What the f__k!
The Covid-19 pandemic has created a surreal national landscape that rivals the worst scenes from a sci-fi movie.
Most of us struggle with drastic changes to our once comfortable lifestyles.
In my family, two women—one in her seventies and the other in her forties--died from coronavirus. Two family friends contracted it but recovered.
Every cough or sneeze or slight fever evokes panic.
As if the fear of coronavirus is not enough, there are other challenges to peace of mind that make me ask, “What the f__k!
1. President Trump attacks the U.S. Postal Service with threats to withhold funds with no regard for millions who depend on it for social security or payroll checks, medications, or bill payments. Still, there is no large-scale public outcry.
2. Police officers continue to injure or kill unarmed African Americans despite months of protests and calls for police reform. The latest police shooting of a black man, Dijon Kizzee, occurred on September 1, 2020.
Are they giving the finger to families who have lost loved ones to police violence? Are they too stupid to recognize that their public image takes a hit every time another man, woman, or child dies at their hands? Do they believe that they are above the law?
3. Self-centered, entitled American refuse to abide by social distancing or mask mandates by invoking the Constitution. We are becoming a nation of selfish and self-destructive losers.
4. Mail in ballots will be rejected even if post dated before the election deadline. So much for promoting civic engagement.
5. In Nevada (my home state), thousands of applicants for regular unemployment or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, have not been paid since applying for benefits in March and April. The state agency responsible has had four directors in the past few months.
Some individuals have been paid, only to have the agency request repayment (sometimes in the thousands of dollars). Meanwhile, state and federal governments pay lip service to the need to “support families in this time of crisis.” Right.
6. President Trump’s campaign ads imply that protesters are dangerous and out-of-control. He invokes the threat of federal intervention under a call for “law and order.” He tells the states to handle the protesters, or he will withhold funds to those that condone what he considers “lawlessness.”
7. Social Security for millions of Americans is under attack. President Trump has called for a deferment of payroll taxes (which fund S.S.) that in the long-term could stop payments to seniors as well as those on disability.
According to cnn.com, “….if all Social Security contributions from payroll tax stopped on Jan. 1, 2021, the nearly 10 million people today getting Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, which averages about $1,125 every month, would see them stop abruptly in the middle of 2021. Those 55 million receiving Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance benefits, which average around $1,440 a month, would see them disappear two years later.”
Of course, this could affect millions of die hard Trump supporters, who I think are too besotted to recognize that some of his actions will harm them and their families. Nonetheless, no public outcry.
Trump is like a runaway wild stallion, no one can saddle him. He makes the most outrageous or stupid remarks, yet journalists, Democrats, and Congress seem to wither in the face of his lunacy.
Americans should be really scared.
Trump is slick and slippery.
If he loses, he will find a way to de-legitimize the election by making himself the victim of his political enemies, and his base will support him.
He is not just the butt of comedians’ jokes anymore.
He poses a real danger to our country’s democratic institutions.
© 2020 wistajohnson.com (Reprint by permission only.)