NO BOTTOM

 I can't believe that I'm going to do this, but I'm going to quote Donald Trump:

"Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media. Hope that happens to me someday. He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!"

Even after all we've been through with this disgraced ex-president, stunning us again and again with his ugly and dangerous pronouncements, I almost couldn't believe that he really put out the above press release. He did.

That statement is oozing with jealousy. He knows that when he passes away, he will only be praised by his crazy minions. The rest of the country will feel great relief. He also knows that those millions of MAGA followers today still believe anything he says. It's truly terrifying.

I'm so deeply worried for our democracy, and I know that I'm not the only one feeling this way. I hope enough Americans see everything that is at stake if this megalomaniac regains power.

I hope if our democracy falls into autocracy, it waits until the universe has taken me from this life.

SENSE

I can't speak in regard to the whole world, but it appears to me that my country has lost its common sense, and that it's not coming back anytime soon.

 This first raised its nasty head in 2016, when the most dangerous character I've ever seen in my seven decades of life was elected to the presidency. Not only was he able to con enough voters for an electoral college win, he then developed a cult-like following. No ugly thing said or done by him was deemed over the line. His political party morphed quickly into HIS political party, and the devotees are not snapping out of it.

I saw a man on TV last night who steadfastly claimed that it was really Trump who was flying around on Air Force One, and that he had never really ceased being president. What happened to this poor man?

Then the world was hit by the pandemic. Sadly, many Americans could not accept the reality that this virus was rampaging across the country, bringing mass agony and death, and ruining our economy as well. This couldn't really be happening to us! Not us! When vaccines finally became available, many of those same people chose not to get it, claiming that their freedom was on the line. Their freedom to help spread a pandemic? So much for "all for one and one for all".

So, the vaccine deniers, led by the vaccinated ex-president, have been dying by the thousands. What sense does it make to lead your followers, your voters, to their deaths?

What sense does it make to become enraged when asked to wear a mask that protects others from the spread of this deadly virus? Have those people ever gone into a restaurant that has a sign stating "no shirt, no shoes, no service"? Of course they have.

I'm not expecting that everyone should agree with my opinions and observations about everything. For a myriad of reasons people have different takes on how the world should work. But this time it's different. Common sense and critical thinking are completely absent. Hatefulness and anger have taken the top spots in our public discourse. 

Other than hiding behind the veil of social media, I no longer feel safe in casually offering my opinions on important social or political issues. If I do speak up, I might get screamed at, slugged, vandalized, or gunned down. What happened to agreeing to disagree? This situation has become existential.

Is this the failure of the education system? Is it due to growing income inequality? Is it lack of affordable housing? Is it vocal minority groups making the status quo nervous? Is it the multitudes of arriving immigrants who don't look like us? Is it the white male privilege shrinking away? What exactly has caused this apparent tipping point to occur in the American psyche?

Is the root of it because in school we were all fed the same false story that the evolution of our nation was a good and noble enterprise? That Americans were always the right ones and the best ones? That happily ever after was actually an attainable goal? That we all could be attractive and successful? Or most importantly, that things can stay the same, and shit doesn't happen? Have we all been suckered into one giant American fantasy? Are we too ignorant to see that?

Just where the hell did realism and common sense go?

ABANDONED LOVE

 

My first movie memory. Snuggled up on the living room couch with my dad, surrounded by a comforting blanket. He explained that what I was about to see on the TV was a little scary, but fun. It was the 1933 King Kong on our black and white television.

Our family of five didn't have a lot of money to spare when I was little, so my mom would pack up a dinner and we would go to the local drive-in theater, the Paulo, on family discount night. They had a playground right in front of the big screen, so we could go on the swings before the movie got started. Such fun.

And before I started grammar school, my mom and her best friend from across the street would take me along as they went to the "Ladies Matinee" on Wednesdays at the local Mesa theater. I had a hard time following those movies, but I loved the fact that included with the low admission price was a little cup of soda and a cookie.

When I was old enough to go to matinees on my own with my pals, we would go see Elvis Presley movies and giggle our hearts out. Then came James Bond. I remember thinking that Sean Connery was the sexiest man I'd ever seen.

There was a brief time during my teenage years when I went out on dates to the drive-in movies. I didn't actually see much of those films.

But as a young adult I began seeing movies with a real interest in the substance of the films. This was the beginning of a serious love affair with going to the movies.

I think the best times were at our downtown Plaza Theater, which showed second run and classic movies, and always a double feature. My husband and I could buy bargain passes for 10 movies. Great goodies at the snack bar. It made a great night.

Finally, along came baby. We bought our first VCR after a couple of unsuccessful outings to the movie theater with our baby son along. This was the long, slow beginning of the evolution in movie viewing for us. From then on we were avid consumers of movies on tape. 

Then came the DVD player. Movies on disc! They looked better, sounded better, and were easier to store. Next thing we knew we had large movie libraries of our own.

The next death knell for movie theaters was the advent of big screen TV's. And they got bigger and bigger, flatter and flatter, and cheaper and cheaper.

For a few years I would still go to the theater to see a big action movie on the large screen. But the last couple of times going to a matinee, we would be forced to pick our specific seats via computer screen as we bought our admission tickets. I really, really didn't like that change. The addition of new luxury reclining and rocking theater seats with swivel trays could not outweigh this irritation for me.

Then the pandemic came along and the movie theaters had to shut down for many months. TV streaming channels became the best resources for fresh entertainment. Not only could we view the movies when we wanted to, we didn't have to purchase a physical copy of the films anymore. And with the exception of HBO, these subscription streaming channels were all reasonably priced. So goodbye to the cable pirates too!

A big screen television. A great sound bar with subwoofer. The comfort of my oversized chair. No risk of picking up cooties from unclean theater seats. No overpriced concession goodies. Movies on demand. I won't be going back.

There are some industries that long held their consumers hostage. Telephone companies. The music industry. Cable companies. And the movie theater industry too. Now they all must bend to the will and best needs of the consumers. Such a great change! There will be no tears from me over this lost love.

HE WAS NOT WRONG

 

Yes, it's one of the more horrifying photographs you'll see for some time. The media was rightly all over it, criticizing the president for completely failing in his ending of the twenty year war. The piling onto President Biden was pretty much unanimous. And Biden responded that this was the right thing to do, history will show that, and that it never would have been an orderly evacuation. I now think he's right about that.

Initially I wondered why the evacuation did not begin in secret once it became clear that the Taliban, from a distance at first, was steadily working toward encircling Kabul. That was my criticism.

But think about that. What would have happened if Americans and their ancillary staff and Afghan allies just began disappearing in the night? Instantly it would have been noticed, and the rumors would have flown, with panic breaking out everywhere. I agree with Biden that it all would have happened anyway. 

And those who say stay - STAY!? We were warned that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. Yet we came in with such hubris anyway. The military should have had an anthropology department. Scholars would have pointed out that cultures with roots thousands of years deep, will not likely transition to a modern democratization. No amount of money, no amount of weapons can do that. But we had to have our revenge, and I don't disagree with that. Once revenge was achieved however, we should have begun a withdrawal. I love Obama, but that was his mistake.

Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex was spot on. The military arms suppliers, support contractors, and providers of mercenaries surely made billions in profits during this twenty year period. It is certain that those companies leaned hard on congressional members and senators to keep the conflict going. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Money, money, money. Death, death, death.

And now we have yet another full generation of military personnel, volunteers yet, who struggle with PTSD from doing their patriotic duty in a nightmare struggle in a land and culture so foreign that it could have been on another planet. All that time, money, misery, and death for just a few tangible positive outcomes.

Yes, we worry for those Afghan citizens who helped support our efforts. Even more, we are worried that the women of Afghanistan will once again become for all intents and purposes slaves under Sharia law.

Since WWII the U.S. has self-identified as the savior of the world. But we are now only 4.2% of the people on this planet, and are as deeply divided as we've been in 156 years. In 2021 we need to focus inward to try and repair our country. Help other countries? Of course. Can we solve every problem across the globe with our might and our dollars? No we can't. We must see that reality and accept it.

Biden did the right thing for this exact time. 

 

NOT LIKE IN THE MOVIES

 

Well, I really like disaster movies. It's not for dark reasons. Up until now, I liked imagining what the world would be like if there were a really big disruption. This is a product of my relatively secure American life. People in other parts of the world do not have to imagine this.

In my reality though, every time a big disruption has indeed occurred in my region, such as an earthquake, a wildfire, a power shutdown, I hate it. Go figure.

But this time it's different. Unlike in a movie whose scenario is exciting and action packed, we're now living through a slow-motion disaster. We can't even see it. We can only see its outcomes.

First there were the empty streets. Then vacant restaurants and shops, our cities looking like ghost towns. Hospital ICUs began filling up. Medical personnel were desperate for enough supplies. More and more people were struck down by the virus. Eventually though, horrifically, society began getting used to it all.

And denial reared its stupid head. First, the college kids would not be denied their Spring break partying. Then townspeople would not be denied their 4th of July celebrations. Beaches again drew summer crowds. Like a nation composed of nothing but adolescents, Americans would not be denied their traditional fun times, even though their lives were at stake. Finally, the big holidays! We absolutely would not forgo those!

So, like stupid, childish buffoons, we made matters worse. UNTIL! The vaccine finally arrived to save us all. Excruciatingly, we each waited our turn for it. 

Then the most bizarre movement was born. The Denier in Chief of course caught Covid-19, was then hospitalized, and subsequently was secretly vaccinated. He stunningly next proceeded to court his voters by defining freedom as choosing not to be vaccinated. And his followers took him up on that! And they are now dying in throngs! That's right. Kill your voters! Wait, what?

Now there appears to be an unspoken decision by American society to just move forward. If we just go about our normal activities, we can somehow will the pandemic to go away? That's not following the science. And I'm still not comfortable joining the throngs. I want to be alive on this planet a while longer, and for myself, gambling with this virus is not the way to ensure that.

After four years of the most dangerous and dysfunctional leader in U.S. history, and now with close to two years of deadly pandemic, if our nation was a person, we would need intense therapy sessions for years to come in order to even half understand what we have been doing (or not doing) to ourselves.

This is not the disaster movie I was expecting to watch.

DEMOCRACY SLIPPING AWAY

 

Trust in each other is gone. Trust in science is gone. Trust in community is gone.

Almost exactly one year ago from this day, I penned a post about our country's plunge into the pandemic. The U.S. had lost an astounding 186,000 souls to Covid-19 in six months. Now one year later we have lost 480,559 more people, totaling 666,559 Americans gone from this virus in the span of 18 months.

There should be total unity in a warlike effort to stop the spread of this deadly and cruel disease. But stunningly there is a solid block of citizens who believe it's all not real, and therefore are not cooperating in this effort. They wear psychological blinders instead of the literal masks they should be sporting. Their "freedom" is priority number one. They are aiding and abetting the delta variant of Covid-19.

How did we cultivate such people? Were they scuttled through the public school system without ever learning anything about science? In their upbringing didn't they ever learn to care about their communities?

Packed Labor Day beachgoers. Packed football stadiums. Packed music festivals. All going on today. All willing to risk their health, their lives, and those of their loved ones and their communities, just for some good fun. It seems we have a national adolescent mindset. 

As if that were not more than enough, there is an evil and dangerous political/social disinformation campaign spreading like yet another virus. And it's coming from within. Putin must be laughing with glee to see the outcome of what he started. We are in a shit storm of peril.

I fear that we are seeing the beginning of the end of our democracy. I didn't see any of these horrid events and trends coming, even though I keep myself aware and thoughtful. Heaven help us.

WHAT IF IT IS A VIRUS

 

  

Since 2016 I have been completely confounded about how enough Americans living in strategic regions managed to vote for the worst imaginable candidate for president, resulting in him being elected.

How could anyone who took a few minutes to review that man's life, think that he would be the best thing for our country?

I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about common sense and critical thinking.

Those people let their personal prejudices, frustrations, and fears override the thought of what is best for us as a whole. Is this how Germany went to the dark side in the early 20th century?

It is now 10 months since he was voted out of office, and still the cult mindset monopolizes the same demographics. They went so far as to attempt an insurrection at his bidding. And still, 8 months after that horrendous event, they have not slowed down.

I have wondered (only half in jest) if someone put some substance in the public drinking water which has affected half of our society. I have called the current national situation a cocktail of stupidity - failure of the educational system + the internet + media "commentators". Shaken, not stirred. Even with giving it that label, I am still mystified.

Today I sat down and began to read the 2006 novel World War Z by Max Brooks. It made me wonder, considering our 18 months battle to the death with the evolving variations of Covid-19, if there could be a virus affecting brains around the world, causing complete loss of empathy. Making autocracies look attractive.

Oh no, does that ridiculous thought mean that maybe I myself have been exposed to the T virus?