After just one month, Ohio is being whipped by the winds of instability and the aftermath of reckless damage, which has left millions of Americans feeling anxious and afraid.
The chosen euphemism of the dictatorship is disruption.
How does it appear?
When I talk to my friends in the medical field, they are all filled with anxiety about funding freezes and cuts, the drastic reductions in scientific and medical research, the future of public health and what would happen in the event of a pandemic, the dismissal of career experts and the installation of cranks in leadership positions, and attacks on the NIH. America’s position at the forefront of science and medicine appears to be rapidly and completely eroding.
My acquaintances who are farmers tell me that farmers are diverse. USAID contracts and USDA cost-sharing investments are causing tension in Ohio. Their end was upheld. Promises were made by the government. Their livelihoods and family farms are now under jeopardy.The stakes are billions of dollars.Donald Trump and Elon Musk are holding it all hostage.
When I visit with friends who work in higher education in Ohio, they tell me that their coworkers are terrified, that staff members are afraid for their careers, and that faculty members are in a dismal situation where they must choose between speaking up and being silent.Ohio’s college administrators have been famous primarily for their collective public quiet as Republican lawmakers attempt to impose censorship and control over classrooms while prohibiting faculty strikes in an effort to give Ohio’s renowned universities both the jackboot on the face and the muzzle over the mouth.
The academics and students are defending the inalienable human rights of freedom of speech and opinion.
After years of being the focus of a right-wing smear campaign that painted them in the most repulsive manner possible, my friends who teach in K–12 Ohio are likewise incredibly frustrated. They adore instructing. Though their morale is quite poor, the vast majority of them are really passionate about their employment.They are currently unaware of the additional millions of dollars in financial cuts that Trump’s wrecking ball and Ohio Republican lawmakers would impose on them.
Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio claimed he would fully finance the state’s Fair School Funding Plan, but a Legislative Service Commission analysis revealed that DeWine’s budget actually cuts public schools in Ohio by $103.4 million over the next two years. DeWine’s proposal also includes a $265 million increase for charter schools and private school vouchers. This comes after Republican lawmakers in Ohio diverted around $1 billion in public funds to private and religious schools last year.
The federal government provides school districts in Ohio about 10% of their total funding on average. 20–25% go to districts with high levels of poverty. The most needy school districts in Ohio will bear the financial burden if Trump dismantles the U.S. Department of Education. Reduced resources, increased class sizes, teacher layoffs, and budget cuts.Children with special needs and impairments will be neglected.
There are others besides them.Disabled adults are likewise at grave danger. Additionally, 771,000 Ohioans who rely on Medicaid for health care are at risk.
DeWine is lubricating the skids while Republicans in the US Congress seek to reduce Medicaid while implementing trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the filthy rich. He included a measure in the state budget that would eliminate Medicaid if federal funding was reduced. Ohio, meanwhile, is seeking to implement Medicaid work requirements that are expensive, onerous, superfluous, and ineffectual.
Medicaid recipients are not the only ones who are concerned about access to healthcare.
Trump and Musk are upsetting military families and causing confusion at the VA, which has angered my veteran friends.Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Americans in the civil service—which comprises 30% of the federal workforce—are being laid off.With upcoming budget cuts, the U.S. Department of Defense’s 950,000 civilian employees—including tens of thousands of veterans—may also face widespread layoffs.
Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Germany, his tour of the Dachau concentration camp, and his subsequent tirade of patronizing remarks directed at the European people while endorsing a German political party that many Germans view as the contemporary descendant of Nazism have disgusted my European friends.
My friends in Springfield are horrified that the Trump administration removed protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants on Thursday. This came after Trump and Vance spread racist, false rumors about Haitians in Springfield, which resulted in over 30 bomb threats against public buildings, hospitals, and elementary schools, as well as threats of violence against local officials and residents. A Neo-Nazi organization is currently being sued by Springfield for allegedly engaging in a campaign of harassment and threats.
My business associates are concerned about Trump’s tariffs and believe that stagflation from the 1970s may resurface.Others are concerned about how widespread government layoffs would affect the economy in the long run.
Ohio and other conservative states stand to lose the most under the current policy of mindless and irrational destruction.
Is America great once more? Is this greatness? Have they all wanted this? Is this how they envision leadership?
Is this how a society can live, filled with anxiety and terror, a persistent sense of dread about the future, and a persistent nagging feeling that something will undoubtedly go wrong?
Experts in nuclear safety FAA employees who were carelessly dismissed and laid off were terrified to death for the protection of Americans and Congressmen.Voters cowering in fear and casting ballots under threats of death, career prosecutors being fired, violent seditionists being pardoned, anti-Constitutional Napoleonic declarations, insane screeds spreading Russian propaganda, the rule of law being openly corrupted, a crank conspiracy theorist being appointed director of the FBI, and a person facing serious national security issues being appointed director of national intelligence.
They are playing with matches and scattering explosives over the room.
For the advantage of China and Russia, they are constantly demeaning and estranging our friends, inciting our closest defensive allies to exclude us, and undermining America’s soft power globally. Because of all of this, America is now more susceptible to various malevolent acts by adversarial organizations and nations.
To their civilization, who does all of this? To their nation? within a month.
How public service has been corrupted. What a miserable and depraved dereliction of every public duty.
As if the fate and common destiny of millions of actual people, their families, and their lives weren’t at stake.
Who harms other people in this way? To physicians, nurses, farmers, educators, scholars, scientists, soldiers, working families, those with disabilities, disadvantaged children, and the impoverished?
What strange, deranged men.
What weakened, antisocial tendencies?
Trump instills fear in those I care about, according to a quote by J.D. Vance.
He is now enjoying taking part in their suffering.
Normal, kind, well-adjusted people don’t act in this way.
Healthy-minded people don’t waste their time victimizing, scapegoating, gaslighting, lying, and targeting others in order to cause chaos in their lives.
With their pitiful, irrational self-aggrandizement, sick, damaged sociopaths worship the false gods of fame, wealth, and power in an endlessly futile attempt to satisfy a black emptiness at the heart of their soul.
They will do everything in their power to avoid going to therapy.
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Eliot Pierce is a dedicated writer for ChiefsFocus.com, covering local crime and finance news. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Eliot aims to provide his readers with clear and insightful analysis, helping them navigate the complexities of their financial lives while staying informed about important local events. His commitment to delivering accurate and engaging content makes him a valuable resource for the community.