March 31, 2020: Trump Hurls Juvenile Insults - Coronavirus Spreads

 

3/31/20: The nation is wracked with death and disease. The economy is cratering. The people look to the president for guidance and comfort and… 

…we’re screwed. 

At 6:27 a.m. Tuesday, Trump fires up Twitter and buckles down to addressing the complex tasks at hand. That means it’s time to praise himself. “New York Governor Cuomo says President Trump has been ‘very helpful.’ @foxandfriends Thank you,” he tweets, “everybody is working very hard!” 

What else is Donald fixated on as the nation awakens? The sick and dying? Fat chance. His feelings have been badly damaged! Monday, on Fox & Friends, he called Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “sick puppy” because she had the audacity to criticize his blundering delays and denials of the COVID threat.

 

You know, like his praising Xi Jinping on January 24, saying the Chinese were working hard to contain the spread of the virus. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency….I want to thank President Xi!” 

Or, a month later, saying, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” 

Or on March 6, calling Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington “a snake” after Inslee criticized Trump for not taking the COVID-19 threat seriously. 

Or, on March 27, tagging Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan with a juvenile nickname, after she said he had been too slow to respond to her state’s calls for relief. “I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” he claimed in a tweet. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!” 

That’s some irony right there.

 

In fact, the president’s petulance is so all-consuming that he’s willing to put lives at risk. He admitted, in typical tone-deaf fashion, during his press conference that same day, that he told Vice President Pence, “Don’t call the woman in Michigan. I say, if they don’t treat you right, don’t call.”

 

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If a few more people die in Michigan while the president pouts, too bad for them.

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So, where do we stand, with numbers changing every hour? Johns Hopkins reports that as of 6:05 p.m. the U.S. has 184,183 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than any country on earth.

 

South Korea has 9,786. 

The two countries discovered their first infections on the same day: January 20. 

Keep that depressing coincidence in mind. 

 

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LET’S HIT some lowlights in the news. CNN notes that from Monday to Tuesday, five states – New York, New Jersey, California, Louisiana, and Michigan – report more than a thousand new cases, each. (Trump hates CNN too.) That brings the total in Michigan to 7,600; and Whitmer has shut down her state. 

Florida, where a Trump pal is governor, has 6,338 cases. Trump hasn’t coined an insulting nickname for him yet. 

Ohio, under a Republican governor with good sense, remains shut down, with 2,199 confirmed cases. 

The bad numbers keep piling up while Trump tweets and brags and lashes out at anyone who criticizes or questions what he does. 

California counts 6,932 cases, with 150 dead and 657 patients in intensive care.

 

This past weekend, the New York City Police Department reported that 442 uniformed officers and 70 civilian personnel had been infected. Three officers had already died. 

The situation in New Jersey was also dire, with 338 police officials having tested positive and 3,081 quarantined. 

Tuesday morning, we learned that more than a hundred sailors on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt have been infected and the vessel remained parked off Guam. The captain was pleading with the Navy to set up facilities where his entire crew could be isolated, and the spread of the virus contained. 

“We are not at war,” he explained. “Sailors do not need to die.”

 

Unemployment numbers continue to skyrocket this week. Macy’s has announced it will be furloughing 125,000 workers. 

Kohl’s announced it would lay off 85,000 employees, two-thirds of their workforce. Several other major retailers are set to follow suit. 

One of tens of thousands of New Yorkers out of work as of Tuesday was Chris Smalls. Smalls’ situation was different than most. He had the nerve on Monday to lead a walkout at an Amazon shipping center, as he and co-workers clamored for safety gear and better protection. 

You can understand why Smalls, and most Americans are worried. Freak virus hotspots have popped up all over. A biotech conference in Boston on February 26-27 included at least one sick participant. The virus spread from there. Of 95 cases in Massachusetts, in early March, 77 could be traced back to that meeting. Then the participants scattered, carrying the coronavirus back to North Carolina, New Jersey, Tennessee, Indiana, and Washington D.C.

 

A funeral in Albany, Georgia two days later led to another outbreak, what experts refer to as a “super-spreading event.” Six siblings in one family became infected. Dougherty County, where the funeral was held, has had 24 deaths and 600 confirmed cases since. 

Fifty wealthy guests gathered at a March 5 birthday party in Westport, Connecticut. After all the presents were opened, and the candles blown out, and the cake and ice cream were consumed, guests hugged and kissed and went home. At least half the people who attended would later test positive and spread the virus everywhere they went. 

As of 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, it was estimated that the U.S. had tallied 3,807 deaths as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Another 3,981 Americans were in serious or critical condition. 

Weep then for President Trump. 

His feelings have been hurt.

 

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AT LEAST ONE FAMILY had a good time Saturday. The wedding of the daughter of White House Head Buffoon Mark Meadows is held in Atlanta, and best wishes to both bride and groom. It later appears that the father-of-the-bride decided rules about limits on number of attendees and rules about wearing masks did not apply on his daughter’s great day. 

At a time when Gov. Brian Kemp had limited gatherings to no more than 10 persons, Head Buffoon Meadows thought 70 seemed about right. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio was also there to wish the couple a long and happy life. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Monday, I ran the numbers, comparing the 143,532 cases we had then to the 4,661 we had on March 17. I said our confirmed cases had increased 3,079%. 

As any bonehead could see I had divided 143,532 by 4,661, and saw that we had almost 31 times as many cases as we had, two weeks before. But, as I’m sure all math fans will realize I had to subtract the original 4,661, and should have said our caseload had increased 2,979% instead. 

I hope you can get over your horror for my mistake.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE, (7/3/21). Checking and editing my work later, we can look forward from this date and learn that Meadows spent the next few months yelling at White House staffers who wore masks to work. 

President Trump, of course, was later infected, and had to make a trip to the hospital. So was the First Lady, though her case was mild. Meadow’s number came up in November and he and several other aides come down with COVID-19.