Prickly City by Scott Stantis for October 11, 2020

oh won’t the laywers get rich off of it…and media…while the rest of us get up in the morning, look outside, and just sigh before going to work.

****** **** ******** * * . * ******** **** * * ***** *******. * ******** ****.

There will be many Shouty McShoutfaces on November 3

The shouting part it irrelevant.

The constant lies by Trump and His Disciples are the problem.

Shout, shout, let it all out

These are the things I can do without

Come on

I’m talking to you, come on

Shout, shout, let it all out

These are the things I can do without

Come on

I’m talking to you, come on

In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul

In black and white, they really, really ought to know

Those one-track minds that use you for their toy

Kiss them goodbye, you shouldn’t have to keep them employed

You shouldn’t have watch them jump for joy

Apoligies to Roland Orzabal & Curt Smith

No, it won’t be because Trump will never accept any result where he loses

This is far from an insurrection. Republicans in the main aren’t outright repudiating Trump. But they are effectively rolling their eyes in exasperation with him, and especially his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Among the most vivid recent examples:

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas acknowledging in a Friday interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he’s “worried” about the election, which he warned could be a “bloodbath of Watergate proportions” for his party, depending on how voters view the pandemic and economy on Election Day.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell telling reporters Thursday he has not been to the White House in more than two months, since Aug. 6, because he doesn’t have confidence that Trump and his team are practicing good coronavirus hygiene.

McConnell said, “my impression was their approach to how to handle this was different than mine and what I insisted that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, in a perilous fight for reelection in North Carolina, telling POLITICO in an interview that one reason to vote for him is to help Republicans keep their Senate majority as “the best check on a Biden presidency.”

Sen. Martha McSally, running behind in her bid to keep her Arizona seat, refusing to say at a debate with challenger Mark Kelly — despite being pressed repeatedly by the moderator — whether she is proud of being a backer of Trump. “Well, I’m proud that I’m fighting for Arizonans on things like cutting your taxes … ” she filibustered.

Sen. John Cornyn, still ahead in polls but facing a tougher-than-usual race in Texas, told the Houston Chronicle that Trump did not practice “self-discipline” in combating the coronavirus, and that his efforts to signal prematurely that the pandemic is receding are creating “confusion” with the public. Trump got “out over his skis,” Cornyn said.

~

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/09/republicans-ready-to-diss-trump-428433

Campaign ’24 has already started.

Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond.

Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.

The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the United States leads the world in Covid-19 cases and in deaths due to the disease, far exceeding the numbers in much larger countries, such as China.

The death rate in this country is more than double that of Canada, exceeds that of Japan, a country with a vulnerable and elderly population, by a factor of almost 50, and even dwarfs the rates in lower-middle-income countries, such as Vietnam, by a factor of almost 2000.

Covid-19 is an overwhelming challenge, and many factors contribute to its severity. But the one we can control is how we behave.

And in the United States we have consistently behaved poorly.

✁

The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages. Along with tremendous manufacturing capacity, we have a biomedical research system that is the envy of the world.

We have enormous expertise in public health, health policy, and basic biology and have consistently been able to turn that expertise into new therapies and preventive measures.

And much of that national expertise resides in government institutions. Yet our leaders have largely chosen to ignore and even denigrate experts.

The response of our nation’s leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states.

Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence.

But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls.

~

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812

7 Key Findings About Trump’s Reinvented Swamp — The president built a system of favor-seeking at his hotels and resorts that is unrivaled in modern American politics. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/trump-hotels-resorts-takeaways.html

The president’s family business earned millions from customers with interests before his administration

The president kept an eye on the Trump Organization from Washington

Getting access to Mr. Trump was easy: He has spent time at his hotels and resorts on roughly one day out of every four of his presidency

Victories were as weighty as a presidential directive and as ephemeral as a presidential tweet

Some customers framed their patronage in religious terms

Even politicians from small countries rubbed shoulders with the leader of the free world

Selfies and social media posts chronicled the favor-seeking

Wheezy Mussolini-

Trump only lasted 18 minutes in his campaign speech on the South Lawn to 400 people.

2,000 were invited, and he normally talks for 90 minutes.

He’s sick with COVID, and not the draw he once was. tRump’s act is as old & tired as he is.

As well as the right-wing terrorism. Snowflakes use weapons because they are not mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with matters they don’t like.

Any chance we can not broadcast John Adams 96’s nonsense today?

It’s not the shouting that concerns me, it’s what other damage can be done before January.

There were anarchists with Crispus Attucks. Some people still won’t forgive FDR for siding with the godless commies in WWII. Nobody goes away or quits shouting.

And the finger pointing!

You got that right Winslow!

It’s not over until January 20th (hopefully). Then everyone but the political entertainers on Fox News can ignore him/them.