whole economic agenda is a fairytale. Even his precious tariffs only generate enough revenue to service 28% of INTEREST on the national debt.
While Trump, Vance and their cabal of sycophants speak of ‘European cultural erasure’, I suppose the question I have is this: The US came out of the Second World War with the greatest economic head start of ANY of its competitors. China was a nation of peasant farmers; Europe and much of the rest of the world were handicapped by the need for massive infrastructure reconstruction. However, in 2025, in excess of 36 million of the US population live in poverty with an illiteracy rate of 21%. Meanwhile, China eradicated absolute poverty for 800 million of its population from a standing start in just 40 years. European citizens benefit from Healthcare as a human right, low-cost and often free education, low-cost child care and paid family leave. Indeed, in Nordic countries, the benefits are even greater, so why would Greenland want to abandon this for Trump’s 30 pieces of silver? What went wrong in the United States of America, pray tell?
Let me help you with that. GREED took over, enabled by the puppet governments of corporate America and the oligarchs. As ever, those who picked up the tab for their reckless behaviour are the bottom 90%, with the bottom 50% and the most vulnerable paying the highest price of all. Let me assure you, Trump’s global bully boy tactics WILL end in tears. My biggest fear listening to Senate Democrat leadership yesterday is not Trump, it’s that all that will be left to deliver a forward-thinking vision in the US Senate will be a bunch of out-of-touch establishment fossils who are deluding themselves into thinking voters trust them. If the Democratic base is comfortable with that, then America is destined to reap what it sows, I’m afraid.
thank you. people need to hear this. give yourself breaks if you need to and have a moment where you can afford to, let yourself breathe and then come back and keep at it.
also on the complacent Democrats, make sure to call and write your representative every day. at this point I'm just calling my senators every day telling them to bully Chuck Schumer
I am having a very difficult time with the destruction of our government, society, and world. This post pulled me back from the edge, for today.