Is EVERYTHING Joe’s Fault? (No)

It's OK to look, Joe.

I read a headline earlier this week that said President Biden’s approval rating had taken a nosedive, citing two reasons – the current situation in Afghanistan, and the ongoing COVID crisis.  I found this amusing and insulting, for a couple of reasons.

First off, both of these problems are inherited problems.  The war in Afghanistan goes back twenty years, through FOUR administrations:

• Bush, who started it all,
• Obama, who actually accomplished one of the goals by eliminating Osama Bin Laden, and
• Trump, who, like everything else he touched, fucked it up.

It was Trump who set the deadline for troop withdrawal there.  It was Trump who cut a billion dollars of aid there.  It was Trump who released all those Taliban prisoners.  It was Trump who invited the Taliban to Camp David for talks ON 9-11!  And it was Trump who explained all of this and Pompeo’s mystery trip there this summer to the new administration when they handed over the keys to the White House in all of those transitioning meetings they held.

I kid…there was no transition, and Trump left Biden in the dark on this and everything else.  He fucked it up (on purpose?) and Biden was left holding the bag.

But Joe gets the blame because it happened on his watch (despite the timetable being set by Trump).

And COVID is the same thing, of course, except Bush and Obama are blameless.  Despite Biden’s call for every American to be vaccinated and his administration's continued reminders for people to take precautions and practice measures like masking up and social distancing, the virus rages on.

But…even though some vaccinated individuals who swear they wore masks all the time are catching the disease, it’s mostly an unvaccinated issue.  Those areas that have low vaccination rates are the ones experiencing the highest COVID-positive rates.  And the highest serious illness/hospitalization rates.  And the highest death rates.

And to no one’s surprise, these same areas are red states or red counties in blue states.  And it’s governors of red states (DeSantis, Abbott, Hutchinson) who rule our mask mandates and are putting their citizens at much higher risk.  They are literally killing their own citizens.

But Joe gets the blame because it happened on his watch (despite EVERYTHING conservatives and Fox News has done to thwart everything he’s accomplished).

That’s not the most galling thing about the Blame Joe movement.  With both the Afghanistan pullout and the battle to contain COVID, there’s been plenty of blame thrown around.  Much of that blame for Afghanistan comes from warhawks like Rice, Bolton, and Cheney – folks who got us into this mess in the first place.  And the hawking media has been piling it on, too, conveniently forgetting all that’s happened in and to Afghanistan before 2021.

And COVID…can you imagine what people might have said if Trump were President and there was a dramatic spike in COVID cases?  Yeah, HE actually said that.  As if no one could imagine it.  Because we don’t have to imagine it.  It happened.

But it’s not who is blaming Joe that’s the problem.  The problem is – that’s ALL they’re doing.  Blaming.

Not offering alternatives.  Not explaining what THEY’D do in the same situation.

To my knowledge, no one has offered any sort of alternative solution to either Afghanistan or COVID; just blame.  There could be a good reason for this – there IS no alternative solution.  Certainly Bush, Obama, nor Trump pulled the level to end what in pretty much everyone’s opinion was (another) failed operation in the Middle East.  And certainly bleach, ultra-violet light, and ignoring the problem wasn’t the solution for COVID.

In fact, COVID’s problems are so entrenched that one possible idea that I thought might make a difference is not only off the table, but it illustrated just what Biden is up against.  Months ago, it was suggested that Donald Trump make PSAs suggesting that his fanbase get the poke.  All the other living Presidents have been very vocal about being vaccinated and even though Trump did his in secret, he’s made a couple of off-handed comments about getting the shot.  Many thought that if he made a sincere effort to reach out to his supporters, it might make a difference.

Last night, in Alabama, he kinda did just that.  During his 90-minute rant of greatest hits (complaints), he mentioned that it was a good idea and that people should get vaccinated against the virus.

And he was booed loudly.  He quickly backtracked, and never mentioned it again.

So yeah, scrap that idea.  Ain’t NOBODY gonna change the minds of those spreadnecks.  But blame Biden.  Sure.

Joe Biden is doing the best he can, and it seems half of this country is making him do it with one hand tied behind his back and blaming him for damn near everything that goes wrong.

At least they’re not blaming him for rising gas prices.  Oh, wait.

People Like Us are Not Exactly Like Us

They're not ALL like this, but enough are

I spent several hours the last few days arguing about vaccines and masks and the whole COVID thing online, and before you say, “Well, Jeebus…what a waste of time and energy,” let me say a couple of things.

First, you’re right.  I knew well in advance that I would change exactly ZERO hearts and minds.  Nothing was altered, no one was moved, no animals were harmed in the making of my posts.  But it’s like potato chips; you can’t just stop at one, and once I’m engaged with a poster, the gloves are off.

Secondly, despite the accusations that I am a bully and I want to FORCE people to mask up and get vaccinated, the truth is that I don’t.  Sure, I think that any rational and sane individual should get vaccinated, if at all possible, the sooner the better.  Yes, everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear a mask as recommended by the CDC and in some cases mandated by either local government and/or private businesses.  But FORCE someone to do that?  I’m actually kinda libertarian in that respect (don’t tell my friends).

Of course, if you suffer the consequences for your foolish actions, don’t look to me or the government to bail your silly ass out.

But the real reason I spent so much time online arguing was that I cannot stand people who LIE about what’s happening with this virus.  Check that; I can’t stand people who LIE about anything.  But it’s particularly galling to see the flow coming from an eruption from Bullshit Mountain regarding mask effectiveness, vaccine effectiveness, etc., etc.  I try to counter with facts, truth, links, and what do I get for my efforts?

More bullshit.

I can tell you confidently that NO, Bill Gates has NOT been arrested (yet), and NO, the majority of doctors and nurses HAVE been vaccinated (the last thing I read reported doctors at 97%, and that was a while back).  But I was equally confident in thinking another claim was bogus, though I had nothing but my own experience to explain why, so I didn’t respond.  But that’s the subject of today’s post.

Amid all the BS and nonsense (and the responses who tried, like me, to inject some reality into the discussion), one poster bragged that “No one I know has contracted the disease, and no one I know has been vaxxed, and no one wears a mask, either.”  I merely responded “Well, in that case, good luck,” and let it go, but let me explain why I think she was in error.

I learned long ago (before marketing research), that everyone is different, but we tend to think that people like us are like us about damn near everything.  We tend to hang around with people who think like us, dress like us, eat the types of food we do, believe what we believe, and so on.  Up to a point.  We may agree about a lot of things, but…except for identical twins, no two people are exactly alike.  Everyone has some idiosyncrasy that makes them just a wee bit distinct from everyone else.

Now, it’s certainly possible that the poster does not know anyone who has had COVID.  We’re a small county, population 53,000 and change, with a total as of today of 2,182 cases – just 4% of the population.  If everyone they know lives around here, then yeah, chances are slight they know anyone with COVID.  Truth is, I only know of four who have had the disease, and none of them live in this county, or in Oregon for that matter.  Of those four, two are dead, so those percentages aren’t so good.

As far as no one she knows being vaccinated, that’s also possible – as a county, we’re still batting under .500 despite the total percentage in Oregon being just under 70%.  Possible, but…I know for a fact that not everyone “brags about it” either online or in-person for that matter.  I only found out about a neighbor being vaccinated by luck.  He’s conservative, so I assumed he’d be resistant to getting the poke, and he’s not one to talk much about anything, let alone anything personal, but I happened to run into him at the grocery store as he was coming out of the pharmacy, and he admitted he was there to get his second shot.  So, she could have friends like that, too.

And as for everyone not wearing a mask…many businesses have been following the CDC guidelines, saying that vaccinated shoppers are welcome to come in without a mask, but non-vaxxed folks should mask up.  So not sure where her friends are shopping, and now many of those businesses are revising their mask policies to require everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear a mask, so…

Yeah, it’s probably bullshit.

But that’s not why I think she’s probably wrong.  Like I said earlier, it’s because we always assume that everyone’s just like us.  Exactly like us.  And that’s a fallacy that I love to expose by telling this story…

It was damn near 30 years ago when I was general manager of a brand-new public radio station in Monroe, LA, an area that was (back then) one of the largest parts of the country without such a station.  We set up the “standard three-legged stool” of programming – NPR news in drive-time, classical during the day, and jazz and eclectic programming on nights and weekends.  Folks were happy to have us on the air, but of course, newshounds wanted more news, jazz fiends wanted more jazz programs, and of course, the classical crowd wanted more classical music, especially at night.  Still, most everyone was glad we finally made it on-air after a lengthy fundraising campaign and construction on the university’s campus (and on their dime, too).

We’d been on the air for about six months, so the honeymoon was about to be over.  Still, on this night I was basking in some leftover triumphs as I attended the first concert of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra’s 1991-2 season.  After the performance, I met many of the symphony supporters at the reception where in no uncertain terms everyone told me that everyone wanted more classical music, and all their friends and neighbors and everyone else they knew felt that way, too.  At one point, several surrounded me, voices rising as one…

“And we want more classical music, especially at night!”

“YEAH!”

“And get rid of that jazz and new age crap.”

“YEAH!”

“And play more opera!”

“Yeah…maybe….”

“And get rid of that darn Car Talk program!”

“HEY – I LIKE CLICK & CLACK.  They’re a hoot!”

And just that like, a donnybrook ensued.  The circle suddenly opened like the Dead Sea for Moses, although I didn’t escape right away.  I moved to the side to watch, amused, as bosom buddies and best mates suddenly pointed fingers not at me but at each other over Mountain Stage and Fresh Air and “maybe we’ve got enough opera in the Metropolitan Opera and we could use more from the baroque period…” and “I don’t see why we have to turn down our noses at 20^th Century composers; after all…” and so on.  After a few minutes, no one noticed I had quietly left the building.

 

OK, it wasn’t all that quiet.  I laughed loud and long.