The US is breaking coronavirus records all over the place, and I just can’t wrap my head around these the numbers, or the fact that we KNOW what we need to do, and we’re just not doing it.

I feel like people in the US loosely fall into three groups:

– Folks who have severely limited their activities and contacts continuously since March.
– Folks who genuinely do not care and/or do not think it’s a big deal.
– Folks who think “well, if the government is letting all these things stay open, it must be safe, because if it was truly unsafe, things would be closed.”

Group 1, we shouldn’t mess with them. Group 2, I don’t think we *can* do anything about them. Group 3, though? YO, GOVERNMENT, CLOSE SHIT DOWN AND PAY PEOPLE.

I’m hearing rumblings about a Senate stimulus bill – no direct payments. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be getting money to businesses that are hurting, because we should. But I think we all know from experience that those funds rarely get into the hands of the employees. That big corporate tax cut? I was told “OK, nobody likes 45, but we’ll be able to hire more folks and/or do better raises.” Neither one happened.

JUST SEND PEOPLE CHECKS ON A REGULAR BASIS. HELL, MAKE IT RETROACTIVE TO LAST MARCH. You want to see a hella positive impact to the economy? That will fucking do it. Tax the fucking billionaires who have profited insanely over the last 8 months and just do it. Be the fucking commie-pinko-lib-socialists I’ve been told you are and GET MONEY TO PEOPLE.

This morning I heard a clip of Pres-elect Biden on the radio – I think it was a round table type thing, but he said, “I don’t want you to give up. Please don’t give up. We’re going to get through this.” I choked up a bit – both from the level of empathy that has been so absent this past 4 years, and knowing that we’re not all going to get through this – and so many haven’t gotten through this.

It didn’t have to be this way, and I will never, ever forgive or forget how the government utterly abandoned its people – not just 45 and his administration, but every R Rep & Senator, and every Governor that followed along in lockstep because they didn’t want to get yelled at on Twitter. There is blood on every one of their hands, and I hope they are haunted by it to their last days.

To everyone reading – stay home, mask up when you do go out, wash your hands, get takeout, don’t do “little bubble gatherings”, don’t go hang out in places just because they’re open. PLEASE. Do all this for the folks who can’t work at home, do it for yourself, do it for your family and friends.

I know we’re all seriously fucking tired of this – but we’re all we’ve got at this point.