Comparative Disasters


Reading time – 2:47  .  .  .

I used to wake up in the morning and turn on the TV as I made coffee. I did so with trepidation over the anticipated shock of learning what might have happened overnight. Did we invade another country? Did we insult another ally? What new lies is the president telling us?

That was during the George W. Bush presidency.

He lied about the yellow cake. He lied about the aluminum tubes. He lied about Saddam being in cahoots with al Qaeda. He lied about WMDs. He lied about pursuing Osama bin Laden. He lied about the Taliban. He lied about Mission Accomplished. He lied about tax cuts.

His accomplishments over 8 years were:

    1. Two unnecessary and possibly illegal wars – BOTH OF WHICH ARE STILL GOING ON. That’s not an abstract concept. People continue to die. Plus, the wars were “off-budget” – essentially he lied about the financial cost, too.
    2. Complete disruption of the Middle-East, which invited ISIS, the Syrian civil war and Assad’s atrocities. It eventually led to ceding the Middle-east to Russia and Iran.
    3. Multiple tax cuts that caused the largest budget deficits in history. We will never get out from under that debt.
    4. He abandoned victims of Hurricane Katrina.
    5. He managed to fulfill his two stated goals: first, he “finished” his daddy’s war against Saddam; second, he got to be a wartime president. Goody-goody for him.

There is more, but it’s pretty much a continuation of this list of sordid “accomplishments.” But one thing he did not try to do is to destroy our culture, our democracy or our Constitution.

I still turn on the TV as I make coffee in the morning and I continue to have a sense of dread over what I’ll learn the president has destroyed overnight. Now, though, my dread is deeper, which is a hard thing to admit, considering the comparative is pointless, unjustified, unending war. But regular readers of these posts know well my view of today’s Republicans as invertebrates, having surrendered their spines in cowardly supplication to the playground bully living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Together they are dismantling everything.

The funny thing about “tearing it all down” is that something has to fill the void and I’ve yet to hear from any of the destroyers of our bedrock an acceptable candidate for that job. All we’re offered is a dictator wannabee and destruction.

If that works for you, there’s nothing you need to do.

If that doesn’t work for you, you better dig in to help us change course, because our course is set in a downward direction and if we do nothing, we’ll continue into oblivion. I don’t think you or I will like what we find there.

Grab a shovel and get to work.

And speaking of disasters  .  .  .

“FDA revokes emergency use ruling for hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by Trump as a Covid-19 therapy”

 

It’s been known for quite a while that hydroxychloroquine wasn’t reliably effective in treating Covid-19 and that a not-uncommon side effect was death. Nevertheless, Trump promoted it, even saying that he was taking the drug. Of course, he lies about so many things we’ll likely never know if he was actually taking hydroxychloroquine. The more interesting question is why this anti-science, medical know-nothing would promote this drug like a carnival barker peddling snake oil.

The “carnival barker peddling snake oil” part is obvious: that’s what he always does about everything. But why this drug? You don’t suppose that he has some pals in the pharmaceutical industry, do you?

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One Response to Comparative Disasters

  1. John Anderson June 17, 2020 Reply

    All that you said about Shrub is true. That said, given current conditions, I welcome him back in a heartbeat.