The situation is 'escalating'

Regarding the escalator incident at the United Nations, where the up escalator stopped just as Melania was stepping on... and that led a number of Trump Cult members to suggest everything from international conspiracies to the need to simply "bomb the U.N.," as one Fox Propaganda channel personality said.

About three years ago, we took Max and Jack to the Park Meadows Mall so they could visit the Lego Store and coerce us into buying them a new set that they would put together in about an hour. We were starting down the escalator to the ground floor when Jack made a kid's decision to see if he could run back UP the escalator.

Of course, the entire mechanism immediately shut down due to some safety trigger. Jack got over his embarrassment quite quickly, and thank goodness no one else was below us on the stopped escalator. We quickly walked down and did our best to disappear into the crowd. I assume someone had to come reset the mechanism, cursing whoever had interrupted his break.

Apparently, a White House photographer managed something similar at the U.N., triggering the automatic stopping of the mechanism. Trump might be forgiven for not knowing the whole story (I assume the photographer sneaked off to the equivalent of a Legos Store and didn't meekly shout, "Sorry!"). So, he made fun of the U.N. facility a few minutes later.

But shouldn't the most likely explanation have put an end to all the threats and anger from the Trump nuts? And from Trump, of course. 

Are you kidding?

Days later, what we call "online discourse" continues to bicker over the facts and there seems no way to establish definitively exactly what happened. My take is that Trump felt humiliated and that is one emotion bullies don't get over. 

He might have simply laughed it off. 

Again, are you kidding?

The late night comics have had a field day with the entire fiasco and who can blame them? It's low hanging fruit, so to speak, and relatively uncontroversial. Viewers have all been in embarrassing situations and here they can enjoy the "most powerful person in the world" reminding us that even he will encounter an escalator not working. And escalator not working can be termed "stairs," of course.

Hours later, Trump announces new tariffs, sends a White House toady to indict James Comey on the flimsiest of charges, and replaces a portrait of Joe Biden with an autopen. It's all crazy. It's all provocative. From a very warped perspective, it's all fun and games. 

I wish that I could believe that Trump and the Cult have some sort of plan, even an evil plan. But the truth is that we are being led by someone clearly a bit dotty (along with his innate egotistical narcissism and inner gangster). 

The government is in disarray and funding will shut off in four days. 

All because America couldn't stomach the thought of a woman being elected president in 2016. 

But here we are. 

On the other hand, Kathleen and I had a lovely anniversary dinner last night at Seasons 52, quietly celebrating 54 years of marriage. And it's an equally lovely Friday in Colorado, with bright sun and temps in the mid-70s. I have essays to grade and various projects to tinker with.

So, we press on.

Last week was certainly a "turning point"

The big surprise to me is that the U.S. has become a country that cannot resist the power of a dictator and a relatively small but strategic collection of billionaires and political fanatics... and we just sit back and passively watch not just the legacy of the nation disappear, but the future.

OMG, you might think. Things aren't that bad. Come on. This too shall pass. 

Yes, history will march on. I suppose I mostly worry about what sort of nation our grandkids will live in. And I am well aware that this sort of existential despair has characterized countless generations before me, each of them bemoaning their youngers and their diminished morality or pride or energy.

I also vividly remember the chaos and anger and outright violence of the 1960s, but what I don't remember is having a sense that the country was played out and too broken to repair. 

Or maybe it's just my own revisionist history at work. 

Honestly, there is no reason to fear a future dictatorship in America, like a dystopian science fiction novel from the '50s. 

The dictatorship is here, right now, though it's a uniquely American dictatorship due to our history and the sheer numbers of Americans: over 340 million. 

The details are being created as we speak and the triumph of anti-intellectuals and anti-science and anti-immigrant and anti-brown people and anti-... well, you name it. We are immersed in hate and at least some of the blame has to be placed on billionaires in Silicon Valley and their social media monsters.

When social media was invented - what, 20 years ago? - there were all sort of possibilities for those disposed to be optimistic and idealistic. Just imagine all the connections and the interchanges and tightening of communities that social media COULD offer.

What was less common and ultimately ignored was not possibilities, but probabilities. After all, there are all sorts of possible great outcomes. But human nature is what it is and the probabilities, mostly for bad outcomes, were shrugged off... and now we live amidst the social media catastrophe.

I suspect that AI is now similar to those early social media days. Sure there are possibilities that artificial intelligence will produce limitless benefits, from wealth to health to freedom. The probabilities, though, are that human greed and ignorance will combine to create probabilities that are much darker.

We live in perilous times... and maybe that is true for every generation. But AI looks to be many orders of magnitude more powerful than social media and is not only driving the world economy but expanding in reach and capability faster than any other new technology.

We are not ready for it. We were not ready for the brazenness of Trump and his minions. We were not ready for the national carelessness and greed and sheer hate to be unleashed so quickly.

But here we are. 

As usual, the shooters are young, unstable males with grudges

This week combined the horror of an assassination in Utah of a national political figure and the shooting of two students plus the suicide of a 16-year-old who looked like an 8th grader. 

There is no obvious connection between the two events at first glance, but it turns out that both shooters come out of the far right conspiratorial nutcase wing of America. Well, I am only going on what I have seen from various media, with some information coming just in the past couple hours. 

The Evergreen shooter had fallen completely into the cesspool and the assassin may have thought that Charlie Kirk was not wacky enough... and that would have to be pretty wacky based on the victim's many social media posts and provocative speeches.

It's a laudable human tendency to feel sorry for people who make mistakes and it's even more laudable to profess loudly and often that ALL violence is bad for America and for our immortal souls. 

To no one's surprise, however, the loudest voices condemning the killings are progressive Democratic leaders. Trump and his cult immediately jumped to conclusions and boldly urged some sort of war/vengeance on, well, anyone not worshiping at the altar of Trump and dictatorships. That's me, I suppose, along with a large majority of other Americans. 

It would be nice to think that all the instant anger posters will quickly ask for forgiveness and begin arguing for calmer debate. 

Fat chance!

Our own kind of wishy-washy governor here in Colorado has settled on a standard proclamation that basically says that all children should expect to be safe attending school. Well, yes, but is that really something that needs saying? 

Everyone deserves decent health care. Everyone deserves the chance to have a home of some sort. Everyone deserves opportunities to earn a decent living. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect by their government and those around them. 

But the U.S. is being run by a quasi-Mafia of power hungry fanatics who have prospered within our economic and political systems and mostly want that to continue. 

Evergreen will get a candle lighted at St. Luke's and many other area churches this Sunday. Charlie Kirk will be praised as a martyr to a holy cause... for a couple weeks. South Park won't repeat the episode where the show satirizes Kirk's bigoted style. Speak no ill of the dead, after all.

And the guns and ammo will continue to flow as politicians continue to bicker over a problem that no other major nation seems to have. 

Want to bet against more killings? 

I will take that bet, though not gladly.