Last Sunday, Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) held a freewheeling interview with two Fox interviewers in a setting that made him look very small—the Lincoln Memorial. Always the TV producer, he loved the set but maintained that he hadn’t told the Interior Department to clear if for him although he was responsible. DDT did talk about whether to protect people or kill them to protect his economy. He claimed that “you can really have it both ways,” but he picked the latter. He claimed about his unity in the U.S. after siding with the 14 percent, mostly white guys protesting while carrying assault rifles and pushing people around.
DDT said he wanted to end social distance so he could “sit next to people”—and probably feel loved at his roaring crowds.
DDT wants to kill people by hiding information. Dr. Anthony Fauci has been largely muzzled in the White House, yet he’s still giving interviews, for example when he said on CNN:
“How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality sooner rather than later?”
This past week, DDT was comfortable killing about 100,000 people with COVID-19. Back on the campaign trail in Arizona, DDT referenced how it’s okay with him if people are “affected badly” to make the stock market go up. “The people of our country are warriors,” he said, and “we have to get our country open.” He ignored signs telling people to wear masks at a factory that makes masks in Arizona which had is highest number of deaths from the virus on the day of his visit.
Looking like a fool at his White House campaign rallies, DDT said he would disband the coronavirus task force. After severe backlash, he said he had no idea that his daily performances were so popular. He plans to keep the task force but change its focus to the economy instead of COVID-19 .
DDT is blocking testimony from his coronavirus task force to the House, claiming that they are “Trump haters.” Testimony might reveal Jared Kushner’s directive to supply-chain vendors to prioritize orders from “VIPS” (aka conservative journalists) and use inexperienced volunteers.
The disease control experts at CDC spent weeks developing guidance for reopening communities in the safest ways possible, and the White House buried their guidelines. The report included flow charts to help local leaders make decisions about reopening or staying closed. DDT’s new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, she of the “I won’t lie to the media” claim, said that CDC Director Robert Redfield hadn’t approved the documents. She lied. Redfield approved the document, and DDT shelved it on April 30. Also in the document was a set of phased guidelines, “Steps for All Americans in Every Community,” about testing, contact tracing, and other infection controls. DDT may not mind tracing contacts, but without tests that don’t exist, there’s no one to trace.
Redfield heard nothing after he sent the approved report to the White House for approval on April 27 although he kept asking about its status. The White House killed the document on April 30, saying that it “would [not] ever see the light of day.” On May 7, part of the report emerged into the light when AP published an article about part of it. Yesterday, they got the rest of it. The White House then called CDC and told them to take out the church flow chart. The guide recommends three phases of reopening, including social distancing, but DDT rejected the guide because it was too cautious.
Governors are helping DDT kill more people. Hours after Arizona’s Gov. Doug Ducey announced his grand reopening plan, the state’s Department of Health ordered Arizona’s two major universities to “pause” compiling data and creating models about COVID-19 cases in the state. The university statistics argued that opening the state wasn’t safe until the end of May. After a public hue and cry, the state backed off from its demand. Arizona’s deaths from COVID-19 is skyrocketing.
COVID-19 infections and deaths are also skyrocketing at meatpacking plants, but HHS Secretary Alex Azar, working hard to please DDT, explained: all their infections happen at other places, and they just happen to be working at the plants. And they get infected because they aren’t “regular folks,” according to Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack during oral arguments suing the government for his stay-at-home order. Location of the meatpacking company under discussion, Brown County HHS Department said no one should blame the meatpacking industry for the outbreak that went from 60 cases to 800 in two weeks.
Health officials in Grand Island (NE) wanted to shut down the meat plant to develop a when they saw the devastating effects of infection at JBS, but Gov. Pete Ricketts refused their pleas. Employers told workers were told to go to work even if they were sick, and rural areas are unprepared for infections in at least 10,000 workers at over 100 meat plants. With a population of 58,607, almost 90 percent living in Grand Island, Hall County has 1,285 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 31 deaths, 38 percent of all the deaths in Nebraska, population about two million.
Four other GOP governors joined Ricketts in bragging how their refusal to issue stay-at-home orders is a “model for success”: Govs. Mark Gordon (Wyoming), Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas), Kim Reynolds (Iowa), and Mike Parson (Missouri). Over 1,600 workers at four Iowa meatpacking plants have been infected; Missouri’s 368 infections on Monday reported the highest number of new cases in one day; Nebraska’s infections in Grand Island is a higher per capita rate of infection than New York; and the virus infected over 100 prisoners and a staff member.
With the help of his sycophants, DDT uses COVID-19 to kill people through lack of transparency, lying, incompetent appointments, failure to care for country’s infrastructure, elimination of health care, restriction of supplies, favoritism, pressure to open the country for rewards, and indifference to human life except for his own.
DDT doesn’t care about anyone else’s health or death, but his Navy valet’s COVID-19 infection sent DDT to “lava-level mad,” accusing his staff of not protecting him. Close to DDT throughout the day, the personal valet serves DDT’s meals, brings him beverages, and ensures that DDT’s clothes are ironed and shoes shined, but DDT claimed he had “very little contact, personal contact with this gentleman.” CDC protocol is that anyone having close contact with an infected person stay home for 14 days since that exposure, check their temperatures twice a day, and stay away from people are high risk of getting seriously ill.
(SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
After DDT discovered his valet tested positive for the virus, he met with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Neither wore a mask. Abbott, over 60, has a weaker immune system after a 1984 accident left him partially paralyzed with a spinal cord injury. DDT’s meeting with two dozen GOP congressional leaders did not require masks and had limited social distancing. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said they had tests. After exposure to the infection, DDT also met with seven World War II veterans, ages 96 to 100. No one wore masks. DDT said he won’t wear a mask because he might look ridiculous.
Katie Miller, VP Mike Pence’s spokeswoman, has also tested positive. She frequently travels with Pence and can often be found at his side in meetings. She recently married Stephen Miller, the xenophobic author of DDT’s anti-immigration decrees. DDT said her test shows why “the concept of tests aren’t necessarily great…. Something can happen between a test where it’s good and then something happens and all of the sudden.” CDC recommends that anyone exposed to an infected person stay in quarantine for 14 days and maintain six feet social distance from all other people. Pence met with faith leaders yesterday before a roundtable on securing food supply.
Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant also tested positive, but she’s been teleconferencing from home for two months.
DDT is getting pushback on his reopening states:
- 63 percent worry that states will lift restrictions too fast (Monmouth University Poll).
- 70 percent of adults avoid large gatherings, and 556 percent regularly wear masks in public, including almost half of registered Republicans. (Reuters-Ipsos poll last week)
- Only 16 percent said they would be comfortable going to a restaurant or bar, and only 10 percent would be comfortable at public events or large gatherings. Only 32 percent said they would definitely or probably go to church services if restrictions were lifted. (Navigator Research poll in late April)
- 43.9 percent approve of DDT’s handling the crisis; 52.3 percent disapprove. (RealClearPolitics average of polls)
- 42 percent approve of the job DDT is doing, down 6 points from mid-April (Reuters-Ipsos poll last week). Monmouth has the same 42 percent, down 8 points from March, and only one-third said that DDT’s advice was helpful with 42 percent saying it was harmful.
And more polls. Other polls disapproving of DDT’s handling the virus.
Most people in the U.S. aren’t comfortable with opening the businesses with so many infections and deaths. The majorities are in both parties, for example, 59 percent of Republicans don’t want sit-down restaurants opening. Over 80 percent think that movie theaters should not open.
On May 9: United States – COVID-19 confirmed cases, 1,347,309; deaths, 80,037
World – COVID-19 confirmed cases, 4,100,788; deaths, 280,432
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