On April 5^th, I was out protesting with about 2000 people in the Ft. Myers area. It was what I thought was a decent showing. The group was very energetic and respectful. For the most part, the passing vehicles on Highway 41 were generally positive, but there were a few that weren’t. We had one truck go by where the male driver was yelling out the window at us, and his elementary school children yelled at us, too. I thought that was a great example of how not to parent a child. Of course, we had the big trucks squealing their tires and trying to intimidate us. There were also the cars and trucks that would drive back and forth with their Trump flags flying, trying to look like the Taliban.  There was even one truck flying a “Women for Trump” flag; the flag was pink like they were a cancer supporter, but we know the Republicans don’t support medical research, let alone cancer research for women. Why a woman would support a man who would take away most of their rights and think sexual assault is not a bad thing is beyond me. I would say that most of the feedback was positive, but we did receive several one-finger salutes, and that one finger wasn’t telling us we were number one. I was glad to see all those people out there exercising their right to be heard. Nationwide, I have seen an estimate of 5 million people who protested on Saturday, April 5^th. My biggest hope is that it is just the start and that it keeps growing.

All the protests were just because of all the DOGE cuts that will have a huge effect on our quality of life in this country for maybe generations to come. Cuts to Healthcare and Healthcare research will affect millions of Americans.  We are short of doctors all over the country, and the problem is just going to get worse. We are short of all kinds of nurses and other Healthcare Professionals, and the problem is just going to get worse. We need more qualified teachers, and it is just going to get worse. Cuts in Education will have lasting effects because until we start taking education seriously, we are going to have to import more and more of our educated people. I am all for cutting back on waste and fraud. I don’t think of healthcare research as wasted spending. I think of it as saving lives. I don’t think protecting the environment is a waste of spending. I think it is protecting the future of our grandchildren. I don’t think enforcing safety standards is a waste. I think it makes the workplace and the products we buy safer.  As far as fraud goes, I think people who commit fraud should go to jail. You should never eliminate a program like Medicaid because of fraud. Arrest the people committing that fraud. Yes, there are cheaters, but don’t punish the people who are playing by the rules. The same applies to Social Security and Medicare; if fraud is being committed, punish the individuals committing the fraud, not those who have paid into the system for most of their lives. When I see no one is being held accountable for this fraud and no real evidence has been given for this fraud, I just think that we are being lied to.

While all these government cuts are happening, Trump has released his list of tariffs he is going to impose across much of the world. Needless to say, the stock market is going nuts. So far, this is going to cost a lot of people a lot of money around the world. I don’t know what to believe from what I read, but I know one person that I don’t believe. That person is Trump. I have read where he has said multiple times that we are going to get rich. Silently, I ask myself who is going to get rich because I don’t think he is talking about me. How in the hell are tariffs going to make the average person in this country rich? I have heard that they are going to bring back manufacturing jobs to America, good-paying manufacturing jobs. Trump ran on that promise back in 2016, and it didn’t happen. I just can’t believe that China is going to increase their unemployment because Trump wanted them to. In capitalism, it has to be driven by profit. An investment here at home has to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time and then turn a profit for the corporation. Not all of these tariffs are going to protect American jobs. Look at coffee. We don’t grow coffee here, but there is going to be a tariff on coffee. What we are going to accomplish is that other countries will create trading partners that don’t include the United States.

We put tariffs on goods manufactured in a country, but in reality, that country's government doesn’t manufacture the goods. Businesses do, and many of those businesses are affiliated with businesses right here in America. You buy a car manufactured in America, but in reality, many of the parts for that car may just be manufactured in other countries and shipped here for assembly. We are dealing with international corporations and the international market. They talk about good-paying manufacturing jobs returning to America? I just don’t see it. Just like in our grocery stores with their automatic checkouts, they will find other ways of manufacturing those goods without labor. Anyway, they are going to have to. We have real low unemployment. In Florida, they are talking about letting 14-year-old children work night shifts. We don’t have a labor market, and what jobs that are going to be available will probably have to be filled with educated, technical people.

They say we are going to be rich? Are we going to be paid more, or is a check going to be mailed to me? Won’t higher wages convert to higher prices? Nothing is making sense to me, so I am thinking we are being lied to. Are we just trying to figure out how we can cut more taxes for the Rich and not increase the deficit? It is the tax cuts that got us into this mess in the first place, not spending. Are we trying to blackmail foreign corporations into paying down our debt? The world doesn’t like a bully, and that is what we have become. Blackmailing other countries and acting like a mob boss will only come back and bite us in the ass.