Reflecting on this moment

We are all just guessing what's next but I am not going anywhere

Here we go

As I write this Donald J. Trump has begun his journey to being sworn in and, if reports are accurate, a flurry of executive actions and moves. Those actions will fulfill many of his darkest campaign promises and many that were never mentioned anywhere but the over 900-page Project 2025 plan.

We have already heard about announcing a National Emergency at the border and deploying the military to “seal the border.” Others will enact his promised tariffs and the Bizarro World newly announced “External Revenue Service” to collect the windfalls of money he thinks the government gets from those fees.

I sat on the couch last night with our puppy asleep at my feet, my brilliant fiance patiently watching the Bills-Rams game, and sipping a glass of quality Sonoma valley wine and contemplated the moment.

We have a good life.

I’m not letting these bastards make me give that up. I’m not going anywhere.

What to expect

That’s not saying I don’t expect challenges and things that will directly target my family and I. I fully expect MAGA acolytes to try and come after us. I was doxxed at least three times in the last year, had a suspicious vehicle parked idling in front of my house twice, and am still being sued by Mike Flynn after a year of getting nowhere.

You could make a pretty strong case that I am on someone’s list.

It is what it is.

A good friend called me after the election and he said he had talked to an attorney colleague and they recommended that the smartest thing I can do is “go quiet.” I responded, ”You’ve met me, right?”

Anyone who knows me knows I really suck at being quiet. My poor father learned it in the early 1970’s. He was inspired to take me on an east coast patriotic tour for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. We drove from St. Louis to Washington D.C., on to New York, and into Maine to visit family there.

We probably got into Illinois before he wanted to murder me for reading EVERY SINGLE SIGN OUT LOUD. He was a patient man I guess. Either way the point is that I have never been a be quiet guy.

Why start now?

So what’s next?

None of us really know do we? We have clues and they are not great. But, in the end the answer is simple we keep going. We keep moving forward.

There is an old saying often attributed to Winston Churchill but there isn’t evidence he ever actually said it. It’s very simple.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

So, we will keep going. We will keep calling out the outrages. We will use our voices, platforms, networks, money, blood, sweat, and tears to fight back against the destruction of our nation.

Then we will keep doing it.

That’s my plan. In the meantime we are going to go up to our favorite spot on the Mississippi River where hundreds of bald eagles winter and see some of them in action, grab a good lunch, and tune out the insanity for a bit while observing Martin Luther King Day.

A mature and immature bald eagle sit on ice in the Mississippi River (via Missouri Department of Conservation)

It’s an annual trek we love taking to escape the noise and see these magnificent creatures where they gather right here in our home state.

It’s also far from the television.

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