The Isolation/Rebellion Diaries No. 11

“In a real sense, all life is interrelated. The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich; the betterment of the poor enriches the rich. We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Time in Trumpistan moves as fast as a tornado and as slow as molasses. Fast in the tumult of Trump’s infantile and incompetent response to Covid-19, the staged assault on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1, the deployment of heavily armed, unidentified, Federal agents in Portland, the lies and corruption and outright lunacy of Trump and the miscreants who surround him. But ever so slow as the nation staggers toward Election Day, less than 100 days hence, and one day runs into the next, not a carbon copy, but similar, with the latest Covid numbers the priority. Is our county up, down or flat? What’s going on statewide, where’s the latest hot spot, where are deaths rising? What’s Congress doing or not doing to help states and citizens weather this storm? 

And of course we are forced to endure the daily spectacle of Trump himself, the bloated leader of our Covid-19 battered banana republic, bragging about his mental acuity on national television. Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Trump’s new mantra. Bonus points (only in Trump’s withered brain) awarded for reciting the words in order. Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. So proud is Trump of his achievement that even as the American death toll from the pandemic reaches 150,000, he can’t stop talking about it. “I passed a test! I finally passed a test, all on my own, with no help and no cheating!”

Journalist Mehdi Hasan called out the irony. When it comes to Covid-19, a lethal pandemic, Americans look in vain for a coordinated federal response. But when it comes to protecting federal property from graffiti in Portland, behold, the federal response is not only coordinated, it’s jackbooted, long on shock and raw force. When it comes to dispersing protesters from Lafayette Square so Trump can stage a photo opportunity for his reelection campaign, the federal response is not only coordinated, it’s choreograhped by William Barr to portray Trump as the triumphant protector of law and order. The pandemic bores Trump because it’s too complicated, like the algebra he never could fathom. Unleashing BORTAC -- the shock troops of the Customs & Border Patrol -- against American citizens exercising their first amendment right is not only easier, it provides immediate gratification and satisfies Trump’s sadism. 

So proud is Trump of his achievement that even as the American death toll from the pandemic reaches 150,000, he can’t stop talking about it. “I passed a test! I finally passed a test, all on my own, with no help and no cheating!”

(Here’s a random thought: how does Jared Kushner react when Trump summons Ivanka to the Residence at 2:30 a.m., with instructions to report in high heels and a black negligee?)

In all this turmoil and madness, Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence, on the very same day Stone asked for it, has gone down the memory hole. The GOP is a lost cause, so of course not a soul from that doomed vessel sounded a dissent. Hypocrisy, cowardice and silence is now standard procedure in the GOP Death Cult. But where the hell are the Democrats? The Stone commutation was obviously payback for his loyalty. It was the Trump crime family taking care of its own. The timing and context are clear. The commutation was a crime. Where’s the outrage? Jerry Nadler’s committee had Attorney General Barr on the stand and in the main failed to land a significant blow. Barr is a seasoned Washington fixer, he knows the game, how to parse, dodge, obfuscate, duck, parry and counter. Barr is the Pillsbury doughboy’s evil twin. The Democrats had plenty of opportunities to hammer at Barr’s mendacity and subversion of the rule of law, his craven and comprehensive dereliction of duty, but for the most part let the chance pass. 

Trump knows he’s staring defeat at the polls in the face, and his gut impulse dovetails with his tactics over the past three and a half years: toss even bloodier hunks of red meat to his base of true believers (his recent remarks about saving Suburbia from people of color), his focus on Law & Order, and his empty threat to postpone the November election based on fear of massive voter fraud. With intent and malice Trump is tossing seeds of delegitimization to the wind, hoping to harvest a crop of Doubt after November 3. 

If that’s not sobering enough, imagine if Joe Biden wins the election but the GOP retains control of the Senate. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 38

“The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins -- and he her worst enemy who, under the specious...garb of patriotism seeks to excise, palliate, or defend them.” Frederick Douglass

I can’t dislodge the events from this past Monday out of my head. First, Trump’s bellicose speech in the Rose Garden where he threatened to deploy active duty military personnel against American citizens, then the brutal clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park so Trump could lumber to St. John’s Church for a campaign photo op. In his speech Trump mentioned the 2nd Amendment, one of his favorite dog whistles, and in front of St. John’s Trump held a Bible aloft as if he had never seen one before, as if the book had fallen from the sky. The point of the speech and the photo op was to signal to Trump’s diehard supporters, Guns & God, Law & Order.

The stunt failed as nearly everything Trump attempts fails. He sounded like an authoritarian tyrant and looked like a fool, but this creation of television got the images he wanted for his reelection campaign. Add stirring patriotic music and a voiceover and Trump will be transformed from a pathetic coward to a manly hero.  

Peaceful protesters were assaulted with flash bangs, tear gas, and stampeded by the forces of the state. A military helicopter hovered above the crowd at low altitude, its downdraft bending trees and scattering dust and debris. There is so much to say about this spectacle, and yet, I feel as if words fail. I lived through Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, and believed I had seen the low points of the American republic, but what we must understand about Donald J. Trump is that there is no bottom to which Trump can sink. His basement leads to one sub-basement after another, each one more tawdry and debased than the one that came before. 

What we have witnessed this week is forces of the State oppressing citizens using equipment and tactics perfected by the military outside America’s borders. This is as true today as it was during the Vietnam War era. The police, Secret Service, National Guard, and mounted Feds who stampeded peaceful demonstrators exercising a right enshrined in the Constitution acted as cruel and cavalier and arrogant as graduates of the Israeli Defense Forces do when they brutalize, humiliate and murder unarmed Palestinians. 

The police are out of control. 

Because this is America, protection of property will take precedence over people. The narrative about the nationwide demonstrations is already shifting from police brutality and racism -- the murder of unarmed, handcuffed, face down on the pavement George Floyd in broad daylight -- to law and order. Don’t be outraged about police brutality, meted out with impunity across this nation, be outraged because some lowlifes smashed windows and looted a Target. 

The world we’ve made small is closing in. We’re still in the midst of a pandemic. Millions of Americans are out of work. Glaciers are melting. The power structures constructed on a foundation of white supremacy, war, genocide, and greed can read the demographic writing on the wall. America is changing, people are stirred now because they see the rot, corruption and racism at the heart of the structure. The rich and comfortable hate the idea of solidarity; the powerful squirm when they hear the people speak of justice. That’s why they despised Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s a long way off still, but through the billowing smoke and the chaos and pain, one can glimpse the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice. 

Let justice be our North star.