When Trump was elected, I predicted, and many of our readers agreed, that Trump’s presidency would not end well and that his supporters would have to explain to their children and grandchildren why they enabled this charlatan to take the White House.  Well, his presidency is not quite over, but we’re there.  Trump’s gross negligence, erratic behavior, and malignant narcissism have take their toll and continue to do so.  COVID-19 just became the leading cause of death in the US, and has reached that point for one primary reason – Donald J. Trump.  His negligence has been well documented.  His idiotic declarations, then reversals of those declarations, have shown him to be the complete fool he is, and who is unimaginably ignorant, cruel, and unstable.  And his foolishness has been on full display through national television on a daily basis.

After declaring himself having “total” control over the states and ready to punish governors who don’t do what he orders, he reversed himself yesterday, issuing “guidelines” which were simply pablum for mass consumption, dumping ALL responsibility back on the governors including testing.  Testing has been just one of Trump’s massive failures, but is probably the most dangerous.  Lifting stay at home orders without massive testing is nothing short of negligent homicide.  Since Trump woke up from his Stupid Coma in mid-March he has promised massive testing.  Those promises are also lies, and he has missed every single date he has established for availability of testing.  Yesterday, The Atlantic published the results of their own studies that showed that the curve of infection in the US is shown to be “flattening” only because we’re not testing enough. In that article, one key quote was, “The high positivity rate also suggests that new cases in the U.S. have plateaued only because the country has hit a ceiling in its testing capacity.”  That means that cases show to be declining only because we don’t have enough testing.  Even as Trump has failed so miserably at leading the federal testing effort, he has incessantly lied about it.  Even yesterday, one of his many lies was this –

“We built the most advanced and robust testing anywhere in the world and we’ve done more testing than any country anywhere in the world.”

That statement is a lie.  A dangerous lie.  The US government is bungling the effort to get out testing, both infection and antibody, not because everyone at CDC and FDA have suddenly become incompetent, but because that is by design.  From the very beginning, Trump has tried “to keep my numbers down”.  To Trump, life and death issues are just a gameshow that he has to “win”.  That’s why he wanted to keep a cruise ship full of at risk Americans offshore so they wouldn’t add to his infection “score”.  The Atlantic said that our “test positivity” rate in the US is 20 percent.  That is a terrible rate, but it is that terrible because most states are only testing those who are symptomatic.  We know that asymptomatic Coronavirus carriers can infect many others.  Why then, are we not testing far more extensively to identify those people?  We are not testing because Trump believes that will make him look bad.

Yesterday, Trump reversed himself on “reopening the economy” because someone finally got through to him that his claim of total authority over the states guaranteed he will be blamed for the disaster that will ensue by lifting restrictions too early.  By minimizing testing, infections are grossly underreported justifying lifting restrictions when they should be left in place.

The only way we can begin to lift restrictions on stay at home and social distancing is through massive testing.  First, we need to test to get infected people isolated and treated.  Second, we need to identify those who were infected but have recovered and carry antibodies.  That can only be accomplished by massive antibody testing.  Besides critical care, massive testing is the number one goal we should be trying to achieve, but we’re not. Why? Because in Trump’s gameshow world, the most important thing is to report the lowest numbers and avoid responsibility so he can “win”.

And that, dear readers, is ACTUALLY getting people killed.

This is a picture of Sparrow Hospital.  Trump supporters are blockading the entrance to a Level 1 Trauma Center in Lansing Michigan because they’re mad they can’t go boating or buy lawn fertilizer. What kind of monster does it take to do that?

This is a hospital worker from Sparrow Hospital who cannot get to work today.  Be sure to watch until the end so you can see a few Republicans they interview.  (You may see a pop-up asking if Facebook can put cookies on your website.  Don’t either one.  After the video, click Don’t Allow.)

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats/videos/1279289718936207/?v=1279289718936207

Now I know for sure that I am on the side of the angels.  The angels are asking, Y’all some idiots?

A “minister” in Louisiana was the first to openly suggest it

Tony Spell, the pastor at the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, believes his fellow pastors need your COVID-19 stimulus money more than you do.

TMZ reports that Spell has started a campaign called “#PastorSpellStimulusChallenge” in which followers are encouraged to send money they’ve received from the government as part of the federal stimulus package to evangelists and missionaries.

Spell was the same guy who suggested that Christians should gather for church services even if it meant death from the virus.  He’s a doozy.

If you’re from Houston, you know the guy in this meme.

Thanks to Carl for the heads up.

Okay, this is powerful interesting.  Greg Abbott, Texas Governor, is holding a press conference on the reopening of the Texas economy at noon tomorrow Texas time.  Members of the legislature are to submit their question by 9 am Texas time on the day of the announcement.  Abbott will answer their questions at 2 pm Texas time.

Does the Governor understand how time works?

I know one thing.  It doesn’t work like that.

Maybe their questions should be of a general nature. Like, you know, is the Raskolnikov character in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment a celebration of redemption or an indictment of intellectual warfare?  Governor, what is the square root of 298? Can you point to Wyoming on a map and tell us its capitol?

I think that would be really helpful, especially with all this homeschooling stuff going on.

So let’s pretend we whip Trump’s butt in November.

We are still left with these jerks.

The guys leading this rally carrying their assault rifles and threatening signs are still gonna be around.  The idiots following them are dangerous, too, because they remain willfully uninformed.

Look at those guys – there’s not a one of them who can get laid even at the chicken ranch with a hen under each arm and fifty dollar bill stapled to their forehead.  They are not guys with social skills.

They idolize Trump because they are just like him and if their daddy had given them a couple million dollars, they’d be him.

Okay, come up with a plan of what we do with them after November.  My best offer is to give them Florida. They could live there and infect or shoot each other but they’d at least have jobs because beer and the porn channel ain’t cheap.

Police in Taneytown, Maryland, are reminding residents to wear pants when checking their mailbox.

I kinda suspect this isn’t the final warning once the police realize that this will consist of  arresting a pantless citizen and putting them in the backseat of a patrol car without any damn pants on.