That’s how we got into this mess!

If you read one article this week, make it this:

“The U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries. These Charts Show Why”

We may not be the greatest country in the world. If you keep patting yourself on the back you become complacent, and problems go unsolved…because you don’t think they exist in the first place, or you say they’re de minimis.

We need to SCARE people!

Enough with college, enough with SPORTS!

Colleges can’t open, no way. They’ll be hotbeds of Covid-19 infection. Everyone who has actually been to college knows you learn the most outside of class, it’s the experience meeting new people from new backgrounds that enlightens you and broadens your horizons. Do you really think everyone’s gonna go to the lecture and then quarantine themselves in their room? Hell, they can’t even keep the younger generation out of bars, but somehow in college they’re going to become nerdy introverts needing no stimulation, never mind human contact?

But the dirty little secret is the institutions need the cash. Not every one, but almost all of them. They’re like the governors who allowed their states to open too soon, and look what happened.

Ditto on sports. You cannot open the sports pages, cannot read any sports news without learning a player is infected. Come on, they’re really gonna play NBA basketball? And already major stars of the MLB are opting out of the season. And getting back to education, supposedly 60% of professors don’t want to teach live, they’re afraid of getting infected. So why would the students be on campus? Oh yeah, they’ll let the part-timers, the non-tenured, teach, who need the money, just like those working in the grocery store.

We need to tell people how bad it is, so they’ll wake up and do the right thing.

I’d start with Trump, but he seems incapable of doing the right thing. Over the weekend it was leaked that his new ruling philosophy is that Covid-19 is not that bad, and we can endure it. Tell that to your granny!

Or there’s that other story in today’s “New York Times,” illustrating that everybody thinks they’re immune, when they are not:

“Why You’re Probably Not So Great at Risk Assessment”

People tell me how rigid their self-quarantining has been. And then it turns out they went to a dinner party, the next door neighbors are friends, they can’t have it, and you can’t get it outside and there’s no way they’re at risk. So, I ask you, who in hell is getting infected?

We blew it. We scared everybody into staying home and then all we did was argue about the economy and push states to open too early. Like Gavin Newsom. The first governor to shut down his state, he didn’t have the courage to say no, we’re not going to reopen, so California is a hotbed of infection.

And forget not being able to go to Europe, you can’t even go to states like New York or Vermont…they demand 14 day self-quarantines.

Oh, but that doesn’t apply to you, you don’t have it. Yeah, right.

And if you’re paying attention to the news you know that the version of the virus in the U.S. is much more infectious than the one in China. People don’t necessarily die with more frequency, but it spreads more easily.

We need everybody in government to tell all citizens to STAY HOME! No excuses, it’s a matter of life and death, if you break the code you get fined. End of story.

But we need leaders!

Andrew Cuomo went from zero to hero overnight by grappling with Covid-19 and testifying every damn day. Before that many New Yorkers, especially Manhattanites, hated Cuomo! Proving that if you think the Aaron Burr strategy is gonna work here, you’re wrong. Take a stand, be vocal, it’ll actually benefit you. The Democrats have to stop running out the clock. It’s four months until November, and Inauguration Day is in January. We’re just gonna let people die willy-nilly until then, assuming Biden wins anyway?

Come on.

America used to have a can-do spirit. Why can’t that be harnessed here?

Why can’t news outlets lead with pictures of the dead? Take some responsibility. Have an effect. Tell the stories of infection.

Trump keeps telling us everything will work out. And his lackeys in the Republican party just echo his sentiments, to the point where we can’t even get people to wear masks. That’s ridiculous.

And it turns out people were infected at the Tulsa rally, on both sides of the stage. And now Kimberly Guilfoyle, who just the night before was speaking to a group in close quarters without masks.

And today the mayor of Atlanta, and possibly even Bolsonaro of Brazil.

But it’s going away. We quarantined for three months, that’s enough time.

If your boat has capsized do you say you swam for three hours and that’s enough, you’ll just drown, even though you can occasionally see the shore?

This is not rocket science here. The solution is not elusive. Which is why every first world nation has done so much better than the U.S.

Test and trace!

Where is the Democratic tracing program? Pelosi and Schumer, put forth a bill! Maybe you can shame some Republicans to signing on. At least make the public familiar with the concept, it’s an educational process.

Same deal with testing, both for Covid-19 and antibodies.

As for freedom… What did Kris Kristofferson say? It’s just another word for nothing left to lose? Well, you’ve got plenty to lose. And our country has plenty to lose. And it turns out the only people truly suffering are those who can’t afford to lose, the downtrodden who are working the necessary gigs who are dying disproportionately to the coddled whites.

Enough with the toppling of statues. I’ve got no problem with that, but it’s kinda like Republicans running for office on social issues. Let’s not obfuscate, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

What was that TV show about the incarcerated, SCARED STRAIGHT? It worked. Why can’t we scare people straight on Covid-19?

I want to keep on hearing how horrible it is. How it’s so easy to get. How the country must shut down until this problem is solved. How we messed up once but we can get it right a second time. I’m talking about an all-out effort.

We’ve got to trump the inane saying they won’t wear masks. We must make them feel the peer pressure. We must make them believe they are at risk.

Instead of saying he’s gonna run for President, Kanye should use his bully pulpit to wear a mask, and hype that. Same deal with Jay Z.

And Luke Bryan. And Miranda Lambert.

Ignore Fox News, supersede it! Fox doesn’t usually lead with the Covid-19 story. Don’t criticize the outlet, just amplify your message. To the point people can’t ignore it! How about some billionaire buying ads on Facebook saying how bad Covid-19 is. How about the music industry SHUTTING DOWN social media for a day. Or, imploring everybody to post the faces of the dead, like Adam Schlesinger. Or just a picture of a damn mask.

Our nation is so decentralized no one believes they have any power. The only one with ubiquity is Trump.

But the dirty little secret is the Donald is losing impact, because he’s lost the plot. What he says and what he does is so ridiculous, that you can’t even pay attention, people are tuning out.

Argue with me all you want, but the virus doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, rich or poor. It’s coming after you!

As far as getting back to business… Surveys tell us most people are afraid to go out, therefore business isn’t good. As for staying on topic, in one’s own lane, all day long people e-mail me about Covid-19. The RULERS of the music business are concerned about this. That’s what they e-mail me about, not when concerts are gonna start again, BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT GONNA! Enough with this hogwash about drive-in shows, all this false hope. The economics don’t work. They’re part of the problem.

We’ve got to stop everything!

Maybe shut down television for a day to make an impact.

Yes, I’m talking BROAD strokes! Not another benefit concert, but something that envelops our whole damn nation.

It’s time.

Right now things in America suck. I haven’t seen anybody face to face other than a doctor since March. Because I don’t want to get it. A friend of mine…

Her sister’s daughter went to Colorado to visit a college friend, she came back home and she infected her sister, her mother, her grandpa, her grandma, her cousin, her aunt… You see you’re infectious long before you show symptoms, if you show them at all! And this grandpa was in the hospital for a week and…

If you think it can’t happen to you, you’re ignorant!

Come on Garcetti and Newsom, let’s see if you can really lead, do what’s right as opposed to what is expedient. We need leadership. We need someone to make the hard choices.

I want to hear all day long how dire it is out there. How vacationing is dangerous. Everything is dangerous. And we’ve got to follow a delineated plan to find our way out of this mess.

Otherwise, we’ve got chaos and death. And even if you don’t die, talk to anybody who’s been infected, it’s a rough ride.

Our country must be made up of eagles, not ostriches.

STAY HOME!

But that doesn’t work without the aforesaid testing and tracing. And just because you were tested two weeks ago, that does not mean you are Covid-19 free today. Hell, you could get infected just after you had the test!

Amplify the negative, don’t even talk about the positive. Let’s change the national mood. Then, just maybe, we can get a grip on this.