Doug's Darkworld

The post title was something Trump said at a recent interview where he made more ridiculous claims about how Covid-19’s not really that bad in the USA, and his administration’s performance has been just fine. An American a minute died during his interview, dark irony. Not terribly surprising though, if it’s good, Trump takes credit for it. If it’s bad, it’s actually really good, or it was caused by his enemies, not him. It’s always about him, never seen a politician so alarmingly narcissistic. Or one that lies with such frequency. He’s consistent though, I’ll give him that. And, well, he inspires loyalty in his followers. That counts for something, doesn’t it?

I’d wonder why people keep believing him, but it’s not all that much of a mystery. I’ve gone over it before. This article goes into some of the science why people believe his lies, interesting read, though the source is a bit left leaning for my tastes. Trump’s utter self-assurance is part of it. He believes what he is saying. Trump does actually believe he is this genius national leader, the same way Hitler convinced himself he was a brilliant general. (150,000 dead due to Trump’s ineptitude and magical thinking, comparisons to Hitler are becoming fairer by the minute. Because every minute that thump sound  in the background is another American dropping dead.) On the other hand, unlike Hitler, Trump’s a craven coward, making it unlikely he will try to seize power. Fun times.

Came across this article about how the wellness crowd is merging with the alt-right conspiracy crowd. Strange bedfellows indeed. Interesting read. Speaking of interesting reads, an article on a recent and new theory of consciousness. Science hasn’t made a whole lot of progress on the topic, because it’s tricky to study. Consciousness can’t exactly be put on a microscope slide, we can’t land probes on it. Even defining consciousness is tricky, philosophers have been grappling with it forever. Anyhow, another interesting read for those inclined to speculate on such. Myself, when they found out some ants pass the mirror test, I gave up. I think, therefore I am, good enough for me.

And lastly, in non Trump or Covid-19 news, a terrible explosion in Beirut Lebanon’s port. Nearly a hundred dead, hundreds injured. It’s all over the news, no need for a link. The conspiracy people will hit the ground running no doubt. (Well, their feet were never on the ground in the first place, but the gentle reader knows what I mean.) There was a mushroom cloud, but any large enough explosion will generate a mushroom cloud. For any number of reasons it isn’t a nuclear explosion. For example if it was an air burst, the initial flash would have set everything on fire within some distance of the epicenter, and anyone in the open nearby would have terrible burns and been blinded if looking at it. Not to mention vaporized people near the epicenter. If a ground burst, there would be a ginormous crater. Lastly, numerous countries have orbital satellites watching the Earth 24/7 to detect nuclear explosions. They have had for a long time, they spotted one in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1979, if Beirut was nuclear they’ll know soon enough.

No, more than likely it was just what initial reports are claiming. An industrial accident, there are a number of chemicals which can explode under the right circumstances. The Texas City disaster in 1947  being a good one. 2,000 tons of fertilizer exploded, killing nearly 600 people. As an odd little aside, this disaster is why building zones were invented. Having things like residences and fire departments next to industrial sites that might blow up was a bad idea in retrospect. Then there was the Halifax Explosion in 1917. That killed around 2,000 people, but it was a ship full of high explosives. However, I am by no means ruling out foul play, there are a lot of violent players in the region. God rest the souls of all who died, my heart goes out to the people of Beirut.

90 days to the election. Who knows what the hell is going to happen either before or after. Well, 130,000 odd Americans will die if the current Covid-19 pandemic continues in the USA. And normal Americans. Tall Americans. Short Americans. Young Americans. Old Americans. God rest their souls. My heart goes out to their families and friends.

Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image publicly posted on Facebook of unknown genesis, used without permission. Claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. Credit: @manictheshitposting. Whatever that means.)