American Melodrama: Reality TV as Horror Movie
When Rebel With a Cause starts sympathizing with frightened members of the establishment, whether Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or retired majority leader George Mitchell (D-Maine), you know “the times-they-are-a’-changin.’”
Corker warns against “WW III.” He and Mitchell, who brokered a (permanent) peace deal in Ireland, produced reports on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and rescued Major League Baseball from “performance enhancing drugs (temporary), appeared on TV last night, gray faced and somber to deplore the chaos in the White House.
In Sec. of State Rex Tillerson’s (R-Exxon) words, everyone (but his cult-like supporters) worries that the “Moron” in the Whitehouse may blow us up.
The “Football”
As a lad I used to slide under my school desk practicing the arts of air-raid drills during the 1950s cold war. Then we worried about Putin’s predecessors pushing the button. Now each morning I wake up and push the button on my computer to find out if the “Moron” grabbed the nuclear football (above) last night from one of the anonymous military aides. I keep hoping he’ll focus on NFL football instead of playing “chicken” with his fellow traveller, North Korea’s Kim-Jong-un.
We are reminded by those like Colin Kaepernick, who are faithful to the spirit of the founders and remind us that the flag and the anthem (though’ written by a white supremacist) are symbolic of the words in our mission statement that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Knee jerk patriots wrap themselves in flags, not freedom. Whether you pray on bended knee or stand hat in hand, true patriots honor the idealism of the founder’s Declaration of Independence and its progeny, the U.S. Constitution or Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Neither Trump, nor Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), neither Roger Goodell (NFL) nor the factotum V.P. Pence have done with fighting the Civil War. White Male Supremacy is coughing and sputtering and rolling back health care, limits on carbon pollution, the rights of brown, black, LGBTQ, and hetero females in Hollywood. The opportunity for an education is being restricted in favor of fascism for the few.
Meanwhile, the other football is where the game really begins. The order to launch nuclear weapons must be verified by the Secretary of Defense as having been issued by the Commander in Chief. But, in this case General Mattis, a retired four-star general of the U.S. Marines, has no say over the “merits” of the order or the sanity of the President. “They say” General Kelly, another retired four-star general of the U.S. marines, and Chief of White House Staff, is keeping an eye on the Moron.
I’m not sure if we’re watching a Peter Sellers movie, Dr. Strangelove or The Mouse that Roared but the real estate developer refugee from Reality TV has created this the most “Melodramatic Show on Earth.” Who’s in charge? Chauncey the Gardener from Being There?
If issued an order I hope the Marine Guard in Dress Blues at the White House look to Kelly and Mattis before acting.
Who is the damsel in distress? Mother Nature or the Human Race? The former has reacted to abuse with venomous fire, floods, and hurricanes. The latter in its American version is descending into chaos as Red and Blue suit up in a replay of the Blue and Gray. Under Putin’s guidance the Red Menace has returned under the aegis of not Zeus but the social media.
On Facebook the citizenry sharpen their knives for the enemy within based on rumor and El Mitote. Like the Olympians who cheered on their favorites during the Trojan War, we spectators can catch our fill of the good and bad on TV’s evening news.
While we wait for Lady Luck’s verdict I am reminded that the news from Vegas is bad indeed. When freedom comes from the barrel of a gun, we are no longer free. Ask the dead.