Super-Spreader-Event

 

Let's face it.  ANY time you're around Trump, it's a Super Spreader Event since he doesn't know how or when to shut up and sucks all of the oxygen out of the air.

 

"Fake Pandemic"

The 2020 Presidential Campaign is in its final few weeks, with mail-in and absentee ballots being cast in record numbers, hundreds of millions potentially.  
The US Postal Service being undermined and minimized by the current Post Master General and Trump-flunkie-donor Louis DeJoy.
Donnie Drumpf continues to hold campaign rallies, yes, even in the midst of a global pandemic, the Covid-19, coronavirus.
Face masks and social distancing are key factors that public health professionals continue to push as deaths are reaching toward 200,000 in the U.S.
And then there are scenes like this, from Trump's supporters:

"It's a fake pandemic."

 It is also notable that there are NO Blacks, Asians, Hispanics/Latinx or Indigenous people among his supporters.

What does that say about Trump or his supporters?  

Think about that and the nation in which we now live.

Public Health Decisions

Georgia currently has no statewide mask mandate.  The governor, Brian Kemp, as corrupt as they come in regards to science-denial, racist/racism and Trump surrogate, wants the good people of Georgia to make up their own minds about whether or not they need to wear a face mask.

Prior to becoming Georgia's governor, Brian was the Secretary of State there, in charge of voting and little things like denying voting rights and access to ballots to blacks, gerrymandering, and so on.  

So, yeah, he's a real stand-up guy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Some Cases, Such As A Public Health Crisis/Pandemic, You Have To Give Up Some Personal Liberties For The Good Of Everyone.

A national health emergency, such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, needs to be addressed by public health and government officials.  And YES, some of the decisions those groups or individuals make WILL EFFECT the population… such as wearing a protective face covering like a mask, covering the nose and mouth.

When that same government official (governor, deputy governor, assistant governor, and so on) mandates something like a mask, YES, we the people of that state have to abide by those directives.  Again, for public health safety.

So, when a high school principal makes a remark like, “Class changes at the high school level are a challenge when maintaining a specific schedule.  It is an area we are continuing to work on in this new environment to find practicable ways to further limit students from congregating.  Students are in this hallway environment for just a brief period as they move to their next class. … There is no question that the photo does not look good. ... Wearing a mask is a personal choice, and there is no practical way to enforce a mandate to wear them."

Read that last line again, slowly.

Astonishing, right?

NO. You have to GIVE UP that “personal choice” in order to keep yourself and others safe.  Period.  FULL STOP.

There is no personal choice involved here, but there most definitely should be discipline or punishment for not adhering to the state mandates. 

Maybe that’s where a lack of leadership comes in.  Maybe the governor doesn’t believe in science and public health over public safety.  In that case, heck, it’s an easy decision.  Go back to school or lose funding. 

Sure put the lives of these young people at risk.  They’re expendable, right?  You betcha, they are!

Here’s the picture, which clearly shows most of the students not wearing masks or other face coverings.   

Yes, teenagers do have many rights and are afforded many personal choices and liberties, even in a school setting.  They have rights and responsibilities, as well, and among those are being educated in a safe environment.

This is a situation where, try and weasel out of it as they may, the district and school board will be hard pressed to come up with a logical explanation as to how they can 1) Justify suspending a student for pointing out gross negligence on the part of the school and its board members, 2) How not wearing a mask is personal choice and not a requirement.  (Not to mention, appropriate social distancing.), and 3) How this is not a public health emergency situation.

We've seen time and again as businesses reopen after months of closures, that because this is so important to them and they desperately want to get it right, many are going above and beyond state guidelines and mandates to protect not only their staffs but their potential customers as well. 

They need to be thanked graciously and applauded for their efforts.

Schools, as we've seen,  have to go above and beyond.  

Our children's lives are on the line.

We Have 4 Centuries Of History To Rewrite In Order To Correct The White-Washing Of The Past

Keystone, South Dakota, in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, President Donald Trump on Friday, July 3, 2020, railing against what he called a "merciless campaign" by his political foes to erase history by removing monuments some say are symbols of racial oppression.

"As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for," Trump warned.  He added, "Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." 

Seriously, dude? Do you really want future generations or even the current one, to continue to live with the white-washing of the United States?  400 years of slavery, denigration of indigenous peoples, that’s not enough?  Really?? 

Have you not been paying attention to the Black Lives Matter protests in May, June and July 2020?  That’s a rhetorical question, since, of course he doesn’t pay attention to anything not related to Him looking good. 

Just a reminder – Our first President George Washington was a slave owner while in office; Thomas Jefferson was also a slave owner while in office; Theodore Roosevelt believed Asians and ‘colored people’ were immoral, among other things; Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, although committed mass murder of indigenous people. (Yes, it’s a very brief history lesson.)

And for some reason, President Donald Trump wants to remember and celebrate those events. 

He couldn’t understand why fireworks have been banned at the monument for the past two decades.

“It’s all stone.  Where’s the environmental impact?”, he told a radio host recently.

Meanwhile, the entire state of South Dakota is on high alert, firefighters, paramedics and all, just for a few hours of incredibly stupid, arrogant behavior on the part of the leader of the free world and his minions, er, faithful followers.  How does that saying from the Bible go, “Like lambs to the slaughter?” 

Yes, yes it IS pretty re-donk-ulous.

One of the problems here, and there are many, is that with this particular monument (on Indigenous land) it’s description of who our founding fathers were needs a serious edit in order to point out and call attention to the contributions of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Indigenous peoples.  With other much smaller statues and monuments, most can be removed and replaced with more current people or symbols that represent our current, updated, upgraded history.

That’s a long, local level, state-by-state endeavor that should happen before the end of 2020.  Otherwise, it will absolutely get swept under the rug because that’s what lazy white people do… procrastinate… among other things. 

This one quote in particular stands out as strikingly misinformed:
"Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."

No. No one is talking about “wiping out history”, only editing it in order to reveal the stark, ugly truth:  Slaves were introduced to America in 1620.  The history books tend to gloss over that part because, again, it’s a painful truth.

“Defaming our heroes”, well, I’m not sure how heroic it is to own slaves in a white controlled government and country. 

“Erase our value”, ugh…. This is becoming repetitive, but necessary.  Slavery, enslavement, etc.  Is that really a value you want to project, protect and own?   No need to answer right now, just maybe take several hundred years to do nothing and think about it. 

“Indoctrinate our children”, again, we’re pretty good at that.  Been doing it for 400 hundred years.  And not only with politics and daily life – what about religion?  Seems pretty tame there, right?  Think about that one for just a moment.  Regardless of which religion you subscribe to, aren’t you learning and passing along those beliefs to your children?  

*loud gasps from the crowd* 

I know. I know.  Yes, that sacrilege.  But is it?  If we’re so afraid to even talk about religion, we need to think about why that’s a bad thing.  Indoctrination is embedded into who we are in America. 

“The American Dream”, two cars in the garage, 2.5 children, a home, a wife and a dog.  A white picket fence, Formica countertops, plastic wrapped sofas… you get the idea.  It’s an antiquated, pipe dream of an idea from the post-World War II era that never included or considered Blacks, Asians, Hispanics or Indigenous people.  It was never their dream.

Right now in 2020, 20% into a new century, those old thought patterns need to change and be replaced with the here and now, reflecting the multi-cultural, multifaceted people we’ve evolved into, for future generations.

And, yes, some of those old antiquated institutions need to go as well:

The KKK, the NRA, White Supremacists, hate speech, and on and on.  (I’d actually love to hear about more groups that you feel belong on that list.)

Inclusion, not exclusion.

Free speech, not hate speech.

Progress, not perfection.

This is not about erasing any history, only correcting and editing history to reflect the facts about how those groups were actually treated by White people.

Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Think I’ll go eat worms!
Long thin slimy ones,
Short fat fuzzy ones,
Ooey gooey gooey gooey worms!

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Ooey gooey gooey gooey worms!

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away!
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day!

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Think I’ll go eat worms!
Long thin slimy ones,
Short fat fuzzy ones,
Ooey gooey gooey gooey worms!

(That’s how I remember it, but there are tons of variations of it available online!)

--------------------------------------------

It’s a fun little children’s song, one that I used to teach preschoolers a bazillion years ago in the 1980s.

Coincidentally, it’s also a tune that the sad, bloating, orange white man in the White House is singing a lot lately in regards to his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic here in the United States and its effects around the world. 

This from CNN:  "Nobody likes me," he said, confounded at how his administration's health experts could be receiving accolades while he is accused of ignoring and denying the raging public health crisis.

"It can only be my personality," Trump said, "that's all." 

And do you think that even for a second there was any self reflection?  Of course not.

Far from a mere difference of "personality," the examples of "nobody liking" Trump this week suggested a President actively isolating himself in his own bubble of conspiracy theories and questionable science, with fewer and fewer people willing to step inside to join him.

Speaking Thursday, July 30, 2020, Trump appeared resigned to the fact that coronavirus case counts will continue spiking, and said it's probably not anyone's fault, least of all his.

"That's just the way it is," he said. 

Sure.  Why should he take any responsibility for it?  It was ALL Obama’s fault.  And ALL China’s fault.  And ALL those liberal, do-nothing Democrat’s fault.  Darn them-there-people. 

Failing in the national and local polls across the board, he even floating the idea of delaying the November 3^rd election in order to avoid, “… wide spread voter fraud and potentially counterfeit ballots.  Millions and millions of them. Who’s signing them?  Where are they coming from?”  Un-effing-believable. 

One of the major problems with that strategy, if you can call it that, is that most Republicans on the ballot this year are pushing for vote-by-mail or absentee ballots amid the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.  That conspiracy theory is putting his own constituents, other Republicans, in a very precarious position to have to distance themselves from him for the first time in his presidency.  So, of course, it’s no wonder he feels all alone.  Poor, poor, pudgy, orange, gooey Donald.  Awww. 

It’s like, “Oops!”

Trump’s threatened to shut down Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and even banning TikTok from the U.S.  Personally, he could shutdown Twitter but then he’d have to rely on broadcast television news coverage, live, which he regularly refers to as “Fake News”.

He’s more concerned about his TV ratings than stepping-up, leading and actually taking a real, fact-based stance against Covid-19.

Again, “Oops!”                       Or, maybe, “D’Oh!!!”

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Think I’ll go eat worms!
Long thin slimy ones,
Short fat fuzzy ones,
Ooey gooey gooey gooey worms!

...and then there's this:

...because it's ALL ABOUT keeping his Royal Orange Fatness happy.

Ugh! Donnie, just shut up.

So now, May 7, 2020, you're blaming/shaming meat plant workers for getting sick?  Seriously?
Is it because, well, they're not as tough, fierce, stupid as you, Donnie?  Is it?  These people that work to put food on YOUR table, who actually work for a living?
The bullsh*t  coming from that mouth is astonishing.  Oh, and do you EVER take responsibility for anything?  Or is your entire life, your enter being, just a fluke of nature?

For most of us... YES.  A loud, resounding Yes.

On May 6, 2020, in "celebration", or Trump's version of a celebration, he invited a group of nurses, nurse practitioners and other healthcare workers into the Oval Office for a meet-and-greet.  You know where this is heading.

Trump contradicted a nurse he was honoring in the Oval Office, insisting there are no personal protective equipment, PPE, shortages in the U.S. despite her account that availability could be "sporadic" at best.
An on-the-ball reporter asked the nurses attending the National Nurse Day event if their PPE supplies are where they need to be right now, during the pandemic, and many nodded in agreement.
Sophia Thomas, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners said this, "I mean, I talk to my colleagues around the country.  Certainly there are pockets around the country where PPE is not ideal, but this is an unprecedented time."  She went on the say that she's been reusing a single N95 mask for "a few weeks now."
"We are nurses and we learn to adapt and do whatever we can do for our patients to get the job done and the care provided, and that's what we will continue to do as Covid-19 continues."  

And what does Supreme Leader/Overload Donnie Trump say:
"Sporadic for you but not sporadic for a lot of other people."  Unbelievable.

Pictures, as evidence, don't lie:  

When Nurse Sophia Thomas first speaks about PPE availability

Trump turns his head, as though he hears a noise. No eye contact.

Hmm. Interesting. More noise. Note the arms crossed. He's closing up.

And we have splashdown!  He's heard enough.  Isn't having it. NOT. MY. FAULT.  Completely shut down Nurse Thomas' comments.  Note the folded arms.

This is his typical stance, sitting, when he's heard enough. Conversation over. We're done here.

Pouty, whiny, sad, pathetic little man, Donnie J. Drumpf

 

 I wish, I really do, that Trump, Pence and that whole gang of his enablers in and out of the White House, would get this virus, fast and hard, so that just maybe, they'll change their tune and thinking.  

*Note:
Laurie Garrett, "The Coming Plague".  This book lays out in stunning detail what life will look like after a pandemic, such as Covid-19.  Ms. Garrett has studied this particular issue, viruses, for decades.  Seems like someone our leaders in D.C. (YES, Trump) should be paying attention to right now.