Down down down we go. How bad will it get, and where will it end?
I’m afraid it’s going to get very bad and will end in national catastrophe. Lots more death and lots more violence. Sorry to be so negative. I can’t help seeing what I see.
Right now, America is now just another Trump Fuck-Up.
Trump Steaks … Trump Vodka … Trump University … Trump America.
So much damage, so much death. And fascism on the streets of Portland.
Unidentified (presumably ICE) “troops” are picking up protesters, throwing them into unmarked vans, and detaining them. And Trump & Co. are planning to send 60,000 more do the same thing in other “Democrat” cities.
Are we headed for Pinochetland? Aren’t we already there?
Where are the big Democrats raising hell about what’s going on in Portland?
Are they just waiting for November, letting Trump dig himself in deeper? (As they say, “When your opponent is digging his grave, don’t take the shovel out of his hands.”) But this is a national emergency, a nightmare: a renegade private army in the streets of America.
And my fellow Americans -- where are the torches and pitchforks in front of the White House?
Trump has so failed in his handling of the virus that he has to change the narrative and knock it off the front page. He’s so down in the polls that he had to do something. Beware the rat when he is cornered.
Fox News is going full-bore on race and crime, trying desperately to make the election about white fear, and not Trump’s tragic bungling of the virus. Down down down we go.
The incompetence that created this fiasco – and continues to fuel it today – was completely predictable when you combine Trump’s business record of recklessness and failure with the “normal” GOP disrespect for the functions of government and contempt for regular Americans and their basic welfare.
If/when Trump loses, will he give up the Presidency? They’ve already put up two miles of extra protective fencing around the White House. And his supporters are heavily armed.
It’s going to be a long, rough road to November … and after. There are 75 days between Election Day and Innaugural Day. 75 days for a defeated Trump to steal, scheme, and cheat. I wouldn’t be surprised if he resigned and had “President Pence” pardon him.
The possibilities are endless.
IN MY POD
Every day, I feel the impulse to write an angry, enraged, sulphurous blog about something horrible going on in our country. Something Trump did or said, something I saw on Fox News, something some GOP governor did. And then the impulse subsides. I don’t want to put out negative, pessimistic, poisonous thoughts into the world. There are enough of them out there.
And I don’t want to inflict my dark mood on the Tiny Goddess and the rest of my family. I’ve been a pretty happy person for my whole lucky life, but this is really getting me down. Plague, depression, and social unrest: that’s some Trifecta. And I have it good! I have enough food, enough money, enough space. I don’t have to go out and risk my life and health (and the health of my family) with a killer virus on the loose.
(Of course, I’m worried about my son who teaches being forced back into a classroom situation that threatens his health. Not to mention the health of my grandson who is entering kindergarten … remotely … for now.)
It’s all too serious for a “blog.” I don’t want my life to be consumed by hatred of Trump and the GOP, but it’s hard to ignore what’s going on. I grew up in a fairly decent country (if you weren’t some hated minority or a woman), but even that is going out the window.
MY SURVIVAL KIT
How am I getting by, in my insignificant life? Everybody has to have some kind of survival kit these days. Here’s mine:
My family
I try to do my best, and sometimes I do.
Music
Lots of opera from the archives of the Metropolitan Opera, along with whatever daily free webcast they are providing.
Tonight, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Natalie Dessay, an artist I love and admire.
Here are some clips of her extraordinary talent for comedy. I know she’s going to burn up the stage with Lucia’s great Mad Scene.
“Chacun le sait” – from LA FILLE DU REGIMENT – a few minutes of her sensational Olivier award winning performance (as transferred to the Met)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE5DyvqXxsY
Nine more minutes of Dessay’s FILLE – when the production played the Vienna State Opera – Everyone wanted to stage this crowd-pleaser, with two reigning superstars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PditzowFUG8
End of Act I of LA FILLE – Dessay’s lovely “Il Faut Partir”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-VGv66Wpaw
In her post-opera career, Natalie tries big-band singing – including “Fever” in French
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfKpKJsWbjw
and – as long as I found them --
A Dessay “Mad Scene” from 2002 –Opera de Lyon (2002)(in French!) – The Met performance from 2011 will be different. (Better? More nuanced?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i6GKafKwVg
Natalie’s Mad Scene from the Met — 2011 — Directed by Mary Zimmerman, quite a performance from a major artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1LC6BRJQiQ
Reading
I’ve been reading a lot besides my regular daily diet (NYT/LAT/WSJ/NYRB/New Yorker/websites/etc.) I’ve been reading more David Foster Wallace essays with great joy/envy/admiration/amazement/laughter/ gratefulness/wonder. And some Saul Bellow, too. Some of his short stories that I missed. Two of them – “Him With His Foot In His Mouth” and “Cousins” – were extraordinary, eliciting similar joy/envy/ admiration/amazement/laughter/gratefulness/wonder.
Sports
I’m glad that the Dodgers and Lakers are back. I need something big and meaningless to fill my mind.
Yoga
Yoga is guaranteed. Yoga works. Everyone in the world should do yoga. End of good advice.
Walking
With a dog, preferably.
Nature
I’m lucky to have a nice backyard. Almost every day, I think of all the single parents with kids, stuck in studio apartments, for so much time, all these months. With more to come.
Anytime I want, I can walk outside into my beautiful bit of Nature, which is healing. Temporarily.
I have to tell myself to be grateful more than I should.
Individual Action
So what am I doing about it? Writing angry – or not writing at all. It doesn’t seem to make much difference.
A friend of mine says, “Words are powerful.” I’m not so sure anymore. At least, my words.
No one is interested in my personal pain. My personal pain doesn’t matter. It almost doesn’t matter to me.
I had my shot at life. I had my fun. I’ll be gone soon.
But I feel bad for my kids and grandkids, how we screwed up a decent country. How we let “the bad guys” get control.
I put some of these thoughts into WHEN I GOT OUT. Larry Ingber says on Page 303 -- “We’ve allowed things to get completely out of hand: the rich are too rich, the poor are too poor, and now we’re all paying the price.”
And Roland says on Page 317 -- “there are two Americas: the Good America and the Bad America, always have been. And they’ve always been at war, on and off. But now the centrifugal force and stress of modern life have separated them out, and now the Bad America seems to be winning.”
But no one listens to me.
I didn’t plan on spending my “golden years” heartsick and hopeless, but it looks like that’s where I’m living.
I thought the downfall of America would come after I was gone. Now it seems as if I’m going to be a witness to the pointless destruction of what used to be a decent country.
I have to lie to my family when they ask how I feel. I say, “OK,” but I don’t mean it.
Will I feel better on Election Day? On January 20, 2021?
Let’s get there first.
What to do?
Write or call your congressperson or senator. Write a letter to your local newspaper. Kick up some kind of fuss. Make “good trouble” and stay angry.
Give money to the ACLU
-- and push in November for the White House AND the House AND the Senate.
And maybe we can save this country.
One actual good thing
I need a big dose of optimism, and I got it from a brilliant, instantly legendary speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez’ speech on the floor of the House on July 23rd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dzqrdHVE2g
She’s a real leader: that’s why they are so afraid of her.
We need strong young leaders like her to turn this country around. If it’s not already too late.
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