Writing off Death

Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death (1523–5)

(5 minute read) 

Conservative Republican Evangelical Messaging:

            People die.

            People are dying all the time anyway.

            People die from heart disease, cancer, regular disease, accidents, mayhem of all sorts, old age, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, food poisoning and just because. Covid-19 is just something else that people are dying from. Not that big of a deal really. Sure it’s bad but so is heart disease.

Thoughts and prayers.

Perspective.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has been horrible. No disputing that. However, I grow weary of the daily scorecards of 2020 deaths attributed to Covid that make perspective difficult. Consider these CDC stats on causes of death during 2018…”

 Wearisome.

            I lifted the above quote from a meme that has been circulating around in conservative postings. I have seen it posted and shared in a number of places. I haven’t bothered checking the information presented as to having the correct number of deaths attributed to various categories.

            Hearing about Covid deaths is “wearisome” to them. People share those feelings in order to minimize what’s taking place. That way they can ignore the fact that the President knew SARS-CoV-2 was deadly and lied to the nation. They can ignore that he has and still does encourage practices that kill people. He got it and lived. Now he’s a one man super-spreading show.

            At the top of the list is 655,381 people dying from heart disease. Then the author talks about all the other ways people die and supplies the number for each. So really, is adding an additional half million to the normal death tally really all that much of a big deal? The majority of these new deaths are going to be old people and they don’t have all that many years left anyway. Sure there’ll be some people die from all the other age groups and ethnicities but that’s bound to happen. They’re…

Just collateral damage.

Revealed

            What’s missing from the “perspective” narrative? (Besides humanity.)

• A shattered economy.
• The millions that will have their physical lives forever compromised from Covid-19.
• The millions of people that have been put out of work. This is in addition to the 30 million plus that were living in poverty before the pandemic struck.
• All the families that have lost BOTH parents to Covid-19.
• Millions more now without health insurance during a pandemic.
• Homes lost.
• Men, women and children hungry, some for the first time in their lives.
• All those that have lost EVERYTHING!

Wearisome.

292,747

            Clearly they needed this “perspective” during WWII.

            Why?

            The number of deaths due to Covid-19 has now exceeded the number of American combat casualties from WWII. (292,747) That took almost 4 years. When casualties were reported from the front lines people weren’t saying that they were tired of hearing about dead people and that it was wearisome. There weren’t irrational individuals walking neighborhoods or calling people up telling them to maintain their perspective that there were worse things than our men and women dying in combat.

            AND that’s only .39% of the total population then. Yet people made a big deal out of it.

            The “conservative” Retrumplicans and evangelicals of today are cut from a different cloth.

            Retrumplicans made it possible to exceed that total in less than a year! AND we’re coming in at a 1.5% or higher mortality rate!

Winning!

405,399

            That’s the number of total American deaths from WWII. Armed forces personnel were dying from natural causes, accidents, etc. then as well. (Yes, people died from other things then too. Amazing isn’t it?) Retrumplicans will make it possible to beat this number as well!

More winning!

 Caring and sharing.

            It’s easy to see why keeping things in perspective is difficult for some people. (NOT really.)  I read that what the pandemic has also done is revealed the true nature of people. The callous disregard for human life by so many has been a real eye-opening experience all over the country.

            How many deaths and lives destroyed will it take to provide adequate perspective to Conservative Evangelical Republican Trump supporters? How many have to die before they go against their lying Ducé and start wearing masks, participating in contact tracing and get vaccinated? What has to happen to get any of them to stop killing people? Their refusal to believe what’s happening, mask up and maintain physical distancing has resulted in a couple of hundred thousand needless deaths. That is NOT the fault of the Chinese that they like to race bait. Conservative Republicans, Evangelicals and Trump supporters are the ones responsible.

They own that.

Trumpin’ in Georgia.

 

On message.

            The head of the RNC, along with other Republican spokesliars, was in Georgia campaigning for the two filthy rich Senate Republicans seeking reelection with unique messaging.

            The election was and is hopelessly rigged against Trump by Republicans that supported Trump!

            Everything in the electoral process in Georgia, like the rest of the country, is corrupt, including the Republicans running it!

            The Republican Senators supporting Trump’s river of lies aren’t supporting him enough by demanding the vote of the people be overturned!

            Voting machines are rigged!

            Software is rigged!

            Mail in ballots are rigged!

Trust the electoral process and vote Republican in the upcoming Senate election!

            Got it?!

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Normal people.

            Their messaging might seem to be on the illogical side and somewhat counterproductive. On the one hand they’re saying the system has failed completely while on the other they’re saying trust the system. To their credit the Republicans actually running the electoral system in Georgia are saying that not only are they Trump supporters and voted for Trump but that the system worked. Trump says that they’re liars.

            Now on the face of it some folks might consider that this kind of messaging is kind of a hard sell to make. Some folks might think that if they’re being told the system is rigged it seems kind of pointless to turn out and vote since their votes won’t matter anyway.

            “Some folks” aren’t Trump supporters. Being crazy isn’t a requirement for believing messaging like this but it helps. For them messaging of opposite claims is an

Easy sell.

“Alice laughed. ‘There's no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can't believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven't had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” –Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

Agendas

            Right now the Trump Administration is like a Disney ride. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride comes to mind. Republicans are holding super spreading parties, super spreading hearings and attending super spreading election rallies in order to commemorate what will be the worst medical disaster in the our nation’s history, THAT THEY CAUSED. They are a plague in and of themselves. Concern for the wellbeing of others is out the window. Killing people is their agenda. Denying health care is their agenda. Starving people back to work during a pandemic is their agenda. Giving money to the wealthy is their agenda. Obstructing legislation that benefits working people is their agenda. It’s what they’re good at.

            Will the people of Georgia vote out the two corrupt Republican Senators seeking to line their own pockets while paying allegiance to McConnell and their Chosen One Liar? Hard to say. BUT if people want a chance at coming out of this in better shape then they should consider voting for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff for Senate in Georgia. Put someone in office that cares about

YOU and those that you care about!

The NEXT ONE

                                     

Are we there yet?

            Why write about the next pandemic when we’re a long way from being through the first one?

            Hundreds of thousands more lives could be lost or saved, depending upon who is in charge. With Trump and the Republicans in charge it’s practically a guarantee that we’ll lose several hundred thousand more.

            Why? Because Trump and his lackey Senators would have to acknowledge that they’ve been lying to everyone and are responsible for losing so many more lives than was necessary. They would have to admit that they killed men, women and children in order to stay in power. POWER is what’s most important to them. Republicans couldn’t agree to give working people enough money to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families but they can move within hours to get a Supreme Court justice in their pocket during a pandemic. That’s their priority.

They have health insurance and regular testing.

            200,000 lives have been lost so far by President Trump. He knows that the virus is deadly, is airborne, a killer and yet he continues to lie to the American people and encourages practices that could result in hundreds of thousands more deaths. It’s crazy that a sentence like that is now possible yet it is. Due to under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths we’re likely almost at 300,000 now. Upwards of 3 million people have lost family or close friends. And we aren’t close to being done. We have yet to reach our destination.

The pandemic spread is getting worse.

When?

            According to the as yet not completely silenced CDC, fully 90% of our population is still at risk and flu season is now upon us. Have you had your flu shot? Well guess what? Trump’s hard core science-denying base doesn’t believe in flu shots any more than they’ll get a vaccine for Covid-19.

            President Obama successfully handled 3 global health issues during his term in office. It isn’t unreasonable to think that another pandemic is waiting in the wings. Not a matter of if one will come. Only when. The one that we’re in could come back if the virus mutates like a flu virus.

            President George Bush warned of a pandemic in 2005 and started making plans. Those plans did not say that lying to the American people about a killer virus was a good approach to saving lives. President Obama tried to follow up with preparedness but Republicans shot down funding. Trump finished off any preparedness early on. And now 205,000 people have died. You might notice that’s a different number than I used a couple of paragraphs back. That’s because that many more people have died since I started writing this a couple of days ago.

Red is now winning!

            Trump and company were okay with Blue states suffering the brunt of the virus but now Red states are taking the lead. Their gamble is that they will kill more Dem voters than cult members. Originally they thought that Dem Governors would be hit hard with handling the virus since there was no federal help. That worked for a while. It’s as if all of these suits didn’t realize that they were dealing with a killer virus that state boundaries don’t stop.

            Like President Trump, Governor Parson of Missouri is doing a dismal job of dealing with the pandemic. He, like Trump, has abdicated his responsibility and left it to local authorities to try and deal with a conservative populace that thinks this pandemic is a hoax. Meanwhile the hospitals are starting to fill up.

            Governor Parson and his wife have tested positive for the virus. He has made it a point of ignoring precautions. (He and his wife tested on a regular basis.) So he caught a hoax, as did his wife. They are quarantining separately.

A joke.

            Unpopular ideas and actions can save lives. Had a nationwide shut down been taken at the very beginning along with masking and physical distancing when it should have we would already be past the middle and on the downside of this pandemic and thousands of lives would have been saved. PERIOD. Procedures would have been in place to deal with oncoming flu season. Instead, by Election Day we could have over a quarter of a million hoax deaths.

The joke is on us.

 

COVID-19 in the White House

        The President and those around him have the best testing for COVID-19 that exists. The. Best. Results in 15 minutes or less test. The President claims 5 minutes. The White House doesn’t practice social distancing because everyone gets a test whether they want it or not. Evidently people don’t have the Constitutional right not to be tested. I haven’t seen armed staff storming the White House demanding not to wear masks so I’m guessing it’s still voluntary not to wear a mask.

        I know the President said the virus was a hoax but he sure isn’t treating it like one when it comes to keeping himself safe. Seriously, if it’s a hoax, what are he and those surrounding him being tested for on a daily basis?

Poetic.
        A valet to the President and an assistant to the Vice President have tested positive for COVID-19. The valet to President Trump came down with COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive. The assistant to the Vice President is asymptomatic. She is the wife of the White Nationalist that advises the President.
        I wonder if she knew the valet.
        We have seen the President, Vice President, and their staff on television claiming that people were safe around them even though they weren’t wearing masks. Everyone else around them had to wear a mask though when they ventured out. Nothing ventured. Nothing gained. Because masks protect people from the person wearing a mask. They were safe. Their staff was safe. Best testing available.

Yet
        The corona virus made it into the White House West Wing TWICE in the same week. ^ The President was upset. For himself. For his possible exposure (to a hoax!). Now mind you he isn’t so upset that he’ll wear a mask. That would only protect people from him. It’s going to take a lot more than him wearing a mask to protect us from him.
        No one gets to see the President without being tested! The Secret Service makes sure of that, He is protected. Those around him are protected. Yet a valet to the President came down with COVID-19. Just goes to show you. We haven’t heard about the Secret Service taking down any non-mask wearing people that cough or sneeze around the President. Yet.
        How many people that have been exposed do you reckon will be quarantined for 2 weeks to keep them from exposing others?
        How cool would it be to get COVID-19 from the President of the United States?!

COVID-19 in the work place.
        I would like to think that his highness might get a glimmering of understanding about people’s reticence to go back to work with ZERO safeguards among his very good supporters that don’t want to wear masks because the whole thing is a hoax. Without testing.
        After all even the numbers of death are a hoax. Before I finish writing this there will be a conspiracy theory about the valet from the very good people Nazis, White Supremacists, White Nationalists, Confederates, KKK, Anti-vaxxers, Militias, Conservative Evangelical, coughing food-licking whack jobs about this being another plot from Satan’s Liberals to undermine the President.
        How is that workplace going to look for the average worker in this country? What if they have a boss that thinks protections are unnecessary because they don’t believe the virus is serious? What if their co-workers are a bunch of food-lickers that think this whole thing is a scam?

Be best.
        Testing like what is available to the President does not exist in workplaces and contrary to what the President says widespread testing still isn’t available to the general public or work force and certainly not the 15 minute test they are using at the White House. He’s bragging about having so much PPE that he’s giving it to other countries and we still aren’t able to buy masks in this country! He has what is denied to others. Of course this isn’t a problem for him.
        Then we have all the workers that have to deal with the general public in their workplace. In the public is the same group of people that took their entire family to the store in the pandemic. The same group that believe they have the right to kill people. Because of the President and his Republican Jesters millions of people in this nation are treating the pandemic that we’re in as a big deal about a whole bunch of nothing.

Somebody please get Anthony Fauci a mask before they kill him! We need Anthony Fauci!