Tuesday, May 05, 2020

All those tweets to write

All those rallies to attend.

All those mourners to insult.

It's not like Trump can do anything about it.

Fuck the dead.  Probably Biden voters anyway, amirite?

At least the grift is good:


Trump's parting words on January 20, 2021 (as he refuses to attend the inaugural.  You can't make him!):  "So long, suckers!"

And we leave the day's news with Maggie Haberman, reporter extraordinaire:

And her absolute gift for stating the obvious:

Well, unless Fauci and Birx find their way in front of microphones anywhere in D.C.

Much older than I actually am.
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Anybody who didn't see this coming?

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The Real Trolley Problem


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"Dulce et decorum est pro Marketplace America mori!"


And what are a few lives lost, as long as Trump doesn't know any of them, and none of them are him?

This is gonna drive Trump's popularity through the roof!

Logic!  You can't argue with that!  The fall of 2020 might as well be 5 years away!  Trump has been in the White House for months!  Time passes slowly inside the bubble.  He's so visionary the smallest unit of time to him is a half-decade!

Because they are weak and we are strong!   Mammon demands a sacrifice!  It is good to die for your economy!  "It's money that matters/In the U.S.A.!"*

(*Is this going to change?  No.)
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State Governance in the Time of Coronavirus


Texas has 1,227 independent school districts. (No, I'm not kidding; I looked it up and everything.)  Each district sets its own date for graduation.  Almost all graduation ceremonies in every district have been cancelled due to the coronavirus.  Most districts are struggling to set up "virtual" graduations in May, with possibly some sort of "real" graduation ceremony in July; if that's possible.

Today the Governor announced that graduations can take place in June.  This, of course, will inflame parents who will demand their precious scholars be allowed to graduate high school (!) (honestly, who remembers their high school graduation?) "for real," and that it be done in June.  It also throws a frantic month or so of planning right in the crapper for 1,227 school districts.

And then when the number of cases explodes, and school districts want to cancel June graduations because of the danger?  And no, none of the 1,227 districts had any prior notice that the Governor was going to make this announcement today.

And you think things are fucked up in the White House....
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Ignorance is Strength


A)  way to keep patrons away, dude.

B)  Let me introduce you to the 10th Amendment.  Pretty clear you have no idea what's in the Constitution, or how it's been interpreted.


It was always a fungible term.  And, as ever, Trump can't insult unless he projects.  Guilty dog barks loudest, and all that.  Besides, the rising ignorance pretty much stems from Reagan's success.  Welcome to consequences.

He's expecting the rallies to resume any minute now.  He's been in the White House for months, ya know!

Trump will blame the governors; and the Chinese.

Not to the House of Representatives, however; and only when Trump doesn't get antsy to get to the microphone.  So, basically, never.

Not if Gionino's Pizzeria's version of the Constitution has anything to say about it!

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"I do not know much about gods;


"but I think that the market/Is a strong green god—"

We who are about to die for the shareholders salute you!

Just to reinforce the idea that we are living in Rome; and pretty much in its last days.  And no, I don't expect the coronavirus experience to change this cultural attitude very much at all.

A coin of Julius Caesar shows his spirit descending cometlike to takes it place among the eternal deities. A coin of Augustus Caesar calls him divi filius, son of a divine one, son of a god, son of the aforesaid comet. A coin of Tiberius Caesar hails him as pontifex maximuis, supreme bridge builder between earth and heaven, high priest of an imperial people. A silver denarius was a day's pay for a laborer and, if a day laborer meant somebody who worked every day rather than somebody who looked for work every day, it would have been a very good salary. Imagine this situation: If, after three days of hard work, a day laborer held those silver denarii in his hand, how would he, could he, should he distinguish between politics and religion in the Roman Empire?....

Rome, and Rome alone, had built a kingdom and only it could approve how to build an underkingdom, a minrealm, a subordinate rule.
Jon Dominic Cross and Jonathan Reed, Excavating Jesus, revised & updated (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), pp. 178-79

Our coins depict dead Presidents; but they are secular deities.  Look at the outrage when Trump violated the "holy space" of the Lincoln Memorial recently, to hold is "town hall" on FoxNews.  Trump tells his followers to join him virtually in the Mass led by Cardinal Dolan. Republicans from Chris Christie to Dan Patrick tell us some must sacrifice for the good of others, just as everyone in the Roman Empire was meant to sacrifice to the power and authority of Rome.  The proudly foolish statement "Land of the Free Because of the Brave" would be right at home in the Rome of the Caesars, because it was the Caesars who brought security, prosperity, and the Pax Romana, to the Empire for the benefit of all; and without it?  How do we distinguish betweent politics and religion in the American empire?  Not much better than the Roman  Empire did; and for much the same reasons.

At the same time, Trump supporters in Arizona; all three of them.

And what's important now is the number of judges Trump has appointed, and George Conway's connection to Project Lincoln:
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Sauce for the Goose...


...is sauce for the gander, is a complete dissolution of Constitutional order.

But as long as Mitch McConnell gets his judges appointed, right?
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That's a nice chart


I have one, too.



This graph presents a moving average of confirmed new cases of covid-19 from January 22, 2020, to May 4, 2020.  That top green line, way above all the others, is the United States.

We're No. 1!

The "great testing" is revealing how bad off we are, IOW.  And seven million people is just over the population of the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  So, not that much of the country at all.
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Does This Mean the Rallies Can Begin Again?


Well, it's not THAT bad.

Undoubtedly someone of Kushner's caliber, rather than a doctor with administrative experience; you know, someone who is actually qualified.
Everybody's tired of staying home, right?
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(Still) Mourning in America


I wasn't sure about this critique the first time around.  Now I see the wisdom of it.
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< weird music >


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Laser-focused...


...on the important tasks of Presidenting.

If you missed it, Trump unleased 4 tweets at 1 a.m. this morning responding to the video.  Without those tweets, the video would undoubtedly just be bouncing around among a select few on Twitter right now.
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For Those Of You



Who didn't get my "Dr. Strangelove" reference or did and couldn't remember the speech entire, don't say I never do anything nice for you.

It's suprisingly easy to imagine George C. Scott as Chris Christie; too disturbingly easy.
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"...which means death..."


Not subtle about it, is he?   But this is what he thinks "sucessful" would be:

Or does this mean death?

So it means "death" when....?

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Monday, May 04, 2020

That Was Then?

When George C. Scott gave this speech in “Dr. Strangelove,” it was understood to be satire.
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The Long, Hot Summer



Except, of course, the reopening is going slow, and will go slowly.  I got an e-mail from a theater chain, a survey of what I want to see before I'll return.  One was restricting people in the bathrooms to one at a time.  Given what's happened in Stillwater, OK, and Detroit, Michigan, it may take an armed guard to control people.  And can they force patrons to wear masks, much less hold their beer until it's their turn to pee?  I won't be rushing back because I won't even drink water in the movie under those conditions, but I also don't want to have to go to a crowded bathroom (as it usually is).

So businesses understand the problem.  Restaurants know it's more than a matter of spacing tables and closing the bar area.  A bathroom with more than two stalls is too big, for now.

Sure, 1000 people a day went to theaters in San Antonio over the weekend.  Is that enough to keep those theaters open, though?  Will the novelty wear off, especially if the contagion increases?  I don't want it to increase, but Trump "doing what's right for himself" is neither right for himself nor for the country.

On the other hand, how many Americans are willing to stay home from work and everything else until a vaccine is found?  That could be in 18 months, but history says it's more likely to be in 4 years.  Can we avoid this virus that long?

There is no easy way out of this, and assuredly, no way out that serves Trump's interests.  Deaths per day are projected to decline to 74 per day by August 4.  But 135,000 bodies by that same date is quite a stack of corpses to stage a re-election campaign on.
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Too Much Reality



"Get 'em out by Friday!" is suddenly ringing in my ears.  Misspent youth, or something (it's a Genesis song, if you're still wondering. Yes, Google is still your friend.)
But doesn't it affirm the Darwin Awards concept?
The problem with the Darwin Awards:  we are all implicated.

And just because I've ignored the date all day:

And since, frankly, I'm kinda tired of "Star Wars", I'll be your friend, too.  Or annoy you; or give you an ear worm:



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"Laughing or crying, you know it's the same release"--Joni Mitchell

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Because Government Spending is Wicked Evil?


Because "blue" states don't deserve it, bein' profligate 'n' godless 'n' all?

More good news!

That elevated number of cases/death count is starting to look more and more realistic.
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