National IQ Test

Life, in many ways, has become exhausting.  The Covid 19 pandemic has thrown us all off our game.  There are so many impacts and so many things have changed that it's a bit mind boggling to consider.  Some have said life will never be the same.  Some believe that we'll have serious mitigation requirements for a couple of years until we get a vaccine.  Some think we all should just get back to our normal lives and accept the consequences.  I'm guessing the reality will be somewhere in the intersection of those options.

But then inject the political theater that we experience every day and it can be...well exhausting.  I try not to pay attention very much because, other than how much tax I have to pay, it's really not a great impact on a day to day basis.  But it's hard to escape.  President Trump has an update news conference every day.  Every single fucking day.  And it's exhausting.  I've watched a few of them and they have a bit of info surrounded by platitudes, arguments with the media, self congratulations, and above all visibility for Trump.  This is it for him.  Since he can't do his rallies, this is it.  And he's going to squeeze every ounce of publicity he can out of the opportunity.

Now don't get me wrong.  I support the President and will vote for him.  But two things are true for me.  He makes it difficult.  And the other side is so God-awful bad that there's no way I could support them.  But I've said this before...if the other side just put up a reasonable alternative who wasn't a Socialist radical, then I'd support that person over Trump.  But that ain't gonna happen.  And if you say that Joe is that option...please.  He is so not able to be President.  He wouldn't make it a year.  And he's gonna pick a radical wacko as his VP so that option is off the table.  So I'm left with someone I could easily abandon if there was a reasonable alternative.  It's a hell of a situation.

But here's the thing.  If you can get past the bloviating, the self-congratulations, and the arrogance of always thinking you're right he's actually done a good job.  Go to www.promiseskept.com and there are a pretty good list of things I can get behind.  But he makes it difficult.  But it's not just him.  The media is an embarrassment in their obvious hatred for him.  And they just can't get over it.  And there are a ton of other people who hate him.  I mean hate as in capital H.  I've had to limit my views of Twitter because the hate is just depressing.  I'm quite sure that there are a lot of people who hate him so much that they would be happy if he was killed or died.  It's unseemly, it's unAmerican, and it's unprecedented.  It's difficult to relate to people who have that much hate.  A lot of us didn't like the guy before him.  In fact, I believe he was the second worst President in our history.  But I didn't hate him.  I didn't throw insults at him.  It leads me to believe that a lot of my fellow citizens are just...icky. 

Which brings us to the latest dustup.  You've probably heard that Trump is recommending that people inject disinfectant (think Lysol or bleach) into themselves to fight Covid 19.  This was the result of a discussion at yesterday's press briefing.  He brought out an Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Research and Development to describe how Covid 19 is killed.  Turns out that UV light can kill it and disinfectant can kill it.  It's also sensitive to heat and humidity.  So instead of just thanking him and moving on, Trump starts one of his free-thinking rtfs on what could be.  Here's the transcript:

[Trump] So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.  It sounds interesting. 

ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN:  We’ll get to the right folks who could. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute.  One minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.  Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.  So it would be interesting to check that.  So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with.  But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.

So he's musing.  He's riffing.  He's brainstorming in public.  Bad idea.  Because the media's heads collectively exploded.  Everyone who hates him took this little musing as an excuse to shout to the rafters that he is recommended people inject themselves with Lysol.  Huh?  Where is that in the transcript?  Right...it's not there.  And they wonder why Trump rails on fake news.  And if you nodded along as the media lied about our President's comments, then maybe look in the mirror and figure out if you're part of the problem or part of the solution.

But I titled this piece, "National IQ Test" and when I did I was thinking of how stupid would you have to be to listen to Trump's ramblings in the transcript and take from it to go buy some Lysol to inject in your veins.  But as I wrote and thought about it, there's a component of media IQ too.  But it's a bit different.  They are not stupid people.  They are manipulators.  They are liars.  They are underhanded and unscrupulous.  They will do anything and say anything to get their name in lights.  But they're not stupid.  They know exactly what they are doing.  So I guess I'll go back to the original premise of this being a National IQ Test for listeners.  I sure hope I don't read about anyone actually doing it.  And here's an interesting question.  Would the blood be on Trump's hands or the media's hands?  I know what I think...