People are scared and rightly so. I don’t care who you are or where you’re from, folks are panicking as news gets more dire and ominous and foreboding. Schools closed, stock markets tumbling, panic in stores, fights over toilet paper. Mask(ed) hysteria. Store runs on everything with no end in sight. Mindless idiot pols and leaders giving press conferences that say nothing. And no one is more monumentally disconnected rhetorically and practically than New York Governor Andrew “Sollozzo” Cuomo. If you’ve never had the displeasure of hearing him address anything, let me explain. He possesses a cadence and accent pattern that knows no recognizable regionality. It’s a patchwork of awkward lilts, a sputtering delivery and the sincerity of someone in a hostage video. They admonish you to continue to live normally and rationally in the midst of this colossal chaos, this latter day Andromeda Strain, all the while instructing you on how to wash your hands. Seriously. This is the level of nincompoop leadership we’ve dealt with daily here in my state. And don’t get me started with our Mayor. Herr Boeotian.
I was here in New York on 9/11. You? Hate to pull the experiential card, but you want to talk chaos and being scared shitless? Cataclysmic, catastrophic, existential THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING scary. Let’s talk about that day. Then we’ll merge into the Depression, WWII and we’ll throw in the Civil War and Vietnam just for good measure. The United States of Amnesia, Gore Vidal was right. Sure, this is spooky and your point is . . . ? But let me remind you that each and every year 650K Americans die of heart disease right here in River City, the US. The Number One killer. Bar none. The Number One killer that’s preventable. And not a peep from the masses. Our fright and fear have no historical perspective. No sense of permanency, proportion and persistence. No historical framework. No perspective, position, relativity. Nothing.
It’s hard to describe the level of international worldwide panic that #nCov19 has inspired. And it should. Can you remember anything remotely near it in terms of fervor? And dread? And terror? (9/11 notwithstanding, mind you. That was panic on a different level as I’ve explained.) But admit it, many have never imagined anything quite like this. Panic breeds panic. Mainstream media types have never been so gleeful when they’ve yet another weapon in the fear porn arsenal and quiver to unleash on viewers and listeners. It’s that simple really. It’s the Hegelian Dialectic front and center. The population is presented a problem, panic ensues and a solution is granted kindly by government types. We’ll help you, we being the government. We’ll make you safer: vaccines, quarantines, mandatory shut-downs, restraints on liberty, more control, more constriction and restriction. You’ll love how we’ve taken control and, what’s better, you’ll ask for more. Oh, you want a solution, have we got one for you. And oddly enough, the more Draconian the restriction the more people seem to actually like it.
Fear porn. Fear is exciting. Ask any horror film aficionado. It harkens back to the most primordial and atavistic of all reflexes and responses. A limbic response in unison. Fight or flight. Survival pure and simple. It doesn’t require any deep thought or analysis (and that’s always a plus) and it’s multiplied by virtue of citizen partnering in sharing and inspiring the collective dread. Panic sells. It’s titillating, inspiring and addictive. Fear’s sexy, media portrayal pornographic. And folks will charge and stampede for no earthly reason. Toilet paper runs (odd phraseology, agreed), Purell hoarding, alcohol swab swiping, name it. We see it all the time. In New York it’s guaranteed that the next snow storm will inspire yet again the usual suspects and passels and teams of lunatic consumers who’ll load up on milk and bread. Why? Dunno. No one knows. Nothing like being stuck indoors with a bunch of lactose intolerant flatulent toast-heads waiting for the deluge to abate. Even better’s when tried-and-true snow vets make mad rushes to Home Depot to buy (yet again) more snow shovels. What, do they break? Didn’t they have any before the fall? Panic is profit. Overreaction is gold. And throw in social media loons who will meme and GIF formatted horror through the exaggeration lens and, well, you’ve really got something.
It’s the time for leadership. My unabashed support for this President is evident but he’s missing a political opportunity that rarely comes about this directly and obviously. Let me be blunt. He could own the Corona Crisis with thrice-daily reports to his constituents (aka Americans) via his own unique Trump TV media platform, which he’s yet to construct despite my pleas. Updates and new information, all the while assuaging the fears of a panicked and terrified America. It’s political gold, sorry to be so crass. With 238 days until Election2020 you can’t miss one opportunity, make one mistake or have one unforced error. Optics are critical. The feeling, the view, the impression. Playing golf and partying at Mar-a-Lago along with reviewing blueprints for tennis pavilions do not . . . REPEAT . . . DO NOT resonate with a country and world freaked over something they can’t even comprehend. Trump has a maundering dotard as his presumptive opponent and he could wipe the floor with him using the power of the Presidency, the immane platform of unlimited resources and authorities and new media platforms that he hasn’t come close to exploiting. He was masterful, genius in fact, with how he commandeered Twitter and obliterated the competition by punting over the Fake News Media by directly speaking to the public. It was such a simple idea, but he made it happen, owned it and forever changed the landscape of politics. He’s wasting an opportunity. He has to (again) own the panic. Own the freneticism. Corral the pandemonium. It’s his if he wants it. And, lest we forget, actually do a great job being POTUS and doing his job as he is and has. This man’s communication prowess is like no other. He can connect with the average, usual and ordinary (that’s us, patriots), tethering them/us through his naked verity and candor. He possesses a genius for it. And with that comes the concomitant concern to never squander that connectivity by appearing disconnected, unattached, distant or excluded. Trapped in the bubble. There’s never been a problem with wealth disparity. He’s made no bones about his sick coin and lifestyle and while other phony pols were walking around sporting new flannel wardrobe straight from the package, while HRC was downing boilermakers with Scranton ironworkers, while Barry O was firing gutter ball after gutter ball (literally and figuratively), while Creepy Joe the partialist waxed tricophilic, sniffing and snorting the tresses of the unsuspecting, DJT was just who he was and is. The man’s a master. And with that comes the chance, opportunity and duty to meld true leadership with political opportunism. That simple.
If you read one article, make it this one. COVID-19 Isn’t As Deadly As We Think: Don’t hoard masks and food: Figure out how to help seniors and the immunosuppressed stay healthy. Seriously, stop for a second and give it a read. Jeremy Faust MD details the facts and realities. Perfectly. Here’s the quick takeaway.
- Look at who is infected and who dies.
- Look at comorbidity factors, i.e. the presence of more than one disorder in the same person.
- Look at sample age and whether transmissibility is contingent on or correlated with immune-compromised subjects.
- Look at China’s geographic and demographic factors when assessing infection rates.
- Look at nCoV19 vis-à-vis other pathogen and disease platforms, modalities and transmissibility.
Take a deep breath. (At least not in a packed subway.) Is it possible for people to hover around rationality when reviewing alarming news? F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time.” Stated differently, yes, be mindful and vigilant and scared if you must, but don’t lose your mind(s). Repeat: Minds. Apply critical thinking. Peruse carefully and understand that the MSM have no interest in the truth or amelioration or perspective. That simple.
The degree of incoherence. It’s easy at first impression to believe that #FakeNewsMedia is just acting incompetently by virtue of their schizoid coverage and treatment of #nCoV19. True. It’s easy because in great part it’s true. But in view of the foregoing and averments cited, be thoughtful, careful, wise, learned, educated and circumspect. And brush up on Farr’s Law of Epidemics, first promulgated in 1840 and later resurrected by Brownlee in the early 1900s. It states that epidemics tend to rise and fall in a roughly symmetrical pattern that can be approximated by a normal bell-shaped curve. Remember, this isn’t our first rodeo. Our as in us as in the world. Now, carry on.
Lionel at NYC’s Cutting Room May 16, 2020. LIONEL storms the stage and graces the portals of NYC’s fabled and vaunted Cutting Room for a May 16, 2020, performance that will wow the kids, shock the conscience and reintroduce audiences to the fine-tuned fine art of political absurdism. Yes, it’s time for the show that reinvents (out)spoken word. LIONEL is a raconteur, boulevardier and practitioner of the absurdist lens in a style no one, and we mean, no one has ever approximated. A celebration for charter members of the red-pilled clerisy and truth warrior contingent. Verity evangelism. His last Cutting Room event was one for the ages as the audience thundered rousing support for LIONEL and his Conspiratorium Review. LIONEL never fails to astound, confound, enchant and mesmerize his liberty sentry audience with tales from the front lines, a wicked dissection of fake news media charlatans and panjandrums and a keen and decisive inspection of the world through the unique prism that defies description yet redefines comedy, satire and critical thinking. And if that’s not enough he brings his trio and tintinnabulation troika, Lock ‘n Load, featuring Brobdingnagian flatpicking wizard talent Bob Harris along with Carl Baran, the high priest of banjo renaissance, to wow and cosmically jumpstart your soul through a musical foray into the roots-based gutbucket high lonesome America heritage songbook of the immaculate twang of Mother Bluegrass. Where to get tickets? HERE.
How do I follow this Lionel feller? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, the Lionel Media website and browse the merchandise, memorabilia and marketing available at the Official Lionel Nation Gear Store and above all, the Lionel Nation YouTube Channel where we engage in immersive, totally interactive live stream broadcasts twice daily. It leaves antediluvian talk radio in the dust. Where it shall remain. And when it comes to the moiety of the team, Mrs. L can be followed thusly on Twitter. Please also refer to Mrs. L’s Focus on Human Trafficking channel.