The Isolation/Rebellion Diaries No. 13

 “Inverting the words and sentiments of Abraham Lincoln, this dark troll of a man celebrates malice for all, and charity for none.” Wade Davis on Donald Trump, Rolling Stone

Biden selects Kamala Harris as his running mate. Old Joe made the safe choice. In this moment Harris casts a longer shadow than the other contenders for the job because of her recent experience and exposure in a national campaign, and the high profile posts she held in California. Harris is smart, quick on her feet, telegenic, the daughter of immigrants, and, of course, a woman of color. That’s a lot of boxes checked. There are things to like about Kamala Harris, but if you’re a Progressive she’s still a disappointment based on her criminal justice record as the District Attorney in San Francisco and Attorney General of California. Idealism and realism, pick your poison. If I thought a headless mannequin could beat Trump, I’d vote for the mannequin in a heartbeat. 

Biden-Harris v. Trump-Pence. In a sane country this is no contest, like Bayern Munich shredding Barcelona 8-2 in the Champions League quarter finals. A hiding, a pasting, an annihilation and humiliation. Barcelona bruised and bloodied and dazed, the great Messi with his head down, not just beaten, defeated. That’s what Donald Trump deserves for the hell he’s inflicted on this country and its imperfect institutions. But not just Trump needs to go down, the GOP needs a hard reckoning for allowing themselves -- and in some cases eagerly volunteering -- to be bullied, humiliated and punked by Donald J. Trump. The moral cowardice in that ideologically stunted party is staggering. 

Biden and Harris make a decent tough on crime duo, but is that old Democratic Party formula what’s needed in this moment? The squishy middle ground when it’s so clear that much bolder initiatives are desperately needed? Slow, incremental change will not meet the climate, economic, and social justice challenges we can no longer afford to kick down the road. We’re like the Barcelona back line -- too exposed and easy to exploit. 

If I thought a headless mannequin could beat Trump, I’d vote for the mannequin in a heartbeat. 

The election should be a cakewalk, but this is America on the downslope of empire, a crazed fool roams around the Oval Office in search of conspiracy theories. America is no stranger to electoral mischief, as many of us witnessed in 2000, when a conservative Supreme Court delivered the country into the hands of George W. Bush. In 2016, perhaps with a boost from Russia, America handed its heart to Donald J. Trump, and some people, myself included, foresaw a shitshow of epic proportions. I saw Trump as a fraud the minute he came down the escalator, and cannot believe any person of sound mind ever expected anything from Trump other than what he has wrought; transgressions stretching far longer than Abraham Lincoln was tall. Honest Abe. Dishonest Don. But that’s my point. Trump has always been a con man, a tax cheat, a draft dodger, a philanderer, a business failure, a liar, a fabulist, and, of course, always, and above all, a showman selling magic beans, all of which seemed obvious to me and why I expected colossal incompetence and corruption. In this regard Trump has delivered. I didn’t predict a pandemic, but every administration is tested in some way, challenged by some crisis. Bush had 9/11, Obama the economic crash, and Donald J. Trump and Co. got the Covid-19 pandemic. The rest will live in infamy. 

Trump is reeling all over the political map now, firing on his remaining cylinders, stoking racial fears in the Leave It to Beaver suburbs, repeating as fact scurrilous lies about Kamala Harris’ birthright citizenship, promising vaccines and cures for the coronavirus, magic money to keep the Social Security System solvent, and peace in the Middle East. The Trump campaign, but more importantly Trump himself, knows he has fried his own goose, and the only path to reelection is through voter suppression, depressing turnout, and seizing control of what in this pandemic year is the backbone of our electoral system: the US Postal Service. For his own political survival, Trump is willing to neuter an institution that has existed since the beginning of our republic. 

Because Trump is a crude and stupid man, he wields power like a sledgehammer, not a scalpel.  Imitating the autocrats he holds in such esteem -- Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan --  Trump forces key arms of government to work in the  interests of his political agenda, not that of the people. For proof look no further than the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Now the USPS, in broad daylight, is being corrupted for Trump’s benefit. What American institution will be next? 

After almost four years in office, Trump still has zero understanding of the legislative process, and refuses to learn. He can’t tell the difference between a bill introduced in Congress and one of his empty Executive Orders. Trump wants to rule by decree. When he signed four mostly useless EO’s last week at one of his golf clubs, I think Trump believed he was solving the economic crisis we are in. The man dwells in his own universe.

The hard reality is that even if the Biden-Harris ticket prevails in November, the road ahead will be perilous, especially between November and January 20th. The pandemic will almost certainly still be with us, the economy might be worse, and the white people who cling to dreams of past glory and supremacy will be angrier than ever. Trump and Co. will be busy stuffing suitcases with files and money, issuing pardons, stealing silverware. One last orgy before charges are filed. Our best hope is to stop the bleeding, stabilize the nation, and then get to work on the massive problems we face, including climate change. As Bill McKibben writes in the New York Review of Books, “The upheaval that has been caused by Covid-19 is also very much a harbinger of global warming.” Biden must be pushed to address climate change in a serious, systematic way. Old Joe isn’t the man to take on the entrenched corporate power that owns our country...how can he when he actively helped Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama turn the American economy into a rigged game? 

That’s a downer, but so is thinking about the extent to which unfettered corporate consolidation has perverted our country. This is a subject rarely explored on corporate media, for obvious reasons, but it’s finally getting some attention (thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges have warned of concentrated corporate power for more than a decade) from the mainstream. Thom Hartmann is out with a new book about monopolies, as is David Dayen, author of Monopolized. When every aspect of our lives, from health insurance to air travel to internet service to banking to our food supply, is controlled by a handful of corporations operating a functional monopoly, we cannot begin to address climate change, income inequality, systemic racism, housing or health care. No corporation should ever be allowed to become “too big to fail.” Concentrated economic power doesn’t happen without political power. It’s time to reject Robert Bork’s perverse interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Bork got it all wrong. It’s not about lower consumer prices for laundry detergent, it’s all about power. 

As Bill McKibben writes in the New York Review of Books, “The upheaval that has been caused by Covid-19 is also very much a harbinger of global warming.”

After yesterday’s horrific defeat to Bayern Munich, heads are sure to roll at the Nou Camp. Many people will find themselves out of a job. Top level club football is a hard gig. When giants like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventas fall short in the Champions League, managers get sacked and players get sold or sent out on loan. Bayern Munich are a relentless team, a high-pressing, quick, physical and technically-gifted group. I lost track of how many times Bayern won the ball in Barcelona’s half, and even with a four goal cushion, Bayern midfielder Thomas Muller was chasing balls down like the match was in the balance. Relentless and ruthless. I don’t feel so bad about my beloved Chelsea’s 7-1 defeat to Bayern on aggregate. 

Turbulence Ahead

“The curse of the human race is not that we are so different from one another, but that we are so alike.” Salman Rushdie

New year. Like a child peeking out from under his blankets I peer out at this new year. Is the Orange Menace still holed up in the White House, wreaking havoc while he watches Fox News and issues insane Tweets about “border security?” As I write this, the NYSE is down another 500 points, below the 23,000 mark. Since the market began sliding in December, Trump hasn’t had much to say about the economy, except to blame the Federal Reserve for hiking interest rates. Trump is never responsible for anything negative, only the good, what little of it there is. Trump’s ability to debase whatever he touches is astonishing. America has had lousy presidents, but never one so blatantly inept and dishonest. Ditto the entire Trump junta. What a pathetic assortment of brutes, shitheads, assholes, and jerks. Like attracts like. Perfidy begets perfidy.

I’m not one for making resolutions, other than to stay in the present moment and try to be calmer and kinder, worry less, and enjoy more. I’m a lucky person, blessed with fortune. I have a rich life. When your chief wank is that your beloved football team (Chelsea) is playing uninspired, boring football, it means that the major aspects of your existence are damn good. I attribute my good fortune to luck more than anything else. I won Santa Barbara in the birth lottery and was reared before the American empire turned overtly, openly, cruel and maniacal. That’s the most disheartening aspect of the post-9/11 years, how America has lost whatever moral bearing we had before the Towers fell. Now we run side-by-side with rogue nations and make no excuses for it.

Because the federal government is at a standstill due to Trump’s temper tantrum over his Wall I have been thinking about the border with Mexico, our long suffering neighbor. As pointed out by Francisco Cantu in the New York Review of Books recently, the border area is one of the most heavily patrolled and surveilled on the planet. Migrants face a staggering array of obstacles, not to mention terrain that easily becomes deadly. Drones, helicopters, Humvees, infrared cameras, ground sensors, heavily armed agents. Against all this, and the fact that border crossings are down, the Orange Menace demands the public pony up the money for his vanity Wall. Colossal stupidity. When have walls, fences, moats or barricades ever worked for long? People always find a way under, over, around or through.

We don’t look at root causes, how from our very hand fell the seeds of the Central American migrant “crisis.” The elites in both political parties always have convenient justifications, plausible deniability, sound reasons, and, of course, historical amnesia. America is due a reckoning. We have to get over our 9/11 trauma and change cruel and inhumane systems, starting with our winner-take-all, survival-of-the-richest economy. The rich will have to take less, give more, and our tired empire must soon fold its tents, herd its livestock, and begin the long journey home. Trump is only a symptom of a disease, and even were he to be frog-marched from the White House in shame or shackles -- and no matter how good it might feel to witness Trump’s long overdue comeuppance -- the disease would remain, malignant cells rampaging over healthy ones.

Keep your seatbelt fastened. There may be turbulence ahead. If you ignored the flight attendant while he went over important safety features, you might want to take a moment now to identify the nearest exit.   

Bibi's Puppet

“Actually, the ones who at all costs want to appear strongest are usually the weakest, and at times they look ridiculous or pathetic.” Piero Ferrucci

Against all professional advice and the pleadings of our European allies, the Orange Menace has done it, pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement. Reneged. Bowed to his pals and our long time “allies”, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the prime minister of Israel, both of whom would love to see the US attack Iran. The neocon wet dream may be within reach, the dream that arouses Pompeo and Bolton in the middle of the night more than kiddie porn arouses a child molester.

What a state of affairs, this slow-motion train wreck that may very well end with the US waging war against yet another Middle Eastern country that hasn’t attacked or directly threatened us. What will the trigger be, some Tonkin Gulf type incident, a provocation by Israel (this began on cue in Syria shortly after Trump made his announcement), or simply the steady drumbeat of hysterical reporting in the New York Times, on CNN and from Netanyahu? Convincing the American public that Iran poses an imminent threat to our sacred way of life and that violence is the only solution is easy, and Congress isn’t likely to put up much resistance. American propaganda can turn any foreign leader into the equivalent of Hitler. One thing is certain: Trump has killed any chance of negotiating with Iran. Sanctions will punish the people of Iran -- not that Trump cares about them -- as well as European nations like Germany that trade with Iran. So dumb, so destructive, so hypocritical.

So Trump.

In the Middle East, a region we have never understood, our wagon is lashed to Saudi Arabia, country of origin for most of the 9/11 hijackers, a barbaric place where the state stages public beheadings, and an avid sponsor of a perverse strain of Islam; and Israel, the world’s great occupier, land thief, and perpetual victim.

On the domestic front, Trump continues to fulminate against the press any time an unfavorable report or story about him emerges. I think the corporate press has been cowardly in reporting about Trump, unwilling to confront his obvious inadequacies and lack of intelligence, but then, the Orange Menace is so outrageous that his every idiotic mutter is covered, drawing coveted eyeballs to screens for advertisers, and ad revenue is far more important than intrepid reporting. Anyway, most members of the credentialed press are parrots. But Trump is so mentally deranged that he deems any negative or unflattering report about him as fake news; the man honestly believes that he is accomplishing deeds greater than any previous president. Trump is impervious to truth, proud of his ignorance, blind to anything outside of himself, and ever desperate for attention and approval.  

The Pelosi-Schumer Democrats appear content to bide their time and hope that Trump either self-destructs or is brought down when Robert Mueller sorts out the money pipeline linking Russian oligarchs and the Trump Organization. The only thing I ever agreed with Steve Bannon about is that the entire Russia-Trump story is about money laundering. Corporate Democrats seem to believe they can sit back, offer nothing in the way of policies, and capitalize on Trump’s unpopularity with much of the electorate. No upsetting Wall Street donors or the military-surveillance complex, no abandonment of the neoliberal fictions of the Clinton/Obama eras. This is a recipe for continued failure. After 18 disastrous months of Trump, Democrats still cannot find their voice. It’s not enough to be against Trump -- a majority of Americans are against Trump. Democrats need to get off their lazy asses and offer the electorate -- not only their corporate donors -- something to be for. This will not happen.

Short Takes:

The Premier League season ends tomorrow. Manchester City are champions, deservedly so, and my Chelsea is most likely to finish fifth and miss out on the Champions League competition next year. Our manager, Antonio Conte, will pack his bags and leave Stamford Bridge, yet another manager who couldn’t get on with the club’s top officials. It has been a frustrating year for Blues fans.

A Day to Forget?

I’ve never believed or felt that the horrible events of September 11, 2001 changed the world: what happened that day changed our perception of the world, and our perception gave birth to a mentality that has ensnared our country in a trap beyond Osama bin Laden’s wildest dreams.

I never bought George W. Bush’s assertion that 9/11 happened because Muslim terrorists hated “our freedoms”; my reading of history and geopolitics told me that the policies of the United States angered some Muslims to the point of fanaticism.

I don’t personally know anyone who died or was directly affected by 9/11. I can imagine, however incompletely, the sense of shock and loss; I can imagine the fear and grief; on an intellectual level I can understand the desire for revenge. If my wife or child had died in one of the towers that day, if I had lost a friend or colleague, a brother or sister, I’m sure my feelings about 9/11 would be different.

As it is, when I think about 9/11 I tend to focus on the American response to what was essentially a crime – diabolical to be sure -- but still a crime. Instead of engaging the world’s police resources to solve the crime, we launched a war in Afghanistan that at first succeeded and then became a failure; Bush and Cheney, along with a craven Congress (and let’s not forget our disgraced national media), compounded that error by abruptly invading Iraq on the flimsiest of pretenses. Thousands of innocent people died in these invasions; hundreds are still dying.

Iraq is a fragile and corrupt state and Afghanistan is even worse.

In between the wars, our hysterical political leadership behaved according to the script penned by Osama bin Laden and enacted the Patriot Act – a monumental assault on the civil liberties that set America apart from other nations.

The Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security it spawned still frighten me more than a hundred Osama bin Laden’s.

And while I appreciate the heroism of policemen and firefighters and EMT’s, and respect the bravery and compassion of ordinary people suddenly caught in an extraordinary event, I find endless memorials to them unsettling, in the same way I find endless references to our “brave men and women in uniform” unsettling. In my case, repetition of this message distracts and detracts. Yes, some members of our armed forces are brave and heroic and believe that what they’re doing protects America, but to hang the hero label on all of them is like saying that all public school teachers love kids.

We can’t let 9/11 go even after a decade of war and mourning, a decade of looking over our shoulder and around corners for humorless men in turbans, a decade of security scans and pat downs and warning messages boomed over loudspeakers, a decade of cowboy rhetoric.

We can’t forget and we can’t heal. We’ve locked ourselves into a war that can’t be won or brought to a close. And if we are any safer today than we were on 9/10/01, it’s only marginally so.