TURNED LOOSE — The Weekly Opine

As America opens up, COVID-19 cases in the green states are declining. In the blue states cases are flat or slightly increasing/decreasing. In the pink states cases are steadily increasing. (Photo credit CNN screenshot)

America rolls the dice. A MAGA ‘acquaintance’ appears.

The Weekly Opine has a new acquaintance, “Mags,” who will be introduced at the end of this article. But first…

Within days of releasing his White House “Opening Up America Again” guidelines Trump walked it all back, encouraging MAGAs to protest stay-at-home orders, particularly in blue states. Validating Hillary Clinton’s comment that some of Trump’s followers are “despicable,” right-wing looneys continue to show up with assault rifles and shotguns. They threaten people like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who deserves praise for doing the right thing trying to save their dumb asses.

Now, less than two weeks after a handful of red states reopened, a wave of red and blue states joined the party, with 45 states now at least partially open. They ignore data showing about half the states still record daily virus case increases. Which proves dunce caps should be passed out on both sides, red and blue.

Once again, America is rolling the dice with its future (as it did in November 2016). Trump’s foot is on the reopen gas pedal while Dr. Anthony Fauci taps the brakes. Note, MSNBC highlighted a recent poll showing 67 percent of Americans trust Doc Fauci vs. 43 percent trust Chump Trump.

A recent spring Friday night on Chicago’s famed Rush Street. If Trump has his way, soon this street will be packed with revelers. (Photo credit E. Bryant)

To here, from there

Just a few weeks ago, most Americans were accepting stay-at-home mitigation. The staggering increase in cases and deaths document this is no hoax. On March 11 there were 1,267 cases with 38 deaths. Two months later, on May 11, the case count was over 1.3 million with about 83,000 dead. (Trump once bragged anything less than 60,000 deaths would be a success so even using the generous pass/fail scale Trump earns a big fat “F.”)

Dr. Fauci, turned loose to speak openly before the Senate, says we are probably only diagnosing 1 in 10 cases, i.e. 30,000 new cases per day is likely 300,000. Fauci says China’s mitigation was “draconian” whereas the U.S. opted for “soft mitigation.” The results in the U.S. are a failure. As Dr. Fauci points out, opening too soon could produce a second round of catastrophic results.

Here are recent projections from Penn Wharton:

Everything is negatively compounded by having Trump as president, a man who spends his days tweeting while watching Fox News and his nights, one imagines, alternately fantasizing about authoritarian power and attending one more Jeffrey Epstein house party.

Trump’s never shown much interest in being president, starting poorly and regressing over time. His interest is purely about getting reelected, which he believes is the only way to avoid prison.

With Trump at the helm America never stood a chance. Especially when a tenet of American lifestyle is on-demand access. China, unquestionably responsible for letting the coronavirus cat out the bag in the first place, is equally NOT responsible for the Trump administration’s utter incompetence.

China did not instruct Trump to ignore daily intelligence briefings last January that recommended immediate mitigation to contain coronavirus spread. China did not coax Trump into foolishly saying “15 cases will soon be down to near zero.” And China did not trick Trump into dismantling just about every vital U.S. government agency.

When faced with the choice of relying on Dr. Fauci and other experts, or Mike Pence and stumbling, bumbling Jared Kushner, Trump sealed his fate by siding with the fake Christian and not-a-boy-wonder.

The cement is already dry

Donald J. Trump, who often brags about his business acumen, has ignorantly blown a golden opportunity to orchestrate a successful, New Zealand-like outcome fighting the coronavirus. Instead, Trump and his excuse-laden approach make the U.S. the world’s COVID-19 petri dish and laughingstock for the ages. Oh, and according to stock market cheerleader Goldman Sachs, the unemployment rate is headed to 25 percent.

For Trump, there is no escaping his sour legacy. Going forward, nothing he does will undo what befell him during the fourth year of his first (and hopefully only) term in office. Just the third U.S. president to be impeached. Several close associates convicted of felonies. And now unequivocally exposed as the biggest fraud and worst president in U.S. history.

Howard Stern recently said Trump despises his blue-collar MAGA followers. Stern claims Trump would not want them to stay at one of his hotels or visit Mar-a-Lago. It should go both ways.

Sometime ago, The Weekly Opine wrote that, normally, blue-collar folks who wave shotguns during protests would kick the shit out of Don Jr. and Eric, if the Trump boys dared to wander into a corner tavern in a hardscrabble town. But for some reason MAGAs are oblivious to the reality that the Trump clan are laughing behind their backs.

If any MAGAs put on their thinking caps and admitted Trump is using them like the proverbial dishrag, maybe some would turn on him, like some Nazis belatedly turned against Hitler.

No joy in Mudville

Last Saturday the Chicago Cubs were supposed to play the World Series Champion Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field. It would have been the Cubs 40th game of the season. Two photos from what should have been an electrified scene.

Eerily silent around noon on what should have been game day. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Last Saturday the sign at Sluggers bar, a few blocks south of Wrigley Field on Clark Street, sums it up nicely. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

A little fun

I regularly read the late, great Pulitzer Prize newspaperman Mike Royko’s column. Those familiar with Royko recall he often wrote about hanging out at a corner tavern with an imagined character named Slats Grobnik.

In that spirit, The Weekly Opine (TWO) offers a conversation with a MAGA ‘acquaintence,’ whom we’ll call Mags.

TWO: Hey Mags, got a question for you. The slogan started as “Make America Great Again” then became “Keep America Great” and now its “Transition to Greatness.” Has it ever occurred to you that Trump creates these slogans, puts them on merchandise, and then makes money selling you hats and t-shirts?

MAGS: What?

TWO: You brought your firearm today. Why?

MAGS: I take my shotgun ever’where. If I see one of them their coronavirus droplets, I’ll shoot it!

TWO: But you don’t wear a mask?

MAGS: Masks are for Halloween. And Friday late-night rallies.

TWO: Who won the last Super Bowl?

MAGS: I think it was the New England Patriots. Or maybe the Ottawa Rough Riders.

TWO: Actually, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl.

MAGS: No way, no black quarterback has ever won the Super Bowl.

TWO: What about Doug Williams and Russell Wilson? Like Patrick Mahomes they won the Super Bowl.

MAGS: No they didn’t (picks up his shotgun).

TWO: Who was president before Trump?

MAGS: W. Bush.

TWO: What about Barack Obama?

MAGS: Yo mama! There ain’t been no black president. Before Trump it was George W.

TWO: So, who is the worst first lady of all time?

MAGS: Michelle Obama.

TWO: OK, how could that be since you just said Barack Obama was not president?

MAGS: Michelle Obama squatted in the White House for four years after W left.

TWO: You sure about that?

MAGS: What day of the week is it?

TWO: Thursday. Anything else?

MAGS: Yea. We’ll know the economy has recovered when the stock market number catches up to U.S. coronavirus deaths, probably in August.

TWO: The Dow is currently around 23,000. Forecasts say there will be 147,000 coronavirus deaths by early-August. Are you saying the Dow will reach 147,000 in August?

MAGS: If Trump says so!

TWO: Hmmm...

MAGS: Hmmmmmm...Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light…

TWO: That’s enough Mags.