They Doth Protest Too Much

 

 

Looking out over the American landscape, I'm astonished to see large numbers of folks out in the streets, huddled together in protest of the Stay-At-Home rules put forward by certain governors, I could not help but think that America's collective IQ is going to be a bit higher when we're finally past this nightmare. And who can say when this will be in our past? Some are saying that this situation could last two years or longer. The pandemic of 1918 went on until 1920. We need to dig in for the long haul.

I was reminded of this earlier today when the husband of one of my cousins made the following, incredible statement on Facebook:

"We're going to crash our economy on a virus that has a 97% survival rate."

My comments and his responses went as follows:

ME: That would only mean 11 to 12 million dead. I don't think you're getting the big picture here.

 

HE: Tom Degan I get the whole picture very clearly.

ME: So what you're saying is that 12 million dead is acceptable to you? 

HE: no I’m saying I think it’s wrong. Stay home if you want to. I don’t buy everything we are being told by so called specialists.

Governor Kemp of Georgia
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In other words he doesn't believe the ninety-seven percent survival rate which he had just proclaimed to be a fact. It's idiocy like this that very well may get him - and his wife and children - killed. I have quite the eclectic family. By the way, he lives in Georgia which is within hours of opening up again thanks to the idiocy of the governor of that state. There's a lot of idiocy out there. Have you noticed that? These are the weirdest of times to be alive. Strange days indeed.

 

"When the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility, then they ceased to be free."

 

FDR

That was said by New York governor Andrew Cuomo this morning at his daily press briefing. He was quoting from The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.  That seems to me to be a most apropos book to be quoting from these days. The American nation seems to be at the precipice, about to go crashing into the abyss. Nearly eighty years ago during the depression and the onset of the second world conflict in a generation, America was blessed enough to have a man in the White House in the form of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It would seem that, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United States had wise and intelligent leaders living in the Executive Mansion in times of great crisis and peril. Our luck seems to have run out when we reached the twenty-first century. Go figure.

Shit happens.

In less than nine months Donald Trump will be out of the White House and possibly heading into fugitive exile. It's obvious that, barring a miracle, he won't be removed from office any time soon - which is probably just as well. Mike Pence is such blubbering imbecile that his potential presidency is too depressing to even think about. We need to ride this out as best we can. Trump seems to be egging the demonstrators on. My theory, as I stated two days ago, is that he would like to get enough people sick so that he could proclaim a national emergency and cancel the elections in November. Is that a far-fetched scenario? Perhaps, but there is by now nothing I wouldn't put past this hideous and dangerous dingbat.

Fifty years from now, historians will look back on this period in American history and shake their heads in wonderment and astonishment at how we could have gotten it this wrong. This is where we find ourselves and this is what we are forced to deal with. Will the American people ever again find themselves on the mountaintop? Good luck with that. Keep voting Republican.

Idiot Nation

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Speech, January 6, 1941

To even think that, in seven decades, we could have gone from Roosevelt to Trump. This was his 1941 State of the Union address. Here's a link to listen to this incredible speech on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD32o5zqe7M

Listen and weep for what we have become.