;)
The Commentariat -- July 5, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Richard Oppel, et al., of the New York Times: "Early numbers had shown that Black and Latino people were being harmed by the [corona]virus at higher rates. But the new federal data -- made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- reveals a clearer and more complete picture: Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas, and across all age groups. Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors.... And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people...." Mrs. McC: How disgusting is it that a legitimate news organization had to sue the CDC -- paid for with taxpayer dollars -- to get information critical to public health?
Yoo Who! Wake Up & Smell the Teensy Particles. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.... The World Health Organization has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor. But in an open letter to the W.H.O., 239 scientists in 32 countries have outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendations. The researchers plan to publish their letter in a scientific journal next week."
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "President Trump, with two speeches in two days, has turned the Fourth of July from a joyful and unifying patriotic celebration of America's founding values into a partisan political event. The damage could outlast his presidency.... Never in our lifetimes has the Independence Day holiday been used for such divisive and personal ends.... A portion of the country hears Trump's rhetoric as an uplifting message extolling the rich history of American success and greatness. The rest of the country recoils at a message seen as racist and divisive. As with all things Trump-related, there can be no middle ground. That's the inheritance this president is leaving to the country."
Alabama Senate Race. Surprise! Trump Preferred Candidate Is a Crook. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "President Trump's favored Senate candidate in Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, is known for his career as a college football coach. But he also had a brief stint as co-owner of a hedge fund. It did not go well. A little more than a decade ago, after departing from Auburn University where he was head coach, Mr. Tuberville entered into a 50-50 partnership with a former Lehman Brothers broker named John David Stroud. Their ventures, which included TS Capital Management and TS Capital Partners -- T for Tuberville and S for Stroud -- turned out to be a financial fraud. Mr. Stroud was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Mr. Tuberville was sued by investors, who accused him of fraud and violating his fiduciary duty to take care of their investments; he reached a private settlement in 2013. The episode has been seldom discussed in Mr. Tuberville's Republican primary campaign for the Senate, in which his opponent in the July 14 runoff is Jeff Sessions, the former senator and attorney general who became an object of Mr. Trump's ire.... The winner will face Doug Jones, considered perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the battle for control of the Senate."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. "New infections announced across the United States last week total more than 330,000, a record high that includes the five highest single-day totals of the pandemic."
Maeve Reston of CNN was flummoxed by Donald Trump's "mystifying -- and dangerously misleading claim -- that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are 'totally harmless.'... There have now been at least 2.8 million cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 35% of cases are asymptomatic, those patients can still spread the virus. As of Saturday, Johns Hopkins estimated that the fatality rate for the US was 4.6%." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Reston's figures are a bit misleading. Researchers admit they don't know the long-term effects of the virus are, even among the apparently asymptomatic. But if 35% of today's victims are currently asymptomatic, then 65% felt symptoms. We know that among them, many had symptoms so severe they had to be hospitalized or seek other medical support. Extrapolating from a CDC summary, it appears that about 330,000 Americans have been hospitalized for Covid-19. That's about 11% of Covid victims who have been hospitalized, a figure that of course doesn't include the vast numbers of victims who were turned away from hospitals, sought other treatment or got no professional treatment at all. To claim that Covid is "totally harmless" to all but one percent of those who contract it is not just fuzzy math; it's a big honking lie. (There is one quasi-justification I can see for Trump's claim: the CDC has said that the number of Americans infected is ten times as high as reports indicate. That would bring the percentage of hospitalized patients down to 1.1%. That doesn't mean the virus was "totally harmless" to the other 98.9% of Covid victims, but it could explain away Trump's wild assertion.)
Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "... in [Trump's] view, schools are teaching kids to 'hate our country' with a 'far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.'... 'If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,' he said.... Trump is pushing a view of public education in the country that has long been espoused by many Republicans: that public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education are cauldrons of subversion where teachers mold children into being politically correct leftists." Mrs. McC: To be fair to Trump, many a child -- if she knew the word "fascist" -- would so describe her teacher or some other school employee -- like the Cafeteria Nazi!
Crazy People News. Shawn Boberg & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "For weeks, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge ... [at Gettysburg National Park] on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical.... As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation's flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary. On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds -- heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was [a fake]...."
Bradley Warren in Montana Right Now: "Congressman Greg Gianforte and Lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Kristen Juras are suspending public events after a potential exposure to COVID-19. On Tuesday, Gianforte’s wife, Susan, and Juras attended a fundraising event with Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimblery Guilfoyle in the Big Sky area according to a spokesperson for the Gianforte campaign.... The Trump Campaign chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance committee confirmed to The New York Times that Guilfoyle tested positive for COVID-19 in South Dakota." Gianforte is running for governor. Mrs. McC: Sadly, this means Gianforte will not have an opportunity in the near future to beat up any bespeckled reporters.
~~~~~~~~~~
Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden on Saturday offered a counterpoint to the dark and defiant Fourth of July message President Trump delivered at Mount Rushmore, striking notes of unity in a video and op-ed released on the nation's 244th birthday.... It was a stark contrast with Trump, who focused Friday on the men who built the country, saying they are heroes and that those skeptical of the country's founders are part of a 'radical ideology' and a 'left-wing cultural revolution.' The dueling Independence Day messages highlight the vastly different ways Biden and Trump have responded to the country's racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis police custody." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Joe Biden, in an NBC News essay: "... pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off course in recent years -- and no one bears more responsibility than President Donald Trump. Every day, he finds new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy -- from baseless attacks on our voting rights to the use of military force against Americans protesting peacefully for racial justice. He has systematically gone after the guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America -- not even the president -- is above the law. He has made it clear time and again that he won't hesitate to tear apart our most cherished democratic structures for an ounce of personal gain. And that corruption of our founding principles threatens everything this nation has worked so hard to build, blighting our ability not only to elevate our values, but also to lead the world.... To ensure that our democratic values are able to rise to new heights, I will take decisive steps to strengthen our foundation. That means immediately reversing Trump's cruel and counterproductive asylum, travel ban, and family separation policies -- and reaffirming our innate identity, reflected in our Constitution and emblazoned in the Statue of Liberty, as a nation of immigrants. It means fighting for -- not conspiring against -- the independence of our judiciary and the freedom of our press. It means rooting out systemic racism from every area of society it infects -- from unfairly administered COVID-19 recovery funds, to laws that perpetuate racial wealth gaps, to health disparities, to housing policy, to policing, to our justice system and everywhere in between." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Doctor Trump: "Coronavirus 99 Percent Totally Harmless." David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has celebrated independence day with a string of false and misleading claims attempting to play down the coronavirus pandemic and warning that China will be 'held accountable'. The US president staged a 'Salute to America' jamboree on the south lawn of the White House with flyovers by military jets, parachute jumps and patriotic songs, but little effort among guests to physical distance or wear face masks.... 'We got hit by the virus that came from China,' the president said.... 'We've made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, it rears back its ugly face in another area. But we've learned a lot. We've learned how to put out the flame.... Now we have tested almost 40m people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.'... And contradicting ... public health experts, the president offered a wildly optimistic prediction: 'We'll likely have a therapeutic and/or vaccine solution long before the end of the year.'"
In the fields and jungles of Vietnam, they delivered a swift and swiffian, It was swift and it was sweeping like nobody's ever seen happen. -- Historian-in-Chief Donald Trump, Saturday, reading from a transcript, makes up another, undefined word while claiming that the U.S.'s Vietnam War -- which slogged on for two decades, was "swift and swiffian" ~~~
~~~ Jordan Muller of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday railed against protesters, China and the media in an address marking America's Independence Day -- typically a non-partisan celebration of national unity. Trump, whose address largely mimicked the tone of his stump speeches, continued his attacks on protesters he said are 'lying' about American history by calling for the removal of statues and memorials celebrating slaveholders and colonial and Confederate figures. And similar to his speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump pledged to defend American monuments and the country's 'rich heritage.'"
Fomenting His Own Revolution. Asawin Suebsaeng & Allison Quinn of the Daily Beast: "'This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution,' [Donald Trump claimed during his South Dakota speech Friday night]..., before repeatedly going on to compare himself and his supporters to Patriots during the American Revolution -- and protesters to members of the British Army. Speaking as if preparing his political supporters for battle, he said, 'Just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way, and we will win, and win quickly.... We will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ I Am the Enemy Within. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In his inaugural address, President Trump sketched the picture of 'American carnage' -- a nation ransacked by marauders from abroad who breached U.S. borders in pursuit of jobs and crime, lured its companies offshore and bogged down its military in faraway conflicts. Nearly 3½ years later, in the president's telling, the carnage is still underway but this time the enemy is ... other Americans whose racial identity and cultural beliefs are toppling the nation's heritage and founding ideals.... If his 2016 campaign ... was focused on building a wall to keep out immigrants and shedding alliances with nations he believed were exploiting the United States, the president is now aiming his rhetorical blasts at groups of liberal Americans who, he believes, constitute a direct threat to the standing of his conservative base. At Mount Rushmore, under the granite gaze of four U.S. presidents, Trump railed against 'angry mobs' pursuing 'far-left fascism' and a 'left-wing cultural revolution' that has manifested in the assault on statues and monuments celebrating Confederate leaders and other U.S. historica figures, including some former presidents, amid the mass racial justice protests of recent weeks." ~~~
~~~ ** William Wan of the Washington Post: "Amid the combative and unusual ways President Trump chose to celebrate Independence Day, some historians were particularly puzzled Saturday by his announcement for a new monument called the 'National Garden of American Heroes' populated by a grab bag of historical figures chosen by his administration. The garden, Trump explained in a Friday night speech at Mount Rushmore, was part of his response to the movement to remove Confederate statues and racially charged iconography across the country.... 'The choices vary from odd to probably inappropriate to provocative,' said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. 'It's just so random. It's like they threw a bunch of stuff on the wall and just went with whatever stuck,' said Karen Cox, a history professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.... [Grossman] noted Trump's executive order establishes a task force and gives it 60 days to submit a report detailing locations and options for building the new garden monument. 'There's no rush here. The only real emergency is that there's an election coming up,' Grossman said."
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Well-worth reading if you have a WashPo subscription. I'm sure you can come up with your own reasons for why Trump's executive order is profoundly stupid. ~~~
~~~ Here's the list, via Law & Crime: "John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, [Antonin Scalia,] Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In addition, if I've read Trump's executive order correctly, he'll be able to throw in statues of infamous Confederates & other riffraff. The statuary task force is to "consider the availability of authority to encourage and accept the donation or loan of statues by States, localities, civic organizations, businesses, religious organizations, and individuals, for display at the National Garden." Does your town have an old statue of some miscreant hidden away in storage? A robber baron, maybe? A pirate? A Ku Klux Klan founder? Send it to Washington!
GOP "Unnerved" by Their Trumpenstein Monster. Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus. Although amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of Trump's public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as the president has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain. Trump has left little doubt through his utterances the past few weeks that he sees himself not only as the Republican standard-bearer, but as leader of a modern grievance movement animated by civic strife and marked by calls for 'white power,' the phrase chanted by one of his supporters in a video the president shared last weekend on Twitter. He later deleted the video but did not disavow its message." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Bryan Pietsch of the New York Times: "With Independence Day celebrations canceled around the country, one distinctly American tradition continued on Saturday despite the pandemic: the annual pilgrimage of competitive eaters to Coney Island for the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.... Held without fail every Fourth of July since 1942, the event ordinarily draws thousands to the original Nathan's location in Brooklyn.... But there was no crowd this year to cheer raucously, and the competitive eaters, who usually hover over their piles of hot dogs shoulder to shoulder, were spaced apart from one another. The contest was limited to five women and six men to allow for adequate social distancing. One woman was unable to attend because of restrictions on travel to New York from Arizona, where coronavirus cases are surging."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Cases are trending upward in 39 states, and at least five -- Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina -- set single-day case records on Friday, the start of a holiday weekend governed by patchwork restrictions and planning after local leaders shifted policies to try to keep pace with the surge.... For this weekend, as many as 80 percent of community fireworks displays in large cities and small towns have been canceled over fears that the gathered crowds would become hot spots for new outbreaks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "The United States entered the Fourth of July weekend against a backdrop of surging coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with officials and health experts nervously watching to see if the public would heed warnings to limit the size of their gatherings and take other steps to curb the virus. Florida on Saturday set another daily record for new infections, reporting 11,458 confirmed cases.... Intensive care unit capacity at Texas Medical Center, the world's largest hospital complex, exceeded 100 percent.... Cincinnati, Cleveland and Wichita became the latest major U.S. cities to pass mask ordinances.... Beaches were closed in Los Angeles, South Florida and in other states, but Myrtle Beach, S.C., remained open to the public, even as cases in the city and state continued to rise sharply. The tourist hub passed a last-minute mask ordinance as thousands of vacationers flocked in for the holiday. 'We are doing all that we can,' Mayor Brenda Bethune told CNN. 'I believe that people spread this virus -- that's been proven -- not places.'" Access is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Mayor Brenda earned her philosophy degree at the same school of public policy that teaches "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." Idiot. ~~~
~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Trump said Saturday that his administration had 'made a lot of progress' on controlling the novel coronavirus pandemic, even as the seven-day average of cases in the United States set a record for the 26th straight day."
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday signed legislation that extends the deadline for businesses to apply for aid under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The bill extends the deadline for businesses to apply for PPP loans until Aug. 8. The program, set up to assist businesses impacted by closures related to the coronavirus pandemic, had expired on Tuesday night with roughly $130 billion left unused."
Thanks to Hattie for the lead on this one:
Colorado. Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Three Aurora, Colorado, police officers were fired Friday for taking part in a disrespectful selfie-photo session near the memorial site for Elijah McClain, who died after being in a police chokehold, the interim chief said. The officers involved in the photos, which show three of them smiling as one is in a mock chokehold, were identified by interim Chief Vanessa Wilson of the Aurora Police Department as Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. A fourth officer, Jaron Jones, resigned Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Maryland. Christina Maxouris of CNN: "While much of the country celebrated Independence Day Saturday, protesters in Baltimore toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the Inner Harbor, CNN affiliate WBAL reported. Louis Krauss, who shared video of the toppling, said there were at least 300 people gathered at the scene. 'After it toppled over the statue broke into several pieces, which were then dragged across the plaza and dumped into the Inner Harbor,' Krauss told CNN."
Washington State. Edward Helmore of the Guardian & agencies: "A woman has been killed and another seriously injured by a car whose driver sped through a protest-related closure on a freeway in Seattle, authorities have said. Summer Taylor, 24 and from Seattle, died in the evening at Harborview Medical Center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said. Diaz Love, 32 and from Bellingham, remained in critical condition with multiple injuries. Video taken at the scene by protesters showed people shouting 'Car! Car!' before fleeing the road. The driver, Dawit Kelete, a 27-year-old man from Seattle, was in custody. A state patrol spokesman, Ron Mead, said Kelete was suspected to have driven the wrong way on a ramp. Mead said troopers did not know whether it was a targeted attack. Police said impairment was not considered a factor.... Mark Taylor-Canfield, a journalist, said the car had plenty of time to slow down before smashing into protesters. 'It sped up and went right into the middle of the crowd, so most of us assumed it was a purposeful attempt at vehicular homicide,' he said...."
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Sunday Sermon:
Co-dependency has a bad name for good reasons.
At its extreme we find Jim Jones and those who followed his dark vision to Jonestown’s carnage (britannica.com) or the suicidal cult that saw the Hale-Bopp comet as heaven-sent (rollingstone.com), but not all unhealthy and abusive “relationship addiction” (Wikipedia.com) is on the fringe. There’s plenty closer to home.
Yesterday I escaped Covid-19 confinement long enough to talk with someone I hadn’t seen in a long time. Naturally, Covid’s recent spread came up, but when he said it was caused by “those Black Lives Matter protesters.” I knew we were off the solid ground of fact and on the slippery slope of blind belief.
Maybe I should have said the evidence didn’t support his claim (time.com), but it didn’t seem the right time or place.
It reminded me, though, of the strong co-dependency relationship between Trump and his devotees. No matter how outlandish Trump’s remarks, his MAGA minions don’t question what he says.
In the last few weeks, Trump has said again he “knows” Covid will “magically disappear,” that the economy is “roaring back,” that Obama did nothing to “fix policing.” None of that is true [Trump himself reversed Obama’s police reform measures (nbcnews.com.)] but millions nonetheless believe him.
How about the many things and people Trump knows nothing about? Nothing about the intelligence linking Russian bounties to dead American soldiers, nothing about the recently fired Southern District of New York US Attorney, nothing about dozens of former acquaintances he’s “never met” (usatoday.com). A whole lot of nothing, all accepted by millions more.
With a president and a political party that treats reality with contempt, there has to be a right time for a nation to say we’ve had enough of this abusive and perilous relationship.
Maybe that time is coming in November.
Biden has taken Trump's "Put the wrong person in office..." and turned it against him in two new ads:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-office-warning-attack-ads_n_5f002678c5b6acab2850b554
And we have Fatty fumbling with the T word yesterday during his great speech under the heads of the Rushmore Group. Here's one of the blowbacks.
Michael McFaul
@McFaul
Trump has no idea what words like fascism and totalitarianism mean. To those who wrote this speech & those senior WH officials who approved this speech, shame on you. Perhaps the most un-American speech ever delivered by an American president & on the July 4th weekend no less.
Yes! what were they thinking???? One might want to conjure up some kind of sabotage –-write a damning speech deliberately ––-but that would be too good to be true ––those in the inner circle of Trumpism be as bat shit crazy as he.
@Marie: Thank you for including that absolutely dynamite video of those young people reciting Frederick Douglass' 4th of July speech. I have always found it to be riveting –-it's as relevant today as it was then.
And more and more we are seeing the young take the bull by the horn and fight for change. There lies our hope.
Kanye West wants to be president when he grows up?
And Elon Musk will support him?
I’m still sleeping, right?
Conclusions and Revisions:
The old Grump saw the filmed version of "Hamilton" last night and he didn't mind it as much as he had expected to. Having heard snippets only of the musical that took the nation--certainly his daughter in law--by storm, he expected it would trivialize and do actual violence to historic personages and events he has taken seriously for far too long, and it did just that, but he concluded the occassionally clever lyrics and some of the truly magnificent singing and wonderful choreography placed the performance on the upside of tolerable.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Fourth of July evening.
In contrast, though, I'd again recommend the NPR recording Bea has linked at the top. That one touched me. As I said yesterday, those young people reciting Douglass, made this old heart, inclined as it is to an excess of earnest, sing.
And lastly, saw yesterday that Michael McFaul is associated with the Hoover Institution, which leavened just a little my abiding contempt for the place I've often shared here.
Still feel the need to offer this advice for McFaul: Wash your hands regularly. That place is infected.
@Ken: When I started reading your latest comment I thought "the old Grump" was Trump but when I got to this"... he expected it would trivialize and do actual violence to historic personages and events he has taken seriously for far too long" I knew it was you cuz the aforementioned wouldn't, and couldn't have gotten that far in analyzing much less thinking in that vein.
How many MGM's, for example, have we watched in our youth that seen again with new eyes smack of "Oh, my god, they really said THAT?" And yet––we still love the music, the dancing, the singing––placing as you said, the performances as tolerable.
As for Michael: It do indeed give one pause that the guy rubs arms with the Hoover gang but maybe he arms himself just a bit by wearing gloves and a mask to keep from getting infected.
“Swiffian”? What the hell is that? Another Trumpen word? Maybe he meant “Swiffer”, that floor mop. I guess he was suggesting that the US military mopped (swiffed up?) things in Vietnam toot sweet. Oh, maybe not as quickly as it would have had the Great General Fatty been there. The VC would have given up immediately had they heard he was on the way. He’d have done it unarmed like he claims he’d do when confronting a heavily armed mass murderer—there’s no braggart as ridiculous as a coward. Or maybe he’s still thinking about how they rake the forests in Finland.
Hattie,
Alas, you are wide awake. Presidential seasons often bring out the terminally narcissistic. See Trump, little donnie. QED.
Mrs McC: You forgot one statue. Just like a bronze Walt Disney welcomes you to the mouse trap in Orlando, there will have to be a larger than life statue to wave all visitors into his garden of stones.
Much here to amuse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/hundreds-of-armed-men-went-to-gettysburg-to-defend-it-from-a-phantom-antifa-flag-burner-created-on-social-media/2020/07/04/206ee4da-bb05-11ea-86d5-3b9b3863273b_story.html
Amused me, anyway.
It appears the Pretender is not the only one who's duped these folks....
Re the Garden of Heroes:
-- rather than a garden, put plinths lining the Memorial Bridge (the one between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington), its approaches, and the traffic circles on each end.
-- make the statues of modern materials instead of that fussy old marble or bronze. Semi-transparent poly-resin, multicolored so that the statues look "real". (And, folks, Greeks and Romans painted their statues because they thought that looked cool!).
-- light those semi-transparent figures from within, and hook up to software like the LV Bellagio fountains, so that the lights can flash to music
-- statues should be screw-in, so they can be changed out as their subjects' poll numbers change. "Only The Best People!"
-- have a GPS-linked podcast for each statue, using voice-actors to recreate their most famous utterances. It'll be just like they're alive!
-- recreate the statues in miniature by Franklin Mint, for chess sets, lawn ornaments, standing lamps, and more! Every house a museum! On sale at the Wahington Monument Gift Shop, and online!)
-- designate a "voter of the month" by lottery, who can determine which statues to 86 (right into the Potomac!) and who to replace him/her with! (Put up with that, Winston, who as an American citizen (honorary) should of course be on a plinth, with a lit-up cigar that smokes like the old Camel billboard in Times Square)
-- why stop at humans? Doesn't "Balto the Rescue Husky" deserve a places to park his haunches? (Or, my favorite, "Pat the Horse" who is buried at Fort Sam Houston with his own plot marker).
This is such a great idea loaded with possibilities! And you can expand it forever, into Arlington, when you evict all the stiffs hogging space around the Custis-Lee Mansion.
In his remarks that referred to "swiffian" warfare in Veetnam, DiJiT was undoubtedly using the Scots' improper pronunciation of St. Swithin's adjective, in the way his Ma probably taught him. "Swithian" would no doubt mean "strong" but for those whose dipthong managemernt is weak (a la DiJiT) could well devolve into "swiffian".
Or -- his brain is swiss cheese. Either works to satisfy Occam's Razor. But the cheese has the edge.
(" English Baby Names Meaning:
The name Swithin is an English Baby Names baby name. In English Baby Names the meaning of the name Swithin is: Strong. St. Swithin was the Bishop of Winchester in the 9th century.")
-- from the top o' the googles
@Patrick: No doubt you are right about "swiffian," with my bet placed on the cheese. I tried to plug in "Swiftian," but there was no way I could make that work.
As to your suggestions on Trump Statuary Gardens, I do hope you're on the task force. The others on the "force" are bound to go for your ideas, if they don't outright steal them to present to the King as their own marketing proposals.
Years ago, an Iranian exile bought a mansion in Beverly Hills with his ill-gotten gains. The property had some pseudo-Greek marble statues guarding the main gate & maybe elsewhere along the front fence, and the rich Iranian had them painted in bold colors, which -- as you say -- was a la mode back in the day. Well, the rich Iranian's rich neighbors were incensed at the desecration of it all. As I recall, they sued & lost. This is, after all, the same neighborhood where I saw a "True Tutor" house FSBO-advertised in the L.A. Times.
@Ken W. Looks like I linked the Crazy Militiamen Go to Gettysburg story about the same time you did. I looked at the pictures, too, and I must say that although few were wearing masks, at least one picture showed the gun-totin' he-roes social distancing. Of course it's possible they did so because they are accustomed to living in their Moms' basements sending messages over some QAnon channel and just weren't accustomed to be around other live people. (I should talk: I've been living in my little stone cottage for a good six months, sending messages over the Reality Chex channel and -- for the most part -- am unaccustomed to being around live people.)
Hey, I'm all for Kanye running for president if we get to see his wife, Kim, debate Melania.
Akhilleus,
Thanks for reminding me that all’s possible Anno Donnie.
(cue Louis Armstrong’s “It’s A Wonderful World”)
Elizabeth,
Wow. A Melanie-Kim Kardashian smackdown. I felt, for a moment, like I did the first time I tried acid. Yeow. That would be like something out of a Hunter Thompson story. Front and center would be the attempt to out-couture each other. No prêt-à-porter at that debate. If we could get Martha Nussbaum to pose the questions, I’d have the popcorn ready to go.
I am just steaming. I wrote the letter below to my stupid governor Chris Sununu in about 27 seconds, tho I did take time to go back & redact the bad words I used to express my real feelings. I also shot off a copy to the local paper, to give the person who reads the letters to the editor a laugh, too:
Dear Gov. Sununu:
I was shocked and horrified to hear on the news that Donald Trump is planning to come to New Hampshire & spread the Trumpidemic in our state. As I'm sure you know, many of us in New Hampshire have spent months sheltering at home, social distancing, wearing masks when we must go out, and going out only when minimal contact is expected (I do all my shopping at 6 am). Now Trump plans to undo all of our sacrifices with a self-serving act of political nihilism.
Please do not allow Donald Trump to hold a dangerous rally in our state. Tell him not to come. I assume he is planning to fly in, as I read that the rally will be held at Portsmouth Airport. Tell him the airport will not clear his plane(s) for landing. If he is able to land, tell him state law enforcement officers will not allow him to deplane. Tell his supporters he cannot come here, so they should not gather together in mask-free frenzies to await him.
I'm aware you're a Republican, but your duty to preserve the health and safety of New Hamshirites should outweigh any allegiance you may have to Trump and his traveling plague. Stop Trump!
@Elizabeth: Happy to see you've retained your sense of humor despite the various crises.
As for @Akhilleus' fashion predictions, I expect both ladies to wear low-cut dresses to the debate to show off the best purchases they ever made. And Rich Lowry of the National Review will once again find some teensy-weensy, itty-bitty part of him "sitting up straighter on the couch" as he sees "little starbursts through the screen."
When Soft Porn Came to the National Review. "I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, 'Hey, I think she just winked at me.' And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen...." -- Rich Lowry, ca. 2008
A Melania - Kim smackdown could easily be wordless. Both woman have lots of nude and semi nude pix. It could be a soft porn pix-down.
Mrs Bea: There's an opinion piece in the Miami Herald on Trump's leaving the C-19 stage and that DeSantis should assert his independence. All governors should. He left them to hang in the wind when this thing started, why should they follow him now?
As the owner of a small business located in NH who has, along with most of the residents of the town where we are located, abided by the lock-down rules, I can't agree with you more that I don't want him anywhere near the state!!
@charles: Thank you for writing. Today for the first time, New Hampshire showed up on MSNBC's U.S. map as one of the few states in which the number of new cases of Covid-19 is declining. Now Trump plans to come & ruin that encouraging trend. I'm furious. I realize he's doing it because he just doesn't care, but the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking Trump wants Americans to get sick.