Today, I've decided to state the obvious. It wasn't as obvious several weeks ago when I first thought of writing this, but as regularly happens in Trump World, bigger news stories keep getting in the way, but it's obvious now. Still, sometimes you have to state the obvious -- not just to get it out of your system, but so the abnormal doesn't get accepted as normal. And in fairness, pretty much everything with Trump is pretty obvious, especially the last few months as the presidential election came closer to reality. The man has no filter.
So, to state the obvious -- Trump supports the insane, mass murder policy of herd immunity. It's been clear for a while now, but it's hard to miss now. Having five mass rallies a day, without social distancing or any requirement to wear face masks. Holding a rally in Florida at The Village, the large retirement community of the most-vulnerable members of society. Holding a rally in Wisconsin, which has one of the highest hot-spot rates in the country. Holding a swearing-in party for new Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the White House Rose Garden which was the site of the infamous Rose Garden Massacred that infected Trump himself and a mass of White House staffers. Sending Mike Pence out to rallies across the country, despite five members of his inner-circle staff testing positive for COVID-19, including his chief-of-staff and body man who is by his side regularly. Holding a rally in Nebraska in below-freezing weather...where buses were charted to bring people in, but not to take them back. And so much more, on and on and on and on. Topped by Pence's press spokesman being asked if it was too dangerous to hold a rally in Wisconsin where infections were so high and hospital beds were almost all full -- and answering that Pence was fine and had a good medical staff with him, ignoring the blatantly obvious point that the question was about the public potentially getting infected and risking dying. By the way, there's no evidence that herd immunity works -- in fact, there's evidence that it doesn't, most particularly in the failed experiment in Sweden. Scientists who are experts in the field of infectious diseases have discredited. But never mind, it's what Trump wants, and so everyone in his sphere goes along, never the risk of spreading a deadly disease across the country and to themselves. After all, spreading the disease is the point. And to anyway to thinks even at this point that this is all hyperbolic, I would suggest that -- besides all the evidence -- what else can you conclude when the person Trump put on his pandemic team and by all accounts now listens to the most is Dr. Scott Atlas, a man who pushes herd immunity and has absolute NO experience in infectious diseases. None, zero, nada. From the first, I've had my theories as to why Trump is doing this. There's no one reason, to be clear, and for all I know none of them are correct. But the reasons include that 1) he's unhinged, 2) taking no responsibility for safety precautions fits in perfectly with his desire to ignore face masks and social distancing because those are bad optics for him having said from the beginning that COVID-19 is just like the flu and it'll all go away soon like a miracle, 3) he has no understanding of science, so simple explanations make the most sense to him even if they're wrong because science is much more complicated. and perhaps most of all, 4) as the death toll went up and passed the horrific 200,000 mark with estimates now of it reaching 400,000, the more people who die through herd immunity, the more Trump can explain that this is actually part of the "plan" and a good thing -- the more deaths, the better. I don't know. I think all the explanations are possible, though -- and that "he's unhinged" and "it's all part of the plan" seem most Trumpian to me. But who knows, maybe there are other reasons. Or no reason, because as we've seen for four years, Trump doesn't need a reason to act irresponsibly and horribly towards others. He's a morbid narcissist, and one of the qualities of that condition is the risk of bringing harm to those around him. I only know that, to me, this is stating the obvious. Trump is pursuing herd immunity, and not only doesn't care how many Americans get infected and risk dying, he's actually okay with that. And I know, too, that even with this people his policy, it isn't about Trump, because we know who he is. It's about the elected members of the Republican Party who enable him, accept hundreds of thousands of more Americans getting infected and risking death, have blood on their hands and are complicit.
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The other day, I posted a video here from an Australian TV show that did a segment on the history of the song, "I'll Never Find Another You," which was a big hit for the Aussie group, The Seekers. I had another similar piece I was holding onto that that TV show did on the history of what is probably The Seeker's most-lasting hit, "Georgy Girl." But since my pal Mark Evanier had a piece about the song on his site here last night, I figured that it might be a good idea to post that "history" today. As before, the history starts in 1967 and takes a few nice twists. For a group that broke up in 1968, they've stayed close over the decades, and this affectionate piece features current interviews with Judith Durham and "the Boys" -- Athol Guy, Keith Potger, and Bruce Woodley A couple of notes about the song. The music is by Tom Springfield, who not only was part of the popular '60s singing group The Springfields, he is also the brother of the extremely popular Dusty Springfield. And the lyrics are by Jim Dale, who is far-better known these days for his acting -- as the Tony-winning star of the Broadway musical Barnum, and even more so to millions as the narrator of all seven Harry Potter audio books. One other note about the video -- at the 3:00 minute mark, the actor in the scene from the British TV series Men Behaving Badly (which later got adapted for U.S. TV) is Martin Clunes, who is probably best-known to American television viewers for starring in the Doc Martin series. I don't expect this to get any traction during the last week of the election. But what surprises me a bit is that it has gotten no attention in the months since Trump began whining about the issue.
Ever since the number of cases of Americans infected by the coronavirus began skyrocketing, Trump started to complain that the only reason there were more cases of infections was because there was more testing. Of course that was ridiculous, and it was always pointed out as ridiculous. Testing doesn't create new cases, it only demonstrates the cases that already exist. Still, though, that was his attempt at an argument, and it became the debating point -- literally. Not just in the public area, but actually in his debates with Joe Biden. And though it's a ridiculous point, when you get down to semantics, it's sometimes very difficult to make reality shine through as clearly as it should since it is, after all, reality. However, the point that I'm surprised has never been addressed -- or at least addressed even remotely as much as it should -- is not infections, but deaths. That's because deaths have absolutely zero to do with how much testing has gone on. If there was no testing at all, you might not have any idea how many cases of COVID-19 there were -- but you would know how many deaths there are from the disease. They get recorded, tested beforehand or not, with the cause of death registered with it. And the numbers of deaths in the United States compared to the rest of the world is pretty close to the same relationship as cases in the U.S. to the world. Right now, there are 232,084 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. And there are 1,171,337 deaths from coronavirus around the world. That means the U.S. has almost exactly 20% of the deaths from the disease -- despite having only 4% of the world population. Which, as I said, is pretty close to the percentage of cases in the U.S. to the rest of the world. And it's all without the debating point question of "testing. Again, no testing is involved. And facts are very straightforward and simple: the U.S. has 4% of world population, and 20% of COVID-19 deaths. It cannot be blamed on testing. And the numbers cannot be more clear -- in fact, even more so given the high quality of medical care in the United States, which would make you think deaths should be lower here than around the world, especially with Third World countries factored in. You know, those "sh*thole countries" Trump likes to talk about. I fully understand why cases are discussed in the news. It's important in order to show the spread and try to stop it. But why this easier set of facts about deaths hasn't been addressed in order to contradict Trump, I don't know. But -- it's still the facts. Heading back to the game show What's My Line?, the celebrity Mystery Guest here is singer Eydie Gorme, who had a long, successful career solo and with her husband Steve Lawrence. What makes this segment such fun is that one of the panelists that week was...her husband Steve Lawrence. As a result, she really has to go to lengths to disguise her voice. You can jump to the Mystery Guest segment at the 19:45 mark. I came across two comments yesterday which, although on totally different subjects, sort of overlap.
The first, for all its simplicity, was one of my favorite quotes I've heard during the election, since what was said isn't just funny but also speaks to a larger truth about Democratic voter turnout. A reporter asked a woman standing in a line that stretched extremely far how long she'd been waiting to vote. She answered, "Four years." The other was a tweet from journalist Ezra Klein directing attention to an article he wrote for Vox. He said, "I cannot emphasize enough how much McConnell's actions on Garland and Barrett have radicalized Democratic senators. As I've argued before, McConnell's single most consequential legacy may be what he convinces Senate Democrats to do." All this comes on the heels of the Republican-led Senate cramming through the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, only eight days before the election, with voting having started a couple of weeks ago, around 50 million Americans having already voted -- four years after their angst-filled, little hearts poured out mournful tears that 300 days, almost a full year, was too close to an election to even hold a hearing on President Barrack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, But this isn't about the Supreme Court. In part because that's a very long, involved issue that I haven't figured out for myself which of the many options I think are the best for Democrats to pursue. And in part because when I think about Merrick Garland and this nomination and Mitch McConnell laughing about his deceit and Lindsey Graham insisting there wouldn't be a Supreme Court confirmation in the final year of Trump's term if he was chairman of the Justice Committee and pontificating to "use this tape" of him saying that against him if there was such a vote (which, of course, there not only was, but he raced it through and broke Senate rules to do so)...my fingers curdle and my body clenches too much to type. Rather, this is about what connects those two, otherwise-unrelated comments above. And what connects them is the perseverance of anger. I'm not sure if Republicans in Congress, or those who live in holes while waiting for the next Trump sighting on the Mount have any idea of how tenacious most Democrats have become starting -- no, not just four years, but back almost 12 years. Yes, that long. Really. I believe the unrelenting anger dates back to Mitch McConnell saying on literally the very first day of Barack Obama's presidency in 2008 that the Number One goal of the Republican Party was to deny the president a second term. The Number One goal, even above things like, oh, "the good of the country." And for the next four years, that's how Republicans in the Senate and House governed. And when President Obama was re-elected by the American public, that's how Republicans in Congress continued to act out of a combination of spite, racism and the lack of ideas. And no, that's not hyperbole -- ever since the Affordable Care Act passed, for just one instance, Republicans have been trying to destroy it and insisting that they have a better plan. That's something Trump regularly says is coming in "two weeks" since he first took office in 2017. And we're now in 2020, Trump is still saying that, and Republicans still haven't come up with anything. Anything. In 12 years. And yet Republicans are still trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and pre-existing conditions...in a pandemic! Without a replacement. So, yes, this visceral reaction of Democrats against the GOP really did get its start 12 years ago, and has continued through Republican attempts to block everything purely just to block it, not because they had something better, and blocked 105 federal judge appointments by President Obama that they later were able to fill under Trump's subsequent nominations, and kept Merrick Garland from getting a hearing for the Supreme Court, and then 16 Republican House investigations of Hillary Clinton on Benghazi in order to discredit her as the likely Democratic presidential nominee and which found nothing, and Trump campaign collusion with Russia (which is, in fact, what the Mueller Report did find, but said investigators couldn't make a case of it being illegal because obstruction by the Trump administration kept material from them) and a reopened FBI investigation got Trump elected, followed by separating immigrant children from parents, putting immigrant children in cages, praising some neo-Nazis as very fine people, calling Mexicans rapists, trying to block Muslims from entering the country, refusing to even utter the words "Black Lives Matter," regularly calling the press the enemy of the people, firing intelligence officers daring to tell the truth about dangers to the country, trusting the word of the Russian leader over all intelligence services, and over 20,000 documented lies from the White House and impeachment for trying to bribe a foreign leader, ignoring science that's destroying the country from a pandemic and crushing the economy, as well as dismantling the Postal Service to assist other voter suppression efforts and so much more, all of it enabled by elected Republicans in Congress who are complicit in it all -- all of it, everything, voting near lock-step unanimously on everything in support of a fascist administration -- has built to a perseverance of anger among Democrats that has reached a depth I don't think Republicans have a clue of. All the while Republicans celebrate each of their actions, keep chanting "Lock her up," prompted by Trump, which now overlaps from Hillary Clinton to today Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan with the result that there was a serious threat by white supremacists to kidnap and kill her. And the same for the mayor of Omaha. And now the governor of Ohio. All to silence by Republicans in Congress, all blissfully acquiescent to the dangers to other politicians who oppose them. And dancing at the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. As they danced to the confirmation of the highly-questionable Brett Cavanaugh. And on and ever on, blissfully unaware as they dance about the perseverance of Democrats, which should be blatantly obvious from them standing in lines to vote for not just five hours, but for four years. And not grasping why Democrats in Congress have been radicalized by their 12 years of actions and are now therefore looking seriously at all the options available to them in dealing with the Supreme Court, should they win the majority and White House. And in dealing with all issues to come. As the expression goes, even for those who blissfully dance -- Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. Which leads to one other comment, this from Jason Kander, former Secretary of State of Missouri, who I've written about here often -- a low-key, even-handed and talented up-and-coming politician. Yesterday, he wrote -- "In ten years, some politicians will treat the Trump administration like they do the Iraq war: Everyone will pretend they never really supported it. I’m not cool with letting anybody get away with that." Not long ago, Mitch McConnell tried to shut down Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor, attempting to demean her unrelenting outrage by saying with ridicule, "And still she persisted." He had no idea. He had no idea what he was unleashing then, and what he and Republicans in Congress have released for 12 years. And still she persisted, indeed. So have they all. Since the first day of Trump's inauguration when the massive Women's March flowed through the streets of the country, and all the marches and protests since. For four years they've persisted. And it's been building for 12 years. This is about the perseverance of anger. What it is not about is Trump, because we know who he is. This is about the elected Republicans in Congress who enable him, who have moved towards fascism for many years, and are fully and knowingly complicit. If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, his Main Story was on immigration, but specifically about asylum. It was an extremely interesting show -- much more angry than most, even his shows about the pandemic, and with less humor, though there is definitely its share of funny off-handed comments blended throughout. But I think many will find what Oliver and his staff present to be teeth-gnashing infuriating. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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