Ramen Noodle Nation: Mad King Watch (Take I): Flood The Zone With People (It's The Oligarchy, Stupid)

Monday, February 17, 2025

Mad King Watch (Take I): Flood The Zone With People (It's The Oligarchy, Stupid)

<YouTube capture>

"Batman, you poor devil! You really thought 

I'd overplayed my hand, right?"

The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) prepares
to dunk on the Caped Crusader,
in "Batman"'s first episode (1966)

<i.>

Well, seems like that time again, where you find yourself thinking, "I'm so sick and tired of events moving at the speed of light." In 2020, that meant COVID-19; in 2025, it's the Trump restoration, and all the nightmarish boxes that it ticks: gross abuses of power (check), overweening autocratic inclinations (double-check), trampling of guard rails (triple-check).

Now that the storm after the calm rattles our bones, it's time to document whatever aspects seem worth discussing, from a local standpoint, anyway. "My Corona Diary" marked the last major time that we followed such logic, chronicling the chaos and confusion of the COVID-19 era. But given how fast events on the ground are moving, we're starting a new series, and proceeding accordingly.

We're not rehashing what's recently happened -- the mass firings at the FBI, and the Justice Department; the various sackings of Democratic-appointed members or managers from assorted agencies (the CFPB, FAA, FDA, FEC, SEC, and so on); the shuttering of USAID; and, most worrying, uber-tech bro Elon Musk's capture of the U.S. Treasury payment system, one that's ringing like a five-alarm fire in millions of ears.

Or, as countless wags online are suggesting, now, how does it feel, knowing the world's Nazi fascist can access the most intimate aspects of your life? You can almost hear Colonel Klink's metallic accent rattling your ears: "Papers, let me see your papers. Name, rank, and Social Security number, if you please!"

Not to worry, though, the current leadership responds. If they run across any conflicts, they'll sort it out among themselves. There! That settles things, doesn't it? And if you believe that...I'll you finish the sentence, and let your mind supply whatever blanks of worry are already lurking there.

<YouTube capture>

<"Holy wrecking ball, Batman! 

They'll have dismantled the whole government, 

by the time these lawsuits wind down!"

"Yes, Robin, you have a point.
This situation is getting rather sticky...">

<ii.>

If you grew up like I did, you know the drill. Somewhere in Nowheresville, USA, you'd find "Batman" -- that is, his '60s TV counterpart -- romping across your screen. Local stations like mine often ran it at 3:30 or 4:30 p.m., though I also remember catching it on Saturday afternoons, and even Sunday mornings (God forbid), around my neck of the woods.

And, if you had any powers of discernment, it didn't take long to work out the formula. The shows opened with the Spectal Guest Villain doing something outrageous -- an exploding device here, a whiff of knockout gas there -- leaving poor Commissioner Gordon to put in a panic-stricken SOS to the Caped Crusader, and his trusty sidekick, Robin.

After a preliminary skirmish or two, the Dynamic Duo would zip off to the villain's lair, only to stumble into some Bat-Trap, or other -- which they'd invariably wriggle out of -- followed by the climactic Batfight. ZAP! POW! Roll credits, and see you next week ("Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel," as the omnipotent announcer -- voiced by producer Bill Dozier -- would intone).

That's how most episodes went, though not always. More often than not, Batman would counsel a different course, once he'd worked out the Special Guest Villain's latest cryptic threat: "Let's let the Joker/Riddler/Penguin/Catowman overplay his/her hand." Invariably, Robin would object ("But why, Batman? The Joker's just bought the deed to Gotham City!"), to which the Caped Crusader would furrow his brow, and sagely intone, "He/she will get overconfident -- then we'll swoop down, and they won't know what hit them!"

Robin would then smack his forehead, or his gloved fists together, and sigh, "Gosh, Batman, you're right! Why didn't I think of that?" To which my sister and myself would chuckle aloud, and say, "Because I'm the Caped Crusader! That's why I get the big bucks around here, kiddo!"

Or we'd come up with some other smart aleck, snarky counterpoint, as part of our running commentary -- which was as much as fun, if not more so, than the proceedings onscreen. Every time I watch those shows now, I can't help but contrast the fun we had with the bigger things that preoccupied the adults -- cost of living, mass layoffs, and terrorism, playing over and over, in some unholy loop -- and the inevitable consensus that they'd reach.

Dictators might come and go, you'd hear them say, but heck, that couldn't happen here, right? We're the big bad USA. We're above such maneuverings. And that's where the matter rested, for nearly 50-some years, anyway.

<iii.>

Looking back on those shows, you might be forgiven for writing off Batman as the most passive aggressive crimefighter on the planet, even if the scriptwriters ensured he'd prevail, week in, week out. Looking at the Democratic Party's initially muddled response to the Trump/Musk's axis hostile takeover of federal agencies -- eliminating this here, gutting that one there -- you might be forgiven for thinking likewise.

You know something strange is going on when Democratic Senators Chris Murphy (CT) and Brian Schatz (HW) have emerged as the early faces of resistance -- the former, because he's often been dismissed as another squishy centrist; the latter, because, well, it's hard to get national press in representing a home state that's been a donkey party bellwether for decades.

Even so, both of them are modeling how an opposition should sound, especially Murphy, whose response to that "Batman"-style counseling ("Let Trump and Musk overplay their hand") is worth quoting in full. But I'll let this two-paragraph nugget suffice, for now (see the link for the rest):

"Change requires building power -- and no, we do not have ten years. But in the face of a crisis like this, I don't believe it will require ten years. But the level of opposition required to stop Trump and Musk's constitutional crisis can't be built overnight. They believe they are invincible and a cult of Republican Senators who privately disagree are publicly allowing themselves to be steamrolled and humiliated.

"The only way that changes is if enough of us come together to be as loud and visible as possible. We cannot be silent as Trump and Musk seize control of government. I'm doing everything I can to lead that effort -- including putting significant resources from my campaign into building this movement, and being ready for whatever Elon Musk and his corporate and billionaire friends throw at me."

There you have it -- simple, succinct, and to the point. It sounds better than this jaw-dropping, tepid response from Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, as the Muskrats' smash-and-grab raid on federal data began to unfold: "It is very clear that, if there is a middle of all of this hot mess of division, Americans want us to work together when we can, and find common ground."

When I saw that quote, I thought it was a headline from The Onion. In fairness, though, the next statement got lost in the resulting backlash ("When they start violating the law and firing inspectors general without following the law, when they start illegally cutting off funding for home heating and other things that people need to live, we are going to stand our ground"); suffice to say, the order of those statements should have been reversed, since this isn't 2012 anymore. We'll leave it there for now.

Schatz, on the other hand, has taken an equally effective tack, in slapping a hold on Trump's State Department nominees, until USAID's situation is resolved, however it's resolved. No business, no show, as they say. No USAID, no votes. If Mitch McConnell can do it, so can his nemeses, right? As Indivisible's co-founders stated, shortly after the November debacle, resistance to fascism begins and ends in a single word: NO!

<Trapped in a world we never made,

or what might have been? You choose:
https://www.downwithtyranny.com/

<iv.>

Still, it's important to remember, all resistance is a work in progress, and our current malaise is no different. Though Democrats and their constituents have regrouped, to a degree, there's plenty more work to do, starting with a pushback against the "Trump mandate" narrative. By and large, the national media continues to cast the situation as just another partisan squabble -- one driven apparently, by sore loser Democrats, especially with another government shutdown looming around the corner (March 14).

But it's worth remembering how we got stuck with Trump 2.0, as Indivisible pointedly states in its Resource Guide to fighting the whole phenomenon: "Trump wants to govern as a dictator, but he has the slimmest possible congressional majority and a grossly unpopular agenda. Winning an election with 49.9% of the vote (of those who voted) does not make him a Dictator for Life and does not make Project 2025 the law of the land."

It's an important point, one all the more important to drive home, as the reference to the "November drubbing" in Salon.com's story (see below) makes plain! I don't know how you define such a thing, but 49.9% of a population does not a drubbing make, especially after we realize that Trump's preferred Senate candidates lost in four crucial swing states that he carried (AZ, MI, NV, and PA).

Democrats must keep making that case, while highlighting the real world harm being inflicted on the federal workforce -- whether it's the USAID employees left stranded in the countries they served, or the veteran with disabilities fired via a terse mail, without even a "Thank you for your service." Democrats need to pound that rock like a gong, because -- whatever you've heard about those "golden handcuffs" -- government employees aren't rich!

Democrats need to avoid ticking off overly technical boxes, though, against Trump's authoritarianism -- what we call "The Management Argument," which surfaced during the second Iraq War ("Shock and awe on a beer budget? Why, that's un-American!"). Progressives don't want to hear that deportations cost too much money, for instance, or earnest vows to somehow "work with Trump," when rationality allows, as if those options ever graced the menu. They weren't, they aren't, and it's time to stop pretending otherwise.

Getting that message across won't be easy, since there's no Democratic version of the far right noise machine, the same brimming with 24-7 misinformation, ever ready to "Flood the zone with shit," as Trump's Rasputin-ish couriter, Steve Bannon, so notoriously labeled it. Ceding that media space to the far right, without firing a shot, was the dumbest thing that the American Left ever did.

What once seemed like a noble case of "not stooping to the same level," or that hoary old chestnut, "When they go low, we'll go high," now seems like the usual self-defeating donkey party exercise in unilateral disarmament -- unless you count your favorite Senator or Representative appearing on cable news shows that hardly anyone but uber-political junkies bother to watch.

So what will it take to turn this equation around? Simply stated -- flood the zone with people. if it means resurrecting updated version of the Clinton-era "war room (It's the oligarchy, stupid"), so be it. If it means cranking up the constitutent phone calls, all the better.

If it means getting a different Democratic Senator or Representative on TV, find the best speakers available, and go from there. if it means sending them on the road, then do that (as Senator Bernie Sanders has just announced, with town halls in Omaha and Iowa City this week, for instance).

Until progressives develop their own answer to Fox News, this type of shoe leather will have to suffice. The good news, though, is that it offers ways to make genuine connections that seem less and less likely in the increasingly toxic world of social media -- on which the consultant class, particularly, has grown too dependent.

In the long run, Democrats will be all the better for it, as they seek to reclaim an occasion today (President's Day) that, right now, seems like another cruel joke. Because, in the long run, people and shoe leather are way more important than shit, any time -- however much the right likes to rub your nose right in it. Don't let them forget it, the next time they try to break your spirit. --The Reckoner