Making sense of senselessness and enduring the stench of failure

The United States has become a pariah state. Not just a failed state, but a hazard to the well-being of the rest of the world through its dysfunctional approach to governance and public health and well-being. With the failure to respond in any meaningful fashion to the Coronavirus pandemic, the White House administration and its enablers have rent the fabric of society beyond anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.

It's not just a matter of political division, it’s a failure to recognize facts and an inability to accept the reality at hand. And this has been the issue since day one of this administration, from Steve Bannon’s earliest announcing that he was here to “deconstruct government” to Kellyanne Conway’s much repeated and now accepted nihilistic philosophy of “alternative facts” (most people call them “lies”).

What follows are some of the events that I’ve held in mind well up to today (July 23, 2020) and what sense we can make of them and where we can go from here. To be sure, the picture that unfolds is neither cheery nor optimistic, but there may be hints of the possibility of all of this ending at some point. In the beginning of this administration lies its demise.

It's more than obvious except to the administration’s supporters that the only matter of importance to this administration and to most of the party hacks and sycophants propping it up, is maintaining power and staying in office to continue profiting from it. It is not putting too fine a point on the matter to contend that the health and safety of the citizenry is not uppermost in their minds. 

Even the repeated emphasis on the “economy” is a lie; the administration is not interested in putting people back to work except insofar as it will bolster their numbers and lower unemployment claims. The latter is easily accomplished by simply redefining who is “unemployed” by removing those claims, either by not renewing unemployment insurance or by not counting those who have dropped off from filing.

This administration does not seem to understand that most Americans are afraid and unwilling to sacrifice their lives and their families’ lives for a re-election bid. Despite the hardships many are suffering, most did not and do not want to reopen businesses (we've seen the results of doing so).The economy is useless with a sick and/or dying population of workers. Oh, but wait, that is the economy that I have in mind; not the economy that the White House and many Republicans have in mind. That latter would be the one that only cares about positive market growth, tax cuts, and increasing their general share of corporate profits. You don’t really need American workers for that. The wealthy can afford to invest in foreign markets, maintain overseas corporations, and most damning of all, work to ensure that the American labor force remains living with stagnant wages and from paycheck to paycheck. This will keep the poorer classes down and minimize – so the thinking goes – any traction that various social moments will try to gain through protest or social or legal action.

It is this last element where the administration’s philosophy of corporatism (actually, it is fascism, so let’s call it what it is) will fail. Indeed, it is failing now since the White House has shifted gears to change the rhetoric over to “Law and Order” and is using an old authoritarian handbook trope of demonizing any opposition as violent and attempting to overthrow the government, as well as endangering the “law-abiding citizens” and whatever other nonsense they can fold into their sound-bites of cynicism.

The administration did not count on the wave of protests that followed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder caught on video in cold blood as one cop kneeled on his neck and others did nothing. They did not think this would be an issue, probably because they assumed that the majority of Americans wouldn’t care about one more Black man murdered by the police and that even if there were protests, surely not many people would turn out for them under the pall of the pandemic that the same Administration has been determined to minimize and distract from.

This is where the house of cards will fall. If not sooner, than sooner rather than later. The deployment of obscure, non-identified federal troops to Portland, Oregon and – as I write this – Albuquerque and Chicago – shows its failure. By labeling Democrat-led cities as hotbeds of violence and crime that are out of control, this administration continues to fabricate scenarios to which it can play to its base and in their eyes, hopefully spread a message of fear to other Americans (we assume white Americans predominantly, but I’m sure that Trump, McConnell, and company would be happy to have minorities terrified to vote on alt-right, as well).

The attack on the country isn’t relegated to only the deployment of Homeland Security officers (and probably other agencies); if the president and his mob decide that it’s too dangerous to hold the national election in November, there’s a solid chance that it will be postponed. Perhaps even delayed for several months. They are also ginning the numbers, removing voters from polls, mail-in votes are not being counted due to tardiness (rules that votes won’t be counted if not in before voting day)denigrating if not attempting to eliminate mail-in voting (get rid of the USPS?)(1) and continuing the usual processes of making just getting to the polls more difficult.

Test Runs

The primaries are test runs, the deployment of federal agents in Portland was a test run (2); the next will be attempting to re-open schools across the nation to put children, school personnel, and teachers at risk. The first two tests really are to flex muscle and to push a divide between Republican legislatures and Democrat-led municipal governments. This is bound to tie up courts, but what’s being counted on here is the Trump administration using illegal expansion of executive privilege and power to cause and then “put down” division, probable violence federally-incited, in a move to further the hegemony of his mobsters in power.

Execution

If there is one thing we can count on, it’s that Trump and his handlers are far more reactive than pro-active. That’s also a problem. You can be sure that they’ll half-ass extraordinary rendition of citizens, but that doesn’t matter as long as it sends a message. What they fail to account for is that opposition can regroup and counter intelligently. They can rubber bullet people into comas or death, pepper spray and beat protesters, but they always seem to underestimate that the more they do, the greater the resultant resistance both in numbers and eventually, the courts.

This administration is a failure. It’s been a failure. It inherited a robust economy (that they lied about and continued to lie about) and jeopardized it with ill-conceived trade agreements and increased tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, as well as destroying much-needed posts for housing, welfare, and education. It is the first administration where I’ve seen overwhelming arrogance toward and disrespect for the military, the intelligence community, and in general, experts in their fields. It has been, truly, an administration of ignorance and stupidity.

But stupidity, avarice, and anger is potent cocktail when it has the support of police unions at its disposal. This is another extenuating circumstance as police departments fight against the #defundthe police movement. They are well aware that the movement is motivated by the unchecked power of police forces across the nation and their lack of oversight, accountability and their special immunity that has allowed so many to continue working and go free despite egregious violations of the oath to protect and serve.

In the beginning is our conclusion; the Covid-19 pandemic. As of now, there are over fifteen million reported cases worldwide, 4,145,889 in the United States with 45,014 new cases here, at this moment. There are, in this country, as I write this (there will be more by the time this is posted), 146,832 deaths. We know that these figures are still lower than what is given the infection rate and that there is a new mutation that is more easily transmittable. 

Because we don’t take precautions either through stubbornness and a misunderstanding of “rights” or ignorance, many Americans continue to endanger themselves and even, yes, countries like Ireland that still accept American travelers. All it takes is one. Most governments recognize this and there are only 24 that will allow American travelers to visit. We remain pariahs among nations.

Much of this could have been prevented. Response and containment could have been, should have been implemented months ago, but here we are. The coronavirus doesn’t care if you count its number of infections or not. It doesn’t care if you employ contact tracing. It doesn’t care if you have family and friends who fall ill, some fatally. It doesn’t care if yourself contract it or die. Neither does Trump’s government nor many of its representatives in your state, your county, your city, your neighborhood. They’re either too stupid or too venal to care. But here we are.

We will need to continue to do what we can to live through these days, to continue sharing feelings, insights, ideas. We need to continue being creative and caring and loving, particularly where others are not.

The Future

Much noise is heard about “voting them out” in November. But if there is no election in November, what then? My assumption is that between now and then, there will be more suits filed by different state and local governments that will be spent mostly on fighting the move to deploy troops to Democrat cities. This will be a distraction from allocating resources to ensure fair voting in November and that will have to be taken up by other organizations. Also, getting people engaged and keeping them engaged is going to require ongoing effort. There needs to be more civil disobedience, there needs to be more dissent, and it needs to be covered. The mainstream media is a flaccid tool all too often, though of late, it sometimes rises to the occasion. However, an informed electorate needs to have access to other resources and this takes education.

It’s that last point that is key. Organization and protest are one side of this, but education and giving access to other avenues of how to organize, who to call/write to are equally necessary. We can also support food banks, and lobby for debt and rent forgiveness. I think lobbying efforts to maintain that people not be made homeless, particularly in the wake of job loss, is paramount.

Notes

1. Honestly, sometimes you just can’t keep up with this guy.

2.  The deployment of NHS troops was anticipated on July 4 when DHS deployed troops to crackdown on protesters under the rubric of identifying and arresting “serious offenders for crimes such as assault, while protecting the rights of individuals engaged in protected free speech activity” as part of “Operation Diligent Valor”.

 

In addition to the linked sources for the commentary in this post, there are other articles/op-eds that have informed it. Pride of place really needs to go to Heather Cox Richardson yet again. I cannot recommend highly enough subscribing to her “Letters from an American”; it is the most informative email you’ll receive.

Richardson, Heather Cox. Letters from an American. “July 22, 2020”. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-22-2020

Covd-19 response

Condon, Bernard and Stobbe, Mike (Associated Press). Christian Science Monitor online editions/csmonitor.com. “Trump ends CDC virus data collection. Who's Filling In?”. July 21, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/USA/Politics/2020/0717/Trump-ends-CDC-virus-data-collection.-Who-s-filling-in

Wamsley, Laurel. National Public Radio. “U.S. Hits 4 Million Cases Of Coronavirus — Adding A Million New Cases In Just 15 Days”. July 23, 2020. shorturl.at/ktvGL

Kanno-Youngs, Zolan and Steinhauer, Jennifer. New York Times. “Job Vacancies and Inexperience Mar Federal Response to Coronavirus”. March 26, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/politics/coronavirus-expertise-trump.html?referringSource=articleShare

Deployment of Troops from NHS

Borter, Gabriella. Reuters News Service. “Court documents reveal secretive federal unit deployed for 'Operation Diligent Valor' in Oregon”. July 22, 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-race-portland-valor/court-documents-reveal-secretive-federal-unit-deployed-for-operation-diligent-valor-in-oregon-idUSKCN24N2SH

Note the date on this. This was from Friday, July 17. It is now Thursday, July 23, and the expansion of deployment is already ramping up. This was the first notice that arrived in my in-box:

Doubeck, James; Levinson, Jonathan; Wilson, Conrad. National Public Radio. “Federal Officers Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab People In Portland, DHS Confirms”. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland

Rummler, Orion. Axios. “Trump announces "surge" of federal law enforcement to Chicago and Albuquerque”. July 22, 2020. https://www.axios.com/trump-chicago-federal-law-enforcement-surge-9359582c-f7e5-4a17-a94b-76f8c9431047.html

Savitsky, Shane. Axios. “Cities resist Trump's summer of security”. July 22, 2020. https://www.axios.com/cities-resist-trumps-summer-of-security-7206c7d6-d96b-4404-a66f-e7c38d952aff.html

Editorials

Ferencz, Benjamin B. billmoyers.com. “Nuremberg Trial Prosecutor’s Warning About Trump’s War on the Rule of Law”. July 20, 2020. https://billmoyers.com/story/nuremberg-prosecutors-warning-about-trumps-war-on-the-rule-of-law

Grier, Hinkley, and Roberton. Christian Science Monitor online edition/csmonitor.com. “America has bungled the pandemic.Now what?”. July 17, 2020. https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/USA/Politics/2020/0717/America-has-bungled-the-pandemic.-Now-what

Henderson, Alex. Alternet. “Portland’s disturbing events show why federal law enforcement must not be allowed to ‘morph into’ a ‘Stasi-like’ secret police”. July 20, 2020. https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/portlands-disturbing-events-show-why-federal-law-enforcement-must-not-be-allowed-to-morph-into-a-stasi-like-secret-police

Rmuse. PoliticusUSA. "Opinion: Trump wiped out Obama’s jobs and economic gains in a few weeks". May 2, 2020. https://www.politicususa.com/2020/05/02/opinion-trump-wiped-out-obamas-jobs-and-economic-gains-in-a-few-weeks.html

Terkel, Amanda. Huffington Post. "Donald Trump Doesn't Care if You Die from the Coronavirus". May 5, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-die-coronavirus_n_5eb187d6c5b62b850f929521

Election issues

Chalfant, Morgan. The Hill/thehill.com. “Trump pledges support for Postal Service after threatening its funding”. April 4, 2020. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/494556-trump-pledges-support-for-postal-service-after-threatening-its

Fessler, Pam and Moore, Elena. National Public Radio. “Signed, Sealed, Undelivered: Thousands Of Mail-In Ballots Rejected For Tardiness”. July 13, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/13/889751095/signed-sealed-undelivered-thousands-of-mail-in-ballots-rejected-for-tardiness

Vasilogambros, Matt. The Pew Trust/pewtrusts.org. “Election Experts Warn of November Disaster”. July 8, 2020. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/07/08/election-experts-warn-of-november-disaster

General Incompetence

Parton, Heather Digby. Slate. “How Trump's chaotic incompetence, and the "deconstruction" of the "deep state," got us here”. March 26, 2020. https://www.salon.com/2020/03/27/how-trumps-chaotic-incompetence-and-the-deconstruction-of-the-deep-state-got-us-here/

Reluctance to re-opening the country

McCarthy, Niall. Forbes. "Lockdown: U.S. Public Opposes Reopening Most Businesses". May 6, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/05/06/poll-widespread-public-opposition-to-reopening-american-businesses-infographic/#367c2337a69d