Saturday, May 30, 2020

The Bunker Stage

We have reached the bunker stage of the petit-Fascist regime in Washington.

Beset by crises that were obvious before they happened but which they were unwilling to prevent, incapable of resolving, and unable to hide, der Sturmtrumper and his enablers are hunkering down, issuing wild threats, and preparing to bring the whole thing down on everyone’s heads rather than behave as responsible adults.

Honestly, all that’s missing is Eva Braun.

Over a hundred thousand Americans are now dead from a pandemic that everyone saw coming months before der Sturmtrumper bothered to acknowledge how serious it was.  The last study I read on it noted that perhaps a third to a half of those Americans would be alive today if the US had not screwed up its response to the coronavirus as badly as it has.  

And make no mistake, this screw up was an intentional sabotage job by der Sturmtrumper and his enablers.  US intelligence was screaming at him in January to take action.  He was briefed multiple times on what precisely was going to happen.  And not only did he let it happen, he has encouraged it to happen.  His administration has no plan whatsoever for dealing with this pandemic, even now.  All he has done is work to destroy the plans that governors across party lines have put in place, undermine global efforts to find a cure or a vaccine, and generally display the GOP Death Cult out in the open where it can no longer be denied by anyone not already a member.

But events are closing in.  By November we’re going to look back on a hundred thousand dead as the good old days when things weren’t as catastrophically bad as they got.  Trump is doomed and he knows it.

And he’s retreated to his bunker.

The systemic racism that he has openly encouraged in this country – never forget that Trump was endorsed by every major neo-Nazi and white supremacist group in the United States in 2016 – burst out in full rancid glory this past week with yet another murder of a black man by a white cop.  It has sparked protests across the nation and outrage across the world, and der Sturmtrumper’s only response has been to threaten people. 

The official Twitter account of the President of the United States was flagged for inciting violence.  Think about that.  Think about how vile and irresponsible this current president had to be for that to happen.

All lives cannot matter until black lives matter.  It’s just math, people.

A real leader would have gotten out in front of this and taken the moral stand.  That leader would have condemned the murder, comforted a grieving nation, and sought to find solutions to the long-standing and deeply rooted problems this has – once again – highlighted. 

We don’t have a real leader.

We have a president who is mentally deteriorating, completely out of his depth, viciously depraved, and supported by far too many people who see nothing wrong with any of this.

We have hit the bunker stage, and where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.

It is the nature of authoritarian regimes to fall, eventually.  The only question is when it will happen and how much damage they will inflict on the way down.  When might be as early as this year, if we’re lucky.  It might be a very long time if we're not.

The damage?  We’ll see.

2 comments:

LucyInDisguise said...

The part of Eva Braun will now be played by Ivanka.

“We have hit the bunker stage, and where it goes from here is anyone’s guess.” NO. They are following a script written 80 some-odd-years ago. Only the dates and names have changed. And I’m not all that sure about the names.

“It is the nature of authoritarian regimes to fall, eventually.” I’m not at all certain you intended this paragraph to suggest that we have already transitioned - Last time I checked, we hadn’t quite become an “authoritarian regime”. Not for lack of trying, mind you. The Grand Experiment in Self-Governance continues apace - staggering, lurching, at present nearly totally out of control - but they haven’t assumed command over us yet. We still outnumber them 6 to 4 if we can just manage to wake a few people up and get them to the poles.

It will take 40 years or more to undo what this administration has wrought in the last +/- three years once frumpy is finally removed from the Oval Office. Till then, despite occasional missives to the contrary, it is my intent, as I am sure it is yours as well, to stand. And fight, if necessary.

Got my sign by the door. Heading out for the protest line again. (Didn't we do this back int the 60s & 70s?)

Lucy

David said...

Just because the script was written 80 years ago doesn't mean we're going to follow it this time. History does not repeat, but it does rhyme. You can see general trends, but specific outcomes are always contingent on specific circumstances. I know how the bunker stage ended in 1945. We'll see how it ends this time.

We've transitioned much further than I would have thought possible in three short years, and der Sturmtrumper and his enablers can see the writing on the wall and are accelerating that pace now - they know this is the only way they hold on to power and likely the only way they don't spend the rest of their lives in jail. There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered rat.

We have not fully made the transition. But it's coming unless we do something about it. As I've said, at this point I won't be surprised if the November elections are called off and 43% of the country is fine with it, but until then we will see what happens and do what we can.

We outnumber them. And in the long run they're doomed. But there's a lot of mileage between here and there.

It's my country too, and they will not take it from me quietly.

Here I stand. I can do no other.