Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

It's A Bold Strategy, Cotton...

I have been away for a week.  Pack a lunch and strap yourself in.

137,842 dead.

416 out of every 1 million in the USA dead.

1 out of every 100 in this country testing positive.

Florida, were it a country, would be the 4th highest in new infections.  It just posted another 12,624 cases overnight.

ICU beds are maxed out in large cities across the country.  Arizona broke the record today for most ICU beds in use in the country.

We have no clear strategy, no cohesive thought process to educate the public, and those deaths rates lag up to two weeks behind, so buckle up.

One would think that in the face of all of these quantifiable FACTS, this administration would be getting out of its own way, pushing the experts forward, and FINALLY doing something substantive to protect the populace.

Instead, this derby of dolts, all convinced that if they just ignore it, or follow their guts, it will disappear, has come upon a new tactic:  conduct a smear campaign against the leading expert:  Dr. Anthony Fauci.

To quote from the 2004 inane comedy Dodgeball, "It's a bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em."

The push to push Dr. Fauci from the microphones began early on.  In fact, he has not been called upon to brief Trump in TWO MONTHS.  He is a truth teller which will always be at complete odds with the Hefty bag in chief.  Bored with the whole pandemic, Trump's daily briefings stopped.  And in a bid to avoid any responsibility for a rapidly climbing death toll, they refused to allow Fauci to speak.  Just as the fire was beginning to blaze ever higher, they turned off the pumps and pulled the national fireman from the front lines.

It is no wonder there is such a disjointed understanding of COVID among the public; such a politicized stance on mask wearing; such a show of tangerine teat sucking by Republican governors as they rushed to reopen their states.  Seriously, this clip should follow Florida Governor DeSantis to his own grave.  Ignorant blowhard.

MAY 20: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) brags coronavirus outbreak “hasn’t happened.”

JULY 12: Florida reports 15,299 coronavirus cases, the largest single-day increase of any state ever, even beating California (11,694 in July) and New York (11,571 from April 15). pic.twitter.com/DYB7lTalC5

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 12, 2020

From the very beginning we have been hamstrung by President Adderall Von Smallhands - a man convinced he could bully a virus out of existence.  A reprobate who refused for months to advocate for mask wearing, refused to wear one himself because of how he would look (Sorry,  Sparky, but it could only help you in that arena) - because of his whining, lying, obfuscating, and avoidance, the latest research shows that if we had had a national mask mandate from the beginning - at least 33,000 people would still be alive.

Let that sink in.

33,000 people - parents, spouses, children, friends, co-workers - would still be alive if we had simply all put a goddamned mask over our whiny pieholes.  Instead, over 137,000 people have died alone, ravaged by coronavirus.  Relatives lucky if a nurse was available to hold an ipad for one last look via Facetime as their loved one drifted away.

It is heartbreaking.  If you have a heart.

PAUSE - The best take I have seen on the praise being heaped on Trump for finally wearing a mask during a photo op at Walter Reed is this:  I wouldn't praise my 26 year old child for finally shitting in the toilet instead of his pants.  It's a bit late.

As the hubris and ego of so many governors has come home to roost in the form of surging cases in states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida - we are finally seeing mask ordinances take hold.  And you know what?

PEOPLE ARE WEARING THEM.

I spent last week traveling by plane and minivan - doused in hand sanitizer, masked up, as distanced as possible, as careful as possible.  My daughter and I were moving her from Boston to Dallas for grad school.  I flew from Arizona to Massachusetts on Monday.  We then drove to Dallas.

We traveled 11 states in three days.  Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas.  We stayed in hotels two nights.

Regardless of city or state requirements (and Arizona's governor's approach to this whole thing?  Just be nice to each other.  I shit you not.) airports, airlines, restaurants, gas stations, hotels - ALL HAD POSTED MASK REQUIREMENTS.  And people were following through.

Because it is not that fucking hard to do the bare minimum.  It is not asking for the world for you to honor your part in the implied social contract we should all be a part of - the one where we look out for the existence of ourselves, each other, our planet.

But as a whole, we are selfish pricks.  So the fact that my daughter and I did not have any interactions or altercations with the Karens and Chads of this country does not mean they are stepping up - it just means we got lucky.

Then again, the Karens and Chads were probably in Orlando at Disney.

In a state that just posted 8% of the world's new cases yesterday, the cash register that is the actual heart of the Mouse followed through on their plans to reopen two of the theme parks (Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom).  When the plans were announced a month ago, excitement was palpable as Disney reinstated resort itineraries and announced their new reservation system to control the number of people in the park at any given time.  They touted mandatory mask wearing, how social distancing would be enforced.

This was the line queuing for the Peter Pandemic ride Seven Dwarfs Mine train ride on Saturday.

Sing it with me!  M-I-C  K-E-Y  C-O-V-I-D!

Look, more than most, I "get" the hit being taken by the hospitality industry.  My husband runs a resort, we understand that without guests, hundreds of thousands of people in this country are without work.  From hotels to restaurants to performers in Vegas, theme parks, Broadway, and on cruise ships, to the kid serving up your Mickey pretzel or Dole Whip - this virus has hit hard.  It has been particularly head shaking to me how people could look at Las Vegas and Disney completely shutting down and still call COVID a hoax.

The Mouse and the House do not go dark unless something truly life threatening is afoot.

So there they are, open - albeit with controlled numbers and the pretense of distancing (and note, it is not just Disney.  Universal and Sea World have been open for weeks), people driving and flying in to escape the reality of the virus for a few days.  The problem is the virus is not escaping the reality of them.

It is everywhere.  It is insidious.  It is silent.  And it gives not fuck one if you think it is real or not, if you are bored with it all.  The latest viral share of a life lost is of a 30 year young man in Texas who had laughed it all off, even attending a COVID party.  His last words to his nurse, as reported by Dr. Jane Appleby, Chief Medical Officer at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, were, "I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not."

End scene.

It's not a hoax.  A fucking inconvenience?  Sure.  Rail at that all you like.  No one is happy about what is going on.  No, Bubba, not even those of us you mock as we wear masks and religiously wipe everything down.  No one is enjoying being laid off, furloughed, fired.  Those 32% of American households who missed July's rent/mortgage payment?  Not thrilled. I don't know a single person rejoicing in having to don a mask in Phoenix, Arizona where it is 111 degrees today.  I have yet to encounter anyone doing a happy dance about being cooped up inside for months.

But we are doing these things because people smarter than us have studied these dangers their entire adult lives and know WTF they are talking about.

Like Dr. Fauci.  Today he participated in a StanfordMed LIVE virtual discussion in which he said, "We have not even seen the edge of this first wave yet."

And that was simply unnecessary.  Had we been blessed with a government of sober minded, concerned, rational, intelligent adults, we would have shut this country down, given each citizen at least $2,000 per month to ride this out (like Canada and many other nations), and mandated mask wearing from the beginning.  If we had done that, and if we were not a bunch of petulant, pants wetting freedumb babies, we would be in a wholly different position as we enter mid July.  We would be ready to begin slowly reopening, testing the waters. 

Dr. Fauci said as much today, "We did not shut down entirely and that's the reason why we went up."

But because we have a reality show carnie at the helm, enabled by a coven of power addicts, we are watching more citizens die, having to reclose things that never should have reopened, and watching our numbers rise.

It is still difficult, over four months after Trump boasted (March 6) that "Anyone that wants a test will get a test." to obtain a test.  And if you can get one, it takes up to 10 days to get your results.  So basically people who manage to get one are like, I'm so happy to find out I didn't have coronavirus TEN DAYS AGO.

And now, despite all guidelines from the CDC, experts from all corners, and graphs that illustrate where we are, this administrasham is hellbent on sending your kids back to school next month.  Look at this and see if it makes any sense to you.

We closed schools down to protect kids and teachers then, and now, as the graph shoots to the top edge, are basically throwing them to the lions.  Because economy.

House Elf, Dobby Betsy DeVos went on TV yesterday and mumbled her way through an interview about reopening schools.  This is a woman whose main experience in anything is co-owning a basketball team and bilking the Amway wannabe millionaires.  Yes, Amway.  She is not an educator, an expert, a doctor.  She is someone who bought her way into a cush job for which she is not remotely qualified.  Basically like the entire Team Trump.

"There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them."  That is her talking point.  And that is complete bullshit.

She said that "only" .02% of school children will die from COVID.  Like that's a good thing.  Here's the math on that number, Betsy.  14,740 children will die. 

Parents?  Are you willing to pony up little Jacob or Courtney for the cause?  Anyone ready to throw their cherub on the fire of the economy to get it roaring again?

"Only" 14,470 children.  Fuck you, Betsy DeVos.  Children are not an MLM pyramid scheme for you to make bank on.  And even if they don't die from COVID, they can carry it to their older teachers who might.  A dear friend is still coming back from breast cancer and the toll treatment took on her entire body.  She is a teacher.  And she is terrified of having to go back next month.  Not for herself, though she should be, but because she may carry it home and infect her husband who fights his own heath battles.  Nowhere in any of the criteria for opening are there accommodations for PPE for teachers or students either.  Not that it should surprise anyone.  After all teachers have routinely used their own salaries to buy classroom supplies for decades.  So why would our government provide what they know teachers will pay for?

But back to Dr. Fauci - he also said this morning, “Although you may not get sick, almost certainly you’re going to infect somebody else, who almost certainly infects somebody else and then you will get a vulnerable person who will be sick, who will go to the hospital, who might die.”

See?  That part about the implied social contract again.  IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT YOU.

Writer Franklin Veaux put together this breakdown to help get through to the detractors, nonbelievers, hoaxers, and dimbulbs - just WHY we cannot blow off a virus with a mortality rate of only 1%.

Because it extends so much further than that.  READ.  ABSORB.

Getting it?  Even a little bit?  The effects of this virus go far beyond whether you live or you die.  Those are not the only options.  Especially because people believe that surviving it means life just cruises on without incident.  Not true.  There are so many potential catastrophes between life and death from COVID, effects that will follow a person for as long as they manage to live.  Effects that are not being meaningfully translated to the public.  And now, the one man who has tried from the beginning to bring home the seriousness of this virus is being smeared for his efforts because they do not suit the current narrative of the Coalition of COVIDdiots.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is smarter than you.  He just is.  Deal with it.  A lot of people are smarter than you and me.  They study things we don't understand.  Their minds grasp concepts that slip right through our cerebral hands.  They pursue careers in which we would not begin to know where to take the first step.  They dedicate years, decades of their lives to undergrad, grad school, research, to development, to cures - FOR US.  They and their years spent are valuable to all of us.  They spend all those years for our benefit.

And not for nothing, but you people set your hair on fire over a handful of people dying of ebola on Obama's watch, and the word Benghazi (4 people) still gets you hard.  Yet somehow, 137,000+ are dead under Trump and you still think he is the Second Coming.  Make sense, please.

That a clowncar of people who would be used car salesmen if they hadn't lucked their way into office, led by a terminally stupid snakeoil hawker are trying to discredit a man who has dedicated his life to others, is repulsive in the extreme.  

Dr. Fauci was 1st in his class at Cornell.  He has held three Head, Chief, and Director positions at the NIH.  He holds 30 honorary doctorates.  He is the most cited scientist in scientific journals. His experience puts the word 'extensive' to shame.  He has worked under 6 Presidents of both parties.  He was instrumental in the work done on AIDS, Ebola, the Zika virus and anthrax scares.  He was even cited by George Bush the elder as a hero, someone kids should look up to when asked the question in a Presidential debate in 1988.  Asked who is your hero, who would you "point out to young Americans as figures who should inspire this country?" Bush responded "Fauci ...top doctor at NIH, working hard doing something about research on this disease of AIDS."

Fauci has nothing to gain in this fight against COVID.  He is not running scams behind the scenes like the Jareds and Trumps and numerous legislators who dumped or bought stocks based on insider information about the virus.  He is a man of science.  Period.  And quite frankly, you mouth breathers should get down on your damned knees and thank your God for people like him who work on behalf of dullards like you. 

Trump is openly disparaging Fauci while at the same time reTweeting manure piles by Cremo spokesperson, Chuck Woolery.  Hmmm, who should I believe?  A man of science, probity, fact, and reason or a guy whose biggest accomplishment was enabling televised hookups via Love Connection?

138,108 now dead.  (This piece went long, but that's 266 more lives lost.)

I know my answer.  Sad that I know the MAGAt answer, too.  Oh, well, It's a bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it pays off for 'em...

When COVIDiocy Is A Death Sentence

There are many things that elicit a DGMS response in me.

Hypocrisy, always.  Some people cannot tolerant lactose.  I am bullshit intolerant.

Spineless politicos - Step the fuck up or get out of the way.  If you run for office, you are running to be a representative of the people, a defender of our laws, our founding documents.  You are not running to suckle at the power teat, basically campaigning endlessly.

Science denying -  I do not expect every person to have the aptitude to understand it all, but I do expect people to know when they are out of their depth and defer to experts.  Basing your decisions on your own dipshittedness?  NO.

Child abuse - this above anything makes me see red instantly.  Children do not ask to be born into this world, and they certainly do not ask to be born into the care or neglect of asshats, deviants, or venal personalities.  And when child abuse dovetails with science denying?  Well, here we are.

Come with me to Floriduh, won't you?

Despite every expert warning, despite growing numbers of cases and deaths, despite young people contracting COVID at a steadily increasing rate, there are still those for whom science and data hold no sway.  If it's adults risking their health, their lives, I have run out of fucks to give.  But when they drag their children down their Qanon ratholes?  It is child abuse.

Carsyn Leigh Davis was 17 years old.  Barely.  In her young life she had battled cancer and a lifelong autoimmune disorder.  From the age of 2, her life was filled with fear, pain, doctors, and specialists.  Carsyn is exactly who we mean when we say "Wear the damn mask."  We don the mask to not only protect ourselves, but to protect the Carsyn's of the world who are at serious risk should they contract coronavirus.

As a parent of three healthy children, I still worry every single day about their exposure.  They isolate, they wear masks, they use wipes, disinfectant, but they still live in this world where far too many people don't.  So I worry.  I remind them to be careful.  If I could wrap them up in antibacterial bubble wrap till we have a vaccine, I would.

Because that is what good, decent, protective parents do.

Alas, Carsyn did not have one of those.  

Despite her compromised health on the best of days, her mother, Carole, a batshit Qanon Qaren took Carsyn to a church event on June 10 to intentionally expose her to COVID.  No masks, no distancing - over 100 attended. 

It did not take long for Carsyn to begin complaining of headaches, sinus issues, and for her to develop a cough.  No matter.  Qaren dosed her with Azithromycin.  By June 19, when that didn't work, and Carsyn started looking "gray", she hooked her up to her grandfather's oxygen tank.

As she continued downhill, Qaren gave her hydroxycloroquine (Trump's fave recommendation).  Her condition worsened.  She finally took her to the hospital, but refused to allow them to intubate Carsyn.  The hospital attemtpted plasma therapy on June 20 and 21, but Carsyn's cardio-respiratory system was trashed.

She died on June 22nd.  Two days after turning 17.

In the absence of the COVID party details, her conspiracy loving, antivaxxing mother sought attention from the local news, and set up a GoFundMe.  She hailed her daughter as a "patriotic Christian."

Once the medical examiner's report was looked into by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the details came to light.   Qanon Qarole, whose Facebook page is filled with Q garbage, antivaxxer screeds, and love for Donald Trump (hope you were sitting down for that shocker), killed her daughter.  Here's just a sample of Crazy VonDipshit's postings:

But wait, it gets worse.

The bitch is a NURSE.  (And Carsyn's stepfather is a physician's assistant.)  She intentionally took a lovely child who struggled all her life to a party where she would be exposed to a virus that could kill her.  She gave her drugs that could not help.  She refused to allow her to be intubated when she was admitted to intensive care.  And when Carsyn died, she immediately tried to garner sympathy.  And money.

So far she has bilked $8,400.  On the site she wrote, "We are incredibly saddened by her passing at this young age, but are comforted that she is pain-free. Heaven gained an angel. Carsyn did not have an easy life."

No shit, lady.  She wasn't just burdened with health problems all her life, she was burdened with YOU.  That child deserved to be protected from all harm.  She deserved parents who did not live down a conspiracy rathole believing JFK Jr is coming back and Bill Gates is going to hide a tracking chip in a vaccine.  She deserved a mother who would do anything to keep her safe, cherish her, value her life that had been threatened so many times.

Instead she got a batshit, ratshit, soulless, craven, willfully ignorant dumpster fire.

Will she face any consequences?  Who knows.  Quite frankly, she deserves to be strapped down, injected with this virus, and have all care withheld.  And should she die?  Not one fucking tear of sympathy.  

The punishment should equal the crime.  Painfully.

We have now lost 132,827 people to COVID.  Carsyn did not have to be one of them.

But should her mother contract it?  I'll defer to Melania's infamous jacket:

#ETTD ... Literally

#ETTD

For those unfamiliar, it stands for Everything Trump Touches Dies.  Coined by Republican strategist turned current Dem ally (in an 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' way) Rick Wilson for his 2019 book, the hashtag is pulled out regularly as an easy way to sum up another firing, debacle, ruined international relationship, law broken, or political career ended by association with the Gouty Gourd.

But in the face of COVID-19, the 'dies' portion is sadly literal.  And growing.

This morning we sit at 130,856 American lives lost to the virus.  395 out of every million citizens.  Yesterday we hit a national record of over 52,000 positive cases reported in a single day.  Florida accounted for over 10,000 of those cases alone.

And while governors rapidly try to pull back on their Trump appeasment openings from May; while Pence now dons a mask in public; while Sean Hannity now counsels his mouthbreathing audience to mask up; while the spray tanned succubus himself brags about looking like the Lone Ranger in one...

Pause.  Look, we all know he is the I Ching of idiocy, but the Lone Ranger?  Yes, Donald, he wore a mask.  AROUND HIS EYES.  I swear to merciful God...

Back to where I was - it does not matter how states are scrambling, especially ones with Republican SICKOphants, the buck stops at Trump's door.  The dead piled up are his to own.  There is no argument to be had, no defense of this catasstrophic failure of a leader - every inaction, every cavalier utterance, every devil-may-care wave of his tiny hands - the severity of this pandemic is his fault.

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

It was just February 26th when Trump declared “You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero."  Ahhhh, February.  Anyone feel like that was four years ago?

Here are real numbers caused by Trump's complete embrace of "his gut" and complete ignorance of science:

March 1 - we had 2 deaths
April 1 - 5,109 deaths
May 1 - 65,529 deaths
June 1 - 106,492 deaths
July 1 - 130,798 deaths

And as for cases?  We currently stand at 2,782,556.  I'm no math scholar, but that seems to be more than 15, and way more than 0.

With his open encouragement to "liberate" their states from Dem governors who had taken the public safety reins and issued closures and stay-at-home orders, many states were reopening less than a month after they tried to close.  Gun toting MAGAts, enraged that they could not get their mullets trimmed at Supercuts, stormed capital buildings.  They took to the streets with asinine signs about refusing to wear a mask, how COVID was not real, likening mask requirements to slavery.

I live in Arizona.  We have a used douchebag of a governor here who suckles at Trump's power teats as often as possible.  With Memorial Day on the horizon, he threw open pools, bars, waterparks, casinos.  My husband runs a resort - I watched as people thronged, packing the pools like human stewpots.  Like those sickening scenes from the Ozarks with the pools so packed they were basically waist deep latrines, it happened everywhere.

Scientists were horrified and they tried their best to caution people, to warn them of the consequences of such behavior, to remind them we had not flattened the curve, were not out of the wave.  All to no avail.  Americans, once a people who pulled together in a crisis, who looked out for their neighbors, who understood the "greater good," are now a vile, self centered, selfish populace.  We want immediate gratification, and we want what we want when we want it.  We are the Veruca Salt of nations. 

Trump encouraged all of it.  Mocking governors, refusing to wear a mask in public, downplaying the virus by repeatedly saying "It will disappear."  Just yesterday - YESTERDAY - he repeated that mantra.

Trump: "I think we're going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that, at some point, that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope."
Fox: "You still believe so, disappear?"
Trump: "Well, I do." pic.twitter.com/RXITpPbI4K

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 1, 2020

IT. IS. NOT. DISAPPEARING.  Not with the heat and sun as he prognosticated in March. Not because he wished on a star, not because he wants it to.  This virus does not care about anything but accessing our bodies which is made exponentially easier because so many refuse to don a simple mask.

At every turn they are being reinforced in their choice.  They see him without one everywhere.  They see him traveling to rallies where everyone sits packed like sardines with no face coverings.  They see his cronies like Pence just last Friday openly bragging about how great we are doing, how “We’re in a much better place” than two months ago.

Seriously?  If "much better" metrics have to do with bigger numbers, sure.  In two months we have literally doubled our number of dead.  A number every expert points to and states that it is waaaaaaaaay under reported. In a study by Yale University, published Tuesday, the 781,000 total deaths in the U.S. in the three months through May 30 were nearly 19% higher than what would normally be expected.  The number of excess deaths from any causes were 28% higher than the official tally of U.S. Covid-19 deaths during those months.

Again, not a math person, but even I get the import there.

Pence went on to talk about what a great thing it is that younger people are contracting the virus.  He said it was "very encouraging news” that “roughly half of the new cases are Americans under the age of 35.”  For the record, Florida has charted 7,000 cases in children under 18.  Two teenagers died last month.  Currently, 12 have developed MIS-C - Multi-system inflammatory syndrome - which is swelling that can affect the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs.

Will all kids who test positive take a bad turn?  Of course not.  But think about whether you are willing for your child to be the one who does.  Your refusal to mask up, to social distance, to listen to experts - you are playing Russian Roulette not only with your life, but with your children's lives.  And the lives of every person you come into contact with as you spew your vitriol in the grocery stores, stomp your feet while waiting for food, cough on passersby.

Trump is aided and abetted in these deaths by creatures like Lt. Governor Dan Patrick of Texas - a state that is surging and reclosing.  Here he is two nights ago, writing off Dr. Fauci.

Actually, you do. https://t.co/L316R2Mu0S

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) July 1, 2020

"I don't need his advice anymore."  I see.  A respected virologist who has dedicated his life's work to understanding and combating all things viral and deadly cast aside by a man whose greatest accomplishments in life (prior to snaking his way into politics) are, let me check here, oh yes - being a wannabe sports broadcaster and bankrupting a chain of sports bars.  Yes, by all means, Dan, you hold court on what people should do in the face of a deadly pandemic raging through the United States. 

Your Governor just issued a mask directive for the state of Texas, Dan.  Based on the comments on his Twitter feed, it is snowing there.  Seriously, it is pathetic to watch the big, bad Texans lose their shit over being asked to step up, cover their faces, and help in this health crisis.  You melting down with the rest of the snowflakes, Daniel?

Rand Paul, who constantly validates the ass kicking his neighbor doled out, had the temerity this past Tuesday in a Senate hearing to say to Dr. Fauci that, "We shouldn't presume that a group of experts somehow knows what's best for everyone."

I just can't with these people.

They are the reasons Trump continues to downplay this virus, continues to get away with literal murder, continues to avoid any accountability.  The results are coming in fast and furious.

Because masks were turned into a political football, people flat out refuse to wear them.  Because he repeated the "this is no worse than the flu" lie so often, people are out and about acting like it is no big deal.  Hell, young people are literally throwing COVID parties.

I am not making that up.

In Alabama, college students were throwing COVID parties wherein someone positive would be the guest of honor, people would pay to attend, and the first one to come up positive afterwards would win the cash.  Authorities are dumbfounded.  I'm not.  People, especially young ones, are just dumb.  (See Cinnamon challenge and Tide Pods) And when there is zero coherent messaging to them, of course they are going to act like this.

What boggles the mind is that this administration, for whom the economy is everything, is even ignoring the research that shows national mask wearing would not only slow the coronavirus transmission rate, but prevent a full 5% loss of the GDP because of shutdowns.

Yes, Lone Ranger, by simply wearing masks.

Had we had legitimate, sober, thoughtful leadership in the beginning - leadership that would have put arrogance and ego to the side and allowed the doctors and scientists to lead the response - we would be in an incredibly different position as we enter July.  Had Trump donned a mask in the beginning, encouraged mask wearing to all his adoring dolts, supported a monthly guaranteed stimulus to each citizen to help ride out the financial hardship of closures - think where we could be.  Think about how many would still be alive.

Instead, because we have a leader with the attention span of a coked up shithouse rat, he and we got bored with the virus, wet our pants because we were all housebound and frustrated, and forced things back open long before they should have been.  If we had stayed closed down through June, we would be ready to safely begin opening life back up.  Instead, we find our hospitals at crisis points - now rationing care (shout out to Sarah Palin - how do you like them death panels now?), cases predicted to hit 100,000 a day, and states having to close things back down.

Texas is burning.

When 10 people need life saving help, but you only have 3 beds....@DanPatrick @GregAbbott_TX

Maybe you should have listened to Fauci. pic.twitter.com/tXeuRCuWcq

— 🇨🇦OneNoteNews🇺🇸 (@AdamCC75) July 2, 2020

As Trump brags about "the crisis being handled" here are some facts from a Houston safety net hospital:

-50% of new COVID tests coming back positive
-No more ICU beds
-No more remdesivir
-No more convalescent plasma
-12 COVID patients in need of ICU care — stuck in the ER

That's something all the science deniers need to absorb.  If the thinking is, "well, if I get sick, I'll just go get taken care of" - no, you won't.  Given the enormity of cases mounting, there is no guarantee you will be seen, cared for, or admitted.  And if there are 3 beds and 10 people need them, as described by that doctor above, you may be left gasping for breath on a gurney in a hallway as the last ventilator is hooked up to someone who has a better shot at recovery.  That's not hyperbole.  That is real. That is happening.  And your hubris won't get you a vent any more than your hubris will keep you from needing it in the first place.

This is 4th of July weekend.  A time when we are all used to attending picnics, going swimming, having BBQs with friends, and enjoying fireworks lighting up the skies.  There is precious little to celebrate this year.  And frankly, staying indoors away from people is the best way you can honor this country.  Doing what small thing you can to contribute to the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for as many people as possible.

Trump won't be doing that.  In the face of explosive spread throughout the country, he will be heading to South Dakota to stand in the shadow of Mount Rushmore and bask in the masturbatory glory of his maskless flock.  Governor Kristi Noem (R-duh) has openly bragged of the event, "We will not be social distancing."

The result will be more transmissions, more positive cases, more requiring hospitalization, and more people dead.

I just hit refresh - 27,149 new cases so far since yesterday.  330 more dead since I started typing.

All roads lead back to Trump.  As you contemplate continuing to follow in his footsteps, ask yourself why he gets tested daily, but convinces you it is a hoax?  Ask yourself if your worship of this cretin is worth the risk of your life, the lives of your children. Because four words have never been so true: Everything Trump Touches Dies. 

Literally.