What a month it has been, my readers.
First: the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the direction of the current Saudi crown prince. I’m no big fan of the Turkish government, and I know they have blood on their hands as well. But they are at least keeping the Saudi government reeling off-balance and desperate to spin version after version of lies about Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Infrastructure, emergency response, and climate change came to a brutal collision in the Florida Panhandle, as Hurricane Michael flattened entire towns. As rural residents struggle without much help two weeks later, the Republican-dominated Florida government still hasn’t acknowledged the dreadful truths of climate change and lackluster building codes that may have led to so much destruction.
Then came a wave of United States voting-rights ‘irregularities’ that all add up to desperate Republican attempts to deny or alter Democratic or Independent votes in the upcoming midterm elections.
And in just the last few days, a slew of pipe bombs were sent to prominent critics of Donald Trump, culminating in the arrest today of a male Floridian Trump supporter who will go down in history as the #MAGAbomber.
Seriously, people are now coming forward with stories of seeing this guy’s white van (why is it always a damn white van?) covered with pro-Trump and violent anti-Democrat stickers. It reads like a rolling InfoWars FB page. Here’s a shot of it from Reddit.
Thankfully (so far) none of the bombs have detonated, which is a testament to the great policework going on behind the scenes.
The first common theme here: the desperation of a party in power, clinging to power by any means necessary. A party lacking the humanity, empathy, socialization skills, and self-confidence to see that very little in life has to be a zero sum game.
“Us against them.” “I got mine, so screw you.” “Somebody has to lose for somebody else to win.”
If we are going to survive the next five hundred years as a species, mindsets like that have to go.
The prince MbS (whose full name I will not bother to use, since he’s due for a beheading in a few months anyway) hitched his future toward an ambitious Arabian future tied more to technology than petrochemicals. More tolerant, more open, more sane. Except that he wasn’t going to tolerate sharing any glory or credit to the activists and journalists who helped change the rules.
Jamal Khashoggi paid for a prince’s cowardice with his own life, as have countless others in and outside of Saudi Arabia. And Russia. And Africa, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, China, Venezuela, Brazil…
It doesn’t have to be this way. We see violence extolled as a news-grabbing headline, but on the whole, humanity is trying to become less violent. That’s not weakness, but a special kind of strength.
In America, faced with a midterm election that might peel back their gerrymandered white-power majorities, the Republicans have devolved into a campaign of threats, lies, confusion, and vote-suppression to keep their opponents from voting (or to change their votes).
To link with the Khashoggi story, the news media in America is under fire from Trump supporters, whose Dear Leader has spent years trying to demonize and undercut the free press…and yes, advocating physical violence against journalists.
I’m a cynic. I truly fear that that Republicans will tamper with this election as well, and try to ignore or stall their loss of power should they still lose. Sane people need to vote in a landslide, and keep pushing back. Be alert to violence, but don’t start it.
The second common theme here is gaslighting. The intentional twisting of truth and perception, the lashing riposte of ‘Whataboutism’ designed to make civilized (perceived as weaker) people doubt themselves and their outrage. This is a major tool of cult leaders, dictators, and abusive partners throughout time.
Don’t fall for it, people. Get angry. Stay angry. Make it into something constructive (like voting!)
The one enduring truth about Donald Trump, Sr. is that he almost always telegraphs his own terrors by assigning them to other people. It’s always other people who are ‘Weak’, ‘Low IQ,” or ‘Stupid’. The very insults he levels are testaments to the self-reflection he is admittedly terrified to do. His body language alone is a transparent tell.
This week, Trump gleefully called himself a ‘nationalist’. In putting ‘America first’ he not only echoes historical and current isolationist despots, he calls for a future where America has its cherished isolation…in last place.
In a world that hopefully went on and upward without us.