RFK, Jr. Promises What Science Can't

 

RFK Jr: "By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures." pic.twitter.com/gSDVvsD9CH

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2025

You might have to read the title of the blog post more than once--it isn't complimenting Kennedy on what he claims will happen in a matter of months, but rather, if he gets an "answer' in that time, it won't be about the science. Mostly because everything he's saying is wrong.

We don't have an autism epidemic; we have a diagnosis epidemic. We don't lack for research. There are multiple genes and epigenetic factors involved. You can't "eliminate" all potential exposures related to something that has multiple causes. 

Also, and this is important: the way Kennedy speaks about eliminating exposure to a "cause" of autism makes me very concerned about what he thinks about autistic people, that the people expressing aspects of the autism spectrum are broken or less-then. 

Lab-Created Bullshit

Some western observers don't quite understand why General Igor Kirillov was a legitimate military target (see: what is a "general"?)  or understand that lying war criminals are actually bad. Kirillov was behind the dumb propaganda that there were US/Ukrainian biolabs about to threaten the RU/UKR border. I always thought this was a little bit of a backhand at the US for claiming mobile biolabs in Iraq before 2003. But it is totally not the case and never was. And the fuckers who play games with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have no business talking up Ukrainian "dirty" nuclear bomb threats anyway.

Which brings me to Elon Musk, incoming US president in fact if not in name, who is goofing with a government shutdown even before his old-age addled proxy is sworn in, threatening the GOP Speaker (presumptive) of the next Congress and also lying his dumb goofy pale face off. He says this on his dumb loss-leader propaganda site:

Facts Don't Care About Etc.

 

An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala says the odds of Trump improving the economy is worth the potentially higher risk of deportation. “Trump wants to deport those who do bad things. … I haven’t broken any laws.” https://t.co/7JFCCYGcC7

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) November 7, 2024

Our friend here doesn't realize that the bad thing he did was actually just coming here.  

That's enough to make you an "illegal". 

Wow, if we only had some precedent for this:

Giuliani and the Boomerang

 

The Bullshit Artist formerly Known as "America's Mayor", who lied about the 2020 election and had to admit that he didn't have any proof whatsoever that the election was stolen, has been ordered to start turning his various valuable personal belongings into receivership to satisfy a judgment against him for defaming two election workers who were endangered by his lies and had actually not done anything wrong. 

Some people believe in karma. I don't know if I do--but I do believe if you throw shit around, don't be surprised if a stiff wind blows it right back in your face. You shouldn't be surprised if what you put out there comes back to you.

This man used to have a good reputation (I don't know to what degree he earned it, but he did). Then he decided to use up everything he was for Trump. And now he can lose everything he had. 

There's an example in there.

Climate Sunday: The Last of Us

 

My spouse has given me an identity crisis: I am his farfalla, his ucchellina, his angelina, but he called me his "little mushroom" tonight, and since we just saw The Last of Us second episode, I was not really feeling that sobriquet.  Do you want me to consider you a fun guy? I demanded. 

Alas, he thinks this is amusing. Me? It isn't. The problem with climate change is that simpler genomes are going to rise up to the climatic challenges fairly quickly because of their lifespan and the nature of their generativity, and we, plodding long-lived things, have to use our biggie ol' brains to adapt. And I've been watching us deal with race and gender and sexuality issues and have discovered we are as a species only selectively capable of adapting to rapid change. and the people who cope worst, try to enforce failure to adapt. Which is to say, in case of epidemic, you get antivaxxers and antimaskers and the lot we've already been dealing with, who don't only reject precautions for themselves, but want to enforce that for others. 

The folks who are likely to do survival things are held back by asshats who don't understand how anything under the sun works. And are also improbably bad communicators, for the most part. 

I'd like to say Greta is a better communicator than most, actually:

View also:

But it would be better if people generally understood that the changes in the climate are just a world they have never seen before. Any number of diseases will be worse than they were before.  We will see food insecurity.  But also people sickened because food supplies will be more likely to be rotted, fungused, not acceptable to eat. We could forestall some of these changes, if we accepted the science. 

We failed to do the right thing about COVID 19, and we think we can soldier on with the other crises, the climate crisis, to come? It's abominably stupid. We need to take all Covid -19 lessons as our pre-view of disaster.

But another disaster is coming. And another.

Monkeypox is Not an STI You Assholes!

 

The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established. https://t.co/SlsTY3pmCz

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 22, 2022

The premise is wrong.  The conceit of the story is working backwards from the demographic that the disease appeared in to make judgement values about how the disease spreads. This is irresponsible. Monkeypox is related to smallpox. and smallpox was extremely bad. And FYI, although smallpox is basically eradicated, it's because of vaccinations that were stopped for many Gen X and future generations. 

That's right Millennials and Gen Z--the PTB (Powers that be) knew smallpox might still be a thing (weaponized by terrorists, existing in unvaccinated pockets around the world) that might eventually come back to bite our asses. Or at least they should have understood a variant thereof would--see, all of epidemiology is variants--literal proofs of evolution, happening all the time. But we are vulnerable because we were told the disease was eradicated, because it might have existed still, but in places too remote and fucked up for us to consider. 

It's Probably A Million.

 

I think I've been a bit remiss about posting regarding the pandemic, because we were going to be loose as a goose and go fuck a duck if actual infection and whatever else figures suggested we need mask up and whatever again, But in real-space, it looks to me like  BA.2 or "Stealth Omicron" is entirely a thing. It's fucking up China, and that means US coastal cities will be feeling it in 3,2, 1....because airports exist. And in actuality, I'm triple vaxxed and masked at work because I don't trust any damn thing. I experienced post virus bullshit from mono and don't want to know what post Covid is like. 

I think we might have lost a million people to Covid-19 given what we know about excess deaths. I think it would be incredibly stupid to pretend Covid isn't a regular feature of our near-future. Go think about the one million probable Covid-19 deaths--and consider what the future government that can better  manage it might look like.

We would need a stronger government protocol about preventing infection in the first place and that means masking. We would need vaccine research that thought about tackling variants and persistently educated people that vaccination is always a correct protocol for avoiding the worst that a virus could do. These things can happen--

They just won't. I think RW tropes are persistent above and beyond functional civic protocols. People are dying because one party doesn't care and the other party isn't fighting back.

Is There a Better Way?

 

The White House released a statement that basically says, "if you are vaccinated, we have your back, but if you are unvaccinated, there's only so much we can do." That's some pretty stark stuff, but I'm not actually sure how many ways are left to tell the actual grown adults (not the under 5 year olds who can't get the vaccine, or the eligible minors who might be prevented by their grown adult parents) that play-time has been over. Here we are, over 800K US people dead of COVID-19, and there are still people who want to claim it's the government taking away freedoms--not their bullshit ideas of freedom taking away other people's lives. 

There's only so much you can do with people who won't be vaccinated, won't social distance, and won't mask up. They made their choice. They insisted on it. Lecturing is supposed to be useless because it makes them double-down. Doom-saying supposedly just makes them more paranoid. What's left? Once the anti-responsibility folks start pretending they've been Nuremburged and Mengeled, other than a firm sock to the snooter I don't know what course-corrects their deluded asses. 

Especially when conservative vice-signaling seems to rely in part on vaccination-defiance. There really doesn't seem to be a point to trying not to politicize the vaccines since that ship is sailing away, setting a course for the Virgin Sea. Because they have to be free...free to... 

Look, I'm not the one to tell the Biden Administration they are fucking up the messaging just yet, but in part, they are. The thing with mutations is, you don't know what you are going to get, ever. That's why I'm pissed off at people who already want to declare that the Omicron variant is less deadly than Delta--we don't know that because hospitalizations and deaths are a lagging indicator anyway, and because post-infection syndromes exist. Also, there is likelihood the reinfection and a double-team of Omicron and Delta could occur, and we already know Delta is really deadly. 

O Tempora! Omicron!

 

The thing with Covid-19 is that Covid-19 started in 2019 and it's 2021 and we're still going through it, and it does not look like we are getting out of it for real anytime soon. Sure, maybe in the US we didn't think we had a COVID-19 problem until sometime in early 2020, but the thing with a pandemic is, by the time you know you've got one, depending on the rate of transmission, it's already ahead of you. Viruses replicate quickly, which means mutations are just this amazing verification of Darwinian stuff we can watch in real time, and in a kind of entirely unamused anxiety. 

And on news that there was a kind of "Nu" variant, the financial market was already reacting to the fear that we were going to have spikes like we saw with Delta. Which is entirely probable. It appears the mutations with the Omicron variant specifically would relate to the protein spike that vaccines and antibody-based treatments attack, meaning that this variation could be more likely to evade vaccination, and possibly earlier infection. 

So, a couple of things: transmissibility does not equal deadliness. We can't be sure that the Omicron variation is more likely to kill someone than its better-understood kin. Also, less protection against a specific variant isn't the same thing as no protection--it still makes sense to be vaxxed to the max. But with caution, I do think it is interesting that Omicron variant-infected people identified as having traveled from South Africa are represented by at least one person not at all vaxxed (in Europe) and vaxxed plus booster (Israel). This shouldn't tell us vaccination is useless--it should tell us we need to vax harder because we aren't getting "herd immunity" any other way!

And our failures in doing that are partially a capitalist choice, and partially a disinfo failure. In a culture that values free speech, democratic free nations suck at figuring out how to shut down liars and grifters. Also, I have to commend South Africa for identifying this variant, that will be attributed to having developed in SA unfairly. It could have happened anywhere--it was discovered in South Africa because they are a leader in virology science. 

Also, I have to be an entire arse about the name--how we could have had Abbot and Costello fun with the New/Nu variant (ok, it's not that funny, but still!) And it's clearly not funny that the western lettering Xi is the same for the Chinese president and for the Greek letter Xi that the new variant could have been marked by, and that also seems like it had humor potential but no--not very appropriate. 

I like Omicron as a name. It is the Giotto circle simplicity of Greek letters, but it is the 1980s Transformers-level naming for villians. The Omnicron variant. OMG, by Crom!. If a virus was as big as a micron, it would be a very big deal. 

Look, I take my inappropriate humor where I can get it. And I think Pfizer and Merck and them already know how to do a booster for this new development. I'm not actually all that phased because we know the drill by now--mask up, wash your hands. But I always suspect someone will try to politically benefit from disaster. And that is what this COVID set-back represents. And I hate that, because the people who would do that are the actual worst. 

It's The Public Health, Stupid

 

President Biden made some important steps just now to try and end the COVID-19 pandemic which is, thanks to anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, becoming more of an "endemic" problem here in the good ol' US of A. He has mandated COVID-19 shots for federal employees and contractors and large employers (100+ employees) and expanded testing regimes. This is actually a great start--we had a chance for people to voluntarily choose to take shots that would protect them from severe disease (given that breakthrough cases might still exist because--variants, but that spread of the disease only increases the risk of--variants--like the Delta variant that is ripping through the latest wave, and now we're hearing about Lambda and Mu, both believed to be more immune-dodging buggers). 

Some didn't take that chance, and even patted themselves on the back for not doing it. Now, anti-vax grace period is over, and if you special little people want to be employed and to travel and whatnot, get your whole special asses with the program and get the shots. That's right. Because the majority of us are vaccinated now, and because of you, we can barely have nice things. And we've fucking had it.

Needless to say, the Republican sociopath slow genocide squad started bleating about their freedumbs at once. Ohio Senate Candidate Josh Mandel stood in a cornfield in front of a Trump sign and had a very natural one, which for some reason I find endlessly hilarious.  Yes, don't comply with tyranny. Shoot the vaxstapo if they come to your door! This is normal stuff to say! I am not a crank! 

And the funny old thing is, I don't think Mandel is an actual crank. I think he's a political opportunist and has boosters with his morning coffee and just doesn't give a fuck who dies. He definitely triggers an obvious bovine fecal aroma alert every time I check in on him. 

But this is the Trumpublican party line, right? The hardcore Trump guys are all in for antivax. Like the ratbastard Flynn clan, who are pimping sheep drench. Even the Chinese fuck whose yacht Steve Bannon got arrested on is all up in the antivax shit. 

And you all could ask why, and the dry eye reason why is Republicans can afford to send masses of red state bodies to wingnut Valhalla for the culture war. And they'd still win elections there. And that's pretty Leninist of them. Let's give them a tankie golf clap. 

Anyways, so even if definitely not an authoritarian asshat Greg Abbot wants to now invoke the "right to choose" for Texans (uh no, sonny, that's what Merrick Garland is trying to ensure, not you):

and other Republican nihilist death-eating sonsabitches want to tussle with the mandates, actually still and all, it's about the public health and there's precedent.  Vaccine mandates are as American as cherry pie.  And I cannot tell a lie about that. 

Regardless of the lies others spread, the kind that get people killed. The kind that have already resulted in so many unnecessary American deaths, as Republicans have told for purely political reasons. Because that kind of evil is just beyond me. And well beyond Joe Biden, who just wants you not to die, God love ya. Not because the unvaxxed should be punished, but because he doesn't want Americans to die. How much more simple does it need to be? 

Things Fall Apart

 

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Orlando Utilities Commission are addressing the media about a “unprecedented event” that they say needs immediate community assistance. More on the ask on @fox35orlando pic.twitter.com/6zdwdGxFvJ

— Dave Puglisi (@DavePuglisiTV) August 20, 2021

The self-reliance myth that some people tout, the fierce independence of a pig sliding on ice, the notion that people can choose not to vaccinate or mask because "It doesn't affect anybody but me" melts like butter in a hot skillet once you recognize that we are all out here competing for resources and some people have ensured that those resources are going to go towards the management (with possible dwindling utility) of a preventable disaster instead of just maintaining a functioning modern society. By the time we have people falling on the floor because they are too sick to stand, even a "free" treatment is more costly than the free vaccine and the cheap masks that could have prevented things coming to this point.

Any person in government who doesn't understand that things tend to fall apart without maintenance, and that pressures like a pandemic fill up ICU's, close schools, and kill citizens and should be addressed with firmness early on, is lacking basic common sense, let alone the leadership and knowledge to perform. And this isn't to pick on poor ol' Ron- Greg Abbot and Tate Reeves and others haven't been much better. But keep in mind this foolish and disastrous course isn't a bug of unfit individuals who have risen to high office--its a feature of conservative thought. 

Leaders like DeSantis don't necessarily see the problem, and will gaslight and bully reporters and dissemble publicly because you are the problem if you see the problem. And there it is. Leaving people like mayors and other officials trying very very hard to stop things from falling apart faster than they should be.

 

Sociopaths Shouldn't Be In Government 4: Governor DeathSentence

BREAKING NEWS: A petition to recall Florida governor Ron DeSantis over his disastrous, deadly handling of the COVID pandemic is starting to catch fire🔥🔥🔥. Let’s make it go viral! https://t.co/iWsuYcjCav

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) August 17, 2021

I guess it is very interesting that Ron DeSantis wants to promote a costly drug protocol over a vaccine that is basically free. Hmm. Like "hmm hmm hmm hmm". Now, I am not saying that I know that I know that Governor DeSantis is encouraging the virus along precipitously amongst schoolchildren and everyone they contact because he is associated with the worst kinds of crisis capitalist opportunists. I am saying I have no reason to doubt it based on his behavior, which is a whole other thing. I just think he's hanging on to his position by very grasping fingertips that don't mind stirring a pandemic pot. 

 UPDATE: But it is serious and allowing an epidemic is actually quite bad.

Sociopaths Shouldn't Be in Government 3: Rand Paul

 

Being 16 months late in reporting the purchase of a particular stock could look like a mere oversight in some regards, like if one was updating one's portfolio as frequently as, say, David Perdue did. It stands out spectacularly when the purchase of one particular stock occurs one month after having been briefed on Covid-19 and if it were the only stock that had been singularly selected almost as if one was persuaded this particular stock was going places. 

So what the whole hell happened there? Did Kelley Paul get one hell of a tip from somewhere? And where oh where could that have been? Because you know, there were all kinds of tips going round back in the day. Only, it's only Rand Paul that misremembered what took place until 16 months later. Like he thought he'd be slick and avoid investigation, or something.

Now, whoa, whoa, whoa, you might say, doesn't the article suggest that the Pauls haven't earned money on that stock?  Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, yourselves, they haven't sold it, and the Senator from Kentucky was just out here being not at all helpful regarding arresting COVID-19 spread.  Do you suppose a man with 3/4ths the lungs he was born with and even had COVID-19 himself, and is actually trained as a doctor, thinks "What the hell, vector away you free-souled little sonsabitches?" without some kind of material impetus? I dunno. Maybe he's thinking remdesivir can make a comeback.

You Wouldn't Take This So Lightly

 

I don't know know how I would personally feel if the state I was supposedly running just broke its record in COVID-19 cases and also hospitalizations, but I absolutely imagine that if I had even thought about scoffing at the seriousness of the pandemic by making whimsical campaign merchandise* about flouting simple, solid, epidemiological advice because CULTURE WAR!!!!!, I'd probably feel like 31 flavors of untreated raw sewage. But I don't think Ron DeSantis is that kind of guy: he's probably all good with it. 

How do I know?  Well, he's even implying he would let his own, too-young-to-be vaccinated kids go maskless (similar to uncanny Valley Girl and Trump by marriage Lara) while promoting an executive order to let parents choose whether kids have to mask or not--basically banning local mask mandates for schools. Even if we know pretty well that having the unvaccinated mask is a really good idea. 

It's a decision that doesn't seem all that great, to me. Pediatricians are saying the Delta variant of COVID-19 does spread in kids, and whether it's uniquely dangerous to them or not, why the hell spread it, and why the hell let mutations flourish (ok, that last question is mostly mine, but,  seriously, give it time, and maybe some variation will escape vaccinations and be deadly AF--so why tempt fate?) 

Right now, people are losing their  unvaccinated family members (and even some sicker or older vaccinated family) and begging people to get vaccinated even if they weren't big believers before.  There isn't one thing in the world wrong with making the choice to both vaccinate yourself and urge it for the people around you--and to mask yourself just because you could, temporarily, be capable of breakthrough infection and spread. It's just a civic duty and a kindness to others. It's just caring enough about the people around you to not want them or their loved ones sick, any more than you want to be sick or see your loved ones sick. 

Double-Shot!

 

I got my second Pfizer jab today, and other than a slightly sore arm (only noticeable when I raise it) I feel pretty good. I'm basically glad to be all shotted up, and that I'm not going around all half-vaxxed anymore. I'm not even mad that I might need a booster in 6-12 months, because, welp! Being vaccinated beats the alternative. 

There's a lot of weird misinformation out there and weird people who spread it. I don't really feel like going into what weird shit anti-vaxxers are saying because it's not really an intellectual problem--I think wanting to believe that COVID-19 is not very dangerous and that Big Pharma is out to get folks stems from distrust of, well, everything. News reporting. The idea of expertise. The unknown. As I posted earlier about the "abundance of caution" phrase and why it doesn't set people's mind at ease, people mostly don't assess risk mentally, but with their gut.

And guts don't know stuff. They feel. People live in hope and buy lotto tickets because "any day, now". They live in fear and have a small arsenal in their basements because Armageddon's coming. They convince themselves they drive better after two drinks and no one gets pregnant their first time. They have lucky articles of clothing and avoid intersections where they've had a crash before. 

If the average random person has come to the conclusion that vaccines don't work or are actively harmful or are somehow worse than a virus that has killed 3 million people worldwide and badly whupped the behinds of millions more, it says something about their experiences before COVID-19 ever came around--it tells a story about their opinions of journalism, science, the pharma industry. 

I guess facts can partially help. If someone wants to get stroppy about wearing a mask, you can ask them if they wear a seatbelt. Odds are the answer is "yes", and how odd, only about 37K people die from car crashes a year compared to 500K from COVID in the past year, so.... You can point out that thanks to vaccinations, polio and smallpox have been nearly eradicated, and hardly anyone gets measles or mumps anymore. About 40-something percent of Americans voluntarily get flu shots each year (that number should be higher). 

As for side -effects, nothing's perfect. I'm seeing people doing incredulous post hoc, ergo propter hoc nonsense out there, just breathlessly going around like "This gut died after getting his COVID shot! Sure, he was 90/had cancer/anvil fell on his head, but it just goes to show you!" The drug companies aren't trying to kill you with side effects in much the same way they are not trying to get their whole entire asses sued off. And, like, how does it even benefit them to kill you, a potential future customer of their other fine products in your tottering old age? 

It's just something I've been thinking about, lately. There's a lot in common between responses to COVID-19 and climate change (like denialism, or thinking it's real, but happening to other people, or that it'll pass, or that it--a natural phenomenon--can be bargained with), and in part, there's also a major political component. And I have a lot of venom stored up for people who seem to be intentionally misinforming about the science, too. We need a vaccination against assholism, too.

PSA: Saving Your Blessings

 

I know a lot of people have already left to get to their family holiday get-togethers, and some others might be very certain that warning about the spread of COVID-19 is a liberal plot to destroy the family by attacking our sacred holidays, but I think it should be said that if our service-members and veterans do and have spent holidays away from their loved ones for the protection of this nation, isn't that really something any of us should be patriotic enough to do? 

COVID-19 has killed over 250K Americans (given the excess death figures, probably tens of thousands more). That's an enemy you shouldn't want to bring home with you for the holidays. And while it isn't fatal for everyone who comes into contact with it (although it is dangerous enough for older people and immune-compromised people), it can certainly send someone to the hospital. Those beds are already filling up. Hospitals and health care workers are stressed to the maximum. 

No one is saying not to celebrate Thanksgiving--in a small group within your household and maybe making some nice long phone calls to folks who are distant. Be thankful! But sometimes the best way to show thankfulness for your blessings is to save them. Social distancing saves lives. Too many people have learned this lesson the hard way.

They Haven't Given Up; They Switched Sides

 

Mark Meadows: “We’re not going to control the pandemic, we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations.”

Jake Tapper: “Why aren’t we going to get control of the pandemic?”

Meadows: “Because it is a contagious virus” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/1ahyatu6co

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 25, 2020

It certainly sounds a little bit like a surrender: "We're not going to control the pandemic" certainly would equal "letting the pandemic spread". But the stupider half of that: "we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations" is that the Trump Administration can't actually make science do stuff just because they want it. Of course they can put more money into research, and doctors will try things that might work better for more patients, but vaccines don't just turn out to work brilliantly because you very much want them to. 

 What they believe they can control is information. They can try to make it seem like the testing is the reason for the case volume in the US being high (which remains incredibly stupid--just keep pregnancy tests up at the convent and see where that gets you)and they can try to hide the increased rates of hospitalizations, minimize the deaths as being "vulnerable people only" (which makes me shudder--it is not just the vulnerable that can suffer and even die of COVID-19, but treating people as disposable because they are vulnerable is itself disgraceful and bloody-minded--it is like they are comfortable with a "natural causes" version of Aktion T4) and completely ignore the evidence that the various syndromes of the "long-haulers" are persistent and wide-spread. 

 They even considered enlisting Santa Claus for their "feel-good" project which is stunning, but Santa is well aware that things are not going to be ok this year. 

 In practice, however, the Trump campaign is actually actively spreading infection via their rallies, even to retirement communities (those vulnerable people whom the Administration admits do catch and die from COVID-19). And even though five people in VP Mike Pence's inner circle have tested positive for COVID, he will not be quarantining, but will continue with his regular schedule. 

 It is really as if, just as Trump and friends have an affinity for dictators, they have also decided they will be just fine living with what Trump, I now believe affectionately calls "The Plague". Sure, it has a bad reputation for killing lots of people, but when Trump met Mr. Coronavirus, it let him live. 

And isn't that what matters?

The Selfishness

 

We are supposed to be assured that the president is doing much better than he was Friday when he was sent by helicopter to Walter Reed after having been given a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron (which is kind of experimental and Hail Mary-ish for someone only about 24 hours from his positive test, you think?) and having maybe been given just a bong-hit's worth of oxygen (I'm estimating based on the vagueness of White House messaging) because, you know: "abundance of caution" and all that.

I don't trust anything coming out of the White House or the Trump campaign any more than I would trust anything out of Trump himself. Trump's doctors gave an impression today that maybe Trump did not get his positive COVID test Thursday, but possibly Wednesday. As it was, if he knew Hope Hicks had a positive test Thursday, his fundraiser at Bedminster (a buffet! why not apple-bobbing while we're at it?) seems super-ill-advised. But heck, he came into close contact with a whole lot of people lately--like on Air Force One and Marine One for example. So let's not kid ourselves--Trump's highly-packed campaign schedule and carelessness in a time of pandemic has been extremely irresponsible, and so has the behaviors of many people around him,

The shabby behavior of Trump's circle has threatened the health of people working in the White House, as well as Secret Service members.  They aren't exactly going out of their way to help anyone sort out who got infected and when. And it is very possible that Trump may have been infected when he attended the debate Tuesday--and may have even suspected as much, then. 

Wallace was also saying Friday that the Trump campaign didn't arrive to the debate in time to get tested beforehand, so they were on the "honor system."

He noted as well that members of Trump’s family didn’t wear masks while they were watching the debate. 

“People in the hall did notice that while they were all wearing masks, including my wife and four children, that the first family did not wear masks during the debate. ... It is worth noting that different people treated the safety rules inside the hall differently,” Wallace described. 

And I have no explanation for this behavior except extraordinary selfishness. It's depraved indifference to other people's health and well-being. Former NJ Governor Chris Christie assisted Trump with debate prep and was at the White House superspreader event announcing Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to SCOTUS--and he found out he might be infected by way of the media. He's a big guy with a history of asthma and has since tested positive and been checked into hospital--because of sheer carelessness, there's a real threat to his life.  And he was present with ABC news staff during the debates--all of the folks who came into contact with him also need to be concerned. And tested!

VP Pence, supposedly testing negative, has done rallies and plans to do more. Pop-up Trump demonstrations (often with indifferent masking and social distancing) are occurring in support of Dear leader. I don't see Trump's unfortunate brush with the virus making anyone on Team Trump behave any smarter; they are only ready to lionize Trump as a hero of unparalleled fortitude if he overcomes the illness and to depict him as a martyr to the People if he succumbs. 

And don't get me started on the behavior of the several senators who have also been exposed and revealed as positive. There has been plenty of selfishness to go around. 

The picture I chose for this post is a comparison of a picture Trump Tweeted in early January 2017 showing him supposedly working on the inaugural address from the "Winter White House", Mar-a-Lago, and the most recent picture of Trump, well enough to be "reviewing documents" from the presidential suite at Walter Reed. They both are staged, and display nothing about the fitness or work of the subject. 

I feel lied to, and all of us should. 

The 48-hour Quarantine

#BREAKING North Paulding High School will shut down for two days due to Covid-19. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/zZrac2iUNG

— Chris Jose (@ChrisJoseWSB) August 9, 2020

So, North Paulding HS, whose crowded hallway scene demonstrated for many of us the futility of social distancing and returning students to in-person classes, has now had several students and staff test positive for COVID-19, after making a point of trying to silence the real concerns of students and staff who knew good and well that this set-up did not look safe.

So, what do they think is going to happen in 48 hours? Are all the kids and staff going to get COVID-19 tests, and get their results back, and all the affected folks will go for the long quarantine while the unaffected ones come back as safe as safe as well-insured houses? Or is saying they will go online for two whole days just a work-around to look like they are addressing the problem while making it perfectly clear that no, in fact, they don't give a fuck but also, shut up and fuck you?

See, 48 hours is bullshit. Not everyone is getting tested, or getting results, or making the decision to quarantine, or anything else in that period of time. None of that is happening. And even if a dozen or so more cases emerge--have they set any idea of when they will shut it all down?

Here's what we're finding out about kids and coronavirus--they are certainly testing positive, and that means they are not "immune". What we're seeing with school re-opening is not pretty. It isn't that schooling isn't important or can't be done, but people should be observing what doesn't work well, and what work-arounds might be beneficial. What is interesting to me is hearing conservatives appear to be slagging justifications for homeschooling due to the potential for child abuse or poor socialization, when they have previously been champions for it when it comes to religious reasons. Why the volte face?

It's just astounding to me that people are approaching this as a binary : Do or do not, instead of trying to think of ways to do things as thoughtfully and well and with success in mind as possible. People are prioritizing individuality instead of working as a community. Is it so hard for people to get on the same page and work together?

They Had a Plan, But the Dog Ate It

After posting about Rep. Gohmert's positive COVID-19 test with a touch of glibness, I thought I'd steer clear of saying anything about the passing of former presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain or of the passing of the co-founder of TPUSA, Bill Montgomery, from the same disease lest I be perceived as being disrespectful of the dead.

Some lamented that news reports pointed out that Cain was at the Trump Tulsa rally and boasted about not wearing a mask. I guess I would say to that "It is what it is", under the general precept that a word to the wise is sufficient, but a fool never learns. It isn't victim-blaming to point out that these would be generally regarded as dumb things to do during a pandemic but for politics, and that isn't grave-dancing so much as a word to others.

But the point is--Republicans and Democrats alike are mortal and susceptible to this disease--it doesn't care how you vote, pray or donate your money, it just looks for a way to weasel into your body and mess you up. Nagging liberals aren't trying to steal anyone's FREEEEDOOMSMS, we would prefer people not get sick and spread it around.

The idea that the contagious disease is contagious appears to have been missed by the Trump Administration, though, because they had a plan, but....Jared:

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

That logic may have swayed Kushner. “It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,” the expert said.

On April 27, Trump stepped to a podium in the Rose Garden, flanked by members of his coronavirus task force and leaders of America’s big commercial testing laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, and finally announced a testing plan: It bore almost no resemblance to the one that had been forged in late March, and shifted the problem of diagnostic testing almost entirely to individual states.

See? It was going to stay a blue state problem, and I guess, only the wrong sort of voter would suffer. (But we knew the Trump folks were being partisan about it all, and we also knew Kushner is not, alas, very bright.)

The pandemic reveals the poor leadership of the Trump folks because it is happening to all of America, and Trump is not a president for all of us. But regardless of who he favors, we suffer together.

(And yes, I think the story is a selective leak by someone who might have it out for Kushner and is blaming him....like a dog. But there's plenty of blame to go around.)