Saturday, May 2, 2020

Deliverance captured.


It will be ugly.
        ^ I do NOT blame President Trump for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I also do NOT blame him for the crashed economy. Both would have happened regardless of who was in the White House or Congress. I do blame him and them for how he and they handled dealing with the virus and how they handled the economic fallout. I also blame them for how they are botching the next wave that is coming our way. AND it is coming one way or another.  AND it will be ugly.

Success story.
        ^ Whether people like it or not (and in fact, whether he likes it or not) the President is responsible when something like this happens on their watch, especially when it is on a global level. This pandemic isn’t a state’s rights or personal liberty issue. It’s about survival. The President is to be blamed just as any other President in his expensive shoes would be blamed if they:
Ω Ignored the warnings.
Ω Lied about the threat.
Ω Lied about treatments.
Ω Lied about testing.
Ω Just lied and lied and lied and then lied some more.
Ω Abdicated responsibility.
        ^ But the most egregious lie that he told is when he called it a hoax and millions of his cult of following fawning supporters believed him. Millions. And by the thousands they have died and will die. They spread the virus because of ignorance and believing in false prophets. The prophets died as well. The followers of prophets died. SARS-CoV-2 does not care about any affiliation.
        ^ Nobody deserves that for believing in someone even if that someone was always nothing but a con artist. It isn’t right or even just. Incompetent buffoons should never be in positions where they can kill so easily. Yet it happens time and time again in history. It’s happening right now.
        ^ I’ve often wondered how people deal with causing the death of an innocent. It’s hard because I know people that have done it. How does a person deal with causing the death of thousands?

Graphing loss.
        ^ When you look at graphs or hear that the daily total of new cases is going up, that will be going on for quite some time. It’s new cases being admitted into hospitals. The graph of the numbers of people being tested will also continue to go up as more people are being tested every day. Testing was and is the key to managing the virus. And we aren’t even close to where we need to be.
        ^ There is a difference between confirmed deaths and estimated deaths. The CDC provides estimated deaths. The graphs and projections will be changing within the next week or so as new totals and new estimates start coming in. Republicans are now trying to undercut reporting to lower the daily totals. That isn’t going to stop people from dying.
        ^ In the 2018-19 flu season there were just over 7,000 deaths attributed to the flu. The CDC took these deaths and provided an estimate of 26,000+ to 52,000+ deaths for that same flu season. The flu season technically lasts for 7 months. They give estimates because the number of deaths from the flu aren’t reported because all deaths aren’t tested for the flu. This country will reach 70,000 actual confirmed deaths from COVID-19 within a couple of days. Actual. Confirmed. Deaths. It only took 2 months to get there. 10 times worse in two months.
        ^ At the new higher actual rates 100,000 deaths can now be anticipated happening by the first of June. The upper limit of 250,000 deaths may be readjusted. The graphs should follow a few days decline followed by a few days up upticks. Graphs. Graphs of life and death.

Deliverance.
        ^ Had President Trump actually delivered on his promise of everyone being able to get tested early on, the history of how this virus spread and the number of people that died would be entirely different. But he didn’t. Just as he didn’t deliver on his promise of better health insurance for everyone and that was a major promise of his that he talked about continuously throughout his campaign. He talked about that on par with Mexico paying for the wall. (They didn’t.) Had he delivered on health care that would also have made the current situation better, well, at least for all the working poor that have ended up being considered essential workers. But he didn’t. He’s just the quintessential-politician-telling-people-what-they-want-to-hear-self-aggrandizing-opportunist that he has always been. None of how he has acted is new or different. He’s the same punched-his-music-teacher-person that he has always been. (The story that he denies happening came right from the book he wrote.)
        ^ Congress is going to demonstrate what all of us could have had in order to get the nation back to life. Adequate testing. Testing and results within minutes. Yes, the millionaires of Congress will have that. They’ll just slip off quietly and get tested. The President has that. He has testing in spades. Fifteen minutes and results! All those surrounding him have that. The elite of the country either has that kind of testing or will have it shortly.
        ^ Your life just isn’t all that important to them. You need to get back to work. The lives of your loved ones and friends hasn’t been and isn’t that important to them. The lives of those living in poverty and the aged are at the bottom of the concern list when it comes to saving lives.

Where’s the love?
        ^ What did they say? Oh yes, they love old people. It’s a tough to say goodbye kind of love. It’s ‘a what have you done for me lately’ kind of love. It’s a ‘sad to see you go but you’ve had your run’ kind of love. 

        ^ It’s an ‘I didn’t want to but you made me hurt you’ kind of love.