Tag: COVID-19

COVID and the Constitution: The NYT, Washington Post, and NBC Think! Rejected This But It’s Valid Anyhow

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The last several weeks have seen over a million Americans contract the novel Coronavirus and over 60,000 (so far) succumb to the disease and its complications. Refrigerated trucks are being used as morgues, city parks are doubling as graveyards, and funeral homes across the country are on a backlog. Relatives of the many dearly departed, due to social distancing guidelines, are unable to attend the memorial services of the ones they loved and were able to sit in a room with a mere six months ago.

The soul of this nation is already beleaguered with fear and uncertainty. This has been made worse by statements made by President Trump in his daily COVID-19 briefings. Those of us who watch the briefings have witnessed he and the press go at it over everything from his presumed inability to act in a timely manner once he knew about the virus, verifiable statements that he made that he wishes now to deny and “cures” based on unfounded science or completely unsafe ideas akin to a stunt on MTV’s Jackass.

The bright side of this pandemic is that it has caused Americans to seriously take a second and third look at things like Universal Basic Income and Medicare-For-All; also known as socialism. While a dirty word among Conservatives and a dirty idea among moderate Democrats for some time, the sudden economic havoc that Coronavirus has visited on our society has given detractors no choice but to reconsider the capitalist bastion that we had heretofore become accustomed.

Those things are great, but I posit this crisis should also demonstrate the need for us to revisit the Constitution. Many citizens laud the Constitution as the basis upon which the country they deem the greatest on the planet was built, however, it’s the same Constitution that allowed us to be in the midst of a global health crisis under the direction of a president Trump.

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Since the days of Washington, the only requirements for one to be president have been age (at least 35), citizenship, and residency (at least 14 years). There’s no prior political experience required. Prospective candidates don’t need to have shown a certain number of years working in public service. They don’t need proof of so much as a freshman Poli-Sci class. The bare minimum is all it takes to throw one’s hat in the proverbial ring. In President Trump, that’s exactly what we have.

Voters on the left wonder how we ended up with a president who was a reality tv star. For me, Trump having been a reality television star doesn’t actually matter. Him having built questionable businesses, declared (business) bankruptcy, skipped out on checks and the other myriad things he has been accused of don’t rate on my outrage meter either. Not even his lies.

It’s what he didn’t do, and didn’t even have to do, to become the leader of the free world that concerns me. Most of us had to do more to land mediocre jobs right out of college than any president has had to do to be eligible to be considered a valid presidential contender.

When my fellow citizens walk around in a rage about Trump’s presidency, it’s as if they’ve forgotten that this country is unguarded against it by virtue of our failure to revisit and refine the Constitution to meet our current reality. In fact, the gradual leaning towards the bare minimum has come to kick us in the butt in myriad ways of life; education, customer service, even dating.

As long as we are a populace that is content to let charisma do the talking (no matter red, blue, or in between), we’ll always be at risk of having leaders who are not only inept but may not possess the regard for our citizens that is needed to drive the country in the best direction possible.

Not only will enhancing requirements of presidential candidates be more likely to prevent your average camera ham with no public policy experience but his 20-minute speeches on how things ought to be at Thanksgiving every year from being able to try his or her hand at the presidency, it just may bring a sense of honor and pride back to the office.

We’ve made amendments to address the abolition of slavery, presidential succession, and even legal voting age. Surely we can seriously work on amending our standards for the person we call the Commander-in-Chief. It may take some time. In fact, it may never happen. But, we can’t continue a vague process to run for president and automatically expect that the one who is victorious will treat the presidency as a solemn and duty-bound office. Trump’s 2016 campaign, supporters, and administration has proven that.

After all, when you expect little, you can end up getting so much less.

Don’t Blame Trump: If You Took Medical Advice From Him, You’re An Idiot

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At Thursday’s Coronavirus briefing, after a few words from one of the scientists who are studying what to do and how to do it in terms of dealing with COVID-19, President Trump stood up and queried about different methods that could possibly be used to kill the virus.

One of the things he mentioned was the injection or ingestion of disinfectants.

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Of course, the media jumped all over this. The head of the CDC issued a statement to never ever ever inject or ingest disinfectants. Even Lysol made it clear that using their products internally would cause grave danger and cleaning products should be used as directed on the bottle.

Friday, 24 hours after Trump’s comments, the public was still being warned against things like drinking bleach and pumping Lysol in their veins.

Today, Saturday, now about 48 hours later, the messaging continues.

Before I put on my trusty surgical mask and ran to Dollar General, I came across this article letting the world know that within 24 hours of Trump’s statement, 30 New Yorkers called into poison control centers to inquire about drinking bleach and doing other ridiculous things with household cleaners in order to kill COVID-19.

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Whew! There’s the synopsis.

Of course, everyone is either laughing or mad at Trump. I’ve seen several people declare that Trump is going to get us all killed. I mean…I can’t call it.

What I do know though is that Trump is getting too much credit for the stupidity of the American populace.

Let’s be clear: anyone who would even consider drinking bleach to cure a virus is a dumb muthafucker and it wouldn’t have mattered if Trump, Obama, the Wizard of Oz, or Dr. Ruth told them to do it.

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What’s next? Are we going to start taking 4 year-olds up on their advice that we have cake and ice cream for breakfast every day? Maybe we’ll make smoking cigarettes cool again as an effective way to keep our waistline in check? Perhaps we should start eating a Snicker’s, a bag of seasoned fries, and a 20oz. Coke for lunch like we did when were 16 as an anti-aging tactic!

That’s how these people sound taking medical advice from a non-medical professional president. Better yet, they’re taking medical advice from a person who has gotten caught in so many lies since he’s been in office that Webster will probably come up with a new word for lie once his presidency is over.

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The upshot is this: Trump can be blamed for many many many things. But you can’t blame him for the lack of grey matter in other people’s brains – or yours (if it applies).

What I hate the most is that the idiot cohort of this country has made me officially and in writing defend Donald Trump.

 

Biden Is The Nominee, Geico Sucks & I Didn’t Get A Stimulus Check

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First, let me apologize for the completely uncreative title. I know I’m usually better than that where titles are concerned but in the last two weeks, everything and everyone has been rather disappointing so I figured I’d throw myself onto that heap.

With that said, Biden is the “presumptive” Democratic nominee (unless one of the Avengers comes out of nowhere the night of the convention, shoots him with a laser that makes him forget he was running, and Bernie takes center stage). I was never a hardcore Bernie-ite. I didn’t engage in any e-fights with anyone about the merits of Bernie’s candidacy or the validity of his plans once in office. However, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that Bernie was prolly right about that Medicare For All thing.

I see Biden as a relic. I think Biden’s time was after Obama left office and he missed his shot. Biden reminds me of every Boomer who has talked down to Millennials about the student loan crisis, bleak employment prospects, and stagnant wages. The biggest issue is that he can’t beat Trump.

Honestly, I feel like we can go ahead and vote tomorrow. I doubt the outcome will be any different in November.

Geico, who I’ve been with for years, decided that once you renew, they’ll give you 15% off. That’s after their COMPETITORS announced that they were giving money back to their policyholders since people aren’t really driving. So basically, if you’re in the middle of your 6 month term or have already paid in full, you may have to wait several months for this “gift.”

I’m giving them until Wednesday to reverse course before I switch insurance companies. I have not the time to wait on people to act like they have some home-training.

Lastly, I didn’t get a stimulus check. I’m not surprised. I still haven’t filed my 2019 taxes and I actually had to pay those mofos in 2018. But, I hear I’m not alone. I’m not really sure how an entity that doesn’t answer its phones on a normal day didn’t have time to streamline and make the process of issuing payments more efficient during the time of COVID-19 when most people are twirling their thumbs anyway, but, as my theatre teacher used to say, such is life.

Add them to the other two entities who owe me money but have not paid.

Oh yeah! Here’s the obligatory gif:

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Coronavirus Briefings: The Most Entertaining Hour of Television

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I’ve been watching the Coronavirus briefings every day. I do this partly to stay informed but mostly because they’re so damned entertaining.

If it’s not Trump grandstanding about how successful a president he had been before COVID-19, it’s him throwing a tantrum when reporters do things like quote his own words and ask questions that remind us that this is a serious health crisis.

But today, though a short episode, will probably go down in my memory as the best episode of all. One of Trump’s friends, Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow, took to the podium to talk about how his company was helping in the fight against COVID-19. They are making….something. I can’t even remember.

Anywho, at the end of his speech about what was relevant, he turned to Trump and asked if he could read a supplement to his speech; something he just scribbled down last minute.

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He then goes into a…2 years of speech and debate and IDEK what to call it…about how on November 8, 2016, God showed us grace (by allowing Trump to win, I guess) and that soon evolved into how “we” need to put God and the Bible back in our schools and our lives.

“God gave us grace on November 8th, 2016, to change the course we were on. God had been taken out of our schools and lives; a nation had turned its back on God. And I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word, read our Bibles, and spend time with our families.”

We’ll call it a geshrai.

That inspirational tidbit was eventually followed by Greg Hayes of United Technologies that is teaming with Raytheon getting up there and throwing low-key shade about how they didn’t need to wait for the POTUS to invoke the Defense Production Act in order for them to help. The subtext and shade of that was that Trump invoked it after talks with GM fell through for the manufacturing of ventilators.

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As a grand finale, after Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS reporter who got under Trump’s skin severely yesterday by quoting him, asked her question today, and Trump called her question “snarky.” After that he cut and run like a wildebeest that just spotted a lion coming in his direction.

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Never did I think that this would become my favorite time of day. Then again, I didn’t think that I’d be forced inside by a virus that came from Asia and has been killing people all over the world so….

Black Folks Are Tired: On “Kung-Flu,” the “Chinese Virus,” and Expectations of Advocacy

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I’m sure everyone has heard by now that a White House staffer was accused by Weijia Chang, a CBS reporter and Asian-American, of calling COVID-19 the, “Kung-Flu.” In a now viral tweet, Chang rhetorically asked, “I wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.” On top of that, our Commander-in-Chief has been referring to the illness as the “Chinese virus” for well over a week at this point.

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Many Asian-Americans are expressing concern that characterizing COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” will further flame racist fires that they say they are experiencing. Several news reports like this one are popping up that detail Asian-Americans, some not even Chinese, dealing with slurs, physical assaults, and other poor treatment at the hands of non-Asians who believe that the victims are automatically carrying and spreading the virus on account of their ethnicity.

Of course, many on the left are pleading for others to take up for Asian-Americans to help extinguish this apparent onslaught of problematic behavior and combat anti-Asian racism.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we…start with this bullshit!

Anti-Blackness is a global problem and Asians and Asian-Americans have been some of the biggest perpetrators of anti-Blackness. Just yesterday, I came across this article where Chinese people were expressing their wish that after this pandemic is over, we niggas stay away from their country.

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Peter Liang, a police officer, was acquitted after he chose to add his name to the Hall of Fame of officers who saw a Black face and shot first and asked questions later when he killed Akai Gurley, an unarmed man, and didn’t even bother to call for help. And when that happened, did Asians join with Black Lives Matter to express their anger that yet another Black person was gunned down by implicit bias? Neaux. They rallied behind Peter Liang.

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But, let’s take it all the way back before many of us were born (or old enough to know better). Latasha Harlins was 15 years-old when an Asian store owner thought she was stealing and shot her in the back of the head, killing her. The store owner was found guilty of manslaughter but served no jail time.

On top of that, many Black people are able to recount the poor attitudes and treatment doled out by Asian owners and employees towards Black people; owners who have made hand-over-fist off of their Black patrons in overwhelmingly Black neighborhoods.

In a larger context, there would be no rights for any other ethnic groups were it not for the work done by Black people for decades. Period. Black people are tired of people telling us we have to advocate for groups that prove over and over that they hate us. We’ve done a 400+ year bid at the hands of white people, first, then non-Black Latinos, Asians, Italians, etc. I promise Asians, the “model minority,” will be just fine.

We have our own battles to fight; many we’ve been fighting since we got here around 1619. We already know what it’s like to not be able to walk around in peace without racist slurs thrown at us for no reason. We know what it’s like to have to fear for our children merely going to school. We know what all of this shit is like.

We also know what it’s like to walk into an Asian-owned store and be followed around and told to hurry and buy something because they think we might be stealing. We know what it’s like to hear non-Black Latinos use “the n-word” against us. We know what it’s like for the same Italians whose pizza restaurants we patronize to treat us like garbage even though we help put food on their table.

Black people have been asking people…EVERYBODY…to recognize our humanity for ages.

So…we’re tired. Ask the white people, who started that shit, to help.

Here’s a tip to the Asian-Americans who are concerned with how they’re being treated though…and listen closely because this comes from an expert…a real life African-American…

it wasn’t the Coronavirus that made them dislike you.

Chew on that.

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