The Novel Coronavirus Pandemic In This President's Own Words

The coronavirus in Donald Trump's own words.

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”

February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”

February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”

February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”

February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”

March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”

March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”

March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”

March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”

March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”

March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”

March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”

March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”

March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”

March 9: “This blindsided the world.”

March 13:  "I don't take responsibility at all."

Thanks, Republiccans!

The willfully ignorant--and yes, clearly racist--American public

The ignorance of any population of a country I can kind of understand, sure. Ignorance is a bit like air, it's all around you.  I was reminded of our nation's ignorance by an article in The New York Times today:

Obama's Puzzle: Economy Rarely Better, Approval Rarely Worse

A bit from the article:

WASHINGTON — President Obama will pronounce on the state of the union for the fifth time on Tuesday, and never during his time in office has the state of the economy been better — yet rarely has he gotten such low marks from the public for his handling of it.

Not only have economic indicators shown progress toward pre-recession health, but many forecasters are predicting what one called “a breakout year” for growth. A new study from a Federal Reserve economist even put a more benign spin on a negative trend, the shrinking labor force, by attributing the decline not to discouraged unemployed workers who have quit looking for jobs, but to the first baby-boomer retirements.

Demand for labor is up and the unemployment rate is below 7 percent for the first time since November 2008. Consumers, buoyed by rising home prices and stock values, are spending more; so are businesses. Exports are growing as Europe regains health. The fiscal drag from state and federal spending cuts has abated. And contrary to Republicans’ claims, many forecasters do not see the health care law as “a job-killer.”

Not only does this president get little or no credit for the good and growing economy, but the vitriol and ugliness that one can hear, read and see in this country towards this man is not just negative but at least a few people have publicly called for him to be not just impeached but killed. One said, on Facebook, he should be lynched. It's outrageous.

It reminds me of the saying that minorities have to work twice as hard yet they get half the credit of a white man. There's no better example of this than to examine the presidencies of President Obama and his predecessor, for one very easy, pertinent and extremely recent proof of that. It became an all-too-true meme, showing our collective hypocrisy, if not stupidity:

Now if we could just get a Congress that would a) work and b) send a good jobs/infrastructure bill to him this year, as soon as possible.

Links:

Man accused of threatening life of Obama, first family

Man threatens president's life

"Birther" Busted For Threatening To Kill Obama 

Man Threatens Obama's Life On Facebook

Fox News analyst tells Tea Party group he can lead a military coup against Obama

On doing research first

 

 

Too often, we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." 

 

--President John F. Kennedy

Open letter to Princess Kate

Dear Princess Kate,

Excuse me.

You're a freaking Princess of the British Royal family.

Hello?

That and you're young and beautiful and wealthy and, don't forget, have a beautiful body, let's not forget or ignore.

Do you not know that virtually ANY man wants to see your breasts, sadly, but that because you're young and beautiful and rich and yes, finally, that you're BRITISH ROYALTY, everyone wants to see you naked, if possible?

Sure, it's stupid but come on, the human being is far too puerile and there are a great deal of voyeurs out there in the world, down through history.

So if you go topless on a yacht and it's remotely close to a public space, do you not think some idiot of some kind is going to take a zoom lens and try to get a picture--or some pictures--of you? They'll try to do that, period, just for the heck of it but here's the topper--it also pays a great deal, too, to those low-class, scummy rag tabloids.

What part of any of this do you not get?

And while we're at it, please ask the rest of the Royal Family the same thing, would you, please?

Oh, and if you and the Royals want a rather "moral leg to stand on", so to speak, maybe you and the family should stop taking national, public money from the nation since you're, oh, I don't know, ONE OF THE WEALTHIEST FAMILIES ON THE PLANET? If you don't want people taking pictures of you in your private time, stop taking this public money. I know then, if you and they did, then I know I'd back your claim of a right to privacy. Until that time, however, I think the citizens of England rather own you, since they already buy and pay for you. This money could go to help the lower- and middle-classes of your country, instead.

So now the Royal family files suit against the tabloids. Wow. Apparently they have no better use of their time and money but to file suit against tabloids across Europe that are doing exactly what they've always done, as though it's a surprise somehow.

Y'all can do better than this. Go help some people instead.

Most sincerely,

Kevin Evans
Kansas City, Missouri

Links: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/09/14/royal-family-considers-legal-action-after-magazine-publishes-topless-pictures/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/15/us-britain-royals-kate-italy-idUSBRE88E0AU20120915