Day 1157 – The Wave is Coming

Day 1157 – The Wave is Coming

Friday March 20, 2020

226 Days until the election on November 3rd

306 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

If you are at an ocean beach and you see all the water leave, you should know one thing, a big wave is coming and you better race to high ground.

The water has left the beach here in the U.S. and our national leaders are dithering in the sand. They were forewarned. They were told repeatedly. They have been questioned as to why they are not acting, and yet they continue to do nothing. Oh they hold press conferences, they tweet, and in the case of Richard Burr he took action weeks ago, selling out his stocks on insider information, but for the rest of us? Screw ‘em. 

For the last few nights people have come on the air tell us what the president could do, should do, can do; yet he doesn’t. Why not? It seems he doesn’t know how and the folks around him either don’t know or are too afraid to tell him, but I suspect they don’t know either. Trump claims he doesn’t know who dismantled the Pandemic Response Team office. The former head of that office made it clear today; it was Trump. Trump seems to have a faulty memory around things he has done that turn our badly. 

Factories in Michigan are ready to turn out much needed protective gear, yet they can’t get specs and direction. Hospitals are running out of this sort of gear and we are woefully behind the curve on testing equipment. 

But the wave is coming. You can watch it grow day by day. The people on the front line are screaming for help, yet the administration is saying they are doing everything and the situation is in hand. It’s not. 

We should be leading the world and we aren’t we aren’t even close. We are lagging behind the rest of the world.

What else do we know? (We the people, not the administration.) There have been two places where everyone has been tested for Covid-19: Vo, Italy and Iceland. In both places half the people who tested positive had no symptoms. Also, in both places they have stopped the spread of the virus. I especially like Iceland, the PM is a lesbian (ie a woman!) and she stopped their financial crisis by locking up the bankers who caused it. 

We need the war powers act to get us fighting this pandemic. So far the president sees no reason to use it. I mean, none of his friends have the virus so why bother? He says the Federal government is not a shipping clerk. Yes, it is. Figure out what you’ve got and where it is needed and get it there. Crank up our factories to start making masks, ventilators and test kits for the world. build field hospitals everywhere. What is wrong with you? (Forget the last question. Step aside and let a competent adult run things.)

Yesterday a buddy of mine sent me a bat signal with the name OBAMA on it. (or Hillary, how about that. You think she’d have let this get this bad?)

And finally, a racist Trumpist put up the argument that it was no big deal to call the Covid-19 virus by the place it was first detected. This ignores that it is viewed as racist and hateful and has already resulted in many Chinese restaurants being threatened and of Corona beer sales being way down. But hey, so what? (oh yeah he also made the point that there are German Measles, not knowing that it was so named because German scientists were the first to identify it, and not that it started there. He got all huffy. Facts. Tough stuff.) There is no point in explaining this to people who think this way because they are racist idiots. 

As far as the whole “we didn’t know this was coming or that it would be this bad” argument goes, one of the people let go by Trump who headed up the National Security Pandemic Response team said, “We’ve known about this since 1918 and done table top exercises ever since then.” The latest was done last year and one was done when the Obama team was leaving and the Trump team was coming in. Wilbur Mills slept through it and 2/3 of the people are no longer with the White House. Seems that maybe having some institutional memory would be a good thing. OMG! Deep State! 

Well, Steve Bannon, Grover Norquist, and Rand Paul you’ve gotten your wish. The Federal government has shrunk under Trump, at least, the parts that actually help people. How’s that working out?

Remember, waves come in sets and the big set hasn’t hit yet. What we are going to get in the next few weeks is only a precursor of what we will see in the coming fall and winter. That’s when the big wave hits.

226 Days until the election on November 3rd

306 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Argh, Argh. I’m coming!