…of the goddamned Republican party and their greedy capitalistic politicization of the COVID-19 global pandemic. What? You say you are one of those GOP fuck-faces who isn’t going to listen to or believe me anyway – you can fuck off right now. I don’t give two shits about your opinion. You had your chance to do something patriotic for America, and you BLEW IT.
As a community member here in El Paso, Texas I’ve seen my city explode onto the headlines of the national news in the last few weeks because we are now the national hotspot for COVID19 infections. We have had to add over 10 refrigerated trucks as mobile morgues. We have had to resort to using inmates from the county jail to manage morgues because of a lack of healthy first responders. We have had to request the National Guard for assistance, and have converted our county convention center to a field hospital ICU. Our funeral homes have a 50 day waiting list. Our Republican mayor, Lt. Governor and Governor have struck down ‘stay at home’ orders, allowed bars and restaurants to stay open and overruled our county judge’s curfew and isolation orders. We even had a travelling nurse record an hour long venting session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYZJ2MPek8 in which she reveals that El Paso’s situation right now is worse than New York City’s was at the onset of the pandemic.
Here are the three unassailable arguments as to how the GOP is ruining what we all thought America should stand for and killing us in the process. As well as how we can reset our country’s partisanship so that we as Americans, at least, can stop dying in numbers heretofore unheard of in times of peace.
1. FUCK OFF ANTI-MASKERS: Wearing a mask is the easiest thing you can do to protect yourselves and your loved ones from spreading or contracting COVID, yet everyone knows at least one dumb-fucking individual who claims mask-wearing violates their civil rights. Okay, let’s examine the issue.
For the sake of argument, I will play the devil’s advocate and agree that masks DO indeed violate your civil rights… to do what? Our civil rights as Americans are basically three fold in that we have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The first 10 amendments enshrined in our Constitution enumerate and protect those three basic civil rights.
The question that no anti-masker will (or indeed even can) answer is ‘which one of your rights are being violated by mask wearing?’
Is your life being threatened by mask wearing? No it is not. Anti-maskers who complain that they cannot breathe can shut the fuck up, cause our first responders have shown consistently that nurses, doctors and other people who have 12 hour long windows of exposure to known COVID positive patients can breathe well enough throughout their grueling shifts. Masks may not be 100% fool proof (cover your mouth and your nose, you dumb fuck) but on the whole, the science is irrefutable on this (if you are smart enough to understand science,) MASKS SAVE LIVES – not endanger them.
Is your liberty being threatened by mask wearing? Well now, again we have to ask - your liberty to do what? Looking over the Bill of Rights, even if you do wear a mask, you are still able to meet peaceably, petition the government for redress of grievances, practice your chosen religion, speak freely, engage in freedom of the press, own and bear arms, NOT quarter soldiers, NOT be subject to unreasonable search of seizure and still have a speedy and public trial by jury in which you are allowed to confront your accusers.
If you are one of the assholes that feels that wearing a mask impedes your freedom of liberty from cruel and unusual punishment, then I say - okay, we will happily add your name to a national database so that when you get sick from COVID, we will not impugn your right to abstain from the cruel and unusual use of a ventilator, and you can suffer the sickness on your own without 'socialized' healthcare.
Lastly, is wearing a mask threatening your pursuit of happiness? Actually the whole fucking pandemic is threatening America’s POH and the solution (in part) is wearing a mask. If you are not willing to do your part and wear a mask for the country, and your fellow Americans, you should be considered a traitor to our nation and added to a database that denies you care and treatment when you contract COVID. Let’s save those ventilators and other limited resources for people who tried to stay healthy and avoided infecting others by practicing proper PPE. (This would apply for anyone caught violating social distance and isolation mandates in some of those super-spreader events also.)
2. LET’S ROB PEOPLE BY REOPENING BUSINESSES: So, I don’t understand why the GOP legislators are using an economic talking point at all. It’s basically akin to admitting culpability. Maybe Republican voters are too stupid to recognize the transparency here, or else Republican legislators feel that the rest of us are too stupid to perceive their greed and disdain for human life.
Huh, What? Allow me to elucidate. This is the same argument as ‘China is stealing our jobs.’ No China isn’t… The ‘jobs’ being stolen by China represent corporations willing to move their facilities overseas to a foreign country in order to exploit foreign labor laws and pay workers less than the (already criminally low) minimum wage mandated by the state in which the company chooses to do business here in the U.S.
In the same way, we are being told by Republican legislators that quarantine, isolation and social distancing will cause a collapse of the economy and are devastating small businesses. Which is of course, complete BULLSHIT. What is causing a collapse of our economy and devastating small businesses is our government’s capitulation to corporations, and insistence on conducting business as usual instead of offering relief. Why should small businesses suffer at all? Our government has the ability to enforce or enact legislation that could forgive rent, provide utility assistance, and both healthcare and meal assistance (welfare/food stamps) if it (we) chose to. The bills have been sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk, but the Republican Senate won’t hear them or vote on them. Why?
You shit-licking Republicans will probably denounce this as socialism, to which I say… so what? If it is socialist to ensure that every American has the safety and security of a home, enough to eat and access to healthcare, then WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT, AND WHY IS IT BAD? I guarantee you do not have an answer for that question that does not involve greed.
Moreover, I will again ask - as a devil’s advocate… okay, let’s NOT forgive rent, or provide welfare to those who cannot pay their fair share. Let’s ensure that you get yours even at the expense of another. Let’s take the last dime from people’s mouths if we need to… so you can what? What does all this money benefit you? The richest person on the Earth is still going to die. To quote Iron Man’s dad – “No amount of money ever bought a second of time.” To which I would like to add – ‘or an iota of happiness.’
So what good does it do the economy to remain open at the cost of our lives?
Here’s the hypocrisy which I feel is evident and cannot understand how people who propound this argument don’t recognize. If someone came up to you and put a loaded gun in your face with the ultimatum, ‘your money or your life!’ You’d be forking over your wallet and crying ‘don’t hurt me,’ like a baby.
Well, newsflash - COVID is doing just that and the Republican scum in this country are advocating for you to give up your life so that they can keep your money.
3. NO THANK-YOU BIDEN: The lines are fucking drawn. Anybody, including the President-elect that ignores that fact is blind and asking for trouble. When he says that the time has come to set aside the vehement rhetoric and find commonalities with those ‘across the aisle’ what does it amount to? Basically Biden is saying the same thing Trump did, that there’s “Good people on both sides.” Man, FUCK THAT NOISE.
Good people do not lock kids in cages. Good people do not vilify immigrants. Good people do not steal from charity. Good people do support the agendas that do these things… and I can’t believe this needs to be said but above all, GOOD PEOPLE DO NOT SPREAD LIES AND THEN TRY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THE TRUTH IS A LIE. I mean, as human beings we can experience things for ourselves. Trying to tell us that the evidence of our eyes and ears is wrong, is just plain insane. Denying the seriousness of this virus does NOTHING to decrease the strain on emergency rooms all around the country. We can see that, hear it, feel it, taste it and smell it, so why does the GOP insist on discounting, dismissing and devaluing the evidence of rampant widespread death of American citizens? What good comes from allowing them to do so or supporting them when/because they do?
Which is kind of the point here. Americans who identify as Republicans have had four years before this pandemic hit, to jump ship. The GOP with Trump at its helm has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on its platform of elitism, racism, fascism and nepotism and anyone who still supports the GOP must therefore be seen as elitist, racist, fascist and callow.
Here’s another metaphor that I hope will make the point. If you went out in public with your friends, and those friends started to publicly identify themselves as pedophiles… I mean just straight up talking about fucking kids in the ass in the middle of Wal-Mart, you would (one would hope) distance yourself from them. ‘I am NOT with these people, even if I entered the building with them. I do not espouse their point of view!’ You would, and should be horrified.
Yet the Republican party stays silent while time and time again, Trump and his sycophants repeatedly condone white supremacy and corporate elitism at the cost of American lives. Downplaying an illness that has taken over 267,000 American lives and counting, by actively endorsing unsafe behaviors.
At this point in time, I see no other possible recourse except to hold every member, supporter and contributor to the Republican party as complicit. Personally, I refuse to find common ground with the Nazi scumbags that are at the heart of white supremacy in the Republican party. Nor will I capitulate with the redneck idiots that continue to support them. GET THE MESSAGE, REPUBLICANS ARE NAZIS. If you do not want to support White Supremacy then leave the Republican Party, because you are otherwise unwittingly fulfilling their agenda.
So what do we do about all this? Well it isn’t easy I know. This sounds like a hate filled rant because it IS a hate filled rant. That’s the whole point. If you don’t have hate in your heart for people who hate, you’re doing life wrong. Especially when that hate manifests itself in the kind of ‘my way or the highway’ attitude that the GOP presents, which as we can see with our own eyes and ears has deadly consequences.
It’s hard, I’ll be the first to admit. I’m talking about cutting off friends and family members. A full 72 million Americans that voted Republican in this last election. Why the fuck would anyone do that unless they agree with the elitism, racism, fascism and nepotism that is the blatant corruption of the Republican party. 72 million Americans have either been brainwashed (like the weak-minded Stormtroopers on the planet Tattooine) or are the full-on conspiracy-believing COVidiots responsible for the dissemination of misinformation.
When it comes down to it, no matter how hard or heart-breaking it may be, I refuse to forgive and forget. The lives lost in this pandemic will never be ‘found.’ People are dying and they will never come back, so why should it be okay that those deaths were preventable and the GOP actively acted against them by politicizing the pandemic.
Here is the truth which you may have noticed but not recognized. Here is what you need to do in order to survive the COVID crisis, and help our country back to a place where ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that ALL men are created equal.’
1. Wear a mask. Also, feel free to publicly shame the anti-maskers you encounter, or are related to. Film them, upload them to social media, tell them you will advocate against their care if/when they get sick. Without pressure from the public at large, these people will continue the baseless arguments that masks violate rights even though they save lives. Take a look at the people you love and decide, publicly whether their lives are worth wearing a mask or not.
2. Regardless of whether your locality supports isolation, quarantine and social distance mandates such as curfews, closures and mandatory PPE, they cannot control your behavior. Social distance on your own, avoid super-spreader events and locations, order curb-side takeout instead of dining in at restaurants. You can also contact your governmental representation, be they city, state or federal officials and demand common sense restrictions and enforcement such as the implementation of a national ‘non-compliance’ database that keeps track of offenders who contract COVID-19 and restricts the use of our extremely limited resources to those who have NOT been cited for non-mask compliance or attendance at super-spreader events. Advocate for governmental relief for small businesses, rent forgiveness for families as well as businesses, welfare and healthcare programs, and for fuck’s sake let’s get rid of Mitch McConnell so the U.S. Senate can finally start to fulfill its duty and pass some legislation and relief bills.
3. Hold Republicans accountable, each and every mother-fucking one of them. All 72 million assholes who voted Republican in the last election. Your family, your friend, shit – divorce your spouse if you have to. There is no way forward if we compromise our humanity to do so. The Republican party has openly and knowingly allied itself with White Supremacy and Misinformation, and there are no more chances for GOP supporters to say it wasn’t them.
The only reason Americans are dying from COVID is because we want to. It is in our power to enact common sense behaviors and condemn those whose behaviors endanger our health, economy and civil rights.
Here is a copy of a letter that I sent to my elected governmental officials, feel free to use or edit and use it as you please. If you live in El Paso, our representatives addresses are also supplied, but if you agree with my idea of a National COVID Non-Compliance database and live in a municipality outside El Paso, they make this thing called 'Google' which will happily supply you with contact information of the legislators in your area.
Stay Safe, Wear a Mask, Challenge Non-Compliers
AP
11/30/20
To Whom It May Concern,
As a concerned citizen watching the partisan infighting happening in my home town of El Paso, Texas during the current COVID-19 crisis, I would like to share my thoughts on a compromise which I hope could alleviate the tension between the Republicans interested in the welfare of the economy and the rest of us who are more concerned with the health and safety of El Pasoans.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick recently expounded upon our county judge’s right to impose a stay-at home order, shut down for non-essential businesses and implementation of a city-wide curfew, saying that these measures were illegal and unreasonable because El Paso was not enforcing the limitations already in place.
This should raise questions about enforcement. How is the city expected to enforce any type of restriction and what are the consequences for violation?
I would like to suggest that enforcement be performed by all El Pasoans, via a social media application that allows them to report violators to an elected committee responsible for determining if the video recorded information submitted amounts to an actual violation of COVID restrictions. Then instead of being assessed a fine, as is currently the punishment, violators would be registered to a database so that when identified by first responders such as police, paramedics, or hospital ER staff as seeking treatment for COVID related illness or a positive COVID test result, they are DENIED treatment saving our extremely limited resources for patients who follow the law and current restrictions.
This application would have a verified usage requirement that identifies the person making the report as a civilian, first responder or law enforcement personnel which would flag cases reported by city employees as more urgent than civilian reports. Evidence of violations would be submitted with video evidence, which could easily be screened by computer algorithms to identify repeat offenders, even when photographic evidence of the offender’s identity is incomplete or unavailable.
My hope is that such an application would never need to be actualized. To even begin such a conversation should illuminate to potential violators the seriousness of this pandemic and illustrate that we are literally in a life or death situation here. If people knew that they could potentially lose healthcare for violations such as non-mask compliance, non-social distance requirements (such as exceeding occupancy capacity or holding events either personal or commercial that violate the maximum number of people allowed in public) if they test positive for COVID, they would not risk the violations.
It does not matter what restrictions are put into place or how strict or severe they are. You cannot control people’s behavior. You can only control enforcement when the law is violated. If there is no law enforcement, there is no law.
I feel that the compromise represented by this idea of a database application should alleviate concerns from both sides of the aisle, in that there are no financial fines imposed, and each citizen becomes responsible not only for protecting the health and safety of others, but also in protecting their own right to healthcare should the worst befall them. Our lives are literally in our hands, and this seems the easiest and most straightforward way to demonstrate it because if anyone opposes the idea in the effort to preserve their healthcare, they are admitting to violating restrictions. If you follow the law, you don’t need to worry about care, because opting out of safety mandates will equal opting out of healthcare.
Trust me when I say that this is the LEAST radical idea I am willing to support,
El Paso Constituent
Ricardo Samaniego - CountyJudge@epcounty.com
Dee Margo - mayor@elpasotexas.gov
Greg Abbott - https://gov.texas.gov/apps/contact/thankyou.aspx
Dan Patrick - https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/contact/contact-general/
Ted Cruz - https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=form&id=16
Jon Cornyn - https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact
Veronica Escobar - https://escobar.house.gov/contact/