Journal of the Plague Years

September 10, 2019

      It is as if we are drinking battery acid from a fire hose.  We are both sickened and overwhelmed by the ceaseless acts of dishonesty and depravity being committed by this White House.  Although the news last week was dominated by Sharpiegate, it was far from the most egregious act committed by Trump in the last seven days.  The pathetic saga detailed here by Tara Law, would be funny if it were not proof that the President of the United States is incapable of performing his most apolitical and basic function, to keep the American  people safe by providing accurate and scientifically verifiable information.

     While we were mocking Trump’s ridiculous vanity, we learned of not one, but two instances, of blatant grift.  Mike Pence chose to stay at a Trump resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, 181 miles away from his meetings in Dublin, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $600,000.  That obvious corruption was soon dwarfed by news that Air Force planes were stopping at the tiny Glasgow-Prestwick Airport, rather than at air bases  to refuel, and putting up their crews in Trump’s Turnberry Resort. This year alone, there have been 259 refueling stops at Glasgow-Prestwick, up from 180 in 2017 at a cost of $17.2 million dollars, (Source:  “Trump Had Deal With Scotland Airport That Sent Flight Crews to His Resort,” by Eric Lipton, The New York Times, 9/9/19). Continue reading “Root and branch”

September 3, 2019

      We have fallen down a rabbit hole of such epic stupidity, violence and greed that it is tough to see how we find our way out.  While we all paused to mark the end of summer with last minute beach getaways and barbecues, the world around us was literally either drowning or burning.  Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas, packing 185 mile per hour winds and decimating everything in its path. The storm features a lethal combination of extremely high winds and extremely slow movement, such that it is poised to wreak maximum damage wherever it lands.  Dorian’s unpredictability and continued force has four U.S. states (Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina) on edge, preparing for the worst.   Continue reading “A Confederacy of Dunces”

August 27, 2019

        On Sunday, after months after sharply criticizing Trump on Twitter, former one-term Congressman Joe Walsh announced a primary challenge to Trump.  Unlike mild-mannered moderate, Bill Weld, whose primary bid was like a tree falling in the forest, Walsh’s announcement made a splash. The media-savvy radio talk show host teased the decision for a week before formally announcing on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” (Source:  “Former Congressman and Talk Radio Host Announces Trump Primary Challenge,” by Bobby Allyn, NPR.com, 8/25/19). Never Trumpers and some progressives cheered his entry into the race on the theory that it would weaken Trump. Continue reading “Cheap Tricks”

August 22, 2019

     On Tuesday, Trump verbalized what many of us long suspected– that in addition to being a foaming at the mouth racist and misogynist, he is a raging anti-Semite.  In an Oval Office interview where Trump redoubled his attacks on Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, he revealed his disgusting anti-Semitism when he averred that any Jewish people who supported Democrats were guilty of “great disloyalty,” (Source:  “Trump Accuses Jewish Democrats of ‘Disloyalty,’” by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, The New York Times, 8/21/19).

      Yesterday, Trump upped the ante during one of the regular rants in front of Marine One that have replaced the press conference.  Trump proclaimed that he was “the Chosen One” to handle a trade war with China. He deployed his favorite epithet, “nasty,” against Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister who dubbed his scheme to “buy” Greenland “absurd.”  This was hours after claiming that he was “like the King of Israel,” (Source: “‘I am the Chosen One’: with boasts and insults, Trump sets new benchmark for incoherence,” by Tom McCarthy, TheGuardian.com, 8/21/19). Continue reading “The intersectionality of hate”

August 14, 2019

     It is easy to feel as though we all have plummeted, en masse, to Dante’s 10th circle of Hell.  We are subjected, on a daily basis, to acts of unspeakable depravity, cruelty and violence, led or inspired by this administration.  There appears to be no level to which this administration will not sink.

     Mere days after watching Latinx people murdered in cold blood in racially targeted mass shootings, this administration carried out a raid on chicken processing plants in Mississippi on the first day of school, in keeping with their guiding principles of  governing through “fear, cruelty and chaos.”. The DHS raid rounded up nearly 700 undocumented workers, some of whom have been in this country for 19 years.  To this regime, though, there was no escape from the crime of being Brown. A callous federal prosecutor responded to multiple tales of traumatized children by analogizing crossing the border with drug abuse or tax evasion and claimed that the government had no choice, (Source:  “Their parents were taken in Mississippi immigration raids. For these kids, the trauma is just beginning,” by Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN.com, 8/11/19). Continue reading “Fear, cruelty and chaos”

August 4, 2019

    Two in twenty four hours.  Three in less than a week. The accelerating pace and mind-numbing regularity of mass shootings in this country is terrifying.  On the same sultry summer day, both El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, were the sites of mass shootings carried out by young white men.  While less is known about the body armor-clad Dayton terrorist, the El Paso gunman, who drove ten hours from Allen,TX, to carry out his crime, posted a racist manifesto, proudly declaring his intention to “quell the Hispanic invasion,” (Source:  “Minutes Before El Paso Killing, Hate-Filled Manifesto Appears Online,” by Tim Arango, Nicole Bogel Burroughs and Katie Benner, The New York Times,8/3/19).

     Given the unpredictability and increasing frequency of mass shootings, we could be forgiven for succumbing to the temptation to retreat from the world and curl up in despair.  Instead, we should react with defiant, clarifying and focused rage at the hydra-headed forces condemning us to this fate. Continue reading “American legacy”

August 2, 2019

       For two nights this week, we enjoyed a welcome respite from Trump’s relentless and corrosive hatred.  During two nights of the second Democratic Presidential debates, CNN’s “random” drawing put all of the candidates of color on the second night and isolated the progressive frontrunners (Sanders and Warren) from the moderate one (Biden).  CNN’s set up promised spectacle, rather than substance, with the neon lit podiums on stage at the Fox Theater and the candidates entering to Hans Zimmer-like fanfare (h/t Jon Lovett). The format was expressly designed to elicit internecine conflict, with Jake Tapper in bookish glasses asking the candidates to respond to criticism from another candidate sharing the stage. Continue reading “Wake up”

July 28, 2019

     It has become clearer than ever that Trump, faced with the escalating likelihood of impeachment, is pinning all of his hopes on fanning the flames of hatred.  A disgusting racist who has never been shy about expressing his contempt for Black people, Trump has decided that condemning those in Congress who criticize his policies or investigate his corruption in explicitly racist terms is a “winning” strategy.

      Yesterday’s target was House Oversight Chair, Congressman Elijah Cummings. Last week, Cummings excoriated acting DHS Secretary, Kevin McAleenan, for conditions at the border.  Rep. Cummings challenged McAleenan’s contention that DHS was doing its best, asking, “ What does that mean? When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower?” (Source:  “Cummings tears into DHS chief for conditions at border facilities,” by Owen Daugherty, TheHill.com, 7/18/19).  Continue reading “The myth of the moderate voter”

July 25, 2019

     Yesterday, Robert Mueller finally testified on Capitol Hill, capping weeks of feverish, if misplaced anticipation.  Democrats either thought that their deft questioning would elicit a new bombshell, or that the mere act of seeing Mueller discussing the contents of his report for an extended time on television would magically translate into a national consensus that the corrupt buffoon in Putin’s pocket has no business in The White House.  Sadly, they had forgotten the overweening emphasis of our political commentators on style over substance. Although Mueller pointedly said that he had not exculpated Trump and all but called him an unindicted felon, his terse and halting delivery caused the pundit class to declare that “the optics were a disaster,” (Source: @ChuckTodd, Twitter, 7/24/19; 12:16 p.m.). Continue reading “Mueller Time?”

July 20, 2019

      This has been a truly depressing week.  We have witnessed the hatemonger in chief sink to new depths, whipping his knuckle dragging supporters into a racist, xenophobic frenzy to target Rep. Ilhan Omar with the vile chant, “Send her back!”  Not only did we witness the unprecedented sight of a sitting President urging that a U.S.citizen who is a sitting member of Congress be banished for criticizing him, but the fact that not one Republican member of Congress could bring themselves to do more than issue the most tepid criticism.  Trump toady, Lindsey Graham, urged the president to “aim higher,” before doubling down on his attacks on The Squad, calling them “communists,” (Source: “Graham declines to condemn racist Trump tweets and calls Democratic congresswomen ‘a bunch of communists,’” by Devan Cole, CNN.com, 7/15/19). Mitt Romney called Trump’s tweets “destructive, demeaning and disunifying,” but couldn’t bring himself to call them racist, (Source: “ ‘That’s all I’ve got’: Romney fails his own test on Trump’s racist tweets,” by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, 7/16/19).  The rest of the Republican caucus bent over backwards to claim that the literal textbook definition of a racist comment was not racist. Continue reading “The definition of “racist””