Archives for April 2020

Day 1170 – Part II – Hey Guess What?

Thursday April 2, 2020 – Part II

213 Days until the election on November 3rd

293 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Last night I wrote “A Tale of Two Idiots” while watching the presidential virtual rally for his re-election called “The Corona Virus Update.”

I was not prepared for what I learned afterwards and feel I need “to stay ahead of the curve” and get this out there before too much more putrid idiocy overtakes me. (What? Unemployment at over 6 million last week? Doubling from 3 million the week before! Way to go! We’re #1. Remember when the right was upset at 635,000 and blamed Obama for W’s screwups that led to that unemployment figure? Yeah, good times.)

First off, there is the tape of Bill Gates from 2015, warning of the possibility of a global pandemic. He pretty much nailed it. (Hey, maybe that was part of what led Obama to create that Global Pandemic Response Team? Oh wait that was probably already in place. Nevermind.)

Then there was the news that the Department of Defense has ten labs that could process the Corona Virus tests, but haven’t been asked. (This I mentioned in Part I, but it was made achingly clear later in the evening.) Not only that but folks mentioned that we have the greatest logistical folks in the world. It’s called The U.S. Military. Why not use them? Nah. Haven’t been asked.

Why not use the War Powers Act to get equipment and have the stuff we need made? Other than a tweet at GM to make respirators there hasn’t been any movement.

Speaking of respirators, it was reported last night that many of those in the National Stockpile don’t work. Apparently, the Trump administration let the contract to maintain them run out and never renewed it.

Speaking of the national stockpile, it’s apparently almost depleted of masks.

Speaking of masks it was reported that on Monday of this week a warehouse got an order from overseas to ship out 230,000,000 masks. WTF? There are 230 million masks somewhere in this country and we are getting ready to ship them out? (Probably to be resold back to us at a higher price.) The supplier said no one told him not to take the order. How did we not know about all these masks? “We” being the public, the governors scrambling to find masks, the Federal Government?

In Massachusetts there’s a 4^th grade girl making masks on her sewing machine. Phenomenal. So far she’s made 820 masks. Let’s see if she could make a thousand by this weekend and if a thousand others joined in we could have a million, and if there were 230 groups of a thousand all at their sewing machines making masks we could have the number of masks sitting in a warehouse right now getting ready to leave our country.

Speaking of Massachusetts, it turns out the Federal Government can be very effective. Very effective at snatching orders out from under the nose of that state. Meanwhile states like Florida and Kentucky get everything they want and more. Huh? Some wonder if it’s political. There’s no wonder. Massachusetts has Elizabeth Warren (a truly “nasty woman” I’m sure in Trump’s eyes.) Florida has Ron DeSantis, a man with his head so far up Trump’s ass it’s doubtful he’ll ever see sunlight.

But this is all back drop to the truly stunning news. Oh wait, one more bit of idiocy, it was the Governor of Georgia (you know he and who outright stole the election from Stacy Abrams by running it and not registering 50,000 voter applications, and closing polling places in Democratic strongholds, not having enough ballots in those places, and throwing people off of voting rolls ) yeah that guy, he learned yesterday that some people can have the virus and not show any signs of being sick. Amazing. (What’s amazing you ask? Me too. Is it that he didn’t know until yesterday? Or is it that he obviously can’t read or hadn’t read or been informed by his health staff? Or is it that he’s so outright lying? Hard to say.)

Okay, the most stunning bit of news, to me, came late at night. It was an interview with Robert Gallo. He was one of two doctors to figure out that AIDS was caused by HIV and he’s done lots in the field of virus research. He mentioned, just casually, almost in passing that a research journal had published an article over a year ago that stated that a corona virus could be passed to humans via a bat. Over a year ago! Think about how long it takes to get published. That means some folks knew about this one or two years ago. 

Hum, Trump got rid of the Pandemic Response Team because he didn’t like the idea of people sitting around doing nothing (you know like worrying about viruses and germs, and what to do about them.) Turns out Dr. Gallo is connected internationally to virologists around the world who are part of a series of labs that study this stuff. Here’s some idle speculation for you: what do you think the chances of someone on the Pandemic Response Team sitting in on those calls? Or reading about that friggin’ bat a year ago? Or having heard Bill Gates’ 2015 warning?

One of the scientists interviewed last night said that when it comes to pandemics timing is everything. Getting out in front and jumping on this kind of thing is critically important. How has Trump’s timing been? Sucky.

The doctor who went to Africa during the Ebola epidemic, came back infected, and got better. You know the doctor that Trump criticized Obama for letting back into the country? Yeah, that doc. He’s in the middle of this pandemic in New York. He said that we missed an opportunity to get people trained. If we had sent people over to help (and not been stopped from doing so) then they would have real world training. They would be used to wearing hot protective gear all day. They would be used to seeing a person well one day and dead the next.

Well, don’t worry. They’ll get that training now. 

Did you see the shot of the four (or was it five?) long refrigerator trailers parked side by side outside a hospital? Guess what they are for? Hope we don’t run out of them.

Have a nice day.

213 Days until the election on November 3rd

293 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Pyramid! (Many people don’t know this but pyramids are just a pile of rocks. Did you know that? Amazing, huh? – OMG save me!)

Day 1170 A Tale of Two Idiots

Thursday April 2, 2020 – Part I

213 Days until the election on November 3rd

293 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

OMG! It’s Wednesday evening and I’m watching the president’s new remote rally called the Daily Corona Virus Update.

Mike Pence was asked why the administration didn’t open up the Obamacare exchanges so folks could get covered. This was after Donnie did what I’m now calling The Trump Turn. (“I don’t know, maybe someone else in my administration did it? Lemme see who’s here? [turns to one side to seee who is there.] Oh Mike do you want to answer that?”)

So Mike took the podium and he did his standard routine: thanking the president for his great leadership, and telling everyone why we are so far out in front of this thing. This went on for five minutes. He said nothing and didn’t answer the question.

So he stumbled on two questions: “What happened to the testing?”

And

“Why not open up the exchanges so people can get covered?”

“The testing? Oh we delivered all the test kits. We just can’t get them analyzed quick enough.” (What’s that clanging sound I hear? Oh it’s the BS detector going off.)

“People getting covered? You mean like the ones losing their jobs and therefore their health insurance? Hey, no problem, The American People have nothing to worry about.” ( CLANG CLANG CLANG ) (Now with a Grecian chorus of slightly stained virgins crying, “Bull Shit, Bull Shit, Bull Shit.”  

– Insert five minutes of wandering around talk and saying words like “Medicare” and “Medicaid.” –

(I wonder how the reporters sit there with a straight face, having to accept this silliness?)

“What? You ask about the people who don’t qualify for those programs. You mean like the people who were working and lost their jobs and therefore their health insurance? You mean the question you asked in the first place? Let me assure the American People that everyone will be covered. I will personally wander around verbally some more and by the way the president has been absolutely clear in his BS. No one can throw it more than he? But I’m right in there too!”

We went to the experts who said we have to shut down everywhere.

Afterwards, there was a Defense Department scientist who said we have the capacity in the Defense Department with ten labs that could process the tests. They haven’t been asked!

The Defense Department labs that could do hundreds of thousands of tests a day are not doing squat, because no one has told them what to do. That’s our federal leadership.

And then there’s Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida. He won the election by stealing the election via shutting down polling places in Democratic strongholds and eliminating people on voter rolls. Oh well. He said the other day he was waiting for an order from the Federal government. The Surgeon General stood up holding a piece of paper and read their guidelines and said, “Consider this an order.” Did he shut it down? Nah. Finally, a few hours ago he shut down the state. Yipee. What’s that you say? Oh, it’s okay to have mega-church meetings. WTF? The guy is an idiot. 

The lack of leadership is staggering.

Hey, quiz time. What was the first city to lockdown?

San Francisco. Yup. Hum, who is their rep in Congress? Oh. Nancy Pelosi. 

Interesting.

There was a person complaining on Facebook about all the people complaining about Trump. This person said he was sick and tired of it and why didn’t they just let Trump do his job?

But that’s the point isn’t it? If he was doing his job, or had done his job, people wouldn’t be complaining. The fact is he hasn’t been doing the job, and therein lies the problem. 

Not only that but Trump has surrounded himself with people who fail to do their jobs or any job at all. The only job that seems to be going well is the raking in of cash for his re-election and the micro-targeting of people to vote for him (or not for the other person.)

213 Days until the election on November 3rd

293 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS The Observatory at Yaxha (“Yash – Ha”). It is identified by the sign in front of it. Fortunately, I speak some Spanish and can translate what it says. 

Day 1168 – Brilliance in Stupidity – The Magic of The Donald

Tuesday March 31, 2020

215 Days until the election on November 3rd

295 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

I heard Trump lie again last night. It was an audio clip of him with the governors on a phone call. As I thought about it afterwards I realized I had heard this same shuck and jive before from him – many times.

The guy is not smart, and therein lies his brilliance. He’s repetitive so it’s easy to imitate him. It’s also easy to know what he’s going to say because of the fact that he uses the same phrases and the same adjectives and the same behaviors in the same ways over and over again.

Alec Baldwin said in his studying to imitate Trump he saw a man looking for a word that he wanted to use, who searched his brain trying to find that word, and when he couldn’t find it, used another word – over and over again. And there you have it! That’s Trump. But it’s not just a word or a phrase, he does this with the way he handles himself: be it when he’s being asked a question, being criticized, or trying to sell something. The shuck and jive is the same. There’s no change. There is absolutely no change. Which is to say the man doesn’t learn.

Last night I heard the audio clip where the governor of Montana was telling Trump that he was not going to be able to get ventilators because he would not be able to compete. Trump replied that he’s never heard of people not being able to get ventilators. This would be a John Oliver “What the Fuck are You Talking About” moment, but it was Rachel. Even she in her erudite way asked that question. 

When was the last time we heard Trump pull this stunt? The “We haven’t heard that before” bit or in it’s other guise “I don’t know. I didn’t do it. Maybe, someone else here did it, but I didn’t do it.” 

He did it at his press conference in the last week. Where he denied doing something he himself had done. He turned to his right and asked the person he saw there if they had done it. Then the video of him doing and saying whatever it was surfaced.

Sometimes he gets caught out by a reporter who uses his own words or actions against him. Then what does he do? The adjectives used are “terrible”, “nasty”, and “bad.”

Remember “Bad Hombres”? “Nasty Women”? 

Last week when Yamiche asked him to explain how he was more prepared than the Obama administration was for this pandemic when he had dismantled the pandemic response team, she got a “That’s a nasty question” response.

When Peter Alexander asked him to say something to the American people that were scared, he got a “You’re a terrible reporter” and “that’s a nasty question” response.

Yaniche went on, later in the week to earn another “nasty” for asking another legitimate question.

That’s why Trump plays so well in the era of the 20 second sound bite. You already know the script. It’s just a question of putting it together in slightly different ways. Maybe not even that, just substitute the new person’s name.

If you listened to the sales pitch he did for Trump University and the one he used as a candidate for president there isn’t any difference. It’s the same shuck and jive. Remember, “I’m going to have the best people” bit? Quick, which sales con is that from? His presidential run or his sales pitch for Trump U? If you said both – you’re right!

Now, we are facing a pandemic that has killed thousands and will probably kill hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, and we’ve got the same shuck and jive. 

What did you expect? Action? Leadership?

Those are nasty questions and you’re a terrible person. Next.

215 Days until the election on November 3rd

295 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Railroad tracks – Cairo

Day 1167 – Why give $25 Million to the Kennedy Center you ask?

Monday March 30, 2020

216 Days until the election on November 3rd

296 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Because the Kennedy Center is the National Theater supported by Congress by law, started by Eisenhower, suggested by George Washington, boosted by Kennedy and named by Johnson that’s why. 

Moving on.

This whole Corona virus thing could have been avoided. I know. I know. Speculation you say. Remember the Ebola epidemic that wiped out America? Of course not, it didn’t happen. Why? Because we had a real President that took decisive action and stopped it in its tracks that’s why. Remember the same dumb shit Republicans that are screwing around now and doing nothing are the same dumb shit Republicans that were screwing around then and recommending we do nothing.

How did that turn out?

Well, in the case of Ebola our President stopped it in Africa and strengthened our defenses here and the African defenses abroad.

In the case of this president and this pandemic, he did nothing. Well, that isn’t true, he did everything he could to tear down what was built, and he’s not done yet! His idiots are in court trying to get rid of what is left of Obama-care. His cronies are still trying to cut funding to the CDC and NIH. (Not true, you scream? Oh, I forgot. You get your news from a place that is being considered for suit because of their false information and their broadcasters are furiously removing their tweets to try and pretend they didn’t lie to you about the Corona virus.) 

Meanwhile the president is trolling around looking for more dregs to put in charge of critical stuff. Peter Navarro! Step right up. What do you have to recommend you to a post, any post in the government? Oh right, you’ve written a bunch of books about China. None of them make any sense and are delusional. Yeah, we’ll put you in charge of something. Lemme see, what do we have? (Who cares. It will be another diasaster.)

And then what was one of the latest things Trump has done? Oh yeah, accused health care workers of stealing stuff and selling it. No, no, no, you got that wrong. Those are your people doing that shit.

God. It is so disgusting.

The right wingers have gone back to blaming Hillary, Obama, and Soros for the countries woes. None of them have the guts to face the reality of what the problem is.

Oh oh oh, yesterday Trump listened to scientists. Yipee! Let’s all go celebrate. Drinks on me at your favorite bar or mega church! (I will, of course, pull a Trump and not pay. Ha ha ha. Jokes on you.)

216 Days until the election on November 3rd

296 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021