Monday Reading

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

The Washington Post has an award- worthy special report on how Sore Loser Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump and his band of incompetent sociopaths bungled the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  It's not a stretch to say this is what is meant by "a first draft of history."  A brief excerpt summarizes the main source of the problem that's caused so much unnecessary death and suffering:

The catastrophe began with Trump’s initial refusal to take seriously the threat of a once-in-a-century pandemic. But, as officials detailed, it has been compounded over time by a host of damaging presidential traits — his skepticism of science, impatience with health restrictions, prioritization of personal politics over public safety, undisciplined communications, chaotic management style, indulgence of conspiracies, proclivity toward magical thinking, allowance of turf wars and flagrant disregard for the well-being of those around him.

“There isn’t a single light-switch moment where the government has screwed up and we’re going down the wrong path,” said Kyle McGowan, who resigned in August as chief of staff at the CDC under Redfield, the center’s director. “It was a series of multiple decisions that showed a lack of desire to listen to the actual scientists and also a lack of leadership in general, and that put us on this progression of where we’re at today.”

Read it or bookmark it, please.  It's a damning, detailed history of a major part of Mango Mussolini's real "legacy" of death and catastrophic destruction.

Sticking with the Post, here's part of their summary of what's in the COVID-19 relief package expected to pass Congress today:

• The legislation includes $600 stimulus checks per person, including adults and children. That means a family of four would receive $2,400, up to a certain income threshold.
• The size of the payment decreases for people who earned more than $75,000 in the 2019 tax year. The check disappears altogether for those who earned more than $99,000. [snip]
• Congress will extend unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week. The benefit could kick in as early as Dec. 27 and run at least through March 14.
• An unemployment benefits program for contract and gig workers, which is set to expire at the end of the year, would be extended, too. [snip]
  The bill includes more than $284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans, expanded PPP eligibility for nonprofit organizations and news outlets, and modifications to the program to serve small businesses, nonprofits and independent restaurants. [snip]
  
• The agreement extends until Jan. 31 a moratorium on evictions that was slated to expire at the end of the year. The incoming Biden administration can extend the deadline further.
• The bill includes $25 billion in emergency assistance to renters, although it remains unclear how the money will be distributed.
  
  

The bill has some Republican dog's breakfast stuff in it, too, including more money for Mango Mussolini's border wall, tax breaks for three- martini business lunches, and zero funding for state and local governments struggling to cope with the fallout from the pandemic.  One other provision worth noting (and kudos to one of the best in the Senate, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH):

 

Always grateful for @SenSherrodBrown who fought to let ppl use earnings from 2019 to determine this year's EITC and (part of) Child Tax Credit. This helps workers whose wages fell in 2020 due to pandemic to get larger refund consistent with earnings from prior years.

— Amy Hanauer (@amyhanauer) December 21, 2020

Meanwhile, another risible effort by the Elite Strike Force Power Rangers to de- legitimatize the overwhelming victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is on its way to the Supreme Court:

Undeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges, President Donald Trump’s campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the Nov 3. election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court.

The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters’ will and allow the [Republican] Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors.

We have a musical response to that effort.

Watch the skies!

Jupiter and Saturn are due to converge in their orbits on Monday, appearing as a double planet in the night sky — the first such occurrence in almost 800 years.

The two planets have been near one another throughout the year, according to Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan. They will reach their closest approach, passing within 0.1 degrees of each other during the winter solstice on December 21, the longest night of the year.

The two celestial bodies pass one another about every 20 years, according to the Mount Wilson Observatory, in Los Angeles County, in what is referred to as a “great conjunction,” because they are the two largest planets.

But a passage as close as the one expected Monday has happened only a handful of times in the last two millennia. And two of those occurrences, one in 769 and one in 1623, happened too close to the sun to be seen with the unaided eye.

The last time a person could clearly see this event was on March 4, 1226.

As usual, we recommend a visit to Infidel 753's link round-up for a really comprehensive array of links to posts of interest around the Internet. You can thank us later!

Trends

 

COVID-19

There was a trio of all-time highs in the data. A record number of new deaths -- more than 3,500 -- was reported Wednesday and there were more than 240,000 newly reported coronavirus cases. And the number of people in hospitals was at a high for the 11th day in a row. 

Unemployment

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly increased last week as a relentless surge in new COVID-19 infections hobbled business operations, offering more evidence that the economy’s recovery from the pandemic recession was faltering.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 885,000 for the week ended Dec. 12, compared to 862,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 800,000 applications in the latest week.

Of course, that's only part of the damage done to our country by the malevolent, incompetent regime of Sore Loser Donald "Mango Mussolini" Trump.  It's going to be a long, hard slog for the Biden-Harris administration to turn things around.

"We Want Them Infected"

 

Chris Hayes summarizes the Politico story exposing the sociopathic "herd immunity" COVID-19  strategy of the Trump regime:

Tweets Of The Day -- The Cost Of Failure

 

The United States tallied a record 228,767 new coronavirus cases today.

That is one-third of all the new cases reported on Earth.https://t.co/74QzWYbn1p

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) December 5, 2020

 

There were 225,000 new cases identified yesterday

Sat through Monday, cases will dip (usually do)

But we are now seeing Thanksgiving effect

Based on yesterday's cases alone

Expect 5K-6K hospitalizations 12/11 (if hospitals can accommodate)

and 4,000 deaths on 12/26

Thread https://t.co/y6p1HNbFk9

— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) December 5, 2020

 

In most of the US, Covid transmission is at dangerously high levels. CDC released a new package of 10 key strategies needed to curb the spread, including universal masking and postponing travel. https://t.co/b0utHmygSI pic.twitter.com/HXjlo89WrR

— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) December 5, 2020

 

With the @WhiteHouse in turmoil over @POTUS insistence that he won the election, and nobody paying attn. to America's terrifying surge in #COVID19 cases & deaths, the @CDCgov is quietly asserting its proper role.https://t.co/SLNLZkzIfq

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) December 5, 2020

 

"Loudly asserting" might be more helpful, even at this late date. 

Monday Reading

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

The country is full of sanctimonious, racist hypocrites, and white evangelical "Christians" in America represent perhaps the biggest, grievance- driven part of that ugly cohort.  Dana Milbank:

White evangelicals are only 15 percent of the population, but their share of the electorate was 28 percent, according to Edison Research exit polling, and 23 percent, according to the Associated Press version. Though exit polls are imprecise, it seems clear that White evangelicals maintained the roughly 26 percent proportion of the electorate they’ve occupied since 2008, even though their proportion of the population has steadily shrunk from 21 percent in 2008.

This means White evangelicals turned out in mind-boggling numbers. Because they maintained their roughly 80 percent support for Republicans (76 percent and 81 percent in the two exit polls) of recent years, it also means some 40 percent of Trump voters came from a group that is only 15 percent of America. [snip]

White evangelicals have, in effect, skewed the electorate by masking the rise of a young, multiracial and largely secular voting population. The White evangelicals’ overperformance also shows, unfortunately, why the racist appeal Trump made in this campaign was effective. White evangelicals were fired up like no other group by Trump’s encouragement of white supremacy.

A Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate who now runs the Public Religion Research Institute, Robert P. Jones, argues that Trump inspired White Christians, “not despite, but through appeals to white supremacy,” attracting them not because of economics or morality, “but rather that he evoked powerful fears about the loss of White Christian dominance.”

The Institute’s American Values Survey from September found overwhelming majorities of White evangelical Protestants saying that police killings of African Americans were “isolated incidents,” and that Confederate flags and monuments are symbols of Southern pride rather than racism. (Smaller majorities of White mainline Protestants and Catholics felt the same way.) Majorities of White evangelicals also perceived discrimination against Christians and Whites, and rejected the idea that slavery and longtime discrimination make it difficult for Black Americans to succeed. (our emphasis) 

Their population isn't shrinking fast enough.

There is a demographic that shifted strongly away from the Sore Loser, though:

While the 2020 exit polls have not yet been finalized, we can already say with certainty that Americans who have served in the military shifted their political preferences dramatically over the last four years. In 2016, voters who served in the armed forces supported Donald Trump by a wide 60-34 margin, but preliminary data from this year shows that this same group gave Trump a much narrower 54-44 edge. In all, that’s a 16-point swing—far wider than the national shift in the popular vote over the same timespan.

The reasons for this surge are many. One preelection poll found, for instance, that active-duty service members took dim views of Trump’s dismissive approach to reports that the Russian government placed bounties on the heads of American troops in Afghanistan. These same respondents disagreed even more sharply with Trump’s desire to send the military into American cities during protests against police violence targeting Black people this summer.

Let's keep them in our camp. 

Former Fox "News" troll and not- an- epidemiologist Scott Atlas is still using his White (Supremacist) House perch to incite sedition:

White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas criticized Michigan's new Covid-19 restrictions in a tweet shortly after they were announced Sunday evening, urging people to "rise up" against the new public health measures.

"The only way this stops is if people rise up," Atlas said. "You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp"

 

We look forward to Atlas and fellow destructive cranks in the Trump regime rising up and stepping away from Washington after January 20.

Meanwhile, as Atlas and his ilk play with fire by opposing mitigation efforts like Michigan's, the dark Winter approaches:

Treatments for COVID-19 have improved since the Northeast outbreak. The ratio of hospitalizations to deaths has fallen tremendously since the spring. But it is also true that wherever we see hospitalizations go up, deaths rise two to three weeks later. We’ve seen it happen in state after state, in region after region, and nationally as well. [snip] 

Throughout the year, hospitals and health-care workers have issued warnings that if we do see hospitals overwhelmed, fatality rates will soar. As cases and hospitalizations continue to rise nationwide, we are poised to enter a new and possibly bleaker phase of the pandemic. We can only hope that if more state officials act quickly to establish effective mitigation measures, their effects will come in time to avoid the worst.

 

On the vaccine front, it appears we have another winner:

Biotech company Moderna said on Monday that early analysis from its phase 3 trial shows its Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5 percent effective at preventing the infection, offering hope of a second breakthrough in as many weeks.

The news comes a week after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said early analysis showed its vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective.

Moderna also said its vaccine does not require ultra-cold storage, unlike the candidate announced by Pfizer that has to be stored at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit) or below, easing concerns about how to efficiently distribute vaccines to billions of people around the world. (our emphasis)

We just have to do what we can to mitigate the spread over the next few months (face masks, wash hands, social distancing, etc.) to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed and deaths from exploding. We won't get any help from the MAGA cult, though.

We close again with our usual recommendation to check out Infidel 753's link round-up.  It's like a weekly kaleidoscope of "various interesting stuff," as he aptly puts it.  (We found the post on vets supporting President- elect Biden there.)

Monday Reading

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

Robin Givhan has a beautiful essay in the Washington Post, saying what so many of us feel now.  Here's a small sample:

"As the country waited for ballots to be counted, it was Biden — not the occupant of the Oval Office — who was reassuring people that this democracy was intact, that the system was working and that the center would hold. He was the voice of calm optimism in the midst of tumultuous times.

"When he became president-elect late Saturday morning, he did something far more herculean than accepting responsibility for a worsening pandemic and a struggling economy. He removed a terrible, suffocating weight from the back of this nation. For the more than 74 million Americans who voted for him — and surely even for some of those who did not — Biden’s election allowed this country to laugh, to dance and to breathe. He cracked open a space where the light could shine through. Indeed, his victory caused people to weep in joyful relief as they became aware of the heaviness that had afflicted their hearts, after they’d suddenly been relieved of it." 

Tim Alberta, in a long piece about "the election that broke the Republican Party," includes one facet of the election where a cowering party that was lashed to their cult leader's incompetence paid for it painfully:

Did we really think the president worked so diligently these past eight months to create an environment conducive to allegations of mass voter fraud, only to stop short of alleging mass voter fraud? Of course not. Even if the president had been swept in every swing state, and by big margins, he was always going to cry foul. That he lost such close contests — and lost them in a style so unfamiliar to so many voters — only made his reaction all the more inevitable. [snip]

To recap: The president scared his own voters away from voting by mail, resulting in lopsided Democratic margins when those ballots were counted; and Republican lawmakers in several key states refused to allow those ballots to be counted early, resulting in delays that created an early mirage of the president winning because the votes tallied first were those most favorable to him. Trump has good reason to resent those mail votes: They made the ballot box more accessible; they created the illusion that victory was possible; then they shattered that illusion in agonizing fashion, every incremental dump of returns amounting to a slow twist of the knife.

Fact:

 

Joe Biden will be the 1st candidate to win 51% of the vote against an incumbent president since... FDR.

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) November 8, 2020

 

Meanwhile, on the pandemic front,

The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.

The grim milestone came on the same day as global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million.

The United states has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first novel coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.

The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday and has reported over 100,000 infections five times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.

The U.S. latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases, ramped up by at least 29%, is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst affected countries in Asia and Europe.

Some good news, however, that's sure to amp up COVID Donnie's paranoia about the pandemic being used as a political tool against him:

Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective. 

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

You may recall that Der Spiegel cover from 2017, with COVID Donnie holding the head of Lady Liberty that he'd just severed?  Here's their update:

German Der Spiegel’s take on outcome of #USElection2020 on right below.
Trump cover from 2017. pic.twitter.com/qTkCXVx7CK

— Theresa Fallon (@TheresaAFallon) November 7, 2020

 

If you haven't already been there -- first, shame on you! Now you can redeem yourself by going right to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best collection of links to interesting, informative, stimulating posts from around the Internet.

COVID-19 Rampages Through America (And The White House)

Approximately 70 million voters in this country thought this was acceptable:

The nation registered more than 128,000 new coronavirus infections Friday, a third consecutive single-day record, as the runaway pandemic continued its spread across the American heartland and reached deep into Florida, Texas and other parts of the country.

Illinois set a staggering record for the state of 11,790 confirmed and probable cases for the day, a much greater total than recorded Friday by more populous states such as California and New York. Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and North Dakota also were among the states grappling with unprecedented cases of the coronavirus.

“It is community spread everywhere,” said Jaline Gerardin, an epidemiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. In part, the greater numbers are the result of the increased availability of testing, she said. But the main problem was allowing the virus to simmer at fairly high levels throughout the summer, particularly among young people who congregated in bars and restaurants against expert advice.

 Hey, look who else has tested positive!

 

NEWS: Along with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, at least FOUR other White House aides currently have coronavirus, per sources.

Pains were taken to keep Meadows’ illness a secret, I’m told. And people around him who knew were told to keep quiet.

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 7, 2020

 

Here is the footage of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the East Room of the White House during President Trump’s election night speech earlier this week.

Meadows was not wearing a mask.https://t.co/n8NLSYWZPG pic.twitter.com/KDsfex6cWu

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) November 7, 2020

 

We got another winner! 

 

A lot in this Saturday playbook:

ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENT’S circle tested positive: GOP Rep. MATT GAETZ of Florida told multiple people on Capitol Hill and in the WH that he too had contracted the virus. GAETZ and staff did not reply to a request for comment.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 7, 2020

 

He should have worn the mask pic.twitter.com/Rh114mciU2

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) November 7, 2020

 

Privileged assholes like Meadows, Gaetz and their Dear Leader will always get the best, most intensive care. But the depraved indifference for the health and lives of anyone around them is a telling sign of their sociopathic philosophy of life.  And, once again, 70 million Americans saw this in different manifestations over the last 4 years and just endorsed it with their votes.  

Forget being two different tribes.  We might be two different species.

 

The Price Of Incompetence And Reckless Disregard

 COVID Donnie, take a bow:

More than 2,000 new coronavirus cases in Colorado. More than 6,400 new cases in Illinois. And more than 1,000 new cases in New Mexico.

All record-breaking numbers for those states — and all on a day when the United States as a nation reached two grim new highs. On Thursday, the country recorded at least 90,000 new cases (that’s the equivalent of more than one per second) and crossed the threshold of nine million cases since the start of the pandemic.

Over the past week, the United States has recorded more than 500,000 new cases, averaging more than 77,000 a day, and nine states reported daily records on Thursday. More total cases have been identified in the United States than in any other country, although some nations have had more cases in proportion to their populations.

Ninety thousand (90,000!) new cases yesterday; a 42 percent increase in cases over the last two weeks; the death rate up 16 percent in the same time period.  Eleven out of the 12 states with the highest number of cases per capita are states won by COVID Donnie in 2016, but you MAGA cultists keep telling yourselves we're "turning a corner."

Republican Counties Have Largest COVID Spikes

 

Coronavirus cases are starting to spike in most of the country, just as votes are being cast in the lead- up to November 3, and as "crazy uncle" COVID Donnie continues to hold mass, mask- less rallies and tell his cult that masks don't protect them:

For the first time since early August, the number of newly reported coronavirus infections in the United States on Thursday topped 60,000. More than 36,000 people are hospitalized nationally with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, amid a long-feared autumnal rise of infections and serious illnesses.

This is not a regional crisis, but instead one that is intensifying almost everywhere in the country. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have higher caseloads than in mid-September. The virus is spreading in rural communities in the heartland, far from the coastal cities hammered early in the pandemic.

There are a number of reasons why "crazy uncle" COVID Donnie doesn't want Americans to take basic health precautions to slow the spread of the virus, but they all eventually lead back to his sociopathy and raging narcissism.  Because his cult members (and they are a cult)  trust him more than they trust the medical experts and scientists, they're becoming victims of their own blind stupidity:

The effects of the coronavirus have been strikingly pronounced in recent weeks in Republican-leaning counties, according to a new analysis of health data from Harvard University researchers that compares the latest number of cases and deaths to county-level voting patterns in the last presidential election.

The research, which has not been peer-reviewed, shows that “red” counties with the most intense leanings toward Republicans have had the largest recent increases in cases, while “blue” counties that lean Democratic have tended recently to be flat.

“The redder it is, the more it goes up. The bluer it is, the more it stays flat,” said Nancy Krieger, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the paper.  (our emphasis)

Being in a science- denying political cult during a deadly pandemic turns out to be a very dangerous choice.  Who could possibly have guessed?

BONUS:  Infidel 753 has more on this phenomenon.

(Photo:  Breathe deeply!  COVID Donnie cultists in North Carolina; AP)

Twit Tweet, Thwap -- The DC Hotspot

Twit tweet:

 

This is what ⁦@MayorBowser⁩ has done for business in DC by keeping us frozen in “Phase 2,” despite the true Covid data. Late morning DC should be bustling. pic.twitter.com/3XkCza9x3t

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 7, 2020

 

Thwap:

Considering the White House cluster has more than doubled DC’s cases already, this is quite the take.

— Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe) October 7, 2020

 

The President and his staff are currently making DC a hotspot.

— Doug Walsh (@DougWalsh72) October 7, 2020

 

"There's not enough traffic, or death!" - Laura Ingraham

— Same Brain Pictures (@Conor_J_McAdam) October 7, 2020

 

DC residents are understandably terrified that reckless Trump admin carriers will breathe on them.

— Felina (@FelinaBlanc) October 7, 2020

 

Oh look Laura with a 5 second video from her chauffeur driven car. I’m convinced

— MJR jnr (@onetruebritt) October 7, 2020

 

Go lick everything and report back in 2 weeks 😀

— Danielle (@danni671) October 7, 2020

 

It's because of deadly, disgusting morons like you that we are still in this crisis.

Getting you off the air would save lives.

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) October 7, 2020

 

 And finally,

 

You’re losing

— SicutCervus (@CervusSicut) October 7, 2020

 

"Covita" And "Maybe I'm Immune"

The hits just keep on coming:

 

(The cough at the very end =chef's kiss=.)

Quote Of The Day -- "President Superspreader"

 "... [T]his White House infection cluster is a perfect microcosm of Trump's world-historical faceplant on the coronavirus response. The president did not even try to protect the country, talked himself and his party into believing that the virus was not a threat, and ultimately failed to protect himself, his wife, and half his top staff.  [snip]

"Again we see part of the reason why Trump has bungled the pandemic so horrendously: He can't even begin to consider the welfare of other people. Not even the gun-toting people who are paid to protect him merit a single thought — Trump will casually risk their lives for a completely pointless five-minute excursion to see his fans waving at him. (As any Roman emperor could have told you, always make sure the Praetorian Guards are happy and satisfied.) A necessary precondition to doing something about a pandemic is thinking it is bad when others get sick or die, but Trump does not care about anyone but himself.

"All these political pathologies mean that a rational, effective response to the pandemic was never in the cards. It requires a willingness to listen to scientific experts, honesty, and a concern for the lives of others. Trump has none of these, and neither does his party. So long as he remains in office, Americans will have to work around our national leader to fight this problem." -- Ryan Cooper on "President Superspreader" in The Week.  Judging from the recent polls, COVID Donnie's "world-historical faceplant on the coronavirus response" is what's finally convincing voters who are going to the polls right now that he  needs to go.

Donald Trump, "America's Colonoscopy"

Stephen Colbert takes up the botched coronavirus response, "anarchist jurisdictions," the CDC's politicization, and other examples of Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump's infantile, malignant ignorance at work destroying our country:

QOTD -- Undermining And Downplaying

"Trump was not called to greatness. He wasn’t even called to above-average competence. He was called to implement a game-plan we’d already written with a disease control bureaucracy that was the envy of the world, the administrative infrastructure and personnel of the world’s most dominant and powerful state, and a practically bottomless well of resources. (None of our peer countries has the massive advantage of minting the world’s reserve currency.) If Trump had merely said, “Tell me what to do!,” had done it, and otherwise had stayed out of the way, I believe it’s almost certain that at least 100,000 dead Americans would now be alive.

"But Trump didn’t just fail to do what needed to be done. He didn’t just refuse to do what needed to be done. He actively and aggressively undermined both federal and state efforts to contain the virus..." -- Wil Wilkinson, Niskanen Center, on "Trump's COVID-19 Culpability."  The must- read article is pushback against some right- wing Trump soothers who have recently been arguing that, while his response to COVID-19 was incompetent, malicious, depraved, and deadly, hey, let's give him a gentleman's C and call it a day!

What you read above is how history will remember this dark chapter and COVID Donnie's response.

Message: I Really Don't Care About You, Do You?

The "downplaying" and the constant lying about the coronavirus pandemic have already been on display for all to see for months, and now have been verified by his own words.  Meanwhile, upwards of 200,000 Americans have lost their lives because of Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump's depraved indifference.

As if more proof were needed of his sociopathic narcissism, just look at his most recent Nuremberg rallies in Nevada, especially the indoor rally this past Sunday, where he displayed his lack of concern for the health and safety of even those drooling dimwits in his fan base.  Of course, his only concern was to have his fragile ego attended to while maintaining a safe distance from people -- they're simply two dimensional objects to him -- he couldn't give a shit about whether they distanced themselves or wore masks.

He's only concerned about virus spread when it comes to him:

Trump said in his interview with the Review-Journal that he is not afraid of getting the coronavirus from speaking at the indoor rally.

“I’m on a stage and it’s very far away,” Trump said. “And so I’m not at all concerned.”

“I’m more concerned about how close you are, to be honest,” Trump told a Review-Journal reporter who thought she was socially distanced.

Later, when she told Trump she had tested negative earlier in the day, Trump mugged that he felt “100 percent better.” (our emphasis)

Remember, he's constantly tested, but wants to slow down testing for everyone else.

So, he knows there's danger, he knows the value of testing, and his flunkies know.  But, he thinks it's still in his interest to lie about it, regardless of the costs -- and his gullible cultists don't seem to notice or care what the implications of that are.  It shouldn't take comments like the ones above or scenes like this to have driven the point home almost four years into his regime:

Notice the big empty space on the right? That's where @realDonaldTrump "works" the ropeline. The white line tells him how close he can get to the crowd and still be socially distant. The crowd, on the other hand ... no such protections. The irony is thick in Trumpilvania pic.twitter.com/Nje8n9fwWb

— Greg Jenkins (@jenkinsgreg) September 13, 2020

These fools, like the Sturgis stooges, endanger more than themselves.  But pleasing Dear Leader, sticking it to the libs and the "elites" are all the motivation they need to be his sacrificial lambs.

(Photo: Nevada nitwit. There'll be vengeance, all right, starting within two weeks.)

"Blood On His Hands": Reactions To Trump's Lies About Coronavirus Danger

Reactions abound to the excerpts from Bob Woodward's book that verify what many of us were well aware of:  malignant narcissist Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump lied about the coronavirus for his selfish political purposes (the "panic" he was afraid of was panic in the stock market, which he constantly pointed to as a measure of his "success").  Here are just a few reactions from the dead tree industry that we've gathered:

Karen Tumulty, Washington Post:

The consequences of Trump’s refusal to be straight with the country, we now know, have been tragic.

Rather than taking cautionary measures that could have spared immeasurable suffering, such as assuring that adequate testing was available, the president denied what he knew was true. Or, as he so memorably put it at a news conference in March: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

In that case, however, Trump was telling us something fundamental about himself. Those six words are both the most fitting epitaph for his presidency, and the central reason that Americans should put an end to it when they go to the polls in November.

The Boston Globe editorial board:

Playing it down — while chastising state and local leaders who gave COVID-19 the serious response it deserved — set the stage for a preventable catastrophe. Almost 200,000 Americans have died, while countless others have lost jobs and endured major disruptions to life. The United States leads the world in coronavirus deaths, a grim testament to the federal government’s limp response to the virus. Had the president merely told Americans what he told Woodward in February — and, better yet, acted on that information with strict public health measures and vigilant preparation — thousands of victims might still be alive.

In the short term, President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus is certainly on the ballot in November. How much incompetence and dishonesty are Americans willing to tolerate from the president? And how much slack are they prepared to cut his defenders in Congress, who repeatedly put politics ahead of Americans' lives? The president’s campaign strategy is clearly to addle white Americans with fear-laced messages this fall, hoping that will be enough to scare them into accepting his gross incompetence. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board:

In February, as the pandemic was spreading in China but had only infected 15 people in the United States, Trump told Woodward in recorded interviews that the virus was easily spread — “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed” — and was perhaps five times more deadly than the flu, which Trump acknowledged kills 25,000 or more Americans per year. In a Jan. 28 top secret briefing, national security adviser Robert O’Brien warned Trump that the pandemic would be the “biggest national security threat” of his presidency.

Yet Trump publicly minimized the risks and told Americans that the virus was “going to disappear.” He made fun of masks, including when former Vice President Joe Biden first appeared in public wearing one. He celebrated supporters who showed up at rallies without masks and went out of his way to convey a sense of disregard for a virus that has now infected 6.3 million and killed nearly 190,000.

In short, Trump has massive amounts of blood on his hands.  [snip]

The economy is in ruins. The pandemic remains out of control. With eight weeks remaining before the Nov. 3 election, what more do voters need to be convinced that this Mad Hatter must be sent packing?

The New York Times editorial board:

Mr. Trump’s lack of leadership almost certainly made the nation’s suffering greater, its death toll higher and its economic costs more severe in the long term. When the president dithered on testing and contact tracing, when he failed to make or execute a clear and effective plan for securing personal protective equipment, when he repeatedly belittled and dismissed mask mandates and other social distancing edicts, Mr. Trump knew the virus was deadly and airborne. He knew that millions of people could get sick, and many would die. [snip]

Nearly 200,000 people in the United States have already died, and hundreds of thousands more have suffered grave illness — often followed by a slow, hard recovery and, in some cases, permanent disability. Tens of millions of people have lost their jobs, and millions are on the cusp of losing their homes. School systems and elder care networks are struggling to function. The economy is in tatters.

Imagine what this picture could look like today if the president had been honest with the American public on Feb. 7, calmly taken charge of the nation’s response to the pandemic and did his best to protect them.

Yes, imagine if, say, a competent woman who got, say, nearly 3 million more votes than COVID Donnie was president.

Of course, Woodward is being justly criticized for sitting on the damning tapes for 6 months as the death toll climbed, just to juice his book sales. Charles P. Pierce has some thoughts about how   Woodward might have some blood on his hands, too.

Your Tax Dollars At Work -- For The Trump Campaign

This has to be nipped in the effing bud:

As the presidential election fast approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services is bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm as it seeks to “defeat despair and inspire hope” about the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal HHS document obtained by POLITICO.

Several weeks ago, the department sent out to a number of communications firms a “performance work statement,” which lays out what work will be expected of the winning firm. The document says that the vast majority of the money will be spent from now until January.

The document also lists the goals of the contract: “defeat despair and inspire hope, sharing best practices for businesses to operate in the new normal and instill confidence to return to work and restart the economy,” build a “coalition of spokespeople” around the country, provide important public health, therapeutic and vaccine information as the country reopens, and give Americans information on the phases of reopening.

“By harnessing the power of traditional, digital and social media, the sports and entertainment industries, public health associations, and other creative partners to deliver important public health and economic information the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery,” the document also says.

We'll make it simple.  Here's how to "defeat despair, inspire hop and achieve national recovery," HHS:  elect Biden-Harris and defeat Republicans up and down the ballot. Two hundred fifty million dollars, please!

They're using our tax dollars to blow happy smoke up the electorate's asses, coincidentally just before an election whose main issue is the incompetent mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic by COVID Donnie.  What "therapeutic and vaccine information" will be provided -- how to inject bleach or the therapeutic effects of hydroxychloroquine?  What advice are they going to provide for businesses -- get your workers' lazy asses back to work; and don't worry, we're working to make it impossible for them to sue you if you get coronavirus?

Allowing this to go forward in our current environment with the current corrupt "leadership" would be a shocking lack of political balls.  They mustn't get away with it.

Coronavirus Deaths Pass 190,000

Deaths from coronavirus have now passed 190,000 (192,887, at this moment) in the United States.  Remember, that's almost certainly a low count.  But, regardless, it continues the United States as the epicenter of the pandemic, with more total cases and more deaths than any other country -- cases and deaths that were largely preventable had we not elected a malignant, narcissistic moron as president.  Lives lost, families shattered, businesses closed, jobs lost at the altar of COVID Donnie.

Here are the latest projections, based on different scenarios (click to enlarge):


 (Source: www.Worldometers.info)

We know as long as the malignant, narcissistic moron is president, the trend line won't be the "universal masks" one,  but rather something between the "projection" and the "easing" lines (or between 400,000 and 600,000- plus deaths by January 1, 2021).

We turn around the economy by getting coronavirus under control, and we get coronavirus under control by defeating moron vector COVID Donnie in November.

Trump's Sabotaging And Scapegoating COVID-19 Reponse Continues

Due largely to his ignorance and characteristic instinct to act only in his self interest, COVID Donnie's catastrophic bungling of the response to the coronavirus pandemic has led to over 6 million confirmed cases and nearly 190,000 deaths, both numbers likely a significant undercount.  We have the most deaths from coronavirus and the most confirmed cases in the world, despite representing only 4.25 percent of the world's population. The botched response has also cratered our economy, altering the lives of millions, beyond the public health issue.  Regardless of the daily distractions, it's the key issue in this year's election.

Knowing this, COVID Donnie and his apparatchiks have been flailing around looking for scapegoats to blame for the debacle, with China (the "China virus") and the World Health Organization being the two main targets.  Now, with countries racing to develop and test a vaccine, COVID Donnie has applied the same ignorance and self- interest in snubbing an effort to coordinate that work:

The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country’s role in health diplomacy.

More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development, secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population.

The plan, which is co-led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the vaccine alliance, was of interest to some members of the Trump administration and is backed by traditional U.S. allies, including Japan, Germany and the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.

But the United States will not participate, in part because the White House does not want to work with the WHO, which President Trump has criticized over what he characterized as its “China-centric” response to the pandemic. (our emphasis)

The childish go- it- alone approach is another boneheaded, self- defeating decision that could have serious consequences:

But there was resistance in some corners of the government and a belief that the United States has enough coronavirus vaccine candidates in advanced clinical trials that it can go it alone, according to the official and a former senior administration official who learned about it in private discussions.

The question of who wins the race for a safe vaccine will largely influence how the administration’s “America First” approach to the issue plays out.

An unlikely worst-case scenario, experts said, is that none of the U.S. vaccine candidates are viable, leaving the United States with no option because it has shunned the Covax effort.

J. Stephen Morrison, Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies sums it up:

“This just shows how awkward, contradictory and self-defeating all of this is,” he said. “For the U.S. to terminate its relationship with the WHO in the middle of a pandemic is going to create an endless stream of self-defeating moments.”

There is likely another familiar name providing counsel to COVID Donnie, his mentor Vladimir Putin.  As Russia is already pushing its own dubious vaccine, Putin would see a number of gains in having the U.S. take the approach it's taking, primarily further isolating the U.S. from its allies and weakening another part of the global infrastructure the U.S. has spent the last half century building.  It's easy to imagine him coaching his asset to isolate America further from the world.

But since "it is what it is," this incompetent, malignant "president" will continue to endanger us all with his unerring bad faith and catastrophic judgement.  And the death toll will mount and the economy will remain on life support.

Forsaken

As we approach 190,000 deaths resulting largely from the bungling, callous response to the pandemic by narcissistic moron Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump, the recently concluded Republican National Convention circus provided a vivid portrait of this party of sociopaths and their Dear Leader.  Whether by their not speaking of the coronavirus and its toll on America, by engaging in an outrageously false narrative that COVID Donnie saved lives, or by their ostentatious flouting of basic public health measures, the message came through loud and clear.

Kyle Whitmire reminds us what others have forsaken while these privileged, self- centered yahoos try to convince themselves that the pandemic is behind us:

Trump’s speech was a meandering greatest-hits of the extemporized rants we’ve heard from him for the last four years, both audacious and simultaneously forgettable.

What shouldn’t be forgettable is the message that event sent the country: Everyone of those folks just showed they don’t care what anyone else in this country has forsaken to beat this disease.

The seniors in long term care centers who have been isolated from their loved ones and don’t understand why.

The grandparents denied their favorite people’s hugs and kisses.

Grieving families who’ve forgone funerals.

Couples who’ve delayed weddings.

The frontline workers in our hospitals and care centers who must isolate themselves from their loved ones to protect them at the same time they put their own lives at risk.

Teachers, administrators and support staff learning to work with mitigation measures so their schools don’t turn into hotspots.

The grocery workers behind those plexiglass dividers at the checkout counter.

It's maddening what the best among us have forsaken and sacrificed for the common good, and that even the most innocuous measures to save lives and stop the spread are ignored and derided by the louts and fools.  When the poll came out showing that 57 percent of Republicans thought the coronavirus death toll was "acceptable", we can't say we were surprised (in fact, we thought the percentage of these "pro- life" hypocrites would be higher).  But when a party adheres to an alternate, non- scientific, fact- free reality in service to a malignant buffoon, a rising death toll becomes "it is what it is."

Sixty- five days until November 3.

(Photo:  Mask-less yahoos on the South Lawn cheering COVID Donnie; Alex Brandon/AP)