One Million Dead – Republicans Still Call COVID A Hoax And Will Do Nothing To Prevent The Next Pandemic

The pandemic of COVID has been drastically reduced. The vaccinations and the safety measures have worked, at least to a point. It has been over a year since COVID has made the headlines. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve answers.

The Republican controlled House of Representatives have introduced many, many investigations. One of the newest is an investigation into where COVID came from. Well, we already know, and have since the beginning, that it came from China. What we don’t know for sure is whether it was something transmitted by bats or if it was inadvertently leaked from a research lab.

But in order to make sure that China carries the full blame for the pandemic, Republicans are going to hold investigations into the origins of the pandemic. They are going to make sure they can claim in 2024 that it was “all China’s fault”.

On the other hand, they won’t be investigating why over one million Americans died from the pandemic. They won’t be investigating just why it was claimed to be a hoax by the president at the time. They won’t be investigating why so many Republicans openly defied CDC recommendations trying to slow the spread of the disease.

They won’t be investigating the piss poor reaction and response from the president at the time either. They won’t be investigating how medical supply companies were allowed to price gouge hospitals and clinics. They won’t be asking why a mask that cost 80 cents before the pandemic suddenly went to almost $10 when it hit.

They won’t be investigating why there was no action to make companies produce more personal protection equipment for hospitals and all medical workers who were trying to save American’s lives until well into the pandemic.

They won’t be investigating why the president called the pandemic a hoax while he did nothing. They won’t be investigating why their members were fighting against safety precautions while their constituents suffered and died from the disease.

The pandemic that spread across our nation was one of the worst we have ever faced. During the Spanis Flu pandemic, we lost several thousand people. This pandemic caused over 1 million deaths. It placed our entire health care system at risk because hospitals were being overrun with patients suffering from it.

Yet, there are no plans to try to figure out how this was allowed to happen. There are no plans to hold government officials accountable for sitting on their asses while people died. There are no plans to find out why supplies were so short or what we need to do to ensure that never happens again.

Instead, we have people for that party trying to claim “we were right” about the pandemic. People like the Ayatollah DeSantis whose state had one of the highest rates of infection and deaths in the nation. Even using what has become proved to be deliberate faulty and forged data.

Additionally, Republicans are trying to keep the wraps on this so-called investigation. They don’t want the real truth to come out. That truth is that they knew how deadly this pandemic was but made a conscious decision to downplay it in order to “rile up their base” for votes.

In essence, they allowed the pandemic to run rampant in our country and used it to sow more division among our people. They didn’t care if you got sick or died from this horrible disease. So, they are not interested in holding an investigation into all of the wrongs that caused so many deaths. They are afraid that you will learn the truth about their failed response.

As a result of this dereliction of duty by the Republican controlled House, we face the real possibility that another pandemic will be able to run rampant again. We face the real possibility that another deadly disease will sweep across our nation and they will once again sit on their asses and simply complain and divide the nation even further.

The primary duty of our elected officials is to protect us from danger. That danger can be from terrorists, or foreign nations, or diseases that turn into pandemics. The Republicans proved during the COVID pandemic they are not interested in fulfilling that primary duty.

The simple fact that they are unwilling to investigate just what went wrong and what we need to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again, is proof they just don’t care. As far as they are concerned, pandemics that kill over one million of us is just good for their political agenda. They think it will get them more votes.

After all, what else to they offer us to make us think about voting for them? Nothing. In 2024, we need Republicans up and down the ballot to be swept from office. We need them to suffer the same kind of defeat that Democrats suffered in 1972. Maybe then the real Republican party will return and we will all be better off for it.

Remember, oversight does mean reprisal. Yeah, try telling Republicans that.

Dear Rand Paul – Lack Of Response Is More Important Than Where Pandemic Originated

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The nation is beginning to recover from the pandemic. We are seeing new jobs being created and the unemployment numbers deceasing. We have seen about 300 million doses of the vaccine reach the arms of people. We still have a long way to go. We need the fully vaccinated numbers go higher so we can get back to normal.

Of course, the anti-vaxxers are doing their best to make sure we never reach the milestone we need. They are continuing to spread vicious lies and misinformation about the vaccine. There are still too many people who claim they won’t ever get the vaccine. The odd part of this to me is that the biggest deniers of the vaccine are trump supporters who claim he was so wonderful to invent the vaccine. Yet, they still won’t take the shot. I guess their love for their leader isn’t all that great afterall.

There is also still the argument raging about the “source” of the pandemic. At the beginning, scientists and our intelligence agencies said the evidence shows that it was a natural virus not man made. However, the administration blamed China for its release and spread. That was of course after the former guy praised the Chinese for “doing a tremendous job in containing the virus”.

Even then, there were rumors that the virus may have gotten out due to a “leak” from a Chinese lab in Wuhan. As time has gone by, it is possible from new evidence that may have happened. This pandemic could have been caused by a leak from a lab. But, that doesn’t clear the administration from its responsibilities as the Republicans want you to believe.

All across the world, including right here in America, scientists are experimenting with finding cures for various diseases. These diseases and viruses are inside labs so scientists can examine how they work and test different vaccines or medicines to help fight them off.

The COVID-19 virus is a variant of the SARS virus. It is this fact that allowed scientists to come up with a vaccine as fast as they did. They already had been working on the SARS virus and was quickly able to understand this new variant. So, because they already had the SARS virus in labs, it was easier to find the vaccine in a very short period of time.

However, Republicans are trying to make us believe that since the pandemic may have started when the virus leaked from a lab, the administration is clear of any responsibility for its spread. They are diverting the fact that over 600,000 Americans have died from this pandemic because their former guy did nothing to slow or stop the spread. According to their logic, he is clear of any guilt for the death of so many Americans because he didn’t start the pandemic.

The simple truth is that however the pandemic started, the former guy and his administration knew about it, they watched it spread across the nation and did absolutely nothing to stop it or slow its spread. They sat back and watched as millions of people got sick from the virus and thousands died from it.

They refused to ensure that hospital workers were given the proper personal protection equipment to protect themselves from the virus as the struggled to save others. As a result of this dereliction of duty, thousands of front-line medical workers suffered from the virus and died from it as well. All because they couldn’t protect themselves with the proper equipment.

Instead of telling Americans to wear masks and keep social distancing, we heard that “real Americans” don’t need to wear masks because that was a sign of “weakness”. Instead of spreading real information about the virus we heard from our president at the time “if you get sick, go out and sit in the sun to kill the virus”.

Instead of looking at the science of what might help, we heard that hydroxychloroquine would “cure” you from the virus when all the research said the complete opposite. Even after he reportedly took that drug, he still got the virus himself. We were even told that “maybe we should look at the possibility of injecting bleach into us to kill the virus”.

Instead of practicing social distancing, our dear leader held massive rallies and caused several mass spreading events. It was so bad, even many of his supporters wound up dying from the virus they caught attending one of his super spreader events.

This is what happened after the virus began spreading across the globe. In February last year we were told “we have one reported case and soon it will be zero”. Then two months later we were told that “it will disappear like a miracle”. When things began to get a little better, we were told to stop social distancing and we should “all gather in church for Easter” like nothing had happened.

That all led to a bigger surge in cases and deaths across the country. At the beginning of the pandemic, places like New York, California and Washington State were the epicenters. But, after the misinformation and blatant disregard for the public safety by the former guy and his minions in red states, we saw the surge almost cripple those red states. We saw the epidemic spread to meat packing facilities which threatened our food supply. Yet the former guy and his minions did nothing to slow the spread in their states.

Because of the pandemic and the lack of response by the administration and his flunkies in the states, our economy collapsed. Unemployment went through the roof and people began falling behind on their rent and mortgage payments. Yet, Republicans did nothing about any of that for over six months.

When the vaccines became available, the administration ordered enough vaccines to fully vaccinate about 60 million people. That was all they ordered. It would take about 70 percent of the entire nation to be vaccinated before we reached that “herd immunity” necessary to fully reopen. That is a hell of a lot more than 60 million people.

As things dragged on and on, the administration started complaining about schools reopening. Yet, they did nothing to ensure that school reopening could be done safely. They refused to upgrade ventilation systems or to ensure any safety guidelines were put in place to protect our children and teachers and staff. They didn’t care. They simply wanted the optics of reopening schools before the election.

The simple truth is that because of a total disregard for the American People by the administration that was supposed to protect them, over 600,000 people have died from this preventable disease. Many of them needlessly because it could have been handled better and fewer people would have been sick and died.

In 1918, the Spanish Flu spread across the globe. Well, it was actually the Kansas Flu since that is where it started. In our country over 600,000 people died from the flu in a two year span. This time, the administration managed to kill over 600,000 people in just over a year. One big difference in the Spanish Flu case, there was a world war going on at the time and medicine was nowhere close to what we have now. Still, another great record for the former guy and his administration.

What this really boils down to is that it really doesn’t matter how the pandemic started. Yes, if there was a leak and China could have prevented that leak they need to be held responsible. But, once that leak occurred, if that is what happened, it did not relieve the former guy or his administration or his Republican Party from their responsibility to properly respond to the crisis.

If the pandemic started by natural causes or by some lab leak, it does not vindicate the former guy or his party from doing nothing but watch thousands upon thousands of Americans die from it.

So, as far as I am concerned, people like Rand Paul who are now running their mouths saying “I told you so” can shove that up their asses. Paul is still spreading misinformation about the virus and the vaccine. He has no leg to stand on and claim a “high moral ground” because he is blaming someone else. He, his party and his president allowed this pandemic to spread across the nation and kill over 600,000 of us.

As far as I am concerned, the only “moral ground” he can claim is on the seventh level of Hell.

The Thugs Of November

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We are two days out from the formal election day. It is time for the truth to be told, at least as I see it. According to the CDC we have over 9.2 million people infected and over 230,000 dead from coronavirus. According to Worldometer we have over 9.4 million infected and over 236,000 dead.

We have seen a new report that claims that the trump rallies have caused 30,000 infections and over 700 deaths from coronavirus. Yet, trump continues to hold these super spreader events without any social distancing or safety precautions, except for him.

But, there is something even more nefarious going on today. I am a person who conducts research on just about everything I can think of doing. I have researched what communism in Russia, China, Cuba and North Korea really are. Those governments that call themselves “communist” are nothing of the sort. They are straight up dictatorships. They are intended to provide power and privilege to the few and the hell with the rest of the country.

Oh, they provided medical coverage to everyone and other “social” aspects, but they were merely things that kept the population in check. On the other hand, when anyone spoke out about the power abuses in the country, they suddenly and mysteriously “disappeared”. That is what dictatorships do and that is what these countries version of communism was all about.

The populations of communist countries gained nothing of any real value. The “free” education they received was far below norms of countries around the world. The “free” medical treatment was also far below normal standards expected around the world. They were offered to mollify the populace into thinking they were being taken care of. But, they were also isololated so they didn’t understand just how bad their “free” things really were.

The Berlin Wall fell and we saw the old Soviet Union break up. We saw China adopt a more “capitalist” economy. We saw Cuba loosen some of their restrictions, though not nearly enough. We see that North Korea is still running in the old Soviet Union style of dictatorship.

Our nation has stood firm against such dictatorships. We have held the line and tried everything we could to stem the spread of these dictatorships around the world. The Republican Party claimed to be the one party that stood up to communism, as we called it. At least we did until just four years ago.

The seeds for a transformation of the Republican Party began shortly after Barak Obama won the presidency. After that, the white supremacists started crawling out of the sewers we had locked them in. Then, after six years of total stagnation caused by the Republican Party, we got Donald Trump as our president.

From the very beginning we started hearing about the “hell hole” that he believed our country had become. We started hearing about how “only I can fix it”. We started hearing the drum beat of autocracy leading to our own dictatorship.

He started talking very nicely about white supremacists. He said “there a very fine people on both sides” after a tiki torch parade by these white supremacists yelling “the Jews will not replace us”. Yeah, really fine people there, huh don?

Under this nightmare, we have watched children being ripped from their parents arms, even children being breast fed, and placed in cages and left to sleep on a concrete floor. This was intentional by the administration as a tactic to “deter” others from trying to seek asylum in our country from violent places.

We have seen a pandemic be allowed to run rampant throughout our country killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens. We still have no plan and we still only get smear campaigns from the administration against anyone who dares to speak out against their “do nothing” response to the pandemic.

We saw a couple of dozen white supremacists charged with plotting to kidnap and murder the Governor of Michigan. All trump had to say was he thought “she was a lousy Governor”. He never once condemned the action or the people who plotted this action.

We have witnessed the largest tax give-a-way to the privileged. This is just another step in maintaining power by making sure the very wealthy keep their power and “donations” keep flowing to the Republican Party.

These are just a few examples of what trump called “draining the swamp”. What he has actually done is open the doors to the White House and allowed the swamp to enter hip deep. Everything is designed to keep him in power and to help make him more wealthy.

Now we come to what I am calling the “thugs of November”. We are near the end of our election season for 2020. The Republican Party, which has actually become a “soviet politburo” is in political trouble. They have failed our country miserably and are in a panic about this election because they could lose their grip on power.

So, they have reached deep into the old Soviet style handbook about how to steal an election and sow more divide among our people. We have seen this going on right in the open, and they just don’t even care that we know what they are doing.

There have been over 300 law suits, so far, about how this election is being held. And, about 98 percent of them have been filed by Republicans. They are very upset that during a pandemic the people actually want to vote, but don’t want to get sick or die because of the lack of safety precautions at too many Republican controlled polling places are actually being the chance to vote safely.

There are several Republican states that do not even require masks to be worn at their polling places. They want to “keep those afraid of the pandemic” from voting, so they are ignoring all public health safety precautions.

In Texas, Harris County decided to expand “drive through” voting. That means when someone wants to vote, they can stay in their cars. A poll worker “checks their ID” which is required in Texas, and then helps them cast their ballot. They expanded this “drive through” voting because of the pandemic.

But, that has caused a big panic among Republicans. It turns out that Texas ballots have already set new records for ballots cast, and we haven’t even gotten to Tuesday. As a result of their “fear” that they might actually lose Texas, a very firm “red state” for decades, they have gone to court and asked that 100,000 ballots already cast be made void. They want to take away those votes and those voters voice because they are afraid they are losing.

That is a tactic straight out of the old Soviet Union ‘how to make sure we win” campaign. We have Republicans in Pennsylvania filing suit after suit to void as many votes as they possibly can. Their latest tactic is to make “Democratic stronghold counties” match signatures on ballots. But, they want them to be an “exact” match with what is on file.

I dare anyone to quickly sign your name ten times in a row. I bet you will not find all ten of them are an exact match. That is just human nature. Besides, they want people who are NOT signature professionals to do the “matching” so more ballots can be tossed out. This is another example of the old Soviet Union voting tactics.

We are seeing all of this going on around the country. They are only “targeting” areas where there is a strong Democratic number of voters. We are not seeing them “demand” such tactics in Republican strongholds. It is an open and clear indication that they are trying to steal the election by any means possible.

In North Carolina yesterday, a group held what they call a “Souls to the Polls” march. These people held a church service and then began to march to the polling place. Yesterday was the last day of early voting in the state. On the way, they took a knee and held an eight minute “moment of silence” for George Floyd.

As soon as their “moment of silence” was over, county sheriff deputies and local police started pepper spraying them. They gave no warning, they just started shooting pepper spray at the marchers. There were children in the group. Some as young as 3 years old. These children started throwing up and some became violently sick.

These local thugs said they used the pepper spray because the marchers “did not have proper license to block a street for their “moment of silence”. REALLY??? Taking a knee and holding a moment of silence now apparently is a crime in that part of the state. It had more to do with the fact that they were on their way to vote, which the thugs didn’t want them to do.

Yesterday, a bus for Biden was heading down the highway in Texas. Suddenly a bunch of thugs surrounded the bus and nearly ran it off the road. All of these thugs were flying their trump flags and were deliberately trying to intimidate those on the bus. An event had to be cancelled because of thee thugs. They were deliberately trying to keep the people on the bus from exercising their right to free speech.

This was a very dangerous situation. The bus could have been forced into an accident. If anyone tried that with any other vehicle on the road, they would have been arrested for “dangerous driving”. But, since they were going after Democrats, I guess it was okay for Texas.

What did our great supreme leader have to say about this very dangerous action? He said “I love Texas”. I wonder what he would have said if those people were Biden supporters and they were harassing HIS bus. I bet he wouldn’t say “I love Texas”. We would have heard all kinds of ugly words coming out of his ugly mouth. This action was nothing less than “domestic terrorism”.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won in a landslide election. At that time the Republican Party was actually colored “blue” on NBC. But, too many people said the “middle of the country looked like a giant swimming pool”. It was the next election when all of the TV Networks settled on Republican being Red and Democratic being Blue.

At the time there was nothing to say about it. But, in the last ten years or so, we have discovered that the coloring of the parties has taken on a more open meaning. In the last ten years we have discovered that the “red” for
Republicans is more appropriate since they are the party that has taken up the old Soviet Union form of dictatorship.

The only difference is that this new autocratic party doesn’t mind that you know they are only out for themselves. They aren’t even pretending to show any care for the people. They aren’t interested in giving us any “candy” in social safety nets like the old so-called communists did.

They are openly saying, you are on your own, just vote for us so we can stay in power and suck all of the privileges for ourselves and our big donors. They don’t want you to have health insurance, they don’t want you to have a safety net in case you lose your job, they don’t want you to have anything that makes you think you are important.

They want you to continue to swallow their “kool-ade” and pretend that they actually give a shit about you when we know they don’t. They are happy that their supreme leader is cozying up to people like Putin and Kim Jong Un. They want the type of dictatorship that the old Soviet Union enjoyed for so long.

They figure they can get away with it because the white supremacists and the wacko fringe militia types are in full support of this form of government as long as people of color are “kept in their place”.

I am sorry, but what we have seen in the last ten years or so. The old Soviet Union styled dictatorship supporters have taken over the Republican Party. They are cheaters and law breakers just like the old Soviet leadership. This is about pure and naked power over a country and their people. That is what our Republican Party has become.

That is why you are seeing so many tricks to suppress the vote. That is why they are trying so hard to invalidate so many ballots. That is why it is DIRE that you actually vote. It is why we must unite as a people, minus those white supremacists and wacko fringe groups, and take our country back from the old Soviet Union style supporters. They are in the REPUBLICAN party not the other one.

Two days are left to cast your vote. Please, make sure you do. The future of your country and the future of your children and grandchildren are at stake. A Republican win means a dictatorship like the old Soviet Union is on the horizon.

That is the opinion of one veteran who loves his country and doesn’t want to see it destroyed from the inside.

VOTE!

We must STOP the shirts from marching along.

Someone Needs To Call BS On Administration Lies About Virus – Biden Needs To Let Loose Kamala Harris To Do Just That

Well, Kamala Harris has been picked as the running mate for Joe Biden in the upcoming election.  Now, we need someone, and hopefully her, to call bullshit on the vicious lies and misinformation that this administration is spreading about the coronavirus pandemic in this country.

From the very beginning we have witnessed the worst leadership failure in our nation’s history.  From the very beginning we have been led down the rust colored road towards sickness, death and economic devastation by a clueless moron who thinks saying it “will go away” will actually make it go away.

There is less than three months to the election, and we must keep this administration’s lack of response to the virus in the heat.  We must make sure that they are constantly bombarded with questions as to why 166,000 Americans are dead from a virus that could have been slowed.  Why over 5 million Americans have become infected from the virus?

We must bombard them with questions like why they ignored their own CDC advice on how to “safely” reopen the economy?  Why are they now ignoring that same CDC guidelines as to how to safely reopen schools?

We must bombard them with questions like why is it easy for you to have quick testing for the virus but the American people must wait seven to fourteen days before we get results.  Why haven’t you passed legislation that protects workers from missing paychecks when they are forced into quarantine while awaiting results?

This bullshit has gone on far too long.  Even when administration officials test positive for the virus, they then come out and praise the moron who allowed it to happen.

As an example let us talk about White House national security advisor Robert O’Brien.  He actually said that the testing apparatus in our country is a “miracle”.   He said that with a straight face knowing that we have to wait for one to two weeks for a result.

He went on to say, when questioned about “rapid testing” being made available to the rest of us:  “Well, we’re working on testing.  I think what’s happening with testing in America is really a miracle.  I mean we haven’t ― there’s no country in the world that comes close to what America is doing on testing.  But we’re working on getting more testing out there.”

They have been working on “getting more testing out there” for over SEVEN months.  When are they going to stop “working” on it and get it done?  He never did answer the question about “rapid testing”.  He totally ignored that.  I guess the administration believes that rapid testing is only for them.  The rest of us can wait.  Why?

For example, my wife needed surgery.  She was required to have a Covid test first.  The DAY BEFORE her surgery we found out that she was negative and the surgery could go ahead.  That meant we waited for SEVEN days before we got the results.  Not the 20 minutes it took O’Brien to discover he was positive.  Why the huge difference?

We are seeing schools reopen without taking proper precautions for the safety of our children.  One school district in Georgia now has over 1000 students in quarantine because they tested positive for the virus.  They have only been open for a week!  Why?

Florida and Georgia broke records for the number of cases and deaths in a 24 hour period yesterday.  Yet, they are the leading moronic state governments who refuse to take any measures to protect their citizens.  We are still seeing over 50,000 new cases every day.  We are still seeing over 1,000 deaths every day.  Why?

On the economic front, things aren’t looking all that great either.  We have had 20 straight weeks of over 1 million people filing for unemployment.  We have a Senate led by Moscow Mitch who refuses to do anything to help those people out of work.  They allowed the extra unemployment payments to expire.  They allowed the eviction moratorium to expire.

Over 30 million people now get a lot less in unemployment checks.  Over 23 million people are now at risk of losing their homes.  Over 100,000 small businesses have closed their doors for good.  Yet, Kudlow says the economy is “booming”.  I guess that is why Moscow Mitch doesn’t care if things are so bad because he believes Kudlow.

The Pathetic Party claims it is the Democrats who are holding things up.  But the fact is Moscow Mitch refuses to even speak to the Speaker of the House to negotiate any deal.  He can’t even get his own caucus to realize that another relief bill is necessary.  Over 50 percent of the Pathetic Party in the Senate said they would vote AGAINST any relief bill regardless of what it contains.  They say “it is too expensive”.  Anything that helps the average person is “too expensive” because it doesn’t do anything for the big corporations.

If this stalemate continues, and with Mark Meadows leading the White House team it will, the economy is in danger of complete collapse.  Then what are the Pathetic Party going to say?  We can’t wait to find out.  We need answers right now.

Kamala Harris is a tough attorney who knows how to question and get answers.  She knows how to expose the lies that anyone is spouting.  She knows how to get to the truth and expose the guilty.  That is exactly what we need right now.

We need someone like Kamala Harris to be let loose on the dogs and show them for the toothless dogs they are.  We need her to expose the completely false narrative that trump and his administration has been spouting since this pandemic began.

O’Brien ended his interview with this little tidbit.  “Well, we’ve had a lot of infections as a country and again this is something we need to keep in mind,” O’Brien told CBS News on Sunday before shifting the focus to China. “We’ve got to remember where it came from.”

No moron!  It doesn’t matter “where it came from”.  What matters is what you and your moronic boss did when it got here.  The answer to that question is obvious to anyone who has a second grade education.  You and he DID NOTHING.  As a result, we lead the world in infections and in deaths.  You can now claim more WINS for the administration.

If anyone asks me, I would sick Kamala Harris on the administration and allow her to go after the deceit and lies and expose them to the general public.  She can show us just how bad the response to the pandemic by this administration really was.  She can expose the lack of care about the citizens by this president and his complete administration.

The media isn’t free from guilt in all of this either.  I am sick and tired of their softball questions.  I am sick and tired of them NOT calling trump out when he tells a lie.  If you are a real “reporter” say “that is not true” and hit him again with the same question until he either answers it or runs away.

Our fearless moron is a serial liar who cares about nothing but himself.  We need to show America, even his own supporters, that we are all at risk of his bad behavior.  We need to show, from his own mouth, that he doesn’t care about the health and welfare of his own supporters anymore than he does about anyone else’s.

Kamala Harris can be the one who can make this all come out if she is willing and Biden is willing to let her loose.  Let’s hope he is willing and she goes after him like the criminal he is.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Today’s Movie – Give Credit Where It Is Due

Yesterday the House Coronavirus Oversight Committee held its first hearing.  During the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) made a comment.  He said that Democrats are “not giving president trump credit for what he has done about the pandemic”.

Well, I thought about that and you know what?  He is right.  So, in an effort to fix this problem, I did a bunch of research on the timelines that had anything to do with this pandemic.  I am going to present them in our film today.  I think you will be able to assess just how effective, or ineffective he has been.

Let’s roll the film.

Way back on January 13, 2017 the Obama administration held a “tabletop” exercise with the incoming transition team about how to handle a possible pandemic.  The exercise was intended to help the incoming administration properly prepare for such an incident.

Later in 2017 the trump administration was advised of an Obama-era National Security Pandemic Playbook.  The trump administration did not adopt this playbook as any form of official policy.  This playbook was designed after the H1N1 and Ebola outbreaks to help our government be able to properly prepare and plan if another outbreak should happen.

The trump administration later said they were aware of the playbook, but they considered it “outdated” and never implemented anything recommended in it.

Between March and May of 2017 the trump administration decided to cut $277 million in pandemic preparedness funds.  Congress, in a bipartisan manner, rejected this proposal.

In December 2017 the trump administration reportedly banned the CDC from using the terms “evidence based” and “science based”.  Instead of those terms they wanted the CDC to use the phrase “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.” 

On February 9, 2018 trump signed a bill that cut $1.35 billion in funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the CDC.

Four days later, on February 13, the Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment warns of major pandemic risks.  In written testimony to Congress the Director of National Security wrote:

The increase in frequency and diversity of reported disease outbreaks – such as dengue and Zika -probably will continue through 2018, including the potential for a severe global health emergency that could lead to major economic and societal disruptions, strain governmental and international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.  A novel strain a virulent microbe that is easily transmissible between humans and continues to be a major threat, with pathogens such as H5N1 and H7N9 influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus having pandemic potential if they were to acquire efficient human-to-human transmissibility.

April 10, 2018 John Bolton the new National Security Council Director fired Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert.  Bossert “had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks.”

May 8, 2018 The National Security Council removes the top official responsible for pandemic response and disbands the global health security team.

In September of 2018 HHS Secretary Azar diverts $266 million from the CDC to help fund housing for detained immigrant children.  That same month, the administration failed to follow through with an Obama-era plan designed to prevent medical supply shortages during a pandemic.

HHS receives detailed plans by a medical manufacturer to create a new machine that would have the capacity to make protective masks at a high speed (1.5 million masks per day).  The machine was specifically designed to handle pandemic-related medical shortages and was the culmination of an Obama-era preparedness plan. The administration paid millions of dollars to the company but does not follow through with making the machine.

July 2019 the administration eliminates an American public health position designed to detect disease outbreaks in China.  The CDC had a person in China within that country’s “Disease Control Agency”.  The administration removed that person from the position and closed it down completely.

At the end of the summer of 2019, HHS discontinued a maintenance contract for over 2100 ventilators in the federal governments emergency supply.  When they were needed later, the machines were not functional as a result of this contract being discontinued.

November 17, 2019 the first possible case of the virus was reported in Hubei province, China.

In late November or early December U.S. Intelligence wars of a “cataclysmic” and “out of control” disease in Wuhan, China. In January and February of 2020 the Intelligence Agencies began warning of the threat in the president’s daily briefings.

In January 2020 Chinese officials notify the Director of the CDC about the virus and he notifies Secretary Azar.  Later in the month, FDA chief Stephen Hahn asks HHS if he can start contacting companies about possible shortages of personal protetive equipment and other equipment.  HHS tells him no.  That causes weeks of delay.

On January 9, 2020 China publicly identifies new “pneumonia-like virus.  On the same day, WHO issues guidance to other countries to detect and respond to the new coronavirus.

Mid January, after China released publicly the genetic sequence of COVID-19, HHS employees began drafting contingency plans to enforce the Defense Production Act to force private companies to produce critical supplies.

January 16, 2020 German researches develop a diagnostic test for COVID-19.  The administration refuses to use the test claiming they want a U.S. test developed instead.

January 20, 2020 both South Korea and the United States announce their first case of COVID-19.

January 24, 2020 trump tweets: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus.  The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency.  It will all work out well.  In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

January 30, 2020: (1) A research paper published by the New England Journal of Medicine confirms the existence of asymptomatic transmission of the virus.  (2) Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the virus will be good for the U.S. economy in a Fox News interview.  (3) Secretary Azar directly warns trump that the virus could morph into a pandemic, a warning he discounts as “alarmist”.

That same day, the president said that the U.S. has the virus “under control”.  Later that same day he holds a rally in Iowa with thousands gathered in close proximity.

February 2, 2020 trump poses travel ban on China.  However, the order only denies entry to “immigrants or non-immigrants” who have been in China.  However, there were exceptions to this order.  As a result between February and March over 40,000 people entered the U.S. from China.

During the same month, officials warned of a critical shortage of testing capacity.

February 7, 2020 Dr. Bright program leader at BARDA, insists that the federal government increase N95 production for healthcare workers and first responders.  That same day, Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. was donating nearly 18 million tons of medical equipment to China.

February 14 in a memo the HHS and National Security Council outline possible U.S. responses to the coronavirus, including what more severe community mitigation measures would look like:

significantly limiting public gatherings and cancellation of almost all sporting events, performances, and public and private meetings that cannot be convened by phone. Consider school closures. Widespread “stay at home” directives from public and private organizations with nearly 100% telework for some.

President Trump later cancels the meeting with senior HHS and National Security Council officials, when officials intended to present the memo and their recommendation for enhanced mitigation measures. “The White House focused instead on messaging and crucial additional weeks went by before their views were reluctantly accepted by the president — time when the virus spread largely unimpeded,” the New York Times reports.

February 23, 2020 in an internal communication, Economic Admisr Peter Navarro urgently requests immediate supplemental appropriation to combat the crisis.  He warns that the virus “could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life as many as 1-2 million souls” and “inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage.”

February 24, 2020 the president falsely assures that the stock market is “starting to look very good” and the coronavirus is “very much under control.”  Stock markets decline sharply following news of the spread of the novel coronavirus.

February 26, 2020 the president said: “We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people.  And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time.  When you have q5 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.”

February 28, 2020 the president said:

“It’s going to disappear,” says the president. “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

At a political rally in South Carolina, the president adds: “the democrats are politicizing the coronavirus … This is their new hoax.”

March 2, 2020 at a campaign rally in North Carolina the president says “We had a great meeting today with a lot of great companies and they’re going to have vaccines, I think relatively soon.  And they’re going to have something that makes your better and that’s going to actually take place, we think, even sooner.”

March 11, 2020 trump announces new travel restrictions from Europe.  However, it does not include the UK or Ireland where he own golf courses.  A few days later after the UK spikes in the number of cases, those countries were added into the new travel ban.

March 16, 2020 the president announces guidelines for social distancing to be in place for two weeks.

March 18, 2020 he signs an executive order allowing the use of the Defense Production Act.  But, he does not use it to force private companies to produce critical medical supplies.

I think you know what has happened since then.  The first death of an American was reported on February 29.  Since that time, In just 2 and a half months we have reached the milestone of over 84,000 dead from the virus.  And we have reached 1.4 million people infected with the virus.  And, we now have children being affected in an unusual way from the virus that attacks their arterial system.

And, since then we have had over 30 million Americans lose their jobs.  We have 1 in 5 mothers complaining that their children are going hungry.

Before the pandemic started we had about 25 million people who did not have health insurance.  With all of the layoffs, we now have roughly 50 million people without health insurance because our health insurance is based on employment.

Yes, Rep. Jim Jordan, we do need to give our Failure-in-Chief credit where it is due.  Yes, he has done a lot in response to this pandemic.  The problem is that everything he has done has been useless and/or late in implementing.

Our Failure-in-Chief refused to take any leadership role in the fight of the pandemic, even after he called himself a wartime president, and left states on their own.  The DPA still hasn’t been used to increase medical equipment supplies or testing capabilities.

I would love to be able to give the president credit where it is due for his actions during this crisis.  But, I don’t see anything in that timeline that shows anything positive he did.

Now, he claims that “testing” is not all that important.  He has attacked Dr. Fauci for his testimony before the Senate Committee.  He did not argue with the accuracy of the testimony, he merely said his answers were “unacceptable” because they didn’t follow his lack of a game plan.

This is the same guy who claimed that “maybe” we should inject ourselves with bleach to defeat the virus.  Well, Rep. Jordan, if that is what want me to give him credit for, you are a stupid and crazy as your hero.

Hope you enjoyed the film.

 

 

The Con Game Is Really Beginning – Don’t Be Fooled

There are a lot of things going on today.  We are fighting the worst pandemic in our country in over 100 years.  And, we are seeing our Failure-in-Chief turn it into a political game for his benefit.  And, unfortunately, no one is calling him out for it.

Yesterday we saw our Failure-in-Chief roll out his “guidelines” for reopening the economy.  And in usual trump form, he refused to take any responsibility for anything.  He said “it is up to the Governors to decide when to start to reopen their economies”.

Of course everyone knows that in order to reopen the economy testing is the most vital part of the “guidelines” that trump himself announced.  But, he again refuses to use his authority under the law to make companies produce millions of tests and all of the equipment to allow them to be used.

He said, once again, that it is the responsibility of the states to conduct testing”.  But, he won’t say just how the states are supposed to get the necessary tests and PPE necessary.  All he would say is it their responsibility, not his.

One phrase that seems to have been missed and was purposefully put in his talk by trump himself was when he said:  “if a governor decides not to reopen his economy yet, we will ALLOW him to keep it closed”.  That is not leaving it up to the governors, that is blatant threat to any governor who defies his wonderfulness.

I listened to lots of reporters and pundits.  Not one of them picked up on that simple phrase and not one said a word about it.  Instead they were all talking about how trump has “changed” from his “I have total authority” comment on Monday.  They keep saying that “maybe he has learned his lesson about his powers”.

All I can say is BULLSHIT!  He did not change his mind on his “total authority” statement because it was wrong.  He changed his mind about it because he needs someone else to blame if things go wrong with his push to open the economy.  He isn’t worried about Constitutional law, he is worried that the people will point the finger at him if it opens prematurely and more people die from the virus.

The game is on and if the people and the Democrats don’t wake up, they are going to fall right into his trap.  He is just itching to send out tweets about any Governor who doesn’t follow his wishes.  If two Republican controlled states next to a Democrat controlled state “reopens” and the Democrat state doesn’t you can bet there will be several harsh tweets accusing the Democrat Governor of deliberately trying to make trump look bad.

If a state like South Dakota which has one of the worst hot spots for the virus right now opens the state fully and more people get sick and die, then trump will blame the Governor because he opened things up not trump.  And, the stupid Pathetic Republican Party is falling for this game as well.  Our Failure-in-Chief doesn’t care what party y0u are in, he only cares about having someone else to blame for anything that can and probably will go wrong.

What we are watching is a deliberate and purposeful plan to take more steps to changing us to an autocracy.  Whenever a dictator gets any power, the first thing he does is blame everyone else for his weakness.  We have seen trump do exactly that for three years.

When  confronted with a disaster, that dictator will make sure that the blame falls everywhere except near him.  If he dallied while things got worse, it was the Governor’s fault.  If he denied there was a problem, it was the WHO’s fault.  If he called it a hoax and “nothing” to worry about, it is China’s fault.

Then, when he realizes that the economic consequences of this disaster is hurting his chances to maintain power, he looks for a way to say I want it open now, but puts all of the responsibility on someone else.  He says it is “up to the governors to decide” so he can shed any blame if there is a second round because of this opening.

Then he says it is someone else’s responsibility to make sure testing is done to make it safer for people to go back to work.  The dictator won’t take any steps to help those others, he just sits back and hopes the “right” people make the “wrong” decision.  Then he will pounce and blame everyone else, again.

Finally, he makes it possible for his “true followers” to show their true loyalty by joining his death cult.  He makes sure that his true followers are willing to risk their own safety and possible death to show their undying support for their dear leader.

That is exactly what we are seeing with the protests against the stay at home orders in some of our states.  And, the protests are against every governor who issued a stay at home order regardless of what party they belong to.  Just ask the Governor of Ohio.

Those protests are not about “liberty” or “freedoms” or anything else.  They are simply a death cult showing their dear leader they are willing to die in order for him to maintain power.  They are so mesmerized by this cult leader that they can’t think for themselves.  Trust me, if any of them get sick or die, trump will do everything but call them “martyrs” for the cause.

In the meantime, Americans are still getting sick and dying.  The disease is reaching into the rural areas of the country.  Some of the newest hot spots are in places like South Dakota and Nebraska.  Yet, the governors there won’t issue any stay at home orders.

The Small Business loan program from the stimulus bill has run out of money.  Even still it was fixed by the administration so really small businesses were “locked out” of the program.  If you didn’t have a “strong relationship” with a large bank, you couldn’t get a loan.

Over half of the small businesses in this country do not use large banks.  They were all turned down for their business loans from those large banks.  As a result, they turned to small to medium sized banks and credit unions.  None of these institutions were included in the “loan program” so their customers couldn’t get the loans they needed.

Moscow Mitch wanted to add $250 billion to the fund but refused to “fix” the problem that has locked out these small businesses who are really suffering.  Democrats are willing to allow the money as long as these problems are fixed so the really small business get the loans they need.   Moscow Mitch won’t even discuss this problem.

On the testing front, our Failure-in-Chief says “we have tested more people than anyone in the world”.  Maybe and maybe not.  But, we do know that we are lagging the rest of the world in testing per capita.  Only 1 percent of our population have been tested.

Still today, there are people with symptoms who want to get tested but are being refused because their symptoms aren’t “severe” enough and there simply aren’t enough tests available.  It isn’t just testing equipment that is in short supplies.  It is everything needed to allow the test to be given.

Something a simple as a “swab” which is nothing more than a long qtip, are in such low supplies that tests cannot be given.  Hospitals cannot get these swabs to conduct testing.  And our Failure-in-Chief won’t do anything to make companies ramp up supplies.

We have a real problem with the virus affecting nursing homes and long term care facilities like VA homes.  The number of cases and deaths are growing quickly in these facilities.  The problem is we don’t know exactly just how bad it is in these facilities because the government isn’t tracking them.

Neither the Federal Government or 29 states are tracking the affects this pandemic is having on nursing homes and long term facilities.  There is no way that we can find out how each of these facilities are handling the pandemic or even if they have the capabilities to do anything but send the bodies to the morgue.

Yet, our Failure-in-Chief won’t do anything about it.  He won’t even acknowledge that there may be a problem at these facilities that are caring for the most vulnerable of our population.  Those numbers just might make the Failure-in-Chief look bad.  Now, you may not care about those people either, but if you have a loved one living in such a facility, I am certain you do care.

Furthermore, too many of these facilities won’t even tell the family of patients how many cases they have or how many patients have succumbed to the disease.  Family members are deliberately being kept in the dark.

Finally, let us look at reality.  People are scared right now.  They are getting absolutely no guidance from our Failure-in-Chief and the vast majority of Americans believe we need massive testing to feel safe going out.  Therefore, even if governors begin to reopen the economy, how many people are actually going to go out and shop.

How many people are going to be very willing to go to work and sit in a cubicle next to someone else who may or may not have the virus.  And, there will be no way to know for sure because we can’t test enough people.  If Failure-in-Chief thinks that Americans are going to “rush out” and start to become “normal” again, I believe he is sorely mistaken .

Reopening the country is going to take time.  It is going to be slow.  If we don’t get the massive testing and tracking we need, it will be even longer and possibly a disaster as well.  We must be careful and smart as we move forward.

But, during this pandemic and national crisis our Failure-in-Chief has only one thing on his mind.  That one thing is his reelection.  He doesn’t care about your or your family.  He doesn’t care about anything or anyone but himself.

Do not be fooled.  These “guidelines” are meaningless.  They don’t do anything or set any dates or any real guidelines about testing.  They do not provide the help that states need to even consider if they can start reopening, especially testing capabilities.  That is because Failure-in-Chief doesn’t care.

No, this is just another step in trump’s attempt to maintain power and establish his authoritarian government.  It is a smoke screen designed to allow him to hide under his bed like the coward he is and be able to blame everyone else if things go bad.  And, if things go well, he will slide out from under his bed and say “it went well because I ALLOWED states to make the decision and therefore all the good is because of me”.

I have news for any Pathetic Republican Party Governor who thinks they are immune.  If you open up too soon and things go from bad to worse, you will be in the crosshairs of our Failure-in-Chief’s wrath because you will be making him look bad.  So, he will be very quick to point the finger at you and claim you “didn’t follow his advice”.

Everything we have seen our Failure-in-Chief do has come straight from the dictator’s handbook on getting and maintaining power.  We saw it happen in Russia, Germany, Italy, Iraq, China, North Korea, Cuba and other countries around the world.  We are now seeing it take place right here in America.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

 

We Need A New Hashtag – #TimeToFireTrump

Our Failure-in-Chief wants to “reopen” our country on May 1.  He is itching to “get our economy going great again”.  He just can’t wait to see factories humming and restaurants crammed full of people enjoying their meals.  He is telling us that once he reopens the country “things are going to take off like never seen in this country before”.

All of his supporters are cheering him along.  They want to end the stay at home orders put in place, not by the Failure-in-Chief, by the smart Governors of most of our states.  They want to cram into those auditoriums and cheer their savior on.  They want to chant USA, USA thinking that means something to the 22,000 people who died so far.

All the while Failure-in-Chief is blowing his own horn and claiming he did everything “perfectly” more people are getting sick and more people are dying.  And, the surges we are seeing are in the states that seem to love him the most.  We are seeing surges in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.  And, we are still seeing shortages of PPE that health care workers so desperately need.

We have all heard about first responders and health care workers getting sick and dying from this virus.  Now comes another blow to our Failure-in-Chief.  We are also seeing sickness and death in some of our other “essential” places of work.  We are seeing more and more grocery workers getting sick and even dying from the virus.  They are going to work to ensure we have enough food to feed our families.

Yet, in far too many grocery stores, they are not provided, and in many cases, not even allowed to wear masks.  As a result, they are being placed at risk from their customers.  Fast-food workers who are there for “take-out” and delivery services are facing the same rules.  Too many chains refuse to allow their employees to wear a mask, much less provide their workers with them.  Also, the vast majority of these workers are NOT provided health insurance from their employers.

It is even getting worse than that.  We have now learned that meat processing plants are suffering as well.  Smithfield has shut down its largest meat processing plant in South Dakota because over 230 of their workers tested positive for the virus.

Other food processing plants have also started closing like JBS, SA., Cargill, Empire Kosher Poultry and Tyson Foods.  All because of concerns over the coronavirus.  What does all of this mean for you?  How about possible food shortages at our grocery stores.

We are also starting to see a huge surge in deaths in nursing homes around the country.  More and more of our nursing homes are seeing huge increases in the number of cases and the number of deaths caused by this disease.  And, these same nursing homes have been pleading for PPE for months to deaf ears.

Now our Failure-in-Chief appears to be getting ready to fire Dr. Fauci.  We know this because he went after the doctor on his twitter and reused the #timetofiredr.fauci link.  What was the doctor’s great sin?  Well, answering a question on the Sunday talk shows he said: “of course if we had implemented the lockdown earlier it would have saved lives”.  Most Americans would have replied “well said Captain Obvious”.  But, not Failure-in-Chief.  He had to attack the good doctor because he didn’t say how wonderful Failure-in-Chief has been.

The only thing that Failure-in-Chief uses for his own defense is his supposed “lockdown of China”.  He claims that saved “thousands if not millions of lives”.  Except, he did not “lockdown China”.  What he did was far less meaningful than he wants you to believe.

On February 2, he issued an order blocking foreign nationals who had been in China in the past 14 days from coming to the United States.  But, as with everything trump touches, there were lots of loopholes and “exemptions”.  As a result, over 40,000 Americans and other “authorized” travelers have entered the U.S. from China since his “lockdown” of China.  Some “lockdown”!

With all of this going on, we still have a huge shortage of testing.  We have tested less than 1 percent of our population, and that includes those “essential” workers who have been getting sick and dying.  All of our health care workers cannot even get tested.  Failure-in-Chief says “we are testing more than any other country in the world” which is a lie.  And, if you look at testing per capita, we are ranked 44th in the world.  But, he did get us to number 1 in the number of cases and deaths.

Just about every single health care expert in our country say that we cannot reopen our economy without “massive testing” first.  We need to know just exactly who and where this virus has affected.  We need to have “rapid” testing so if anyone at work appears to be sick, they can be tested right away and placed in quarantine if need be.  Then we need to know who they were in contact with to get them tested as well.

But, our Failure-in-Chief says “we don’t need testing.  It would be nice, but we don’t need it”.  I guess that he, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and the rest of the right wing nut jobs have completed their correspondence course in epidemiology.  That must make them experts in a subject they know absolutely nothing about.

As “very essential” food processing plant workers, grocery clerks and others are getting sick and dying from this virus, our Failure-in-Chief wants to “reopen” our economy without the very necessary testing in place.  But he knows best.  We know this because he said so.  He said his “matrix is right here” pointing to his empty head.

Our national response to this pandemic has been an utter failure.  That failure is due to one person.  That person is our own Failure-in-Chief.  He failed to respond to the pandemic when he had time to mitigate it before it took off.  He failed to set up a national supply chain so our states and hospitals could get the equipment they so desperately needed.  He failed to make sure testing was widely available to try to head off this virus.

He played golf and went to rallies instead of tackling this problem from the beginning.  He wasted over two months of preparation time and called it a “hoax” instead of doing his job.  Now, he wants to “reopen” our economy when we don’t even know if the country has reached its peak.  From the numbers and indications we have not reached our peak.

He wants everyone to “return to normal” without testing available and without even knowing just what treatments may work and which won’t.  Tests around the world are showing that his “miracle cure” is causing irregular heart beats in patients, one of its side effects.  So, it doesn’t seem to be much of a miracle drug after all.

I keep getting the feeling that he wants to hold a “massive” rally in the Rose Garden where he will ceremonially cut a ribbon and declare “America is reopen for business, we defeated the virus” with all the cameras rolling.  Wouldn’t that be just lovely?

Ever since his intelligence community warned him about the possible pandemic way back in December.  Ever since his own advisor warned him about it in January.  Ever since his own public health experts told him about the dangers of this pandemic, our Failure-in-Chief stuffed his head up his own ass and did nothing.  Even his “lockdown” of China is not a “lockdown”.

In less than two months, less time than it took for Failure-in-Chief to even recognize a pandemic was possible, we have seen over half of a million of our citizens become very sick from the virus.  We have seen over 22,000 of our fellow citizens die from this pandemic.  And, what we are getting now from our Failure-in-Chief is his desire for us to applaud his inaction and call it a “huge success”.

All I have to say to him is “sorry but you are a total and utter failure.  SAD!”

And the shirts keep marching along.

As Things Get Worse – Dear Leader Says – “Let’s Re-Open America”

Here are a few simple facts.  The number of cases of the coronavirus in America in the last week has doubled.  That is right, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has doubled in just the last week.  The number of reported deaths from the virus has quadrupled in the last week.  A week ago the number of deaths in the country was around 150.  Today it is over 550.

With all of that in mind, our dear leader says it is time to “re-open America”.  He says it is time to loosen the social distancing standards and get people back to work.  He is not listening to his experts or any other experts on the subject.   He is listening to people like Larry Kudlow who tells us we should “believe me on social distancing”.

The whole thing isn’t about getting America re-opened like the president says.  It is about trying to stop the horrible slide in the economy which is threatening his reelection campaign.  It is about letting him get out there and hold rallies again so he can lap up the admiration of people who support him and don’t care if you get sick or not.

The World Health Organization said the other day that our country is on the verge of being the worst hit country in the world.  Instead of talking about loosening restrictions, health experts say they should be tightened.  Health experts say we need another 2 to 4 weeks to really have any idea of what impact we have had on the spread of the virus.

There are a lot of very dangerous problems with loosening things now.  Just as things are getting worse with the restrictions in place, loosening them means that more people will be exposed to the virus.  That means more people will get sick and unfortunately more people will die.

The one thing that is in our favor against this recklessness is that trump doesn’t really have the power to do anything.  You may be shocked by that statement, but look at the facts.  Our president has not done a single thing except put out 15 points on social distancing.  He has not ordered any “stay at home” orders for the nation.  The only orders have been put in place by Governors who have a lot more concern for the people than trump has.

As a result, trump can stand at the podium and “declare business open as usual” because it won’t mean a thing.  If the various Governors don’t lift their stay at home orders no one will be able to go to work.  For example, our dear leader wants the trading floor at the stock exchange buzzing with people again.  If Governor Cuomo doesn’t lift his stay at home order, those traders will not be able to go to work on the floor.  So trump’s “let’s reopen America” is just words and have no teeth in them at all.

That is what happens when you abdicate your leadership to others.  Our dear leader has not taken any steps to do much of anything and now he thinks his words and his tweets will overrule Governors who have shown real leadership in this crisis.

Here is a simple fact.  If New York and California don’t relax their stay at home orders, the economy will continue to suffer.  California has the fifth largest economy in the WORLD not just in America.  And, New York is right behind them.  Without them going along with trump’s impulses the stock market and the economy will continue to slide downward.

If you have watched what has been going on around the world, you know that now is not the time to loosen things.  China has reported very few if no new cases.  They were shut down for two months.  South Korea has reported fewer and fewer new cases and they got their first case the same day as America got theirs.  They also shutdown for about two months.

Italy which has been on a national lockdown for about two weeks are beginning to slow the spread of the virus.  The last three days has shown a decrease in new cases and a decrease in deaths.  These are all positive signs that should not be lost on us.  And, they are positive signs that say we should not loosen our restrictions yet.

The problem we have in our country is that we have not had a national response to the virus because of trump’s inability to handle a crisis.  About 12 states have issued stay at home orders.  Several others have not issued stay at home orders but have closed schools and restaurants, theaters, etc.  That has helped slow down the spread of the virus.

Yet, many other states have done nothing.  The Governor of Idaho yesterday said that he has “no intentions” to order anything to shut down including  schools.  He is not the only Governor or state official who refuses to do anything to protect his people.  Yesterday, the Lt. Governor of Texas said that “lots of grandparents are willing to take the chance against COVID-19 in order to save the economy”.

These are all extremely dangerous ideas that are being spread by people with no morality.  Are they really saying we grandparents would be happy to die so the economy can “re-open”?  This grandparent doesn’t agree with this moron.  And this grandparent doesn’t want his grandchildren exposed to a virus that can also kill them.

There s a five-year old fighting for her life who has been infected with the virus.  There is a 12 year old who is fighting for her life against the virus.  There is an Olympic swimmer who has the virus and says it is the worst virus he has ever suffered through.  There is another athlete who is in an induced coma because of the severity of the virus he has.  None of these people have other conditions that make them vulnerable.

These are young people who we keep hearing are “not being affected by the virus”.  We keep hearing children can’t be affected by the virus yet there are two children we know about who are fighting for their lives with the virus.  And, we are just at the beginning of the fight with this virus.

Then we have to look at another thing in all of this.  Suppose trump gets his way and we go back to “normal” living.  What happens if the spread of the virus escalates even more than it is now?  How many more people will get sick?  How many more will die?  Is trump willing to take resonsibility if that happens?

As I wrote yesterday, we need to have sane people who know what they are talking about to help us get through this mess.  We need to be reasonable and careful about the next steps.  No one wants the economy to suffer or collapse because of the virus.  But, how many lives are we willing to risk to pretend we are back to normal?

Dear leader keeps saying the flu has killed more people than this virus.  Yet, he refuses to say the flu has been around for a lot longer and this virus has a much higher death rate than the flu.  If we cannot slow down the spread of the virus hospitals will become completely overrun.  Life saving equipment will become so scarce health care workers will have to make a decision on who gets a ventilator and who is left to die.

In some areas of the country we are very near that decision making point already.  By loosening restrictions, that point will come barreling at us at an much quicker rate.  The worst case scenarios from all of the modeling and experts say that over a million Americans can die from this virus if things don’t get better.  The best case scenarios say thousands will die from the virus.

That as the WHO says would make us the biggest affected country in the world.  That would also hurt our economy even worse than what we are seeing.  We need to be smart, we need to be careful, and we need to provide the PPE and equipment our health care providers need to do their jobs.

It is expected that the Senate, or rather Schumer, Pelosi and Mnuchin will come to an agreement on the stimulus bill today.  That will be a huge help in this battle against the virus and help the economy stem its bleeding somewhat.  Meanwhile McConnel instead of participating in the negotiations is making political speeches on the Senate floor and waiting for trump to tell him what to do.  Another lack of leadership from our esteemed Non-leader of the Senate.

Which brings us back to the same question as yesterday.  Are we willing to risk the lives of our people or are we going to plot a steady course to stem the spread of this virus and help our economy at the same time?  It was completely obvious yesterday during his “briefing” that trump does not care about the virus’ spread.  He doesn’t care about the health of the people he swore to protect.  He only cares about the economy because he believes that is the only thing that can help him get reelected.

As usual he let us know that the only thing he cares about is himself.  During this crisis, trump has not shown a “lack of leadership”.  He has shown he is incapable of any “leadership” unless it is for his own personal gain.  This crisis has shown him to be what most of us thought he was.  It has shown him to be the worst and most corrupt president our country has ever had.

Please – Stay Safe!

He Readies, He Aims, He Fires – And – He Misses, Again!

Last night our dear leader addressed the nation.  I watched wondering just what he was going to say and just what exactly was he planning to do to help the average American in this crisis.  I was also waiting to see what he was planning to do to help the poor and the working poor that are already suffering from the crisis.

Well, I didn’t hear very much.  The biggest thing he announced was the travel ban on Europe, except the United Kingdom.  He gave no explanation about why England was so fortunate not to be part of the ban.  However, I have my theories about that.

There are three golf resorts in the United Kingdom that are in financial difficulty.  They are not making the profits predicted.  And, coincidentally, they are all owned by one Donald J. Trump.  Could it possibly be that our dear leader exempted the United Kingdom from his ban so he wouldn’t further hurt his own interests in the country?

He did mention “helping people” hurt by the virus.  But, he never gave any details about just what he plans to do to “help” them.  He did talk about subsidies for corporations, including the hotel industry, surprise, surprise.  And, he even brought in the shale oil companies even though their plight has nothing to do with the virus but the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia by trump’s own admission.

Once again he talked about the tax cut on payrolls.  But, he didn’t say why or how much he is talking about.  Remember this, the payroll taxes are what pays for Social Security and Medicare.  Reductions in these taxes will hurt the overall financial health of these two programs.  And, even though we haven’t seen actual numbers yet, the White House is hinting that the cuts will be much higher than what the Obama administration cut them during the Great Recession.

So, we need to ask the obvious question.  Since Republicans have wanted to cut these two programs forever, and since trump himself recently said we should look at cutting these programs, is this another trick to hurt them so severely that they will have their “ammunition ” to go after Social Security and Medicare for real?  Experts have said these tax cuts won’t do anything to help the economy.  Having more money to spend doesn’t help if no one is going out and buying anything.

The Democrats in the House have revealed a plan to help families who are being hurt by the crisis.  This bill includes things like free testing for the virus, even if you don’t have health insurance.  That is important for two reasons.  First, there are over 30 million people who do not have health insurance.  Second, trump said last night that he convinced insurance companies to drop the copays for insured people.  But, he never said a word about the 30 million people without insurance.  By they way, the number of uninsured has increased by nearly 10 million people since trump took office and started gutting the Affordable Care Act.

The bill also includes things like extended unemployment insurance for anyone who loses their jobs because of the crisis.  And, the layoffs have already started.  So far, the layoffs are affecting the transportation industry.  But, as things get worse, the retail and the restaurant and entertainment industry will also begin laying off people.

The bill also includes a provision that everyone in the country would receive 14 days of paid sick leave.  They chose that number because that is the recommended amount of time for self-quarantine.  It further has protections for people who must stay home to care for someone or if things like schools begin to close regularly.

It has a provision to help getting the free breakfasts and lunches to the millions of children who qualify for them and rely on them.  The meals are already paid for, so it is a matter to find the money to get deliveries to the children if they are to stay home from school because of the crisis.

It also has a provision to expand the Medicaid coverage for the virus.  It will make certain that people on Medicaid get the treatment they may need should they get the virus.  Remember, many elderly people living in nursing homes are only there because their Medicaid covers them.  If they get the virus, and nursing homes are very likely to be like incubators for the virus if it gets in, they will need the additional help.

None of these things were covered by the president in his speech.  None of these items have been talked about by any Republican since the virus took off.  Until this morning.  Rep. McCarthy decided that he wanted “48 hours” to “renegotiate” the bill.  It is funny, the things he worries most about are very important parts of the bill.

He does not like the mandatory paid sick leave in the bill.  And, he hates the expanded Medicaid coverage in the bill.  See, he doesn’t like the idea that poor people, those who will be most affected, will have any protections to keep from losing their jobs and their income.  He is far more interested in the subsidies that trump wants to give to businesses.

Yet, there are a lot of other things that need to be considered that hasn’t even reached the radar in Congress.  First, look at the number of schools that have decided to close.  Most have announced that they intend to use online teaching.  But, in poor areas of big cities and in rural areas all across the nation, there are millions of children who live in homes that do not have computers and do not have access to broadband internet services.  So, how do they participate in these online classes?  Are they to be left behind just because they are poor?

Second, we have seen the number of rural hospital closing increase dramatically since trump took office and started his campaign to gut the Affordable Care Act.  What is the administration going to do if the virus starts emerging is areas where medical care is at a bare minimum without any hospitals to care for the sick?

The number of cases is increasing rapidly.  And, according to the experts, it is going to get worse long before it is going to get better.  Yet, testing is still almost impossible to obtain despite the assurances from trump and Sgt. Schultz.  There is even a case in West Virginia where a legislator is believed to have the virus, but he can’t even get a test to prove whether or not he has it.  So much for trump’s claim that “if you want a test, you can have a test right away.”

The people of the United States of America are being led by someone without a clue about what he is doing.  They are being led by a man only interested in his reelection and not about the health and welfare of the people he is supposed to serve.  Even after last’s night talk, today he is back to downplaying the whole matter.

As a veteran I can explain it this way.  Our president is acting like a delusional general who is leading troops into battle but tells his troops to put on blindfolds before beginning the attack.  Then he says “don’t worry, if you can’t see the enemy they can’t kill you”.

Without proper testing in vast numbers to find out exactly how far this virus has spread, we will always be blinded to the real dangers we face.  Layoffs are already beginning because of the virus and experts say a whole lot more are on the way.  Some experts say we could see as many as 75 million Americans get the virus.  Still, testing is not available.

Why is it that a country like South Korea can be testing 12,000 to 15,000 citizens every day, and we haven’t even tested that many since the epidemic began?  Ever wonder why we don’t have the tests available?  Well, here is something that the administration doesn’t want you to know.

One week after China released the gnome of the virus, Germany had a valid working test.  A few weeks later, the WHO had testing available and distributed kits to over 60 countries.  Yet, our dear leader rejected those test kits because he wanted “American tests” only.  As a result, we still don’t have the tests required to get a full handle on this epidemic.

This crisis has been mishandled from the very beginning.  The administration wanted to pretend it wouldn’t hurt us.  Then things started going south very fast.  Still the administration wanted to dismiss the epidemic by calling it a “hoax”.

When the stock market began crashing, trump didn’t look at the cause, instead he blamed the media for the crash.  He never agreed that the virus has businesses scared.  No, it was reporting, and what he called “fake news” about the virus and its spread that was making him look bad.

Now, the Democrats have a bill that will help the American people who may become affected by this virus and its fallout.  And, McCarthy wants to play politics and partisanship with it because it helps the poor too much and not businesses.  Republicans complain “we were left out of the loop”.  Oh, like you locked out Democrats from the tax cut bill you shoved down our throats?  Republicans didn’t even let Democrats read the bill until the day it was voted on.  At least Nancy Pelosi gave the Republicans the bill as soon as it was ready.  Furthermore, she was negotiating with the White House over the language of the bill and with Republicans as well.

Now that it will hit the floor, Republicans are crying about it because it won’t cover their real constituents, businesses in the country.  If McCarthy wants more in the bill, then write another bill and bring it to Pelosi and negotiate over it.  There is nothing in the rules that says the minority cannot propose legislation.

The American people need this bill.  We need to know that someone is looking out for us.  We need to know that things will eventually get better because our leaders are doing something to prevent the spread of the disease.  Happy talk by our dear leader is not doing something.  Bringing up topics that are not associated with the epidemic is not doing something.

Please remember this, the crisis began being mishandled years before it actually started.  After the ebola scare during the Obama administration, a prevention team was set up in various agencies in the government.  Their job was to look out for such possible pandemics and be able to respond long before it reached our shores.  One of these groups was even in the National Security Council.

The first thing our dear leader did when he took office was to fire all of the heads of these groups and every worker in these groups.  The second thing he did was slash the budget of the NIH and the CDC.  The two organizations that are the front line in our battle against pandemics.

If trump did not take those actions, we might be in a far better position than we are today.  The teams set up to help slow down or stop the spread would have kicked in immediately when it was discovered in China.  The NIH and the CDC would have had the resources to make sure our health care system nationwide would have been better prepared to handle such a crisis.

But, no, trump had to hamstring the very organizations that were designed to get out front of such a pandemic.  Now, he wants to blame the media and the Democrats for his problems.  He is a weak, non-existent leader and will never be able to cope with any crisis.

And, WE are paying the price, again!

 

How To Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Last Friday, the U.S. assassinated General Soleimani the head of the Quds of the Iranian Republican Guard.  Soleimani was the second most powerful person in the Iranian regime.  Yes, he was an evil person and should have faced punishment.

Yet, this action will have more consequences than trump thinks.  In effect, he has managed to unite the Mideast against us.  We had a chance to see the Iranian people make a regime change in their country.  And, we had a chance to see the Iraqi people demand that Iran leave their country.

Just two months ago, the Iranian people were protesting in the streets against the regime.  We saw the Iraqi people demanding Iran leave Iraq and stop trying to make Iraq a puppet state of Iran.

Things were going to swing against Iran in the region.  People were getting fed up with Iran and their proxy wars they were raging.  Then, our moron-in-chief turned things completely around.  He managed to stop all of the outcry against Iran and made them a rallying cry against the U.S.

The protesters a couple of weeks ago have joined the rest of Iran in making Soleimani a martyr.  They have joined the regime in wanting revenge against the U.S. for the assassination.  The very people in Iraq who wanted Iran out of their country are now calling for our troops to leave Iraq.

The other problem is that trump and his mouthpieces are changing the reason for the assassination.  At first it was he was planning an imminent threat to Americans throughout the region.  Then it was that he was a very bad guy who helped kill Americans over the past years.  Now it is, from trump’s own words, getting them back to the table about the nuclear deal trump scrapped.

Sorry, but this administration and especially this president has told so many lies since coming to power, you will forgive me for not believing one thing they say.  I would rather hear from the real professionals as to why this was so necessary.

And, even if you believe that Soleimani was an evil person, did that make it right for our country to assassinate him?  Are we now going to be a country that will openly assassinate officials of a foreign government just because we think he is evil?  That’s the kind of behavior we would expect from Putin, Erdogen, and Kim.  It is not the kind of behavior we expect from our president.

It is also not unreasonable to ask if this is just a “wag the dog” moment from our moron-in-chief.  Did he do all of this because of his impeding trial for impeachment?  Because of his repulsive behavior in the past three years, that is a reasonable question to ask.

If it turns out to be a “wag the dog” moment, it is far more dangerous than the movie.  People are going to die because of this action.  People around the globe are in jeopardy because of this action.

These are things we need to worry about.  Will this assassination lead us into a war with Iran?  If we do wind up fighting a military war with Iran, will Russia stay on the sidelines?  Russia is Iran’s biggest ally.  Will China stay on the sidelines?  Iran just held naval drills with Russia and China.  What makes stupid think they will sit by and watch to see what happens?

Our head moron is not the first president to think about taking out Soleimani.  George W. Bush and Barak Obama gave it serious thought.  However, unlike Mr. Stupid, they considered the serious consequences of that action and both decided the dangers far outweighed the man himself.

Now, Iran says it will not abide by the nuclear deal in any manner.  They plan to move forward to get their nuclear weapon that the world had worked to stop from happening.  Iran was adhering to the nuclear accord.  Then stupid pulled us out of the deal.  That was when things began to get worse instead of better.

We also need to wonder if Congress will do something about this as well.  Only Congress can declare a war with another country.  Yet this action by stupid was a huge step towards exactly that.  Congress needs to do something to let trump know he cannot start a war without their approval.

Things in the region have always been problematic.  There has always been groups of terrorists trying to destabilize the region.  It is a hotbed of extremists.  Yet, most nations in the region have held together and have remained moderate.

Those countries have been able to maintain peace within their borders and look to reach a final peace for the region.  On Friday, all of that was thrown into the fire of hate.  On Friday, our moron-in-chief ignored all of the warnings from his professional intelligence people and assassinated a foreign government official.

As a result, all of those extremists have a martyr to rally around behind.  They have the incendiary issue that will unite all of the extremists into a cause against the U.S.  In my 69 years, I have never witnessed a president manage to piss off so many people against us.  I have never seen a president totally ignore the people he has to help him make reasonable decisions and consider all of the consequences of those decisions.

So, here we are.  The great negotiator completely screwed up the North Korea matter.  They have continued missile testing and now say they will continue to test nuclear weapons.  How is that for great negotiating?

The great negotiator pulled us out of a nuclear agreement with Iran that was working.  Now he decides to assassinate one of their government officials and has opened the door for Iran to completely ignore that treaty and restart their nuclear weapons program.  How is that for great negotiating?

Time will tell just how bad things will really get.  We have heard bluster from Iran before, and we have always heard bluster from trump.  Hopefully, cooler heads on both sides will prevail.  However, with our moron-in-chief I am not holding my breath on that.

Iran’s proxies have committed terrorist acts all around the world.  In the middle east, in Africa, even in South America.  They tried to assassinate the Ambassador from Saudi Arabia here in Washington, D.C.  Fortunately, we were able to stop that attempt.

Our moron-in-chief has once again shown us how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  We have gone from a time when people in the region were beginning to turn against Iran.  And is one swell swoop, moron-in-chief turned that all around.  But then again, stupid is what stupid does.

And, the shirts keep marching along.