It is now the conventional wisdom of Twitter that today’s the day. Today will be the “event” that pushes us into the rolling crisis of the COVID19 pandemic. It’s the day that will be up there with Dec. 7th and Sept. 11.
The reason is, we finally have a metric that the average person who is otherwise preoccupied with raising their kids and paying their mortgage can understand: the economy .
Or, more specifically — the stock market.
And that’s why Trump is so obsessed with the stock market, it’s a metric HE can understand.
And, really, what people on Twitter are probably thinking is if the stockmarket crashes in a big way today, that will be the event that causes Trump to switch gears and go from ignoring the crisis to exploiting it in order to consolidate power.
The thing I missed in all my thinking about this eventuality is that very thing — I didn’t think about Trump’s natural inclination to scare the shit out of people to political advantage. So, in the end, it may be Trump himself who causes the most damage.
He’s going to be the one who scares people about Asian people by calling COVID19 “Wuhan virus.” It will be he who whips his followers into a frenzy such that they start murdering liberals — and maybe even staging coups at the state level.
But also, some of that talk is the basic acceptance that Trump is probably going to flip out today or sometime soon. He’s going to go transactional with his insanity out of fear of losing the 2020 election.
I am very alarmed at the prospect of Trump / MAGA switching gears today and blaming Asians (and liberals) for all of this. That people like Hugh Hewitt are already laying the groundwork for that is pretty astonishing. MAGA really is a death cult. They really are prepared to get us all killed in the service of the Dear Leader.
It’s rather shocking, once you realize how obvious it is. Yikes!
While MAGA “thought leaders” like Hugh Hewitt are begging us to remember that COVID19 came from Wuhan, China, that’s not the reason why I put the Chinese in the title.
As I understand it, ‘危機’ are the characters for “danger” and “opportunity.” In other words, while the next, say, two weeks are going to suck, there is also some opportunity for those willing to take a risk and show some courage and leadership.
The first thing to do, of course, is to admit that there is, in fact a crisis. Once you do that, you can readjust your thinking accordingly. We’re probably going to have something of a “re-calibration” of society and the economy over the next two weeks.
But the fundamentals of the global economy are strong enough that once the re-calibration wraps up, things will bounce back. Though, I will note, American psychology is pretty unusual. It is so extremely alien to us for there to be a mass, rolling crisis like this, which is comparable to, say, an invasion, that some pretty long-standing habits and traditions may simply melt away.
Add to this how polarized America is and how House Trump is prepare to lie, cheat and steal to maintain power and that “danger” character may get something of a work out. In other words, this could be the thing that doesn’t give us Universal Health Care, but Gilead.
It could really be that bad.
The point is — this is going to be a massive tragedy. So massive that we will only give it value long after the fact out of desperation. Hopefully, maybe, we might come together after it begins. But more likely than not, there will be political violence on the part of MAGA fucktards who think it’s all some sort of weird Deep State conspiracy.
Or people like Hugh Hewitt will endup stirring up forces they might — just might live to regret. If fucking MAGA decides to start murdering Asian people out of a fear of “Wuhan flu,” then, well, we will know whose hands that blood will be on. They will whine that they aren’t responsible for other people’s actions, but history will record the truth.
But once we make it through this crisis, we may have something of a return to the 50s as everyone decides they want to settle down and have kids after getting the shit scared out of them for 18 months.
I guess we’re still in the “denial” phase of MAGA’s potential death rattle. Or, maybe, the phase before the Fourth Reich consolidates power and the American Killing Fields open in an ICE Camp near you. Lulz?
The reason why I say that is Hugh Hewitt is living in la-la land when it comes to the Trump Administration’s reaction to COVID19. What is also interesting is it seems as though MAGA “thought leaders” are prepping the ground for some regular old racism — people like Hugh Hewitt keep conspicuously calling it “Wuhan Flu” as if to dog whistle some anti-Chinese racism in the near, near future. (Please note, I still call COVID19, “Wuflu” because that’s what I first heard it called and it’s a sly reference to Wu-tang.
And, all things being equal, they’re likely to succeed. COVID19 is moving rather slow right now and they have plenty of time to lay the ground work for blaming Asians, or liberals or God himself, if need be, for any political damaged going forward. In the end, I think we all know what may happen — the Dear Leader will simply order the faithful to vote for him, no matter what, as a sign of their personal fidelity to him. He’s already pretty much close to this when he called farmers “patriotic.” He’s trying to get them to tow the line long-term so the evil brown people and the evil feminists won’t snatch their children in the middle of a cold Iowa night.
So, in a sense, MAGA is no longer just a cult, or a personality cult, it’s a DEATH CULT. They would rather we all die than Trump face any political consequences. So, even if Trump somehow magically is force out of office peacefully, House Trump will bounce back extremely quick by telling the faithful that they only lose because of the media’s “hoax” coverage of COVID19 that tanked the economy. This, even if, like, 11 million people die. They just don’t care. They really hate women and brown / black people that much.
I have say, I’m rather impressed with Hugh Hewitt and his fellow MAGA thought leaders for their commitment to the grift. I love you Hugh Hewitt, I really do. You’re the bestest guy in the WHOLE WORLD.
As we entered February, House Trump was riding high. The impeachment “hoax” was defeated and Emperor Trump I was well on his way to consolidating his power over fading Republic. The Fourth Reich was now in its crib after a turbulent birth.
Flash forward to March and the Fourth Reich’s future appears a little less assured. We now find ourselves waiting for the first round of tests for the Corona Virus from across the country. In previous situations, House Trump has always, always, ALWAYS won. They did whatever mindfucking necessary to win. Have Rudy confess to it on TV. Anything. Anything to win. And it has worked.
But now we have a situation that is difficult to use the Stormy Daniels Playbook on. Not even Roy Cohen would be able to tell the wind to stop blowing or the sea to not rise. And, as such, it’s possible that within a few hours, the first Emperor of Trumplandia may soon be seen for who he is: just a hack reality TV star Right-wing Twitter troll who was incredibly lucky because of systemic problems in the American political system.
And, yet, in a way, for the moment Trump is both the God Emperor of Trumplandia and merely a very stupid — if lucky — mortal. What happens in the next, say, 48 hours, will decide his fate. Trump has been screaming at people like me about how much he hates me for about four years now. And, now, he and the doofus Crown Prince believe the press coverage of an impending pandemic in the United States is a “hoax.” What’s more the Crown Prince, seeing his own prospects as God Emperor Trump II possibly beginning to fade, is lashing out, saying “Democrats want millions to die.”
In the past, House Trump has always escaped at this point in the crisis. Always. They have ALWAYS WON. As Putin is known to say, “All that matters is you’re still in power when the sun sets.” So, for House Trump, it’s always been about power for power’s sake, greed for greed’s sake and cruelty for cruelty’s sake. It’s very possible that House Trump will live to fight again.
And yet.
Given what we know to have happened in a series of other nations starting with China, there’s a decent chance this might not be the case. Or, if it is, they’re going to have to start cracking some heads to stay in power. I don’t want anyone to die or get hurt and I’m not really all that thrilled at the prospect of the country I love, the United States of America, going into the biggest domestic crisis since the Civil War effectively without a president. I want America to win 3WW and, by extension, Trump. And, yet, there’s a problem — Trump, is, himself, a national security problem.
The god emperor had no clothes, if you will. So on one hand, I am rooting for Trump to at least not go completely fucking insane so he doesn’t nuke the entire world to hell, but on the other hand, it would definitely be beneficial if somehow we, as a nation, summoned the political will to either do a snap impeach-and-convict or invoked the 25th Amendment against Trump’s will.
For the moment, we have the political will to do neither. And if things get so bad as to actually give us the will to do either of those things, you know pretty much the End Times have come to the United States. I don’t want that. If Trump escapes AGAIN and the Fourth Reich is able to grow to adult hood and throw me in a Trump Re-Education ICE Camp, then, well, so be it. I’d rather go alone against ICE than the entire nation be brought to its knees because of COVID19. So, in that sense, I’m definitely NOT “rooting” for “millions to die.” (Fuck Don Jr, by the way.)
As an aside, much of the bitching and moaning coming from House Trump is due in large part to them knowing what THEY would do if it was a Democratic president who was facing this situation. As shown from the Ebola Crisis during the Obama Administration, House Trump really would root for millions of people to die if it meant they could take and keep power easier. This is demonstrably true, so if you think I have “Trump Deranged Disorder” please eat shit, you fucking fascist asshole. Yeah, *YOU*, PERSONALLY.
Anyway.
One thing to keep an eye on if you want to get a sense of the prospects of House Trump is what its enablers say over the next few days. If the usual MAGA apologists oddly begin to sound a bit more human, as if their immortal soul might have return to their bodies, then, well, that’s a real danger sign. Things would have to get Biblical for, say, Hugh Hewitt to say, yes, maybe House Trump is NOT the only thing standing between America and the chaos of scary brown people and women with sexual agency.
All we can do now is wait. Wait for not only the test results but what the reaction to them may be on the public. If they’re not so bad, that’s great. Trump can crow about how it really was a “liberal hoax,” and I can go back to developing my novel. If they’re as bad as I suspect, well, buckle up. Things may get rather bumpy for not only House Trump, but everyone else in the United States.
Shelt Garner may be reached at migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.
The thing about impeachment is it’s not going to be the panacea for the nation’s troubles that “woke” blue check thought leaders on Twitter would have us believe. A prime example of this is Hugh Hewitt.
Hewitt has gone full Baghdad Bob on us. He’s all in with Trump to an obscene level. Hewitt is so willing to excuse anything Trump has done that obviously merits not only impeachment but conviction that it’s a little surreal. The true tragedy of impeachment is that Republicans like Hewitt are willing to destroy everything, EVERYTHING, for a corrupt fascist moron like Trump.
I long ago realized that just because someone can passionately articulate an opinion, doesn’t mean they’re right. In fact, that pretty much describes most of the thought leaders of the Right at this point. They are running on fumes, but they are getting really fucking high snorting thought fumes. In all honesty, I wish Hewitt would drop the facade. The distance between Hewitt and an old school fascist at this point is pretty minor.
The reason why this is significant is a lot of people within the center-Left spectrum believe that since we have Trump dead-to-rights that we can defeat him on the merits. They think that there is some connection between facts and politics. While this is still the case for Democrats, for Republicans, alas, that’s just not the case. Republicans are so wrapped up in conspiracy theories because it gives them a framework to articulate opinions that are pretty much justification for an illiberal democracy like that found in Russia.
And, honestly, this is going to be the case going forward no matter if Trump is removed from office or not. Republicans will stop at nothing to turn America into Trumplandia. They crave power for power’s sake and they crave obtaining as much cash as possible in as short amount of time. This is not changing, no matter Trump’s fate. We may be able to delay the dystopian nightmare, but we won’t be able to stop it. I say this even more so knowing that our best bet of removing Trump from office isn’t even what he actually did to merit it in the first place — it’s the possibility that he will finally fucking snap and go completely fucking insane on us in a very public fashion.
Though I would, in passing, point out that the obvious endgame of the rhetoric that Hewitt spouts is real, honest to God, death and destruction. There’s at least a small chance that they will get so worked up over impeachment that they really, really, REALLY overplay their hand and sign their own political death warrant…at least long enough for the browning of America to kick in just as the youngest of the Baby Boomers finally croke. But I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m content to see how far politics can get us in our goal of ridding us of the MAGA mence.
Or, put another way, Hewitt ain’t going nowhere. Even if we push Trump out of office, Hewitt and his ilk have crossed the Rubicon. They will welcome the dystopia when it finally arrives.
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