That thing on my butt has subsided, thanks for asking.

I applied some Mupirocin Ointment that traces its lineage back to December, 2017 when I was experiencing similar dermatological events around what would generally be characterized as my jaw line.

I’m just glad I didn’t discard that tube in December, 2018 as the destructions on the tube demand.  I wasn’t looking forward to visiting the Dermatologist for a show n’ tell session about that thing.  It had taken up residence so close to the last stage of  my digestive processes that the delicate sensibilities of the doctor, her nurse, or her patient (me) would have been put in immediate jeopardy upon the presentation of whatever it was down there causing a persistent itch and occasional discomfort.

Now that I’ve set the stage for today’s post and have instilled an adequate level of squeamishness, let’s move on to other things that have been bothering me for a while.

Understand that what I’m about to suggest here is born of what I know about that Isaac Newton guy and his laws about how things take place.  The third one applies here, which dictates that for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Ladies and gentlemen, our country has been beset by an insidious virus that will render us bereft of soul. 

It dictates our thoughts.

It dictates our beliefs.

It dictates our behavior.

It has a penchant for violence.

It has a body count.

It’s not the coronavirus.

No, the virus which occupies the majority of our collective headspace nowadays has no physical attributes which can be rendered photographically.  That’s irregardless of the fact that I included one as the featured image for this post.

The demographic of its victims is wide ranging and does not limit itself based on race, age, creed, height, or even width.

It’s not spread physically through the physical contact of one human to another, or via airborne particulate.  It’s not stopped by a mask, gloves, social distancing, lofty public service announcements, or disinfected surfaces. 

Instead, it manifests itself in the wake of an event which has generated a significant level of cognitive dissonance.  That level is so profound and pronounced that the victim cannot disengage from the condition using natural means.  The virus then keeps the host organism in a constant state of cognitive dissonance by using confirmation biases which were already present prior to the viral onset.  

Patients exhibiting symptoms of the virus subsequently engage in abnormal activities in hopes of dislodging the mental discomfort they experience from their cognitive dissonance.  They have no full understanding of what has infected them.

I call it the OMB-20161108 virus, or OMB for short.

The virus gets its name from the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in which the results surprised a majority of the country who voted for either the perceived winner or the eventual winner.

It was during that second week of November, 2016 when the election took place that the Orange Man Bad virus made its first appearance.

It should be noted here that Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is not very far removed from the OMB virus.  The symptoms of each are quite similar.

Within a matter of weeks of the election, calls were made for Donald Trump, the winner of the election, to be removed from the office to which he was elected. 

Pathways for installing Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton into office were documented.

In the months between the election and the inauguration, investigations were opened to determine if Russia had meddled in the election, and if Trump or members of his campaign participated.

Those investigations found no evidence of a crime on the part of Trump or any of his satellites, but they did inhibit the new administration’s ability to govern effectively. 

If it’s not readily obvious, those investigations were propagated by victims of the OMB virus.

Nearly a year later, a rally in Charlottesville, VA held by neo-Nazis, white supremacists,  Klansmen, and others turned ugly as clashes between protesters and counter-protesters ensued, killing 3 and injuring over 30 people.  Critics misconstrued Trump’s remarks on the event as racist and continue to do so to this day.

There have been several candidates enter into the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump and take back the White House.  The heir apparent to the nomination, Joe Biden, entered the race under the banner of the Charlottesville Hoax, and does not strike anyone as any longer possessing the mental faculties or the ability to faithfully execute the office he seeks.  The real key behind the Democratic ticket this year will be who is selected to run as Biden’s Vice President.  The whole event harkens back to 2008, when Republicans voted for John McCain because of Sarah Palin.

Consider the following. 

Anyone suffering from OMB wants to get the president out of office.  The problem is that prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, removing Donald Trump from office or defeating him in the next election was going to be pretty difficult.  His policies have been good for the economy.  Unemployment across all demographics are at an all-time low.  He was impeached in the House, however the Democrats didn’t have enough votes in the Senate to confirm the charges and throw him out of office.  Under normal circumstances where nothing changes, the president’s re-election was inevitable.

Victims of the OMB virus have to ask themselves a question knowing that any candidate they put up for election in November wasn’t going to win.

How do we get Trump out of office?

Character assassination is usually the default approach for getting anyone out of office or keeping them from being elected in the first place.  The problem is that the president is immune to character assassination for a host of reasons, most importantly is that the electorate knew his flaws when they put him in office in the first place.  Granted that hasn’t stopped his detractors from giving it the old college try. 

The president has been characterized as a philandering misogynist, a rabid racist, and an outright bully since he first announced in 2015 that he was running for office.  Yet still, that won’t stop his re-election.

The next step is to find illegal behavior on the part of the president and prosecute it to the full extent of the law and beyond.  This tactic failed as well because a) no illegal behavior has been identified, and b) attempts to frame the president for non-existent crimes have been unsuccessful.

That leaves the vast gaggle of OMB patients with a third option which attacks the presidents accomplishments.

Literally.

Not figuratively.

Instead of using the powers of persuasion to convince the electorate that the success of the last few years were not based on anything the president did, it became necessary to drive up unemployment, crash the economy, and foster national discord so that an albatross could be hung on Trump’s chances of being re-elected.

How does one do that?

Now let me admonish you right now that I don’t believe there’s a small consortium of Soros-funded bad guys wearing Nehru jackets with their mandarin collars (at least one of them has a cat in his lap) sitting around a conference table outlining their plans for world domination by exploiting a virus for all it’s worth. 

Instead, it’s a more of a collection a OMB patients in varying stations of power throughout the country who believe they have the best interests of their constituency at heart when they take steps to shut down the engine that makes us go.

By stopping that engine, Trump’s successes are impacted.

Businesses large and small are deemed non-essential and have to close.  They in turn have to furlough and eventually lay off their employees.  The stock market crashes a few times and endeavors to rebuild itself as investor confidence vacillates between bearish and bullish attitudes. 

A few tinderbox events unrelated to the shutdown take place on some street corner in Minneapolis or at a drive-thru in Atlanta, and those afflicted with OMB have nitrous oxide to inject into what they already know to be wrong about Donald Trump.

Riots and anarchy ensue, and the president gets all of the blame and subsequently voted out of office.

But of course, that’s just all tin foil hat wearing, conspiratorial nonsense.  There’s bound to be a line that OMB patients wouldn’t cross just to get someone out of office.

Isn’t there?