I'm from the United States of Stolen Time.

Where a dictator holds press conferences to announce the end of democracy while we pretend it's just another Monday.

For the first time since I started writing these posts, I didn't want to write this one.

I've been stalling, avoiding my computer, because I don't want to face what happened in Trump's disastrous press conference this morning.

This is the first time in six months since he took office that I can see a path where we actually don't come out of this intact. Where we go too far for this to be unwound without it taking decades.

I hope I'm wrong.

I hope I'm just having one of those days where the weight of it all chips away at my optimism and makes despair feel like a permanent visitor.

This was the first day I really wanted to turn away from it all.

Instead, I pushed through. I listened to his theatrical press conference. I choked on his lies and propaganda. I felt the stabbing pain of a dictator's attempts at brainwashing a whole country. And then I walked away. I sat down at my computer and looked for ways to be a part of the good I want to see in the world.

I wrote encouraging words to anyone who was being attacked for having "TDS," the made-up battle cry for MAGA who are desperate to feel seen and important by fellow "lost patriots."

I encouraged people to keep pushing through when they were being overrun with MAGA attacks as they tried to spread tolerance and reminders that we are all Americans.

And that is where I felt the most disappointment. Instead of finding hope, I saw fellow citizens expressing joy and excitement for the kidnapping of people off our streets, posting "good" when others shared concern over impending cuts to healthcare and food assistance.

My heart sank too many times to count today. How is this us? Where did we go? Did COVID break us beyond repair, or have these feelings always been there, just waiting for permission to see daylight?

When the despair felt overwhelming, I knew I needed to step away from my keyboard. So I went for a walk on the beach to watch the late summer sun paint everything gold.

It was gorgeous.

All I could think was how we should be out here enjoying this perfect evening, hopeful for many more to come.

Instead, we're cringing while we watch a madman steal our peace, again.

We must accept our new reality.

One where the President of the United States stands in the White House briefing room and declares "I'm officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control." He announces Attorney General Pam Bondi is "taking command of the Metropolitan Police Department as of this moment." Eight hundred National Guard troops are being deployed to patrol the streets.

The pretext for this historic federal takeover? An attempted carjacking involving a nineteen-year-old DOGE staffer. One incident. To justify military occupation of the capital.

The numbers that would be funny if they weren't terrifying: Violent crime in D.C. is down twenty-six percent this year. Murder rates are at a thirty-year low. Overall, crime has dropped fifteen percent since last year. But Trump calls this "liberation day" and promises the troops will "do whatever the hell they want."

He cites Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, a provision meant for genuine emergencies threatening federal operations. Not for political theater. Not for testing how far a dictator can push before anyone stops him.

This is what authoritarians do.

They create the emergency they claim to be solving.

They federalize local police.

They turn the military against their own people.

And they do it while the numbers prove there is no emergency at all.

Where the same man who lied about not knowing Project 2025 follows its playbook step by step. His administration just slashed Title X funding, the Nixon-era program that guaranteed free contraception to low-income Americans. They're withholding money from clinics that make "public statements" they claim violate civil rights. Translation: any clinic that dares speak against his policies loses funding.

Project 2025's blueprint is crystal clear: eliminate emergency contraception from insurance coverage because they consider Plan B an "abortifacient." Allow any employer to deny contraception coverage for "religious or moral" reasons. The Heritage Foundation literally says conservatives must lead in "ending senseless use of birth control pills."

When asked directly if he'd restrict contraceptives, Trump said: "We're looking at that, and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly." When pressed about Plan B specifically, he deflected: "Things really do have a lot to do with the states. And some states are going to have different policies than others."

First they came for abortion rights.
Now birth control.
Now marriage equality.
What's next? Interracial marriage?
Will being gay become outlawed entirely?
There is no bottom.
There are no lines he won't cross.

Where a sitting president posts on Truth Social that "'Congresswoman' Jasmine Crockett is a Low (Very!!!) I.Q. Individual, much in the mold of the AOC Plus Three Gang of Country Destroying Morons - Only slightly dumber." He demands both congresswomen take cognitive tests, bragging: "As the doctors said, 'President Trump ACED it, something that is rarely seen!'"

The irony is thick as concrete: Crockett holds a law degree and is a licensed attorney. Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University with dual degrees in economics and international relations. Trump's own academic records remain sealed, hidden by the same man who once directed his fixer to threaten his schools never to release his grades.

The test Trump "aced"? The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a dementia screening tool that asks you to identify a camel and draw a clock. Not exactly Mensa material. But he waves it around like it's a PhD from Harvard.

Where he also casually mentions that Ukraine should just hand over territory to Russia. When asked about President Zelenskyy needing constitutional approval for land swaps, Trump got irritated: "I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying, 'I have to get constitutional approval.' I mean, he's got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap?"

As if constitutional democracy is an inconvenience. As if a country getting invaded should just hand over portions of its land and people, much like if someone broke into your home, hurt your family members, and then the police tell you to hand over your kitchen and family room to the murderer who broke into your house.

He calls it "very complex because you have lines that are very uneven. And there'll be some swapping and changes in land." I call it leadership by someone who can't even finish coherent sentences. None of this makes any sense.

Rewarding invasion with territory. This is Trump's idea of diplomacy.

Trump values dictators' approval more than anyone else's.
He sees Putin's playbook and calls it strength.
He sees the rulers of North Korea and China as role models.

But here's what he doesn't understand about the rest of us:

We have limits.
We have morals.
We have lines we won't cross to protect our humanity.

And if there is any chance that we do come out of this and can build back our country truly better than before, it will be because of this.

His failure and demise will come down to one thing. And one thing only. He is an empty person inside.

A dangerous empty person who projects strength but delivers only chaos.
He doesn't have those boundaries.
He doesn't have anything that says "too far."
There is no humanity in him.

He's stealing something from us we'll never get back, the simple joy of believing in tomorrow.

That's what terrifies me most.

We keep expecting him to hit some natural limit, some moment where even he says enough.

But there isn't one.
He will not stop until he controls everything.
Mexico.
Canada.
Greenland.
The Panama Canal.

He's telling the truth when he says he wants it all.

And much like Trump, the MAGA Republicans that enable him don't want to govern America.

They want to rule it.

They want us to pay taxes to them and their king instead of investing in our own communities.

They want a dynasty where we serve their power instead of power serving us.

Ask anyone outside the US.

They understand this better than we do.

They see that if Trump isn't stopped here, he'll try to take over the world.

They know what unchecked power looks like when it crosses borders.

And the cruelest thing Trump has done?

He's convinced us we're each other's enemies.

He's stolen our sense that we're all Americans trying to make it through this life together.

He's made us suspicious of our neighbors.
Afraid of our differences.
Angry at people who should be our allies.

That's what dictators do.

They don't just steal your freedom.
They steal your trust.
They steal your peace.
They steal time you'll never get back.

I'm looking at this beautiful evening and thinking: who knows how long any of us have?

We could be celebrating the best days of our lives.

Instead, we're fighting fascism.
Again. Still.

Where the only glimmers of hope come from leaders like Gavin Newsom.

When Texas tries to hunt down Democratic lawmakers in other states, California says fine, we can play that game too.

It's ridiculous that it's come to this.

But maybe that's what it takes.

So what do we do on days like this? When you can feel it in your bones that evil is winning?

We stop and remember what we're fighting for.

Look at the sunset. Listen to a child's laugh. See the never-ending love in a pet's eyes.

Find the moments that remind us why this fight matters.

It's not hopeless.

Even on the darkest days, even when I can barely see the way forward, I know this: we are not alone in this fight.

And we are stronger than we know.

When I could barely gather my thoughts today to write this, I did.

Because one day I hope these letters are found by my great-grandchildren.

And I hope they know we all pushed through and fought back in any way we could.

And that when they or their country are going through a particularly hard time, they don't feel alone.

That they know every generation has had their own battles to win.

And that the day is never lost if there is hope left to guide them.

I still have hope for tomorrow, and you should, too.

I'll see you then.

–Heather

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