(ThyBlackMan.com) P.T. Barnum, of Barnum & Bailey Circus fame, is alleged to have coined, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I suppose, given the super-charged times we live in, it’s now down to every thirty seconds. And Trump’s administration and followers have certainly supplied the clowns.
The president criticized Speaker Pelosi for visiting Chinatown in San Francisco, tweeting it “was responsible for many deaths.” Of course, critics reminded the president that Chinatown is actually in America, and not in China. Advisor Kellyann Conway lambasted the World Health Organization for not getting its act together to combat the coronavirus saying, “This is COVID-19 you know.” Implying they had eighteen previous tries to get it right. Forgetting, I guess, “19” is for the year it emerged, as in 2019.
After saying that the president had “total control”, Trump released his plan to reopen the country, which wasn’t a plan at all. It said each state would be responsible for its own plan and timetable to reopen, like they were already doing (kinda’ like granting the sun the authority to rise in the east). New (fourth) Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany congratulated the president for having “quickly developed the most 
expansive and accurate testing system in the world.” Only to have a Yale epidemiologist quickly describing “every word as being a lie, including ‘the’ & ‘and.’”
Michael Tomasky wrote on the Daily Beast website that the coming culture wars in the 2020 election will be “not over abortion, not over climate change, not over guns, but this time, over death itself.” He continued that the fight Trump, Republicans and Fox News crave is “instinct vs, intellect, passion vs. reason, caveman-self vs. educated self.” I call it the rebirth of the “Know Nothing” party.
Wisconsin’s primary election was the test case. The Republicans fought efforts to delay in person voting, and extending voting by mail, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Having won that battle, they then closed all but five voting precincts – out of over 180 – in Milwaukee forcing voters to stand in line for hours. Despite all this, however, the incumbent judge whose seat they were trying to protect still lost his contest by over ten points; and COVID-19 cases, and deaths, continued rising the next day.
Dr. Phil joined in the death talk on Fox News solemnly intoning “lockdowns around the country would create more destruction, and actually more death, across time than the actual virus itself.” His reasoning was car accidents and swimming pool drownings cause more deaths annually (getting both numbers wrong) and “we don’t close down the country for them.” Of course, car accidents and drownings are not contagious. He could have also mentioned victims of mass shootings. We don’t close the country down for them either, but I guess those deaths don’t matter as much.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams (in dialect) urged black people to “quit smokin’ and drinkin’” in order to “stop dyin’” from the coronavirus. Hey bro’, what about gettin’‘em some masks and gloves for the bus they be ridin’, to get to the frontline jobs they’re workin’ keepin’ the economy movin’? Jus’ sayin’.
All of a sudden, new “grass roots” Tea Party-type movements have sprung-up in several states protesting stay-at-home orders. It’s of note that the protest in Michigan (with some waiving confederate flags way up-south) was sponsored by a group closely affiliated with the DeVos family: that’s the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. And, the day after “granting” governors the authority to run their own states – something they have been ably doing in the absence of federal leadership – the president tweeted out that demonstrators should “LIBERATE MINNESOTA.” From who or what he did not say.
For good measure, you know that the drug Trump has been touting as a COVID-19 cure, hydroxychloroquine, is manufactured by a company he and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have financial interests in. I’m sure you’re surprised.
I never really liked the circus. I could not stand the stench.
Staff Writer; Harry Sewell
