Tag Archives: Covid 19

medical news, national news

Pence continues the Trump lie about COVID-19 fight

Vice President Mike Pence stood before the nation … and lied through his pearly whites.

It was edifying and instructive that he had some medical experts on the podium with him to set the record straight about the condition of the nation that is fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Pence – filling in for the Liar in Chief – had the brass to tell us the pandemic is under control, that states have corralled the killer virus, “thanks to the leadership” of Donald J. Trump. It was the first “briefing” from the coronavirus task force in two months and to be candid we didn’t need to hear the nonsense that Pence spewed forth.

He uttered the lie on the same day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order shutting down bars, ordering restaurants to operate at 50 percent of capacity and pushing local authorities to insist on stricter enforcement of social distancing. That’s how Pence defines “under control”?

Meanwhile, Drs. Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx and Robert Redfield – the nation’s top medical pros fighting this pandemic – had to the good sense to issue much more dire warnings about what lurks ahead of us. They didn’t contradict Pence directly, but they certainly cast the peril in more, um, accurate terms … at least the way I see the trend developing.

I was struck, too, by the vapid response Pence gave to reporters who asked him to explain how Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla. – which went forward with thousands of Trumpkins sitting shoulder to shoulder without face masks – isn’t contributing to the spike in infection we are seeing. His answer? The people’s right to assemble peaceably “is enshrined in the Constitution” and “we have an election coming up.” He said that medical emergencies do not negate people’s civil liberties. Well, actually they should if people’s very lives are endangered by irresponsible behavior at campaign rallies.

So, the charade continues, even without the Carnival Barker in Chief. His No. 1 sycophant showed once again that he is fully capable of parroting Donald Trump’s lies.

Shameful.

medical news

U.S. reaches dubious milestone

The United States of America has just logged the most sickening milestone in the current COVID-19 pandemic: the most cases of infection during a single day.

Here we are. Months into the pandemic and with Donald Trump continuing to bellow what a “fantastic” job he has done we are setting dubious records in medical futility. Vice President Mike Pence said that every day brings us closer to whipping the coronavirus pandemic. Really, Mr. VP? The numbers say something quite different.

Oh, and then the Veep said, “That’s leadership!” Sure it is, dude. Donald Trump is leading us into some form of medical oblivion.

Texas is now leading the way into the nation’s hideous and tragic response to the COVID-19 crisis. I heard something today that suggests that Houston — the state’s largest city — might become the most COVID-infected city in the world!

That is success? That is how Donald Trump defines the “fantastic” job he and his COVID response team — chaired by Mike Pence — are doing while fighting this disease?

Oh, my. God help us.

medical news

Texas, U.S. facing ‘massive’ COVID-19 outbreak

When you toss the word “massive” around, then you had better be sure that the condition or the event you are describing fits the bill.

So, then we have Texas Gov. Greg Abbott telling us that that Texas is facing a “massive” outbreak of COVID-19 infection. Yep, that comes from the governor who has yet to issue an order requiring us to wear masks in public, hasn’t declared cities and counties have the authority to do what they must to curb the infection rate.

The outbreak projection does give me the heebie-jeebies.

Indeed, Gov. Abbott is sounding more like Dr. Anthony Fauci — tha nation’s top infectious disease expert — than Donald Trump, the nation’s leading buffoon/carnival barker/con man/presidential imposter.

Are we going to shut down the economy again? If it means we can protect human lives, then I am all in. Do I want that to occur? Of course not! I am among those Americans who wants the economy to recover and who mourns the economic hardship that is befalling too many Americans. However, I also mourn the sickness and death that continues to strike Americans down.

Thus, when I hear our governor say that a massive outbreak of the killer virus is upon us, I get terribly concerned about my family.

Furthermore, I dismiss out of hand any phony pronouncement from Donald Trump or from his sycophants that we are whipping this “invisible enemy.” Trump is lying and he is instructing his minions to lie on his behalf.

The greater tragedy — apart from the deaths that are mounting up — is that they lie without any shame and expect us to believe them.

Let us prepare for that massive outbreak.

International news, medical news, national news

EU bans travel from U.S.? Wow!

Donald Trump can yap and yammer all he wants about all the “success” he is scoring against the COVID-19 virus.

His “allies” in the European Union have a different and damning view.

The EU is going to open its borders next week, but will ban travel from three key countries that it says haven’t done enough to stem the killer tide sweeping around the world. Those countries? Russia, Brazil … and the United States of America.

Axios.com reports: It’s an international rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic. Millions of American tourists travel to the EU every summer, but that’s unlikely to happen until the U.S. gets the virus under control.

So, if you want to pack up and head for Paris, or to Rome, or the Greek Isles … forget about it! You ain’t going if you’re planning to depart from the U.S. of A.

It’s a preliminary recommendation to date. My hunch, though, is that the United States isn’t going to wrestle the pandemic to the ground between now and July 1, when the EU lifts its travel ban.

Infection and hospitalization rates are spiking in nearly half of our states, Texas included. Donald Trump’s response? He said we need to “slow down testing” because too many COVID tests produce too many positive infection results. We can’t have that in the middle of a presidential campaign, in Trump’s view of the world.

The EU’s decision isn’t going to sit well within the West Wing of the White House. Too damn bad! The EU wants to protect itself against further infection, just as Donald Trump wanted to protect this country when he banned travel from China when it dawned on him that the pandemic was a serious threat, except that he acted too late.

EU nations by and large have turned the tide against the medical nightmare. They want to ensure that COVID-19 remains suppressed, which the United States so far is failing to do.

national news

Next stop: Arizona … another embarrassment on tap?

Donald John Trump went to Tulsa, Okla., to restart his re-election campaign. He bragged about all the folks who would jam the BOK Arena. They didn’t. He stood in a venue that was two-thirds empty.

Now he heads for Arizona to look at the construction of The Wall along our border with Mexico. He’s going to speak at a church, or so I have heard.

The Tulsa gathering was stunted reportedly over fear of the pandemic, the lack of social distancing. Maybe, too, Trump’s shtick is wearing thin.

What’s going to happen in Arizona, an actual swing state that Trump might lose to Joe Biden this fall? I guess I should mention that COVID-19 infections are spiking through the Arizona roof at this moment.

I want yet another humiliation for Donald Trump, who invites this kind of scorn simply because of the ridiculous boasting that precedes these events.

medical news, national news

Trump was joking about ‘less testing’? Sure, I believe it … hah!

Donald John “Knee-Slapper in Chief” Trump has no discernible sense of humor that any of us can detect.

He rarely guffaws. From what I have read he doesn’t watch movies. He lacks any semblance of self-deprecation. However, the dude does have this annoying habit of relying on others’ excuses for the stupidity that flows out of his pie hole.

He told that sparse gathering in Tulsa, Okla., over the weekend that we ought to have “less testing” of the COVID-19 virus because it would drive down the number of people being infected. I saw him say it. He didn’t wink at the audience. He didn’t say, “Just kidding, folks.” He let the idiocy stand.

Oh, but then comes that trade “expert” who comments on matters far from his wheelhouse. Peter Navarro said Trump’s remark was “clearly tongue in cheek.”

We’ve heard this dodge before from Trumpkins who seek to cover The Donald’s ample backside. He blurts out something stupid and his team of sycophants says, “Aww, he was just kidding. Making a joke. He was being ‘sarcastic.'”

We are asked to buy into that baloney. This guy says so many stupid utterances, he lies with such astonishing frequency that we cannot believe anything, not a single thing that he says. Nor can we believe the efforts of his team to cover his a** when he blurts the idiocy out.

This is the same guy who said he preferred that a cruise ship full of passengers remain stranded off shore because letting them come ashore would drive up his COVID-19 infection “numbers.” He said that, too, with a straight face!

So we’re asked to believe that this Tulsa trash talk about “less testing” to detect the killer virus is a joke?

State news

Don’t wait too long to shut it down, governor

(Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

“To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas, and it must be corralled,” (Gov.. Greg) Abbott said during a news conference at the Texas Capitol in Austin.

There you have it. The Texas governor is beginning to sound alarmed — although it’s of the “somewhat alarmed” variety about the pandemic that is showing new signs of life … and is bringing more death to human beings in Texas and around the country.

“Corralling” the virus needs to occur, to state the other obvious element of this story.

Abbott has been blaming young people for being cavalier about the threat the virus is bringing. He said they aren’t observing “social distancing” guidelines.

For the life of me I do not understand why the governor doesn’t issue an order requiring businesses to mandate face masks among everyone who enters their establishments. Nor do I get why he resists local governments from mandating social distancing, restricting occupancy, demanding that Texans behave in a manner that limits the spread of the killer viral infection.

He’s not doing that. Abbott today said that Texans should take voluntary measures to avoid becoming infected. Voluntary? How is that going to work, governor. The state opened up its beaches and Texans rushed to Gulf Coast by the thousands, ignoring social distancing recommendations.

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas has broken its record for the number of people hospitalized with the virus for 11 consecutive days. On Monday, that number was 3,711. Saturday saw the highest number of new daily reported cases yet — 4,430. The positivity rate, presented by the state as a seven-day average, has increased to 8.8%, on par with where it was in late April.

I want to acknowledge that my wife and I are continuing to observe a “shelter in place” policy in our home. We aren’t staying home 24/7. We are taking our recreational vehicle out on occasion, but limiting our visits to state parks; we camp in our fifth wheel and stay far, far away from other RV campers. That all said, we have no intention of entering a restaurant, a bowling alley, a movie theater for any form of recreational activity. Our visits to retail establishments will include face masks, sanitizing liquid and sanitary wipes.

I don’t mention this to suggest that we are paragons of virtue in this crisis. I mention it only to suggest that others could observe the need to take greater care to avoid exposing themselves or others to a virus that could kill them.

If they don’t, then our government leaders need to frighten the bejeebers out of them.

Donald Trump

The rally? It didn’t go quite as planned

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What do we glean from Donald John Trump’s return to the campaign rally podium?

He stood in an arena in Tulsa, Okla., that he said he would pack with 19,000 screaming Trumpkins. All those empty seats were meant, I suppose, to disguise the fanatics.

The Trump re-election team had to cancel some outdoor events. Why? Low turnout.

Trump blathers on in his rally. He rambles incoherently. He spent about 20 to 30 minutes showing how he could lift a glass of water with a single hand.

Oh, and then we have the lack of social distancing among those who were in the arena, the lack of face masks, the lack of care being taken to avoid coming down with COVID-19. Sigh.

Donald Trump’s return to the 2020 presidential campaign trail, to my eyes, has encountered some serious trouble as the Carnival Barker in Chief seeks to win re-election to a second term.

I won’t lose a bit of sleep over any of this.

medical news, national news

‘A perfect storm’ brewing in Tulsa?

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I am married to a wise woman.

She appreciates the concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down the economy. She wants the economy to restart as much as the next person. She also wants it to be done with care about people’s health, indeed their very lives.

It is with that notion that she said recently, “The economy won’t revive itself when we’re all hospitalized … or dead!”

You got that right, sweetheart!

Accordingly, the health experts who are seeking to get Donald Trump’s attention are yelling at the top of their lungs that Trump’s planned rally in Tulsa this weekend is a “perfect storm” for infection from the killer virus. They are beseeching the Trump team to postpone the rally. They are concerned that packing 19,000 people into a confined space, giving them a chance to scream their joy at Trump’s idiotic ramblings (without wearing masks) is going to expose thousands of them to potential illness from COVID-19.

As PBS noted: “As best I can tell, there’s nowhere in the world that’s doing large indoor events,” said state Rep. Monroe Nichols, a Democrat who represents Tulsa. “Definitely not events with 20,000 people in the middle of a global pandemic. It’s just not a thing.”

Trump’s rally Saturday is “a worst case scenario. It’s a perfect storm for the further spread of the virus,” Nichols added.

Tulsa is the place that is doing a “large indoor event.” What’s more, local officials report a serious spike already under way in Oklahoma.

Is this smart? No. It is the depth of stupidity.

State news

Damage is done, Empower Texans

I’ve gone from despising Empower Texans to hating the ultra right-wing political action committee with what my dear Mom used to call a “purple passion.”

An audio recording has surfaced in which two Empower Texans operatives are making fun of the fact that Gov. Greg Abbott is confined to a wheelchair. The recording is profanity-laced. It is tasteless in the extreme.

Now, to be fair, Empower Texans boss Michael Quinn Sullivan has apologized to Abbott. He has condemned the remarks. I don’t know if he has dismissed the yahoos who made the comments. He damn sure should.

I want to be clear about my feelings about Empower Texans. This right-wing PAC has become involved in Republican Party primary politics, It targets GOP incumbents who ET believes aren’t “conservative enough.” In 2018, ET went after state Sen. Kel Seliger and state Rep. Four Price, two Amarillo Republicans I happen to know quite well. Seliger and Price survived the challenge.

Now we hear from Empower Texans’ operatives Tony McDonald and Cary Cheshire talking trash. Indeed, to poke fun of a public official’s disability is pure trash.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, said this via Twitter: Abbott has more strength in his spine & integrity in his pinkie than these fools. Silver lining: now the masses get to see what many of us have known for a long time: A once reputable & respected policy organization, ET has turned in to nothing more than a sanctimonious sewer.

Am I a fan of Greg Abbott’s politics and his world view? No, I am not. That’s beside the point. The point I want to make is that Empower Texans has shown that two members of its high command behave despicably beyond measure.

Yes, I hate Empower Texans.