I’ve been struggling with what this blog post should be. Serious and targeted or more of our adventuring into the world of how I would write this in a time when truth seems almost stranger than fiction.

Given reporting from last night I think I’m going further into how this may fit into the evolving prequel to Reach Beyond the Stars and the Star’s End series (available on Amazon). Just a side note, truth can be stranger than fiction so read carefully and consider…

I am Nataya, recorder of the history of all, across the ages and throughout the worlds, all is recorded, and can thus be told.

In a world where wealth is concentrated at the very top a few dozen families control the majority of the worlds resources. In the United States of America an election takes place where the first woman with a real chance of being President is assaulted on all sides eventually resulting in an upset election that puts a minority President (someone who received fewer votes than his opponent) into power for the second time in  16 years . This coincides with an assault on voting rights and on voting participation that has led to gerrymandering and a House of Representatives that is also minority ruled. The benefiting party is controlled by a shadow organization of the rich, who have poured money into minor races. They have been using a group called ALEC to write model legislation that is friendly to business at the state and local levels. The legislation attacks people’s personal rights, environmental rules, anything to benefit the people in an easy and consistent way across states. They have attacked the truth, facts, science and have a grip on the media that has successfully created a post-truth environment where a segment of the population believes things that are just not true. Extreme examples include the earth being flat, or that man has only been on the earth for 5,000 years, or that pyramids were created to store grain. The idea behind all of it is to create a gullible, ill-educated people who are vulnerable to propaganda and who are so desperate and fed up that they are willing to follow anyone who promises them what they have been conditioned to hear.

Into this comes Donal Drumpf, with a captivating personality he sweeps millions into his cult of personality. At one point he proclaims “I could shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose a follower”. That proves true as he proceeds to break just about norm and tradition the country has. His entire campaign is centered around lies, hate, and confusion. Early in there are allegations that the Russians are lining up to help him and disrupt the American election. People make a living literally making up “Fake News” stories that eventually become rolled into this American President’s war against the media. Drumpf has one thing that he is never confused about – his absolute loyalty to the leader of Russia. There is a lot of confusion around this leader and it remains unclear if there is method to his madness. Few see the connections that are there and it becomes impossible to bring them to play in the environment of chaos that plays out everyday. The media, controlled at the very top, by those same cloudy families has to fight to get the message out. Early into the end of the experiment that is American Democracy a number of reporters and news outlets fight to reveal the truth.

Drumpfs family, rich as it was, wasn’t ever going to compete at the level of the Five Families but these families have had no success in getting one of their own into power and so they take a chance on this fragile figure as he flirted with his bids for power. What is unclear early into the election season is that Drumps was bought and paid for by the Russian government. Early in this story, I would be a very bad story teller if I told you if the Five Families knew about this Russian connection and if they were coordinating with their Russian counterparts or competing.

This new President of the United States is inexperienced, arrogant, a bully, and very, very susceptible to the influence of others. He has no gift with money and his father spent much of his own life trying to turn his son into a success. After multiple bankruptcies Drumpf was desperate to continue his extravagant lifestyle. His greatest talent is being able to draw people to him and maintain a very loyal band of friends who are with him to the end. Drumpf believes his own hype and has left a  trail of sexual assault victims in his wake, while others flocked to him drawn by money and power, and it’s possible, a few by love. His playboy reputation was well earned and while he never hesitated to boast there are some things that even he does not want the world to know especially in his new career as a politician. In addition, he wants no one to know how deeply tied he was to Russia for that, at least initially, could be a step to far.

After so many bankruptcies, Drumpf can not get financing from banks in his own country anymore. He has loans from Germany, from China, and he receives massive cash influxes from Russian oligarchs, facilitated by the person he selects as his new Secretary of Commerce. Other countries (and companies)  buy loyalty through astonishing licensing games where he sells his name for basically nothing and receives massive amounts of money in return. The property deals however, are the key to this President’s allegiances and those are not to the American people. His loyalties, where they fit into his own image of self-importance, are to those who provide the money that maintains him. The Russians gain mastery of those loyalties with purchases of property such as an appallingly gaudy mansion that Drumpf bought for $40M and, through a deal orchestrated by his now Commerce Secretary Ross, sold two years later for $100M. He is also recipient of what will could become for him, a huge influx of guaranteed income vested through a Russian oil company that will only be useful if he can roll back sanctions imposed on Russia by western nations led by the United States. What he doesn’t know at this point in the tale is that his Secretary of State is a member of the organization of the Five Families that will eventually come to rule what will be known as the United Americas but it is all dependent on getting an unstable man into power and keeping him there long enough to solidify his position and end the experiment of Democracy.

In my books, the Five families do come to power as Democracy fades into corporate elections and then none at all. The idea of my books came before Citizens United and the resulting flood of money into politics and  “free speech” that can skirt or avoid the truth entirely. I saw what George Bush did to this country and I do not want to see what Trump will do. We can’t afford another “Bush presidency” where taxes are cut, expenses are put on the credit card for defense and austerity reigns for the average American. Massive jobs programs came with the rise of Hitler as the media was made the enemy and the other became something to be feared. Maybe all of my fears are unwarranted and my sci-fi mind is taking me to scary places but a lot of other people that I respect and admire seem to be raising the alarm so I’m not going to stop speaking out. I was right that Bush would be a disaster for this country and I’m just as sure about Trump.