Bob Mayer's Blog, page 41

Day 57: 2020 Pandemic. Contagion? How About Carriers?

When I watched Contagion years ago, I thought it was reasonably well done but really underestimated the degree of societal breakdown that such a pandemic would cause.

COVID-19 isn’t at that level. Yet. I doubt it will, but from the beginning I’ve been talking about the two heads of the dragon: the virus and the economic fallout. We are just at the beginning of the latter. Actually, we’re also on the upslope of the former, also, despite states prematurely opening up. But they’re opening up because of the latter. A devil’s bargain.

Yes, we need to open, but we need to do it smartly. So far, its being completely bungled by governors who aren’t listening to the science.

I thought The Road was really more of an over the top morale tale, rather than anything representing a real post-apocalyptic scenario. A shopping cart is the best you can do? Really? Seriously? Cutting limbs off people to eat but keeping them alive? Um, since when do hunters do that to prey?

I digress. Last night we watched a movie that was somewhere in between. It starred Chris Pine and I’d never heard of it. My wife is the expert at finding obscure movies and documentaries. I have no doubt Xfinity is tracking her. She found Carriers, which is a version of The Road with four people.

It’s about reality and hard choices. Most of these are choices people have never thought about. It’s what we did in Special Forces during Isolation before going on a mission. Asking the hard questions: What do we do with a non-ambulatory wounded? What do we do when (not it) we got uncovered by locals? And so on.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 54: 2020 Pandemic. A Recap and an Oops

I was checking my accounts and it seems somewhere in early March my Medium account switched from being linked to my Twitter account to my Google account, and thus I ended up with two accounts. Bummer.

So I’m re-posting all the ones from Google over here to my Twitter Medium account starting with the first one I did as a series covering the 2020 Pandemic. Day 1 was 12 March. Which was only 54 days ago, but seems a lot longer, doesn’t it? I think it’s interesting to read these moving forward to where we are now.

Despite being slammed by some for being overly alarmist in those early days, sadly, I think most of what I’ve written has become true in one form or another. You can read and see what you think of my naive days when our government was telling us not to worry.

I deleted one post about the spread from people working out, running or biking, because there was some pushback in scientific circles about the validity of the post I was referring to; however, I do think common sense says it isn’t a good idea to be biking or running directly behind someone. I’ve avoided our greenways on my bike since this started, which sucks, because Knoxville has a really great system and I miss them. But with the lockdown, of course, those paths are more crowded than ever. Strangely, the crowds caused me to not bike my usual Walland to Townsend to Smoky Mountain NP long ride one day (27 March) and instead biked up Foothills Parkway, gaining like 2,000 feet over five miles and blowing my retina out and well, you’ll see the posts from there appear here in the next days. Actually that will be tomorrow when 27 March is reposted.

I missed a couple of days—either when I had my eye surgery or was in the mountains communing with nature.

So I just reposted Days 1 through 10, 12 March through 21 March. Tomorrow will be the next 10. Then the next 10, yada yada, you got the bisque. As you can tell, I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world.

Stay safe. Stay as positive as you can be in dark times. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

BTW: Ides of March (Time Patrol) is free on Kindle for the next few days. Because, you know, what if Caesar hadn’t been assassinated? Or George Washington hadn’t given his epic speech to mutinous officers on 1 March 1783 in Newburgh? Or the last Tsar overthrown on 15 March 1917; which was definitely one of the top five defining moments of that century.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 53: 2020 Pandemic. Sunk Cost. We need to plan beyond. You too, authors.

There is a term in economics called sunk cost. It means expenses in a business which are made and cannot be recovered, no matter what future decisions are made.

There is a large segment of the United States that has sunk cost in terms of the current administration, but they believe they can recoup their loss. In fact, they won’t accept the loss. No matter how many Americans die.

We’re at the “So, 67,000 dead isn’t that bad stage” for those who even accept the number. There are plenty who argue it is inflated, while most knowledgeable people believe it is under-estimated. Overall, deaths are up, even factoring in COVID-19. What did the extra people die of? Mostly likely COVID-19, but hey, maybe they’re just old and up and died? Of course, some died from the shutdown, by not getting their normal medical care.

I’m stunned by the videos and photos of people on the beaches, roaring along on their boats, crowding into malls. The protestors claim it’s about the economy, but really? The beaches? That’s a priority? Which leads me to the question of what the priorities are? Is there any Federal guidance on what a staged re-opening should be? We know our commander-in-chief punted on responsibility. For the country. Which is rather stunning. Which means commander-in-chief is a misnomer.

The real problem is that sunk cost is what I call a no-do-over event. You can’t change it. Death is sunk cost. A no-do-over event. Speaking from personal experience, when someone you care about, someone you love, dies, nothing can change that. Right now, over 67,000 families are experiencing that sunk cost.

Honestly, a lot of Americans feel like it’s not their problem. One person referred to the cities as “cesspools”. I guess that means they deserve to die? Apparently, he’s never been to Appalachia and seen the poverty there. Do they deserve to die? What is the magic number for those who argue the statistics are over-stated? We went ape-shit over 3,000 on 9-11 and have spent almost two decades at war, killing and destroying our economy by spending trillions on endless wars.

This will last, at the very least, two years. Yes, we can’t be shut down that long. But we can’t be as stupid as we are being. We have 4% of the world’s population but right now, at this moment, 25% of the COVID-19 deaths. And we’re supposedly a first-world country.

What does that mean? We need to plan beyond. To a world where we have to live side by side with a potentially lethal virus. I see people enthusiastic that prison populations are getting tested and showing a high level of positive, asymptomatic people. Which means an inability to think that through: it means our world is saturated with COVID-19.

What to plan for? A few basics. As states are re-opening in the midst of record positives and deaths, we can anticipate disastrous results. Certain businesses are pretty much done for, no matter how much money we throw at them: Cruise lines. Movie theaters. Sports arenas? Nope.

Restaurants? My brother owns one. Hate to say it, but its gonna take a couple of years to bounce back, not a couple of months.

Is the business model sustainable? For writers like me—will Barnes and Noble survive? I’ve always posed that as a hypothetical for authors to factor into their business plans and mostly been ignored by traditional authors. But the traditional midlist is getting devastated right now. I wonder what print runs for new releases are? They have to have been cut drastically.

I know debut authors who have come out during this and my heart goes out to them. I see that publishing houses are laying off editors and publicists and others. The reality is, no matter how much people complain, Amazon is keeping the pulse of publishing beating. Imagine if it didn’t exist? That’s not an ethical or moral thing, just a reality. For trad authors? Start going hybrid ASAP! I’ve been saying that for a decade.

In fact, that’s my advice overall. I’ve been composing an email to my son, who has tested negative but had a cloud in his X-ray and had exhibited all the symptoms weeks before the test, so I’m curious to see if he has the antibodies, because I really do believe he had COVID-19—anyway, I’m writing him to prepare for a future where one relies on what they control, not what others control. Yes, Amazon will control your fate to a large extent as an indie author, but deal with the reality of that, read The Everything Store, and be prepared for the possibility of getting screwed over. But get as much control as you can over your fate!

That even extends to basics like starting a garden!  More to come.

I’ve given away over 2,000 copies of my Survival Guide in pdf to those who’ve asked. I will continue to do that for those who need it and things are tight. Email me at bob@bobmayer.com

For those who are bored and need a long series to read, the first nine books of my Area 51 series are only .99 USD/GBP and 1.99 AUD each this month. Plus, I’ve got rotating freebies all the time; right now The Fifth Floor, which is my wildest book in terms of style, is free. If you like Westworld, give it a shot.

Stay safe. Stay as positive as you can be in dark times. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 52: 2020 Pandemic. And We Won’t Even Have The Roaring Twenties

I studied World War I at West Point. We all know about the Great Depression that began in 1929. But the 1920s? All I know really is they were called the “Roaring Twenties”. I always assumed that after the horror of World War I (truly, truly horrible beyond description) and the Lost Generation, everyone just kind of partied.

I didn’t realize that even more than the horror of WWI, the reason people partied was because of the 1918 Flu, which actually lasted two years and killed anywhere from 20 to 50 million people. No one really knows the true cost. But it was vicious. Trump’s own grandfather went out for a walk one day, came home, didn’t feel well, and was dead that night.

I think after the double whammy of the war and that pandemic, people went a little nuts. They got almost a decade of it, then the Great Depression slammed everyone and it pretty much lasted until World War II. What can you say? That sucked.

People are going a little nuts now. And we’ve got another Great Depression upon us. So we won’t get the Roaring Twenties. We’re still in the pandemic’s early stage. I know states are opening, but wait until they get slammed like New York City was. We’re in the even earlier stage of Greater Depression (should we call it that?) or GDII?

The United State is dealing with the pandemic far worse than my worst nightmares. Feel free to disagree but point me toward the Federal plan for this? We don’t have one because our leader refuses to take any responsibility. Hey, he even said it. So don’t blame me. Seriously, folks, there’s no hidden agenda. All the crap is out in the open. And a third of the country is cheering it. So.

We’ll be well over 100,000 dead by the end of May. Probably much higher than that. When it was only a couple of hundred one of my West Point classmates called an article I posted on Facebook about the ways this could play out “a load of crap”. I wonder if he still feels that way? I still see people on social media even claiming the virus is a hoax. Of course, the president called it that too and now he’s saying our numbers are “great”. I kinda don’t know what that means. Today he’s tweeting that he’s happy a sadistic, murderous dictator in North Korea is healthy. So. I mean it’s not subtle or hidden folks.

Our Federal response to the Great Depression we are entering is pathetic. The same old litany of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

It’s gonna be bad. There will be no return to normal. We didn’t return to normal after 9-11 and that only directly affected a handful of Americans when you look at the reality of it. This is affecting everyone.

Forget your preconceived notions. We will survive, but we must change our outlook. We must accept that for profit healthcare, for profit war and for profit pandemic, kills people. Life is not about profit. It’s about people. Let us cherish each other and not give in to the hate.

Stay safe. Stay as positive as you can be in dark times. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 51: 2020 Pandemic. We’ve Blown It and Tens of Thousands Will Die Because of Poor Leadership

Facts: On the day that TN/LA/TX and GA report the most cases and most deaths in the previous 24 hours, those states are relaxing their containment and re-opening.

I’m dumfounded. First, what criteria are these governors using? Obviously not science. Do they think magic will protect people? We’ve already lost tens of thousands of Americans due to a totally inadequate response to a pandemic that was inevitable and prepared for. Our federal protections were torn apart simply out of spite by the current administration. The intelligence briefings that warned of the pandemic were ignored. There STILL is no coherent federal response.

The president has abdicated responsibility so he can blame governors if it goes wrong and take credit for anything that goes right. At the same time, he is publicly supporting armed protestors who object to those same governors. Armed protestors partly organized by a group funded by the family of the Sec of Education. We have entered a completely new realm of insanity. Yet a third of the country is still in favor.

Perhaps they think New York City was the exception. And that they will be spared.

They won’t be.

The image above is Hart Island in New York City, not far from where I grew up. The people doing the burying are prisoners from Rikers Island. For more info on Hart Island: HERE.

I despair of the ignorance and blatant disregard of science and common sense.

I do understand we can’t stay shut down forever. But we need a national PLAN. Something we’re not going to get under this administration where the leader is concerned only about the next news cycle and his own welfare.

If the president’s response has been as great as he claims why is he blocking his chief science advisor from testifying? As he’s blocked all the first hand witnesses to his innocence of all charges and his brilliance?

There will need to be accountability for the deaths that have happened and are coming that could have been prevented.

I will begin shifting this blog toward preparing for the long grim road ahead; not just regarding COVID-19 but the Great Depression that we are on the front edge of, just like 51 days ago we were at the front edge of the pandemic.

Stay safe. Stay as positive as you can be in dark times. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 50: 2020 Pandemic. There will be Blood

We’ve now seen armed protestors storming state capitols a couple of times. Today it was Michigan. What’s amazing is that it’s legal for them to bring their weapons into the capitol but there are metal detectors in the entrances for, what exactly? I had to take off my belt last time I went to get my drivers license and leave it at the metal detector.

I really wonder what the reaction of the police would be if people of color showed up with their legal guns and tried to legally enter the capitol?

These people are being overtly supported by our own president, which is stunning. First, he abdicates all responsibility to the states, then publicly supports “liberating” those states from those he gave up authority to. He is a master of playing both sides. He lives on conflict. It is literally his fuel of life. And it will get worse.

You cannot have that many angry, armed people, feeling justified by the president, without it eventually turning bad. They will view it as their “Boston Massacre” moment, except the point is, the people with the heavy weaponry are the protestors, not the police. Isn’t it odd that the same people who scream about supporting the police are more than willing to confront them when they feel entitled.

There will be blood. People have forgotten Kent State where scared, poorly prepared National Guard fired on protestors. But we will have heavily armed protestors firing on someone, perhaps police but more likely unarmed counter-protestors. We’ve seen the pictures of healthcare workers in scrubs facing down screaming lunatics. All it takes is one person to lose control and it begins. And then? Will there be “very fine people” on both sides? As blood runs in the streets? This already happened in Virginia. Sadly, the president will love that. He’s desperate for something to help the only thing he cares about: himself.

This isn’t political—this is patriotism. I’m not a “snowflake” “libtard” “sore about losing” or any of the other terms people throw at anyone who criticizes the president. To not truly understand he only cares about one person, himself, is the essence of naivety. He would rather see this country disintegrate into a smoldering civil war than be voted out of office. Have no doubt he will see those protestors on the news tonight and a plan will bubble in his head. He will try promoting more civil disobedience. If it works, he’ll push it. If it doesn’t he’ll pivot and lie.

He’s also trying to blame China instead of his own ineptitude in ignoring all the intelligence warnings about the pandemic. Many lives could have been saved, but weren’t. Even though most of the virus in the US has been traced back to Europe, not China. Even though his wonderful Chinese ban still allowed 40,000 people to enter from there after it. Even though he said it wasn’t a problem and now says he knew it was going to be a pandemic. Pivot and lie.

But there will be blood.

Stay safe. Stay positive. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 49: 2020 Pandemic. Back From Nature. Where are the nomads?

I’ve been out of the net for a couple of days meandering in the Jeep in the Smoky Mountains with Scout. We explored the Cherokee National Forest and the Nantahala. We crossed the Appalachian Trail a couple of times as we skidded the TN/NC border. Topped out at 5,000 feet on top of Johns Know (okay a couple of feet short at 4,908).

Camped on a mountainside far from civilization. Watching a fire burn down to embers and then sleeping under the stars is always great. There were zero lights in sight no matter what direction I looked. As I lay there, I thought I heard cars on an Interstate, but then realized the noise was waterfalls.

I also went up a road that went: nowhere. Well, it ended at a splendid overlook, but it was a two lane, paved road. At one point there was a tree fallen across most of it. I envisioned zombies as it looked like one of the desolate roads in Walking Dead, partly covered by stuff.

All the campgrounds were closed, although dispersed camping is allowed. Other times I’ve been in the mountains, the campgrounds are usually packed; often with people who live from campground to campground, moving just inside the 14 day max. Some live in tents, most in pulled campers. But all the campgrounds were empty, which made me wonder where all these nomads have gone? I did see some dispersed campers along riverbeds with big stacks of firewood which made me suspect they were going to be there a while. But where are the rest?

I don’t think those who have never experienced poverty understand what it’s like. I see people in the mountains filling up water jugs out of the Little River; they come down from their shacks farther up to get their water supply as they have no running water. So far, I think they’ve been largely spared COVID-19, since they have little interaction with others, although they do have to go into town for some supplies. I noticed in Ducktown, TN, yes it’s called Ducktown, south of Turtletown, TN, that no one was taking any precautions. I topped off the Jeep, doing my standard disinfect after and an old man stared at me oddly.

The feeling I’m picking up is that people think we’ve peaked and can come back; the data tells me we’re on the upslope. NYC might have peaked, but FL is on the rise along with other places. We just crossed 1 million positive and our testing, despite a constant bragging to the opposite, is lousy.

This pandemic, which has killed more in two months than we lost in the entire Vietnam War, should make us really re-evaluate a lot of things. There are many people dying alone, in their apartments or houses because they can’t afford to go to the emergency room or call an ambulance. I think a lot of people who were laid off and lost their business’s health insurance are having a rude awakening. Universal healthcare isn’t just about helping those less fortunate. It’s about being a community and helping others, helps ourselves.

Will we learn and get better?

Stay safe. Stay positive. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 46: 2020 Pandemic, Check Your State and County. How Far Are You From A Hospital?

My wife and I have been looking to move for a while now. For the first time, even before this pandemic, one of the considerations we had was distance to a good hospital; we can live anywhere and we’d find these beautiful houses in some small town for what we consider not much money, but then we’d look at where the nearest hospital was and . . .

We’re spoiled here in Knoxville. We live five minutes from the huge UT Medical Center. There are two other hospitals also five minutes away and several more in town. I was so fortunate to get my surgery at the Tennessee Valley Eye Center with a superb doctor even while in lockdown.

We’ve also been very fortunate in the timing of the pandemic as the students at UT had school attendance dissolved while they were on spring break. Their not coming back certainly spared the city a huge outbreak. Compared to Nashville and Memphis, our numbers is pretty decent although cases are starting to go up, not plateauing or declining.

One of first thing in the Area Study at the start of my Survival Guide is to examine how close we are to things like hospitals, fire stations, police stations, military posts, etcetera as well as dangers. Looking at the maps on this page in the NY Times (free coronavirus coverage) is how most of the mountains south of here lack medical care. You can tell sitting in the lobby of the main building at UT hospital that some of these people are coming in out of the hills and hollers. I will not call them Rednecks because that would piss off Darlene (for those fans of Ozark). And you do not want to piss Darlene off.

On the same page, you can check the latest data from your state and county.

NY TIMES CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

There was an interesting interview on the last Bill Maher. A doctor pointed out that we are going to have to accept reality and gradually open up. There won’t be a vaccine for at least a year, probably longer. We can’t stay shut down. We need a plan for that, but we really don’t have one. The president is dodging responsibility, which he has made an art form of, and thus states are doing it piecemeal, which is a recipe for disaster. The real issue will come about school openings in the fall. Actually, in August in most places. Because it’s not just the schools and education; it’s the parents having to be home to supervise the kids. My son sent me pics of our grandsons in his apartment in San Diego and having spent a week with the little darlings, and I do love them, in that apartment, I feel like asking him to put a newspaper next to them for proof of life because they must be driving him nuts. Plus, the fact he has to teach his college classes from home while they are there. He says they’re doing well, but for all those parents out there with kids at home—hang in there!

I’ve noticed a big uptick in free downloads of ebooks. I’ve got a couple permanently free and constantly update the page with a new free book at least weekly if not more. You can check on that here FREEBIES.

Stay safe. Stay positive. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 45: 2020 Pandemic. West Point graduation; How the Department of Defense Hasn’t Defended Itself, Never Mind Us

Someone asked me if I was incensed when I saw that Trump had ordered the Academy to hold graduation so he could speak. Actually, I kind of shrugged when I saw the news. BTW– there’s Ronald Reagan at my graduation, which was his first public appearance after he’d been shot.

I’ve been reflecting on the military and recent events a lot lately and it’s not good. People say “Thank you for your service” and the reply is “Thank you for paying taxes”. Except a lot of rich people don’t pay taxes. They also don’t serve. And a lot of them make a lot of many off the military and war.

I know it’s sincere from most people but I remember the Vietnam and post-Vietnam military. I’d thank anyone who was drafted for their service. But no one in the military today was drafted. Everyone is a volunteer. Every West Pointer going back for graduation chose to be part of it. They need to get used to it. Because they could easily end up in Afghanistan where for almost two decades, I’ve been trying to find our mission statement and given up: there isn’t one. Remember, we have senior officers who’ve never really won a war and actually lost several. The ‘win’ in Iraq was a loss because the ‘peace’ never came and the spin-offs which we helped create were worse than the problem. Plus, it was, in essence an illegal invasion and technically not a war. We haven’t really declared war since 1942. (free slideshow on that if interested) I think that’s a huge problem.

After the Afghanistan Papers came out there was a collective shrug. Like Vietnam, the people involved knew there was no chance of ‘winning’ especially when there was no clear definition of what winning was. I look at the rows of ribbons on senior officer’s chests and shake my head, especially as they don WWII era greens. Not a single general who took over in Afghanistan had the guts to stand up and say: “Hey, I can’t WIN here, because there is no goal. Can we nail that down please?” They just went in and did a variation of what the previous guy did, retired, got their big paying job in the defense industry and wrote a book about what a great leader they had been. In losing.

I’ve got a classmate who is Army Chief of Staff and another who is up for and just got a top job in the Pentagon—it seems his job interview as a consultant on Fox News and calling a former head of the CIA, out of favor with the current administration, a communist, went well.

We have for profit healthcare and we’re learning what a disaster that is as people lose their jobs and learn what it’s like (and how much it costs) to get their own healthcare, if they can at all. We have a for profit defense industry which Eisenhower warned against. And we most definitely have for profit war. Why are we in our longest conflict? Because people are making money off it. It’s extremely lucrative. And those getting maimed and killed? They’re volunteers. We thank them but most of us aren’t them. And most of us, let’s be very honest, really don’t care. I guarantee the president has no clue how many countries our troops are deployed in. I’d say many in the Pentagon would be hard pressed to easily cite a number.

Clausewitz said (see that makes me an expert, quoting Von) that:

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

But war is really an extension of much more, especially economics. Even, I dare say, of ethics. I believe one of our greatest military achievements was the Berlin Airlift. Until we reshape our nation’s defense to accept a larger reality we’re clueless. Our Department of Defense can’t even defend itself from a virus. Which makes me wonder what the military’s biological warfare defensive plans were. Because it doesn’t seem like they had any.

I remember during the Cold War being briefed on a classified mission to jump into Poland and put surveillance on a rail line from Russia to East Germany if the balloon went up on WWIII. We knew, without being told, if we saw, let’s say, a Russian tank corps railloading past us (BTW, rail gauge changes at the Russian border—they’re a little paranoid about making it easy for invaders) that a nuke would likely be popped on it and we’d be ashes. Also, my concern was if I were the bad guys and knew we’d be around looking, I’d simply go down both sides of the tracks dropping chemical or biological agents to wipe us out—how would we prepare for that? A CIA briefer actually told me I was too junior to worry about such things. But I digress.

One maxim which I was taught and absolutely believe in is that the leader is responsible for ALL. Straight from the top down to the fire-team leader. There needs to be accountability.

Our top “leaders” are players, not leaders. We saw what played out with the commander of the Roosevelt. We used to wargame that mission versus the men, which comes first scenario at West Point and other military schools. My answer was always the men (women). Why? Because you can’t do the mission without them. But the school answer is the mission. But the true answer is: the profit.

Stay safe. Stay positive. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)

Day 44: 2020 Pandemic. Re-opening? Seriously? Is This Our Chernobyl?

I’m watching kids being dropped off by their parents to a house across the street where there’s a big sign congratulating a daughter on her 14th birthday. Everyone’s being greeted with hugs and kisses.

It might be a party no one ever forgets. Or nothing could happen. I lean toward the former as we learn more and more how many Americans were infected and asymptomatic, but what do I know? I’m just trying to listen to scientists.

I’m not sure what magic number of deaths would make people take it seriously. We still have people saying the flu is worse. At this point, I’m not sure a certain segment of the population are even capable of changing their minds. The problem is that this virus doesn’t discriminate. It’s going to infect you regardless of your beliefs. The only thing you can control is your actions.

The biggest problem is lacking of testing. Anyone who claims leveling off or dropping is unreliable because so few people are getting tested. I vaguely remember the commander-in-chief stating that anyone who wanted to get tested could. Like weeks ago? Still not even close to being true. Each day, more and more, I get a sense that the lack of testing has a lot to do with politics and a desire to keep numbers low, at least officially, regardless of the reality.

There is some speculation that Chernobyl was the end of the Soviet Union. Of course there were other factors at play. But we have other factors at play now also and COVID-19 might be looked upon by historians as a key player in the end of the United States. At least as we know it.

I know, people think I’m over-reacting. But we’re seeing serious partisanship playing out in the federal government’s response. Mitch McConnell seems determined to destroy as much as he can. 16% of our population can control over 50% of the Senate. A deeply flawed system, rooted in slavery, and one that is biting us in the ass now.

Stay tunes. Same bat channel. Same bat—of wait, bad joke.

Stay safe. Stay positive. Be like Cool Gus. Or even Scout.

The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Also now in Kindle Unlimited.

The Green Beret Pocket-Sized Survival Guide (same as above, minus the preparation part in order to be smaller in print)