Before Square One. [Pandemic]

How is it going?
        When you’ve had 142,000 people die, threw away the plan for handling a pandemic, shut down the country, crashed the economy, recommended treatments that killed people, spend hours a day watching TV, played golf, tweeting constantly, gave a couple of trillion dollars to the rich, shoved millions to your political supporters, lied to people about testing, lied about available equipment, lied about PPE, claimed it wasn’t your responsibility, lied about saving lives, taken credit for doing such a good job and then reopened the country without a plan you might want to think twice about bringing up the previous administration.

Favs.
        The above is just a partial list. I do have a couple of favorites though. It’s priceless that he complains about Obama not leaving him tests for a virus that didn’t exist yet. Then we have his complaints about the shelves being bare because Obama didn’t leave him anything 31/2 years into his Presidency. On top of that the Republicans turned down Obama’s request for funding supplies. Honestly, a classic Republican move. Then we have his son-in-law taking time off from bringing peace to the Middle East to add to the chaos going on in this country. Didn’t you just love it when he claimed ownership of the supplies? I’m sure others have their own favs.

Thanks Obama.
        President Trump’s comments about then Vice President Biden and President Obama and their handling of the Swine Flu pandemic reminded me of a post I saw on someone else’s timeline supposedly from Rush Limbaugh. He may or may not have said it. I hardly ever trace down something attributed to him. It’s pointless. He’s a bought and paid for stooge who has made himself filthy rich off of the rubes that listen to him. The guy is worth like four hundred million dollars or something like that.
        What got me about this meme is that for the most part it was accurate. It was about President Obama’s handling of the Swine Flu pandemic. President Trump keeps bringing it up as well. Cray!
        The estimate provided in the meme was that 60 million people had it, around a quarter of a million were hospitalized and we did lose 12,500 people in the United States. It’s also correct that the country wasn’t shut down as indicated in the meme. I also remember that most of the press, excluding those like Limbaugh and Trump, did not adversely go after President Obama. In addition it should be noted that the Swine Flu pandemic was smaller. It never got a foothold and established as bad as the current pandemic thanks to President Obama.

Looking good!
        So even though it wasn’t intended the meme actually makes President Obama look good if people are paying attention. They aren’t.
        Why? He handled it. The briefings were honest. Medical professionals handled the response and built an action plan to handle the next one. So, no people didn’t have to stay home and President Obama didn’t crash the economy. He built one. He also handled the Ebola crisis. I think that he handled 3 in all.
        Then citizen Trump complained, as in tweeted, over a hundred times about how he thought the crisis should have been handled and how bad a job President Obama did. It’s ludicrous to compare the two. I’m not sure how effective it is to bring up a success story about the black President in comparison to oneself.

Before square one.
         Where do we go from here?
        There never was a national plan used to deal with the virus though one was desperately needed and is still needed. There were 50 different plans. It was and remains chaos.
        The Administration and Republicans in congress need to put working people first and they have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that they are simply NOT capable of doing that. They have proved that with the Stimulus Bills that they used to shove millions make that tens of millions to the rich including rich Trump supporters. They are still shoving money to Trump cronies (and most likely to Trump and his family as well).
        Thanks to their ineptitude we aren’t back to square one. The conditions of the pandemic are worse than where we started. So all of the closings were for naught because too many people refused to do something as simple as wear a damn mask. Now we’re even worse off and tens of thousands more people will die that didn’t have to.

Everybody can’t get a test.
        Unlike President Trump’s early promise everybody still can’t get a test. Testing is still inadequate. The virus hasn’t gone away. Practically every metric is worse.
        Shelley and I got COVID-19 tested. It took days to get our results. She got hers 2 days before I got mine. They were negative. Nursing home conditions haven’t changed much. Seniors still comprise 40% of the fatalities but that’s changing to a younger demographic now.
        The only good news is that hospitals are getting better at saving people’s lives as they learn what treatments are working. And giving people Hydroxychloroquine isn’t one that worked.

Send in the children!
        And now the President along with his Evangelical Party supporters and the Republican Party are advocating sending the kids to the front lines with the teachers. It’s what they do. They could have spent all this time developing plans but instead spent the time lying and trying to cover up the effects of the pandemic. They have succeeded in making it even worse. There is still NO national plan.
        As a nation we are now not only worse off than when we started and we’re going downhill. Yet we have a President claiming that he’s saving lives while in the process of seeing to it that the virus claims even more lives.
        Premeditated murder on a national scale backed by conservatives every step of the way. Time for them to start killing kids.

Just following orders [IMMIGRATION]

        Time and time again we have heard the defense that individuals were just “following orders”. Police, soldiers and citizens alike have professed that phrase in defense of questionable actions. As a general rule when someone is using those words it’s in defense of being accused of committing a questionable, insensitive, heartless or evil act.

        Historically we have the capacity for slaughter and genocide. People of this country, with the approval of government, separated husbands, wives, children and families during the days of slavery. After all, at the time they weren’t really considered human; just animals fulfilling the need for cheap labor. The original inhabitants of what are now called the United States of America were decimated during their conquest. There are estimates that 8 to 9 million men, women and children who were native to what we now call America were slaughtered during the process of conquering them. Many tribes were wiped out completely. Eight to nine million people. By the 1900s there were only approximately a quarter million Indians still living.

        Well here we are again. Now, people of color are being separated from their families as a matter of “policy” from the current administration. Guilty only of crossing the border while brown. (Is anybody bothering to track down white Canadian immigrants, assuming there still are any?)

        This is just a rough guess but probably over a third of the country is in agreement with what is taking place if not outright celebrating. The jury is still out as to whether the children who have been separated from their families are being placed in cages or are just behind wire fencing with security. As if that makes a difference. Does it bother people that we already have internment camps? Are military internment camps being prepared in addition to the civilian ones that we already have? Is this only a temporary solution to the PROBLEM of the invasion of brown people? What is the final solution going to be? It will need to be efficient and cost effective. There will be a need for people willing to the job of—whatever it takes.

        Such people are already here. They marched with torches in the streets of Charlottesville. They will fill any need from their ranks and there will be a ready supply of new recruits. They will come from the ranks of the trolls that leave all the “I’m coming to get you” comments on the internet. They are already emboldened and a Commander in Chief that needs their talents and supports their views with his words and actions.

        Why are immigrants/brown people coming here in the first place? Wanting to work? Wanting a chance for a better life? Are they escaping violence? Are they escaping an oppressive government only to land in the hands of another?  They came here because there are employers with millions of jobs waiting for them. Jobs that employers can’t fill for whatever reason. They came here to fill an existing need. There is a market for their talent. They provide cheap labor for that waiting market. They want freedom. They want a chance for the better life that is being offered.

        Prior to where we live now, we had a Hispanic neighbor who was a contractor. He complained that Mexicans (illegals) were constantly underbidding him because they provided cheap labor. When he had his roof replaced can you guess who he hired to do the work? Did you guess illegals? If you did you would be right. BTW they were hard workers.

        President Trump uses cheap immigrant labor. He sees to it that the particular brown people immigrants from shithole countries that he needs have the proper paperwork to serve in his hotels. Well at least we assume he does. Has ICE ever raided one of his businesses?

        Well, the lady in the harbor provides a standing invitation to people. We’re at least proud of the statue. It would be better if we were proud of and supported the ideals that she represents.  

        Men and women are stopping children at the border. What kind of man or woman takes a child away from their parents? Do they consider themselves to be good people? Are they Christian? Would a Christian take a child from a mother’s arms? Is it in their job description? Could you do it or are you only comfortable with others doing it in your stead?

        I have heard and read the argument that it’s the fault of the parents and that this draconian policy of taking a breast feeding baby from a mother’s arms is to be a deterrent. Just exactly how are they supposed to get the message? Through social media? Word of mouth? They’re desperate enough to be traveling with their children. Do they expect monsters to be waiting for them? This is the stuff that nightmares are made of, oh Christian Nation. It’s immoral. It’s ugly. It’s beneath a civilized people.   

        Despots always have their loyal supporters willing to do what it takes.

        How about you? Are you onboard? Which side are you on?