COVID-19 cases are still growing exponentially in the US with now over 800,000 cases and 45,000 deaths.  That’s not bothering the old Basement Bar in Fort Worth, though.  There was quite a flame war going on over on their Facebook page this morning after they announced they were fully opening this weekend to sell their $2 beer in exchange for the public health.  Let’s just say that the majority of the comments we’re not very supportive of such idiocy, and the author of the post, who I assume is the owner, got a little chippy with some of the commenters.  Here’s an example:

After over 3,200 comments, most not very complimentary of the bar opening right now, the post was removed.  What I found amazing, though, were the supportive comments i.e. “This was all exaggerated.” “The government can’t tell us what to do.” “It’s just the flu.” “I don’t know anyone who has it,” etc., etc., so forth and so on.  Fort Worth has become the weird mixture of education, sophistication, forward thinking, entrepreneurial vigor, offset by up with mouth breathing stupidity.

I hope they don’t get a bunch more people killed.

Let’s recap today’s news:

1. Trump blurted out yesterday that he’s stopping ALL immigration, no how, why, timing, nothing.
2. After 30 minutes of guys in uniforms talking about how they are ramping up the supply chain for testing, Trump took the mic and said that “a lot of people really don’t want testing”.
3. US coronavirus infections continued to grow at a rate to double cases every 4 days.
4. Idiot Trumpists continue to protest in public to immediately lift all stay at home restrictions, supported by idiot governors to start doing just that, egged on by Trump.
5. Crude oil futures prices fell from $20 per barrel to NEGATIVE $35 per barrel.  That’s right, holders of crude contracts had to PAY buyers to take them off their hands.  This morning June price is down 25% and still falling.
6. Kim Jong Un has disappeared, and rumors are that he underwent heart surgery and is very ill or even already dead.
7. The largest mass shooting in Canada’s history happened this weekend.

On a happy note, the Rockefeller Foundation has stepped up to take away dependence on Trump for massive testing.  They are investing an initial $15 million to rapidly expand testing starting at 1 million tests per week to 30 million in 6 months.

Other than that, nothing going on today.

Thousands of hotels are offering lodging for weary medical personnel at deep discounts or even free.  They are doing their part in the pandemic, giving doctors and nurses a safe and clean space to rest and rejuvenate.  The White House has praised these hotels.  There’s only one notable absence though…Trump hotels.  Not ONE Trump owned or operated hotel is offering any rooms anywhere in the US.

Most of Trump’s hotels are closed or on minimal staff, and Trump is losing millions of dollars.  Could it be just a coincidence that he’s pushing to relax pandemic restrictions so he can reopen his hotels?  Of course it is.  Trump never does anything in his own interests, does he?

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.

Trump is on national television now, blaming the WHO for his incompetence and has ordered the US government to cut off funding to it.  That’s right, folks, Trump, who sat on his fat ass from December to the middle of March playing golf and holding rallies, is now desperately trying to rewrite history to shift blame for his gross negligence onto the media, China, and the WHO.

God save us.  We’ve got nothing left.

OK, folks, it is seriously way past time to STOP airing Trump’s “briefings” on the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.  During today’s briefing episode of The Apprentice, WH Edition, Trump actually aired a video that is nothing more than a North Korean style Dear Leader propaganda video that took snippets of actual news reports way out of context to make him look good.  Real networks immediately cut from their coverage, accurately reporting what Trump was doing.  The worst part was him standing to the side of the stage gloating and mugging for the cameras as the bullshit spewed from the WH video system.  We are WAY past time for the 25th Amendment.