2/12/21: Trump’s defense team has a
chance today to lay out their case for why the now Reject-President should not
be impeached.
____________________
“Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
____________________
It’s a foregone conclusion that not enough GOP senators will
vote to convict Donald John Trump. If his legal team’s entire argument involved
reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and then sitting down, that would suffice.
Sen. Ted Cruz and the other GOP cowards would declare themselves
convinced. Mary did have a lamb. Its fleece was white as snow.
We acquit!
*
WE ALSO LEARN that Team Trump was less than honest back in
October when President Trump was infected with coronavirus.
Relying on four sources, The New York Times notes that
the president was much sicker than doctors and aides admitted.
Two sources told the Times there had been discussion about putting the
president on a ventilator. His blood oxygen level dipped into the 80s at one
point, a dangerous level.
(This blogger’s blood level dropped to 89 when he was infected
in November. His daughter, a nurse practitioner trained at Yale, insisted that
unless it rose again the following day, he would have to report to a hospital;
but it did improve.)
Twice, while still at the White House, Trump was given oxygen.
He was also cleared to receive emergency doses of a drug called Regeneron, not
then available to ordinary Americans.
When he continued to display dangerous symptoms, he was taken to
Walter Reed Medical Center. There “he
began a regimen for a steroid, dexamethasone,” which is recommended only for patients
who “have severe or critical forms of the disease.” Often these are the
patients who “need mechanical ventilation or supplemental oxygen.”
Yet, when he returned to the White House, he sent out exactly the wrong signal to the American people. He told us: “Don’t be afraid” of the virus. He said he felt better “than twenty years ago.” As always, it was all about him. “And now I’m better and maybe I’m immune, I don’t know,” he said. “But don’t let it dominate your lives.” He wanted us all to get out and shop and spend and keep the economy rolling and insure he served a second term.
By chance, on that Monday, October 5, only 361 Americans would be reported dead from COVID-19.
There had been worse days already, with 1,158 succumbing on September 23; but Trump felt fine. And that was enough for the President of the United States to say, “Don’t be afraid.”
On October 16, the U.S. lost another 1,001 persons to the
virus. On November 19, the death toll hit 2,045. On December 9, we hit 3,411.
On January 7, the number of Americans who should have been afraid, and
died, topped 4,000. Had the president been more forthcoming about his own close
call, undoubtedly more Americans would have taken the threat seriously.
When Trump told us not to be afraid, Kristin Urquiza, who had already lost her father to the virus, responded on Twitter. “At this point, “she wrote, “the only thing we should be afraid of is you.”
She was right, of course.
 |
Memorial for the COVID-19 dead. |
