This week the NY Times published an excellent analysis of US response to the COVID 19 epidemic by compiling data from Johns Hopkins, the World Bank, and the US Census Bureau.  What the data show is a stark picture of just how badly the US responded to the pandemic compared to other developed countries.  The stupidity of the response is well illustrated in just two graphs:

The left graph is cumulative deaths per 100,000 since the pandemic began. The right graph is cumulative deaths from only the Omicron wave.  Notice that the US “wins” the death race over other wealthy countries by a LOT, and that failure stems from stupid public policy that is engrained in the US; the failure is worsened as a result of the stupidity of millions of Americans who chose to believe bullshit and have participated in politicizing science, vilifying of scientists  and doctors, and spreading nonsensical conspiracy theories about vaccines.

At the beginning of the pandemic, most wealthy countries locked down quickly, including the US.  The difference, though, was how the US did that compared to other countries.  Unlike the US, other wealthy countries, especially in Europe, took over the paychecks of their citizens, keeping them financially secure, which encouraged them to stay home and safe.  Characteristically, the US did it wrong.  First the US government stupidly poured a TRILLION dollars into companies with the stated goal of keeping people on the payroll, but the program was botched, and much of that money went into the pockets of the wealthy with little reaching  those who actually needed the money.  Second, GOP lead states like Texas started the misinformation campaign that developed into what is now a death cult among conservatives.  Recall that during this time, Dan Patrick, retired talk show host and bar owner, actually suggested that we should sacrifice the old and weak in favor of saving the economy.

Red states like Texas did extend unemployment benefits for a time, but that support was nowhere near livable, forcing millions of people to choose between risking the lives of themselves and their families and putting food on the table.  We all know how that turned out.  Add that to bullshit coming out of TFG’s mouth, his shutdown of all pandemic response that Bush II and Obama had put in place, and putting PPE response into the hands of that idiot Jared Kushner, and the perfect storm of stupidity flooded the entire country driving the US to the highest case and death rate in the developed world.

And it continues.  Playing to their base in an election year, Republicans all over the country are trying to out crazy one another doubling down on anti-vaxxer fears,  goofy conspiracy theories, and trying to to distract them with wild rhetoric about critical race theory and banning books.  And while they’re doing everything but their damn jobs, people continue to die.

Theologians tell us that God forgives and forgives absolutely. It has taken a lifetime to understand that what they are talking about is really redemption and not forgiveness. Forgiveness is really a human condition. It means we simply drop those negative feelings and move on. That has always been the secret. Forgiveness is more about us than it is about them. We don’t allow that anger and pain to consume us. Yet, it doesn’t mean that the relationship returns to normal or even at all.

Redemption, on the other hand, is a return of the relationship. That’s what the theologians call forgiveness from God. The slate is wiped clean and all transgressions are forgotten. Most of us aren’t capable of that. We have to protect our psyche and someone that repeatedly runs roughshod over our psyche cannot return to the previous condition. We can leave the pain behind and refuse to allow that person’s actions to occupy our thoughts. We can’t treat them the same way as before though.

This is where racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia comes in. It is where the Q nonsense comes in. It is where the anti-vax nonsense comes in. This topic is the one topic that ties it all together. Yesterday, we looked at conservative social media and whether they could have a safe space to spew their hatred. There’s a reason why they want and need that safe space. When we shun that kind of thought we don’t get rid of it. We just drive it underground where it can’t readily be seen.

The question comes on whether someone can let their hate flag fly and then later live to regret it. If they do then is there a path back to redemption for them? We have seen numerous people recant their feelings on the vaccine once they’ve landed in the hospital. Should they survive, can they be forgiven and can they be redeemed? They can be forgiven relatively easily, but that doesn’t mean they are redeemed.

It comes down to recognizing windows of opportunity. Hundreds if not thousands of anti-vaxxers and Q devotees are realizing that they backed the wrong horse. They realize they were lied to. They realize they were duped. The question comes on whether we are capable of extending the olive branch to welcome them back to normal society.

The same is true of racists, homophobes, sexists, and xenophobes. There is that key moment where everything comes tumbling down. I say this because I’ve experienced it myself. Those feelings were more private because I knew they were wrong. I was able to cast them aside and be welcomed in. However, I have to admit that I had not gone out on a limb to make an ass out of myself either.

That’s how I know there are a lot of these folks out there. They feel the way they do, but they are too polite and even too ashamed to be publicly outed. Without a path to redemption they have to stay in that space. They exist in the shadows between everything we know that is good and everything we know that isn’t. It’s the main reason why we are left wondering how some of our elected officials get where they are in the first place.

There is something within ourselves that doesn’t allow us to redeem. In ourselves it is obvious that shame overwhelms us. In others, it is anger and jealousy of a former scourge getting credit for their conversion. For others, it is a lack of trust that the conversion is real. We’ve been burned before. We have to take that chance. Otherwise, it will always be us versus them.

We’ve talked at length about QAnon adherents bending reality, believing wild conspiracy theories, being anti-vaxxers, anti-mask, anti-science, and anti-common sense.  Most amazing about this phenomenon, though, is there absolute devotion to their delusion to the point of dying for it.  To wit, I give you Veronica Wolski, a high profile QAnon advocate from Chicago, who publicly protested against masks, vaccines, and against all things not Trump and who died of COVID this week.  Her dying is not the story, though; the story was that Lin Wood (yes, THAT Lin Wood) whipped up a QAnon protest last week in an attempt to force the hospital she was in to administer Ivermectin, the horse de-wormer, as treatment for COVID.  He has now declared that the hospital, Amita Health Resurrection Medical Center, caused her death through…wait for it…malpractice. He’s also made the same claim against the hospitals where Herman Cain died and another right wing activist and GOP party operative Presley Stutts.  Of course, Cain and Stutts died after being infected while not practicing normal masking and distancing protocols.  In fact, it’s likely that Cain was infected at the Trump campaign rally in Tulsa.

In an unrelated story, the fifth hate radio talker died this week.  He was Bob Enyart, an anti-science talking head and bible thumping preacher.  He was a charming fellow who made his career by bashing AIDS patients, calling for the death penalty for women who received abortions, and spreading the lie that the vaccines were made from aborted fetal tissue.  The irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

The stupidity of these people wouldn’t be so bad if they were only killing themselves, but they’re risking the lives of many other people AND stressing the medical staffs who are having to risk their own lives to treat these self destructive idiots.

Jesus.  Literally.

I hate to do stuff that we already know. We have smart people here that know a lot more than I do about a variety of subjects. However, a simple perusing of social media makes clear that there are two Americas. We always knew that much, but it is becoming increasingly obvious where these dividing lines are.

What I’ve seen makes one thing clear: it’s not about facts versus fiction or science versus science fiction. It’s not even about Republicans versus Democrats. The simple dividing line comes down to who or what we choose to trust and believe in.

The calls to “do your own research” are really just a farce. At the end of the day everyone ends up trusting someone who they deem to have the answers. I didn’t read any scholarly journals before my eye doctor injected my eyes this morning. I trusted that as a specialist he knew what he is doing.

So, all the folks saying they don’t trust the FDA or CDC are trusting someone when they give themselves a medication meant to cure river blindness or head lice. Someone told them that works. They don’t know what’s in it, so the protests about not putting a foreign substance in their body is pure bullshit.

These are similar to the calls of tyranny for mandating that you need the shot or frequent tests to keep your job. It’s as if these mandates have never been done before. Our kids never had to have vaccinations to go to school. I never had to submit to a fingerprint scan and background check to teach or volunteer at my church. Except I’ve had to do all of those things and our kids had to have those shots.

So, to cry about overreach now is just selective outrage. It’s similar to cries about excessive spending, running deficits, and any other government overreach. We are all okay with the government getting involved in some things or spending on some things. The question has never been if, but what exactly you get involved in and spend money on.

Similarly, some love to romanticize on how they are independent thinkers that don’t blindly trust authority. Sure. If it makes any of us feel better we can go on saying that. The truth is not whether we trust authority, but the people we choose to trust and give credence to. I’d love to say my people are better than your people, but that kind of discussion gets us nowhere.

My wife asked me if it was too hot to run. I’d said no. Am I a weather or exercise expert? No. I’m simply someone that cares about her and wouldn’t intentionally steer her wrong. Somehow, that’s where most of these anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are at. Deep down most of them care for the friends and family and wouldn’t want to hurt them. They’d just rather trust another friend or family member over an expert they don’t know personally. It’s really as simple as that.

Returning to work brings a number of advantages. It usually involves hearing stories that always seem to surprise me. In the era of COVID, I get to hear stories that end up shocking us in the end. For today, those stories center on sick people that have been denied care because hospitals are full of Covidiots.

We know it’s happening, but these stories become more real when we hear them from someone we know. Of course, I realize I’m preaching to the choir here and preaching to the choir doesn’t exactly bring a lot of converts. Maybe it’s just a few tortured souls complaining together in the wilderness.

Since I’m not a lawyer or a doctor I know only a few things. First, I know that doctors have a duty to help everyone that comes their way. Secondly, the numbers of Covidiots being hospitalized has caused traditional patients to somehow get the shaft.

I’m not smart enough to figure out how we work around this problem. I know I would mandate the vaccine and masks, but we all know that this will never happen across the board. Obviously, some public entities are requiring it in some circumstances. My wife will not be allowed back on site at JSC unless she can prove she has been vaccinated. Unfortunately, private businesses and most other job sites are not doing the same.

So, we rely on the humanity of others. We rely on people to feel shame for their behavior or empathy for others that may need those hospital beds. Shame and empathy seem to be in short supply. Any kind of collective responsibility is seen as socialism and evil. So, about 40 percent of the population refuse to see how their inaction has impacted the rest of us.

The question before us is how we can ultimately deal with this problem. Certainly, some have offered suggestions that will make things better in a marginal way, but the problem is so widespread that these minor suggestions serve as a ripple in the sea.

So, that brings us to the two key questions of the day. First, in terms of hospitalization, is there any legal way to force those that actively chose not to safeguard themselves or the community to wait? Secondly, and more importantly, how do we get people to understand that they are responsible for not only themselves but to those around them as well? I’m open to suggestions.

It was bound to happen, but somehow we are all surprised anyway. The facts on the ground don’t seem to match what is happening in Austin. I know you’re shocked. The largest school district in the state is about to take on the governor and I’m sitting here with popcorn.

They aren’t the only ones. We recently got the electronic message from our local superintendent. They won’t be one of them, but he did manage to throw some shade on the governor before the message was done. It was clear that they likely would have had a mask mandate had there not been an executive order expressly forbidding it.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult not to call the governor an idiot. It is becoming increasingly more difficult not to call anti-vaxxers idiots. I’m not going to try anymore. Peruse social media and they are the jackasses that keep asking you if you’ve done your research on the vaccine. They are the ones that ask you if you’ve accessed the Google machine when the CDC talks about how we should continue to mask up.

They are the ones that spout off “alternative facts” about the vaccine. They probably came from OANN, Newsmax, or Fox News. Maybe they watched a video from the same guy that claimed his pillows cured cancer. At this point I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m sick and tired of being tolerant to nonsense.

There are no acceptable alternative views on this. Not every viewpoint is valid. Somewhere along the lines we somehow confused tolerance and open-mindedness with allowing every jackass with a computer to spout off bullshit that doesn’t make any sense. So, I’m sorry the governor is offended. I’m sorry if local government entities need to treat his little executive order like the toilet paper it is. Actually, I’m not sorry.

Figuratively speaking, he needs to sit down and shut up. Anti-vaxxers need to sit down and shut up. Either you can get the shot or you live in isolation. It is high time we started requiring it. Don’t pussyfoot around these people anymore. They are idiots and no amount of tolerance or consideration for their feelings is going to make any bit of difference. They are idiots pure and simple.

I’m sure the governor and lieutenant governor are going to flap their gums about nonsense when HISD votes on their mask mandate. I don’t give a shit. It is time for them to either do their jobs or sit down and shut up. The time for tolerating fools is long gone.