Pics Of The Day -- Heroes And Zeroes

In downtown Denver on Sunday, health care workers block a caravan of braying Republican dimbulbs protesting Colorado's stay- at- home order (pictures by Alyson McClaran):

More proof that the Tom Tomorrow cartoon below is playing out in real life.

"Give Me Liberty And Give Me Death!"

The great Alexandra Petri on the organized, right- wing Republican protests against stay- at- home orders (just in states run by Democrats, naturally):

I am here to make my voice heard. I am not actively in favor of the virus, but I think there might be good people on both sides of this people-virus question. So I am going to assemble in such a way that my leaders will have no choice but to listen and that through my negligence, more people will die. You might say I’m doing my part. Thankfully, at least, the president agrees.

The problem? On the grounds that there “is a pandemic” and it "is not safe,” I have been briefly deterred from going about my life in exactly the manner I would like. Can you believe this? No, I will not hold. I am here, banging on the window, like the heroes in a zombie film. Listen, I know my rights. I know that among them is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but I don’t care about the first one.

Given the choice of saving thousands of lives, including, possibly, my own, or getting to buy a can of 730C-2 Sandstone Cove paint now rather than later, I will not hesitate to choose the latter. Do not ask me how many lives I would trade to avoid minor inconveniences, or you will see what a sea of bodies I would be content to wade through to my morning coffee. If I’m willing to die, that should be enough for everyone. No one — as I have established during COUNTLESS interactions with customer service professionals — is worth more than me.

I just want nothing about my life to change, including my indifference to the lives of others. So please stop demanding that I bend to the will of the people or their elected officials. The last time I checked, this was a democracy.

The entire op/ ed is a great must- read, surgically skewering the hypocrisy, stupidity, pettiness and self- absorption of these "party of life/ spread the virus" assholes, that almost perfectly mirrors that of their Dear Leader.

Meanwhile, let's see whose actions the public really supports (click to enlarge):




BONUS: Michigan's stellar Governor Gretchen Whitmer had a succinct reply to the alt-right, COVID Donnie mob that collected in Lansing to protest the state's shutdown: “It’s better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under.”

BONUS II:  The assholes are determined to kill you, and they have Trump's ear.


(Photo:  Sub- moron zombies protest in Columbus, Ohio. Joshua A. Bickel, Columbus Dispatch/AP)

The Spread-The-Virus Party (UPDATED)

Reminiscent of the "Tea Party" cult, mobs of right-wing thugs, waving Trump banners and Confederate flags, descended yesterday on several state capitols in a coordinated protest against their state's stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Some in the mobs open-carried guns.

Looking like a Trump rally, in Michigan they assembled on the steps of the state capitol without masks and not observing safe social distancing. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commented:

“We know that this demonstration is going to come at a cost to people’s health," Whitmer said. "When people gather that way without masks ... that’s how COVID-19 spreads.

"The sad irony here is that ... they don’t like being in this stay-at-home order and they may have just created the need to lengthen it, which is something we’re trying to avoid at all costs.”

By potentially spreading the virus, these dull-witted neo-fascists also have put not only us, but the heroes in our health care system at further risk and strain. In Ohio, they carried signs like "Quarantine worse than virus" to the capitol, again not properly guarding against spreading the virus:

This looks like a still from a horror movie. It's not. It's yesterday outside the Ohio Statehouse. Incredible shot by @joshuabickel pic.twitter.com/wZFye9YTCX

— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) April 14, 2020

It's both sad and infuriating to think that these sociopathic morons have so little awareness of the potential harm they're causing. They're listening to their cult leader, malignant narcissist Donald "Spread The Virus" Trump for guidance, someone who has consistently placed his reelection hopes and prematurely "opening" the economy over their lives and the lives of our front-line heroes.

UPDATE:  Yes, it does look like a still from a horror movie... like this one --

its uncanny pic.twitter.com/anWmn9ufoh

— The Urban Hermit (@sssssparkers) April 15, 2020

(top photo: Heavily armed nitwits protest COVID-19 restrictions in Michigan. Jeff Kowalsky, AFP)