Species enders

 

What time is it?

            I’m going to continue writing about the ongoing pandemic because what is taking place will affect how future pandemics are handled or rather not handled. It’s only a matter of time until the next one and the clock is already ticking down.

It never stops.

Survival event.

“And so if we could hold that [death toll] down, as we’re saying, to 100,000 — it’s a horrible number, maybe even less — but to 100,000. So we have between 100 and 200,000, and we altogether have done a very good job.” President Trump, March 2020

            By the time Trump left office we were at 400,000 deaths. As of this day, June 28, we have passed 603,000.

Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, February 2020:

“This president will always put Americans first. He will always protect American citizens. We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. We will not see terrorism come here. And isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?”

            Then Trump traitors brought terrorism to our nation’s Capital. (Or does it only count if you were one of those terrorized?) The virus did come here. Normally I would say that this is stating the obvious but we have millions of people in this country that remain in a state of denial.

 Jared Kushner, April 2020:

“I think you’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal,” Jared Kushner said, “and the hope is that by July the country’s really rocking again.”

The ‘me’niverse

            What would you do if survival of the species came down to placing humanity before oneself? Replacing the concern of the ‘I’niverse with the ‘You’niverse—with the survival of your family, friends and community?

            The SARS-CoV-2 virus and variants have not manifested in a species-ending plague. It has not been as fatal as, say, The Black Death. Still, the virus has done a lot of physical damage and caused the deaths of a millions worldwide along with damaging the world economy. The damage is widespread and pervasive. In poorer countries the virus continues to spread unchecked. More poverty equals more death.

            The estimate now is that it will be 2022 before the global pandemic is brought under control and that is based upon vaccines still being effective for variants.

Humanity will regroup.

Death before dishonor

            One of the many lessons that we have learned is that tens of millions of our own population will be against any measures to save humanity itself should such a species-ending pathogen come along. They are simply incapable of working for the common good even if their own lives are on the line. In a more deadly pandemic they can be expected to behave just as they have and continue to do currently. They will fight science at every turn. They will exercise their god given Constitutional right to die and kill others while they’re at it.

Mad Max

            If the SARS-CoV-2 had been as lethal as it was contagious we would already be done. We would already be well on our way to living in a Mad Max world. The first to go are health care workers. Hospitals become houses for the dead. The medical system collapses then the rest of society as the people that know how to do stuff die off. The nationwide distribution system of everything goes away. Production of everything halts. That includes vaccines. Even if one were to be developed because enough of those working on a cure didn’t die there wouldn’t be any way to distribute it.

            All of the above would happen within a few months if not weeks or days. Weeks or days. In this day of global connectedness the United States would be covered in days. If the nation’s leaders put out a call to shelter in place the anti-maskers and vaxxers would take to the streets. They would act just like they act now. People would die en mass all over the nation.

Sobering

            Six in ten Republicans believe that the election was stolen. What does this have to do with a virus? What it means is that the same 6 in 10 don’t believe in science either. They don’t believe in knowledge. They are the anti-maskers, the anti-vaxxers, the anti-government, conspiracy believing, MAGAT Heads.

They would be species enders.

 

One six

 

Losers

            1/6 hasn’t entered the lexicon of common usage yet like 9/11 has. You mention 9/11 and people automatically know what you’re talking about. 1/6 isn’t there yet. If Republicans have their way it won’t be. Like Pence says, “I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans. Or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on dividing our country to advance their radical agenda. My fellow Republicans, for our country, for our future, for our children and our grandchildren, we must move forward, united.” This from the guy that Trump supporters were shouting that they wanted to hang. They tried and failed. 

Losers. Losers all.

            Loser Pence, Loser Trump and the Republican Party would rather have people believe that it wasn’t their traitor supporters that sacked the Capitol and also that it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Hell, even Vladimir Putin thinks that the poor losers are being picked on. Fox Pravda certainly thinks it’s much ado about nothing. So because of Trumpsters, for the first time in 220 years, there was no peaceful transfer of power AND people tried to stage a coup with the help of their Republican Representatives and Senators that voted against accepting the vote of “We the People” AND some people died AND some police were assaulted AND 140 police officers were injured AND over a million dollars in property was damaged. Really!

What’s the big deal?!

Pandora

            Republicans don’t want 1/6 investigated by congress like the 9/11 Commission because the trails lead back to high-level Republicans. It isn’t about politics. It is about fear. Fear that too many Republican elected officials and operatives helped stage the coup attempt. They provided logistical support. They gave tours beforehand to familiarize the traitors with the layout. Republicans from around the country participated. Republican elected officials participated. Conservative cops participated. Conservative service members participated. All the major racist organizations participated. Evangelicals were there in body as well as spirit. They support the Big Liar Loser. And that’s the Republicans real problem. Too many trails lead back to the poorest Loser in history—Loser Trump.

Soft coup

            Personally I think that Republicans are making a tactical mistake. A 1/6 Commission would help keep the attention off of their ongoing soft coup attempt. This would be their rigging the vote in every state that is possible while they pursue a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the Constitution like it should be. You know the original Constitution. They’ve got the Supremes to help them. The same name as a popular group of women of color singers. Irony.

 Salt of the earth

            There is a constant in history. People that are kept down long enough will eventually rise up. Sometimes they lose. Sometimes things get worse. Sometimes they win. We have 40 million plus people in this country living in poverty and tens of millions more unable to ever get ahead. We have an oppressed economic class. There are millions of immigrants serving as economic slave labor. Muslims are being oppressed in this country along with Asians and people of color as well as other minority groups. People are being crushed by debt. Conservatives don’t want the poor to have health care. White and Christian Nationalists are pushing to make things to get worse. They want to start throwing women that seek abortions in jail. They want to be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people. This a short list of the evil they would do.

            Republicans are working hard for the richest part of our society at the expense of all the rest of us. They have America wounded and on the ropes.

Republicans are rubbing salt in the wounds.

Catbird seat.

            The Loser Trump, along with his Republican enablers is at it again.

            Along with continuing to promote “The Big Lie” The Loser is now claiming that he will be back in office as President in August. There is NO Constitutional provision for that to happen. None. So what is this monumental Loser advocating? Well, he’s encouraging his fellow traitors to do it again. He’s advocating another a coup attempt. Since his treasonous supporters are already backing the Big Lie another insurrection is the obvious next step.

Coup on coupin’ on.

LGBTQIA+

 

Where to start?

            I’m old enough that I can remember a simpler world where there was just straight people and queers. As time passed people’s interactions with one another became more complicated.

LGBTQIA+

            What do all those initials mean anyway? Well, I had to look them all up. Here’s a link that explains what each letter of the acronym stands for. 

            There are other terms like binary, cisgender, etc. Since I tend to be a little thick my wife is constantly explaining them to me.

 Dumb Ass

            “What am I again babe?”

            “For the umpteenth time you’re cis!”

            “And what are my pronouns?”

            “He and dumb ass!”

            “Ha! Dumb ass isn’t a pronoun!”

            I like to dazzle her occasionally with expressions of insight and knowledge especially when it’s so obvious that I am being mocked. Being a man of a certain age I kind of lean towards the “A” anyway. We may have to rethink my pronouns.

            But what does LGBTQIA+ mean and why isn’t an “H” in there?

GAGA

            The conservative estimate is that 10% of the population identifies with one of the letters in LGBTQIA+. Ten percent. I think it’s more than that but even with that percentage we’re talking 30 million plus people in this country.

            OMG! They’re everywhere. Yes they are. At those numbers practically every family in America has an LGBTQIA+ person in their midst. They may not want to admit it. They may not want to talk about it. But they are there. What’s more they have always been there. None of this is new. Thousands of years of history acknowledge their being with us. It’s normal.

            I happen to be straight and it’s like Lady Gaga said, “I was born this way.” I could have been born under the sign of any other letter but I wasn’t.

I was born this way.

Lucky me.

            Why would I make such an outrageous comment like ‘lucky me.’ Well, no one wanted to punish me for being straight. It never came up. No one wanted to discriminate against me for being straight. No one wanted to kill me simply because I am straight. It was easy to get married and have kids. It was not an impediment to getting a job. Hippie hair was but that’s a different matter altogether. I had no trouble buying cakes.

It just doesn’t matter

            Being LGBTQIA+ is decidedly NOT okay with the majority of Conservative Republicans or the previous administration, sadly, like many others. Being LGBTQIA+ is NOT okay with Christian Nationalists like those in the Evangelical Party from the Church of Just Us. They want to impose their religious beliefs on all the rest of society. BTW that love the sinner hate the sin is a nice catchy phrase and it’s bullshit. They hate the sinner and they want the sinner punished. (Not only that, they spend way too much time contemplating the sin. It would help if they would just stop thinking so much about other people’s sex lives. That would minimize the “ick” factor considerably for them.) They want their ancient made up religious laws to apply to the secular world. They’ll tell you that they have a god given right to do that.

They don’t!

All lives matter.

Frankly my dear

            Choice not nature. Who cares? It’s supposed to be the land of the free not pick and choose who gets to be free with full equality. It isn’t just for those dressed in white robes with pointy hats. People can choose to be any letter that they want. It’s no skin off my nose. Doesn’t pose any kind of threat to me or my family or those that I choose to be my family. What my family chooses or is, is up to them.

            These bigots are NOT the victims, no matter how much they lament and beat their breasts. Sadly their LGBTQIA+ children are victims too many times. The people using the cudgels are claiming that those they are using them on are a threat simply by existing. They want them submissive. Here’s what I’ve got to say to that.

What Clark said.

So, what does LGBTQIA+ mean?

            It means that we are wonderfully and beautifully diverse.

We were born this way.