It was incandescently stupid and irresponsible on every level for Trump and his local political imitators and cult followers to politicize wearing masks to prevent transmission of the coronavirus. That said, Trump does dumb things all the time and gets away with it. Maybe not this time:
New York (CNN Business) Walmart will require customers at all of its US stores to wear masks beginning next week, becoming the largest retailer to mandate facial coverings as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
Perhaps this means nothing, but it strikes me as significant. Trump’s initial impulse to politicize masks was almost certainly denial, the same thing that led him to make outrageously dumb and self-destructive statements downplaying the danger early on.
Masks are a visible symbol that something’s wrong, that things aren’t normal right now. Honestly, I hate masks for that reason myself — I feel like I’m in a particularly tedious dystopian movie every time I go on a grocery run. But as a mostly functional adult, I also understand that something really is scary and abnormal right now, and it won’t go away if I just pretend it doesn’t exist.
Walmart requiring masks — which goes into effect on Monday — is probably going to galvanize a lot of other retailers who were contemplating it. And it’s probably going to lead a whole bunch of Trumpsters who were participating in Trump’s oppositional defiance disordered-resistance to masks to either double-down on the acting out or just put on a goddamn mask already. Moreover, it’s further evidence of Trump’s catastrophic handling of the pandemic, that Walmart is requiring masks starting JULY-fucking-20, 2020.
The mask war was always stupid, and now Trump is losing. Good.
Open thread.
Baud
Amazon still doesn’t require customers to wear masks.
Fleeting Expletive
Well, ain’t that a bitch: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tests positive for Corona Virus, is self-quarantining for 14 days.
Calouste
Also losing the mask war: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I hear they are going to start requiring pants, though.
Betty Cracker
@Fleeting Expletive: Isn’t that the moron who Instagrammed his visit to a crowded restaurant with his children when sensible people were staying home? Thoughts and prayers.
Marcopolo
So much nice news today! Obviously my reward for getting my taxes done on time. This, for one:
Also, for the first time since Collins became a senator, the Human Rights Campaign will be endorsing her opponent, Gideon, instead of her.
And OK’s governor just announced he is positive for Covid-19, which for me is schadenfreude good.
Last but definitely least, Kanye West has dropped his quixotic (if ever an adjective was more appropriate) presidential bid before it really took off
edited to add I apparently type too slowly–Calouste at #3 beat me to Stitt’s announcement
dhinsd
Our local (San Diego) Walmarts have been requiring masks for several weeks now.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
dr. bloor
I wanna see Wally World hire some night-club grade security guards to screen people on their way in. Employees and other customers shouldn’t be put in the position of having to enforce the rule.
Baud
@Marcopolo:
I guess the message of “Biden will not be Trump” is working better.
Mary G
@Fleeting Expletive: That’s the jackass who posted the picture of himself with his wife and kids out eating at a crowded restaurant way back when. Karma is a bitch, huh gov?
It’s just good business for places like WalMart to require masks. They want to keep the employees virus-free and not have to close down for deep cleaning every other week.
opiejeanne
@dr. bloor: Thank you!
The Moar You Know
It’s significant. It’s also going to get some of their greeters killed.
Chyron HR
Uh no sweaty Trump is 100% behind masks, in fact nobody ever heard of masks before he started wearing them, that’s why they call him “Mr. Mask”.
germy
I visited a walmart a few weeks ago with my wife. Masks Required sign on the door, and an employee stationed at the entrance to enforce policy.
But once we were inside, I noticed something I see in most places: people wearing masks over their mouths only. Noses uncovered. I kept my distance, but it always irritates me to see that.
Also they were out of mangoes.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Oh, the humanity!
jonas
I’m seeing this a lot, too in our area. Really irritating.
The Moar You Know
@Marcopolo: He never pulled papers. I hate the son of a bitch due to an exceptionally unpleasant in-person interaction I had with him on a puddle-jumper aircraft back in 2003, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling sorry for him at this point as he is obviously genuinely mentally ill.
Kay
@dr. bloor:
That’s what’s great about the state orders. It takes the onus off the retailer. They don’t have to do any further explaining other than “state order”. They really should have figured that out by now. They don’t want to alienate and enrage their customers? That’s what the governor is for! :)
They’re all so reflexively anti-regulation they don’t even see when it’s an advantage.
dmsilev
Washington Post just now:
So much for the theory that actually catching the virus might give the GOP some common sense.
Punchy
Ficksed.
DRickard
Retailers (and some wingnut politicians) know keeping customers/voters alive is more important than owning the libs.
greenergood
Mandatory masking in Scotland in stores and on public transport started this past Monday, with just a couple of days’ notice – loads of people were already masking due to consistent advice from Scottish Government, and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s totally cewl tartan mask. Masking will be compulsory in England starting a week on Friday – plenty of time for people to get all riled up and defensive and pissy, esp as Boris Johnson has finally conceded masks must be worn, but still people in his Cabinet were YESTERDAY saying ‘no need to make it law – people will wear masks out of common sense.’ Guess what – LOADS of people have absolutely NO common sense whatsoever. Already Tory Party members are sending in their defaced or cut-up membership cards protesting about masks – because austerity/COVID/Brexit were A-OK with them, but masks! NO way! Infection/death rate in England LOTS more than Scotland -just one example, no COVID deaths in Scotland for 6 days – our lockdown is being lifted much more slowly and with more caution – but people from England are starting to come up for holidays over the border, and people here are not entirely happy. Tourism is important, but tourists like to visit not just Edinburgh and Glasgow, but also the most isolated parts of the Highlands and Lowlands, i.e. the places with the least amount of health service facilities, so locals are torn between their livelihood if they’re dependent on tourism, and their actual LIVES. Sturgeon keeps getting asked by the MSM if she’ll shut the border – the underlying implication being that she hates the English – when what she’s trying to do is keep the bloody COVID deaths down.
Bruce K
There was a joke about Kanye West’s presidential run on Twitter, noting that it lasted roughly one Scaramucci. I laughed, but then bit my tongue when I saw that the joke had been tweeted by Scaramucci himself. At that point, my reaction was basically “heh, heh, heh, very funny, now go back to the Laurentian abyss where you belong.”
jonas
Well, good on Walmart (finally), but the real problem is that these people may wear a mask in Walmart, but then as soon as they leave an go hang out at a big houseparty or jam into a bar without the mask. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Rand Careaga
I know a woman—haven’t seen her in a decade or more, but we would occasionally conduct fluid exchanges back during the Alzheimer Administration in the latter eighties—who was a Stein voter in 2016 and who has now gone completely over to the Dork Side: I look in on her social media presence occasionally, and she derides the pandemic as a hoax, masks as “virtue signaling,” Russian interference in the 2016 as, well, another hoax, BLM and antifa as “terrorists.” Opposes immigration and “globalization.” Bill Gates and George Soros are plotting global domination and Fauci is their tool: wake up, sheeple! She posts Ben Garrison cartoons and Trump-positive memes. I’m fairly certain she’ll have gone explicitly QAnon well before November.
This is a reasonably intelligent person who, according to people I know who worked with her, was a competent attorney (she’s retired now—too much time on her hands). But, perhaps by temperamental predisposition, she has bound herself tightly into a delusional complex—in the corridors of which she does not want for echoes and reinforcement from the other inmates—from which I’m fairly certain she will never emerge. What is to be done with such people?
Baud
@Kay:
If Hillary was president, they could have just said “Hillary” while giving the customer a knowing nod. Missed opportunity.
Mary G
Didn’t expect this:
Betty Cracker
@The Moar You Know:
Do tell!
FWIW, from what I’ve read, it sounds like the aborted presidential run might have been more about promoting an album than mental illness (not that the man isn’t several sandwiches short of a picnic regardless).
Cameron
Apparently Senator Yertle isn’t feeling the Trumpmentum at the moment: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mcconnell-total-faith-fauci-coronavirus-white-house-memo
Oklahomo
@Betty Cracker: Yes, from a food court in a mall, I believe.
Roger Moore
I think this is the core reason Trump hates them so much. For us, they’re a visible symbol that our world is screwed up. For Trump, they’re a visible symbol that he failed in his job. He can deny that he has any responsibility, but every time he sees people wearing masks, it’s a reminder of what a bad job he’s been doing.
Baud
@Cameron:
The White House is “officially” backing Fauci now. They know they lost.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@dmsilev:
God knows that didn’t work with Rand Paul. It has to be REALLY BAD before they understand.
Ken
I’m not sure “politician” is the best career path for someone so ignorant of human nature.
trollhattan
@Chyron HR:
“Sir Mask” please.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
@Calouste: I’m sure Stitt will just have a mild case. It seems like when republicans like him or Guilfoyle get it, they have few symptoms and it passes quickly, only adding to the “it’s just the flu” conspiracy-mongering. Meanwhile, when people in the real world get it, it’s far more serious and long-lasting. The bad people always seem to get off easy.
Meanwhile, former physician-to-the-fucking-president Ronny Jackson says that masks are “a personal choice.” I will never cease to be dumbfounded that refusing to wear a mask in the middle of a goddam pandemic became a political crusade because of something something stock market Trump economy. With a dash of “masks r gay” thrown in for good measure.
Hoodie
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Walmart is the cultural center in a lot of smaller towns and exurban areas. We have a house on the Georgia coast and that certainly is the case there. The folks in these places are predominantly Trumpian (old farts and rednecks), but having Walmart suddenly require masks means that coronavirus is serious. Maybe that will create some dissonance when contrasted to the last several months of Facebook/Fox telling them that COVID is a hoax.
Of course, you can predict that Trump will start saying he was for masks all along, and that Fauci talked him out of it. I think the new tack is going to be that opening up will be A-OK if everyone starts wearing masks (Redfield floated this a few days ago). Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but they’ll try to rewrite history so it was their genius and not tractor trailers full of body bags that led them to that conclusion. That will probably work with their core followers, who also have an interest in rewriting history to cover their own stupidity in trusting Trump.
Kay
@Baud:
Menards – giant hardware store and extremely wingnutty company – has had mandatory masks for months but honestly their whole brand is “fuck off, we’re in charge of this place” – which I approve of!
You can’t just let your customers walk all over you. Does Wal Mart require shoes? Yes. This is like that.
Ken
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): I can barely understand trying to make masks a political issue, but what sane person takes the side of the virus?
(Not original with me, I got it from BJ comments.)
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Rand Careaga: If you figure it out, please let me know. My aunt needs deprogramming.
trollhattan
@Ken:
She may be ignorant of human behavior but she’s knowledgeable of Alabama behavior. Just sayin’.
She’s a real piece of work, one of those politicians you cannot believe anybody votes for based on her news clips. But then you remember Jeff Sessions and Roy Moore, and just shake your head.
Cameron
@Baud: So is Navarro going to have to fall on his sword for that bullshit editorial, or will he just be vewwy, vewwy quiet?
Punchy
@The Moar You Know: If it helps the economy, I’m all for it.
Best,
Texas Dan P.
Baud
@Kay:
Exactly. Stores that cater to anti-maskers remind me of when restaurants said anti-smoking laws will ruin their business, but then the opposite happened because people enjoyed being in a smoke free environment.
The Moar You Know
@Rand Careaga: Social media has led to a situation where over a billion people are in need of legit cult deprogramming. I think the odds of actually being able to do that are zero.
Baud
@Cameron: Who knows with Trump? Whatever happens, it won’t be as much as he deserves.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: So is Navarro getting underbussed?
OGLiberal
Up here in Northeast PA I’ve yet to see anybody but three elementary school kids in stores without masks (and those kids were without parents and covered the mouth and nose with their shirts whenever a store employee was in sight). I’m at the very upper North section of NEPA and this is definitely Trump country. Everybody I’ve seen keeps the masks on properly in the stores. ( admittedly, I go out very infrequently) I suspect that much of this is because Governor Wolf issued a mask order a while back and most stores were enforcing it before that. So it can be done in Trump country.
NotMax
@dr. bloor
“You see that badge?”
:)
JustRuss
The Mormon church is asking members in Utah to mask up in public, maybe that will get some of my in-laws to stop posting “masks are a liberal plot to control you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” memes.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Ken: “what sane person takes the side of the virus?”
Trump, species-traitor, that’s who.
Sanity, debatable.
Cameron
@OGLiberal: My RW friends back in PA have been grousing continuously about their freedumbs, effete libtard mask-wearers, etc., etc., so I know Wolf must be doing something right. As opposed to Governor Pinhead here in FL.
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: NOT requiring masks was going to get some of their greeters killed, too.
catclub
I am so old I remember when Democratic ads simply reporting what the GOP was really promising to do – in their budgets – the listeners refused to believe they would be that cruel. Now, perhaps, those same listeners are no longer believing the lies Trump is telling about what the Democrats will do. baby steps progress.
Mike in NC
George Will today in the Washington Post:
I always thought voting for Fat Bastard made less sense than voting for Al Capone. But the MAGAts had a different point of view.
Punchy
This is going to accomplish 2 things:
Walmart bubbas are not the friendliest of folk.
catclub
are there just more of these people now? are they just louder? Do they get more reinforcement?
Marcopolo
Btw, for those with memories of the before times, this is the week the original Democratic National Convention was supposed to take place. The 16th was the day the delegate winner was to be elevated to official nominee.
Hah, I was one of the folks who thought, back in February there might potentially be a wee chance for a contested fight for the nomination.
Such happy memories.
MattF
@Mike in NC: I’m actually past the point of being irked that George Fucking Will is right about something. I’m for it. Anyone defending Trump at this point is complicit.
ETA: And, yeah, I’m referring to the three stooges; Hewitt, Theissen, and Olsen.
Gravenstone
@Marcopolo:
Someone probably patiently explained the amount of time, money and effort required to actually become ballot eligible across the country.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mike in NC:
Thing is, I expect some level of competence from gangsters.
Elvis Nightingale, Esq. (frmly Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn)
We have alwasy been at war with Face Masks.
Matt McIrvin
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner):
If severity is related to the viral load you’re exposed to, it could actually explain this–the real-world people are more likely to get it on the job in medical or service situations where they can’t avoid truly massive exposure.
Marcopolo
@MattF: You left out Lowery.
Matt McIrvin
@Marcopolo: They were talking about a brokered convention and now the whole thing is completely brokered!
lollipopguild
@Gin & Tonic: Baud2020NomasksNopants
MattF
@Matt McIrvin: I’ve been thinking for a while that viral load is a key factor in the severity of any particular case.
Ken
@catclub: The lunatics have upgraded from mimeograph machines to the internet. Which reminds me of one of my favorite Donald Westlake novels, The Spy in the Ointment.
mad citizen
Since I looked this up for the previous voter fraud thread, can’t let it go to waste so posting here. Good thing that 1967 optic neuritis didn’t sideline the turtle after his taxing 37 days of military service in the army reserve; wikipedia:
“In March 1967, shortly before the expiration of his educational draft deferment upon graduation from law school, McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a private at Louisville, Kentucky.[16] This was a coveted position because the Reserve units were mostly kept out of combat during the Vietnam War.[16][17]:11–12 His first day of training at Fort Knox, Kentucky was July 9, 1967, two days after taking the bar exam, and his last day was August 15, 1967.[10][16] Shortly after his arrival, he was diagnosed with optic neuritis and was deemed medically unfit for military service.[16][18] After five weeks at Fort Knox, he was honorably discharged.[16] His brief time in service has repeatedly been put at issue by his political opponents during his electoral campaigns.[16][18][19]”
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR:
“I’m tremendous bigly at masks! Many peoples say so! Isn’t that right, Daddy Vladdy? Definitely not a Soviet shitpile mobster conman who fell into the presidency!”
Gretchen
When a customer at a local bbq restaurant here was told that the state requires a mask, customer shows kid at the counter his gun and says « here’s my authorization not to wear one. » Owner comes out and tells him he can’t shoot a virus and he needs to leave. Kid decides $8.50 an hour isn’t worth getting a gun waved at him and quits.
Mike in NC
The snazzy blue mask that Fat Bastard wore to Walter Reed, with the gold seal embossed on it. (Probably threw it away when he left the building.) Anybody know what that thing cost us? It didn’t come from Dollar General.
MattF
@Marcopolo: I would not read National Review on a bet, but if you say so.
catclub
wonderful:
coverup in plain sight.
Ken
@Marcopolo: So does that mean Biden will officially become the nominee this week? Which means he gets full access to the intelligence briefings?
Though I hope he asks for the real briefings, and not the comic books that they’ve been giving Trump.
Matt McIrvin
@OGLiberal: On my last grocery-store trip (northern MA), masks seemed to be on pretty consistently, except for a couple of tiny unmasked children in a cart at the checkout line (exempt from the order, I believe) who of course spent the whole time yelling and shrieking in a manner that would make them viral firehoses if they were infected. But I recognize that in some of these cases there’s little you can do.
The time before that, there were an unusually large number of people with noses sticking out or masks otherwise worn improperly. But I haven’t seen so much of that since.
Out on the street in Haverhill, it seems like nobody wears masks outdoors, absolutely nobody. But at least they’re wearing them in the supermarket. Last weekend I was in Brookline briefly and noticed that almost everybody was wearing them outdoors there, so there’s a lot of difference.
J.
Costco and Trader Joe’s have been requiring masks for a while now, and Walmarts in states with mask mandates have required customers to wear masks, too. This is really directed at Republican-led states where cases have been exponentially rising, like Florida. But I am happy to hear it. (We stopped going to the Fort Myers Walmart when people stopped wearing masks there.)
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
Any time I’ve had someone ask if I know who they are I always respond with the question, “Do you know who I am?” They of course always answer no, so I reply “Great, my secret is still safe.” Then I walk away. Of course that’s tough to do on a plane, there I just turn away and go to sleep. Always take the wind out of their sails if you can unless you want to hear their sad story. And it will be a sad story.
Barbara
@MattF: I am well past being irked, but Will’s complaints just reinforce for me a truth that is not nearly obvious enough to many people: the time to act on your principles is when it might make a difference. Will isn’t the worst, but he has pulled more than a few punches in his time. My all time level of disgust in this regard was reached when I read Sandra Day O’Connor’s bleating about how polarized the nation has become — more than a decade after authoring the most nakedly polarizing and partisan decision in the history of the Supreme Court. Her whining should have led to her being drummed out of the room with ridicule. The time is always NOW — but especially when you have influence or power.
NotMax
@MattF
Shall provide a NR link but no need to go there if you don’t wanna.
Rand Careaga
@catclub:
I frequently wonder about that, even in the context of far less extravagant—not to say pathological—examples. Read the average Yahoo comment thread (or not—you’re going to need a bigger boat) and marvel at the number of ostensible adults that are mere carapaces surrounding angry fourteen year-olds. They walk among us—or, perhaps, we walk among them. Regard the Karens, contemplate the guys in wifebeaters who pitch a fit when they are told to don a mask in a retail environment, and ask, with me, where have all the grownups gone?
Not to go all “kids today” on anyone, but I was born in the early fifties. It may be that there were seething sociopaths wandering around in the suburbs then, but the kind of “acting out” that seems so common today would have been met with swift and consequential disapprobation. Sure, draw up as scathing an indictment as you please of the stultifying conformity of Eisenhower’s America and I will sign it, but there was an upside to the ideal of self-control, and I’d be pleased to see rather more of that quality in the citizenry today.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
If, and that’s a big if, they had any common sense, they wouldn’t be a republican in the first place. Common sense makes you common/normal, no common sense makes you republican. It’s a requirement of the party.
dnfree
Regarding masks, I had a much younger Facebook friend open my eyes to a new kind of dog-whistle—new to me, anyway. I had posted that photo of trump looking manly in his mask, and two younger staffers tweeting “Biden is finished”.
I thought this was just stupid, but my young friend commented, “Maybe Trump has secretly been training as an assassin. He didn’t want to wear a mask until he completed his training. Now he’s donning a mask, not for safety concerns, rather to look more ‘ninja’ like and Jason Miller is tweeting a physical threat to Biden on behalf of Donald.”
Now we were in an area I have no understanding of, so this was the image he was referencing. Put this way, it wasn’t stupid, but threatening. And of course it went right over my head, as dog whistles are intended to do.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/02/f9/4702f974d191c57e59ddd0581cfb9412.gif
germy
Inconsolable Jeff Sessions Tries To Commit Suicide By Smoking Joint
Danielx
@Punchy:
The usual suspects are screaming already.
Matt McIrvin
@Rand Careaga: That kind of self-control used to be associated with conservatism, at least in the public mind.
And you still see people claiming that in political writing, that leftists and liberals are all a bunch of crazy rioters who want handouts so they can live in sloth and filth, etc. It’s all very racism-infused as well, of course; they must be dirty because so many are those people.
But at the same time, the proudest right-wingers are now the ones reveling in spreading germs and pollution, wrecking things on purpose and generally behaving like slobs. It’s a real puzzler. My online friend Carlos Yu calls it a Nietzschean transvaluation of all values.
I remember noticing the contradiction early in George Will columns: he’d alternate weekly between insisting that liberals were the ones coarsening our culture, and attacking them as a bunch of puritan bluenoses (usually over public transit or something).
Marcopolo
@MattF: I wouldn’t read it either but Lowery’s writing can be found elsewhere on occasion. I also seem to recall National Petroleum Radio using him every so often on Friday afternoons as the conservative take during their week in review segment (like when Brooks wasn’t available).
Sloane Ranger
@greenergood: Thread probably dead as new one up but couldn’t let this pass. Deaths/infections per capita are lower in Scotland than England but only by a little and this can easily be explained by the lower population density. The Scottish government has had its scandals for which they need to answer. Remember the care home on Skye?
Miss Bianca
@Rand Careaga:
Old Charles Darwin had a theory or three about that very question…
J R in WV
@Baud:
Here in WV, county Boards of Health made rules about smoking in public places, so it was piecemeal for quite a while until they all got on board. A few smokers hated being told it was actually dangerous, but as you say, most people like being in a smoke-free place.
Then the Rs got a majority in the state legislature, and one of their first pushes was to make it illegal for the Health Department to make public places more healthy
All the restaurant and bar owners went to the lege and told them to keep the legislative hands off their businesses, which all benefited from the smoking ban. FreeDumb!!
And don’t forget, Tin Foil, not Aluminum foil~!!~ Tin had ancient celtic majick, aluminum, not so much~!!~
SWMBO
Copied from another post:
I was in a Facebook fight yesterday. The niece of my uncle-in-law asked why she should wear a face mask since she wasn’t sick. I posted the meme where they showed two people talking, without masks, one with a mask and both with masks. I knew she was a solid Trumper from before but Jesus on toast, she and her idiot son went after me. “No one is going to make me wear a mask.” “You’re just a libtard sheep!” “You’re a pedophile!” I told him I was not and had never been a pedophile and that his comment was defamation. They just kept attacking me and a couple of others who were trying to convince them that wearing a mask was a good idea. Nope. I pointed out that my aunt (heart) and uncle (heart) and his sister (polio) were all medically vulnerable and asked them to wear a mask around them. Nope. They weren’t sick and they weren’t wearing masks and don’t try to tell them how to treat their elders. I hope that my aunt, uncle, and his sister all insist on masks and social distancing. I also hope that the antimaskers get what they deserve, especially if they insist on taking it to the sicker members of the family.
Ken
In fairness, one of the few times he did acknowledge it, the stock market dropped in real time as he spoke.
This would be that TV announcement, where he, ah, “misspoke” and said that the US was cutting off all traffic with Europe. I think it was, oh, six or seven ages ago, back in March.
SWMBO
@Kay: No Shirt. No shoes. No service.
Now it’s No shirt. No shoes. No mask. No service.
They have never actually required pants it seems. Even in your nicer restaurants that require a coat and tie never mention pants.
Ron Hyatt
You liberal wackos are gonna get the hot lead you deserve.
chopper
@SWMBO:
i just…i just can’t imagine what kind of pants-on-head crazy you have to be to accuse a member of your own family of pedophilia because they think you should wear a mask during a deadly viral pandemic.
Dan B
@Kay: One of my favorite signs in a store window was: You must wear a mask in the store. If you do not wear a mask you must be naked.
Hit em with logic.
Ladyraxterinok
@Calouste:
At time of his inauguration, his wife stated he was elected so they could bring Oklahomans to Jesus.
Also, IIRC, one of his major advisors is a well-known homophobe
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
“A particularly tedious dystopian movie” is EXACTLY how I’ve felt on every grocery run I’ve made from the beginning (right around the start of March here).
Speaking of grocery runs, my neighborhood (fairly red corner of Scottsdale, AZ) Safeway currently has essentially 100% mask-wearing compliance by customers, and it’s been at that level for about a month. It had always been a solid majority going back to March, but in early June it went to total compliance even before the store posted signs at the entrance requiring masks.
People around me are mostly Republican, and will almost surely vote to return Freedumb Caucus dipshit Schweikert to Congress as our Rep, but they do seem to be taking pandemic precautions seriously, best I can tell (definitely the case with my cul de sac neighbors). No one out walking their dog or riding their bike or whatever in the neighborhood wears a mask (including moi) because that would be stupid and unnecessary — it’s eleventy hundred million degrees outside, no one needs to get within many yards of another person, and everybody goes out of their way to avoid each other like, well, the plague.
The vast majority of people at the BLM protests I went to here in downtown Phoenix wore masks (notable exceptions being the asshole cops, not one of whom I saw wearing a mask). And if you wanted to (as I did) you didn’t have to get close to anyone anyway.
The nearby Home Depot (where I’ve made a few runs while doing some home renovations I started in the Before Time) has been weird in regards to masks — early on (March/April) the majority of customers were masked, as well as all the employees. The primary exception to that were Hispanic contractors in the store (there are always quite a few of these guys whenever I’m in that store during the day). I didn’t notice a single one from that demographic wearing a mask, actually. Then, some time back in May, the employees stopped wearing their masks, like, every single one I saw. Was back there last week for the first time in a while — some employees were masked, others weren’t, while an even larger majority of customers than before (I’d say north of 80%) were masked (and, once again, Hispanic contractors/worker bees were the main exception to that).
Some notes from the hinterland on masks.
Dan B
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I had the great privilege of working with a very successful Branding pro, several political communications pros, the head of the Department of Communication at the UW, and others. It was repeated with regularity that conservatives tend to be financed by business. Business is results oriented and they understand the value of marketing and propaganda. Branding and marketing are a mix of logical, emotional, and don’t get concerned about contradictions. Ends justify the means. Who thinks about the merits of Coke vs. RC Cola? One won the branding war shortly after many homes had a seltzer bottle and delicious cola syrup at pennies per glass.
Liberals lode stars are logic, data, and an academic perspective. The more points of data you can articulate, and the more complex, is advantageous. For mass persuasion this is useless.
Big business does mass marketing. Liberals did mass movements until the 70’s and it was a good place for detailed argument and solid data.
Justice Lwmewis Powell saw the power of the Chamber of Commerce losing to “the radicals” and persuaded the CoC to start the Think Tanks that brought down the Fairness Doctrine allowing the FOXes in the hen house. Their constant repetition of contradictory but clever arguments and emotional appeals has led to the persuasion of your attorney friend at a level that Goebbels would admire.
The left dies not have this information infrastructure or mass movements except BLM. We’ll see if this gets torn apart by Russian and FOXian propaganda. I’m already noticing that “reasonable” people are blaming the demonstrators who are being injured and killed. It’s the (il)logic that Nice people are the victims of the not nice “protestors”. The narrative of who are the victims has flipped. The dead a nnnnb d injured are causing discomfort to the comfortable.
Brace for more. But you already know that.
glory b
@The Moar You Know: Ooh, Ooh, details, please!
Ladyraxterinok
@dmsilev:
Stitt was born in FL!!
Started financial services firm Gateway. Mortages on property in 41 states. Firm headquarters in Jenks, a suburb of Tulsa
According to Wikipedia, the firm has shady past. At 1 time supposed to be 1 of 15 worst firms in its field
Ruckus
@SWMBO:
How old does being told “You can’t make me!” sound?
I go with a maturity level of 4yrs old.
Ruckus
@chopper:
But see, it’s not a problem because it’s the liberals trying to make you wear a mask, they are trying to emaskulate the true patriots.
greenergood
@Sloane Ranger: Yes, the care home on Skye was very sad – it’s owned by an English company, and they sent up workers from Wolverhapmton (England) without any screening. This was very early in the whole fiasco, and Scotland learned (i.e.) eventually decided what to do. So our first wave of deaths took place when we were told not to bother testing old folks before they came out from the hospital before they went into care homes – Scotland was following the English protocols regarding COVID until Scotland realised that Boris’s protocols were completely unfocused. So we lost a LOT of old folks in the first month – but now we’re doing better, a lot better – and every time someone in the MSM brings up that we’re doing better, another MSM groupie says we’re just doing better because we want to make England look bad – yeah, because trying to keep people ALIVE in Scotland is only focused on making Boris look bad. Twisted logic, Just like the Donald’s .
PS re: the population density: most of Scotland’s population lives in the Central Belt – from Glasgow across to Edinburgh and all their suburbs – density is not as large as London, but of the 5+ million people who live in Scotland, 3+ million live in the Central Belt, so no use saying ‘Oh Scotland has no problem because there’s so few people living there’ – our population density is, well, pretty dense – so the fact that we’ve managed to crack down on the COVID is due to cooperation, not a sparsely distributed population over a vast area. Also too, look at the COVID rates going up in North Dakota and Idaho – very sparsely populated, but very resistant to anything not endorsed by the Donald.
japa21
@Ruckus: Younger son’s favorite saying was “You’re not the boss of me.” Lasted until about 8.
Dmbeaster
@Baud: Officially backing him while still sliming him with their written whisper campaign. They are getting what they want, which is neutering him.
Kelly
Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/15/international-community-must-guarantee-equal-global-access-covid-19-vaccine/
The link from the front page lists the author as “Eight World Leaders” Trump and BoJo are not signatories.
Barry
@Fleeting Expletive: “Well, ain’t that a bitch: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tests positive for Corona Virus, is self-quarantining for 14 days.”
Oh darn.
Ken
@Kelly: Sounds like a contest. Assume Trump and Bojo were added to the list, and fill in the blank: “10 ________________”.
WaterGirl
@Dmbeaster: I’m not sure that’s working as they intended.
SWMBO
@Ruckus: Probably a drunk 4 year old at that.
J R in WV
@Ken:
10 criminal idjiots ??? [sic]
misterpuff
@Marcopolo: Maybe we need a new one: Kanyic
Chief Oshkosh
@Barbara:
Oh, it’s much worse than that. I’ve been in the room when she thinks she’s surrounded by “the right sort” (I look like an older Cole, though less threatening and slightly more presentable when not in my cups) and she freely admits that she signed on to the Bush bullshit so that she could retire and take care of her ailing husband. She wanted to ensure that she’d be replaced by “the right sort,” which could only happen with a Republican president.
So, arguably, the entire world suffered and continues to suffer because of this horrid, horrid person putting her very personal needs and very twisted “ethos” above the good of the nation.
And to what end? They’re both fucking dead now, the fucking shits.
Ruckus
It really does seem that if one was just to not give shitforbrains any satisfaction, which really is rather easy, because he’s asking for everyone to kill them selves so he doesn’t have take any responsibility for him always doing the wrong thing. IOW everyone else take the responsibility improperly because he’s an idiot. And his idiot followers are willing and glad to fall on his sword.