COVID-19 cases are still growing exponentially in the US with now over 800,000 cases and 45,000 deaths.  That’s not bothering the old Basement Bar in Fort Worth, though.  There was quite a flame war going on over on their Facebook page this morning after they announced they were fully opening this weekend to sell their $2 beer in exchange for the public health.  Let’s just say that the majority of the comments we’re not very supportive of such idiocy, and the author of the post, who I assume is the owner, got a little chippy with some of the commenters.  Here’s an example:

After over 3,200 comments, most not very complimentary of the bar opening right now, the post was removed.  What I found amazing, though, were the supportive comments i.e. “This was all exaggerated.” “The government can’t tell us what to do.” “It’s just the flu.” “I don’t know anyone who has it,” etc., etc., so forth and so on.  Fort Worth has become the weird mixture of education, sophistication, forward thinking, entrepreneurial vigor, offset by up with mouth breathing stupidity.

I hope they don’t get a bunch more people killed.

The Cult of Trump has metastasized into a terminal cancer on our democracy.  The Congress won’t provide proper oversight, the press is running around chasing every little tweet, and Trump spends all of his time either tweeting or watching Fox Noise, and his cabinet of corrupt cronies is busily tearing down every tradition and progressive statute enacted over the last 80 years.

Since the Barr Report exonerated Trump (even though we haven’t seen the Mueller Report) Trump has been spiking the ball and becoming even more emboldened to do something really stupid.  Two possibilities of said stupidity are 1) Reigniting the battle over healthcare; 2) Whipping up the racists over immigration.  Case in point, he’s now threatening to close the southern border next week if Mexico doesn’t stop illegal immigration.  Once again, he is spouting nonsense and demanding the impossible.

I’m weary with the 24/7 train wreck that is the Trump presidency; I have Trump fatigue.   We have to do something different to wake up the Congress and the electorate.  So, I give up.  The Invertebrates in Congress won’t do their goddam jobs to stop this despot, so I say let’s do it.  Let’s close the border.  Shut down all the ports of entry and put the US military along the border.  C’mon shithead, DO IT.  Let’s burn down US-Mexico trade and just see what happens.

Here’s exactly what would happen: In January of 2019, the US imported over $27 BILLION of goods and exported $25 BILLION of goods.  That’s PER MONTH.  The US Trade Representative reports that 1.2 MILLION American jobs exist because of US export to Mexico. However, the Woodrow Wilson center has determined that 4.9 MILLION American jobs would be lost if trade with Mexico was halted.  I’ll say that again – 4.9 MILLION American jobs would be lost if trade with Mexico was halted.  Job losses at that scale would most certainly drive the US economy into another recession costing even more millions in jobs.

SO, I say let’s do it.  Let’s burn down the US and Mexico economies at the same time.  Let’s close the border.  If this is what it takes to wake up the Congress to do something, let’s shut it down, stranding billions of dollars in goods and costing millions of jobs.   I don’t know what else to do to stop this guy.

You remember the story about the uncivil fellow who paid for the billboard on I-40 in the Panhandle telling “liberals” to keep driving and leave the state…Well, said billboard has been papered over after a nationwide brouhaha that arose after the photo went viral.  (We’ll take at least partial credit for our participation in that activity.)  Here’s what it looked like:

Here’s what it looks like now:

In response to the hateful billboard, a GoFundMe appeal raised over $4,000 to establish this billboard that’s gone up on I-40 in Amarillo.

That’s more like it.

Today, Trumpworld is all aflutter over the owner of the Red Hen turning Sarah Sanders, career Trump liar, from her restaurant in rural Virginia.  The fake outrage is roaring right now, with some of the most uncivil people on the the planet calling for civility.  Welp, do you recall in 2012 when another Virginia business, Crumb & Get It, did the same thing to Joe Biden?  Well, Chris MacMurray, the owner, did, refusing service to Biden “because of conviction and principle” and as a matter of his “faith in God”.  He also repeated the false assertion that Obama had said “You didn’t build that” claiming that the president had meant his business, not the roads and bridges he was actually talking about.  Of course, the GOP went crazy, condemning MacMurray as being uncivil to Biden…I’m just kidding.  He was hailed on a national level for standing up to tyranny (or some bullshit like that), and was even invited to a political rally to introduce Paul Ryan, which he did.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

Michelle Goldberg published a great piece today, one you’ve got to read.  A couple of her quotable quotes:

“Naturally, all this has led to lots of pained disapproval from self-appointed guardians of civility. A Washington Post editorial urged the protesters to think about the precedent they are setting. ‘How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?’ it asked.

Of course, this is not hard to imagine at all, since abortion opponents have assassinated abortion providers in their homes and churches, firebombed their clinics and protested at their children’s schools. The Roman Catholic Church has shamed politicians who support abortion rights by denying them communion. The failure to acknowledge this history is a sign of the reflexive false balance that makes it hard for the mainstream media to grapple with the asymmetric extremism of the Republican Party.”

And…

“But unless and until that happens, millions and millions of Americans watch helplessly as the president cages children, dehumanizes immigrants, spurns other democracies, guts health care protections, uses his office to enrich himself and turns public life into a deranged phantasmagoria with his incontinent flood of lies.”

There’s a time for anger – and THIS is it.