Trump is the biggest fool ever to be elected president. He says stupid things proudly. The number of coronavirus cases detected is surging, mostly in the south and west, and Trump says it’s because there’s is more testing. Other nations are testing and seeing a decline in cases.
Trump said in Wisconsin today:
“If we didn’t test, we wouldn’t have cases,” he said later at a shipyard in Marinette, Wis. “But we have cases because we test. We’ve done an incredible, historic job.”
No testing. No cases. Stupid.
What came first the chicken or the egg?
What came first the test for COVID-19 or the virus?
Clearly, Trump would not understand and he would say, “Well, how could they have a virus if they don’t have a test for it?”
Or, to put it in terms that the Idiot might get, from a verse in a song that is one of my guilty pleasures (appropriately named The World Should Revolve Around Me): “What came first, the Chicken McNugget or the Egg McMuffin?”
“What came first, the Chicken McNugget or the Egg McMuffin?”
LOL
You do know what Trump’s answer would be, don’t you? Trumpty Dumpty would say, “Egg McMuffins,” because breakfast comes first each day. The Chicken McNuggets are for lunch or dinner.
Diane Yes, “stupid.” It also shows with excellent clarity Trump’s broken relationship with the truth.
Trump cannot see ANYTHING except through a political lens with his wants at the center. I have a relative whom I tried to explain this to just two day ago . . . it’s through a public-health lens that Trump and my relative need to see it. Nothing sinks in, however. That Trump would say that (and lie) in such a public forum says much about his (yes, stupid) state of mind with regard to the truth.
With my relative, we are not only on a different page, we are in a completely different book. CBK
Try the cancer line on your relative. It’s like saying if we didn’t test for cancer, there wouldn’t be any. You don’t have to be Einstein to understand how ridiculous that is.
speduktr There comes a time in the conversation when, no matter how reasonable an argument is (like the analogy of cancer), some resist for the sake of resistance–and then there is no point to pushing back with (OMG!) good and reasonable statements. This is one of those times with her, and with (I think) so many others.
I also think, however, that the jackboots have finally reached the driveways of many of those resisters and Trumpers in the form of the virus and the sheer numbers of cases.
I’m not an “I told you so person,” however. I’ll just take heart that my relative and they finally “get it” and the long arch of human sanity can finally get right in its relationship with the universe . . . for now. CBK
I know what you mean, Catherine. It reminds me of some parenting advice on nagging. Remember the phrase, “How many times have I told you!?” Of course, the number of times and places a child was told has nothing to do with their following through with the appropriate compliant actions if they didn’t want to hear what you were saying.
speduktr, here’s a good example of our problem, how can anyone reason with people like these?
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/06/angry-florida-lady-loses-her-mind-city
Yeah, there’s not a whole lot you can do with zealots.
I like a meme I have seen that says that we should just get rid of thermometers, and then we wouldn’t have any hot days!
Diane Speaking of tests, I think HOW most Americans respond to this latest in Trump’s disregard of reality and truth will reveal just who the greater “WE” have become.
At this point in this awful history of events, I feel that this disregard of reality that affects the very lives of his followers is the turning point . . . the proverbial “straw.” “We’ll see, . . . ” said the sage in that old story of the boy and his horse. Indeed, we will. CBK
We had thunderstorms off and on all day. thankfully the cloud cover kept it from getting to the predicted 90 degrees. I opened the backdoor after it was dark tonight and the temperature was hovering in the low 70s. I couldn’t have closed it more quickly; the air was like soup.
I hope everyone here takes time to read this, by someone who knows something about COVID, more than any of us likely ever will:
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/26/eabc5354
DeSantis tried feeding the people in Florida Trump’s crazy statement about testing and virus. A day later, probably after getting calls from sane people, he tried to walk his statement back. The next day he said we also have more cases because people are not wearing masks and keeping social distance.
Yes. Floridians have been hearing these very words for weeks.
This year Covid will kill 200,000 or more Americans. Impact would have been mitigated by a different, capable US President.
Placing it in context- the rule of law, separation of church and state, civil rights, American democratic institutions – destroyed by Trump’s administration.
An inconvenient truth-
The current DOJ spokesperson, Kerri Kupek, was formerly spokesperson for the Anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom. “ALEC Teams up with Anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom…” (PR Watch 2019) From the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, “Archbishop Chaput’s Address at the Alliance Defending Freedom Summit” (2019). From Buzzfeed, “… anti-abortion and anti-LGBT policy is shaped by the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society…The USCCB is an aggressively political anti-abortion and anti LGBT wing of the Catholic hierarchy…(its representative) Archbishop Kurtz talked about the ‘importance of our partnering with the government…’ “
Over 31,000 of the 126,000 U.S. deaths so far (nearly a quarter) have been in New York State, most in New York City. I will agree that Trump is an idiot for the way he handled the nation and deserves the lion’s share of the blame for the country’s high death rate.
But at the same time that he was refusing to shut down the country and telling people to go about their daily lives, Cuomo and DeBlasio were refusing to shut down New York and also telling people to go about their daily lives (and Cuomo was, even as the pandemic raged, busy cutting funding for hospitals). What share of the blame do they deserve?
Cuomo and DeBlasio were slow to act. Then they realized what was happening and became super vigilant. Trump learned about the virus in early January and decided to ignore it. His refusal to wear a mask sets a horrible example for his passionate followers. He is still in denial. Unlike Cuomo and DeB., he has not acknowledged the pandemic. When will he wake up?
Yesterday there were more than 40,000 new cases identified. That was a record. The hard hit nations of Europe are seeing a decline. The US is seeing a resurgence. It’s not in NY. NY, in Cuomo’s language, went from “worst to first.” Watch how Texas, Florida, and other states react.
The disastrous response to the pandemic is collateral damage. The Republicans’ puppet master, Charles Koch, attacked a federal system which was created to make the nation safe and, which had evolved into the system of competent civil servants. It is a system essential for a developed nation. The federal system also serves to unify divisions within the country. Koch-backed Republican politicians undermined it and corrupted it in favor of states rights where the Koch’s ALEC could create laws that were racist ( stand your ground), that were anti-labor (right to work) and, that were grounded in racial capitalism.
Governors understand a pandemic required a federal system to combat it. The fact that they are playing catch up to the Koch’s evil plotting is going to be an on-going problem in future situations for a nation headed to the historically- evidenced future of concentrated wealth.
Correct, ALEC and its deplorable greedy, corrupt, hate-filled libertarian members (traitors that should all be hunted down and executed) have been working for decades to literally break up the United States into 50 little countries with a federal government that exists in name only unless someone like Trump is president and then that president runs the country like an Emperor and has anyone that stands in his way hunted down and executed even the members of ALEC.
The title should be “Trump: Denying COVID is Cause of Surge in MOVID-45(Moronavirus)“
Monster Trump is so stupid that _______________________ . . . . .
I hope he ODs on fried mozzarella sticks . . . .
Clog . . . . Burst . . . . Thud . . . Done.
I’m going to throw out a word. You tell me the first PERSON who comes to mind:
Idiot
OK. Now this is harder. Someone other than Trump.
Too much of the Congress and Senate.
That was easy, breezy. . . .
Bob I just wish I hadn’t gone to doctor for a checkup. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have gotten (fill in the blank). CBK
lmao!!!
An idiot other than Trump isn’t that hard.
How about Moscow Mitch and William Barr?
Trump is the Emperor of Idiots
Mitch is the Count of Chicanery
William Barr is the Earl of Duplicity
Without idiots like McConnel and Barr enabling Trump, Dunghill Donald would have been found guilty of obstruction of justice and/or treason during the Senate Impeachment Trial and he would probably be fighting in court to stay out of prison for the rest of his life on a long list of other charges, too.
One of the ways in which Donald Trump has made us less safe is by pulling out of the INF and Open Skies treaties at a time when Russia has developed hypersonic nuclear missiles. Hypersonic nuclear missiles are ones that can travel at five times or more the speed of sound. So, here’s Trump in Arizona this last week:
“We’re now doing a hydrosonic–I call them ‘super dupers’–missile.”
Hydrosonic super dupers!!!
And, of course, Trump has ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS made statements that show that he thinks that stealth planes are literally invisible.
Yes, he is that stupid. Inject yourself with disinfectants stupid.
If you don’t test for pregnancy, you’re not pregnant.
Bravo! That is a good one!
Dear Diane,
You are invited to join the Washington Teachers’ Union and other co-sponsors at a Virtual Town Hall on July 9th at 2 pm: “*Quality Education as a Constitutional Right* with Bob Moses, Danny Glover, Jamarria Hall, Mark Rosenbaum and Russlynn Ali and hosted by Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project, Teaching for Change, XQ Institute and the Algebra Project.
The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on April 23, 2020 recognized a constitutional right of foundational literacy under the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision addressed conditions for students in Detroit public schools, but it elevated the argument around the need to educate all children to at minimum a 21st Century standard of basic literacy.
Click here for the Save the Date flyer; flyer: https://atownhallmeeting.splashthat.com
Click here if you plan to attend. I look forward to seeing you there.
In Solidarity,
Elizabeth Davis, President
On Thu, Jun 25, 2020 at 10:54 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Trump is the biggest fool ever to be elected > president. He says stupid things proudly. The number of coronavirus cases > detected is surging, mostly in the south and west, and Trump says it’s > because there’s is more testing. Other nations are testing and se” >
Trump says, “We’ve done an incredible, historic job.”
COVID-19 is mostly killing off poor blacks, Hispanics and old people, although the median age of those catching this virus is 35 in Florida. It certainly will save the government money. Is this the desired goal?
Billionaires want their people back at work so they can resume collecting more money. There are always a number of starving people who are willing to work for minimum wage. If they die they will easily be replaced. Is this the ideal situation that Trump applauds?
Trump idolizes dictators like Kim Jong Un in N. Korea, Duterte in the Philippines and Bolsonaro in Brazil all of who are killing off their people. Kim Jong Un puts disloyal families in concentration camps. Duterte allows police to kill anyone suspected of dealing drugs and he has bragged about having killed people when he was a mayor. Bolsonaro is happy killing off indigenous people. Is this the incredible job that Trump admires?
Maybe Trump is following the desires of those he respects and ‘we have done an incredible job’. Is he really this ruthless? Or is he just plain stupid?
Redfield, a Trump appointee, from the CDC says that the number of infected is estimated to be more than 10x the known number. 2.3 million should be 23 million. This is Trump’s idea of a ‘historic’ job. He is right about that.
The Idiot is correct for once. His actions have been incredible and historic. He just doesn’t understand what the words mean.
I LOVE good news!
WaPo:
In a blistering editorial warning that President Trump could face a “historic repudiation” in November, the Wall Street Journal criticizes him for having “wasted his chance to show leadership” on the coronavirus pandemic and says his “default now is defensive self-congratulation.”
The staunchly conservative Journal editorial board, which at times has not pulled its punches in assessing Trump’s presidency, writes that his record in fighting the coronavirus “is better than his critics claim after a bad start in late February and March” and credits him for mobilizing federal forces to help hard-hit states.
“But he wasted his chance to show leadership by turning his daily pandemic pressers into brawls with the bear-baiting press and any politician who didn’t praise him to the skies,” the editorial says. “Lately he has all but given up even talking about the pandemic when he might offer realism and hope about the road ahead even as the country reopens. His default now is defensive self-congratulation.”
The Journal also faults Trump for failing to provide “firm but empathetic leadership after the death of George Floyd” and says that Trump may soon need another nickname for Joe Biden other than “Sleepy Joe.”
“How does President-elect sound?” the editorial asks.
Trump doesn’t have a problem taking away healthcare in the middle of a pandemic.
Trump Moves to Kill Obamacare on Same Day U.S. Hits New COVID-19 Infection Record
‘UNFATHOMABLE CRUELTY’
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated Jun. 26, 2020 6:47AM ET /
Published Jun. 26, 2020 6:03AM ET
Reuters / Carlos Barria
The United States suffered a daily record for new coronavirus cases Thursday, with 40,401 positive tests confirmed, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. On the same day, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, which hundreds of thousands of Americans have turned to for health-care coverage and protection for pre-existing conditions during the pandemic.
In a late-night filing, government lawyers argued that “the entire ACA must fall” because one of its core provisions, the individual mandate, is unconstitutional, which they say makes the rest of the law invalid. Democrats reacted angrily to the move, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying: “President Trump and the Republicans’ campaign to rip away the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the coronavirus crisis is an act of unfathomable cruelty.” Oral arguments are scheduled for next term, but it’s not clear if that’ll happen before the election. A decision in the case might not come until 2021.
Read it at The Washington Post
He just grabs onto a position that promotes his agenda & keeps repeating it. (In this case, his agenda is, re-open biz regardless of virus; so what if x% die.) It doesn’t matter if he believes it or not. If he does, he’s stupid. If he doesn’t, he figures his audience is.
The problem with this particular position is, even stupid people know the virus is there whether you test for it or not. They’re good with “it only looks worse cuz we’re testing more” until it starts knocking at their door. And right now, the virus is knocking at the door of Trumpista strongholds in TX, FL, AZ. Additional problem with his assertion: those w/ave& above thinking caps also look at #’s for rate of infection & hospitalizations.
My guess: he’ll back off this one pretty quick, or even the red-stronghold stupids will be able to grasp the agenda.
tRump needs to (fill in the blanks). Can’t write this here in Diane’s living room.
He’s DISGUSTING.
He’s Making America GRATE. His KARMA is here and getting worse … YAY!
I can’t think of that dump too much or I feel like PUKING. Honest.
This isn’t worthy of an intelligent comment.
WaPo:
Pence would not recommend that all Americans wear masks even when pressed, instead urging people to listen to their local health officials and pray.
Pence says, “And even in a health crisis, the American people don’t forfeit our constitutional rights.”
Video: The American people are on to Donald Trump.
We know he doesn’t care about us. Nearly 120,000 Americans have lost their lives. 20 million of all races and backgrounds are out of work. And millions more have lost their health coverage during this pandemic.
And now Trump is delaying the health and economic relief American families need. Trump isn’t showing up for the American people — and now, his supporters aren’t even showing up for him.
I don’t believe he is just plain stupid. Everything he says and does it calculated for his own self-advancement. That is his sole moral compass and political calculation. Bad news makes him look bad. So, it should be prevented and when that fails, denied. The people around him get tested regularly to protect him. He does not believe in testing for others because they of not value to him.
Trump might not be plain stupid but he is ignorant, with a huge lack of knowledge, but he acts like he knows everything. Trump is so ignorant that the only person that thinks he isn’t ignorant is Trump.
Ignorance is a state of being uninformed and unaware. It can also mean that a person is lazy to notice something, or is doing so deliberately. As for stupidity, it is knowing what is right and trying to find it in the wrong.
And it is Trump’s arrogance and ignorance that will bury him.
Arrogance is the inability to see the flaw in yourself/feeling superior to other people just because you’re you. Its being unable to see faults in what you do or believing that you’re better than others by just being yourself. Ignorance is not knowing or being aware of something.
Trump learned how to fight from Roy Cohn. That is the only way Trump knows how to fight.
Trumpology
The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn
The unrepentant political hitman who taught a younger Trump how to flout the rules didn’t get away with it forever.
“Now, less than 14 months out from next year’s election, with Trump facing historic legal and political peril, it’s getting harder and harder not to wonder what he might or might not have gleaned from watching Cohn’s wretched unraveling. Trump is beset by 29 federal, state, local and congressional investigations. Poll after poll shows he’s broadly disliked. He could win reelection, obviously, but it’s true, too, that he’s an unusually endangered incumbent. Trump, to be sure, is not weakened by physical sickness, and he has not been pursued by prosecutors and other committed antagonists for nearly as long as Cohn was. And as powerful as Cohn was perceived to be at his peak, he was never, it almost goes without saying, the most powerful man in the world. Even so, the question looms: Will Cohn’s most accomplished and attentive mentee ultimately suffer a similar fate?”
By MICHAEL KRUSE
September 19, 2019
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144
I think he is profoundly ignorant by choice. He seeks and retains information that reinforces his own world view whose first job is to directly benefit him.
Even the Wall Street Journal is turning against Trump.
…………………………………
Trump’s recent performance was roasted in a leading conservative venue, the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. “Something shifted this month,” wrote columnist Peggy Noonan. “He hasn’t been equal to the multiple crises. Good news or bad, he rarely makes any situation better. And everyone kind of knows.”
The Journal’s editorial board rendered this brutal verdict: “As of now Mr. Trump has no second-term agenda, or even a message beyond four more years of himself. His recent events in Tulsa and Arizona were dominated by personal grievances.”
Let’s go back to the recent post about Camus’ common decency: which has always been a hallmark of the Christian message.
With that in mind, the question for the religious right (which plays a big part in Trump’s election and continued hold on some of the electorate) . . .
. . . is whether they are ready to sacrifice their own common decency and genuineness on the altar of someone who is using those and their religious ideologies for his own purposes.
In terms of its political implications, the question is whether they are willing to abort the whole of democracy and their own religious freedom with it, in order to rescind some of the freedoms they find objectionable there.
To the religious right I would say: There are other fronts of battle; for instance, common decency itself. CBK
I think it is arguable that the religious alt-right are not legitimate Christians. They are more like the Hebrews that ended up worshiping a golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai with God for forty days and forty nights.
Trump is the religious alt right’s golden calf, and COVID-19 may be another plague to separate the unfaithful from the faithful. Those that follow Trump’s example and refuse to wear masks and keep their distance from others will pay a steep price for their unfaithfulness.
“In Exodus 32 the Hebrews escaping Egypt asked Aaron, the brother of their leader Moses, to fashion a golden calf during the long absence of Moses on Mt. Sinai. Upon returning from the mountain with the tablets of the Law and seeing the people worshipping the golden calf, Moses broke the tablets (symbolic of breaking the covenant relationship with God) and had the idol melted down, pulverized, and mixed with water. The people were required to drink the mixture, an ordeal to separate the unfaithful (who later died in a plague) from the faithful (who lived). Defending the faith in the God revealed to Moses against the calf worshippers were the Levites, who became the priestly caste.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/golden-calf
Lloyd A nice piece of history . . . And you say: I think it is arguable that the religious alt-right are not legitimate Christians. They are more like the Hebrews . . . ”
I think you are tacitly arguing that the movements of psyche, mind, and spirit are more about human foibles than about any particular religion, which seem to show the same movements and patterns throughout history, regardless? CBK
Lloyd Addendum to my note about human foibles:
My speculative guess is that, considering the way plagues work, the “they died and WE didn’t” story is probably contrived or, at best, a result of timely (or not) group-location demographics and limitations of travel. CBK
“They died and we didn’t” is a simplifaction of what probably really happened.
Those that ignored the dangers and took no precautions died in larger numbers than those that isolated themselves and kept their distance. This is probably a basic truth for all plagues.
The idolaters that survived, well, most of them, turned away from their idols and were forgiven by most of those that never worshiped the idol in the first place.
Trump’s followers that refuse to wear a mask and keep their distance are at a much higher risk of becoming infected and dying in larger numbers. Some never Trumpers that wear masks and keep their distance will also become infected and die but not in the same ratios.
I wonder if anyone will be doing a study on this after COVID-19’s killing spree has come to its end in about another year or so and compare how many Always Trumpers died from the virus vs the Never Trumpers.
Lloyd No big deal, but it seems to me what you are saying is the same as what I said, only now (in our time) the demographics and non-exposures are self-imposed instead of a condition of group identity (tribe) and no-tech travel limitations: “a result of timely (or not) group-location demographics and limitations of travel.” CBK
My take on the whole thing is that the underlying message is the same. The Hebrews were at a time in their “becoming ” where they needed to develop some rules for how they would operate in their new found freedom. The calf worshippers were probably representative of those who were influenced by the religion of Egypt or surrounding local sects. The ten commandments story is the mythology that developed around these events. That is not to say that their chosen structure of government was not guided by a sincere faith in the Hebrew God. How do these events relate to now? Now we are fighting for the survival of democratic governance guided by our “Ten Commandments”, the Constitution. How our story ends is yet to be decided. Will the calf worshippers prevail?
Deaths in Indiana continue to rise, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. Governor Holcomb [R-IN] says the state can continue to open because the number of cases has gone down for at least 14 days. He wants everything to be back to normal by July 4. Hoosiers have never had to wear masks.
Coronavirus deaths in Indiana, Region
Source: Indiana State Department of Health
https://infogram.com/coronavirus-deaths-in-indiana-region-1hxr4zq0w5me4yo
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/jasper/nwi-covid-19-cases-continue-steady-rise-no-new-local-deaths-reported/article_87961e77-f8d2-5040-b731-4af0f6013e02.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
NYT:
Coronavirus cases pass 10 million as U.S. infections surge
The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has risen to 10 million, and the death toll is approaching 500,000, with the U.S., India and Brazil seeing escalating daily infections.
Testing sites in the U.S. were overwhelmed this past weekend in the hard-hit states of Arizona, Florida and Texas.
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have risen 65 percent over the past two weeks, and now total more than 2.5 million. Some administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, say the surge in cases is linked to increased testing, but health officials disputed that claim.
“There’s also no doubt that the virus has the upper hand,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida, Nevada and South Carolina hit single-day records for new cases on Saturday, which was also the third consecutive day with more than 40,000 new cases in the country.
“Some administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, say the surge in cases is linked to increased testing, but health officials disputed that claim.”
Such crass stupidity and carelessness that the Trump administration came up with a lame excuse like this one. This one is almost as bad as Trump suggesting we should drink or inject stuff like bleach and Lysol to kill the virus once it got in our bodies.
To most of Trump’s deplorable, super ignorant supporters, the implication will be that the testing is spreading the virus and too many of them are dumb enough to believe it, too.
Does that mean we will see the Trumpskies (followers of Trumpskyism) harassing and threatening the people conducting the tests?