I don't know what was worse about the latest inauguration: the shameless display of plutocratic preening among the honored attendees, or the corporate media's fawning coverage of same. I hesitated even to open the New York Times this morning for fear of all the sugary projectile vomitus hitting me in the eye.
The church-attending, the candle-lighting, the cemetery-visiting, the coy mask-slipping and the glad-handing among the wealthy and powerful leaders of our country looked, from my vantage point out here in the sticks anyway, like nothing less than one of those notorious Covid super-spreader events for which the Trumpies were so soundly and rightly castigated when they were in power. Michelle Obama was hugging everybody in sight, while Barack went right for his cohort's ears in order to whisper whatever sweet nothings these people whisper to one another when they reunite. And why not? They all probably completed their own vaccine regimens weeks ago.
I wasn't actually paying very close attention to the spectacle and Joe Biden's speech because I was on the phone with my son, who'd just tested positive for Covid-19 on the very same day that he got his first vaccination. He had finally been designated by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as a deserving front-line worker/first responder. It's a relief that, for now anyway, he seems to have a mild case. And that's doubly good because although he contracted the virus in the line of duty, he has been allotted only seven days to quarantine and recover, and to use his own sick time to do so.
So if I'm not offering my traditional analysis of the latest president's latest overpraised maudlin speech, it's because it's the least of my worries right now. I suspect it is also the least of the worries of 330 million of my fellow citizens, one in three of whom have been directly affected by the pandemic.
When I finally clicked on the New York Times this morning, it did indeed resemble a big puddle of sugary vomit floating in a giant gold-plated toilet bowl. All the celebrities were there in an interactive map, and so was their designer fashion. Michelle Obama wore a silk face mask, color-coordinated with her royal magenta coat and high boots. Bernie Sanders was decked out in such adorable mittens to go with his signature scowl and cheap face mask. It took two whole Times reporters to broadcast this particular bit of earth-shattering news to the truth-starved readership.
Democratic boss James Clyburn, meanwhile, went full Jesus Christ and bragged that unaccountable war criminal George W. Bush, flouting social distancing in this grand new era of bipartisan being, approached him right on the inaugural dais and praised him for destroying the Sanders candidacy and for pushing the faltering Joe Biden down the throat of America.
“George Bush said to me today, he said, ‘You know, you’re the savior, because if you had not nominated Joe Biden, we would not be having this transfer of power today,” Mr. Clyburn told reporters on a call after the swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday. Mr. Clyburn’s endorsement of Mr. Biden in the Democratic primary in South Carolina in February was credited with rescuing a campaign that had faltered badly in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“He said to me that Joe Biden was the only one who could have defeated the incumbent president,” said Mr. Clyburn, who chatted with Mr. Bush on the inaugural platform before the ceremony and took a selfie with the former president.
All the plutocrats, who so humbly and bipartisanly took their rightful mighty place on the Capitol facade of their own warped brand of democracy, sure showed those terroristic rioting deplorables who so brazenly defaced the sanctity of the institution last week, didn't they? The usurpers were suitably vanquished as a "palpable sense of normalcy and relief" enveloped Washington, itself encased by miles upon miles of razor wire and occupied by 25,000 National Guard troops.
As Lady Gaga trilled, our flag was still there.
Welcome back to "Trump: the Prequel."
9 comments:
It was a quite sickening display. All the pomp and platitudes. I only watched a small portion of the continuous replay on MSNBC. "Our democracy is bent but not broken". I'm sure Joe Biden will straighten things out. Maybe he's more progressive than we think? Yeah, sure. Has he evolved?
I'm sorry to hear about your son.
I worry about my own kids far more than I worry about myself. I'm not just claiming to be selfless when I write that, I'm in a far safer place than they can be. I'm mostly home, and they are out there vulnerable almost every day working.
Many of us have people to worry about. That worry is as fierce as any worry about ourselves. It is worry on top of worry, adding up. That is why this grinds me down so.
Some vaccine is not fully effective until a month after the second dose, which is done a month after the first dose. We won't all get that first dose on Day One either. That means we are months away from the beginning of effective vaccination. There is no cause yet for feeling that we've won, that we are around a corner.
This has a long way to go.
Then there is longer to go to get our economy restarted, to get life restarted. My kids need good jobs and a future, not just a vaccine in an economic desert.
It would be easy for me to hide behind the "Anonymous" handle or to make up a pseudonym, but I won't do that in order to comment this time.
I simply wish to convey to you my sincerest, best hopes that your son recovers fully from his bout with Covid-19. This disease is not to be trifled with, as our experience here in New Mexico will testify. And I have personal reasons for my concern, as well.
Do with my remark what you will, but you still have my best wishes. As always, I very much appreciate your journalism, which is why I look in regularly.
Here are my best wishes for your son, too. My daughter lives in exile in Spain. She probably has had covid twice. Youth seems to be on her side. I hope it's on your son's side too.
The NYT just fired its Asst Editor Lauren Wolfe, for being too obviously partisan for Biden, and putting at risk their supposed "reputation for objectivity."
I'd say she did the job they wanted her to do, then was used as fall guy for what they did.
Firing her is also camouflage for what they will continue to do, by all evidence of their behavior.
I'm actually sorry for her as the latest victim of the bad faith in management of the NYT.
Did she actually trill? I had to shut it off after four bars. I think she's awful.
It's a really weird song, now more appropriate the the Palestinians than to the world's empire. And it gets butchered constantly.
Thanks, guys, for your well wishes. My son is feeling better, but my two-year-old granddaughter now has a runny nose and low grade fever - otherwise she seems well and is her usual active self.. Daughter in law has symptoms but since she got her first dose of the vaccine at her hospital job over a week ago, perhaps that one shot is giving her a little protection.
The whole inauguration seemed like a dog and pony show to me. The only reason people are happy to have Biden sworn in is that Trump really went bonkers the closer he got to January 20 and most of us were operating on "Anyone is better than Trump."
I am glad to hear your son is recovering well from Covid but sorry to hear about your daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Karen. These are tense times while people wait for the opportunity to get the required two doses of the vaccine and then for the vaccine to kick in. Meanwhile, so many people are having to go outside the safety of their homes and work for a living. The American government has really let its citizens down.
Maybe people (many not in any way elite) see the insurrection as deplorable because they sought to overturn an election won by over 7 million votes and to "take back their country"? Maybe the idea that fraud was limited to certain cities was actually a racist idea? Maybe the fact that some insurrectionists came from the working class does not make it a class revolt or populist?
As I stated before, these insurrectionists have more in common with the Bundy family or going back further-- southerners who fought to expel the federal forces upholding Reconstruction efforts.
Anyone who thinks there is working class solidarity to be found amongst these people,such as a low information you tube yeller, is performing a fool's errand (at best). This is not in the tradition of Fred Hampton or MLK, and anyone that thinks that needs to read their history.
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