Just Stay Alive

“do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive

Do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away.

Let people call you crazy for the choices that you make…

Just stay alive.”

“Amy aka spent gladiator” by The Mountain Goats

Oh my god I want all you guys to stay alive. That’s getting increasingly less possible as this pandemic rolls on. Turns out it doesn’t discriminate. It kills young and old alike. 50 doctors in Italy have died from COVID-19. We all have friends and family in medical and other fields that are on the front lines of this war.

We are all under attack. But, it’s not just the virus attacking us. Lies and misinformation from #45 will make this an American tragedy like nothing we've ever seen. The virus is an out of control blaze and Trump’s words are the gasoline that will see to it that it burns much longer than it should have.

I wanted to write today to mark the date that I first heard him say that American lives mattered to him. It was a lie, obviously. Just check all his Corona related statements leading up to today (and more importantly, his inaction). He said the priorities are “life and safety”. And then hedged his bet with “at the same time we have to get them out”. (meaning, get people back to work.)

It can’t just be life and safety, next question. Economy has to be mixed in. the thing is, for 8 solid weeks, he forgot to mix in human life. Safety should have been the only thing that mattered, but his playbook has always been downplaying the virus and worrying about the economy. The thing is, the economy is going to be much worse off, for a much longer term, because he didn’t prioritize human life above all else. It took two fucking months for him to say “life and safety”.

The fact that Trump is still talking is bat shit crazy.

Why the fuck are we listening to him?

18,000 plus lies ago he inexplicably became our president. He thinks he might be a natural at viruses. He thinks windmills cause cancer and kill “many bald eagles”. He’s said things like, “you know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe.” He’s a self-proclaimed “very-stable” genius. 6 times bankrupt. 20+ credible rape allegations against him. if you keep suing to hide your taxes, you’re a con man. But, somehow he’s used lies and state tv paid actors to spread a virus just as dangerous as COVID-19. Put them both together and we are all fucked.

And yet, we keep giving him air time to lead us through this crisis. Credit to the states who have stopped showing those live in order to reduce the spread of misinformation.

Dr Fauci is the expert. Let him be the only voice. It’s terrifying to watch him correct Trump. How do you think Trump reacts to that off-camera? The answer is exactly why every single fucking thing Dr Fauci says is filtered to please Trump.

Watch the Doctor’s Instagram Live interview with Stephen Curry. He still won’t put the information out there completely. He has to qualify his words to fit what Trump wants the message to be.

And the message from the time that mother fucking piece of shit Richard Burr sold off his stocks after a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting on COVID-19 was “fuck American lives”. Money matters. Human lives do not.

We’re neck deep in the worst crisis in American history and Trump continues to sell garbage like the country will be reopened by easter and that churches will be packed. Fauci quietly said, you don’t set the timeline, the virus sets the timeline.

We’re counting on a pathologically lying con-man who says things like he “believes” new York doesn’t need 30,000 ventilators.

Not the time for a moron with scientific hunches to have the microphone.

But, is he just a moron? The number of times I’ve heard something he’s said or done and said, “no one is that fucking stupid” is innumerable.

So, we’re left with two choices. he’s literally the dumbest fucking person on the planet. Or he’s not on our side.

China fucked this up. It’s china’s fault. They handled it poorly. That Chinese virus is attacking us.

Okay. I’ll bite. How are we handling it in a way that will ensure that less Americans die than Chinese?

The virus hits seattle first. We know a helluva lot more about it at that point. China was hampered by the reality that it was a new virus. We could have learned from china. Or Italy. Or france.

Instead of ensuring that we had tests, masks and ventilators from the very beginning, he called this a hoax. He called it a “Chinese” virus. He told us it was under control. We only had 15 cases. And soon those 15 would be zero. He told the reporter who asked what he’d say to people who are worried, “I’d tell them that you’re a terrible reporter.” He called another legit question “a nasty question.”

I’ll handle it way better than China did by not testing or containing it? to ensure that there’s no way to know the true numbers? No way to prevent it from spreading nationwide? All that does is ensure that we will have…BY FAR…the largest COVID-19 related death toll of any nation on earth.

So, what if that’s by design?

If tests aren’t available, we can’t chart the progress. We can’t predict the peak. We can’t properly lock down the whole country.

Is that the leadership of an idiot? Or someone not on our side?

Welllllll…I had the misfortune of googling “trump life and safety” or something like that. It was so out of place for him to say life and safety of Americans mattered to him in today’s press briefing given the economy driven way he’s handled this crisis that I wanted to make sure I got the quote right.

What came up?

A Putin quote from 2 days ago in Russia. “life and safety of the people” is his absolute priority.

So, Trump’s completely out of character quote just happens to directly match what Putin said 48 hours ago?

I was scared before. That didn’t help.

From the beginning, I’ve been screaming for tests. If we don’t test, we can’t quantify and solve the problem. But, see...no tests equals no problem if you’re the president who’s not on our side. If the man cared about human lives, the first thing he would have done was ensure that we contained the problem.

Instead, he’s telling us boldface lies like “some people get better just by sitting around and even going to work”. Define better.

And then, if you’re Russian, define better.

We needed to see the unredacted Mueller report. We needed to see his taxes.

If he wanted to see the economy booming, he would have tested and contained the virus.

But, if he wanted America to be his 7^th bankruptcy, he’s on the right track.

Right or wrong, I don’t care. The only thing I’m interested in here is making sure people stop fucking listening to this 5 time draft dodger. Lives are at stake. And the thing is, not only could he have saved lives, but our economy could have been fine if he had contained things on the front end.

The no testing and no containment strategy ensured that this is going to drag on for a painfully long period of time. That is if we’re still breathing. Job one is to keep ourselves and our families breathing.

If we can do that, we still have time to relieve him of his duties and rebuild. Our economy is fucked. Our hospitals will be overrun. It’s fucking garbage that we are all going to have loved ones who die. Nurses. Doctors. Grocery store employees.

See, the truth has always mattered. Even if none of this is as evil as I’ve implied, he’s still killing us by picking the economy and his own fucked up gut feelings over actual science. and passing his bullshit off as facts.

that has to stop. We need the truth to make a come back. We need to be hearing directly from the mouths of doctors and scientists right now. We need to take the time to listen to the stories of the ER nurses in NYC and the doctors in Detroit.

Anyone looking at the facts and giving Trump an approval rating for handling COVID-19 that is north of zero, is simply not listening.

This is the biggest trauma we’ll ever face as a nation and we need to do it together. And I’m not talking about fucking hand-knitting non-protective masks from JoAnn fabrics. that won’t help.

We need to put Trump on mute to save ourselves. roll up our sleeves and figure out how to fix the ventilator and mask shortage. not feel good work together nonsense like the Jo-Ann links I see that aren't going to actually save our nurses and doctors. they need the real thing. defense production act or not. GM contract or not. let's fucking get the proper equipment made.

Fucking think about the state that we're in. And listen to my initial plea…just stay alive. and to help ourselves do that, we need to not listen to #45. What the fuck has become of our great nation? I love you guys. I don’t want any of you to suffer from this. Please stay safe. And pick each other up. And be willing to speak the truth. It fucking matters.