Episode 8

Betrayed. Abandoned. Screwed over. Heisted. Robbed. Ripped off. Conned.

If your eyes weren’t wide open before, they should be by now. Vance and Trump have cleaned out the government and given it all over to Putin. And they came out to the public that they are no longer with America, but rather Russian assets, during a gang assault on our ally Ukraine, in the hopes of afflicting maximum mass harm.

The two at the top of the US government had already moved in with Putin, along with their mini mob bosses, Rubio and Hegseth, but they hadn’t made the official announcement until last Friday, when the bloated yam wanna-be-king slipped up and whined: “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia… Russia, Russia, Russia—you ever hear of that deal?” The putrid orange tuber defends his master, and finally lets fly from his own foul lips that they’ve been hooked up from the beginning. Not that we didn’t all know that, but he said it at last.

If you’ve ever been cheated on by a spouse or partner, you know the deception is crazy making. When the truth finally comes out, you can finally empty the garbage you’ve allowed to pollute your mind and your life, and make a new start. Here we are at the truth, uttered from the traitor’s lips: I’m no longer an American. I’m a Russian asset.

Known, yes, it was known by many of us. But now stated. Now that the pretending we’re on the same team is over, what are we going to do? Now we are all playing the same board game, but while we hesitated, we’ve let the other side steal all the moving pieces. For example: that DUI-hire at the top of the country’s Defense Department, who has been given all the military toys, has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stop all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions. Update to all who didn’t get the memo: We’re allied with Putin now and he can come on in and rummage through your underwear drawer and sniff your panties.

And Rubio. He jumped on television and declared his devotion to the two Russkies at the top of our government, defending their Oval Office attack on our ally, Ukraine. This Magat son of Cuban immigrants repeatedly lied as he assured us that programs that save lives around the world would continue after the South-African-apartheid-raised billionaire and his wrecking crew cancelled them all. Weeks later, Rubio completely ended ten thousand aid programs, saying they didn’t align with the Trumputin agenda. And they don’t. You know why? Because a stable world, a fed world, a healthy world is harder to overtake and undermine. And overtake and undermine is what Trumputin VanceMuskovite is all about. So, they opt for disease and starvation and savagery—at the hands of a nation that used to stand for generosity and decency.

What has happened while we have all been busy working at our jobs, raising and taking care of our families, doing the laundry, recycling, tending to our communities, is that the United States of America has become a Russian satellite nation. If you were paying attention, you saw this wrecking ball from hell rolling along and gathering up detritus and wreaking havoc, but if you weren’t…hello! You no longer live in a democracy!

The Trumputin VanceMuskovite oligarchy severs the lifeline for millions, caring nothing that they will die. They fire tens of thousands indiscriminately, without any consideration, caring little for what harm may befall them or our country, because they have all the money and all the power and they believe they can’t be touched by any of the fallout caused by their cruelty. They deliberately do things to make democracy die. They wave chainsaws and give Nazi salutes as they jump up and down on the body of their victim, the United States of America, and cheer. They shout aloud, Let the famine, the disease, and the cruelty reign. Long live the uber-rich! Long live USPutin!

Oh, and if you thought anyone was coming to save us, you would be wrong. John Roberts, the Chief “justice” of SCROTUS (spelling intentional)—besides spearheading a landmark decision that made a president king)—has more recently helped Trumputin twice in the past several weeks by staying reasonable and just orders issued by lower court judges. Roberts uses his power to help the Russian mob running the US government to continue to freeze payments that were set by Congress. Mind you, Congress—in a functioning democratic government—holds the power of the purse. But this GOP dominated Congress is not interested in anything beyond pushing through a budget resolution that will impose huge costs and hardship on the many while providing a gargantuan tax break for the few uber-wealthy at the tippy-top of the stratosphere of incomes. Their bill includes massive cuts for food assistance, health coverage, and help for those wanting to attend college, among literally thousands of other things that make our country strong. The MAGAMusk Trumputin bill raises costs for those in poverty and will increase the number of people without health coverage. And it will balloon the deficit.

Trumputin and his mob of GOP lickspittle garnered votes from the worst among us by promising to bring costs down on Day One. And then promptly proceeded to pardon criminals, reduce our standing in the world, cut ties with our allies, stop all aid to other countries, and make the poor poorer and the rich richer in our country while opening the doors to Russia to come on in and take whatever they want.

Notable, too, is that these Russians in our White House have slashed thousands of jobs at national parks, public lands, and protected rivers. This is not a cost-saving move. The National Park Service receives less than one-fifteenth of one percent of the federal budget. Let me say that again because the amount is so miniscule you could easily have missed it: less than one-fifteenth of one percent. No, the move to leave public lands and our greatest wild treasures unprotected is another greed smash-and-grab move so that those beautiful sacred places will lie prone for the corporate rapists who want to come in and mine, drill, and profit, baby, profit. Just watch: billionaires will be building homes in the most beautiful spots. Watch for rows of their mansions on the rim of the Grand Canyon, in Yellowstone overlooking the falls, in Yosemite. The spoils of our treasure are being divided up among the billionaires today, and it won’t stop until we stand up and stop it.

I wish I had a wild story to share with you about this. But there is no equivalent in the wild to the despicable cabal at the top of our government. Nor to the self-destructing mindless minions with hearts full of hate who put them there. The only analogy to the latter that I can think of is chronic wasting disease. This disease—largely affecting moose, deer, and elk—has a long incubation period, and it spreads covertly among herds via direct contact. It causes brain damage. It is also known as Zombie Deer Disease because of the stumbling and drooling and disorientation that manifests in its victims. There is no cure for it. Animals infected with this disease die of it. Whole herds die of it. It can decimate entire wildlife populations if left unchecked.

The one thing that wildlife biologists know can prevent this neurodegenerative disease from spreading is to reinstate and protect predators that naturally cull the herds of weaker animals and prevent over-population of the herds themselves, thus strengthening the overall health of the species they hunt. This is the gift of selective predators like wolves…they keep the balance in check.

In our government, those selective predators were our watchdogs. The General Accountability Office. The US Congressional Budget Office. The US Inspectors General. And the Department of Justice. But this Russian gang eliminated the watchdogs, and has planted traitors at the top of the agencies and the courts who are rabid with their own greed and lust for power. The avaricious authoritarians have eliminated those serving as oversight in our government to ensure that no one has means to cull the oligarchs’ endless greed and cravings for control.

There is not one thought anywhere in this entire administration for the people of this country. Not one thought for the values upon which we established our democracy almost 250 years ago: adherence to the rule of law, equality, freedom, fundamental rights, and the common good. The vipers in the Trumputin administration are racing to tear it all down so that America lies prone with its hands tied and its legs spread, naked and afraid… ready for their evil overlord Putin to come in for the final molestation.

We will not likely find any lever in the existing government structure that we can grab onto and pull to cut off this assault. In the words of Bob Dylan, The pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the handles.

We will need new measures, more powerful measures, wildly creative extra-governmental measures to turn this around… if we are still able to at all.

And there is a problem with that because we are not united. We are a country riven in two by these bastards, in a deliberate, decades-long mission that has culminated in this moment where half of the people entitled to vote in this country are so egomaniacal and hate-filled, so ignorant and withered inside that they will only join with us out of their own selfishness if the price of eggs, or gas, or fill-in-the-blank gets too high. They are not really with us. They have no real moral compass or integrity. Most of them are not sorry, except in the sense that they are a sorry excuse for citizens. They have no remorse, and if they do, I would be guarded in accepting it as anything more than temporary until the next shiny thing sets them off in another anti-American direction. They are, as HRC most aptly described them: deplorables. Zombie deer.

So, while we plan for protests, for strikes, for the now-dubious hope of another free and fair election, and for righteous rebellion in whatever form that may take, we must bear in mind that we are still a bitterly divided country. We are not the United States of America. We are the divided States of America. And so we must mobilize against the current danger while taking into account that we may need to think about a complete re-ordering of our understanding of who, and what, and perhaps even where America is. And whether we can ever heal a herd of millions infected with a deadly disease for democracy, where contact is the means for spread, and there is no known cure. Not yet, anyway. Maybe what we need is a few more wolves.

I say this as a lifelong advocate for wolves and the wild. I say this as a person who has adopted wolves, who lives with wolves, who spends time in and supports wolf sanctuaries, who lectures about and writes about and cares about wolves. In 1995, when wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park after having been extirpated from most of the northwest, they became a gift beyond measure to the ecosystem. Their presence in maintaining healthy herds of grazing species like elk and deer helped plant life to thrive again along riverbanks that had been nearly destroyed by invasive plant species. Wolves also helped decrease erosion because grazing was kept in balance. The aspen and willow trees began to return, creating habitats for beavers, for birds, and for insects. Species re-emerged that had vanished from the area: songbirds, eagles, foxes, badgers, and mice. As selective predators, wolves culled the weak from the grazing herds, checking the spread of chronic wasting disease. Therefore, healthy populations of elk, deer, and moose flourished, too.

Yes, I think we need more wolves in government. Wolves are pack animals. They work together to defend their territory, they hunt together to provide food for the whole pack so that none go hungry, they work together to raise and educate their young, to survive. Wolves scout their territory and stay aware of any danger to the pack. They do not take more than they need. Their bond is always for the common good. And, like our government watchdogs were meant to do—as good selective predators (not twenty-somethings with indiscriminate meat-axes), they selectively cull out the sick and the weak so that the whole ecosystem flourishes.

For a moment or two more, at least…this land still belongs to us. This land belongs to you and me.

So maybe we also need to think about acting a little more like wolves ourselves. Pack up with your friends and family, with your community members, with your local defending-democracy groups, and occupy your territory against the drooling zombies among us who are infected with hate and disinformation. Challenge their bullying by standing up in numbers in a show of strength. Make them feel unwelcome and uncomfortable at your town council or school board meetings by attending in packs and taking a united and determined stance. Don’t let them destroy self-government in your area by spreading their chronic democracy-wasting hate and lies.

These are some wolf-like things I can think of that we must do at once:

1. Stay lean and mean. Stop buying stuff. Stop going on vacations. Forget that new car, that big celebration, that shopping habit. Only buy what you must have to eat, and medicines for your health. Don’t take more than you need. A financial strike will soon ripple outward and cripple the government.

2. Get out and howl. Mobilize mass protests, showing up in numbers so great and in such solidarity that none can ignore us. Eventually, we might have to organize the kinds of strikes that will send an even greater message. This is what other countries have done successfully when their government was overtaken by oligarchs and dictators. When the mechanics of daily life start to break down, even the richest and cruelest will be affected. We must do whatever we can to affect them.

3. Build your whole life around the pack. Organize your social calendar around political efforts so that you are doing things with others frequently to show opposition. Go regularly to your representatives’ offices in groups with signs and make sure you take pictures and video and share them widely. If your GOP representatives won’t hold town halls, hold them in your communities and invite Democrats to come. Forget going to the movies or out to dinner with friends, pack a picnic or pick up some carry-out and watch films together at home, or go out together to a protest or a pro-democracy discussion group instead. Get busy electing good candidates to your metro districts, your school boards, your county commissions. This is your new social life under the Trumputin regime.

4. Cut off bad behavior between pack members with some fierce growling. Raise your voice to insist that your local Democratic party stop with the primaries. We can’t afford the time, energy, or money to support multiple candidates for a single office. We have to consolidate our strength and resources early to give everything to our best candidates in order to win the seats we can, so we must be focused on one candidate per seat from the get-go for the next elections. Those vying for the seats need to get together early on and draw straws or decide who is going to run and skip the primary against one another. We cannot afford a single division.

5. Create beauty and support beauty. If you have creative talents, use them to defend democracy. If you’re a filmmaker, a poet, a songwriter, a painter, whatever your talent—get busy creating art to defend democracy. Use your highest skills to their highest use. And if you have an individual or a group in your community using their talents to defend democracy, join them, support them, give them the solidarity and strength a pack gives to its every member.

6. Celebrate the good things. Don’t forget to find some joy wherever you can. If you find a patch of sunlight, stop and roll around in it. If you get a chance to visit loved ones, take the time to really enjoy their company while you can.

This has been Sandi Ault—Reporting from the WILD. You can also listen to my stories on the companion podcast to this blog—wherever podcasts are found.

And I hope you’ll become a subscriber so I can continue my work. Please click the button to subscribe and share this blog with your friends.

If you want more stories from the WILD, look for my WILD Mystery Series in book, audio book, and e-book. You can start with any book in the series and go WILD.

Subscribe to Sandi Ault on Substack, too.

Take care.