So this week the US started finding 50,000 new cases of Covid-19 a day, and on Wednesday Arizona had more new cases than the entire European Union. Meanwhile, our President responded to this deepening crisis by using our tax dollars and military bands to put on two big campaign rallies — one at Mouth Rushmore and the other at the White House. Reading those speeches, I learned that I (and probably most of my readers) are “far-left fascists” who are trying to “overthrow the American Revolution”. And here I thought I was just trying to finally make good on the Declaration of Independence’s unfulfilled promises of equality and government based on the consent of the governed.
I stand corrected. But I still don’t see why I had to pay for him to insult me. I mean, when Hillary gave her “deplorables” speech, at least her campaign rented the space and Obama didn’t order the Blue Angels to fly overhead.
Anyway, this week the featured post will be “In the Land of No We Can’t”. It puts Trump’s surrender to the virus in the larger context of Republican fatalism, which holds that nothing can be done about school shootings, climate change, economic inequality, systemic racism, or most of the other problems Americans face. Either we’re supposed to deny the problems exist, cope with them through our individual actions, or just live with them, because collective action to solve them is off the table.
No we can’t.
That should be out between 10 and 11 EDT.
The weekly summary has the virus surge to cover. Also: the jobs report, Biden’s VP options, Trump’s bizarre 4th of July celebrations, the Supreme Court, a new chapter of SharpieGate, and a number of other things, before ending with a bit of nostalgia about Karen when she was just a girl.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
The WORST 4th of July speeches by any American President, in all likelihood. Certainly in my lifetime
Reference to Firesign Theater absolutely cements your stellar standing among interpreters and commentators on the political/moral/ethical context of our times.
You’re being too kind when you attribute Republican inaction to fatalism. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith put it this way: “The modern conservative is engaged in one of mankind’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
No argument from me. In the teasers, I’m often trying to compress the word count, so nuance gets lost.