The Isolation Diaries No. 15

“Yes, the world’s a cat’s ass, a real driveling disgust, and the sweetest thing is getting away from them, their sounds, their decayed unlaughing laughter & faces as brutal and ugly and impossible as any matter you can dream up...and the eyes, the eyes, no eyes at all. I can well understand men who run into caves and stay there.” Charles Bukowski

I stopped myself from going headfirst down the Facebook rabbit hole. Bernie Sanders is out, possibly for good, though the Vermont senator appeared to leave the door open a crack. The Democratic National Committee got the man it wants to defend the status quo, even if that means losing in November. What’s the next move, Tom Perez, the white flag of total capitulation? Biden may have the DNC infrastructure and the backing of the Democratic old guard, but he’s missing the one thing he needs more than any other to unseat Trump: grassroots energy. Biden had better start wooing the Sanders/Warren wing of the party or Old Joe will get his ass kicked by the worst president, and one of the worst human beings, in American history. 

No surprise that Wall Street reacted with glee to the news of Sanders dropping out. Wall Street knows that if the Biden longshot pans out, they can work with the man who has served their interests with distinction. 

Yesterday it felt like we hit some kind of wall. It wasn’t any one thing, more like an accumulation of hours and days, an unsettled feeling mixed with anxiety, maybe even a shot of fear. What’s going to happen next? How bad will it get? The news that Trump fired the Inspector General tasked with oversight of trillions of taxpayer dollars, first infuriated, and then left me feeling sick. That was Trump raising a giant neon sign over the loot, a big Fuck You to Democrats in Congress, and an act of prime time theft. You know damn well that somehow, some way, some of that lucre will find its way into Trump’s coffers, Ivanka’s purse, or Jared’s wallet. It will be funnelled through one company or wealthy individual, then another and another, and come out the other end without leaving a trace. Trump needs that money to save his failing businesses, pay his enormous debts, and cover his legal expenses. 

If we think self-isolation is hard and ennervating, imagine what prison is like, and then go a step further and imagine what it’s like in solitary confinement.

Biden’s got a Woman problem. Not only does he need Sanders/Warren supporters, he needs women, young and middle-aged, the energetic ones turned on by the possibility of change that Sanders championed and Warren sometimes amplified. The women who get other people to the polls. “Every A-frame had your number on the wall,” sang Steely Dan. Same with Biden. Women have Biden’s number. His problems with sniffing hair and laying on of hands, unwanted, univited hands, will trail him like the stench from a stagnant pond. Even though Trump is a pig and a pervert, with a closet full of sexual indiscretions, he has far less of a Woman problem than Biden because Trump has FOX News to provide cover, distracting fire, close air support. Who remembers Stormy Daniels except Melania? Or that Access Hollywood bit? That shit bounced off Trump like he was protected by a force field. Biden has to face an all-female heavy metal band who sing angry songs about men with wandering hands and Viagara-swollen cocks. Castration is a recurring theme. 

I just re-read No. 14 of this little series. The thing barely had a pulse, no snap, no nada. I posted it anyway, because the idea is to capture what I’m feeling and thinking about in this strange moment. 

In my neighborhood, on the far north end of Milpas, the pandemic and self-isolation has not silenced the weedwackers or the men who wield them. 

I’m thinking about Biden’s campaign. Keep it simple, something along the line of: He’s not Trump. Vote for Joe. Not being Trump is all Biden has to offer. He may be creepy and doddering, but at least he’s only a single-shot liar; his opponent is the AR-15 of lies. Joe may have trouble with the truth, but at least we won’t have to fact check everything that comes out of his mouth. Joe may be dumb but Trump is even dumber. 

Consider this: Trump wants us to forget all about this pandemic, pretend it never happened and get back to playing our roles as cogs in the money machine. Forget the dead. Forget the early warnings. Forget the failed federal response. Forget Trump’s dismissals and lies. Forget Trump’s lethal incompetence. 

Don’t forget. Please.