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elfsI’m going to call this: July 18th through July 25th will see a vicious spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, and many of those cases will overwhelm hospitals in mid-sized cities in the “red” states.
Already the gullible, driven to anger by the propaganda around them, have taken to the streets, crowding together to show their anger at the lockdowns and social distancing guidelines. At the same time, under the heading of “watch what they do, not what they say,” the Pentagon has extended a ban on all unnecessary travel and troop movements until July 1st. While Trump and his ilk are pushing to “reopen America by May 1st,” I suspect it’ll get dragged out through May and June in a lot of places as governors continue exhibit caution.
But July 4th is the real problem.
“Nobody’s gonna take away my liberty on liberty’s birthday!” will be the rallying cry. This message will be amplified by the right-wing noise machine, and even further amplified by foreign powers eager to hasten the collapse of democracy by creating further strain on our social and medical capabilities. Pressured by American activists who somehow think they’re immune to drowning in their own pus as long as they have their “freedom,” they’ll have their barbecues and get-togethers and “concerts for freedom” and whatnot, and two weeks later the cycle will spike again hard and those of us trying to keep them alive will have to sigh and sit back and hope the next wave isn’t facilitated by quite so much sheer, raw idiocy.
So there’s that to look forward to. The summer instinct to get out of the house and go sit on the beach, to hang out with big crowds at festivals and concerts, to wander street fairs and go to sporting events, will ultimately be fatal to a lot of the vulnerable around us. I don’t want that, but I’m pretty sure it’s the next phase.
Already the gullible, driven to anger by the propaganda around them, have taken to the streets, crowding together to show their anger at the lockdowns and social distancing guidelines. At the same time, under the heading of “watch what they do, not what they say,” the Pentagon has extended a ban on all unnecessary travel and troop movements until July 1st. While Trump and his ilk are pushing to “reopen America by May 1st,” I suspect it’ll get dragged out through May and June in a lot of places as governors continue exhibit caution.
But July 4th is the real problem.
“Nobody’s gonna take away my liberty on liberty’s birthday!” will be the rallying cry. This message will be amplified by the right-wing noise machine, and even further amplified by foreign powers eager to hasten the collapse of democracy by creating further strain on our social and medical capabilities. Pressured by American activists who somehow think they’re immune to drowning in their own pus as long as they have their “freedom,” they’ll have their barbecues and get-togethers and “concerts for freedom” and whatnot, and two weeks later the cycle will spike again hard and those of us trying to keep them alive will have to sigh and sit back and hope the next wave isn’t facilitated by quite so much sheer, raw idiocy.
So there’s that to look forward to. The summer instinct to get out of the house and go sit on the beach, to hang out with big crowds at festivals and concerts, to wander street fairs and go to sporting events, will ultimately be fatal to a lot of the vulnerable around us. I don’t want that, but I’m pretty sure it’s the next phase.
