Doug's Darkworld

Written yesterday:

So yeah, Trump’s gonna give a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore tonight. The nation is in the midst of a massive resurgence of Covid-19 cases, Fourth of July celebrations have been cancelled everywhere … and Trump’s holding a campaign rally with no mask or social distancing requirements. At a controversial location considering the current conflict over certain public statues and such. The land was basically stolen from the Sioux, and Mount Rushmore carved over their objections. 

As far as Mount Rushmore goes, give it to the Sioux and let them do with it what they will. The image above is what it looked like before it was carved up. In a more general sense, a lot of statutes and such are being toppled. Some people are upset. My take on this, what exactly are they upset about? Tearing down these monuments to criminals affects people’s lives in no discernable way. They can be moved to obscure locations where people who want to revere American traitors can go do so, whatever, it’s a free country. 

That’s what I thought last night, before I watched Trump’s Mount Rushmore military extravaganza. And a military extravaganza it was, jets flew over. Then helicopters. Then stealth fighters. Interspersed between each flight was patriotic testimony by some select military person. B-1 bombers, the Blue Angels. No, not making this up. If Trump had a Death Star, it would have flown over. In other words the introduction to his speech was a multi million dollar commercial for the US military. The nation is reeling from the worst public health crisis in a century, and a gargantuan display of military waste is how Trump thinks the Fourth of July should be celebrated? OK then.

Great production values though, it was as if Disney produced a Nuremberg rally. Then they trotted out the Master of Ceremonies, Miss South Dakota 1970. She introduced the governor of South Dakota. Lots of God and nationalism with some 60s bashing thrown in for flavor. At that point I could take no more. There was a time when I would have taken a bullet for a president. Now I can’t even watch one of his rallies. From this morning’s readings, his Mount Rushmore speech can be summed up as Trump accusing protesters of “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children”.

Paranoid divisive fear mongering nonsense, gotta hand it to Trump, he’s consistent if nothing else. No Mr Trump, people don’t want to erase history, we just don’t think statues of traitors and criminals need to be on prominent display in our great nation. Nor should military bases be named after the same traitors and criminals. The Confederates were the ones who betrayed our founding fathers and took up arms to protect the institution of chattel slavery. Their leaders are not “American heros,” and their statues should never have been put up in the first place. Stick em in obscure locations where those who want to cry over spilt milk can do so.

Comes back to what I said above, the worst global and national  health and economic crisis of our lifetimes, and Trump is upset about a few old statues? Really? Really? This isn’t leadership, this is a man baby’s idea of leadership. It’s bizarre and appalling to me, Trump can produce an extravaganza in the middle of nowhere with  hundreds of millions of dollars of military might on display, but PPE shortages continue and Covid-19 spreads virtually out of control. It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if we really are just actors in some alien reality show sitcom, and its ratings were dropping so it’s jumped the shark with Trump.

Or to put it in another term, he’s going to take decisive action to protect a bunch of old statues, he’s creating a national garden for them, but he has yet to take decisive action leading the fight against Covid-19? And his followers find this acceptable? Well, maybe the statues can grace all the new graveyards we’re gonna need this summer.

So yes, the worst Fourth of July in my lifetime. For those still in touch with reality, a terrible new disease is raging in many of the world’s countries, especially America, my home. It’s not the new Black Death, but it’s killed half a million already and will no doubt kill millions more in the months to come, wreaking global economic havoc as well. It could be worse, but it aint no freaking flu. Here’s what we know so far. And along the same reality lines, it’s a disaster in America because we freaking shut down the country but didn’t take the steps needed to safely reopen. We wasted months, and now we’re paying the price.

Stay safe, stay home, wear the damn mask.

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Six Grandfathers ca 1905, Mount Rushmore before it was vandalized. Credit: National Park service, Public Domain under US copyright law.)