I feel as if the president is hemmed in.  If says, frustratedly, after four more weeks, "Open up the damn economy already!," he will be viciously attacked.  He will be accused of being heartless, a monster.  I already see enough of the social media comments to know there are enough paranoid Karens among others who will pillory him with a much higher level of freakish, psychotic intensity.  The Democrats will use this to their advantage.  Meanwhile, the economy will be held hostage, smothered.  The Democrats don't care about the economy.  They think money grows magically.  They could not care less about the actual framework of society, so they will use disaster death porn and fear throughout the summer for November rocket fuel.  They care about only power and party, just like the KGB.  The people will suffer.

Trump is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.  He will have to ignore the fear-mongers at some point in order to save the country from absolute economic collapse.  But for now, he is frozen in place.  And even if he does pivot back to the economy, he will have to contend with the rebel states of Cali and N.Y., who will want to drag this out as a strategic counter and a blame game.  Already Nancy Pelosi is gearing up a third round of investigators, the Coronavirus Special Counsel, and forming all too willing members again within the body politic, familiar names, the same faces in the other previous coups, to go for another round of summer rage.  This will damage the economy as well as jeopardize lives at hospitals.

Instead of working together, we will fight each other to the death.  We are now a suicide society.  Not knowing which way to turn, to the economy or to the social media videos of overworked, crying nurses, a paralyzed and frozen Trump waits in the middle.

The economy is far more serious.  But Trump cannot do anything at the moment.  Can we trust government to know when to pivot?  Doubtful.  The government does not have our best interest.  I hear insanity.  I hear the ignorant who increasingly like staying at home now.  I hear some say keep this shutdown going for as long as it takes.  What in the hell is that even supposed to mean?  Some say 18 months.  Some say four months.  Some say two months.  No one is using a qualifier.  No one is using metrics or benchmarks, and the ones who are are guessing.  They are all varied degrees of crazy.  None of them has any clue how devastating his own conditioning has been to this society.

I had no idea how easy it is to corral the masses.  I had a suspicion.  This clarified a lot for me, seeing otherwise rational people embrace irrational conclusions.  But what was harder to watch was the social order breakdown and the excessively fearful becoming a mob who would narc on those who want to be left alone and not made part of the hibernating group.  This louder chorus of voices to obey are scary, indeed, who swallow government whole and don't question.  Some of them think they are smarter than others.  Some are just fearful.  Some feel they are driven by compassion.

"Stay safe."  Yeah, thanks, we know.  It is the new chant now, isn't it?  Orwell was a piker.  He had no idea it would get to this point.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.