01-23-2021, 12:42 AM
(01-22-2021, 11:51 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(01-22-2021, 08:23 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Wear masks. Avoid crowds. Do social distancing. Wash hands for twenty seconds.
Think of how high the death toll would be if more people hadn't done the right things. President Biden is trying to do on a national scale what President Trump didn't do in a timely manner. That itself would have stopped the plague by now, vaccine or not.
It may be paradoxical, but I refuse to go along with the attitude that one of the vilest of all people in history expressed. One of the nastiest assessments by anyone not wearing a swastika armband was this
One death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic. -- Josef Stalin.
....I have sought to humanize the people who die, which is tough to do when one does not see people die of COVID-19. Start with the obvious. I have compared death tolls to various disasters, to wars, and to the sizes of cities. As one gets into the zone of the cities fortieth to fiftieth in the population of the United States the cities spread out in frequency. If I haven't mentioned a new comparison of cities it is because the next city on the list is about 20,000 larger than the last one that I mentioned.
COVID-19 is a lonely way of death when it kills. It is usually tucked away in a medical ward because it is so contagious. I've been around people dying of congestive heart failure, lupus, complications of diabetes, cirrhosis, Parkinsonism, and of course cancer. None of those are contagious. AIDS is contagious, but it is contagious largely from certain forms of contact. If you want to know how I want to go -- basically, without a clue that I am about to die. OK, maybe enough time in which to kiss up to the Almighty.
Donald Trump may not quite be a murderer, but he is certainly culpable in negligent homicide on a grand scale. For that he is evil. For his sake, may he have the same opportunity as the condemned have on Death Row to atone for his monstrous sins before facing Divine Judgment. I hope that he finds Jesus if that is what it takes to keep him from going to Hell. He's not going to find anything else. Forget the fire and brimstone... the worst aspect of Hell is the company... like Nazis and Stalinists.
I think its pretty clear that wearing masks, avoiding crowds, social distancing and washing hands didn't prevent the death of over 400,000 Americans. The Chinese Regime is culpable of negligent homicide on a grand scale. I get the impression that you forget who is ultimately responsible for the COVID 19 pandemic. Are you working for China or passing on their propaganda or what? I know that the Democrats would rather suck up and kiss their ass and let bygones be bygones and get back to business as usual but that's going to be hard to do as we continue to take on losses even with the Democratic version of Moses in power.
I may be alive because I wore a mask, avoided crowds, did social distancing, and washed my hands for twenty seconds or more after any pretext. I know well the source of the SAES-2 virus that inflicts COVID-19... and I am going to fault China for weak regulation of its 'wet markets'. China is still relatively new to free markets, and some free markets are inappropriate. Someone butchered a bat, and bats are among the worst animal vectors for infection in existence. (The blue-ring octopus kills with a venom that is really a powerful bacterium; a Komodo dragon has a witch's brew of infectious diseases in its bite with the bite leading to sepsis; bites by monkeys and great apes are dangerous because.. well, we are great apes and are vulnerable to their germs as we aren't to those of cats and dogs). I can't imagine eating dog or cat meat, both of which are (or have been) available on the open market in China, so I would avoid any Chinese 'wet market'.
China? Negligent homicide on a large scale? With the Uighurs and Tibetans it is murder. The real killer in China in decades since the Communist takeover (and really before) is famine. That seems to be over. China can clamp down on destructive behavior more harshly and effectively than the USA can... well, it is no democracy, and it is willing to use the death penalty against economic crimes. OK, I endorse the death penalty for human trafficking, which is a modern-day slave trade.
The problem is not that America has democracy and China doesn't. The United States can clamp down on a clear and present danger quickly and effectively, as it did after 9/11. This said, George W. Bush may not have been the wisest President that we ever had, but he was at least amenable to people with knowledge far better and more reliable than his own. Donald Trump has failed catastrophically as a leader, encouraging people to act upon their impulses when such overpower wise choices.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.