Today there were over 40,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across America (in ONE day) and the response coming from individual 1 was to announce the federal testing response to the pandemic will be stopped at the end of June. This is almost unbelievable – but, nothing should surprise anymore. Of course, the individual states will continue their own testing programs and, likely, the seriousness of this pandemic will continue to grow – our IMPEACHED so-called president just won’t be able to wish this pandemic away. It should surprise no one that Covid-19 continues to dominate headlines, but that is but one of the serious issues we’re dealing with.
Not only is Covid-19 raging but so are the emotions of those in the African American communities around the country along with those who support them. It’s undeniable there are many people supporting police reform but also there’s a “controversy” (in the eyes of individual 1) over the tearing down of a bunch of confederate statues which were put up during the days of “Jim Crow” – as a way for racists in the South to emphasize their support for a segregated society. It’s encouraging to me thinking maybe we, as a nation, have evolved past the point where we are willing to treat people who were traitors to the United States during the Civil War as some kind of heroes. Periodically I’ve pointed out individual 1 very well could “trigger” some positive, progressive change as people learn to understand what he stands for. MOST people want nothing to do with our IMPEACHED so-called president.
Another issue which is somewhat “connected” to the Covid-19 crisis would be that tomorrow representatives of individual 1’s administration are going to argue in court for the destruction of the Affordable Care Act. Does that seem even more STUPID than usual coming from individual 1 – attempting to take health insurance away from people during a serious pandemic? Again, nothing seems to surprise anymore. Maybe when right wing Americans want to take a trip to Europe and they get denied because of our raging pandemic – which is getting worse by the day – reality will set in. EVERY day governors in “red states” (blue states as well) where actions are not taken to mitigate this virus allows it to become even more embedded. It’s on an exponential rise in several states and many people continue to be acting incredibly selfishly.
Back when New York was getting “hit” hard by the virus I remember governor Cuomo pointing out to governors (and people) around the country “you’re next.” Many thought he was simply blowing off steam, but, well “it’s time” and it seems as if there are places who want to “be like New York.” In Arizona, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and other places around the country hospitals are filling to near capacity and, still, people continue to congregate in closed quarters without masks. My daughter is an RN and it’s heartbreaking listening to Nurses who are publishing social media posts about what it’s like in their ICU’s – where it’s apparent Nurses and Doctors could be suffering from things like PTSD dealing with this. This pandemic could get beyond recognition SOON because individual 1 has simply “moved on” and is pretending it “aint happenin.” I’m so proud of my daughter for committing to service as a nurse and ANGRY politicians would be so disrespectful of those on the “front lines” of this pandemic.
Many of the places which are facing the surges in cases right now are the states where I earlier suggested I didn’t trust the governors to be providing accurate data on the numbers of people who are dying from this virus. We know in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Iowa this very well may be true – based on “admissions” from their governors. For example, the governor of Iowa didn’t mince words in suggesting those working in meat packing plants are “them” and people in nursing homes are, well, really old – so, kind of like individual 1, why mess up “the numbers” if you don’t have to. Ron DeSantis was reported to have ordered state employees in Florida to LIE about the cause of death, again, with those pesky old people who die from the virus. The same was reported about Brian Kemp in Georgia. And, the beat goes on!
What they can’t LIE about is the number of people in the ICU’s in their hospitals. The hospitals are filling up all across the states where the virus is verging on being out of control with leaders showing they weren’t paying attention back when Governor Cuomo was having daily briefings and warning them for a couple of devastating months – a time when there were refrigerator truck trailers parked outside of hospitals for all the bodies which the morgues didn’t have the space to accommodate. It’s as if the one thing individual 1 has accomplished is turning the virus into something political – instead of the health crisis it really is.
Today I listened to another of the incredibly STUPID members of individual 1’s “team” publicly showing his ignorance almost as a badge of honor. This was Larry Kudlow who claimed the virus was behind us just a week or so ago and today, I guess this is progress, he admitted there are some “hot spots” around the country. And, of course, in his sense of “loyalty” to the head of the “coronavirus task force,” Mike Pense, who, himself, claimed back in May the virus would be “behind us by Memorial Day,” Kudlow made sure he used the word “positive” as he was trying to LIE about the reality that yesterday there were MORE cases of Covid-19 across the country than any other day. There was a meeting yesterday at the “White House” where Pense was encouraging “White House” staffers to focus on the “positive.” (What????)
Even though we KNOW there are multiple republicans LYING about the true devastation being caused by Covid-19 – which is NOT just another “flu,” we also KNOW this is bad and it’s going to get a lot worse. Of course, if you get it and are one of the lucky ones where it doesn’t get into your lungs or kidneys or cause one of the other debilitating effects, it is still a national disaster on many fronts. And, of course, it didn’t have to be this way. Back in January if we had a president acting in a way which was laid out for him in the pandemic “handbook” passed along by the Obama administration “we the people” could be nearly able to be “back to normal.” He failed to act at the beginning and he’s now completely abdicated any responsibility for the virus so that, apparently, he’s just going to watch the devastation on his TV.
I follow the statistics on “Worldometer.info,” a website which tallies every instance where someone is officially determined to have been infected with the virus and/or having been killed by the virus and, today, the death toll is nearing 130,000 in just about four months. It’s getting uglier by the day and will continue to do so because of who “we the people” have in the “White House.” We’re the ONLY country (maybe Brazil?) without a national strategy to fight this pandemic and, it appears, until individual 1 is no longer in the “White House” there won’t be a strategy. The spokesperson for the largest hospital in the country (maybe world) in Houston today announced 30% of those being tested are testing positive – which is an alarming statistic – suggesting the situation is much worse than we even know, as of today.
As I’ve written before, the economy, in my view, (I’ve also admitted to not being an economist) have been propped up by two things. First, the CARES Act included a $600 per week “bonus” to those who are collecting unemployment benefits – in the past couple of months almost 50 MILLION Americans have applied for benefits – and that money is allowing people who would otherwise be wondering where the next meal is coming from to be paying their bills and buying food for their families. That money is the result of democrats FORCING republicans to agree to this “bonus” in order to get the second thing propping up the economy.
That would be the TRILLIONS of dollars in Jerome Powell’s “toolbox” which Powell has used to prop up Wall Street to the tune of, so far, almost $5 TRILLION. This is money Powell has used to purchase what I understand would be called toxic securities and I’ve heard Powell suggest these are “lending facilities” he’s using, whatever that means – I take it to mean the institutions involved would very possibly not be paying back the “loans.” While republicans are attempting to block the HEROES Act where the democrats want to continue the support of “Main Street” (along with aid to state and local governments, the post office, and money for vote at home) Mr. Powell is indicating his agreement that “Main Street” is going to need additional support.
I’ve pointed out several times that as soon as this $600 per week “bonus” to our unemployed workers ends it will only be a matter of a month or two until the reality of the REAL economy will be exposed. The American people have been conditioned to believe if Wall Street is “up” then the economy is doing well. To me, this is why the republicans are so eager to provide Powell with whatever he needs to prop up Wall Street, the deficit be damned, but that $600 per week to our workers – that brings out the reality of people like Lindsay Graham, Rand Paul, and other republicans who could care less about these workers and who have no idea, apparently, the benefit of every one of the $600 to our economy – by the reports I’ve read, each dollar returns $1.68 to the overall economy. The people who are receiving this benefit are spending almost every dollar. That, as opposed to, for example, the republican tax cuts which have been used by corporations to buy back their own stock – which plummeted in value after the beginning of the virus.
This is maybe what explains the republicans sudden change in thought about the deficit which began with the tax scam and is now on steroids as Mr. Powell is prepared to spend even more TRILLIONS to keep Wall Street “up.” I have no idea how much of the $10 TRILLION appropriated since the beginning of the pandemic will actually show up when they calculate the deficit for this year, but I know it SHOULD be “jaw dropping.” Republicans always complain about the deficit except when THEY are making it grow. It happened with Reagan, Bush, and now individual 1 – MASSIVE increases in the national debt during their terms in office. And, keep in mind, Bush/Cheney were HIDING the money used for their disastrous invasion of Iraq as if it was on a secret “credit card.”
True to form, after tanking the economy, republicans spent 8 years BLAMING Barack Obama for the deficit he INHERITED from Bush/Cheney – which was $1.5 TRILLION per year when he took office and $400 BILLION when he left. It took individual 1 about a year to push it back up over $1 TRILLION and who knows where it is going to be when he leaves office next January (PLLLLEASE!!!). Of course, on the first day Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the November election the republican “deficit hawks” will be howling. I can almost guarantee it. Fox “news” will still be in business and they will still be surviving off of divisive rhetoric.
The point here is it’s hard to understand the logic behind the thinking of republicans if there is any. While the economy is being propped up by all this borrowed (or imaginary) money the pandemic is raging more than ever. Early on it was focused on the Northeast section of the Country, mainly in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts but now it’s raging in something like 29 states. Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, and virtually every state in the South are in danger of becoming the “next New York.” As I’ve pointed out here, once the republicans succeed in ending the benefits of the CARES Act for workers, the reality of what is happening in America will become all too real.
The DAMAGE to America via individual 1 is increasing almost as exponentially as that of the virus! “We the people” just won’t understand the true details until long after he’s gone. Let’s just hope that will be January 20, 2021! Before the economy can be healthy again the virus MUST be either gone or under control. It can’t be “wished away” and the real way to get it under control, according to virtually every scientist I’ve listened to, is “testing, tracing, and treating.” So, the idea of eliminating the federal government’s participation in the testing procedures is simply STUPID. But, all things considered, coming from individual 1 it’s not surprising!
Final Thought: I wrote recently I wasn’t going to purchase John Bolton’s book for at least a couple reasons. First, Bolton pretty much repulse’s me and, more importantly, it really bothered me he chose the profits of his book (more than 500 pages) over his obligation to testify in the trial of this DEPLORABLE person who is our IMPEACHED so-called president. When that (so-called) president, individual 1, started a legal crusade to prevent the publication of the book, that exposed one of my weaknesses and I chose to purchase it. Yesterday I got my copy from Barnes and Noble dot com and, sadly, I shredded the packing slip which included the return label should I want to return it. Oops!
Last night I decided to put Bolton’s book on the top of my pile of books and started reading it. At this point I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish it. In the first 25 pages I was reminded why I have such a low opinion of Bolton. He stands for pretty much EVERYTHING I’m opposed to. Of course, I was familiar with him so it’s my own fault. I will try to continue reading because I really want to understand the details of what he “witnessed” up close and personal with individual 1, but I’m already feeling it was $32,95 (plus tax) poorly spent! The opening of the book reminded me of how the republicans who are turning against individual 1 are still part of the movement which culminated in his “takeover” of the “White House.”
For example, I tried to read “Everything Trump touches dies” by Rick Wilson and I couldn’t get all the way through it – even though I agreed with most of Wilson’s thesis. I believe his claim is proving to be prescient – keep in mind, Wilson wrote this near the beginning of individual 1’s administration. As I read Wilson’s book I was reminded he was instrumental as well, kind of like Bolton, in creating the atmosphere which has led to our IMPEACHED so-called president. In fact, in Wilson’s case, I’ve enjoyed watching him on TV – he’s very funny at times, even though the topic is very serious, PLUS Wilson is a key member of the “Lincoln Project,” a group of republicans who are working for the same goal as myself – ending individual 1’s time in office.
I have to admit I’ve suggested on this site my desire democrats would learn from the tactics of the “Lincoln Project” even though it’s made up of people who I just don’t basically agree with. However, I would love to be able to sit down at a breakfast table and have a dialogue with them to try understanding what they consider to be the “conservative” movement. I studied Edmund Burke in college, the so-called “father of conservatism” and I just don’t see it. Of course, Bolton is part of that “conservative” movement and I’ve always considered him a war hawk and, certainly, no conservative. However, he was interviewed by Nicole Wallace on MSNBC today and she referred to him as “The conservatives conservative.”
Whatever he is, I don’t understand it and I don’t agree with it. To me, Bolton is the type of republican who is the seed of the divisiveness which exists in America today. In the first part of his book he makes his opposition to the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran Nuclear deal clear and it makes no sense to me – the reasoning behind it. I’ll leave all that for another day I’m just going to try to read the book – now that I’m out of the $32.95 (plus tax :o). I made it about 2/3 of the way through Wilson’s book (I haven’t bought the new one – although, I sort of feel a need to support him through the Lincoln Project) before I could stomach no more of his “conservatism.” Hopefully, I’ll get all the way through Bolton’s book, but that remains to be seen.
This morning in his interview with Ms Wallace Bolton explained why he doesn’t feel a bit bad about refusing to testify to the House in the IMPEACHMENT inquiry. I could argue all day against his logic but, the bottom line is, he chose money over honor. Regardless of whether his testimony could have changed the outcome of the IMPEACHMENT trial the American people were focused on it and would have listened to his testimony. He’s saying there was more and democrats SHOULD have worked with republicans in the process to find it. If you watched the process as closely as I did you know the absurdity of that comment. He SHOULD have shared what he knew about “The room where it happened” then, but I heard people predicting the “book” the day he left his job in the “White House.” Today he was SHAMELESSLY defending his SHAMELESS behavior to Ms. Wallace. Sad!