The Isolation Diaries No. 39

“Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun.” Vic Mensa, 16 Shots

It feels like the pandemic is over, a thing of the past. We went from Covid-19 all the time to the death of George Floyd, massive protests against epidemic police brutality, and a real-time, street-level view of that brutality cheered on by the President of the United States. 

This past Monday wasn’t the first time Donald J. Trump used the US military to serve his political purposes. Remember the migrant caravans in 2018? (I know it seems like ages ago.) Trump ordered troops to the southern border ahead of the midterm elections, hoping the show of strength would boost the GOP’s prospects. It didn’t. The troops looked ridiculous. Their adversaries were unarmed, poor, traumatized by violence in their home countries, and desperate. 

It was power dangerous in Barack Obama’s steady hand. In Trump’s sociopathic hand it could end the American experiment. 

In the demand for justice for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor I see the reemergence of America’s heart and soul, the true America that overwhelmingly rejects Trump’s ignorance, cruelty and criminality; the true America -- represented by young people of all colors and creeds and sexual orientation and gender identification -- that believes in justice and equality; the true America that rejects white supremacy. The question is -- can this energy be directed toward political ends? Can it remain engaged and impervious to efforts to divide or dilute it? Can it hold together?

The year 1850 might be our best guide to the present moment. The nation was bitterly divided between slave and free. Abolitionists pushed one way and slaveholders pushed back. Today we see a demand for justice against a status quo hellbent on maintaining its power and privilege. It was a tyranny of the minority then as it is today. The Supreme Court and the US Senate were corrupt, as both institutions are today. Trump grows more desperate by the day as he sinks deeper into a pit of failure. It’s a long time between now and November, even longer until January 2021. I expect Covid-19 to return with fury either within the next few weeks or by the fall. I see the economic situation for wage earners becoming more dire. I anticipate a long, hot summer. 

We the people cannot disengage until Donald J. Trump and as many of his acolytes as possible are driven from power, but chief among them, William Barr and Mitch McConnell. Trump is one thing, Barr and McConnell are a two-headed wolverine of graft and injustice; they are Trump’s reliable enablers, they amplify Trump’s worst impulses. Unfortunately, the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, hatched in the post-9/11 hysteria and launch of the criminal War on Terror, amended and reauthorized with bipartisan support more than once, I believe, gives the president enormous power. It was power dangerous in Barack Obama’s steady hand. In Trump’s sociopathic hand it could end the American experiment. 

If there is justice in the universe, the last words Trump hears will be, “Dominate me, Bunker Boy!” 

As far as Trump is concerned, we must keep our eye on the prize until he is physically out of the White House. There’s a better than even chance that between now and Election Day, Trump will gin up a foreign crisis, declare martial law, or attempt to delay the election. If he loses, I expect Trump will immediately declare the result illegitimate, possibly leaving the outcome to the right-wing Supreme Court. He’ll also goad his God & Guns base into action. Our best short-term hope is that Trump drops dead from heart failure as he attempts to take Melania from behind. If there is justice in the universe, the last words Trump hears will be, “Dominate me, Bunker Boy!” 

Remember this for the struggle ahead: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. 

Americans are facing an out of control military machine bought and paid for with their tax dollars. 

Watch Barr and posse paint Antifa as the most dangerous threat to our Democracy since the Red Scare. Antifa here, Antifa there, Antifa under the bed, bullets and bombs and sophisticated tactics. A greater threat than Al Qaeda. Watch the estimated size of Antifa’s strength grow. Every authoritarian needs an internal enemy, a bogeyman.