Masks For All? Good Luck With That

Huntington Beach is in Orange County, between Los Angeles and San Diego. It's the population center of the 48th congressional district and if you want to know how a reactionary Russian spy and psychotic bigot like Dana Rohrabacher could have been elected to Congress 15 times... just watch the video above and try to get into the heads of his people. The current congressman, freshman Harley Rouda isn't nearly as bad as Rohrabacher. He beat Rohrabacher in the anti-red wave of 2018-- 157,837 (54%) to 136,899 (46%). Rouda ran as a Democrat, but he isn't really a Democrat; he's a moderately conservative Republican who calls himself a New Dem and has quickly earned himself an "F" rating from ProgressivePunch-- 64.47% (out of 100).

CA-48 was almost equally divided in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary edging Señor Trumpanzee 47.9% to 46.2%. The one from that 46.2% cohort introduced themselves in that video. Have you watched it yet. Watch it; it's fun tragic and sad and will help you understand why the U.S. may well wind up with marshall law-- and whole lot of conspiracy theories... a dangerous thing in a country with so many people with semi-automatic weapons.

There is tremendous resistance to social distancing and mask wearing there-- and very aggressively so. The county has been hit hard by the pandemic but that doesn't stop a very vocal part of that 46.2% cohort from claiming it's all a hoax. On Friday the county reported 710 more confirmed COVID cases, bringing their total to 33,358. There have been 556 deaths in Orange County so far.

Orange County doesn't have any Republicans left in their congressional delegation-- unless you still insist on counting Rouda as a Republican-- but it's not what I would call a safely blue county. Still, Bernie won the county in the March primary-- and with a slightly larger margin than he did statewide. Yesterday, Bernie sent a note to his followers-- in Orange County and everywhere else-- about masks and his legislation that would make masks available to everyone in the country. "Tragically, because of the inept leadership of Donald Trump," Bernie wrote, "the United States is losing the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many thousands of our fellow Americans have unnecessarily died or become ill. Trump has rejected science with regard to the pandemic. We will not. Together, we will fight back and implement policies based on science which will protect the health and well-being of the American people. That's why I am urgently calling for a simple and inexpensive way to protect Americans during the coronavirus pandemic: Masks for All." He explained the bill he's hoping to get through the Senate:

Our goal must be to manufacture and distribute high-quality masks to medical professionals and to every man, woman and child in this country at no cost. And next week, I will introduce legislation to do just that.

...Here is what the legislation would do:

• Direct the Trump administration to use the Defense Production Act to produce and deliver three high-quality, reusable masks to every person in the country.
• Work with state and local governments to deliver masks to homeless shelters, jails, detention centers, testing sites, post offices, pharmacies and other congregate-care settings.

The science is clear: Wearing a mask is the best way to protect ourselves from the coronavirus and save lives, and the widespread use of masks will get Americans back to work sooner and reunite families who have stayed apart.

As the United States reports a record number of new cases-- 4 million total confirmed cases announced this week-- research about mask wearing shows that masks are crucial to decreasing the spread of the coronavirus. When the virus can't easily find hosts, it dies out.

South Korea, one of the more successful countries in responding to the pandemic, began the process of procuring high-quality masks in late February and provided them affordably to its citizens by partnering with pharmacies across the country. Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Germany, Vietnam and dozens of other countries have also demonstrated that as mask wearing became commonplace in public, coronavirus cases were contained. And only when the virus is contained can our society finally go back to normal.

Other countries have successfully provided masks to their people, and now it is time for the United States to do the same.

Not only will widespread mask wearing help save lives-- it can help slow our growing economic crisis as well. One estimate says that widespread use of masks could be worth up to $1 trillion to our economy by preventing shutdowns and getting people back to work earlier.





To make enough high-quality masks for all Americans, this legislation requires the administration to invoke the Defense Production Act, which was written explicitly for these purposes. This will mandate that manufacturers put in place the additional capacity necessary to meet the needs of the public and provide assistance to companies who want to begin producing masks or scale up production. Communities hard hit by job losses could and should benefit greatly from these new employment opportunities.

Unfortunately, given Trump's anti-science mentality, it is absolutely clear that we cannot wait for this administration to take action... Let us not forget: Our country is facing a series of unprecedented crises, but we will get through them as long as we stand together.

Watch this video from the tweet below to better understand what America is up against when it comes to the 46.2% OC cohort deciding that the best way to own the libs is to spread the contagion.

Up the road a bit is Los Angeles. Eric Garcetti also sent an e-mail out yesterday warning the residents that "COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon. It will be with us-- and remain a threat-- for the foreseeable future." He rates it a threat level orange, meaning that "the virus is a danger to all of us and continues to spread throughout the community. In order to stay safe, we need to continue wearing masks, avoid gatherings, wash our hands frequently, and keep physical distance from others... Wearing a mask is particularly important and will help to keep our community safe and reopen our economy.