I posted this as a comment and was asked to turn it into a story… so here you go:
These United States have had a tangle with fascist-minded wealthy assholes before.
The last go round, some Wall Street types decided they could get a retired Marine Corp General to take over the country and become a dictator — to get rid of Frankline Delano Roosevelt, whose 5th cousin, Theodore was the Trustbuster president from 1901 to 1909. It’s called The Business Plot.
I urge everyone who hasn't read anything about that, go do so. Here’s a link for an overview:
https://yesterdaysamerica.com/smedley-butler-and-the-1930s-plot-to-overthrow-the-president/
Interesting factoid about The Business Plot? Prescott Bush, father of George HW Bush, was one of the men Butler named as part of the conspiracy aimed at recruiting him to overturn the Constitution and seize control of the presidency and the nation using his ties to the US Military to get them to help him advance a military coup to unseat FDR and become the first US Dictator.
There is an amazing 46 pg Final Thesis on The Business Plot by Grant Hamilton Stone available to download from the U Chicago at this link (it should open up and ask you where to save it, it's a .PDF and I’ve already downloaded and opened it)
https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/3259/files/Stone_MAPSS_Thesis_Final.pdf
Also, Rachel Maddow covered the story in her book Prequel. You can read a story about that book here https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216089156/rachel-maddow-uncovers-a-wwii-era-plot-against-the-u-s-government which includes a transcript of an interview with Maddow about the book.
All of which is a long way around to say, “it’s happened before, it will probably happen again,” regarding America and facists who want to overturn the US Constitution and install a Dictator for life.
Donald Trump and his cabal of criminal fuckers are neither smart enough or lucky enough to succeed, where others before them have failed.
Doesn’t mean we give up and let them roll over us, thinking they aren’t a threat. Because they are.
What it means is, all of those Democrats you have been sending money to, to elect them? Call their Offices up and give them your voting precinct, say you’re a constituent and that you want The Democrats to get off their asses and fight back. Loudly, in public. That it is up to THEM to do what is necessary to protect the country from these malicious criminals.
ESPECIALLY if you have Republicans representing you! They need to hear from every liberal and progressive in their districts. Every day.
Tell them you don’t want to see the Constitution burned in obesience to a felonious liar of historical proportions, and it is their job to prevent that from happening.
Me? I make the calls. But I haven’t watched the news since Nov 6, 2024. I don’t look at the barely breathing birdhouse anymore and even my Bluesky is tough to take this past week… where I learned of an aerial disaster near D.C. involving a passenger jet and a Black Hawk chopper.
Last night speaking on the phone to my sister who is a VP of a super regional bank, and who can’t sleep and hasn’t been able to for weeks now; because she fears the country may well fall this year. I tried to encourage her to repeat, outloud to herself, the serenity prayer (the minus god version, neither of us are religious). That it has helped me.
She told me about Musk Melon locking himself, and crowd of what my sister referred to as College nerds, in the US Treasury and they were digging into everyone’s personal data from the IRS and National Security. She was panicked, really. It took my breath away for a moment.
Here is the smartest person I’ve ever known in my entire life, I know she’s at least 20 points higher than I am and my IQ was 148 last time I was tested when I was young. She is panicked and can’t figure out in her mind, how in the hell we are going to get through this next four years and come out the otherside as The United States and not some hellhole, 3rd world disaster zone. Because she is afraid he is going to crash the economy and maybe send us into a depression, which of course, would become a global depression in less than 3 months.
Did I mention she is a VP of a super regional bank? She knows things she can’t talk to me about, NDA (Non disclosure agreement). But she’s fucking scared and can’t sleep.
So I understand that everyone is on edge and some people, with the means, are making plans and leaving the country.
Not me.
My conversation with my baby sister last night? I talked to her about surviving, and how our close knit family here will make it. Me and my other sister & brother in law own our homes, they have over $800K in investments from stocks to money market funds and retirement accounts (most of that however could be at risk if the Trump Tariff economy falls off a cliff). My baby sister still owes a considerable amount on her home, but she has way more cash and retirement (nearly $1 M in 401K, Roth and a direct retirement she is already vested in at the bank, plus SS after age 67).
I have enough land and this spring we’re putting in a large garden, I’m ordering a set-it-up 8 ft x 8 ft greenhouse from Costco, and in March we’re building a new chicken coop (for at least 5 and as many as 30 birds) and fencing it in where fruit trees will go in this fall. Plus there is room for a pig every few years and a local family owned butcher within 15 mins of my house that works with a crew that picks up your food animals, does the slaughter and takes them to the butcher where the meat gets cut and wrapped for freezing.
We have land, homes and the ability to feed ourselves, should the need arise. We are collectively, preparing for that. Maybe the next four years will be fine after the first few months of sturm und drang, and I’ll just have a new garden space and greenhouse to keep me busy for months at a time.
Maybe you can learn to can food this summer, there are smaller farms and Farmer’s markets everywhere these days, even large urban cities. I’m picking one of these countertop pressure and water-bath food canners next month, no bigger than a large air fryer anyone could use this, plug it in, put the cans in, close and lock the lid and push the button. No watching it, system runs the program and shuts down to cool when it’s done. 5 new quarts of shelf stable veggies or fruits for up to 2 years, longer if you freeze it.
Truth is, with this nutjob running the store anything could happen.
But I’m not running away from it. I’m not even afraid of it, for the most part. I’m mad. Mad that the past forty years people just like me have been shouting from the street corners that the Republicans are EVIL and no one should vote for them. My own family, in previous years, told me to chill out and get a grip, “it’s just politics,” they told me.
Last week I had a visit with my older granddaughter, who is 20 now. She ranted the entire time about what Trump has been up to since Jan 20th. She’s twenty and only voted once so far, and she was ENERGIZED about doing something about him ruining this country.
Perhaps the 1/3 of people who just never vote (and haven’t since 1915) will also sit up and take notice and start caring about what is going.
Stranger things have happened.
Take care friends.
Hunker down if you feel the need. Make preparations for extremely high priced foods in the stores by Independence Day.
But don’t be afraid, just get yourselves prepared for what might come, both mentally and in your daily life.
Believe that this nation which has survived two and half centuries (as of July 4, 2026) will endure and once we get past this horrendous era, will once again thrive.
Because as far as I’m concerned, no single asshole felon liar is going to be able to bring down our nation and it’s 330+ million people. He’ll get pretty far, but at some point, it’ll be too much for even Mitch McConnell and whomever they chose to replace him in the Senate Majority Leader’s position this go round. They’ll let him run and run and one day, they’ll call for impeachment, and within a week the Senate will be tossing his ochre-ass out the door of the White House, for the last time.
Until that day? Remain vigilant, take care of your families, get prepared for a few terrible years, support people who out there visibly fighting against the fascists. Like Mark Hamill, of all people, fighting a real fight four decades after he was the most famous fighter of interstellar Fascism in the galaxy…
Be well, friends. Love each other and be resolved that better days are still ahead of us, even if we’ll have to wade through a mountain of shit before we get there.