By Donald A. Collins | 2 February 2026
Church and State
Each of us, as we look at the future, is governed by many factors, such as our health, our age, our family and friends.
Thus the topic of what we might anticipate for the year 2026 can be viewed through many personal lenses.
A simple listing of the media headlines since Trump’s 2024 election, as we conclude January events, forces us into a hugely negative forecast. Milwaukie, Epstein, and economic affordability to name only three with Trump in office and teetering on the brink of mad dementia!
#Trump due for another Test. He calls them IQ Tests (they're not, they're Cognitive Tests), and brags that he's now taken 3 of them.
"3 times, means you're not assessing dementia. It means you're monitoring it." – (Dr John Gardner, Professor of Clinical Psychology, John Hopkins) pic.twitter.com/5IvL7BgYXV
— John O'Connell (@jdpoc) January 29, 2026
However, if you just got a favorable medical report from your doctor, or your stock market stocks have been going up, or the birth of a new grandchild can offer you feelings of optimism, not generated by the headlines.
You can count on many downers since that’s the nature of life in offering, downers and uppers!
So that makes it often hard to project your personal year. We know from our own circle about the downers. How about the fact of the death of my wife after 30 beautiful years. Yes, add gratitude for my extreme good fortune! And how she was so effective in making my life work better as have all of my family for so long.
Picking up oneself as the inevitable traumas confront us remains a task which let people know now that’s the choices between
authority carrying and democracy.
The trick is being lucky enough to recognize when you are lucky enough to enjoy reasonable health and connections with people who respect you and care about you.
After that, the news of the day has to become more tolerable, even as we confront the most divisive, political divides in our lifetimes.
As Americans we collectively enjoy huge advantages compared to others so we must not forget our good fortune, but at the same time our huge responsibilities as citizens.
Three big unknowns? One will be how voters react after massive demonstrations in Minneapolis and in many other cities. Very clear now the people from every political point of view understand the choices have no now boiled down to whether we have a democracy or a dictatorship.
Official @springsteen video of Streets of Minneapolis. Powerful. #springsteen #Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/wrp6pIevsj
— Spring-Nuts (@SpringNuts_) January 29, 2026
Two: the rising use of AI when one big company CEO thinks could affect job availability by 50 percent!!!
Three: Put November 5, 2026, and the outcome of that day will prove to be the most important of the year. Democratic victory of sufficient size could force the GOP into strongly reining in Trump or even considering exiting him.
let people know now that’s the choices between authority carrying and democracy.
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Los Angeles, CA, has spent over 60 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of 15 books: “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”, “Trump–unrestrained dangerous liar!” and “Our Ethnic Mix May Save Us!”.“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
Questions Raised Over Trump’s Cognitive State
‘Trump’s professor referred to him as the worst student he ever had’ | David Cay Johnston
Bernie Sanders destroys ICE and Trump in powerful Senate speech
Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook
