Do As I Do, Not As I Say: Vaccine Edition

Endorsed by Steve Doocey. What could be better?

Ben Shapiro, Mitch McConnell, Sean Hannity, Steve Scalise, Steve Doocey all have one thing in common (besides being horrible people) they've suddenly all come out and admitted they were (or are about to be) vaccinated and are encouraging others to get the shots.  

This is after several of them, and the organizations they work for and with, have been spreading mass disinformation about the vaccines. Some are now even praising Biden's vaccine rollout. Color me stunned. You even get Bill Hemmer on Fox News dragging out Marc Siegel, one of their top medical contributors, and allowing, practically begging him, to rhapsodize about the efficacy of the vaccine.

“The vaccine works, right? We haven’t budged on that, have we, doc?” Hemmer asked.

“The vaccine works extremely well even against the delta variant, preventing infection in 90 percent of cases,” Siegel reported.

He had been set free to tell the truth without hedging around it, or Trump’s precious feelings, or insulting politics. Free at last! Of course, Fox has a vaccine mandate for their staff, but they don’t tell you about that.

What is going on? They could have been doing this months ago, helping their viewers and followers get the protection they needed. But they didn’t. Why now?

It's like the bat signal went up, and the word went out. It reminds me of the threats of lawsuits that made the networks change their tune on the Dominion voting machines, issuing awkward apologies read on air. Are they covering their asses against class actions? Are they spooked by the Dow crashing as it did this week? Worried about voters blaming the GOP for more deaths, more shutdowns and more economic pain to the country? 

Or maybe they're just trying to do the right thing.

Nah.

It's probably a combination of the money and the votes, and fear of being held even more accountable than they already are. The GOP has a lot of blood and violence that can be directly attributed to it; the mismanagement of the pandemic that resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, the stupid and selfish misinformation designed to politicize the virus which is still adding to the death toll, the encouraging of  far right violent groups and militias which have led to hate crimes against people of color and the deaths of protestors and law enforcement, bringing us the January 6th insurrection, where this has all been leading for the past several decades.

Up to now (and I doubt the right’s new community spirit will last before being shouted down by their own brain-scrubbed supporters) the right has been like people trying to kill safety inspections after major crashes, like someone decrying the use of life boats after a cruise ship sinks, or mocking the installation of fire alarms after a school burns. At every point in this pandemic they have mocked precautions, complained about the least of them, refused to cooperate when that cooperation would help save lives, and refused to acknowledge the danger their behavior was not only to themselves, but to everyone around them.

And they were proud of it, even as bodies piled up in refrigerated trucks in parking lots.

But hey! That’s in the past!

The problem, of course, is that no one will believe this nervous about-face. The people who can, who have been following the science and keeping up with the news have already gotten the vaccine. There are some who can’t because of medical reasons, and some communities who have a justified mistrust of a mostly White medical community who have not always acted in their interests in the past. Hopefully that can be overcome.

But the people these Republican leaders are talking to are the same ones who they’ve been working on hard to spread their own viral pandemic of lies since February of 2020. And it worked. Too well it worked. The GOP realized they’re losing the voters they need to keep sticking it to America. Now they’re trying to undo the done.

At this point, they've got people so worked up that only God coming down out of heaven and telling them to take it would work.

Of course, several would ask who God thinks he is to trod on their rights. Their God-given rights.

I wish it was only them that they were screwing, but we’re all on this planet together.

We’re all stuck in the Eagle’s Hotel California, on pandemic lockdown:

Welcome to Feb, 2020, we didn’t miss you but we’re not allowed to leave.

The Jobs Report is… Disappointing…

Nice, outdoor work. Inquire at the office. No mask required?

The new jobs report has been ‘disappointing’ to those foolish enough to listen to the predictions of people like former Harvard president Laurence Summers, who has never been right, and the rosy projections of those who are looking at vaccination rates, ‘opening up’ stories, and crunching numbers to make the dreams of Summers come true.

The jobs numbers weren’t much of a surprise to me.

Because I’m a genius, who knows more that the most Harvard of Harvard economists, right?

No, I’m just a schmuck with a Macbook Pro and a lot of friends in an industry that has been utterly devastated by this virus, and who sees on social media people looking for vaccination appointments like people looking golden Wonka tickets. All this talk of ‘turning corners’ and ‘what to do after the pandemic’ is lost on many people, the ones with compromised immune systems, who look at the numbers starting to spike again, at the 5,000 reported deaths last week, 50,000 new cases reported in one day. Those cases/deaths are the ones we know about.

The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation put out a new study, estimating that more than 900,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 in the US since getting hit a little more than a year ago. Uncounted deaths make up the difference between what organizations like the CDC have been reporting and what is more likely reality, with the rate of excess deaths in the country, with more than 7 million worldwide.

About that jobs report with the ‘disappointing’ numbers.

Well. A few thoughts here.

Yeah, I seen the shaming signs posted on businesses, those that say ‘Sorry! We can’t give you the service you deserve, oh dear customer, because lazy, lazy people refuse to work. They’d rather sit on their lazy, lazy butts than serve you, so we can’t open/serve/assist you. Blame them. Thank you, The Management’.

Clueless, cruel and not true.

Everyone I know wants to work, wants to see friends, co-workers, bullshit about nonsense, are dying to be fully busy, relied on, part of something bigger than debating what is the best thing on Netflix at the moment.

Here’s the thing for people who say that something like ‘unemployment is disincentivizing people from working’, slapping workers with that favorite word; ‘lazy’. No. ‘High’ unemployment (sorry, never very high) is not the problem, low wages are the problem. You work a job that pays 300 a week, while unemployment pays 400. The problem is not the 400, it’s the 300.

People are afraid of dying. They don't want to take jobs that will pay poorly for the chance to be stuffed back into an office or workspace so they can work for crap wages and win a chance to catch a still unstopped virus and die. Why would anyone want to do that?

This pandemic has forced many to finally raise their head, look around and say 'Jesus, what am I doing? I've only one life and I'm wasting it here!" Post-pandemic thinking and working is changing, and we’re not even out of it yet. Many things will have to change to meet that thinking, those new/old needs.

Employers loved it when they had the power of the market, now workers are taking it back. So, you get a ton of clueless 'think' pieces, and Republicans threatening workers with 'take these jobs or else' rules. They act like angry parents with a teenager defiantly refusing to clean up their room: “Take your chance on dying doing this low-paying job we'll give you something to cry about.”

We already have something to cry about, the world does.

There was a clueless OpEd in the Washington Post this week from the publisher of the Washingtonian, that was read (rightly I think) by the staff as a threat to those who wanted to avoid going back to an office that could easily be a source of spreading the virus. Here they are, working hard to keep the publication on track, working remotely and taking pay cuts and cutbacks only to have the boss hit them with a ‘gee, you know, if you’re not at the office, you might just ‘miss out’, you know, stuff might happen, it might hurt your career…’ essay in a prominent publication where they were all sure to read it.    

They staged a virtual walkout. Rightly so.

She apologized. In her defense, the magazine has since rescinded many of the cutbacks and are hiring again (the freelancer budget has been decimated, but there ya go). But this sort of ‘on high’ thinking pervades the ‘lazy workers’ debate, the latest job numbers report is just bubbling it to the surface.

That very jobs report gives a good clue, or should to many business owners about a worker shortage. The report shows the gains made have been mostly among men. By the way of thinking being shown, women must not want to work! No, it’s the pandemic again. Kids not in schools must be cared for and the burden of the child care falls unfairly on women, of course. Which is why Biden considers childcare and eldercare part of infrastructure, because it is. Want people to work, give them child care and help them take care of their elderly. Obvious to anyone caring to look and think. But I digress.

What’s the solution?

Pay them. You want workers? Pay them. I don’t see how this is some mystery. If your business model relies on not paying your workers a wage they can actually live on, you don’t have a business, you have a government-subsidized plantation (because your workers will likely need food stamps and other government help. It’s the business model for Walmart). In an equitable society, this would not be tolerated.

Respect the people doing the work, not just with, say, a table of snacks or something, but respect the loss and fear this trial has infected us all with. I guess I’m saying here ‘empathize’. Shouldn’t be hard, most of us have been though this horrible year, but some of us have had different experiences with it. People are scared, people are angry and people want to be paid a fair wage, these are not mutually exclusive. Again, wages are supposed to be higher than unemployment and business should value their workers and not subject them to possible death to make a buck. That should not be too much to ask.

You want your workers back, ask why they might not want to come back and work from there. Listen to the questions you’re asking and the responses you’re getting. No one is responding to your ad? You’re wrong, silence is a response.

Pay more, treat workers better, improve the working conditions, share power and wealth with the people doing the actual work. No, that’s not ‘socialism’, it’s decency.

Remember we're all human beings, here for a short time. Don’t try to make others miserable.

Trump Gives Up

Trump walks away, just like he’s walked away from everything worthwhile that didn’t have something in it for him.

296,637+ dead from covid as of today, 15,817,962 infected. Numbers spiking all over the country, the so-called 'red' states are getting slammed. Nearly every day we’re beating Pearl Harbor numbers. Every day setting new records, and the man who actually wants to handle the virus relief, Joe Biden, is being denied the information he needs to start helping the country on his first day. Why, because of pure, unadulterated, pettiness.

The guy whose response to the threat has put us at nearly 300,00 dead, put us into the vast and deep hole of despair, what’s he doing? Holding ‘vaccine conferences’ that the vaccine makers refuse to participate in (feeling it’s just another political grandstand, it was), where he takes laps for a vaccine he had little, if any, involvement in, and playing golf.

He’s walked away from everything important and worth caring about, shrugging his shoulders at the cratered job reports, the surge of unemployment, at the deaths. He’s done. He’ll keep working and milking the election grift for everything he can get, but he’s done.

He doesn’t care, and never will. Now that the election is over, he can just drop all pretense, bitch about the election and play golf. Screw the virus, and screw you.

Rudy Giuliani’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis has now led to a shutdown in the Arizona legislature. Doctors are saying since he had to be hospitalized now, he's probably be sick for days and had the chance to infect hundreds of people. His co-counsel, Jenna Ellis, has also tested positive and, like Rudy, has been attending White House staff parties, meetings, hearings. Both have exposed probably hundreds in their failed quest to overthrow a fair election.

This administration is irresponsible and utterly incompetent, they can't keep us safe, or even their own people. Covid has burned though the White House staff twice now, both because of arrogant maskless 'events' held at the WH, infecting everyone from the First Family, to members of congress, their staffs, the WH staff, insanity.

Because, of course... of course. What else should we expect?

They even had a plan. Back in the spring, a national plan was formulated but Trump and Kushner refused to go forward with the comprehensive plan to battle the virus because 'it only affects 'blue' states. Idiots. It's like passengers on the Titanic not worrying about abandoning the ship because their cabins are dry.

So, Trump just did little to actually help, taking over his task force briefings and treating them as if they were ‘The Trump Show’, contradicting his own experts, dispensing complete lies

This is utter cruelty, psychopathic indifference to the pain, deaths, and grieving of others. This is also typical of Trump's approach to everything; what's in it for me. He ignored the pandemic, as to fight it (he thought) it would hurt his reelection. He was wrong. To fight it, hard and public, would have been seen as heroic, to ignore and downplay it was seen as callous and cruel. It's probably the biggest reason for his loss. 

Since his electoral drubbing, he has completely given up caring about either the virus or the economy, or anything but trying to erase the label 'loser' from his name.

He doesn't care, he never cared.

And 296,637+ Americans are dead.

The Soft Coup in the Time of Covid

245,557+ dead Americans.

We set four new records for infections, that's worldwide. Over 100,000 new cases a day.

We are on track to have 400,000 dead by inauguration.

Trump is busy desperately defending bogus claims of 'voter fraud' rather than trying to save the lives of Americans. Prominent Republicans are backing him in this. He is refusing to concede, refusing to allow Biden his transition budget, offices and access to the materials, and to people he needs to be ready on January 20th. Trump is not allowing Biden to be briefed on the security issues he will need to know for the safety of this country. It’s a slow-motion, soft coup, happening right in front of us. No one seems to be in charge; those who want to do something aren’t allowed, those who are supposed to be doing something want to burn things to the ground. And around a thousand people are dying from covid every day.

In Texas, El Paso has had so many deaths, they had to order more refrigerated ‘morgue’ trucks just to store the dead. Utah announced they will have to shut down due to mass outbreaks of the virus. There are huge spikes all across the Midwest. We are setting the wrong kinds of records.

So much winning.

All this death, all this pain, all this grieving, and we have no stimulus package, no help is coming, and probably will NOT be coming as long at Mitch McConnell is in charge of the senate. He's always more interested in power than people, if screwing Americans allows him to keep that power, so be it. He did it before in whacking the American economy and slowing recovery under Obama. He will cite the debt that he and Trump ran up (adding over two trillion from their tax cuts with more to come) and will stand in the way of any help to people that desperately need it. That’s the playbook he worked from before, that’s what he’ll do again. They don't care, unless it's about them. Hell, they all have get free health care, they’re good!  

Who is in charge of the covid-19 program, why has is been a disaster? Trump and Pence, and Jared (sometimes, kinda, sorta, but yeah). They turned it political, made it an act of defiance to go to Walmart without a mask and film yourself swearing at the clerks. Very brave. And once Biden is in charge, how much will his polices be blocked by spite and McConnell’s power plays? President-Elect Biden announced on Monday the members of his new coronavirus task force, a shadow-cabinet that will take on the task that Trump never really bothered to do. That’s the good news, finally an adult is on the room and making decisions. But how much will he be allowed to do, and now much will the GOP try and stop him from doing antything?

I celebrate having decent leadership once again, but worry the GOP will stymie that leadership as much as possible, letting Americans die to keep their power. They are signaling just that right now.

McConnell said he wanted to make Obama a 'one-term president' and he undercut the country to try and do that. He will do it again, and people will die. Again, it’s all about power. They are a minority party, running a minority government, unrepresentative of the country as a whole, and they know it. That’s what installing all the judges has been about; if they get voted out, their policies won’t die, not with the far-right judges keeping them alive, like zombies. If people have to die to keep power, to ‘own the libs’, then so be it.

Trump is pulling a soft coup right now, covid be dammed. We can’t let him.

We must watch, we must keep on this, we must help the Georgia senate run-off races, we must help Biden/Harris fight, because this isn't just their fight, it's ours.

We have to fight for us, and for the 445,557.