dailykos--2020-04-20--Climate week Ruminations 1: What COVID-19 tells us about the Climate Crisis

I am a climate activist .
While I have many other responsibilities that I need to tend to , being a climate activist is something that is an important part of my identity .
It has been increasingly frustrating to think of new ways to make the climate relevant to people during the socially responsible action of social distancing , but hell I ’ m willing to give it a shot .
The extremely thin silver lining in these times is at the very least , interpersonally , people are seeing the social and cultural impediments that make progressive change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by a crisis such as COVID-19 .
That is why this week , I will be doing my part , by daily writing a diary on how climate has as much to do with society and culture as it does have to do with parts per million .
Here I will take you through my personal reflections on how the climate crisis has seeped its way into all social problems that make the United States uniquely positioned to make change , and will go into more depth over the week .
Only if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racism , white supremacy , class injustice , income inequality , and gender rights .
Easy stuff right ?
A note : These ruminations are not to imply ignorance as part of the reader just further thoughts on subjects that affect climate , hope you can enjoy the ride with me .
1 .
We have been giving the wrong people power to the solution : Raise your hand if the climate crisis scares you ?
Now raise your hand if you feel qualified to talk about the issue and find plans to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your hand to the first question the second question is wholly unnecessary .
We put a lot of faith in experts ( no this is not a rant on not trusting scientists DEFINITELY DO THAT ) .
What this section is meant for is why we give value to WHO says they are experts .
The central thesis to this prompt is : “ Just because one has a job of consequence does not mean that person has capacity.
” What the hell that weird jargon means is that often our society gives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ society more visibly than others .
If I as a nobody from the North East want to see change , it will be very easily written off .
However if Mark Cuban or Jeff Bezos have thoughts it is given time and space to be heard , digested and considered , then given media coverage , and then Swiss retreats to discuss with policy makers .
They have consequence but lack the capacity .
I hold a BS in Environmental Science and a MA in Social Policy with 12 years of community development @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my job does not have consequence when I demand action like the Green New Deal it isn ’ t given weight .
And socially I ’ m sure you might feel that too that no one has yet to consider your needs , but if you are about to get hit by a tidal wave , yes I think you should be given some seat at the table on how high put your house .
2 .
“ It ’ s about the racism stupid ” : Haha get it like Bill Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like COVID-19 , the California wildfires , Flint water crisis , everything else that gets suffixed by “ crisis ” have one thing in common .
It hits people of color first , the hardest , and takes them the longest to recover from .
That fact is not by accident , it ’ s by design .
Since the 1960 ’ s the environmental justice movement has tried the sysiphus-ian task of trying to center environmental issues around race .
All leaders in this movement has tried to remind White people that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problems , but they are often victims to the solutions as well .
White intellectuals demand seawalls , but put them first in communities of color limiting their access to the waterfront , or trade .
White intellectuals demand that there be a reduction in Carbon by vehicles , but do nothing to rectify problems with mass transit even though this most hits communities of color .
I could go on ( and I will this week ) , but this Earth Day it is important to recognize how inequality is as much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race in the discussion of climate change .
3 .
The reason why things don ’ t happen is because of misinformation : The climate crisis much like COVID-19 has an issue of resources , technology and human capitol to be sure .
What it needs more than anything to get it going ( and is heroically being done by people staying home ) is public will .
It requires centralized messaging of “ doing your part ” , “ being socially responsible ” , and “ making sacrifices ” narratives that threaten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the myths of unfettered capitalism and neoliberalism .
For Conservative leadership instead of coming up with new ideas that make outcomes better , there has been a considerable amount of resources dedicated to straight up lying or confusing the public to make sure the required will doesn ’ t reach a point of actualization .
The same tactics of deny , shift blame , then say “ nothing can be done ” is ever present in a small microcosm of almost four months .
Stretch that out to almost 60 years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate activists .
While this messaging is apparent it is important to recognize that these tactics work because of a culture tied to classism , racism and other forms of white supremacist ideas that infected our body politic .
We allow these ideas to fester because White comfort is more important that action to disinfect disinformation that harms people .
I think this an important message to take a deep dive on .
4 .
WHAT ?
!
Climate change is about gender TOO ?
: I know it is difficult to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not like carbon forces abortions to spike , sexism to happen at work , or sexual assault to increase or decrease .
However all crises create socially recognized necessary sacrifices to be made out of fear .
Women ( especially women of color ) are usually the first to make the first sacrifice before any ( especially white ) male .
One might scoff at the this idea , but if I told that same person that overpopulation was not a problem for the environment that person may have what I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ve had moments where I would tighten up at the thought of hoardes of small children overfilling our world , and it being too overwhelming to our resources .
In those times , I have to check myself , and do a thought experiment .
Where do these babies come from ?
What do they look like ?
In seeing the Christian Children Fund ad that I ’ ve metaphorically played for myself is there a sad mother looking back with the words “ less than a cup of coffee ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It may have taken just a second for someone practicing this thought experiment to realize something that holds root in our collective conscious which has translated into policy .
Forced sterlization , eugenics , land reclamation and green grabbing .
All academic terms that translate to human rights atrocities all over the West and global South made by women of color specifically to placate the fears of scarcity .
It ’ s alarming that the gut reaction of overpopulation has such harsh realities for many others .
5 .
You are not a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tell Libertarians : For a lot of well meaning people watching An Inconvenient Truth was your first foray into the climate crisis .
At the end I remember the awesome bellows of Melissa Etheridge sing how we can make change followed by the text scrolling on the “ little things we can do ” passing by our eyes .
I ’ m sure you as I did felt good being a climate defender by purchasing the right shampoo , screwing in efficient bulbs and driving a Tesla ( unironically good on you !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of us is create a moralistic competition to the solutions to climate change .
COVID-19 has made it apparent that what we again need is public and political will that means sacrificing consumption , comfort and quite literally our mobility .
As a red , white and blue blooded American this is a new concept for people .
It ’ s going to be made worse when climate refugees show up , or industries being decimated by harsh weather patterns !
I use the phrase freedom islands a lot because a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of individuals being wholly and independently reliant on their own actions , that consequences and responsibility ends at the tip of your nose , and the balance of your check book .
I hope with this new COVID-19 paradigm , people feel like they are starting to realize the interconnective tissue we take for granted , and how valuable people are who give to society , not because of their financial wealth , but because they are willing to play the part .
In the coming decade we need to recognize those helpers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needed to make change happen , and for Christ sake get out of their way .
This week , while we are struggling to keep our sanity , I hope you indulge me to hear my thoughts on this important subject while we are stuck at home .
At the very least if nothing sticks , I want to not feel like I am screaming into a closet , and that is important to me .
Do this lonely activist a favor and be a friend , instead of waving at me from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the comment section .
I hope in giving me some space in your mind to hear something new , that it might inform and inspire you to find power to make the change .
That ’ s all I can hope .
See you tomorrow .

I am a climate activist. While I have many other responsibilities that I need to tend to, being a climate activist is something that is an important part of my identity. It has been increasingly frustrating to think of new ways to make the climate relevant to people during the socially responsible action of social distancing, but hell I’m willing to give it a shot. The extremely thin silver lining in these times is at the very least, interpersonally, people are seeing the social and cultural impediments that make progressive change impossible even when smacked in the face by a crisis such as COVID-19. That is why this week, I will be doing my part, by daily writing a diary on how climate has as much to do with society and culture as it does have to do with parts per million. Here I will take you through my personal reflections on how the climate crisis has seeped its way into all social problems that make the United States uniquely positioned to make change, and will go into more depth over the week. Only if we just solve the tiny problems of racism, white supremacy, class injustice, income inequality, and gender rights. Easy stuff right? A note: These ruminations are not to imply ignorance as part of the reader just further thoughts on subjects that affect climate, hope you can enjoy the ride with me.
1. We have been giving the wrong people power to the solution:
Raise your hand if the climate crisis scares you? Now raise your hand if you feel qualified to talk about the issue and find plans to make change. Congratulations if you raised your hand to the first question the second question is wholly unnecessary. We put a lot of faith in experts (no this is not a rant on not trusting scientists DEFINITELY DO THAT). What this section is meant for is why we give value to WHO says they are experts. The central thesis to this prompt is: “Just because one has a job of consequence does not mean that person has capacity.” What the hell that weird jargon means is that often our society gives overdue weight to people whose jobs move society more visibly than others. If I as a nobody from the North East want to see change, it will be very easily written off. However if Mark Cuban or Jeff Bezos have thoughts it is given time and space to be heard, digested and considered, then given media coverage, and then Swiss retreats to discuss with policy makers. They have consequence but lack the capacity. I hold a BS in Environmental Science and a MA in Social Policy with 12 years of community development experience around the environment, but because my job does not have consequence when I demand action like the Green New Deal it isn’t given weight. And socially I’m sure you might feel that too that no one has yet to consider your needs, but if you are about to get hit by a tidal wave, yes I think you should be given some seat at the table on how high put your house.
2. “It’s about the racism stupid”: Haha get it like Bill Clinton! Cheap heat aside the climate crisis like COVID-19, the California wildfires, Flint water crisis, everything else that gets suffixed by “crisis” have one thing in common. It hits people of color first, the hardest, and takes them the longest to recover from. That fact is not by accident, it’s by design. Since the 1960’s the environmental justice movement has tried the sysiphus-ian task of trying to center environmental issues around race. All leaders in this movement has tried to remind White people that not only are they victims to the problems, but they are often victims to the solutions as well. White intellectuals demand seawalls, but put them first in communities of color limiting their access to the waterfront, or trade. White intellectuals demand that there be a reduction in Carbon by vehicles, but do nothing to rectify problems with mass transit even though this most hits communities of color. I could go on (and I will this week), but this Earth Day it is important to recognize how inequality is as much environmental as it is economical. Re-center race in the discussion of climate change.
3. The reason why things don’t happen is because of misinformation: The climate crisis much like COVID-19 has an issue of resources, technology and human capitol to be sure. What it needs more than anything to get it going (and is heroically being done by people staying home) is public will. It requires centralized messaging of “doing your part”, “being socially responsible”, and “making sacrifices” narratives that threaten power who want us to be beholden to the myths of unfettered capitalism and neoliberalism. For Conservative leadership instead of coming up with new ideas that make outcomes better, there has been a considerable amount of resources dedicated to straight up lying or confusing the public to make sure the required will doesn’t reach a point of actualization. The same tactics of deny, shift blame, then say “nothing can be done” is ever present in a small microcosm of almost four months. Stretch that out to almost 60 years, and you have the continued struggles of climate activists. While this messaging is apparent it is important to recognize that these tactics work because of a culture tied to classism, racism and other forms of white supremacist ideas that infected our body politic. We allow these ideas to fester because White comfort is more important that action to disinfect disinformation that harms people. I think this an important message to take a deep dive on.
4. WHAT?! Climate change is about gender TOO?: I know it is difficult to make this connection, I mean it’s not like carbon forces abortions to spike, sexism to happen at work, or sexual assault to increase or decrease. However all crises create socially recognized necessary sacrifices to be made out of fear. Women (especially women of color) are usually the first to make the first sacrifice before any (especially white) male. One might scoff at the this idea, but if I told that same person that overpopulation was not a problem for the environment that person may have what I’ve had once in my past. I’ve had moments where I would tighten up at the thought of hoardes of small children overfilling our world, and it being too overwhelming to our resources. In those times, I have to check myself, and do a thought experiment. Where do these babies come from? What do they look like? In seeing the Christian Children Fund ad that I’ve metaphorically played for myself is there a sad mother looking back with the words “less than a cup of coffee” scrolled on my mental TV screen. It may have taken just a second for someone practicing this thought experiment to realize something that holds root in our collective conscious which has translated into policy. Forced sterlization, eugenics, land reclamation and green grabbing. All academic terms that translate to human rights atrocities all over the West and global South made by women of color specifically to placate the fears of scarcity. It’s alarming that the gut reaction of overpopulation has such harsh realities for many others.
5. You are not a freedom island, and other things to tell Libertarians: For a lot of well meaning people watching An Inconvenient Truth was your first foray into the climate crisis. At the end I remember the awesome bellows of Melissa Etheridge sing how we can make change followed by the text scrolling on the “little things we can do” passing by our eyes. I’m sure you as I did felt good being a climate defender by purchasing the right shampoo, screwing in efficient bulbs and driving a Tesla (unironically good on you!). However what this does for all of us is create a moralistic competition to the solutions to climate change. COVID-19 has made it apparent that what we again need is public and political will that means sacrificing consumption, comfort and quite literally our mobility. As a red, white and blue blooded American this is a new concept for people. It’s going to be made worse when climate refugees show up, or industries being decimated by harsh weather patterns! I use the phrase freedom islands a lot because a lot of Conservative ethos relies on the idea of individuals being wholly and independently reliant on their own actions, that consequences and responsibility ends at the tip of your nose, and the balance of your check book. I hope with this new COVID-19 paradigm, people feel like they are starting to realize the interconnective tissue we take for granted, and how valuable people are who give to society, not because of their financial wealth, but because they are willing to play the part. In the coming decade we need to recognize those helpers, and give them the proper support needed to make change happen, and for Christ sake get out of their way.
This week, while we are struggling to keep our sanity, I hope you indulge me to hear my thoughts on this important subject while we are stuck at home. At the very least if nothing sticks, I want to not feel like I am screaming into a closet, and that is important to me. Do this lonely activist a favor and be a friend, instead of waving at me from the street give me an ambivalent shrug in the comment section. I hope in giving me some space in your mind to hear something new, that it might inform and inspire you to find power to make the change. That’s all I can hope. See you tomorrow.


dailykos--2020-04-20--Republicans Are Running The Same Old Astro-Turf Game Plan Around Covid-19 Protests

There are people who are never more motivated than when they believe that they are protecting individual freedoms .
We all want to think we are doing something important with our little lives .
That we can make a difference .
For certain groups , especially those who are more open to believe that their government is evil , this can present an opportunity to serve a greater cause .
To act in a manner that resembles those who resisted and fought the Revolutionary War .
This is how we got the Tea Party .
Republican leaders learned back when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Care Act that weaponizing people ’ s anger and frustration toward something that actually helped and saved lives was not only possible , it became a wildly successful opportunity get their voters emotionally engaged and distracted from , you know , reality and act against their own best interests .
Turns out it ’ s not that difficult to do .
Back in 2009 former Texas Congressman Dick Army was tapped by outside business interests and conservative think tanks to help create a counter narrative to the new healthcare program being rolled out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inclination as president was to use his political capital to repair our failed healthcare system and then selected a policy agenda focused on treating people ’ s physical well-being as a priority , healthcare .
His own mother had died of cancer and he got to see first hand the inadequacies and inequalities perpetrated upon the public by an antiquated system that didn ’ t serve the broader public health interests .
The plan Republicans came up with was to paint this thing , they cynically dubbed Obamacare , as some nefarious power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s rights and freedoms regarding their own health .
Consequently we would be told by our government what doctors we could see and treatment we could get .
More than that , we would be evaluated for our long term health prospects , value to society based on age and the government could euthanize us through something they called “ death panels ” .
Sounds absurd but some people believed it .
Enough that Democrats were trounced in the 2010 midterm , losing both the House and Senate despite the fact that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Outside interests , led by paid mercenaries like Dick Army and aided by insurance and pharmaceutical companies , paid for a faux “ AstroTurf ” movement created to deliver well coordinated misinformation campaigns to the American people .
Fake groups with patriotic sounding names like Freedomworks , complete with websites , manufactured signs and slogans were unleashed to fool people in to believing that there was this large underground insurgency out there that organically sprung up to protect people from a government bent not taking away their rights and possibly trying to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hired to attend staged “ rallies ” to give the appearance of an actual movement .
The media , always looking for conflict to report on , gave it a disproportionate amount of attention and that helped it grow .
The same troublemakers are back at it again .
Business interests have again joined up with their natural allies , the most extreme representatives in the Republican Party , to manufacture a fake movement .
It is starting off small and the protester turnouts look about the same size as the initial ones @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for it again and inadvertently giving these small protests more coverage than their size deserves .
This creates the false perception that this is bigger and more important than it is .
There is a good chance Russia is assisting as well .
Social Media feeds are being taken over by conspiracy theories and misinformation and they are spreading more rapidly than even the virus itself .
It is a natural thing that we are angry and frustrated .
What we are lacking is a place to direct it .
Getting mad a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t register our wrath .
The obvious choice is the same old scapegoat , the government , to project our feelings on .
It may seem irrational but humans are not rational , especially when they are scared .
As time goes on , more people will want to exorcise their feelings .
Our leaders should be aware that the danger for a backlash is there , and that there are forces very willing to exploit it .

There are people who are never more motivated than when they believe that they are protecting individual freedoms. We all want to think we are doing something important with our little lives. That we can make a difference. For certain groups, especially those who are more open to believe that their government is evil, this can present an opportunity to serve a greater cause. To act in a manner that resembles those who resisted and fought the Revolutionary War. This is how we got the Tea Party.
Republican leaders learned back when the Obama administration rolled out the Affordable Care Act that weaponizing people’s anger and frustration toward something that actually helped and saved lives was not only possible, it became a wildly successful opportunity get their voters emotionally engaged and distracted from, you know, reality and act against their own best interests. Turns out it’s not that difficult to do.
Back in 2009 former Texas Congressman Dick Army was tapped by outside business interests and conservative think tanks to help create a counter narrative to the new healthcare program being rolled out by Democrats. Obama’s first inclination as president was to use his political capital to repair our failed healthcare system and then selected a policy agenda focused on treating people’s physical well-being as a priority, healthcare. His own mother had died of cancer and he got to see first hand the inadequacies and inequalities perpetrated upon the public by an antiquated system that didn’t serve the broader public health interests.
The plan Republicans came up with was to paint this thing, they cynically dubbed Obamacare, as some nefarious power grab that would take away people’s rights and freedoms regarding their own health. Consequently we would be told by our government what doctors we could see and treatment we could get. More than that, we would be evaluated for our long term health prospects, value to society based on age and the government could euthanize us through something they called “death panels”. Sounds absurd but some people believed it. Enough that Democrats were trounced in the 2010 midterm, losing both the House and Senate despite the fact that they had just improved their healthcare programs dramatically.
Outside interests, led by paid mercenaries like Dick Army and aided by insurance and pharmaceutical companies, paid for a faux “AstroTurf” movement created to deliver well coordinated misinformation campaigns to the American people. Fake groups with patriotic sounding names like Freedomworks, complete with websites, manufactured signs and slogans were unleashed to fool people in to believing that there was this large underground insurgency out there that organically sprung up to protect people from a government bent not taking away their rights and possibly trying to kill them. Buses of people were hired to attend staged “rallies” to give the appearance of an actual movement. The media, always looking for conflict to report on, gave it a disproportionate amount of attention and that helped it grow.
The same troublemakers are back at it again. Business interests have again joined up with their natural allies, the most extreme representatives in the Republican Party, to manufacture a fake movement. It is starting off small and the protester turnouts look about the same size as the initial ones for Obamacare. The media is falling for it again and inadvertently giving these small protests more coverage than their size deserves. This creates the false perception that this is bigger and more important than it is. There is a good chance Russia is assisting as well. Social Media feeds are being taken over by conspiracy theories and misinformation and they are spreading more rapidly than even the virus itself.
It is a natural thing that we are angry and frustrated. What we are lacking is a place to direct it. Getting mad a virus isn’t satisfying, it can’t register our wrath. The obvious choice is the same old scapegoat, the government, to project our feelings on. It may seem irrational but humans are not rational, especially when they are scared. As time goes on, more people will want to exorcise their feelings. Our leaders should be aware that the danger for a backlash is there, and that there are forces very willing to exploit it.


dailykos--2020-04-20--Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, (Un)Reality TV, 2020-Style

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com .
To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week , click here .
He hosted 14 seasons of The Apprentice and its successor , The Celebrity Apprentice , and in all those years I probably spent seven minutes watching the show , or flipping past it as I looked for something else -- and , as far as I was concerned , that was seven minutes too many .
I don ’ t want you to think that I didn ’ t watch my share of junk on TV .
I did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( self- ) promoter whose most memorable line was “ You ’ re fired !
” judging the business skills of a group of sycophantic contestants ?
I preferred Law and Order reruns any day of the decade .
And here ’ s the thing : now , I get to watch the “ You ’ re fired !
” show ( “ nasty !
” ) whether I want to or not .
In fact , just about the only thing Donald Trump has proven good at is firing people in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the likes of which is surely historically unprecedented .
In fact , the Brookings Institution estimates that 85 % of his “ A team ” has turned over in these years , sometimes many times .
After all , he 's had four chiefs of staff , five deputy chiefs of staff , five communications directors , four press secretaries , four national security advisors , at least six deputy national security advisors , three secretaries of defense ( one “ acting ” ) , and so on .
Unfortunately , just about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been fired are the rest of us and , in our coronaviral moment , we have little choice ( if we aren ’ t front-line workers ) but to sit idly and watch , or force ourselves not to watch , you-know-who .
Once upon a time , if you had predicted such a future for me , I would have thought you mad .
No longer .
How appropriate , then , that today TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon , facing the slings and arrows of outrageous press conferences , focuses on Hamlet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the era of The Donald : to watch or not to watch , that is the question , and it 's one hard not to ask nightly in the Covid-19 era .
Tom Strange Attractors On Being Addicted to Trump and His Press Conferences By Rebecca Gordon My partner and I have been fighting about politics since we met in 1965 .
I was 13 .
She was 18 and my summer camp counselor .
( It was another 14 years before we became a couple . )
We spent that first summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was convinced that the U.S. never should have gotten involved there .
Though she agreed , she was more concerned that the growth of an antiwar movement would distract people from what she considered far more crucial to this country : the Civil Rights movement .
As it happened , we were both right .
She took off that fall for college at the University of California , Berkeley , where , as she says , she majored in history with a minor in rioting .
I went back to junior high school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about politics ever since .
So maybe it ’ s no surprise that , since the coronavirus pandemic exploded , we ’ ve been fighting about the president .
Not about his character ( vile and infantile , we both agree ) or his job performance ( beyond dismal ) , but about whether anyone with a conscience should watch his never-ending television performances .
Since 2016 , she ’ s done her best not to expose herself to either his voice or his image , and she ’ s complained regularly about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ broadcast his self-evident lies , to cover any misconceived or idiotic thing he might decide to say at rally after rally as if it were actual news .
More recently , she ’ s said the media should send their interns to cover his Covid-19 “ news ” conferences .
( Of course , MSNBC and CNN now no longer always broadcast those events , whose ratings the president so treasures , in full .
In fact , by April 13th , CNN appeared to have let their chyron writer off the leash @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s news conference like “ Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session ” and “ Breaking news : Trump refuses to acknowledge any mistakes.
” ) For a couple of weeks now , I ’ ve been watching each live broadcast of the Trump Follies , otherwise known as the White House daily coronavirus task force briefings .
Readers who , like me , remember the Vietnam War may also recall the infamous “ Five O ’ Clock Follies , ” the U.S. military ’ s mendacious daily briefings from the South Vietnamese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conflict .
There , its spokesmen regularly offered evidence , including grimly inflated “ body counts ” of enemy dead , that allowed them to claim they were winning a losing war .
The question today , of course , is whether the present pandemic version of those follies offers at least a small glimmer of hope that the president may now be mired in his own Covid-19 version of Vietnam .
After I ’ ve spent a couple of irretrievable hours of my life gaping at the muddled mind of Donald Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as if I ’ d kept eating Oreo cookies long after they stopped tasting good .
But it doesn ’ t matter .
The next day , I just turn it on again .
I wonder if it ’ s people like me who are responsible for that TV ratings bump of his ?
It took my partner a while to catch on to what I ’ ve been doing .
The reason : like an alcoholic whose bottles are stuffed away in secret corners , I ’ ve been hiding this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basement and watching while working on my loom .
Or I would catch my Trump fix while she was out on the streets of San Francisco taking photographs for her 10-year project to both walk and record every voting precinct in the city .
But one evening , returning a little early , she walked in on me before I had time to slam the laptop cover down .
“ Nobody should be watching those press conferences !
” she said emphatically , when she twigged to what I ’ d been up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there and listen to lies ?
Why are you exposing yourself to that crap ?
Anything you actually need to know you can read in newspaper summaries the next day.
” And I have to admit that those were fair questions .
Why am I exposing myself to such a pure , unmediated stream of falsehoods , ignorance , and preening self-congratulation day after day ?
Why , though I loathe his lies as much as she does , do I keep listening to them in real time ?
As he typically said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prevention on March 6th , “ Anybody that wants a [ coronavirus ] test can get a test ” ; “ The tests are all perfect .
Like the letter was perfect .
The transcription was perfect , right ?
...
This was not as perfect as that , but pretty good . ''
( No one knows what “ letter ” he was referring to , though he probably meant the summary transcript of his phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky . )
Why don ’ t I switch the press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and congratulate himself as he always does ?
( “ I 've felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic ” ; “ Every one of these [ CDC ] doctors said , ‘ How do you know so much about this ?
’ Maybe I have a natural ability .
Maybe I should ’ ve done that instead of running for president.
” ) Why am I fascinated by the way just about everyone on the podium fawns all over him , starting with Vice President Mike Pence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president ’ s ” Coronavirus Task Force ( unless , this week , it ’ s Jared Kushner ) ?
Why do I keep listening to Pence intoning , “ The president has directed that ... ” or referring to “ President Trump ’ s 15-day coronavirus guidelines , ” as if Trump himself had written them and designed the oversized postcard outlining them , which arrived in people 's mail at the end of March ?
Why am I mesmerized as assorted business “ leaders ” like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell trip @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president ?
Lindell , in fact , used his minute and a half of fame to tell the world that God had essentially elected Donald Trump in 2016 .
( I guess that explains it !
I knew I hadn ’ t voted for him . )
I think what provides me ( and so many others ) with that nightly hit of dopamine is the sheer brazenness of the president ’ s lies on show for all to see .
Not for him the mealy-mouthed half-truth , the small evasion .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest of his persona , grandiose in a way that should be beyond belief , but remains stubbornly real .
Here he is , for instance , in mid-March , speaking of Americans flying back from Europe : “ If an American is coming back or anybody is coming back , we ’ re testing .
We have a tremendous testing setup where people coming in have to be tested ... We ’ re not putting them on planes if it shows positive , but if they do come here , we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photos of weary travelers crammed together in U.S. airports then knows that none of this was faintly accurate .
But no matter .
Then there ’ s Trump ’ s use of those television performances and the audiences they garner as the ultimate measure of presidential achievement .
By now , who isn ’ t familiar with his delight in the ratings the coronavirus press briefings have attracted ?
As he tweeted on March 29th : “ Because the ‘ Ratings ’ of my News Conferences etc .
are so high , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numbers ’ according to the @ nytimes , the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY .
‘ Trump is reaching too many people , we must stop him , ’ said one lunatic .
See you at 5:00 P.M. !
” So it ’ s no surprise that he also uses media ratings as the metric by which he judges the performance of everyone working to slow down the spread of the coronavirus .
For him , governing is nothing but a performance .
At his March 29th briefing , for example , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being paid to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and someone he called “ the General ” ( whose name he seemed to have forgotten ) .
After observing that the Washington Post , like my partner , thinks Americans should shun his pressers , he pointed out that he ’ d inaugurated other people ’ s TV careers : “ We ’ re getting the word out .
We ’ re getting the accurate word out .
And a lot of people are happy about it , and a lot of people aren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happy .
When I have the General , when I have Seema [ Verma , head of Medicare and Medicaid Services ] , and when I have Tony [ Fauci ] , and when I have our -- our incred- -- these are , like , people that have become big stars , okay ?
” Then there ’ s the astonishing ignorance he ’ s so happy to put on display regularly , as at the April 10th task force briefing .
Asked whether “ reopening ” the country would depend on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it possible to do surveillance and contact tracing , he replied that such tests would be unnecessary in “ vast areas of the country ” because they don ’ t ( yet ) have outbreaks .
Given that no state by then lacked coronavirus cases , it was yet one more display of his inability to grasp the basics of the potential for exponential growth in a highly contagious disease .
Finally , there ’ s the eternal assumption in just about everything he says that no one could possibly know more about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In a terrifying exchange on April 10th , a reporter asked what metrics he would use in deciding when and how to reopen the country , a decision he had just falsely claimed he has “ absolute authority ” to enforce .
“ The metrics right here , ” he replied , pointing to his temple and , presumably , the brain behind it .
“ That ’ s my metrics .
That ’ s all I can do .
I can listen to 35 people .
At the end , I got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on to explain that he had just figured out how big a decision it was .
“ And I didn ’ t think of it until yesterday .
I said , ‘ You know , this is a big decision.
’ ” Who could possibly have known how big a decision it was until that very moment when the president claimed to have grasped that reality ?
In the end , maybe what truly draws me to those news conferences and keeps me hooked is the cognitive dissonance of it all .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality TV , partly because I don ’ t like watching people be mean to one another , but mainly because what happens on such shows is anything but “ real.
” Mean ( or “ nasty ” ) as he may be , Trump ’ s press conferences are real .
And isn ’ t that the contradiction , the eerie fascination , of it all -- that the unbelievable is actually true ?
Donald Trump is , in fact , the president of the United States , even if watching each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a creature from another dimension , a being who simply doesn ’ t conform to earthly reality .
And that , in a terrifying way , is fascinating .
I can ’ t look away .
The field of mathematics called chaos theory , which deals with extremely complex , dynamic systems like the movements of liquids or gasses , has a concept called “ strange attractors.
” An attractor is a point that a graph of the system keeps cycling around and returning to over time .
( Not being a mathematician @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can do . )
Strange attractors are fractal , meaning that each part of one of them will display the same pattern no matter how much you magnify it , no matter how deep you go -- in other words , very much like the mind of Trump .
Some strange attractors are part of chaotic systems that don ’ t repeat at any regular interval and will vary greatly over time .
The weather is like that ; a small difference in temperature or pressure at a given moment can affect whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But if a chaotic system has strange attractors , then , over many years , the same initial conditions will most often settle into one of two results , the equivalents of a clear day or a bad storm .
You can ’ t say what will happen in any given year , but you can say what is most likely to happen over 100 years .
As Wikipedia puts it , “ Thus a dynamic system with a chaotic [ strange ] attractor is locally unstable yet globally stable.
” Should -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ win reelection this November , we ’ ll have a real-life example of a system that is locally unstable , but globally horribly stable for the next four years .
In his case , of course , we ’ re talking about how a “ very stable genius ” will be able to spin the chaos he creates into an ever more authoritarian regime .
Oh , and as that Wikipedia article adds , “ Strange attractors may also be found in the presence of noise ... ” Let me apologize instantly for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but how can I not point out that our presidential Strange Attractor is indeed surrounded by the constant noise of the media , fake and otherwise , cycling around and feeding off the one constant point that is Trump in the chaos of his universe .
So who ’ s right , my girlfriend or me ?
Just as was true years ago , I suspect we ’ re both right .
No one should engage with that chaotic noise and the strange attractor at its center .
All of us should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort , which is the oxygen that sustains him .
And yet , someone has to watch , because strange as it is , our lives depend on it .
Rebecca Gordon , a TomDispatch regular , teaches at the University of San Francisco .
She is the author of American Nuremberg : The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes and is now at work on a new book on the history of torture in the United States .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ John Feffer ’ s new dystopian novel ( the second in the Splinterlands series ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , as well as Alfred McCoy 's In the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John Dower 's The Violent American Century : War and Terror Since World War II .

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
He hosted 14 seasons of The Apprentice and its successor, The Celebrity Apprentice, and in all those years I probably spent seven minutes watching the show, or flipping past it as I looked for something else -- and, as far as I was concerned, that was seven minutes too many. I don’t want you to think that I didn’t watch my share of junk on TV. I did. But a blowhard New York real-estate (self-)promoter whose most memorable line was “You’re fired!” judging the business skills of a group of sycophantic contestants? I preferred Law and Order reruns any day of the decade.
And here’s the thing: now, I get to watch the “You’re fired!” show (“nasty!”) whether I want to or not. In fact, just about the only thing Donald Trump has proven good at is firing people in his administration, which has a turnover rate the likes of which is surely historically unprecedented. In fact, the Brookings Institution estimates that 85% of his “A team” has turned over in these years, sometimes many times. After all, he's had four chiefs of staff, five deputy chiefs of staff, five communications directors, four press secretaries, four national security advisors, at least six deputy national security advisors, three secretaries of defense (one “acting”), and so on.
Unfortunately, just about the only ones who haven’t been fired are the rest of us and, in our coronaviral moment, we have little choice (if we aren’t front-line workers) but to sit idly and watch, or force ourselves not to watch, you-know-who.
Once upon a time, if you had predicted such a future for me, I would have thought you mad. No longer. How appropriate, then, that today TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon, facing the slings and arrows of outrageous press conferences, focuses on Hamlet’s famous query, modernized for the era of The Donald: to watch or not to watch, that is the question, and it's one hard not to ask nightly in the Covid-19 era. Tom
Strange Attractors
On Being Addicted to Trump and His Press Conferences
By Rebecca Gordon
My partner and I have been fighting about politics since we met in 1965. I was 13. She was 18 and my summer camp counselor. (It was another 14 years before we became a couple.) We spent that first summer arguing about the Vietnam War. I was convinced that the U.S. never should have gotten involved there. Though she agreed, she was more concerned that the growth of an antiwar movement would distract people from what she considered far more crucial to this country: the Civil Rights movement. As it happened, we were both right.
She took off that fall for college at the University of California, Berkeley, where, as she says, she majored in history with a minor in rioting. I went back to junior high school. And we’ve been arguing about politics ever since.
So maybe it’s no surprise that, since the coronavirus pandemic exploded, we’ve been fighting about the president. Not about his character (vile and infantile, we both agree) or his job performance (beyond dismal), but about whether anyone with a conscience should watch his never-ending television performances. Since 2016, she’s done her best not to expose herself to either his voice or his image, and she’s complained regularly about the mainstream media’s willingness to broadcast his self-evident lies, to cover any misconceived or idiotic thing he might decide to say at rally after rally as if it were actual news. More recently, she’s said the media should send their interns to cover his Covid-19 “news” conferences. (Of course, MSNBC and CNN now no longer always broadcast those events, whose ratings the president so treasures, in full. In fact, by April 13th, CNN appeared to have let their chyron writer off the leash to run legends below that day’s news conference like “Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session” and “Breaking news: Trump refuses to acknowledge any mistakes.”)
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been watching each live broadcast of the Trump Follies, otherwise known as the White House daily coronavirus task force briefings. Readers who, like me, remember the Vietnam War may also recall the infamous “Five O’Clock Follies,” the U.S. military’s mendacious daily briefings from the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, during that endless conflict. There, its spokesmen regularly offered evidence, including grimly inflated “body counts” of enemy dead, that allowed them to claim they were winning a losing war. The question today, of course, is whether the present pandemic version of those follies offers at least a small glimmer of hope that the president may now be mired in his own Covid-19 version of Vietnam.
After I’ve spent a couple of irretrievable hours of my life gaping at the muddled mind of Donald Trump, I always feel a sickening sensation, as if I’d kept eating Oreo cookies long after they stopped tasting good. But it doesn’t matter. The next day, I just turn it on again. I wonder if it’s people like me who are responsible for that TV ratings bump of his?
It took my partner a while to catch on to what I’ve been doing. The reason: like an alcoholic whose bottles are stuffed away in secret corners, I’ve been hiding this perverse habit by sneaking down to the basement and watching while working on my loom. Or I would catch my Trump fix while she was out on the streets of San Francisco taking photographs for her 10-year project to both walk and record every voting precinct in the city.
But one evening, returning a little early, she walked in on me before I had time to slam the laptop cover down. “Nobody should be watching those press conferences!” she said emphatically, when she twigged to what I’d been up to. “How can you sit there and listen to lies? Why are you exposing yourself to that crap? Anything you actually need to know you can read in newspaper summaries the next day.”
What’s the Appeal?
And I have to admit that those were fair questions. Why am I exposing myself to such a pure, unmediated stream of falsehoods, ignorance, and preening self-congratulation day after day? Why, though I loathe his lies as much as she does, do I keep listening to them in real time? As he typically said at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 6th, “Anybody that wants a [coronavirus] test can get a test”; “The tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right?... This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good." (No one knows what “letter” he was referring to, though he probably meant the summary transcript of his phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.)
Why don’t I switch the press conferences off when he begins to praise and congratulate himself as he always does? (“I've felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”; “Every one of these [CDC] doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.”)
Why am I fascinated by the way just about everyone on the podium fawns all over him, starting with Vice President Mike Pence, the titular head of “the president’s” Coronavirus Task Force (unless, this week, it’s Jared Kushner)? Why do I keep listening to Pence intoning, “The president has directed that...” or referring to “President Trump’s 15-day coronavirus guidelines,” as if Trump himself had written them and designed the oversized postcard outlining them, which arrived in people's mail at the end of March? Why am I mesmerized as assorted business “leaders” like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell trip over themselves outdoing each another in praising the president? Lindell, in fact, used his minute and a half of fame to tell the world that God had essentially elected Donald Trump in 2016. (I guess that explains it! I knew I hadn’t voted for him.)
I think what provides me (and so many others) with that nightly hit of dopamine is the sheer brazenness of the president’s lies on show for all to see. Not for him the mealy-mouthed half-truth, the small evasion. No, his are, like the rest of his persona, grandiose in a way that should be beyond belief, but remains stubbornly real.
Here he is, for instance, in mid-March, speaking of Americans flying back from Europe: “If an American is coming back or anybody is coming back, we’re testing. We have a tremendous testing setup where people coming in have to be tested... We’re not putting them on planes if it shows positive, but if they do come here, we’re quarantining.” Anyone who saw the photos of weary travelers crammed together in U.S. airports then knows that none of this was faintly accurate. But no matter.
Then there’s Trump’s use of those television performances and the audiences they garner as the ultimate measure of presidential achievement. By now, who isn’t familiar with his delight in the ratings the coronavirus press briefings have attracted? As he tweeted on March 29th:
“Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers’ according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. ‘Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him,’ said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!”
So it’s no surprise that he also uses media ratings as the metric by which he judges the performance of everyone working to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. For him, governing is nothing but a performance. At his March 29th briefing, for example, he gave himself credit for the media attention being paid to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and someone he called “the General” (whose name he seemed to have forgotten). After observing that the Washington Post, like my partner, thinks Americans should shun his pressers, he pointed out that he’d inaugurated other people’s TV careers:
“We’re getting the word out. We’re getting the accurate word out. And a lot of people are happy about it, and a lot of people aren’t. But they should be happy. When I have the General, when I have Seema [Verma, head of Medicare and Medicaid Services], and when I have Tony [Fauci], and when I have our -- our incred- -- these are, like, people that have become big stars, okay?”
Then there’s the astonishing ignorance he’s so happy to put on display regularly, as at the April 10th task force briefing. Asked whether “reopening” the country would depend on having enough Covid-19 tests available to make it possible to do surveillance and contact tracing, he replied that such tests would be unnecessary in “vast areas of the country” because they don’t (yet) have outbreaks. Given that no state by then lacked coronavirus cases, it was yet one more display of his inability to grasp the basics of the potential for exponential growth in a highly contagious disease.
Finally, there’s the eternal assumption in just about everything he says that no one could possibly know more about any subject than he instantly grasps. In a terrifying exchange on April 10th, a reporter asked what metrics he would use in deciding when and how to reopen the country, a decision he had just falsely claimed he has “absolute authority” to enforce.
“The metrics right here,” he replied, pointing to his temple and, presumably, the brain behind it. “That’s my metrics. That’s all I can do. I can listen to 35 people. At the end, I got to make a decision.” He went on to explain that he had just figured out how big a decision it was. “And I didn’t think of it until yesterday. I said, ‘You know, this is a big decision.’” Who could possibly have known how big a decision it was until that very moment when the president claimed to have grasped that reality?
Strange Attractors
In the end, maybe what truly draws me to those news conferences and keeps me hooked is the cognitive dissonance of it all. I’ve never been a fan of reality TV, partly because I don’t like watching people be mean to one another, but mainly because what happens on such shows is anything but “real.” Mean (or “nasty”) as he may be, Trump’s press conferences are real. And isn’t that the contradiction, the eerie fascination, of it all -- that the unbelievable is actually true? Donald Trump is, in fact, the president of the United States, even if watching each of those televised events is like encountering a creature from another dimension, a being who simply doesn’t conform to earthly reality. And that, in a terrifying way, is fascinating. I can’t look away.
The field of mathematics called chaos theory, which deals with extremely complex, dynamic systems like the movements of liquids or gasses, has a concept called “strange attractors.” An attractor is a point that a graph of the system keeps cycling around and returning to over time. (Not being a mathematician, that’s the best I can do.) Strange attractors are fractal, meaning that each part of one of them will display the same pattern no matter how much you magnify it, no matter how deep you go -- in other words, very much like the mind of Trump.
Some strange attractors are part of chaotic systems that don’t repeat at any regular interval and will vary greatly over time. The weather is like that; a small difference in temperature or pressure at a given moment can affect whether a local change becomes a hurricane. But if a chaotic system has strange attractors, then, over many years, the same initial conditions will most often settle into one of two results, the equivalents of a clear day or a bad storm. You can’t say what will happen in any given year, but you can say what is most likely to happen over 100 years. As Wikipedia puts it, “Thus a dynamic system with a chaotic [strange] attractor is locally unstable yet globally stable.”
Should -- the gods and statistics forbid -- Trump win reelection this November, we’ll have a real-life example of a system that is locally unstable, but globally horribly stable for the next four years. In his case, of course, we’re talking about how a “very stable genius” will be able to spin the chaos he creates into an ever more authoritarian regime.
Oh, and as that Wikipedia article adds, “Strange attractors may also be found in the presence of noise...” Let me apologize instantly for perverting some poor mathematician’s meaning, but how can I not point out that our presidential Strange Attractor is indeed surrounded by the constant noise of the media, fake and otherwise, cycling around and feeding off the one constant point that is Trump in the chaos of his universe.
So who’s right, my girlfriend or me? Just as was true years ago, I suspect we’re both right. No one should engage with that chaotic noise and the strange attractor at its center. All of us should deprive Donald Trump of attention of every sort, which is the oxygen that sustains him. And yet, someone has to watch, because strange as it is, our lives depend on it.
Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes and is now at work on a new book on the history of torture in the United States.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer’s new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Rebecca Gordon


dailykos--2020-04-20--Trump's pandemic response; incompetence or a plan?

Critics of the President 's inaction at the start of the pandemic thought this was a sign of incompetence ; that might be being a little naïve .
Envision a pandemic response team 's playbook , created and shared between administrations , which lays out the following scenario : • A virus that starts overseas infects our country via our ports of entry .
• In those large cities , if the warning signs went unheeded as an emergency , the virus would spread through these urban populations .
• Once the virus spreads to other urban and rural areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's grip , it would adversely affect the economy , causing unemployment to rise and the inability of small businesses to survive .
• The spread of the virus would , if intense enough , require the administration to declare a state of emergency .
As most people would see this as a problem , others would see this as an opportunity and contemplate letting it `` wash over us . ''
Here is a list of a few reasons why : • Urban populations are political opposition for the President .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( i.e.
, those most affected ) .
So more deaths mean fewer voters for your political opponent .
• Elite wealthy think that a recession is good because they have the money to hold out through the stock market 's downturn and have excess cash to buy high-quality stocks at the lowest price .
Vastly increasing their wealth .
• Implementation of a political power grab under the guise of a national emergency enables Draconian laws and actions to undermine political dissent to ensure the President 's reelection .
In the hands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and undemocratic leader , events such as adjourning Congress , setting up indefinite detention , undoing acts of Congress , purging disloyal government officials , and encouraging attacks on minorities , etc .
become routine .
In waiting until the pandemic had its grip on the nation , the President , his legislative gang members , his news media aristocrats , and cabinet members were continually reassuring the citizens that there was no reason to worry .
There was no such thing as a pandemic – just a politicized hoax ; the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spun publicly while secret backroom discussions were occurring to make sure that the President 's dark money donors and other loyalist positioned themselves to pull out of the stock market .
Then the President admits — in lockstep with the legislators and news organization — that there truly is a pandemic ; the disease will be terrible ; there will be a quarter-million deaths , and the economy will crater into a depression .
With this , the insider traders were able to pocket trillions of dollars from the stock market .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enacted the policy request that the President had been demanding for years – in which the Feds lower the interest rate to zero and pump trillions of dollars into the economy .
Congress , being afraid that they may lose their jobs , pass a bill for trillions of dollars of fiscal stimulus — with 'strings ' attached ' — spent without a single discussion of who will pay for it .
The President promptly ignored this restriction - seriously , who will enforce this ?
The justice department ?
- and will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money contributors .
Then , as election time approaches , most short-sighted citizens will forget the pain inflicted on the front-line defenders , laid-off workers , and families of the sick .
With trillions of dollars of `` free money '' being pumped into the stock market , the economy will be booming with the Dow Jones at 40,000 .
With the help of his Russian mafia propagandist , the President will use billions of dollars of dark money to hammer his political opponent into the ground .
Utilizing false accusations , trumped-up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his party 's fraud-ridden operations to sway just enough voters in the gerrymandered swing states , so he captures the electoral — not the majority- vote .
Is it incompetence , or is it a plan ?

Critics of the President's inaction at the start of the pandemic thought this was a sign of incompetence; that might be being a little naïve.
Envision a pandemic response team's playbook, created and shared between administrations, which lays out the following scenario:
A virus that starts overseas infects our country via our ports of entry.
In those large cities, if the warning signs went unheeded as an emergency, the virus would spread through these urban populations.
Once the virus spreads to other urban and rural areas and the country was in the virus's grip, it would adversely affect the economy, causing unemployment to rise and the inability of small businesses to survive.
The spread of the virus would, if intense enough, require the administration to declare a state of emergency.
As most people would see this as a problem, others would see this as an opportunity and contemplate letting it "wash over us." Here is a list of a few reasons why:
Urban populations are political opposition for the President. This administration and its supporters hate poor citizens(i.e., those most affected). So more deaths mean fewer voters for your political opponent.
Elite wealthy think that a recession is good because they have the money to hold out through the stock market's downturn and have excess cash to buy high-quality stocks at the lowest price. Vastly increasing their wealth.
Implementation of a political power grab under the guise of a national emergency enables Draconian laws and actions to undermine political dissent to ensure the President's reelection. In the hands of the most unethical, immoral, and undemocratic leader, events such as adjourning Congress, setting up indefinite detention, undoing acts of Congress, purging disloyal government officials, and encouraging attacks on minorities, etc. become routine.
In waiting until the pandemic had its grip on the nation, the President, his legislative gang members, his news media aristocrats, and cabinet members were continually reassuring the citizens that there was no reason to worry. There was no such thing as a pandemic – just a politicized hoax; the virus would just magically disappear. This propaganda spun publicly while secret backroom discussions were occurring to make sure that the President's dark money donors and other loyalist positioned themselves to pull out of the stock market. Then the President admits — in lockstep with the legislators and news organization — that there truly is a pandemic; the disease will be terrible; there will be a quarter-million deaths, and the economy will crater into a depression. With this, the insider traders were able to pocket trillions of dollars from the stock market.
In a desperate maneuver, the federal reserve enacted the policy request that the President had been demanding for years – in which the Feds lower the interest rate to zero and pump trillions of dollars into the economy. Congress, being afraid that they may lose their jobs, pass a bill for trillions of dollars of fiscal stimulus — with 'strings' attached' — spent without a single discussion of who will pay for it. The President promptly ignored this restriction - seriously, who will enforce this? The justice department? - and will start writing checks to his favorite dark money contributors. Then, as election time approaches, most short-sighted citizens will forget the pain inflicted on the front-line defenders, laid-off workers, and families of the sick. With trillions of dollars of "free money" being pumped into the stock market, the economy will be booming with the Dow Jones at 40,000. With the help of his Russian mafia propagandist, the President will use billions of dollars of dark money to hammer his political opponent into the ground. Utilizing false accusations, trumped-up corruption charges, unverified foreign accusers, and his party's fraud-ridden operations to sway just enough voters in the gerrymandered swing states, so he captures the electoral — not the majority- vote.
Is it incompetence, or is it a plan?


dailykos--2020-04-21--Kim Jung Un is brain dead

Kim Jung Un is brain dead

Early reports are saying he had a cardiac arrest and is in a coma and possibly brain dead .
2020… @ @ @ @ @ what this will bring if true just wanted to break it here first at my @ @ @ @ @ .
Love all of you !
Stay safe

Early reports are saying he had a cardiac arrest and is in a coma and possibly brain dead. 2020… wow. Hard to say what this will bring if true just wanted to break it here first at my favorite blog political or otherwise. Love all of you! Stay safe


dailykos--2020-04-21--Do Recent POLITICAL Decisions and Protests Negate IHME Coronavirus Model?

Do political decisions by Trump allies , protesters , and red state governors like Brian Kemp of Georgia and Ron DeSantis of Florida negate the IHME model for the coronavirus ?
For those not into the weeds of coronavirus modeling , the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ( IHME ) at the University of Washington produced a model for the coronavirus spread in the U.S. that the Trump Administration and others are supposedly relying on to predict how many infections and deaths there will be from the coronavirus .
Recently , there has been push back by other epidemiologists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The critics of the IHME model point out its scientific flaws , which I can get into at a later date .
But one thing that I think even lay people need to focus on is the assumption built into the IHME model : that we are all practicing social distancing and mitigation efforts This has never been the case , and I believe that the political decisions of some governors and Trump supporters will further undermine the IHME model .
Translation : the number of deaths due to coronavirus will be higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of MSNBC has been on top of how several red state governors out West have never put in place shelter in place orders .
This is because many of those governors are 1 ) suck ups to business interests and 2 ) following Trump ’ s directions on how to deal with the coronavirus .
Therefore , many of those states — Arkansas , Iowa , Nebraska , North and South Dakota and a several others — are incubators for the next round of coronavirus hotspots .
In fact , South Dakota is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make matters worse , other red state governors are taking Trump ’ s lead about reopening the economy , despite the fact that we haven ’ t even “ flattened the curve ” on the coronavirus pandemic .
• The beaches around Jackonsville , Florida reopened just a few days ago .
Do I need to link to the hashtag Florida Morons for you all ?
I didn ’ t think so .
• By the way , did you know that the IHME model claims that the peak of coronavirus deaths in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( WFLA ) – Updates from The University of Washington ’ s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projections suggest Florida has passed the worst of coronavirus impacts .
Projections from the IHME , which have been updated regularly since late March , show that since the state government ’ s stay-at-home order and restrictions of mass gatherings early this month , the spread of the virus has slowed .
That ’ s based on public data .
The peak of per-day coronavirus deaths is projected to have happened on April 2 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Florida that day .
Here is where I will pick some nits .
First up , even though Florida has gotten more tests done than some states , they are still no where near enough performed in Florida or any state to accurately make that kind of prediction .
They have only tested a little over 1 % of the state at this time .
And now , Florida has gone and thrown social distancing to the wind with opening up some of those beaches in north Florida .
• Governor Brian Kemp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Friday .
This despite the fact that the number of cases is still rising as are the deaths .
Sounds like social distancing is going to take a hit there in Georgia .
• South Carolina has decided to reopen its beaches and some businesses .
• I hear that Mississippi is planning to reopen its beaches too .
• And Texas and Tennessee have decided to join the fun .
So how is the IHME model to hold up when all those states have decided to start ending social distancing and reopening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ variable : those idiotic Trump supporters who have been gathering in person to protest shelter in place orders .
While it may not be in the thousands , it is still enough people in each state to start new hotspots for the coronavirus .
Remember , it only takes a few idiots to spread the coronavirus and for it to grow exponentially .
All of the above stupidity is because of politics .
Pure and simple .
The IHME model does not account for political stupidity and public health .

Do political decisions by Trump allies, protesters, and red state governors like Brian Kemp of Georgia and Ron DeSantis of Florida negate the IHME model for the coronavirus? For those not into the weeds of coronavirus modeling, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington produced a model for the coronavirus spread in the U.S. that the Trump Administration and others are supposedly relying on to predict how many infections and deaths there will be from the coronavirus. Recently, there has been push back by other epidemiologists that the IHME model is flawed. The critics of the IHME model point out its scientific flaws, which I can get into at a later date. But one thing that I think even lay people need to focus on is the assumption built into the IHME model: that we are all practicing social distancing and mitigation efforts equally. This has never been the case, and I believe that the political decisions of some governors and Trump supporters will further undermine the IHME model.
Translation: the number of deaths due to coronavirus will be higher because of dumbass politics.
Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has been on top of how several red state governors out West have never put in place shelter in place orders. This is because many of those governors are 1) suck ups to business interests and 2) following Trump’s directions on how to deal with the coronavirus. Therefore, many of those states — Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and a several others — are incubators for the next round of coronavirus hotspots. In fact, South Dakota is a prime example of this.
To make matters worse, other red state governors are taking Trump’s lead about reopening the economy, despite the fact that we haven’t even “flattened the curve” on the coronavirus pandemic.
The beaches around Jackonsville, Florida reopened just a few days ago. Do I need to link to the hashtag Florida Morons for you all? I didn’t think so.
By the way, did you know that the IHME model claims that the peak of coronavirus deaths in Florida has PASSED?
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Updates from The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projections suggest Florida has passed the worst of coronavirus impacts. Projections from the IHME, which have been updated regularly since late March, show that since the state government’s stay-at-home order and restrictions of mass gatherings early this month, the spread of the virus has slowed. That’s based on public data. The peak of per-day coronavirus deaths is projected to have happened on April 2. State records show 77 people died in Florida that day.
Here is where I will pick some nits. First up, even though Florida has gotten more tests done than some states, they are still no where near enough performed in Florida or any state to accurately make that kind of prediction. They have only tested a little over 1% of the state at this time. And now, Florida has gone and thrown social distancing to the wind with opening up some of those beaches in north Florida.
Governor Brian Kemp has decided to reopen several businesses this Friday. This despite the fact that the number of cases is still rising as are the deaths. Sounds like social distancing is going to take a hit there in Georgia.
The governor cited the devastating impact of closed businesses on the state’s economy as a reason to get things moving again. “I don’t give a damn about politics now,” said Kemp, who suggested he was prioritizing Georgians “going broke worried about whether they can feed their children and make the mortgage payment.” And it’s true that pain is being felt widely here.
So how is the IHME model to hold up when all those states have decided to start ending social distancing and reopening their economies?
And here is another variable: those idiotic Trump supporters who have been gathering in person to protest shelter in place orders. While it may not be in the thousands, it is still enough people in each state to start new hotspots for the coronavirus. Remember, it only takes a few idiots to spread the coronavirus and for it to grow exponentially.
All of the above stupidity is because of politics. Pure and simple.
The IHME model does not account for political stupidity and public health.