Happy Lincoln’s Birthday!

February 9, 2025

Ever since the election my worst fear has been a complete authoritarian takeover of the country, in which citizens are repressed by force.  I have read a great deal of news and commentary on this, with no satisfactory answers.  Some voices fear that it is imminent while others are confident that the institutions in place in America make it highly unlikely.  My goal was to try to identify the greatest risks and think about the possible responses.

I decided to take it as a given that we as citizens are going to have to take direct actions at one or more times, whether that be boycotts, protests or other means of letting those in power know that their actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.  Such actions need to be focused:  we cannot react to every little thing, even when a “little thing” like tariffs on Chinese imports causes widespread harm.  We will need to pick our spots, and act when the time is right.  

I was first going to post something around January 20, but things were busy and so I just kept watching.  In the meantime, some of the expected things have happened, some unexpected threats have emerged, and there has been a lot of pushback both through legal actions and through protests.  People are already out in the streets, and that needs to continue.

But not too much is clear yet.  The best case and worst case scenarios still seem quite possible, and so it is worthwhile to watch carefully, try to keep track of the threats, and plan for citizen responses and also for proactive steps.

There are *many* people posting their observations and reporting on the web, video or written, daily or even more often.  So why add to it?

I’ll do this for myself if no one else is interested, but here are two reasons to check in on The Thermometer:

Many of those writing, including some who I think are most worthwhile, want paid subscriptions.  Hard to blame them for making a living, but saving democracy shouldn’t be compromised by the need to pay.

I have watched a large number of videos with catchy titles like “THE END FOR TRUMP” which turn out to tell you in fifteen minutes what you could have read in one, and by the way it’s not actually the end.

Here I’m going to give you a one minute “summary at a glance” of where I think we are each day.  I’ll write more as well, but you won’t have to read it unless you really want to.