Exposed

A strange thing happened last week.  On the same day, within about two hours of each other, 5 of my conservative friends posted the same exact picture.  This one:

That is Vice President Mike Pence with his CoronaVirus response team, praying.  It's clearly a staged photo, but that aside, let me state the obvious.  Its nice you have a relationship with your version of God and Jesus, but (and trust me when I say this) both God and Jesus would want you to stop with the photo ops and start trying to save the people who are sick! 

The conservative mass posting of this 'performance art' was on Saturday morning, after a week where the truth settled in about COVID-19; this was going to change America greatly, with many Americans getting sick and dying.  And an undeniable truth is the damage done by this virus has been multiplied by weeks of the Trump Administration doing NOTHING to stop this pandemic.  The release of this photo seemed to be Conservatives deflecting; "yes things are bad, but look! JESUS!"  I said Jesus too.

This is the absolute worst crisis to have with the current Republican Party in control.  A pandemic requires people to think about others more than one's self, especially the weak, the poor and the needy.  This requires compassion and empathy, and in case you've not been paying attention, compassion and empathy are two traits the Republican Party weened out of their politicians 20 years ago.

Let's start with Trump himself.  We know when people started getting sick he specifically said he didn't want people tested because he was concerned a high diagnosis rate would hurt his reelection campaign.  He called it a hoax, called it a Democratic Conspiracy, and repeatedly insisted the virus was under control, all lies.  And his primary concerns this entire time has been 1) making sure the stock market got back up to a high level so he could brag about it all being because of him, and 2) making sure he could continue to host his Trump rallies, so thousands of dupes could praise him as their messiah. 

What did anyone expect from the biggest narcissist this planet has ever produced?  This selfish, in it for himself, greedy, dirty, crooked fool was never prepared to deal with a crisis like this.  We saw it with the hurricane relief in Puerto Rico and the wildfires in the west.  It's almost like God himself has ramped up the crisis after his delusional followers failed to see their mistake after Puerto Rico was scoured clean. "He did nothing for Puerto Rico, accused them of doing this to themselves and then threw around a few rolls of paper towel and they still love him? Okay, phase 2!"

The Republican Party Politicians?  Please.  We've had Senate Majority Leader Galapagos refuse to work on a bill over the last weekend because he had a fundraiser to attend, multiple Republicans vote to hold up the stimulus bills, multiple Republicans imply millions of people dying is 'no big deal'(!), and it sounds like top Republicans lawmakers were aware of the seriousness of the CoronaVirus weeks ago, but only told wealthy donors, not their less than millionaire constituents.  

They insist they want to help every day Americans but they have to be 'fiscally responsible,' while the SAME EXACT PEOPLE demand a blank check from the Treasury to hand out trillions in tax payer dollars to major corporations and the wealthiest Americans.  On top of it, their most urgent matter for the Republicans seems to be relabeling COVID-19/CoronaVirus as 'China Flu,' because their desire to be racist overrules their self proclaimed Christian compassion.

The American Medical Sector was also not ready for this disaster.  American medicine is fantastic, but it has two problems.  The first is it's great if you have money.  The US' health care is sensational if you have a very serious disease that's expensive to treat, or if you need non-urgent medical services (boob job, face lift, hair implants).  Where it currently fails is the quality of medical care for the poor and needy.  I've had insurance (gratefully), but I've been in urgent care facilities where I've seen people told they need to produce a medical card or a credit card to be seen.  Many people refuse to even go to the hospital unless it's dire, due to cost.

The other problem is our current medical system is set up to deal with the patient in front of them, right now at that moment.  It is not set up to deal with a large scale outbreak where resources are needing to be maximized,  My guess is few hospitals prior to this outbreak had a workable emergency plan to deal with this contingency.

But the real danger with this pandemic can be highlighted by the Trump voters directly.  These are the idiots who screamed this wasn't real, a Democratic ploy pushed by the liberal media.  It was only when Conservative leaders, including Trump, did a U-turn on their rhetoric for them to take it seriously.  These are the fools who now insist 'Obama was MUCH MUCH worse with Swine Flu,' a preposterous statement not even close to being correct.  I never remember grocery stores being half empty under Obama.

This refusal to see reality is incredibly dangerous.  This is how diseases wipe out entire families and towns.  

To understand the Republican voters, focus on their true motivation.  They love Trump for one of three reasons:

1.  They're wealthy and Trump gives them money
2.  They're racist and Trump legitimizes them
3.  They're people who love Trump because they feel like Trump owns the Liberals with his insults and ignorant policies.  

That last one is by far the largest group of Trump voters.  They love Trump acting like he's the cock of the walk, acting like he just burned a Democrat so bad they're crying in the fetal position.  For this, they love Trump more than they love their family, their house, their job, their religion, their country and their health.

But they also know really weak horrible people would sacrifice their lives and country for such pettiness, so they're always looking for something they can hang their twisted adoration on as legitimate.  They need the slightest bit of cover to allow them to believe they're righteous in their Trump love. Hence...

If you're Christian, the INSANE amount of violations of Jesus' DIRECT teaching to welcome strangers in from strange lands alone should make you realize you're on the wrong path with these guys (and I would love to elaborate on the feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless parables too.  We're getting a real world example of how taking care of the sick is failing with Trump).

That's how the Trump Administration plays these fools.  Don't ask about why our CoronaVirus testing is lagging so far behind.  Don't ask about how the bailouts seem to benefit Trump and his allies most of all.  Don't ask why the American public was kept in the dark of the dangers of COVID-19.  Don't ask why Trump and his Administration lied repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over again, before finally admitting CoronaVirus was dangerous.  Instead:  Look, JESUS!!!

If we don't get a President, politicians, a medical industry and the Republican voters to take this emergency seriously, a lot of people will be saying Jesus too, only they'll be saying it at funerals and memorials.

May God help us all.