Watch out—late winter, early spring, and the times we live in are all volatile.
Remember when Bush Junior bragged about the initial attack on Baghdad as, “shock and awe”? And how we watched a deadly fireworks display on television, and wondered how anyone could survive all those explosions on March 19th, 2003? We ceased combat operations in Iraq on August 18th, 2010, seven and half years later.
Over the long term, “shock and awe” didn’t go so well.
And now we have the White House thugs, who epitomizes chaos, retribution, self-interest, and incompetence, who have reprised "shock and awe" with a flood of executive orders, many of which are nonsense, and some of which are patently unconstitutional.
One warm day last week, I rode my bike back to Boulder from Longmont after dropping off the van at a repair shop. The temperature was in the low 60s with some light wind. On the late afternoon ride over to Longmont, I saw a number of riders wearing just shorts and shirts. I had to shake my head.
“This is Colorado, folks!” I wanted to shout out the open window, “Any minute now it will cloud over, the temperature will drop 30 degrees, and the wind will come up. And you will freeze your parts off.” But I didn’t. I sat there, with the window rolled down, fairly warm in my winter kit.
The collective response from the MAGA crowd to the recent shock and awe was “go get them!” ‘Them’ being nonbinary folks, federal employees, AID recipients—all soft targets, it should be mentioned, because bullies choose the weakest to attack.
The response from the rest of us was disbelief, then anger followed by useless fist shaking. We wanted someone to ‘do something’ while we sat here doing nothing and feeling sorry for ourselves.
After dropping off the van, I headed back to Boulder on the Diagonal Highway. Several miles down the shoulder of the road, I stopped to pull off my arm warmers and gloves. I pulled up the sleeves of my T-shirt and jacket, and then unzipped the jacket and bike shirt. I was overdressed in my winter kit. However, I’ve been here in the High Country for a while and learned the hard way to be careful about the weather, particularly in late winter and early spring.
And as I rode toward Boulder, the wind came up to a steady 10 MPH with gusts to 15, maybe 20 MPH. While I was heading southwest, the wind was coming from the northwest hitting on the right side of my bike, bouncing me around. I’m fine with a steady wind, but wind gusts are another story. I’m not exactly an aerodynamic shape in the wind; in fact I’m sort of like a bear on a bike. The gusts scared me because the bike momentarily felt out of control, and I was in the bike lane, five or six feet from traffic moving at 70 mph.
The long-term effect of shock and awe was minimal, although we toppled the Saddam Hussein regime in a couple of months. What followed was one bad decision after another, e.g., disbanding the entire Iraqi army, Abu Ghraib prison abuses, etc. Decisions made by incompetent leaders led to the expenditure of billions of dollars and the loss of thousands of lives, mostly Iraqi.
We must ask ourselves, are years of chaos going to happen here? A huge question, like a cold front rolling down from the mountains right at us. Or will the cold front dissipate before it reaches us? Are there signs that serious pushback has begun to slow the incredibly destructive moves of this administration? Do we have a shot at getting back to some sense of trust among our citizens and normalcy in our governance?
The Front Range dominates the horizon west of Boulder. At one point in the late afternoon, it is sunny, and moments later the sun has dropped behind the mountains, and it’s shady. On my ride, as the sun got closer to dipping below the mountains, the temperature started dropping. I had to smile. While a couple of warm days in late winter are wonderful, they are a bit of a tease and not any guarantee of what is to come.
About halfway home, the sun went down behind the mountains. I stopped to zip up my jacket and roll down the sleeves. It was getting cooler fast. Not to get into too much detail, but I was wearing tights, bike shorts, a polypro long sleeved T-shirt, a short sleeved bike shirt, rain/wind jacket, and I put the full-fingered gloves back on.
The answer is yes, we have a shot at trust and normalcy. Here is why:
There have been any number of temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges, some Republican appointees. These lawsuits will wind their way through the courts and be decided by the Supremes, where I think John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett might surprise us.
Anger has turned to action, we have called and sent letters to Congress, and our Senators and Representatives are beginning to speak out. They need to stop being fund-raising Democratic or Republican hacks. They need to reassert their power of the purse.
By their nature, institutions and corporations survive by being focused on their own self-interest. They will be damaged if some of the crazed edicts from the throne are implemented. While the worst of our CEOs tumble over each other trying to kiss the ring, once the edicts impact institutional funding or corporate bottom lines, watch support of this administration sink like cold air in a canyon.
These are small starts on a road to a better future. But we need to remember the Washington Post tagline that “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” a line that Jeff Bezos has apparently forgotten, and stay obstreperous while focused on getting this administration under control.
The rest of the ride home was coolish, but not cold. I was comfortable and mostly in control of my bike. I was glad I had prepared for cooler weather. We have to watch these sunny days in the High Country in late winter, there is much cold weather to be endured until we see sustained warm weather again.
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Nice pairing of the spring volatility versus the shocking and awful. The difference, I suppose, is that weather-wise we know we are headed for spring. Politics-wise, we are unsure about the next sunrise.