Saturday, July 4, 2020

My Corona Diary (Take XI): Merry Fourth Of July (Is This A Wake, Or What?)

<"Happy Birthday, Dear America,
Happy Birthday To Us..."
Take I/The Reckoner>

<i.>
Is a wake, or what? Our humble little town has canceled its annual fireworks display, so apparently, whoever's stored up enough explosives will have to lead that particular charge tonight, on behalf of those Dead Guys With Stockings 'n' Wigs that we spend so much time lionizing.

Honestly, though, I can't imagine too many celebrations happening today, except for Trump's most rabid MAGA cultists. Otherwise, I suspect the Fourth feels different to the great majority facing total economic obliteration, whether it comes through attrition, bankruptcy, COVID-19, eviction, food insecurity, government indifference, homelessness, international travel bans -- now, Europe's told us not to bother visiting them. Now we're the sh#thole country. How strange and surreal is that?

Another snapshot comes from a Yahoo News/You Gov poll, in which 62 percent of those surveyed no longer see America as "the shining city on the hill," as Ronald Reagan characterized our nation in his 1989 farewell address -- though 52 percent found it accurate, at the time he said it.

Sixty-five percent feel the COVID pandemic is getting worse, followed by those who feel likewise about racism (64 percent), the economy (61 percent), America's standing in the world (60 percent), and violent crime (58 percent). 

The latter statistic is grimly ironic, especially with COVID killing off so many unwilling residents of jails, prisons and other custodial environments whose ranks are swelling to the rim -- one of the only commodities, besides the rampant creation of dead end McJobs, that America truly excelled at creating over the last 30-odd years.

Suffice to say, thirty-odd years of austerity politics have left their mark. You can read the rest for yourself below...or check out Public Enemy's brilliant return with "State Of The Union (SFTU)," which -- along with other recent entries, like Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul" ("What is the truth, and where did it go?"), for example -- will stand out for summarizing the moment better than any of the empty suits, or their allies in the professional classes, ever did. 


<Public Enemy:
State Of The Union (SFTU) Cover Art>

 <ii.>
Well, what exactly can we celebrate this July Fourth? Maybe that we made it another day, another week, another month?

Yeah, I can only imagine how that makes us feel, as we remain locked away from one another, staring at these cold dark screens, while the Overlords of Austerity rush to backtrack, now that they've discovered...viruses don't respond to grand openings, let alone grand re-openings, no matter what the men behind the curtain might wish.

For me, personally, July Fourth represents a TV blackout -- so I can avoid all the endless celebrations of "the troops," followed by the solemn intonation of the tropes about their service and sacrifices. Well, freedom didn't come free to Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, or Breonna Taylor, to name three victims of the Police Industrial Complex, right?

But really, I'm so fucking sick and tired of hearing all those tropes. They ring hollow and empty in a nation that still effectively treats nonwhite residents as three-fifths of a person, suitable only as cannon fodder, or the first recipients of a chokehold.

I feel especially sour after last week's primaries. Not the New York ones, obviously, where the insurgents ran the table. I salute Jamaal Bowman for defeating Elliot Engel, another of those old guard mummies that should have been retired long ago...at least, based on what I've read about him. (How Bowman is an amazing story, though, as you'll see below.)

Kentucky remained the unrepentant outlier, though, crowning the Democratic Establishment's choice, Amy McGrath, as having "the right stuff" to take on six-term mummy Mitch McConnell, the Republican boogeyman who vows to hang on somehow, even if he loses his majority and his leadership title this fall. Now there's someone who simply can't live without the attention, right?



"Happy Birthday, Dear America:
Happy Birthday To Us..."
Take II/The Reckoner

<iii.>
So why do I feel sour about this particular result, since McConnell the Mummy remains favored to win a seventh term? Well, just look at how the top two Democratic challengers responded to the racial unrest that rocked our nation after Floyd's death.

Booker took a leading role in the protests over Taylor, shot dead in her sleep in March, after police stormed her apartment -- her home, her castle, remember? -- on a dubious no-knock warrant. He also joined those demanding justice for David "Ya Ya" McAfee, killed last month as police moved to break up a late night gathering in Louisville, during demonstrations.

McGrath didn't show up, citing family commitments and fears of COVID during a debate as her reasons. It still makes for an unfavorable contrast, though. Still, who seized the moment more effectively?

Booker walked the walk. He's a state representative, after all, so nobody expected to him to show up and get himself tear gassed, like he did. His presence told people: "I have your back, and I care. This issue matters to me, and I support those who feel likewise." As for McGrath? Figuratively speaking, she awoke to hear her citizens' cries, heard the clock radio alarm buzzing off the hook, hit the snooze button....then rolled over, and went back to sleep.

And that's before we get to other faux pas, like her failed 2018 Congressional campaign against Republican Andy Barr. That contest featured a slick, expensive ad that promoted McGrath's fighter pilot experience (89 missions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban), and reportedly almost bankrupted her campaign that year. Maybe if she spends $40 more million, she'll beat McConnell The Mummy this fall, I guess. But I wouldn't bank on it.

I have trouble summoning warm and fuzzy feelings towards the McGraths of the world, who willingly participated in the never-ending Afghan and Iraq wars that broke our country's bank, even as the Overlords of Austerity scold us for not leaping back into the ever-deepening trench of no future shit jobs that they never stop lining up for us -- as if you can make a slaughterhouse smell more appealing, if you only sprinkle enough perfume on the unfortunate cows and pigs, as they're taking their final walk down that gleaming metal runway.

Not to worry, though. As I write these words, sour as they feel, I'm reading that Amazon overlord Jeff Bezos is on track to become the world's first trillionaire by 2026. Seems like one American has something to celebrate today, but as for me? Excuse me, I think I need my sick bag. And my stomach pump. --The Reckoner


Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,
Before The Polls Turn Bleaker 'N' Grayer)
New Yahoo News/New YouGov Poll...

Public Enemy:
State Of The Union: Official Video

The Huffington Post:
Charles Booker Hits Amy McGrath

How Jamaal Bowman 

Yahoo News:
Michigan Man Abandons
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