Post #10 - The morning rant, I can't help it
Last night's press conference was infuriating, and the news from around the country and indeed around the world is equally distressing.
But first, a good thought: so far we're healthy, relatively safe and have food and goods to last. Lizzie, now in day eight of quarantine, continues to show no indication that she has the Trumpvirus. We are the lucky ones.
The mountain was beautiful this morning. These days, nature provides our greatest comfort.
The snow in late March is surely a metaphor. What it's a metaphor for I have no idea, but metaphorically speaking, I'm sure it's a metaphor.
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled rant. My late wonderful friend Eliot Asinof was once called "the last angry man." That, of course, made Eliot furious. I can really identify with Eliot today. I miss him.
Wonderful friends write out of concern for my health, saying I need to stop watching TV and reading the news. Sue also thinks we need to give it a break. I know they're right, but I can't. While I agree that skipping a Trump appearance or two is a good for my blood pressure, I just refuse to be a victim. I can't not fight back somehow. It's why I became a journalist and have been writing about Alger Hiss for 40 damn years; it's why I became a Mets fan (ok, that battle is not working out so well).
I'd put on a mask and gown and head to the nearest hospital in a second if I could but I know at my age and with heart disease that's an impossibility, so in addition to doing what I can to protect my family, that leaves doing the one useful thing I can still do as well (or as poorly) as I have ever done: writing. I recommend it to people stuck in their homes (feel free to send my way your thoughts from exile and I'll post them) as a way to let out steam. If people see it and identify with it, I've done my job.
I contacted our local weekly and volunteered to write or edit from here. I immediately got an assignment. The numbers I dug up went out last night to thousands of readers across Ulster County. It felt good to be reporting again.
I'm going to try to connect some dots, here.
As an indication of what China has learned, Wuhan, is reopening its subways because it claims to have flattened the disease. That turns out to be a lie. What have they learned? Just stop reporting the numbers accurately, that's all. According to the Times:
In China, officials only count patients with both symptoms and a positive test in the official tally of confirmed cases. The World Health Organization says that all people who test positive are confirmed to be infected, even if they show no symptoms.
China’s approach to counting raises questions about how many people with the virus are circulating freely. There is evidence that asymptomatic people can infect others."
Think the administration is watching? They told the states not to report unemployment figures.
Two days ago, the ultraconservative Steven Hilton, who is given a microphone by Lachlan Murdoch, argued in favor of reopening business, stating, among other things that "the cure is worse than the disease" and "despair kills; the shutdown is deadly."
Think Trump watches him? Yesterday, Trump went on national TV and said, "the cure is worse than the disease, and then added, among other things, "thousands of people die in automobile accidents each year, we don't stop people from driving do we?"
Then Trump added, "The shutdown will kill people. there will be a lot of deaths because of it."
Trump says the cure is worse than the death. If governors follow what he wants to do, this is how more than a million Americans will die in the next year.
And if that doesn't get you, there's this just brutal account by an ICU doctor in today's Times.
By the way, here is some background on Hilton, the man who is apparently determining our national policy on the virus and believes it is a hoax put over on us by the Democrats in collusion with Dr. Fauci.
The president then blamed Democrats for acting in a partisan manner. It's all their fault, he said, "they should agree to the bill as written," referring to a partisan bill that gives Trump and Mnuchin complete control over a 500 billion dollar slush fund. According to the bill, they would not only be allowed to distribute the money to whomever they please (Steven M: please look my address, I take checks), but their choices would not be revealed for six months.
And partisanship? Texas has now joined Ohio in using the pandemic as an excuse to ban abortion in the state, claiming it is non-essential. How ironic is that. Not only is the GOP using the virus to advance its agenda, here is the Lieutenant Governor of Texas saying that seniors' lives should be sacrificed to reopen the economy.
So how exactly do they define pro-life?
This is what's going to happen, and it's as clear as the day outside my window: We're heading into a major culture war, and seniors and the vulnerable population will be the pawns and the victims. Trump's war on science is coming to a head. Next week, he will urge the weakening of restrictions (he didn't order any, so this will be just a propaganda move on his part, but look what Ohio's governor did after the administration ordered states not to report the unemployment figures) so "the great companies can put their great workers back to work." Will Republican governors listen? You bet. Will more people die? Of course. Here's Trump on Nebraska, Iowa, etc.
Every day he mentions "that great company" Boeing. "We all know what happened to them." Yes, we do, they cut corners and built planes that crashed and killed hundreds. Trump just wants to hand them billions, so, I suppose they can go make more planes that crash. The only reason I can think of why he is so insistent on Boeing is that he is famous for taking the advice of the last person who speaks to him, so the CEO must have Trump's private number and is the last one to call Trump at night before Trump swallows his two ambiens, pleasures himself, watching Liz Wheeler or Fox News.
The conservative media are full on this idea that businesses must reopen. Watch Liz Wheeler on Trump's new favorite network, OAN. Here's Trump's response:
And who is this Liz Wheeler, who along with Steve Hilton, has Trump's ear? Here's a Washington Post article on the OAN.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci is person non grata because of his sensible comments on the way out of this crisis. Trump won't fire him; he will just banish him, a move I suspect will backfire horribly both in his "numbers" [his term for the number of deaths] and his polls.
So it'll be science vs. corruption, cronyism and runaway capitalism.
Who will win?
I know who will be the biggest losers.
Us.
The mountain was beautiful this morning. These days, nature provides our greatest comfort.
The snow in late March is surely a metaphor. What it's a metaphor for I have no idea, but metaphorically speaking, I'm sure it's a metaphor.
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled rant. My late wonderful friend Eliot Asinof was once called "the last angry man." That, of course, made Eliot furious. I can really identify with Eliot today. I miss him.
Wonderful friends write out of concern for my health, saying I need to stop watching TV and reading the news. Sue also thinks we need to give it a break. I know they're right, but I can't. While I agree that skipping a Trump appearance or two is a good for my blood pressure, I just refuse to be a victim. I can't not fight back somehow. It's why I became a journalist and have been writing about Alger Hiss for 40 damn years; it's why I became a Mets fan (ok, that battle is not working out so well).
I'd put on a mask and gown and head to the nearest hospital in a second if I could but I know at my age and with heart disease that's an impossibility, so in addition to doing what I can to protect my family, that leaves doing the one useful thing I can still do as well (or as poorly) as I have ever done: writing. I recommend it to people stuck in their homes (feel free to send my way your thoughts from exile and I'll post them) as a way to let out steam. If people see it and identify with it, I've done my job.
I contacted our local weekly and volunteered to write or edit from here. I immediately got an assignment. The numbers I dug up went out last night to thousands of readers across Ulster County. It felt good to be reporting again.
I'm going to try to connect some dots, here.
As an indication of what China has learned, Wuhan, is reopening its subways because it claims to have flattened the disease. That turns out to be a lie. What have they learned? Just stop reporting the numbers accurately, that's all. According to the Times:
"In Wuhan, the authorities continue to
turn up cases of people with the virus but without symptoms, fueling
growing fears among the Chinese public that the government has failed to
disclose or discover a much larger number of infections than the 81,171
cases that have been reported.
In China, officials only count patients with both symptoms and a positive test in the official tally of confirmed cases. The World Health Organization says that all people who test positive are confirmed to be infected, even if they show no symptoms.
China’s approach to counting raises questions about how many people with the virus are circulating freely. There is evidence that asymptomatic people can infect others."
Think the administration is watching? They told the states not to report unemployment figures.
Two days ago, the ultraconservative Steven Hilton, who is given a microphone by Lachlan Murdoch, argued in favor of reopening business, stating, among other things that "the cure is worse than the disease" and "despair kills; the shutdown is deadly."
Think Trump watches him? Yesterday, Trump went on national TV and said, "the cure is worse than the disease, and then added, among other things, "thousands of people die in automobile accidents each year, we don't stop people from driving do we?"
Then Trump added, "The shutdown will kill people. there will be a lot of deaths because of it."
Trump says the cure is worse than the death. If governors follow what he wants to do, this is how more than a million Americans will die in the next year.
And if that doesn't get you, there's this just brutal account by an ICU doctor in today's Times.
By the way, here is some background on Hilton, the man who is apparently determining our national policy on the virus and believes it is a hoax put over on us by the Democrats in collusion with Dr. Fauci.
The president then blamed Democrats for acting in a partisan manner. It's all their fault, he said, "they should agree to the bill as written," referring to a partisan bill that gives Trump and Mnuchin complete control over a 500 billion dollar slush fund. According to the bill, they would not only be allowed to distribute the money to whomever they please (Steven M: please look my address, I take checks), but their choices would not be revealed for six months.
And partisanship? Texas has now joined Ohio in using the pandemic as an excuse to ban abortion in the state, claiming it is non-essential. How ironic is that. Not only is the GOP using the virus to advance its agenda, here is the Lieutenant Governor of Texas saying that seniors' lives should be sacrificed to reopen the economy.
So how exactly do they define pro-life?
This is what's going to happen, and it's as clear as the day outside my window: We're heading into a major culture war, and seniors and the vulnerable population will be the pawns and the victims. Trump's war on science is coming to a head. Next week, he will urge the weakening of restrictions (he didn't order any, so this will be just a propaganda move on his part, but look what Ohio's governor did after the administration ordered states not to report the unemployment figures) so "the great companies can put their great workers back to work." Will Republican governors listen? You bet. Will more people die? Of course. Here's Trump on Nebraska, Iowa, etc.
Every day he mentions "that great company" Boeing. "We all know what happened to them." Yes, we do, they cut corners and built planes that crashed and killed hundreds. Trump just wants to hand them billions, so, I suppose they can go make more planes that crash. The only reason I can think of why he is so insistent on Boeing is that he is famous for taking the advice of the last person who speaks to him, so the CEO must have Trump's private number and is the last one to call Trump at night before Trump swallows his two ambiens, pleasures himself, watching Liz Wheeler or Fox News.
The conservative media are full on this idea that businesses must reopen. Watch Liz Wheeler on Trump's new favorite network, OAN. Here's Trump's response:
And who is this Liz Wheeler, who along with Steve Hilton, has Trump's ear? Here's a Washington Post article on the OAN.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci is person non grata because of his sensible comments on the way out of this crisis. Trump won't fire him; he will just banish him, a move I suspect will backfire horribly both in his "numbers" [his term for the number of deaths] and his polls.
So it'll be science vs. corruption, cronyism and runaway capitalism.
Who will win?
I know who will be the biggest losers.
Us.
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