COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/5/the-scab-the-wound-beneath

Had Trump not been president, had he not just been impeached, had he not previously galvanized resistance to Chinese mercantile piracy, had China not lied about the virus, had it not originated in Wuhan, had it not been a new sort of virus, had we not yet been in a globalized world of instant communications and cheap and easy intercontinental travel, had the media not been 90 percent negative in its prior reporting on Trump, had it not been an election year in 2020, and had Trump’s popularity not spiked but crashed during the epidemic—then the hysteria might have been prevented, and the United States might have reacted with care and concern but without the veritable destruction of its economy and the human damage that it entailed.

But those were too many “had nots.” Epidemics and the reactions to them, ancient and modern, do not allow much margin of error. And so it has been too in our time of plague.

This entire phase of history should cure people of Utopianism.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/03/nolte-they-told-us-lockdowns-were-about-flattening-the-curve-they-lied/

What had been a national effort to save lives, a noble effort of national unity, has been twisted by Democrat governors into something unnecessarily punitive that reeks of a partisan power play to destroy President Trump’s re-election chances. Give me a better explanation.  Because this is the bottom line…

Unless you’re willing to wait for a cure (that is at least a year away or might never come at all), when there is no risk the health care system’s going to crash, what is the point of waiting one more day to open up the country when waiting doesn’t make us any safer?

Normal, non-partisan people are asking this question as well.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1258782599918637057

What an egregious take.

Re-opening is primarily to benefit the 1%?? Have you seen the stock market lately? its up on the year. Its pushing new highs again. The 1% are doing just fine and most have plenty of savings to get them through this. The people who need to go back to work are the ones living paycheck to paycheck. People working jobs in the service industry or hospitality industry who have been furloughed, especially since we have no UBI bill passed.

My God....

This.

I live in a state that is heavily dependent on the hospitality industry.  When you get away from the corporate investors in Disney, Hotels, Resorts, etc, you get to the incomes of the smaller hotels, motels, and independent restaurants, and the workers in all of these places, including servers, drivers, entertainers, etc.  And by "entertainers", I'm talking about a wide number of folks who are NOT famous and NOT celebrities.  Think of how many "entertainers" work at Walt Disney World.  (Employees at Disney are "cast members".  Those who work with the public are "onstage", while those who are support staff are "backstage".)  These are NOT the 1%.  These are working people who need this to live. 

I've been deep in thought on a lot of things this week.  One conclusion I've come to is that the Nanny State that many Democrats advocate is going to be anything but "liberal".  I think it's fair to say that we're seeing that right now.  There's no regard for the individual Constitutional liberties and rights of others on the part of these Governors who seem to enjoy issuing restrictive lockdown orders, even if the science doesn't clearly justify it.  (And science is showing that the fastest number of new deaths from COVID-19 in NY are from folks staying at home.)

I'm thinking about a lot of things.  One thing I'm thinking about is the that today's Democratic Governors are something other than liberal.