Life of Wry

I’ve pretty much been glued to news coverage of the goings on at the White House all day today, what with the fallout of the Prez testing positive for the coronavirus. Which started as, yeah, he and Melania tested positive and are gonna quarantine a bit in the residence, to looks like he’s got some mild symptoms, to looks like those symptoms are maybe a bit more moderate, to well, he’s a little fatigued, to well, he’s now got a fever, to well, he may be having some difficulty breathing, to HE’S BEING MEDIVAC’D ON MARINE ONE TO WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER IN BETHESDA, MARYLAND.

The drama really intensified at that point.

My god the drama. With good reason.

Anyway.. now they’re tracing back to the likely culprit–a super spreader event in the Rose Garden last weekend, a reception for supreme court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett, at which the entire republican party elite was in attendance plus the White House A-Team… none — or very few — of whom distanced or wore masks because…. well, I don’t know. I’m baffled now, I was baffled then. I remember seeing footage of the event last week and thinking, WTF. How is it that the entire crowd of folks, most of whom are educated, high level professionals in some of the most prestigious positions of government, don’t get how viruses work? How do I–and most of the people I know–get it and they don’t. Why am I, and everyone I know, abiding by their guidelines — the guidelines promulgated by the government’s chief medical institution — and they’re not?! Are they just completely messing with all of us? Have we, the lowly people, been had? While THEY know the true score and/or are just plain above all of us, free to flout pesky guidelines.

Turns out: nope.

The public health community’s still right. Those of us following their guidelines are still right. The news media (except the propagandists) are still right.

It’s the president, his entire cabinet, his entire staff, the entire Republican Senate and House, the conservative members of the SUPREME COURT (those guys are actually genuinely smart, WTH), and everyone else in the prez’s inner circles who are wrong. And really, it’s just the prez; the rest of them are just paying fealty. This whole misguided crowd, they’re the ones who are stupid. Or arrogant. Or afraid. Or in denial. You should see the footage. Everyone’s handshaking, hugging, talking face to face within inches of each others’ mouths, laughing, seeing & being seen… whatever. EVEN CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS.

They have to know better.

This rule-following democrat doesn’t give much of a flying fig if they get sick–you reap what you sow–but I’m still disgusted. Not surprised, really, but angry. The whole scene in that Rose Garden was repugnant. The sheer arrogance, as people all over the country are dying and suffering. The nerve of these people, while the rest of us religiously wear masks and alter our lives for the greater good.

Here’s where the Bingo comes in: all day long, one by one, we’ve been hearing of people in the uppermost echelons of this stupid administration, AND the Senate (!) testing positive for the coronavirus. I’m not kidding.. I walk away for an hour, come back, and it’s a new infected person. I wish I had a Bingo card!! If you’re playing CV Bingo, you’ve got a lot of bingos already. Not sure who that Bingo card center square would be … Ivanka? Don Jr? Jared? Bill Barr? Lindsey? RUDY! Actually, the center square is trump himself… all bingos run through him. He’s the main man.

Besides Potus/Flotus: Hope Hicks, Sen Mike Lee, Ronna McDaniels, Bill Stepian (campaign mgr), Sen Thom Tillis, Kellyanne Conway. I’m certain the number will increase.

I’m sure that, in the end, they’ll all get through it; they’ll get the best available care, better than most in the country will get. But man, he’s gotta be held to account for this and made to pay–at the ballot box; in the courts; in the deepest, most hollowed out regions of his petrified conscience. This is on him. He perpetuated all the stupid. He created the culture of skepticism. He had the capacity to influence the lion’s share of skeptics (since he created them) and steer them down a different path, but of course he didn’t. This is a problem of his making. His alone. 208k deaths. A good percentage of those are on him.