SHIP OF FOOLS LUFFS SAILS, THEN TACKS RIGHT:
The Fox
News ship has veered wildly between two headings: the cold, heartless, capitalism-über-alles
faction of the senate, and the free-range loons of the Republican
base. The reality-based Republicans in the US senate have been pushing for a
massive, slush-fund bailout for corporations. In order to pull this off, they
have to at least admit that Covid-19 is a real threat and that coordinated,
competent action is needed. These diverging realities caused a spell of
confusion last week as the right-wing noise machine tried experimenting with
science and truth and sensible hygiene.
It
didn’t last long.
Trump
struggled continuously to evade the guiding hands of his own experts and get
back to self-praise and selling delusions. Last week he scripted noises about
hospital equipment, social distancing and tax breaks, but it didn’t last. He
started speculating that the pandemic will be over by Easter and everyone can
get back to working and shopping and propping up the Dow Jones by mid-April.
This,
they could run with. Tucker Carlson invited Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on
to float the Darwinian idea of letting grandma die because, really, what was
she contributing anyway, really?
A
solid appeal to the libertarian, Ayn-Randian sector of Trumpworld. Glenn Beck
is a huge fan.
Meanwhile,
Hannity threw a bone of hope-and-snake-oil to the low-info voters that make up a good portion of Trump’s
base. He cited an unidentified doctor’s use of a combination of Hydroxychloroquine,
Azithromycin, and zinc sulfate for the virus. Lou Dobbs is also riding this
train. In the past couple of days, at least one person has died treating
themselves at home with one or more of these substances.
There’s
also some subterranean buzz that Trump himself has been treated/vaccinated with
something that he believes makes him immune -- hence, his willingness to have
crowds around and shake hands, despite being a notorious germaphobe. I’m
keeping an eye on this as I have not been able to explain his behavior in this
regard. If you have any insights or, better yet, hard information, please share
-- comments are moderated, FYI.
