Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We're now over 40,000 deaths from COVID-19.  Never forget that it was the incompetence and ignorance of damn narcissistic sociopath Donald "I Take No Responsibility At All" Trump that made us number one in the world for COVID-19 cases confirmed and deaths, and resulted in throwing over 22 million Americans out of work.

Japan hoped it had dodged the COVID-19 bullet. Its leaders had been engaging in the same half measures and hopeful talk about a quick return to normal as a certain damn narcissistic sociopath on the other side of the Pacific.  Instead, they might be learning a deadly lesson:

In the past few weeks, Japan's coronavirus cases have spiked -- dashing hopes that the government's initial virus response had succeeded in controlling its spread. As of Friday, Japan had 9,787 confirmed cases, including 190 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. On March 1, the country had 243 cases.

The sharp increase has prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to extend the state of emergency from seven prefectures to the entire country. On Friday, he also promised to provide medical equipment such as surgical masks, gowns and face shields to hospitals struggling with acute gear shortages within a week.

Earlier this week, a team of government experts warned that Japan could have more than 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths if measures such as social distancing are not taken.

Putin's bitch, the damn narcissistic sociopath, is doing everything he possibly can to kill Americans:

Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.

Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though, in addition to abandoning the states to their own devices in a time of national emergency, the federal government has effectively erected a blockade — like that which the Union used to choke off the supply chains of the Confederacy during the Civil War — to prevent delivery of critical medical equipment to states desperately in need. At the very least, federal authorities have made governors and hospital executives all around the country operate in fear that shipments of necessary supplies will be seized along the way. In a time of pandemic, having evacuated federal responsibility, the White House is functionally waging a war against state leadership and the initiative of local hospitals to secure what they need to provide sufficient treatment.  (our emphasis)

The son of a bitch is doing this to get leverage over state and local leaders to "reopen" their state/ city sooner rather than later.

There are more analyses of Trump's response (comparing his actions to the W.H.O.'s by Greg Sargent) and of Trump's "plans" for dealing with the crisis by David Frum (ok, ok).

Will Bunch has a great read on the role of Fox "News" in promoting the small but loud protests against social distancing to distract from the deadly failures of the narcissistic sociopath and themselves (and the ancillary role of "mainstream media"):

In state capitals from Annapolis to Minneapolis, protesters honked horns in slow-rolling motorcades or flaunted social distancing rules on crowded sidewalks, streaming from their homes in a new movement to protest the economic lockdown by the ... dozens? That’s right, dozens, or maybe — to be fair — 100-200 at the largest of a dozen or so such right-wing protests since the middle of last week. This struck me Saturday as I read an extensive, seriously buttoned-down report in the New York Times — which often relegates large-scale left-wing protests like 2019′s Lights of Liberty to its back pages — promoting the demands of “modest demonstrations" at the Texas state capitol in Austin. [snip]

The everyday folks who were out there in Lansing or Columbus this week were largely there to serve the interests of the (mostly) rich and powerful people who used their influence to shoo them out there. Their agendas weren’t always the same. Most notably, President Trump — who promoted the rallies and even the right to carry weapons in an even-stunning-by-Trump-standards series of tweets — desperately wants to shift blame away from his multiple failures on the coronavirus and instead onto public-health-minded governors. Right-wing special interests, like the billionaire family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, are terrified that the 22 million unemployed will demand a social welfare state. Fox News is eager to make folks forget its dangerous ignore-the-virus punditry.

But the endgame and the shared interests are very much the same. Distraction, and a diversion of anger in the Heartland — an anger with legitimate and understandable roots — away from them, and hopefully onto the political enemies who threaten their power. If it all sounds painfully familiar, it should. This is the Tea Party Redux, except this time with the added thrill of a seeming death wish among the participants. Maybe we should call this one the Ventilator Party, or maybe the Branch COVID-ians. (our emphasis)

The best Speaker of the House in modern times knows exactly what's going on here, too. 

So does Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:

But when the press wants to take the the pulse of the populace, it believes that a representative sample of "real Americans" is overwhelmingly white, blue-collar, and rural. The press is giving saturation coverage to mostly tiny anti-lockdown demonstrations out of the same impulse that, pre-coronavirus, inspired big-city reporters to venture into rural diners every few weeks so we could be reassured that, yes, Trump supporters still support Trump.

The GOP hacks and plutocrats who are ginning up these demonstrations know that the media will fall for them, the same way Bugs Bunny knows that Elmer Fudd will fall for all his schemes, even the schemes that are just like the ones Fudd fell for in the previous cartoons. On this at least, the press never learns. The right knows that, and is taking full advantage.  (our emphasis)

What should Democrats be doing in the face of the ramping up of Trump's unhinged, authoritarian behavior?  How about being honest and calling it what it is:

For the sake of the country, millions of lives and everyone's sanity, some political figure of national prominence needs to respect the consensus of mental health professionals, and publicly declare that President Donald Trump is mentally unstable and unfit for office. This must be stated in the simplest terms possible, and while making clear that he or she is not joking or issuing the statement for dramatic effect. It is time to liberate American discourse from its self-imposed restraints, and it is essential to the future of American democracy that Trump's mental condition becomes a focal point of urgent investigation and discussion.

Shameless and dishonest operatives on the right have no reticence about making the health of a major Democratic figure part of public inquiry, even when they have to resort to baseless lies. In 2016, many Republican commentators – from Sean Hannity to Trump himself — warned that Hillary Clinton was near death, because she appeared wobbly at one public event. Four years later, she is still alive. Currently, discussions of Joe Biden's "dementia," without any clear evidence of cognitive decline, dominate right-wing chatter about the prospective Democratic nominee.  [snip]

Democrats should also get over their concerns about angering Trump supporters. Anyone who continues to applaud Trump's weird and reckless disregard for humanity at this point is beyond the limit of rational persuasion. Trump supporters live in a hallucinatory dreamscape under the authority of a maniac. Let them have their anti-social distancing rallies, and allow them to believe that Barack Obama invented COVID-19 shortly after he was born in Kenya.

Rational Americans need to stop enabling this abusive and deranged presidency. Declare Donald Trump insane and, at long last, bring an end to our era of malignant normality. (our emphasis)

It would have the backing of more than 70,000 mental health professionals. They spoke out; others in a more powerful position must too.

As usual, we strongly recommend you visit Infidel 753's link round-up (where we found the article on Japan's backsliding on COVID-19).  Cruise through his other posts, too.  A good use of social distancing time!