Brane Space: Despite Stocks Cratering Donnie Bonespurs Continues To Try To Gaslight Reality- Putting Us All At Risk

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"It's MY news turn! That virus is takin' away my blame the Dems an' fake news act! BWAHAHAA!"

"Whereas his supporters can be lied to and gaslighted, a virus cannot. A virus is going to do what a virus does. Viruses are not thinking and aware. Technically, they’re not even living things. They are like an army of androids, multiplying as they attack and infect living things. So none of the tricks that Trump has learned and deployed will work against this virus. Only science, honesty, prudence and genuine concern for public safety will work now." Charles Blow, NY Times, 'You Can't Gaslight A Virus'

"This virus can't be bluffed or bullied and will soon become Mr. Trump's greatest adversary." Walter Russell Mead, The Wall Street Journal, , 'Trump and the Pandemic', today, p. A15

"At a moment citizens are turning to the government for facts and assurance, Trump has been immersing himself in grievances and feuds with Democrats and other perceived enemies."- The Washington Post, today, 'Trump Struggles For Calm As Virus Spreads'

"This crisis has unhelmed and unmasked him. He’s incapable of leading. When it comes to Trump, truth, decency and self-possession have been in quarantine from the start.". Jennifer Senior, NY Times, 'Trump Is Unfit For This Crisis, Period'.

You just had to love it if you are a Trump hater: The Washington Post story Sunday of how the blustering 73 year -old brat baby occupying the White House was pitching fits because the coronavirus was knocking him off the news cycle. "How dare that virus get more attention than me!" Yeah, but see, sonny, you regard the media as fake news anyway so why the bawling?

Before that the clueless imbecile and dyspeptic buffoon had immortalized himself by way of a number of incidents embodying how chaotic his responses have been:

- When visiting the CDC on Friday spent 45 minutes hurling epithets including that Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington- was a "snake"

- Then quickly asking if his town hall on FOX News "got good ratings"

- Then bragging how every doctor at the CDC proclaimed how Doturd "knew so much"

- To which his answer was "Maybe I have a natural ability"

Uh yeah, to pull bullshit out of your ass and then toss it out for public consumption - even when you have to know it's shit

But the most crucial aspect is the number of testing kits, the current shortage of which is leaving us in the dark, essentially "driving blind" as one health expert quoted on CBS put it yesterday morning. Given the lack of such kits and appropriate testing, especially of vulnerable populations - like the uninsured- there is little doubt this snafu is allowing the virus to spread.

To fix ideas, even de facto virus "czar" Mike Pence has admitted it "could be a matter of weeks" before test kits are widely available. In the interim the COVID-19 virus could spread not just to thousands but tens of thousands, Already we know no less than five Reepo lawmakers - who came into contact with a known carrier of the coronavirus. Included in the contacts are Matt Gaetz of Florida and Doug Collins of Georgia who announced yesterday that they had begun two weeks of self-imposed isolation.

Gaetz himself flew with Trump on Air Force One from Orlando to Washington on Monday and was informed en route that he had come into contact with a virus carrier at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last month. Meanwhile, Trump has falsely claimed the virus is “contained” in the United States and accused the media and Democrats of exaggerating the threat it poses, in an effort to make him a one turner. The execrable maggot seems not to grasp he's doing that to himself.

As for his co-maggots at FAUX News (like Laura Ingraham) who claim this is all a "Left virus plot against the President" - they had better hope Dotard (given his age) doesn't come down with this and end up on a ventilator. Then they will see just how much of a hoax or "fake news" COVID-19 really is. See e.g.

CPAC attendees insist COVID-19 is no big deal; freak out when it turns out they were exposed

Apart from the clownish actions at CPAC and the downplaying tactics of Trump and his FOX tools, the most critical issue remains how they've screwed the pooch with the test kits. Thanks to the Trumpies blowing it with the test kits (not having a Plan B ready in case the CDC flubbed it - as they did with an early version of the test) not every one who wants or needs a test can get it, That, btw, includes nurses and other health care workers on the front lines. And more than one of these medical workers has made it known our hospitals are nowhere near ready to handle a mass influx of infected people - subsequently found to be positive for COVID-19.

In the midst of this is the orange fungal growth with a red MAGA cap, who believes he is the one who ought to be at the top of the news cycle, and only in a positive fashion - because he's doing everything "perfectly". Yeah, right, perfectly wrong. Including lying his fat orange ass off by claiming something everyone with an IQ over room temperature knows is flagrantly false, i.e.:

"Anyone who wants a test can get a test.. Anybody right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test, they're there. And the tests are beautiful."

Can anyone believe this maggot-ridden asswipe? I mean, just after this spooge fest we heard governor after governor and doctor after doctor state this was categorically untrue given all states are in dire need of test kits and testing. This was echoed by Dr. Walter Mills - president of the California Academy of Family Physicians who told The San Jose Mercury News: “We have no local testing available,”

And then Trump has the absolute temerity to squawk about the "Fake news and democrats" trying to bring him down, while his FOX News acolytes acts as accessories after the fact. Now, I wouldn't believe this gaslighting POS pretender if he called an emergency press conference tonight and said the COVID-19 vaccine will be ready in May. The fact now is thanks to the Trump cabal's fumble on the test kits, there are nowhere near enough available for those who need them. And without the test kits and strategic testing we can't know how widespread the virus is, or even its fatality rate.

But this so -called leader doesn't even recognize that you can't simply spout falsehoods about a critical test because you wish it were true, or you are trying to throw the media off its game. Which is actually its duty to alert the American people - including Trump's zombie horde- of where we stand in confronting COVID-19.

What is Trump's game and why is he really so furious at the virus for making it impossible for him to control the news stream? It is because he's being exposed as the shameless con man he is for trying to manage perceptions. The dope came right out and spouted this regarding the cruise ship off San Francisco last week, where 21 had tested positive for the virus:

"I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship. But if they do take em off then the 240 will probably be a much higher number and the 11 too."

Confirming once and for all this two-legged cockroach is unfit to lead, hell even to scrub a toilet. He I so wrapped up in his solipsistic world of ego and entitlement he can't even see the markets are giving him a total thumbs down as president. With the 2,000 point dive yesterday it's clear they also aren't buying any of his codswallop. Why would they, given he's shown he's not serious about dealing with the COVID-19 but rather trying to bullshit the populace on Main Street and the traders on Wall Street using daft promises and happy talk?

Meanwhile, Trump's Reeptardo minions are desperately trying to save his orange carcass by trotting out BS that won't make a dime's worth of difference, like "targeted tax cuts" - compliments of senile Chuck Grassley. Oh, and "payroll tax cuts" - which is the last thing we need given they will only hasten the insolvency of Social Security. For reference, the average increase in weekly wages from such a cut is about $15:00, or chump change. Simply not worth the blow to Social Security, so the House Dems ought to fight it tooth and nail.

Worse, none of these efforts will relieve the enormously leveraged markets, i.e. based on investors' using debt to purchase shares - say $1 of personal money for every $9 debt - to get a $10 share. This is a house of cards ready to collapse. Thus, even if the markets buy into Trump's bloviations and "fixes" it will do nada to relieve the debt pressures ready to explode. And if anyone doesn't think the COVID-19 virus can't be the great unraveler they need to read the WSJ article 'Network Effects Multiply A Viral Outbreak' (March 6, p. A 17).

What is actually needed, as any rational (even non-finance ) person can see are supply side (fiscal) aids such as: indefinite paid leave for all working families, increased unemployment insurance for anyone laid off in the current economic doldrums - and as shutdowns continue, free testing for COVID-19 for those lacking insurance, and free access to healthcare facilities for all those showing symptoms. One also can argue for an increase in medical capacity in the event infections out pace the ability of existing hospitals to absorb them. These should all be proverbial 'no brainers'.

Stay tuned. Thanks to Trump's incompetence we are not out of this by a long shot. If you do the (exponential ) math, as Chris Hayes showed last night, we could be looking at 1 million U.S. cases by early May, and 8 million by mid- June.

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