A merging of religion, white supremacy, and capitalism

After my post yesterday, which talked about the GOP demanding the economy be restarted in spite of the huge numbers of deaths to the elderly and the rest of us, my sister sent an email with questions.

- If The Nasty Guy delegated responsibility to The Vice to handle this crisis, why is he still talking about it himself? Why not let The Vice do that? Or am I the only one sick and tired of his daily stupidity?

You are far from the only one tired of his daily stupidity. There are efforts asking major news sources to not show those press conferences live because the nasty guy spews such misinformation and lies.

The reason why the nasty guy is doing it and not the vice nasty guy is because it shows the NG as in charge and smart enough to know all the answers. This isn’t about him giving info to the country. This is about him getting his ego stroked. Notice that when the VNG does speak it is always in terms of praise to the NG. He either believes it or knows how the game is played, likely the latter.

- If they don't care that The Virus is going after their constituents, the senior citizens who voted him into office, who will be left to vote him in again?

I’ve already talked about ways the fall election could be avoided. I’ve shown that the nasty guy doesn’t have the ability to change the date of the election. But I’ve also written that the GOP state legislatures could cancel the election and award their Electoral College votes to the nasty guy.

In the mind of an authoritarian it is a balance between oppressing others (including to the point of death) and trusting a rigged election system will keep them in power (and declaring it fake news when it doesn’t).

- Will believing like Thanos (bad guy in the Marvel Comics Avenger's Universe) does - that half of the population needs to die immediately to bring stability back to planets with overpopulation problems - really help him get reelected and solve pollution, environmental, and economic problems within The Nasty Guys "reign"?

He and his backers aren’t interested in solving pollution and environmental problems. They believe their billions will provide a way to live comfortably no matter what happens to the world. The environmental problems oppress the rest of us, perhaps aiding in killing us off. From their viewpoint that’s a good thing. As for economic problems – they have so completely rigged the system that when the economy goes belly-up most of them make money off the misery of others.

But yeah, they believe the world is overpopulated. A smaller population is easier for them to control. However, the humane way to stabilize or reduce the population is to allow women to have complete control of their bodies. But that would mean ending patriarchy and misogyny, and they’re not about to do that.

- And where are all the "I survived the 2020 Crisis" (or other sayings) T-shirts to sell and bring back the economy?

This sounds like an entrepreneurial opportunity. Create your own!

And ask more questions as they occur to you.



The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan has topped 2300, up about 500 in the last day. Over 1100 of those cases are in Wayne County (where I live). Michigan Radio reports that Detroit area hospitals are close to capacity. They don’t know how big the situation will become because there still isn’t enough testing.



I had mentioned that the nasty guy suggested some alternate drugs would defeat the coronavirus, though no tests have yet been done to verify that, and some people have died. One of those drugs is critical for Lupus patients. And they are having a hard time getting prescriptions refilled.



On today’s Morning Edition on NPR Ayesha Rascoe explained what is going on with the Defense Production Act the nasty guy pretended to use and then didn’t. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has criticized the nasty guy for not sending enough ventilators, said:

Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me.

Beyond that various government people say we’ve invoked it, no we don’t need to. The nasty guy said using it is like a government takeover of companies.

Peter Schulman, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said private industry acting on its own won't be able to get the goods to where they're needed most. The act has previously been used for emergencies too big and complex for the country's free markets to handle.



I mentioned yesterday various GOP talking heads have been pushing the idea that the economy must be reopened and it’s fine of that kills off a few seniors. That got a lot of pushback today.

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reports the hashtag #DieForTheDow has been trending. Einenkel included several tweets with that tag. One is from a 59 year old woman who lists several ways she helps her daughter and grandchildren, who would be in worse shape without her.

Bree Newsome Bass tweeeted:

Everyone arguing that 1-2% of the population dying isn’t a big deal needs to identify 1 or 2 close family members or friends that they are willing to offer up to death in this moment for capitalism. Name them.

Say their names out loud and speak it into the universe with the same ease you condemn others to death.

Paul Jacobson replied stop using small numbers like 1% and 2%. That translates to 3 million to 6 million deaths.

The Good Liars tweeted photos of posters they put up around their town. The main poster is a take on the WWII poster where Uncle Sam points a finger and says “I want you to serve,” but in this one the nasty guy is pointing the finger and the words say, “I want you to die for our economy.”

And in another tweet they say, “Trump caskets. Coming soon.”

Samantha Bee of Full Frontal tweeted:

Trump wants to open up the nation by Easter because he clearly observes Christian holidays. For example, he gave up your grandparents for Lent.

Lots of people responded with scathing quips of their own. Such as an image that shows two buttons labeled “Save Grandma” and “Open Cheesecake Factory Again.”

A 90 year old: “So trump wants country open by Easter. Ok. So we’ll crucify him, put him in a cave and, if he resurrects, we’ll become believers.”

And Lady Leo: “The Republicans at EASTER Time Anti Abortion but PRO Killing Grandfathers and Grandmothers.”

The pro-life party is proposing this? Doesn’t sound pro-life. Which means their ranting about protecting the life of the baby wasn’t about the baby. It was about keeping the woman at home. And out of the business world.



Jared Yates Sexton soundly rejects the idea that there needs to be a trade-off between millions dead and a working economy. As part of his thread:

The truth is that billionaires could be multimillionaires with everything they want and this thing could stabilize. In fact, it would thrive. You’d finally get a stable economy, which we haven’t had for decades. It’d literally be better for everyone. But these people lack duty.

The fact is that Reaganomics pushes corporations and individuals until they grew larger than the nation that birthed them, until they became nations unto themselves and devoid of civic responsibility or conscience. They’ll sacrifice us, all of us, and they’ll do it happily.

In another thread Sexton provides a bit of history into the Cult of Trump, which is also the Cult of the Shining City. It started in the 1960s when MLK highlighted the social justice aspects of the Gospel of Jesus. Jerry Falwell, preaching a supremacist Confederate religion, shifted the Christian focus from social justice to prosperity as an indicator of God’s favor.

Add in Adam Smith’s capitalism and the “invisible hand” of the market that chooses winners and losers. Falwell and gang declared that hand to be the hand of a racist god. Pour in Reaganomics and his idea that poverty was a mark of sinfulness. We get a merging of religion, white supremacy, and capitalism.

People are constantly confused by how the Cult of the Shining City worships Trump as a messiah and stands by him, but he is the literal embodiment of their ideology. His wealth and power, not to mention his defense of white supremacy, makes him a perfect pope-like figure.
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This worship of the market is inherent to the ideas of Falwell and Reagan. When you watch the DOW jump or fall, these people inherently believe it is a measure of God's pleasure or displeasure. They see a plague like this and see a supernatural punishment.
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Here's a warning: The Cult of the Shining City is an apocalyptic cult. They're not afraid to sacrifice lives. They're not afraid to drive civilization over the cliff. This policy of reopening the economy despite the warnings of scientists does not frighten or impede them.

The Cult of the Shining City that worships Trump will watch while millions die from the pandemic and they'll chalk it up to God's will. You already hear that. I'm seeing it left and right in white-identity, evangelical circles. It's economic Darwinism made into scripture.

Ashton Lattimore of Our Prism on Kos notes the persistent use of the word “bungled” in describing the nasty guy’s response to the coronavirus. It has appeared in many headlines. But “bungled” implies accident. And if it is all an accident then the nasty guy is an innocent bystander. But the better descriptions would be “gross negligence” or “reckless indifference to life” which imply intentional non-effort and should demand removal from office.



Dems and GOP have come to an agreement over a rescue bill. I’ll let you read the details here. Alas, the vote is being held up by a bunch of GOP members who don’t like the idea that those at the bottom of the pay scale may make more money off unemployment insurance than from their low paying jobs.



Kos of Kos says life changed because of 9/11 (we still take our shoes off at the airport). He suggests there are at least 11 ways our lives will change because of the pandemic. Some of them:

* Reagan was famous for saying the most terrifying phrase is “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” It turns out in a global disaster the only thing that can help is the government. And the free market is asking for handouts.

* Security is more than thwarting terrorists.

* We’re in this together.

* Working from home is actually OK.

* Government-supplied health care will receive a boost. A lot of people are about to lose health insurance at the worst time to do so.

* We can tackle the big issues. The Obama bailout at $0.9 trillion was hugely controversial. And the Senate is talking about $2 trillion. If we can do it to survive a pathogen we can do it to prevent the death of the planet.



This evening I’m listening to Wagner’s Die Walkure – The Valkyrie. The famous Ride of the Valkyries opens Act III. After watching Das Rheingold yesterday and now well into the second chapter I feel again that Wagner could have used a good editor for his text. A great deal of of this opera so far is explaining how this set of gods works and doing so in dramatic overwrought music. Even so, the singers/actors at the Metropolitan Opera do a fine job of acting (even if sometimes overwrought) as they do a fine job of singing.

A saying of Wagner’s music is moments of amazingly glorious music interspersed in rather boring quarter hours. But, oh!, those glorious moments! (like the last 20 minutes of Act III).