It was not quite 28 years ago that Roseanne Barr made a fool of herself in front of about 30,000 baseball fans in San Diego. In doing so she also managed to enrage millions of other Americans, mostly of the right wing persuasion. The occasion was a July 25th, 1990 game between the Padres and Cincinnati Reds. That evening, Ms. Barr delivered a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, so out of tune, so skewed, and surreally brutal, it amounted to an audio version of a Ralph Steadman illustration--although one completely devoid of the artist's keen sense of satire.
Times have certainly changed.
Somewhere along the way, Barr gave up what might be considered really bad performance art in favor of Twitter. Well why not? It is, after all, a new age and social media has evolved to the point you can offend and insult scads of people without having to travel to San Diego, or anywhere else for that matter.
In that same time frame, she also became a big fan of Don Trump and the conspiracy theories he and his fellow travelers bring to the table. That's in addition to a taste, just like The Big Orange Guy, for late night-early morning escapades on the keypad.
The other night she let loose with a series of those alternative fact tweets. One claimed Chelsea Clinton was in some way related by marriage to the second biggest bugaboo of ultra right wing hacks, George Soros. Another was that Soros himself was a former Nazi collaborator. Neither is true, but, as we know, the truth has little to do with right wing conspiracy theories.
If that had been it, Roseanne Barr's TV show and career would have probably survived after some minor outrage from Clinton aficionados. When it comes to Soros, he is used to this constant libelous insanity and refuses to respond when two bit right wing loons attempt to disparage him.
The trouble was Barr posted another tweet. This one had to with Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to Barack Obama--the BIGGEST of all right wing bugaboos. Jarrett is an African American woman who was born in Iran to American parents in 1956. Barr's tweet described, Ms. Jarrett as an ape fathered by The Muslim Brotherhood.
For those of you who lack knowledge of America's racial history and the vile slang associated with it, in this country when a white person calls a black person an ape, or monkey he, or she is employing a synonym for the word, nigger.
If anyone says different they're either lying to you, or themselves.
In the United States we like to say we have free speech. There are a few limitations, though. The most famous exception is you can't yell fire in a crowded theater when there isn't one. However, even when you say something not against the law, no matter how obnoxious, that doesn't mean your words don't come with consequences. You are, in the end, responsible for what you say, or write at 3am in the morning.
A prime example would be Ted Nugent. When he compared then president Obama to a coyote pissing in American living rooms it was fine. When he added that the owners of the living rooms were at fault for the damage if they didn't shoot the coyote, he got a visit from the Secret Service.
Barr's behavior since the shit hit the fan has called into question her mental health status. At first she apologized. She claimed it was a crude, ill conceived, joke. Next she blamed the tweets on the side effects of a sleep aid called Ambien. Then, she declared she was quitting Twitter altogether. After the somewhat suspect remorse and panicked excuses failed to sway ABC and the network cancelled her show anyway she jumped right back on the medium.
One of her first acts was to tweet a photo of actress/talk show host, Whoopi Goldberg wearing a tee shirt depicting Trump committing suicide. Barr claimed the tweet was posted in order to expose the network's, "hypocrisy." The photo was a complete photo shopped fake. The tee shirt Goldberg wore at a woman's march read, "Think I'm a nasty lady now? Buckle up buttercup." Then, after Ms. Barr's fellow sitcom cast members began to criticize her tweets, she howled they had, with cruel disloyalty, thrown her under the bus.
Donald Trump, being, well, Donald Trump, inserted himself into the turmoil. After Robert Iger issued an apology to Jarrett on behalf of ABC and the Walt Disney Co, Trump demanded to know why Iger had never apologized to him for all the, "HORRIBLE" things the Disney CEO has said about him.
Of course, Trump isn't black and Iger never called him what amounts to the, "N," word, but when that ego runs amok, hey, details just get in the way.
On the bright side for Barr, Alex Jones has invited her on Info Wars to combat all this, "thought control," and the aforementioned Ted Nugent has her back on Twitter. So, maybe her media career isn't over. There will always be room for an occasional guest host spot on Jones' show and perhaps she can tour with Nugent, although, thanks to that night in San Diego, we know she can't sing.
This, like everything else, will blow over as soon as some other idiot spouts off a new round of horrendous nonsense. My money is on that gruesome little fascist shit, Stephen Miller. In the meantime we need to recognize the truth. It is, first, the Obama presidency taught us that, despite all the shrill denials, racism in America is still around. Second, Trump's presence in the White House has emboldened it. And third, Roseanne Barr's tweets have personified it.
Thank God, Bob Iger had the guts to say enough is enough and fire her ass.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'll see you at the bar.
5-31-18
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