It's Tough Being a Republican

    So here we are over a week later still talking about the Stable Genius' helpful suggestions about introducing disinfectants and UV lights into humans infected with Covid-19. What's striking about this isn't the colossal and profound stupidity of the President of the United States. Anyone not wearing a MAGA hat has by now come to accept what every native New Yorker has known for decades. It's the extent to which what one might call normally reasonable people will go to make sense of and/or offer plausible explanations of the constant what-the-fuckery coming out of the White House. After all, right up until 2017 most Americans had held the office of President in, if not reverence, had at least imbued it with a certain gravitas that took seriously the office's pronouncements, whether you agreed with them or not. For anyone with any sense this all went down the crapper the with the Vendor Stiffer.

    A couple of days after Tariff Man made his now historically fucked-up suggestions, the following was shared in the Facebook news feed of a friend of mine who is a medical professional:

So as a Respiratory Therapist....I watched the clip about the "disinfectant that Trump talking about". People need to listen closely....and before I say this, I will tell you that I am not registered to vote and I don't vote. I am neutral. He is basically brain storming for an idea to help the lungs. He stated that the disinfectant kills the virus in one minute, so he proposed the question can we inject disinfectant (not Lysol), he used the word "disinfectant" ...in the lungs, but that is for the doctors to figure out. Now a lay person like Trump will say disinfectant and a medical person would say "medicine". Medicine dumped into the lungs happens all the time! I personally have dumped respiratory medicine down an Endotracheal tube directly into the lungs. When babies are born prematurely, guess what? Yes we "inject" the lungs with a medicine called surfactant that helps keep the alveoli open to oxygenate the lungs. Antibiotics are sometimes injected into infected parts of lungs through a chest tube. So what I want the general public to know, is that we do "inject" medicine into peoples lungs, that yes act like a disinfectant (antibiotics), so why is everyone in uproar over this? If you are a lay person and don't understand what he said then ask a medical person. His statement was so twisted around and misinterpreted, and this is coming from a Respiratory Therapist that has injected medicine in peoples lungs. Lysol brand has perpetrated misinformation and panicked the general public who doesn't know anything about lungs. And Trump never used the word "Lysol". So why did Lysol brand think he was talking about them, that's narcissistic on their part. Why would Lysol brand embrace that? they look ignorant. So people, yes we do inject medicine into the lungs! This is why people need to know the facts and stop panicking people.

    Where to begin? First of all, announcing you aren't registered and don't vote isn't being neutral it's telling me you don't give a shit how your country is run and it's thanks to people like you we're in this mess right now. Secondly is there anyone, again not wearing a MAGA hat who really believes the Moron-in-Chief meant "medicine" and not "disinfectant" even if he left out a brand name? It was obvious to anyone not needing to come up with excuses for this dumb-shittery he meant exactly what he said. And why did those in a position to impart actual knowledge immediately and without prompting issue statements and warnings to try preventing those inspired by the Real Estate Swindler's "brainstorming" to drink bleach? Thirdly, does any impartial observer really think this impartial observer is neutral? I don't or you wouldn't be defending the indefensible.
    Fortunately for me I left the Republican party long before it became necessary to rationalize my continued membership in a party lead by one of the most despicable cretins on the planet. The Porn Star Spankee isn't just stupid, he's malevolently so. Once upon a time it was possible to be a Republican and maintain a social conscience but not anymore. What conscience any of them have left is reserved exclusively for fetuses.
    However, the few decent people left in the GOP, some probably lifelong members, now find themselves facing the choice of supporting the Big Mac Eater-in-Chief or coming over to the dark side - voting for the party that since Vietnam they've been led to believe is anti-American. And so they grasp at straws and delude themselves into believing the alternative is worse. After all, they're all queer baby killers that hate America, aren't they? Yeah, that's it. He really was trying to help. He wasn't really suggesting spraying Lysol into your lungs. It's the media. Yeah, that's right.

        Just keep telling yourself that and it'll all be okay.

NOW, WHERE WAS I?

“No one in this world, so far as I know…has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

“As democracy is perfected, the [President of the United States] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

H.L. Mencken is always the go to guy when you're looking for high sounding quotes calling people dumb-asses. He missed by 60 years living to see this second prophecy come true.

When I decided to try a blog about American politics in the age of the White House's resident imbecile and his cult my intent was just getting my thoughts down somewhere other than Facebook. At the time it was the only way I could think of to oppose the Stable Genius from where I sit outside the United States. Besides, my wife was sick of listening to me and it this seemed the best way to vent. It became apparent fairly quickly this shit-storm was going to be overwhelming and it was uncertain whether my sanity could come out the other side intact. Now I just want to keep a record of how one American feels as he watches from across the Atlantic as the country I love comes apart at the seams. 

As I write this, my wife and I are riding out the state ordered confinement against  Covid-19 pandemic at our home in southwest France. The longer this nightmare in the States goes on, the happier I am to be living outside the US. Today I read an essay in The Atlantic by George Packer, entitled "We Are Living In a Failed State."  Read it. It's depressing but if the United States is to survive it's going to take the complete defeat and total destruction of the Republican party coupled with the same for Fox News and the extreme right wing media echo chamber. Simple, right? 

When my wife and I decided to spend our retirement overseas it was always in the back of our minds we'd probably come back the States at some point. It's becoming more difficult to imagine, now. I don't see how we come back from all the damage wrought by Tariff Man and his cult. Even after he's gone (this November, I hope) it's looking increasingly likely the US might be irretrievably broken. 

That we're still talking like the Stable Genius' re-election is even a remote possibility is an indication of how far gone we are. Three and a half years of incompetence and lies yet the numbers have remained more or less stable. Three and a half years of chaos and mis-management and still almost half the country thinks the B-list celebrity from Queens is just swell. From the beginning the media's emphasis has been that the Contractor Stiffer's approval rating has been historically low and never above 50 percent. But while it's made the occasional dip in to the high 30s, it hovered consistently into the 40 to 45 percent range. And when this pandemic broke it actually took a bump upward despite the fact the White House Troll and his minons repeatedly called it a hoax or minimized the threat. 2016 revealed the American voter to be a frightening ignoramus that could no longer be trusted to do the right thing, if they ever could. And thanks to them the United States is now an oligarchy and de facto theocracy run by filthy-rich incompetents at the highest level who are nonetheless managing to systematically dismantle the federal government while packing the courts with right-wing ideologues. 

        Sometime during the run up to the 2016 election, I can recall telling my wife, "You know, on some level I almost hope he wins. Then one way or the other we'll find out what kind of a country we are." While the jury's still out, the future is not looking rosy.