The vice, the prince, and the princess

I usually share the regular Gaslit Nation episodes and wait until the transcript is available a few days after the podcast is posted. If you want more you can follow the link. This time I am sharing one of their bonus episodes. They created this one in a hurry yesterday morning. Alas, a bonus episode is (1) behind a pay wall – one must be a Patreon/Gaslit Nation sustaining member to hear it – and (2) there is no transcript. While I prefer to work with the printed text, this won’t be too bad because it is only 23 minutes. Here’s the link anyway. This bonus episode is titled Trump has Covid! The hosts are Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. I don’t know which one is speaking when, so can’t contribute a particular idea to one or the other. First, this (whatever the outcome) will not save us. It will complicate things. So whatever you’re doing to get people to vote keep doing it. Keep to the Gaslit Nation Survival Guide (see below). Do not binge watch the demise of democracy. Keep active in protecting it. Stay grounded. If the nasty guy dies and the vice nasty takes over, the pandemic prince and princess will still be acting president. The vice nasty will remain subservient to them because he’s compromised, though we don’t know in what ways. These three are stuck with each other. The current White House is part of a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government (which Kendzior and Chalupa have mentioned several times). The nasty guy leaving the WH, by death or election loss, won’t change that (yeah, that’s saying a Biden White House won’t (can’t?) change it much). The nasty guy’s base doesn’t like the prince and they wonder how to justify him being there. All they have to go on is the princess likes him. It is the princess who has the ambition to take over this branch of the syndicate when her father leaves. She and the prince have the support of autocrats around the world. The national leader ill and in the hospital, creating a chaotic and frightening situation, is a great time for terrorists and rivals to attack. Is the nasty guy with COVID an elaborate act? Because he’s the president everyone around him – military, opponents, stock market, and many others – must act as if it was true. What a situation if we can’t trust the president to honestly tell us he is ill and who he exposed. That prompts all sorts of conspiracy theories. There are a billion ways this could go wrong. Some are taking this diagnosis as a sign of God – it will demonstrate the nasty guy is so strong he can whup the coronavirus! Don’t let the news cycle knock you around. Keep working towards the election. With an Advent Calendar of news, each door worse than the day before, people may believe the election is meaningless unless they hear from us. For those not Christian, an Advent Calendar is a decorated paper panel with little doors to be opened, one a day for each day of December leading to Christmas on the 25th. The doors reveal some sort of pleasant image appropriate for Advent and Christmas. Even if the nasty guy dies, there is still the GOP that enabled him. Vote them out too. Don’t be a spectator. Be active. There is a call to action on keeping Amy Coney Barrett off the Supreme Court. A block of six conservatives (nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote) can block any progressive initiatives. Democrats in the Senate should act like an attorney with a client on death row. They read the call to action (see below). The main point: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer should lead the resistance and should act by asking what would Moscow Mitch do? Too many Democrats on the Hill are convinced that nothing can be done. They only need to delay until after the election when different dynamics will take over. Try stuff. Keep trying. Ask longtime Senate operatives what else might be done. Create legislation that takes priority. And for us: Call your senator. Call Schumer. Call Dick Durban too. In the comments Jennifer Yarrington offered some explanation of medical terms. When a doctor says an illness is “mild” it means the doctor didn’t have to intervene. One could be exhausted by putting on socks, but without a need for intervention that is still “mild.” Moderate means the doctor had to intervene. Severe means one needs a ventilator. So if the nasty guy’s case is called “mild” he could still be really sick. The Gaslit Nation Survival Guide is here. The call to action is by David Segal and Zephyr Teachout on New York Daily News. Union of Concerned Scientists offers a guide for calling senators and representatives.