londo

Today is Memorial Day, a tradition that has its roots in the American Civil War of 1861-1865. The American Civil War killed more Americans than any other war in US history, and the nation fighting tearing itself apart caused wounds and rifts that have never fully healed.

On this Memorial Day, I want to take a moment to note several of the ways in which the US is currently tearing itself apart.

• Most of us are under some degree or other of lockdown, due to an ongoing global pandemic, and a lot of us are going a little stir crazy from being confined in such a small space for such a long time. If this is driving you nuts, just imagine what it's like to be one of the USA's two-million-plus prisoners, who do not really have a lot of access to social distancing right now, and who are definitely going to die in tens of thousands due to cramped conditions, lack of access to medical care, and general prison-guard brutality. The USA imprisons more people than any other country in the world, including the two countries which have over a billion people each, one of which is infamous for being a totalitarian state. (We also have the highest per-capita rate.) Of those two million, at any given time, about a half million of them are in for non-violent drug offenses, another half-million are in jail awaiting a trial of their peers, fifty thousand or so are under 18, and fifty thousand or so are held by ICE in modern-day conentration camps. That whole thing with children in cages is still happening, only now a lot more of them are going to get sick.
  
  
• The not-behind-bars enforcement of social distancing can vary wildly based on the skin color of the citizen. (I know, I know, what a shock - racist practices in the NYPD!)
  
  
• The White House has completely abdicated leadership, and multiple Federal agencies have seized medical equipment purchased by several US states, the case involving Massachusetts may have gotten the most attention. Maryland's governor feared similar seizures and has openly admitted to using the MD National Guard and secrecy to make it harder for Federal agencies to seize Maryland's PPE. The MA governor has less-openly admitted this, and it's a matter of public record that MA's activation of the National Guard happened the day after MA experienced a Federal seizure of three million masks. Wyoming has also experienced seizures.No explanation for these seizures has been given, there is no transparency as to where they have gone. Spokespersons for the White House have insisted that it is "their" stockpile and not the States'.
  
  
• The Defense Production Act has been activated, which is what grants the President the authority to engage in those seizures. Weeks later it was also used to direct some companies to produce more masks and ventilators. It's also been invoked punitively against 3M, for... daring to sell things to countries with brown people in them, I guess? The DPA has also been used recently to order meatpacking plants to continue operation.
  
  
• Two groups of states - the West Coast and the Northeast - have formed interstate compacts around reopening plans. The northeastern compact has also begun sharing medical equipment and bidding on it together. These two subgroups of states are, in essence, miniature federal-style groups, forced into existence because our actual Federal group is non-functional. And at least two states - MA and MD - have put their state law enforcement officers in a position where they might have to draw firearms on Federal agencies to prevent them from seizing gear.
  
  
• The US is at 100,000 deaths, and our President is patting himself on a back for what a great job he's doing.
  
  
• Jeff "I don't look like Lex Luthor at all, stop looking at me like that" Bezos is on track to become a trillionaire, while his warehouse workers are getting sick in huge numbers, then being fired for attempting to agitate for more PPE or safer practices.
  
  
• Wisconsin is not really a democracy any more. North Carolina hasn't been one for a while. Georgia is trying to follow their lead, cancelling a Supreme Court election.
  
  
• Michigan had to cancel a legislative session because a bunch of masked white men with fully automatic weapons kept showing up. The masked white men are very clear on being willing to do anything for their country, except stay home for a little while. News coverage of this event rarely uses the word "terrorism", even though "government stops functioning because it fears armed vigilantes will engage in extreme violence" is a pretty good definition of terrorism. I guess this is the Michigan Militia, Jr.
  
  
• There have been calls for a cancellation of rent, mortgages, and other forms of debt, since so many people have temporarily or permanently lost their income. These calls have roundly been rejected, by the idea that debt is a moral obligation which must be fulfilled. We do not view "keep people employed so they can eat and pay their bills" as a similar moral obligation, which suggests that culturally, we view banks as being more morally deserving of money than people who need to eat. Weirdly, I haven't seen any charities lately saying "donate now so we can help needy banks!"
  
  
• Wearing a mask is the #1 way for society to be safer, and this is great, but we've also spent a lot of the last few decades teaching police, and in some places citizens, that any black man with his face covered was acceptable to shoot on sight, and that the presence of one in a store was reason to call the police immediately.
  
  
• Additionally, there are scattered stories nationwide of people who became violent when employees at a store insisted they wear a mask, because being told "you should give a shit about other people" is a good enough reason to become violent now. Meanwhile, roughly half of the Twitter accounts clamoring for reopening are bots. Is anyone on Twitter not a bot any more?
  
  
• President Trump has threatened to cut off funding for the WHO (which he does not have authority to do), and recently has ordered the entire Federal government that "agencies should address this economic emergency by rescinding, modifying, waiving, or providing exemptions from regulations and other requirements that may inhibit economic recovery, consistent with applicable law and with protection of the public health and safety, with national and homeland security, and with budgetary priorities and operational feasibility." (No, seriously.)
  
  
• Also during this time, government watchdogs are getting fired left and right. The Inspector General of the State Department was fired on May 15, as was the Transportation Department's IG. Tthe Intelligence Community IG was fired on Apr 3, the same night as the Defense Department IG was fired. The State Department IG was fired because the Secretary of State, under investigation by that IG, asked the President to fire him, and he did so happily. The DOT IG was investigating the Secretary of Transportation. Donald J. Trump is really against any lawyers looking in to anything anyone is doing.
  
  
• National Guard deployments are being ended on Day 89, which happens to be one day before active-duty benefits kick in. I'm reminded of the old "joke" that minimum wage is a company's way of telling you "I'd pay you less money, but I don't want to go to jail." Perhaps someone will care about the National Guard's veteran benefits now that it's Memorial Day.
  
  
• Mostly not American news, but I think it's important to note: about a hundred thousand people who worked on cruise ships are now stranded on them. The ships have all been docked, and very few arrangements have been made to get anyone home. Most of the workers are from poor countries thousands of miles away from wherever their ships currently are. They're getting free room and board on the ships, but little or no pay, and their legal status is Extremely Questionable, thousands of them can't legally walk off the ship into whatever country they're moored at.
  
  Anyone with any suggestions as to what to do about these things constructively, please do drop a comment.