Stupid Much

Daily Rally:  Trump continues to lie his way through his daily virus rallies in too many ways to detail.  Of most concern, he’s still asserting that more people have been tested here with “better” tests than anywhere else in the world.  Unfortunately, while lots of people have been tested and he’s been tested several times, on a per capita basis we’re still way behind.  Moreover many of the tests that have been taken haven’t been completed as they remain stuck in backlogged labs, some of which lack the reagents needed for the job.  Getting a more robust system of testing up and running rather than bragging about tests that aren’t being done or processed is key because, to state the obvious, Trumpian smoke and mirrors won’t get us out of this mess, but identifying “silent” spreaders, and people who uneventfully developed antibodies will help halt disease spread and get people back to work.  Yesterday, the dear leader continued to attack the press, getting particularly testy with one reporter who asked about a recently released report from the Health and Human Services Inspector General’s office.  That report, based on interviews with administrators from 324 hospitals and health systems between March 23 to March 27, revealed acute supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals responding to the coronavirus crisis. Instead of addressing the reporter’s question, Trump harangued her, pushing her to provide the name of the IG and details about when she was appointed.  The reporter didn’t comply but still it’s fair to assume that Trump now knows the IG’s name and that she, the appropriately named Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm, now has her a bigly target on her back.  Oddly enough Trump’s Acting Navy Secretary Modly may have a target on his back too.  He’s the guy who fired Navy Captain Brett Crozier for writing and then leaking a letter of alarm about the number of virus infected sailors on his air force carrier.  Modly is now taking heat from everyone, including Trump, for calling Crozier stupid in what was supposed to be a “rally around the flag” speech to the sailors on that carrier.  Apparently someone has gotten to Trump, telling him that, aside from that unfortunate letter, Captain Crozier’s been a brilliant naval officer.  Anyway, Modly who initially stood by his “stupid” statement has now backed off from it.  Unfortunately, Crozier is still COVID 19 positive and remains a captain in quarantine without a ship.

Herding Germs: Getting back to the rally/virus update, Trump revealed that he and Joe Biden had spoken, that the “short” call had been “friendly” and that Biden had offered up some suggestions about how to handle the virus mess, not that he was interested in any of them.  The comradery was short lived, by the end of the evening the two campaigns were back to attacking each other.  As to that virus mess, we’ve known for some time that Trump had been warned early on about the probability that the coronavirus would turn into a pandemic of mammoth proportions.  Now we know that the person who alerted him in two very detailed memos was none other than trade/economic advisor Peter Navarro who warned on January 29 and again on February 23 that the virus could take more than 500 million American’s lives and could cost up to $6 trillion.  Yesterday, a lot of people were making fun of Navarro’s assertion that he knew as much as virus guru Dr Fauci about drug therapies because he had a PhD in a social science.  Maybe it’s time to let that one go as it seems Navarro was actually spot on about the virus trajectory.  One person who probably wishes he’d listened to some experts like Navarro and/or Fauci is the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  The PM, who is now in intensive care receiving oxygen therapy of some sort, apparently believed that ignoring the virus and letting herd immunity run its “natural” course would be a good way to solve his country’s virus crisis. He’s now learned the hard way that that whole herd immunity thing doesn’t work well with novel, killer viruses.  Trump, who really likes PM Johnson, has offered to send all the drugs in his arsenal to help him out, he’s even offered to write the scripts.   

Et Cetera:  Despite the Democratic Governor of Wisconsin’s last minute efforts to postpone his state’s primary, it’s still on for today. Neither the Wisconsin Supreme Court nor the US Supreme would allow Governor Evers to postpone the election.  In what’s seen as highly partisan rulings, the conservative majority of both courts ruled that the Governor lacks the authority to push the election off without the consent of the state’s Republican legislature, they wouldn’t even allow him to extend the due date for absentee ballots.  Speaking for the Supreme Court’s minority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote “The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic. With the majority’s stay in place, that will not be possible. Either they will have to brave the polls, endangering their own and others’ safety. Or they will lose their right to vote, through no fault of their own.”  For the record, the court rulings please Republicans who  care little about the health and safety of voters and poll workers but fear that a wide turnout by Democrats would result in them losing a seat on the State’s Supreme court.   On the national election front, early this morning Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis endorsed Joe Biden for president saying “we need his leadership now more than ever before.”  As to Joe’s running mate selection Lewis added “It would be good to have a woman of color. It would be good to have a woman. It would be good to have a woman look like the rest of America -- smart, gifted, a fighter, a warrior. And we have plenty of able women, some of black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American. I think the time has long past of making the White House look like the whole of America."  Expect to hear more from Kamala, Amy and a host of other women over the next few weeks.  By the way, although more of his advisors have told him it’s time to get out, Bernie is still running.