“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not a gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852
According to the last time I checked the Trump Death Clock, an estimated 67,045 American lives might have been spared if Donald J. Trump had taken the Covid-19 pandemic seriously and acted only one week earlier.
The entire world saw what Trump and Co. did, for nearly two months. Epic, deadly arrogance and incompetence.
Here’s something curious in the midst of all the chaos of the pandemic and the rebellion. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, pled guilty twice in Federal court to lying to the FBI. The Trump Administration prosecuted him. So why is William Barr, our doughy, dangerous Attorney General, using his power to get all charges against Flynn dropped? Why is Barr going to extraordinary lengths for Flynn? Why the writ of mandamus? Serious monkey business.
America’s Most Wanted: William Barr. Mitch McConnell. Donald J. Trump. This merciless trio mocks the rule of law.
Mr. Barr, in particular, has a track record as a magician for the powerful, including extricating George H.W. Bush from a tight Iran-Contra corner. Don’t let his rotund form and mild manner fool you -- Barr is a dangerous ideologue.
Barr’s the ladle stirring the toxic brew in Trump’s fortified compound.
If one considers the juxtaposition of images one might be justified in referring to America as a failed state: doctors, EMT’s, nurses, technicians, all scrambling to outfit themselves with personal protective equipment, while police, National Guard, ICE, FBI, ATF, Park Police, and Secret Service are laden with gear to put down the People’s Rebellion of 2020. It’s a sad but accurate portrait of America in this moment, a clear statement of our inverted and perverted national priorities.
Violence and social control over the care and well-being of citizens.
It took Covid-19, a murder, and the twisted madness of Donald J. Trump to awaken the rebellious spirit of the American masses. Three months of enforced isolation, lives disrupted, jobs lost, people dying, and then the broad daylight murder of George Floyd, caught on video for the world to see, the cop nonchalant as he pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck. It was too outrageous, coming close on the heels of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. The focus of the nation, cooped up and tamped down for nearly three months, shifted suddenly to the state sanctioned murder in Minneapolis. Too many black men, women, and children have died at the hands of police for it to be a coincidence. People of all colors, creeds, and ethnicities flooded America’s streets to demand an end to these racist killings.
It was fucking beautiful. At last, the people awaken. Into the streets, peacefully, but with determination and purpose. A long and terrible roster of victims like George Floyd surged back into the public consciousness. But George was the catalyst, we watched his killing.
The official, uniformed forces of oppression had gone too far this time.
After George Floyd’s murder and Trump’s sadistic performance on June 1, when he threatened to unleash the US military on Americans for exercising a Constitutional right, the people will not go back to sleep, not this time. The sleeping giant is awake now, on the move, and sending a mighty message: the corrupt status quo must go. Police in America are out of control, overarmed, overfunded, poorly trained in some cases, asked to intervene in matters not their business or expertise. Why does homelessness fall to the police? Because for nearly half a century public services in this country have been deliberately defunded in an orgy of austerity for working people and the poor. Instead of vital public services like health care, housing, job training, and mental health treatment, our tax dollars have been invested in the wealthy, through massive tax cuts and subsidies, and the bottomless pit known as the Pentagon through the idiotic War on Terror, and more obscenely bloated budgets every year. The spigot at the Pentagon spews champagne, and the generals never skip brunch.
We fund the military-security complex like a prize hog and starve the rest of the farm.
The outcome of the mass demonstrations remains in doubt, but the activist energy visible around the country is a hopeful sign. People are listening, tuned in, totally engaged. Corrupt regimes often fall with a single push.
One thing we know for sure: It’s time for white America to get its knee off black America’s neck.
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