We're in This Together?

You gotta love Texas. As their department of tourism once described it, it's a whole 'nother country. And months into the COVID pandemic, it's obvious that wasn't just a tagline.

Texas was a leader in the we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-masks movement. Texans knew intuitively that masks were a hysterical response to something that didn't really exist. Swollen with ego and defiance, any Texan within range of a television camera was only too happy to tell you how tough they were. How indomitable.

Of the joy they took in flouting liberal's timid and fearful protocols.

And however saturated the population was with its teen-aged sense of invincibility, it reached even greater extremes within the offices of the state's Republican party. They were incapable of contamination. Or infection.

Of course, this was a falsehood concocted to keep the runaway train of Texas capitalism roaring, and if you didn't like it you should just stay the hell out of the way.

Social media is stuffed with footage of their constituents thumbing their nose at the new normals of mask wearing and social distancing. They frolicked in their pools and gathered in their roadhouses and cavorted on their beaches.

Yee-hah! Gimme a T for Texas! Don't mess with Texas! And all of that.

I once asked a native of Oklahoma why it was so windy there. “Texas blows” she said. “Or sucks. Take your pick.”

All was going swimmingly until governor Greg Abbott got infected. It wasn't an especially contagious virus and is actually pretty rare in twenty-first century Republican circles. It bears the name common sense.

In its clutches, Abbott began to act strangely. First there was the involuntary attention to facts. Abbott listened to them. Considered them. And most-dangerously, acted on them.

Then he (gulp) issued a statewide mask-mandate.

Not long afterwards, the skies inside the state's GOP headquarters turned black. Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed. The end of days had arrived. The state's Republican leadership swung into action. If they didn't, lives would be saved. Curves flattened. Economies offered a long-term chance at restoration.

First there was a social media smear campaign. Abbott was painted as a mask-wearin' sissy. Then 130 Republican leaders vowed to censure him. Resolutions slandering the governor filled the air.

Then they looked inwards. If they had lost Abbott, someone—or something—was to blame.

The party's brain trust  (yes—that's a thing) spent days picking lint from their navels, because nothing precludes a deep dive like lint. Just ask your dryer. How many deep thoughts has it had lately?

James Dickey, the sitting chairman, was fired. Apparently, he had transmitted the common sense virus to Abbott that lead the newly life-loving governor astray. Left unexplained was if Dickey were also infected, why didn't he resign from the party as opposed to being marginalized by it?

At any rate, it was decided Texas needed a genuine, ass kickin' right-winger to get the state back on track. And they found him.

Allen West is a tried and true, one-hundred percent freak-a-zoid. And he just happens to be African-American, a fact which state Republicans can exploit until November third.

Trump loves him because as a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, West fired a gun at an Iraqi policeman's head during an interrogation. And as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, characterized then-president Obama as a “low-level socialist agitator”.

And West is already borrowing liberally from the Book of Trump. In a video address to delegates, West reiterated his ability to issue executive orders (huh?) and referred to Abbott's mask mandate as “tyranny” and called it a “new battleground.”

However much I love the sights and sounds of Republican infighting, there is a sad truth here. And that is the hypnotized, heartened by the conservative anti-mask response, will continue to embrace it.

As I have stated before, I fully support the conservative death wish. At least in theory. It is my wish that every right-winger in the land refuse to wear a mask, congregate in tightly-packed indoor spaces and drink from one another's cups until dead.

Alas, the COVID virus has shown no ability to discern those who want it to thrive from those who wish to extinguish it. In other words, despite Republican's pro-life COVID stance, it won't just kill them.

It infects, sickens and kills indiscriminately.

Mr. West, it seems if anyone should be crying “Tyranny!” it is those of us who understand and respect the power and the scope of this threat to humanity, and yet risk illness and even death thanks to the politicized beliefs of the most-childish, selfish and ignorant elements of our society.

Texas Republicans are a panicked collection of people grasping at straws over something they can't shout or shoot away. At best, they lack the intestinal fortitude to face the challenges presented by sheltering in place, mask-wearing and social-distancing.

At worst, they appear willing to sacrifice everything (i.e. your life) for the economy. It must survive at any and all costs. How else to sustain the financial edge their favored brand of political leadership enjoys?

As it always has been, this is what is at the center of Republican action: politics and power—above all. 

 

Now? Really?

With one-hundred percent of Americans tested, an effective anti-dote now available and new cases shrinking to numbers barely visible with the naked eye, The Great Man is pushing hard for us to jump into our cars, hop on our trains and ride our buses back to work.

As he eagerly tweeted today, LIBERATE MINNESOTA! LlBERATE MICHIGAN! LIBERATE VIRGINIA! 

Aided and abetted by the same noisy, mentally-challenged folk who put him in the White House (who are actually protesting the measures being taken to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus and, by extension, themselves) Trump adopted a softer tone at today's (cough) news briefing.

But given his abject fear of a campaign-crashing recession, you have to know he'll be working tirelessly behind the scenes, twisting arms and making threats. It must be remembered: Donald loves power even more than he loves money and celebrity. He will stop at nothing to quench his thirst.

(Personally, I'm just sorry there wasn't a camera pointed at his crotch as he riffed on the limitless power of the president earlier this week.)

Almost as bad are those of us moaning about being bored, pandemic or not. Yes, pandemics suck. I'm sorry. But your boredom is the price we have to pay. Besides, you were never promised that life would be a stream of unlimited, twenty-four seven entertainment. Deal with it.

Can we agree the ADHD among us should never, ever make this decision?

We know so little about the Coronavirus. Can't we at least develop a vaccine before we resume stuffing our offices and our transportation networks? Or test more than one-percent of the population before having factory workers return to working side by side on the nation's assembly lines?

How about waiting until N95 surgical masks return to their pre-pandemeic prices before we send workers back cutting meat and processing our fruit and vegetables? Is waiting for hand sanitizer to make a return to grocery store shelves asking too much?

In an administration fraught with stupidity, recklessness and selfishness, this is Trump at his most-stupid, most-reckless and most-selfish. The well-being of America's citizenry should be treated like a star athlete and not be returned to action until all concerned are absolutely sure they are ready.

Which isn't now.

To outraged conservatives, I say this: we need to clench. We need to stay calm and understand this thing, eradicate it and make sure we're much-better prepared the next time a virus emerges.

Given our level of unpreparedness and the unwillingness of so many of us to shelter in place because it's inconvenient and worse—boring—we need to step it up. Big time. This ain't no game.

I want to live. And I want you to live. And if Trump doesn't win re-election, life will go on.

I promise.

Co-existing with COVID19

As a frequent critic of America and Americans, I am forced to set aside my misanthropic tendencies and remark on the amazing-ness happening all around us.

Many businesses—open by necessity to the public—have done a remarkable job of adapting protective measures for their employees and customers while still remaining accessible and open for business.

Take the simple genius of designating one set of doors as entrance-only and another for exit-only. This allows pedestrians to avoid face-to-face encounters, which I'm guessing are the most-effective at spreading the Coronavirus.

One-way aisles are another. And for the same reasons as dedicated entrances and exits. Some stores are even limiting the number of patrons at any given time to ensure that social-distancing is not theoretical.

And lastly, we have the surgical masks presumably supplied by employers for the safety of both their employees and their customers. While you could argue these masks have a higher purpose in ERs and ICUs and other medical settings, preventing the spread of infections is likewise critical.

Gay, straight, black, white, male, female, boomer or young Z Gen just beginning to make their way in the world, we all go to the grocery store. (It is perhaps the last thing we have in common.) It is obvious that preventive measures should be in place not only there, but up and down the food chain.

Trump and his rampant deregulation couldn't have offered a bigger target for COVID19 as far as this sector of the economy is concerned, and we are beyond lucky it wasn't impacted more-seriously than it was.

There are the trucks drivers supplying those stores, and the warehouse workers loading those trucks. Think of where we'd be without them.

Then there are the CNAs and nurses and social workers who do at-home care and continue to visit their patients, even at great risk to themselves. In a better world, they would receive automatic immunity for their selflessness.

The bank employees maintaining our access to our money. The postal employees making sure we get our mail. The restaurant owners and employees doing their best to offer us the delights most of us are unable to create in our own kitchens (if not for lack of trying).

Firemen and EMTs are still putting out fires and responding to medical emergencies. The police are still policing and making sure things don't get too far out of hand.

And then there are the doctors and nurses in the belly of the beast, working under conditions I can't begin to imagine. In hot spots like New York City, I don't know how they do it. How do they overcome the mental and physical fatigue? The mounting despair? The collective weight of desperate patients begging and pleading with them to save their lives? The needs and demands of their families? The conveyor belt of corpses?

Calling it overwhelming doesn't seem sufficient. And I haven't even touched on the shortages of essential equipment and supplies.

I wish I could offer something other than my eternal regard.

While we have seen the worst of us (the hoarders attempting to exploit the pandemic through online marketplaces, the senseless churches who confuse the restrictions on public gatherings as an assault on their right to practice religion and just about anything having to do with Donald Trump), we have seen the best of us.

We have the benefit of medical professionals who know what to do to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. All we have to do is listen.

I mean, how easy is that?

Yes, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. But unlike the Great Recession, the feeling here is that recovery will happen comparatively quickly. You should remember that markets weren't depressed for financial reasons. They crashed owing to a pandemic.

People cannot wait for things to return to normal. We will shop. We will eat out. We will go to the movies, watch ballgames and listen to music en masse. And attending these activities along with us will be our wallets and handbags. 

Americans are perhaps the world's most-impatient people, but if we can be the people we say we are on Facebook, this will be easy-peasy.

LPG out.