“Heresy is the foe of countenance.”

During these days since January 20, 2025, four hundred and twelve days (412) to be exact, and counting, America and Americans have been living in a sort of Francisco Franco-esque regime of unprecedented turmoil, domestic and foreign aggression by tariffs, law-enforcement abuses, and foreign military actions, the most radical dismantling of federal government, arbitrarily lacerating the federal workforce, unilaterally demolishing agencies, not to mention the East Wing of the White House, and eradicating critical social, health, medical, and environmental federal programs and services. To say these 412-days have been nothing short of chaos would be a gross understatement.

It must be pointed out that these last 412-days for Americans were caused by a unilateral antagonist and his following unorthodox agitators. And I realize I am being quite genteel with those terms, bordering on watered down to a fragrant gooey blob. Forgive me. There is some value with decorum and etiquette, yes? I confess, however, that I have vast contention with just how far We Americans and our government officials of all three branches have remained complicit while the nation slips further and further into the dark abyss lead by one single man and his anarchists. Have we forgotten what E Pluribus Unum means and how it applies? Have we turned our back on the virtues of helping and serving each other… not as substrates of one ideology, one brand, or one faction, but just as Americans without exclusion?

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.

Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”

— John Donne

The Greatest Generation, coined by Tom Brokaw, showed all of us old enough to learn them and those of us today, young and old alike, to revere and model how it is done now, tomorrow, and beyond. It demands abandoning all preclusions of self-interest, while honoring worthy causes bigger than self, the immense obligatory sacrifices, the sanctity and dedication for the duty of E Pluribus Unum, and perhaps most of all, profound humility.

Have we seen any of these qualities, behaviors, or virtues exhibited these last 412-days in any abundance or degree? Pffft, unequivocally… no. In many ways we’ve seen the opposite done:

• Unprecedented efforts to consolidate authoritarian power to one man, one branch, one office — Our POTUS signed more than 140 executive orders in the first 100 days, more than any other president in the same period. Of those, more than 25 were directed at remaking the federal government.
• The removal of government watchdogs — Our POTUS fired 17 presidentially-appointed inspectors general, leaving more than 75% of such positions vacant. Historically, inspectors general serve across administrations regardless of when or by which president they were appointed. They play a crucial, independent role to investigate, prevent and eliminate fraud. In 2024, inspectors general saved the government over $70 billion. The removal of these key positions undercut important guardrails that were specifically created to prevent government waste and abuse.
• The firing of Senate-confirmed appointees at independent agencies — Appointees to these independent agencies often serve multiple administrations and are generally selected based on their experience and knowledge rather than partisan concerns. Our POTUS’ administrative control of these agencies will undermine their ability to make truly independent recommendations, and instead serve as political tools for the White House to accumulate power and sway decision-making.
• Unprecedented Cuts led by the Department of Government Efficiency — Many of the first management priorities of the new administration were ideas originally proposed by Project 2025, a policy document constructed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank published in April 2023 for all Americans to read about the coming storm. These included significant reductions to segments of the federal workforce and the expansion of presidential powers.
• Sweeping cuts to federal personnel — Our POTUS’ administration reduced the federal workforce by tens of thousands of employees—often in sudden and haphazard ways. The administration is still slashing today. The most critical cuts to American’s safety was 28k personnel from the Army, 24k from DHS, 23k from the Navy, 23k from the Air Force, 22k from Defense, 19k from HHS, and shockingly 50k from Veterans Affairs.
• The federal government is less transparent and accountable — Can anyone say, “Epstein Files”? That’s just one prolific example. Need I say more?
• Federal Appointees No Longer Need Merited Experience, Credentials, or be Highly Qualified — I won’t list all the many people our POTUS has recklessly hired and/or fired, but I will say one name that sums up the sheer chaos in Washington D.C., “Kristi Noem.”

For more extensive breakdowns, examination and factual data go to the Partnership for Public Service.

∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼

There is a lot to be learned and taken to heart by Ernest Hemingway’s acclaimed novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Much of his story and Robert Jordan’s experiences are already playing out again, not in published literature, but in reality at home and abroad.

“What do you want? Everything. I want everything and I will take whatever I get.”

Can the obese Tasmanian Shrew in Mar-a-Lago ever be satisfied? Will his prey remain paralyzed, docile, and blind?

We were warned in the fall of 2016 to January 2021 this treachery could return. We were gifted and warned in April 2023 of the exact blueprint of how this expanded treachery would happen. We were handed the opportunity to stop it in Oct/Nov 2024. Woefully America was naive, complicit, negligent, and utterly lazy in all those repeated alarm bells, or to be more apropos… the repeated Hemingway funeral tolling.

When will we listen and learn? Will we ever learn… before it is too late?

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0