Carry out your duties as background prop

My hands get quite dry, especially in winter. So I use hand lotion. The version I buy is for “sensitive skin” and contains no fragrances. I needed more but the store was out of that version. So I got the “advance therapy” version. The first time I used it I thought, oh yeah, smells like hand lotion. It has fragrances. But then I got to be thinking. The makers are capable of a lotion without fragrance. So when they add fragrance why do they choose for it to smell like that?



Until about five weeks ago I got very little email spam. Now I’m getting a great deal (at least from my perspective). Did one of the sites I visited for coronavirus news or a site I used for takeout food or garage paint supplies sell my email address? Or are these people more bold because they know most people are at home and thus more likely sitting at their computer and also feeling more desperate?



Dartagnan of the Daily Kos community notes that shortly after the stay at home orders started TV commercials for companies such as Walmart quickly began showing commercials for “these uncertain times” showcasing their workers (or actors) as heroes doing heroic things to keep us all content while we stay at home.

When the workers are asked they say they don’t feel heroic. And didn’t sign up for selfless heroism. They don’t have a higher purpose other than to do their job, which they can’t afford to lose. They work because they have to. And they frequently do in conditions that might sicken and kill them.

Why are corporations so quick to portray these people as heroes? So we forget they’re victims. They’re in a system that aggressively suppresses their wages, benefits, rights, and protections. If the corporation thinks they’re heroes they should be paid and treated as such. Perhaps we should note which corporations put their workers at risk for their own profit and shop elsewhere.



Hunter of Kos wrote because of the pandemic the cadets of West Point have been sent home. But the nasty guy isn’t getting the love he craves that he used to get from rallies. So he’s manufacturing a rally – he’ll give the commencement address at West Point in June. As commander in chief he can order attendance. He can also order they not boo and that they sit close together to look impressive for the cameras.

From the cadet’s side of things it requires a trip to New York, the virus hotspot, a virus test (and perhaps quarantine if positive), then a trip home where they’ll have to self-quarantine. Hunter wrote:

Thanks for joining our military, kids. Let this be your initiation into the world of Republican leaders not giving a flying damn about your actual welfare, so long as you are properly able to carry out your duties as background prop.

In another post Dartagnan, discussing an article in the New York Times, looks at the way the rest of the world currently looks at America. It’s easy for them to look – our situation is on Google News so they only have to scroll on their phones. When they do they see: Amazingly high infection and death rates. An incompetent leader who can’t get supplies where needed and who hawks phony cures like a snake-oil salesman. A country that can’t test its citizens, that has a healthcare system tied to employment when people are becoming unemployed, that has a shredded social safety net. A Senate leader who declares no more aid so blue states can go bankrupt. They wonder what is wrong with us to elect such people. It’s easy for the world to contrast the nasty guy with Angela Merkel of Germany, who really can safely reopen her country.

The rest of the world uses words such as “sadness” and “disbelief.” This is what democracy gets you? And in this world crisis the rest of the world is not looking to America for help, advice, and leadership. They are doing their best social distancing. How long will it take to earn the world's trust again?