April, 14, 2020

I find it astounding as I listen to Michigan’s right-wing fringe deem gardening and speed-boating more important than saving lives.

By the way, who in Michigan does heavy gardening in April?

For the record, we don’t begin planting in our garden until May. Sorry, I’ll be 100% honest: The LOL technical adviser, Heather, doesn’t plant anything until May! I didn’t want you thinking I have a green thumb!

I’m still trying to understand how Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order to save lives during a highly contagious pandemic is akin to the next-coming of The Gustapo?

To my fellow Michiganders: you can still get your highly coveted seeds and your valuable paint at big box stores. You can submit orders for curbside service. You can also visit your local hardware stores and get bags for yard waste, garbage bags, fertilizer, and yes, vegetable and flower seeds.

Or you could order online.

But hearing these conservatives cry and complain about mowing restrictions??? Oh, my God!!!

Just a few weeks ago, Americans were wondering which Netflix shows they should watch after Whitmer issued the shelter-at-home order. Now, all of a sudden, thousands of Michiganders have gardening and painting projects that must be done immediately!

I’ve always been told about how the WWII generation was “The Greatest Generation” because they sacrificed for the overall common good. They sacrificed for the country. They adhered to government rationing standards, as explained by the National Park Service:

When the United States declared war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government created a system of rationing, limiting the amount of certain goods that a person could purchase. Supplies such as gasoline, butter, sugar and canned milk were rationed because they needed to be diverted to the war effort. War also disrupted trade, limiting the availability of some goods.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/rationing-in-wwii.htm

The World War II generation is celebrated for making certain sacrifices. And that war lasted for four years, everyone.

Yet, we have people losing their minds because their chrysanthemums might be a touch late this year?

Talk about snowflakes!

We have nearly 18-hundred dead Michiganders from the Coronavirus. The majority of those deaths happened in a four-week time period. On top of that, we learned that five grocery store workers have died from this virus. And we don’t even know how many are infected or died in nursing homes yet. 

Oh, let’s also not forget the health professionals who are putting their lives on the line trying to save someone else’s life. 

But we’ve got these right-wing extremists charging towards Lansing this week to protest…Gov. Whitmer. They’re not protesting how their Dear Leader dropped on protecting this pandemic from virus. They must obfuscate and point the blame at Whitmer.

That’s why State Senate Majority Leader Mike “Bat Shit Crazy” Shirkey posted a drunken Trump-like rant on The Facebook last weekend, yelling in all caps that Whitmer’s “destroying our health by killing our livelihoods.”

Hey, at least he refers to Whitmer as “Governor,” as opposed to his misogynistic “My Governor” moniker he tried giving her last year. 

Mike Shirkey, Republican House Majority Leader Lee “Wait, I can’t bring a gun on a plane” Chatfield, and the rest of the Devos-bought right-wing fringe in this state aren’t offering any solutions. They aren’t offering any support to help further mitigate a virus that’s sickened over 20-thousand Michiganders. 

They follow their Dear Leader, and their Dear Leader (with the help of the corporate right-wing media machine) has told them to fear Governor Whitmer. Like a good cult, they’ve been led to believe that banning water skiing–in April!– is worse than nearly 18-hundred dead people!

It’s amazing. I didn’t know Michigan had so many April water ski enthusiasts! Apparently, we do. And they’d rather die than ban water skiing. 

In April.

But according to them, Whitmer must be stopped. If that means resulting in hundreds of more deaths, and thousands of more infections, then so be it. People must be willing to die for Trump, and for corporate profits!

The right-wing proclaims to love America and to value life. 

We are realizing those proclamations are patently false. 

Trump and corporate profits mean more than life…all in the name of owning the libs.

That’s where the right-wing is nowadays. They have no solutions. They have no serious plans other than tax breaks for the Top .01% and anti-choice measures. They live to be angry, and they live to hate whatever the libs like. 

It’s a cult. 

Trump is just the culmination of what’s been building on the right wing for years.

It’s a sad place for Michigan conservatives who would rather fight for the right to garden than fight to protect their fellow Michiganders. 

Imagine years from now, children will read about how Governor Gretchen Whitmer fought to save lives from a deadly virus while the right-wing Republican cult chanted, “Give me chrysanthemums or give me death!”

How embarrassing.

—Pat

Update: Props to USA Today on providing a fact check on how Whitmer’s order did not ban the American Flag, which is another lie pushed by The Cult.