Remember the very early Covid death counts?

[LuckyCharms]

When 117 documented deaths, with more on the way, caused the Rethug meme world to post hilarious comparisons to 35.000 yearly flu deaths. Oh how funny. What a sense of humor those jokers have.

And then the death toll rose into the thousands....still the same silly flu comparisons.

Then the tens of thousands...still no worse than an average flu season.

Then, 100,000. Maybe this was when talk of a "hoax" started? I'm not sure.

Then 150,000...and the rethugs said they were including people who died in car accidents in the numbers.

Now almost 200,000...and they change the subject to non-existent child sex rings, or something.

And the larger this number grows, the less impact each new 5,000 deaths becomes, because that's how people perceive numbers.

Meh, what's another 5,000. They're over counting anyway, right?

Why are stats not being kept about those people "lucky" enough to survive this horrible thing with all forms of whacked out disabilities? You know what I mean...things like the muscle fibers in your heart being severely compromised, potentially cutting years off your life?

I have believed this since the pandemic started...because of the mindset of a rather large minority of people in this country, America simply does not have what it takes to get past this. We'll probably be doing these half-assed openings and subsequent closings for years, because too many people believe we can beat this virus by doing two things at once. We can't. If you want to call them "draconian measures", then go ahead. But until these measures are taken, we will be continually fucked sideways.

If Trump cheats his way back in:

No federal plan...ever.

States and even municipalities running in 1,000 different directions trying for a solution.

Grown men and women wearing lanyards with home made "mask exemption" cards.

"Herd immunity" will be here soon. This will be repeated continuously by people who never were within 10 miles of a science class.

I can't even begin to type about this rushed vaccine bullshit, because I'll lose my mind if I do.

And even when the Rethug's mothers and fathers and grandparents die, it will be...God's will.

And half of the country will be walking around all fucked up with crazy pains, shortness of breath, and unbearable difficulties for the rest of their shortened lives. But they won't be counted in the "numbers".

Because America will not have what it takes unless a leader lets us know what it takes.

Someone asked me in 2016 why I wasn't going to vote for Trump. I said something like...because I can spot an evil motherfucker in the first two minutes of listening to him.

I was asked again...why are you not voting for Trump.

My answer: All I can say is...if he gets in, it's going to be bad. I don't know what will happen, I don't know to what degree it will happen, but it will be bad and we won't have a good time with this guy as POTUS.

Looking back...that was a rather quaint thought because at that time I never really pictured this dystopian head movie we all experience now.

This thing I've just expressed here is mainly about Trump's Covid response.

Now you can multiply that by about 10,000 other destructive actions he has taken, and that's where we are.

I'll never understand why Biden isn't leading 90 to 10.

Well, maybe I do understand. It's because of the sheer quantity of fucking douchebags contained within our shores. That's the saddest and most surprising thing to me. The number of walking bags of shit in this country.

Do whatever your own personal situation allows you to to help defeat Trump. That can take many forms. Above all, please encourage people to vote. If they are at risk of Covid, help them get an absentee ballot completed and delivered correctly. any small thing you can do will help. Where I live, many people are worried about going to a polling place. I explain to them how they can vote safely. That's one small thing I can do. I can't spend hours trying to convince a Trumper to change their vote, I don't have the time or inclination or the temperament to argue with them, but I do have an ability to murder them with words. To verbally slice them up so embarrassingly bad that it at least makes them think for a moment. Maybe more than a moment. Breaks them out of their cult trance momentarily. If you are good at doing that...then do that. Do whatever you can.

Because just like 2016, if he gets in, "it's going to be bad".

Thank you for reading this...I needed to unload this. Bad night. I know I'm preaching to the choir. Or as Trump would tweet, "preeching to the quire".

[MustLoveBeagles]

1. If Joe wins we at least have a fighting chance

If, god forbid, the orange traitor steals it again we're finished.

[Nevilledog]

2. You are not wrong....about anything.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. I had coworkers declaring it was a hoax back in March.

The deniers were especially vocal if safety measures inconvenienced them at all.

One of them was a woman who was OBSESSED with her son playing high school sports. After the schools were shut down here in Ohio (the first to do so in the country), then suddenly she was yelling about how it was all overblown and political. I brought up the many deaths in places like Italy at the time, and how it's obviously not a political conspiracy, but she just scowled.

[keep_left]

4. Your words remind me a great deal of what historian Morris Berman has written...

...in his "America Trilogy": The Twilight of American Culture, Dark Ages America, and Why America Failed. His answer to all this, unfortunately, isn't practical for most of us: emigrate to greener pastures. (Berman now lives in Mexico).

You can read his blog here: [link:http://morrisberman.blogspot.com/|

You're right about a second Trump term. But Berman would say (and I think has said) that Biden will just slow down the collapse; it's been baked into the cake since 1776. I don't know if he's right; he's just one historian. What I do know is that many voices other than the "hustlers" (Berman's term) have been largely silenced, or rather their ideas marginalized. People like Thoreau, Mumford, Jane Jacobs--whose ideas were as American as proverbial hot dogs and apple pie--are hardly known today. You would have a most unusual educational experience, even in college, to have been exposed to many of their ideas. Forget about high school, where most of the textbooks have been wrecked by Texas billionaire control of the school book market and M&A insanity at publishing houses. (Thom Hartmann has covered this a few years ago). Those ideas might have saved us from the rapaciousness of our ruling class over at least the last 30 years.

Just as a hedge, you might look into emigrating, if and when we ever turn the corner on COVID-19.

[Pachamama]

5. 2016: "It's Going to be Bad".... 2020: "It's Going to be Worse"...

I can’t even at this point imagine how much worse but it’s already so horrific...

I truly believe if people wonder how much worse it can get...Imagine the worst thing possible and then multiply it by 1000

That’s where this evil motherfucker will take us all...

I had recently two Germans tell me that they believe given the chance for more power and another term, that Trump could prove to be worse than Hitler. I made sure I engaged them further in that conversation and their reasoning and they both doubled down. They both said this to me unsolicited and they don’t know each other. One reason given was that Trump has power and technology available that Hitler didn’t. But one comment was that as evil as Hitler was, he had a mission and a “philosophy” and that with Trump he seems to be devoid of any other than himself and that actually is even more dangerous.

Meanwhile this study just was published in the newspapers on Friday in Germany:

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-fear-donald-trump-more-than-coronavirus/a-54882818

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I will admit that early on I wasn't sure this was going to be so bad.

Last edited Sun Sep 13, 2020, 04:24 AM - Edit history (1)

I was wrong.

There are a lot of problems in figuring out how bad this will be.

First off, the individual responses to the virus are wildly different. Some people have not symptoms. Others die. What are called co-morbidities matter a LOT. Obesity is a HUGE factor. I recently saw something about two young school teachers who died from the virus. So I looked them up, looked at their pictures on the internet. They were both in the obese range.

Please do not get me wrong, do not think I'm simply blaming them for their deaths. But the fact is, obesity is a HUGE factor. Huge.

That does not mean that all of us who are not obese are not magically protected. But it needs to be taken into account.

Sort of like Ebola. Ebola is, quite frankly, not that easy to catch. Shall I explain to you about the funerary practices in countries that experience Ebola? Perhaps you should look it up yourself. I will simply tell you this: If you don't do a thorough cleaning of the body of someone who has died from Ebola, including cleaning out what we would call private parts, you probably aren't very likely to catch it.

And right now, Covid-19 is what's happening. People are freaking out about it stupidly. You can't get it by touching the surface that someone who touched that same surface who was infected. Which means the constant disinfecting of surfaces is not only not necessary, but actually dumb. Put on your mask. Cover your nose. When you go to a store or any other place, put on your mask and cover your nose. If your nose isn't covered, it's as if you don't have a mask on.

I will repeat. You won't get the virus from surfaces. So quarantining your mail or store purchases isn't helpful, and simply wastes time. But not wearing a mask in public, or wearing it but below your nose, almost guarantees you'll get the virus.

Oh, and don't give me any horseshit about how you have some condition that prevents you from wearing a mask. Aside from the fact that you are totally full of shit, if you can't or won't wear a mask, do not go into a store. There are delivery services or you can do curbside pick up. Meanwhile stay the fuck home.

[duforsure]

7. Thanks for the post,

You're not alone in your thoughts. Why people don't recognize the evil and madness going on now is beyond me , but make no mistake we haven't seen the worse of what he's capable of doing to us yet, and the republicans are enabling it by doing nothing to stop him. He wants to be like putin, Kim ,and others that kill there own, and terrorize their country. If he gets in again we can expect him to escalate the people killed with war, nuclear weapons use, and lies , and false attacks by him on us to keep people scared. I also have gotten some trumpers to realize they were coned , and now they believe me, and are more pissed about all this going on then me, and vow to never vote for another republican again. I think also him knowing this was so deadly and still promoted them to gather without masks shows them he didn't care about them at all. He still doesn't encouraging them on to risk death or permanent long term illness from it. We have a illegitimate president promoting the spread of a deadly virus, something I never ever thought we'd see in this country. When its all over and he's ousted we'll be finding out a lot more that he's done , and all the crimes against humanity he's involved in. All the republicans in office now saying and doing nothing are also to blame for enabling this to continue. He and putin want us discouraged and scared, and to fear them, and I refuse to let that happen.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Overcounting

That's the brick wall.
There's nothing anyone can say to someone that dismisses the severity by simply disbelieving the death count.
It's all they've got, so they can't let it go. It would be an admission they were wrong about it the whole time.
BTW: The H1N1 flu that they liked to toss around early killed around 12,500 people. In 13 months! When this hit 30,000 in 2.5 months, they shut up about the swine flu.