genuine March Madness

So there will be no college basketball tournament this year, when my beloved Kansas University would have been the favourite to take it all.  I wish that’s as bad as it will get as we gird for massive casualties.  But with Trump complicating matters with his confusing and self-serving daily briefings, I fear we are just nibbling on the cheese cubes of this shit banquet.

With idle speculation and conflicting casualty estimates swirling around like Hurricane Katrina, it’s impossible to know what of it can be believed.  One study estimates the U.S. could see a million dead and the U.K. a quarter million.  I hope that’s a worst case scenario, but right after it was issued, Trump and Boris Johnson really changed their tone.

If Trump is the GOP candidate this fall, you can imagine the ads he’s writing for the Dems.  I envision a split screen of Trump assuring us it will all go away magically when it warms up in April as graphics on the other side show the number of cases and deaths the day he said that, then spinning like odometers to update us as he spews subsequent bullshit.

It is only as a lifelong fan of absurdity that I can enjoy his surreal attempts to evade any responsibility.  Certainly he didn’t cause the virus, but there’s not enough paint to gloss over his continual bungling of the response.  His moves are almost athletic.  That’s good, because he doesn’t get any other exercise.  No, golfing in a cart doesn’t count.

As members of a highly vulnerable age cohort, Jude and I have wisely, gleefully isolated on the farm.  It’s just the right time of year.  It’s warming up, so we can start on our garden.  The virus will really have to work to find us.  Don’t use public transportation?  Gladly.  Avoid crowds like religious ceremonies?  Way ahead of you.

Our hearts go out to our family and younger friends as they scramble for child care, utility bill payments and adequate food.  This is an extraordinary time that will change our culture profoundly.  It can make us stronger and better people.

And there’s already a silver lining.  Trump dare not hold any of his ego-stroking rallies.