Doug's Darkworld

No parades I hope. The above was in New York City in 1882. There are people alive today who personally knew people in this picture. We still have connections to the past, even as long ago as 1882. I’m guessing Labor Day was a lot more important back then, decades of “labor unions are bad” propaganda has eviscerated the labor movement in the US. Reagan firing the striking air controllers was the beginning of the end for workers’ rights in America.

It’s horribly sad that the GOP has gone down the “They’re going to take away your rights!” schick about rights like speech, gun rights, and religion … when none of those freedoms was in any danger. Your right to a decent job, decent health care, decent benefits, to organize unions, get a good public education, enjoy modern public infrastructure … oops, sorry. Those don’t count. The rich need all that money. Wealth inequality has reached frightening heights in the US, and Covid-19 is just making it worse.

So the next few months in America will be fun. States are broke, cities are broke, the CARE act expired, and the Senate is disinclined to do anything. On the plus side, other than a few Trump boats sinking, this holiday weekend there’s been no new outbreaks of violence, police riots, police shootings, vigilante shootings, etc. I had a fairly relaxing holiday weekend. Phew. 

No immediate bad news, but another grim development on the Covid-19 front: Mysterious Post-COVID Syndrome Affecting Kids Appears to Be Even Worse Than We Thought. This is not a virus anyone in their right mind wants to catch, but I’m  still seeing people who don’t get that yet. 

Trump did throw more fat on the fire today: Trump launches unprecedented attack on military leadership he appointed. This Trump quote was especially interesting:

“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me — the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,” 

Wow. The POTUS criticizing war profiteering? Blasphemy! Of course Trump also brags about how much money he threw at the military, so it’s not like he’s doing anything about it. It’s just damned unusual for it to be publicly acknowledged that American military spending has been out of control since 1945. It’s driven a global binge of military spending really, armaments are the world’s number two industry. In any event, Trump is occasionally right on in his observations on the world, because he doesn’t understand the Neocon ideology that has ruled Washington for decades, or even the Cold War ideology underpinning it.

What the Pentagon will do if there is an ugly disputed election is a concern. I have no freaking clue. Anyone who claims they do is full of it. The Romans had civil wars when there were multiple claimants to be the emperor. Yeah, civil wars weren’t as ugly back then, civilians generally had little to worry about. We’ll see I guess.

What worries me is how widespread the idea is that Democrats are the enemy of America, traitors who should just be eliminated. Trump seems to be doubling down on the idea, it’s not like he has much of a record to run on. More on that in a subsequent blog.

I lived in Berkeley for decades. The nation’s center for anarchists. There must be dozens of them. Yeah, they ain’t driving national protests. That’s an aside. Short blog today. Almost took the day off, but at this point, it’s a point of honor to blog daily until the election is resolved. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #InsanusTempora

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.  

(Image: Public domain.)