In order to do my “job” I have to pay some attention to the right wing myth machine. For the sake of my sanity and time I try to keep it to a minimum. These days that leaves me questioning who I am and what exactly is going on. I will be incomplete, but let’s explore.

President Trump wants to open up all the restaurants. I think that is a foolish and dangerous move at this point. Does that make me anti-eating? I don’t think so. As proof I offer the fact that I met my wife (a fantastic cook) over 30 pounds ago.

The right wing is clamoring for the reopening of professional sports complete with packed venues. I see that as inviting a spike in coronavirus infections. Does that make me anti-baseball? Definitely not! Despite the coaching basketball at the high school and college levels for 15 seasons, baseball has always been and remains my favorite sport.

Friday Trump declared that he wants all the churches open and packed today. In my opinion that is lunacy. Does that make me anti-religion? I am an agnostic; however I am an American who supports the freedom of religion provision of the First Amendment. As an aside, the part of working on President Obama’s 2012 campaign I enjoyed the most was speaking in churches.

The pattern here is avoiding large gatherings for a considerable amount of time in relatively close proximity and often closed environments. That is actually a rather prudent and conservative action.

I have a question for law professors to add to their first year law school courses: When is a felony not a felony? At this point the answer is: When Bill Barr says a twice pled guilty to felony is not even a crime. Hopefully the courts will resolve this issue consistent with the Constitution and federal statutes.

I had a question when the firing of the State Department IG first broke. Why would Trump and Mike Pompeo go to the length of firing the IG when reportedly all they were investigating was the misuse of federal employees to run personal errands for the Secretary? Sure, that is illegal but if proven the most it would entail is a slap on the wrist. Then the report that the IG was also investigating shenanigans in the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia broke. Now the firing made sense.

Friday, The Lancet released a report that the death rate was higher in coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine than in those who did not. This is the “miracle drug” Trump and the right wing media have been touting and Trump claims to have been taking as a preventative. With Trump’s track record of lying there is reason to question if he is telling the truth about personally taking the drug. In fact, the “proof” the White House communications shop released was a doctor’s letter that made no mention of an actual prescription or dosage. This news probably won’t matter to Trump or Bubba. The Lancet is the second most respected medical publication in the world and the sample size was significant at 96,000. Trump and Bubba have most likely never heard of The Lancet and know nothing of the statistical importance of sample size. In reality the entire question of whether Trump is taking the drug or not really doesn’t matter.

Trump continues to complain that the coronavirus fatality numbers in America are inflated. That is demonstrably untrue and in fact the opposite is reality. However his legion of minions has taken up the battle cry. Trump loves an agreeable echo; it reminds him of chants of, “Lock her up”. Last week evidence came out of Florida (just one of many examples) of the Republicans cooking the books to justify their actions. Rebekah Jones, the Sunshine State’s top coronavirus data scientist says she was fired when she refused to manipulate the data to make it more favorable to Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ decision to reopen the state’s businesses. In case you were wondering if you could trust government numbers when the Republicans control the governmental unit generating them you now have your answer.

Along those lines, am I the only one who has noticed the reluctance of Republicans to have testing done? Their theory is simple: the less you test the fewer cases you have to report in your numbers and by extension the better you look. That doesn’t change the reality but facts no longer seem to matter in the era of Trump. The best examples are the charts that at cursory glance (all Bubba will give them) appear to show a decrease. In a recent White House example the chart was totally meaningless because they arranged somewhat meaningless data to create the slope. In another Georgia failed to list the dates in chronological order to create the same illusion.

Does the fact that I am against mainlining Clorox make me pro-life. Hint: I have never met a living soul who is anti-life; all those that were already committed suicide.

OK, it’s Sunday of a holiday weekend so I’ll let you go. The overriding answer is: Don’t believe a word coming out of this White House and take a real hard look at anything coming from Republican governors.

Finally this advice: Stay home as much as possible and when you go out practice social distancing and wear a mask to protect your fellow man when you can’t.

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