Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

The Evolution of An Idiot

Going to keep it brief today - taking a Self Care Saturday.

Many people were incredulous about my piece yesterday - surely there are not GROUPS of people who actively use bleach as some half ass cure-all?!?  Yes, I was serious, they call it MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution/Supplement), and many actually all ass it by making enemas.

And don't call me Shirley.

At this point no one should be surprised by what drops from the flaccid earthworm lips of the IMPOTUS.  His whole life has been one big mad lib ad lib.  King of Bullshit!  Colonel of Con!  The biggest assclown in the Ringling Brothers circus!

First we had his bravado laden promises that it was no big deal.

January 22:  "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine."

January 29:  "We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully."

Then we moved on to Dr. DREad expounding on his great knowledge of how viruses fear warmth.

February 10: "by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus."

Trump inner monologue:  Hmmm, more cases... must pull out the bullshit.

February 24:  "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA" 

Trump inner monologue:  Remember, I sell the sizzle, not the steak (the steaks went bankrupt, dammit.)  Confirmed cases now up to 58, so razzle, dazzle 'em, Donny.

February 26: "When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."

Trump inner monologue:  Shit, better add some tap shoes and do a little soft shoe...

February 27:  "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear." 

Trump inner monologue:  402 confirmed cases.  Dammit, it's not disappearing.  Now what?  Promises!  Promises always work!  Remember that one about Mexico paying for the wall?  Fuckin' rubes...

March 6: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test. ... The tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect, right?" 

Trump inner monologue:  Crap, almost 1,000 cases.  I know, LOOK OVER THERE!

March 9:  "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common flu."

Trump inner monologue:  Shhhhhh, if we close our eyes it can't see us.

March 10:  "Just stay calm. It will go away."

Trump inner monologue:  6,400 cases.  Shit.  It can still see us. Not my fault, not my fault, not my fault.

March 13:  I don't take responsibility at all.

Trump inner monologue:  Well, that landed like a frozen eagle turd.  Talk about my family, yeah, that's the ticket.  Stupid family... except Ivanka, I like Ivankaaaaaaaa.

March 16:  "I've spoken actually with my son. He says, 'How bad is this?' It's bad. It's bad.

March 19:  Trumphausen by hydroxychloroquine sets in.  He will tout it for weeks to come.  Stockpiles 29 million tablets.

Trump inner monologue:  65,800 cases.  What the fuck?  How dare it not listen to me?  Pander!  Yes, pander to the base!

March 24:  "I think Easter Sunday — you'll have packed churches all over our country."

Mistakes high speed viral train for hope...

March 24: "We begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel" 

Trump inner monologue:  Crap on a Klondike!  What do you mean there are 161,800 cases and 2,475 have dared to die on me?  Fine, act concerned... furrow brow, bite lip...

March 29:  "We think, by June 1st, a lot of great things will be happening." 

Narrator:  A lot of great things did not happen.  3,431 dead.

Trump inner monologue:  I am killing it in the ratings!  Talk about that!

March 29:  "the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers.”

Trump inner monologue:  How dare they not care about my numbers?!?  Fine, act concerned.  That's where I soften my voice, wave my invisible accordion, and try not to sniff.

March 31:  "This could be a hell of a bad two weeks."

Trump inner monologue:  272,380 cases?!?  8,141 dead?  GTFO.  Bluff, yeah, that's the ticket.  Bluff.

April 3:  "I said it was going away - and it is going away."

Trump inner monologue:  Economy crashing?!?!  Dammit, that's my thing!  To hell with the dead (9,171), pander to the idiots!

April 4:  "The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.” 

April 4:  Trumphausen by hydroxy still in full effect.  “I hope they use the hydroxychloroquine, and they can also do it with Z-Pak.  What do you have to lose? In some cases, they're in bad shape. What do you have to lose?"

Trump inner monologue:  Tweet, dammit, TWEET!

April 8:  “FLATTENING OF THE CURVE!” 

Narrator:  Curve did not respond to his Twitter feed which is astonishing considering it was in ALL CAPS and everything.  23,555 people dead by April 13.

Trumphausen now complicated by addition of those 29 million pills in stockpile, he pulls always elusive "friend" from ass.

April 13:  “Just recently, a friend of mine told me he got better because of the use of that — that drug.”

As study after study comes out challenging his Trumphausen by hydroxy, Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, states that he was demoted because he objected to the administration’s promotion of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

Trump inner monologue:  Deny, deny, coffee boy, who?

April 22:  “Well, I've never heard of him.”

Trump inner monologue:  Trumphausen went bankrupt.  Dammitdammitdammit.  I know!  Those wipes on my desk kill 99.9% of germs!  I'm brilliant!

April 23:  "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

Imbleachment takes hold as Trump is roundly lambasted as the complete fuckwit he is.

Trump inner monologue:  How dare they quote me to me?  Deny, deny, deny.  Do that gaslighty thing they always talk about.  I always thought gaslighting was that thing we did back in school when you fart on a lighter...  where was I?

April 24:  "I was being sarcastic!"

Today we wake up to article after article, report after report of state Poison Control Centers fielding hundreds of calls about taking Lysol, bleach, etc after listening to Trump. 

April 25:  53,266 dead.  God help us all.  Where will the moronoavirus evolve next?

What we truly need is an imbecilectomy.  A complete amputation of the malignant orange growth.  Cut it off, douse it in Pine-sol, and leave it in the sun.

After all, he did say, "There's been a rumor that -- you know, a very nice rumor -- that you go outside in the sun or you have heat and it does have an effect on other viruses."

You know what?  Screw sunlight.  Just cut it off, douse it, and cleanse it with fire to be safe.  Say it, Khaleesi:  Trumpcarys.

 

It Confounds The Science

I know this dates back to 2017, but considering the continued aversion to facts and experts and data by Dr. Do Little in the White House, it still holds up.

Grab your love beads and hum along.

And don't stop there. Here's part two:

Here's hoping the Parody Project updates soon.  In the meantime, search them out on Youtube and subscribe.

Oh, hell, it's Friday, here's a chaser for you.  Drink up, Mar-A-Lago-Ville.

Injecting Disaffectant

President Ignoramus McCrazypants took to the microphones again yesterday to share his wisdumb with the world.

This time, he was hot on the idea that injecting a disinfectant or internalizing some sunshine would be a quick fix for this inconvenient pandemic in which he stars as worst actor in a misleading role.

I'm not joking.

And before you get started, neither was he.

After hearing presentation President Trump suggests irradiating people's bodies with UV light or injecting them with bleach or alcohol to deal with COVID19. pic.twitter.com/cohkLyyl9G

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 23, 2020

It does not matter that he has come forward this morning saying he was being sarcastic.  He wasn't.  What matters to him is that he is being roundly, soundly mocked for yet another self inflicted flapping-his-gumshot wound.  And he is embarrassed.

So cue the gaslighting.  Which works, by the way.  His supporters are banging the "You have TDS" (Trump Derangement Syndrome) drum - for us daring to play back his words, call him out for the danger which is inherent in them.  We are the crazy ones for being shocked.)

He stood there, at the same podium where he spent weeks selling the snakeoil of hydroxychloroquine as a sure fire cure for coronavirus.  At the same podium where his MAGAt base lapped up his verbal diarrhea.  At the same podium where he ignored all the experts cautioning against self medicating.  At the same podium where a now dead Arizona man heard him, trusted him with his life, and ingested the similar sounding ingredient in his fish tank cleaner.

He stockpiled 29 million pills of the drug.  He bragged about it a less than two weeks ago.  He invoked his breathless Marilyn Monroe voice and told the world to take it, "What have you got to lose?"  Then the studies started coming in from around the world, and from our own veterans affairs department. The bottom line?  There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.  And today, the FDA is out urging people to not take chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 outside of a hospital or formal clinical trial, citing reports of “serious heart rhythm problems."

Anyone hear him hawking the drug this week?  Of course not.  And he, like his FOX nincompoopatriots now act like they never pushed it, touted it, hailed it as a miracle. 

Aside:  Ever stop and think how stunning it is that they were all apoplectic over President Obama wearing a tan suit and his use of mustard, yet they defend this bloviating cretin at every unstable turn?  Literally, that was a controversy - Grey Poupon - yet President COVIDcleanse advises ingesting disinfectant and ...NOTHING.  He was just joking - you know inJESTing.

Sorry, where was I?

There is danger every time this moron stands at the podium.  This time, his mouth meandering about disinfectants has literally led to the makers of Lysol releasing a public statement:

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).  As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information," the statement continued, adding that the company believes it has a "responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts."

Because our leader is an idiot.  Because companies know that people actually listen to him, believe him, trust him.  And because they do not want to be added to the world's vernacular the way Kool-Aid was after Jonestown (although in reality, they drank Flavor-Aid mixed with cyanide), they are trying to caution the public.

Again, it does not matter that he is trying to walk it back this morning.  The world heard him say it.  The world watched him, in all seriousness, looking to Dr. Scarfy Von Neckerchief and encouraging her to get on it.  This is the President.  The man sits at the Resolute Desk.  Although with the amount of backtracking he does, and the "I was just joking" that routinely happens, it is more apt to call it the Resolute Jest.

The apologists are out in full force.  That is predictable.  Keep in mind that this is the same King of Crap that suggested nuking hurricanes, that windmills cause cancer, and that we should have alligator moats at the border.  And they cheered him.  The problem with yesterday's freestyling is that there are people who already drink bleach, who force it on their children.  The internet is full of support groups of anti-vaxxers who advocate drinking it to prevent or cure cancer and autism.  Groups swear by turpentine, their child's urine - and these are not small one-offs.  They have tens of thousands of followers who already believe this dangerous bunk, so having it reinforced by the president?  You can practically hear the Karens cheering in exoneration as they subject their child to another bleach enema.

Look, we already know that the glut of his followers are not the brightest, most discerning lights on the Trump-made-it-OK-to-say-Merry-Christmas tree.  We know this.  They block out every sight, sound, and syllable that does not support him.  So there are, as I type, some of his cultists who are eyeing the cleaning products under the kitchen sink.  Because they are not intellectually curious to begin with, and in their brains, in what passes for logic - "Well, these wipes kill 99.9% of the bacteria on my counter, so how about I gobble one down and it can clean me all the way through?" is not a big leap.  And if they even care to Google, they will easily find these groups urging them to gulp.

And what will follow is serious illness, and death.

These zealots don't need injected with disinfectant.  What they desperately need is an IV of disaffectant.  Something that will finally knock them loose from their lockjaw grip on his power teats.  Something that will make them wake up and see that every warning was right.  That every lib they mocked was trying to save us from this and more.  That their blind loyalty has been to a proven idiot with zero skin in the game of their lives.

Since last night I have watched previous Trump supporters online marvel at how they could have ever voted for him.  One, aghast at having blindly supported this dolt, asked his Twitter following if they thought Trump was "this stupid and reckless" before the election.  The reaction was immediate - if only Twitter had a dumbfounded font...

YES.  Anyone paying even a modicum of attention knew exactly who he was, how unfit he was, how dangerous he would be with unfettered power.  How out of his depth (a puddle) he was on any subject.  It was all fucking there for anyone to see.  Yet as much as it repulsed thinking people, it attracted numbskulls, racists, and those for whom venality is oxygen, like fruit flies to a rancid peach.

I will say it again - it should not take them dying; it should not take someone they love dying; it should not take them feeling the white house heat of a target on their backs for them to wake up.  For them to finally become disaffected with him, his behavior, his disregard.

But it will.  So as Georgia opens today, as other GOPer led states begin to put business over bodies - it is hard to feel sorry for them.  They will spread this virus further.  They will become sick, some mortally so.  And they will turn to their jaundiced Jim Jones for advice.  The very same people who mocked teenagers eating Tide pods will belly up to the bleach because he said so, and because they stop listening after he stops talking.

With 51,453 COVID deaths as of this moment, all apologies to Mr. Clean, Lysol, and Clorox for what will surely happen.  It's not your fault stupidity is viral, too.

You Are Not Pro-life, You Are Pro-YOUR-Life

Hypocrisy has always been a hallmark of the conservative party in this country.  Do as I say, not as I do.  Don't tell me what I can do with my body, as I tell you what you can do with yours.  Kaepernick is a son of a bitch traitor but I am a patriot.  Deficits are bad, unless we are in charge.  Don't lump us in with every white, Christian gun nut who slaughters 50 people, as we make blanket statements about every person who is Islamic when a terrorist happens to be Muslim. 

The examples go on and on.

But during this pandemic, as people are dying by the thousands daily, a truly heinous river of hypocrisy has been flowing down from Bullshit Mountain. 

The GOP, which loves to tout itself as the standard bearer of the right to life agenda, has begun to show daily that they are not pro-life at all.  They are pro-THEIR-life. 

We currently stand at 49,089 people dead from coronavirus in this country.  That we know of.  I stress that part because we are still only testing at an average of 13,387 per million.  Plus with the revelation yesterday that positive COVID deaths have been identified in California back in early February, in terms of accurate numbers, we literally know nothing, Jon Snow.

A full 1,000 people have been added to the death count since I first checked this morning - just three hours ago - yet here we stand on the precipice of states beginning to "open" tomorrow.  Because selfishness and self importance are the true agenda of the conservatives.  Lives mean nothing to them, as long as they are not their lives.

The Lt Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, who famously stated last month that grandparents would gladly die for the economy for their grandchildren, is now on record as saying, in defense of the economy, "There are more important things than living."  Texas currently has 486 dead and counting.

Last week, Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Ind., argued that it was the "lesser of two evils" to allow more Americans to die than to keep the economy shut down.  Indiana has 706 dead and counting.

Senator Ron Johnson (R) of Wisconsin called on Trump to reopen the country because "death is an unavoidable part of life."  This, despite his state adding 11 more to its death toll since yesterday.

The mayor of Las Vegas pushed professional journalist Anderson Cooper to this yesterday with her flippant attitude about endangering lives as she pushes to get casinos up and running again despite repeated warnings from experts.

Over at FOX, home of the dullard brigade, they have spent a full month touting that “the cure is worse than the disease.”  The cure being these stay at home precautions.  They also spent a month helping the COVIDiot-in-Cheif tout hydroxychloroquine as a magic solution to coronavirus, only to quickly switch gears and act like they never said a word when studies came out this week that the drug has been determined by doctors around the world to account for more deaths than successes.  Seems Trump has gone radio silent on his sure-cure "What have you got to lose?" stockpile, too.

But hey, what's a few more thousand added to the pyre, right?  I swear, in the Venn diagram of hypocrisy, the people who claim to be pro-life and the people who are championing a pro-death policy to save the economy are one solid overlapped circle.

But it's not just the GOP leaders and talking heads that have been steeply discounting the value of American lives.  Their equally selfish, ignorant followers are showing up at protests with signs like these:

"Sacrifice the weak"  Let that sink in.  So desperate to get back to life filling that beer gut with Bud and chicken wings, they literally are advocating that the weak can just be sacrificed.  These are the same hypocritical asswipes who claim to stand up for the weakest - you know, those embryos they weep over.  Seriously, anti-abortion?  Puh-leez. They LOVE abortion. They obviously have zero compunction about aborting thousands of their fellow citizens at every age.

This notion that we should just accept tossing thousands of citizens into the fire in order to satisfy the economic volcano god is reprehensible.  One last time, COVID IS TAKING LIVES AT ALL AGES.  This is not some virus that only takes those with one foot already in the grave.  See this child?  This beautiful, innocent child?  She died from COVID this past week.  Skylar Herbert was only five years old.  And healthy, right up to the point that she wasn't.

FIVE YEARS OLD.  I would say that is far closer to the embryo than the grave, wouldn't you? 

Hmm, still too old for you to care?  How about her?

Jay-Natalie La Santa, four months in this world.  Dead from COVID-19.  Yes, she was born with a heart condition, but she DIED FROM COVID.

COVID. Does. Not. Care.  It doesn't care if you worship at the altar of Trump's wrinkled, sagging ballsac or are a Resister all the way.  It does not care if you have a McMansion or are homeless.  It does not care if you healthy and run marathons or have diabetes and a goiter.  It just does not care.  It cares only about gaining entrance to your body and then playing a game of viral chicken with your immune system.  Some will win.  A lot of us. But so very many are losing.  Boston's obituaries were 15 pages long this past weekend.  Just this morning Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her brother had died from COVID.  Alone.  No funeral either.

Yet those who happily hector women outside abortion clinics and push for more and more intrusive restrictions in terms of pregnancy because they are so very pro-life, are literally in the streets threatening violence if they don't get their way and are able to endanger as many lives as they want as long as they can go get a tattoo of Trump's face on their chest or their Karen cut refreshed.

There is no pro-life agenda.  There really never has been.  It is what is has always been, a pro-I-get-to-tell-you-what-to-do agenda.  An I-am-a-selfish-intrusive-prick agenda.  An As-long-as-I-get-what-I-want-fuck-you agenda. 

You are not pro-life.  You are pro-YOUR-life.  The problem is you don't think YOUR life could possibly be in any danger.  Shouting that you are "covered in Jesus' blood" is laughable.  Seriously, even Jesus is looking around for someone else to take the fucking wheel.  Acting like hubris and ego are some cloaking devices from COVID?  Well, it just makes me sit around waiting for you to be the next dumbass that comes up dead after boldly claiming in an interview that 'it's no big deal" or "a conspiracy."

You have made it perfectly clear that your pro-life agenda is all about getting your way.  Shitting your pants over not being able to bowl, get a haircut, a massage, or go to the gym.  Well, happy you, because tomorrow all those things open up again in Georgia!  Go forth, sweat, cough, sneeze, spread it out and breathe it in.  We'll be self distancing and staying home and, oh yeah, starting the 14 day clock to see how many of you selfish, insipid jackholes come up positive.

Just curious - when you do test positive and you will; when your five year old is suddenly in tears over a headache that just won't stop; when your husband is on the couch gasping for air but the ER won't take him because he can still breathe a little; when you are on a ventilator dying alone before your new tattoo even heals - will you get it then?  Will you suddenly see how fucking mercenary and stupid you have been?  Will you desperately beg the nurses and doctors you have mocked for a month to help you, save you?

Or will you fade away, happy to be a sacrifice to the gods of Wall Street?  Will your last breath be to ask how the Dow is doing?  Will you envision yourself a martyr that will be remembered for your march to reopen Dave and Buster's?

New flash:  You will be remembered for one thing:  Your egregious, self absorbed, narcissistic behavior.  Oh, and Trump will never hear of you, speak of you, give a single shit about you.  He never has.  You are his shield, his useful idiots, his 5th Avenue sacrifices.

Places will be reopening tomorrow and into the next week.  Despite every expert who says it is too early.  Despite all the evidence that we are making progress, but need to stay the course.  Despite every single study that says we need massive increases in testing everywhere.  Employees will be put in danger because of you.  They will be forced off unemployment because now their state says their place of employment is able to be open.  And we know, that try as they might to clean and disinfect behind you, you won't care.  You will show up unmasked, breathing your stupidity and potential COVID everywhere.

876,156 cases.  559 more dead since I sat down here.

Don't you hypocrites ever say you're pro-life again.

The Lyin' King

The songs that continue to come out because of this farce of an administrasham speak to both the need to laugh and the endless frustration with what continues unfettered. 

Creativity like this helps provide what we all need in our days - a little lift, if even for a few minutes, and the reassurance that we are absolutely not alone.

Volume up and enjoy the latest - The Liar Tweets Tonight.  Randy Rainbow is not the only one with musical chops.  Hats off to Roy Zimmerman and The ReZisters, featuring Sandy Riccardi. Made in collaboration with the Raging Grannies of Mendocino.

 

I Am COVID, Hear Me Roar

Sometimes something makes its way into my head and refuses to leave any way but the keyboard.  As astroturfed "protests" continue, and states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas insist on "opening" far too soon, you can almost hear Coronavirus quietly laughing in the background.  829,013 US cases, 46,147 US deaths (we account for 4 out of every 10 global deaths), but hey, people need their tattoos, gel nails, roots done and deep tissue massages.   

 

(Apologies to Helen Reddy, and of course, to you, as I knowingly plant this earworm in your head.  I refuse to suffer alone.)

 

I Am COVID, Hear Me Roar

lyrics by Linda Sharp

 

I am COVID, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I've killed too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've spread it on your doors
And from the ceilings to the floors
Trump's lies aren't gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wide
Coast to coast I leave the pain
Yes, you've paid the price
Look how much I still gain
Without testing, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
There's no vaccine for all
(vaccine for all)
I am COVID.

You'll protest but never break me
'Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
I will come back even stronger
Won't be novel any longer
'Cause you've helped me spread and snatch up far more souls

Oh no, Trump's not wise
His ignorance spreads the pain
Yes, you'll pay the price
But the stock market has gained
If he has to, he will do anything
He is wrong
(Wrong)
He is so culpable
(so culpable)
He's a grifter.

I am COVID watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my deadly harms across the land
With no vaccine yet, you know
And a long, long way to go
Social distance is all you have at hand.

Oh yes, more will die
In ERs all racked with pain
Yes, you'll pay the price
Inside you should have stayed
All your bullets, they can't do anything

I am strong
(Strong)
There's no vaccine for all
(vaccine for all)
I am COVID.

A Plague All Their Own

Back in 1980, prolific author and professor, Isaac Asimov, penned a piece for Newsweek titled The Cult of Ignorance.  In it he lamented the people in this country for whom logic, critical thinking, information, and learning were anathema.  

One of the most famous quotes to come from that article has been making its way around the web in these days of pandemic caution vs pandemic protesters.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” 

He was right then, he is right now.  In fact, he has probably never been proven more right than this time in our history. 

I have said it before - Sarah Palin came along and instantly made stupidity fashionable.  She encouraged the idea that her ignorance was somehow more laudable than the education of a learned man like President Barack Obama.  Millions of willfully ignorant like her marched to that drumbeat, ridiculing anyone with Ivy league degrees, a large vocabulary, and speaking ability as "elite."  Beneath her Moose-hunter-in-Loubuiton-pumps costume was an intellectually dim, small minded, bigoted dullard threatened by anything she could not grasp.

And as like attracts like, the bellend brigade flocked to her.  Then they lost, twice.  And in those 8 years, they roiled and shat themselves blind as a black man dared to use bigger words than they could comprehend, dared to speak in calm tones and rational thoughts, and encouraged a nation to aspire to be better, smarter, expand its horizons.

In response, they clung even harder to all they knew how to do: Hate those who make them feel inferior. 

Nowhere in their big word aversion does it ever dawn on them to Google the damned word.  They are not motivated to explore a map when a country is in the news.  And even though they have a world of information in their palms at all times, using it to educate themselves on a subject always loses out to another game of Bejeweled or Youtube video about chemtrails.

There is nothing standing in their way but themselves.  No, not everyone has the capacity or interest to become nuclear physicists, but they can learn.  Asimov wrote, "I believe that every human being with a physically normal brain can learn a great deal and be surprisingly intellectual. I believe that what we badly need is social approval of learning and social rewards for learning."

The fact that 33% of American adults have not read a single book since high school, and an estimated 70% have not read a book in the past five years speaks to there being little incentive for people to continue expanding their own horizons.  So they don't.  They don't feel they need to.  They think they know everything they need to know to get by.  And in the absence of knowledge, what's left is fear.

It is why Republicans are so successful at rallying these people. They pick a fear and play it like a fiddle.  They at once stoke the emotions that frighten them, while also offering the "answer."  They give them a target for their irrationality, arm them with mental pitchforks and torches, and sell themselves as the one to lead the village horde.

Asimov also wrote, Politicians have routinely striven to speak the language of Shakespeare and Milton as ungrammatically as possible to avoid offending their audiences by appearing to have gone to school. 

Cue one badly tanned reality game show host and fiscal bankrupt adept at bilking the rubes and incapable of lofty verbiage.  He may not know much, but he knows how to con.

That is why when Donald Trump oozed down the escalator in 2015, he did not speak in lofty tones about unity, purpose, direction for the nation.  He spoke in angry words, words that ginned up fear, words that provided a target (brown people), words that blamed the brown people for the lot in life of the fearful, and he provided himself as the only one who could possibly save them.

Like roaches when the lights turn off, they flocked to his darkness, amassing to indulge their appetites for ignorance, sloth, avarice, vice, and hatred.

Like Sarah Palin, he appealed to them because he sounded like them.  No big words, hell, very few words.  Bombast, hubris, and zero ideas or plans - just bigotry and "Fuck you" 24/7.  Supporting Trump required no intellect, no grasp of bigger concepts, no need to look up a word for definition.  He babbled nonsensically and they felt something they did not feel the past 8 years.  They felt smart enough.

As Asimov wrote, "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." 

But to insure they stayed the stupid course, Trump made sure to constantly reinforce that anything that contradicted him, made their heads swirl with cognitive dissonance, or veered towards making any sense was FAKE NEWS.  He gaslit them constantly, and it worked.  Suddenly those for whom big thought was always suspect anyway, were given permission to tune everything out but HIM.  HE would inform them.  HE would provide "facts" to them. HE would protect them. 

Fast forward to today.  784,837 positive cases of coronavirus, 41,837 citizens dead from it.  A country of individual states with governors attempting to shield and protect their constituents in the face of not only a physical virus, but a mental one as well.

These people have become a plague all their own. 

With Trump's encouragement, they are out ignoring the orders to stay home, gathering in large groups, not taking precautions, and spreading their ignorance.  No mask can protect us from their COVIDiocy.

In speaking about BUZZWORDS, Asimov wrote, Now we have a new slogan on the part of the obstructionists: "Don't trust the experts!"

He wrote that in 1980.

And the ignorant virus deniers of 2020 are out there with it as their mantra.  They want to #FireFauci.  They insist he invented COVID, that it is not real.  They spread their viral bullshit of conspiracy, chip implants, a New World Order.  They call this a PLANNEDdemic.  They distrust anyone with education and expertise in the subject matter, again deferring all attention and trust to Donald J Trump, perhaps the stupidest cocksplat on the planet.

Their complete rejection of science is going to hurt them.  Their absolute trust in their Orange Overlord is going to kill them.

And us.

It is one thing for them to not know an accurate definition for socialism, communism, whatever term they got from their Sarah Palin Word O' The Day toilet paper.  That is annoying, but not deadly.  We can deal with their chronically poor spelling and  grammar.  Again, irritations not mortal wounds.  But this?

This time their refusal to listen to the experts is a danger to us all.  Watching them scramble together is like watching a virus under a microscope.  A toxic scrum of puerile, dimwitted, shortsighted losers clinging to one another in order to shore up their own inadequacies.  They know they are not smart.  But they also know if enough of them come together, they feel less alone in their ignorance.  And it feels so damned good to be validated in what they don't know, don't understand, and refuse to learn.  They are "cool."  Suddenly they are a gang, a club, an organization.

In this case though, they are also a plague.  Moronavirus.  There is a cure.  Curiosity, education, knowledge.  But they are anti-factsers and will not take it.  "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge" has already inoculated them.  They cannot be reasoned with, they are impervious to shame.  They will die to own the elite, the experts, the libs.

All we can do now is social distance from them and vote out their deadly leaders.  Democracy in action is the vaccine against them.  Then they will hopefully recede back into their stolid hidey holes taking their deadly actions and limited thoughts with them.  And they can never be allowed out like this again.

They are truly a plague all their own.

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If you would like to read the full Isaac Asimov article from January 1980, it may be found HERE.

Lost Causes

I am taking the day off from writing at length.  Call it self care, call it fed up, call it just needing a breather - I need to step away from the onslaught of idiocy.

I know so many of us are frustrated, weary, irate, filled with emotions towards others that are not typically "us."  I think I despise that the most since the advent of Trump - I hate.  I just do.  This is not a difference in politics.  It really has never been. This is a stark contrast in the humanity of two groups of people.

Watching the hordes of people swarm their state houses yesterday, well, it was enraging.  Seeing so many people trying to figure them out, just worthless.  There is no deeper meaning here.  Giving them that credit is misplaced - you are trying to scuba dive in a puddle.

There is a reason you see so many Trump banners, flags, masks, and poorly worded/spelled posterboards.  Why you see confederate flags, swastikas.  These are the same people who attend his rallies.  And they have been called by their spray tanned succubus to do this.

As calls of "Fire Fauci" went up in these  crowds yesterday; as signs with "COVID is a lie" and "Fauci invented COVID"; as opportunistic ghouls like Alex Jones found another opportunity to grift and incite - I felt something inside me shift.

I wrote this last night: 

Since I wrote this morning, we have added over 10,400 new COVID cases and just under 1,000 new deaths. Yet we have a country of idiots protesting outside state houses, chanting "Fire Fauci" and carrying signs that say Fauci created COVID, that it's not real.

Would these wastes of oxygen care to tell us how the rest of the world is in on it? Care to lecture the families of the 160,579 dead worldwide as to how COVID isn't real, how inconvenienced they are by not being able to hang out at Sonic, get their roots touched up, and being told to social distance. How they are suffering so badly by being asked to sit their ignorant asses on their couches.

So help me, if every single one of them becomes infected from this unconscionable behavior, they should be denied entrance at any hospital and left to die in their Trump bumperstickered cars. And I won't shed a single tear.

Trump is mobilizing the mASSES, using their stupidity to shield himself, and he won't lose a wink of sleep as they die off one by one.

Natural f**king selection. Bring on Darwin.

In the light of a new day, I am even more resolute.  I do not want to see excuses being made for these people anymore.  Misplaced pity because they are not the smartest and easy to manipulate.  They have actively made their choices for Trump right down the line.  They have shown who they are repeatedly and consistently.  They are ignorant bigots on a normal day, and since Trump validated their prejudices, each day is a powderkeg of their animus towards others, just waiting to be lit.  Targeting others for their religion?  They love it.  Tearing children from their parents, not caring enough to keep track of them, and putting them in cages?  They laughed.  And now, with a pandemic raging, they openly flaunt their stupidity as if it were a cloaking device - enough of them together and COVID-19 cannot get them.

Bear in mind, these same people gathering in numbers to violate the lawful orders of their governors are the very same people who say black people who are shot would still be alive if "they just listened to the police."  They are the same ones who defend their hatred of imperiled brown people at the border with "their children wouldn't be taken if they hadn't broken the law."  The same Pro Life Bible bangers who live to tell us what we can do with our bodies but who are out shitting their pants over being told what to do with their bodies. The same "All Lives Matter" mooks who now demonstrably put paid to that notion. 

All lives don't matter to them.  Because right now we have lost 39,641 of them.  People whose only sin was to breathe in a virus. 

741,999 cases currently.  120 people out of every million dying from this virus.

And they simply do not care.  Their every action, shout, sign, and "protest" shows exactly who they are.  They are the dregs of a society that is trying to protect them, but who clearly do not deserve that consideration.  They have sold their souls to the MAGAt god, creating a cult into which logic cannot find footing, science is the enemy, and anyone who speaks ill of the leader must be attacked.

There is a scene in the HBO series Deadwood in which the stable owner, Hostetler, finds the town drunk, Steve, masturbating on a horse and ties him up.  Disgusted with the hideous behavior of Steve on a regular day, he is repulsed by what he walked in on.  At the end of his rope, he looks him in the eye and says, "You need to die, Steve." 

I am not proud that this line has been on a loop in my head all weekend.  I'm not.  But looking at these vile, venal, selfish, dangerous crowds - well, there it is.  Death is coming for many of them after these stunts.  And they will have brought it all on themselves.  All because they were told they can't go to a NASCAR race or Applebee's for a while.  The bigger problem, however, is they are bringing it on other people who have been trying to stay safe.  Hell, Alex Jones dragged his children with him.  His ex-wife, seeing them in pictures, was beside herself on Twitter begging for additional legal help - she has already lost millions fighting him in court.

They are lost causes.  They cannot be reasoned with.  And I am done trying.  Not even death will make a dent.  They will die thinking they are martyrs in some Deep State conspiracy, not what they actually are:  absolute, unrepentant, willfully ignorant cult members.

Only now they are spreading more than their ignorance.  They are spreading our death with their COVIDiocy.

I think Hostetler may have been right.

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While this went longer than I envisioned, I appreciate your indulgence and understand many of you may take issue with this honest baring of my soul, as it were.  But I also suspect many of you are wrestling with these same emotions.  Practice self care, everyone.  Stay safe.  Listen to the experts.  Social distance from social media when you need to.  The fight will still be here when you get back.