Four Years Ago Today

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March 7, 2020, Saturday As virus fears grow, Trump leaves DC for Florida to fete Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro at Mar a Lago. Seventeen members of Bolsonaro's entourage will later test positive for Covid. Brazil's former Health Minister called it "a corona trip."

Lol. Trump.

And Trump is scheduled to meet with Viktor Orbán tomorrow.  Guy just has a thing for authoritarian leaders.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020 - This is the day things get real in the US. The WHO officially designates Covid-19 a global pandemic. The NBA suspends the season after two players test positive; every other sport soon follows. Tom Hanks and his wife are hospitalized. Wall Street is in free fall. 

In a prime time Oval Office address, Trump abandons his rosy predictions. He says he will suspend all travel to and from Europe for 30 days, and all trade will cease. (After stock futures plunge, the White House says there will be no trade freeze and the travel ban won't apply to American citizens.)

> Trump abandons his rosy predictions

You know the shit has hit the fan when toilet paper hoarding begins.

That has to be my most dystopian memory. The early morning, masked, socially distanced line up at Target snaking around the building waiting to snag TP from the one pallet they had. 

It will be gone by Easter and you can go back to church and pray........for me

Friday March 13, 2020 Trump declares a national emergency, freeing up $50 billion for relief efforts. Pressed about the slow rate of testing (at least partly due to a desire to keep case numbers low) and his axing of the pandemic prevention office, Trump states, "I don't take responsibility at all."

Trump also says hundreds of Google engineers are working on a website that will ascertain if a person needs a test and direct them to drive thru testing centers in big box store parking lots that will return a result in 24 hours. None of this came to pass.

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I had to drive from central IL to the financial district on West Erie in downtown Chicago in early April, '2020 for the company i was working for. Pulled up to a stop light about 2 blocks away from my destination at 1:00pm on a Friday, and it was me, 3 other cars and about 4 people out walking. Found a parking spot right in front of the front door. Two other parked cars were visible on that street.  I enjoyed the ease of getting around in downtown Chicago that day, but I hope to never see that again. Freaky. Vivid memory.

April 2020 in Los Angeles

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On March 19, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order that closed most businesses, with the exception of businesses "deemed by the state public health officer to be 'Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers,' who 'protect health and well-being of all Californians.' In accordance with Newsom’s order, the health officer issued a list of essential employees who can stay on the job including those in grocery stores, welfare offices, power plants, hospitals, pharmacies and cannabis retailers."

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-30/california-cannabis-...

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Four years ago today, the word "immunocompromised" only applied to other people as far as I was concerned.

four years from today:

trump bombs philly, sf, & miami

ivanka is 2nd in command and barron is next in line

all "drugs" are illegal and dealers and "users" are stoned to death, [because we all know he loves irony(!)] on PPV weekly

debtor prison camps rage

"lol"