Doug's Darkworld

Well, still alive, self-quarantined, and hopefully Covid-19 free. The past 2-3 weeks I’ve tried to wind down and relax. I went nuts for several months preparing for the end of the world, and a friend made me realize I needed to step back and pet the kitties so to speak. My garden is planted, my larder is full, enjoy the good times. Purslane pesto, nature does provide. “God’s got it” my neighbour’s sign announces. IDK, but a church’s God doesn’t trump reality.

In High School a teacher who had an impact on me drew something on the board once. Yes, a 1972 memory, read em and weep. She sometimes waxed philosophical, even though it was an English class. She drew clouds, and above the word ‘Truth’ shining like the Sun. And said something to the effect that in her quest for knowledge, she had determined there was an underlying truth. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant at the time, now it seems clearer. And that’s why I write, to try and put my insights, such as they are, into words.

Current events, America continues to disintegrate. Let’s see, short version, America started to reopen, without a solid national test and trace program in place, and just what epidemiologists said would happen, did. New cases of Covid-19 in the USA hit a new high today, over 40,000. Mostly concentrated in sunshine states, like Florida and Arizona. The second wave begins? More like a continuation of the first wave. How the hell did one of the world’s richest and most developed nations get so badly hit by Covid-19?

Because about a third of Americans, including the president and company, live in an alternate universe where they get their news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the like. Who are basically praising the president’s response to Covid-19, and claiming the Democrats and liberals are exaggerating it to hurt Trump. Things like Pence claiming Trump never downplayed the virus, which is a lie of such Olympic proportions it hurts to repeat it, but the people supporting Trump believe it.

So yeah, how did we get in this mess? When I first saw Trump at an early debate, I was impressed. He knew how to push right wing bonus buttons. As his movement grew, I wondered if he was a really clever guy pretending to be stupid, or just a lucky moke whose schtick coincided with a historical opportunity. Then he won the nomination. And his schtick didn’t change in the slightest. This is when I began to strongly suspect Trump wasn’t some secret genius, he was a guy who believed in what he was saying.

And I haven’t seen much to dispel that observation. Trump thinks he’s hot shit, he thinks he’s got it figured out, and his attitude has tremendous appeal to a selected demographic. And that’s how he ran his presidency, basically it was one long campaign rally where he congratulated himself on his prowess. The stock market rose, all his rich friends were happy, all was good. If Covid-19 hadn’t appeared Trump might well have coasted into re-election.

Covid-19 did though, and since Covid-19 is an actual real thing (See High School memory above) it required an actual real response. Something which one trick pony Donald Trump is utterly incapable of. He has two modes from what I see. “Rah rah, aren’t I great” and “I’m outta here.” The former has proved to be a poor response to Covid-19. The latter has been suggested as a possibility. It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump resigned rather than risk an obviously lost election. We are in uncertain times.

The story about Russia offering bounties to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan has been making the rounds. So many things I could say. I may even blog on it. I only ask that peeps take it with a grain of salt. No proof or evidence has yet been offered. Floating rumors like this has been part of modern warfare since the late 19th century. It’s how the game works. I note with dismay it’s pretty much already morphed into fact in many people’s minds, despite no evidence it’s anything other than a rumor. Sigh. And even if is true, it’s being horribly spun into something it’s not.

What’s not a rumor is that Trump is making one last attempt to overturn Obamacare by asking the Supreme Court to overturn it. Right, after ten years of empty GOP promises to propose something better than Obamacare, in the middle of the worst health crisis in a century, Trump wants to take away the health insurance of more than twenty million Americans.

So yeah, end of June 2020, rural Iowa. Covid-19 is exploding in America because thoughts and prayers are not a substitute for reason and science. Who would have thought that “All guns, no butter” would leave America unprepared for Covid-19?

Stay safe everything, here comes the second wave, woohoo! If we keep winning like this we’re done for.

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(The top image is from wikipedia and used  legally: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. The New York Times image is used legally I think, from here.)