3/24-28/20: Fast moving events have rattled the Republic. Yet, in some
unfathomable way, Trump’s approval numbers have risen. Perhaps, the American
people are excited to be getting those extra April bailout checks!
The closest Trump gets to 50% approval. |
____________________
Downplayed, dithered,
and delayed.
____________________
So,
let’s take a moment to point out what should be glaringly obvious. We don’t
have the money in the federal checking account to pay for the Trump Bailout.
What we have, really, is a plan for taxpayers to bail themselves out. That is,
we send money to ourselves and either we pay ourselves back later (higher
taxes), or we inevitably accept program cuts (Social Security, defense,
healthcare, etc.). Or we take the cowardly route and kick the can so far
down the road we never see it again. Then future taxpayers face the
task of paying for our mistakes.
This
is not to say a bailout isn’t necessary; but let’s be clear. When Donald J.
Trump found himself in a deep hole – and finally threw down the shovel he had been using to help
dig that very hole – he and
Mitch McConnell decided that a Republican brand of socialism wouldn’t be bad.
Having
said that, let’s consider how we ended up in such a deep hole. First, we should
admit that any president would have had to face the reality that we were going
to end up in a hole of some indeterminate depth.
The original sin, so to speak, was that Trump and his aides,
supported by some of the loudest voices on the right, downplayed, dithered, and
delayed in the face of a growing virus threat.
Instead
of shoveling dirt into the hole, the president wasted weeks on what Time magazine
has called “a self-congratulatory victory tour.” By the time he faced up to the
danger it was too late, except to react to a disaster he helped ensure.
HOW THE HOLE KEPT GETTING DEEPER - AND WHO HAD SHOVELS
December 8, 2019: Chinese doctors confirm the first case of a novel coronavirus. When they warn colleagues, they are reprimanded.
Chinese authorities don’t like “Fake News,” either.
Definition: “Fake News” is
always capitalized. “Fake News” is news governments don’t like because it makes
governments look bad.
January
21, 2020: Chinese officials concede
that human-to-human transfer of the virus is occurring.
January 22: A reporter asks President Trump if he has any “worries about a pandemic.” Trump replies: “No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control.”
The U.S. has one confirmed case.
January 24: President Trump is happy with the Chinese. “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” he says. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency….I want to thank President Xi!”
It takes a rare form of ignorance to believe the Chinese regime practices anything like “transparency.”
Trump has that form.
January 30: As far as the threat of COVID-19 goes, Trump says he’s “working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.”
The U.S. has 6 cases.
February 7: Trump is still lavishing praise on Xi Jinping. The
Chinese leader “is strong,
sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the
Coronavirus,” he tweets. Xi “will be successful, especially as the weather
starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone…”
Rare sighting - the president in a mask. |
February 10: During one of his countless campaign rallies, Trump tells
fans not to worry about the virus. “You know, in April, supposedly it dies,
with the hotter weather.”
The U.S. has 13 cases. No reason to sweat!
February 20: The
president isn’t worried. His administration asks for $2.5 billion to fight the spread of the
novel coronavirus. Democrats in the House of Representatives put together a
plan to provide $8.5 billion.
February 22: The
president says – with a confidence born of ironclad ignorance – that he doubts
he’ll need $8.5 billion. “We were asking for two and a half billion, and we
think that’s a lot, but the Democrats, and, I guess, Senator Schumer wants
us to have much more than that.”
____________________
“The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.”
Rush Limbaugh
____________________
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,”
Trump tweets. “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
(That prediction
really sucks.)
Same day: Noted
infectious disease expert, “Doctor” Rush Limbaugh offers his professional
diagnosis. “I want to tell you the truth about
the coronavirus,” he says during his show. “You think I’m
wrong about this? You think I’m missing it by saying that’s – Yeah, I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus
is the common cold, folks.”
Limbaugh goes on to say that the
survival rate for COVID-19 is “98 percent,” meaning only 1 patient in 50 dies,
“a far lower death statistic than any form of influenza [emphasis added,
unless otherwise noted], which is an annual thing
that everybody gets shots for.”
It takes the bare minimum of
effort to discover that Rush is stuffed with moose dung. According to the
Centers for Disease Control, the death rate for seasonal flu in recent years
has been:
Cases
Deaths
Death/Cases
2018-2019:
35.5 million
34,200
1 in 1,038
2017-2018:
45 million
61,000
1 in 738
2016-2017:
29 million
38,000
1 in 763
(The numbers for the Obama years are similar, if you want to
take the time to figure out the math.)
February 25: White House economic
adviser Larry Kudlow uses his own shovel to dig a deeper hole. “We
have contained this,” he says. “I won’t say air-tight, but it’s pretty
close to air-tight.”
Wrong.
February 26: HHS
Secretary Alex Azar announces that the U.S. has fifteen confirmed
cases. Trump assures everyone that “the 15, within a couple
of days, is going to be down to close to zero.”
A reporter asks if
he’s worried the disease is spreading?
Trump offers up a
kind of nonsense answer: “No. ... No, because we’re ready for it. It is what it
is. We’re ready for it. We’re really prepared. ... We hope it doesn’t
spread. There’s a chance that it won’t spread too, and there’s a chance that it
will, and then it’s a question of at what level.”
By lunchtime, the CDC can
confirm 59 cases in the United States. The outbreak in Italy is also beginning.
Confirmed cases there rise from 124 to 374 the same day.
President Trump keeps digging , offering
up ridiculous predictions, and his advisors don’t dare contradict him. As Time puts
it later, the White House has become “an echo chamber for yes-men.”
Same day: The
echo chamber expands to include leading right-wing news organizations.
The New York Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch) exclaims: “The sad truth
is that global health bureaucrats use these outbreaks to push for greater
funding, with utter disregard for the truth.”
Fuck those global
health bureaucrats! Don’t listen to them!!! Our ignorant president keeps on
digging.
“It’s like a miracle.”
February 27: Trump
once again downplays the threat from
COVID-19. “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu
shots for,” he says. “And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a
fairly quick manner.”
“It’s
going to disappear,” Trump assures everyone. “One day – it’s like a miracle – it will disappear.”
Same
day: That evening,
“Doctor” Sean Hannity grabs a spade and helps make the hole a little wider. “Tonight, I can report the sky is absolutely falling. We’re all
doomed. The end is near. The apocalypse is imminent, and you’re all going to
die. And…it’s all President Trump’s fault,” he says with a smirk. “Or at least
that’s what the media mob and the Democratic extreme radical socialist party
would like you to think.”
Hannity’s not a
bit worried.
Same
day: “Doctor” Laura Ingraham follows on Fox News that
evening, and treats viewers to a second blast of bombast. She’s even madder than
Hannity.
She
starts shoveling furiously:
If you’re worried about the
spread of the coronavirus, well, you’re obviously not alone. It’s unsettling to
see doctors and what looked like, you know, hazmat suits in China. People
quarantined hanging out of hotel windows in Italy. And, of course, your fellow
airline passengers wearing face masks. Yet more unsettling is something
happening right here in the United States. And it’s not medical. It’s political.
Democrats and their media
cronies have decided to weaponize fear and also weaponized suffering to
improve their chances against Trump in November.
“The
facts don’t matter to the Trump haters,” Ingraham yelps, because “many of them
are frankly so sick with their anti-Trump fever that they actually consider
this virus a political godsend.”
February 28: Acting
White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney makes it clear. He thinks the media is causing a stock market panic and
it’s all part of a plot to bring Trump down:
At any
particular time, 20 million people in this country are going to have the
flu. The flu kills people, it does. This is not Ebola, OK? And I’ll tell
you what that means in a sense. It’s not SARS. It’s not MERS. Why do we say
that? When you look at the severity of diseases, one of the ways you can look
at it is looking at the percentage of people who get it who die. I know that’s
sort of hard-hearted, but that’s sort of how we look at it.
COVID. Kind of like the flu….
Same day: The president is asked about Mulvaney’s comments later, about the coronavirus being the media’s and the
Democrats’ “hoax of the day.”
Trump sticks with that narrative, and keeps a firm grip on
his shovel. CNN, he sneers, is a “very disreputable network.”
I think
they are doing everything they can to instill fear in people, and I think it’s
ridiculous. They are very disreputable. Some of the Democrats are doing it the
way it should be, but some are trying to gain political favor by saying a
lot of untruths. The fact is, I made one decision that was a very important
decision, and that was to close our country to a certain area of the world that
was relatively heavily affected, and because of that, we are talking about 15
who seem to be all getting better. One is questionable.
Why should we worry????
Same day: “Doctor” Donald Trump Jr. leaps into
the fray. He’s outraged to know that his father’s foes are politicizing the
story of COVID-19. He and his dad would never stoop so low! “The playbook is
old at this point,” Dr. Jr. fumes, “but for them to try to take a pandemic and
seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so
that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning is a new level of
sickness.”
The Democrats, he adds, are praying “for a disaster to happen
in the economy.” They’re “absolutely insane.”
The U.S. has 65 confirmed
cases.
“This is
their new hoax.”
February 29: At
another one of his rallies, Trump fumes, “Now the Democrats are politicizing the
coronavirus, you know that, coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did
one of the great jobs … This is their new hoax.”
At this point, the entire month of February has been
wasted because Team Trump doesn’t take the threat seriously. Instead,
they downplay the threat at every turn, ensuring that those foolish enough to
listen and believe what they say won’t take steps that might slow the spread. The
nation would have been better served, had the president done nothing more than
stand up in public and read soup can labels.
The United States ends the month with only 70 confirmed cases. The CDC has tested only 500 people.
March
2: Trump tells another rally crowd: “They’re
going to have vaccines, I think, relatively soon.” He’s not worried. His fans in attendance aren’t worried. He’s still
digging the hole.
The U.S. has 104 cases.
March
3: Trump talks about all the reasons why he
thinks the virus won’t spread. “Not only the vaccines, but the therapies.
Therapies is sort of another word for cure.”
That
doesn’t even make sense.
March
6: The president stops by the Atlanta headquarters
of the Centers for Disease Control. He’s on his way to Mar-a-Lago, where he can
hobnob with his superrich pals and squeeze in more golf. An impromptu press
conference turns out to be a cornucopia of stupidity and lies.
“Anybody
right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test,” he tells reporters. “They’re there. They have the tests
and the tests are beautiful.”
Naturally, he takes the chance
to brag:
You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He
taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super
genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are
surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, “How do you
know so much about this?” Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have
done that instead of running for president.
And don’t you hate it when
Democrats politicize this mess! Trump isn’t pleased with criticism coming from Governor
Jay Inslee of Washington. “I told Mike [Vice President Pence] not to be
complimentary of that governor because that governor is a snake.”
Classic Trump.
The U.S. has 311 confirmed
cases.
“At
worst, worst case scenario it could be the flu.”
Same
day: On his evening show, Sean Hannity decides
to downplay the threat of the virus again, and bash President
Obama in passing. He mentions the H1N1 virus, which in 2009, “killed 13, 14,
whatever thousand people.” Obama “never implemented the travel ban. They never
quarantined anybody.”
“Am
I correct?” Hannity asks his guest.
That guest is Dr. Marc Siegel, a
regular Fox News medical contributor. So you know he’s going to provide an
answer Hannity likes.
“Absolutely,” he replies. “And
over 300,000 deaths in the United States alone when all the figures
were counted.”
I don’t know what “figures” he
means. According to the CDC 60,800,000 Americans were infected by the H1N1 flu and 12,469 died.
(That would be a death rate of 1
in 4,876 cases, meaning H1N1 turned out to be a mild form of influenza.)
“And let me tell you something,”
Dr. Siegel continues, “this virus should be compared to the flu. Because
at worst, at worst, worst case scenario it could be the flu.”
Only it’s not a flu virus, at all.
Hannity’s last question is what
they call in baseball, a “grooved pitch,” meant to be hit. If you’re a
connoisseur of Fox News, you know how Dr. Siegel will answer even before his
lips start moving.
“Last question,” Hannity
says. “Is there anything the president could have done sooner,
faster, in your view, medically?”
Dr. Siegel hits that fat pitch
out of the park:
Absolutely not. He’s been having the leaders working
on it. By the way, now that the cases are starting to come, the
test kits are coming, so we’re getting them in time. I think the president
has been projecting calm. I’ve written a book on
fear. He’s been very cool….He’s the
anti-fearmonger-in-chief, Sean.
March
7: The president is plunked down at Mar-a-Lago
for the weekend. Saturday night is devoted to a birthday bash for Don Jr.’s
girlfriend. Standing next to President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Trump is asked
by a reporter if he’s concerned that the virus is spreading closer to
Washington D.C.
“No,
I’m not concerned at all….No, we’ve done a great job.”
(Several guests at that party later test positive.)
March
8: On the Sunday
edition of Fox & Friends, Dr. Siegel is guest again. “I feel like
the more I learn about this [virus], the less there is to worry about,”
Pete Hegseth, one of the hosts says.
“I was about to
say the same thing,” Siegel replies. Hegseth and Siegel are now plying their
own Fox News shovels.
The U.S. has 547
confirmed cases.
March 9: The
president is focused on twin threats to the nation. That means it’s
time to tweet:
The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is
doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to
inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant.
Surgeon General, “The risk is low to the average American.”
It’s
the Trump version of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chats:” The
only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And the media. And Democrats!
“Coronavirus impeachment scam.”
Same
day: During her afternoon show on the Fox Business
channel, “Doctor” Trish Regan claims that Democrats are spreading
a false narrative. The whole COVID-19 story,
is impeachment all over again.
And like with the Mueller investigation, like with Ukraine-gate, they don’t
care who they hurt. Whether it be their need to create mass hysteria to
encourage a market sell-off unlike anything we’ve seen recently, or whether it
be to create mass hysteria to stop our economy dead in its tracks, don’t kid
yourself. They told us how much they crave a recession as a way to get rid of
Donald Trump.
A graphic appearing beside her on
the screen reads: “Coronavirus impeachment scam,” lest viewers miss the point.
She also
claims the left is resorting to “melodrama” to scare people. She says
SARS and Ebola were “far more deadly,” but the media didn’t stir up panic then.
The problem with her analogy is that while those diseases did have a higher
mortality rate, only 8,098 people (worldwide) contracted SARS.
Same
day: Doctor Hannity is fuming that
evening. This coronavirus threat? Bah! Democrats are always “pedaling
conspiracy theories and hoaxes.” He promises he’s going to “lay out some key
facts, because truth matters, context matters, especially when you’re talking
about a disease that puts fear in the hearts of people.”
He
adds: “We want the truth. We’re not the media mob.” The graphic for his broadcast
reads: “Coronavirus Hysteria.”
Those
who are accusing the president of downplaying the crisis are sick, they have
“Trump rage psychosis.”
Besides,
he says, there have been only 31 deaths from COVID-19 and “the average age of
mortality in this country is 80.”
Also, 26
people were shot in Chicago over the weekend. “I doubt you heard about it,
Hannity howls. “You notice there is no widespread hysteria about violence in
Chicago, and this has now gone on for years and years and years, and, by the
way, in Democratic-run cities we see a lot of that.”
Yes,
Democratic-run cities! Democrats are horrible human beings. And don’t you hate
it when Democrats politicize these stories!!!
We
should probably point out the obvious to Trump fans, because listening to
Hannity may well make a listener stupider. The reason there would be no
“widespread hysteria” involving Chicago shootings would be because bullets
wouldn’t hit anyone in, say, Kalamazoo or Oshkosh or Eureka, Nevada.
“And it will go away.”
March
10: Trump is still digging the hole deeper. He’s
not worried. The U.S. has only “about 600 cases, it’s
about 26 deaths, within our country. And had we not acted quickly, that number
would have been substantially more …. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a
great job with it. And it will go away.”
Asked during a press conference
how he thought he and his administration were doing in addressing this crisis,
Trump went high for once instead of low. He gave himself a “10,” on a scale of
1-10, 10 being highest.
Of course, he did.
March 11: Doctor Limbaugh is at it again, befuddling
listeners with blather. “This coronavirus,
they’re just – all of this panic is just not warranted.” Once again, he says,
“this virus is the common cold.”
At one point, he
seems mystified by the term “lethal.” “Ten times more lethal?” he asks
rhetorically. “Lethal than what? What does lethal mean? Does lethal kill you?
Does lethal infect you? Does lethal give you a temperature of 102 versus 100?
What does it do to you? It’s a meaningless comparative.”
Okay, this is an
easy question to answer: “Lethal” means it can kill you. Ten times more lethal
means you should be ten times more concerned. The Bubonic Plague is more lethal
than acne.
By day’s end, the
U.S. has 1,263 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Same day: That evening, President Trump speaks to the nation, in an attempt
to calm our worries. He butchers the presentation. First, he
says he’s banning all travelers from 26 European nations. He’s still going to
let people from Great Britain and Ireland come, because he says those countries
are doing a great job controlling the outbreak. (That happens to be wrong.)
Second, he says health insurers will cover the costs of treatment for anyone
who gets sick. (They won’t.) Third, he says the travel ban will affect trade
and “cargo.” (Strike three. Also wrong.)
Americans traveling in Europe,
who need to get home, panic. Some pay as much as $20,000 to get on the “last flights” allowed
before the ban takes effect. Trump aides have to clean up the mess. American
citizens, permanent residents, and a few others, they tell the press, will be
allowed to fly home.
Trump himself has to tweet:
“cargo” will not be banned.
(Three days later Great Britain and Ireland have to be added to
the travel ban.)
March 12: “The United States,” Trump brags, “because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point … when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”
Trump takes a break from digging the hole deeper, leans on his shovel, and congratulates himself.
“I don’t take any responsibility, at all.”
March 13: A reporter asks President Trump if he takes any responsibility for delays and flaws in coronavirus testing.
“I
don’t take any responsibility at all,” he says.
Same day: Even Fox News pundits are slowly waking up. Dr. Sean Hannity’s diagnosis suddenly changes. “This virus is serious,” he says. “We’ve been telling you that from day one.”
He hasn’t.
March 14: On Fox & Friends, Ainsley Earnhardt is as beautiful and as clueless as ever. She isn’t worried about a little flu bug! She suggests that viewers take advantage of the crisis to take a trip. “It’s actually the safest time to fly,” she exclaims. “Everyone I know that’s flying right now, terminals are pretty much dead – ghost towns.”
Poor choice of words.
The U.S. has 2,726
confirmed cases.
March 15: Trump enabler Rep. Devin Nunes tells
host Maria Bartiromo, on Fox Business News, that this is, in fact, a
perfect time to get out and mingle with humanity.
There’s a lot of concerns with
the economy here [in California] because people are scared to go out. But I
will just say, one of the things you can do if you’re healthy, you and
your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in easily.
Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and
tips to keep their small business going.
(Later, Nunes tries to say he meant use the drive-through window.)
March 16: Governors in 34 states have ordered schools closed. According to Johns Hopkins University the U.S. has 4,287 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The president finally admits the virus is “very bad.” He goes on to say, “Each and every one of us has a critical role to play in stopping the spread and transmission of the virus. With several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner and turn it quickly.”
Americans, he says, should stay away from bars, restaurants and not gather in groups larger than ten.
It’s a colossal failure – the President of the
United States should have been sending this kind of message a month earlier.
March 17: When reporters ask why he has adopted a more sober tone, the president denies his tone has changed. “This is a pandemic,” he says. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
It’s like he has had a shovel in his hands for weeks, but now he
claims he’s been holding a stethoscope.
Same day: At Fox News, the shills
are throwing down their shovels too. The three stooges who host Fox &
Friends appear on split screens to
emphasize the need for social distancing. “We have a
responsibility to slow down this virus and to think of other people during
this time,” Ainsley Earhardt tells viewers, even though she said it was a great
time to fly, just three days earlier.
March 18: The United States has 7,769 confirmed cases. Testing is still ramping up and that number is sure to go higher.
“Perhaps that’s been the story of life.”
March 19: Trump decides to start calling himself a “wartime president,” and the novel coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” He doesn’t want to get blamed for the spread of the disease, so it’s time to blame the Chinese. “It could have been stopped right where it came from, China,” he complains.
A reporter asks the most powerful man in the world what he thinks about reports that rich and well-connected individuals, including professional athletes, are able to get tested, when sick patients who might be infected cannot.
“You’d have to ask them [those getting tested] that question,” Trump replies. “Perhaps that’s been the story of life.”
Yeah. Trump doesn’t care.
When asked why governors in several
states are complaining that they aren’t getting the medical supplies they need,
the wartime president says, “The Federal government is
not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping.
You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”
Note: Four days later, after The New York Times highlights a “spasm of violence” directed at Asian Americans, someone gets it through Trump’s thick cranium. Words matter and he’s been stirring up the hate.
He tries to rectify his mistake with a tweet:
It is very important that
we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all
around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is
NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to
get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!
March 20: The U.S. has 17,935 confirmed cases. Restaurants and bars, gyms and movie theaters across the country are closed down. College and professional sports have canceled all games.
Trump adviser Larry Kudlow, who once said the administration had the disease under “pretty close to air-tight” control, now says a rescue package of $2 trillion may be necessary to save the U.S. from recession.
When a reporter asks Trump if he has been sending mixed messages about the nature of the threat, the president melts down:
March 22: The U.S.
has 26,997 confirmed cases. Governors in several states have ordered
citizens to “shelter in place.” Across the nation, 95 percent of all students,
grades K-12, have been told to stay home.
March 23: U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warns, “This week it’s going to get bad.” To start the morning, the U.S. has 33,276 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. That includes Sen. Rand Paul, who knew he might be infected, but decided to use the Senate gym the day before.
Four
other senators are self-isolating. During a press conference, the president
first hears the news. Told that one of the four is Sen. Mitt Romney, we get
Trump at his empathy-challenged worst.
By the time the day ends the U.S. caseload rises to 41,511 on one website and 41,569 on a second, with 504 dead.
The following states are essentially shut down for business:
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oregon
West Virginia
March 24: President Trump says he hopes to have the
country back up and running by Easter, April 12.
March 25: The
spread of the coronavirus is not abating. Johns Hopkins University has the U.S.
passing 66,000 cases. Another tally has
fewer cases, but 944 deaths and 1,452 patients in serious or critical
condition.
March 26: The terrible news becomes official. In one week, 3.28 million Americans have filed for unemployment.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the worldwide death toll stands at 23,067, or 4.5% of known cases – basically 1 death for every 22 patients.
That level of lethality would be crippling to human society; but some countries are doing far better than others. In Italy, 1 in 10 patients has died. In Germany, the toll is 1 in every 200 cases.
The U.S. is likely to overtake both Italy and China, possibly tomorrow, for most cases of any country. A second website, which updates at different times of day than Johns Hopkins, but usually differs only slightly in the end, already has the United States at 80,071 cases. The death toll in the U.S. stands at 1,151, with another 2,112 patients in serious or critical condition.
Just like no one on Team
Trump ever predicted.
March 27: Congress has passed – and the president has signed – a $2.2 trillion bailout package.
That’s about $2.18 trillion more than Trump said he thought he’d need to handle the virus on February 22.
And it’s official. With
President Trump having spent weeks denying that there was any real threat to
the U.S., either health-wise or economic, we blow past China and take the lead
in confirmed cases of the virus.
March 28: As of Saturday morning, Johns Hopkins University reports that the United States has 104,860 confirmed cases.
The following states, covering more than half of the U.S. population, have now issued “stay-at-home” orders: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Washington D.C. has issued the same order.
At least ten other states have issued less-stringent warnings and orders, including, for example, Florida – which is banning tourists from several states farther north and along the coast. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has balked so far at ordering any closing orders. Several cities, including Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, have had to step up and issue “stay-at-home” orders of their own.
Schools in 48 states are
now closed completely, while select districts in Iowa and Maine remain
open.
Alaska schools are closed into May; Hawaii schools are close into April; and
tourists are being told to stay away.
A total of 55.1 million students have been
affected, out of a total school population in this country of 56.6 million.
Since your child is probably stuck at home, and
needs some math work, ask them to figure out what percentage of all students in
the U.S. are out of school.
Divide 55.1 million by 56.6 million for the
correct answer.
It’s 97.3%.
Rush got rich; people who listened to his "flu" schtick got sick. |
Same day: Rush
Limbaugh says he sees see a silver lining despite the spreading plague. He assures
listeners that the United States of America is lucky to have Trump explaining COVID-19 to us all.
This makes sense only to the “Dittoheads.”
Says Rush:
I think it is imperative that we
have somebody like Donald Trump, who is outside the establishment expert class,
who has a history of solving problems, to actually lead the country through
this.
You know, we’ve talked about the
deep state all these years since Trump was elected, the Trump-Russia collusion,
the FBI — well the deep state extends very deeply. And the American people did
not elect a bunch of health experts that we don’t know. We didn’t elect a president
to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know. And how do we know
they’re even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they have
been at the job for a while, and they are at the CDC, and they are at the NIH.
Yeah, they have been there, and they are there, but have there been any job
assessments for them? They are just assumed to be the best because they are in
government. These are all kinds of things I have been questioning. And I have
been watching people routinely accept whatever the authorities say.
No dice for Rush. He’s going to
listen to the Orange Buffoon, instead. This might be funny, if so many
Americans weren’t getting sick.
And dying.
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