Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

The Trump bullshit is so deep, we've zoomed right past "Google is going to build a web site (and it won't be as bad as that damn Obama's web site" thing, with hardly a notice.

 

Gov. Lee better watch it. This guy once electrocuted a man's testicles.

 

No bounds to Cult brain rot. Discussion on a Deep South college sports board that Wimbledon cancelling was for "politically correct" reasons. "Why can't they play? Tennis players aren't near each other."

 

Kirk Herbstreit ... future Fox News host?

 

Honestly, everything should be closed. At least, then, maybe -- maybe -- people might actually get the point of social distancing, this pandemic might improve, and things could then go back to normal. Faster. Sooner. Why don't people get this?

They're just being stupid, immature babies about this situation, and it needs to stop.

Non-essential? Not necessary. Period. For at least the next month.

My Walmart store is considered essential, and so, of course, we've had more traffic than ever, it seems like, over the past month. Since the second week, it has been people just browsing, and buying all sorts of "other" things, because they're bored and Walmart is somewhere to go and something to do.

Yesterday, though, our county put out a mandate that shopping really, truly is supposed to be just for essentials, and managers and other personnel went through our store, posting notices and using up rolls of caution tape and pallets of freight (mostly Easter candy!) to block off general-merchandise, non-food, non-cleaning, non-pharmaceutical aisles and areas. Customers immediately are thrown off and go into an uproar: "What? What's going on?"

One lady goes to an assistant manager because no one will cut fabric for her at the cutting table. The assistant manager explains about the new order and says that the Fabrics area is not considered essential and is not open for sales at this time. She, of course, on the spot, comes up with the idea of how she's "making masks, and that's essential," and goes right away to someone else and says, "I want to talk to someone who supersedes him!"

The store manager is called to talk to her, and he apologizes for the inconvenience, and tells her the same thing that the assistant manager did, but that, if she wants, she can go to another, nearby store that, nonetheless, is geographically located in a different county, and so, not under the same mandate as our store.

She left in a snit, and I doubt she went to the other store. Or is making masks.

We need to just get this done, people. For everyone's health, well-being, and sanity.

 

Locking down parts of the country while others are free to roam is like having a designated peeing section in a swimming pool.


I went to Walmart and bought stuff to make masks day before yesterday, so I have some sympathy there.

 

I just made a sound that approximates the sound of choking on vegetable soup and crackers. Swear it was a laugh.

 

This is the problem with American Exceptionalism; people take the wrong message from it. They start to believe that they are special and exceptional just because they're here. "Hey, I'm an American so IIIIII should be able to do whatever I like." My Mother is on the homeowner's association at her townhouse development and they just had a shitfit from a tennis instructor who just could not grasp why her tennis clinic was being canceled. And every time I've been in my grocery store (which I used to do four times a week but have cut back to once every five days) it looks like the day before Thanksgiving. It's the same amount of people, they're just in masks now. Like, what the fuck?

 

Governor Lee is far from perfect. I don't agree with a lot of his ideas. As governors go, he's not been as heinous as some.

Anyone else from Tennessee remember The Don Sundquist Babtis' Adoration Tour?

Skippable setup begins here:

A friend who attended Two Rivers SBC invited me to bring my then-tiny nephew/sproutling/thingie to some program they were having at her church. She didn't know Governor Don was going to make an appearance to congratulate the pastor for (?) years of service. This same friend also told me my pseudo-Catholic church was less about God and more about occulty rituals. She meant well.

So I went to my first Baptist service since...1977? We got there twenty minutes early. When you've been one of God's Frozen for decades, the social atmosphere of a pre-service Southern Baptist sanctuary is a bit of a shock. Nice people, happy energy, but so different! Someone turned on the mic at the pulpit, wished everyone a good morning, and asked us to take a seat.

He spent the next five minutes or so talking about upcoming events, etc.

Nothing liturgical. No mention of God or Jesus.

Then the room darkened and there was a twenty-two-minute multimedia presentation of the life and career of the minister.
God's name is mentioned: 1
Jesus: 0
The minister: roughly every 45 seconds.

The house lights came back on. The minister introduced then-Governor Don Sundquist, who congratulated him for his (can't remember) years as minister of TRSBC and then talked about himself for another seven minutes. No mention of his own walk of faith. It was all about setting Tennessee back on the right path. Then the lights went down again. This time there was a 43-minute video about Don Sundquist.

Name callouts:
God: 0
Jesus: 0
The Republican Party of Tennessee: 6
Don Sundquist: 79

Here beginneth the TL:dr...

So the first 77 minutes of that Sunday's service came down to this:
God got one mention.
Jesus got bupkis. (Really, he did the heavy lifting here. Where was the respect?)
The minister: 48+
Don Sundquist 79+

So the cult-like nature of our current political situation does not surprise me. I wish it did.

FWIW...

I didn't stay for the service. When the lights came on, I got a cup of coffee from their lobby kiosk and walked around the grounds and looked at the bunnies and deer.

 

Just heard from one of the tailgating buddies I've run with for the last fifteen years. Covid took his mother last night.

 

Damn. I'm sorry.

This was all so avoidable.