Soapbox

Basement Tapes 2.0

It’s been a roller-coaster.
The logistical aspects of living down in what is basically an efficiency apartment haven’t been too bad. But the other parts are harder.

It seemed likely by Nov. 5th that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would win the election, when all votes were finally counted. By Saturday it was mathematically impossible for Trump to win and the election was called. Although counting was still going on, the end was obvious.
Well obvious to everyone but Team Trump.
He doesn’t do math. He only does Trump.

There were cheering crowds in the streets around the nation and the world, and bells ringing in Paris as if it were the end of a bitter war. (Live your life in such a way that the world doesn’t not rejoice when you lose your job I read.) It has been a war but it is not over.
Screaming in all-caps on Twitter things like “STOP THE STEAL!” and “I WON THE ELECTION- BY A LOT!” and “DO SOMETHING” Donald Trump kept up his campaign of lies, even as Joe Biden began putting his transition team in place. Declaring that they had “mountains of evidence” that “illegal votes” were being counted, Trump lawyers began filing lawsuits to “STOP THE COUNT” in states where Biden’s lead was widening, (while demanding “COUNT EVERY VOTE” in states where Trump was ahead. Make up your mind). So far over a dozen cases have been summarily dismissed by judge after judge, all saying “You have lots of noise but no substance. This is all hearsay and accusation with nothing to back it up your contention that anything illegal has happened”.

Trump’s high-powered professional team just quit, no doubt recognizing that their reputation was not being burnished by working on such a frivolous and hypocritical case to undermine democracy. (The fact that Trump has a history of refusing to pay his debts to contractors and even lawyers probably didn’t help.) In one case they filed a brief that literally had a post-it note attached as “evidence”, handed in by someone who said someone told him that they had seen… Many are now calling it the Post-It Defense.

But that hasn’t stopped Donald Trump, who refuses to concede and has his surrogates and idiots fanned out declaring that he actually won if you don’t count those illegal votes (by which he means votes for Biden, apparently) and will dance at his own inauguration in January.
And while simply refusing to surrender doesn’t mean that you get to win the war, it is making things much, much worse.
Trump reportedly hasn’t taken a National Security briefing since October, because he just doesn’t even pretend to care any more. And yet he has refused to allow Biden to get Nat Sec briefings. Which means, literally, that no one is driving.

Of course no one has been driving for, well, years, and that seems to be fine with the GOP, as long as they are in power and still able to line their pockets.
While only a few are openly supporting Trump’s ridiculous claims, most of them are mouthing meaningless s**t like “It is important for democracy that every legal vote be counted and no illegal ones and until that has happened we do not know who has won the election…” blah blah blah. But we DO know. The Secretaries of State- even Republican ones- in states that voted for Biden by narrow margins are all saying- No. Look, we don’t like the results, but we ran a clean election, our votes were counted honestly and Donald Trump lost”.
So now Trump is calling for them to resign, or be impeached, for the people to rise up and… and overturn the 5+ million vote advantage Biden has and install Trump on the throne, because he thinks he deserves it. Because it’s not fair for Biden to win just because 5 million more people want him to win. Because f*ck democracy and the Will of the People: Trump and the GOP is entitled to stay in power.

From my sofa in the basement while I wait to see if I have contracted the disease that has hospitals in places like N Dakota at 100% capacity (but still no mask laws- because Freedom) I am one tiny voice pushing back, encouraging people on my political page (over 100k followers, so not that tiny) to do the same. Calling, emailing my idiot Republican senator and others, reminding them that history will remember them as aiding and abetting a criminal. But Ohio, despite the hardship and loss, despite the deaths, despite the corruption, open attacks on democracy and sheer not giving a damn, voted for Trump. And they won’t be around for most of history.

Yesterday there was what was billed as a “Million MAGA March” in Washington to Stop the Steal and keep Trump in power. It was attended by the Proud Boyz (on the verge of pulling out their white hoods and admitting that hell yes, they want to put the blacks and browns back in their place) and the QAnon delusionists (who insist that there is an international cabal of pedophile killers whom Trump is fighting) and the gun-wavers, woman-haters, angry entitleds and guys who just like to have an excuse to swear at people.
Despite the fact that they say they are there to worship and keep him in power, Trump just drove past them and waved on his way to steal more taxpayer money at his golf club. Because even fighting to stay in power takes a back seat to his favorite grift.
Trump’s latest spokesliar bragged that there were “more than a million” great patriots turned out to protect democracy (out to overturn democracy, you mean) when overhead camera shots showed no more than a few thousand. A nice crowd, but she was off by a factor of 100. Fitting, though, given that Trump started his administration by sending his first spokesliar out to insist that “Donald Trump’s Inauguration had the highest attendance of any inauguration in history, period!”
Because in Trump’s world, a lie becomes true if you just state it emphatically enough.

Joe Biden has 306 electoral college votes (Trump tried telling swing states who went blue that they should just refuse to appoint any electors who would vote for Biden, so that he could win (see “F*ck democracy and the Will of the People). Those states have said- Er… no. Absent strong evidence of an unfair election, we are required by statute to appoint electors as determined by the popular vote.
But thanks for making another strong argument for why the Electoral college should be eliminated entirely.

Meanwhile, down in the basement…
In just a few more days I will have passed the 14 day mark, the point at which virologists assure us that is the longest it can take to start exhibiting symptoms. I can stop worrying every time I have to clear my throat, or realize “Crap- my glands are swollen- am I getting sick?” I can go upstairs in my own house without first putting on my mask and sanitizing my hands, and people won’t have to wait for me to leave the room before they enter. I can sleep in my own bed and put my arms around my husband again. Ted won’t have to sit at the top of the stairs and talk to me. We won’t have to text each other goodnight.
Until the next time.

I find myself unable to detail here too much about the ongoing (and worsening, because Trump!) pandemic. Yes, there has been a vaccine announced that seems to be 90% effective. (Trump immediately claimed credit for its development and Pfizer had to push back and remind the world that they took ZERO money from the US government for their work. Trump would take credit for the sun rising in the east if he thought it would get him something). But it will be April before large scale immunizations can begin, and it will be a 2-step vaccine that won’t really confer immunity until after the second dose.

In the meantime, despite having the highest new infection rate in the world, half of America seems to want to get Covid-19! An incoming state Rep in Georgia was all over social media proclaiming that “Masks are oppression! My Body- My choice!”
Dumb ass. It’s NOT just your body! It’s the bodies of everyone you come in contact with, and everyone they come in contact with!
A group of parents held a secret prom for their kids (they’re now called Superspreader events) and sure, parents, kids and staff at the venue have started getting sick, but still they refuse to tell health officials who all was there so they can do contact tracing and get people to isolate themselves— because freedom!
“We made a lot of kids happy, and we’d do it again” one father said. And if a few of them end up in the ICU, or pass it to their grandma who dies- oh well.

Thanksgiving us coming up, and there is no doubt that millions of people will go ahead and host their traditional large family gathering. Because it won’t feel like thanksgiving without Uncle Bud and Grandpa arguing over football while Aunt Sally makes her famous gravy…
Honestly, if these people had been living in America during the 2nd World War, we would have lost. They would have refused to ration,  buy bonds, plant victory gardens and put up black-out curtains or any of the measures the measures the population was asked to make, because How dare you inconvenience me! How dare you ask me to make any small changes for the greater good, to help our country overcome extreme peril?

The “Masks are Oppression” lady never had to drink from the Coloreds Only fountain, or went to apply for a job and saw the “No Irish” sign.

Take it from someone who wore a mask for 15 hours in a crowded room and can’t even go up to get something out of the refrigerator w/o masking and sanitizing: masks aren’t that hard. Breathing when you have Covid is 100x harder.
Being a doctor or a nurse at a hospital that is overwhelmed- who had to put staff in garbage bags because they ran out of disposable gowns, who has to give people some IV fluids and a shot of steroids and send them home with a wish and a prayer because they are no beds to admit them; who has to watch people struggle mightily for weeks to overcome the virus only to have them suddenly die… ask them if wearing a mask, or staying away from the gym, or not having a big Thanksgiving dinner is too damn hard.

I’m angry. I’m scared. I feel guilty because I haven’t had to bear the brunt of this. In any war there are front line troops who carry most of the weight, but hopefully, the civilians back home pitch in to help however they can. Not this time. This time they’re denying that a war is even going on.
Doctors, respiratory techs, ambulance drivers- they are our front-line combat troops, and they are getting blown to hell. And instead of doing SMALL things to ease their burden, half of this stupid, stupid country is making it harder. By refusing to contain the spread of the disease they are planting land mines in the road ahead, blowing our troops apart. Helping the enemy.

And most of that comes back to Donald Trump, and his year-long campaign to simply SAY that Covid-19 is not a problem, say that “We’re rounding the corner” and “it’s almost gone” and “Masks don’t help they’re just a political attack on me” and “doctors are lying about how many people are dying”.
Who are you going to believe: me, or all the evidence all around you? And millions of people put their heads in the sand and believe what they want to believe: that’s its all a plot and nothing bad is happening.
Trump, by his refusal to wear masks or have any White House safety protocol is directly responsible for hundreds of infections and dozens of deaths. His refusal to form any sort of coherent national strategy to contain the disease makes him indirectly responsible for 10’s of thousands more.

Joe Biden already has a Covid staff. Donald Trump’s staff has Covid.

Clearly humans are too stupid as a species to survive, and too reckless to deserve to. God should have put dolphins in charge. I can’t write about it any more. I don’t believe in putting my head in the sand but I need to protect my mental health. It’s getting harder and harder to sleep at night, thinking how many people will be dead by Christmas because their family refused to just spend Thanksgiving being thankful that they were alive