(Possible) Death and Taxes

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)

Right now, our enemies are laughing at us and our allies pity us.

     It was less than three days ago during the first presidential debate that Donald Trump mocked Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask. So was Hope Hicks who, it was announced last night, was diagnosed with coronavirus. The test results came in while she was still flying at 35,000 feet on her way back to Washington. She had to be quarantined on Air Force One for the remainder of the trip. Ms. Hicks was one of the few administration officials who did everything she was told to do by conventional medical science and still got sick.

     Hours later, Donald Trump announced on his Twitter account that he, too, had been diagnosed with COVID as had Melania Trump. It was Trump's most "liked" tweet of all time. Naturally, we wish for a speedy recovery for the First Family and continued good health for the Second Family.

     But hope and prayers won't cut it, not that they ever had. Last night was a fitting end for the worst week that Donald Trump had likely ever experienced in his life, even the worst week when his empire and personal life began crumbling in 1990. Because it was last Friday the NY Times had published the first piece of a series that revealed disturbing revelations about his taxes over the last 15 years. Last Tuesday, Donald Trump bleacher bummed his way through a meat grinder of a 100 minute-long presidential debate that was even panned on Fox. And, Lordie, there are tapes of Melania.

     Now, COVID-19.

     It's not too much of a stretch to say that, from a medical standpoint, the White House is now deadlier than the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq 15 years ago. Just walking into the White House these days is literally taking your life in your hands. After several aides had already been infected with the virus, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (who'd held a presser outside that same White House this afternoon, sans mask), Stephen Miller's wife Katie and Trump's own valet, the West Wing, as with the rest of the country, including the 28 states that have seen a surge in coronavirus cases, has seen its own mini surge.

     Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, revealed she'd had it this summer. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah just revealed he has it. The president of Notre Dame University, who was at the White House last Saturday for Barrett's nomination announcement, also has it. And RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel now has it. 

     All this, since last night.

     Naturally, this has excited speculation as to what this means for the rest of the election. One month from now tomorrow, tens of millions of us will go the polls to vote for president and thousands of down ballot state and city races. And for the remaining four weeks of the election, Donald Trump will be in quarantine for the front half of those weeks. Will there be more debates? Will there be a Vice Presidential debate? (Vice President Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris have, fortunately, both tested negative for the virus). Even the presidential rules of succession are being questioned. Pelosi is 80. Next in line, Senate President pro tem Chuck Grassley of Iowa is 87. Who will the designated survivor really be? Kiefer Sutherland, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

The Fish Rots From the Head Down

I think I stand on pretty firm ground when I say that never since 1876 had a presidential election been so Mickey Moused and jury-rigged. And I believe I'm on equally firm ground in further speculating that the United States had never been in so much disarray and confusion on every conceivable front.

     Over 44,000,000 Americans had to file for unemployment benefits because of the government's mismanaged, sociopathic and stupendously corrupt response to the pandemic that has now killed over 208,000 Americans and infected well over 7,300,000 others. Voting a month after tomorrow will be merely going through the motions because, with Republican ratfuckery and vote suppression (even after Trump's diagnosis), foreign interference and disinformation from other right wing operatives, we're far from assured we will get the actual results.

     The economy's in tatters and businesses are now permanently shuttered not because we opened back up but because we opened back up too soon in many states. Our children are struggling to get an adequate virtual education and their parents are struggling along with them to make sense of the new protocols and guidelines. And, not since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 has a president's life been so much in peril.

     But, Republicans continue with their ruinous, hyper-partisan agenda as if nothing is happening. Just hours before being diagnosed and while knowing since the day before that Hope Hicks had the virus, Trump still held an indoor fundraiser, maskless, at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey. Kayleigh McEnany still held a presser yesterday in the press briefing room sans mask. Mitch McConnell is still bound and determined to assemble a quorum to ram Amy Coney Barrett onto the SCOTUS and Mike Lee, who, again, has the virus has vowed he will be there for the vote. And, as always, they want to keep dark people from voting.

     If this virus is proving anything, it is that the Republican Party is completely and utterly worthless in a crisis and, in its present state, ought to be officially labeled, and outlawed, as a terrorist organization. The Grand Old Party, once a party of progressives and liberals that abolished slavery, gave us national parks and created the highway system that dramatically changed America for the better, has degenerated into a writhing nest of scheming, duplicitous criminals who never take their jaundiced eyes off that brass ring, no matter how tarnished, no matter if the nation burns down around them.

     The Republican Party is, plain and simple, a band of Fifth Columnists whose mission, as with a Fifth Column, is to disable or outright destroy government, and its institutions within, to snap off the levers of power so the opposition party can't use them. They are constantly scheming to deny tens of millions of Americans the right to vote using any and every means at their disposal. They are slowing down the mail to that end. They are trying to pack the Supreme Court with yet another right wing extremist with the naked intention of, among other things, tossing tens of millions of ballots that don't go the Republican way.

     And the Republican Party's conduct since late last evening has been an ongoing campaign ad as to why not a single one of them deserves election or reelection this November 3rd.