Here we are 7 months into this disaster and it could have been under control by now, if we had just worn masks and hunkered down for a month. But we couldn’t grasp the seriousness, and we couldn’t wear masks early on because there weren’t enough to go around (still aren’t, for healthcare workers). It took a while for the cottage industries to ramp up.

The President said that it was just gonna go away. Many believed him, and apparently still do.

There was no direction, no guidance we could all agree on. The red/blue curse followed us into this battle. The states were on their own. Accordingly, it looks like we’re on the verge of losing control in some places, if that hasn’t already happened. This in no small part because large enough groups of the population confuse certain inalienable rights with the realities and demands of a universal, existential threat like a pandemic.

These are insane arguments about rights and freedom, because the virus doesn’t care. It simply continues to have a field day all over the place. The mayor of Atlanta puts a mask requirement in place, but the governor says, “not so fast.”  How can this be? That loud smacking sound we’re hearing is tone-deaf leaders with their lips firmly pressed against Donald Trump’s ass. How’s that for a visual?

This is insanity on steroids.

Sometimes, don’t you just want to be rid of the whole mess, wake up one morning and realize it was the proverbial bad dream? Because everything is swirling, everything is rotten, ugly, depressing, emitting an odor of decay and doom without a hint of hope or positivity or cheerfulness.

Donald Trump and his whole administration have to go as soon as possible. His presence and that of those around him is stultifying. He is slimy, conniving, humorless, dangerous. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said this to myself, or felt this way. It’s just darkness and lamentation every fucking day.

The only light comes from hoping we vote him out of office on November 3. This is our only hope. We need hope now, we need to hold onto the possibility of a return to some semblance of capable governance and leadership, even if it comes in the person who’s much closer to 80 than 70.

Because many are yearning for a sensible, calming voice amidst all the clamor and noise. Someone who speaks plainly and knowledgeably, rather than out of his ass.

It was good to hear a medical doctor confirm what I and many others have wondered regarding the coronavirus.

In theory, if we all masked, distanced, isolated, and otherwise minimized our movements for 1 month, the virus would be gone, or significantly mitigated. This will never happen, but it makes sense. The virus would have limited means of transmission, few hosts, and it would die off.

Again, between necessity and arrogance/stupidity/ignorance, this will never happen. There would be segments of any population who wouldn’t be able to shelter in place. People need to eat, they need to work their essential jobs, so there would always be a certain amount of movement and exposure.

And the people prone to unintelligent decisions would be the ones to really throw a wrench in the works, because real Americans aren’t going to let a fabricated left-wing conspiracy keep them from living their damn lives.

From all appearances, Gov. Ron DeSantis is a flaming idiot who is in way over his head. Florida is reeling from a record caseload of covid and all he can do is make convoluted, feeble attempts at dispelling the gravity of the situation.

Yet another Trump lackey, butt sniffer, and human dunce cap who doubts the science and stands behind this dangerous belief about constitutional rights and economic necessity taking precedence over precautions and a more measured approach.

It’s hard to watch.

Looks like the Trump train is starting to feel the heat, pulling out all the stops in an effort to pull his chances for reelection out of the dumpster. Or maybe he had a rare moment of clarity and realized that he needs to set an example. Nah.

If he wins in November, we can kiss America goodbye. Four more years of Trump and Miller and company will be the end of us.

You can bet on seeing a new and improved Donald in the weeks ahead, but it’ll just be lipstick on a pig. No offense to our porcine friends.

There’s a tendency to overplay and otherwise dramatize the level of sacrifice we Americans have made during this pandemic.

No doubt, many have sacrificed and continue to do so, from front line healthcare workers, to suddenly stay-at-home parents, to all sorts of essential workers. I don’t consider just staying home and minimizing trips much of a contribution, or patriotic. Staying at home has been this introvert’s dream scenario. Yet even this somehow gets lumped in with the sacrifices others have made.

And let’s not forget all the graduating high school seniors who were denied their moment and suffered an apparently debilitating withholding of attention. Get over it, folks. Consider this whole year one for the record books, momentous in a unique way. And you were part of that! Besides, you and your school district personnel were pretty creative in developing alternative graduation experiences, some of which were way cooler than if it had been a normal year. So, I hope you’ve stopped feeling sorry for yourselves and are getting on with your lives.

As for those in positions of leadership, namely the President, Vice President, certain task force members, Governors and network pundits? You all get big red F’s. For your inaction, your calculated coldness, your cowardice, your weakness, your sheer stupidity and spitefulness, and your willingness to mislead and foment and turn a pandemic into a political beach ball. Shame on all of you. Thanks for going above and beyond in eroding ever further our trust in public officials.

And way to go, MAGA crowd, who cried “constitutional rights,” embraced the Gospel of Donald like the herd of lemmings that you are, and took it upon yourselves to stare down the virus and lose miserably. What did you think was going to happen? Such monumental hubris and selfishness.

And what do you have against science, anyway? Are you waiting on some biblical solution? Better take a longer, closer look at the Good Book– all of it, not just the Old Testament.

The latest scenario from Dr. Osterholm is no second wave, but an out-of-control wildfire that keeps burning, seeking more dry tinder. NIce.

Do we know anything for sure? Because Dr. Fauci is still talking about a second wave.

Either way, we know what we need to do– keep our distance, wear a mask, wash our hands, check on our neighbors. And be in this for the long haul. Take “normal” off the table for the rest of the year.

Sounds pretty straightforward. Not easy, but straightforward.

Presidents since Warren G. Harding have had speech writers, but the current occupant of the Oval Office takes the cake when it comes to the disconnect between what we hear from him in a speech and what we get in a one-on-one interview.

He has about five or six go-to words in most interviews, but his speeches are long-flowing screeds that he could never begin to formulate on his own. They are so obviously not from him.

Makes you wonder if he actually believes the stuff he’s spewing, or if he’s just a mouthpiece for someone else’s skewed world view. (Cough) Stephen Miller.

Trump seems incapable of arranging words in a cohesive, remotely eloquent manner. Take him off-script, and everything is “amazing,” “disgraceful,” “beautiful,” “a hoax,” “fake news,” and not much else.

Pink snow in the Italian Alps. Fires raging and a 100-degree day… above the Arctic Circle, IN SIBERIA.

In a non-Covid year, there would still be plenty to talk about. While the world’s population is being ravaged by a pandemic and many are awakened to the plight of black people everywhere, the earth continues to warm, ice melts, algae bloom, storms grow meaner. Sounds like we’re on our way out.

But baseball must go on. And of course the NFL talks boldly of holding its season. We need our diversions, including an obscene $503 million contract to obsess over.

Anything to take our minds off a plague and an indifferent planet that would just as soon spit us out as keep us.

“Most Americans believe…”

Do they? Based on what? A careful study of facts, or because someone’s narrow-minded relative who’s never strayed more than 20 minutes from home says so?

Why do we so closely align perception and reality? Apparently, it is common for people to believe something without really knowing for sure. For polling purposes, this serves somebody’s interests. Perception is reality, and that’s good enough.

Which explains a lot.