The Ship of Fools

 “The powerlessness many will feel in the face of ecological and economic chaos will unleash further collective delusions, such as fundamentalist beliefs in a god or gods who will come back to earth and save us. The Christian right provides a haven for this magical thinking.” Chris Hedges

We were warned about climate change, provided with predictions of how it would unfold once the tipping point was reached, and of course moneyed interests and their political servants ignored the warnings altogether or used all their resources to discredit them. Parts of western Europe are withering, fires blaze across France, Spain, Portugal, and yet again there’s a destructive fire burning in my home state. Key water sources like the Colorado River are drying up before our eyes. Crop yields fall, the risk or reality of famine rises along with prices for basic foodstuffs. Most Americans grumble, yawn, and order Alexa to change the channel to something less disturbing and unsettling. 

It’s happening, the cataclysm I mean, and at a moment in this country when the political system is stymied by partisan battles for power and denial of reality is the order of the day. Greed is going to do us in, greed and stupidity. The shadow cast across America by the disgraced, treasonous former president looms over everything, obscuring whatever light we can muster. 

I take a walk up Garcia Road, along APS, and down Jimeno. I notice that several homes are for sale, while at least three are undergoing renovation. This is big money territory and I still can’t for the life of me understand how people crack the nut. Mortgage, insurance, upkeep, taxes -- how do they pull it off, where does their money come from? I recall that even as a child I distrusted wealthy people, never felt comfortable around them or their privileged offspring. My dad, who was working-class to his marrow, and leaned toward money making by gambling on cards, horses, football, and even for a time was a cog in a low-level bookmaking operation, told me once that money was the ticket to doing whatever you want, whenever you want. By the age of 57 he was dead, a casualty of alcohol and cigarettes; he left nothing but an old Oldsmobile and some clothes. I sometimes wonder what kind of grandfather he might have been. 

As I walk down the hill, the ocean moving in and out of my view, my thoughts return to the mysterious hold Donald J. Trump has over millions of Americans. The hold makes even less sense to me now than it did in 2015 because Trump proved to be incompetent in office, a stone criminal who disqualified himself from seeking and holding any position of public trust ever again. Something in this country is completely out of whack -- a sense of shame is missing. Any president who tried to mount a coup against the government should be forced by public condemnation into exile, never to be seen or heard from again, stripped of all privileges. But not here, not with Trump. What happened to us? Have we always been so dim-witted and cruel, such easy prey for a loud-mouthed con artist who can barely read? Is it any surprise that clowns like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have risen from the muck, all of them raised on reality television, Jersey Shore comes to Washington? Decorum, ethics, rule of law, when these ideals are eroded by a steady stream of corruption, what remains is the law of the jungle, of raw power, coercive and unjust and arbitrary. 

It’s somehow appropriate that one of the books I’m reading now is The Confidence Man by Herman Melville. “You flock of fools, under this captain of fools, in this ship of fools.”

New Beginnings

 “The single-minded pursuit of happiness, with happiness equated with hedonism, wealth, and power, creates a population consumed by anxiety and self-loathing.” Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour

Moving day nears. On my 62nd birthday I watch West Ham versus Chelsea and then start packing, focusing on bookshelves. We have a lot of knick-knacks, theater playbills, photo albums. The boxes of books are heavy. While we prepare to move down the street, our son is moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco for a new job at the SF Opera. He and a friend stop by on their way north, in a 10’ U-Haul truck. My wife hands our son a Trader Joe’s bag full of treats and drinks for the road. When my mother called to wish me a happy birthday she told me that she will also be moving in May. The building she lives in is getting a plumbing overhaul, so rather than deal with daily noise and water outages, she’s moving in with a friend for a month. Strange that we’re all moving. In our case it’s long overdue. One way to tell you’ve lived in the same place too long is by the shadows left on the walls when pictures and mirrors are removed. 

So, I’m now 62. This blog is 17. Why do I keep at it? Why do I toss my words into the endless anonymity of the Internet? Must be ego, or stupidity, maybe narcissism. On the other hand, everyone needs a hobby to keep them out of mischief. 

I’m reading a fine book by William Deresiewicz called The Death of the Artist. It’s about the changes technology has wrought for writers, visual artists, and musicians. From Napster to Netflix, from three major television networks to streaming services that serve very specific slices of the viewing public. TV by subscription, on-demand, available on every one of our magic devices. Like all new technologies, it has made a few people very, very wealthy, but landed many more in precarious financial circumstances. Writers giving work away, spending hours and hours promoting themselves on social media in order to make money. It’s fascinating, and somewhat a downer for me as both my kids want to work in the Arts. 

In the midst of the latest spate of police violence I stumbled across a website called KnockLA and started reading an investigative series about the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. It’s a serious piece tracking fifty years of egregious misconduct against citizens of color by sheriff gangs who went by names like The Vikings and Tasmanian Devils. Unique tattoos were common in these “law enforcement” gangs. They beat suspects mercilessly, shot and killed many, planted evidence, executed blatantly unlawful searches and seizures, and lied in court under oath. What I found more chilling was how gang members treated fellow deputies who refused to go along. I remember reading stories in the LA Times about Sheriff Sherman Block, and Lee Baca, but since LA county is a hundred-plus miles from Santa Barbara, the stories were abstract. Reading this series in light of what is happening between police and citizens of color all across this country feels more immediate. Over 30 years, LA County shelled out some 100 million taxpayer dollars in legal expenses and settlements. I don’t completely subscribe to the Defund the Police idea. I think money definitely needs to be diverted from the police to other public services. Law enforcement is in dire need of consistent standards. Some of the legal protections cops enjoy need to be removed. Not every dime should be shifted-- we need police -- but police trained to respect the laws they swear to uphold, and stripped of the majority of their military-grade hardware. Here’s a link to Knock LA: https://knock-la.com.

62. I stopped drinking last July 31, cut out beer, wine, gin, whisky. I thought alcohol was getting the best of me and that I was reaching for a beer too reflexively. It wasn’t hard to stop. I think I might have a wee drink of whisky this evening, raise a glass to new beginnings and good luck. 

Where Serfs Are Rarely Allowed

 

“It’s not the poor who make revolutions.” Chris Hedges, in conversation with Chauncey DeVega

All Joe Biden can do is slow America’s slide, but I don’t expect him to instigate or inspire the true course correction necessary to keep the country from coming apart at the seams. He’s got a narrow two year window in which to operate and a razor thin majority in a completely dysfunctional Congress. Trump drove the GOP insane and now the inmates have seized control of the guard towers and are headed for the armory. Unless we quickly strengthen and reinforce our democratic structure and some of its machinery -- voting rights, eliminating the filibuster, ending gerrymandering -- the republic cannot long survive. 

Accomplishing such reforms would be a major achievement for a functioning Congress. It seems obvious to me that the same political system that landed us in this ditch cannot pull us out. The corruption is too deep in the Senate, for example, for that body to accomplish anything except tax cuts for the rich, corporate handouts, and obscene annual tithes to the Pentagon. For the majority of working-class Americans -- and by this I mean people of all genders, creeds , political persuasions and skin tones who work for and depend on wages -- all we ever get from Congress is indifference and hypocrisy. The US has some of the weakest basic protections for working people in the world, and no organized labor power to speak of. Congress wrings its soft hands, knits its brow, and squeals when the subject on the floor is aiding working-class citizens in the middle of a devastating pandemic. Republicans make one-time $2,000 payments to eligible citizens sound like the worst profligacy imaginable. But they have no qualms about cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, handing out millions of dollars in welfare to companies that don’t need it, or drowning the Pentagon in money. No qualms at all, that’s simply business as usual, constituent service.

In a corrupt, upside down system like ours, the needs of working people will always be subordinated to the needs of the wealthy and powerful. Look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average if you need proof. At a time when our economy is limping along and millions are struggling to pay the rent and feed their loved ones, the DJIA is riding above 30,000. One clearly has no relation to the other. Two completely different games are going on here. How can the economy be booming for a few and collapsing on the many? How did we engineer such a perverse system? Why don’t we talk about it? Why don’t we speak in the language of class warfare in America when that is precisely what has been going on for almost half a century? Is it to maintain the meritocratic fantasy that every American is born with equality of opportunity? That every American rises or falls by his or her own effort and talent? Is it to justify the winners and explain the fate of the losers? 

People and companies who benefit from a 30,000 DJIA might reside in the same country with the serfs for whom the DJIA is meaningless, but they travel in fine automobiles on private roads where serfs are rarely allowed. 

As we approach a full year of adapting to the pandemic I’ve been thinking about the role of elders in society. In an article about loneliness, I came across some startling statistics, such as the large percentage of elderly people in America who live alone. My brother, cousin, and mother are in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s respectively, and all live alone. Extended families living under the same roof are rare. Families scatter now for schooling, work, military service, affordable housing, temperate weather, and many other reasons. Transportation is easier, faster and more efficient than it was a century ago. Upward mobility on the economic ladder might be a thing of the past, but people still pack up and move in search of better lives. The question I’ve been thinking about is: What do we lose when families scatter? The elders, for one thing. Elders are supposed to peer down the road ahead, see how it compares to now, and make a guess, using all their lived experience, about the dangers that might lie ahead. This might have been more immediately relevant to survival in indigenous societies, but I still think elders matter today. Even if the technology of the future is even more mind-boggling than it is now, and it surely will be, we remain human beings with passions, prejudices, fear, and the potential for violence. Wise elders encourage a cooling down, a meaningful pause to consider the consequences of words and actions. That’s the opposite of our lightning fast, digital, social media news feeds, YouTube favorites, and other noise that comes at most of us many hours each day. Without elders wise about the ways of human beings, without stories of people and places, events, times lived through, and threats survived, we lose the everyday wisdom of those who came before, and who can tell us how this or that place used to be.

How many of our elders have died alone due to Covid? How many of those deaths belong to Donald J. Trump?

I’ve also been thinking about China. Despite all his bellicose rhetoric, Donald Trump was easily outplayed by China on the trade front, and before much longer China will take our belt and become the preeminent economic power in the world. As political sclerosis and social unrest and division weaken the US, China will stroll through the double doors Trump left open and dominate technology and trade. Trump sundered America’s traditional alliances, alienated world leaders, made preposterous claims and a mockery of America’s longstanding claim to global leadership. Although America’s dominance was eroding when Trump moved into the White House, his reign was like tossing a Molotov cocktail onto a runway slick with jet fuel. Trump’s grandiosity and stupidity accelerated America’s decline. What does this mean for the millions of Americans who have nearly been forgotten in the half century of America’s disastrous experiment with neoliberalism? If we think those deemed “losers”in our unforgiving meritocracy are angry now, just wait. 

As our economic power wanes so will our military power, and then maintaining a global network of military bases will become untenable. The empire will be forced to fold its tents and limp home. 

When revolution comes to America it will arrive from the political right and it’s symbols will be the flag and the cross. Or the bullet and the Bible. Trump blathered about a fictitious “radical left” but the true danger is from Christian fascists, who for decades have been funded by conservative oligarchs. I found this passage in a book titled The Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart:

“Addressing gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other abuses of the electoral process that continue to hobble American democracy will be a central aspect of any effort to meet the challenge of Christian nationalism.”

Can I get an Amen on that? 

Adrift on the River of Madness

 “More of the same means more disaster.” Chris Hedges

Why is Rudy Giuliani still walking around free? Why hasn’t Donald Trump Jr. been arrested? Why haven’t there been news conferences with federal officials so that journalists can ask questions about the complete security failure at the U.S. capitol on January 6, and the apparent help provided to the insurrectionists by some members of law enforcement? 

In regards to the latter, what we discover when we pull the covers off may be frightening. 

The House of Representatives has introduced an article of impeachment against Donald J. Trump. After what happened on January 6, you would think that most Republicans would agree that Trump’s immediate removal is necessary for the good of the nation. Of course, you would be wrong. A majority of Republicans support appeasing Trump and his violent MAGA followers. I guess they haven’t seen enough, even though it was their place of work that was stormed and ransacked, with the mob clamoring for Vice President Mike Pence to hang.  

The GOP ideology of power-at-any-cost renders all who believe in it blind. Some of the same Republicans who amplified Trump’s election fraud nonsense now caution that another impeachment will “inflame” the country. Never has the complete hypocrisy of the Republican Party been so obvious and despicable. After nearly five years of coddling Trump, shrugging off his boorish behavior, racist pronouncements, staggering stupidity, and apologizing for his authoritarian proclivities, the GOP has forfeited any claim to moral authority. Kevin McCarthy, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson -- all of them -- are traitors and need to shut their mouths; they’ve done enough damage. 

Pundits keep asking, are we at an end or a beginning? 

It doesn’t feel to me like an end, so it must be a beginning. No society as unequal as ours can long remain stable and peaceful. For the Americans who ransacked the capitol I have nothing but contempt; for those who believe Trump’s fantasies I feel little except pity; and for those who compare what happened on January 6 to the mass protests for justice that erupted after the murder of George Floyd, I feel a slow burning hatred. 

White supremacy implies white immunity. We saw it in action on January 6. 

The GOP ideology of power-at-any-cost renders all who believe in it blind.

The Proud Boys and others of the same ilk should be designated as domestic terror organizations and given no leniency. What is more likely to happen is a rash of new anti-terrorism statutes that will ultimately make it harder for non-violent groups -- like BLM, anti-war, and environmental activists -- to stage mass demonstrations. 

The river of madness in 21st century America stretches from 9/11 and the hysteria that birthed the Patriot Act and the War on Terror, to the illegal invasion of Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib and the indefinite detention of suspects at Guantanamo, to the bailout of criminal financial institutions in 2008, and the incompetent response of the Trump regime to the Covid pandemic. Both political parties have lurched right, and both have promoted the welfare of the wealthy few to the detriment of the struggling many. Both parties have happily coddled corporate interests, including Big Tech firms like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, all of which have too much power and far too much personal information about all of us. (Twitter gets no brownie points for finally banning Donald J. Trump.)

Did you notice that stock market indexes rose the day after the January 6 insurrection? After the seat of the legislative branch was attacked and five people died, stocks rose! If that’s not market perversity, I don’t know what is. 

The Senate Sedition Caucus:

Ted Cruz (TX)

Josh Hawley (MO)

Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS)

John Kennedy (LA)

Roger Marshall (KS)

Tommy Tuberville (AL)

Thanks to the Lincoln Project for the above. Let’s not forget these collaborators or the 147 Republican House members who voted to contest the legitimate results of the election to mollify Donald J. Trump. Let’s also remember Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham, whose support for Trump has been steadfast. 

End or beginning? I fear we will see more violence in the days and weeks ahead. The genie is out of the bottle and loose in the land. America is having a psychotic episode. 

Land of the Free & Other Fairy Tales

 

“Those overwhelmed by despair seek magical salvations, whether in crisis cults, such as the Christian Right, or demagogues such as Trump, or rage-filled militias that see violence as a cleansing agent.” Chris Hedges 

I’m writing this on the morning of the final debate between Trump and Joe Biden. I’ve listened to a number of pundits and political junkies talk about the format, the moderator, and how Trump might react if his microphone is silenced. Can Trump keep his shit together this time and allow Biden to talk without being interrupted? I agree with the pundits who maintain that this last debate is more important for Trump than Biden. The former vice president may be the challenger but the pressure to deliver a “normal” performance rests on Trump’s back.  Biden prepped, it’s a certainty that Trump didn’t bother. The lies, as always, will come thick and fast. 

Given the way Trump has ranted at his recent rallies, his attacks on the press, and the way he rambled on about low-flow showerheads and toilets at one of the gigs, I wonder if Trump is headed for his Howard Beal moment, a full-on meltdown on national television. It would be fitting if the medium that made Trump is also the medium that brings him crashing down. I don’t imagine this debate will change many minds, any more than I can imagine how any voter can be undecided at this point in the game. 

Let’s be clear: if Trump pulling himself together and pretending to be rational for 90 minutes is portrayed as a near-miracle in the media, that’s because the bar is down in the muck and Trump put it there.

American myths -- freedom, liberty, justice for all -- crash head-on into American hypocrisy. For decades the United States painted itself as the gold standard when it came to free and fair elections, and we never shied from lecturing less civilized and sophisticated nations about their election practices even though for most of the 20th century we systematically disenfranchised millions of African-American voters. Voting procedures vary from state-to-state and, since 2010 when John Roberts and his Federalist Society pals opened the spigots and flooded our political system with  unaccountable corporate cash in the Citizens United decision, then gutted the Voting Rights Act three years later, making it possible for Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, and North and South Carolina to erect new obstacles, resurrect some old ones, and once again render the act of voting difficult for folks of lesser means and darker pigment. 

Those in power don’t like to share. The powerful and wealthy make voting difficult for certain segments of the American electorate because they want as little democracy as possible. 

LATER. 6:30 P.M. 

My wife and daughter are watching the Trump-Biden “debate” behind me, but both are on their phones. I’m plugged in, listening to Fela Kuti at higher than normal volume in order to drown Trump’s voice out. The man sickens me. He is everything that is crass, cruel and crooked in this life. He’ll lie for his life tonight, force Biden to defend, maybe stumble. My phone keeps pinging, another Democratic Party group warning me that Trump will be reelected unless I chip in $25 in the next five minutes. Joe is counting on me. Brian, it’s Kamala...Then, ominously: TRUMP IS KILLING BIDEN...saving his presidency...staging a last-ditch assault for reelection. It’s too much. I need more music, louder... have to keep these voices out of my brain. Twelve or thirteen days until the last day to cast a vote. Feels like an eternity. 

Trump is like Dracula. He has an insatiable appetite for power and wealth, to be loved and adored, and the only way to kill him is to drive a stake in his heart, shove a crucifix up his ass, and take off his hairpiece. Trump needs his hair, it’s like his battle armor. The debate should be nearing its merciful end, and then the tea leaf reading can begin, hourly polls, trends, probabilities, what ifs, analysis, the hunt for nuance and secret messages, a clear winner. Like I said this morning, if Trump managed to behave himself and exercise a 12-year-old’s impulse control, he may do his campaign a boost, give it a last spasm of life before the lights dim. How many undecided voters is Trump chasing, how is he going to turn them at this point? Let’s be clear: if Trump pulling himself together and pretending to be rational for 90 minutes is portrayed as a near-miracle in the media, that’s because the bar is down in the muck and Trump put it there. Trump hasn’t acted normal or been coherent in months. If Biden held his own, got in a couple of good licks on the Coronavirus and the economy, he should be fine. 

Here’s my mantra: It’s not 2016. This is a different race under very different conditions. 

I think the post-game analysis is underway. 

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. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 35

“Lives are being destroyed on the altar of profit.” Chris Hedges on the Truth Report with Chauncey DeVega

Until today I was feeling decent emotionally, neither too high or too low, taking it day by day, but the minute I went into the office this morning the wheels fell off my mental bus and I plunged down a ravine. I still can’t put my finger on the exact cause, which is as frustrating as feeling like the climb out of the ravine is more than I’m capable of. Even a hard training session failed to lift my mood. 

The Great Forgetting is underway. Coronavirus? What Coronavirus? I listened to an interview with the Irish writer Fintan O’Toole, who said the US under Trump looks pitiful. How, O’Toole wondered, can the country rebound with an actively malign presence in the White House? Good question, and the answer is that it can’t. Trump’s reality show presidency was destined to destroy, not build. Why people thought his run in the White House would be any different from his multiple business failures still baffles me. The American Empire was low on fuel when Trump took office, and now it’s running on fumes. 

Trump is the dark lord of America’s slimy underbelly. 

Remember when Trump said his administration had shut down the Coronavirus? That was almost 100,000 American deaths ago. Here’s the latest from the Trump Death Clock: 59,311. That’s the number of deaths that could have been prevented if Trump and his pathetic administration had acted with competence. 

The Trump Gang is full of political hacks and incompetent dickheads. I thought Lawrence Kudlow or Ben Carson or Betsy DeVos led the pack, but then along comes Trump economic advisor Kevin Hassett, who claims that America’s “human capital stock,” by which he means working people, are itching to get back to serving the millionaires and billionaires who own and operate our economy, even if it costs their health or their lives. Human capital stock. Had he been around in 1830, Hassett would likely have been an owner of human chattel, African flesh and blood, to be used, abused and discarded in the cotton or cane fields. I imagine Hassett as a squeamish owner who outsourced the discipline of his slaves to men even more heartless than he. 

No savior waits in the wings. This isn’t a Hollywood blockbuster. No, Joe Biden isn’t Donald Trump. Biden isn’t a sociopath, but if you think all our troubles -- social, political, economic -- will magically vanish should Biden pull off an upset and defeat Trump in November -- if we even have an election -- you need to spend some time reviewing Biden’s long legislative record. It’s not pretty. Biden’s policy stances are one of the reasons America has been hollowed out like a Halloween pumpkin. 

Hypocrisy. Stupidity. Cruelty. 

It took a long time for the Greedheads to put truth and honor and decency to the sword. They stood gloating over the bleeding forms, sword in one hand, Christian cross in the other. The Greedheads believe in death and of death they can never get enough.  

Night falls over my ravine. A coyote howls. Come the first light of morning I might climb out. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 25

“This is like a repeat of 2008, where Congress is dumping staggering sums of money into the hands of Wall Street thieves.” Chris Hedges. 

I spend three and a half hours in the deserted office. I feel clumsy in my own work space. Surrounded by familiar things, I still can’t work at my normal efficiency. Every task before me feels monumental. It’s one of those hit-the-wall days, a low ebb. They happen in bleak times like this. Stress, anxiety, worry, boredom, singularly, or all at once. I feel impatient, harried by my thoughts. When I return home I’m edgy with my wife. Has the apartment shrunk in my short absence? 

We’re at a stand-off with our 18-year-old daughter, who continues to blame her parents for the total disruption of her young, important life. She can’t hang with her friends or see her boyfriend; she asks if she can visit him, we tell her, no, not unless you’re prepared to move in with him. No going to and fro like Heidi Klum skipping down the runway. Uneasy truce. On the positive side the portable AC unit my wife ordered arrived. Our defense against the stifling days to come. My poor wife suffers in the heat, it wipes her out; fans don’t cut it. We have a swamp cooler that helps, but when it’s 85 or 90 outside it feels like 100 inside. 

What do you fall back on when you feel empty inside? Where do you place your faith? God or man? Religion never did it for me, but men frighten me more than God, because they’re here, now. Is there more good than evil in humankind? 

Back to normal, back to normal, back to normal the drumbeat sounds. Back to normal? No, that’s a mirage. An economic bomb is about to hit. We’re about to learn how hard it is to build a foundation that can stand the test of time, good and bad, droughts and floods, wars and hurricanes, earthquakes and fires, and how easy it is to destroy a foundation that has been deliberately allowed to rot. The odds of a swift recovery are very long, this isn’t 2008/09. We allowed that golden opportunity to angle the economy -- just a tiny bit -- toward average people and away from the wealthy to pass in favor of the status quo. Obama chose the wealthy over the people. The rich got richer, remember? Executive bonuses and stock buybacks. Even greater wealth inequality.Working people either lost or stayed the same. Had our economy been stronger prior to the pandemic, the hurt now would be less drastic. (By stronger I don’t mean a bigger bull market and hefty corporate profits, I mean more equal in terms of wealth, more equitable sharing of the spoils, far less precarity.) No person allowed to die of hunger or neglect. No person unhoused. No person without access to medical care. No person without access to clean water. No tents on the streets of Los Angeles, no Skid Row, ever, anywhere. Let’s start with FDR’s 4 Freedoms, see how those notions can be improved and expanded upon. Let’s revive the idea of social justice. We need a new definition of profit that takes into account owners, workers, and the planet. You can make money, lots of it, but not on the backs of workers, and not to the detriment of the planet. The Pentagon all-you-can-eat buffet must end; wars of choice that never end must stop. Unbridled corporate power must be checked. Our political system must be reformed, big money and soft money and dark money rooted out, voting rights expanded and secured, and the war on the poor that manifests in mass incarceration, ended. Only then might we stand a chance against what’s barreling toward us. 

Yeah, it was a day. I guess this is what I fall back on, playing with the word. It’s funny to think that six weeks ago our routines, our lives, seemed solid and predictable, but of course that was an illusion. Life is more fluid, especially in a society like ours, gilded on the surface and rotten to its core. This realization is humbling, and infuriating. A line from a Springsteen song comes to mind, from his album The Ghost of Tom Joad: “You get used to anything and it becomes your life.”

What stupid thing did Trump say today? What was the lie of the day? 

What happened to the anti-war movement in the US?

If America had a robust labor movement and a semi-level regulatory playing field, would we all enjoy universal health care now? 

The big money boys put the New Deal to the sword. Now they are busy looting the treasury. They do their best work in broad daylight, out in the open, under the glare of TV cameras. We get $1200, the dust left over from the frenzy of theft orchestrated by corporate lobbyists and their political cronies. 

Dust to dust. The human condition. I take a snifter of Irish whiskey out on the deck and sit in my new recliner. As the evening quiet deepens, I sip whiskey and stare at the waxing crescent moon. I can’t believe how beautiful it looks. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 11

“Capitalism would, in the end, Marx said, turn on the so-called free market, along with the values and traditions it claims to defend. It would in its final stages pillage the systems and structures that made capitalism possible. It would resort, as it causes widespread suffering, to harsher forms of repression to maintain social control. It would attempt, in a frantic last stand, to extract profit by looting and pillaging state institutions, contradicting its stated nature.” Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour

By one report I saw the death toll in America from Covid-19 has reached 5,848. It’s higher now I’m sure. 

The Santa Barbara Independent reports 152 cases in Santa Barbara County. 

Imagine if the United States was engaged in a war without the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top levels of Pentagon management. With no central coordination or logistics or intelligence, the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy are sent into the fray to do what they can independently of one another. At the front Army units call for air support, but the Air Force and Navy can’t decide which branch should respond. While they bicker, casualties mount. The Commander-in-Chief shrugs and says the war isn’t his problem, the services need to figure it out. He’ll back them up, but it’s their problem. As the war rages, the Army and Marines fight over limited supplies of ammunition and bombs and the Navy and Air Force spar over fuel and spare aircraft parts. The chaos is so profound that a Navy pilot mistakenly bombs an Army unit, killing 100 soldiers and wounding many more. A Marine battalion rushes to the front only to be told when they arrive that the battle line they are to reinforce is 110 miles to the east. The Air Force finds itself desperately short of rations, while the Army has five tons more than it needs. The Air Force petitions the Commander-in-Chief for aid, citing major casualties if the aid isn’t forthcoming. “I don’t like the way you’re asking me for help,” says the Commander-in-Chief. “First, you should be grateful for my leadership, and second, you should arrange to buy your own rations. What do I look like, Whole Foods?” Every afternoon the Commander-in-Chief holds a televised press briefing and claims the war is being won, casualties are minimal, and the whole thing should be over very soon. “Exciting things are happening,” says the Commander-in-Chief. “There’s never been a war like this. Nobody’s done the job we’ve done.”

Day-by-day erasure of truth, of fact, of verbatim, recorded statements. The grotesque, terrifying heart of George Orwell’s 1984 is alive and thriving in Donald Trump’s twisted rendering of his administration’s historic, perfect, never-been-done-before reponse to this pandemic. The governors are to blame for not preparing early, for not purchasing ventilators and masks and gowns and gloves in advance; nobody knew it would get this bad (most recognized experts saw the potential for catastrophe); hospital workers are stealing gloves and masks and selling them at huge profit; the federal government is only a backup; we acted early; Covid-19 testing is readily available to anyone who needs a test.  

Trump’s stupidity is as unbearable as his incompetence and mendacity. 

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is the poster boy for rich, pampered, lazy, incompetent assholes. He’d benefit from an old-fashioned playground ass-kicking. I’d be honored to administer that beat down. 

States do not have large stockpiles of strategic materials. This is why the federal government maintains the Strategic National Stockpile. National, meaning for the nation; national, because the federal government has size, economies of scale and logistical capacity that individual states do not. 

We are now bearing the weight of years of austerity, inequality, budget cuts, and cruelty. The chickens are flocking home to roost. So much for operating our government like a corporation, so much for the deliberate destruction of a social safety net that was never very robust to begin with, so much for the arrogance of the wealthy and the apathy of the masses.  

The sun is shining and birds are twittering, it’s Spring, time of rebirth and renewal. Traffic on Milpas Street is light. On a “normal” Saturday morning the flea market in the high school parking lot would be going at this hour. But the parking lot is deserted now. We stay inside, try to maintain hope, stay healthy, physically and mentally, though the latter is a challenge. I’ve lost count of how many consecutive days I have trained. Physical training is an important part of my life, but now my steel mace, kettlebells, jump rope, bands, TRX, pull-up bar, gymnastic rings, truck tire, and all the bodyweight exercises and martial arts movements I know are keeping me somewhat sane. I train, then meditate for a few minutes. I read -- The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. I listen to music, podcasts, watch Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ru Paul’s Drag Race with my wife. I write this humble blog, tossing my thoughts into the void. For the first time yesterday we wore masks (we found some brand new N95 masks we ordered during the Thomas Fire in the closet) when we went to CVS and Ralphs. 

No end in sight of Covid-19, self-isolation, Donald J. Trump and his band of profiteering ghouls, America’s delusions, fears, and madness, death and sadness, quiet acts of kindness and heroism and fierce creativity. I’m fearful. I’m angry.