Something To Laugh About In The Midst Of A Deadly Pandemic!

Señor Trumpanzee doesn't listen to advisors much, does he? What if Michael Spicer was called on to snazz up the White House's daily coronavirus press briefings a little and make Trump sound... well, worth listening to? I think you'll enjoy the video above. And... a bonus, my old pal Roy Zimmerman-- from The Foremen-- did a musical presentation you'll probably enjoy too:




OWNING THE LIBS!

Yesterday, Trump suggested that MAGA-people-- who are generally as functionally illiterate as he is-- inject themselves with "the disinfectant that knocks [coronavirus] out in a minute." If MAGA-people run around without masks refusing to social distance in churches and barbershops, many will get sick and some will die. Sounds good-- except when they get sick, they will infect normal people, so that's a bad way to kill off the MAGA-strain. But this bleach drinking thing... This is the best of all worlds. They basically just commit suicide and its a mitzvah for society and, ironically, a step towards making America great again. And since they don't read, they are likely to read this statement from the company that makes Lysol:

As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).

As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information [The company believes it has a] responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts.

Hours after he spoke, Trump's own EPA issued a simple statement for his simpleminded followers: "Never apply the product to yourself or others. Do not ingest disinfectant products."

Chip Proser, the artist responsible for the poster below, calls it a Darwin Award Celebration. I just think of it as COVID-palooza... for Trump's America.

Not everyone thinks this is funny. Brandy X Lee, the author and Yale psychiatrist who has been warning about Trump's deteriorating mental state for a few years, wrote that "the office of the U.S. presidency has become a locus of grave psychological dysfunction. Seldom do we see our warnings realized in real life with such recurrent, precise confirmation, as if on schedule. The president’s latest suggestion that injecting bodies with disinfectant, or irradiating them with ultraviolet light, could help with COVID-19 is only the latest, blatant example of his malady: His boundless willingness to place the nation in harm’s way for his slightest gain. Given our track record, the world should know that we were not speaking frivolously of his dangerousness and that, were  Trump to continue in the presidency, not only the United States but the world would see vast, unnecessary increases in suffering and death."

She brought up what many people are thinking but what you almost never hear in the mainstream media: "We will never know to what degree the COVID-19 pandemic could have been attenuated or contained altogether, like other near-pandemics in the past, had Trump not disbanded the nation’s global pandemic response system two years earlier, out of pathological envy of his predecessor, President Barack Obama. It was a system that experts lauded throughout the world and voiced outcry for when it was dissolved... We should recognize the president’s behavior for what it is: a mental problem... His pathological drive to deflect blame and to attribute his errors to an outside 'enemy' will continue to exert greater emotional force than any rational planning, as well as to have a powerful, hypnotic effect on his followers, as is the characteristic of pathology. As his other mismanagements contribute to what seems will be a Great Depression-level economic devastation, he has called for armed insurrection against Democratic governors who are unwilling to reopen the economy."

These are truly frightening developments that likely foreshadow potentially catastrophic international crises to come. Amid a worldwide economic depression on top of major misery and death from the pandemic, geopolitical confrontations that this president has already brought to a brink are likely to explode.

While it is likely he will use his presidential powers and the current health crisis to try to postpone the November elections or to annul the results, it is also likely that he will turn to creating new crises if this does not seem workable in his mind. We simply cannot risk these greater dangers while a seriously mentally compromised person is wielding the powers of the presidency. Past behavior is a reliable predictor of future behavior, and the remaining nine months of his presidency are looking to be the most dangerous of all, for the United States and for the world.

Because these patterns are familiar in mental health settings, thousands of mental health professionals have tried to fulfill our professional responsibility to protect society by speaking up. Recently, a giant in our field, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, has joined us in stating that the president is “crazy.” We believe that prevention is important, and we have issued a prescription. Just as we can choose whether to coordinate our fight against the novel coronavirus or stubbornly stay with a lethal course, we can choose whether to address the greatest mental health emergency of our time or not. The healthy choice seems clear.