Yesterday,
Trump announced that he has been prophylactically taking
hydroxychloroquine. Side effects include “delusions.” Today,
Trump accused a TV journalist (via Twitter) of murder in the
accidental death of an employee at the journalist's office in 2001.
He seemed to understand what he was saying. He called for an
investigation. That is slander-per-se, for one thing, untruthfully
accusing another person of a heinous crime. (Or libel-per-se, if a
Tweet is officially considered to be publication.) The death was that
of a young woman at work in the office at the time. She was stricken
by some medical event, lost consciousness, fell to the floor, and hit
her head just right. The blow to the head killed her. There was a
police investigation, and it was written up as an accidental death
incident to the medical event. The journalist wasn't even in the
state at the time, and no one who was in the office caused her to
fall. Trump's accusation at this late date is the action of someone
who seems delusional. I think that it's fair to ask: which came
first, the hydroxychloroquine or the delusions? He says that he has
only been taking the medicine for a couple of weeks (and that he will
be discontinuing it in a couple of days).
Anyone
familiar with Trump's public behavior over the last four decades
knows that “delusions” have always been part of Trump's profile.
It's easy to get bogged down in examples, so I'll just go with,
“biggest crowds of any presidential inauguration in history.” For
a post-hydroxychloroquine delusion, let's go with “Obamagate,”
and the afore mentioned murder accusation.
A
better question might be: is Trump actually taking
hydroxychloroquine? Which he, in his way, refers to as, “the
hydroxy.” I would bet that he is not now taking it, nor ever has.
It's just part of his sales pitch, because he has a financial
interest in the company. “I've been hearing a lot of good things
about it.” It's safe to say that the promotion is making money for
the corporation. Trump's fellow traveler in Brazil, President Jair
Bolsonaro, is now pushing the drug for general use on COVID-19
sufferers there.
COVID-19
is a dream come true for Bolsonaro. The odds are that it will kill
off primarily Brazilians from the lower economic demographics. As a
bonus, it seems to have fatally moved into indigenous populations.
The virus will provide an effective distraction from Bolsonaro's
program of leveling the entire Amazon rain-forest. The Indians who
have called that huge jungle “home” for eons were already on
Bolsonaro's shit-list. These political leaders who are now blowing it
so spectacularly will probably come out okay in the end. They'll
figure out a way to take the credit when the whole mess is ready to
wrap-up, either by way of a vaccine or the virus itself running out
of steam. People who believe and follow guys like Bolsonaro or Trump
will believe anything.
The
virus is now doing boffo business in the heartland states of America,
where Trump has had his greatest electoral successes. It will be
interesting to see the result when the spike in COVID deaths comes
from Trump's base. They were happy to laugh it off when Trump was
saying that it will all go away on its own, and the dying was mostly
occurring in coastal states. Very quickly they were desperate to get
back to work, which was understandable, and desperate to get back to
Applebee's, which was not understandable. And to get back to their
phony churches, of course, because it's so important to handle that
collection plate and give your last money to those phony preachers.
They want to do all of that without masks or social distancing.
They're suffering now, and how they react will be illuminating. Trump
is already steering them towards blaming China, and my guess is that
their natural dislike of the coastal states will lead them to also
direct blame at New York and California. Eventually, as is usually
the case, someone will suggest blaming the Jews. Reason would suggest
blaming Trump, at least for the severity of the pandemic in America.
Trump's base seems adamant, though, about “dancing with the one
they brung.”
I
have heard that older Americans are beginning to wonder if their
trust in Trump was misplaced. Maybe Trump really is an idiot, as most
older Americans had firmly believed throughout his career in the
public eye, up to the point where he chose to run for president. I
will also believe that one when I see it, and not before. My own
geezer Trump fan Facebook Friends are still hard core.
Ultimately
our protection will fall into the hands of President Michael Pompeo.
Mike loves his religion, and you will too, if you know what's good
for you. America will return to universal conscription in preparation
for Armageddon. Church services, at the churches of government
approved evangelical Christian religions, will be mandatory. (Sunday
services, and Wednesday evening Bible study. No masks please! We have
Jesus to protect us.) Antidisestablishmentarianism will again be a
hot topic in our political discourse. Heretical sects will be
terminated. Buy stock now in private prison corporations; avoid the
rush. All against the backdrop of continuously rising temperatures,
climate catastrophes, new pandemics, and weather driven mass
migrations.
I'm
afraid that this train is just getting rolling.
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