A sunny and breezy early-evening Tuesday here in California’s Central Valley. Big, white clouds, too, and a cool-ish temperature (70-degrees right now) and an unfamiliar feel to the air — we had some fairly-heavy hail yesterday afternoon, and looked like rain this morning.

Blogging outside again with a pix of the scene. I’m retired, so being at home all the time isn’t a newbie adventure, but I’d never figured beyond this little space to be the same. Sound of neighbor kids playing happily is comforting in the face of some bad shit coming,

(Backyard laptop mise en scène).

A terrible contributing uncomfortability factor is the T-Rump, the way-worse person to be in charge at the way-worse time. He’s been fucking with the US for more than three years and it will take some doing to rectify all the harm that asshole has caused to so many different things, and on many levels. Destruction of everything but himself is the T-Rump’s working manifesto, for many decades.
Apparently from all indications, the T-Rump’s only goal is to destroy, which includes the planet. In the guise of coronavirus response, he’s gutting environmental regulations, in reality today:

President Trump signs Executive Order giving Cabinet members authority to cut regulations.

Full video here: https://t.co/1NXrzbhqNL pic.twitter.com/P6j6ikzavC

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 19, 2020

The order states: ‘“Agencies must continue to remove barriers to the greatest engine of economic prosperity the world has ever known: the innovation, initiative, and drive of the American people.”‘
(Newsweek this afternoon):

“We’re fighting for the livelihoods of American workers, and we must continue to cut through every piece of red tape that stands in our way,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
“With millions of Americans forced out of work by the virus, it’s more important than ever to remove burdens that destroy American jobs.”
…
“And we want to be able to leave it that way,” Trump said.
“In some cases we won’t be able to, but in other cases we will.”

Trump already has built a track record on upending environmental and some workforce regulations during his first three years in office.

And he crowed about that fact, like it’s a good thing: ‘“We’ve done more regulation cutting than any president in history,” Trump boasted during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “It’s really something.”‘

Idiot! Bad is good, up is down, tomorrow is yesterday.
Yet cruelty is the point, disaster the end result: “Step one: Remove the Inspectors General who keep an eye on wrongdoing at our federal agencies. Step two: Tell the agencies that it’s open season on measures that keep workers, consumers, and the environment safe,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) tweeted.
He doesn’t care how ludicrous, self-serving the words, and produced a similar take on the number of US COVID-19 cases — via CNN this afternoon:

“We are considering it,” the President said when asked if he was considering a travel ban on Latin America, and Brazil in particular, which now has the third highest number of diagnosed coronavirus cases in the world.

“We hope that we’re not going to have a problem. The governor of Florida is doing very, very well testing – in particular Florida, because a big majority come in to Florida. Brazil has gone more or less herd, and they’re having problems,” Trump added.

“I worry about everything, I don’t want people coming in here and infecting our people,” Trump said, “I don’t want people over there sick either.”

“By the way,” the President interjected, “when you say that we lead in cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else.”

“Actually the number of cases, and we’re also a much bigger country than most, so when we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as a good thing, because it means our testing is better,” he said.

“I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor,” Trump said.
“It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done.”

The number of people getting sick is a ‘badge of honor‘ is some low-life shit. Probably one of the more-shitty word usages of the T-Rump, and that saying a shit-load. The testing bullshit is still bullshit.

Reality of locution from the great Sarah Cooper and the T-Rump’s own words (h/t BJ):

How to hydroxychloroquine pic.twitter.com/yMObDCFGXS

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) May 19, 2020

Funny is a scary way…

(Illustration: Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity)‘ found here).