Hunter S. Thompson once said: "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours." That theory seems to be quite true. The New York Times reported that the Sinclair Broadcast Group recently published an interview with a conspiracy theorist claiming that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the coronavirus using monkey cells.
Sinclair, which operates about 200 television stations, has also downplayed the severity of the virus. Fox News has repeatedly run segments downplaying the severity of the illness and promoting ideas that scientists consider false. So, I've called in our team of correspondents here at the Gonzo PR blog to discuss the issue.
We have Helmut Vallindaklopf at his Connecticut Avenue bunker in Washington, D.C., Ramona Vallindaklopf at her bases at the Hotel Columbo in Genoa, Italy, and Wolfgang Majoris in Bangkok, Thailand. My question is: "Why is the U.S. enduring a far more severe outbreak than any other country in the world."
HV: "Well, you know, this isn't the first time the U.S. Has witnessed a pandemic: You had the Spanish flu outbreak more than a century ago, and before that it was smallpox, and you can go back far enough to the Middle Ages when the black plague was wreaking havoc throughout the known world."
RV: "Yes, my brother, even an epidemiologist from a previous age by the name of Dr. Thomas Tuttle prescribed face masks and social distancing to slow the influenza pandemic. He made a lot of enemies, but it worked. Incredibly, he looked a lot like Dr. Anthony Fauci."
WM: "Meanwhile, you have a group of doctors claiming that makes were unnecessary and that the drug hydroxychloroquine cured the virus according to Breitbart news. The problem is the size and strength of right wing organizations who propagate such nonsense." JM: "Right you are, Wolf. We will gather again soon."
Back in America after 20 years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia. His accomplice is like many I've had on sojourns, one who is gloriously out-of-shape, a fellow named Stephen Katz.
It all started with Benton MacKaye, a mild, kindly, infinitely all-meaning visionary. In 1921, he unveiled an ambitious plan for a long-distance hiking trail along the full length of the Appalachians from Maine to Georgia. To say his life at this point was not going well would be to engage in careless understatement
Herewith are some selected Bryson quotes of note from A Walk In The Woods: "It was hell. First days on hiking trips always are. I was hopelessly out of shape -- hopelessly. The pack weighed way too much. Way too much. I had never encountered anything so hard, for which I was I was so ill-prepared. Every step was a struggle."
"Henry David Thoreau thought nature was splendid, splendid indeed, so long as he could stroll to town for cakes and barley wine, but when he experienced real wilderness, on a visit to Katahdin in 1846, he was unnerved to the core. The experience left him, in the words of one biographer, 'near hysterical.'"
When hiking, "life takes on a neat simplicity, too. Time ceases to have any meaning. When it is dark, you go to bed, and when it is light again, you get up. It's quite wonderful, really. You have no engagements, commitments, obligations, or duties; no special ambitions." (You are) "far removed from the seats of strife."
Such is the life of a long range hiker and explorer of the mountain country, one that I treasured in my time as a wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. It was only a seasonal gig, but one that paid well enough to fund my undergraduate and graduate school endeavors. I will treasure that time always.
The University of Oregon Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to rename Deady Hall, the first building on campus, named after Matthew Deady, a politician and jurist in the Oregon Territory. He served on the Oregon Supreme Court but unfortunately, held racist views considering that Oregon would become a "free" state.
As a delegate to the Oregon Constitutional Convention, he was influential in shaping the new state constitution, which outlawed slavery but excluded African-Americans from settling in the state. Deady also advocated for discrimination towards Chinese immigrants and was actually in favor of slavery in the State of Oregon.
So what to do about a new name? I suggest Nellie Franklin, BA, Music '32, the third grade teacher at Ascension Catholic School in Portland. She was also the music teacher for all the grades at the school. "Miss Franklin," as she was known, was the first African-American to graduate from the UO and led the way for black women to join sororities. She was noted as one among the 100 Ducks Who Made a Difference.
As the coronavirus persists and the nominating conventions (such as they will be) approach, it's time to gather the team together for a discussion about world events: Helmut Vallidaklopf in Washington, D.C., Ramona Vallindaklopf in Genoa, Italy and Wolfgang Majoris in Bangkok, Thailand. My questions are these: how can most of the Republican party be so complacent? In other words, what gives?
Let's start with Helmut, who is holed up in his basement bunker on Connecticut Avenue in D.C.
JM: "Helmut, what causes people to abandon their principles in support of a corrupt regime? And how do they find their way back? How do you explain what's going on at the White House?"
HV: "That's quite a bit to absorb, but I'll give it a shot. As a wordsmith yourself, you know that the word 'collaborator' has a double meaning. A colleague can be described as a collaborator in a neutral or positive sense. But the other definition of collaborator, relevant with Herr Gropenfuhrer, one who is working with the enemy. In this negative sense, collaborator is closely related to another set of words: collusion, complicity and compliance, such as the Vichy government during WWII."
JM: "Of course, you mean that, at its base, the meaning of collaborator carries an implication of treason: betrayal of one's nation, of one's ideology, of one's morality, of one's values. Very much like Herr Gropenfuhrer is selling out this country and other democracies of the world, including Europe. We now turn to Ramona Vallindaklopf in Genoa for her report of European affairs as they relate to the U.S."
RV: "Well American passports are worthless right now. America is not united anymore and is barely a state. They have crashed right through failed state into a plague state, unwelcome across the world. Americans have gone from having access to most of the world to being banned from most of it. Today, Americans are only allowed in the Caribbean and the Balkans. An American passport is meaningless, Worse, it's a plague. We certainly don't want them in Italy."
JM: "In the absence of a humane government, America is now ruled by COVID-19. Welcome to the Plague States of America. The Republican senators who are willing to discuss their disgust with Herr Gropenfuhrer off the record, but voted in February for him to remain in office, all indulge in a variation of this sentiment. We now turn to Wolfgang Majoris, our correspondent in Thailand."
WM: "Clearly, China does not fear the United States. In fact, they're making their own inroads with Iran and other countries that are not sympathetic to the Americans. And, of course, Herr Gropenfuhrer is in Putin's pocket. Perhaps the only antidote is time. In due course, historians will write the story of our era and draw lessons from it."
JM "Indeed. We will see more clearly the path that led the U.S., and specially the White House, into a historic loss of international influence and economic chaos since the years leading up to the Civil War. Well, that's all for now. I'll be checking in with you all after the conventions, and we'll chat more."
Astride the Cascades of Central Washington, Mt. Rainier (photo by Roger Wallace) towers above the shores of Puget Sound, the inland waterway that lies to the west of the mountain. The highest peak in the entire Cascade Range at 14,410 feet, Rainier's bulky mass can be seen on the skyline of almost every major city in the vicinity.
The mountain supports the largest single glacier system in the lower 48 states, with 26 officially named glaciers acting as sources for several major Northwest Rivers -- the Nisqually, Puyallup, Carbon, Cowlitz and White Rivers, which produce invaluable sources of hydroelectric power and irrigation for fruits and vegetables.
I've only climbed the mountain once -- dragged up the mountain might be a better way to describe it -- with my father and his band of Mazamas from Portland. Driving to Paradise Lodge and parking in the overnight parking area, we took the easiest route, via Disappointment Cleaver, which required two days and an overnighter at Camp Muir.
Near the summit, altitude becomes an issue for many climbers and summer weekends can cause bottlenecks, but we went on a Wednesday when mountain traffic was reasonable. At Disappointment Cleaver, you're already at 12,300 feet, about 1,000 feet higher than Mt. Hood. At the summit, you feel you're at the top of the world.
Years later as a wilderness ranger for the Glacier Peak Wilderness to the north, I would admire the peak from my better half's lookout on Little Bald Mountain on the Naches Ranger District and my own various and sundry wilderness perches on the Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee Ranger Districts of the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
