And as soon as they get their “Redoubt”, Yellowstone volcano erupts and covers it in several feet of ash.
10 Likes
The USA has 4% of the world’s population and 14 to 17 % of the world’s COVID deaths. That should be enough to see that OTHERS did better than we did and to see how. The country’s that did the best did not politicize COVID, cry about something as innocuous as wearing a mask or bitch about having to participate in efforts aimed at the good of all. They fought the virus with tools that beat viruses. They didn’t use impotent political yak like denial, cute pejoratives or blame.
When the next virus comes around the USA will change nothing. The pseudo heroes, the tough guys and bad asses will bellyache like the snowflakes they really are about their freedoms but put on a seat-belt like they’ve been told to do.
8 Likes
It’ll be rough if they’re not getting Federal aid. This idea that they could all be Jeremiah Johnson or John Dutton is just so laughable.
9 Likes
The guy in the documentary sent by @austin_dave seems to be independently wealthy, but we will see how it goes when they can’t get any of the poors to follow them to their homeland to serve them.
8 Likes
This article is a good reminder that living in a Republican-controlled state is literally lethal.
The solution is to make those states no longer Republican-controlled. Sadly, the governorship for Montana is not up for election this year.
9 Likes
Also, I suppose they’ll allow the Feds in to maintain facilities like Idaho National Labs and the cleanup at Hanford. A lot of details to iron out.
6 Likes
Honestly, I don’t give a damn about any of those people. Except to say this: I cannot wait for the long-term effects to start appearing, so I can watch their furrowed brows in a vain attempt to figure out why.
You get what you vote for.
2 Likes
As @jeffs points out, just turn off everything that’s federally-owned or interstate operated. That would take care of most of the power, the water, the transportation… Oh, and the banks.
8 Likes
The shading on the map indicates the “redoubt” will be landlocked. Tactical genius at work.
6 Likes
Don’t get my hopes up!
1 Like
Not so! Idaho has a sea port.
3 Likes
I think a big component was the Trump-cult hero worship and his own inability to do the right thing because the “experts” were telling him to do it. I really feel that if Trump had used the bully pulpit correctly and advocated for masks and to take the vaccine once it was available, a lot of his rabble would have fallen in line.
It was by and large because he insisted on “being the smartest man in the room” and ignoring the experts advice that he inflamed his followers to do likewise. It’s obviously a counterfactual, so we can’t know for certain where we would be if he had taken the threat seriously and acted accordingly.
Another piece to his resistance was the reelection campaign. By taking an unpopular stand, he risked losing the election for sure. Staying in office was his only priority, so he made decisions that encouraged 30-odd percent of the country to take adverse health care positions as well, just so that he could try to remain popular with his cohort who were predisposed to resent government action and government mandates.
I think it really comes down to the leadership at the top. Even if there are bellyaching snowflakes making some things harder than they should be, if someone like President Biden is at the helm, letting the experts make the decisions that need to be made, I think we have the capacity in this country for a much better outcome. If a steady hand like Hillary Clinton had been at the helm when COVID hit, I think we would be having a very different conversation now.
We’d still likely have had enclaves that insisted on resisting the medical advice of the experts, but the appropriate people would have been the ones in the positions to make the choices, not the loudest lickspittles, and we could have mobilized earlier and maintained lockdowns more strategically, rather than the scattershot, reactionary response that we had under Trump. Trump did everything in his power (seemingly largely unwittingly) to undermine the country’s ability to respond to a national pandemic, primarily driven by a desire to erase any and everything that President Obama touched.
7 Likes
I was thinking that if push came to shove, the US government probably possesses the tools to make that a reality, even if it weren’t naturally so inclined. Of course, the fallout could (would) be much larger than just the “Redoubt,” so it would be a very dire option.
2 Likes
The hospital said in a statement to ProPublica: “These officials have no medical training or experience, yet they were insisting our providers give treatment for COVID-19 that are not authorized, clinically approved, or within the guidelines established by the FDA and the CDC. In addition, they threatened to use their position of power to force our doctors and nurses to provide this care.”
Tell me again, professional Republican lackeys, all the tangible great things Trump has done for this country.
4 Likes
The Pend Oreille River will be our country’s own path to the heart of darkness.
3 Likes
Row-row-row your boat!
1 Like
Oh, now I see, you mean the lone upside down bottle of something? The carefully blurred everything else that does nothing to highlight the central image? Yes, a more effective stock photo would have been better.
2 Likes
You mean The Exxon Mobile Greater Redoubt Economic Prosperity Area and ATV Recreational Center and Medical Waste Dump?
2 Likes
They can have fun getting stawberries in winter and oranges any time, being so rugged and independent and all.
3 Likes
I mean… obviously? Anyone who knows anyone in the healthcare field knows how badly they were pushed past their limits in the first 18 months of the pandemic. It’s why I told one doctor in March 2020 that no, I wouldn’t be coming to the hospital every other day for wound care, just prescribe me the supplies, I’ll handle it myself at home. I didn’t need the exposure, they didn’t need the extra work.
5 Likes