You just don’t DO that, dude!

dividing the nation in a time of crisis

donald trump wearing corona virus mask face blinded cartoonIn the “You Just Don’t Do That” category: Robert Hendrickson, Rector, Saint Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, had some thoughts about that photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church in DC. This after “heavily armed federal troops had beaten with batons and fired smoke grenades and chemical irritants at a stunned crowd of peaceful protesters, to make way for the President.”

“This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read, in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference, exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish insanity.”

From WaPo: “Inside the push to tear-gas protesters ahead of a Trump photo op- ‘Words of a dictator’: His threat to deploy military raises the spectre of fascism.

Oh, no, they used the F word! In mid-May 2020, David Moscrop said: “For now, we can say that [he’s] enough of a fascist to raise serious concerns warranting a significant and coordinated response from inside and outside of U.S.” Maybe he’s a right-wing populist. Perhaps the church event is his Reichstag fire moment. However he’s labeled- I like proto-fascist tendencies -it’s most unsettling.

The disloyal opposition?

A number of folks have recently unloaded on him lately. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis SLAMS him for dividing the nation in a time of crisis. Other generals followed suit.

Even former Presidents, notoriously resistant to criticizing whoever is in office, have bashed the guy. “We Are Better Than This”, said former President Carter. He called for a “Government as Good as Its People.” W and Obama have also made indirect comments.

Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson also disapproves. “You Just Don’t Do That, Mr. President.” Robertson thinks the guy in the White House should be comforting Americans right now.

Some of my liberal friends complain that criticism should have come sooner. But most of these folks are institutionally disinclined. Former military folks usually keep their mouths shut. Besides, I’d argue, it’s worse in year 4 than it was in year 1. In the beginning, there were people who apologized for him. “He’ll grow into the job.” And he has, just not in a manner in keeping with stated American values. His American Autocracy is now devoid of meaning.

I’m really sorry he was impeached because it’s NOW when he needs to be removed. And it won’t come via the 25th Amendment. The Cabinet consists of ne’er-do-wells such as Betsy DeVos (Education), hacks such as Alex Azar (HHS), and wusses such as Mark Esper (Defense). Plus there’s Attorney General William Barr, who makes me long for the days of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.

Here’s some comic relief:

Malcolm Corden Teaches Donald Trump How To Hold the Bible.

Pissed Away feat. BHO Vs. DJT by Founders Sing

May rambling: Mount St. Helens + 40

Many per capitas

murder hornets
Yeah, right
U.S’s oldest living WWII veteran celebrates his 110th birthday. Sometimes, when people talk to Lawrence Brooks, he has to tell them “there’s no need to yell, I can hear you just fine.”

Conservative victimhood complex has made America impossible to govern.

John Pavlovitz Official YouTube channel, including An Honest Conversation About Disciples of the MAGAChurch.

You Can Have A Black Friend, Partner, Or Child And Still Be Racist.

Leonard Pitts: When a child goes missing, you call the police. You don’t grab a gun and try to push your way into the wrong house.

Larry Kramer obituary: American playwright, author and Aids activist best known for The Normal Heart.

Jelle’s Marble Runs, sponsored by LastWeekTonight with John Oliver, starts again June 21.

Ken Osmond & Eddie Haskell & Insincerity As an American Art Form.

I was aware that Phyllis George, who recently died at age 70, had been crowned Miss America in September 1970. The pageant was a whole lot more culturally relevant then than it’s been this century. Still, I was surprised when she became a sportscaster in 1974, and joined the cast of The NFL Today a year later. She was a trailblazer, and many women now cover major sports in the United States.

Mount St. Helens, 40 years later.

Messed up things you never noticed in your favorite ’80s movies by Mick Martin.

Mark Evanier is now interviewing tons of his friends on his YouTube channel, including Cheri Steinkellner, Scott Shaw!, Paul Levitz, and a Cartoon Voices Panel.

Catherine O’Hara: The Queen of Schitt’s Creek.

Top TV ratings from 1951-2019.

Former White House employee who served 11 presidents dies of coronavirus at 91. Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who began working at the White House in 1957.

Trevor Noah and The Daily Show Aren’t Just Surviving—They’re Thriving.

COVID-19

100,000 dead in America and Earlier Lockdowns Could Have Saved 36,000 Lives.

Universal Testing Is the Answer to Social Distancing.

Inflamed brains, toe rashes, strokes: Why the weirdest symptoms are only emerging now.

Huge Study Throws Cold Water on Antimalarials such as hydroxychloroquine; Remdesivir Data — “Not a panacea” or a “cure-all”, seems more effective when given to patients who weren’t as severely ill.

Masks, Men, and the Exhausting Pursuit of Desperate Masculinity.

JESUS IS MY VACCINE has a millennum-long history rooted in anti-Semitism.

Amy Biancolli: faith, fear of death, and fatheads.

Me and we: Individual rights, common good, and coronavirus.

I Think You May Be Wasting Freedom.

Getting richer during the pandemic.

Double bubble buddies: How to choose the first household you’ll socialize with. SO Canadian.

New Zealand went from Level 4 to Level 2 lockdown, and Arthur reports it all.

Alas, the last of the posts from Notes From The Pandemic.

self-quarantine-jeopardy

Donnybrook

Running America ‘Like A Business’ Is A Road To Ruin.

How he became the GOP’s ‘new normal’

Many per capitas.

He tried to troll Michigan’s Secretary of State on voting laws. It didn’t end well for him.

Nine Questions For The White House Physician On His Use Of Hydroxychloroquine.

He Has No Endgame.

Promoting Posts From Racist and Sexist Twitter Feed.

It Shouldn’t Take A Disaster For Us to Recognize a Disaster.

Fortunately, there is the Environmental Protection Network.

Distraction – Randy Rainbow.

Now I Know

The Poison Squad and The Silvonze Medalists and Music in the Key of K and The Speed Trap That Trapped Itself and Les Gardiens de Zoo Accidentels and The Big Brick Loophole.

bread-making-instructions

MUSIC

This Too Shall Pass – Mike Love with John Stamos.

You Can Close Your Eyes – James Taylor and family.

At Times Like These – Live Lounge Allstars.

Mother – Roger Waters.

Symphony No. 50, Mount St. Helens, by Alan Hovhaness.

Coverville 1309: Tributes to Kraftwerk and Little Richard and 1310: The Devo Cover Story III.

Overture and incidental music from Rosamunde, by Franz Schubert.

Shakespeare In Love composed by Stephen Warbeck.

RIP: JIMMY COBB, LEGENDARY JAZZ DRUMMER (1929-2020).


Wrong Hands: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 Unported License.

May rambling: Put on your mask

Zero-sum politics don’t work in a pandemic

Seuss shirt
From here

If you haven’t, PLEASE fill out your Census form.

Ida B. Wells receives Pulitzer Prize citation. Her long-overdue recognition was for her groundbreaking coverage on lynching in the 1890s.

Charges Filed After Armed All-White Mob Led By Off-Duty Deputy ‘Terrorized’ Black Family in North Carolina.

Adam Zyglis: Put on your mask.

Take Me Out of the Ballgame: the Decline in Participation and Identification of African-Americans in Baseball by Holly Prior.

Asking for a friend. DICKS: Do you need to be one to be a successful leader?

Last Week in Corruption and What’s Up With the Stock Market?

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: United States Post Service.

The country is witnessing his steady, uninterrupted intellectual and psychological decomposition and Zero-sum politics don’t work in a pandemic.

The Worlds of Kickstarter Comics, featuring 12 Kickstarter-funded tales.

How to Draw Disney characters by Eric Goldberg.

Do Marvel Masterworks Contain Comic Stories Redrawn By Modern Artists?

The Oatmeal: Finishing a project and Positive vibes.

Cracking the mystery of Don Mattingly’s birthday.

The New York Public Library is excited to announce the release of the new album, Missing Sounds of New York.

A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work.

Obits

Longtime comic book and TV writer Marty Pasko has died at the age of 65 and the coroner is saying “natural causes.”

Disco Percussion Pioneer Hamilton Bohannon Dead at 78, an influence on Talking Heads.

Dolphins Hall of Fame coach Don Shula dies at 90. 17-0 in 1972 (cf 18-1).

Betty Wright, US soul, funk and R&B singer, dies aged 66. She was the Cleanup Woman.

Now I Know

What’s the only US state with a four-syllable name that doesn’t border another US state with a four-syllable name? (Answer below)

Nebraska’s Fearless Maid and Shear Determination and The Belgian Grandmothers That Helped Win the War and The Illegal Onions That Go Great With Spaghetti and It’s Genuine, but is it Genuinely Good? and The Sandwich You Don’t Want to Eat.

Video: Why Does Pisa’s Tower Lean? (And How to Fix It)

MUSIC

Wear a mask
Beautiful Song of the Week, going strong for 10 years!

Pandemic Saturday.

Longest Time – Quarantine Edition – Phoenix Chamber Choir.

What A Wonderful World – GECA & Aubrey Logan

You Can’t Do That – MonaLisa Twins

Stranded In The Jungle – starring Big Daddy.

Any Wednesday – the Royal Guardsmen.

In the South overture, subtitled “Alassio – Edward Elgar.

Sesame St parody of Glee.

Paradise Garage – Tim Curry.

Coverville: 1307: The 50th Anniversary of Let It Be and 1308: They Might Be Giants Cover Story II

K-Chuck Radio: The many hits of one-hit wonder Robin Ward.

Black folk musicians created the soundtrack for a movement—and helped Bob Dylan find his sound .

Answer: Indiana

Risk in the midst of a pandemic

Risk AssessmentThere is a cost/benefit analysis in opening up the country in the midst of a pandemic. Donald Trump (R-now of FL) and Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) both acknowledge it. We’re dealing with a risk assessment. The more people go out, the greater the risk. So the logical person would be engaged in what is known as risk mitigation.

But because the people in the United States seem to live in different realities, this has become very difficult. As an editorial in Axios noted: “Far from being the unifying force other catastrophes have been, the COVID-19 pandemic is tearing a divided America — and world — further apart.”

Former President George W. Bush released a video urging national unity in fighting this coronavirus pandemic. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat… We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.” While I personally applauded the effort of someone I never voted for, it wasn’t universally appreciated. The tweeter-in-chief, for instance, whined that W should have spoken up to defend him during the impeachment event.

Mask averse

Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) has been a reasonable voice in this discussion. He has recommended masks, but won’t require them because he says it goes too far for his citizenry. Also in Ohio, a lawmaker refuses to wear a mask because God?

Stillwater, OK rescinded its mask requirement because of the pushback. And a restaurant in Texas FORBIDS masks being worn by their employees.

I understand the tension between being safe and going back to normal, between complete lockdown and or doing nothing at all. Perhaps the restrictions have made people crazy. In what civilized society does someone wipe his nose on an employee’s shirt? Or push someone into a fountain? Or shoot someone in the head? The victims’ crimes? Asking people to engage in physical distancing behavior such as wearing a mask! A couple of teenage employees were shot because the McDonald’s dining room was closed. We’re in screwed-up territory. And we’re screwing ourselves.

I had foolishly, it appears, believed that when people went out, they would engage in appropriate social distancing and take reasonable precautions. Pictures of crowded beaches belie that theory. Polling suggests that many people rejected the number of the sick and the dead, including a significant one. They certainly dismiss as untrue projections a month out. Perhaps, as a result, anywhere between a sixth and one-third of the populace are already deciding not to get a vaccine when it becomes available.

Like it’s 2016

The Boston Globe reports that it’s memes, text chains, and online conspiracies that have fueled coronavirus protesters and discord. This is similar to what took place in 2016. “Only this time, the online manipulation campaigns… could be deadly.”

We can have disagreements about what’s the appropriate course of action. My friend David Brickman makes a modest proposal about New York’s reopening. “Where will art museums and galleries fit into this plan?” He thinks they should be among the first businesses to reopen, in part because many small museums or galleries could easily maintain social distancing protocols.

But these are not just differences of opinion I’m seeing in America. It’s nearly civil war at a time when we should have a common enemy, COVID-19. We’ll see very soon how the virus is winning, and we’re all losing.

More COVID Linkage

CDC Guidance for Reopening Is Deep-Sixed by the White House.

More Cases Among Viewers Of Fox News Host Who Downplayed Pandemic.

Not An Emergency Once He Found Out Who Was Dying.

How He Left the Country Dangerously Unprepared.

To understand the danger of outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry’s history.

Does Anyone Still Want to Be a Doctor?

A Guide to Reading Facial Expressions Behind Protective Masks.

‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership.

How to Avoid Burnout in the Middle of a Pandemic.

7 Ways Travel Will Change for the Better in a Post-Pandemic World

Read NOTES FROM THE PANDEMIC.

April rambling: Clorox Chewables

Virtual choirs abound


FILL OUT THE 2020 CENSUS! For you data geeks: Cornell’s Program on Applied Demographics – Intro to Website.

Keep checking out Notes From The Pandemic, a regular newsletter.

Is the Pandemic Expediting Our Digital Burnout?

The problem with thinking you know more than the experts.

Why We Believe Obvious Untruths.

The Stephen Bissette Shoot Interview! A Career-Spanning Chronicle!

An innocent man spent 46 years in prison. And made a plan to kill the man who framed him.

The Lawyer Whose Clients Didn’t Exist.

Two-Time Tony Award Winner Brian Dennehy Has Passed Away at 81.

Clear and Vivid® is a series of Alan Alda’s spirited conversations with people who know how hard it is, and yet how good it feels, to really connect with other people – whether it’s one person, an audience or a whole country.

Vanity Fair interview with Chris Matthews.

The Throwback League is a once a week podcast that’s essentially a March Madness-style tournament played out over 48 weeks. The World Series winners between 1974-2006 all make the tournament, and 16 at large pennant winners too. On Hollywood & Levine, sportscaster Josh Lewin joins Ken to discuss the podcast.

Take The Intelligence Test That Thomas Edison Gave to Job Seekers.

Why the Nazi Party Loved Decaf Coffee.

A Commercial, Sandwiched Between Lines of Dialogue on ‘Hawaii Five-0’, referenced in this podcast.

IMPOTUS

‘Break Glass Moment for Our Democracy’: Experts Sound Alarm Over Plan to Purge 7 Inspectors General.

Cartoon: Trump vs. the Postal Service.

The most dangerous President in history.

Disinfectant Manufacturers Warn Consumers Not to Heed “Injection” Remark and CoronavirusMemes – Clorox Chewables!

“It (freedom) ain’t something permanent like rocks and hills. It’s like manna; you just got to keep on gathering it fresh every day. If you don’t one day you’re going to find you ain’t got none no more.”
– Man, and the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston, spoken by her fictionalized Moses

Now I Know

Raiders of the Lost Journal and The Dot in Your Kitchen You’ve Probably Never Noticed and Kings and Queens are Royals. But What’s a Jack? and The Pigeons Who Needed a Proctologist and The Singer Who Couldn’t Really Sing and Meet Her Royal Not-Quite-Highness.

MUSIC

What if doing the Hokey Pokey isn’t what it’s all about?

The Liar Tweets Tonight.

Down to the River – Virtual Choir.

1812 Overture, with chorus! of Tchaikovsky.

Coverville 1305: Tribute to John Prine and Ritchie Blackmore Cover Story and 1306: This Day in Covers: 1980.

Spanish Guitars and Night Plazas – Loreena McKennitt.

The Rainbow Connection – Kermit.

For What It’s Worth – Young@Heart (Zoom Rehearsal COVIDeo).

Long May You Run– Neil Young.

Piano Sonata No. 18 (Op. 31, No. 3) of Beethoven.

A Satisfied Mind – Pete Drake from this album my grandfather brought home from work.

A completely mad handbell arrangement of The Hallelujah Chorus; another Hallelujah Chorus.

I Go Swimming – Peter Gabriel.

In resurrectione tua – Taizé virtual choir.

Finlandia by Jean Sibelius — Cantus.

Psalm 53 Sung in Aramaic for Pope Francis by Georgians.

Animation: Johnny Cash on gospel music

Tonight at Toads – Blotto, 1982.

The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic.

Why Do We Even Listen to New Music?

Ramblin' with Roger
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