HE CAUGHT THE COVID (AND LEFT ME A MULE TO RIDE)

So The Donald and The Melania have COVID-19 now.

 

Which, as October Surprises go, is a humdinger.

 

It’s also the kind of ironic plot twist that would get most scriptwriters thrown out of the room, but then that’s 2020 for you.

 

Commentary:

 

1. Understandably, there is a lot of talk that Trump is faking it to play the patriotism card, or to get out of the rest of the debates, or to push hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure, or to recover quickly and thus prove he was right that COVID-19 is no big deal, or claim it was an assassination attempt by Biden or Pelosi, something. Or maybe he’s planning to fake his death and disappear to a remote island fortress to avoid jail, his creditors and Putin’s assassins.

 

And of course – this being Trump – I can’t rule that out.

 

The obvious problem is that Trump is a well-established pathological liar who hires people to pathologically lie on his behalf, so it’s hard to know if this is true. And even if it is, it will be difficult to trust any info we get from him or the White House on his status. Granted, this would be true with most Presidents a month before their possible re-election. But it’s so much more true with this admin.

 

But for now I’m assuming it’s legit until someone can prove otherwise.

 

2. Despite his age and obviously bad physical and mental condition, I think there’s a good chance he’ll survive, if only because he’s the POTUS and thus has access to the best and most expensive healthcare anywhere. Knowing what we know about the coronavirus, the next 10 days will be the most crucial, but we also know that testing positive is not in itself an automatic death sentence.

 

3. Meanwhile – and I know this is a very unpopular thing to say – I hope he and FLOTUS recover. I don’t gleefully wish death on him, because that would make me more like him, and I want to be as much the opposite of him as possible.

 

4. That said, if he ends up in the ICU between now and then, I also hope he has some kind of epiphany that will make him a better, wiser and more empathetic person who will finally take COVID-19 seriously and come up with a real policy to deal with it.

 

Yes, that is very long odds, I know. I do think it’s far more likely that – like Boris Johnson – he’ll get back to being an awful person and milk the sympathy card for everything it's worth while making things tougher for everyone who isn’t his rich friends. Also, all the stuff I mentioned about Trump pretending to get COVID-19 to play the patriotism card,  get out of the rest of the debates, push hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure, claim Obama ordered the Deep State to infect him, etc? Trump will probably do one or more of those even if he really has it.

 

But that’s why they call it “hope”, you know.

 

5. As for the election, who knows? There are too many “what if” scenarios at this stage to make any kind of reliable prediction, so we’ll just have to see how this plays out before we can get an idea. But it’s a fair bet that is MAGA cult – which is primed to accept no result other than a Trump landslide – can’t be counted on to take this calmly or rationally.

 

License to ill,

 

This is dF

WILL YOU SHUT UP, MAN?

I’m a little behind on political commentary and I know you’re all dying to hear what I think about that debate and the thing about his taxes, etc.

 

So:

 

1. I didn’t watch the debate, because (1) I already know which candidate I prefer, (2) I already know that debates never tell me anything I don’t already know about the candidates – it’s all trainwreck entertainment theatre that I can live without, and (3) I value what little sanity I have remaining. My Twitter feed of people watching the debate live assures me I made the right decision.

 

That said, based on the coverage and commentary, it went the way I expected. Which is also why I find all the hand-wringing over how it was a low point in Presidential elections and a total shit show and etc a bit disingenuous. I mean, yes, it was all that, but what honestly did they expect? Trump did exactly what Trump always does when you put him in front of an audience – lies and bloviates and bullies and disregards all rules and decorum generally shouts word salads at you  He always does that. He’s never not done that. It’s his brand. Like, dude, where have you been for the last four years?

 

2. While we’re at it, the “Trump paid almost no taxes” story was welcome, but again didn’t say much we didn’t already know. If anything, it told us that Trump is like most rich people in America – he pays people good money to make sure his tax bill is as close to zero as you can get.

 

I don’t think it matters in terms of the election outcome. To be clear, I think it does matter very much in the sense of understanding how desperate Trump is and what he may do to save his own skin (rig an election, say, or cry fraud if he loses), and it matters in the sense that Trump’s tax returns are symptomatic of a much wider problem of systemic tax evasion that the rich have been utilizing for years.

 

But as a game changer in the 2020 election? It’s not going to move the needle much, if at all. It certainly won't turn Republicans and his MAGA base against him – most of them would love to know how he did it so they can do it, too. Remember how the Panama Papers showed just how many rich people with actual money do this kind of thing all the time? Remember how no one did anything to really change that?

 

So yeah. I don’t think it will affect the outcome of the election. It should. But it won’t.

 

Also, I admit I’d be kind of annoyed that this would be the dealbreaker for Republicans that have backed every other horrible thing Trump has done so far. The racism, the cruelty, the sexual assault and harassment, the bullying, the incitement of violence, kids in cages, collusion, corruption, nepotism, mocking the disabled, the constant lying – and this is where you draw the line? Come now.

 

3. Back to the debate, the big takeaway for me is his statement about/to the Proud Boys. It’s hard to make it more obvious that Trump supports them and approves of their intentions and activities.

 

Predictably he’s been trying to walk that back in his usual bizarre way – simultaneously claiming he has no idea who the Proud Boys are but he condemns them anyway. But like most of his walkbacks, he sounds like he just saying what his advisers told him to say and doesn’t really understand why he has to say it, and is just as likely to turn right back around and say what he said the first time. The fact that he didn’t condemn them the first time when he had a chance – and honestly, the fact that it has to be asked at all is not a good sign – speaks more loudly than his damage-control followups.

 

4. Even if you can somehow prove that Trump was just mouthing off and wasn’t serious, or misspoke, or whatever, the fact remains that the Proud Boys and groups like them are feeling mighty proud that that President Himself supports their manifesto and their actions, which makes them even more dangerous and more likely to pull a Rittenhouse in the belief that Trump will have their back.

 

5. Anyway, the debate experience was so awful that even before Trump got sick, people were suggesting maybe we cancel all the others. I cannot think of a good reason against this. POTUS debates don’t really add any value in terms of learning where candidates stand on topics and hashing out whose plan is better. The only people who benefit from TV debates are the candidates (cos hey, free airtime) and the TV networks (cos hey, trainwrecks are good television).

 

And in this particular election year, I’d wager most people already know what the choice is – four more years of Trump TV, or something that is not that.

 

Anyway, if the tone of that first debate really put you off, here’s the bad news: that’s as good as it gets, and it will not get that good again. Maybe the Harris/Pence debate is worth doing as a relative palate cleanser, but I think the other Trump/Biden matches are going to be more of the same, and once was plenty.

 

The talk about extra rules or tools for the next debate to make it more civil is adorable, but look – the first debate had rules. Trump characteristically did not bother to follow any of them. He’s already opposed the proposed changes for the next one. That’s no reason not to put the rules in, but Trump is gonna Trump.

 

And honestly democracy won’t suffer if we cancel the rest of the debates. Frankly, democracy has far bigger problems to worry about.

 

Muted,

 

This is dF