History will not be kind to the billionaire Trump whisperers responsible for so many COVID-19 deaths
By Thom Hartmann A...
Several new studies and models suggest that if Donald Trump had simply declared a state of national emergency, largely shutting down the country, a few weeks earlier than he did, tens of thousands of people who are dead right now would still be alive.He certainly had the information available to him. We now know that he was receiving classified briefings in December and January warning about the virus coming, and Peter Navarro had written a memo to him explicitly warning of exactly what is happening right now.
The problem is that Donald Trump doesn't read. He doesn't read his classified briefings, he doesn't read memos from his senior staff, he doesn't read his speeches before he gives them; he apparently doesn't read anything at all except Twitter.
While Trump may have some natural skills as a huckster, salesman and grifter, most the evidence - including statements by his previous teachers and professors - indicate he otherwise has a mediocre or even poor intellect.
So here's how banal our crisis is: our president is a man who is not particularly smart and doesn't read.
Read more here.
-Thom
Comments
#2
Forward spammers to this address
#3
More so than similar social-media sites, it seems sometimes that this blog gets heavily targeted with the goofiest of spam from the weirdest corners of virtual capitalism, which makes one wonder if disgruntled former trolls are using their considerable dark-net resources and connections to dredge the sewers and direct the stench toward liberal sites, especially Thom's number-one-rated talk show.
Or, even more sobering, perhaps the devolution of the internet is getting so bad that the ubiquitous nonsense and shoddy con jobs are simply the accepted norms, organically arising from the black hearts of the worst players. After all, the web is populated by a highly delusional species regrettably endowed with the finger dexterity to flesh out its darkest fantasies.
#4
So, I wonder if the ship of fools who voted for a demented captain with no compass will ever regret their dumb-ass decision or wish they had Bernie's Medicare-for-all. Nope, the proudly ignorant and arrogant are too far gone to admit how badly they fckd-up. You get what you pay for; you suffer the fool you vote for. This isn't the China virus; it's the Trump virus.
The intelligence community and the pandemic experts knew for a long time just how bad this could get, and they began pleading seriously but vainly with the Dummy in Chief at least by early January to do SOMETHING! Instead, Trump the Lazy did NOTHING! He golfed, held fundraisers, and led Hitleresque propaganda rallies, falsely blaming the media and the Democrats for his own insolent behavior, uncaring attitude, and poor judgment.
His "administration" (in name only), deliberately squandered seventy crucial days with pure Trumpian bullsht of denial and deflection that led directly to the needless suffering of a million and a half (a gross undercount), the deaths of a hundred thousand (a gross undercount), and a devastated economy heading toward a major depression that will probably last years.
Trump conducted this orchestra of evil almost singlehandedly. In any other context, criminal negligence on such a scale would be considered a major crime against humanity, deserving public prosecution at The Hague International Court of Justice, since our own justice system no longer respects the constitutional mandate that nobody is above the law. What a joke the Republican Senate and the Attorney General made of that founding principle!
And now, these self-serving, unpatriotic, traitorous, irreligious, murderous bastards (say it plainly) are at it again: deliberately ignoring the science for crass political reasons and wasting precious time, which will lead to the dreaded second wave with another million or more infected and another hundred thousand or more dead -- that is, if everyone is tested and counted properly, which they won't be, of course.
The American people have sacrificed tremendously to gift this nation a little more time to finally get it right. By a vast majority, the People expect their elected representatives to follow the science and educate the public truthfully, to utilize Federal emergency powers effectively and coordinate with the states in a nonpartisan manner, and to marshall scarce resources and save as many lives as possible. Otherwise, what good are they? Why have an executive branch -- indeed, why have any government at all if it can't help us survive a disaster and only makes it worse?
This is a health crisis first and an economic crisis second, so the only way to solve the latter is to solve the former. Until there is an effective vaccine, the economy will never truly "open up" without "da guvmunt" constantly monitoring, testing, tracing, and isolating its citizens -- all that anti-liberty stuff gun-toting crazies intrinsically hate.
Trump absolutely blew it in every way possible; so now, his last-ditch hail-mary pass to reelection, after exposing himself as a gawddamn fool with a little penis and matching little brain, is to keep lying and cheating like hell by distracting voters with a meritless Obamagate, Bidengate, or whatevergate. After all, the fake Hillarygate, with a big dose of Russian interference, worked so well last time. Nothing materially has changed Trump's basic 2016 equation ...except the countless graves in his wake.
#5
Today is 4 months since China virtually shutdown China. Blatantly obvious that this virus was bad. We are still arguing about wearing masks in public. It has become a bipartisan issue. The President refuses to wear a mask. Thus you are not a good Republican if you wear a mask. Taiwan is 24 million people. 441 cases, 7 deaths total in the 4 months. They wear masks. USA is 330 million people. 1622670 cases, 97087 deaths total in the 4 months. We argue about wearing masks and make it a bipartisan issue.
#6
There is no face mask that protects against the viral stupidity of Trump supporters. What they need are bags over their ugly heads so the rest of us don't have to look at them. What can't get through the Fux News filter covering their brains:
Virus "eminently capable" of spreading through speech...
Masks help stop the spread of coronavirus – the science is simple...
#7
It took 4 months for masks to really come on stage. I went into a store for the 1st time in months on Tuesday. A garden store that required a mask for store entry. Also LOWES, where I was impressed that most were wearing masks. All store employees were. Why it took 4 months is what amazes me.
But alas, the second wave. My County got the ok to open restaurants. We have a neighborhood Facebook page (good and bad). It was announced on the FB Site and immediately people were rushing for reservations etc. I can feel the second wave coming.
Not to mention Trumps proclamation that we do not pray enough and churches must open to pray more. As if you cannot pray at home. And as if we can pray away the virus. The virus loves a crowd. We are its legs.
#8
Be gone, Trump! Amen, brothers and sisters!
Parishioners should at least pray away Trump as long as they're risking their lives and those of their family and friends by congregating and breathing each other's viruses before traveling to points unknown. If it works, maybe their own sacrifice will not have been in vain.
But what about everyone else outside of the church's walls? Did they volunteer for Trump's "Arbeit macht frei," Josef Mengele-like experiment in human suffering?
#9
Here comes the 2nd wave. Just maybe if the President set a better example we could prevent a 2nd wave.
#10
Disturbing pictures. It's hard to spot those wearing masks. This one is the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland on Saturday. [REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo] Social distancing? Masks? Pandemic? Who cares?
At this point, a huge second wave is a foregone conclusion. It will also be the second time in five months that Herr Drumpf will have deliberately committed a crime against humanity. Hiding behind his army of thugs to deflect blame in a craven bid to amass and wield ultimate power and to punish his political enemies, real or perceived, he has institutionalized criminal negligence and public corruption on a grand scale.
After several months of intense scrutiny by every public and private agency imaginable the world over (other than Fux News and cohorts), this mad tyrant knows full well that his actions, or lack thereof, will hasten the uncontrollable spread of severe disease to potentially millions more, causing additional deaths likely in the hundreds of thousands -- fellow Americans under his protection!
Abusing the formidable powers of the highest position of public trust, Trump cajoles, browbeats, and outright threatens already stressed-out governors and mayors to foolishly "reopen" their inherently crowded workplaces and public venues, which serve as hardy breeding grounds for SARS-CoV-2. Stupidly throwing the doors open too soon without the necessary supplies, guidance, procedures, and without a properly trained workforce in place that would ensure effective testing, surveillance, contact-tracing, and strict isolation of those infected, will only kill more people and damage the economy even further.
The suffering of so many comes down to just one man -- a vain, stupid little man clinging to a heroic image of himself as a great leader. (My God!) It's one thing to falsify the path of a major hurricane on national TV (shoulda nuked it) in a laughable attempt to defend his childish ego, but it's on a whole new level of depravity to lie shamelessly, repeatedly, directly to our faces about a highly contagious pandemic sweeping across the land. For chrissake, that is full-tilt GAME OVER!
To Trump, political expediency means a campaign of death under the guise of saving the economy. No matter how it's sliced and diced, that's a disqualifying event beyond the pale, even for this piece-of-sht waste of skin in orange makeup and yellow clown hair. Hey, Moscow Mitch! Can you hear us now?
The stubborn reality of America's dire predicament won't change with magical thinking, regardless of how long it's scrutinized, analyzed, and normalized by a mesmerizing media or of how many word salads that a freaked-out Republican Party tosses up to confuse the situation or to change the subject. Fundamental reform is not possible unless the People get mad enough to rise up en masse and throw the bums out.
That takes unity of purpose, which in this age of endless distraction is sorely lacking. Joe Biden should take a cue from Franklin Roosevelt and welcome the hatred of Wall Street.
#11
Fox News shames Biden for wearing a mask at a Memorial Day ceremony (from the lock down in their home). Making a mask political. How low can they go.
#12
I can't understand the persistant naivete among my friends on the left. How can it be so widely overlooked that tRump will, in all probability, get re-elected? I feel it is a grave error to be at all confident in his defeat.
Another oversight I just experienced is with Thom. I just heard him ask if [economists] really think of people as "Human Stock." OF COURSE! This is nothing new. Where has Thom been? He suggested that the last time he "heard" that was, essentially, when slaves were being sold as livestock. C'mon! This is America. Stop pretending that this is not the prevailing attitude. People in this Country don't even value their own lives, let alone someone else's. At least not beyond their own petty, selfish, instant gratifications. It's time to stop pretending that we are the Nation our soldiers of the past so gallantly sacrificed their lives for. That is a notion that is to be persueded, perhaps, but never obtained. It's a fairy tale. This Country stands for Corporate profits and selfish desires.
Sorry to be so cynical, but the truth hits everyone. And hurts.
#13
A properly fitted N95 mask is the ONLY mask that has a chance of preventing the wearer from infection. The N95 mask blocks at least 95% of the very small (0.3 microns) particles (A Corona Virus is approximately 0.12 microns) The CDC says the general public should not wear these masks, but reserve them for health care workers.
The home-made, and any mask that is not a N95 mask will not protect the wearer from contracting Covid-19. It may prevent an asymptomatic wearer from spreading the disease, but that's it. Those who are wearing masks as a political statement are spreading false hope to an uninformed public.
#14
COV-19 and Americans will force the Republican Party, the President, Senate, and other elected officials to PROVE their value in the future.
#15
#13 Worn out door knobs.
Fox news really keeps you ignorant. The mask helps to prevent the wearer (you) from spreading the virus into the atmosphere. Thus it only is really effective when all wear masks. Do not understand how you can remain so ignorant on this subject as you have posted before and have been following this site. So if you have the virus, known or unknown. you can spread it all over by breathing, but a mask helps to keep it contained. There is plenty of documentation on this so will not bother to document. In other words get your head out of your ass.
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When they shutdown Shanghai Disneyland on January 24 I knew it was going to be bad. I did not think that Disneyland would shutdown here. I also knew that a pandemic would hit us really hard due to the lack of insured, poorly insured, lack of sick leave and the homeless population. No other major country is in such bad shape as we are for healthcare.