Almost no progress has been made on the bathroom this week. I had three appointments...Monday was our signing event for the Homeowner's Reimbursement Program, Tuesday a dentist appointment, Wednesday a follow-up with the electrophysiologist, an appointment I had rescheduled twice, who for the first time since I've been on the medications did not recommend the ablation for afib. I'm still having the occasional episode but they are few and far between and are fairly short and mild. If they don't bother you, he said, they don't bother me. Come back in 6 months.
While all that was going on, Rocky was dealing with a major problem on his big job. His crew made a 7” mistake on a wall they were building. He dropped by Wednesday to texture the sheetrock repair around the plumbing for the sink and we haven't seen him since. I got in there yesterday and painted the repair so whenever he shows up again he can get on with the other stuff.
You may have noticed that I haven't been writing about or commenting on the continuing debacle that is Trump and his administration. Well, I've been commenting on other bloggers' writings. I just reached a point where I couldn't take anymore. I've stopped reading articles on FB, not reading his tweets on Twitter, and I certainly can't stomach any videos with his lying asshole puckered mouth and his constant whiney complaints about how badly people treat him. When I started waking up in the middle of the night and the first thoughts that entered my head were about all the destruction he and McConnell are wreaking on this country, their total disregard for the law, their refusal to pass election security bills, and their sucking up to Putin and other despots it was time to take a giant step or two back. Not that I'm uninformed but wallowing in it is no longer a part of my day.
However...his response, or rather his non-response to the coronavirus pandemic is just plain criminal. In his mad dash to reduce the size of the government to small enough to drown in a bathtub he is endangering us all. First he got rid of the global pandemic response team because...Obama, he has effectively hamstrung the CDC by cutting its budget and instituting a hiring freeze which has left something like 700 positions unfilled and ignores the WHO, then he refused the gift of proper tests for the virus from another country because he wanted to use American tests which, surprise!, were ineffective, then he called it a hoax, then he sent a team of medical professionals to meet with the 14 evacuees from the airplane? cruise ship? in quarantine in China without any protective gear or proper tests and turned them loose into the general population, then he called it a flu and had to be schooled over and over about why the flu vaccine wouldn't be effective against it, then he lied and said a vaccine would be available in a matter of weeks when it will take over a year, then he called the death rate 'inflated', then he told people who were sick to go to work anyway because his only concern is about the stock market which is tanking because while Trump may be trying to sweep the pandemic under the rug, investors and business people worldwide aren't, so then Trump pressured the Federal Reserve to lower the already low interest rate thinking that that would solve the crashing stock market and he needs that stock market. It's the marker he uses to convince the population that he has engineered the best economy ever, though of course if you're one of those people who need several jobs just to get by or can get by with just one job but would be hard pressed to come up with an extra $400 for any kind of emergency, you already know that this 'best economy ever' is also one of his lies. And he needs that 'best economy' because it's the only thing he's got going for him and his hopeful reelection which he wants so that he won't have to face criminal charges when he's voted out (and won't have the National Treasury cash cow to raid every weekend). That's his concern here. That's why Sec. Treasury Mnuchin and Pence are in charge. No science allowed, no health workers allowed to speak to the media about what is really happening, no tests so there is no proof the pandemic is here. He doesn't give a rat's ass how many people die. And apparently he's just told the nation that he has 'shut it down', even as reported cases are multiplying and spreading throughout the country and people are dying so no need to attend a meeting at the CDC on his way to Florida. Can't be bothered with facts. (edit: apparently after all the bad press about the cancelation of his visit to the CDC, his handlers now say he will attend the meeting.)
Welcome to America under Trump and the Republicans where cryin' won't help us, prayin' won't do us no good.
We have one chance. Vote blue. No. Matter. Who!
I too have avoided more than oblique references to our national predicament, which is as near as we can come to a government, in my blogs. I wanted to keep them as an oasis for people to rest a little.
ReplyDeleteBe there are times when you need to talk, and thank you.
About the economy and job growth: my son knows about all these jobs. He's got three of them.
I admire how you can condense and present the political news. And I always agree with every word of it so of course I think you're brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWe...are...so...fucked.
That about sums it up for me.
But hey! The weather is beautiful here today! So there's that.
I told Mike the other day that I can't get my hopes up because I was SO DEVASTATED after the 2016 election & I can't go through that again. If we win then I will be ecstatic. But I'm resigned to the godawful possibility that we won't. And God help us then.
ReplyDeleteeven if he does get reelected if we can keep the house and take the Senate, he'll be basically hamstrung.
DeleteI think this virus will be his undoing, unfortunately, it will take many others.
ReplyDeleteWe have to vote. But its almost more important now to vote in a Democratic Senate and House as well. Even if the vile man is reelected, there will be a recourse.
ReplyDeleteYes to that. If we retake the Senate, it hardly matters if he gets in. He won't have McConnell to destroy the House's work and his other cronies won't be in the majority on the congressional committees.
ReplyDeleteI've closed my eyes and ears, mostly, the last several weeks, until I realized the stock market is falling. It opened nine hundred points down this morning, I understand, though it recovered. But this latest debacle over response to this virus, may it be his undoing. But first and foremost, vote blue. vote, vote, vote.
ReplyDeleteMost thinking people canot defend this as "straight talk" and I will look forwrad to replacing the illusttrous leader in the fall! You have certainly been patient with all that repair and remodeling.
ReplyDeleteOf course I agree with you completely on the voting thing.
ReplyDeleteA 7" mistake is a fairly big mistake when it comes to wall-building!
Amen, what you said. I have started and abandoned multiple posts excoriating the current administration and their complete and total incompetence. You've summed it up really well. The recent CDC recommendation that the elderly stay in their homes is just creeping me out. It makes it seem more real than it did. Sorry the bathroom has become the project that will not end.
ReplyDeleteGood move Ellen. Who needs all the relentless chatter (I'm trying to be polite here, for what that's worth) spilling out of this internet.
ReplyDeleteI had a brief look at his twitter feed. Spare me. It sounds like boys in a school yard.
Mind you, the same thing happens here, and the tax payer foots the bill!
And the book review previous post. Both the libraries I borrow from having many of the Charlaine Harris books. Next time I go to the library I'll take your list and see what's available.
Alphie