Archive for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Category
I GIVE UP, TRUMPTOPIA FOREVER!
Sunday, another week has gone by, and the world rolls on. I have to admit, the post Trump era isn’t anything like I expected. Not that I knew what to expect, no one did. Trump and the GOP are morphing into a personality cult right in front of everyone’s (mostly horrified) eyes. A cult where loyalty to the leader is the cult’s defining characteristic. I’m certainly not the only one coming to grips with this: Michigan GOP official blasts ‘cult of personality’ after party ousts him for not voting for Trump. If the leader has an ideology, they slavishly adopt and implement that as well. Trump doesn’t really have a considered ideology, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. History will tell of course.
Speaking of history, personality cult leaders often end badly. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao leap to mind. Their ideologies weren’t the problem, the problem is giving one person unfettered power. Though people who are proponents of right wing ideology love to claim that Stalin and Mao prove “socialism bad.” That’s an incredibly shallow assessment, ignoring all the myriad confounding factors. Shallow assessments are the right’s stock in trade these days sadly. Had a guy tell me that Mexico has a huge violent drug gang problem … because of gun control. The numerous countries with strict gun control that don’t have a huge violent drug crime problem … they don’t count I guess.
I also realized that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are intertwined with the Trump phenomena. It’s not surprising they got elected, because we are seeing the coming of age of the “Fox Generation.” People who were raised in households where all they saw was Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and the like. The people raised on CNN and MSNBC have their own blind spots, mainstream media was in fact transformed into a Washington/Corporate mouthpiece by about 1990. The latter think Biden is some sort of Roosevelt reborn. Pretty nuts, but doesn’t hold a candle to “Trump is the Messiah!”
Speaking of misconceptions on the right, I came across this: EW Jackson Claims Liberals Would Love Nothing More Than to Kill Black Conservatives. Apparently he’s serious, although these days I wonder. No, liberals don’t want to murder anyone. Kinda the definition of liberal. Against the death penalty, antiwar, want the best for everybody. IDK, projection combined with the evangelical obsession with victimhood? No, liberals might make fun of black conservatives (below,) but killing people seems to be something the right is focused on.
That’s Clayton Bigsby, the world’s only black White Supremist. No, he really wasn’t at the Trump capitol riot, but my black friends had fun sharing this meme.
Speaking of Trump’s attempted coup, one of the white cops who barely survived doesn’t have much good to say about how the GOP is trying to pretend it was no big deal, or worse, it wasn’t Trump supporters: Watch: DC Cop Who Barely Survived January 6th Insurrection Incensed By “Whitewash Of Events”. I’m incensed too, how does one find common ground with people who think their leader inciting a mob to storm the capitol was a good thing?
In other words, Trumptopia is out of control. I think I may just go back to blogging about Trump every day because it’s the time we live in. He’s still running around claiming he really won the election, and that this recent Arizona recount farce will get him on the road back to the White House: Trump Hints At Mar-A-Lago That Biased Arizona Recount Could Be Road To White House. And tens of millions of his followers believe him, and are trying to purge the GOP of people who aren’t sufficiently loyal to Trump. Mitt Romney even: Utah GOP vote to censure Mitt Romney fails while senator is booed at convention. OK then.
And the GOP is now essentially outlawing protest in state after state: Anti Protest Laws Grant Drivers License to Kill. I mean, 3 people are now considered a riot in Florida? This makes sense in a twisted way though. The George Floyd protests last summer were almost universally portrayed on Fox News as BLM and Antifa thugs set on burning down American cities and destroying America. So outlawing protests makes perfect sense. The fact that this isn’t what happened last summer has no bearing on the matter, the Fox News right believes it, so all good. America in the post factual age.
One last entry for the “Satire is dead because of people like this” file: Unhinged GOP lawmaker arrested after trying to be a substitute teacher. He terrified the students. Basically he got a job as a substitute teacher, and spent his day haranguing students about his evangelical God, finally actually assaulting one and inviting other students to do so. Another Evangelical Christian who can’t handle that most Americans have decided that Evangelical Christianity’s medieval vision of America isn’t for them and they would like a country based on science, reason, cooperation, and inclusivity. Don’t want to go to a gay wedding, don’t go. Preach hatred of gay families like this fellow, well, as I’ve said for decades, Satan does his finest work in the name of Our Lord.
Or I could blog about my misadventures in online dating sites. That’s gotten weird too. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #dearMoonCrew
Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Unknown attribution, posted on Facebook, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. It looks like Public Domain. Just another illustration of showing that the GOP isn’t anything like a majority viewpoint anymore. That’s why they are also outlawing democracy in state after state, but that’s for another blog.)
DEREK CHAUVIN GUILTY, EVERYONE IS A CONSPIRACY THEORIST, AND OTHER NEWS
A jury has found Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts of murdering George Floyd. It’s certainly good news in the sense that civil unrest would have ensued had he been found guilty. However, that aside, I do believe justice has been served. From what I have read, all modern policing theory says that the neck is not an appropriate restraint target. While various neck holds are very effective at restraining people, they are also inordinately dangerous. The police are supposed to protect the public, not put them in danger, And in this case, kill them.
I think police reform is needed in the US. That’s what people mean when they say “defund the police.” Part of the reform is not using police for everything. Someone is acting out because of a mental health crisis, send a mental health crisis team, not the police. And police in schools, give me a break. And qualified immunity has to end, if a cop kills someone in any situation that isn’t clearly self defense, there should be a trial. Cops are supposed to take risks to protect the public, not kill people because the police felt threatened or the suspect wasn’t complying. Other developed countries manage to police themselves without police killing people at anything like the rate at which American police kill people, especially POC.
Convince me otherwise. It will require logic backed by science, but I can change my mind if presented with a reasonable argument. A quality I’m not sure many people share. I’ve had trouble blogging recently because I realized that almost everyone is a conspiracy theorist. By that they hold all sorts of social beliefs that they aren’t willing to admit might be wrong. And they will use confirmation bias and motivated reason to defend those beliefs if challenged, sometimes brilliantly. The person who believes their invisible superfriend rules the world is really no different than the person who thinks the Rothschilds rule the world. Thinking there was some secret conspiracy to blow up the Twin Towers is no different that thinking a hurricane was sent by God.
And no matter what one believes, there are web sites happy to provide endless false arguments, motivated reasoning, and cherry picking in support of the same. Doubt that? Challenge someone’s belief that GMOs or glyphosate are dangerous, that Trump is a Russian asset, or that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. A world of motivated reasoning. No wonder the aliens fly right by.
Speaking of flying, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made the first powered flight on another planet. It’s basically a drone. Pretty impressive considering the atmosphere of Mars is about 1% the atmosphere on Earth. Jesus, if I make it a few more decades, humans might return to the Moon and make it to Mars. Well, even if I don’t make it, hopefully humans will pull it off. I just hope I’m around to see.
So much stuff on America and its empire, not sure where to start. Try this: America’s Intel Vampires Can’t See Themselves in the Mirror: DNI’s Hypocritical and Self-Awareness-Absent Annual Threat Assessment – Antiwar.com Original. America, a nation ruled by fear. The richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known defines itself by fantasy threats both domestic and international. While its rich get ever richer and its working class gets an ever smaller slice of the pie. Go figure.
Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #dearMoonCrew
Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, completed in 1661 by Rembrandt. It depicts a Batavian oath to Gaius Julius Civilis, the head of the Batavian rebellion against the Romans in 69 AD. Public Domain under US copyright law.)
FOUR MORE DAYS AND TRUMP’S REIGN OF LIES ENDS
Watching Trump’s fall from grace is, well, pleasurable to me. I usually am empathetic to people’s losses, but he’s done so much harm that I find that hard to do. And even more, he did this to himself, eyes wide open. Trump is a man who’s spent his entire life trying to become one of “the beautiful people,” the upper crust, the rich and powerful, the exalted. And I’m sure he thought that being president would finally get him the keys to the kingdom so to speak. That was never going to happen. Why not? Because he’s a rich pig with zero class, zero style, zero wit. A man who thought marrying a hot stripper would earn him the envy of other men. He’s a little boy who never understood that trappings are meaningless, any schmuck can become filthy rich or get elected president. Being president meant the rich and powerful had to tolerate Trump at state functions, but he would never be one of them. And now that he’s destroyed what little class he had left with his cosplayer revolution, his powerful “friends” are dropping him like a hot potato. I’m a freaking unknown low class blogger, and I have more class than Trump ever will. Hell, a world leader contacted me for advice, I doubt any ever have or ever will contact Mr. Trump for the same.
Trump will probably just wander around the nation giving ever smaller rallies and whining about how badly he was treated. His creditors will repossess everything, Melania will leave him for an unemployed dolphin trainer. Modern high tech companies will prevent him from posting anything online anywhere, he will be reduced to putting flyers under car windshield wipers. Increasingly unhinged flyers, and no one will recognise him because without his two hour makeup sessions and hair dye he’ll just be a greying balding fat old man mumbling to himself. Youtube videos of him being arrested by black cops who refuse to believe who he is will rack up millions of views, his children will disown him and change their names, and only an obscure Russian publishing house will publish his last book: “Everybody’s Mean to Me.” Seven copies will be sold, because that’s all he could afford. Last seen publicly spare changing in front of the former Trump Tower, since renamed The Black Lives Matter Tower. He dies in obscurity, the only eulogy given at his funeral is by The Pillow Guy.
Yeah, probably not that extreme. Still, even some of Trump’s more rabid supporters are calling for his execution: Far-right extremists call for the execution of ‘coward’ Trump after he asks for calm following riot: report. As a friend said, there’s no pleasing these people. The rioters are being brought to justice one by one, Far-right activist ‘Baked Alaska’ is among the latest Capitol rioters to be arrested, so they won’t be back. Still, it’s not over yet: ‘This isn’t the final chapter’: Analyst warns, again, about rise of right-wing extremists. And in Washington: Washington: man arrested with fake inaugural ID and loaded gun.
Also in Washington, after Wednesday’s Capitol Police debacle, the authorities are taking no chances. Something like 25,000 armed National Guard troops have been deployed, all screened for extremist sympathies. A FOAF reported they had to go through three checkpoints to get even near the Capitol. I’m thinking Wednesday’s riot was our IRA bloodless terrorism moment. That was when the IRA set off two bombs in England, no deaths, billions of dollars in economic damage. And like magic, the British government’s promise to never negotiate with terrorists vanished, and they sat down with the IRA and negotiated a settlement. Because almost certainly the powers that be in England, IE the rich and powerful, said THIS HAS TO STOP NOW. Very likely the Capitol Riot had the same effect in America, the rich and powerful said ENOUGH OF TRUMP’S BS, THIS ENDS NOW.
We’ll see, there may still be violence. But cosplaying “revolutionaries” vs armed troops, it won’t last long. Fantasies tend to fare poorly when they run up against reality. I mean, some of the stuff that’s come out, these guys actually thought they were kicking off a new American revolution. I wonder how many of them will ever grasp that they were “revolting” against election fraud that didn’t happen, to prevent a non-existent Chinese communist plot to turn America into a socialist country, outlaw Christianity, and take their guns away. It would be funny except five people died, our nation’s reputation was besmirched, and most of them will serve time in federal prison.
Lastly, this interview with a police officer who was nearly killed by Trump’s insurrection mob is, well, moving: ‘Kill him with his own gun’: DC Metropolitan Police describe facing the mob at the Capitol. As he stated about the rioters, thanks for sparing his life, fuck them for being there in the first place.
Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #impeachtrump
Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Found on Facebook, attribution unknown, used without permission. Claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law.)
THE SHEETSHOW CHRONICLES CONTINUE
I’m still amazed and astounded, I never expected to live through one of the great events of history, yet here I am. More to unpack every day, can’t even really keep up with it all. No new horrors the last day, but still lots of stuff to react to.
Like, what was Trump doing while the Capitol riot was going on? Watching it on TV with barely contained glee, while ignoring congressmen and others who were frantically phoning him to do something. Trump was watching TV while riots took place: Washington Post. This appears to be confirmed by numerous sources, Trump was apparently even puzzled that his aides didn’t share his glee. More proof (as if it was needed) that he lives in a fantasy world, he actually thought he was seeing the election results being overturned by Chewbacca Bikini guy and friends.
Or worse, Trump really is a sadistic fuck who is perfectly happy to see carnage and chaos if he’s not getting his way: How the media is making a big mistake on Trump’s role in the Capitol siege. Yeah, maybe this article is a bit over the top, but I sure see no evidence contradicting that the basic premise is sound. Trump is incapable of empathy, remorse, or adult responsibility. It’s all about Trump, if bad things happen, not his fault. The USA is the worst hit country by Covid, and yet he sees himself as blameless for that. Trump is a man incapable of empathy or introspection. Change my mind.
At this point my sympathy for people who still support Trump has reached new lows. Before Covid and the election, yeah, I understand how many people supported him. Maybe they were misguided, but people are social animals who generally go along with what their friends and family think, especially in the modern American world where one can watch the media outlet of one’s choice to reinforce their views. And working class and poor Americans have been screwed for decades, so it made sense for them to support a leader who claimed to feel their pain. Granted it only sort of made sense, since they were being screwed by the rich, not immigrants, blacks, antifa, or poor people.
IDK, anyone who claims to know what’s really going on is deluded or lying. It does seem the Capitol riot wasn’t just a spontaneous thing that happened out of nowhere: More Arrests Made Amid New Calls for Investigation of Capitol Attack. And many aspects of it were indeed hideous:
Arrested Capitol rioter claims he thought officer he beat with US flagpole was ‘antifa’: report. Right, a cop in a cop uniform was antifa? Jesus wept.
The last time Washington saw something like this was 1814, when a British force burned the White House etc. This time we did it too ourselves. Go figure. And the insanity continues, case in point: QAnon Congresswoman says she’ll impeach Joe Biden less than 24 hours after he takes office. Preemptive impeachment? Give me a break.
Just had to move my car in a snowstorm in the middle of the night after too many beers, mission accomplished. This post is a little unpolished, but posting because by tomorrow events may have overtaken it. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #impeachtrump
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Found on Facebook, attribution in image, used without permission, claimed as fair use under US copyright law. Accuracy unknown, way too much misinformation floating around. Turns out no one tasered themselves to death during the riot for example.)
ANTIFA WEAPONS CACHE EXPLODES ON STREET KILLING SEVEN
A quote on yesterday’s post about Trump: “Walter Mitty handed absolute authority.” Yeah, that certainly sums Trump up. Walter Mitty is a fictional character who lives a very meek life but is consumed by heroic fantasies where he is the star. Trump is a Walter Mitty who has sucked millions of people into his fantasy world … where he’s the greatest president ever, yadda yadda yadda.
Also came across this quote by the guy who ghost wrote “The Art of the Deal” for Trump:
“Lying is second nature to him,” Schwartz said. “More than anyone else I have ever met, Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.”
Got it from this Snopes article, a curious read in itself: Donald Trump Gave His 2nd Grade Music Teacher a Black Eye. (No, he didn’t.) In any event my remote assessment of Trump is pretty much the same as a guy who interviewed him on numerous occasions. Confirmation bias, I know. Haven’t really come across anyone talking about what a brilliant articulate guy Trump is though. Aside from Trump himself I suppose. (That doesn’t count.)
Trump has named his Supreme Court pick. Might be a fun ride ahead. We could see abortion recriminalized, half a million marriages dissolved, 20 million people losing their health care, and discrimination of many types made perfectly legal again. I’m a little unclear on how trying to reset the national calendar to 1950 is going to help, but we may well find out.
A story about another police shooting in America. Sigh. No, BLM is not a terrorist organization, nor are they anti-police. And in any event, the basic core problem, the reason there is a BLM and why there are calls to reform the police, is because American police shoot way too many people under circumstances where if a civilian did the shooting, the shooter would be arrested and go on trial. And that that almost never happens in the USA is the problem. And here’s a case where the victim was white; while the police disproportionately shoot blacks, innocent white people get shot too: FBI probes police killing of boy on family’s drive.
To summarize for those who didn’t have time to read, the police went to do a health and welfare check on a teenage boy whose Facebook posts had prompted a call to the police by concerned friends. Upon arriving, the kid backed his car out of the garage “aggressively,” and was shot dead, more than ten shots were fired. (That’s called a fusillade by the way.) Well, he was OK until the cops arrived, phew, does that count?. The justification for shooting him? The cop was afraid. I’m sorry, aren’t cops trained to keep a level head in scary situations? That’s their job, right? Cops are called to deal with scary situations?
Hey, and if “I’m scared” is such a great excuse for cops killing people, then no problem letting a jury decide? And that’s the goddamn effing problem. Cops shoot people under circumstances where I or the gentle reader would be on trial for murder, and rarely are they tried or seriously called to account for their actions. No other civilized country lets their cops get away with this, and shootings by police are trivial in other countries compared to the US. Even if one wants to ignore the racial disparity in these shootings, it still needs to change.
Moving right along, the post image: Fact-check: Are Protesters Throwing Cans of Soup and Tuna, As Trump Claims? Short and long answer, no. Trump has recently touted some fantasies about how anti-police protestors are bringing bags of canned food to protests to throw at the police, so they can claim they were “just carrying groceries” if caught. This is what I was talking about when I said Trump was like the grade school kid we all knew who made up wild stories. This tin can story comes out of Trump’s imagination, there’s zero evidence for it. And it makes no sense to begin with.
I had some sciency stuff about supercats, but this turned into another Trump and Covid-19 post. It is what it is. Oh, my Biden sign arrived today, I have yet to deploy it. Looking forward to debating with my neighbors. Let me be clear, I don’t expect anyone to vote for anyone, vote for whoever one pleases. I’m voting a straight Democratic ticket though, the first time I’ve voted in a POTUS election in decades. And I urge other people to do so, Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic can’t be allowed to continue or hundreds of thousands more will die. It’s that simple.
Plus Trump doesn’t have a cat or a dog. That’s, just, un-American. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #InsanusTempora
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Found on Facebook, no known attribution, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law.)
ONWARD THROUGH THE FOG, VOTE FOR BIDEN, AND BLACK LIVES MATTER
So, I came across this article: We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying. It’s an article by someone who has actually experienced the horrors of an authoritarian state. And it makes the claim that that’s what is happening in the US, Trump is in the process of seizing power like Saddam or Qaddafi and American democracy is being dismantled in front of our eyes.
Right. While I am horrified by what the next few months will bring, major civil unrest seems to be inevitable at this point, I still don’t really see the Donald as much of a dictator. I suppose he might try, but I don’t see him as dictator material for at least three reasons. First of all, he’s an idiot. Sorry Trump supporters, but Trump has said so so many stupid things there’s really no other conclusion to reach, he aint particularly bright. Dictators tend to be smart, it’s kinda a job requirement for seizing power. Secondly, he’s a coward. All bullies are cowards, not to mention draft evaders. He’s afraid to address any crowd that isn’t a crowd of his followers. Then there’s the bunker incident. Every dictator I know of fought viciously to get into power, many were actual war heros. Lastly, and most importantly, the man has major reality testing problems. Every dictator on the planet has taken serious steps to fight Covid-19. Trump still hasn’t.
So yeah, Trump may screw things up and cause terrible problems, but I really can’t imagine him as a dictator. It would likely be a short lived dictatorship. Granted he might mess things up so much someone else takes over. IE Trump insists he won the election despite all evidence to the contrary. Millions take to the streets. And the army steps in and removes him, setting up an interim government. With martial law and a suspension of the Constitution. And oopsies, there we are.
Who knows. At least there hasn’t been anything really ugly in the last day or so. One of the things that’s just so horrifying to me is that Trump isn’t even remotely trying to represent all Americans, he seems to consider Democratic led cities and states as the enemy. No surprise, decades of Rush Limbaugh and such preaching hating on the liberals, it laid the foundation for someone like Trump to be elected.
Saw an interesting meme today claiming that only 6% of those who have died of Covid-19 actually died from Covid-19. It’s pure hogwash of course, but widely believed in Trumptopia. I thought it was interesting because it’s an example of a narrative that arises to explain why a nation lost a war. Or an election. Or a fight against a virus that every other nation fought far better than the US. Clinton blamed her election loss on Russia. The US lost Vietnam because we fought with one hand tied behind our backs. A secret cabal of Jews sabotaged Germany in World War one. Etc. It will be curious to see if any overarching myth takes root in America to explain away how America was the worst hit country by Covid-19.
In today’s science news (yes, I think I will slip in some science news in random posts) turns out some drugs used to fight a coronavirus in cats might be useful for fighting Covid-19 in humans: New study finds cat drugs may fight COVID-19 in humans. Woohoo, cats save the day! Actually it’s all pretty preliminary, but human trials are underway. Cats get a coronavirus disease called FIP, and maybe drugs used to fight it in cats might work on Covid-19 in humans. Worth looking into at least. As an aside, cats apparently can catch Covid-19, but are asymptomatic and can’t spread it to humans. Reality is weird.
Lastly this depressing article: The Inevitable Whitelash Against Racial Justice Has Started. Basically it claims that after a burst of BLM support by whites after the George Floyd murder, white BLM supporters are falling back into old patterns of tacitly accepting institutional racism. IDK, I was thinking myself that this might not be the greatest time to protest considering it just gives Trump ammo to fire up his base. I so support people’s right to assemble and express their grievances as protected by the Constitution, so I support all people protesting over just grievances. And BLM is a just cause. Timing is everything though.
Reminds me of South Korea. Used to be a brutal military dictatorship. There was a big pro-democracy movement, got pretty popular. The army shot a few hundred protestors and that ended that. A few years later the dictatorship got the Olympics to be held in South Korea. And the pro-democracy leaders saw their chance, they quietly waited and organized, and a few months before the games were to start, they organised huge public pro-democracy protests. It put the army in an impossible position, if they violently crushed the protests, the Olympics would be cancelled. That would be a huge blow to national pride, and make the army even less popular. Dictatorships have to maintain a certain level of support or they do get swept from power. They caved and allowed free elections.
And I do kinda think there are parallels. I do think protestors should wait until after the elections at this point to protest. Protesting now plays into Trump’s hands. Does that tacitly mean my support for BLM isn’t sincere? Fuck if I know. As a friend once said “We’re all whores in Babylon.”
Crazy times. Stay safe everyone, have a good week. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #UtMelioremPeiusAnteTempora
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Facebook meme. One of my all time favourite movies, repurposed in a clever way. Credit: Unknown, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US Copyright Law.)
A GREAT DAY IN TRUMPTOPIA, A SAD DAY IN AMERICA
A child with a gun kills two people, and some are celebrating. I am of course talking about Kyle Rittenhouse, who showed up in Kenosha during the unrest toting an AR-15. He is seventeen. He’s a child. It’s actually illegal for a child to open carry. He definitely had interactions with the police, by some accounts they even encouraged him. To put it mildly, if he had been black, the police would no doubt have treated him very differently. And that’s why there is protest and unrest in America. Not in Trumptopia. In Trumptopia America’s cities are under siege by anarchists and thugs, and Democratic mayors are ordering police to stand down. And a gun toting child who killed two people is a hero. It’s unreal. It really is.
Speaking of unreal, the RNC is winding down tonight. All sorts of highlights. A spectacle like never before. The blatant violations of the Hatch Act are a good place to start. Federal employees are not allowed to work for political purposes while on the job, nor use Federal resources for same. So Melania using the Rose Garden to give her speech, Pompeo speaking from a state mission to Jerusalem, and others are blatant violations. Yeah, the “law and order president” doesn’t mean the laws apply to him, oh no, just other people. Love they ran an ad claiming that only Trump can save us from the lawlessness of a Biden presidency … while showing images of lawlessness occurring during the Trump presidency.
Then there’s the mind numbing claim about how Trump’s response to Covid-19 was the greatest US mobilization since World War Two, saving millions of lives! Where to start, lie from beginning to end, there’s still no national response to Covid-19, and with 4% of the world’s population, we have about 20% of the world’s deaths. With no end in sight, Trump apparently got bored pretending to fight Covid-19 and has moved on. Basically the whole Trump platform boils down to “Vote for Trump because only he can fix all the things that went south during his term!”
Oh well, Back in the real world, Scientists warn it may be years before students can return to school without masks, social distancing. Well, duh. Until the virus is controlled it makes zero sense to resume school in the first place. America now is kind of like a person who hurts themselves or gets injured, but just doesn’t want to admit to themselves anything is wrong. Like my dad when he had a bad fall on the ski slopes, the EMTs thought he really needed to go get checked out. Nope, just bruises, he’ll be fine. Drove four hours to get home. And couldn’t get out of his car. Broken hip. The world we grew up in broke its hip this year, but many Americans are still in denial. My dad was able to call for help when he got home, not sure who Trump is planning on calling.
In the same vein: Scientists: A Single Event Caused 40% of COVID Cases in Boston
“It’s a cautionary tale as we go forward and begin to open our communities, our workplaces and schools.” Pretty much speaks for itself. I keep repeating for new readers, Covid-19 is mad contagious, unless it’s completely shut down it’s going to keep breaking out. Which the rest of the world is experiencing, though since they actually mobilized to fight it, they have the means to shut down hot spots. Pretending America mobilized to fight Covid-19 won’t actually help fight Covid-19. It’s mad contagious because it spreads through aerosols: COVID-19 Is Transmitted Through Aerosols. We Have Enough Evidence, Now It Is Time to Act. Acting like we have it covered isn’t what they mean.
Hurricane Laura rolled ashore, massive damage, death toll modest so far. The storm surge wasn’t as bad as feared, so no Katrina death toll. Still, the economy is already reeling, so it’s one more body blow the nation didn’t need. And in an interesting note of irony, Hurricane Laura topples Confederate monument in Lake Charles weeks after vote to keep it up. Certainly an interesting coincidence, nu? And why are all these tragedies striking America under a president who the Evangelicals claim was sent by God? Hell, there’s even talk of adding a Trump chapter to the Bible. Miriam Adelson wants a ‘Book of Trump’ in the Bible. We asked an expert if that’s possible. Of course it’s possible, there’s no ‘official’ bible, and seems unlikely God will weigh in on the issue. I’m all for it, Trump can be Pharaoh 2.0, the leader who let tragedy after tragedy befall America because he has no heart. It practically writes itself.
Well, no new major horrors in the news tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Stay safe and stay sane everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #UtMelioremPeiusAnteTempora
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: A dark road to an uncertain future, America today. Credit: Pixabay user Mnievesmc. They have released the image into the public domain and it may be used freely without attribution.)
100 DAYS
Another quick post. 100 days until Trump loses his re-election bid. And 836 years after the Erfurt Latrine Disaster, but I digress. I read an article that is a fascinating perspective from one who lived through the start of an actual dictatorship that disappeared 30,000 or so people. I actually have no idea what the rest of 2020 is going to bring, anyone who says they do is a liar or an idiot. Both are surprisingly common in contemporary America.
Article linked in a moment, horrible but interesting. The author makes one point I think is right on: If Trump actually does try to cancel the election, refuse to leave office, whatever, and barricades himself in the White House surrounded by his “army” of wanna-be soldiers, IE his DHS thugs he has been using to attack peaceful protesters in Portland … it’s not going to be pretty. And it’s not going to last long.
The Pentagon has one of the greatest scams in history going, they aren’t going to stand for President Bone Spurs, draft evader extraordinaire, a man who gets zero respect from actual soldiers, dismantling the republic. We will quickly see on live TV the 101st airborne et al march into Washington to restore the Republic, and they will make very short work of Trump’s DHS thugs (and any “I need a haircut” armed loons foolish enough to stand with them.) DHS wanna-be soldiers who get their jollies dressing up in soldier uniforms and tear gassing and beating up peaceful protesters will stand zero chance against real soldiers with Abrams tanks and Apache gunships. Tear gas and rubber bullets vs tanks and helicopter gunships manned by veterans. It will be effing glorious to see.
And by that point the vast majority of Americans will stand with the Pentagon, not a deluded failed president whose incompetence, hubris, lies, and magical thinking has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, devastated the economy, and utterly destroyed America’s prestige, influence, and respect abroad.
Yeah, I’m an optimist. I have no freaking idea what the next 100 days will bring, but willing to bet it’s going to be a wild ride. Here’s the article, read it and decide for yourself gentle reader. Stay safe and stay sane in these perilous times. God bless America. (It’s a figure of speech my atheist readers, I’m ignostic.) #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask
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