This is bugging me

Fair warning -- there is a bit of profanity today

I just want to get this off my chest this morning and there’s a bad word below, so I apologize in advance.

We should not need the government to tell us when to plan for disaster or order us to do the right thing in the face of a global pandemic. We shouldn’t need the police to threaten to arrest us to keep us six feet apart from the crowd right now.

When this virus started spreading in January, I was regularly on my radio show telling my audience they needed to prepare. They did not need to hoard. They did not, as a friend did, order a whole cow and fill the freezer. But I was telling them to buy a bit extra each time they went to the grocery store just to be on the safe side.

Part of the issue is belief. I am still befuddled by those who have tried to and continue to try to dismiss and downplay the virus. I am now regularly accused of “sub-tweeting” friends of mine on social media because I take the view that we are going to have to be locked down for a few weeks. People must think I read everyone on Twitter. Nope. But apparently I have a host of friends who think we just need to all go back to the office right now.

Let me be honest — I don’t think sheltering in place past April is going to work. People will be fed up and will get out of their houses. But I am absolutely flabbergasted at the people I see urging the President to end the fiction of the viral catastrophe and such. Have they not seen the reports? Have they not seen the pictures? Do they need the virus to affect them or their families before they realize it is a serious problem?

But, and I am about to use a bad word, but ultimately here is what is happening with some — they want to build audiences and clout by being braggadocious assholes knowing the government is going to protect them from themselves.

You can go on Twitter rants about how this is all fake and no big deal and the dollars are more important than the old person’s life and it is all a media conspiracy and “America F— Yeah!” because your ass is getting arrested if you leave your house and keyboard. These people get to seed the conspiracies and undermine the President and his team while purportedly being loyal supporters of the President because they know there will be no consequence.

They get the luxury of trying to force others to prove negatives knowing they will not have to live with the consequences of it. That is so deeply irresponsible. They get to selectively cast doubt on the modeling the President is using to inform his decisions from the comfort of their homes. They get to demand the economy reopen. They get to suggest it is not that bad, no one is really dying, and hospitals really are not overwhelmed because they’re actually staying inside to avoid getting infected.

It’s Like These Churches

I am deeply opposed to the government shutting down churches and arresting preachers. But I am also deeply opposed to churches meeting right now. Let me tell you about Albany, GA.

There are 466 cases in Albany, GA and 26 deaths. Albany and Doughtery County have 89,000 people making it, per capita, the hardest-hit part of Georgia. All those cases can be traced by to an unknowingly infected preacher who preached a funeral. The virus spread among the attendees who then spread it to the community before anyone realized they were infected. 90% of the deaths are African-American. The local hospital is out of resources, out of doctors, and out of bed space.

The models so many are relentlessly trying to undermine got it wrong in Albany, just as they got it wrong in New York City — they underappreciated the damage the virus would do.

Let me tell you about Evans, GA. There are over 20 cases there. They mostly come from a man who drove 190 miles away to Bartow County, GA to bury his father. He attended church in Bartow County and several members were unknowingly infected. He got infected and carried the virus back home where it began to spread.

In Bartow County, there are now 137 cases and 3 deaths. Just about every single one can be traced back to that one church and one church service. In neighboring Floyd County, there are 50 cases and 2 deaths. Most of those can also be traced back to that one church service at that one church.

Most of the churches have stopped worshipping in their buildings now. But for some, the church building has become their prideful idol. That pastor in Florida got himself arrested by not only openly defying a general ban on assembly, but bussing people in to give the government the middle finger.

In Baton Rouge, LA, another megachurch keeps meeting despite the government ordering everyone to cease meeting.

The law is not applied to target churches, but to target everyone. Churches are not being singled out. But at a time Christians need to show Christian humility, some pastors have decided to embrace their inner, here goes the phrase and language again, braggadocious assholery in defiance of the common community good.

The character and nature of many of these churches is not to serve, but bring in the crowds and cash. They are not demonstrating Christian humility and serve. They are not even demonstrating faith. They are demonstrating disrespect to their communities and showing a very weak faith more grounded in a building than a body of Christ.

Where the law does not clash with Christian conscience, the law should be obeyed. The church is a people, not a building, and the gates of hell will not prevail against the body of Christ, but a virus can cull a herd of congregating idiots.

The government should not be targeting churches. But churches should be responsible. Go volunteer in the community and seek the welfare of your cities. On Easter, join a livestream to worship together with the global body of Christ. But we need to reject false bravado for Christian humility right now.

One Last Tirade

I have never seen the media so invested in blame right now. I actually do have some sympathy for the people who think this is all a media plot to bring down the President.

The media tells us to believe all women, but by God Dr. Birx cannot be trusted because she said the President listens to his advisers. Now she is under attack for pointing out the reason responses were delayed in January was because China was lying and misrepresenting data.

You’d think the press would look around the world and see the global response is very similar to what the United States did. Did Trump call the shots in all those countries too or were they all relying on China to tell the truth?

In January, in the middle of impeachment, the President shut travel with China and the media attacked him for that.

In February and March, as the President was telling people this was like the flu, so too was the Mayor of New York saying the same thing.

The media want to blame the President for the problems in New York and a lack of preparedness because the media cannot blame or question China. They cannot blame or question China because every major news organization in America now, except Fox News, is tied to a film studio that is, in turn, beholden to China for access to Chinese box office revenue.

We cannot get honesty from a press that depends on Chinese communist overlords for their paychecks, which is exactly what is happening in the United States right now. The media is savaging Fox News, which is now the only network not affiliated with a company whoring itself to China. It is also the only company that does not have a habit of hiring leftwing pundits as supposedly objective reporters these days.

Between whoring for China and becoming career holding tanks for leftwing hacks, it is no wonder so few Americans trust the media and I say that as one of the few conservatives routinely willing to defend the media against conservative attacks.

Yes Virginia, impeachment did distract the President and White House and it was never going to succeed. If the President has blood on his hands, so too do the Democrats for going through with a sure to fail impeachment scheme. But the Democrats and press will not tolerate you pointing that out. They are too invested in blaming the President for not acting and ignore they accused him of racism when he did act.

Could things have been done differently? Yes. Could things have been done better? Yes. But that’s all rather water under the bridge at this point and the media and Democrats and other world leaders did pretty terrible jobs too. Where is the accountability for them? Nowhere because they aren’t Trump.

Oh, and while we are at it, actually the rest of the country won’t wind up like New York City and we should keep in mind the modeling and death toll has a lot to do with New York City.

Why won’t the rest of the nation be like New York? Because Bill de Blasio and his health commissioner were out telling everyone not to worry, go to bars, and hang out on subways right up until St. Patrick’s Day.

But blame Trump for everything so the Chinese box office will let your corporate overlords in with their films.