Trump's briefings were meant to show him in charge -- now they are becoming absurd

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-jacksonville/index.html

(CNN)President Donald Trump says the country is doing great in a pandemic that just infected its four millionth US victim and is killing 1,000 people a day. But his claim is based on a brazen confidence trick, requiring Americans to ignore his responsibility for the spike in the southern and western states as he claims credit for the success of northeastern states that suppressed the disease after not heeding his advice to reopen before the virus was under control.

And that might not even be the most outrageous thing the President said at his third briefing in as many days.


The President, after months mocking mask wearing and social distancing guidelines, trawled for credit and claimed he was setting an "example" after deciding to cancel Republican convention events in Covid-battered Florida.
Though deeming the situation too dangerous to hold the quadrennial political showpiece, he nevertheless insisted that it was perfectly safe for children to go back to school full time in a few weeks.


Trump used northeastern states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which lowered their infection curve with strict stay-at-home orders, as part of a misleading argument that much of the US was free of the virus. What he didn't say is that those states succeeded because they ignored his calls to reopen.


"That's really very much indicating where the problems are," Trump said, referencing a map showing less virus penetration in the Northeast and central plains states, where fewer people live, than across the sunbelt.
"You see from that -- it's in great shape, lots of it," Trump said.

"The Northeast has become very clean. The country is in very good shape other than if you look south and west, some problems that'll all work out," the President said.

States that disregarded scientific advice to satisfy government benchmarks on reopening, many led by pro-Trump governors and that backed him in 2016 -- like Texas, Florida and Arizona -- are now in the middle of a Covid-19 nightmare. Florida, for example, registered 10,249 new cases and 173 additional deaths on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 156 deaths on July 16, according to the state's department of health.

[zipplewrath]

1. California politically

The optical problem has been California. A democratically run state struggling with the virus. Looking at the county level data, it appears to be the GOP dominated areas that are the problem. The major news outlets will not recognize this.

[Cha]

3. It's obvious to us on DU that's the problem with

California's COVID crisis.

We read about red counties all time not wearing masks. And freaking out because others are.

The US media that doesn't recognize reality needs to get their shit together.

[flibbitygiblets]

15. Damn right!

[Cha]

16. Aloha, flibbity!

[Silver Gaia]

18. This Californian agrees.

We have our share of red areas and Trumper idiots. I'm in an urban area, but they come here to shop. I've yelled at some of them for not wearing masks in stores. Now they have to wear them by governor mandate. In my county, businesses that don't enforce wearing of masks can be fined $10 grand. That made them perk up. Our spike has to do with these red areas, along with large family gatherings and church services, and oddly, some dumb things that were done in prisons.

[Cha]

19. Mahalo, Silver Gaia, for giving us an

on the Ground Report from California!

Stay Safe~❤️😷

[Silver Gaia]

20. Thanks, Cha.

I am very careful. Staying as safe as possible! You, too!

[myccrider]

22. Cali's problem is a mix

of covidiots (I’m in the OC, and although it has finally turned purple politically, there are still plenty of RWNJs around), the social inequities that the pandemic has exposed everywhere (especially in the Latinx communities and/or among essential workers) and problems in prisons/nursing homes.

Here’s a recent LA Times report.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-24/coronavirus-hospitalizations-for-children-younger-adults-dramatically-worsen-in-l-a-county

Sorry if there’s a paywall, I’m not sure if the LAT is publishing Covid stories for free or not. Here are four paragraphs as a synopsis”
****************************
"The epidemic in the West is particularly among the Latinx community. ... They are both in urban, as well as rural, agricultural areas,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco. “There’s tremendous amount of transmission in Southern California, in particular in Orange and Los Angeles counties.”
...
And while much was said early in the pandemic about how urban, dense areas like New York City were primed for catastrophe, it’s now clear that agricultural and rural areas are suffering too, with coronavirus case rates high throughout California’s Central Valley, Salinas Valley and Imperial Valley, all part of the state’s agricultural heartland.
...
Social gatherings are also worsening the spread, public health officials have said. Summer parties at fraternities at UC Berkeley have been linked to 72 cases, a factor the campus cited in determining it would begin the fall semester with fully remote instruction.

As case counts and death tolls continue to spike across the state, health officials are also battling significant resistance to wearing masks in some places. In Huntington Beach, some view the pandemic as a hoax, and much of the public refuses to wear face coverings. On Wednesday, there were 690 people with confirmed coronavirus infections at Orange County’s hospitals, a 157% increase from two months ago.
*************************

[Cha]

2. ".. becoming.."? trump's "in charge" of his "hoax" on

America. trump Owns the Virus he won't take responsibility for.

trump's a GD LIAR.. A Fucking FAKE potus.. if you will!

[BigmanPigman]

4. You combined my long standing favorite nicknames

for him (the Fake Prez and the fucking moron) into one..."the fucking, fake POTUS". Well done!

[Cha]

5. lol.. my distinct

pleasure, BP!

[struggle4progress]

6. knr

[Sherman A1]

7. Becoming Absurd?

[malaise]

8. Please proceed shithound

Dig your hole deeper

[augyboston]

10. Shithound!

Shithound! I love it.

A thoroughly apt description of this clown.

[malaise]

11. Shithound and his

shitshow

[augyboston]

12. Time to flush!

Long past time to flush.

[augyboston]

9. Olympus Mons

If incompetence were a mountain; Prez Day Glow would be the Olympus Mons of incompetence!

At every turn he has been wrong and it's because he only sees the world for what it can do for him and for his benefit. A man child totally devoid of any empathy combined with a deadly pandemic is a terrible combination...

[Vinca]

13. At best it's only demonstrated he can still read a script rather poorly.

[gademocrat7]

14. His daily non scientific based ramblings are ridiculous.

The trump virus is raging and he still insists that children return to school.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. Just another self-entitled type born on 3rd who thought he hit a triple.

[TomVilmer]

21. Denmark has less dying than in the years before...

... since the effective social distancing has drained out a lot of other normal diseases. Well - the numbers are still not fully trustworthy, but:

A not yet peer reviewed study, made by an international team of researchers at the University of Southern Denmark, shows that the total number of deaths has fallen during the corona crisis. Professor, health economist and co-author of the study, Jens Søgaard, says: "The number is not statistically significant, but there was perhaps 110 fewer deaths in Denmark than would presumably be in the same period if covid-19 had not been there and we had not taken good care of it."