A Whole New World

I guess one could say the coronavirus pandemic has made our world "A Whole New World," but generally not in a better sense. Yet, I do think a number of unexpected things will come from this crisis, such as--and this may the biggest benefit--bringing us a new president. And possibly, an unexpected health crisis may have been one of the few ways this outcome could have come to pass.

One other thing I think that will come from this crisis is that many people will see the greed that resides within American capitalism. This may have already seeped into public consciousness. In fact, I just read a number of stories that talks about cruise lines, Dollar General, and other industries and businesses that have put profit over people.

But hasn't that always been the case with most American for-profit businesses. The maximization of profit, by definition, takes precedence over people.

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Just An Observation

I have noticed that our president is using the coronavirus outbreak as an attempt to use some of his conniving tricks, tricks that were used in the last presidential election. Now he wants to pit himself against a number of governors, preaching to his base that these governors want to "limit your freedom." An interesting move. This plus his new spin that China is to blame for the coronavirus, and by blame, he appears to mean they "did this on purpose."

Indeed, we have a master salesman.

And P.T. Barnum's famous quote is certainly apropos.

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Coronavirus, Yes, Again

Society is enmeshed with the coronavirus, and rightly so. What appeared to be a health issue for China and maybe a minor difficulty for the U.S. has been a slowly-building tsunami.

And to stop American society, American business society that is, is unheard of. I could never have imagined it. And I'm surely not the only one.

It has the president meeting his biggest foe yet. And the surprising thing is the president can only use his wiles against it to a minor extent. Whereas with humans he can call them names--Crazy Joe Biden, Low Energy Jeb, Wild Bill [Clinton], Lyin' Hillary, Lyin' Ted, Highly Conflicted Bob Mueller, Fat Jerry [Nadler], Cheatin' Obama, Crazy Nancy, Little Marco [Rubio], Basically Braindead Bernie [Sanders], Shifty [Adam] Schiff, Head Clown Chuck Shumer, Pocohontas [Elizabeth Warrent], Crazy Maxine Waters--but with the coronavirus, the virus doesn't care.

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The Cult of Trump

I am reading a delightful book called The Cult of Trump by Steven Hassan. It resonates with me. I know something about cults and cultlike behavior from my own experience and seeing how Trump interacts with his "fan base"I think of religious cult figures and how they interact with their congregations.

I've read only about 20 pages but I can see the man knows what he is writing about. He said he was involved with the Moonies when he was in college and was quite high up in the organization for his age. Being in the group taught him a lot about cults and cultlike figures.

When Donald Trump crashes, his many followers will make a great outcry and it will have some apocalyptic overtones. It sounds crazy to say that, but the whole Trump phenomenon has been beyond crazy.

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