I am proud to reside in one of the smarter states. Georgia is opening up. I am proud to have been born in one of the smarter states. Tennessee is opening up.
Gotta love the irony in this article about a Covid denier: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8239557/Ohio-man-60-blasted-COVID-19-lockdown-political-ploy-dies-contracting-coronavirus.html
You know where this is headed, right? We all know. Donald Trump and the Republicans are going to turn the election into a red vs. blue culture war battle—not over abortion, not over climate change, not over guns, but this time, over death itself.
Because death is every authoritarian’s last play.
An authoritarian leader makes demands of his people.
They must cheer more lustily than non-authoritarian people cheer.
They must salute in a particular way.
They must exonerate him of all error, whether stupidly invading Russia or massively screwing up a pandemic response or shooting someone on Fifth Avenue.
And finally, they must prove they are willing to at least flirt with death, if the leader’s hold on power requires it.
It’s the final demand on loyalty, and every authoritarian gets there eventually, in one way or another, even those forced to operate within democratic contexts.
✄
It will start, as these things often do with Trump, as they often do with all demagogues, slowly and just on the edge of ambiguously.
Trump will say something at a press briefing—something noncommittal, offhand, open to interpretation.
About how maybe death in some cases is OK, who knows.
It will be vague enough that his apologists can spin it (“what the President meant to say was that there are times in life when death comes as a blessing, which many of us know from experience…”).
Then Fox News will kick into gear, lining up experts affirming that the president has it exactly right.
Republicans will agree or stay silent.
And before you can say “Freedom Is Slavery,” boom. Forty-whatever percent of America will agree.
After weeks of incessantly hyping an unproven anti-malarial drug as a potential miracle cure for the coronavirus, Fox News has seemingly ditched its nearly round-the-clock promotion of hydroxychloroquine.
Unsurprisingly, the change in tone coincided with President Donald Trump’s own retreat from touting the drug, and comes as multiple studies have shown no benefit to COVID-19 patients.
Beginning in mid-to-late March and ramping up through the first two weeks of April, the president repeatedly lauded hydroxychloroquine—a drug developed decades ago to combat malaria and currently also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis—as a “game-changer” that has brought people back from the dead.
“What really do we have to lose?” Trump implored the public earlier this month, adding that the drug “doesn’t kill people.”
Doctors and medical experts, however, consistently warned that the drug has some severe side effects, such as sudden cardiac arrest.
✄
Throughout that time, both the president and Fox stars relied heavily on both anecdotal evidence and flawed studies—namely from a controversial French doctor whose methods have come under scrutiny—to push the drug as a coronavirus cure. The FDA eventually issued “emergency use authorization” in late March for doctors to prescribe the drug to COVID-19 patients in off-label use.
✄
And a new government-funded study released on Tuesday will likely ensure that both Trump and his favorite Fox News stars continue to quietly back away from ceaselessly hyping the drug in coming weeks.
In a preliminary study of 368 patients in Veterans Affairs medical facilities—not yet peer-reviewed, but backed by the National Institutes of Health—28 percent of those who received hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus died, compared to the 11 percent who received routine care.
Fast forward to 2020. For six agonizing weeks, President Trump ignored, downplayed and discredited dire warnings (including from his own appointees) that predicted precisely the public health and economic catastrophe that America confronts today.
While classified intelligence briefings scared some Republican senators into panic-selling massive amounts of stock, the government’s experts “just couldn’t get [Trump] to do anything about” the dire warnings that he was receiving.
To make matters worse, the outgoing Obama administration handed Trump’s team detailed pandemic response plans and conducted a disaster response exercise simulating a viral outbreak nearly identical to COVID-19. Trump ignored the plans, fired the key participants in the exercise and disbanded a critical White House pandemic response unit.
Once the novel coronavirus reached American shores, Trump refused to take charge.
Absent clear guidance and attention from the top, the administration bungled the mass rollout of testing kits, likely the single deadliest failure of Trump’s disastrous response.
Moreover, the president’s inability to lead caused governors to fight one another for scarce, life-saving medical equipment. U.S. states were forced to compete against each other for masks and ventilators, creating bidding wars beset by profiteering and price gauging — a Trump-induced nightmare scenario in the middle of a national crisis.
Despite pleas from physicians, nurses and hospital staff, Trump has still not fully invoked temporary emergency authorities to produce urgently-needed medical supplies.
Ultimately, Trump’s dithering and politically motivated belittling of a grave threat exacted an enormous cost in American lives.
Some 4,500 innocent Americans died in a single recent day, far more than perished on September 11, 2001.
Considering that the mile markers for getting everyone keep getting farther apart I am of the opinion that no one really knows what is going on. First, wash your hands and don’t touch your face the virus can’t live in the air. That didn’t work so better stay 6 feet apart in case it can survive for short a short time in the air. Since it take 10-14 days lock everyone up for 2 weeks and it wii go away. Then that didn’t work so let’s make it a month. Noe maybe it does survive up to 10 days in the air so maybe you should wear a mask. So then let’s put in a bunch of rules to keep people apart that make no sense. It’s okay to go fishing but not play golf or tennis. It’s okay for some businesses to be open but not others but people are still allowed to go out to them but if they feel like li the will fine you for being out. So how do you feel now that everyone who keeps saying something like total government control like what happens in most countries that thought socialism was the answer ended up can’t happen here. Enjoying living under the democrats ideal government.
Coming from the AAPT (All Aryan Party of Trump, formerly known as the GOP), the party of “fake news” and “thoughts and prayers,” the notion of civil liberties violations is really, really funny!
Mmmm, avocado toast, count me in! My intact civil liberties allowed me to make a necessary trip to the grocery store for the first time in almost three weeks, sporting my new cloth facemask, and fresh bananas and avocados were part of my acquisitions. And I gave a high hand-clap to all the masked employees as I left the store. USA, USA, USA!!! ;-)
Until there is HERD TESTING (made that one up, but I think you know what I mean) – we have NO IDEA whether those of us whose loved ones went through this, or ourselves, have had this, are immune or, if we have had this, we are now Typhoid Marys!
The quarantines need to continue!
It really is a matter of life and death!
Oh, and yeah: Germany, once caught flat footed when C19 swept through Italy and Switzerland (and now France), nevertheless got on top of this with – this is a recording – TESTING, TESTING, and TESTING. They appear to be “coming around” (whilst their neighbors are still suffering).
Nevertheless, it is April, they are starting to loosen some restrictions. BUT!
NO OKTOBERFEST THIS YEAR.
Six months down the road, but they are already confident that they can’t hold this event – an event (like so many) that previously was only interrupted by World War II.
Side giggle: Same with the Scripps Spelling Bee. Not interrupted since WW II, that is. Not happening this year.
Let’s get real! This thing is serious!
It might not kill you, but it might kill someone in your contact community!
Seems like there was once a movie, “Escape from New York” that depicted the town as a prison of sorts. Maybe we can resolve the whole thing by locking down New York and letting the rest of the country get back to business.
So the purpose of the Constitution establishing a government to “promote the general welfare” (welfare: the HEALTH, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group) apparently doesn’t mean a damn thing now. We have the individual right to not only potentially kill ourselves because we don’t want to be inconvenienced, but others as well.
Cheapskate0 over 4 years ago
Okay. Scott’s tRump is showing once again.
Just remember, everyone who’s protesting for their right to get a haircut,
They’re really protesting for the right to infect you and me.
braindead Premium Member over 4 years ago
And still the Stable Genius is unable to formulate a plan to cope with the virus.
It’s all up to the states, unless they are sabotaged.
“Anyone who wants a test gets a test.”
“I don’t take responsibility for any of it.”
jbmlaw01 over 4 years ago
I am proud to reside in one of the smarter states. Georgia is opening up. I am proud to have been born in one of the smarter states. Tennessee is opening up.
ajr58 over 4 years ago
Gotta love the irony in this article about a Covid denier: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8239557/Ohio-man-60-blasted-COVID-19-lockdown-political-ploy-dies-contracting-coronavirus.html
Silly Season over 4 years ago
You know where this is headed, right? We all know. Donald Trump and the Republicans are going to turn the election into a red vs. blue culture war battle—not over abortion, not over climate change, not over guns, but this time, over death itself.
Because death is every authoritarian’s last play.
An authoritarian leader makes demands of his people.
They must cheer more lustily than non-authoritarian people cheer.
They must salute in a particular way.
They must exonerate him of all error, whether stupidly invading Russia or massively screwing up a pandemic response or shooting someone on Fifth Avenue.
And finally, they must prove they are willing to at least flirt with death, if the leader’s hold on power requires it.
It’s the final demand on loyalty, and every authoritarian gets there eventually, in one way or another, even those forced to operate within democratic contexts.
✄
It will start, as these things often do with Trump, as they often do with all demagogues, slowly and just on the edge of ambiguously.
Trump will say something at a press briefing—something noncommittal, offhand, open to interpretation.
About how maybe death in some cases is OK, who knows.
It will be vague enough that his apologists can spin it (“what the President meant to say was that there are times in life when death comes as a blessing, which many of us know from experience…”).
Then Fox News will kick into gear, lining up experts affirming that the president has it exactly right.
Republicans will agree or stay silent.
And before you can say “Freedom Is Slavery,” boom. Forty-whatever percent of America will agree.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-coronavirus-culture-warriors-are-a-literal-death-cult
Silly Season over 4 years ago
After weeks of incessantly hyping an unproven anti-malarial drug as a potential miracle cure for the coronavirus, Fox News has seemingly ditched its nearly round-the-clock promotion of hydroxychloroquine.
Unsurprisingly, the change in tone coincided with President Donald Trump’s own retreat from touting the drug, and comes as multiple studies have shown no benefit to COVID-19 patients.
Beginning in mid-to-late March and ramping up through the first two weeks of April, the president repeatedly lauded hydroxychloroquine—a drug developed decades ago to combat malaria and currently also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis—as a “game-changer” that has brought people back from the dead.
“What really do we have to lose?” Trump implored the public earlier this month, adding that the drug “doesn’t kill people.”
Doctors and medical experts, however, consistently warned that the drug has some severe side effects, such as sudden cardiac arrest.
✄
Throughout that time, both the president and Fox stars relied heavily on both anecdotal evidence and flawed studies—namely from a controversial French doctor whose methods have come under scrutiny—to push the drug as a coronavirus cure. The FDA eventually issued “emergency use authorization” in late March for doctors to prescribe the drug to COVID-19 patients in off-label use.
✄
And a new government-funded study released on Tuesday will likely ensure that both Trump and his favorite Fox News stars continue to quietly back away from ceaselessly hyping the drug in coming weeks.
In a preliminary study of 368 patients in Veterans Affairs medical facilities—not yet peer-reviewed, but backed by the National Institutes of Health—28 percent of those who received hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus died, compared to the 11 percent who received routine care.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-quietly-backs-away-from-hyping-trumps-coronavirus-miracle-drug-hydroxychloroquine
realexander over 4 years ago
Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?
Silly Season over 4 years ago
Fast forward to 2020. For six agonizing weeks, President Trump ignored, downplayed and discredited dire warnings (including from his own appointees) that predicted precisely the public health and economic catastrophe that America confronts today.
While classified intelligence briefings scared some Republican senators into panic-selling massive amounts of stock, the government’s experts “just couldn’t get [Trump] to do anything about” the dire warnings that he was receiving.
To make matters worse, the outgoing Obama administration handed Trump’s team detailed pandemic response plans and conducted a disaster response exercise simulating a viral outbreak nearly identical to COVID-19. Trump ignored the plans, fired the key participants in the exercise and disbanded a critical White House pandemic response unit.
Once the novel coronavirus reached American shores, Trump refused to take charge.
Absent clear guidance and attention from the top, the administration bungled the mass rollout of testing kits, likely the single deadliest failure of Trump’s disastrous response.
Moreover, the president’s inability to lead caused governors to fight one another for scarce, life-saving medical equipment. U.S. states were forced to compete against each other for masks and ventilators, creating bidding wars beset by profiteering and price gauging — a Trump-induced nightmare scenario in the middle of a national crisis.
Despite pleas from physicians, nurses and hospital staff, Trump has still not fully invoked temporary emergency authorities to produce urgently-needed medical supplies.
Ultimately, Trump’s dithering and politically motivated belittling of a grave threat exacted an enormous cost in American lives.
Some 4,500 innocent Americans died in a single recent day, far more than perished on September 11, 2001.
This is an attack on America. ✄
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/493774-throw-the-gops-benghazi-playbook-at-trumps-catastrophic-coronavirus
Oakwood13 over 4 years ago
Considering that the mile markers for getting everyone keep getting farther apart I am of the opinion that no one really knows what is going on. First, wash your hands and don’t touch your face the virus can’t live in the air. That didn’t work so better stay 6 feet apart in case it can survive for short a short time in the air. Since it take 10-14 days lock everyone up for 2 weeks and it wii go away. Then that didn’t work so let’s make it a month. Noe maybe it does survive up to 10 days in the air so maybe you should wear a mask. So then let’s put in a bunch of rules to keep people apart that make no sense. It’s okay to go fishing but not play golf or tennis. It’s okay for some businesses to be open but not others but people are still allowed to go out to them but if they feel like li the will fine you for being out. So how do you feel now that everyone who keeps saying something like total government control like what happens in most countries that thought socialism was the answer ended up can’t happen here. Enjoying living under the democrats ideal government.
William Robbins Premium Member over 4 years ago
Examples of successful handling of the virus abound. South Korea is cautiously reopening. Trump’s chaos cost us trillions.
fuzzbucket Premium Member over 4 years ago
I vote for the toast. Everybody but me has too many liberties.
RobinHood over 4 years ago
Mr. Fribble hasn’t let Carman out yet.
Bookworm over 4 years ago
Coming from the AAPT (All Aryan Party of Trump, formerly known as the GOP), the party of “fake news” and “thoughts and prayers,” the notion of civil liberties violations is really, really funny!
NaturLvr over 4 years ago
Mmmm, avocado toast, count me in! My intact civil liberties allowed me to make a necessary trip to the grocery store for the first time in almost three weeks, sporting my new cloth facemask, and fresh bananas and avocados were part of my acquisitions. And I gave a high hand-clap to all the masked employees as I left the store. USA, USA, USA!!! ;-)
theotherther1 over 4 years ago
Carmen wouldn’t make a very fun friend. This strip really drives it home.
Cheapskate0 over 4 years ago
Last shot for the day:
Until there is HERD TESTING (made that one up, but I think you know what I mean) – we have NO IDEA whether those of us whose loved ones went through this, or ourselves, have had this, are immune or, if we have had this, we are now Typhoid Marys!
The quarantines need to continue!
It really is a matter of life and death!
Oh, and yeah: Germany, once caught flat footed when C19 swept through Italy and Switzerland (and now France), nevertheless got on top of this with – this is a recording – TESTING, TESTING, and TESTING. They appear to be “coming around” (whilst their neighbors are still suffering).
Nevertheless, it is April, they are starting to loosen some restrictions. BUT!
NO OKTOBERFEST THIS YEAR.
Six months down the road, but they are already confident that they can’t hold this event – an event (like so many) that previously was only interrupted by World War II.
Side giggle: Same with the Scripps Spelling Bee. Not interrupted since WW II, that is. Not happening this year.
Let’s get real! This thing is serious!
It might not kill you, but it might kill someone in your contact community!
jbmlaw01 over 4 years ago
Seems like there was once a movie, “Escape from New York” that depicted the town as a prison of sorts. Maybe we can resolve the whole thing by locking down New York and letting the rest of the country get back to business.
adrianrune over 4 years ago
So the purpose of the Constitution establishing a government to “promote the general welfare” (welfare: the HEALTH, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group) apparently doesn’t mean a damn thing now. We have the individual right to not only potentially kill ourselves because we don’t want to be inconvenienced, but others as well.