I had to read it twice.
This was today, mind you. Facebook newsfeed virus related post. An old colleague was asking if anyone had some masks. Someone said sure, and he was sorry. He thought she had some. She said “I never thought it would get to this.”
That was jaw-dropping to me. At this late stage, over 40,000 lives lost and on April 21 you decided there might be a problem.
Here’s the silver lining. It’s dawning on more and more people. This wasn’t a hoax after all. They were telling us the truth. He really is a bad guy! I will never vote for him again!
I shuddered and sat up, saw that three hours had gone by and I had been dreaming, but a sweet dream. A hopeful dream. The bad news is the FB thing was real.
Never thought it would get to this. Now that I’m awake I realize she will be the one that marches to let us go back to work, all while wearing a mask and gloves. They are never going to put it together. This thing will kill people you know. I now have one old friend that has passed because of it.
The money grab has begun. Oversight was negligible and money earmarked for companies with 500 employees or less was pilfered by the likes of Harvard, University of Texas and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse amongst others. The public shame will probably reverse those loans, but the fact that it could happen reveals the goals and intents of the GOP concessions that were earned in negotiations.
To be fair, both sides will see this as an opportunity and push and stretch what they can. Some things that will be crucial, like the need for alternative voting in the event physical lever pulling is unwise, will become partisan. That already has. This will be like gerrymandering on steroids. Millions and millions of people will be disenfranchised in the blink of an eye. Or they won’t. Big stakes. Something will need to be given away for that morsel, something substantial. This is what is going on behind the scenes. The wheeling and dealing is going to bring about great celebration and deep resentments on both sides. Horse trading for our safety. If we get it, there will be a severe cost. Politically this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is unlikely it will be squandered.
None of this should come as a surprise if people are paying attention and can retain the endless abuses coming out of the Oval Office. When the President signed the recent relief bill that was quickly taken advantage of by huge institutions, he alerted the business world that this was a free-for-all. He issued an Executive Statement as a codicil to the legislation that specifically stated that he had no intention of enforcing or allowing to be enforced any oversight for the distribution of funds. You have to appreciate the bold transparency of his graft.
Had you forgotten about that one? It’s understandable. The level of abuse is hard to keep up with, any one of the instances being enough to end any president’s tenure, and that is precisely the point. There is so much of it. So regularly are we exposed to crimes eminating from the White House that we don”t give them any weight anymore. It’s the new normal. We no longer have the instinct that this is egregious and must be stopped. It is just another ledger line in the accounting of a criminal enterprise. Hardly noticed. You think that’s bad, you remember….? A deeply compromised executive has become an American punchline.
But it really isn’t funny. This is an American tragedy, a disaster of our own making. We are all complicit. From the loud, titanic response of the Women’s March the day after inauguration, we have been beaten into submission, bitching on the internet like me.
These sparsely attended protests seeking to end the lockdown are astro-turfed, organized by Koch related enterprises. But they happened. I have a dream. A new one. A march is organized against the madness. A million people attend, all six feet apart and wearing all the protective gear they can find. The risk would be real, but that would be part of the message. “I’m wearing PPE, President Protection Equipment.” “Some things ARE worth dying for. Show the President out the door!” “The risk I’m taking is nothing compared to the risk I’m protesting!”
This could be fun. A quarantine word game. See if you can come up with some of your own. What would your sign say?
I think a million would be a good number. That would make clear how pathetic the trumped up protests in the states have been. A hundred people at the state house with American, Confederate and Nazi flags doesn’t quite say a movement to me, though the press coverage has made it feel like an honest to goodness groundswell.
It’s not. More than 70% of the American public support stay at home orders. This isn’t a grassroots movement. It’s performance art financed by the ususal suspects.
But when is bad art a great masterwork? When it is the only art there is. There is nothing to compare it to, so it is elevated in importance and impact. The vast majority of people have serious issues as to how this pandemic has been handled, and except for antisceptic poll results, there is not even a peep from the manhandled crowd. We fear being exposed, gathering in large groups, and legitimately so. Our opponents don’t, because the ones really orchestrating the push toward suicide aren’t out there on the front lines anyway. They are sending duped soldiers to the front lines, having been convinced this was an exaggerated ploy by the libs. They don’t see the risk as being that big a deal. Their handlers are perfectly willing to sacrfice them for the cause.
That would be the difference in the million person march. We would know the risk, we would have weighed it and made a conscious choice that yes, there are things worth dying for. The people. They are worth it. Our democracy. That’s worth it. Social contract and obligation. That’s worth it. Presidential accountability. That’s worth it.
Personally, I would risk that. I would die for that. The risks that doing nothing represent are too severe, the real chance of losing the country to a leader without limitations to his power, without scruples, with insatiable appetites, a bottomless pit of neediness, with a complacent Senate that will work to make that dream a reality is worth the risk. The risk would be part of the point, that we agree there are things worth dying for, now we need to prioritize what those things actually are.
It’s not the economy. Smatterings of sadly manipulated victims marching against governments desperately trying to save them from themselves is not a movement. It’s a political chess move, trying to create an appearance of a country desperate to break out and throw themselves in front of the Covid bus, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
That “movement” isn’t happening. The media is being manipulated by masters. It’s not that the media is doing anything wrong. They are covering what’s happening. The puppet masters are making sure that what is happening reflects well on them, and then let the media do the rest. Trump used the same tactic in the election. So outrageous, so over the top was his drive for the White House that it had to be covered, and he was insane daily, frequently multiple times a day, and so he took the air out of the room for everyone else. This is the same tactic being employed now in the absence of a coverable response by the majority. The protests may actually be fairly embarrassing in size and scope, but they are hundreds of times bigger than ours, and thus hundreds of times more impactful.
Are there a million of us that are willing to take that risk to save our country and by extension the planet? Is it a cause worthy of your life? Honestly the answer is probably no.
So it’s 10am, and I think I will take an early nap. To sleep, perchance to dream.
What a dream it will be.