James Hohmann of the Washington Post explains Trump’s refusal to face reality:
Self-help guru Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 book, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” influenced Donald Trump’s worldview more than anything else he ever read, according to biographers. “Stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding,” Peale wrote. “Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade.” The book includes chapters with titles like “Expect the Best and Get It” and “I Don’t Believe in Defeat.” Peale, who was also a favorite of the president’s father, even officiated the first of Trump’s three weddings.
The Trump presidency has presented scores of painful lessons on the limitations of the power of positive thinking. Climate change continues to make fires, floods and hurricanes worse, even if Trump denies it and his political appointees seek to erase mentions of it from government reports. Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the intelligence community agrees the Kremlin is trying once again to influence the 2020 campaign, but Trump struggles to accept that reality because, current and former aides say, he believes that acknowledging the Kremlin’s support for his campaign would undermine his legitimacy. And so on.
But nothing captures the hubris of trying to spin the primal forces of nature into submission more than the president’s response to the novel coronavirus.
Trump said in January that the coronavirus was “totally under control” and that there would be only a few U.S. cases before the number would “go down to zero.” On Feb. 28, Trump said: “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” In March, Trump said people would be able to celebrate vanquishing the coronavirus by going to church on Easter.
That was more than six months ago. Trump downplayed the dangers of the contagion not just at the country’s peril – but his own. Watching these clips with the benefit of hindsight makes the president sound like Baghdad Bob as U.S. forces closed in on the Iraqi capital in March 2003.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany became the latest member of Trump’s inner circle to test positive. She announced in a statement on Monday that she has no symptoms and will continue to work – but from home.
Apparently, denialism can be infectious, as well. The White House’s lead physician, Sean Conley, acknowledged at a news conference on Sunday that he intentionally withheld information about Trump’s blood-oxygen levels plummeting in order to put a positive spin on the president’s condition. “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, that his course of illness, has had,” Conley said. “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true.”
A virus does not care what a doctor says at a news conference. White House communications director Alyssa Farah told reporters that Conley was trying to project positive for Trump’s sake during his public remarks on Saturday. “When you’re treating a patient, you want to project confidence, you want to lift their spirits, and that was the intent,” she said.
Positive thinking has certainly gotten Trump far in life, and it can be very helpful for a patient fighting a disease. Everyone wishes the president well and hopes he recovers as speedily as possible and with no long-term damage. But Conley was not speaking to Trump during his Saturday news conference. He was addressing the American people.
Since being hospitalized on Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, the president has been treated with the steroid dexamethasone, the antiviral drug remdesivir and a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies that has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Outside doctors think Trump may be the first coronavirus patient ever given all three of these strong treatments simultaneously, along with a handful of supplements and over-the-counter drugs. Medical experts we checked with called it a kitchen-sink approach that suggests the president is in worse shape than the White House is claiming.
Trump, who ostensibly remains highly contagious, appears to still be in denial about the risks he poses to others by trying to return to the White House before doctors would advise him to do so – and by going for a ride in his motorcade at Walter Reed on Sunday afternoon to see well-wishers outside the gates. Current and former Secret Service agents and medical professionals were aghast about Trump’s car ride outside the hospital, saying the president endangered those inside his SUV for a publicity stunt, Josh Dawsey, Carol Leonnig and Hannah Knowles report. “As the backlash grew, multiple aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations also called Trump’s evening outing an unnecessary risk — but said it was not surprising. Trump had said he was bored in the hospital, advisers said. He wanted to show strength after his chief of staff offered a grimmer assessment of his health than doctors.”
- “He’s not even pretending to care now,” one current Secret Service agent said after the president’s jaunt outside Walter Reed.
- “Where are the adults?” said a former member of the Secret Service.
As the virus spread among the people closest to him last week,Trump asked an adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
We found out that Trump himself tested positive on a rapid test that he took Thursday and was awaiting the results of a second, more reliable, test when he called into Sean Hannity’s show that night. He did not reveal the news to the Fox News host. Former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway’s teen daughter, Claudia, broke the news on Friday, via her social media platforms, that her mom was infected. Claudia Conway says she, too, has now tested positive for the virus.
There are other indications that the president’s attempted coverup continues. “Farah told reporters Sunday that the White House would be more forthcoming going forward, and would release information about the number of aides who have tested positive for the virus. Later Sunday, [McEnany] indicated that such information would not be released, citing privacy considerations. Several White House officials are still waiting to learn if they will be infected,” Toluse Olorunnipa, Dawsey and Amy Goldstein report. “Nick Luna, Trump’s personal assistant, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a senior administration official. … Meanwhile, at least two White House residence staffers contracted the virus some weeks ago and were sent home. Administration officials do not believe those staffers directly gave the virus to the president, given the passage of time since their cases.” Neither of those cases were disclosed to the public. The White House did not acknowledge that senior adviser Hope Hicks had tested positive until a reporter for Bloomberg News broke the story.
There is a lot the White House still will not say. Conley declined to answer when asked how Trump’s lungs have been affected by the virus, whether he has pneumonia and what his exact temperature has been. The White House refuses to say when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus. That is a critical piece of information to determine how long the president may have been contagious — and how many people he may have put at risk by traveling to Ohio, Minnesota and New Jersey.
And Trump continues to put a positive spin on his experience. In a video he posted to Twitter on Sunday evening, Trump said he’s “learned a lot” about covid-19. “I learned it by really going to school,” the president said from his hospital suite. “This is the real school; this isn’t the let’s-read-the-books school. And I get it. And I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing. And I’m going to be letting you know about it.”
The American people do not approve of Trump’s denialism. An ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in the two days after Trump announced his diagnosis found that 72 percent said both that the president did not take the “risk of contracting the virus seriously enough” and that he did not take “the appropriate precautions when it came to his personal health.” The poll, released Sunday, found that 43 percent of Republicans shared the negative sentiments about Trump’s mind-set and preventative actions regarding the coronavirus. Overall approval for the president’s handling of the pandemic held steady at 35 percent, where it has been since early July.
*”This is the real school; this isn’t the let’s-read-the-books school. And I get it. And I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing. And I’m going to be letting you know about it.”
. . . I take that as a confession that Trump doesn’t know what it means to learn from someone else, as in going to school and reading books.
What a swipe he takes at formal education, teachers, writers, and just reading for fun. Now he’s going to act like a reformed smoker over his little experience with the virus and after what he already knew in February?
GIVE ME A GREAT BIG BREAK. CBK
Everything Trump does is for show. He purposely put some people in a dire position so that he could wave to his fans outside Walter Reed. There is no contact tracing after the large gathering of people who attended the Barrett event on the lawn of the rose garden. [Can’t admit that people are getting ill by being close together and not wearing a mask.]
He wants his doctors to portray a rosy picture so we can’t believe anything they say. The World Health Organization issued guidelines on Sept. 2 recommending that the steroid only be given to patients with “severe and critical Covid-19.” The National Institutes of Health has issued similar guidance, specifying that the drug is recommended only for people who require a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe, or who need supplemental oxygen.
Steroids could dampen the body’s immune response to the virus.
At what point are we supposed to believe ANYTHING that Trump does or says.
“…during his stay at Walter Reed he continued to perform his duties…”
He doesn’t perform his duties when he’s at the WH. Watches Fox to get his morning news briefings. Twitters thoughts that come from his magnificent gut. Calls someone on the phone. Eats. Yep. Then he needs to go golfing to get away from the exhaustion of ‘working’.
Currently 209,000 people in the U.S. have died and there still is no plan to flatten the curve.
I have run out of words to express my disgust with Trump and equally all of his supporters.
I notice that Bill Barr, our nation’s great Trump enabler, Attorney General, and Trump’s new fixer in chief has…. quarantined himself. That Rose Garden event was a travesty and Barr was among the many who did not wear a mask.
When it comes to Trump, the only thing positive would be to hear on the morning after November 3rd that he lost the election by a massive landslide in both the popular vote and the Electoral College, and then on January 20th, he is forcibly strapped to a gurney and carried out of the White House, that is if he is still alive and mentally capable of tweeting.
Then a day or two after January 20th, we read how the white supremacist militias that worship Trump, like he is their racist god, attempted to come to DC and start a Civil War to keep The Orange Joker, the crown prince of lies and fraud, in power but our military stopped them, they were arrested and are behind bars waiting to be tried for treason, and all of their weapons and property has been confiscated.
Instead of “Positive Thinking”. I suggest we call it what Trump’s brain does is, “Toxic thinking”.
Except for the fact that the prince and his wealthy guests then went around the country infecting lots of working class people. And then that prince and his wealthy guests got 5 star treatment in luxury hospital suites served by personal teams of doctors and nurses at their beck and call, while the working class people suffered and went bankrupt.
And the news media dutifully reported “Trump says don’t let the virus dominate your lives”. Story done.
Alas. Sickening, huh?
One person who feels Trump has strayed from the fold is his son, John Peale, an ordained minister and self-described Democrat. He has stated the connection with Trump makes him “cringe”: “I don’t respect Mr. Trump very much. I don’t take him very seriously. I regret the publicity of the connection. This is a problem for the Peale family.” In particular, he feels Trump puts too much emphasis on “material success” and “doesn’t recognize the significant character of Dad’s ministry, which is a sincere desire to help people.”
SEAN CUNNINGHAM
Here’s a headline from my google newsfeed today:
“You can now pre-order a $100 ‘Trump defeats COVID’ commemorative coin at White House Gift Shop”
Guessing the projected delivery date is the 12th of Never.
I wish that I could truly say that it bothers me that our current president has gotten sick with COVID-19. But I cannot. I wish I could truly say that I want Trump gets well and quickly from the virus. But I cannot. I wish I could truly say that I want Trump to survive COVID-19 so he can go on with his life, as worthless as it is. But I cannot. I cannot wish good will to a person, Trump, who has brought such ill will so many, many people in this county.
If a person like Trump who does not take all the precautions that the medical community tells us to take daily and still gets the virus than I do not feel any remorse for him/her. I do have remorse for those people that take all the precautions and still get the virus.
Now the people of the United States are paying a very, very high price for Trump’s lack of action regarding the COVID-19. We are paying with 209,000 deaths to date. We are paying with an economy that is in the dumps. All the people who were not able to say their goodbyes because they were not allowed in the hospitals with their loved ones as they passed is a very high price caused by a president who did not would not do his job.
Now Trump is telling the people of the United States not to worry about COVID-19. Not to fear COVID-19. Thousands of people will take that word to heart and believe they can throw all precautions to the wind. Expect the number of individuals to get sick to increase and the number of deaths to rise all because of the latest words out of the mouth of the worse president this country has ever had.
moeone2015: Trump: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” he wrote. “I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” he added.
Is this supposed to make all the people of the world feel better? Trump gets the best care our country can give. How many people can’t afford healthcare or don’t even have any?
I have a friend in Miami who said that if she gets ill she can’t afford to see a doctor. Is she supposed to not be afraid of COVID-19? Is she supposed to hope that if she contacts this virus that she will ‘feel better than” she did 20 years ago? [She is now 57 years old, working part time at minimum wage with no healthcare insurance.]
Trump has no concern for anyone and is still wanting to put thinking about COVID-19 in the circular basket so that ALL Americans will vote for him. WHAT A TOTALLY UNCARING MAN!!!
moeone2015: Dr. Conley wants to keep his job. If Trump spent “most of the the afternoon conducting business”, it is the first time he’s worked since being inaugurated.
This was posted from the WH:
Out of an abundance of caution, President Trump spent the weekend working from the Presidential suite at Walter Reed. He received state-of-the-art care from a team of physicians, and his condition has continued to improve quickly.
The President also received some of the therapies that the Trump Administration has championed through Operation Warp Speed, a government-led and nationwide effort to develop a Coronavirus vaccine and COVID-19 therapeutics quickly.
A short while ago, Physician to the President Dr. Sean Conley provided Americans with an update about President Trump’s condition and his return to the White House.
“He has met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria,” Dr. Conley said. “The team and I agree that all our evaluations—and, most importantly, his clinical status—support the president’s safe return home where he’ll be surrounded by world-class medical care 24/7.”
President Trump has continued to work tirelessly for the American people while fighting this virus. “He spent most of the afternoon conducting business,” read a memorandum from Dr. Conley that he released Saturday evening.
You are very right. Trump will he’ll be surrounded by world-class medical care 24/7″ with all the care to overcome COVID-19 that hundreds of thousands only pray they can have but will never be able to afford. Trump is getting it all free on the backs of the very tax payers that he has failed to properly serve for the last four year.
I have been thoughtful and not wished for a poor outcome for Trump because Karma has a way of coming around to haunt those who wish it on others, but I cannot do this any longer. That spray tanned cretin flew back to the White House, pulled off his mask and threw his hand in the air, then turned around and entered the White House maskless. He has the nerve to tell people that Covid isn’t too bad and they should not fear it. He gets the best medical care in the world and treatments that no one else if privy to and he has the audacity to flaunt his “recovery” as a campaign tactic. My blood boils. I cannot respect any person who will vote for this clown.
LisaM You cannot see it, but Trump’s thinking actually DOES occur in a nutshell. CBK
I don’t know what to believe anymore? Maybe he didn’t have it at all and this is just a campaign strategy to bump his ratings after the disastrous debate? But then again…..so many others are testing positive. I feel like I’m living in a dystopian, teen fiction novel. This whole mess has to be a big nightmare and I need to wake up.
LisaM It remains comforting to me that there IS a truth to the objects of our questions, even if many are doing their best to hide it from us. It’s not about believing anyway but, if it’s important to us, it’s about understanding for ourselves, which is difficult in our time, partly because presently, so many are SO disingenuous.
It looked to me like Trump was having trouble breathing in that video. CBK
LOL. That’s hilarious, CBK!
nutshell. n.
1. the woody, outside covering of a nut kernel
2. Trump’s cranium
LisaM Also, he did with the hospital staff what he does with everyone . . . he found the nice but spineless sycophants in the group and made them carry his lies to the public. CBK
living in a dystopian teen fiction novel
EXACTLY. That’s exactly what it’s like!!!!
Wow. I had not followed those details. This gesture is like a middle finger to all WH employees.
I mean, “pulled off his mask and threw his hand in the air, then turned around and entered the White House maskless”
https://time.com/5896566/trump-hospital-discharge/
Here is the video of the whole thing. One big photo op to show us how strong dear leader is.
Lisa, I agree.
I don’t wish him dead (or his family and sycophants), but I hope his medications aren’t able to fight off the virus and he gets tubes inserted into every orifice of his body. I hope that he wakes up from a coma 3 weeks later so weak that he can’t feed himself. I hope that it takes him months before he is able to walk to the bathroom and wipe himself. I know that is awful, but I can’t stop myself from wishing this. He is such a danger to everyone who has to interact with him (Secret Service, Pilots, WH employees etc.). G-d help me for feeling this way, but I am at my wits end with this whole mess.
I think the greatest punishment and torture for Trump is if people don’t talk about him. If some some hackers arranged that he wouldn’t get a single reaction to one of his tweets, that would be the end of him.
I don’t wish him harm. I wish for a Biden landslide of historic proportions.
Then let the prosecutions begin!
That’s funny, Diane: “I don’t wish him harm, but I wish to prosecute him. ”
But, yeah, I can’t wait to prosecute BOB, the Big Orange Baby. 🙂
Diane, I’ve shared your thought process for months now, but this last antic has thrown me over the edge. He should be charged with 1st degree murder if someone in his inner circle or a WH service employee dies of Covid. This is willfully infecting other people with a deadly disease. There have been a few angry HIV+ people who have knowingly spread their virus and gotten jail time. This is just wrong on so many levels.
Lisa, Trump can be only charged with what the law allows. After WWII, many people wanted to just simply take out the 3K Germans who were proven to do the killings of Jewish people. But there was no applicable international laws to apply, and hence 90% of them went free. I think it’s still better than executing them illegally. Losing control is the worst possible outcome and that’s what happens if either side acts illegally.
Lisa,
If it helps, I’m over the edge too. I’m also sick of having him monopolize any part of my head.
He removes his mask and goes inside the WH. He is suffering from COVID-19 and has NO regard for the people who work in the WH. He is spreading this disease and should have stayed in the hospital. The LEAST he could do would be to keep that mask in place. He has no decency. He is a super-spreader and doesn’t care. He gets first class medical care and is working to get rid of ACA so that millions will have no health insurance.
………………………………………………….
Trump leaves hospital after 3 days of Covid-19 treatment; doctors say he ‘may not be out of the woods yet’
Straits Times Singapore
…Mr Trump walked out of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre entrance without any assistance on Monday evening around 6.30pm, pumping his fist twice and giving a thumbs-up.
He declined to answer questions shouted out by the media, including how many White House staff were ill and whether he was a super spreader, before boarding a vehicle that took him to the Marine One helicopter, which brought him back to the White House.
Once back at the White House, he walked up the South Portico stairs, removed his mask and gave another thumbs-up, saluting Marine One twice before going inside.
“He’s back,” said the president’s physician Sean Conley at a press briefing on Monday, soon after Mr Trump announced his imminent discharge on Twitter.
“Though he might not be entirely out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all our evaluations and, most importantly, his clinical status support the president’s safe return home, where he’ll be surrounded by world-class medical care,” said Dr Conley…
https://str.sg/J2wZ
30
The number of people infected with Covid-19 connected with the Trump outbreak, including top White House staffers and those covering the president.
Maybe. They are refusing to give out actual numbers.
The Trumpidemic
The Trumpidemic threat:
To turn the White House blue
And you can surely bet
That Congress gets it too
Why are people so concerned about WH employees? Those people work for Trump, for God’s sake. They have had a choice to make and they chose to help Trump’s presidency.
There are actually different staffs of employees that work in the WH to keep it functioning. Maids, valets, chefs, numerous housekeeping units, maintenance, ground keepers etc. These are employees that do the scut work to keep the WH in running order. It is a BIG pay raise when one gets to work closer to the 1st family instead of in the basement or out mowing the lawn. These are the most vulnerable people.
Who brings Trump’s meals to him?
Máté Wierdl: I’m not concerned about the higher-ups that chose to work for Trump. They are wealthy oar at lease very comfortable and could get jobs anywhere.
I AM concerned about the ‘little people’ who keep the place clean, cook in the kitchen, serve food to the ‘elites’, wash the dishes, etc. THOSE people do not deserve to get sick because Trump is concerned for projecting strength and is completely unaware or unconcerned that he is a spreader.
Would you work there, Carol?
Máté Wierdl: NO! But if I was having to support a family and this was my only job, then YES.
I love the short lincoln project ad that I saw earlier today regarding that video and Dump saying he’d learned a lot. Short and powerful. It’s been months and you’re just now learning? Too freaking late for any of that tripe.
The Lincoln Project…IT’S TOO LATE
The Lincoln Project
@ProjectLincoln 1 days ago
https://www.scoopnest.com/user/ProjectLincoln/1312916272556908544-its-been-a-very-interesting-journey
IF Trump learned anything it is far, far too late for all those lost souls (209,000) we have lost because he was not willing to listen and learn starting in January. Far. Far. Too Late.
This just in: Contact tracers concerned that Trump Whiter House Covid Crisis may spread to allies in the houses of Dr. Evil, Skeletor, Emperor Palpatine, and Baron Harkonnen.
Sorry. I know. That’s silly. Trump IS Baron Harkonnen.
The Supreme Court looks set to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges decision on LGBTQX marriage equality!!!!! Here, the comments made, today, by “Justices” Thomas and Alito on the Davis case. I warn you beforehand. This is a disgusting read reflecting the extreme bigotry of these two members of the court.
Cite as: 592 U. S. ____ (2020) Statement of THOMAS, J. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES KIM DAVIS v. DAVID ERMOLD, ET AL. ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 19–926. Decided October 5, 2020 The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Statement of JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE ALITO joins, respecting the denial of certiorari. In Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U. S. 644 (2015), the Court read a right to same-sex marriage into the FourteenthAmendment, even though that right is found nowhere in the text. Several Members of the Court noted that the Court’s decision would threaten the religious liberty of themany Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred in-stitution between one man and one woman. If the States had been allowed to resolve this question through legisla-tion, they could have included accommodations for those who hold these religious beliefs. Id., at 711 (ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting); id., at 734 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). The Court, however, bypassed that democratic process. Worse still, though it briefly acknowledged that those with sincerely held religious objections to same-sex marriage are often “decent and honorable,” id., at 672, the Court went on to suggest that those beliefs espoused a bigoted worldview,ibid. See also id., at 670 (noting that such a view of mar-riage is “demean[ing]” to gays and lesbians because it “teach[es] that gays and lesbians are unequal”); id., at 671 (describing the view of marriage dictated by the religiousbeliefs of many as “impos[ing] stigma and injury”); id., at 675 (characterizing the traditional view of marriage as “dis-respect[ful]” to gays and lesbians). The dissenting Justices predicted that “[t]hese . . . assaults on the character of fair-minded people will have an effect, in society and in court,” id., at 712 (opinion of ROBERTS, C. J.), allowing “govern-ments, employers, and schools” to “vilify” those with these
2 DAVIS v. ERMOLD Statement of THOMAS, J. religious beliefs “as bigots,” id., at 741 (opinion of ALITO, J.).Those predictions did not take long to become reality. Kim Davis, a former county clerk in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, was responsible for authorizing marriage li-censes. Davis is also a devout Christian. When she beganher tenure as clerk, Davis’ sincerely held religious beliefs—that marriage exists between one man and one woman—corresponded with the definition of marriage under Ken-tucky law. See Ky. Rev. Stat. §402.005 (1998); Ky. Const.§233A (2004). Within weeks of this Court granting certio-rari in Obergefell, Davis began lobbying for amendments toKentucky law that would protect the free exercise rights of those who had religious objections to same-sex marriage.But those efforts were cut short by this Court’s decision in Obergefell. As a result of this Court’s alteration of the Constitution, Davis found herself faced with a choice between her reli-gious beliefs and her job. When she chose to follow her faith, and without any statutory protection of her religious beliefs, she was sued almost immediately for violating theconstitutional rights of same-sex couples.Davis may have been one of the first victims of this Court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell deci-sion, but she will not be the last. Due to Obergefell, those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in societywithout running afoul of Obergefell and its effect on other antidiscrimination laws. It would be one thing if recogni-tion for same-sex marriage had been debated and adopted through the democratic process, with the people decidingnot to provide statutory protections for religious liberty un-der state law.* But it is quite another when the Court —————— * Under this Court’s precedents, “the right of free exercise does not re-lieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability on the ground that the law proscribes (or pre-
3 Cite as: 592 U. S. ____ (20__) Statement of THOMAS, J. forces that choice upon society through its creation of atex-tual constitutional rights and its ungenerous interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause, leaving those with religious ob-jections in the lurch.Moreover, Obergefell enables courts and governments tobrand religious adherents who believe that marriage is be-tween one man and one woman as bigots, making their re-ligious liberty concerns that much easier to dismiss. For example, relying on Obergefell, one member of the Sixth Circuit panel in this case described Davis’ sincerely held re-ligious beliefs as “anti-homosexual animus.” 936 F. 3d 429, 438 (2019) (Bush, J., concurring in part and concurring injudgment). In other words, Obergefell was read to suggest that being a public official with traditional Christian valueswas legally tantamount to invidious discrimination toward homosexuals. This assessment flows directly from Oberge-fell’s language, which characterized such views as “dis-parag[ing]” homosexuals and “diminish[ing] their person-hood” through “[d]ignitary wounds.” 576 U. S., at 672, 678. Since Obergefell, parties have continually attempted to la-bel people of good will as bigots merely for refusing to altertheir religious beliefs in the wake of prevailing orthodoxy. See Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, 197 F. Supp. 3d 905, 910 (SD Miss. 2016) (recognizing the plain-tiffs’ argument equating an accommodation allowing reli-gious objectors to recuse themselves from signing same-sex licenses with impermissible discrimination); Brush & Nib Studio, LC v. Phoenix, 244 Ariz. 59, 66, 418 P. 3d 426, 434 —————— scribes) conduct that his religion proscribes (or prescribes).” Employ-ment Div., Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v. Smith, 494 U. S. 872, 879 (1990) (internal quotation marks omitted). As a result of Smith, accom-modations for those with sincerely held religious beliefs have generally been viewed as the domain of positive state and federal law. See, e.g., Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, 289 Ore. App. 507, 543– 546, 410 P. 3d 1051, 1074–1076 (2017) (rejecting a Free Exercise claim under Smith).
4 DAVIS v. ERMOLD Statement of THOMAS, J. (2018) (describing owners of wedding studio who declined to participate in same-sex weddings for religious reasons as treating homosexuals like “‘social outcasts’ ” (quoting Mas-terpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm’n, 584 U. S. ___, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 9))). * * * This petition implicates important questions about thescope of our decision in Obergefell, but it does not cleanlypresent them. For that reason, I concur in the denial of cer-tiorari. Nevertheless, this petition provides a stark re-minder of the consequences of Obergefell. By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious lib-erty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment,and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix. Until then, Obergefell will con-tinue to have “ruinous consequences for religious liberty.” 576 U. S., at 734 (THOMAS, J., dissenting).
Thomas, Alito, Kavenaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett. The necessary five votes. Aie yie yie.
Gorsuch said in his confirmation hearing that same-sex marriage is protected by the Constitution. So perhaps he would not join these others. But we’ll see.
The possibility that this decision might be overturned is horrific.
There are good things in NVPeale’s “positive thinking”; much of it is a popularization of ancient wisdom, & basically attempts to share scholarly spiritualism with the layman. My issues with it are the very weaknesses that crass, materialistic, unspiritual folk like it45 would seize on & take to heart. It is entirely me-centered. And it discourages the deep contemplation of what “is”—warts and all— that I consider necessary to inner peace and moving forward. Though lip-service is given to “affirming one is in God’s hands,’ it encourages instead a sort of excitable, anxious state of denial in which one imagines one has power over every moment of the day, with such not-quite-right advice like “think a positive thought to drown out a negative thought, and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” For ordinary folk without considerable spiritual training, this can lead directly to hubris.
But full disclosure, Peale has a bad association for me: another Norman—Norman Cousins—wrote a book about how Vitamin C and a regimen of laughter cured him of his mystery disease (then referred to as a ‘crippling connective tissue’ or ‘collagen’ disease, accompanied by a dg of ankylosing spondylitis). Cousins was dismissive of medical science and credited his remission to mind over matter. The best-seller “Anatomy of an Illness” is still in print over 40 years later. His mystery disease was Reiter’s Syndrome: my eldest had both that and ankylosing spondylitis from early childhood on: those plus the meds for the pain killed him at age 23. [By the way he had a fabulous sense of humor; we spent many a bedside hour browsing youtube comedy spots & roaring with laughter!]
Though Cousins had other achievements Peale lacked, the two Normans were alike in this sense: they got rich peddling the notion to wishful-thinkers that reality isn’t real: you can overcome all life’s hurdles with the right mindset. Ergo, if you fail, it’s on you. Nothing to do with opportunity, support, society, health insurance, etc.
In dealing with the covid pandemic and his own covid infection, it45 has carried the Peale idea right over into neighboring Cousins territory, so I will too.
“In a commentary questioning whether Cousins cured his disease, Florence Ruderman wrote, “It seems entirely possible that what Cousins had was an acute attack of an arthritic condition which then subsided, slowly, but quite naturally.” Ruderman wrote an analysis of Cousins’ ‘case’ as presented by himself in the NEJournal of Medicine back in the mid-‘80’s in Commentary magazine. Prominent surgeon and author Richard Selzer wrote to the editor confirming Ruderman’s negative take, elaborating with details from a Johns Hopkins symposium hosted by Cousins, in which Cousins lambasted the medical profession. Other prominent doctors responded as well, most wondering why NEJM had published an unscientific self-promoting article by an amateur/ patient: presumably they were cowed by his celebrity.
Sound familiar?
The show continues. Today he returned to the White House. The virus doesn’t care what a Trump does. If you are an American you must. Your once proud country is an embarrassment to you. It is the butt of jokes. The loss of so many of your fine citizens is no laughing matter. In their names take control of your country and vote. Vote. VOTE not for your party – but your country. The matter is simple COVID 19 V Trump.
Messed up my summary. It is Trump V America. He has sided with COVID 19.
US presidents are guided by astrology or positive imagery? I think we should listen to Chris Rock when he says
Joe Biden should be the last president. We need a whole new system.
He has a way of expressing what we all feel in such a way that it’s funnier than offensive.
The President got COVID-19. My heart goes out to COVID.
The Power of Poisonative Thinking
The Power of Poisonative Thinking
Is really quite a habbit
Like rattlesnake that’s slinking
To bite and kill a rabbit
….
We take the poison without blinking
Like a bloodless, lifeless puppit
TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL | Official Trailer HD
Oct 2, 2020
Elevation Pictures
On digital this October.
On January 20th, 2020 the US and South Korea both discovered their first cases of COVID-19. However, 9 months later, the novel Coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 200,000 Americans and caused staggering economic damage, while in South Korea, there were no significant lockdowns and, in an urbanized population of 51 million, only 344 lives have been lost. Where did we go wrong? As the presidential election nears, Americans are increasingly enraged by a lack of clear leadership, endemic political corruption and left to wonder how did the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world manage to fail so thoroughly in its response to a global pandemic?
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, directing with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, interrogates this question and its devastating implications in Totally Under Control. With damning testimony from public health officials and hard investigative reporting, Gibney exposes a system-wide collapse caused by a profound dereliction of Presidential leadership.
It will be a generation before we know the full extent of the damage wrought by this pandemic, but Totally Under Control will stand as the definitive account of the Trump administration’s incompetence, corruption and denial in the face of this global pandemic.
We don’t need any more fuel for the Trumpster fire we are in, but here some more anyway from the LA Times:
“An Alarming Analogy
“Before Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19, he alarmed Jewish leaders and others with remarks that appeared to endorse ‘racehorse theory’ — the idea that selective breeding can improve a country’s performance, which American eugenicists and German Nazis used in the last century to buttress their goals of racial purity.
“‘You have good genes, you know that, right?’ Trump told a mostly white crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minn., on Sept. 18. ‘You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.’
“Trump’s remark was not the first time that he has spoken favorably about the racehorse analogy, which has been embraced by white supremacists for decades. But these latest comments come as the country has been roiled over racial injustice and the protests against it.” CBK
Trump is a canny man but also unlearned and stupid. He has used his genetic metaphor many times.
Diane Always good to keep it on the front burner. And Trump’s too-early response to his not-over-yet brush with severe illness is way-too reminiscent of another fascist’s brush with death in history via an explosion . . . and where his unfortunate escape only further fueled his sense of destiny. CBK
IF Trump really believes his good “racehorse analogy” then he and his family should remove their genes from of the nature’s gene pool as Homo Erectus did thousands of years ago. Trump genes and those of his family are not good genes and are aiding in the destruction of the world’s population.
moeone2015 I think it’s more about a history of toxic optimism and megalomania than about genes. Those white supremacists, for instance, in Charlottesville, and Trump himself, give daily evidence that having white skin with its genetic background has nothing to do with high intelligence or anything close to qualified humanity. CBK
Agree. But there needs to be a way to limit the number of people like Trump. People like Trump and the white supremacists seem to multiply like the COVID-19 virus and are a festering infectious sore on the face of the earth that never heals itself.
moeone2015 Just my view here; but if it’s not merely in genetics (and it’s not) then, even though it comes with no guarantee, the answer is in education and, in the broader context, an open and vibrant culture. CBK
“A festering infectious sore on the face of the earth”
homo infectus?