Higher Intelligence

In case you've ever wondered about the source of my frustration; nowadays, this is what passes for GOP intelligentsia....

Tweet of the Absurd

As a follow-up to the regularly-scheduled morning post readers might also wish to know that yesterday - Kevin Quealy - of the New York Times published The Complete List of Trump's Twitter Insults (2015-2021).  It is - in my view - a monumental exercise in curating data.

Congratulations to Kathleen A Flynn, Josh Katz, Jasmine C. Lee, Jeremy B. Merrill, Toni Monkovic, and Rumsey Taylor who performed additional design, development and research.  It does indeed take a village.

Follow the hyperlink highlighted above to peruse the collection.  The insults are already sorted by category - but readers can also sort chronologically and alphabetically.

Truthfully, this blogger has never seen a larger compilation of invective from a single individual in a lifetime.

Amazing.

Taking Leave of One's Senses

Yesterday a few thousand of Donald Trump’s supporters came to Washington DC to revel in Trump’s lies and (without offering any evidence) to claim that the election had been stolen from their Messiah. 

They were even treated to an apparition when Trump performed a drive by with his motorcade. 

And in a particularly fascinating and hilarious departure from reality Trump spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, served-up her own silly departure from reality.… 

More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support - she tweeted.

Exaggerating the crowd size by a factor of more than 200 - I guess she cannot count either. 

 

 

 

But I digress. 

This past week the Covid death toll rose above more than 1000 lives of our fellow countrymen each and every day.  Think about that - more than a thousand Covid deaths every day.

In only one week more than 750,000 newly diagnosed cases were added to the soaring total. 

The economy is floundering like a ship on treacherous shoals with bankruptcies breaking new records every week, unemployment claims still at historic record levels and evictions being readied just in-time for a winter of homelessness. 

In the face of all of this will you find Donald Trump in attendance in a house of worship this morning praying for guidance to lead our country out of this maelstrom?

Nay nay - I think not.

Likely no different than yesterday he will be golfing at Trump National in Virginia. 

Seriously, to my trusted and loved friends and family that are Trump supporters, do you accept this as excellence in leadership?

Edit to add:  Yes.  A day of golf.

 

Tweet of the Absurd

Predictably Donald Trump lies (again) with a wild internet claim that Dominion voting machines rigged the election. The circus act continues…….

 

Tweet of the Absurd

President Trump tweeted yesterday for Republicans to go for the much higher numbers on stimulus.  

Good for him.  Why the president doesn’t simply roll-up his sleeves and bring the parties to the table isn’t earning him style points - but on principle this makes sense. 

Unfortunately it is likely too late anyway – sixty percent of businesses closed in March are now closed permanently.

He broke it - he owns it. 

My Kingdom for a Leader

As the economic damage continues to mount the COVID crisis is looking more and more like the Great Recession.   

I find it oddly puzzling that the Trump campaign has made the strategic decision to force-feed the public a daily feast of rioting and lawlessness.  I look around and what I see is that the vast majority of our countrymen do not riot, burn or take the law into their own hands and murder their brethren. My community is at peace and everyone is actually quite friendly.

This shrill pageantry of imagined violence doesn't do anything for me.  How about you?  There is growing evidence that Wisconsinites aren’t falling for it.  A Marquette Law School Poll released Wednesday showed virtually no movement in voter attitudes toward mass protests.  

In my law-abiding world peaceful and civil society continues uninterrupted across virtually all of our great nation. 

I'd be willing to bet that most anyone reading this shares a similar perception of the real world.

We do not scare easily and it is as quiet as a tomb around these parts. 

If I were advising the Trump campaign I would suggest that if they wanted to gain some traction with voters who are not members of his base it would be helpful if they wouldn't insult anyone's intelligence.

And no amount of LOOK! SQUIRREL!! is going to distract the discerning voter from the real shit show - namely the mismanagement of the economy and pandemic - which is the purpose of this post and happens to be the 900 pound gorilla in the room.

Congratulations to the US for the stunning success in the international news cycle. Inasmuch as we lead the world in both total COVID cases and deaths the media has now chosen to ignore our placeholder status to focus on whether India or Brazil captures second place.  

6,500,000+ reported cases of COVID. Almost every day for the past six months more than 20,000 Americans have been diagnosed with the virus.

More than 194,000 people have died of the virus with hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of additional survivors crippled with disabling complications.

The death toll exceeds more than 1,000 of our countrymen each and every day.  

There are some that shrug-off the dead as immaterial.  They'll tell you that more than 6,000 Americans die of all causes every day anyway.  So what if there are a thousand more, give-or-take?

Can you imagine the outcry if more than 1000 people were killed by drunk drivers each and every day?  Or if more than 1000 children were slain in school shootings each and every day?  How about more than 1000 servicemen and women dying each and every day?  If rioting resulted in more than 1000 deaths every day Team Trump would be wetting their pants.

These deaths are not background noise - they are our countrymen.  Pro-life movement?  Crickets.

The job market is in absolute ruin. Initial (new) jobless claims this week came in at a stunning 884,000 (830,000 to 850,000 was forecast). And continuing jobless claims are likely to remain close to 13 million. Total ongoing unemployment claims in all programs remain close to 30 million - or nearly 20 percent of the current civilian labor force.   My own close circle of friends has been touched by this with all of those impacted by the permanent loss of their jobs.

2020 will likely witness more bankruptcies than in anyone’s lifetime. The magnitude of bankruptcies this year has already surpassed that of 2008 and it isn’t just big household names like Chesapeake Energy, Stein Mart, Lord and Taylor, Virgin Atlantic, Briggs and Stratton, JC Penney, Hertz, J.Crew or Neiman Marcus. 55% of businesses shuttered during the worst of the pandemic in March will never reopen. 

The economy so far has replaced less than half of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April.  

And in the midst of this economic carnage the president tells us to be afraid.  

I guess I am supposed to be very afraid. 

Open your eyes to the looming avalanche of bankruptcies, evictions and homelessness.  Lives, fortune and potential lost forever.  That is actually worthy of concern.

Trump broke it. He owns it. 

*Data courtesy of Axios, Fox News, MarketWatch, Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Bankruptcy Institute and the Centers for Disease Control

Tweet of the Absurd

I suppose if it’s acceptable for the President of the United States to indulge in an occasional dalliance it’s acceptable for the President and Chancellor of Liberty University to indulge in an occasional dalliance.

Vacation, yacht, cocktail, redhead, unzipped - oops!

Taking 'liberties' as it would appear.  Photo on social media bites back.

It is a strange world indeed that this sort of behavior has become normalized.....

Tweet of the Absurd

I copied this tweet from a friends Facebook page.  It is absurd because it is fake.  

Like much of the lazy thinking that is found lurking on the interweb it is made-up.  It is a counterfeit tweet.  A fraud.  And that FB friend is a lazy thinker for perpetrating and spreading a lie.

This absurd tweet is real.

Like much of the lazy thinking found on lurking on the interweb this belongs to Donald Trump.  Covid-19 is not a hoax - it is really bad.  150,000 dead and soaring.  Livelihoods smashed.  Small business shuttered.  The US economy will take years to recover from the damage Trump has done.  That is the absolute truth.

It didn't have to be this bad.....

Tweet of the Absurd

Uh, let’s be clear. I am NOT saying that voter fraud doesn’t exist.  It does.  And it has been proven to NOT be widespread. 

In Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah - who have been conducting their elections primarily by mail - there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud by mail.  In Wisconsin you must produce a photo ID to vote absentee.  So it’s a pretty solid system. 

As for delaying the election the president has nothing to say about it.  Article II, Section I of the Constitution specifically states that the authority to set election dates is held by Congress. Senators Ted Cruz (R. TX) and Lindsey Graham (R. NC) have rejected any notion of moving the election date. Per Senator Graham - Delaying the election probably wouldn’t be a good idea. 

Besides there is this trail of breadcrumbs to follow...

President Trump voted absentee in New York in 2018 and in Florida’s March primary, despite being in the area and driving past early voting locations.  He also listed the wrong birth date on a 2017 absentee ballot for New York mayor and tried to register to vote in Florida in 2019 with an out-of-state address. 

Attorney General Barr voted absentee in 2019 and 2012 in Virginia. 

Vice President Pence voted absentee in 2018 for both the primary and general elections, and, according to Business Insider, mailed in a ballot for the 2020 Indiana GOP primary. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail in Florida 11 times in 10 years. 

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale didn’t vote at all in the 2016 general election, which he told CBS was because of a series of problems getting his absentee ballot, citing that as evidence of potential problems with absentee voting.  He voted by mail in 2018. 

Ivanka Trump attempted to vote absentee for New York mayor in 2017 but sent the ballot too late. 

First lady Melania Trump attempted to vote absentee for New York mayor in 2017 but failed to sign the envelope. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar voted absentee in 2018. 

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross voted absentee in Florida 15 times in the past 15 years. 

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel voted absentee in Michigan in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. 

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway voted absentee in New Jersey in 2018. 

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner requested an absentee ballot for the New York mayoral election in 2017 but didn’t return it. 

I predict a steady drumbeat of unsubstantiated rhetoric about the November election being rigged as there was an abundance of the same in the run-up to the 2016 election. 

This is what Donald Trump does - and it is totally predictable.

Presidential Advisor

In case any of you readers are interested I received a call from the White House Sunday evening about my Saturday morning post.  No, they were not calling to rip me a new one or pick a fight.  It was all quite congenial.  And between you and me more welcome than a call from the Russian GRU.

As it happens Trump staff follows this blog and they called to ask for permission to use my idea about the notion of mask-wearing being patriotic to assist in boosting the president's poll numbers.

Being the fair-minded kinda guy I am and always ready to lend a hand I naturally agreed.  I suggested they knock themselves-out. Never forget I was a Boy Scout and continue to live the BSA slogan to Do a Good Turn Daily. Truthfully, if more people lived that slogan each and every day our world would be a better place. That's the stuff that already made America great.  But I digress.

Yesterday there was this. 

And you're welcome.  You read it here first, Be A Patriot - Not a Spreader.....

*That phone call came to me in a dream Saturday evening.  Strange but true.

Tweet of the Absurd

Bubba Wallace has no reason to apologize for something he wasn't personally involved-in.  Furthermore, Fox Sports revealed that following the confederate flag ban NASCAR viewership has skyrocketed - with the Talladega race the most watched since 2014.  NASCAR is a business and they're being smart about things.  They know that divisiveness is not a good business model.  

The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is an American pseudo-historical ideology which advocates the belief that the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was righteous, just and heroic. 

The historical truth is that this ideology was used to perpetuate racism and white supremacy during the Jim Crow era in the American South. Don't take my word for it - read the history.

It romanticizes fantasy virtues of the antebellum South and glorifies the war as a struggle that was primarily waged in order to save the Southern way of life or to defend states' rights. This mythology minimizes or completely denies the central role of slavery and white subjugation of Africans in both the lead-up to and outbreak of the Civil War.  It is revisionist history.

Yesterday - Senator Lindsey Graham said it best:  If you're in business the confederate flag is not a good way to grow your business.

So here we find ourselves - virus cases are skyrocketing, our wounded economy is at great peril, re-openings are in reverse and the lives of countless American families shattered.  

And Donald Trump is more concerned about supporting a lost cause.

I just don't get it.....

Tweet of the Absurd

From this morning there was this retweet from President Trump.         

Included was a video of a Trump supporter in a golf cart raising a clenched fist and shouting white power.         

In the tweet - which was later deleted - the president thanked "the great people of The Villages - referring to the retirement community north-west of Orlando where the rally took place.         

As a consequence of the blatant hatefulness of this video I have chosen not to embed it in this post.  If you’re into white power and hate speech go find it yourself.  All you need to do is Google:  fifty shades of whey white power tweet.      

You have to wonder what state of mind Trump presently is in.        

I’m serious.

Tweet of the Absurd

With a rapidly-growing spike of COVID-19 cases in Arizona, Texas and Florida if we perform fewer tests the incidence of infection is reduced.

Just like if you don’t get a pregnancy test you can’t be pregnant.

Tweet of the Absurd

 Rest assured, Mr. President, many people have ceased laughing at the Democrats and Joe Biden. 

They have likely begun to laugh at you, hiding in a bunker, Tweeting instead of delivering a measure of reassurance to the country.   

This is not constructive.

Man-up Dude.

We are watching and waiting......