Rest In Peace, America

This is the saddest thing I've ever had to write. As I've been doing the research all week, I have come to one single, inescapable conclusion.

The United States of America is no longer a functioning nation. It is now a failed state. Covid-19 cases continue to rise with 150,000 deaths in just five months, a number that may very well double by the end of the year.

Second quarter Gross Domestic Product contracted by 32.9%, which makes the months of April, May, and June the worst three months on record, ever. Thirty million Americans, of which I am one, are collecting unemployment benefits. Our extra $600 a week will cease to be paid unless Congress takes action by the end of the day tomorrow.

Some estimates peg the number of Americans facing possible eviction in August at 40%.

Republicans in the Senate continue to argue among themselves and have yet to take any action after taking every possible chance to delay doing so.

A U.S. passport is barely worth the paper it's printed on, as several nations across the planet continue to bar Americans from entering their countries.

Yesterday, President Trump tweeted the following.

"I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low-income housing built in your neighborhood," he said in the first tweet.

He then continued with "Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!"

That's loaded with so much racism, I don't know where to begin detailing it all. But let me try to do so.

Poverty affects all of us, but the simple and painful truth is that poverty is highest among people of color. That low income housing lowers property values is unproven. That people who live in such housing commit more crime than others is proven to be false. But it sure is easy to blame them for everything, isn't it?

And then, just a few hours ago, came this tweet.

"With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

Let me take that one and break it down. First off, it's an attempt to de-legitimize the coming election. Then, as you can see, it proposes delaying the election. And finally, it tries to legitimize doing so by invoking three different issues.  Properly voting,  I think we can agree, means allowing every citizen to register, to vote, and to have that vote counted. Securely voting means not having elections tampered with in any way. Safely voting means not having to risk your life standing in line for up to twelve hours because the number of polling stations have been decreased.

All three of those are things that Republican governors, lawmakers and election officials have been viciously attacking for decades.

America is now a nation where the government can not or will not provide for basic standards of safety and well being. And if things keep going the way they are, there won't be an America by the end of this decade, I predict. The nation will splinter into smaller pieces, each struggling to survive in the darkest of times.