The GOP owns Trump.  They bought him. They knew what he was when they nominated him at their convention.  They knew what he is when they refused to call any witnesses at his impeachment hearing. They know what he is at his rallies. They own him. The Republican Party is Donald Trump.

They cannot say that his speech last night was sane, productive, or even read well.

This morning, the contradiction and misinformation in the speech is glaring.

They also cannot act surprised that the markets got a black eye along with being kneecapped.

It is their fault. Everyone in the Republican Party, with the exception of (and it pains me to say this) Mitt Romney, is to blame. I don’t care if it’s your county commissioner, anyone who is a Republican is to blame. Unless they stood up and spoke out, they are to blame.

Hey, let us know if you’re sick or know someone who is.

Trading has been halted on the NYSE with the market down another 1,700 points.  It’s clear that investors are not happy with Trump’s response.  Trump offered no specifics last night short of pulling up the drawbridge from Europe after the virus already got in.  He hinted at economic relief with no specifics.  His payroll tax cut, which is only a thinly disguised effort to kill Social Security and Medicare, was DOA on the Hill.  There was no discussion of increasing availability of test kits, no information on how local jurisdictions should respond, no words of wisdom on how individuals should prepare.

I’m convinced that Trump is intentionally slowing the distribution of kits because that would “make my numbers go up”.  He doesn’t want to know how many people have it, because he’s playing a global television gameshow and he’s determined to declare victory over whoever his fellow contestants are.

The Coronavirus doesn’t give a shit who Donald Trump is or that he’s president and a famous gameshow host.  It’s doing to do what it’s going to do.  All Trump’s happy talk is doing nothing but more damage.

25th Amendment anyone?

Latest I’ve got, but it’s coming hard and fast:

Tom Hanks and his wife test positive for COVID-19

NBA has suspended the NBA season.

Trump bans travel to the US from Europe, except the UK.

Trump’s effort to play down the pandemic has worked…on Republicans.

Brazilian official (accused of corruption, of course) has tested positive for COVID-19 after spending the weekend at Mara Lago.

Trump loyalists test positive for COVID-19, including Matt Gaetz, who stupidly wore a gas mask in Congress last week to mock the threat.  He wins Dumbass of the Week award.

Italy shuts down ALL stores except for pharmacies and grocery stores.

WHO declares the Coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic while calling out “alarming levels of inaction.”

Stocks fall into bear territory for the first time in 11 years in the face of Trump’s incoherent response to COVID-19 and Saudi-Russian oil price war.

Other than that, not a goddam thing happening right now.

Okay at 8:08 Texas Time, Trump said there should be an end to partisanship while we were in this crisis.

So the timing starts here.  How long can Trump keep his own call?

I’m betting not long.

By the way, why the UK exception?  There are a dozen counties with fewer cases of the disease  than the UK. However, they are white.

So Trump is proposing a payroll tax cut that would continue through the rest of year.  Payroll taxes are what fund social security and Medicare.

First of all, do not even think about screwing with my Medicare.

Second, I have to agree with Customer Ralph when he says …

I am so glad that our President proposed a tax cut to combat the Corona Virus. Doctors and some really smart people are saying that viruses are very sensitive to tax policy.

Thanks to Ralph for the heads up.

Okay, first off, Trump ordered federal health officials to go dark and to hold all their meetings as classified.  Reuters says this is “an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials”

Hell, he already stopped press conferences so only he can speak to the public.  Now he’s cutting us off from the experts who can tell us what they know using information they didn’t genetically inherit from their uncle.

And then to show why we need that information, it was discovered today that Congressvarmint Matt Gaetz and Mark Meadows, the latest in a long line of not-the-best-people Chief of Staff, got tested for the Coronavirus when other people were told the test weren’t available.