If you need any more proof of how fucking incompetent the Ol’ Pussy Grabber was or is, look no further than a new report published in the BMJ (I’m assuming the British Medical Journal) examining the effects of the 2020 pandemic on life expectancy in the US and peer high income countries. So, here’s the upshot, according to reporting in NBCNews: From 2018 to 2020, life expectancy in the US fell by 1.9 YEARS as opposed to 2.5 MONTHS in other affluent countries.

Life expectancy in the US fell by 1.9 YEARS as opposed to 2.5 MONTHS in other affluent countries!

Yes, you read that right, the 500,000+ deaths in the US from caused the AVERAGE life expectancy to fall by almost two years while other countries, which include Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain who all had their own problems with the pandemic, only fell by two and a half months! Doing the math, that’s 8.5 times the decrease of everybody else.

Flashbulb Memory Explains Why 300,000 #COVID19 Dead and 3,000+ Deaths Per Day Are Not As Memorable As 9/11 Was

That puts the gross negligence of the Ol’ Pussy Grabber and company in context. That’s how bad or response to the pandemic was. Especially when you compare it to how quickly #BidenHarris got the vaccines out. How effectively the resources of the federal government could be mobilized and organized to accomplish a huge momunmental task… when there was a will to do so.

But, let’s not stop there. It gets worse. Of course, it gets worse. And, it gets worse in the most predictable way possible in the US. Go ahead, take a moment to contemplate how everything gets worse in the US. What dimension do things worsen on? If you want, write it in the comments. It’ll be fun.

  • White American life expectacy dropped by 1.4 years
  • Black Americans, 3.25 years

The Civil War Never Ended: ‘Sum Of Us’ Examines The Hidden Cost Of Racism — For Everyone — Fresh Air on NPR

At least we’re consistent with our racism: hurt Black folks first and worst, amirite Trump? Those 500,000+ real live dead Americans were all worth it because we obviously hurt Black folks more than whites. Let the rejoicing among the racists begin. Mission accomplished.

Of course, the US life expectancy was already three fucking years lower than that of other developed countries. Trump’s genocidal mania increased it to five years! I guess he was the best at something. Whatever, god loves us best; it’s obvious, isn’t it?

More context: when life expectancy changes by 0.1 years, everyone sits up and pays attention because it is considered a huge change. A tenth of a year, 1.2 months, is considered a significant change in a countries life expectancy. A change of a real year is considered nothing short of horrific. The sign of a true catastrophe on the scale of World War II (just under 300,000 US citizens died in WWII, I’m just saying).

Here’s the thing, for the US to be so far behind its peers, we have to be doing something fundamentally wrong. It is telling us that life in the US is so gawd-fucking-awful that we are killing people unnecessarily. These problems are called the social determinents of health and it’s not like they’re some kind of mystery. We’ve been studying them for years. From the websites of the CDC and HHS’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion:

The Social Determinants of Health

The social determinants of health are the environmental conditions that affect a variety of health outcomes and quality-of-life risks. The environments can be anywhere that people reside, work, play, go to school, shop, or exist. The US government has developed five domains (other people have more) for the SDOH’s. These include

  • Healthcare access and quality
  • Education access and quality
  • Social and community contexts
  • Economic stability
  • The neighborhood and built environment

When you look at the US as a whole, as many researchers and institutions have, you find that we have huge disadvantages compared to our “peer” countries. It’s like we’re shooting ourselves in the dick and crowing about how great a shot we are. USA! USA! USA! We’re number one. It’s like we’re the bullying idiot cousin at the family reunion.

Apparently, every aspect of life in the US — that is as measured by any means you choose — is so toxic it is way worse than any other developed affluent country. Life in the US is so stressful in terms of childcare, public transportation, access to basic nutrition, water and air quality, school quality it has a terrific and horrific effect on mortality and chronic diseases.

The Republican Response to the Pandemic

The Making of the Republican Stooge Voter: A Review of “Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right”

Think about the GQP reaction to the pandemic and relief efforts. They don’t want people doing mitigation things like wearing masks and social distancing and getting vaccinated. They made getting PPE harder during the pandemic. They made medical resources harder to access. They’re cutting off supplemental unemployment insurance and opposing improving childcare options. They want to take away the ACA. They haven’t expanded Medicaid.

Everything they do has one common denominator: it helps the rich get richer at the expense of the middle and lower classes. They sell poor whites on the sacrifice by using racist dog whistles and promoting social strife.

They’ve taken LBJ’s maxim to heart and implemented it with a vicious efficiency:

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Watching MAGA Nation commit slow suicide by eagerly embracing the Republican Authoritarian Dystopia has got to be one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Feel free to try to express the horror of watching the US go down in flames while the GQP hands buckets of gasoline to their MAGA to put it out with.

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Image Attribution

“American Bird of Prey – The Turkey Vulture Capitalist” by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0