Cynicism in the Time of Covid-19

The cynicism on display during this crisis has been truly illuminating, and horrifying, to observe. Not only from Trump himself, seemingly more interested in campaigning and touting his ratings, settling some grudges, providing false information and a sunnier picture than reality - but across his administration, the conservative media and far too much of the Republican Party in general. To wit:

1. Texas, Arkansas and Ohio, among others, have tried to use the Covid-19 crisis to make abortions practically illegal: The Guardian
2. And these states and others run by a GOP Governor ignored the crisis or actively fought against doing what was necessary, killing 100s, or maybe ultimately 1000s, including in Mississippi (The New Yorker).
3. The Trump administration, without any real justification, is further gutting environmental regulations during the crisis: Reuters. 
4. In a similar vein, they are pushing to get the Keystone Pipeline XL started again while protesters are stuck inside: NPR. 
5. Speaking of protesters in general, legislation continues to be pushed to make protesting itself illegal - a trend that started before the Coronavirus crisis. And many in the GOP are trying to use it to further suppress the vote, as in Wisconsin, with the absurd choice now facing citizens of the state - vote and risk my life or let others decide my fate: TNR. 
6. Betty Devos decided now is a great time to try to again push school privatization, underly the newly minted micrograms program (aka vouchers): NPR.
7. The Trump administration plans to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty, one safeguard to avoid war between the West and Russia: The Guardian.
8. Businesses, who had their biggest tax cut ever less than three years ago, were given more by Republicans who also get oversight of the huge amounts of money they gave to big corporations during the Coronavirus stimulus, should not be overseen by Congress. And, as one could have predicted, Wall Street is again sucking at the government teat they otherwise hate so much (The Nation). 
9. Many individuals and businesses have shown community spirit by going out of their way to help those in need. At the same time, price gouging on online sales sites has been so bad eBay eliminates the sale of anything with Coronavirus in the title and Amazon has had to suspend tons of seller accounts and items. There are also ongoing investigations across the country about scammers claiming cures: The Guardian. Of course, Trump himself could very well end up on the list. 
10. Some Republicans, capitalizing on their penchant for rewriting history to serve their interests, actually used the narrative that “Democrats were impeaching Trump when the Coronavirus was spreading” to do some heavy fundraising: TNYRB. 
11. The right-wing media, who has been pretty consistently horrible throughout the crisis, now seems to have a target aimed at the back of the only voice of reason in the administration at present: The New Yorker. 
12. Maybe most troubling of all, the Supreme Court today voted 5 to 4 to allow Wisconsin to overrule their own governor and a Circuit Court and allow the election to go forward , essentially asking people to risk their lives if they want to vote (The New Yorker). As the Nation argues, this could be the latest parry in the Republican plan to essentially steal the election later this year by suppressing the vote as much as possible, as they did four years ago and have been doing for at least 50 years: The Nation. 
13. But to make it a baker’s dozen, it has just been revealed that Trump has a business interest in the company that produces hydroxychloroquine, the unproven “miracle drug” he’s been pushing on the American people: Salon.

These are just 13 examples of the endemic cynicism and corruption at the heart of the conservative movement and corporate culture today and really a signal to anyone paying attention that there is a better way forward for the country, its political institutions, healthcare, economic structure and general collective conscious. Will we heed the call to change? 

Good Video on Covid-19

Trump Will Always Be Trump

While Trump has finally taken some steps to address the Covid-19 crisis, realizing his reelection depends on it, he can’t help reverting to form, as he did in the press conference today. Just a few examples of the good ole Trump unable to cover up his tendencies:

1. Thought not as explicitly as he has in recent days, he still blamed China for covering up information that could have got our doctors there (though one wonders if that would have happened anyway). China, by the way, is saying the virus started here, which seems highly unlikely. But a war of words and pushing blame onto others, as Trump is want to do on a regular basis, does nothing to actually alleviate the problem. 
2. Attacking reporters, and NBC and “Con”cast in particular, thus delegitimating the very institution that could keep people informed and acting appropriately. He then went on, along with others who took to the podium, to excoriate them for the “fake news” they spread, from an administration that has spouted lies, among other things about the novel coronavirus itself, at historic levels. 
3. Blaming the Obama Administration for not preparing them, even as the Washington Post reported two years ago that the Trump Administration disbanded the task force and folded it into another department (WP) probably watering it down in the process. It is, of course, his obsession with Obama that led us down the path to him eventually becoming President but one wonders what it is, exactly, he has against the man beside a small slight many years ago. In a broader sense, has there ever been a President who has gone out of his way to spend so much time blaming his predecessor? Even Obama, who had every reason to do so, did not!
4. Congratulating himself and his administration on multiple occasions for the great work they are now doing, even though his ignorant refusal to admit the looming crisis made it substantially worse (WP2).
5. Again taking the opportunity to talk about immigrants and the ways we will quickly send them out of the country to anywhere that will take them (okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but it was interesting to hear him talk inaccurately about what is happening at the moment).
6. Undermining doctors and his own expert in claiming the very preliminary anecdotal evidence that a malaria drug might work both to mitigate the effects of the virus for those who already have it and potentially even block it in others is now a viable solution to the problem, which fits the administrations anti-science discourse from the first days of his presidency.
7. Go out of his way to call the Senators who cashed in on preinformation of the Coronavirus threat by selling stocks “honorable people,” and making sure the public knew one of them was a Democrat. 

There were other examples throughout, but the point is that this is the most unpresidential President in history and a stain on our collective history that hopefully people will start to see for who he really is. Of course, they should have been able to see it almost four years ago, so maybe my hope is misplaced. But a boy can dream …

Trump's Changing Tune on Covid-19

I know the memory of many Americans is short. This video should remind you that the President's tune on the novel coronavirus has changed pretty rapidly, and that a different initial response might have helped mitigate against our current circumstance ...

He's Back ... Finally!

We've all been waiting with bated breath, on the edge of our seats, ready to explode with joy and the moment is finally upon us. After a 23-year self-imposed hiatus, the 80s-90s nerd star Rick Moranis is back! How did we do it without you, old friend. His return will be in the much anticipated - by someone, I imagine - reboot of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. It's ironic, because I was just thinking that that franchise, whose last film was a straight-to-video flop in 1997, really needed to come back into our collective consciousness.

It will be directed by Joe Johnston, the talented auteur who made the 1989 original film and went on to make other gems like Jumanji, Jurassic Park III and Captain America: The First Avenger. Thank god the franchise train goes on unabated by taste, talent or quality!

To the Clintons - Please Leave the Country Alone!

Everything the Clinton’s touch turns to shit. First we had the Bill Clinton Presidency, which started brightly but ultimately ended up as the spark for the far-right movement that has now mainstreamed. It is ironic, in retrospect, when you consider how aligned Clinton’s interests were with most of those arguing against him, but that is of little consequence. The Republicans knew triangulation could be the end of their hold on power and decided to ramp up the cultural wars to heretofore unseen levels that have only grown in magnitude over the past decade.

To solidify the disaster, Hillary Clinton decided, after losing the primary in 2008 to a relatively unknown, first-term Senator from Illinois, that 2016 was her year to shine. After making that decision, she forgot to stop listening to the idiots that had lost two elections to Bush (okay, maybe 1 and 1/2), forgot to actually run a full campaign, and assumed the presidency was hers by fiat alone. She ignored the most prophetic prognostications of astute pollsters, the de rigeur requirements of actually campaigning everywhere, fully bought into the mainstream media’s pre-election coronation and, worst of all, didn’t really stake out a claim to standing for anything beside not being Trump (which, one should point out, should have been enough). 

At that point, one assumed the Clintons would wither away into the background and out of the spotlight, having sent the country into the toilet and potentially put the final death knell in our collective future, given the current administrations dedication to billionaires and destroying the planet as quickly as they possibly can. 

But Hillary kept showing up, here and there, to intervene in the world she’s wrought, acting as if she had nothing to do with its creation. And then the Clinton clan decided they should get involved in improving the Iowa Caucus process with their particularly inept brand of politicking. The effect? An utter disaster that helps feed the Trump cynical worldview and again shows the party as utterly inept on the eve of the latest “most important election” in our lifetimes.  

Do they apologize? Do they say anything at all? Of course not. Lest us forget that the Clintons gave us welfare reform that increased poverty rates, telecommunications deregulation that saw the increased conglomeration of media into fewer and fewer hands, the dramatic increase in black men in prison for minor drug offenses (by instituting mandatory federal imprisonment guidelines), the turning away from the Democratic Party by many Christians because of a blowjob, and, the coup de gras, Wall Street deregulation that indirectly spurred the 2008 financial crisis. On top of that, Hillary Clinton was the Senator from New York who ignored the people and voted for the Iraq War.

To put it simply and with all due respect, please, please, I implore you, leave us alone!