Oh, sure. There's that global pandemic going around. And that's something everyone needs to take very seriously. Stay the fuck at home if you can. Stay the fuck at home if it's inconvenient. If you have to go out, pretend you're on a Mad Max mission: Carry your hand sanitizer and use it before you leave your car and after you get back into it. Do what you need to do as far as shopping and shit (staying as far from other people as you can without actually lobbing your debit card at the cashier from the end of the conveyer belt), and get the fuck home. Then...stay the fuck home.
Let's not lose sight of something, though.
There are *way* too many people saying, "Now is not the time for politics. We need to all get behind the president so we can help our country through this pandemic!" which is a nice thing to say, but invariably, it's followed with, "The president is doing all he can to help the nation and has been doing everything possible" which is pure, unadulterated, grade A, unicorn-glitter-covered bullshit.
Pure, unadulterated, grade A, unicorn-glitter-covered bullshit.
Fact: Our president inherited an actual Pandemic Response department at the CDC and he fired them, saying, "I'm a businessman. They are just sitting around and wasting money. If we need them, we can call them back."
Fact: Our President's own administration did a pandemic simulation that played out eerily like what we are now seeing in real life. He did nothing.
Fact: Our President knew in *December* that this was going on and was advised to start making plans to protect the American people. He did nothing.
Fact: When Covid-19 began disrupting China, and people in the medical community started ringing the alarm bells about it, he dismissed them as being liberals trying to make him look bad and that this was going to be the "new liberal witch hunt hoax".
Fact: When it started spreading, our President still downplayed the danger, claiming it was "just a cold" and the liberals were trying to make him look bad. He said America had "only 15 cases and by next week there will be zero."
Fact: He refused tests that WHO offered to the US, delaying any widespread testing here.
Fact: Even after it was clear Covid-19 was, indeed, here in the US and spreading quickly, he continued to downplay the danger, saying, "We have it completely under control".
These are facts. Everyone in the nation watched them play out and they are forever saved on footage and in tweets from the President himself.
But now, now, our President stands up before god and everyone, insisting that he was the first one to call it a pandemic, that he knew what was going on months ago, and that he knows more about disease processes than anyone and "even the doctors are amazed at how much I know".
As of today, right now, there are over 19,000 *known* cases of Covid-19 and almost 250 deaths.* Three days ago there were 2,500 cases and less than 50 deaths. I say *known*, because we are still not testing in any sensible manner. I just this minute watched the President of the United States say he didn't think it was necessary to install any federal guidelines to stop the spread of this virus; he's leaving it up to the states to deal with and many states are leaving it up to local authorities to deal with.
That's horseshit. It's not going to do fuck-all to control this.
Back to the "We need to put aside politics and get behind the President" attitude and why it's so dangerous.
*Our President has proven over and over again that he cannot inspire anything but fear and hatred.
*Our President has proven over and over again that he is bullheadedly ignorant and trusts "his gut" over actual experts in...anything.
*Our President cannot get up in front of a microphone (or on Twitter) without blaming someone else for his own shortcomings, mis-steps and actual fuck ups, pointing fingers at the media, the liberals, Obama, etc...instead of taking responsibility like an adult human being.
*People around our President take up valuable air time praising our President's behavior so we all know that *it's not his fault shit is hitting the fan when it's his shit and he turned on the fan* We need them to tell us what's going on and what we need to do and we need them to spend more time contradicting the ridiculous things he says and less time kissing his ass. Call. Him. On. His. Shit. Because this is serious and people are dying because of his bullshit fantasy take on reality.
That we have a President whose tender feelings are considered more important than the actual lives of American people is horrifying.
We should not 'get behind' such a man. None of us. Not one. He has shown us what he is made of, and it is nothing but hot air, ego, and self-preservation.
Today, a reporter asked him, "Americans are afraid. What do you say to the American people who are afraid?" and our President said, "I say that's a nasty question and you are a terrible reporter."
What the actual fuck.
This is not a leader. I don't care what your politics are, any actual leader would have said something uplifting and courageous and reassuring. Our President took a valid question that people *needed* to hear the answer to, regarded it as a personal attack, and lashed out at the man who asked it.
The best thing our President could do at this point, and the only thing that would help the American people, would be to say, "I was wrong at the beginning of this. I did not understand how serious this was and I apologize. From this moment forward, I am letting the people who are the experts be the face and voice of this crisis that all Americans are facing", hand the podium over to them, and walk away. That is what he needs to do and that is the only thing that would make me respect him even a tiny bit.
I will do everything in my power to help people around me, people who work for me, people in my neighborhood, city, state and country no matter what their politics. If you need something, I will do my best to help you. That's a promise, and it's the only promise any of us should be making.
"Getting behind" this shameful excuse of a leader should be the last thing we should do.
Donald J. Trump has spent his entire life "looking out for Number One" and not caring one bit about the emotional and economic carnage he leaves behind.
We do not have time to indulge in the head-patting and ass-kissing this geriatric toddler needs to make sure he doesn't have a mental meltdown. We do not have time to accept his adult version of a literal temper tantrum anytime someone dares to question what he says. We do not have time.
Take care of your families. Check on your neighbors. Keep in touch with your co-workers.
But, do not let anyone get away with re-writing the timeline of these events.
Do not let anyone try to make Donald J. Trump a hero in all of this.
That's the danger.
Donald J. Trump literally ran on "I'm the only one who knows how to fix this" and his supporters have believed him for almost four years, and continue to believe him after four years of his entirely fucking up everything he touches, four years of him cozying up to dictators and alienating our allies, four years of him lining his pockets at our expense.
Our President did not cause this virus. But his ham-fisted handling of the first months of this has endangered millions of Americans and completely decimated our economy.
Make damn sure everyone remembers that in November.
*In the 3 hours since I started writing this, we have over 500 more cases in the US, and our death toll is at 259.
