Doug's Darkworld

Image first. I do change my format as feedback comes in. Yes, I do read comments, and sometimes they make me think. And sometimes when I think, I realize my thinking has been wrong, and I think differently henceforth. And writing a blog is tricky to begin with, and I try to write each post so that it’s equally accessible to first time readers and long time readers. And people across various spectra. Moving right along, above image first. It took me a moment to get, but it refers to the recent Trump tax return excitement, referencing the infamous Sharpiegate incident. I loved it on multiple levels once I got it.

It also made me rethink Sharpiegate. Sharpiegate was a year or so back when Trump claimed that a certain state was in the path of a hurricane. It was quickly pointed out that no, no weather service report put this state in danger. A small understandable mistake, we all make them from time to time. Ooops, sorry, move on. Not Trump. He insisted he was right, and even showed on TV an officially produced chart crudely modified with a sharpie to bolster his claim. Surreal, nu?

(By US government – This file was derived from:  President Trump Receives a Hurricane Dorian Update.webm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91155937}

And thinking about it, I may have been wrong. I assumed he did it himself, or had an aide do it, and off he went. Problem solved. I realize this may be over generous. What if an aide did it, handed the chart to Trump saying: “You were right boss, here’s the proof!” And Trump accepted it without question as real?  I mean, this isn’t even a crude photoshop, this is well below that bar, a fake so bad even a lot of children would spot it. But maybe Trump is so out of touch with reality, so convinced that what he says ought to be true, that his ability to discern between what is real and what isn’t is broken?

So yeah, Sharpiegate is where I started to think Trump wasn’t just a con artist, there was something not right with his reality testing. He certainly appears to surround himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear. Possibly even to the point of handing him crude fakes to support his view. I mean a true evil genius would have laughed at the Sharpiegate chart, fired (or worse) the minion who came up with it, and gotten a good fake chart made. I digress.

So … Trump has found a doctor willing to hand Trump Covid-19 Sharpiegate style stuff, and the CDC director is not happy: CDC Director Says Trump Adviser Is Wrong About Everything. My comment upon reading the article: “Who would have thought that a chief executive who surrounded himself with ass kissers and yes men would be counterproductive in dealing with a global pandemic? @@”

Came across this article: I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There. Interesting read. One person commented:

” …  I use history as my guide. The States have been through troubling periods before, and we’ll get through this one too!” 

My reply:

This isn’t a “troubling period” though. This is the 2nd or 4th worst mass death event in US history, the worst economic slump since the great depression … and the federal government is in disarray with no reason to believe it’s going to deal effectively with the pandemic or the economy in the near future at least, and it may well get much worse before it gets better. Our international standing has also plummeted the past three years as we’ve started trade wars and walked away from long term agreements and treaties. This isn’t just a little bump in the road no matter how ordinary one’s own life may seem. This is a thousand people dying a day; call it collapse, catastrophe, whatever evil, but it’s here NOW, and most people are more or less pretending it’s not happening. 

We’ll see. Or some of us will, another cancer procedure Thursday, at my state’s Mayo Clinic equivalent. 

Two last links I’m sharing because tomorrow’s the debate and they will have receded into the past afterwards: Here’s How the Pandemic Finally Ends. And Forget “The Apprentice” — Trump’s taxes show he was really “The Biggest Loser”. And finally a quote by AOC about Trump’s tax revelation:

“He contributed less to funding our communities than waitresses & undocumented immigrants,”

Pretty much. Trump’s gonna go down in history though, that’s for sure. Have a safe week everyone. I plan to watch the debate tomorrow, take notes, and post as quickly as possible afterwards. Probably going to be boring, who knows. The debate, not my post, which will of course be as witty and incisive as ever.  #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Top image: Tweet found on Facebook, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. Attribution in the image.)