In November of 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated on a Friday. To put it in perspective for my millennial friends, the shock and weight of that event quadrupled the grief felt for Princess Diana’s death.

Nancy Reagan had a barbeque scheduled for Sunday that weekend in her Bel Air home. She wasn’t about to cancel. The affair went off without a hitch and everyone had a grand old time. National mourning be damned.

Twenty years later her best buddy Betsy Bloomingdale was throwing a party in her Holmby Hills mansion. In the middle of dinner her butler discreetly slipped her a note which she read without blinking an eye. The fete continued and it too was considered a huge success.

Her husband did not join her at the table that evening, he was too ill,  He had recently been implicated in the murder of a prostitute, Vicki Morgan, who served her country by serving Alfred Bloomingdale and many members of the Reagan cabinet. Including the man with his hand in the jelly bean jar himself. While Betsy giggled over her cucumber sorbet, Al died in another wing of the house. Guests did not find out until the next day.

It’s this type of stone deaf sangfroid that makes the Republican Party great. And it explains why the Wisconsin primary will be held this week against the backdrop of a 100,000 American deaths. Sometimes when you have the chance to gain advantage you just have to fuck the greater good.

While the pandemic has raged and consumed our attention, the Trump administration has dropped all charges against the Russians involved in the 2016 election scandal. They’ve indicted the leader of another nation, Venezuela, on criminal charges in US Courts which is not how international diplomacy is usually conducted.

The Justice Department is also threatening Deutsche Bank with criminal charges as they prepare to foreclose on personal loans worth hundreds of millions that Agent Orange has defaulted on. Americans don’t seem to notice any of this because they’re too frantic searching for the face masks they need to stay alive..

This national calamity would be the perfect time for a highly partisan Republican Supreme Court to end its term by eviscerating civil and voting rights, outlawing affordable healthcare and overturning Roe v. Wade. Because stealth is the GOP’s preferred M.O. And with people like Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Shumer leading the opposition there is no oversight. They’re too busy counting their money.

Republicans get away with it because they own most of the media and they love Jesus. They also love the flag, right down to the tips of their silver spooned bone spurs.