DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: 1 president, 1 VP, 100 senators and 435 house representatives versus 342,034,432 American citizens – how will history remember you?

I’m going to begin my column with a little humor. Then I’ll jump right into the abyss of this week’s rabbit hole.

Fox News in Chicago reported “Thousands of UFOs spotted off US coastlines raise new national security fears.”

Here we go again with the fearmongering.

Another Epstein list distraction, perhaps (more on that later).

The comments about this UFO article were hilarious.

My thoughts: “Don’t worry, they likely realized they’re at the wrong vacation planet – there’s currently a travel advisory for planet Earth.”

Others mentioned, “At this point if they make contact, I’ll consider it a rescue mission” or “Lock your doors and keep going.”

And these UFO passengers certainly had better not need food or medical assistance because our daddy Warbucks billionaires and lobby-fed politicians have closed this country down for business.

The question is, when will it be opening back up?

And how many Americans are okay with the politicians paying themselves during a shutdown in which they’re responsible?

Let’s be honest, Americans in any social class want food and medical treatment. And they want to be treated with dignity by those they hired to sit in the seats of our federal government.

A survey I read that goes beyond the above mentioned commonsense basics explained Americans also want to see bills on one topic at a time. This to end those bills in which Chuckie can manipulate Mikey to vote on a bill about health insurance while negotiating in that same piece of legislation how to start WW3.

Americans are also keen on term limits, which is going to happen even if we must fire every sitting politician in office.

The removal of lobbyists and PACS are also high on the list to get the US back in order.

So, if those Americans we’ve put in office will not do the job, fire the grifters and hire politicians willing to step up for constituents.

Indeed, we could go really deep down the rabbit hole and consider both sides of the aisle are currently attempting to cause a situation to lead to chaos because then the rules of the land would change. And not in favor of “we the people.”

For now, let’s remember the U.S. government is still shut down since Oct. 1 – as of this writing 34 days.

This will be longest shut down in U.S. history if it doesn’t open by Wednesday, Nov. 5. During President Trump’s first term there was the current longest shutdown at 35 days.

Our forefathers did not put a clause in the Constitution allowing for “we the people” to fire an inept government. They likely never thought it would get this messy.

However, the current job of the sitting government leaving 42 million men, women, and children of all ages without food or healthcare (not including other shutdown issues I’m not mentioning) is a job badly done.

It comes down to egos.

And if you are laughing and saying you do not care it will not affect you, laugh again because it will.

Some say the government will never open again and Trump will demand a third term.

Some are fine with the methods the Administration and ICE are using.

Some people say this is all about Project 2030, which President Trump disassociated himself from prior to be elected. Even so, it appears he has shortlisted the playbook so as to fall in line with his deep state orders after inauguration.

Some people say this is how a narcissist behaves when he is getting even with people.

Some people say this is the end of the United States and the beginning of a dictatorship.

Some say this is what they wanted even if that means the next major election in Nov. 2026 will be too late to save this country.

Some are pointing at the $300M ballroom renovation (private donors) and Trump’s roaring twenties, “Great Gatsby” party. Sidenote, apparently some people did not read the “Great Gatsby” nor pay attention to Marie Antoinette’s infamous line “Let them eat cake.” Turns out people hurting do not find the hollowness of the current U.S. administration amusing.

I’m not going to comment on the Halloween party, I attended one myself, however, sometimes tone deaf really is loud when you are meant to be the leader.

This isn’t the time or place to judge.

It’s not a time to blame or be in poverty/victimhood consciousness. It’s the time and place for US citizens to come together and figure out how to fix this mess.

And figure out (and correct) how the government ended up with so many people relying on it so as to cripple the country when assistance is cut off.

This did not happen overnight.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the Republican mouthpiece spoke on the shutdown, and it’s easy to separate his truth from lies.

On the other side of the aisle, blue Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the mouthpiece for that group isn’t doing much better with his narrative.

Two untruths do not make a truth – it makes another distraction.

Johnson said he will not call the House back until the Senate passes a government funding bill. He does not want standalone bills to pay agencies or essential workers. He wants Schumer to get his job done. But Schumer argues it’s team red holding up the game.

How did one of the most enviable countries in the world with plenty of money and amenities end up having such unaffordable prices, low pay scales and such a weak band aid fix when complete amputation is clearly needed?

Another reason we need a federal government cleanup – the American people are tired of distractions that make them the losers every time, particularly in the realm of food and healthcare.

I’m not saying universal healthcare is the best idea. In fact, somewhere inside me alarm bells are going off at that idea. We do need a system of healthcare in which people can afford it.

And we need to be ready when the politicians come back from their time out to demand what the people want not what the lobbyists want.

Would it be more affordable for patients if the pharmaceutical companies were not paying doctors to push the drug of the week? Or, if the government (that word again) were not being paid by lobbyists (such as pharmaceuticals) to turn a blind eye.

Doctors go into the profession because they want to help people. In the end, they get stuck either outcast or they bow to the system so as not to fail and then it becomes about money. And healthcare becomes too expensive, so people die.

Is this the time while the government is on its little time out to fix our own problems without their unnecessary intervention?

Some want to say this has been a snowball happening over time because morals have eroded. There’ll always be a shortage of morals in certain people.

At one point, women had to go to work because families could not afford to live in the U.S. on one income.

Children had to raise themselves.

And from my conversations with people, there appears to be more than I ever expected of people who were abused in some way growing up. Over the past few years in conversation I have sat stunned many times.

What do you do about that? Some wonder if this government shutdown is just one more distraction ala the Epstein list.

Turns out I was in a minority, not the majority, of people who did not experience SA growing up.

What if release of that list could serve as a healing for the U.S., even if famous faces do go down in flames.

Let’s look at 2025. The promised list not released, the government shutdown and lack of food and medical, ICE agents arresting legal residents, bombing at least two countries, deploying and bombing said “drug cartels” in the Caribbean and the repeating of the word “ceasefire” over and over while Zionists continue their quest to build beachfront resorts on the Mediterranean Sea.

What exactly are our politicians trying to normalize these days anyway?

When did it become acceptable for one president, one vice president, 100 senators and 435 house representatives have the right to strangle the 342,034,432 Americans who put them in office?

The American people on both sides of the aisle are already talking about what they’ll do.

Remove anyone from office who refuses to allow this country to heal be it the unreleased list, not ending the government shut down, or not saying no to senseless wars that cost money and people’s lives.

Fresh faces bring accountability and compassion, but can we wait until next November or will it be too late?

Rita Cook is a freelance writer for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.