Walmart, Target, Starbucks, and a long list of other national chains are ignoring the culture war and requiring face coverings, and even Trump’s top toady at the CDC is now on the mandatory mask bandwagon.

We can imagine social media will be flooded with videos of right-wingers throwing hissy fits when Walmart’s nationwide mask requirement goes into effect this coming Monday, July 20. The mandatory face covering requirement also goes into effect that day at all CVS and Sam’s Club locations across the country, and KRON 4 reports that Target will require masks starting August 1, while Starbucks, Best Buy, Kohl’s, and Kroger have already instituted “No mask, no service” rules at all of their franchise locations across the country.

Even President Trump’s most loyal suckasses are beginning to buckle and urge universal mask-wearing. Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Robert Redfield — who is not Fauci, but the portly, bearded Trump sycophant who typically grovels to Trump with the “thank you for your decisive leadership” flattery — has turned on the anti-mask crowd. KGO reports that Redfield gave an interview to the Journal of the American Medical Association and said, “I think if we can get everyone to wear masks right now, we can bring this under control within four, six, eight weeks.” He also co-authored an op-ed in that same journal entitled ”Universal Masking to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Transmission—The Time Is Now,” in other words, he’ll probably be fired before Labor Day.

This is indicative of a larger Trump revolt, which is, that the investor class is becoming adamant on the importance of face coverings. Goldman Sachs released a recent wonky, deep-dive that says mask-wearing would prevent future lockdowns and preserve five percent of the GDP, or $1 trillion, or about $3,000 per American.

This cold financial sentiment is shared by Salesforce CEO and aspiring liberal good guy Marc Benioff, who insisted that a national masking-up could get the country out of crisis mode in “just three weeks” in a CNN interview on KPIX. “At some point, the government has to step in and say, ‘Yes, you have to wear a mask, and if you’re not wearing a mask, you’re going to get fined,'” Benioff said. “Just like if you don’t wear a seat belt, you get a fine.”

Benioff repeated the suspiciously optimistic line “If we all wore a mask for three weeks, everyone in the United States, we would not have any coronavirus” while appearing on the very stupid program Mad Money with Jim Cramer. But a very intelligent mask may come from this, as Cramer and Benioff also announced on that show a next-gen mask challenge wherein Benioff is offering $1 million to whomever can come up with the best idea to “reimagine protective face masks used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by making them more comfortable, functional, accessible, and even stylish.”  

Related: SF Had an Anti-Mask League During the 1918 Flu Pandemic Who Rallied Against Face Masks [SFist]

Image: @pillepriske via Unsplash