Reopening While Pretending Things are Under Control

First, my apologies for not being on the blog as much recently.  While I have been forced by my current living situation to take a leave of absence from the paying job thanks to this damn pandemic I also have been busy with other obligations and projects and haven't had the time to comment on this until now. 

As we all know a number of states have begun the process of reopening from lock down from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Under the guise of "getting the economy running again" A number of places with Repub governors have decided to open certain nonessential businesses and "get people back to work."  While the surface rhetoric seems somewhere in the valley of reasonable the underlying doubts appear to tear the argument to shreds when viewed in context.

Originally the CDC (under the minions of the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago) came up with specific standards that a state had to reach in order to be considered worthy of reopening.  Those standards were quickly discarded by the Mad Fuhrer and his minions in favor of largely letting the states do what they want (though no state had matched the threshold set by the Mad Fuhrer's administration's Task Force said (even when the CDC list was excluded) had to be done in order to reopen).  So why now?

Part of it is the understandable frustration of many people being trapped at home either working in a diminished situation or not working at all and wanting to earn money again.  The mainstream media likes to keep bringing this up as a main reason for the push to reopen.  Most of us are concerned about this since, even though the smart course of action would've been to have a period where no evictions and no shutting off of utilities would be allowed  some places went to partial freezes or kept things business as usual, thus requiring some people to keep working while those that were laid off found themselves having to still pay bills while unable to leave home and do their job. 

The frustration someone faces in that scenario is understandable it could've been handled by states or the Feds making sure bills were paid and that people could function while the stay at home orders were in place.  They could've also done more than one check to help people make ends meet and make sure things didn't reopen until they knew it was safe across the board nationwide.  However, as you all know, that isn't what happened.

Some states appear to be slowly getting things under control when it comes to the COVID.  Others haven't yet broke and experts predict that another outbreak will hit them hard.  Still, a number of states are opening in various phases.  Why now?

When it comes to states with Repub governors it may be more a way to wash their hands of the least amongst them more than anything else.  In some of these states they've made it so if someone doesn't want to go back to work because of fear of getting COVID-19 it's considered a voluntary quit and they're thrown off of unemployment.  It's even more clear when I came across a meme attributed to a restaurant owner in Georgia that pointed out that by opening up if he stays closed out of safety he takes the hit rather than them remaining covered by the state.  He also pointed out that if he calls them in and they get sick later than it's the business not the state that's on the hook, leaving him possibly liable. While the latter may be negligible due to plans form teh Repubs in Washington to pass bills shielding business owners form liability if employees who return to work get ill or die from the pandemic, it's still something that lingers for many actual small businesses (who didn't get hte PPP loans that were intended for them as big banks somehow managed to guide much of that money to larger companies who shouldn't have been eligible for it). 

As for the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago it's more selfish than that.  It';s been established that he wants to get back to his rallies again where his ego gets puffed up by MAGA idiots who cling on to every hate filled word coming out of his mouth.  However, with everything shut down (and even now now allowig crowds of more than 1o or so people from meeting that's not possible) his daily press briefings were supposed to fill the void of propaganda void but backfired when people were more willing to hear DR. Fauci speak on the virus (and contradict when Donny said shortly before) than swallow the hate pablum.  IN the process his ratings have faltered somewhat.  Then you factor that thanks to the pandemic he can't tout the great economy anymore and it's easy to see the formula of "open the economy, force people back to work, and the Mad Fuhrer will look good again and beat those Demon Rats [I believe that's what the Repubs want Democrats to be called these days] in November." 

While the formula is easy to see it's also easy to see where it can fail. First, forcing everyone to open when medical experts predict another wave of the virus either later this summer or in the fall means a risk that we can fall back into this pattern again later this year.  That means that there's a chance everything has to shut down again this fall because things were half-assed in preparation for it to open up.  Also of note is the simple reality that people travel form state to state which makes it entirely possible for someone from a more locked down state to travel to a place fully open and catch it before bringing it back to their home state.  While our electoral vote winner wants us to believe it'll fade or just leave most of us are up for another round of the quarantine happening all over again somewhere down the road if things aren't ready.  Then there;s overlooking that the people on the lower end of the economic spectrum are the ones in the service industry and could be working sick while making your food, thus putting you in danger not out of spite but because they had no choice but to work sick since the GOP didn't want to make.  This is the reality too many don't want to take into account when they call for hair salons and restaurants to be fully open before the virus is fully under wraps.

And the saddest part is things didn't have to be like this?  However, the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago fired the pandemic response team in 2018 partially because it was an Obama creation.  He then ignored several warnings to be prepared for a possible pandemic and even repeated told the press it would not a big deal even when warmed otherwise. 

So that leaves us where we are now?  Repub states are opening up with some governors and officials even knowing more people will die from the pandemic in the process.  While they say it's to get people back to work the fact that our lack of response in terms of testing et al means it's good that we'll see another lockdown again down the road makes this more about fooling people to vote for the Repub party in November rather than make sure every is actually healthy enough to go outside. 

While I hope it doesn't get that bad the fact that several states that have reopened large parts of the state have seen jumps in the number of people who have the virus means that it's a very likely possibility.  And that's the sickest part of all this.