One little thing you didn’t mention, and I’m from NC so I do know this, for those repairs or maintenance on her Subaru, she will pay tax on any labor done on her car, all thanks to the republican legislature that passed nickel and dime tax laws on the residents of our state after they took over in 2010.
This is the human cost of incentive structures optimized for power instead of flourishing.
Mary’s exhaustion isn’t personal failure, it’s the system working exactly as designed: concentrate wealth upward, externalize suffering downward, make survival so expensive that people have no bandwidth left to challenge the architecture.
Her husband votes MAGA while losing his manufacturing job to the same policies he supports because the algorithmic conditioning told him someone else is to blame.
The AP classes get cut, Medicaid dries up, NPR begs for funding, inhalers cost $150, and Mary does Amazon reviews at 10pm to keep the family afloat.
That’s not a bug.
That’s what societies optimizing for extraction produce. When people are this exhausted just surviving, they can’t organize, can’t resist, can’t even imagine alternatives. Which is exactly the point.
You’re right. It’s been a slow, insidious build-up interspersed with various wars and economic trauma that has obscured the cup under which the poison pea was hidden.
An excellent, distressing presentation of what we have become in the world of MAGA. I live in a household far more comfortable, with my wife and I both retired albeit severely disabled. Our kids all have good jobs, we are not at risk for housing, food or medical care. We can and do (more than some in our family know) donate to a number of groups aiding the poor, the unhoused, the medically needy. But we have the same division. One of us is unreconstructibly MAGA, finding all who disagree to be morons, mentally deranged, ignorant, uninformed (since they don't watch Faux News or do anti-social media). If we were not so aged, and so infirm, that might tear our family apart. Because the grave is close, it won't. It just makes the prospect of the grave massively more attractive for at least one of us, as the remainder of life is something that will be endured out of duty, not enjoyed.
That is what this narcissistic, proudly ignorant, semi-literate, bigoted, insecure, sexist, felonious POTUS has given us. But he could not have done it without the efforts of the morbidly rich over decades working to hollow out public education and the social safety net, and the support of tens of millions of people for whom "owning the libs" or others they dislike means more than their own economic interests, those of their families and others like them, or things like truth and justice. If we do not reverse this in November, and I write this almost every time I write a comment now, we will be another empire in the dustbin, and DESERVEDLY SO. We who oppose all the evil afoot in the land must do all that we can and more. If not, we will be as responsible for the result as those who actively support the horror of MAGA.
Exactly my experience, Roy. People ask me how can I continue to live with someone who so strongly supports a Cult leader. He is 86 years old and a disabled VIet Nam veteran and I am his Caregiver. He is fortunate to get a 100% disability benefit from the VA that he enjoys since I helped him get after the PACT Act was passed in 2022. Now those benefits are being threatened by a new Rule that changes how disabilities are rated: "The Department of Veterans Affairs implemented a new rule that stipulates that disability levels will be based on how well veterans function while on medication, instead of the underlying disability or injury itself." They already cut the Respite hours that I get as a Caregiver from 24 hours to 8 hours a week last year.
Knew they would. Some fellow Vietnam Veterans don't believe it will be done. Considering what we endured with all the lies, you would think they would know better. Defending Musk's NAZI salute as mear waving to the crowds. My fellow veterans grew up in the post WWII world, where every adult in their lives, as they grew up, fought Fascism. All of us lost family in that horror. How could they forget the rise of Hitler. That was much of what was taught and talked about. How can History be so blatantly ignored.
So true, as it was of my Dad, his brothers, and my father in law, all gone now, all of whom fought the entirety of WWII, my father in law with Patton from North Africa to the end as a corpsman, my father and his brothers in the Pacific in the Navy where my father got a Purple Heart after being blown off the top of his destroyer by a Japanese shell during the battle of Leyte Gulf, landing on the main deck and shattering both heels. My favorite uncle also served in Korea and Vietnam, retiring from the Navy as a captain. He lies in Arlington National Cemetery, his grave about 200 yards from where the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
I missed Vietnam, because I flunked my draft physical in the L.A. Induction Center thanks to my terrible eyes, having the last number called in the first year of the draft lottery. But coming from a military family, though I utterly opposed the war and had studied it deeply,I would have gone. Because so many other poor kids like me who weren't white had to go. I would not have survived; besides my bad eyes, I was 6'6" and totally uncoordinated. I had high school classmates who did go, and did not return. So I am a major veteran supporter, as is my wife, and we donate to various veteran groups. A pittance compared to what the administration whose leader calls you "suckers and losers" and who had a doctor lie to create fake bone spurs to avoid service is cutting from veteran support in all areas.
We have to steel ourselves to do what is right even with family issues. It's a tough line to walk. I try to avoid talking politics, and never let on what my donations are. Since I handle the family finances, I needn't worry. Unfortunately, there are some MAGA donations in there too. Luckily trivial. But painful when I see them.
We have a wonderful grandcson. For him and his generation here arnd around the world, we have to fight against the fascists. Like you did, and our parents did. No matter how hard, how tedious. I
Dad was a WWII vet, a captain in the Battle of the Bulge, very against McCarthy and very against the Vietnam War. But never against the veterans. It was the isms he was against—fascism, racism, sexism. My husband had 3 brothers and one sister, one brother on disability, but his oldest brother turned maga. The disagreements he caused, the unhappiness he caused, caused him to be banned from any family get-togethers. It was sad, but a relief at the same time. My sister in law was the one who had the best paying job so she coordinated things but having an older brother as maga and a disabled younger brother has really torn her heart tho she rarely admits it. Maga has made, blindly intentional, some very bad feelings in the family and acceptance and self-esteem issues for the disabled family member. I am a retired RN who worked with mentally ill and home bound patients, and while the rest of us are doing ok and have supported each other, it is the brother who is maga who is living in poverty and has alienated his family so badly that now they don’t even try to help him out anymore. My husband passed away about 2 years after I retired, and my sister in law and I check in with each other frequently. For us, it’s not the expenses that make living difficult, it’s the loss of a living family member completely to maga.
a cousin i never met died in france during ww2. my daddy and uncle served bravely. daddy was awarded the bronze star. my uncle served with general patton all through the war. i have a photo of them on my dining room wall. i am so ashamed of where our nation is now, even though i did nothing to bring it to this point.
Although this is fiction, it is entirely believable because you have covered so much of what ails our Nation today. For me, it is the Trump effect on my family causing endless arguments with my Trump loving and Fox watching husband. Trump relishes the cruel fact that he has deeply split families, married couples and friends with his terrible social media posts, his AI videos, and his speeches and his imperial edicts (Executive Orders). He doesn't care about his divisive effect on Congress and our national politics or that Americans are constantly worried and fighting with each other. He laughs at the suckers who care about laws, decorum, and democratic discourse as he fleeces our treasury.
Adam, I have been drawing Social Security since January 3, 2014. My wife was losing her fight with cancer and we were just barely making it as I had to retire early at 62 to become a full time caregiver for her. So I didn't have a bank account and had to receive my Social Security on a Direct Express card.
Comerica Bank has been the one doing this job for the government, disbursement of funds to Americans. Late Tuesday my card which was a new one, was suddenly invalid. I had $68.46 left of my Social Security that is on that card.
Comerica Bank has been having lots of problems. They merged with a new bank on February 2nd of this year. I was on hold with them for hours yesterday. Direct Express customer service is down. I will try to contact the new bank to see if they will be sending out new cards to people and will make good on the Social Security funds that are due the people.
I am one of millions that are having this problem right now. We can't make it if we can't draw our Social Security.
Thanks Adam: So well scripted. A regular day in America Dad bought the MAGA mix and the son is questioning things. That part got to me. Its like a divided family,
Thank-you for putting a realistic face on what is happening to so many of us. I hope this gets shared far & wide. Perhaps consider a YouTube of it to up the distribution. Your efforts are amazing & appreciated. Respectfully, c
Ok Adam! I'm exhausted for "Mary" and all the families struggling through each day of trump's Make America Great Again for billionaires. Great job of painting what I don't have to live with or see each day. I'm trying to help where ever I can though. I truly mean this, but my 2 battles with cancer were far easier than for poor Mary. Bless you for caring about all Americans in writing this story and may our future leaders care as much as you do!! God bless you and everyone!🙏🏻
Thank you for the article, Adam . Trump wants to rig these elections. If he can’t gerrymander then he wants to nationalize the voting. I am expecting a war with Iran! I have a voter’s id card, that is required by this state.
One little thing you didn’t mention, and I’m from NC so I do know this, for those repairs or maintenance on her Subaru, she will pay tax on any labor done on her car, all thanks to the republican legislature that passed nickel and dime tax laws on the residents of our state after they took over in 2010.
This is the human cost of incentive structures optimized for power instead of flourishing.
Mary’s exhaustion isn’t personal failure, it’s the system working exactly as designed: concentrate wealth upward, externalize suffering downward, make survival so expensive that people have no bandwidth left to challenge the architecture.
Her husband votes MAGA while losing his manufacturing job to the same policies he supports because the algorithmic conditioning told him someone else is to blame.
The AP classes get cut, Medicaid dries up, NPR begs for funding, inhalers cost $150, and Mary does Amazon reviews at 10pm to keep the family afloat.
That’s not a bug.
That’s what societies optimizing for extraction produce. When people are this exhausted just surviving, they can’t organize, can’t resist, can’t even imagine alternatives. Which is exactly the point.
—Johan
Sadly this is true.
You’re right. It’s been a slow, insidious build-up interspersed with various wars and economic trauma that has obscured the cup under which the poison pea was hidden.
Sounds like a typical day for millions of Americans these days.
Yes
An excellent, distressing presentation of what we have become in the world of MAGA. I live in a household far more comfortable, with my wife and I both retired albeit severely disabled. Our kids all have good jobs, we are not at risk for housing, food or medical care. We can and do (more than some in our family know) donate to a number of groups aiding the poor, the unhoused, the medically needy. But we have the same division. One of us is unreconstructibly MAGA, finding all who disagree to be morons, mentally deranged, ignorant, uninformed (since they don't watch Faux News or do anti-social media). If we were not so aged, and so infirm, that might tear our family apart. Because the grave is close, it won't. It just makes the prospect of the grave massively more attractive for at least one of us, as the remainder of life is something that will be endured out of duty, not enjoyed.
That is what this narcissistic, proudly ignorant, semi-literate, bigoted, insecure, sexist, felonious POTUS has given us. But he could not have done it without the efforts of the morbidly rich over decades working to hollow out public education and the social safety net, and the support of tens of millions of people for whom "owning the libs" or others they dislike means more than their own economic interests, those of their families and others like them, or things like truth and justice. If we do not reverse this in November, and I write this almost every time I write a comment now, we will be another empire in the dustbin, and DESERVEDLY SO. We who oppose all the evil afoot in the land must do all that we can and more. If not, we will be as responsible for the result as those who actively support the horror of MAGA.
Exactly my experience, Roy. People ask me how can I continue to live with someone who so strongly supports a Cult leader. He is 86 years old and a disabled VIet Nam veteran and I am his Caregiver. He is fortunate to get a 100% disability benefit from the VA that he enjoys since I helped him get after the PACT Act was passed in 2022. Now those benefits are being threatened by a new Rule that changes how disabilities are rated: "The Department of Veterans Affairs implemented a new rule that stipulates that disability levels will be based on how well veterans function while on medication, instead of the underlying disability or injury itself." They already cut the Respite hours that I get as a Caregiver from 24 hours to 8 hours a week last year.
Knew they would. Some fellow Vietnam Veterans don't believe it will be done. Considering what we endured with all the lies, you would think they would know better. Defending Musk's NAZI salute as mear waving to the crowds. My fellow veterans grew up in the post WWII world, where every adult in their lives, as they grew up, fought Fascism. All of us lost family in that horror. How could they forget the rise of Hitler. That was much of what was taught and talked about. How can History be so blatantly ignored.
So true, as it was of my Dad, his brothers, and my father in law, all gone now, all of whom fought the entirety of WWII, my father in law with Patton from North Africa to the end as a corpsman, my father and his brothers in the Pacific in the Navy where my father got a Purple Heart after being blown off the top of his destroyer by a Japanese shell during the battle of Leyte Gulf, landing on the main deck and shattering both heels. My favorite uncle also served in Korea and Vietnam, retiring from the Navy as a captain. He lies in Arlington National Cemetery, his grave about 200 yards from where the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
I missed Vietnam, because I flunked my draft physical in the L.A. Induction Center thanks to my terrible eyes, having the last number called in the first year of the draft lottery. But coming from a military family, though I utterly opposed the war and had studied it deeply,I would have gone. Because so many other poor kids like me who weren't white had to go. I would not have survived; besides my bad eyes, I was 6'6" and totally uncoordinated. I had high school classmates who did go, and did not return. So I am a major veteran supporter, as is my wife, and we donate to various veteran groups. A pittance compared to what the administration whose leader calls you "suckers and losers" and who had a doctor lie to create fake bone spurs to avoid service is cutting from veteran support in all areas.
We have to steel ourselves to do what is right even with family issues. It's a tough line to walk. I try to avoid talking politics, and never let on what my donations are. Since I handle the family finances, I needn't worry. Unfortunately, there are some MAGA donations in there too. Luckily trivial. But painful when I see them.
We have a wonderful grandcson. For him and his generation here arnd around the world, we have to fight against the fascists. Like you did, and our parents did. No matter how hard, how tedious. I
Dad was a WWII vet, a captain in the Battle of the Bulge, very against McCarthy and very against the Vietnam War. But never against the veterans. It was the isms he was against—fascism, racism, sexism. My husband had 3 brothers and one sister, one brother on disability, but his oldest brother turned maga. The disagreements he caused, the unhappiness he caused, caused him to be banned from any family get-togethers. It was sad, but a relief at the same time. My sister in law was the one who had the best paying job so she coordinated things but having an older brother as maga and a disabled younger brother has really torn her heart tho she rarely admits it. Maga has made, blindly intentional, some very bad feelings in the family and acceptance and self-esteem issues for the disabled family member. I am a retired RN who worked with mentally ill and home bound patients, and while the rest of us are doing ok and have supported each other, it is the brother who is maga who is living in poverty and has alienated his family so badly that now they don’t even try to help him out anymore. My husband passed away about 2 years after I retired, and my sister in law and I check in with each other frequently. For us, it’s not the expenses that make living difficult, it’s the loss of a living family member completely to maga.
thanks so much for expressing what i also wonder daily.
Yes, JW I grew up under the same. How can we forget Hitler. My three uncles the sons of immigrants were on those beaches.
At 80 and retired, I donate what I can and attend protests.
a cousin i never met died in france during ww2. my daddy and uncle served bravely. daddy was awarded the bronze star. my uncle served with general patton all through the war. i have a photo of them on my dining room wall. i am so ashamed of where our nation is now, even though i did nothing to bring it to this point.
Although this is fiction, it is entirely believable because you have covered so much of what ails our Nation today. For me, it is the Trump effect on my family causing endless arguments with my Trump loving and Fox watching husband. Trump relishes the cruel fact that he has deeply split families, married couples and friends with his terrible social media posts, his AI videos, and his speeches and his imperial edicts (Executive Orders). He doesn't care about his divisive effect on Congress and our national politics or that Americans are constantly worried and fighting with each other. He laughs at the suckers who care about laws, decorum, and democratic discourse as he fleeces our treasury.
Keep these great posts coming, Adam. You’re a true mensch!
People need to understand what others have to do to manage their lives .
It’s almost to a point where having a family is unaffordable.
We are better than this!
We were better than this before Trump and under Biden. Trump second term is killing us.
Adam, I have been drawing Social Security since January 3, 2014. My wife was losing her fight with cancer and we were just barely making it as I had to retire early at 62 to become a full time caregiver for her. So I didn't have a bank account and had to receive my Social Security on a Direct Express card.
Comerica Bank has been the one doing this job for the government, disbursement of funds to Americans. Late Tuesday my card which was a new one, was suddenly invalid. I had $68.46 left of my Social Security that is on that card.
Comerica Bank has been having lots of problems. They merged with a new bank on February 2nd of this year. I was on hold with them for hours yesterday. Direct Express customer service is down. I will try to contact the new bank to see if they will be sending out new cards to people and will make good on the Social Security funds that are due the people.
I am one of millions that are having this problem right now. We can't make it if we can't draw our Social Security.
So sorry Darrell for what you are going through.🙏🏻
🙏🙏🙏
I’m in tears…but this is reality. Hope Ed Sr sees the light before the midterms
Thanks Adam: So well scripted. A regular day in America Dad bought the MAGA mix and the son is questioning things. That part got to me. Its like a divided family,
It IS a divided family.
Thanks Pat: Correct .
Thank-you for putting a realistic face on what is happening to so many of us. I hope this gets shared far & wide. Perhaps consider a YouTube of it to up the distribution. Your efforts are amazing & appreciated. Respectfully, c
i couldn't agree more.
Well done. This story really drives home the effect of the Trump administration on everyday life.
It’s so sad… I doesn’t HAVE to be like this!
Thanks Adam. Hope America is waking up because this is depressing to be seen as a typical day for anyone in the USA.
Ok Adam! I'm exhausted for "Mary" and all the families struggling through each day of trump's Make America Great Again for billionaires. Great job of painting what I don't have to live with or see each day. I'm trying to help where ever I can though. I truly mean this, but my 2 battles with cancer were far easier than for poor Mary. Bless you for caring about all Americans in writing this story and may our future leaders care as much as you do!! God bless you and everyone!🙏🏻
Thank you Adam
Thank you for the article, Adam . Trump wants to rig these elections. If he can’t gerrymander then he wants to nationalize the voting. I am expecting a war with Iran! I have a voter’s id card, that is required by this state.