Without Excuse (Part One.)

Build cohesive teams through mutual trust.
Create shared understanding.
Provide clear intent.
Exercise disciplined initiative
Use mission orders.
Accept prudent risk.
~U.S. Armed Forces Principles Of Command.

Donald Trump said "I don't take responsibility" regarding Coronavirus, just a few days ago.

Yesterday, my Mom texted me, wanting to know if I was prepared and if my work has done anything to plan or prepare for this or if I will be paid if they have to shut down. Yes to all of the above, thank God.

The only bad spot on this whole thing is a lingering cough from when I had the flu a couple weeks ago. THAT in fact was what told me I had to make some kind of effort to prepare for this mess, when our government was still totally in denial.

You know, in the military, if you are in command, you are responsible for everything that happens on your watch. You are responsible for how you and those under your command react to any developing situation, and if you fail in your responsibilities and manage to survive, yes, you can be held to account because you are responsible.

By the same token, respect is earned, by every action, every day. It's a 24-7-365 thing. If you are to expect people to put their lives at risk at your command, instantly and without argument or debate, they have to trust you. Likewise, it's on you to be respectable, and to be somebody that they can trust to do that. It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but you'd be surprised how often you have to make people feel safe enough to be brave.

By that measure, Donald Trump proved himself to be a failure a long time ago.

Because, really, without such efforts, courage is surprisingly rare. If we've learned anything from the Trump era, it probably should be that.

Sorry to say this, but if you're the President you have to expect people are going to be brave if you tell them they should be. Trump has repeatedly shown that he simply doesn't understand the concepts of courage, or leadership or respect.

And in the face of such a lack of leadership, people's base nature comes flooding in to fill the gap.

At some point yesterday evening, AOC reiterated a warning for people to avoid crowds, and stay at home.

Whatever one may think of AOC, she's literally far from the only person saying this...pretty much all medical professionals and anybody with anything to do with public health and safety, not to mention anybody at risk or who has to care for at-risk people is saying.

Naturally, some dumb-shit Trump Supporter from Nevada responded "This is America, and I'll do what I want." It's as if she thinks she is responsible for nobody but herself, and certainly at best she has a child's idea of what freedom is. I should point out that this person is running for the school board in Clark County, Nevada. Are you fucking kidding me?

As I type this, I have to occasionally stop and pay attention to my disabled ferret, Alaska. Not long after I started working on this article he started cage raging and making a fuss, demanding his daily back-scratch. His hind legs don't work very well and he can only bend so far, which restricts his mobility and ability to groom himself and scratch his itches.

Who is going to take care of him if I get sick and have to go to the hospital or if I die? Who, besides me, even knows the things he needs, let alone would come and feed him and fill his water bowl and clean his cage? If something happens to me, this little guy could die from lack of care or even food and water, while laying in his own shit.

Alaska doesn't know what's going on, and he's deaf so I can't tell him. All he asks of life is full food and water dishes, clean litter to poop in, a warm place to sleep and some attention and time out of his cage on a daily basis. It takes so little to not put him at risk, and that's too much for people?

I'm a couple bags each ahead on food and litter, and hoping like hell everything is still open on Friday so that I can stock up more on stuff, starting with pet foods and ferret litter, just in case. I can go without, they can't.

And that is only one of the simplest, smallest things I have to worry about right now. I'm hardly alone, and I know it. Fuck you "I do what I want" irresponsible "Conservatives."

One of my friends has to care for his disabled mother, and the two of them often depend on me for transportation to and from doctor's appointments and such. For that matter, I have a car, so if local public transport is shut down, even more people might depend on me for basic shit.

Understand yet, just what the hell people are up against here? Everything in our society depends on people continuously doing stuff, if that stuff stops being done, things start going wrong immediately.

Apparently, for too many people, the survival of others pales in comparison to their own needs for instant gratification of their baser urges.

And it's hard as hell to even find out for sure if you ARE sick at this point?!

Do you see what the problem is here, yet?

We aren't going to make it, if the only people who are concerned about this virus and our response to it are liberals, moderates and never-Trump conservatives. It seems like at least a third of us are willfully putting themselves at risk...or even ideologically trying to ignore all that is going on, and they're being egged on by the President...and these people seem to be hoping that this virus is going to take out more of the people they don't like, than it is of them...but they're the ones taking all these stupid risks and putting everybody else at risk in so doing?

How in the fuck does that make any sense?

Let me see if I have this right?

The people who have spent decades preaching morality, probity, prudence, religiosity and sober consideration before taking action...have become nothing more than the people throwing all caution to the wind and doing what they want to do in the midst of a major crisis, and the rest of us be damned.

And of course because those fucking people are responsible for electing much of our current government...of course the government's response is simply going to be "Bend over, insert head firmly into rectum." Do I have this right so far?!

Ya know, if people care so little about the things they can see...how do they feel about the things they can't see? Just sayin.'

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: ~Romans 1:20

Listen, ya'll, if you want to have a better country...or even stay alive at this point...you have to be better citizens. You have to care about other people, and other creatures. It really is that damn simple.