Happy Thanksgiving

 

It is both troublesome and heartening. That 2020 Americans—perhaps the most contentious and divided US population ever—feel a powerful need to congregate and gather in one another's company this Thanksgiving.

Even at the risk of making our loved ones—and each other—sick.

Wow.

In one sense, it speaks to our humanity, something I thought we'd surrendered long ago. We are, after all, social creatures, given to seek company and connection. And judging by the network news reports, we are seeking that en masse.

In another, it speaks to our proclivity for panic. And our inability—or unwillingness—to process events too cataclysmic to conceive. A stealthy, invisible virus hopping from one body to another in ways we don't fully comprehend is simply too horrifying for us to imagine.

So we don't.

We seize on an imagined normal and cherry-pick evidence that supports this ideal. Or conjure up our teenaged selves, indomitable and resistant: “It won't happen to me!”

And it may not. COVID-19 reminds me of a tornado, a storm which rarely follows a predictable, linear path. It skips about, pulverizing one structure while leaving an adjacent one practically untouched.

It is a mystery, still.

Yet we appear to be on the cusp of a vaccine. But given the enormity of the world's population and the problematic issues of distribution and—in one case, storage—relief could be many, many months away. (I refuse to even consider those who will reject the vaccine based on some flimsy notion of religion or personal liberty.)

So I continue to lay low, as uncomfortable and unnatural as it is.

Whatever your take on the pandemic, I wish you and your loved ones well this Thanksgiving. I've no desire whatsoever to be proven “right” if a mounting pile of corpses is to be my proof.

Just Sayin'

What is it with Donald Trump and Hydroxychloroquine? It's been dismissed as a potential antidote for COVID19, yet Trump works it into the conversation nearly every chance he gets.

I'm guessing Donald bit on it as a potential cure for the Coronavirus and owns a controlling interest. Desperate to make his money back, he's pitching it as a general cure-all that fixes whatever is wrong and enhances that which is not.

Feel free to add your Snake Oil salesman joke here:

Leadershit

I'll admit to being incapable of suppressing a smirk at the news that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a proponent of letting the Coronavirus burn through the population and damn the consequences, tested positive himself.

As Donald Trump's tousle-haired twin, the irony couldn't have been greater.

Turning stateside, well, we have Donald.

After shutting down the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense because pandemics don't really happen, Trump then referred to the COVID19 outbreak as a hoax.

When the brighter lights surrounding him advised the president that it was a thing, Trump downplayed it, waving his little pink hand and stating at a February 28^th news conference that it would “disappear”.

While technically correct, this is—at best—a half-truth. Yes, the virus will run its course and recede. But not before it takes thousands and thousands of lives.

Trump's haphazard response means the United States (with a population roughly one-quarter of China's) has already surpassed China not only in the number of confirmed infections, but deaths.

This with the COVID19 wave yet to crest.

Naturally, the fart-in-a-suit will tell anyone within earshot that his administration has done an amazing job of handling the crisis, and that everything is under control. And as the hypnotized do, Trumpers will believe him.

Really? This is what "under control" looks like? Have you visited a New York City hospital?

Sigh. If only Donald's bullshit were an endangered species.

Like his pal Boris, COVID19 presents both an opportunity and a problem for President Petulant.

Donald is determined to gut Social Security after determining it helps the one-percent not one iota. But even he has to know this is a very high-risk proposition, and would face towering opposition in the House and Senate.

I can almost hear Trumpy-bear's thoughts: “Hmmm. There's a virus creeping around that will disproportionately affect those over sixty-five. You know, that would take care of my Social Security problem and I don't have to lift a finger. My God! My thinking is like my phone calls! They're perfect! No wonder I'm president!”

But then Trumpy-bear remembers he's up for re-election. And that the longer COVID19 lingers, the worse the effect on his economy. And since he's been trumpeting (sorry) his powerhouse economy for most of his presidency, that could be a serious problem.

What to do?

It's a question Donald is still struggling with. He invokes the Defense Production Act one day, and the next declares that Americans want to get back to work and that this must happen by Easter. Are you listening COVID19? The president has spoken.

He gets juvenile with governors who don't kiss his ring, oversteps his authority and contradicts himself or the medical professionals in his administration every other day or so.

But one thing is crystal clear: Trumpy-bear is overmatched.

Ultimately, his biggest problem may be the Republican strongholds of Florida and Texas, states stuffed with the same belligerent, it's-my-right types who elected him. Worse, their Republican governors refuse to take the Coronavirus seriously, clinging to Trump's initial assertions that it is a liberal hoax and nothing to worry about.

Did I mention they happen to be the second and third most-populous states in the union? 

Yeah.

That same Republican intellect is also on display at Liberty University, which through (cough) privately-funded research has determined that COVID19 no longer poses a threat and will re-open the school immediately. 

Have you shared this news with Trumpy-bear? And if not, why?

Like I said, the country with four-times as many people had fewer infections and fewer deaths. And Corona hasn't even peaked. There's a reason for that.

Lift an urgent prayer to the heavens, people. And vote Democrat in November.