Observations on the Great Hunkering (7)

The emphasis is on “social distancing.” Wouldn’t “anti-social distancing” work better? Asking for a friend curmudgeonly neighbor.

If this is a war, why aren’t we hearing calls for negotiations, and interventions by conflict resolution specialists? Where are the people asking, “Why does the virus hate us?” Why isn’t Congress invoking the War Powers Act to exercise oversight over Trump’s incipient fascism overdue executive action? (Don’t worry, if Trump does indeed declare an enforced quarantine on New York City, he’ll go back to being being called a fascist in a New York minute.)

First, Trump tweets out in praise of—checks notes—Rachel Maddow:

Then inexplicably he praises the $35 million earmarked for the Kennedy Center in the relief bill. What’s going on here? Ah—here’s the kicker, from the Washington Post today:

Trump appoints Jon Voight, Mike Huckabee and 8 others to Kennedy Center board

President Trump will appoint actor Jon Voight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and eight others to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, the White House announced Wednesday. . .

The appointees will replace [among others] . . . Rose Kennedy Schlossberg.

Heh. Trump is just doing this to drive liberals (even more) insane. You can just hear the gasps of outrage among the glitterati over Voight and Mike Huckabee being appointed to the Kennedy Center board. He’s really stepping up his 3-D chess game.

Keep this tweet from the World Health Organization in mind when you hear that Trump was slow to respond to the coronavirus epidemic:

What should we do to China for lying to the world and pressuring the WHO not to declare an epidemic? How about defaulting on their U.S. Treasury bondholdings? It would be a totally Trumpian move. Defaulting on our debt was something Trump actually mentioned once during the 2016 campaign, to the gasps and horrors of everyone. You know the old saying: if you owe the bank $100,000, you have a problem; if you owe the bank $1 million, the bank has a problem. China has been our bank for the last 20 years. Make ’em hurt. What are they going to so—stop making iPhones? Unlikely. At the very least Trump should demand China take a 20 percent haircut on their U.S. debt instruments as compensation for our $2 trillion relief package and damage to our economy.

Paul has already noted the extensive evidence that China is continuing to lie on a massive scale about the presence of the virus there, and I’ll all one more detail: China has closed its movie theaters again. Nothing to see here. Move along.

And now China is banning foreign visitors. Yeah, right.

And today’s video to lighten your spirits from some the people who also bring you Black Rifle Coffee:

And one more time, another trainspotting adventure I’m calling “Two Trains Runnin'” in homage to Lowell George (this one two minutes long):

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