The Circus is Here, and So's the Bread

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Panem et circenses — bread and circuses. Sound familiar? Attributed to a Roman poet and satirist, Juvenal (circa 100 A.D.), it denotes the trick of pacifying the masses with garish entertainments and enough food to keep them quiet.

Keep the little people distracted with spectacles and toss ’em some loaves, and they’re unlikely to notice their republic being turned into an autocracy. In Juvenal's words:

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

Of course, he spoke Latin, but I’m not that fancy.

If Juvenal hits uncomfortably close to home, no wonder. In the U.S. the circus is in town. We’ve got a president who likes to gin up AI images of himself as a king or the Pope and whose disregard for the Constitution he took an oath to uphold is only exceeded by his

admitted ignorance of what it says.

The Constitution is a boring read, anyway. Much more exciting is winging off to Saudi Arabia with Elon Musk and Sam Altman to make beautiful deals that will be tremendous, absolutely great, for the new AI tech bro oligarchy. Not to mention the Trump family biz. And the Saudis get a whole bunch of new weaponry from us!

What could go wrong? I mean, just because 9/11. Or because its current ruler, MbS, probably signed off on the murder of a dissident journalist inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey. That’s so old news.

Hey, how about that flying palace from Qatar? What a lovely gift! How rude of anyone to mention Qatar’s financial sponsorship of Hamas. Or that retrofitting that 747 and checking it for bugs (the electronic kind) will take years and cost American taxpayers a billion dollars.

But wow, it’s so tastefully Trumped out, I mean, tricked out. Only losers would say no to a deal like that.

So the circus is well underway. Packed with cabinet clowns and jester advisers.

And now, with the GOP trying to perform magical math to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill that will deliver everything DJT promised in his campaign, except for the things he didn’t mean — WAIT!

Pay no attention to the millions who will lose Medicaid coverage or the kids who will go hungry because their SNAP benefits have been axed! Forget the cuts to the Affordable Care Act!

And never mind that there’s a provision in the OBBB (One Big Beautiful Bill) that would disallow states from regulating AI for ten years. I mean, that’s good for everybody, right? If everybody is Elon Musk or Sam Altman.

Just don’t worry about any of that noise. As an article in the May 14, 2025, New York Times explains, in addition to the circus, here comes the bread!

And by bread, we’re talking money. Cold hard American cash (unless DOGE figures out how to credit everyone with part of a $Trump coin).

Why, American households could see hundreds of dollars per year — hundreds! — in tax credits and incentives that will pour into our bank accounts annually just like magic!

Until Trump leaves office. Then all those magic dollars will probably dry up like the Southwest in a drought.

But meanwhile, there could be (emphasis on could) an extra $500 child tax credit, a thousand-dollar increase in the standard deduction, and no taxes on tips. Which, if you’re working for tips, income tax is probably not your biggest problem, but oh well.

And get this, gals: every baby you pop out from now until Dec. 31, 2028, gets a $1,000 deposit to a new “MAGA account!”

No word on whether that will be in actual money or meme coins, but hey, by the time those kids are eighteen — well, that thousand is bound to grow.

Probably not enough to offset losing your health insurance or the spiraling costs of childcare, about which the administration plans to do exactly nothing, but those are problems for the future. Right now, who couldn’t use an extra few Benjamins?

I mean, they won’t get you a room at Mar-a-Lago for the night, but they could pay for one or two weeks of the baby's daycare.

Of course, they don't amount to the crumbs in Trump’s pockets. But if he’s willing to toss a few of those crumbs our way, who are we to worry about due process, or habeas corpus, or the American republic?

There’s always more circus to watch.