We Have Officially Entered the Twilight Zone

When all else fails, you can always count on Blooperpower USA to revive its stupid, cruel and ineffective War on Drugs - that is, the relentless war against poor and dark-skinned people both at home and abroad. The war on drugs is especially necessary when the poor and dark skinned targets live in a country with valuable natural resources coveted by the US corporations which actually  own and control Blooperpower.

The latest drug war surge is also meant to divert our attention from the sad truth that what is still insanely called the world's sole remaining superpower is so lacking in even the most basic drugs and other medical equipment to combat the virus that we are forced to import face masks and other material from China and Russia. 

In a vain, pathetic attempt to save orange face, and divert attention from the ongoing economic and social collapse of the richest country on earth, Donald Trump aims to start another war or three. And appropriately enough, he announced his plans on April Fools Day.

Before he could utter even one of his endless lies, before he could praise himself and tout the latest pitiful half-measures to combat the pandemic, he announced on Wednesday that he is sending the US military to the shores of Venezuela to combat an alleged epidemic of drug trafficking.

No matter that it's Colombia, not Venezuela, that is and always has been the major drug trafficker in the region. If drugs are trafficked by a right-wing CIA-backed "partner" of the United States, it's fine and dandy with the leaders of both our corrupt political parties. But if drugs are trafficked from a socialist country, it is not okay. No matter that calling, with no evidence, President Nicolas Maduro a drug kingpin and putting a $5 million bounty on his head is only the latest gambit to plunder Venezuela of its oil on behalf of Exxon-Mobil and other major polluters. No matter that the plundering of its oil is not even cost-effective. since Saudi Arabia is already glutting the world market with its own cheap oil.

What matters is the war of late stage capitalism against any form of socialism, wherever it exists in the world and wherever it threatens the Overlords of Blooperpower, who never let pesky reality - say, like  the crew of one of the US Navy's biggest vessels coming down with the virus - ever get in the way of their greed. Trump, who couldn't even be bothered to evacuate these sick or exposed sailors, must think that fleets of warships steer themselves.

Just as corporate CEOs place profits and economic growth above the well-being of the working class, so too has the Pentagon placed the safety of its valuable high tech arsenal of weapons on the stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt above the the health of the sick and endangered sailors on board.

Sounding a lot like the Wall Street executives calling for Americans to return to work even if they risk getting sick, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modley insisted that evacuation is not an option. "This ship has weapons on it, it has munitions on it, it has expensive aircraft, and it has a nuclear power plant. It requires a certain number of people on that ship to maintain the safety and security of the ship."

And with the safety and security of the fossil fuel industry being one of the utmost priorities of Blooperpower, the regime change coup and possible US invasion of Venezuela proceeds apace, no matter the pressing needs at home.

The A.P. reports:

The deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power and bring him to the U.S. to face drug charges. It involves assets like Navy warships, AWACS surveillance aircraft and on-ground special forces seldom seen before in the region.

Even as American corporations and private equity vultures are licking their chops at the prospect of exploiting the pandemic and looting the multi-trillion dollar slush fund disguised as a pandemic relief package, Trump hilariously blustered on behalf of himself and his whole cabal of mobster cronies:

“As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus there is a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain. We must not let that happen."

Of course, with the American military apparatus outright refusing to practice even basic social distancing to protect the troops from the virus, one might well ask whether the troops will even stay healthy enough to overthrow the Maduro government on behalf of the overlords of predatory capitalism.

Only top military brass are working from the safety and security of their own homes and videoconferencing over which global site they'll spread their lethal virus of oligarchy to next.

Wouldn't it be something if the troops emulated the wildcat strikers of Amazon and Instacart and refused to follow orders?

What if they gave a war and nobody came for the understandable reason that nobody was healthy enough or alive enough to fight it?

One thing's for sure. Everything will change.  As Rod Serling used to say, "You are traveling to another dimension, not only of sight and sound but of mind."

The only uncertainty is whether we'll keep descending into chaos and confusion and barbarism, or whether this pandemic journey will culminate in "a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination."

If we imagine a better wondrous land emerging from the complete overthrow of corporate rule, we might yet  live in a country where nobody ever goes bankrupt when they get sick, and everybody has a decent secure roof over their heads, and where endless wars for profit and oil are reduced to nothing but a bad, vague memory.

Keep up the fight, but above all, please stay safe that we may live to fight the bastards for many days, months and years to come.