Change is in the air. Heck, I only have to call out Russia this time for their continued douchebaggery, since Israel and Hamas have got a ceasefire in place, with hostages getting released and everything. Between that and Syria's recent changes (which, funnily enough, isn't getting a lot of press coverage here in the U.S., and I haven't heard anything about us lifting any sanctions on them or anything like that), I'd normally say that things are looking up a bit. Of course, that would ignore what's coming down the pipe tomorrow.
Tomorrow, of course, being, among other things, the re-inauguration of Trump, the once-and-future president. Sure, he's been credibly shown to have tried to hijack the last election, and he's been convicted of felonies in the meantime (no thanks to the previous head of the Department of Justice there), but the stupid, stupid people have spoken. Starting tomorrow, the loony wing of the Republican party and their enablers, the rest of the Republican party, will have some measure of control over all three branches of the federal government. Here's hoping they don't manage to do anything to corrupt or eliminate future elections entirely.
Of course, one thing that will complicate their plans is a good crisis or two. Right out of the starting blocks, they've got one (for certain values of "crisis", I suppose), and it's of their own making! Namely, TikTok showed more integrity than they all expected, and, after the Supreme Court told them that the law trying to force them to sell out on supposed "national security" concerns was constitutional, TikTok took everybody at their word and shut down U.S. access to their systems. Now, they've got a bunch of angry people on their hands, Biden says he's not enforcing the law, and Trump is making noises about using executive orders to bring TikTok back. Simply put, this isn't what you expect from the success of a well thought-out response to a national security threat. Me, I've never been on TikTok, so I've got no direct skin in the game, and I look forward to the gymnastics involved in what happens here going forward.
