Doug's Darkworld

Wow, never thought I’d be writing a blog post like this. What a few days it has been, on top of an already crazy year. So in summary, President Trump has been hospitalised for Covid-19. There’s a lot of confusion as to exactly when he tested positive, and what his condition in the hospital is. Not going to go there. What we do know, for an absolute fact, is that for a man in his age and condition, Covid-19 is a deadly serious disease. A ten to thirty percent chance of death, and likely as much chance of long term effects. Yes, he might bounce right back, but there’s a very real possibility the president could die in the next week or two. He might be dead already as I type. 

I’m gonna try and walk the straight and narrow here. This should never have happened. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED. It was known beyond any doubt that Covid-19 was a serious risk for a man of Trump’s age and health. Trump should have been the last person in America to catch Covid-19. Now the president is incapacitated, who knows for how long, and to put it mildly, an incapacitated president is not a good thing for the nation. That this happened is once again irrefutable evidence that Trump is unfit to lead, he couldn’t protect the nation from Covid-19, he couldn’t even protect the White House and his wife. For shame Mr President. (Saw part of his video tweet today, he takes zero responsibility for catching Covid-19.) 

It’s also clear to me that even should Trump recover, he should drop out of the race. The long term effects of Covid-19 aren’t understood at this time, but it is absolutely clear they can be serious. He’s a sick man now no matter his symptoms, it would be like electing a time bomb. Granted Trump will never admit that, so I can’t imagine him dropping out. Even if he recovers, I wish him no personal ill will, but I sure hope this is the end of his political career. Trump claimed Covid-19 was no big deal, all under control, and now his wishful thinking has not only put himself and those around him at risk, an incapacitated president puts the entire country at risk.

These aren’t normal times though, and Trump’s not a normal president. I don’t know what’s going to happen now, no one does. One day at a time now. Scariest time in America since the Cuban missile crisis? I think we can safely say, October is going to be one hell of a ride. Trump’s usual twitter storm has dropped to a trickle, so again, we can safely assume he’s actually sick. The uncertainty roiling around the White House now is going to generate all sorts of wild theories; that we can not only safely assume, it’s pretty much written in stone. Here’s a QAnon take: 

“…Trump does not have COVID-19 and this is all a signal that he is now deep undercover trying to root out Hillary’s child sex slave ring once and for all. It was not clear if this still involves a pizza parlor or if Alex Jones is involved. Recall that at least one man (maybe more) believed it earlier and went to a pizza parlor location with a gun and the police stopped them.”

Well, isn’t that special. Since this still is Doug’s Darkworld, it would be irresponsible of me not to engage in my own wild speculation. The first weird theory that tumbled through my head, what if Trump dies, and they hide it? At this point the technology exists to create videos and such of him “recovering” in the White House. And then Trump wins the election, but afterwards it all unravels and it turns out a dead man was elected POTUS. Not sure just where that’s covered in the Constitution, near the back somewhere?

That seems unlikely though. What happens if Trump simply dies in the next week or two? All hell breaks loose I guess. Again, don’t think this is covered in the Constitution. Especially since lots of mail in votes have been sent already. Could the election just go on with votes for Trump going to Pence? My guess is the election would be postponed somehow, hard to imagine any solution that led to an orderly transition and a resumption of normalcy. 

It should also be pointed out that a lot of people in Trump’s circle have now been exposed, and a number have tested positive. So Trump getting ill might just be the beginning. Biden’s not out of the woods yet either, Trump did a lot of loud talking during the debate, and he might well have been infectious already. What happens if both candidates on the ballot die before the election?

I hope we don’t find out. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula

PS: One last nightmare thought. Trump dies, and the idea that somehow it was the liberals/Democrats fault gets traction … and we get a horrible violent backlash against them. The country effectively split in two with violent ethnic cleansing in the red states. The right has spent too many decades glorifying violence and demonizing liberals for me to entirely dismiss this. Sleep tight everyone, God only knows what Sunday will bring.

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Public domain image found on Pixabay. Just captured the uncertainty of the road ahead for us.)