Of course this scandal doesn’t end with Donald Trump. We know of at least two Senators who are in hot water for selling off stocks. How many others were in that meeting? They knew too. Where did the information provided in that meeting come from? They knew too. We also know that the several of the filthy rich ran off to their bunkers early on. Someone must have told them. Of course they knew.

But so did we. We were told. There were whistleblowers. Most of them were silenced and lost their jobs. That actually validates what they were trying to tell us. That podcast from the CDC doctor (I can’t remember her name) telling about how she talked to her family to prepare them for how disruptive this virus was going to be to our daily lives should have been all anyone needed to hear. If that’s what an expert is telling her family — its real. The recording was on the news. So was video from China, Italy, and England. Did anyone honestly believe that it would be any different here because of positive thinking and a sprinkling of pixie dust?

The fact is, you cannot get people to heed a warning. They are highly propagandized and they don’t want to hear it. Most people are incapable of critical thinking so they just swallow whatever lollipop fantasy that comes out of a leader’s mouth instead of doing the work to make a sound determination for themselves.

There’s information readily available to do so. People could have educated themselves by a perusal of newspaper archives from the past pandemic freely available on the internet. That would have given them an idea of what to expect. It also would have ended this nonsense about masks being a violation of 1st amendment rights and quarantine being a sound reason to storm state capitols with weapons of war. No, the public’s response was mental indolence plain and simple. It continues to be so. Why wouldn’t Trump take advantage of that?

And further, why would Woodward think his releasing the tapes would have resulted in saved lives? None of the others who gave warning made a dent. Woodward is a journalist, not an expert in virology. If nobody listened to an expert, why would they listen to a journalist? No, we would still be sitting on 200K dead with more to come and any possible good (political repurcussions) would have been wasted if not released closer to the election. Trump is already explaining away his treason against the American people. His base has already swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Others will follow because other than our pervasive mental indolence, we also have short attention spans. His version, while requiring Herculean mental gymnastics, is also the easier path.

It’s a lot easier to accept that he’s just a positive guy trying to be the cheerleader for our country EVEN THOUGH all those ill bred, cranky libtards who can’t be satisfied with anything are attacking him all the time than to see this for what it was and is.

A biological warfare attack on political enemies with an acceptable amount of collateral damage amongst “our people”. This was mass murder via depraved indifference to human life. History will call this a genocide.

We all knew. It’s been there all along. But recognizing this for what it is requires us to do something about it. We couldn’t be bothered to defend ourselves and each other. It’s much easier to believe the lies of a known pathological liar over experts who have devoted their lives to public health than to do the work that needs doing within ourselves, our communities, and our nation.

So, the question is not whether Woodward is as culpable as Trump or not. But rather, now that we’ve had a good hard look at how things go when we blindly give obedience over to bad leadership, when we let propaganda weaken our minds, and when we see only enemies amongst our neighbors … what are we going to do next time? Why do we blindly follow bad leaders we know are manipulative, incompetent, selfish, liars just because they are leaders? Why is it so hard to turn away from bad leadership when we know it is harming us and will harm us further?

Because they’re lying about Climate Change too. They have been for at least half a century. Again, the information is readily available for free on the internet for those who can be troubled to educate themselves. How will you protect yourself, your family, and your community from the Propaganda and callousness of people in charge who see you as expendable? Because this will not be the last emergent virus, fire seasons will continue to get worse, hurricanes and tornados will become more destructive, and we haven’t seen the last major flood by a long shot. And if you think they will look out for you over their own selfish interests, you haven’t been paying attention.