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Mr. Ed versus Dr. Fauci: Lessons from Covid

September 10, 2021
by Peter Feinman
The true source of the inside scoop on Covid

Covid has shed a light deep into the American society and continues to do so. Unfortunately the American Covid show is playing not only for American audiences but a world one. Perhaps more than with any other country, what happens here is showcased to a global audience. So as we and the world look at America and Covid, what do we see?

AMERICA’S TECHNOLOGICAL PROWESS

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the shining lights of America’s response to Covid has been the quick development of not just one but multiple vaccines. This development was a long time in the making. It built on years of scientific research that had no immediate payback. If ever there was a case study in the benefit of pure research it is in the disease that continues to infect America. Without all that behind-the-scene and below-the-radar work by research scientists we would not have been able to develop the vaccines as quickly as we did. Whether or not the American public realizes this development history is problematic meaning “No, it does not.” One only has to listen to people declare that the vaccine was developed too quickly with shortcuts to realize what has occurred. At least with the Moon Landing, people could physically observe the steps being taken along the way. By contrast, the America people do not know the Mercury and Gemini stages existed in the development of the vaccines; they just see the Apollo moon landing as if it happened out of nothing.

AMERICA’S STUPIDITY

Just as America’s technological prowess makes us the envy of the world, so our stupidity makes us a laughingstock of the world. Unfortunately these displays extend from the highest level in society to a surprisingly wide swath of the general population.

This is not the place to recount all the absurdities uttered by Little Donnee Disinfectant. He will be a case study all by himself in future crisis management classes. He will join the ranks of Nero fiddling while Rome burns (which is not fair to Nero!) as exemplifying ineptitude and incompetence during a crisis.

But the critical point is that he has paid little price for his shortcomings. True, he did lose the election but still received around 75 million votes. His continued support shows that true believers do not hold him accountable and they are eager to return to the office which he had stolen from him.

The bigger example of American stupidity is in response to the vaccine itself. Remember how you once thought the development of the vaccine would mean the end of the pandemic? Now here we are going from being on the brink of normalcy to having infection rates that are off the charts compared to what we once thought was the worst.

The only tracing that is occurring at present is from the anti-vaxx adherents who threaten “we know where you live. We will find you.” You would think the school boards were election poll workers who reported the results honestly the way they and others are being vilified today. All around the world even in trump-hole countries people are clamoring for the vaccine…except here.

Meanwhile governors and parents are eager to sacrifice children in the quest to be the 2024 presidential nominee, to spite Joe Biden, or because of their Constitutional right to play Russian roulette with the lives of other people. However just to show they are not anti-science, they will take a horse cure, go to a hospital when infected, and expect everyone else to pay the bill for their stupidity. How long did it take Trumpican Governors to heroically boast that they will not allow Joe Biden to end the pandemic in their state no matter how many people it infects and kills? Remember how the world looked at us when the vaccine first exploded throughout the country especially in New York? Now Americans from across the country are indelibly stamping the USA as a place of idiots.

MEANING FOR THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

One must keep in mind that the race to the bottom by Trumpican wannabees is futile (Abbott, DeSantis, Johnson, and Scott: The Race to the Bottom). That position is already occupied. He is running in 2024 and will put the wannabees in their place. There is nothing to be gained by selling your soul unless you think it will benefit you in 2028.

One also must keep in mind there is a difference between being a leader and being a con artist (Do Tucker/Trump Oppose the Socialist Chlorination of Water?). An effective con artist has to tailor the con to the gullibility and fears of the target. For example, in 2008, Barack Obama as a foreign-born Moslem was very effective. In 2016, “lock her up” and “build a wall” similarly were effective. The con artist follows the crowd and then amplifies the fear to make a killing.

That approach may not work in 2024. We have already seen what happened in Alabama when the 2024 nominee admonished his followers to get the vaccine. It backfired on him just as it had when Hannity did the same on his cable show. This reality puts the con artist in a strange position. How can he take credit for the development of something his supporters do not want to use? The people with the loudest voices at the rallies will be the ones who have not taken the vaccine, not the ones who have.

So what do you do in the 2022 Congressional elections? Every Trumpican candidate is going to be asked on the position on the vaccine. The new mantra by the vocal Tea-Party-Trumpicans will be for parental choice and NO VACCINE!!! Think about it. One political party that wants to govern the supposedly most powerful country in the world will be intimated by its base into vilifying Dr. Fauci, praising screwball cures, and championing the needless exposure of children … and it thinks that is a winning message.

As a result, one of the Democratic posters for the 2022 and 2024 elections will be a surprising one. It will show a revision of the famous “Uncle Sam Wants You recruiting posters. Only now it will be a picture of the Joe Biden and the former-President-now-challenger both saying “We want you to get the vaccine!”

HOW CHINA, AND RUSSIA AND ISIS CAN DEFEAT AMERICA

Our enemies are watching our public displays of stupidity. This scenario will happen in the movies before it does in real life but think of the opportunity we are displaying to our adversaries. China, Russia, and ISIS know or will realize that a virus attack against the United States will work. They know that even if the United States has a vaccine and/or cure for the virus, tens of millions of people will not take it. They would rather die first.

So let us just say that an adversary has some smallpox virus. Suppose years from now the anti-vaxx people have eliminated the requirement to be vaccinated against anything and everything. What would happen if China released the smallpox in the United States? It would claim to have a vaccine which it would distribute for free throughout the world. Meanwhile millions of Americans would decline to protect themselves against smallpox unless instructed to do so by Mr. Ed. I am not saying this will happen; I am saying that Covid exposes how willing too many Americans are not to defend themselves against viruses.

The lessons of Covid will continue to unfold to both an American and world audience. Joe Biden will try to be the President the United States needs to end the pandemic. His 2024-challenger and his supporters will fight him every step of the way. As befitting his immaturity, the sore loser has challenged the President to enter the arena against him on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. He really believes that is a true test of leadership. If he was the only one who believed it, he could be institutionalized so he could get the care and help he needs. Unfortunately since Trumpicans think that challenge proves their Lord and Savior has the right to be commander in chief, we could be in for an even bigger assault in 2024 on America than either from 1/6 or Covid.

Covid: How CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci Failed America

October 19, 2020
by Peter Feinman
HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU CRY "SUPERSPREADER"?

CNN, MSNBC, and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year have failed America on the coronavirus. Since Fauci is a government employee he gets a pass since he is more limited in what he can do. CNN and MSNBC aren’t so limited.

Your first reaction might be that’s crazy talk. How can CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci be responsible for the failure? Shouldn’t the self-designated “wartime president” be held accountable? Obviously the immature child lacks the mental necessities and cognitive skills to understand the severity and impact of the virus. Obviously the inept and incompetent failed businessman lacks the management skill to effectively handle the crisis if he had the ability to realize it existed in the first place. Obviously the person incapable of sympathy or empathy lacks the ability to care especially when weak people in Democrat-governed states are the ones dying from it. If anyone should pay the price for the 220,000+ and climbing deaths in the United States, shouldn’t the buck stop with the wartime president?

Now let’s consider the situation from a Trumpican point to view.

8 MILLION CASES AND 220,000 DEATHS

So far after nine months of this pandemic, the number of infected people in the country is just over 8 million. As commentators note, that is almost the population of New York City. True, but all 8 million people aren’t located in one city. They are scattered across a country of   approximately 330 million people. That means the number of cases from this horrendous virus is less than 3% of the population of the country.

There is about 97.5% chance as of now that you have not been effected. When Trumpicans look around at their family, friends, and co-workers, there is an excellent chance that they do not know anyone who has been infected. In terms of the lives they are living, Corvid-19 doesn’t exist as a medical emergency. Indeed, it scarcely even exists.

The fatality rate simply magnifies that awareness. Even if you get the virus, you may have no symptoms and not even know you have it except from a test. Even if you get the virus and have symptoms, you probably will not be hospitalized. So if you are one of the 2.5% of the people who are infected, it is still less than 3% of that already small number that you would die, less than 1% of the total population. At this point, the odds for Trumpicans is overwhelmingly that they will not have become infected, will not die from it, and don’t know anyone who did.

In the real world of the Trumpicans, it is a reasonable gamble that you will not get the virus yet alone die from it. Of course, in the real world it also is a reasonable gamble that if you don’t buckle up when driving you won’t die but you buckle up anyway.

SUPERSPREADER EVENTS

One year ago, who knew what a superspreader event was. The word doesn’t even appear in my spell-check vocabulary list. Now everyone has heard of it. Again, let’s examine superspreader events as brought to your attention by CNN and MSNBC.

The first major one I recall was the Memorial Day Weekend pool party in Arkansas. How many people died from it?

Then there was the multiple-day bigtime motorcycle rally in South Dakota. How many people died from it?

Who can forget the Tulsa rally? One person did die from it. How many others died?

Finally there were/are all the campaign events including where the wartime President himself was infected with the virus that was under control, had gone away like a miracle, and was behind us. How many people died from them?

How many of the professional and college athletes who were infected have died of it?

How many Secret Service agents who were infected have died of it?

How many people do you know personally who died of a stroke last year?

How many people do you known personally who died of the flu last year?

From a Trumpican perspective for their actual experiences these past nine months for the coronavirus, they have nothing to fear but fear itself so let’s open the economy.

CRYING WOLF

How many times can you cry wolf before people stop listening to you? Trumpicans have tuned out CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci. All these medical experts on show after show, day after day, warning people of the dangers to them and their loved ones from the coronavirus fall on deaf ears. In their own lives, Trumpicans don’t see it.

“People are tired of Covid. I have these huge rallies. People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots … Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years.”

 Once again, our immature child president has demonstrated a gut-instinct connection with exactly what Trumpicans are thinking, not the rest of Americans. He understands his audience even if CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci don’t. The only way to effectively communicate with someone is in the language the person understands. He speaks the language of Trumpicans, CNN and MSNBC mock and belittle it.

How many town halls have CNN and MSNBC held just with Trumpicans?

When CNN and MSNBC interview Trumpicans at the political rallies is it to understand them or to document their stupidity?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think it’s a hoax. What can you do with such morons?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think it’s like the flu. What can you do with such morons?

Look at the dumb Trumpicans, they think the total numbers of deceased are Fake News [and the CNN and MSNBC numbers never agree anyway]. What can you do with such morons?

CNN, MSNBC, and Fauci think they are providing the public with the information it needs to successfully deal with the crisis. Trumpicans don’t even listen to them. They know better based on what they have experienced in their own lives.

REPEATING 2016  

We are living through a repeat of the 2016 presidential election. Trumpicans, people in the flyover states, non-college educated white people, complain that condescending arrogant self-righteous elitists don’t listen to them, take them seriously, or really care about them. The mentally-and-morally superior people look down these inferiors as deplorable and disgusting. Now we are seeing a variation of that dynamic play out in the dismissal of Trumpicans for their ideas about the coronavirus.

Thomas Friedman suggested that Joe Biden spend some time campaigning among the Trumpicans. Biden didn’t follow that advice. It is probably too late now. Based on the polls Biden could win the popular vote by over 15 million people so he doesn’t need to meet with Trumpicans to win. He does however need to meet with them to govern successfully. His predecessor as President these past four years only spoke before crowds that adored him, who would provide him the adulation he craves and needs. He never tried to be President of the entire United States, just the people who were loyal to him, who accepted him as their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, who would believe anything he said. That won’t work for Biden. He is not that type of person. Still to be President of the United States, We the People need him to reach out to all the people. That includes people who think the coronavirus is a hoax, not worse the flu, and has scarcely killed anyone so far. The grim reality is that we are not rounding a corner but are in danger of falling off a cliff. As President, Joe Biden needs to talk to Trumpicans in their own communities and in their own language about what is happening in the real world and not the alternate world on Fox.

Darwin and COVID-19: Science in America

April 6, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Which One Is Fauci? (https://www.wikiwand.com)

Charles Darwin and COVID-19 are not normally linked. A search on these terms has more hits on the city in Australia than anything else. Yet as the battle between science and religion once again erupts in America, it is worth remembering that it has a long history in the United States.

We are now beginning the bicentennial of the “Diluvial Decade.” The 1820s earned this name because of the search for geological evidence of Noah’s Flood. The impetus was events in England where people began to notice fossils in sedimentary rocks. Their observations led them to conclude that the process of creating these layers was longer than allowed under the 4004 BC date calculated by Bishop Ussher in 1650 as date of the creation based on the biblical texts.  The decade was on the cusp of the emergence of geology as a full-blown science in its own right. Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology; being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth’s surface, by reference to causes now in operation would be published in 1830-1833. Eventually there would be a new “ology” in colleges as knowledge fractured into the silos that define the modern university with diverse specialties and expertise.

Back in the 1820s the lines were more blurred. Art, religion, and science overlapped. Thomas Cole, originator of the Hudson River school paid attention to the developments in the scientific area as he painted his landscapes; he also painted biblical scenes especially from the early chapters of Genesis involving the creation and the Flood. Ministers, too, not only were aware of the scientific knowledge but were active participants in the advancing of such knowledge. Geology was a tool to help understand the age of the earth and the impact of the Flood. College-educated ministers therefore studied both theology and geology as part of their training.

These issues were fought over in biblical studies. In the mid-19th century, Genesis commentaries contained detailed small-print introductory sections on geology since the Ussher chronology had been incorporated into the Authorized Version of the Bible (the King James Version). Extensive discussion ensued involving the validity and meaning of geological data for understanding the first stories of Genesis. When archaeology developed a few decades later starting in the 1840s but not picking up steam until later, the battlegrounds were enlarged with the presence of another new “ology,” Assyriology.

Niagara Falls was part of the debate. Explorers brought their sense of awe to first seeing the magnificence of this work of the Almighty. Artists later traveled to the upstate “Outer Mongolia” site to capture that awe in paint. With the completion of the Erie Canal, Niagara Falls became more accessible. It began to become a tourist site as it continues to be this very day.

But the accessibility of the Falls also brought scientists, people who approached the phenomenon from a slightly different perspective. The Falls are more than simply water falling over a cliff. They are part of a long chasm. How long did it take to create that chasm? How fast is the land eroding today? If it is eroding, that is, retreating, at a measurable rate, can that rate be extrapolated to determine how long the process of creating the modern Niagara Falls was? How did that amount of time correlate with Bishop Ussher’s interpretation of the origin of earth? What would you do when they didn’t correlate positively? How old was the earth anyway? OMG! That old!!

One venue for the discussion was an academic journal entitled The American Journal of Science and Arts, edited by Benjamin Stillman of Yale. As title suggests, at this point science and art were included in a single journal. Imagine today if the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History instead of being opposite each other across Central Park in Manhattan were combined as a single museum surrounded by a landscaped park. Obviously times have changed as knowledge proliferated.

The geological observations made in the 1820s were correct. There was a powerful and unknown force of water of great elevation at work that created the geological strata. The erratic rocks, those giant boulders seemingly in the middle of nowhere, had been pushed there by water. The terminal murrain of gravel and debris across the Long Island was left there by water. But the water was frozen and the concept of the Ice Age had yet to be discovered. Europeans had begun to develop the idea of an Ice Age. But Louis Agassiz’s presentation of the idea in 1837 did not fare well at first. It would be almost 40 years before the mechanism would be accepted and these geological formations could be explained without recourse to Noah.

There was an equal and opposite reaction to the world science was defining. The 1840s witnessed if not the birth than the beginning of the rise to prominence of premillennialism. When would be the end of days. Still 180 years later, people are turning to the Bible to determine when the return of Jesus will occur. One could make a study of all the prophecies that have been made predicting when it would happen. Two critical points should be noted. Those predictions have always been wrong…although they only need to be right once! They rely on the exact same verses from the Book of Revelation and the Gospels. It isn’t as if any new verses have been added to the canon in lo these 180 years. Yet there seems to be no awareness that people citing the same verses that are being cited today have always been wrong.

In these calculations, one verse is always ignored:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

So even before Darwin, the battle between religion and science had been engaged in America. It wasn’t Copernicus so much anymore as it was geology and evolution.

The penultimate showdown occurred in the Scopes Trial in Dayton, TN. To be fair, it was a put up job. The town fathers thought it would be a great way to generate some tourism and business for the community. It worked but it is fictional Hillsboro that is probably better remember because of the play and movie Inherit the Wind than Dayton. This McCarthy era fable centers of the battle between science and religion perhaps even more than the actual trial did. It also addresses what we now call the culture wars with COVID-19 being the most recent battleground.

In the movie, the arrival of Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow sets the scene for the culture wars. He is greeted by a group of clean-cut practically uniformed-in-white male students of the John Scopes figure, not a real scene. Before he meets them, he is semi-accosted by a more unkempt unruly disheveled adult male who presents the alternate view. The lines are drawn.

Later the fictional father of the fictional woman the Scopes figure loves delivers a fire and brimstone sermon in the dark of night. The darkness practically engulfs him.

During the trial, Tracy expands on the images of darkness and light. His fire and brimstone sermon is an oration to the jury reflecting the two different worlds in which the opposing sides operate. Eventually the fictional girlfriend Rachel chooses the man she loves over her father just as biblical Rachel chooses Jacob over her father Laban. Just as we the audience are to choose the forces of light over the forces of darkness. I will leave it to you figure out how the story could be retold for COVID-19 crisis we are experiencing today.

There is a longstanding aversion to science in the United States. It derives from the perception that science undermines the word of God. If you had to choose which country in the world would be most likely to have an anti-vaccine movement, the answer would be the United States. If you had to choose which country in the world would be the most likely to deny the existence of climate change, the answer would be the United States. If you had to choose which country in the world would be the most likely to reject COVID-19 as a hoax, under control, and won’t affect you, the answer would be the United States. Even if we had an adult in the White House, there would be resistance to the advice of the medical professionals among many people in this country. The battle is ongoing. At this point no one knows when Fauci will be asked to retire but it probably is sooner rather than later. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name has said so.