Groundhog Day in America

Endless Loop News Cycle

Let’s see.

Do I want to write about the two racist vigilantes in Georgia who tracked down an unarmed black jogger, killed him in cold blood with a shotgun and a pistol and have been resting comfortably in their homes ever since as free men, even though there is video of the shooting?

Do I want to write about the coronavirus article in the New York Times where patients described what it was like to do battle with this monstrous vector and survive?

There is a clinical list of Covid-19 symptoms that includes a dry cough, a fever and shortness of breath. And then there is how the disease actually feels. It is like a lengthy hangover. An anvil on your chest. An alien takeover. It is like being in a fight with Mike Tyson.

Those last three sentences were part of descriptions used by survivors. The last time I looked the article included 340 comments. Most of them were additional renditions of the horrors inflicted upon those who came out the other side of this disease and were given a golden opportunity to tell their tale.

Do I want to say something about the meat packing plant in Colorado that sent workers back to work knowing 40% of the workers who were tested for COVID-19 tested positive for the virus? Even though, once they hit 40%, they quit testing the other workers? And they did not tell the returning workers, who I will bet are largely immigrants, how many were infected?

Maybe I want to write about the nearly 100 environmental protections this administration has stripped from our regulatory agencies? In the dead of night. In Friday news dumps. In the midst of carefully orchestrated crisis and spectacle. Sometimes, brazenly, in broad daylight.

I always have something to say about the insufferable jackass who occupies the White House.

Yesterday, in his typical boorish way, he offhandedly dismissed a nurse from New Orleans regarding a statement she made about Personal Protective Equipment. The covidiot-in-chief claims to be the master of everything, so, it is no surprise he responded the way he did, but what makes him even more insufferable in the news footage released is his Jabba the Hutt insouciance when the camera is not focused on him.

Arms crossed, pouty lips, slumped shoulders, nostrils in full flare.

You know how it is when you are thigh deep in the ocean and the waves rhythmically wash passed you? And you are continually trying to maintain your footing but the waves don’t stop coming? And how, periodically, they swell nearly to your chest and you’re lifted? And how, eventually, you get blindsided by a “big kahuna” - big being relative?

Imagine that sequence sped up to the nth degree and that is how BREAKING NEWS washes over us these days threatening to carry us out to sea if we can’t maintain our footing.

It is mind-numbing.

It is mind-fucking.

It is advantageous to people dead set to dismantle our democracy.

Those of us who see the dismantling happening have to be resilient. We have to endure like the members of the Shackleton Expedition which, in my mind, is the single most incredible story of successful endurance I have ever read. We have to have tenacity. We have to brace for the biggest wave ever.

The barrage of negative news stories, fake news stories, ginned up news stories and breaking news is going to multiply the closer we get to November. The insufferable boor in the White House is also - though it doesn’t often appear so - a cornered rat.

He fears what happens to him post-presidency more than anything. All of his enablers also fear post-presidency. We have no idea what they are capable of, but even in this middle of a pandemic, we will need to be ready to respond.

The story at the top is the real story. It has long been the real story.

As Anand Giridharadas said on MSNBC:

This crisis goes back 400 years, 40 years, and 4 years. 400 years of shouting freedom while being blind to oppression. 40 years of being told government is the problem. And 4 years of illiterate, kleptocratic incompetence in our head of state.

Racism underscores everything that happens in America. Now that it emanates from the White House, now that it is condoned by our leaders, now that sadopopulism coupled with white nationalism is ascendant, the volatility has risen a dozen notches. White men, like those goons in Georgia, have been practically issued a license to kill.

I remember being amazed when I learned about the deep-seated, centuries-old hatreds that ignited genocide in eastern Europe and thinking Americans may have their differences but we came to a truce with the conclusion of our War Between the States. Or, at least, came to an understanding that a “house divided cannot stand”.

But that was just me being temporarily blinded by my white privilege.

As Anand pointed out, we are a nation founded on slavery. We continue to deal with its repercussions. Forty years ago, the Reagan Revolution took aim at Roosevelt’s New Deal and Johnson’s Great Society and aimed to turn back the clock on the liberally social ideas of the ‘60s. Since taking office, the insufferable boor has done everything in his power to put in the finishing touches.

His supporters loathed Barack Obama because he was black and ‘uppity’ (white code for “annoyingly intelligent”) and had an immigrant-sounding name. He dog-whistled to them during his original campaign rallies, and has continued to do so with his policies.

The insufferable boor hasn’t spoken about the wanton killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the twenty-something black jogger in Georgia. Why should he? No one - on either side of the aisle - expects him to because of the racial component.

But neither would anyone expect him to comment about the difference in how the suspects in this murder case were treated. They were treated kindly and fairly. They were not treated like suspects in a murder case. Not an hour behind bars or in handcuffs from what I can determine.

Just another “white boys will be white boys” moment.

Just another “nothing to see here, move along”.

Just another wave slapping against our thighs.

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Here’s Kermit the Frog singing about rainbows. Why? Because we need songs about rainbows being sung by a frog muppet.

Also, here is my favorite dog video of all time. Bar none. Take a bow, Clark the Dog.