October 24, 2020: President Trump Blames Pandemic on Testing, and Reporters

 

10/24/20: Character Counts Week comes to an end with President Trump picking up a “coveted” endorsement, and still whining about how unfair everyone has been to him, regarding his handling of COVID. As mentioned at the start of the week, whining is not one of the Six Pillars of Character.

 

As for that endorsement, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has announced that he is all in on the Trumpster, for four more years in the White House.

 

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“With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and prove himself an ass.”

 

William Shakespeare

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The Bolsonaro shoutout makes perfect sense because the Brazilian leader has long been a virus denier. Like Trump he was careless. Like Trump, he got infected. He too recovered and proved the validity of Shakespeare’s jest.

 

Also, like Trump, his refusal to accept science cost his people dearly. Almost 157,000 Brazilians were not so fortune as their idiot leader and succumbed, placing Brazil second for most deaths from COVID-19.

 

The countries with the highest death rates, adjusted for population, are:

 

Peru (1,028 deaths per million)

Belgium (918)

Spain (743)

Brazil (737)

Bolivia (734)

Chile (725)

Ecuador (708)

United States (694)

Mexico (683)

United Kingdom (658).

 

Heretofore, we had been including tiny Andorra (893) and San Marino (1,237) in our list, but that now seems pointless.

 

On this Friday in fall, the U.S. hits a record high for cases in one day. President Trump may insist we’re “turning the corner,” but if we are, we just turned the corner on a dark night and ran smack dab into a mugger, who cracked us on the head with a club and stole our wallet.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, where some of the best scientists in the world work, the U.S. piled up

 

82,929 new cases in one day.

 

That means, we’re back where we were in July, at the previous high point of spread, with nothing to show for all our pain and sacrifice.

 

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MEANWHILE, the president is off on the campaign trail, and, where COVID-19 is concerned, as clueless as ever. This may have something to do with the fact that Dr. Fauci mentioned Friday that Mr. Trump has not met with the White House Coronavirus Task Force in months. 

This at least explains why Trump is telling fans at rallies in Ohio and elsewhere, and tweeting away, saying we’ve got this under control and there’s not the least reason to worry.

 

For example, in a tweet this morning, he laid out his “plan” to tame the virus. That is, blame someone else:

 

The Fake News is talking about CASES, CASES, CASES. This includes many low risk people. Media is doing everything possible to create fear prior to November 3. The Cases are up because TESTING is way up, by far the most, and best, in the world. Mortality rate is DOWN 85% plus!

 

So, there you have it. Another 5,474 Americans died from the disease during Character Counts Week. The President of the United States ends the week weakly, blaming the free press for the mess he made.