Black Is The New Orange?

A man out of time…

kin to a battered and bruised Muhammad Ali coming off the ropes in the 9th round to knock out George Foreman in 1974’s Rumble In The Jungle, the July 21st slingshot move of Joe Biden stepping aside for Kamala Harris to run for US President was a game changer.

Up to that point, Donald Trump appeared to be cruising somewhat unchallenged to a White House return when Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday, November 5th.

But suddenly, despite Harris having made little or no impression as the US Vice President for almost four years, the peoples and the polls flipped, and Trump was suddenly trailing.

And quickly began flailing, as is his wont.

Just how America got to the point where an openly sexist and racist former TV presenter and dad-made millionaire – one boasting all the worldly wisdom and endearing humility of David Brent – ended up running the country is something that even a 20-part Adam Curtis documentary couldn’t fully unravel. But the man behind The Power Of Nightmares would no doubt trace a lot of it back to Ronald Reagan getting into bed with the Bible belt back in 1980. The Republicans desperately needed the votes, and the Christian Nationalists, with their church takings,  their Armageddon schtick and their fellow white Americans’ dominance on the wane, desperately needed to Trojan Horse their way into The White House.

And today, Trump stands once again as their finest ever Equestrian Candidate.

Also playing a part in America’s current bi-polarisation are the meme streets of the internet, where the ironic worshipping of Chuck Norris has led to the slightly-less-ironic worshipping of the likes of Trump and fellow celebrity misogynist Andrew Tate, macho Mansons whose obvious crimes are seen as signs of strength by their devoted followers. All of this false prophecy has been aided and abetted by hellvangelists such as Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson – shyster Adolf Partridges making good money out of bad news – and social media giants who also get far more traffic, and revenue, with hate than with kittens in boots.

The Covid lockdowns helped create the perfect shitstorm too, the isolation and shapeless days sending people down endless conspiracy rabbit holes, the extreme left joining hands with the extreme right initially to protest those lockdowns, then the vaccines, and finally, anything The Man tried to force down their throats. Or stick in their arms.

Patti at The H&H THURS29AUG24

Which might explain how we ended up with so many Travis Bickles out there, hellbent on bringing the system down. So they can finally get the respect, the life and the girlfriend they truly deserve. Whilst saving the world from going Full Yoko Ono.

All of which is GG’s very, very long and grinding way to introduce our ramble chat this afternoon with Patti Shields, the Delgany activist who, along with Dalkey’s Kieran McLaughlin, has been heading up the suddenly very busy Democrats Abroad Ireland. Their mission being to convince the 30,000 or so Americans in Ireland to cast their votes in November’s election. Something those yanks can find out more about right here, and about Harris agus Walz here.

In the meantime, as Patti awaits her Irish Americans For Harris Walz yard signs to come back from the Kilcoole printers, we try to make some sense of The Disjointed States of America…

You can grab your Harris Walz yard sign here (use promo code kamala24 for 20% off) and email here for t-shirts. Cover pic: Carlos Barria Reuters