Desperate and depraved

A sinking administration ends the year on a low and characteristically immoral note.

The first drone strike on this boat on Sept. 2 didn’t kill everyone aboard, so the military fired again.

It’s been a tiring year but I hope everyone is getting ready to have some rest over the holidays. If you want to support our work here at American Doom or spread the word about what we do, I’ve put some links to gift subscriptions below. Remember that you can also get a discount on subscriptions by referring us to your friends and family. Now, onto the latest… - jg

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I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m so tired lately. The reason is mostly personal — big changes are afoot for my family. More on that later — or not, as I continue to assess how much of my personal life this publication contains amid a troubling threat environment for journalists, democracy advocates, and opponents of right-wing extremism.

Those big personal changes are part of the reason I’m so tired, but there’s another reason as well — a reason many of you have probably also felt. I am tired because it is overwhelming to be bludgeoned each day with the endless assault on basic decency. I’m exhausted from having to know and hear about the latest action in a nation led by people who are morally depraved.

This week’s depraved development involves the “double-tap” murder of alleged drug traffickers floating helplessly in the sea. But it’s Wednesday, so there’s plenty of time for things to get darker. The revelation that the military fired upon survivors of a September airstrike targeting supposed drug runners will probably be a footnote in the story of this first year of Donald Trump’ second presidency. That’s because, unfortunately, there has been much depravity.

I can’t help but look at the obvious lack of moral character of the secondary attack that is at the center of the news so far this week and see it as a reflection of our collective degradation. For better or worse, our national character and mood depend largely on who is president.

It’s therefore natural for Americans who have political beliefs that are the opposite of the current occupant of the White House to feel adrift while that person is in power. But this past year has shown something a bit different.

Even the American right seems ill at ease during Donald Trump’s second term. There is no joy or comfort in his leadership.

The only noteworthy emotion on display by Republicans and the right over the last 12 months is one of perverted glee. The American right has been downright giddy as the Trump administration and its masked immigration agents terrorize immigrant communities and inflict unnecessary violence on immigrants and their American citizen allies, and as they’ve carried out what increasingly look like war crimes in their unauthorized strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

That so many Americans are enjoying the pain being inflicted by the Trump administration is a dark reminder that there are those among us to take joy in the suffering of others.

A government of dominance

One of the reasons why all of this feels so exhausting is because of how disturbing it is to think of the deeper meaning behind this phenomenon of the right’s joy at others’ suffering: Trump isn’t really giving his supporters anything; instead, he’s simply taking away from the people who the American right have decided to blame — immigrants; the trans community; DEI, “woke,” whatever that means on a given day; and anyone who doesn’t subscribe to a delusional past version of the country as a being better off when people like Trump were in charge of absolutely everything.

I, along with many other people, am tired quite often not because it’s a challenge to physically read the news each day, but because doing so is spiritually damaging. First, there is the content itself:

• Raids across the country as almost weekly battles ensue in the street between police, immigration agents, and everyday Americans;

• Stories about immigrants hiding in fear;

• Extrajudicial murders at sea, for reasons that don’t even really add up outside of the broad themes of cruelty, intimidation and domination;

• Blatant and open corruption on a scale each week that would have led to impeachment proceedings for most other presidents;

• Siding with violent authoritarians and oppressive regimes — openly and publicly — in places like the White House itself

• The constant, petty, and childish ramblings of an unwell person with more power than anyone in the world

If the content of the news wasn’t bad enough, there is the reaction to it from our fellow Americans. I try not to pay too much attention to the celebrations that are held by the American right each day as the Trump administration continues to crush rules, laws, and norms, and generally degrade the progress of the entire history of the nation, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. And the American right is downright loving it that all these things are happening. It’s like watching a movie where an entire population celebrates its own demise as they ignore the warnings of the prophet.

MAGA's Epstein gaslighting is unsustainable

If all that weren’t enough, there is the absurdly blatant hypocrisy of it all. Consider just a few examples:

• The American right, radicalized by things like the once-fringe but now-mainstream QAnon, believes in merciless punishment for anyone involved in the global cabal of elite sex predators — except for Trump himself, who fits the QAnon definition of someone who probably has some predatory skeletons in his closet. The right completely ignores this, amid the broader phenomenon of Republicans planting their heads firmly in the sand over Trump’s many and deep ties to Jeffery Epstein.

• Hunter Biden and the “Biden crime family” leveraged the power of the presidency to enrich themselves — to the tune of about $11 million over the span of a few years. This year alone, the Trump family has made $1.8 billion in cash and gifts, while Trump himself saw the biggest jump in his net worth in his lifetime — $3 billion just this year.

• Trump and Republicans have also criticized Biden’s pardons, which look completely harmless compared to the open corruption of Trump’s pardons and commutations. Among them is Changpeng Zhao, the Chinese businessman who has personally elevated the value of a crypto company run by Trump’s sons by $5 billion. Republicans have said nothing about this clear and obvious conflict of interest.

• The hypocrisy of Trump’s pardons continue — and have a neat little bookend to the news about our military’s killing of accused drug traffickers in international waters. Last week, Trump pardoned a former Honduran president sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. To recap: random drug traffickers in boats in the Caribbean must be physically eliminated from the earth, but the kingpins at the top of the drug game like Juan Orlando Hernandez should get a pass.

All of this comes as Trump’s approval ratings slip to their lowest levels of his political life. He is also increasingly siloed — even more so than in previous years — in media and personal environments of sycophants and supporters. Trump is really only confronted by reality when reporters ask him questions he doesn’t like, to which he responds by childishly lashing out, calling them “piggy,” “stupid,” and “ugly.”

Under Trump, things have always felt a bit depraved. But as we head into next year, this administration looks more chaotic, nihilistic and desperate than ever before. Desperation mixed with depravity can’t be a good thing for the country, and it is certainly very tiring.

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