The Isolation Diaries No. 18

“The calm that is called the calm before the storm, but is in reality the foundation of a human life, waiting there for us between the steps of our march to our mortality, when we are compelled to pause and not act but be.” Moshin Hamid, Exit West

The journalist I.F. Stone famously said, “All governments lie.”

Here’s a case in point, from the head of the United States government, Donald J. Trump, talking about the Coronavirus on January 22, 2020: “We have it totally under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

We cannot forget how badly Trump and his hodgepodge administration handled the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump fought reality for nearly six weeks, and that wasted time has undoubtedly led to death for many people. Trump was warned multiple times, as recent detailed reporting in the New York Times documents, and by multiple agencies within his own government that Covid-19 posed an imminent threat to the health and safety of the US population. 

Trump put his reelection bid ahead of the welfare of the American people. He failed in his sworn duty -- not that he ever meant to uphold his oath of office. He heads a failed administration, marked by chaos, confusion, vacant positions, and a revolving door of personnel. No wonder he can’t do anything right. Trump’s China ban was a joke, full of loopholes that allowed more than 40,000 people to enter the US -- after the ban went into effect.

Six critical weeks lost. Six. Critical. Weeks. 

MAGA-of-the-wrong-kind: the US leads the world in Covid-19 cases and fatalities. And no doubt we still lag behind when it comes to testing on a per capita basis. Tired of winning yet? Tired of the endless lies and self-promotion? Tired of the incompetence? Tired of the grift? 

Trump over-promises and under-delivers; he always has, always will, because he’s a ridiculous excuse for a human being who has neither the capacity to learn or evolve. Don’t forget what he said on February 26, 2020:

“And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”

I wonder if Mitch McConnell refers to the Coronavirus as the Chinese virus in front of his wife, Elaine Chao? 

Today we bought 30 rolls of TP at Costco. Hats off to the workers at the Goleta store for the way they have adapted to social distancing; they quickly developed practices that get people in and out with minimal contact. I expected a long wait to get in, but this proved untrue. We walked right in and one of the first things we came across was a giant rectangular stack of toilet paper. Corona Gold. The only item they didn’t have in stock was hand soap. 

I start reading The Plague by Albert Camus. 

Jet Fuel on a Bonfire

“For the past few weeks I’ve felt an aching in my chest; an angst I cannot escape. The darkening skies of an ever besieged biosphere aside, the specter of rising fascism undoubtedly looms large now, and war, a global war, now seems inevitable.” Kenn Orphan

Feel like I have been underground the past few days. The sun is trying to give the marine layer the slip for the first time in three days. June Gloom in Santa Barbara town. To the north of our apartment, to the south and the east, new buildings rise up above their neighbors, large multi-family projects that fill the entire lot. The palace on the slope near the Bowl is nearly completed. There are workmen on that one seven days a week. The old California Cleaners plant on Canon Perdido, near Milpas, is gone, the building leveled and its remains hauled away. Now a huge excavator pulls the soil into a small hill. Next to the building where I work, it’s the same story, down comes one building, from roof to foundation, and then the excavator man starts digging, two feet, three feet, six feet. A parade of trucks hauls the debris and dirt away. The street where the trucks exit becomes muddy. Something like 23 units will appear on the lot in a year or so. Will any of the places being crammed into every available space be affordable for working people and their families? How much of the family’s income will be gobbled up by rent? 50%? 65%? Doesn’t leave much for everything else, food, kids toys, retirement savings, car payment, credit cards, clothing, medical care, all the rest. The end of the month has no pity.

But somebody is getting their share, somebody is collecting the rent. 

No missile strikes have been traded, yet, but the US is at war with Iran. Saudi Arabia and Israel must be delighted. The only thing restraining Trump is the impact attacking Iran now might do to his re-election chances; if he gives the greenlight, he might look like a tough, decisive guy, but there’s also a chance of backfire. I can’t imagine Trump weighs it out any differently. All Trump cares about is Trump. To sunder the JCPOA arrangement negotiated by the Obama Administration and five other nations without any backup plan, was always to invite growing tension with Iran. Then, like a middleweight working the body, the US went in with harsher economic sanctions, blocking trade, the flow of currency, oil, and punishments for any nation with the temerity to continue doing business with Iran. If that’s not a form of warfare, I don’t know what is. We will make you kneel before us, by any means necessary.

Imagine if China had military bases in Mexico. Imagine if from these bases China flew unmanned surveillance drones over San Diego or Los Angeles. The US power structure would freak out, and then lash out, and line up claims about the violation of international law, the UN Charter. But the US grants itself the right to violate sovereign airspace all over the world, and could give a shit if the target nation complains, to the UN, or anybody else. The irony escapes us. 

Record heat across Europe. Flooding in the US midwest. Major cities in India are running out of potable water because the monsoon rains do not come with the same regularity. Climate change is here, right now, but the American ruling class, along with oligarchs around the world, plod on, promising that climate change is manageable, promising economic growth in spite of dwindling resources, promising a great long run of business as usual, based on relatively cheap fossil fuel. Trump raves about his “great economy” and I suppose some voters will buy it, and as long as the stock market remains steady and money is kept cheap by the Fed, the whole rotten structure should remain standing, fooling our leaders into thinking that climate change is overrated and still off in the future, less of a threat to the interests of the United States than Cuba.

Of all Trump’s misdeeds -- and there are too many to tally -- the hostility of his administration to facts, logic, and science, the burying of climate information and research, wiping it from Federal government websites, his complete failure on climate issues will be his legacy, no matter what. He will be remembered as the madman who poured jet fuel on a bonfire, laughing all the while. 

I just finished reading Exit West by Moshin Hamid. It’s a harrowing novel about migrants, people forced to leave their homes because of war, violence, or because life in their homelands is not sustainable. The choice to flee is never easy, and the consequences can be fatal. “All over the world people were slipping away from where they had been, from once fertile plains cracking with dryness, from seaside villages gasping beneath tidal surges, from overcrowded cities and murderous battlefields…” 

I think about our southern border and the innocent children surrounded by chain-link fencing, border guards, sleeping on concrete floors, nothing to do but wait. When all we see in the world is danger and threat, it’s easier to become callous and cruel.