Calling Dr Ronny

Viral Musings:  Trump continues to deny reality, hoping to convince the rest of us that the virus running amok in Florida, Arizona, Texas and other parts of the country isn’t the problem, it’s those lying Democrats, medical professionals and all that testing.  On the testing front, while shortages continue to plague the most hard hit states and the time between taking a test and getting results is lengthening almost everywhere, particularly problematic when the impatient go about their daily business instead of self-quarantining while awaiting results, Trump is still complaining that the problem is that we do too much testing.  His newest spin is that testing creates cases, you know like pregnancy tests cause childbirth.  In addition he’s again claiming that it’s Obama and Biden’s fault because they stopped the testing, a totally nonsensical lie. Notably one person who disagrees is former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney who penned a CNBC op-ed where he said "I know it isn't popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country. My son was tested recently; we had to wait 5 to 7 days for results. My daughter wanted to get tested before visiting her grandparents, but was told she didn't qualify. That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic." Trump didn’t respond to that but he did retweet a conspiracy laden assertion from former game show host/arch conservative/accused anti-Semite Chuck Woolery, who asserted “the most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying, the CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”  While endorsing Woolery, both he and his staff continued to attack Dr Fauci with Trump insisting that though he likes the guru, he’d be remiss if he didn’t point out that he’s not always right; Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany denying that the White House had shared opposition research about Fauci with the press saying instead that they’d only shared a lengthy document attacking him in response to a question from the Washington Post about what Fauci had “lied” about; and  White House aide Dan Scavino, who manages Trump’s twitter account, sharing a cartoon mocking Fauci, depicting him as a faucet of cowardly leaks. As to those lies, they’re not lies, Fauci has changed his recommendations to reflect the changing scientific understanding about how the virus works and is transmitted but since in Trump world adapting to reality is a crime, he’s obviously a liar, right?  Despite all the criticism Fauci doesn’t appear to be backing down.  He’s sticking with his assertion that countries in Europe and Asia have proven that the virus can be tamed when taken seriously, but by reopening too soon at a high plateau most parts of the US have failed to do so.  The Governors of California, Oregon and Texas have gotten the message, or at least part of the message, they’re backtracking, closing down bars, in-restaurant eating, gyms and the like.  On the school front, Trump’s still all in on seeing them completely reopened.  Nevertheless, yesterday the LA and San Diego school systems announced that they are going internet only this fall. NY’s Governor Cuomo said that regions in New York State are likely to be mostly following a hybrid approach, opening for some in-class teaching as long as the daily infection rates are below 5% over a 14-day average.  He added that "we're not going to use our children as guinea pigs."  He announced those criteria while once again slamming Trump for his failure to lead the country out of this crisis.   

The Political Divide:  The virus doesn’t know who’s red or blue but apparently attitudes about wearing masks and sending kids to school depend a lot on political orientation and life experience.  According to Axios, while two thirds of Americans say that they now wear a mask whenever they leave home, only 45% of Republicans say they do.  That number is up from 35% but still falls short of the 78% of Democrats who go the masking route.  Yesterday, one of those Republicans Texas Senator Ted Cruz was photographed without a mask on a mask mandatory American Airlines flight, explaining once again why former Senator Al Franken said that he is the most hated US Senator.  American Airlines is now “investigating” how that happened.  As to schools, while almost everyone wishes education could return to normal, seven in ten parents see it as risky for schools to reopen in the fall, including majorities across partisan lines, however there are significant differences in how risky Democrats and Republicans see it. 82% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans say returning to school would be very or moderately risky. Significantly 89% of Black parents see returning to school as a large or moderate risk, compared with 80% of Hispanic parents and 64% of white parents, not surprising given how much harder the virus has impacted their communities.

More Primaries:  While we’re still(!) waiting for results from some of New York’s June primaries, today is primary day in Texas, Alabama and Maine.  In Maine Democrat Sara Gideon is expected to win the race to face off against incumbent Republican/pearl clutcher Susan Collins.  In Alabama one time Attorney General/former Senator Jeff Sessions is up against former football coach Tommy Tuberville who has Trump’s endorsement mostly because he’s not Jeff Sessions.  They are vying to take on the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat, Senator Doug Jones who, while behind, is polling surprisingly close to both of them given that Alabama should be a shoe in for any Republican candidate who is not a child molester. In Texas Air Force veteran MJ Hegar is in a runoff against Dallas State Senator Royce West for the right to face-off against incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn, who will be difficult to beat but who is currently being dragged down a bit by a combination of the virus and Trump’s sagging polls.  Also running, for a House rather than a Senate seat, is former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, the guy that Trump put up for VA Secretary, the reward for saying that he was healthy, svelte and mentally sound. Of course, the not so good doctor has Trump’s endorsement.