Nobody Knew

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If one looks beneath the surface humor, there is pathetic irony in this cartoon.

Shops advertising the services of a psychic can be found in every economically depressed neighborhood in America.

The proprietors of these shops are simply trying to make a living. That is not ironic. The irony lies in the fact that what they are selling is essentially the local version of a national lie. It is the lie of trickle-down economics which cries out,

Give me your money, and I'll share the benefits of my superior insight and ability with you.

This is the false promise of trickle-down economics.

The economically depressed neighborhoods in which the psychics find themselves are the fruit of policies written, codified, planted, and meticulously tended in order to protect white privilege by impoverishing those deemed to be "other."

I submit that there's an additional irony.

In a country that has been marinated for over thirty years in right-wing political bullshit, I suspect that any psychic who could actually see into the future would have long since bought a winning lottery ticket, become obscenely rich, moved into a gated community, and joined the ranks of those selling the national version of the trickle-down economics lie.

As perversely ironic as even that sounds, a far greater, pathetic, and dangerous irony is afoot. It is an irony as perverse and pathetic as the current occupant of the White House.

CLOSED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

On March 19, 2020, claiming,  “Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion.” Donald Trump placed the same sign found in the cartoon over any expectation that his administration might actually take responsible action in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump's claim that "nobody knew" was a lie,  of course, an easily fact-checked, self-exonorating lie:

Officials warned last year about pandemic threat.

Two top administration officials last year listed the threat of a pandemic as an issue that greatly worried them, undercutting President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the coronavirus pandemic was an unforeseen problem.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Tim Morrison, then a special assistant to the President and senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense on the National Security Council, made the comments at the BioDefense Summit in April 2019.

Yet Nobody Knew!