THE NEWS these days reminds me of the scene in It’s A Wonderful Life when George can’t figure out what the hell just happened to his life. “Look, I got some bad liquor or something.” You got that right, George. Welcome to 2025.

In 1945, America celebrated victory over tyranny and fascism. But by the early ’50s neighbor turned against neighbor as Senator Joe McCarthy whipped Americans against a potential Communist threat represented by their neighbors and co-workers. But it could never happen again. And here we are. If anyone thought America was a country that represented the yellow brick road to harmony and justice, they must have been talking about an alternate America.

It’s become impossible to figure out who’s running the country: Trump or Musk. It feels as if it’s war right here at home and the average American is the enemy. The short-sighted Queen of Hearts approach to downsizing agencies has the potential to collapse the economy as thousands of federal employees, who pump billions of dollars into the US economy, are thrown out of work with minimal notice. And that’s just the beginning.

For anyone who voted for Trump and is joyfully wringing their hands, you aren’t immune. Are you ready for prices to soar and your benefits to go down? Ready to see kids deprived of healthcare, school breakfasts and lunches, seniors to lose their Meals on Wheels, food banks to have empty shelves, businesses to shutter in response to an economic downturn sponsored by Musk and Trump and supported by a soulless Congress? There’s a math equation here: tariffs, shuttering agencies, wholesale cancelling of contracts means higher everything and what might become the new era of “Brother, can you spare a dime.”