Trump is a chaos monster because of his impulsivity and willful ignorance of policy and history, but, at the same time, he uses chaos as a potent tool of disruption. Like many dictators and would be autocrats before him, Trump consciously or unconsciously recognizes that confusion and mayhem create a fertile petri dish in which fear and anger thrive—the perfect environment in which a demagogue, practiced in the art of propaganda, can rise to power and persuade followers to support policies that defy common decency and common sense, not to mention their own self interest.

Michiko Kakutani, June 6, 2024, from “How Autocrats Weaponize Chaos,” Time Magazine

Oh, sweetness. Mikey and Squirt have become a part of the family. Wave has welcomed “the boys,” to live with us. When I picked him up from school today before he even got to the car he was asking about them. So, the boys rode home with us, and Wave invited them to come live with us. A wonderful afternoon. I am aware of the threats to democracy from the fragments of news I catch, and then I have these exquisite moments that being with a four-year old brings to inspire, uplift, distract, preoccupy and delight me. He deserves my focus and attention and my sense of play and my imagination. [Ooops — he just ran in here naked, before bedtime, to do some jumping on my couch.] So, anyway. I am so full of gratitude for my grandchild and his proximity to me. We made snickerdoodle cookie dough. It really was a first for him to join me entirely in a cooking task. I will bake them tomorrow, the dough is in fridge. I’m baking this batch for my aunt and hope to mail it to her since I cannot visit in person right away. And Brittany, thanks to my daughter, had a wonderful grooming today and looks very pretty. Outside was lovely in the frozen wetlands. Lots of wonderful ice. I was able to work a little on my poems. Tonight I led my Tuesday night group––swoon. What a wonderful two hours of creative writing. The people I get to spend my time with give me such hope. I am grateful for all the writers who are writing into freedom and and honesty and respect for all human beings. I’m mostly grateful for the four-year old’s innate kindness and concern for others. After cookies, we played Candy Land for the first time. Wave is in a normal stage of very much wanting to win. So we laugh at his little tricks to do so. But in the end, instead of winning, which he did, he brought my little gingerbread character to stand right next to his in the winning zone. It’s really better to win when the people you care about are winning with you.