In the 1980s Reagan wouldn’t mention HIV/AIDS as it decimated US citizens that he was sworn to protect. Affecting the gay community? Who cares. Hemophiliacs? Who are they- and who cares? The blood industry certainly appreciated his silence.

Now we have a president who fears for the health of the stock market more than the health of his citizens. His re-election strategy takes precedent over a strategy for dealing with the coronavirus, it’s why he wears his stupid red hat while visiting the CDC. It’s just a campaign stop to him where other people flap their gums while he impatiently waits to speak because he loves the sound of his own voice.

Whereas Reagan was vicious in his silent treatment of the HIV epidemic, Trump’s lips and zipper have the same problem: he can’t keep either shut. He tips his hand with his words. Like when he wanted the people on the cruise ship and remain untested because their positive results might hurt the markets. “I like the numbers where they are at.” Which is to say low, like his moral standards.

Not wanting to be bothered, Trump appointed Mike Pence, a man who oversaw Indiana’s largest HIV outbreak in 2012, to be in charge of the coronavirus messaging. If it comes down to a decision that places Pence’s faith against the well being of your loved ones then, well, I pray for your loved ones. Because right now, Pence seems to be serving his political lord and savior, The Donald. As things get more dire in this country, we’ll see who distances themselves from the shitshow that is the president.

Thankfully, Anthony Fauci, who’s name is etched into the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, is doing his best to tell the truth about the potential risks of the coronavirus. But everyone on the Task Force is handcuffed in a way because they constantly have to worry about accidentally embarrassing a president who needs no help from anyone else in embarrassing himself. The stock market crash has forced Trump to take the matter more seriously, if only for his own political and psychological survival. Hell, he might already have coronavirus, due to his close proximity to those who have since tested positive...

You can’t blog this shit up, right? 

Ultimately, is asking for a president with empathy for anyone outside of his own sagging, wretched skin asking for too much? One thing AIDS and coronavirus have taught us is that there’s a blind spot in the DNA of those who ascend to great power under Republicanism. I’ve always believed that if Jimmy Carter had gotten a second term, or Reagan had been stopped in 1984, then the AIDS crisis would have looked very different. The whole damn world would look different right now. 

But the What If game isn’t helping anyone right now. What we do know is that we are currently living in a world where the U.S. President is the Chosen Asshole, placed on and secured atop his golden throne by an army of malicious cheese farts. 

 
I’m glad that things have shifted this week in how people are viewing the health of the general population. I’m staying inside. Have had a ton of practice because four weeks ago I got sick with a cough and low-grade fevers. Nothing horrible, but it just lingered. Same thing happened in the fall of 2018 when I was sick for close to two months. One thing HIV has taught me since the 6th grade (when I tested positive) was that, when you’re feeling ill, you stay home. You play video games. You watch bad TV. You jerk off. You do what you gotta do to pass the time until you get better and tomorrow finally arrives and you feel well enough to once again play video games AND jerk off at the same time, God willing. 

What I’m trying to say is that, if you are lucky, life does goes on. Decisions that our paranoid, narcissistic President made yesterday made it more likely that, tragically, fewer Americans will get to see that tomorrow. How government officials lead from here on out and how we respond as a community will also determine how many of us will “luck out”.


Positively Yours,
Shawn