May 19, 2020: Trump Gets His "Badge of Honor"

 

5/19/20: This week, Dictator Donald fired Steve Linick, the Inspector General for the State Department, without providing reasons, as required by law. 

He previously ignored the same law – which the Senate helped pass – when he fired the IG for the intelligence committee, Michael Atkinson. 

A handful of Republican senators mustered up enough courage to tell him, “Tut, tut, naughty Donald.” 

Otherwise, they did not feel they were in any position to make a president follow the actual statute.

 

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“So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor.” 

President Trump

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IN OTHER NEWS, Mr. Trump is still making stunning claims regarding COVID-19. If you missed this one, swear to god, I am not making it up. When reporters asked today about the rising number of cases, and particularly the death toll, the President of the United States offered this incredible analysis: 

“By the way, you know, when you say that we lead in cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else,” the president said at the White House. “When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, it would have far few cases, right?

 

“So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor,” Trump said.

 

For real. He said it was a badge of honor. You almost expected him to take a swig of bleach to celebrate the occasion.

 

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG if you don’t wear a mask? Consider the case of a rural Arkansas church. According to the CDC, 92 persons attended services from March 6 to March 11; and 35 parishioners came away infected. Both the pastor and his wife fell ill. 

Three people died. 

Contact tracing also showed that those infected at church infected 26 others in the wider community. So, when visitors like Jacob Willis, who lives in Florida, hop in cars and head for Yellowstone, you have to hope they don’t bring the virus with them and cough on the bears. (See: 5/20/20.)

 

“The surest way to know where outbreaks are growing.”

Then again, it appears that some state leaders want us to see only good news. We learn this week that Rebekah Jones, data manager in charge of compiling Florida virus statistics, says she was fired after complaining about being ordered to delete data that made it clear disease was spreading far and wide in that state. 

The Tampa Bay Times explains: 

The dashboard that Jones managed is the best official source for in-depth data on how the deadly pandemic is moving through the state. Studying it is the surest way to know where outbreaks are growing and where testing is being done. Without access to the data, Floridians would have to rely on the word of officials and politicians [emphasis added] without being able to verify for themselves.

 

Or, as Gov. Roy DeSantis might say: We’re doing great here in Florida! Hardly any cases. Come on down! 

Bring your wallets and go home with the virus! 

Chart of Florida Cases 

We hope Florida's spike is an aberration.

  

BLOGGER’S NOTE (4/16/21): We learn eleven months later that Linick was looking into scores of allegations that Sec. of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan had federal employees running personal errands. According to the new IG at the Department of State, that included walking the family dog, picking up dinners, making hair appointments, and mailing their Christmas cards. 

Your tax dollars at work! 

Mike Pompeo naturally expressed outrage when a new IG released the report; but you can now see why Linick was fired. (For more reasons, see: 8/6/21)

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (4/11/22): We learn again, that where Team Trump set foot, shady dealings quickly followed. Despite laws requiring an accurate accounting, the State Department in 2020 failed to keep a record of all gifts presented by foreign nations to President Trump and other members of his grifting administration. Records of gifts to Vice President Mike Pence and members of his staff are also missing. These lists are compiled, as Fox News explains, “in part to guard against potential conflicts of interest.”