Gas and TDS

As the overnight temperatures plummeted, I upped the temperature in the house and started a trickle of water as I left for Utah. Worried about not being home when the neighborhood near the river was expected to experience -30 degrees, I was willing to get the gas and water meters spinning to stave off the possibility of frozen pipes.

Returning home Sunday, the water was trickling and the house toasty. I’ve already seen one gas bill well into three figures and can’t wait to see the January damage. I expect it will not be minor. But…

Maybe Donald will send me an award certificate for using more fossil fuels this month than last, and based on his promises I fully anticipate my gas bill to be cut in half by the time the new one is mailed. I mean the new golden age started Monday at noon. We are apparently out of the American apocalypse and now there is no more crime, inflation is over, eggs are cheap, the cost of gas to get to Utah has been sliced in half so I can lose the hybrid, the convicted January 6 patriots who beat the crap out of police officers are free and pardoned. Nirvana. After this lean snow season is over it could be time to take a little beach vacation to the Gulf of America.

Look, I admittedly have dealt with bouts of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). That will happen when I cringe not at all of Donald’s policies (the Abraham Accords were actually good) but at his just plain meanness and obvious desire to control all the power instead of respect the Constitution. He is malicious, vain and great at marketing himself. I don’t mind his attempts to disrupt the system — Lord knows it could use some disruption — but geeeeezus, his demand to have every toadie not just agree with his every utterance and lie but prostrate themselves while doing so is sort of disgusting. And while I know what Donald is and accept that, it’s the enablers that are likely the bigger threat. Watching a clip of Lil’ Mike Johnson giggle at Donald making helicopter noises while threatening those who did their jobs gives me heartburn and indigestion. It gives me gas.

I stayed away from Monday’s action until after the Ohio State/ND football game. My goal for the second term is to not spin over everything Donald says but actually watch what he does. One line of action I saw from Monday in my Day-1 TDS bout could end in what the Chinese call “interesting times.” He started by saying God sent him to save a declining country. It isn’t. While the USA is flawed, it is still the richest and one of the healthiest in the world. Illegal border crossings are way down and energy production is way up. When Donald goes against the Constitution, he can tell his evangelical supporters he didn’t swear an oath on the bible to uphold the Constitution since he didn’t put his hand on the bible, he just parroted a pledge. He started the new term by issuing edicts that will certainly be challenged under the Constitution he pledged to “preserve, protect and defend.” He set up the scene so that he can claim he needs more power not currently available to make impactful reforms that were part of the “mandate.” While he won a close election, there wasn’t a mandate. He then prepared for the protests those reforms would probably ignite by labeling protestors as unpatriotic thugs and freeing the foot soldiers who last time heeded his call to try and stop a Constitutional process. I hope this is just a fevered wave of Day-1 TDS.

But it is what it is. He has freed his army of believers that invaded the US Capital to stop a peaceful transfer of power, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy by a jury. He did so not because he didn’t think the deed wasn’t done but because they did it in his name. We all watched that J6 violence with our own eyes and despite Donald’s attempt to rewrite his history, those January 6 “hostages” were violent vigilantes whose intent was to stop a Constitutional duty and some violently assaulted police officers in the process. The obvious lesson for Donald’s supporters is that they can do what they please outside the law and expect a pardon. Is that scenario really deranged? I’ll admit that in the world of whataboutism, Joe didn’t exactly set the standard of ethical pardons and so the future of partisan pardoning is set. 

The bottom line…it’s going to be a wild couple of years. Do I think the Stephen Millers and Elons want to grab more executive power at the expense of the rule of law in our country? Yup, and I think they love the vessel that has the marketing charisma to do it. 

We here at the end of the blue road are in a bit of a bubble but it doesn’t totally insulate us or absolve us of responsibility to pay attention. So, while my gas bills might go down (doubtful) and $1.50 for a gallon of gas (doubtful) will make trips to the grandkids more affordable, hopefully my TDS won’t flare up every day. Hopefully my Day-1 projection will be off the mark and I’ll just deal with indigestion and gas that, for me, comes with Donald.

—Mark Reaman