I scan wreckage of 2022 America

Mimieux and Taylor

Remember the "talking rings" from the sci-fi classic movie "The Time Machine?" Rod Taylor in the starring role and a very young Yvette Mimieux as the ingenue. As the Taylor character probed his mystifying new surroundings in the distant future, he and Mimieux came upon the rings. The rings if spun on a table emitted narration about humanity's downfall. The rings are on the table in the image at left.

So it was a world of the docile and sheep-like people of the Earth's surface, versus the hideous "Morlocks" who were underground. The Morlocks periodically lured the regular humans down to be consumed. 

Anyway, this little sojourn into movieland is prompted by what I see as the current state of affairs in America. For sure I know people in my town of Morris MN who would dismiss me as a totally irrelevant writer. To an extent I cannot dispute them. Shall I put myself forward as a "voice in the wilderness?" I'll suggest a better depiction. Maybe I'm a writer whose words, if unearthed someday, will come across as prescient. Not just prescient - I am describing what is happening in real time. 

The collapse is most likely underway. We see it with the shocking erosion of civilized standards. My writing could well be likened to the "talking rings." We can only guess who might discover my aroused commentary someday. And I'm taken aback by how so many around me are just clueless about the disturbing stuff. They go about their routines as if nothing is amiss. 

Not only that, an incredible percentage of these souls buy in to the outlandish stuff that is dragging us down, perilously. An excellent barometer is the "Mediaite" website. So as I'm writing this, the top headline informs us "Trump warns there will be 'big problems' if he is indicted." 

Shouldn't society just coalesce to shut this blowhard ignoramus down? Shouldn't that be more or less instant? How often have we been through this: an outrageous and dangerous bit of behavior/rhetoric from this man named Trump? 

 

Miscalculation, always

Maybe Laura Ingraham of Fox News thought it was nearing an end. She had bent over backward for MAGA. She attacked the D.C. cops when they testified, accusing them of "theatrics." "Theatrics" is the argument you can use in these situations if all else fails. Then she accused them of "partisanship" because one testified he was a Biden voter. As if that's a disqualifier. To simply have voted for the Democratic Party candidate for president of the U.S. 

Didn't an awful lot of people across the U.S. actually vote Democratic, or did I miss something? Is it purely illegitimate now to be Democrat? Is it dangerous to put a Democratic bumper sticker on your car, to have a Democrat lawn sign? If you watch a considerable portion of the media now, you might think the answer is "yes." So many gullible souls consuming this. So many older white men gathering in their coffee klatches like right here in Morris - listen to them equate Democrats with sheer stupidity along with other non-flattering qualities. I hear it quite often. Enough for me to change where I go out to dine sometimes. 

Ubiquitous, yes

Eventually, will there just be no escaping it? This is the fear I'd address in a manner like the "talking rings" of the movie. If Trump were to be indicted on purely reasonable grounds because of having done something clearly over the top - seizing highly classified documents that didn't belong to him - what on earth would be wrong with that? He after all had argued that Hillary Clinton "should be in jail" because of her emails. 

The media bought into "both sides-ism." If Trump were seen to have done some terrible things, well then Clinton had to be reported on the same way. Find something that looks improper, jump on it. 

Trump "promised" in 2016 that he'd appoint a special prosecutor re. Hillary's emails. Then he didn't do it. It is black and white, you knaves. And of course he didn't do it because there was no potential for prosecution there. James Comey bent over backward, painfully, to keep Republicans calmed down re. all that. He made a special point of saying that Hillary was really a little careless. It was unlike the FBI to behave as such. Really, no laws broken equals no charges equals silence. 

Comey subsequently went through misery, make that hell, because Trump found his way into the oval office. What does Trump exactly mean now when he says there will be "big problems" if he is indicted? Sounds exactly like a threat.

 

The promise of Cassidy

Why do we all keep taking this? I hoped and prayed that after Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, it would be over, this absurd and dangerous chapter in U.S. life with Trump at the forefront almost every day. So there's a picture of Trump at the top of the Mediaite site today, Sept. 15, as the routine goes on and on. Nobody cares what Laura Ingraham thinks. I never cared for her anyway, obviously. She "dared" to say it was time for us all to "move past" Trump. I wonder if she has tried to backtrack. 

I keep repeating my concerns about the nature of the media today. We so easily forget how different it is compared to the pre-digital times. The old media would not have let so much of the outrageous stuff see the light of day. We took that world for granted for a long time. Today the barriers have largely vanished. 

A firebell in the night

People flock around Trump because people always flock to where power is. Think of the people around Hitler. Do you think they were all really born bad people? Well I don't think so. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I was telling a friend of mine in the clergy last week: Look up a picture of Martin Bormann. Look at him. Doesn't he look like the most ordinary, boring person, who could be selling insurance in main street America? I'm just trying to describe a common occupation, nothing wrong with selling insurance. 

So Trump pounds his chest, in effect, and proclaims that the people of America will not stand for him being prosecuted. He added that people "will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes." So he's back on the "hoax" theme for describing the 2020 election. He uses the same word for climate change theory. And the interviewer Hugh Hewitt just sits there and digests all this, without just rejecting the guy, maybe laughing at him and cutting his mike. 

I can share all about this for the "talking rings." And Lindsay Graham warns there will be "riots in the streets." Graham's newest headline-grabber is about how he'd like to see a nationwide abortion ban. Mike Pence says it's more important to beat down women's rights than it is for his party to win in the mid-terms. How would I describe all this in the "rings?"

 

Addendum: The "Morlocks" of the 1960 "Time Machine" movie had me keep the light on in my bedroom for a few days. What movie did that for you? I have often read that the Laurel and Hardy "Babes in Toyland" had a scene that terrorized kids. The big robot of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" stuck in my mind in a menacing way. Actually that was pretty minimal special effects/costuming. The movie's black and white format helped us overlook that.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com