Random Pandemic Thoughts

I'll never forget the time my Mother-In-Law came down to visit us a few years ago, while Ebola was the story making headlines. She said after we watched a news report on Ebola that she was so worried about it because "I have no confidence in the government to keep us safe." You know, directly cribbed from Fox News. Now this was during the Obama administration, which was fielding crisis after crisis while being sabotaged at every turn by republicans, republicans whom my in laws vote for every time without fail. The irony of worrying about government being able to handle an outbreak of an exotic disease when every time she had a chance to vote for people who would do their best to prepare government agencies and the healthcare system overall she instead voted for the people who hate the very idea of government being able to do anything of consequence and love that their sabotage made people fear and distrust government could be seen from outer space. Of course, Ebola blew over in short order and I doubt Fox or any other corporate media outlet apologized for sensationalizing the story and scaring the crap out of people who didn't take an active role in unilaterally disarming the country to viral outbreaks.

This time around, media coverage seems more balanced and factual, while being less sensational and scaremongering but that doesn't stop right wing media or republicans from claiming whenever they can that "liberal media" is trying to "use" the story to bring down doughfacedonny. Jim Wright summarized it well by saying:

Population: This thing concerns us.
Leader: Your concerns are valid. Here's what we're doing to protect you. This is where you can get verified information. This is how you can help.

Population: This thing concerns us.
Trump: YOU'RE MAKING ME LOOK BAD! FAKE NEWS! WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY? DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT THE MONEY?!

Max Brooks portrayed a pretty realistic scenario about societal indifference, media disinformation, and panic regarding an outbreak of disease in World War Z (the book, not the movie). While Coronavirus is not a zombie apocalypse in the works, the pattern of denial, government being woefully unprepared for the coming crisis and executing hastily-concocted plans incompetently, pharma wildly overcharging for treatments that don't work, huge profits off of suffering, and total failure to contain the outbreak seems awfully prescient. Brooks had as his template the Dubya criminal syndicate for the beginning, which I hate to say actually seems borderline competent compared to this bunch of con men and imbeciles in charge of the Executive Branch today.

I don't know why my picture doesn't show up with the posts on Social Media so I'm just going to plop it into each post from now on.

So if doughfacedonny states that the virus is contained and that coming warmer weather will cause it to fade away, does that mean the opposite of truth? As over 12,000 other statements he has made have been lies? What do we make of the official "correction" of the stock market, that bastion of pure capitalism that has been the major marker behind the claim of a strong economy by republicans? Or can we finally cut the crap that stock market gains mean anything? If $3.4 trillion can evaporate in a week, maybe all those rural white republicans who keep claiming everything is great and fuck you libtards will have a crack in their Dunning-Krueger armor and ask a few questions. CNN has been awfully candid in this story, repeatedly stating that Wall Street loves doughfacedonny's "low tax and light regulation approach" so a Coronavirus outbreak could mean his defeat, which they wouldn't like. Because fuck democracy, the rule of law, and the ability to govern Wall Street demands more sacrifice.