How Trump's lies make us less safe, vaccine edition

We already know that Donald Trump lied to Americans about the dangerousness of the pandemic. Trump's lies are designed to be self-serving, but they have a real affect on our safety.

There is a lot of skepticism out there, for example, about the possibility of a vaccine arriving just in time for election day. There is good reason for that skepticism -- even crash vaccine efforts usually take years to come to fruition. Doing on a timeline of months is pretty much unheard of. But the other reason people are skeptical of the vaccine is because Donald Trump is promising us it is on the way and will make everything alright. And because we Americans know Donald Trump is such a huge liar, this makes us understandably skittish that such a vaccine, if and when it arrives, will provide us with as much protection as a broken condom. Which means, inevitably, that fewer people will line up to take the vaccine when it becomes available -- which, if it is effective, means that a number of people will forgo the protection, and that they in turn will deny us collective immunity.

Health and drug company officials understand the problem, which is why you've seen them out in public the last few days, telling us they would never, ever put out an ineffective or unsafe vaccine for political reasons. But Trump's lies, and his willingness to bend the bureaucracy to his will for political reasons, means we can't really trust those promises. It's possible that we're going to have a snake oil salesman whose snake oil really works, but whose reputation for cons and selling quack cures means many of us pass on the good stuff. That would be tragic. But we're talking about Trump here. It's just as likely the snake oil salesman's product won't actually work, and we'll be stuck with the consequences of his selfishness.

Perhaps we can replace the State of Liberty's torch with an extended middle finger

Vox:

The Trump administration is reportedly considering allowing even fewer refugees — or even none at all — into the US next year, another potential blow to the US’s already decimated refugee program.

Reuters reported Thursday, citing a senior administration official, that officials are weighing several options: delaying some or all refugee admissions until a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order curbing refugee resettlement is resolved, deepening cuts to refugee admissions, or both.

@TheWeek: "Lol nothing matters"

I found myself moved by Damon Linker's column this morning about these awful times: "Maybe we can love the world, mourn our losses, and recognize the awfulness of so much of what swirls around us while also striving to place it in a perspective that makes some space for wry smiles. In dark times, a little irony can go a long way — transforming a tragedy not so much into a comedy as into a chapter with a mixture of darkness and light and an indeterminate end that leaves a little room for hope."

“Woke”

One of my big pet peeves these days is right-wing sneering at Black people not wanting to get shot or unfairly policed as “woke.” Like the survival instinct, or wanting to be left alone, is merely a form of radical chic. 

Yes, Trump is a warmonger

American Conservative: "President Trump has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, thanks to his role in brokering a historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and for breaking a 39-year streak of U.S. presidents leading the U.S. into a new war."

This "broken streak" idea is specious. Trump's early presidency included dropping "the Mother of All Bombs" on Afghanistan. He vetoed a measure to end U.S. involvement in Yemen's war. He had a top Iranian general assassinated. The list goes on, but you get the idea: No American president gets out of office without some blood on his hands. and Trump is not an exception.

Maybe the first step to peace is not starting new wars. Great! But the United States armed forces are still involved in conflicts around the world. And Trump bears a great deal of responsibility for that. Don't let the lack of *new* wars fool you.

A good walk just might save my life

 

Yesterday, I was so angry at the state of the world -- justifiably, I think -- that I actually thought for a few minutes I was giving myself a heart attack. I wasn't. But the rage I was feeling about everything manifested itself as, well, physical pain.

Since the beginning of August, I have been getting out every day to walk a couple of miles. Before that, I'd gotten very pandemic sedentary: My Apple Health app tells me I averaged 365 steps a day in July. That's bad. So I made a goal of 5,000 steps a day, and I've mostly stuck with it. It is the most consistent exercise I've gotten since 2002. (My body and I don't always have a great relationship. I'm kind of a "stuck in my head" guy.

Anyway, it was raining this morning. I walked anyway. Through the downtown of my suburbanish college town and back, through the park. And I felt something I hadn't felt in months, maybe years: Maybe it was joy? I don't know. It felt good, though.

The state of the world is cause for rage. And sometimes I have to live with that anger. But I am not capable of living with it so acutely. The walk let me listen to music -- I've gotten very deeply into comfort music of late (more on that later) -- but otherwise I wasn't staring at a screen, obsessing about things. I let my mind get to other places. Getting physical activity every day is good in its own right. But the mental health aspect is pretty important too. A good walk just might save my life.

The narcissism of small differences: Pew Research edition

Seems like a better way to put this would be: Large majorities of U.S. adults -- in both parties -- believe that social media is a distraction. Emphasizing that one party believes it slightly more than the other, when lots of people in both parties believe it, does more to emphasize our differences than our commonalities.