It's Time to Stop

Doctors and nurses who've treated Covid patients are dying from Covid. Hospitals are running out of space and equipment. All because too many people are refusing to do the right thing in the name of "freedom" and "privilege". The following was copied from another page, author unknown:

From my friend and neighbour.

- I am an Emergency Physician. I am on the front line of the COVID tidal wave. Every shift I place myself, along with my colleagues, my friends, in harm’s way to do what we can to help those inflicted with this unique virus sweeping the globe, our communities, in a way we have never before seen.

We are there when someone comes in with that tickle in their throat, or their fever, or their cough, worried that this is it, that they have contracted COVID, despite their best efforts at avoidance. We are there to reassure them that they “aren’t that sick”, that things look good; right now. We see the doubt on their faces when we send them home to isolate, to await their test result. Is it? Isn’t it? Will I get worse, will I infect those around me? Have I already done so?

We are there when those already diagnosed come to us feeling worse. Is this the start of their decline? Is this chest pain, this shortness of breath, this difficultly laying down to sleep, this ongoing fever something to worry about? Am I going to pull through? Am I well enough to go home? Are you sure? What if I get worse? Will I know? We see their fear, they give us our trust. They want us to give them good news, they fear the worst. We fear it too. We remain optimistic. Because they need us to.

We are there when the worst-off need our care. When they reach the point where the virus has overwhelmed their lungs’ ability to oxygenate their body, we are there. We walk them through the process of what comes next. We have you, we’re going to do our best. We see them try to remain calm. They know. We know. Is this the end?

Then we are there at the head of their bed, staring down at the sedated face of someone’s loved one, about to place a tube in their throat to try and assist their breathing; knowing that it may not be enough, that they may yet succumb. We do this and we move on. Because we have to. Because others need our care.

Don my PPE, doff my PPE. Wash my stethoscope, my hands, what have I touched? Better wash again. Next patient. Remain vigilant, don’t touch my mask, sanitize my work station. Am I safe to take a drink from my water bottle? Can I take my mask off in here? Is in in the air? Carry on.

It’s exhausting. It’s terrifying. We’re tired, we want it to be over. But we go on. Because we have to. If not us, then who? I do my job, I go home, I hug my family. I hope I don’t bring it there. I’m afraid.

But then I hear of those who are rallying against the affront to their freedom that is, of all things, being asked to wear a mask. To do their part. To be a good citizen to protect their fellow man. You can’t tell me what to do! It’s just a virus.

Then why is it not? Why is it all so different? What am I so afraid? Why won’t they listen? Why can’t we all just do our part to stop this? Why won’t they?

I feel slapped in my face. I am there. We are there. We WILL be there when it’s your turn. Or your family. Your friends. We don’t ask your stance on masks, or distancing, or shutdowns when you come to us. We just are. There. To help all those we can. Until we can’t. Until we have to decide. Who lives today, who dies. Who can’t we treat because the hospital is full; when there are no more ventilators?

So please, stop. I can’t. I won’t. I will be there for you, when it’s your turn, because that’s what I do. So STOP. Stop slapping me in the face with your denial. Stop making a mockery of my sacrifice. Your rallies, your signs, your rights, your privilege...

Stop. Because I want to stop. I want it all to stop. But it won’t. Until we all decide it’s up to us. Up to each and every one of us to do our part. To stop being selfish and look around. To see.

It’s time. To stop...

Wrong Equals Right

Written by author David Gerrold, reposted with permission.

"Aside from the fact that Donald Trump's behavior is, by any reasonable standard, insane — aside from the fact that the man is severely emotionally damaged — aside from the fact that he does not understand the concept of rules and law —

Aside from the fact that the man is the single best example of a bad example, totally unfit for the office —

The best way to understand his current mindset and the actions that follow — the man is cruel and stupid. He needs to be the center of attention. It doesn't matter what kind of attention, he needs to be the center.

He needs to be right.

Now, you can't be right unless you're making someone else wrong.

Got that? He needs to be right — so someone else has to be the villain.

So after he finishes ranting about Clinton and Obama and Biden — actually, he's pretty much done ranting about Clinton and Obama and Biden, because the election is over — now, his targets are all the Republicans who aren't supporting his attempts at a coup d'état.

Any Republican who isn't supporting his fake-believe claims of a rigged election is now his enemy. Any Republican who even admits Biden won fairly is the enemy.

And it doesn't even matter if he intends to run in 2024 or not — as long as he can stir the shit, as long as he can con the rubes into donating to his cause, as long as he can tweet like a rabid honey-badger, as long as he can be the center of the firestorm, he will keep on keeping on. Because it's not about accomplishing anything at all — it's about the pretense that he's important, and the best way (in his deranged mind) to be important is to have everybody fighting over him.

He's not even in it to win it — he's in it for the fight. Because as long as he's fighting he can pretend he's winning.

As others have pointed out, and very eloquently, the way that game plays out, the more he attacks the Republican party, the more he destroys its effectiveness on a national scale.

There were some who predicted as early as the spring of 2016 that the ultimate cost of a Trump candidacy would be the destruction of the Republican party. That seemed like wishful thinking to me then. It still feels like wishful thinking.

Frankly, the Republican party has become nearly impossible to kill — because there is no Republican party any more, only a machine that functions to the whims of religious fanatics, racists, robber barons, and the terminally stupid. The party has been on a long miserable slide into dementia since long before Ronald Reagan's visible decline. The result is a fascist conspiracy looking for a democracy to hijack.

Others have said that Trump is merely a symptom, that the real disease is the Republican party. Yes, you can make that case. But right now, it looks like Trump is no longer a symptom, but a malignant tumor that has metastasized and what's left of the party is coughing up blood.

This all goes back to Fred Koch who funded the John Birch Society. Richard Nixon's disgrace created a power vacuum in the party and the radical right was ready to fill it.

Trump took advantage of the opportunity they created.

The party had the option to disavow Trump in 2016, but they made the same mistake the German robber barons made when they got in bed with Hitler. They thought they were going to control him. Grover Norquist once bragged that all he wanted from a Republican president was someone who would rubber stamp whatever the Senate sent him. I guess that's what they thought they were getting. Uh-huh, sure.

The Republican party has drunk the capitalist Kool-Aid of assuming that labor is the enemy. Nope. The people who roll up their sleeves and go to work are the real creators of wealth. If you want to have a healthy economy, you have to make sure that working people have enough money to spend on goods and services, because that's the real engine that creates jobs. BTW, the 40 most successful economies on this planet are the ones with strong labor movements.

The damage that Trump has done to America is on a scale comparable to the Great Depression and the Spanish Flu pandemic. We will be a decade or longer recovering from Trump's insanity. Even worse — as long as he continues to stir the shit, as long as the polarization remains at dangerous levels, the processes of recovery and repair will be further hindered. As long as the Republican party continues to believe in its own delusions, the processes of bipartisan governing will be next to impossible.

This is why I believe Donald Trump must be held accountable for every crime that he and all of his enablers have committed. Not just all of his recent attempts to tamper with a federal election, not just his various financial frauds and tax evasions, but also his federal crimes as well. (Yes, I know about the possibility of preemptive pardons — they might not be enough.)

The only way to break the power of the Trump cult will be to break Donald Trump.

He might be damaged, he might be insane, he might be in the throes of dementia. I don't care. If he is not held accountable, then his ability to create havoc will remain unchecked.

January 20th cannot come soon enough."

Shortened Lives

Written by journalist Carmi Levi.

"December 6, 1989. 31 years ago, 14 women were murdered at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique because a single man couldn't, wouldn't accept women succeeding as engineers.

I remember the night like it was yesterday, remember the stories of journalism school and newsroom colleagues who covered the massacre. How so many lives were ended, and so many others altered forever.

I'd like to think that misogyny has been resolved in the ensuing decades, but I'd be wrong. The stifling patriarchy that normalized the anti-women behaviors at the root of this tragedy took root long before one failure of a human being picked up a high-powered rifle and singled out his victims because of their gender.

We haven't learned a thing. And saying nothing ensures it will continue to happen. In headline-grabbing mass murders like this, or in individual cases that don't necessarily merit annual reflection. But should.

Why the tree? [Posted photo of a tree] Because 14 brilliant lives were snuffed out before they had a chance to unfold on their own. Because so many stories failed to play out as they should have. Because the branches of life were cut before the canopy could even be formed.

To think what should have been. To think how our continued inaction dishonors their lives."