Trump and Pence get a rapid Covid-19 test every day, along with everyone who comes into contact with him, while refusing to social distance or wear a mask. The rest of us can go pound sand, as far as he’s concerned, including the health care workers who take the chance every day that they might become infected and bring it home to their families. Worse still, Trump in his idiocy tried to claim that finding two White House employees had converted from negative to positive on their weekly Covid-19 tests that “this is why testing’s not necessarily the answer because we were testing them.” Clearly, his pea brain is incapable of understanding that this is the purpose of testing – to find out that someone who doesn’t appear sick is infected and contagious as soon as possible after they catch the virus in order to quarantine and contact trace. If testing isn’t necessarily the answer, then Trump and Pence should immediately stop testing everyone in their orbit.
The CDC provided detailed guidance to the White House to be made public to facilitate a safe resumption of economic activities by providing specific metrics for various types of businesses, schools, etc., to use to evaluate whether, or when, they can move forward or must pull back. These metrics were based on science and facts, not fantasy and wishful thinking, so the CDC’s guidelines were ignored by the White House, which advised that it “would not see the light of day”. Reportedly, this is because Trump thought it was too specific in its recommendations, making it harder for the “reopening” to move forward at a pace that Trump thinks will bring the economy back and lower the unemployment numbers in order to make his reelection more likely.
The silver lining in this debacle is that the Pence press secretary who tested positive, Katie Miller, is married to racist asshole Stephen Miller, so maybe she’s given the virus to him, too. I generally wouldn’t wish a possibly fatal infection on anyone, but I have no problem making an exception for Stephen Miller, whose single-minded focus on preventing anyone not white and rich from immigrating to the country has been instrumental in the obliteration of our immigration policy. I don’t know what his parents did to him when he was a child to make him such a loathsome human being.
The Monday press conference at the White House was just the latest display of idiocy from Trump, with him first claiming that President Obama broke some law prior to Trump’s election, although he refused to respond to Philip Rucker’s request to specify what crime he’s accusing Obama of committing. This is apparently Trump’s latest attempt at diverting attention from is complete inability to manage this crisis in any way that benefits the American people. Since Obama left office, the obvious differences between the two has succeeded in increasing Obama’s stature in the eyes of the country. My eyes actually well up with tears every time I hear Obama’s voice. I think I’m suffering from POSD – Post-Obama Stress Disorder.
Trump’s press conference ended abruptly, after he was pressed by two female reporters to explain why he told an Asian-American reporter from CBS, Weijia Jiang, to “ask China” her question (why does Trump keep comparing testing here to other countries while Americans keep dying?) and then called on CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, who waited while Jiang asked Trump again, “What does it matter?” Trump, unable to answer Jiang, then attempted to ignore Collins, who pushed him to let her ask her questions. Trumps response, like a spoiled child, was to abruptly end the press conference and walk away.
He lies, dissembles, conflates, and now, apparently, is so incapable of coherent thought when asked a legitimate question that he finds it necessary to storm off in a huff. What an example! He still refuses to wear a face covering in public out of vanity, certain that it makes him look ‘weak’ and shows he’s ‘worried about health instead of the economy’. Sure, that’s what we want – a president so detached from reality that he believes following the CDC recommendations for face coverings ‘isn’t a good look’ for him. His concerns are always and only about himself, so the wearing of a face mask to protect everyone else does not even cross his little mind. Even when interacting with WWII survivors, all men in their 90’s, he refused to cover his face.
Maybe Trump has begun to realize that the American people recognize the truth about Covid-19 despite his repeated attempts to convince us otherwise. No matter how many states he’s bullied into defying his own recommendations for relaxing mitigation efforts, nothing he says or does can force the public to patronize places when they don’t feel safe without adequate testing and contact tracing. The importance of these things is made more apparent by the outbreak within the White House, the most highly-tested workplace in the entire country. If they couldn’t keep the virus out, how can anyone else return to work and feel safe? They can’t, and they shouldn’t be forced to, either.
Maddow says all the time, “Don’t listen to what they say, watch what they do.” What they do is show the American people that we are of no importance to them, except as a source of income. Beyond that, we might as well be cannon fodder. I, for one, have no intention of doing so.
Maybe the meat bags protesting the stay-at-home orders, armed with AR15’s and AK47’s and refusing to social distance or wear face masks, will have their own day of reckoning with the virus, along with the White House. Blindly following Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the facts and do what is best for all is a recipe for disaster. It’s disturbing that the physicians who participated in the task force briefings went along with this foolishness, but the fact that all three have now self-quarantined gives me hope that they’ll be more vigilant going forward.
News reports tonight are claiming that Dr. Fauci will be loudly protesting the premature ‘reopening’ during the Senate hearings tomorrow. We’re counting on him to do the right thing.
Boomer Dem-Nation 