Our Split-Screen World
It can make you crazy. But it also makes clear what our mission is.
On one side of the screen, an oil tanker on fire in the Strait of Hormuz. On the other side of the screen, Donald Trump dancing to the Village People’s song “YMCA” while his excited cultists cheer. This was from LCI, a French news channel.
On the left, we have an escalating military conflict that is threatening a global economic crisis as movement of 20 percent of the world’s oil supply has been stopped by multiple Iranian airstrikes. This is in response to the thousands of American bombings in Tehran and beyond and the growing death toll. Yesterday, the newly installed Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khameini made clear this would not end soon when he told Iranians, “I assure everyone that we will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs.” That includes the blood of his dead father, mother, wife, son and sister.
On on the right, we have Trump already declaring “we won,” talking about “unconditional surrender,” lying about the human cost in American lives, calling the war a “little excursion” and insisting “it’s turned out to be easier than we thought,” while at a Kentucky rally he was busy condemning his Epstein files antagonist, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, and later falsely declaring that food prices have come down, gas prices will “drop very rapidly when this is over” and even saying “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”
Who’s “we”? It’s not everyday Americans struggling to pay their bills, but rather oil executives and fossil fuel shareholders who benefit when the price of a barrel of oil rises. He was talking about U.S. producers, but “we” could just as well as have been about his friends in Moscow, who will be better able to expand their death and destruction in Ukraine as Trump’s war in Iran boosts Russia’s oil revenues.
This is a tough time for everyone who cares about human life, opposes illegal wars that make us less safe, can’t stand lying, longs for the support of reliable democratic allies not murderous dictators and other authoritarian thugs, and still believes in self-governance and a progressive future that includes equality and a government that serves the common good.
We may be live in a split-screen world, but we can decide how to manage it: Holding onto a vision of a better world, while also confronting the reality of a Trump regime embracing sadism, cruelty and violence. This means recognizing, for example:
Soft power and democratic values build community with other nations, while bullying, hate and an arrogant belief that might makes right only sow more hostility, division and death.
Having the strongest military in the world means also having the power not to use it—and understanding that diplomacy and negotiation build peace and stability. Pursuing belligerent wars of choice, assassinating and capturing foreign leaders, and plundering other nation’s resources only make us weaker and less safe.
The U.S. Constitution provided a framework for the rule of law and the Declaration of Independence asserted a set of fundamental human values, while masked Trump death squads grab migrants and American citizens without warrants and terrorize communities.
Congress near-unanimously passes the Epstein Files Transparency Act—requiring the full release of documents and providing hope to more than a thousand victims—yet the nation’s top law enforcement official refuses to comply in order to protect rich and powerful sexual predators and child rapists who think they are above the law.
As reporters ask more questions mount about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump continues to change the subject—and may be exploiting this reckless, ill-prepared war with Iran as a distraction.
While the White House occupant tries to pressure the Senate to pass his hypocritically named Save America Act that would seriously suppress the vote and help enable Republicans to “win the midterms and…every election for a long time,” he continues to claim without evidence that this is stopping election fraud.
Voting is a sacred right of a democratic citizen, yet the man in the White House is threatening to deny the people’s will in the midterms any way he can, including fabricating a national emergency to take over the elections.
I’m sure you can add to this list that requires keeping your mind clear and refusing to be beaten down, distracted or dangerously discouraged by an authoritarian determined to destroy our beloved country to exploit the ruins of public liberty.
Yes, we are living in a split-screen world. There are some days when it is hard to maintain our sense of sanity. It can be exhausting. Fear and worry can take over. It can seem that the authoritarian playbook just might work.
But these are the times to remember that throughout our history Americans have faced far worse in their fight for freedom, equality and justice. As hard as some days might feel, take strength from your clarity in knowing right from wrong, true from false, normal from batshit crazy.
On one side of the screen is a July 4th party, patriots celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American democratic experiment. On the other side of the screen, a deranged despot surrounded by sycophants and miscreants who’ve lost the plot and are trying their hardest to tear it all down.
Maybe perversely, I like this split screen. I’m grateful to be living now. This is our chance to prove—on this 250th anniversary—that we are not about to forsake our values, allow the demise of our democratic project or let the country we love and our progressive future be stolen by these enemies within.
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Do we want to be free from this? What will it take?
“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be” - James Baldwin
I dunno, Steven. I’m scared out of my wits, and becoming more so every day. I’m not afraid of the Liar-in-Chief per se. I’m afraid of the capitulating and lying propaganda sources that his cult followers listen to and read, which keeps the truth from them. Or rather, the truth about this guy and the war is too painful for them because they would have to realize that they are worshipping the forces of evil that they now believe are defending the forces of good. Of course, the truth is much more complicated, because nobody was a fan of the Iranian regime. Still, we just cannot admit that the Iranian culture is ancient and deep and somehow we can’t seem to wrap our arms around the fact that they just might not enjoy being wiped off the face of the earth at the whim of a politically thirsty dictator like Trump.
My husband was a very little boy during WWII in France. At that time, food was scarce and they ate what they raised and grew. As such, my father-in-law raised bees for honey, as sugar was scarce. My husband enjoyed watching his father tend them, and, as kids often are, was naturally curious and wanted to examine the bees up close. As he approached the hives, stick in hand, his mother warned him NOT to go near the bees. Nevertheless, he raised his stick and tapped the hives; gently at first, and then more aggressively.
All at once, the bees exploded from the hive in a swarm, covering him, chasing him as he ran for the house. My father-in-law, alarmed by the site, grabbed him, wrapped him in a wet blanket and ran with him to the house, where my mother-in-law subsequently applied tincture of arnica and rubbed him down all over. Needless to say, he survived and learned a valuable lesson.
Trump has tapped the hive in Iran; not once, but twice. Who is going to wrap our country in a blanket and ferry us to safety where we can attend to our wounds? The horror of war never has a truly happy ending, nor does it make us safer.
Tincture of arnica, Anyone?