Today is Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Today I have to write an abbreviated blog because of my lengthy phone conversation with my good friend in Cherry Hill, “Harold.” I was just finishing registering at a hotel in Hollywood after I bought my “early bird special” TCM pass to the Turner Classic Film Festival earlier this afternoon. Tickets were put on sale at 12 sharp and I rushed back after having breakfast with my morning lady friends. I got back close to 11:45 so that I could be at my computer at 12. This time I succeeded in getting the festival pass I couldn’t get last year when I was unable to secure one because I waited just two days to purchase passes along with everyone else. Now I didn’t have to wait long at all. Maybe ten minutes or so; there was a form to fill out and I complied with the instructions given me online. I was quite elated to be able to accomplish this, given that I was again showing ambivalence about going. Elliot is trying to convince me to break up the trip to California with going to Arizona to see his cousin, “Joan,” on Monday, where I would fly to Phoenix instead of New York and stay two days with Joan and then fly back to the city with Elliot. This is still in the planning stages; we have to run this proposed plan by our cousin first.

An online article for AlterNet by Alex Henderson details the last days of economist Paul Krugman who just retired his position as a New York Times columnist for the past 25 years. In this article, the columnist looks back at his years on the paper and what he has seen in the United States since January 2000 when his column debuted when Bill Clinton was president. I thought his views were quite fascinating since he has seen a lot from the time his column was launched in the paper. He does lament, the article indicates, that the country has gone from a mood of Clinton-era “optimism” to being in a painfully “grim place” as president-elect Donald Chump’s second term draws closer. Oh, how true, how true! Why would it be any different?

Krugman ponders, “What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment.” Not confining his comments about just the working class, Krugman explains, “And I’m not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites; some of the angriest, most resentful people in America right now – people who seem very likely to have a lot of influence with the incoming Trump administration – are billionaires who don’t feel sufficiently admired.” Sheesh, why would billionaires like Elon Musk and his copartners in earthly opulence have the gall to be angry and resentful? That is so absurd in my opinion.

The economist argues that although “it wasn’t all puppies and rainbows” when his Times column debuted during the Bill Clinton era, Americans were generally “feeling pretty good about the future when I began writing for this paper.”

Krugman writes, “Why did this optimism curdle?” He added, “As I see it, we’ve had a collapse of trust in elites: The public no longer has faith that the people running things know what they’re doing, or that we can assume that they’re being honest.”

Krugman laments that the country is going into 2025 in a very dark mood.

Talking about a way to get out of this grim place, Krugman says, “What I believe is that while resentment can put bad people in power, in the long run, it can’t keep them there. At some point, the public will realize that most politicians railing against elites actually are elites in every sense that matters and start to hold them accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises . . . . We may never recover the kind of faith in our leaders – belief that people in power generally tell the truth and know what they’re doing – that we used to have. Nor should we.” And if he’s talking about Donald Chump here, there’s no reason why anyone should have any faith in him ever telling the truth – ever!

In conclusion, Krugman adds, “But if we stand up to the kakistocracy – rule by the worst – [this word is now exclusively being applied to the incoming Chump administration as he names jerks to the highest and most sensitive positions in government] that’s emerging as we speak, we may eventually find our way back to a better world.” Boy, let’s hope so! That we can somehow overcome this imminent catastrophe known as a second Chump presidency.

In my humble opinion, I think Krugman forgot to mention the overweening influence of social media that could easily explain the “dark place” we’re in right now; the situation was quite different 24 years ago when this influence was not so apparent and still in its in nascent stages. Now it’s all over the damn place. Look at the mixed-up reaction to the UnitedHealthcare assassin, Luigi Mangione, in which the Twittersphere (or should I say “X”sphere here) is awash in so many crazy responses from users who are flooding social media with their twisted comments.

And so it went!