[oregontim]

Two days ago my daughter called very upset after a trip to the local grocery store here in Eugene, where I live. Alias Berkeley north, a pretty liberal college town. Maybe 80-90% of us wear masks in public places. We have modified opening, restaurants only outside (and they're empty), gyms, hair, dentists etc. only with masks and controls.

My daughter was upset because she had just seen an older man wearing mask and gloves verbally attacked by a younger man. The aggressor was in the old guy's face shouting, fucker this and ***** that, asshole etc, the whole gamut, calling him coward and idiot and sheep and brainwashed. It was so bad that store employees called the police and rushed out to rescue the old guy immediately, without waiting for the police.

This was not typical. It didn't get into the local paper, not even the nextdoor.com discussion.

I mention it here, in this thread, because it's an exact point where politics meet pandemic. Donald Trump and his enablers made the wearing of masks political. No other president in my lifetime would have done that. No conscientious leader in my lifetime would have done that. And I blame him and them for it. In the middle of a pandemic, POTUS purposely makes things worse. As I discuss Covid-19 and the pandemic, it's not neutral. It's not apolitical. This moron and his enablers put politics right into the middle of it.

This is just one of the several Covid-19 related issues in which politics has had major impact on pandemic and it's impact. Testing? Official responses? Funding? Management of supplies? Economics, bailouts, public understanding? Treatments. Politics have been YUGE.

[oregontim]

Two days ago my daughter called very upset after a trip to the local grocery store here in Eugene, where I live. Alias Berkeley north, a pretty liberal college town. Maybe 80-90% of us wear masks in public places. We have modified opening, restaurants only outside (and they're empty), gyms, hair, dentists etc. only with masks and controls.

My daughter was upset because she had just seen an older man wearing mask and gloves verbally attacked by a younger man. The aggressor was in the old guy's face shouting, fucker this and ***** that, asshole etc, the whole gamut, calling him coward and idiot and sheep and brainwashed. It was so bad that store employees called the police and rushed out to rescue the old guy immediately, without waiting for the police.

This was not typical. It didn't get into the local paper, not even the nextdoor.com discussion.

I mention it here, in this thread, because it's an exact point where politics meet pandemic. Donald Trump and his enablers made the wearing of masks political. No other president in my lifetime would have done that. No conscientious leader in my lifetime would have done that. And I blame him and them for it. In the middle of a pandemic, POTUS purposely makes things worse. As I discuss Covid-19 and the pandemic, it's not neutral. It's not apolitical. This moron and his enablers put politics right into the middle of it.

This is just one of the several Covid-19 related issues in which politics has had major impact on pandemic and it's impact. Testing? Official responses? Funding? Management of supplies? Economics, bailouts, public understanding? Treatments. Politics have been YUGE.