Oh, Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Well, bless his heart.

[thewayne]

Initially I'd heard last night from my wife that Hope Hicks had tested positive and that Our Beloved Leader was going in to isolation.

I wish a rapid and full recovery.

Oh, wait.

I said that wrong.

I wish him a slow and very painful recovery.

I don't want him to die. I want him to suffer. He's responsible for an insane number of preventable American deaths. We've had a minimum of four times as many deaths due to COVID as we should have because he didn't follow the advice of the CDC, NIH, and other groups of scientists. He didn't distribute PPE. He's consistently downplayed the threat of this virus and set a bad example by never wearing a mask until the last month or so and has now only worn it sporadically. His kids ignored the suggestions of the doctors at the debate and removed their masks when seated in the audience. Granted, they were seated at socially-distanced intervals. Still, examples matter.

I want the ass to suffer. He and his party, which he is the head of, want to destroy affordable health care in this country. He wants to destroy the right of people with pre-existing conditions to affordable health care.

I am among those people. A lot of you people reading this post are among those people. Do you have high blood pressure? Pre-existing condition. Diabetic? Pre-existing condition. Migraines? Could be classed as such. Asthma? Welcome to the club! Cancer survivor? Pick up your t-shirt at the table on the right, the web site is printed on the back.

Tons of stuff can get you labeled as pre-existing condition.

My antibody meds? My previous specialty pharmacy billed my medical insurance over A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR FOR THEM. Now, the negotiated payment was far lower, but that's what they billed. If I had to pay cash, it would be over $10k a month. And I would be a proverbial boy in a bubble, unable to lead a fairly normal life.

No, I want President Donald J. Trump to know suffering. I want him to be a COVID Long-Hauler. Wouldn't bother me in the least if some of his adult idiot children also got it and became long-haulers.

I want him to know some of the pain that he has caused the family and friends of the 200,000+ people who have died of this virus, and of the people with pre-existing medical conditions who live in fear of losing their health insurance. We don't want to Die for the DOW, which seems to be the game plan for the RNC. As long as they continue to make money, they don't give a damn who lives and who dies.

Comments

[thewayne]

"Done more for our country than any POTUS" Let's agree to disagree there, because we're never going to agree.  I think he was never remotely qualified to be President in the first place, as exhibited by the fact that he never thought he could win.  When he won the election, he didn't have an acceptance speech ready, he didn't have a transition plan, he didn't have a cabinet in mind.  He never understood the Constitution, much less how laws are created or enacted, I'm not entirely sure if he does now. Some positive things have been done during his administration, such as the re-evaluation of our relationship with China, but I completely don't approve of blindly starting trade wars because they've done massive damage to our farming industry.  And when I say farming industry, I'm talking actual farmers, not the agribusiness giants as they're doing pretty good as that's where most of the bailout and relief money went, and they didn't need it. But failing to take Russia to task for bounties on U.S. troops?

Sure, the DOW is doing great.  But that doesn't represent the entire economy.  That's one facet of it, and not a terribly reliable one.  He inherited a growing economy, and part of it has continued to grow.  But why are so many people having to work multiple jobs with no benefits?  Why is there still an increasing wealth disparity?  That tax break that he passed - it expires for people who are not rich in another year or so, so our taxes are going to be going up in the not-distant future.

I won't with academic authority state he's the worst president ever, but in my opinion he is.  I don't have an opinion as to who would be the best.  I definitely have a lot of complaints about Obama, though he did a heck of a turnaround from what he inherited, but even there I have a lot of complaints.

I knew Trump wasn't a successful business man before he was elected.  I've also worked in government pretty much all my life, trying to make things better for people, directly or indirectly.  I've worked at a lower salary and with poorer retirement benefits willingly to do so.  I expect he'd call me a "sucker" or "loser" for doing so because I'm not solely motivated by money.  Government doesn't work like a business, and he never ran a business that was accountable to the public. No, I don't wish evil upon him.  He's brought this upon himself.  This is a virus.  It doesn't care if you're good or evil, it doesn't care what your political ideology is or how much money you have.  It cares if you wear a mask consistently, social distance, and wash your hands.  I just have this thin sliver of hope that if he gets sick, and recovers, that he might have this change of heart and realize that it is within his power to change his messaging: apologize to Biden about his cracks about wearing a mask all the time and start doing so himself and encouraging all his followers to do so, remove all his lackeys from trying to censor the CDC and NIH, increase funding to the WHO, start deploying the national stockpile to where it's needed, not just to states that are pivotal or likely to vote for him, etc. In other words, I'd like to see him have a Scrooge moment and a change of heart. But the evidence is that he was raised by a sociopath and knows no other way to be except himself, so my hope is pretty slim.  He also has some serious co-morbidities against him: age, gender, weight, and likely to have a higher viral load.  If this develops into a serious case, he could be in a bad way.  He also has access to some of the best medical care.  We'll see what develops.

I've had plenty of suffering in the last dozen years of my life with illness, let me tell you.  I'll probably have plenty more in coming years.  And if the Republicans succeed in getting rid of the last vestiges of the Affordable Care Act, specifically the pre-existing condition clause, then it's entirely likely that I'll be leaving the country for one with more sensible attitudes towards its citizens. This is karma coming back to him, 200,000 fold. This isn't the flu. It didn't "magically go away." It didn't go away by Easter. It didn't go away when the weather got warmer. You can't treat it by injecting bleach. He is harvesting exactly what he planted, as have so many of his voters have.  And a lot of those voters are among those 200,000.

The one thing that I wish our electoral process had was that before you can run for Federal office, or be appointed to one, you have to pass the U.S. Citizenship test.  Your attempt will be recorded and made available for anyone to watch, and you can't leave the desk until you finish it.  Based on his demonsratation of not knowing how the government works, I don't think he would have made it to the starting line.

[moxie_man]

*applauds loudly in support.