May 3, 2020: Donald J. Trump - Maestro of Misinformation

 

5/3/20: The Trump administration continues to write a “glorious record,” as the nation reopens for business. 

Sunday afternoon, a check of the John Hopkins University website indicates the U.S. has 1,154,621 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 

Th death toll stands at 67,451.

 

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Maestro of Misinformation.

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Sadly, your favorite blogger has fallen behind in his posts. That means we’re catching up today. Last week, Trump, the Maestro of Misinformation, was busy bragging that under his guiding hand the United States was killing it when it came to testing. He claimed that people in every other country dreamed of having a bold orange leader like him. He insisted the U.S. had done more tests for the virus than all other countries combined. 

If we went to Worldometers, we found that the Maestro was off a tad. The U.S. had done more tests than any other nation. 

We’d done 7.2 million. Spain had done 1.9 million, Italy 2.2 million, and the United Kingdom 1.2 million tests. If we added in France, 1.1 million, Germany, 2.6 million – okay, that’s already more than we’ve done – and then tossed in Russia, 4.1 million – and we started totaling numbers for the rest of the world in our head and got 17.5 million more… 

Okay, the Maestro is full of poo.

 

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WE DO KNOW that many states are opening back up. We hope, whether we like Trump or don’t, that the country recovers with speed. 

We also know that as of this morning, the Trump toadies were out in force, insisting that when the story of this time is written, historians will credit this president for a great success. “When history looks back on this,” Jared Kushner claimed, “they’ll say, man, the federal government acted really quickly and creatively, they threw a lot at the problem and saved a lot of lives.” 

(Wait, didn’t these very same guys spend weeks telling us, “Don’t worry, this virus is just the flu?”)

 

Here, it might be worth offering this chart, to show what happened when South Korea and the U.S. discovered the same day, they had their first case of the virus. The South started immediate testing. 

Trump kept denying there was reason for concern.

 

Total cases. 

                                    South Korea                           United States 

January 20                            1                                        1

March 2                         3,276                                    104     

March 5                         6,284                                    225

March 7                         7,000+                                              401

March 17                       8,320                                   4,661

 

By March 21, South Korea had already done 300,000 tests for the coronavirus. The U.S., with six times the population, had done 170,000. The cost of delay was soon evident. 

March 29                       9,661                                 137,294

April 6                          10,331                                337,971

April 24                        10,708                                887,622

May 3                           10,793                              1,186,073    

 

South Korea had contained the spread, at a cost of only 250 lives. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Speaking of South Korea, troops recently traded fire with enemy forces across the border in North Korea. 

Kim Jong-un, who some reports said was dead, has resurfaced. Three years and four months into Trump’s first term in office (hopefully, his only one) the North Korean dictator still has all the nuclear weapons he had when our president told us he was no longer a nuclear threat.

One easy way to tell: This was never the flu.

 

January 14, 2021: Count the Spoons before Trump Leaves

 

1/14/21: So much news is breaking, so fast, that we’re just going to throw it out in chunks, in any order stories come up. 

We’ll sort it all out later, or punt, and let historians bring order from the chaos of current events.

 

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Trump has “bone spurs” of the soul.

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First, a tip of the hat to the work done by Proxy President Mike Pence in recent days. With Lame Duck Don sheltering in place, Mr. Pence has had to show up and thank the National Guard troops guarding Washington from the violent fringe elements of Lame Duck Don’s base. Pence had to confer with officials at FEMA, to make sure preparations to keep the city and members of the incoming administration safe were proceeding. Pence called Kamala Harris to offer congratulations and promise assistance in any way he could. Mr. Pence, who has followed Trump without complaint for almost four years, has shown he has a common decency that his boss lacks. Mr. and Mrs. Pence will also attend the Biden and Harris inauguration.

 

Trump might as well be trapped in amber for all the good he’s done in the last two months. In fact, when the mob smashed its way into the House and Senate chambers nine days ago, it was Mr. Pence – his and his wife and his daughter’s lives at risk – who had to call the D.C. National Guard. 

Since the riot erupted, Trump has done nothing but stew. He has not thanked the Capitol Hill police or the D.C. police or anyone else for their courageous defense. He has not dared call the family of Brian Sicknick, the officer who was killed defending lawmakers’ lives and democracy itself. Trump lacks the courage to face hard truths. 

He has “bone spurs” of the soul.

 

Today, January 15, his schedule reads, fictitiously, “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

His schedule has been the same on January 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14. For all we know, he may be dead. 

He has been that useless of late; but that would be an improvement after all. At least he’s not actively damaging the rule of law. 

According to the handful of aides who still speak for the man, Rejected-President Trump will flee the capital on the morning of January 20. He won’t concede his loss. He won’t meet with Mr. Biden before skipping town. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he made off with the spoons. The current First Lady will never greet Jill Biden at the White House and show her around. 

For the best, perhaps. “Be Best,” and away they go.

 

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MEANWHILE, COVID-19 ravages the country. The president we’re stuck with for now, couldn’t care less. Daily death totals since we last checked: 

1/9:    3,432 dead

1/10:  2,083

1/11:  1,957

1/12:  4,131

1/13:  4,096

1/14:  3,904

 

Another week as bad, and we will pass the death toll the nation suffered in World War II.

 

Americans currently hospitalized: 127,235. That number is down slightly in the last few days. Yet, for 44 days straight, at least 100,000 people in this country have been hospitalized with the coronavirus. 

This was never the flu, no matter who said it was. Not the flu, Donald Trump, you fool. Not the flu, Sean Hannity, you dope. Not the flu, Limbaugh, you chump. 

Not the flu. 

Not the f***ing flu!

 

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NOR ARE WE in some kind of “V-shaped” recovery, as Trump once predicted we would be by now. We’re not in a recovery at all, not one shaped “A,” “B,” “C,” or “Z.” 

Unemployment numbers remain grim. Seasonally adjusted, for the week ending January 9, there were 965,000 initial claims for jobless benefits. 

An additional 284,470 workers sought help for the first time under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.