Most days lately I turn on the news, groan, watch as long as I can out of a sense of duty and morbid curiosity, then turn it off and try to forget everything I’ve just seen.
But some days I just sit there and cackle. Today has been one of those.
When the history of this time is written, and I think it’s likely though not certain that civilization will survive at least to that extent, today’s scandal — all the top officials in the government save the president, who was out of the loop completely, casually chatting about military secrets on a text chain that included a journalist with no security clearance whatsoever — will be a tiny footnote in the story of how the Fourth Reich was, hopefully, defeated. But at the moment it’s the gift that just keeps giving.
Look, I’m no rocket scientist. Name a mistake you can make in life and I’ve made it, in one form or another. But when I look at this astounding collection of dimwits, dumbshits, and doofuses, I can’t help but feel pretty smart.1You might say that those three things are the same, but I could tell you precisely who in MAGA is which, if I took the time. To be brief about it: A dimwit is just plain stupid — can’t do simple math or construct a sentence. A dumbshit actually has a clue about a few things, but makes all the wrong decisions anyway. And a doofus has a glimmer of intelligence but can’t be bothered to do anything right.
I know, we shouldn’t get too smug about it. The original Nazis could also be stupid — I watched enough Hogan’s Heroes to know that — but almost managed to take over the world anyway. We should respect the power these people hold, if not the people who hold it. Their idiocy could kill us all, and the correct response is probably terror, but still: It’s fucking hilarious. And we need that right now. Scuse me while I kiss the sky.
I haven’t been writing about the Shitshow because it is all so sad and frustrating and infuriating and surreal. And yet not surprising. Those of us who were paying attention knew it would be like this, but enough people wanted it, or didn’t know they didn’t want it, so here we are.
In my struggle to remain optimistic I tell myself that the American people are too proud to put up with this bullshit for long. I’m not 100% sure I believe it, but it’s the only hope we have.
Anyway… this morning I read an excellent piece by A.R. Moxon called The Unmovable Sink. It helped me and it might help you. Moxon is a bit given to overbroad generalizations, and does go on; but he’s not Wrong, and his central metaphor is a useful one. If you have a few minutes, I say give it a shot.
I only just learned about this record, a ragged but charming slice of folk-psych from the mid-Seventies that apparently is lost in some sort of rights limbo; it’s not on Spotify and has never been reissued on vinyl. The sole copy available on Discogs carries an asking price of $3500.
But it is on YouTube for free. I can’t recommend it without qualification; at times it sounds like they underrehearsed and/or overindulged. But if you want to feel rich for 33 minutes while listening to something pleasantly warped, have at it:
I must say I’m feeling much better about The Politics than I was a few weeks ago. I mean, sure: A demented malignant narcissist still has the nuclear codes; a billionaire drug fiend is still running around hacking away at the delicate machinery of government with an axe; and the groundwork has been laid for the dismantling of the constitution and suppression of all dissent.
But on the bright side, it seems like the bad actors are already starting to run up against the hard realities of things like the stock market, high unemployment, and the Great and Powerful Price of Eggs. The last election showed how gullible the American people can be, but as Abe Lincoln may have said,
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
I know, the worst is still possible, with guys like Arch Reptilian Stephen Miller pulling the strings. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that they’re just too addled to pull it off. They’re still fooling some of the people, but it’s fewer and fewer every day; nothing wakes America up like fucking with its bottom line.
