Friday, March 13, 2020

This Is Getting Terrifying - As Trump Debuts A New Campaign Slogan: "I Don't Take Responsibility At All"

This is absolutely terrifying.

Chris Hayes On How The U.S. Is On Italy's Coronavirus Trajectory (MSNBC, March 11, 2020)


Hayes: "The exponential curve shows the growth of coronavirus cases outside of China. Right now, there are nearly 45,000 confirmed cases in the world outside of China, where the outbreak appears to be under control."
"This is what the US curve looks like. Almost identical, right? Looks a lot like the global curve we just saw. In the US - four weeks ago - we had 15 cases. Just over a week ago, we had 100 cases. Today, we have over 1,200 cases. That number probably does not even capture the reality, because our testing capacity is not actually measuring the scope of the problem."

"What is clear is that we are racing up this exponential curve at an almost similar rate to the countries that have gone before us. For instance, Italy. Italy right now is in the midst of a full-blown public health crisis. The country [of 60 million people] is completely on lock-down. Today, a new measure announced. Italy announced it will stop almost all commercial activity aside from supermarkets and pharmacies. Think about that for a second. Everything closed, except for drug stores and food. Italy also announced today they now have over 12,000 cases and the total deaths in the country have increased - now listen to this - have increased over 30% in just 24 hours. From 631 to 827 - a 30% increase in fatalities in one day."
"This chart shows the rapid growth of cases in Italy. Does that look familiar? It should. You can also see how the US is right now following almost the exact same trajectory - just one week behind."
"Most of those deaths in Italy are likely a direct result of what we have already seen with this virus in Wuhan, China. The virus is overrunning the health care system capacity. Anywhere in the world, at any given time, in any given city, there is a fixed amount of doctors, ICUs, beds, ventilators. The systemic risk the virus poses to everyone around the world right now, including in the US, is what is happening now in Italy.

Doctors in that country ... are having to make war-time triage decisions about who they can afford to treat. ... Italian doctors are being forced to decide who to save and who to let die. [On Friday, a nurse in northern Italy said that fighting the virus was like being in the middle of "a world war".]

Tom Bossett, Trump's former Homeland Security adviser, told NBC News yesterday that we are 10 days away from the hospitals getting creamed. ... That is where we are headed right now, in this country. ... [Friday is now 8 days away.]

You can go read the warnings from Italians who say we did not take this seriously enough and now we are in it. That's their message to us. That message, however, is not being adequately communicated at all by the most powerful person in the country, a man who insists on propagating disinformation."
Chris Hayes: The Failure Of Coronavirus Comes From The Top | All In (MSNBC, March 12, 2020)


"All of this [the stock market having its worst drop in 33 years after Trump's error- and lie-filled speech on Wednesday night] is a reflection of the utter mismanagement and failure by this president from the very beginning of this pandemic. The coronavirus is presenting a governing test for every nation that is facing it. And right now, the federal US government is failing that test. And it is failing it from the top.

That is not my view. The director of the Harvard Global Health Institute said this: "This is an unmitigated disaster that the administration has brought upon the population, and I don't say this lightly ... We have had a much worse response than Iran, than Italy, than China and South Korea."

The National Security Council used to have a Global Health Team specifically to deal with pandemics like this. President Trump shut it down years ago [in May 2018]. The president then ordered some travel restrictions from China during the outbreak there that did not prevent the virus from reaching the US, obviously. And then, of course, there's the testing situation here, which Trump continues to lie about. And it's probably worse than any other country, outside of perhaps Iran, where we don't know what's really going on.

This was the president today: "Frankly, the testing has been going very smoothly. If you go to the right agency, if you go to the right area, you get the test."

That is flatly a lie. It's a lie. It is still extremely difficult for most people, the overwhelming majority, to get a coronavirus test. Three months after the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China. As the top infectious disease expert in the government, Dr. Anthony Fauci [Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] acknowledged today, the testing system is failing.

"The system is not really geared to what we need right now. What you are asking for. That is a failing. ... It is a failing. Let's admit it."

Now that's what happening right now, just with the pandemic. But on top of that - keep this in mind - right now, the Trump administration is in court to try and destroy the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. They are right now pushing a budget, including - as of this week, in testimony - that would dramatically cut the budget of the Centers for Disease Control. And that's not to mention the president has used his his bully pulpit to repeatedly spread disinformation that quite literally elevates the risk for all of us. He said the cases are "going to be down to zero". He said "One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear." He claimed the case "numbers look to be going down", not up. He keeps comparing it to the flu - to try to minimize it - despite the fact that every serious public health expert says it is not like the flu.

This has been the fear since Day One of this presidency, when we elected and then swore in, a racist game-show host to the most important job in the country. A job that tasks him with managing huge systemic risks on our behalf. The fear is that we would get to this point. And the Republican party made a deal. They accepted that risk, so they could get tax cuts for the rich and conservative judges. And right now, the bill is coming due."
Trump Admin Fails On Basic Guidance To Americans Facing Coronavirus | Rachel Maddow (MSNBC, March 12, 2020)


"We all now have figured out that one of the fiascoes - if not the fundamental fiascoe of the US government's response to this crisis - is that there isn't any testing, that we are probably the worst in the world, certainly the worst in the industrial world - at testing and screening for this virus. We've got it, probably, in every state in the country, we've got states of emergency in 30 states and we're still not broadly testing populations anywhere. ...

Whether you are in one of the nursing homes where there have been multiple deaths in Washington State or you just got off a cruise ship that had positive coronavirus on board, a cruise ship that was held offshore in California, or whether you went to a conference in New Orleans or Washington DC, where people were known to be positive, or Boston or somebody at your synagogue or your church or wedding you went to, has fallen ill or tested positive, if you have been somewhere where you believe there is a good chance that you have been exposed to this highly-contagious virus, chances are, still, this deep into it - this long into this crisis - that if you, as an American, are seeking testing to see if you yourself have in fact been exposed, you are going to have a hard time getting it. ...

Right now, we're watching the numbers go up everywhere, we know what the infection curves look like in other countries that have community transmission, and we still don't have testing. More than 1,000 confirmed cases in this country, an epidemic of absolutely unknown proportions, because we don't have testing ...

Donald Trump was asked on Friday about the almost non-existent pace of testing in the US (the CDC tested only 77 people this past week).
I don't take responsibility at all.

Trump disbanded the country's Global Health Team to save a few dollars, he rejected ready-to-go testing kits (endorsed by the World Health Organization) weeks ago, he has personally told the country numerous times that the crisis is no big deal, that the number of cases in the US could be counted on two hands, that the big fuss being made by the media is nothing but a partisan political hoax.

He refuses to even consider if he bears any responsibility. ... It's always someone else's fault.

Trump was then asked to explain why he disbanded (and never replaced) the Global Health Team:
When you say me, I didn't do it. ... I don't know anything about it.

You may find this hard to believe, but Trump was lying there, too.

This senator knows something about it (and he knows Trump knows something about it).





Remember When?
Separated At Birth?

The CDC has tested only about 1,600 patients - since January.

Trump rejected the offer of the test kits used by the World Health Organization - he said, no thanks - because it was most important to him that the government contract for all of the kits go to an American company.

In February, the only coronavirus test authorized by the FDA was one developed by the CDC. But they were limited in number and were also faulty, giving inconclusive or negative results to samples that should have tested positive.

One day (presumably), tests that actually work properly will be available in the US. At that point, it could take weeks before thousands of medical personnel are trained to run the tests.

Americans have died - and more will die in the coming weeks - because Trump turned down internationally-approved test kits weeks ago, so one of his big donors could nab a fat government contract. Imagine if your mother or your spouse or one of your children was one of the dead.
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Whether It's 1348 Or 2020, "Rich People Have Always Been Assholes During Plagues"

Emily Alford, Jezebel, March 6, 2020:
Rich People Have Always Been Assholes During Plagues

When the first waves of plague swept medieval Europe, the disease killed both the rich and the poor indiscriminately. In July 1348, King Edward III of England’s 12-year-old daughter died on her way to Spain to marry King Pedro of Castile. And though he was still mourning, the king threw a giant tournament at Westminster in the fall, despite instructions from clergy and doctors that moderation and abstinence were the key to survival. Nearly 672 years later, rich people still want their travel and amusement even amid coronavirus fears, and in typical fashion, they're doing everything they can to make sure sickness remains the province of the poor.

During the plague, the first round of which lasted from 1347-1351 and wiped out somewhere between 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population, those who could afford it adopted a plague-time slogan of sorts: "cito, longe, tarde," which translates to, "flee soon, go far, come back late." As servants were left behind to clean the houses of the absent aristocracy, risking infection and dying at rates even higher than that of the general population, the wealthy made their wills, specifying guardians for children and dowries, and got the hell out of town. ... Almshouses were quite often attended only by clergy, who blessed the dying, while physicians fled with the wealthy. ...

By the 16th century, Charles de Lorme had invented the bird-beak plague mask. The beak was stuffed with herbs and wormwood to filter out the bad smells thought at the time to spread bubonic plague. To his wealthy patrons, including Henri IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, he prescribed "red broth" made partially of antimony, a metal used to induce vomiting, which was believed by the Romans to be conducive to good health. ...

And now, as coronavirus causes global panic—though, to be very clear, it is nowhere remotely as dangerous as the plague—the New York Times reports that rich people are once again scrambling for expensive remedies of questionable efficacy while fleeing the infected. The 21st century version of retreating to one's Italian villa seems to be barricading oneself in a Hamptons mansion. The new court physician is the concierge doctor, and the new plague mask is the high-end, sold-out Urban Air Mask 2.0, miasma-blocking herbs replaced by "cutting-edge filter technology with timeless Scandinavian design," the company's website reads. Gwenyth Paltrow recently posted a selfie wearing the $65 modern-day plague mask en route to Paris, though doctors say they're likely ineffective, as the masks are intended to prevent sick people from spreading coronavirus, not protect well people from catching it.

But that message hasn't yet seemed to reach the modern-day aristocracy. Los Angeles concierge physicians say they've been bombarded with calls from actors, agents, directors, and other rich people asking for help getting specialty N95 masks, assuming that because they cost more, they must be better ...

During plague outbreaks, cities hired armed guards to stand outside houses, ensuring whole families, whether they were sick or not, remained trapped inside to die. ... Physicians advised that the best way to avoid infection was to leave the sick for dead and flee, as they often did themselves. ...

In her exploration of the ways wealth influenced who fled and who died in the plague years, "Shutt Up: Bubonic Plague and Quarantine in Early Modern England," Kira L.S. Newman writes, "Quarantine and its effects were not classless, and its implementation was not always in the name of public health," an assessment that already seems equally true in the age of coronavirus. While the wealthy traveling in the age of coronavirus have not yet bought guards to make sure no poor people can cough near them, they are in the midst of leaving the sick behind to travel in sterile comfort to places where infection has not yet spread. The Guardian reports that executives have charted "evacuation flights" from China and Southeast Asia. ...

[Y]acht rentals for the Mediterranean and the Bahamas are booming. "It totally makes sense," Jennifer Saia, president of a yacht charter company in Rhode Island told the New York Times. "You're keeping your family contained in a very small, should-be-clean environment. And going from your car to your F.B.O." — meaning fixed base operator, or private jet terminal — "to your private jet right onto the tarmac. And from there, right onto your yacht, and not having to deal with the public."

To the rich, perhaps it does make complete sense that the first concern in the face of coronavirus fears would be that their vacation or scheduled jousting tournament proceed uninterrupted by other people's deaths. And if history is any indication, it probably won't be too long before they begin hiring others to remain behind and risk exposure while protecting their stuff. In the plague years of 1593 and 1603, parish records from London show that the majority of adults who died of bubonic plague were servants. In Ben Jonson's 1610 play The Alchemist, a wealthy gentleman leaving his London home behind to wait out the plague in the country instructs the servant left behind to mind the house to "breathe less and farther off."

Historically speaking, it's not surprising that rich people are already fleeing potentially contaminated breath in cities on yachts and private jets, falsely believing expensive face masks will veil them from exposure while the regular people are left behind fighting in a Walgreen's aisle for the last bottle of hand sanitizer. It's simply interesting to note how quickly we revert to our feudal roles the moment aristocracy gets scared.
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Pence Promised 8,000,000 Coronavirus Tests Would Be Done This Week. The CDC Did 77 (And None On Wednesday)

Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch, March 13, 2020:
Pence promised 8 million tests by the end of the week ... The CDC tested only 77 people this week for coronavirus. ...

On Weds night Sanjay Gupta asked CNN's Don Lemon to read the CDC's coronavirus testing stats off of his phone. ZERO tests conducted today by CDC.

A grand total of 8 tests conducted by other public health agencies across the country. EIGHT. ...

South Korea, where the virus appeared about the same time it did in US, is testing 10,000 a day and has been for nearly a month. ...

Trump rejected testing for coronavirus back in January because he thought it would harm his reelection chances.
Former NPR reporter Andy Carvin (1st of 24 tweets describing the horror show in the US (including getting an erroneous "all-clear" from an ER nurse who "confused my covid19 test with a generic coronavirus test"):
Last Thursday I was admitted to the ER w/ #coronavirus symptoms, including chronic cough, shortness of breath & lung pain. I was given a #COVID19 test and told I’d have the results within 48 hrs. Nearly a week later, I still don’t have the results.
Washington post reporter Danielle Paquette:
As Americans speak of long waits, Senegal is testing people & getting results within 4 hours.
But but but ... single payer insurance will result in long waits for coverage.

Other Headlines:
"No, I Don't Take Responsibility At All," Says Trump, About Coronavirus Testing Lag

Cruelty "Off The Charts" As Trump Blocks States From Expanding Medicaid In Response To Coronavirus

Trump Now Blaming Americans For Not Getting Coronavirus Tests That Don't Exist

"Unconscionable": Amid Coronavirus Crisis, Trump Moves To Take Food Stamps From Over A Million People

"Grotesque Level Of Greed": Owned By World's Richest Man Jeff Bezos, Whole Foods Wants Workers To Pay For Colleagues' Sick Leave During Coronavirus Pandemic

Insurance Industry Corrects Trump: Actually, We're Only Waiving Copays For Coronavirus Testing, Not Treatment

GOP Delays Coronavirus Bill In Part Over Complaints That It Doesn't Bar Federal Funds For Abortion
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Trump Declares A National Emergency ("Two Very Big Words"), Still Plans To Spend Weekend Golfing



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Thursday, March 12, 2020

Trump's Only Goal: Protecting His Squalid Vanity By Blaming Everyone Else For His Incompetence

There Is A Tweet For Everything, Part 137,052:


David Frum, The Atlantic, March 11, 2020:
The Worst Outcome

At every turn, President Trump's policy regarding coronavirus has unfolded as if guided by one rule: How can I make this crisis worse?

Presidents are not all-powerful, especially not in the case of pandemic disease. There are limits to what they can do, for good or ill. But within those limits, at every juncture, Trump's actions have ensured the worst possible outcomes. The worst outcome for public health. The worst outcome for the American economy. The worst outcome for American global leadership.

Trump's Oval Office speech of March 11 was the worst action yet in a string of bad actions.

Here are the things the president did not do in that speech.

He offered no guidance or policy on how to prevent the spread of the disease inside the United States. Should your town cancel its St. Patrick's Day parade? What about theatrical productions and sporting events? Classes at schools and colleges? Nothing.

He offered no explanation of what went wrong with the U.S. testing system, nor any assurance of when testing would become more widely available. His own previous promises of testing for anyone who needs it have been exploded as false. So what is true? Nothing.

Layoffs are coming, probably on a very large scale, as travel collapses and people hunker down at home. Any word for those about to lose their jobs? Only the vaguest indication that something might be announced sometime soon.

It's good to hear that there will be no co-pays on the tests nobody seems able to get. What about other health-care coverage? Any word on that? Nothing.

The financial markets have plunged into a 2008-style crash, auguring a recession, perhaps a severe one. The Trump administration has had almost two months to think about this crisis. It has trial-ballooned some ideas. But, of course, fiscal policy would require assent from the House of Representatives. Trump is still pouting at Speaker Nancy Pelosi. So—aside from some preposterously unconvincing happy talk about the economy—again: nothing.

There was one something in the speech: a ban on travel from Europe, but not the United Kingdom. It's a classic Trump formulation. It seeks to protect America by erecting a wall against the world, without thinking very hard how or whether the wall can work. The disease is already here. The numbers only look low because of our prior failure to provide adequate testing. They will not look low even four days from now. And those infected with the virus can travel from other countries and on other routes. Trump himself has already met some.

The travel ban is an act of panic. Financial futures began crashing even as Trump was talking, perhaps shocked by his lack of an economic plan, perhaps aghast at his latest attack on world trade. ... Among other things, the ban represents one more refutation by Trump of any idea of collective security against collective threats. While China offers medical assistance to Italy, he wants to sever ties to former friends—isolating America and abandoning the world.

This crisis is not of Trump's making. What he is responsible for is his failure to respond promptly, and then his perverse and counterproductive choice of how to respond when action could be avoided no longer. Trump, in his speech, pleaded for an end to finger-pointing. It's a strange thing for this president of all presidents to say. No American president, and precious few American politicians, have ever pointed so many fingers or hurled so much abuse as Donald Trump. What he means, of course, is: Don't hold me to account for the things I did.

But he did do them, and he owns responsibility for those things. He cannot escape it, and he will not escape it.

More people will get sick because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. More people will suffer the financial hardship of sickness because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. The medical crisis will arrive faster and last longer than if somebody else were in charge. So, too, the economic crisis. More people will lose their jobs than if somebody else were in charge. More businesses will be pushed into bankruptcy than if somebody else were in charge. More savers will lose more savings than if somebody else were in charge. The damage to America's global leadership will be greater than if somebody else were in charge.

There is always something malign in Trump's incompetence. He has no care or concern for others; he cannot absorb the trouble and suffering of others as real. He monotones his way through words of love and compassion, but those words plainly have no content or meaning for him. The only thing that is real is his squalid vanity. This virus threatens to pierce that vanity, so he denied it as long as he could. What he refuses to acknowledge cannot be real, can it?

And even now that he has acknowledged the crisis, he still cannot act, because he does not know what to do. His only goal now is to shove blame onto others. Americans have to face the fact that in the grip of this pandemic, the Oval Office is for all practical purposes as empty as the glazed eyes of the man who spoke from that office tonight.

Fun fact about that selective travel ban:
Trump's new European travel restrictions have a convenient side effect: They exempt nations where three Trump-owned golf resorts are located.
Trump was asked why the UK is exempt from the ban:
It's got the border. It's got very strong borders. And they're doing a very good job. They don't have much infection at this point.
Actually, the UK has among the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in region - and its Health Minister has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Turning to Fox News Trump TV:
The president's gotten the country healthy, healthy enough of course to withstand this, and even to lead the way in overcoming it.
CNN: "Trump has littered his public remarks on the life-and-death subject with false, misleading and dubious claims. And he has been joined, on occasion, by senior members of his administration. We've counted 28 different ways the President and his team have been inaccurate."
February 10: Trump says without evidence that the coronavirus "dies with the hotter weather"
Facts First: Experts were not saying this. They were saying, rather, that it was too soon to know how the coronavirus would respond to changing weather. ...

February 24: Trump baselessly claims the situation is "under control"
Facts First: [B]y any reasonable definition, the coronavirus was not under control in the US -- and there was no way for the government to fully understand how dire the problem was given how few Americans were being tested. There were 53 confirmed cases and no deaths on the day of Trump's tweet; as of March 11, there were more than 1,000 cases and 31 deaths.

February 25 (and March 6 and 7): A senior White House official falsely claims the virus has been "contained"
Facts First: Experts said the US has not come close to containing the coronavirus. They also said the small number of tests conducted in the United States had prevented the government from getting an accurate picture of how widespread the virus truly is. "In the US it is the opposite of contained," said Harvard University epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch, director of Harvard's Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. "It is spreading so efficiently in so many places that it may be difficult to stop."

February 25-26: Trump falsely claims Ebola mortality was "a virtual 100%"
Facts First: While the Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016 certainly had a much higher death rate than the coronavirus, the Ebola rate was never "virtually 100%"; for the entire epidemic, it was about 40% overall in the three African countries at the center of the situation. It was higher in the early stages of the outbreak, but it was never true that every infected person "disintegrated." ... As of mid-September 2014, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers reported that there was an estimated fatality rate of 70.8%. ... Julie Fischer, associate research professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University and director of the Elizabeth R. Griffin Program: "It was never 100%. That is just patently untrue."

February 25: Trump falsely claims "nobody had ever even heard of Ebola" in 2014
Facts First: Ebola was discovered in 1976. It had been the subject of considerable media coverage in the next three decades, not to mention scientific study.

February 26: Trump wrongly says the coronavirus "is a flu"
Facts First: [E]xperts have emphasized that the coronavirus is, simply, not the flu. They are different viruses with different characteristics, though they share symptoms, and the coronavirus has a higher mortality rate. ... [T]he coronavirus "causes more severe disease than seasonal influenza". ... [T]he behavior of the flu over the course of a year is pretty well-understood, while the behavior of the coronavirus over time is not yet known. And while there are flu vaccines available, there is no vaccine available for the coronavirus (and no proven treatment).

February 26: Trump baselessly predicts the number of US cases is "going very substantially down" to "close to zero"
Facts First: Clearly, the number of US cases and deaths was going up, not down. ... Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said at the same press conference that they expected "more cases." There were 60 total cases in the US on the day Trump spoke here.

February 26: Trump wrongly says the flu death rate is "much higher" than Dr. Sanjay Gupta said
Facts First: Gupta was right, Trump was wrong. Even if Trump meant that the flu has a "much higher" fatality rate than 0.1% -- rather than meaning that the flu's mortality rate is "much higher" than that of the novel coronavirus -- he was wrong, according to Fauci, other experts and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

February 27: Trump baselessly hints at a "miracle"
Facts First: There was no apparent basis for Trump's claim that the virus will miraculously "disappear." (He did immediately soften the claim by saying "nobody really knows," but still.)

February 28: Trump baselessly hints at an immigration link to the virus
Facts First: Prominent Democrats do not support "open borders," literally unrestricted migration. Aside from that, though, there was no evidence from the coronavirus situation that Democrats' preferred immigration policies would be harmful to Americans' health. There was no known US case in which someone brought the virus to the US while immigrating or making an asylum claim.

February 29: Trump exaggerates Tim Cook's comments about Apple and China
Facts First: Trump was overstating what Cook told Fox Business. Cook had not said Apple's production in China was "back to normal" or that plants in China were in "full operation." Rather, he said that plants in China were "getting back to normal."

March 1: Azar wrongly says 3,600 people have been tested
Facts First: Politico reported: "Two days later, CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat told the Senate health committee that her agency had tested more than 3,000 specimens taken from roughly 500 people — a fraction of what Azar claimed."

March 2: Trump falsely claims "nobody knew" the number of US flu deaths
Facts First: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes annual estimates on its website. The CDC estimates that between 12,000 and 61,000 people have died in the US in each flu season between 2010-2011 and 2018-2019; its preliminary figure for 2018-2019 is 34,157 deaths.

March 2: Trump says a vaccine is coming "relatively soon"
Facts First: Trump did not mention that Fauci had told him earlier that day that a vaccine was "a year to a year and a half" away.

March 4: Trump falsely claims Obama impeded testing
Facts First: There is no Obama-era decision or rule that impeded coronavirus testing. The Obama administration did put forward a draft proposal related to lab testing, but it was never implemented.

March 4: Trump wrongly says as many as 100,000 people died of the flu in 1990
Facts First: While the 1989-1990 flu season was considered bad at the time -- the CDC declared that it was an epidemic -- Trump greatly overstated the number of deaths. A CDC analysis in 2010 estimated that there were 26,582 deaths from the seasonal flu in 1989-1990.

March 4: Trump says "the borders are automatically shut down"
Facts First: Trump did not explain what he meant by "the borders are automatically shut down." Trump's travel restrictions on China do not constitute a complete border closure even on China in particular.
Trump's China policy prohibits entry into the US by non-Americans who have been in China within 14 days -- but it makes exceptions for immediate family members of American citizens and permanent residents. And American citizens themselves are free to go back and forth.

March 4: Trump says he believes there was a coronavirus death in New York, though there hadn't been one
Facts First: There had not been any New York deaths attributed to the coronavirus at the time. (There still had not been any as of the morning of March 11, seven days later.)

March 4: Trump falsely claims the Obama administration "didn't do anything" about H1N1
Facts First: On April 26, 2009, less than two weeks after the first US cases of H1N1 were confirmed, the Obama administration declared a public health emergency. Two days later, the Obama administration made an initial $1.5 billion funding request to Congress. (Congress ultimately allocated $7.7 billion). In October 2009, Obama declared a national emergency to allow hospitals more flexibility for a possible flood of H1N1 patients.

March 5: Trump misleadingly describes a Gallup poll
Facts First: The Gallup poll was positive for Trump ... But it was not a poll about how the administration had handled the situation: the poll asked about confidence in the federal government's future acts, not about its actual work to date.

March 5: Trump wrongly claims the virus only hit the US "three weeks ago"
Facts First: The US had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus on January 21, more than six weeks before Trump spoke here.

March 6: Azar wrongly claims there is no test shortage
Facts First: Vice President Mike Pence had said the day prior: "We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward." Doctors, health authorities and elected officials in various locations around the country indeed said they did not have enough tests.

March 6: As the number of cases and deaths in Italy rises, Trump says the number is "getting much better"
Facts First: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in Italy was continuing to increase at the time Trump made this comment. As of Saturday, March 7, the day after Trump spoke here, Italy had 5,883 confirmed cases and 233 deaths; as of Monday, March 9, there were 9,172 cases and 463 deaths. (The Italian government announced a national lockdown on Monday.)

March 6: Trump falsely claims anybody can get tested if they want
Facts First: That wasn't true. There were an insufficient number of tests available, as Pence said the day prior, and Americans could not get tested simply because they wanted to get tested. "You may not get a test unless a doctor or public health official prescribes a test," Azar said the day after Trump's remark.

March 6: Trump exaggerates the number of people on the Grand Princess cruise ship
Facts First: Trump was overstating the numbers. There were 3,533 people aboard the Grand Princess: 2,422 guests and 1,111 crew members.

March 6: Trump falsely says US coronavirus numbers "are lower than just about anybody"
Facts First: Trump was exaggerating. The US did have fewer confirmed coronavirus cases than some countries, including China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France and Germany. But it had more confirmed cases than big-population countries like India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia and Nigeria, plus neighbors Mexico and Canada, plus many other high-income countries. In addition, the number of confirmed cases is dependent on how many people are tested. The US was conducting fewer tests than some countries with much smaller populations.

March 6: Trump baselessly muses that "maybe" the coronavirus improved US jobs numbers
Facts First: We can't definitively call this false, but there's no evidence to back it up.

March 9: Pence says Trump's "priority" was getting Americans off the ship
Facts First: Trump said three days prior to this Pence claim that he wanted passengers to stay on the ship so that "the numbers" of US coronavirus cases would stay low.



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Monday, March 09, 2020

Trump Wants To Keep The Official Number of COVID-19 Victims Low So He Looks Better

Digby, on Trump's visit to the CDC last Friday:
It will stand as one of the most astonishing appearances by this or any other president — and that's saying something. ... He said that everyone who wants to be tested for this virus can get tested, which is not even close to true. He called Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, who is on the front lines dealing with this epidemic, a "snake."

He made it clear that he wants to cook the numbers so it doesn't look as if the nation is in the midst of an epidemic. This has been obvious from the outset, but for the president to come out and say it is something else again.
"I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault."

As Wired's science reporter Adam Rogers wrote:
[I]t very much sounded like the president didn't want to bring sick people to safety and medical care because doing so might make him look bad. ... [H]e doesn't want the numbers of sick people to reflect the actual numbers of sick people—a statistic that would help researchers understand the spread of the disease.
Rogers admitted that Trump's comments "were terrifying". The press conference "was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and — most importantly— misinformation about the virus and the US response".

Trump also talked about how smart he is and how everyone is impressed by his intelligence (he also bragged about the ratings for his Fox News Town Hall meeting):
You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, "How do you know so much about this?" Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President.
Maybe...

Dan Froomkin, Salon/Press Watch:
A compelling and coherent narrative is finally emerging to explain the Trump administration's flailing response to the coronavirus crisis.

It's consistent with what we know about President Trump's pathological need for admiration, and with what we know about the culture of sycophancy and fear he has created among the people who answer to him. ...

In short: Trump bet on containment rather than mobilization. It was a bad bet. But in Trump's mind, it was a "tremendous success." As a result, top health officials fearful of his wrath assured him it was working, rather than preparing for its inevitable failure. Now Trump is fully invested in making coronavirus appear to disappear, even as it continues to spread. ...
On March 6, New York Times op-ed writer Michelle Goldberg stated:
[I]t seems as if in the midst of this burgeoning crisis, we're seeing a coordinated, whole-of-government campaign to protect the president from being contradicted.
On February 26, Trump offered his fantastical and incoherent narrative:
We have, through some very good early decisions — decisions that were actually ridiculed at the beginning — we closed up our borders to flights coming in from certain areas, areas that were hit by the coronavirus and hit pretty hard. And we did it very early. A lot of people thought we shouldn't have done it that early, and we did, and it turned out to be a very good thing.… Because of all we've done, the risk to the American people remains very low.…

We're going to spend whatever is appropriate. Hopefully, we're not going to have to spend so much because we really think we've done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum. And again, we've had tremendous success — tremendous success — beyond what people would have thought…. And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.
Eight days later — with 500+ additional cases and at least 21 deaths (so much for "close to zero") — later, Trump repeatedly told the press that his performance was being widely praised (the "highest poll numbers of anybody"). In fact, he said it six times in three minutes:
Well, actually, we were giving — I think really given tremendous marks — if you look at Gallup poll, you look at other polls — for the way we've handled it.…

[W]e've been given rave reviews….

So we were really given tremendous marks…

Again, we've gotten the highest poll numbers of anybody for this kind of a thing. …

We've been given A-pluses for that….

Well, I think people are viewing us as having done a very good job.
As Froomkin notes, "the opportunity to brag about external validation ... is what matters to him more than anything".

Eric Boehlert, Press Run:
The New York Times covered the stunning event as a straight ahead news story, feverishly whitewashing all traces of the Trump madness and presenting the CDC visit as somehow being normal. "'It Will End': Trump Urges Nation to Avoid Panicking" read the absurd Times headline.

Readers were left absolutely clueless about Trump's actual unhinged performance:
President Trump sought to play down the coronavirus outbreak on Friday and offered a vote of confidence to besieged federal health officials as infections spread further, markets tumbled again and the authorities scrambled to accelerate the availability of testing kits across the country.
Imagine witnessing what Trump did at the CDC and coming up with that news lede.
The Associated Press noted there was a "disconnect" between Trump's "breezy" style and the actual truth about the virus, but it did not report Trump was lying. National Public Radio also described Trump's approach as "breezy" (which is certainly odd) and stated that his reliance on his "gut" for information was "colliding with a public health emergency". Politico's headline blamed Trump's "haphazard" management style.

Meanwhile, Trump appeared on Fox, spewing his own unhinged and unsupported opinions and dismissing the facts reported by various scientists.

Boehlert:
[I]n terms of the Trump coronavirus coverage, the press has utterly failed in telling the truth. And that stems from the press' three-year commitment to normalize Trump. By refusing to call him a liar, refusing to call him a radical, refusing to question his inability to communicate in a coherent, cogent way for days on end, the press has shied away fromm truth-telling in favor of normalcy. And now, as the country teeters on the precipice of a truly dangerous chapter in our history, the consequences of that normalization campaign are exploding into full view.
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Wednesday, March 04, 2020

Democratic Adviser: "The Public Doesn't Really Decide The Nominee. The Party Decides Its Nominee."

And this is the elites' candidate.



Any reasonably humane person would be ashamed of Biden's voting record. Check out #IDoNotLikeJoeBiden.

Last June, Biden told a group of "100 of the New York financial elite" that he was not their enemy and his tax plan would not punish them. if he was elected: "No one's standard of living will change. Nothing would fundamentally change."

If Trump is fortunate enough to face Biden this fall, he will win in a landslide.
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The White House Issues A Press Release Consisting Solely Of Pro-Trump Tweets

Benjamin Fearnow, Newsweek, March 3, 2020:
White House Releases List of 'Top Tweets' Praising Trump's Coronavirus Response

The White House drew baffled responses from health officials, doctors and critics of President Donald Trump alike on Monday after releasing a list of tweets offering gushing praise of the administration's response to the coronavirus. ...

Despite the positive posts from White House and Republican Party social media accounts, U.S. health officials say more than 100 cases have been confirmed across the country as of Monday night. ... [S]ix deaths have been attributed to the coronavirus illness in the past week. ...

Nevertheless, the White House account has repeatedly retweeted statements from Pence, the president and other Republicans with the highest of praise.


Interestingly, that press release is not on the White House website.
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Monday, March 02, 2020

Coronavirus May Have Spread Undetected For Weeks; Five Dead In US; Trump Gives His Longest Speech Ever, Telling CPAC Audience How Amazing He Is

The coronavirus may have been spreading undetected in the United States for several weeks (while the government was busy ignoring the threat).
If the virus has been spreading undetected in Washington since mid-January, that could mean that anywhere from 150 to 1,500 people may have it, with about 300 to 500 people the most likely range, said Dr. Mike Famulare, a principal research scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling in Bellevue, Wa., who performed the analysis. These people "have either been infected and recovered, or currently are infected now," he said. ...

Heather Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Snohomish Health District, said in a statement that the district was aware of the preliminary findings suggesting that coronavirus had been spreading for close to six weeks.
The US government's response has been slow because Donald Trump fired the country's pandemic response team in 2018 and cut the CDC's budget and its ability to fight pandemics. He also rejected testing kits offered by the World Health Organization and instead sent faulty kits to various states. (Pence lied when asked about the delay in sending kits and claimed "airport screening" is the same as actual testing. And he lied about his actions in stopping an HIV outbreak in Indiana. Pence claims he's an expert on public health crises. Digby: "So, not only is the man who is running the country a pathological liar and an imbecile, the man to whom he has assigned the crisis is also a pathological liar and a faith-based non-believer in science.")

The total number of new cases in the US increased by two dozen over the weekend. There are 90 known cases in thirteen states. Five people in the US have died. The Florida Department of Health waited 24 hours after learning of two positive cases before informing the public; the state has now declared a health emergency.

Does that mean Doctor Trump was wrong when he assured everyone a few days ago that the number of people in the US with the virus would be zero?

Richard Engel, NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent conducted an hour-long interview with Dr. Fauci, US director of infectious diseases. Fauci says the virus has "now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions". (I thought Pence was muzzling him? "I tell it like it is. I've been doing that for 36 years and I will continue to tell it like it is.") But Fauci also believes the Trump administration has the political will to meet this challenge and there is no reason to panic. Interview airing tonight.

Osmel Martinez Azcue returned to Florida from China and felt sick. He did the responsible thing and sought medical attention. He turned out not to have the coronavirus, but he was billed $3,270 for the test. In France, a test costs 1 Euro or US$1.12.

At the same time, Trump is currently trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act and his budget would cut $1,000,000,000,000 from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act over the next ten years. (Trump lied (naturally) in 2015 when he said: "I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.")

New York State is bypassing the CDC and doing its own tests. Dr. Matt McCarthy (NY Presbyterian Hospital): "We are not testing at full capacity and that is a national scandal."

Good fucking lord. This entire thing is an utter train wreck, as Trump admits he's "totally off-script". (You can read it, too.)


Trump's approval rating at Rasmussen has dropped from 52% to 46% in the last week. So he's got to pump up his ego immediately by holding another campaign rally in which he can ramble incoherently and be cheered for it.

CNN: "Coronavirus Crisis Underlines Eight Of Trump's Failings As A Leader":
First, Trump doesn't do any homework. ... Related to Trump's first failing is his second: He always believes he knows more than the experts about any given subject. ...

Third, Trump trusts his own gut. ... Fourth, Trump has increasingly surrounded himself with a team of acolytes who will not challenge him. ... Fifth, it's hard for the public to believe a President who has made more than 16,000 false or misleading claims in his first three years in office ...

Sixth, Trump always blames the messenger for news he doesn't like ... Seventh, Trump is the reverse of President Harry Truman. The buck never stops at Trump's desk. If things are going well, he is always ready to take credit ... If things go poorly it's always someone else fault. ...

Eighth, Trump almost always plays the divider-in-chief ... Now is surely not the time for Trump and his top cabinet officials ... to claim that the coronavirus is being hyped by crazed Democrats. This is arguably the most serious health crisis that the world has faced in many years and to pass it off as a partisan issue is crass at best. ...


Apparently not.

Eric Boehlert (Press Run) quotes Trump's comments ("complete gibberish by any working definition") from last Friday (adding: "keep in mind, this came after he was briefed by officials):
A lot of people are getting better. Very much better. The 15 number...The 15 people, likewise, we have them down to a much lower number. They're in good shape. Most of them are in really good shape. One of the people is — I wouldn't say "not doing well," but it's very — she's very sick. But she's hopefully getting better. But we're at the same number. We've only — so, it — essentially, we've only had 15.
Boehlert writes:
I often wonder why, among the throngs of reporters who surround Trump to record his quotes and ostensibly to ask him questions, not one has ever snapped after listening to the relentless lies, and blurted out something like, "What f**k are you talking about?!" Let’s be honest, that would be the normal, human response after absorbing Trump's confused answers to a very important coronavirus questions. ...

Hiding behind the need to be "neutral," and content to cling to access while simultaneously afraid of getting banned from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. by an administration that advertises its authoritarian ways, reporters have settled into a numbing routine of not seriously questioning Trump to his face ...

Remember, this is an anti-press White House that pulled off the impossible — it canceled daily press briefings, a Beltway move that was unthinkable just four years ago. But not only did this White House pull the plug, it received virtually no pushback from news organizations. ...

White House reporters now scurry around trying to toss questions to Trump, often while he's leaving for the helicopter. There, as the nearby blades whirl, journalists shout out topics for Trump to talk about. ... Trump can simply ignore questions he doesn't want to answer. And no matter how inane or absurd his responses, reporters simply nod ...
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Friday, February 28, 2020

Trump Mentioned Staying In Office Beyond The Constitutional Limit Of Two Terms A Whopping 22 Times Last Year. (But, Don't Worry, He Was Only Joking Each Time.)

Richard L. Hasen, Slate, February 4, 2020:
During the 2016 election, Trump playfully suggested he would not accept the results of the election if he was on the losing end. As I recount in my book Election Meltdown, Trump refused to promise to abide by the results if he lost to Hillary Clinton, relying on his claim of a rigged or stolen election.
October 19, 2016 (Presidential Debate, Las Vegas, Nevada): Trump "refused to say he would accept the result of the presidential election if he loses ... raising the possibility of an extraordinary departure from principles that have underpinned American democracy for more than two centuries. "I will look at it at the time. What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense." Trump also claims the media and the Democratic Party are in a vast conspiracy and have "rigged" the election against him. (CNN)

October 20, 2016 (Rally in Delaware, Ohio): "Ladies and gentlemen, I want to make a major announcement today. I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters, and to all the people of the United States, that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election – if I win." [After a dramatic pause before "if I win", Trump pointed to the crowd and offered a big smile, making sure everyone got the punchline.]

March 3, 2018 (Private speech to Republican donors at Mar-a-Lago): "He's [China's President Xi Jinping] now president for life. President for life. No, he's great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day."

April 5, 2018 (White House speech): "We've cut more regulations in a year and a quarter than any administration, whether it's four years, eight years or, in one case, 16 years. Should we go back to 16 years? Congressman, can we have that extended? The last time I jokingly said that, the papers started saying 'he's got despotic tendencies!' No, I'm not looking to do it, unless you want to do it."

May 10, 2018 (Rally in Elkhart, Indiana): "The new embassy – I said 'When is it going to be open?' They said, 'Anywhere from 5 to 10 years.' So I said 'Unless they give me an extension for the presidency,' which I don't think the fake news media would be too happy about. Well, hey. Wait, wait, wait, wait, actually, they would be happy, because when I'm not here, their ratings are going to sink. So they'll probably be very happy." [Video: 67:29-68:15]

April 18, 2019 (Wounded Warrior Project Event, White House): "Well, this is really beautiful. This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office. Is that okay? . . . I was going to joke, 'General, and say at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we'll say six.'"

May 4, 2019 (Retweet of Jerry Falwell Jr.'s tweet): "I now support reparations – Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup"

May 8, 2019 (Rally in Panama City Beach, Florida): "In 6 years, they'll all be out of business . . . Now if we want to drive them crazy, I'll say in 10 years, they'll go crazy. 'See, he's a despot! He's a despot!' Well, 10 or 14, let's see, whatever we like. Watch, it will be headlines tomorrow. 'Donald Trump wants to break Constitution.'"

May 20, 2019 (Rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania): "I never want to be called a loser. Remember this, we all together – we, I, we – ran one time and we're 1-0, but it was for the big one. Now we're going to have a second time and we're gonna have another one. And then we'll drive them crazy. Ready? And maybe if we really like it a lot and if things keep going like they're going, we'll go and we'll do what we have to do – we'll do a three and a four and a five. Watch, they'll have tomorrow 'We knew he'd –' No, I don't want to say." [Video: 22:15-23:01]

June 16, 2019 (Twitter): Trump suggested supporters might not want him to leave office after two terms: "The good . . . news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (Do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP AMERICA GREAT), both of these horrible papers will quickly go out of business & be forever gone!"

June 21, 2019 (Twitter): Trump pins a tweet of a Time Magazine cover video that refers to him staying in office "4eva".

June 23, 2019 (Interview, Meet the Press (NBC)):
Chuck Todd: You have joked about a third term. You've joked about these things.
Trump: I only joke.
Todd: Okay.
Trump: I joke. And I say, "Watch, I will drive Chuck Todd crazy."
Todd: You will, you will accept the re – Okay. You will –
Trump: Yes, there won't be a third term.
Todd: You will accept the results?
Trump: 100%. Sure.
Todd: And you will accept whatever happens in 2020?
Trump: Sure.
Todd: You lose, you'll be like – you're not going to like it, but you walk out.
Trump: In fact, I said at a speech recently, I said, "Watch. We'll drive the media crazy. Let's go for a third time and then a fourth." And some of the media said, "He's going to do it."

June 24, 2019 (Interview, The Hill): "Well, we have to go through the six years or whatever it may be when – when you know, would I like to get a ride out of some of your compatriots, say, go through the six, 10, 14, maybe 18 years, whatever it may be." [When asked if he is joking, Trump replied: "Of course. But it drives them crazy."]

July 11, 2019 (Twitter): "The Fake News is not as important, or as powerful, as Social Media. They have lost tremendous credibility since that day in November, 2016, that I came down the escalator with the person who was to become your future First Lady. When I ultimately leave office in six ... years, or maybe 10 or 14 (just kidding), they will quickly go out of business for lack of credibility, or approval, from the public. That's why they will all be Endorsing me at some point, one way or the other. Could you imagine having Sleepy Joe Biden, or Alfred E. Newman..."

July 17, 2019 (Rally in Greenville, North Carolina): "I saw one of these so-called comedians the other day [Bill Maher]. I mean he's, you know, a pretty respected comedian. He said 'He's not leaving. I'm telling you, he's not leaving. He'll never leave. He'll win this election and in '24, I'm telling you, he's not leaving. He's going to stay.' So we did, through our friend Dan Scavino, we did a Time Magazine cover. I was on so many Times I don't even read this thing. And it says 'Trump 2014', 2018, right? But it says 20 – here's where we go. We start at 16, we go to 20, we go to 24. Did you see it? Then it says 28, 32, 36, 40, 44. No, we don't need any more time. We don't need any more time. We need one more." [Video: 81:10-82:10]

August 13, 2019 (Speech at Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex, Potter Township, Pennsylvania): "Can you imagine if I got a fair press? I mean, we're leading without it. Can you imagine if these people treated me fairly? The election would be over. Have they ever called off an election before? Just said 'look, just let's go, go on, four more years.' Yeah. And then do you want to really drive them crazy? Go do: #thirdterm. #fourthterm. You'll drive them totally crazy. I mean you have one guy on television [Maher, again] – 'I'm telling you he's not leaving. He's going to win and then he's not leaving. So in 2024 he won't leave. I'm telling you –' This is a serious person. These people have gone stone cold crazy." [Video: 17:41-18:24]

August 30, 2019 (Twitter): "The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated. Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?"

September 9, 2019 (Press Conference, White House): "Gianni, we're going to have to extend my second term because 2026 – I'm going to have to extend it for a couple of years. I don't think any of you [White House press corps] would have a problem with that."

September 9, 2019 (Rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina): [Trump takes sole credit for bringing the 2026 World Cup to the US, then "jokes" about serving a third term so he can still be president for it.]
"2026. And I said, Well, wait a minute. Under the normal rules, I'll be out in 2024. So we may have to go for an extra term. Oh, they're going crazy. They're going crazy. Tomorrow, you're going to see headlines, 'Trump wants an extra term! I told you! I told you! He wants an extra term, ladies and gentlemen. We told you! We told you! He's a dictator. We told you!' No, I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding." [Video: 93:15-94:09]

September 10, 2019: Tweets picture of "Trump 2024" sign.

October 10, 2019 (Rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota): "True. He said to me, I just told him call me . . . He said, 'President, I can't do it.' He said. So he says, 'President, you've been here now for, think of it, almost three years. Can you believe we're here three years?' We, we, it's we. And we have to promise them no more than 16 years. Okay? No more. No more. 16 more years. I'm only kidding. Now they'll go back. See, he wants to run for more. But he said, 'President, could I ask you a question? It's so important to me.' He's a great businessman, very successful. He said, 'You deal with all of these nations, these great, powerful . . . Who is the worst to deal with? Is it China? Is it North Korea? Is India? Is it Russia? Please tell me, Mr. Pres – who is the toughest nation to deal with?' I said, 'You're not going to believe this. It's the USA is the toughest nation to deal with.' The USA." [Video: 62:01-63:08]

October 17, 2019 (Rally in Dallas, Texas): "142 judges. Within two months, we will have, John and Ted and all of these great congressmen, we will have passed 182 federal judges. And then they say: 'Obama was . . . He's such a wonderful president.' How are you a wonderful president when the most important thing you can do, you handed over to the Republicans. 142. How is that good? I mean, how is that good? If I were a Democrat, I wouldn't be too happy about that number. And we'll have a record number of judges by the time our term is over in 16 years, maybe 20. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding because every time I do that, they say, 'See, he's assuming control.'" [Video: 78:10-79:21]

October 23, 2019 (Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania): "Wow, look at the great people. Thank you very much. Four more years. Why don't you drive them crazy? Go '16 more years.' You'll drive 'em nuts." [Video: 13:30-13:48]

October 25, 2019 (Criminal Justice Forum, Benedict College, Columbia, South Carolina): [Audience chanting "Four more years"] "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now don't say 16 more years 'cause you'll drive them crazy. They're afraid, they said, 'You know he's going to win.' They said – one of these characters said – 'You know he's going to win, don't you? You know he's going to win.' Well, no we're going to fight – 'He's going to win. And then he's never getting out. He'll be here for another four and then another four and then another – We're never going to get him.' So when we say four more years, sometimes say 16 more years. It drives them crazy. And we like doing that, don't we?" [Video: 53:42-54:35]

November 4, 2019 (Rally in Lexington, Kentucky): "Look at all of these people back there, look. . . . Fake news media. It's the fake news. Look at all of them. What they don't know is that when we hang it up in five years, or nine years, or 13 years, or maybe 17 years, or maybe – if I still have the strength – 21 years. See, now they're going crazy. Now they'll say 'See, I told you he was a dictator! He wants to take charge and control of our country!' These people are crazy. You have one nut job on television [Yep, it's Maher]. He's sitting down doing an interview recently and he looks at the person he's interviewing and he goes – like he's in total depression, total depression – and he goes – good fans up there, thank you – he goes 'you know he's going to win don't you, you know he's going to win' – like, like devastated – and the guy goes 'well, we're going to fight, we're going to –' 'No, no, he's going to win. You know he's never leaving office, don't you? He's never going to leave office.' These people are crazy, they're crazy." [Video: 14:15-16:05]

December 7, 2019 (Israeli American Council National Summit, Hollywood, Florida): "At some point, whether it's five years from now, nine years from now, 13 years from now – I'm doing this to drive the media crazy. [applause] Because a lot of them say, "You know he's not leaving, don't you?" One of these characters – these people are so stupid. One of them said – one of them said, "You know he's going to win, don't you? And you know, at the end of his second term, you know he's not leaving. He's not leaving. You know that." And I thought he's a comedian [Guess who?]. I thought he was kidding. He's for real. So now we have to start thinking about that, because it's not a bad idea. [applause] No, but these people are going crazy. When they all scream, "Four more years, four more years," I always say, "Make it 12 years and you'll drive them crazy." Twelve more years." [Crowd chants "Twelve more years!"]

December 10, 2019 (Rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania): "When you leave office, I hope in 5 years, 9 years, 13 years, 17 years, 21 years, 25 years, 29 years. When I leave office… Now I'm only doing that to drive them totally crazy. That drives them crazy. Even joking about it. We have this idiot comedian who stands up [He's obsessed with Maher], he's talking to a guest, right? He said, 'You know he's going to win, don't you? You know it.' The guy goes, 'No, no. We're going to fight. We're going to fight.' And they will. 'No, no, no. You know he's going to win.' Then he goes, 'You know he's going to win. And you know he's never leaving, don't you? He's never leaving.' At first I thought he was kidding. He's a whack job. He is totally serious. He honestly believes that. I don't know, should we give it a shot? Maybe we'll give it a shot. I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. Media, I'm only kidding. They won't write that, but that's okay. They won't write the 'I'm only kidding part.'" [Video: 74:03-75:16]

December 18, 2019 (Rally in Battle Creek, Michigan): "We have the greatest country. We've turned around the ship. We need four more years. If we don't have it. Now if you want to drive them crazy – we had one group in Pennsylvania, some guy started screaming '16 more years.' They went crazy. And you know what they don't understand? When I do get out, they're all going to go out of business. They're making more money than they've ever made." [Video: 90:10-90:40]
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Trump Offers Reassurance: "We're Ordering A Lot Of Different Elements Of Medical". A Few Hours Later, He Says The Virus Is A "Hoax".


Donald Trump called the coronavirus a "new hoax" on Friday night, the latest example of Democrats sabotaging his chances of re-election by pushing fake news.
This is their new hoax ... [their] single talking point ... Democrats will always say horrible things. Democrats want us to fail so badly. ... My administration has taken the most aggressive acts in history to prevent the spread in the United States.
That is a lie.

Trump fired the US pandemic response team in 2018 and never replaced them.

Trump has gutted the US's infectious disease defense infrastructure. In May 2018, after then-National Security Advisor John Bolton re-organized the National Security Council, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, the head of the global health security team, resigned, and his team was disbanded.

In addition to ignoring those vacancies, Trump also slashed funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, severely hampering efforts to assist countries (like China) prevent infectious-disease threats from becoming epidemics. (His current budget cuts the CDC's budget by 16%.)

Trump – who said his administration was "magnificently organized" and "totally prepared" to fight the virus [two more lies] – is now requesting $2.5 billion to battle the outbreak, which might not have been necessary if he hadn't taken those previous actions.

Trump, February 28:
There have been no deaths in the United States, at all. A lot of that's attributable to the fact that we closed the border very early. Otherwise, it could be a different story.
That is also a lie. The United States has not closed its borders because of the virus.

Trump said the press is in "hysteria mode", repeating there have been no deaths in the US. Other countries exist, however, and since the beginning of the year, more than 83,000 people have contracted the virus and at least 2,857 have died.

Trump:
We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.
Jebus (@the_real_Lord): "Can we order him some elements of brain."

Max Burbank (@max_burbank): "No one says a sentence like 'We're ordering a lot of different elements of medical' unless something is neurologically wrong with them."

Jumpsuits For Trumpsuits (@JumptyTrumpty): "Why would you order medical supplies for a 'hoax'?"
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You Are Wondering How Stupid People Can Be ... We May Have Reached The Bottom.

5W Public Relations stated that 38% of Americans wouldn't buy Corona "under any circumstances" because of the outbreak, and another 14% said they wouldn't order a Corona in public. The survey encompasses polling from 737 beer drinkers in the United States.

That's a small sample ... but 52% of those beer drinkers are (at the very least) suspicious. A majority!! ... Also, searches on Google last month for "corona beer virus" skyrocketed.

I'll bet some of those 14% are embarrassed to be seen ordering a Corona in public because it's a shitty beer. Anyway, that story had two good comments:


ActuallyARegular: "You know, Corona virus is fine, but it’s better with a slice of Lyme disease."

While the prevalence of those searches dropped in February, that 5W poll was announced today. (Also: Garth Brooks's shirt.)
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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Trump: "There's A Very Good Chance You're Not Going To Die" From The Coronavirus


Shannon Pettypiece, NBC News:
This week, federal health officials warned Americans to prepare for the coronavirus to become a pandemic, stocks tumbled on fears of just how widespread the virus could get, and the White House sought $2.5 billion from Congress to fight the deadly infection.

But in the telling of President Donald Trump, everything is fine.
Trump blamed the media and the Democrats (naturally) for "doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible" – misspelling the name of the virus – to hamper his re-election big. But he assured everyone: "USA in great shape!"

During a press conference, Trump assured the nation:
There's a very good chance you're not going to die.
Larry Kudlow, Trump's top economic adviser, told CNBC: "We have contained this. I won't say airtight, but pretty close to airtight."

Last Tuesday, Trump told reporters the virus was simply "a problem that's going to go away". Back on February 10, Trump stated the virus would be a memory by around Easter, because warmer weather will cause it to "miraculously" go away. (Today, Trump repeated that a "miracle" could occur stop the threat.)
The virus that we're talking about having to do, a lot of people think that goes away in April, with the heat, as the heat comes in, typically that will go away in April.
As Vanity Fair reported: "Unsurprisingly, he offered no scientific or medical explanation to support his theory."

At his press conference, after Trump said "we're very close to a vaccine", someone with actual knowledge of the matter stated a vaccine would not be available for at least a year.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases:
It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore, but a question of when this will happen ... [The public should] prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.
Trump was very annoyed that bad news about the virus caused the "markets" to lose money. That's his first priority and he's taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen again. He's tightening control over what information will be (or will not be) given to the public by having all official statements and public appearances go through Vice President Mike Pence first. It will be easier for Trump to muzzle scientists and other experts who want to present factual information, aka information that makes Trump look bad.

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC:
The president is telling the public things that are not true about the coronavirus, and specifically about how it is being handled in the United States, and this is a problem. The president again tonight says it's only 15 cases of coronavirus in the United States. It is not 15 cases. It is at least 60 cases of coronavirus in the United States, not 15. The president continues to insist that the number of cases is going to drop. It's going to go away, it's going to become near zero when even his own administration's health officials are saying we need to prepare for the fact that the number of cases in the United States is going to go up. The president is saying the number of cases is going to go to zero, it's going to drop away. It's not. It's going to go up. The president is not telling you the truth about that. The president has said that in the last two days that the coronavirus is less lethal, has a lower fatality rate than the common flu. That is quite dramatically, mathematically incorrect.
Donald Trump does not have the coronavirus, so he doesn't give a shit about it.

Pence might be the absolute worst person to put in charge of anything having to do with science. He proved that back in 2014-15 when he was governor of Indiana. During an HIV outbreak – when Scott County, a rural area which rarely saw even one HIV case a year, had 215 people test positive – Pence's solution was to "pray on it".

Now, with the coronavirus, it's everyone else who will be praying. Trump stated he also gave Pence the responsibility because the Vice President didn't "have anything to do".
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