Commentary
Is there blame here? You be the judge.
Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic on April 28; he was not wearing a mask despite Mayo Clinic rules and despite administration guidelines. He was the only person in the room without a mask. While he subsequently said, he “should have worn a mask,” the impact of his irresponsibility had already been registered with a certain segment of the American public.
Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump toured a Honeywell Aerospace facility in Arizona which is now manufacturing N95 masks. Trump was not wearing a mask! Nor was anyone else in his entourage or any of the company executives leading the tour. This, despite factory rules that required everyone in the factory to wear masks. In fact, in the area where Trump spoke, a large video monitor listed safety guidelines, one of which said, “Please wear your mask at all times.” Apparently, in order not to look as foolish as Pence did at Mayo where he was the only person sans-mask, Trump required that no one around him wear a mask.
In between these two examples of televised presidential and vice presidential disregard of public safety and regulations, this happened (from CNN):
“A 43-year-old guard was shot in the head after telling a customer at a Family Dollar store to wear a face mask – which the state had mandated for all retail employees and customers, police say.”
Oh, did I mentions the state? Michigan! You know the same Michigan where 100’s of demonstrators, fully armed with assault weapons and long guns, stormed the Capitol building in Lansing. You know, open carry Michigan.
CNN concluded their story this way, “In a statement, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Munerlyn was ‘simply doing his job’ to uphold the governor’s orders.”
So, while the President and the Vice President don’t wear masks at very publicized events, a retail security guard, enforcing a duly enacted state order that requires masks in retail stores, “just doing his job,” is murdered enforcing that order. Do you see any connection here?
As I write this, the U.S. death toll stands at 72,024. I’m sure this man, Calvin Munerlyn, this security guard just doing his job, is not counted in that total. To me, he should be. To me, Calvin Munerlyn should be counted as coronavirus death number 72,025. And Calvin Munerlyn’s death, the death of number 72,025, should always and forever be attributed to not only Covid-19, but also directly to DONALD TRUMP AND MIKE PENCE
Rest in peace, Mr. Munerlyn. You, and your family did not deserve this.
Around the Block 
Thanks Ted, I hadn’t seen this. I reposted your blog to my timeline
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I appreciate that you reposted. Trump’s and Pence’s irresponsibility is outrageous. The more we can link their bad behavior in the face of this pandemic, the more we can make people aware of the fact that, their actions, policy-wise and personally, add to the misery and death. And, the greater the possibility that, according to my Countdown to Trump’s Last Day Clock, they’ll be gone in 258 days.
Now, if only the readers of your timeline were more inclined to support Trump and his insanity, perhaps we’d be able to start slowly, getting them to turn. Wishful thinking I know, but one has got to hope!
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Ted,
Their total disregard for the law, fairness and respect, sadly, encourages the kind of behavior that occurred in Michigan and in that Dollar Store murder. As I might have mentioned before, civil disobedience is one thing, but the threat of violence and lawless behavior, unchecked…..
could lead to a frightening schism in our country! I never thought that images of a “Civil War” would ever pop into my mind……but …..with our present leadership……
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Welcome to Trumpmerica, 2020. As I’ve commented before to several readers: Marching when heavily armed crazies are there in opposition is a not a great strategy, voting is.
On election day, we cannot let what happened in 2016 happen again. We cannot let people of color sit on their hands as they did in 2016. We cannot let Bernie’s crowd boycott the election because Biden (like HRC) is not “progressive enough.” We cannot let apathetic millennials sit this one out because it’s “not important.” And we need to put enough pressure on people like Justin Amash to let him know that this is not the time for a 3rd party candidacy — all votes must count and not one can be taken from Biden because of some Quixotic cause.
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Ted, Thanks, a tough piece but so necessary. Can we talk Thursday or sometime about the structural, cultural breakdown of the nation you and I grew up in? It is as if the virus has a specific mission of deconstruction of this experiment of some 200+ reasonably successful years. And I so feel so F—king unable to do anything.
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Yep. And here is the photo of the evil Dollar Store murdering white Republican Christian deplorable Michigan militia members. In other news scientists have confirmed that the pathological condition known as Trump Derangement Syndrome has been determined to constitute a Covid-19 co-morbidity.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/MJSPC2EO6UI6VEZCUKPHL374SM.jpg&w=767
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Yup. Knew that. But to paraphrase a certain hero of many: “There are bad people on both sides.”
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