Parade of Awful: The Branch Stupidians

This post has no particular focus. With the demise of our democracy, sometimes it's hard to avoid the eye candy. Our democracy declined before Trump, but Trumpism plus an emergency has exposed it for what it is, according to an insightful opinion piece by The Atlantic's George Packer.

The most awful news, obviously, is Trump's decision to utilize the pandemic as cover for a "temporary" ban on immigration. The Racist in Chief says he's doing it to protect us from infection and to save jobs.

In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!

Look, (1) The USA is the #1 hotbed for the disease, so this isn't about keeping us safe. And (2) this has nothing to do with jobs, but we all knew that.

Next, we have Trumpist governors opening up their states (a) way too early and (b) against the will of their people. These are the same fools who didn't know the virus could be carried by asymptomatic people and thought it didn't kill anyone under 25. Yesterday Kentucky announced its highest spike in coronavirus cases--one week after protests to open the state.

Coincidence? Or a case of the Branch Stupidians? (Not my invention, sadly.)

Alyssa Pointer, AP

Or maybe there's a logic. What if Kemp's real motivation is to protect Georgia from paying out unemployment benefits? The action and his comments would be no less stupid, but you could understand they behavior. Hard to give them the benefit of the doubt if they can't say it out loud. In any case, this from George Chidi, an Atlanta journalist, publicist, and activist.

 

But hey, check this out. The AME (African Methodist Episcopal) bishop of Georgia has mandated that Georgia churches remain closed this Sunday, a direct counterpoint to Kemp's foolishness.

Let's move on. It turns out the man Trump put in charge of expanding our testing capacity--absolutely essential for a safe and gradual return to something like normal activity--was fired (given half an hour to resign) from his job at Texas A&M due to poor performance reviews. The evaluations said he was more interested in promoting himself than the health science center he worked for. Only the best people, right?

Back to the Branch Stupidian topic. Fresh polling by NBC/WSJ reveals a massive gap in support for Trump among white voters: the fault lines are gender and education. Trump polls abysmally among non-white voters (duh), but consider these numbers among whities.

• White men, non-college: Trump 65%, Biden 29%
• White women, non-college: Trump 55%, Biden 37%

• White men, college+: Trump 44%, Biden 46%
• White women, college+: Trump 29%, Biden 64%

I'm convinced this is why Trump says such obviously false and stupid things: he's counting on people who don't keep up with the facts or who will believe him no matter what. Consider these gems from the past day or so.

Case #1: "When I did the ban on China, they say a lot of the people that didn’t come in here went to Italy. You’ve heard that. That’s why Italy was hit so hard." So the Chinese would have infected us, but they chose the Italians instead?

Case #2, an interaction with NPR reporter Yamiche Alcindor.

• TRUMP: I took coronavirus very seriously
• ALCINDOR: You held rallies in February and March
• TRUMP: I haven't left the White House in months 
• ALCINDOR: You held a rally in March
• TRUMP: Did I hold a rally? I'm sorry.

Case #3, more Alcindor v. Trump: 

• ALCINDOR: Are you concerned downplaying the virus maybe got some people sick?
• TRUMP: "And a lot of people love Trump, right? ... I think we're gonna win in a landslide."

There you have it.