The Panican Ledger

100 Days of Ruin
Part III: Death from Above and Below

Even as the markets burned and the fields withered, there remained the comforting illusion of safe passage:
the ability to lift one’s eyes to the sky,

to move freely along the roads.

This too was doomed.

It began with Sean Duffy, a man whose résumé consisted largely of dancing naked on MTV, complaining about his congressional salary, and losing arguments to traffic signs.

For these feats, he was crowned Secretary of Transportation — chief steward of a nation’s air, rails, roads, and dreams.

He had ideas.

Terrible ones.

But the hundred days told another tale.

The planes fell first — a mid-air collision over the Potomac, then a medical jet in Philadelphia, then a dozen small craft sputtering down across the land like broken birds. March brought helicopters slamming into fields, experimental aircraft tumbling from cloud to ruin.

Duffy declared that America's aging, overworked air traffic system could be "streamlined" — not by hiring, but by firing.

Mass firings of FAA probationary hires.
Privatization of air traffic control.
Slashing of safety inspections and oversight.

When pilots and controllers raised alarms, Duffy shrugged and muttered: "Pilots need to get better at adapting to freedom."

"Rapid Unscheduled Disassemblies became the new national pastime — in air, on asphalt, and, too often, in the ledger of lives."

When questioned, Secretary Duffy blamed "pilot error" and "woke bike lanes".

The Death of the Roads

But lest Americans believe the ground was safer, Elon Musk, prophet of broken deadlines and gilded dreams, stepped forward with his latest miracle: "Full self-driving by June 2025," he declared.

The promises (as with DOGE savings) were as plentiful as the graves:

2015: Full autonomy by 2018.
2016: Drive coast-to-coast without touching the wheel.
2018: FSD within six months.
2019: Unsupervised robotaxis by 2020.
2020–2023: Each year, the dream postponed,
- Like a drunkard promising to quit tomorrow.

Yet under Duffy’s regime, the fantasy was law.

Self-driving vehicles, still in beta, still hallucinating children and road signs, were unleashed without meaningful oversight.

Whether by wing or wheel, the truth was the same:

Public safety was no longer a public good.

It was a market commodity, auctioned to the reckless, the incompetent, and the gleefully blind.

The skies rained down ruin.
The roads became silent executioners.
And the nation, once so proud of its ability to move,
now flinched at the sound of a passing engine —
whether roaring overhead, or humming quietly at street level.

Continue with Caution...