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. 1

“You have to turn yourself around and change. You have to know how to look even if you don’t know what you’re looking for.” Roberto Bolano, 2666

Time feels weird, not passing in the same rhythm. Of course not, everybody’s off beat, off schedule, off the clock or off the job. I’m a public employee so I have it better than most. 

Visions of hordes storming the castle walls, determined to wrest a fair share from the greedy and hated king. The king is clearly mad, confused and befuddled, but not yet exhausted of cunning or devoid of escape routes. He’ll never admit how weak he is until he can no longer hoist a sword or knife or gun or pen. 

The afternoon sun is warm on my skin. Makes this more surreal. Normally I love being at home, reading, writing, drinking a beer or two, but under these circumstances it feels strange. 

How will the world share the spoils after the Covid-19 is past? Back to business as usual? Might not be possible. In the US, we have a roadmap, the New Deal, when wealth equality surged and people gained a measure of financial security. But we also have a more recent experience, the Great Bailout of the reckless banks in 2008-09, when, though wealth moved around, almost all of it remained in the same hands. New asset bubbles started forming almost immediately, an illusion of recovery. From every hill, valley, knoll and seashore, people, workers, were told, “All is well, we’re back on course.” For the wealthy, yes, they got even richer. Our Mad King calls it the greatest economy, ever, and takes all the credit. He will not accept the blame.

Be grateful for the ordinary, things taken for granted, the simple stuff that goes unnoticed. Now you might have time to look. The world is forced to take its foot off the gas, step back, take a long, slow collective breath. We all face this virus. Rich, poor, white, black, young, old, male, female, gay, straight. The virus doesn’t care who you think you are, doesn’t take your wealth or social status or beauty into account, doesn’t care if you live in a fine mansion or a shack. 

Be grateful for the sound of your daughter’s footsteps on the stairs. She’s home. She’s safe.

I was 17 or 18 when I discovered Carlos Casteneda. In my young mind, old Don Juan was the guy who had figured out how to live, how to see and experience a deeper life with deeper meaning. I loved those books. Spy novels, too. A few years later, very far from home, I found Herman Wouk, James Michener, Leon Uris, writers of big broad canvas narratives. I always read a lot, and always at a higher level than the grade I was in. 

I wish Trump would take a vow of silence. Trump needs to sit with himself, by himself, in a bare room, alone. Maybe, after many hours, or days, even longer, after making many excuses, telling many lies, Trump might get a glimpse of his soul. Not the phony one, the real one. Do you like what you see, Donald? Say yes and you’ve got to look some more. Some people see their soul often, are friends with it; for others, it takes a while longer before the noise they make about themselves settles. 

We walk to Ralphs on Carrillo Street. Only a small number of shoppers are allowed inside at a time. We wait in line. We find ground turkey, a few canned goods, oranges and bananas, cheese, crackers. There’s no almond milk and, because it’s late in the day, no TP. We hike home, packs full, down deserted city streets that two weeks ago would have been busy at this hour of the evening. With most people at home, those without shelter are more visible than ever. 

Will this virus and its global ramifications TKO the neoliberal order? Our systemic frailties are exposed for all to see, and the worst still lies ahead.  

The Curse of Greed

“Financial extraction happens across the economy, from farming to health care to retail to manufacturing and beyond. The tools include building monopolies, using tax havens to cheat on tax bills, firms channeling profits not into productive investment but into buying back shares to boost share price…” Nick Shaxson, The Nation

I’m writing this early on Super Tuesday, though I may not post it for another few days. All eyes in the Democratic Party apparatus are trained on Joe Biden today, hoping his win in South Carolina -- the first primary Biden has ever won in three tries at the presidency -- will give him momentum, and eventually, the nomination. The Democrats are desperate for Biden to overtake Bernie Sanders, desperate to dodge the threat Sanders poses to the hegemony of the Clintonites and other hacks who enjoy power and privilege, desperate to avoid any serious critique of how the party has shafted working people and the poor for decades. 

I’ve lived and worked long enough now to see the horrific effects of neoliberal capitalism on workers, our children, our elderly, and the environment. When the corporate media loses its shit over Sanders I shake my head and wonder if any of the talking heads and sterile blabbers remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Sanders only seems radical today because the United States has moved so far to the right since the New Deal era. By the values of that trying period, when capitalists had ruined the American economy, Sanders’ policy proposals are hardly radical, but to enact them would mean the hyper-rich and corporations must accept taking less of the spoils, and that is something they are unwilling to do. The rich have waged a brilliant and merciless 40-year-long war against the working-class and the poor, rigging the economy and the political system and the courts to their advantage. They’ve run the table.

Regardless of political, religious, racial, sexual or gender affiliation, rural or urban provenance, working people lost. We let the wealthy divide us and conquer us, anesthesize us with spectacle, smoke, mirrors, and magical thinking. As I’ve said on this blog many times before, since the tail end of the 1970’s, working people have taken a first-class beat down. 

The problem with Greed Capitalism is that it recognizes no limits, either moral or environmental. Accumulation becomes the be-all and end-all, until a handful of people control a majority of the world’s wealth. Through media outlets they own, they drill into us that this is perfectly natural, that they are extravagantly wealthy because they are extravagantly worthy. Through endless propaganda about the fairness and virtue of free-market capitalism they have convinced us that our lack of wealth is our own fault, the result of personal shortcomings, lack of vision and wherewithal to seize the reins of our own destiny. 

Greed isn’t good. Greed is a curse, a plague, an insidious and terminal virus. 

If only we chased justice as frantically as we chase wealth and power. But justice doesn’t hold out the promise of whiter teeth and unblemished skin, a long life of ease and luxury, private yachts, jets, penthouses in the clouds, and the power to compel others to do your bidding, take your orders, satisfy your whims, starve while you gorge yourself. Justice involves sacrifice and wisdom.  

Masters and slaves, ordained by God and Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand. A few must rule, the rest must bow and beg. The poor make the long walk to the manor house, knock at the back door, beg for an audience with the Lord, and walk away, into the twilight, empty-handed. 

Forever Unhinged

“Market capitalism is simply not conducive to mutual human concern. It is a system based on social warfare, cultivated by its root socioeconomic orientation.” Peter Joseph, The New Human Rights Movement  

The corporate-owned media always acts surprised when Donald J. Trump goes off script and rants, as he did after the murder of a peaceful demonstrator in Charlottesville, and then again at a pro-Trump rally in Phoenix. But nothing Trump does or says or tweets should surprise anyone. Disturb yes, surprise, never. Trump was unhinged when he declared his candidacy for the White House, unhinged on the long primary campaign trail, unhinged through the general election, and unhinged the day he sat behind the big desk in the Oval Office. Trump hasn’t changed. Trump can’t change. Trump won’t change.

What should be clear to the people of the United States, and unfortunately isn’t, is that Trump and the two political parties have no interest in confronting the massive problems facing the country. This isn’t necessarily because all the people in government are evil fucktards -- though some of them (Attorney General Sessions, for instance) surely are -- but because our political and economic system is designed to serve the interests of private property and private capital. Forget all the rhetoric about “We the people” and “all men are created equal”. Our system rewards particular behaviors along a very narrow spectrum that doesn’t include the welfare of the many. In the past, in the New Deal era for example, because the entire system was teetering, the negative consequences caused by unregulated capitalism had to be addressed and some effort to better distribute resources undertaken. This worked reasonably well for several decades. In fact, the financial reforms and social initiatives of the New Deal era worked too well, presented too much of a challenge to the system and those who own and profit from it.

Poll after poll demonstrates that Americans of all political persuasions want affordable college tuition, health care, decent housing, safe roads and highways, clean drinking water, retirement security, and other basic necessities of life. The wealthy individuals and corporations who run the country have no interest in any of these things.

Our failed, stupid war in Afghanistan is set to last a lot longer. When Trump earlier this week announced a change in strategy, which was not much of a change at all, except perhaps to exacerbate tensions between India and Pakistan, many corporate media talking heads applauded in their usual knee-jerk way, so conditioned are they to support war. Insert 4,000 troops or 40,000 and the US is still going to flounder, and ultimately fail. Our brave and heroic troops may, as Trump boasted, kill some terrorists, but they will also kill and displace hundreds, if not thousands, more innocent civilians than have been killed and displaced in the past 16 years. This means creation of more fanatics filled with grievance and hatred and hell-bent on revenge.

Obviously influenced by the military men he has surrounded himself with, Trump offered only destruction and death in a country in desperate need of a political solution. Does the US even bother with diplomacy in the age of Trump and the Kleptocrats? Why talk when you can bomb? The majority of the American people are paying no attention to Afghanistan, have probably forgotten that any US troops are there at all. What we should have learned is that   starting a war is easy, ending one is much more difficult; the generals dig in, refuse to face reality, demand more troops, more drones, more cruise missiles, and promise that victory -- whatever that means -- is around the corner, within reach. Defense contractors like Raytheon and Boeing have a huge financial stake in keeping wars going, and their lackeys in Congress are scared to death to oppose them.

Do we ever learn? Of course not. And what does a culture of endless war abroad mean on the domestic front? Can a nation engaged in foreign military conflicts enjoy peace and prosperity at home? Ask the protesters at Standing Rock or activists from Black Lives Matter what it feels like to confront militarized police forces.

The taxpayer money that has been poured into Afghanistan, wasted, lost, funneled to warlords and corrupt officials, could easily alleviate the crushing student loan debt faced by so many Americans.

Opportunity lost in the fog of endless war.

Parliament of Thieves

“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

We can see the outline of how the next four years are going to play. Someone will criticize Trump and thin-skinned, small-hands Donald will take to Twitter to attack them, and in doing so he will either distort the truth, ignore the truth or tell an outright lie. Trump’s tweet will drive coverage by the lapdog corporate media.

Actors and artists are also citizens, and some actors and artists are well informed, engaged, and eloquent: George Clooney, Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda and Meryl Streep come to mind. Trump took aim at Streep over remarks she made at the Golden Globe awards about Trump’s mocking of a reporter who suffers from a physical disability. Naturally, Trump denied that he ever mocked the reporter, even though video tape evidence of him doing just that exists. Here we step into Trump’s Orwellian world, where up is down, black is white, war is peace, ignorance is knowledge, and The Donald is infallible.

Trump called Streep “overrated.” Let’s correct the record. Streep has been nominated for Academy Awards nineteen times, with fifteen of those nominations for Best Actress, an unparalleled feat. Streep has won three Oscars and eight Golden Globe awards. Streep is the Michael Jordan of Hollywood. Donald Trump is an idiot.

January 20 is the day America plunges into the abyss. Yeah, when Trump raises his tiny hand and swears to uphold the Constitution, a document he’s hardly familiar with and has little respect for, it’s over the edge and into the black. And I’m only going to say this once: if Big Bad Vladimir Putin somehow -- and I think this is a shibboleth concocted by the CIA or the NSA -- tipped the election to Trump, then it’s just payback for the many elections the United States has disrupted in countries from Chile to Iran. The US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency, and the US has the largest, most sophisticated military ever assembled, but we also lead the world -- by a wide margin -- in pure hypocrisy. We subvert democratic outcomes in sovereign nations all the time; we spy on allies and enemies alike; we prop up dictators and murderers when it suits our purpose; we ignore national borders; we kidnap and torture; and we lie, distort, and dissemble.  

But how we hate it when the Lazy Susan spins and we are on the receiving end of dirty political tricks! The outrage that surges through our body politic! We forget our own crimes, the misery we have caused, the hordes of people we have killed; our self-righteousness and indignation caroms off the charts.

The American republic is still an experiment that can fail; progress is never guaranteed, a concept we will learn over the next four terrible years, as Trump and his band of thieves dismantle and dismember what remains of the New Deal and Great Society. Forget ethics, forget the rule of law, forget moderation, forget compassion, forget justice.

Welcome to the Parliament of Thieves.