Couch Tomato

Perhaps I have way too much time on my hands and in such a case spend way too much time listening and thinking.  This morning I awake amazed at the mental gymnastics Trump supporters are able to accomplish.  I’m a plodder and a linear thinker.  I observe something askew and seek to discover answers to explain such.  Trump supporters, however, are fully capable of rationalizing everything and I stand amazed.  For instance:

Trump supporters have somehow been able to forgive Trump for dismantling the Pandemic Planning committee in 2017 after he was fully briefed on the risks of a new pandemic and the need for advanced planning.  The problem, of course, was that Obama set that planning committee in place with leading experts from the science community.  Obama did not use relatives to head it up, or people who publicly have an aversion to science. Nope.  This was a real planning committee.  Since Trump abhors all things Obama and has little respect for science he dismantled the committee leaving us without a good plan should a pandemic occur.  Forgiving his bigotry and lack of foresight is a major mental accomplishment for Trump supporters.

Trump supporters have somehow been able to forgive Trump for taking the pandemic lightly in the early days.  Trump called it a Democratic hoax, no big deal, announced that he had it under control, that it would go away with warm weather, that a miracle would make it go away, etc.  All stupid, anti-science statements.  So as the pandemic really began to hurt Americans he had to do an about-face, much like Fox news.  Now we have thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths and it will get worse.  But Trump’s lack of respect for science encouraged him to view the spread of the virus as a PR issue, not a medical issue, so while he postured falsely the virus spread.  Had he jumped on it from the beginning we would be much better off.  People who have died from the virus would still be alive.  Forgiving his mismanagement of the pandemic and mismanagement of the response and planning for the pandemic is a major mental accomplishment for Trump supporters.

Trump supporters have somehow been able to forgive Trump for the out and out lies he has told regarding our preparation and response to the pandemic.  Trump announced we had plenty of test kits available.  We do not.  He announced we would likely have a vaccine in 3 or 4 months.  It has been 3 months and we do not have a vaccine.  He announced that Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin were effective combatting the virus despite experts’ advice to not take the over-the counter malaria-fighting drugs.  Nigeria now reports multiple cases of chloroquine poisoning due to Trump’s recommendations.  Trump continues to announce he has a plan, a strong plan, a good plan, and yet every state and local jurisdiction is following the CDC guidelines, states and cities are all over the place with their response to the virus and we await Pence and Kushner’s plan.  Forgiving Trump for lack of planning, misleading information, outright lies and the loss of life as a result of such behavior is a major mental accomplishment for Trump supporters.

Trump supporters have somehow been able to forgive Trump for not enacting the Defense Production Act to produce much needed medical supplies to serve the sick and protect the caregivers.  Trump finally did so on Friday, March 20 with 35,000 cases and 460 deaths.  The number of American deaths is doubling every day.  But today Trump announced that even though he has invoked the DPA he is not likely to use the power bestowed in the act to tell industry to produce needed supplies.  Forgiving Trump for not taking action to provide the resources caregivers desperately need is a major mental accomplishment for Trump supporters.

Trump supporters have somehow been able to forgive Trump for his lack of positive messaging to America.  For Trump, everything is about him, how he saw this coming, how we are prepared, that he is tired of the naysayers, that he attacks reporters for asking if he has a message of hope for America, etc., etc.  As is always true with Trump all this is someone else’s fault, the Chinese, Obama, Hillary, etc., etc.  This is Trump’s first real crisis as President and he is revealing his inability to respond appropriately.  There are 320,000,000 Americans.  If 70% of us get the virus that is 224,000,000 sick folks.  If 3% of all sick folks die from the virus that is 6,720,000 deaths.  It will be worse than that because our medical facilities lack the number of beds to house the severely ill, and we lack the number of ventilators to support the life of those who are seriously ill and most at-risk.  Let’s just call it 7 million deaths.  Somehow Trump supporters can forgive the President for not ordering the immediate production of ventilators, test kits, masks, etc.  Trump is relying on the private sector and states and cities to make plans to deal with this.  Forgiving Trump for lack of action that will cost American lives is a major mental accomplishment for Trump supporters.

So, I am self-isolating.  I am 70.  I have heart disease.  I am diabetic.  I have had COPD.  If I get the virus I will die.  Some doctor somewhere will have to decide whether I get a ventilator or someone else who is younger, stronger, with fewer health issues, and I totally support giving the ventilator to the younger person.  This pandemic is a major crisis and until those who support Trump begin to communicate to him that it is time to put on his big boy britches and lead the country things will get worse. 

I clearly lack the ability to forgive Trump for his shortcomings in this crisis.  I continue to be amazed that his supporters think he is doing great.  It may take millions of deaths for those supporters to wake up and see how we could have mitigated the entire crisis with leadership, real leadership.  No more self-serving press conferences.  Tell us the truth.  Tell us the plan and do not use hyperbole regarding the plan.  Save as many as you can. 

I sit on my couch knowing that isolation is the best I can do for my neighbors, my family, and my country.  But I am not a couch potato.  Potatoes are so dumb they do not even respond to light. (I have since learned that potatoes do respond to light by sprouting!)  I am a couch tomato.  I at least respond to light and truth.  I strongly encourage Trump supporters to become couch tomatoes too.

Coronavirus Response

OK.  I am really confused.  I think it is because we have a stupid President, or I guess it could be because I am stupid.  No one really thinks they are stupid, so I guess that applies to me and DT, but I do not claim to be a genius, much less a stable one.  I think I am a bright person with issues.

Meanwhile, at least DT has moved from saying this is a Democratic hoax concocted to make him look bad.  Wow.  That preposterous claim clearly stupid as the virus came from China where, as far as I know, Nancy Pelosi is not powerful enough to make thousands ill via biological warfare.

Then he told us it would go away.  In fact, he expected a miracle to make it go away.  Really?  DT is strongly supported by Evangelical Christians and one of the major tenets of those groups is that the Bible is inerrant, is holy, and every word is literally true.  If that is what they believe must it not also be true that God must have created the coronavirus?  Just like he must have created cancer, heart disease, menopause, ED, bad backs, etc.  If God created the virus why would he create a miracle to end his creation?  Or, did God just set things in motion and the virus just happened?  Well, if that is the case then expecting God to intervene is equally crazy.  He has not ended cancer.  He has not cured heart disease.  He is not cured erectile dysfunction.  So, it seems we really cannot turn to God for help on this issue.

I know there are rich evangelical Christians who have banished the virus in the name of God and declared that the virus is illegal.  I do not get that at all.  Who made the virus?  Who at the least is allowing the virus to spread?  Why, that would be God.  It seems to me we should declare evangelical millionaires illegal.

Back to the virus.  Those people who have spent their adult lives studying viruses, immunology, pandemics, etc. know what is going on.  They now know the symptoms and they are working on a vaccine.  But DT won’t listen to them.  He has a hunch that the virus will disappear when it gets hot and that we will have a vaccine in 3-4 months, and that his shoot-from-the-hip hunch is better information than a host of scientists who in fact really know what is going on.  Only a moron would take such a position, especially in the face of a world-wide biological challenge.  Nope.  Old DT thinks his hunch means more than the studied and expert opinion of scientists.  If that does not scare the crap out of you I do not know what will.  To make matters worse, he has asked his son-in-law Jared to get to the bottom of all this.  Jared?  Jared’s only claim to fame is to marry Ivanka and in so doing he has become a part of the nepotistic inbreeding of adamant Trump supporters the President keeps around him.  This is so stupid it is going to get people killed.  However, I must admit it is likely a step up intellectually from Pence.

And then we hear Trump’s plan.  America is tough, America is great, and this silly virus is not going to slow us down at all.  Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  Trump postulates while people die and the market crashes and every thinking organization on the planet seeks ways to contain the virus and treat the virus.  Trump’s solution is to pick some countries on the planet and not allow people, even American citizens, to come here just in case they have or are carrying the virus.  Right.  Would someone please tell our stable genius that the virus is world-wide?  That is what pandemic means.  One nation cannot take steps to solve this problem.  It will take global collaboration on a grand scale.  Sadly, our current President is unable to think globally much less collaboratively.  For Trump, his thoughts and hunches mean more than logic, more than science, more than public safety.

So, what would I do?  First, if the President asked me to take charge I would decline because I lack the knowledge and expertise to be in charge.  I think thinking people would encourage the appointment of someone who knows something and is not impressed by ill-founded hunches.  But if forced to develop a plan I would start with a three-pronged approach. 

The first approach would be to make all our first responders safe from contracting the virus.  Police, fire, ambulance drivers, hospitals and doctors, and nurses must be safe.  Who are we going to call if everyone gets sick?

Second, I would make safe as best we could all those folks who are most likely to die from exposure to the virus.  School kids, the elderly, those already with health challenges, etc.

And third, a full-fledged funding from whatever deep pockets remain in DC to the scientists to develop a vaccine.  If each billionaire in America contributed a billion dollars toward finding a cure we would find a cure and they would all still be billionaires.  And this cannot be just an American approach.  We need our best brains working with the best brains from around the world to stop this thing and for now, I do not care if those brains are in China, Russia, England or a "shit hole country.".  We are much more likely to survive with that kind of collaboration than blocking Italian tourists from coming to the US.

Further, I would encourage our citizens to show thoughtful care and restraint.  Anywhere from self-quarantines for those in high risk areas to avoiding large public gatherings.  Most Americans and American organizations are already doing that.  Those organizations and individuals deserve support and understanding rather than waiting for Jared to make some kind of pronouncement.

And finally, we should take care of each other as best we can in whatever ways we can.  We should morn those who die from this virus, not parade survivors and promote the notion that this is no big deal.  This is a big deal.  I fear our President will not understand that this is serious and not just a PR opportunity until someone he knows and loves gets sick and dies.  By then it will be too late.

Oh the places I have not been

No matter how long I live in Texas there will always be places I have not been.  Here is a list of some of those places:

I have been to Hearn, but I have not been to His’n

I have been to Mexia, but I have not been to Mycornia.

I have been to Comfort, but I have not been to Payne.

I have been to Houston, but I have not been to Housounce.

I have been to Waco, but I have not been to Stable.

I have been to Lufkin, but I have not been to Lufstranger.

I have been to Cistern, but I have not been to Brethren.

I have been to San Antonio, but I have not been to Saint Ziva.

I have been to Fort Worth, but I have not been to Fort Poor.

I have been to Needville, but I have not been to Satedville.

I have been to Dallas, but have not been to Dalleg.

I have been to Weatherford, but I have not been to Weatherchevy.

I have been to Austin, but I have not been to Austeel.

I have been to Brownsville, but I have not been to Blueville.

I have been to Mission, but I have not been to Mosque.

I have been to Crockett, but I have not been to Bowie.

I have been to Waxahachie, but I have not been to Watchalivebirthie.

I have been to Plano, but I have not been to Fancyio.

I have been to Abilene, but I have not been to Abastraight.

I have been to Alice, but I have not been to Wonderland.

I have been to Corsicana, but I have not been to Nohecannota.

And on and on…

Misplaced Loyalty

There was a man who was madly in love with his beautiful wife.  Even after 3 years of marriage, he felt the same way about her as he did the night he proposed.  He loved her.  Deeply and completely.

The feeling was not mutual, however.  And though the wife spent a lot of time telling her husband how much she loved him and how much she supported him and how she was always working to make his life better, the truth was she did not really believe any of that.  She had a hunger for other men as some have a hunger for wealth and power.   As often as she could she would cheat on her husband.  Sometimes just one night or one afternoon stands with men she met in grocery stores.  Sometimes a longer-lasting affair with standing dates at a local motel.  The bottom line was that she was in no way faithful to him or supportive of him and simply told him things he wanted to hear to keep him around and provide her with a certain standard of living, wealth and prestige.

Others became aware of the wife’s behavior.  They began to talk about her lies and her infidelity and her lack of commitment to her wedding vows.  Some even risked sharing their concerns with the husband.

But the husband could not see it, could not believe it, and would not believe it.  As the evidence grew more and more obvious to others the husband dug his heels in and attacked those who would say bad things about his wife.  He ended friendships with the critics and developed new friendships where the only prerequisite is that the new friend supported his wife.

The world knew he was a cuckold, a fool, a blind believer in a false image.  But he persisted in his blind loyalty and denial of the facts.  The world assumed that someday he would wake up and become angry and heartbroken.  He may have secretly known that as well.  But on the surface, he continued to proclaim his devotion to his harlot wife, loyalty to those who supported him and his devotion, and attack anyone who criticized her. 

He was like a Trump supporter.

Sounds Like

Increasing testimony and evidence point to the fact that the President obstructed justice.  The House begins an inquiry.  Sounds like America to me.

Increasing testimony and evidence point to the fact that the President used taxpayer dollars approved by Congress to leverage a foreign nation into conducting an investigation into the son of a Democratic opponent.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

After months of testimony presented mostly live, the House votes to impeach the President on 2 counts with reams of testimony transcripts and piles of evidence.  Sounds like America to me.

The President orders people not to testify, not to honor House subpoenas, and refuses to release documents.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President calls it a hoax.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate Majority Leader stalls the Senate trial until he gets the rules he wants.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate Majority Leader announces he is working with the President to organize the Senate trial.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President dismisses all the testimony and all the evidence by saying he did nothing wrong and besides, look at the unemployment rate.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

When the Senate trial begins the Senate decides to hear no testimony or review evidence.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate votes to acquit the President after no witnesses, no testimony, and no presentation of evidence. Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President celebrates his victory and claims he has been exonerated by a trial with no witnesses, no evidence, and no testimony.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President begins to fire everyone who was subpoenaed and testified under oath.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President is determined to find evidence that the son of a Democratic candidate for office had in fact done the very things his daughter and son are currently doing from positions in the White House.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President awards America’s highest honor to a man with no education, no experience in government, no resume except being a talk show host and the source of more divineness, insults, polarizing vitriol and conspiracy theories than anyone else on the air.  But he thinks like the President.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Supporters of the President go after anyone who voted to remove him from office or participated in the testimony or evidence gathering.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Three branches of government.  Checks and balances.  Liberty and Justice for all.  No man is above the law.  Freedom of speech.  Only in America, not in a dictatorship.

Sounds like America is now a dictatorship to me. 

Into What is the Universe Expanding?

Bobby Jack Schlueter was 39 now.  He still wore his hair long, like a dark shawl hanging on his shoulders.  That was his trademark.  In high school Bobby Jack had been the best tight end his school had ever seen.  He was 6 foot 3 inches big and 220 pounds strong with great hands and surprising speed and most amazing, he was nimble of foot and graceful.  Slow-motion replays of his catch and runs were works of art.  Some defenders he bowled over, some he simply waltzed around, and some he changed direction on so smoothly they tripped on their own feet trying to keep apace.  He carried the team to state for 2 consecutive years.  Those whose horizons stretched beyond the city limits watching him play football knew he could probably go pro someday.  Or, become a celebrity leading man in Hollywood.  Or become a great ballet dancer like Nureyev or Baryshnikov.  He had the looks, the charisma, and the presence to do it all.

But Bobby Jack was 39 now.  He still had the rugged good looks and he still stood 6’3’.  But his frame now carried closer to 260 pounds.  He was sitting on the front porch swing, straining the chains that held it above ground and creaking with the metronome beat of the swing.  One day a link would give way and down would tumble Bobby Jack, swing and all.  But that would not happen today.  Today his hair floated gently behind him on the upswing and slowly embraced him on the downswing.  Back and forth.  Creaking and moaning.  Bobby Jack, a cold beer and a front porch swing.  He both liked and hated these moments alone on the front porch as the sun set, as Sue cooked supper and though his kids had been herded inside still ran around with energy from unknown sources. 

Bobby Jack liked these moments because he could reflect on how good his life was.  He inherited the land his great grandfather had staked out and 3 generations before him had cultivated.  He was on the same front porch his dad and grand and great granddads had all occupied.  He was swinging in the swing his grandfather had built by hand, shaving each of the slats in the swing so that they would be curved to best fit human butts, backs and thighs.  Bobby Jack thought how lucky he was to have married Sue even if he had not realized it at the time.  They had been sweethearts in high school.  She was beautiful and stirred his manhood every time he saw her.  Just after graduation Sue had come to him in tears.  She was pregnant, what would they do?  Bobby Jack was a man of principle if nothing else and he proposed to her on the spot.  He walked away from college coaches waving money, girls and cars, and settled in with Sue.  His father welcomed them back in the old homestead where they lived until this very day and raised their 3 kids, two boys and a girl. 

Bobby Jack hated these moments because he could reflect on all that he had missed in his life.  He was not the college or pro football start.  He was not a Hollywood celebrity.  Hell, he wasn’t even a ballet dancer.  He was still sitting on the same porch of the same house in the same swing as had his dad and grand and great-grand.  He was a fourth-generation Schlueter in a small town in Texas.  He knew he would never escape.  He knew his "all things possible" days were gone.  He knew that all he had left was the same routine his dad had, his grandfather had and his great-grandfather had.  He was a farmer in a small German town and that is what he would always be.  Knowing that, made Bobby Jack, now 39, feel very sad, very lost, and very worthless.  He saw no good future despite the fact that Sue still looked good and his kids were good and he loved them more than life itself.  But he was sad.  Sorry for himself.  So he got another beer, settled back to swinging on the swing and feeling his hair rise and fall.  He was stuck in stasis.

Or so he thought.  Even as he could smell the hay freshly cut and the corn just now crowning he was not in stasis.  Even as he had not moved from this spot for over an hour or for over 28 years since his dad died.  It seemed peaceful.  It seemed still.  It seemed safe.

But he was not still.  He was not safe.  The sun was roughly 93 million miles from earth.  That was a radius.  The circumference of the orbit was 584,336,233.56 miles.  For each of Bobby Jack’s years he had traveled over 584 million miles through space.  In his 39 years he had traveled almost 23 billion miles.  That is not the attribute of someone who has achieved stasis.  So while he was swinging on his safe little front porch he was actually moving on his home planet at about 1,000 miles per hour, looping 584 million miles around his star every year.

And that is just for earth.  His solar system is moving.  His galaxy is moving.  Galaxies are moving further and further away from each other leaving space we do not understand.  Is it dark matter held in place by dark energy, or is that as likely as trolls bowling every time it thunders?  We do not know.  We guess.  But Bobby Jack, now 39, is not sitting still.  And he will soon come to know that.

Sue stepped out on the porch.  “Bobby Jack, supper’s ready.”

“OK.  What are we having?”

Sue said, “Cutlets and brown gravy and mashed potatoes and fresh spinach.” 

“Sounds great, I’ll be right in.”

“OK,” Sue said.  Then she paused.  Then she looked up.  The early twilight was changing.  It was growing brighter.

“What’s that?” Sue asked, pointing at a very bright spot on the horizon.

Bobby Jack turned to look.  It looked like a fireball and it looked like it was heading right for them.  They both yelled at the same time and ran inside and grabbed the kids and headed for the cellar.  They made it, but it didn’t matter.  There was no stasis.  Not anymore.

The comet was unknown to us.  It was as big as all of Texas and it had just circled our sun so we did not see it coming.  The sun accelerated the comet’s speed to almost 100,000 miles per hour.  It hit in the Gulf of Mexico and the fireball from the impact spread at supersonic speed around the planet, burning off our oceans and our atmosphere.  No one survived.  No living thing survived. 

Earth would eventually have several rings formed from the debris thrown into space by the impact.  The moon would jostle around in these debris rings and grow larger.  The sun and other planets were barely affected at all.

But, Bobby Jack would only ever be 39.  The universe is expanding from some sense of stasis to total chaos.  Humans in a flash learned that we are not so smart and that there is no such place as safe and sound, no such place as the same old swing on the porch.  We learned that yearning for some mythical good ole days was pure fantasy.  We learned that differences regarding gender identity and sexual preferences did not matter.  We learned that differences regarding wealth did not matter.  We learned that differences regarding skin pigment did not matter.  We learned that any belief that had separated one of us from another of us was inherently wrong when none of us would survive.  We learned all that and knew there was no ark for this flood.  We learned all that, and then we were extinct.

The universe continued to expand.  Earth’s fate was not even noticed by other sentient beings as galaxies collided and black holes ate light and the night sky shown less bright as all the stars retreated from view.  There is no stasis.  There is no status quo.  There is only progression from where we are and what we perceive to the eventual ripping of the fabric of time and space by an ever-expanding universe.  There is no why.  There is no how.  There is only expansion from where we are to chaos.

Had Bobby Jack survived he likely would have reached the following conclusions.  Make the most of each minute.  Bond with other humans as best you can.  Build bridges, not walls.  Solve the problems we can solve and accept that there are quantum forces at work over which we have no control and no understanding. 

All that would be good to do in honor of Bobby Jack and Sue and their kids and every other human on the planet as we expand into chaos. 

Most Admired Man

I awake to 2020 and am already in shock.  It seems that a recent Gallop survey revealed that Trump and Obama are tied as the most admired men in America.  What the hell is the matter with us? 

If you admire Trump, if he is your model, your hero, the recipient of your support, here are some things you can do to more closely duplicate his attributes:

• Lie all the time.  Shoot for a record number of lies like the 13,000+ lies Trump has said since taking office.
• Cheat on all three of your wives.
• Hire porn stars for sex then pay them not to tell anyone you hired them for sex.
• Get accused of sexually assaulting at least 25 people of the opposite sex.
• Take credit for everything good that happens around you whether you had anything to do with it or not.
• Refuse to accept blame for anything that happens around you even if you are responsible.  Blame bad stuff on a competitor, a conspiracy, a hoax, or Hillary or Obama.
• Take the millions of dollars you were given by your parents and declare yourself a self-made rich man.
• As a public official refuse to release your tax returns.
• Claim to be a genius but do all that you can to block the release of your college transcripts.
• Claim that the evidence presented in the impeachment process is all a Democratic hoax, but refuse to allow those who know what happened to testify and do all that you can to block the release of documents that would clarify the charges.
• Start charities that were a scam and forced to close.
• Start a college that was a scam and forced to close.
• Praise your enemies and attack your allies.
• Praise dictators and criticize democracies.
• Use social media to personally attack anyone who disagrees with you or questions your behavior.
• Mock the disabled.
• Gather your followers in a venue so that you can pump them up with lies.  Should anyone disagree with you in such events have them removed.
• Criticize the US Constitution that you have sworn to protect and defend.  Propose changes that eliminate the freedom of the press and term limits on the Presidency.
• Stop reading non-fiction and promote conspiracy theory books that support your world view.  Then stop reading altogether.
• Claim to be a hard-working person but play golf once every five days.  Play golf at your own resorts so that taxpayer money helps you grow your wealth.
• Claim to be a Christian and that the Bible is your favorite book but never go to church and be unable to name one scripture that you find inspiring.
• Call any accurate report of your shortcomings fake news and offer alternative facts.
• After you have lied, cheated, failed and hidden all the data you can, you can claim that any effort to remove you from your job is an obsession or conspiracy.

And the above list is just personal attributes.  Policy and decision-making, knowledge and expertise attributes would require a new list.

Good luck with changing your behavior to more closely match your most admired person.  If a family member acted like Trump I would organize an intervention to get them help as soon as possible.  With more Americans acting like Trump we will become the most shamed nation on the planet.  We are close to that anyway.