The Isolation Diaries No. 29

“What makes you so strong, black man?...How is it that after all this country has done to you, you can still produce a Paul Robeson, a Thurgood Marshall, a Malcolm X, a Martin King, and a Ron McNair. What makes you so strong, black man?...This country has tried castration and lynching, miseducation and brainwashing.”  From Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante

We’ve seen it so many times before, an unarmed black man gunned down in cold blood by white men, whether police or civilians, because the men presumed the black man -- in this instance a black man jogging in a suburban neighborhood in Georgia -- had to be guilty of something. One legal authority in Georgia took his sweet time bringing charges against the father and son duo of Gregory and Travis McMichael for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. It’s like 1877 and 1910 and 1920 and 1950 and 1965, and all the intervening years, when thousands of black men and women across the South were lynched for the crime of being black. 

Ahmaud Arbery is the latest victim of white supremacy. Will his killers be acquitted? If I had to put money down I’d say yes. It’s Georgia, after all. The killers are white, the victim is black, which makes the odds of justice being served slim. If the tables were reversed, if two black men stood accused of murdering a white jogger, arrests would have been made weeks ago and the accused would be sitting in jail awaiting trial and a predictable capital sentence. 

This country of ours is debased, truly debased. Every time I think it cannot sink lower, it does. I see Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, the look in her eyes as she spoke of her son, and it’s like seeing reflected the sorrow of centuries.  

Ahmaud Arbery is the latest victim of white supremacy. Will his killers be acquitted? If I had to put money down I’d say yes. It’s Georgia, after all. The killers are white, the victim is black, which makes the odds of justice being served slim.

John Stoehr is a writer for the Washington Monthly. Stoehr wrote a piece recently in which he ruminates about Donald J. Trump’s long-standing habit of walking away from his failures, whether businesses, marriages, or the Covid-19 pandemic. When the going gets sticky, Trump turns tail. Long time Trump watchers like David Cay Johnston aren’t surprised to see Trump declare premature victory over the pandemic. 

  

What is surprising is the silence from Democrats in Congress, and those few members of the GOP who haven’t entirely sold their souls to Trump. Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, can’t understand why politicians are not clamoring for Trump’s resignation. If you watch a montage of Trump’s statements from January forward, can you come to any conclusion other than that Trump is a make-believe president, dangerously incompetent, mentally unfit, and a miserable failure? 

Oh Donald, you pathetic little man-boy, a pandemic is not like a spouse you can ditch when you grow tired of her. Covid-19 has staying power, and it doesn’t care about your wealth or properties or any of the shit you put your faith in, all it cares about is spreading from one host to the next. Covid-19 has the insatiable appetite of a Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg; it’s like a remorseless capitalist for whom there is never enough. 

If you watch a montage of Trump’s statements from January forward, can you come to any conclusion other than that Trump is a make-believe president, dangerously incompetent, mentally unfit, and a miserable failure? 

You’re a coward, Donald, and always have been. You never do your own dirty work, you always find others to carry your weight. When your country came calling, you dodged the draft like other rich, white, pampered pussies; you’re deathly afraid of intelligent women, and you fold your tent the moment anyone challenges your BS. You can’t handle being confronted with evidence of your inadequacy. You’re as insecure as any big man with a small dick. 

Today I’ll close with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr: “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”

This Week in the Kleptocracy

“In public relations, perception becomes the highest value, just as in capitalist societies, profit is the singular ethic.” Jason Hirthler

EAR TO THE GROUND:

“I don’t have any financial interests with Saudi Arabia, never have.” Donald Trump

“We don’t know what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. Just because he disappeared inside a Saudi consulate doesn’t mean the Saudis had anything to do with it. Could have been a lot of people, many different people, maybe Turks, maybe Greeks, maybe rogue elements we don’t know about. The fake news media is jumping to conclusions, as usual. The King of Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince, both fine men, very fine men, told me they had nothing to do with it, and I believe them, very strongly, very bigly.” Donald Trump

“I, Donald Trump, do solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, unless doing so interferes with my personal business interests.” Donald Trump  

RECENT HEADLINES:

Trump Humiliates Chinese Panda, Calls for Sanctions.

Trump Compares Crown Prince Salman to George Washington.

Trump Mocks Deaf-Mute Student at White House Ceremony.

Trump Claims Jamal Khashoggi On Vacation In Istanbul, Says Murder Allegation is Fake News Hoax.

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi looks more and more like an episode of the Blacklist gone awry. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, darling of corporate America and New York Times sage Tom Friedman, is, like Donald J. Trump, a rich fuck-up, thin-skinned, not very bright, who relies on brute force to have his way, and makes most everything he touches turn rancid. No wonder Trump admires him. By most accounts, Khashoggi didn’t earn the “dissident” label hung on him by the Western media; he was a relatively mild critic of the monarchy, but he obviously got under bin Salman’s skin, and paid the price for it. Trump and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who reminds me of a self-satisfied mob bagman, claim the Saudis are innocent until more evidence is unearthed, like video or audio recordings said to be in the hands of Turkish authorities. Sober observers seem resigned that such evidence will not see the light of day, and that Prince Salman will escape this gruesome episode with no more than a black eye. The “special” murderous relationship between Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US will continue.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan believes hostility toward Iran is what unites and animates this trio. Although no Iranian has been accused let alone convicted for murdering Americans on American soil, Trump and many in the war establishment view Iran as the next great bogeyman that must be vanquished. Conveniently forgotten is the fact that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. How is it the Kingdom got a pass for that? Oil, money, influence with the Bush family and in the corridors of Congress buys a lot of amnesia.

Trump’s fawning, servile and solicitous treatment of the Saudis makes for interesting speculation about the extent of his business ties with the Kingdom. As Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, said the other day on his program, it’s not about country-to-country relations under Trump, it’s family-to-family -- or more accurately -- crime family-to-crime family. Unravel Trump’s financial dealings and it’s likely that his dependence on Saudi money -- and possibly Russian money -- is more significant than we realize. Trump is a walking, talking, breathing, snorting cesspool of corruption, a human ethical violation, who started cheating in the sandbox in kindergarten and has never done differently since.

Meanwhile, while all eyes are glued to the Khashoggi affair, Mitch McConnell and his band of thugs have set their sights on gutting Social Security and Medicare, a long held wet dream of the whacky right. The talking points are making the rounds, with amplification from Trump, and it’s the same BS story the GOP has hawked for 40 years. Budget deficits are caused by overly generous Social Security and Medicare benefits and must be slashed or America will collapse. Absent from the GOP’s logic are the billions of dollars handed to the wealthy and corporations in the form of tax cuts, subsidies, and other types of “relief.” Also missing is the bloated, wasteful, but sacrosanct Pentagon budget, which accounts for more than half of all Federal outlays. And no mention at all of the legal tax avoidance schemes practiced by major corporations like Apple, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T and so on. Ironic that corporate CEO’s and Trump himself, who talk so lovingly of America and our military machine, our freedoms, blah, blah, feel no obligation to support our country with their tax dollars. For Trump and others of his ilk, paying taxes is for suckers.  

The game is rigged in a 101 different ways and the wealthy elite win when they lose, at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk, as they sleep and when they wake.

We’re nearing the midterm elections, the TV ads are heavy, the mailers arrive in the mailbox daily (and go straight into the blue recycling bin), and I still have no idea what Democrats stand for, save for tepid opposition to the Trump crime family, and a fairy-tale belief that Russia stole the 2016 election for Trump and is planning to do it again. Little proof is offered amid the dire warnings. Progressive Democrats fight through a thicket of the old guard led by Pelosi and Schumer, who insist on keeping the Democratic Party on the same losing trajectory. Corporate campaign money is as addictive as heroin. Schumer is hopelessly addicted and until he, Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Feinstein and others are expelled from the party, the Democrats will continue to wander in the political wilderness.

By the way, in case you are wondering, I made up the quotes and headlines. Just having a little fun in these dismal times.

Fund Drive

“It can be terrifying to know your own frailty.” Karen Connelly, The Lizard Cage

When I’m driving around town in my old Honda Civic I listen to KPFK, the leftist station based in Los Angeles that is part of the Pacifica radio network. I like Democracy Now, Thom Hartmann, Background Briefing with Ian Masters, and Margaret Prescod, but like most listeners, I tire very quickly of endless on-air fund drives, the frantic pleas for money to keep the station from death’s doorstep.

The problem is that KPFK is always at death’s doorstep. Various reasons for this penury are advanced, including the difficulty in our corporate media landscape of operating a station solely on listener donations, or because KPFK is managed by an unwieldy board that can’t locate its behind with both hands. Maybe the truth is that lefties can’t manage money. Anyway, it feels as if the current fund drive has been going on for three weeks. I made my tithe a few months ago and have no more to give, and I don’t like being made to feel guilty for not chipping in $150 for a book and a couple of DVD’s. I wish some left-leaning billionaire – if such a person even exists -- would send KPFK a check for a few million so they can knock off these fund drives and get back to programming.

Case in point: I’m in the Honda the other afternoon and this host is vigorously hawking downloads for a breakthrough, consciousness-raising, spiritual-cleansing program guaranteed to change a person’s life. Access Consciousness it’s called. Never heard of it or the host’s guest, a fellow named Dain Heer, who talked as if Access Consciousness had given him the key to the universe. Money woes? No problem. Trouble finding that special someone to share your life with? Easy peesey. Questions about why you are where you are and not someplace better? Access Consciousness will open doors for you that you never dreamed existed. I began to listen more carefully. Like all commercially savvy gurus, Heer talked a lot without divulging much -- about tools and joy and ease and vibrant health and financial freedom. When he mentioned “clearing statements” my inner skeptic stood up and said, “Whoa man, this is starting to sound like Scientology BS.”

I went back to my life, my routines and habitual patterns of being, early to bed, early to rise, a bottle of beer before dinner, and the pages of a book before switching off the light for the night. But what I’d heard on KPFK nagged at me so I did some research. What I learned from Google searches is that the founder of Access Consciousness is a guy named Gary Young, who at the time he conceived his answer to all of life’s doubts and difficulties just happened to live in Santa Barbara. Dain Heer, who to my chagrin also had a Santa Barbara connection, joined the team a bit later and immediately became the young, cool face of the enterprise. Heer’s talks are all over YouTube; the few I watched creeped me out.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Access Consciousness is total nonsense and a cult. What really bugs me is that KPFK is pushing this snake oil on unsuspecting listeners. Any time some smug white guy claims to have the answers to life’s perplexing questions, and offers to share them for a price, you can be assured you are about to be fleeced.