Having someone close to me with a severe mental condition as the needles of American Fascism penetrate my psyche is much too much. The boob tube lies to me about what Israel is doing to Gaza and now Iran. Having neighbors surrounding me who are either oblivious to what the MAGA machine is shredding, or so mesmerized by it causes my retreat into my music. By music I mean the deep, rich, creative words and music of my 60s and 70s baby boomer favorites. I sit here listening, over and over, to Pink Floyd’s classic Comfortably Numb with David Gilmore’s guitar artistry in his solo near the end. Sometimes one needs not marijuana to flavor the ear.
Perhaps the mentally ill person I love is correct, unintentionally, in evading the effects of this government’s lunacy, and that of the Israelis. Marines and National Guard troops sent into LA because the public demands to be heard in peaceful symphony. A President and his inner sanctum that intend to transform us into Germany circa 1930s. They replace the ‘Jew vermin’ with the ‘Illegal alien vermin’. The one constant is that all who oppose the MAGA MACHINE are just as Red as those who opposed the Nazi juggernaut.
I guess some things never change. The support for this dangerous Israeli government is congruent with Trump’s support for our Military Industrial Empire, feeding that beast with more of our tax dollars. His assault on everything vital, from Medicaid, food for the elderly and infirm delivered to their abodes, labor unions or labor organizing, daycare, public education… and pretty soon the big scissor on our cherished Medicare and Social Security.
I once interviewed a man who was tortured in captivity. After hearing of all the terrible things they did to his body, and his mind, I asked him how did he survive. He said that after awhile he just became numb to it all, both physically and mentally. Uncomfortably Numb!