Your Kids Will Be Fodder
Our country doesn't have a plan and we're going back to school.
Big personal news: My foot cast is on its way to the great Pacific garbage patch. The two screws in my ankle held tight. My reward is a red-bottomed walking boot that allows me to hobble two blocks without a cane and stand in the shower and wash my foot for the first time in two weeks.
At least next week I get my jaw unwired and can finally see what my famous smile looks without four teeth. I guess that’s why they made gold teeth were invented in 200 B.C.
My friend, Mary Bush, a Franklinton legend and something of a surrogate grandmother who could whoop my ass, told me last night that I need to start caring about myself as much as my friends care about me. I hadn’t really thought about that, and the missile hit home because it’s true.
I’m going to try, though I can’t make any promises. People have been asking me if they can go donate to a GoFundMe or some charity auction for my quickly accruing hospital costs. I don’t really feel comfortable doing that with so many other people needing cash from accidents that didn’t involve them driving their car into a median roughly 1.5 miles from their house.
If you want to help, purchase a Rooster subscription or gift my mental illness to somebody you care about so they can begin their day with all the depressing news from Cleveland to Cincinnati and anywhere in between (but mostly in Columbus).
Or you can just Venmo me $25 for a year subscription to @warrengharding (be sure to include your email).
BETSY DEVOS IS READY TO SEND YOUR CHILD TO THE COVID FACTORY IN HER ETERNAL QUEST TO SHRED PUBLIC EDUCATION
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ brother, Erik Prince, runs a mercenary company that commits war crimes… and yet somehow she’s the most evil member of her family.
I don’t begrudge anyone for inheriting money. I do begrudge people who inherit money and then come off the bench into public arena to make life harder for working people. And nobody is worse than Betsy DeVos.
It’s a crock of a shit that someone who ha dedicated her life to shredding public education to be named Secretary of the State. But such is the Trump dystopia.
The school year is quickly approaching. Americans rely on schools to feed and house our children while their parents are off working. COVID-19 complicates that formula, and even though we’ve been dealing with this since January, it’s clear Betsy DeVos has no fucking idea what she’s doing.
From Catherine Cadinsky of dispatch.com:
Democrats and Ohio’s teacher unions blasted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as “callous and clueless” for her call to fully reopen schools this fall amid a surge in coronavirus infections.
“Two words come to mind: callous and clueless,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Secretary DeVos’ comments about just utterly disregarding the health and safety threat (of) reopening schools without clear public health guidance imposes was actually pretty shocking.
“She doesn’t care about the health and safety of students in school but also the teachers and educational support professionals, their families and communities. We know that if the opening of the schools is not done right it is going to be disaster.”
One thing I learned about parenting from my friends is that children go to schools and bring home diseases that haven’t been seen since 1838. One friend got “foot and mouth” disease from their kid? I was like what the hell year is this, 1868?
Seems like a bad formula during a pandemic without a cure.
And I feel terrible for our teachers; it’s not like they’re getting paid a King’s ransom to teach these kids is in normal circumstance. We’re sure as hell not going to give them the hazard pay they deserve if we go through with the suicidal idea of opening schools.
WE’RE SACRIFICING NURSES TOO
Prisons and nursing homes are the two places where dying of COVID doesn’t really count. As prisoners, they’re there for a reason! Nursing homes, well, they were old anyway! Who is to say COVID actually killed them? That’s how a lot of Americans feel, even if they won’t admit it in a poll.
The problem is there are people who work in prisons and nursing homes. And they aren’t condemned by society or the sands of time. They are just trying to make a living like the rest of us on this godforsaken pebble.
The richest country in the world still can’t even protect them.
From Rick Rouan of dispatch.com:
The union that represents nurses, social workers, psychologists and others working in Ohio prisons says its members are not being given adequate personal protective equipment as they deal with inmates with or who have been exposed to COVID-19.
In some cases, those workers are being told to reuse N95 masks for multiple days, said Joshua Norris, executive vice president of SEIU District 1199.
Norris said those who are working with inmates who are sick are given N95 masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment but are told to reuse their masks. But workers who deal with inmates have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus but are not showing symptoms are given only cloth masks.
Future generations are going to read about the coronavirus and ask, “What in the fuck?” If I survive to see that day, it ain’t like I’m going to have an answer for them.
THE RICH GET RICHER IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT
The Paycheck Protection Program as designed to aid small businesses through the “uncertain times in which we live.”
Unfortunately the program wasn’t designed by bankers. It was devised by government hobgoblins and dumped on the bankers’ laps.
The boondoggle made a barrier for the businesses the program was intended for. Not so much for already-wealthy businesses with an army of pencil-pushers.
From Hayleigh Colombo of columbusbusinesfirst.com:
Businesses in Central Ohio's 10 wealthiest ZIP codes were approved for nearly twice as many Paycheck Protection Program loans as those in the area's 10 poorest ZIP codes, a Columbus Business First review of federal loan data shows.
The 10 wealthiest ZIP codes in Central Ohio, which cover the areas of Galena, Powell, Westerville, New Albany, Lewis Center, Granville, Dublin, Pickerington and Plain City, had a combined 5,037 businesses approved for PPP loans. The 43017 Zip code, located in Dublin, was responsible for the largest chunk of the group, with 1,024 loans approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Business in Central Ohio's 10 poorest 10 ZIP codes, which are all in the city of Columbus, were approved for 2,891 PPP loans combined, even though those ZIP codes contain a bigger combined population than the 10 wealthiest ZIP codes.
Our analysis takes into account only ZIP codes with populations of at least 10,000 in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties, with wealth measured by U.S. Census data.
I don’t have any self-righteous indignation left at this point. I’m just embarrassed for America that this was the best we could do.
REPUBLICANS INTENT ON PROVING THEY’RE A DEATH CULT
Donald Trump moved the 2020 Republican Convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville to avoid a mask mandate. Florida is now one of the world’s hottest corona spots, which is weird because earlier this month their dipshit governor spiked the football on how his state had handled coronavirus.
Would you go to Florida for vacation? I wouldn’t. Yet it seems Republican rank-and-file are ready to die for their God-King. Republican elites? Not so much.
From Cole Behrens of cincinnati.com:
Dimitrious Stanley, former wide receiver for the Ohio State football team and a first-time delegate at-large, said he is planning to bring his family to Florida. But he said large demonstrations might make him reconsider.
Though he said he isn’t personally worried about the coronavirus, despite Florida hitting an all-time high in virus cases, “you want to definitely protect the elderly and the vulnerable for sure. The people that are vulnerable should not be there.”
Some of those who haven’t yet committed to attend the convention aren’t the rank-and-file delegates, but other statewide and top elected GOP officials.
This shows Republican elites know the same science we do. They’re just willing to sacrifice voters to score cheap political points by turning wearing masks into a ploy.
Certain types of liberals think if we beat Trump at the ballot box in November then the Republican party will be co-signed to the dustbin of history. Do not write off these cockroaches. Their message of “change is bad and racial and economy hierarchy is good” will appeal to at least 35% of Americans for at least the next 100 years.
THOSE WMDs. The most corrupt police unit in the history of the nation… The trolls behind r/relationships… Neuroscience shows that our gut instincts about only children are right… How to disappear… Renting is throwing money away…right?