Atlanta, America

Atlanta... America.... The other night I watched the hotly anticipated season premiere of "Atlanta," a TV show that has managed to advance our understanding of the young African American experience, while getting stuck in some of the old racial tropes that have long bedeviled our country. It's a stimulating -- and frustrating -- show. But that's not what I'm focusing on today. It's the relentless flood of TV commercials that FX rained down on viewers throughout the show. I'm not used to basic cable and network TV 's insane commercialism so FX's ad frenzy stunned me -- and broke any appreciation that I could develop in the much more quietly disturbing season opener.

The ads on FX came fast and furious: for hamburgers and other fast food, gas-guzzling SUVs, Big Pharma drugs and lots of super-violent superhero movies. This is what middle America regularly consumes, was my depressing thought, as the fusillade of loud commercials kept slamming me. America is buzzed on junk food, legal (and illegal) drugs, cheap fossil fuels and bloodlust.

For relief, you could turn over to the TV news channels' Ukrainian war porn -- or the spectacle of the Republican roasting of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, where one GOP lion of the Senate after the other clowned and jackassed for the cameras. (As if the "Supreme" Court weren't steeped enough in toxic politics, Ginni Thomas -- the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas -- was revealed to be a Trump "stolen vote" strategist during his coup attempt in January 2021.)

Throughout all this national mess, I've been working with a group of other concerned men and women to get a mutual friend who's suffering from Alzheimer's and alcoholism (and poverty) into long-term care. There are stopgap options -- all expensive and/or hard to access. But longterm solutions seem out of reach -- and this for a group of seasoned professionals, including a number who've worked in social services. Government offices are closed (due to Covid or whatever); phones go unanswered; help for those in crisis -- even for lifelong, dutiful taxpayers -- is nonexistent.

America is doomed, America is fucked, America is broken. That's the only conclusion I can reach this week.