Category: the Future

It’s the height of summer tourism season.

Millions of Americans travel from coast-to-coast to vacation in many of the world’s most spectacular destinations. And millions of foreigners flood to US cities from around the globe to enjoy our broad and wide and deep variety of regional culture.

But this summer of 2018, after 18 months of Trump annihilating our superior systems and institutions, we are beginning to feel the significant bite of Trump’s agenda on our daily lives.

So many little things that are adding up to a big headache and a frightening future outlook.

FIRST, Washington, DC. The preferred family vacation spot, that of visiting our nation’s Capital. But look:

• In past administrations, the top 3 Smithsonian Museums (Air & Space, American History, Natural History) all had extended hours from June through August staying open until 7:30p. But now it’s just Air & Space. This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is significant when you spend money to bring your family to the National Mall in the summer, and it stays light until 9:00p, but 90% of the Mall is closed at 5:30. What a shame. Very un-American of our president.

• The Pentagon was always such an amazing Tour. But that too as been negatively impacted. Many days are now blocked out, which was very rare in past administrations. And the Tour itself is completely changed… now tours are way off the beaten path, down far flung empty hallways. How unfortunate.
• The exciting FBI Tour has become a psych challenge. Scheduling a tour feels more like a freaky maze with a twilight zone ending (tricked ya, no tours available after all).
• Don’t even get me started on the gas price, 33% increase. An unusually high jolt.
• Have you had your oil changed lately? Huge jump in price, 42% increase. Insane!

And how about other areas of pain that impact our budgets and quality of life. These are all occurring within months of corporations receiving a massive tax cut:

• The never ending robo-calls are back. With Trump de-regulating every industry, the robo-calls on mobile devices feel like stalking. Back in the day, more than thirteen years ago, these came in on land lines. But now it’s all day every day on your mobile. (My car just passed 36,000 miles. I was drowning in calls trying to get me to extend my warranty.) At least it’s easy to hit “decline.”
• The environmental de-regulation is gut wrenching to have to tread through. I was at the shore last week and was terrified to go in the water. And sadly, I had to pass on the delicious seafood options on the menu.
• Banking issues again. Weird changes after the regulations were rolled back, that result in strange, unknown charges appearing on bank accounts.
• Oh, and check your credit card interest rate. I have one favorite card with a low rate that jumped by 3% this year. No change in my monthly charge habits. No explanation. But from out of nowhere a rate leap within weeks of the Consumer Financial Protection deregulations.
• Food prices are climbing too, but that’s a whole other story that we’ll hear much more about in the upcoming weeks.

So many small things, every day now. It feels like we’ve been thrown back in time. Thrown into a deep, dark hole… and now have to figure out a way to climb back out.

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