Rats, Ship, etc.

      Another day, another tRump administration functionary recording an anti-tRump ad because she couldn't take any more of the BS.   This time it was a highly placed member of the laughably named Coronavirus Task Force.   As Ms. Troye said, their task was for the most part keeping Cheetolini satisfied with a lot of happy talk about how he was handling the pandemic.

     As we approach the election I would assume more and more officials will be looking at the polling and deciding it would be better to jump ship with a juicy story to tell than remain and go down without a trace.   Ms. Troye's contribution is the tidbit concerning tRump's exclamation that maybe Covid 19 wasn't too bad since now he doesn't have to shake hands with those "disgusting people".   Troye joins another Homeland Security alumnus who decried the president's handling of the problems at the US southern border.  

     I'm pretty sure most of the "disgusting people" won't change their minds about their hero.  I doubt the second coming would shake the allegiance many feel for this horrifying imitation of a human being.  However, look for a steady trickle perhaps turning to a flood of people leaving the administration in the next few weeks.

Culling the Herd

       In a grotesque and horrifying performance the other night, the president* insisted the coronavirus would "eventually go away".   He followed up this assertion by saying if enough people get the disease and recover, there will be a "herd mentality" and the virus will be stopped.

      We know Cheeto Jesus got this theory from a radiologist whose familiarity with epidemiology is seemingly rudimentary at best.  It seems Dr, Scott Atlas' main claim to fame is his ability to appear on Faux News and spout his contrarian theories regarding Covid 19.  Let a large percentage of the population get sick and recover and we will achieve herd immunity says Dr. Atlas.   He advocates sheltering the most vulnerable from the disease, but is not very forthcoming about how to do that.  Especially since many of our "essential" workers are minorities with co-morbidities which make them unusually vulnerable to infection.   

     tRump has seemingly bought into this theory.  He brought Atlas into the White House to manage the pandemic response, meanwhile sidelining actual infectious disease experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.  New exposed documents from Atlas' team are instructing states with high rates of transmission to cancel any plans for statewide mask mandates.   Even the CDC director has said masks are the single best way to combat the spread of the virus.  However, if your goal is efficient spread of the disease, by all means, cancel any mask mandates, hold packed rallies indoors and endorse indoor dining at bars and restaurants.

      The truly scary thing about this scenario is the possibility of millions of deaths among the most vulnerable populations, the elderly, the sick and those with pre-existing conditions.  It may well result in more than 2 million otherwise preventable deaths.   However, in tRump's mind that may be a feature, not a bug.

Inoculated against reality

       In a not too scientific poll of voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, a reporter for Time magazine estimated that approximately one in five of the potential voters she spoke with believed there is a system of tunnels under the US that are used by cannibalistic pedophiles to trap, torture and eat children!    She also said they were totally impervious to facts, as if being "inoculated against reality".

       When this abandonment of truth in favor of wild conspiracy theories began, sober people believed these latter day "truthers" were uneducated, unemployed lower middle class whites who had basically dropped out of the system and filled their days with social media.   As we all know, Facebook, instagram, etc. are notorious timesucks which can easily waste a couple of hours per day even among those who are employed.   Imagine someone with 24/7 availability.

       It turns out that plenty of Q anon adherents are also well educated and middle class.   What does this say about America in 2020?   I'm guessing many of these idiots are looking for an overarching narrative which blots out the reality of wealth inequality, climate change, racial strife and a hundred other realities they can't control.  Q and some even wilder conspiracies allows them to believe that there are horrible people out there doing horrible things, but our leader is secretly working to save us all.  As an old acquaintance of mine used to say, "What a world"!

The lengthening shadows

       As we count down the days to the presidential election, the freakouts on the left and the right continue to intensify, although in different ways.   Many on the right look at the polls and demand the president* take aggressive and even violent action to invalidate the vote.   Roger Stone called for federal officials to seize ballots in Clark County, Nevada which leans democratic.   The slightly deranged Michael Caputo is advising good republicans to buy ammunition now to deal with the antifa hordes coming to dispute the results of the election if tRump wins.   On the other side, there seem to be a lot of handwringing over the possibility of  Cheetolini refusing to accept the results if they favor Biden.   Hiring hundreds of lawyers to contest republican ratfucking in the courts seems to be about as aggressive as democrats can imagine being.

      I am optimistically predicting Biden will prevail and the margin will be so overwhelming that tRump will accept the results while decrying the whole process as he gets on his plane for the one way trip to Moscow to escape the judicial reckoning his crimes will inspire.   As Caputo so aptly put it, the shadows are getting longer.

Wishing and Hoping

       I think I have used this title before, but as we careen down the road to another "most significant election in history", it seems like we are wishing and hoping that somehow the nightmare of four more years of tRump will not come to pass.   But it will take more than than that to excise the orange boil on our democracy.

        First and foremost, make sure you and everyone in your family votes.  Sure, your crazy uncle will probably vote for Cheetolini, but the exercise of everyone's right to vote can survive a few minor aberrations.   Once you have the voting plan in place, donate to your favorite local candidates.  Down ballot races are the lifeblood of democracy.  Far too many democrats focus on the presidential election and ignore their local congressional races.   Finally, get involved.   I intend to make calls for my local candidate for Congress.   She may be a long shot against Elise Stefanik, a fervent tRump ass kisser, but at least she is in the arena.   Wishing and hoping won't get it done this time.

Tap Dancing around the obvious

     Is the president* of the US a criminal.  A very vocal minority certainly believes that if tax evasion, money laundering, sexual assault and accepting help from a foreign adversary are crimes, tRump certainly fits the definition.  In light of Bob Woodward's conversations with Cheeto Jesus on tape in which the latter admits to knowing how deadly the coronavirus was as early as January, we may want to add manslaughter to the docket of his crimes.

     Paul Krugman nearly calls for the manslaughter charge in his NYT column today.  He lays out the timeline and the number of deaths that may have been avoided if the president had displayed leadership instead of "downplaying" the threat numerous times before finally admitting how serious the situation had become.    Even now, Cheetolini is urging everyone to get back to bars, restaurants and schools even without any federal guidance on how to do so safely.  Pro tip;  in the absence of a safe and effective vaccine there is no safe way to open the previously mentioned establishments.   Krugman ends his column saying tRump may be responsible for many preventable deaths.

    In another corner of the Op-Ed pages, Michelle Goldberg cribs from Jerry Seinfeld, saying that "nothing matters" in the tRump administration.  The endless series of scandals has numbed us to any true accountability of any of the criminals involved.  Woodward's latest book is just one more door stop.  The only thing that will provide some relief is the election.  Then we can begin the herculean task of cleaning the Augean Stables of this administration, beginning with the trial and conviction of its leader.

Whiteness and the President*

       After the revelations preceding the release of Bob Woodward's latest book, there are no words to describe the hubris and stupidity of the man our nation entrusted with the nuclear codes.   As Rachel Maddow put it, " If this was a book, this is the chapter where he resigns".   After being outed on tape describing the coronavirus as "deadly" all the way back in February, but continuing to deny it in public until April, tRump basically admitted causing tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and hospitalizations.   Timely action by the government could have greatly diminished the effects of the pandemic, but Cheetolini stood in the way of his experts because of his fears of a falling stock market.

      While even Maddow knows there is little possibility of tRump resigning from office as long as his base is still behind him, many wonder if perhaps this is the last straw and his supporters will start to stampede to Biden.   Unfortunately, this is not a realistic possibility.   I personally know a pretty good cross section of tRump voters and short  of a nuclear war, nothing will change there minds regarding voting for the president*.   In most cases, these white men have invested far too much of their political capital in an authoritarian buffoon to switch at this point.  In the face of an avalanche of news concerning his serial crimes, the average tRump voter will either rationalize the behavior or cry "fake news".  Besides, owning the libs is the point.   After 8 years of a competent black man leading the country, any white man, even one as manifestly unfit as Cheeto Jesus is better than the alternative.