While the gates of Mar-a-Lago glittered with pumpkins and laughter echoed through its gilded halls at the “A little party never killed nobody” Halloween bash, a far darker haunting gripped the nation beyond. For millions of Americans, the revelry inside was bankrolled – to the tune of $3.4 million – by the very dysfunction breeding quiet desperation outside.
The party’s title wasn’t merely thoughtless – it embodied a profound disconnect from the government shutdown it blithely celebrated. A “bit of fun” doesn’t kill anyone, granted. But what does it kill? It erodes the security of a family cut off from suspended food assistance. It postpones life-saving treatment for a patient whose clinical trials are frozen. It devastates the livelihood of a federal worker or contractor facing a mountain of bills with no payday in sight.
Let’s ground this in specifics, for abstraction obscures truth.
Americans are going hungry. This is no metaphor. Food banks propped up by federal aid are buckling, while families reliant on WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) or SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) stare at bare cupboards. The Florida festivities feel galaxies away from a parent’s panic over feeding their child next week.
Americans can’t afford medical care. Shutdowns stall NIH (National Institute of Health) clinical trials and slow FDA (Food and Drug Administration) food-safety inspections. For those battling rare diseases or terminal illnesses, these aren’t mere delays – they’re potentially fatal setbacks.
Americans are losing their jobs. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are furloughed or labouring unpaid. The fallout cascades to contractors – the janitors, cafeteria staff, IT specialists – whose families and small businesses teeter on the brink. Their stability is the human collateral of political gridlock.
No, a Halloween party doesn’t kill. But it carves a brutal divide between those who treat power as a game and those who endure its fallout. It exposes a privilege so vast that a shutdown – crippling services and shattering lives – becomes occasion for celebration, not national shame.
The Mar-a-Lago soirée isn’t just a party; it’s a modern parable of glitter versus grit. The next time a leader shrugs off “a bit of fun” as harmless, recall the true toll: empty stomachs, delayed cures, crushing debts. The fun may not kill, but the indifference it signals erodes the bonds of a nation meant to stand together.
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Consider a book, “The dangerous case of Donald Trump”, edited by B. X. Lee, including 27 professional contributors, update, 2024, and also Mary Trump’s book, “Too much and never enough”. The authors conclude…” Trump’s is a life destined to inflict harm and suffering on others.” The severity of Trump’s impairments include egocentricity, pathological lying, lack of empathy, remorse or guilt, impulsiveness, sexual infidelity, etc. Psychiatrist L. Dodes, M. D., as quoted, says Donald Trump, like Hitler, is a psychopath.., the most dangerous disorder in that it is the only psychological condition in which behaving in a morally reprehensible way is an essential part of its nature. Trump will never stop harming others for personal benefit and will become worse over time. He is not sane. We should not be misled by any Big Lie.
The Sun King, Louis XIV – “apres moi le deluge”
Mightn’t kill but will ensure rapid destruction of Trump, even Republican Party.
Thanks Michael. Appreciate your courage to call things as they are.
BTW, reference “suspended food assistance”, consider the needless cruelty here:
“Before the shutdown, the Trump administration cut $500 million in deliveries to food banks across the country, including more than 27 million pounds of chicken, 2 million gallons of milk, 10 million pounds of dried fruit and 67 million eggs that never arrived. The food went to waste instead.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/31/roaming-charges-122/
I recommend “Roaming Charges” for a unvarnished weekly look at America.
Thanks for the link to Counterpunch, Julian. Extraordinary stuff… I’m surprised more people aren’t running around tearing their hair out in madness & despair.