It’s orders of magnitude worse than the Ukraine phone call. It’s hard to be shocked at what he does after the last three years but this is simply unconscionable. It’s evil. And I don’t use that word lightly. It explains so much, like why are tests so hard to get, why is the cost not being waived, why aren’t more social distancing measures being taken? What happened to all those cases in Coffeyville, Kansas??
Many of us have suspected that the numbers were being kept deliberately low but that only means that more at risk populations have been exposed and that kind of thing won’t stay secret for long. The JHU tracker is showing a sharp increase in new cases outside of China in the past week and India is showing fewer cases than Iceland.
We may not all die but our hospital system and healthcare workers are going to be overwhelmed and it will get ugly when all the people who need extended hospital stays end up breaking the system.
It’s hard to believe that Republicans refuse to put a stop to this. Maybe Bloomberg will buy Fox News and make it stop telling lies.
Something’s got to give. We can’t go on like this. He’s going to permanently ruin this country beyond all recall.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Just another reason I would like to haul Mirror Chekov out of the Agony Booth, and replace him with Putin.
It’s ironic that Trump does not realize that the stock market volatility only reflects his own incompetence re the virus. And also the potential for the freeze up of international supply chains from the virus, to cause a real recession. If he could have done the right things instead of working the headlines and reported “numbers” he’d have a better shot at re-election. Of course the last thing I want is for there to be suffering and loss of life, but if there is, at least we may get the grim satisfaction of his losing office.
When I see news like this I have to think that there are MANY more cases than we know, and we can’t make a useful estimate of the number and location of the cases until sufficient testing becomes possible, if it ever does.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/new-york-coronavirus-cases-updates.html
I would agree that this is very close to the worst thing that any President has ever said, but it is hard to rank all the awful things that Trump has said, so there might be a worse one.
The thing which the media simply will not dare to say, is that Trump cares only about himself, so that whatever he says or thinks has no benefit in it for anyone but him. If ten million people died,and somehow Trump could convince them that it was Obama’s or Hillary’s or Biden’s fault, he would see it as a big win. Some of the media would cast it that way, too; yes, people are dying, but the Trump campaign is very excited that they have blamed it on liberals.
Trump is lying about reality. He is manipulating the stock market. He is stealing money from taxpayers. He is the most blatant sociopath in American history, and too many people won’t see it. He’ll only tell the populace what he wants them to hear, whether it risks their health or not. And no one on the other side has the iota of courage it would take to to call him out on it. One of these days, everyone will rush to tell how they knew how twisted and malicious he was, and how they opposed him from the start, but just couldn’t say anything then.
Our statistics are always going to be low because so many people just aren’t going to get tested. People who are uninsured or underinsured are just going to take their chances. People with high-deductible plans are just not going to risk the financial hit – if you go to an ER to get tested you can walk out with a $3000 to $4000 bill. Many people can’t afford a hit like that.
Both California and Washington have officially directed all insures to waive any cost sharing associated with testing for Covid 19, including ER and doctor’s visits. Hopefully, more states will follow. Not sure whether a federal directive will occur, that is more doubtful. Health care is generally regulated on the state level anyway. Nonetheless, many health care providers may not encourage testing unless there is evidence of exposure, symptoms or travel. Many people may be infectious without being symptomatic or having a history of exposure. Testing should be streamlined to incorporate more than targeted populations. A more realistic picture may thereupon follow.
I saw that, and that’s exactly the kind of bold action that we ought to be taking nationwide. It will certainly help a lot of people, but there are still significant numbers of totally uninsured in the US, to say nothing fo the thousands who have just fallen through the cracks altogether. What happens when this hits the homeless communities (if it hasn’t already)? It’s hard to “stay home” and practice good hygiene when you don’t have a home or anyplace to wash.
Insurers
I don’t want to “hijack” the important topic above, but I think this needs to be said, so just skip past it, if you choose.The incredibly horrifying decision by Hatchett Publishing to cancel the release of Woody Allen’s memoirs which were slated to be published by them in a few weeks, makes one wonder what exactly we are fighting for in this country. Getting rid of a fascist President who would among other things censor the media, force everyone to only listen to his state propaganda? Only to support people ostensibly on the other side, who are overjoyed at their ability to censor any one or any opinion which upsets them? Fascists to the left of me, fascists to the right? Stuck in the middle, what middle?
I don’t want to recount again the Woody Allen saga. I will just note that he certainly has never been found guilty of anything, has never been tried for anything, nor formally accused of anything. And yet some zealots have pressured Amazon not to release his last movie in this country, though the people of Europe get to see it. Now, a PUBLISHING HOUSE bows to the complaints of Ronan Farrow and then some of its own employees who were threatening a walkout, to not publish his book, so no one can read it in this country. Ironically enough, a German publishing house will publish it, only in German.
Some may think this is no big deal, but I think it is monumentally important. In the Middle Ages, the monk Savonarola led book burnings. In the 1940’s in this country, books like “Catcher in the Rye, “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” “Forever Amber” were burned. In the 1950’s, writers, directors, actors, lost their careers and in some cases their health and lives due to the blacklists. Now America is going even further, by banning movies and books by someone, because of pressure from some people who really have no idea as to the actual facts, but feel this immense pride and satisfaction in destroying someone because they apparently have the power to do so, plus robbing people of the opportunity to see or read his works, because “He is an enemy of the people.” Exactly what Trump calls the media, exactly what fascists of any side always say to validate their behavior. They are saving us, they claim. They know better. They will tell us whom we should listen to or read, and they will make sure that we are “protected” from those pernicious forces who would seek to corrupt us, or convince us to not listen to the fascists.
Trump is the worst. But are we going to let people be censored and stifled because “the other side” demands it? Have Americans learned nothing from Salem, or Leo Frank, or lynchings, or the McCarthy era? It’s all different, because it’s different people? Just think about this: Amazon refuses to sell Woody Allen’s last movie. Hatchett Publishing, which has published books by mafia figures telling about the murders they have committed, will not publish Allen’s memoirs of his career. People who work for the publishing house were gong to quit their jobs rather than have his book published.
What is this country supposed to represent now? Tyranny by whoever can wield the most power? Isn’t there something in the Constitution about Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press? Perhaps those were just words, they are not supposed to be taken seriously, not when people have their firebrands out, screaming for social justice, which of course means, their particular view of it. The ACLU once fought for the right of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, something I seriously question, but which they thought was the ACLU”s duty, to protect freedom of speech. But no one is going to stand up for Woody Allen and his book, because “he’s dangerous; we just know he’s guilty!” Just like the Communists in Hollywood, and the so-called Popish Plotters in 17th century England, and the so-called heretics in the 15th century and beyond, and of course the witches of Salem. Oh, and Richard Jewell, whom the FBI agent in charge of the case was still absolutely convinced of his guilt, even when he had to drop it for lack of triable evidence. And let us not forget the McMartin family; but they didn’t make any movies, so there was nothing to censor, they only had to fear for their lives.
What is there left to be proud of in America, when we apparently do not want to be a democracy any longer, when if enough people can be banded together, they can ban books, ban movies, ban anything that disturbs their own particular view of reality? Trump is a terrible threat, but he is far from the only one. And the most bitter irony of all, is that no one sees the would-be tyrant in themselves. The Puritans thought that they were doing holy work, drowning or crushing to death with rocks, those women whom they were certain were witches. Hatchett Publishing is probably proud of itself, too; although they might like to rationalize it as a “business decision,” just like those networks and movie studios in the McCarthy era, who just couldn’t afford to keep using people accused of being Communists, so ruined their lives instead.