The Isolation Diaries No. 6

“Nobody can know the full consequences of their actions, and history is full of small acts that changed the world in surprising ways.” Rebecca Solnit

I think fourteen days have passed since the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus a pandemic. The death toll in the United States passed 1,000 yesterday. A month ago, Donald J. Trump said the number of cases was going down.

According to the Santa Barbara Independent, there are 26 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Santa Barbara County. 

My thoughts ricochet around like a .45 caliber bullet in a metal drum, from personal concerns like our TP supply, to thoughts about my job, money, staying healthy ourselves and hoping our friends and relatives remain healthy, to larger concerns about the long-term effects of this pandemic, and, because I can’t restrain myself, obsessively tracking the dismal response by the ruling class in general and the Trump Gang in particular. 

I’m watching too many segments of MSNBC on YouTube, reading too many news sources, checking Facebook too often. I feel it taking a psychic toll. In the midst of a pandemic the President of the United States doesn’t divert from his tried and true playbook: boast, brag, blame, and whine. 

Where are the Democrats? Day after day the people hear from Trump at his propaganda briefings, and naturally the word from the Malignant One is rosy, on the upswing, America is rising like the proverbial phoenix. “Nobody’s done the job we’ve done,” Trump says. Have you noticed how many times Trump describes his telephone conversations with governors and corporate CEO’s as “great“? The conversations are great if the governor or CEO first praises Trump, kisses his flabby white ass. “As we near the end of our battle,” Trump said yesterday, as if we’re at the end of the pandemic rather than the early stages of what may very well become a long siege. CEO-types and CNBC and Fox News yakkers pound the drums for a return to business-as-usual. Our fuedal lords are eager to send the serfs back to work. I fear that Trump -- by virtue of the Big Lie technique, the constant repitition of false or misleading statements -- is winning the narrative war. 

Lacking a Democratic response from Reality, many citizens -- if polling is reliable -- believe Trump is doing a fine job. In times of crisis, a sitting American president typically sees a bump in his approval rating, as George W. Bush did after 9/11. Prior to 9/11, if you remember, W was a little boy lost, wandering in circles with his pants down and snot hanging from his nose. It’s a normal response to support the president, who many people view as the embodiment of the government and nation, but how any one can watch Trump sputter, spew and lie, and believe the man gives a shit about the public welfare, is beyond my ability to comprehend. Trump is concerned about Trump, his re-election bid, his company, his resort properties, the stock market. Trump has enough functioning gray matter left (or maybe it’s feral survival instinct) to know that he will not win re-election if the country is mired in a depression, and unemployment is 25 or 30 percent. 

Trump found time to ridicule Senator Mitt Romney on Twitter, calling Romney a RINO (Republican in Name Only), after Trump learned that Romney tested negative for the Coronavirus. Even in this dire situation, Trump can’t muster an ounce of class. 

Trump lied yesterday about the extent of Coronavirus testing. While testing in the US is increasing, as it absolutely must, when viewed in proportional terms, we still lag behind the rest of the world. As the BBC reported, South Korea with a population of around 50 million has tested 1 in 150 people; the US, with a population of 330 million or so, has tested 1 in 1000.

No, Trump, we’re not winning. You’re calling the race over while the country looks for the starting line. You’re hawking the dangerous idea that the worst is behind us. The morgues are filling up in NYC, and healthcare workers there are wearing garbage bags as protective gowns.  

As I write this, unemployment claims in the US have surged to 3.3 million. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones has gained 1,158 points. Let this sink in. What does it tell you about what -- and who -- matters in America? 

Here’s a question: are you willing to risk your health, and possibly your life, not to mention the health of your family, friends and co-workers, for Donald J. Trump’s re-election? Because Trump is clearly willing to gamble our lives for his political advantage. 

Let that sink in, too. 

The Isolation Diaries No. 4

“Nothing is more punitive than to give a disease a meaning -- that meaning being invariably a moralistic one.” Susan Sontag

It rained here overnight, steady. I listened to the sound of water running in the rain gutter above our bedroom window as I read 2666 by Roberto Bolano. My young daughter, 18-years-old, has difficulty understanding the significance of the coronavirus and the social distancing measures necessary to slow the spread of infection. She misses her friends, wants to hang out with her boyfriend. I remind myself, over and over, that I was once her age, and just as heedless of commonsense, caution, and advice. 

I fear that pandemics and other large scale disruptions due to climate change will be normal for my daughter’s generation. Unless we change direction now, politically, economically, and socially, calamity on calamity will be the future. 

Our son is in Los Angeles, staying with a friend, but may soon come home to Santa Barbara. When he arrives our small apartment will become tiny, nerves will become frayed, and tempers short. But Gabriel will be home. On this morning when I can see blue sky out the window, and the deck is still wet from last night’s rain, there’s no end in sight for this enforced isolation. But it will end at some point, the crisis will pass, and we will collect the pieces and begin anew. Epidemics and pandemics are part of the human story. The question will be: do we learn from this experience and start making fundamental change, or simply attempt to pick up where we left off? The rulers and their political servants will want the latter and will exert all their power to make it so; they will never willingly let go of a system that has rewarded them so lavishly. 

Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept called on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Donald J. Trump from office. Here’s part of what Hasan wrote:

“This is a president who rambles, rants, and raves; who spent weeks downplaying the spread of the novel coronavirus and ignoring warnings from his own intelligence agencies; who claimed to be unaware that Americans who need tests are unable to get them; who uses press briefings not to inform the public but to regularly attack the press; who went golfing while health professionals begged for resources and equipment; who has repeatedly contradicted his own top scientists by pushing unproven drugs as a treatment for Covid-19; who tried to buy a vaccine from Germany but only for “exclusive” use in the United States; who took a break from crisis management to go on Twitter and complain about Hillary Clinton’s emails and Benghazi.”

Cometh the hour, cometh the imbecile. Trump is a clear and present danger to this country. Watch any of his press briefings and tell me the man is not mentally unfit. For political advantage Trump will gladly trade the health of American citizens. We’re in the early stages of a health crisis and Trump somehow, apropo of nothing, takes the opportunity to babble about how much money the presidency has cost him. Money and power is all Trump cares about, which is likely the reason he will fight like a wolverine to keep his tax returns secret. (The returns will probably show that Trump isn’t as wealthy as he has longed boasted.) It has never been more clear and obvious that Trump is utterly incompetent. Why can’t his cult followers see this? Why can’t the GOP see it? How many Americans must die before the blinders come off?  

The Senate stimulus bill or whatever they’re calling it, reportedly includes a $500 billion (think of this number and what it could supply for the American working-class) corporate slush fund to be controlled by Steve Mnuchin at Treasury...that alone should be a disqualification. Mnuchin is a vulture. What’s really mind-blowing about this is to consider how wealthy have-it-alls, unlike the poor, are never required to account for the government largesse they receive. No work requirements, surly case managers, time limits, amount limits, home inspections, or other intrusive scrutiny. The wealthy give themselves billions, even trillions of dollars, with no strings or questions attached, while the poor must prove, and prove again, their need for a few thousand dollars. The arrogance and hypocrisy stun the mind. 

I hope, as Patti Smith sings, we have the power to redeem the work of fools. 

The gum trees in the backyard are dripping, the ground is soaked. The sound of the wind chimes is mournful.