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 …

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!

Gun Violence in America

It is extraordinary sometimes to consider how easily ideology gets in the way of the collective future of our children. Whether it's global warming, educational funding, excessive corporate power, insane governmental debt or, of course, gun control, the ideological firmaments that many refuse to pass blind them to the effects their actions not only have on children in general but even their own.

Exhibit A in this myopic worldview is current debates around gun control and those inured to their position on the premise that no legislation, as benign as it might be, should pass to address the alarming increase in mass shootings over the past two decades. To wit, is the latest numbers from the Washington Post showing that over 200,000 students have been touched by gun violence since the Columbine shooting in 1999. Here is a visual representation of that reality (each dot is 10 students, click on image to enlarge).

The Absurdity of Our Insularity

One of the biggest problems facing America today is the insularity that appears to spread across the political spectrum, or at least outward from the center with increasing magnitude as it nears the dual poles. There are arguably many reasons to explain this insularity from the echo chamber offered on digital and traditional media platforms that allow one to only receive news and perspectives that reinforce what you already believe to the increasing segregation in society in general. Both conservatives and liberals are both guilty of abiding this new paradigm, existing in blissful ignorance of arguments that might differ with their own.

The costs of this insularity are profound, from the inability to engage in political discussion and debate across ideological lines to the very real and deleterious ways it has created an uber-partisan environment in DC that undermines compromise and forward movement on issues that affect our lives. It has led to increased violence, though predominantly from the right-leaning end of the political continuum, and an inability to even consider confounding evidence or arguments. Maybe most troubling to our long-term prospects, is the ways it has cut off the critical thinking facilities essential to the effective functioning of democracy.

One way in which we see this new political insularity is exposed is, of course, through those who continue to support President Trump, and those who blindly reject everything conservatives do from one day to the next (though one has to admit that has become more reasonable in recent years). Another way is the reactionary fervor that seems to sprout out from every corner of our cultural landscape, often more fervent and fiery than an Evangelical sermon.

The latest example emerged just yesterday, on the heals of the absurd imbroglio started by Trump himself, as he tweeted a video of him body slamming and punching CNN, followed by claims that CNN blackmailed the adult reddit user that made that video. The latest event to cause an Internet uproar? Well, that most offensive of American documents, The Declaration of Independence.

That’s right. A group of Trump supporters thought that NPR was tweeting propaganda, as it used 113 consecutive posts over a 20-minute period to convey the entire 1776 document to its followers, a tradition, one might mention, that has been going on for 29 years now. Some just thought it was spam, but others figured lines like “He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary power” and “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people” were a reference to our current Commander in Thief. And they were not going to take those remarks from the very media outlet they are hoping to defund as soon as possible.

While this is a minor example, and some even took the time to apologize for the reactionary posts, it does show how quick many are to apoplectic frenzy any time anyone writes, says or posts something they disagree with. It is a troubling trend that only seems to worsen with each passing year. On the left, activists seek to silence anyone who says anything offensive to their social justice agenda, which I do largely ascribe to I should admit, while on the right confounding perspectives are attacked like the words of Beelzebub himself.

I don’t believe the answer is simply more civility in the public sphere, as many have argued, as there is nothing wrong with being impassioned about your positions and arguing for them vigorously. In fact, one could argue the Democrats tendency to try to stand above the fray of political disagreement has cost them dearly, maybe none as clearly as Hillary Clinton. Others call for increased tolerance, but as Zizek so cleverly points out it too has its limits. Maybe the answer instead resides in finding ways to cross ideological boundaries, to talk to one another without the generally held notion that whatever your beliefs, those who disagree with you are just less intelligent, and to seek to stem the inflamed passions that have stoked the insularity toward silos of identity that are immune to all outside influence.

More than anything, we need to return to public spaces that are diverse, whether in our schools, our media or our daily interactions with others. We need to learn to actively listen, rather than simply wait for our turn to talk. We need content producers to stop feeding the flame of partisanship and violence. Ultimately, we need to find ways for those with different values, beliefs and cultural traditions to live harmoniously together. Easier said than done, one must admit, when one of the two founding documents of our country sends those who claim to love it most into a fury, on the very day we are celebrating its birth … 

We Should Have Seen It Coming …

When fake news and real news become as indiscernible as the actual composition of animal parts that make up the typical Dodger dog, we shouldn’t be terribly surprised when long established laws of the land are called into question. Of course, we shouldn’t pretend this is a trend that began with Donald Trump, as America has been on the path to radical skepticism for some time, with conservatives particularly adept at altering reality to serve their interests for several decades now. We need only look at the Pentagon Papers, the transformation of Oliver North into a hero, Reaganomics, the 2000 election battle, global warming, the case for the second Iraq War or the birther movement that started us on the path to our current, buffoon of a President.

But even those of us who pay attention to these trends with increasing consternation thought some battles were long over. Maybe we were being naïve, with even evolution still open for major debate 40 years after Inherit the Wind. Yet even I was a little surprised to hear that an argument that seemed settled a long time ago was back in the fray. What argument is that, you might ask? Is it the moon landing or the assassination of JFK? Maybe whether Marilyn Monroe was killed by the mob to warn the Kennedy's to lay off? Or that reptilian humanoid forms populate the most important leadership positions on the planet? Could it be that we were off by a few years with those greatest of sages, the Mayans, who were so good at predicting things they failed to prognosticate their own fate?

No this is a debate that goes even further back – hundreds of years, in fact. And it is the one around the very nature of earth itself. Oh, those silly folks who still think earth is the center of the universe? No, keep going – that comes later. What we are talking about here is that worldwide, centuries-long conspiracy that tells us … wait for it … that the world is round. That’s right, a basketball player from the title-winning Cleveland Cavaliers not only said he believes the earth is flat, but has backed that claim up in subsequent interviews, with many of his teammates and fellow cagers backing him up.

Kyrie Irving claimed, “'This is not even a conspiracy theory. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat... It's right in front of our faces. I'm telling you, it's right in front of our faces. They lie to us.” That sounds about right to the age we live in, where Trump supporter Roger Stone feels comfortable openly claiming that you now have a choice, to believe the mainstream media or one of the alt-right new sources like Breitbart of Infowars, to use something crazy like facts and statistics in the search for the truth, or simply believe what someone tells you without bothering to research its veracity.

And that is increasingly becoming conventional wisdom. Draymond Green, of the Golden State Warriors who blew the 3-1 lead they had last year to allow Irving and the Cavs to end the city’s long losing streak, supported his foe on the court by saying, “It’s just his opinion. It’s hard to call someone’s opinion crazy. That’s what he thinks.” Have we really sunk that low? Sure, my opinion is that laws on public defecation are outdated and I therefore choose to drop trough in the lovely veranda of City Hall. You got a problem with that? And his teammate King James largely concurred with Green’s assessment, stating, “Kyrie is my little brother. He's my All-Star point guard, superstar point guard, and if he decides he wants to say the Earth is flat, so be it … He’s an interesting guy and he believes it.” Sound reasoning … for a Trump supporter, as least.

In other breaking news, the Russian government launched a plan of subversive attack to undermine the U.S. election, planting a figure friendly to their interests in the most powerful job in the world … and succeeded. Yeah right! Oh wait, that one might very well be true. Hmm, the oil and gas industries set out to convince the public that they are actually the great protectors of the environment and that it is a conspiracy by Nobel-Prize winning scientists to trick us into believing we are destroying our environment. Damn, no, that one appears to be accurate as well. The tobacco companies started a research institute to test the danger of their own product, finding out that, luckily, it wasn’t. No, that happened too. I’ve got it - a millionaire jackass from the 80s, known more as a playboy with a bizarre hairdo than anyone we should take seriously, makes it big in the world of reality television and then harnesses that popularity to convince enough people to vote him into the Presidency with a playbook of strategies right out of Nazi Germany, then backs that up with tools culled from the playbook of our greatest enemy in history. 

Screw it; I give up. Maybe the earth is flat. Send me any pictures that might back up this proposition. Or, actually, hold off on those for now. I expect I’ll be reading about it on the front page of the Breitbart Washington Post or Infowars New York Times next year.

An American Disgrace

My breakdown of Trump's victory will follow by Tuesday, but a few political cartoons that sum up the election for now ...

Clinton Email Imbroglio

As per usual, the latest case against Clinton is based on pure innuendo, with the presence of new emails enough to "reopen the investigation" less than two weeks from the election. It was incredibly unprofessional of the Republican FBI Chief and again shows a Republican party that can only win by pushing negative attack ads that have little to do with reality. In my estimation, the case, as with most of the framing of "crooked Hillary" is based on pure conjecture mixed with dramatic logical leaps and outright lies. The troubling aspect of the scandal, of course, is that it could turn an election that Trump had all but given up on and put a raving lunatic into the White House. Let's hope enough Americans wake up from their long political slumber to ensure that doesn't happen. 

Smoke Up, Jonny Appleseed!

A record 60 percent of American adults support legalization of marijuana, according to a new Gallup poll released three weeks before voters in nine states decide whether to expand legal access to pot (PBS). That is way up from the mere 12 percent in 1969 who supported Bob Marley and Peter Tosh's call to “legalize it” (though those albums appeared in 1975).

Recreational use of marijuana is currently legal in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and the District of Columbia. Depending on the Election Day outcome, they could be joined by Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada. Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota will be deciding whether to allow medical marijuana use as well and Montana is pushing to ease restrictions on existing pot laws.

There is, maybe not surprisingly, a political split among supporters with a full 67 percent of Democrats in support of legalization but only 42 of Republics; and 70 percent of independents. A long battle, by scruffy dudes and dudettes over many years of getting people to sign onto their raggedy petitions has apparently paid off! 

One should expect a marked decrease in productivity and increase in munchies sales over the coming years …