Donald Trump's serial denialism finally comes full circle with coronavirus and "the jig is up"

Finally, the pernicious "denialism" that's endemic in the fraudulent Republican party and the Trumpzi administration has come full circle when they have been forced to accept the  medical science called "virology". In other words, coronavirus is not a hoax.

An article published in The Week March 20, 2020

Caronavirus cases and deaths spike across the U.S.
What happened?
Donald Trump appeared to undermine federal efforts to contain the new coronavirus when the pandemic began, insisting that the virus will "go away", even as cases of the respiratory illness skyrocketed across the U.S., spooking markets and sparking fears of a recession.

Then, health officials had reported more than 1,000 cases of the coronavirus in 38 states and the District of Columbia and at least 30 deaths.

To stem the spread of the virus, known as Covid-19, universities across the country scrapped in person classes, major events such as the South by Southwest festival were canceled and companies began mandating that employees work from home. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of schools and gathering places in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb, that has seen dozens of cases and he sent the National Guard to sanitize a 1 mile wide "containment zone".  The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 3,000 plus points in one day, the worst daily showing since the 2008 financial crisis. Globally, officials reported more than 125,000 cases and at least 4,500 deaths.

With multiple states declaring emergencies, the Trumpzi denier tweeted that 17,000 Americans die from the flu each year and "nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on".  Influenza* typically kills 0.1 percent of the people it infects every year, the World Health Organization estimates that the Covid-19 has a mortality rate of up to 3.4 percent.  Trump dismissed the WHO's fatality figures as "a false number", and during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he boasted about his "natural" scientific ability. He attributed this to his "super genious uncle" sho had one corked at MIT!  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 

Moreover, the Trumpzi administration's top public health officials were grilled in Congress over the sluggish rollout of Covid-19 testing kits. Only about 4,300 people had been tested since the start of the outbreak. However, the South Koreans had been conducting up to 10,000 tests a day.  "There's not enough equipment," CDC (Center for Disease Control) Director Robert Redfield said about public labs' capabilities.  "There's not enough people."  

Brian Monahan, Congress' in house doctor told Capitol Hill staffers in a closed door meeting that 70 million to 130 million Americans will likely contract the virus. 

What the editorials said
Trumpzi's Pollyannaish predictions and outright falsehoods "will cost lives," said The Washington Post.  To boost the stock market and his re-election chances, Donald Trump is contradicting the advice offered by his own health-care experts. They urged people to practice social distancing, but he has told them to live life as usual.  In China, a viral catastrophe ensued when the authoritarian Community Party emphasized its image at the expense of the nation's health.  Now, we're seeing the same here in the U.S. 

"So far, in this crisis, Trumpzi himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership," said National Review. He delayed making the virus a priority for as long as possible- "refusing briefings, downplaying the problem and wasting precious time".  He failed to empower subordinates and rather than trust the information they handed him, recycled favorable figures he eard on cable T.V.  This behavior is familiar, it's how Trumpzi has handled scandals and fiascoes for three failed years. But, those were largely self created crises. The coronavirus "demands a new level of seriousness from the inept tRump".  

What the Columnists said
Trump views the coronavirus case totals as if it were an approval polls, said Dan Diamond, in Politico.com.  He left some 2,500 passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship,"marooned off the coast of California, for days, even as "coronavirus infections rapidly multiplies". Why not evacuate and isolate the cruise goers?"  "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault," the stupid Trumpzi explained to the media.  

Trumpzi- Stupid is as Stupid Does (#SIASD)

This disaster was fast turning into "Trump's Chernobyl," said Brian Klaas in The Washington Post.  Just like Soviet authorities in the wake of the 1986, nuclear plant explosion, the #SIASD Trumpzi was trying "to construct a reality that simply did not exist. Those lies will eventually kill people." 

MaineWriter- Unfortunately, 103 passengers on the cruise ship The Grand Princess tested positive for the coronavirus and at least two of them subsequently died from the infection (reported the The Mercury News).  

But, Michael Fumento reported in The New York Post that American had succumbed to "pure hysteria".  It's possible that the coronavirus will soon peak and start to die down, just as it has in China, where new cases have dropped from 4,000 a day to 200. And, the reported mortality rate of 3.4 percent is highly misleading, given that most infected people "have symptoms so mile, if any, that they don't seek medical attention and don't get counted in the caseload".  (Maine Writer - I wonder, where did Michael Fumento buy his zeroxed public health diploma?)

This kind of uninformed opining is "wanonly irresponsible", said Yascha Mounk, in The Atlantic.com.  We know this disease spreads like lightening. Italy had 6.2 identified cases on FEbruary 22, 888 cases by Feb. 29, and 4, 636, by March 6th.  The case rate here will soar in coming days and if even the mortality rate is only 1 percent, that will mean "the soronavirus is 10 times as deadly as the flu".

China finally arrested the virus", exponential spread by canceling all public gatherings, asking most citizens to self-quarantine, and sealing off the epicenter in Wuhan province. 

The U.S., must follow that example and "cancel everything".  It's the only way to stop this killer.  

Maine Writer note - Interesting to see that on March 28, 2020, since the number of coronavirus cases in the US are now exponentially accelerating, the trending hashtag on Twitter is #Trump_genocide.

Whats next?
American's health-care system could be in for "a reckoning", said Dan Goldberg and Rachel Roubein in Politico.com.  

In other words, "the jig is up".  

So far, there's no sign of hospitals "cracking under pressure," but, the industry has undergone "long term consolidation," and "years of cutbacks" as it emphasized short-patient stays in an effort to arrest runaway health-care spending. That's left the system vulnerable and means that administrators might have to ration equipment, like ventilators, acute care beds, protective equipment (PPE) and even oxygen as patients flood into emergency rooms. "There is still a chance that state and local efforts to contain the virus can succeed," said Ross Douthat, in The New York Times, but, if the current trajectory of infection rates holds, we will see "rising death rates and overwhelmed hospitals, shuttered schools and empty stadiums."

Combine the economic consequences of such a scenario, "with the optics of the Trumpzi's blundering response, and the coronavirus seems very likely to doom Trumpzi' re-election effort, no matter where he casts the blame.

*Maine Writer note- with Influenza, there is evidence of an acquired immunity to the virus because of many years of exposures and the help of preventive annual vaccines.  Moreover, Tamilfu is a drug now available to help treat influenza.  Yet, as of now, there is no proven coronavirus vaccine and no access to drugs to combat the virus.

Christian persecution in the Middle East ~ Mosul

This chillingly accurate political cartoon graphic provides more information about Christian persecutions conducted by terrorist groups in the Middle East than any news reports could accurately describe.  Created by the Indianapolis Star (IndyStar) political commentator and cartoonist Gary Varvel.

Varvel looks at Christian persecution published in the IndyStar
Christians are under attack in Arab nations.  Recently, the terrorist group ISIS (the Caliphate) drove Christians from their homes in Mosul, Iraq, where they have ancestors who have inhabited the region for two millenia. "That sound of crickets chirping is the  world response," is Varvel's commentary. 

Here's how the journalist George J. Marlin described the dire situation in an article published in the National Review: 

Iraqi Christians Look to Reclaim Their Ancient Homes 

Baghdad’s expulsion of ISIS from the Nineveh Plains gives them hope, but they must act fast to return and regain possession.
It was the night of August 6, 2014. Fresh from their capture of Mosul, the terrorist ISIS fighters swept through the Nineveh Plains and overnight drove more than 12,000 Christian families from their homes and ancestral lands. The families fled, quite literally, with only the clothes on their backs.

In Kurdistan, they joined the approximately 15,000 Christians who had fled Mosul just weeks earlier. For the next three years, some 120,000 internally displaced persons, or IDPs, were housed, fed, and clothed by the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil. Led by Archbishop Bashar Warda, whose herculean efforts were made possible by the steadfast support of an array of faith-based agencies, the local Church was even able to open six new schools so the children would not be deprived of their education.
Now, three years later, there is a glimmer of hope. The Iraqi government recaptured Mosul and ISIS was expelled from the Nineveh Plains. Iraq’s long-suffering Christians, worn out by many months of living in make-shift conditions, now want to go home.
Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church has urged the Christian IDPs to “return quickly to reclaim their lands before others seize them” and to avoid internal disputes. “We are the indigenous people of this country and its ancient civilizations, he added. “Our history is traced back to the oldest Christian Church in the world.”

Over a thousand families initially returned to their newly repaired homes on the Nineveh Plains. However, 13,000 Christian-owned homes await repair or rebuilding. And the revamping of the basic infrastructure of the nine Christian towns and villages on the Plains requires major funding — well beyond the ability of faith-based groups to deliver. Meanwhile, the overall situation is far from stable and secure. The threat of renewed violence hangs over the land.
Baghdad may tout its defeat of ISIS, but the group’s Sunni co-religionists still feel like second-class citizens in Iraq, as their devastated cities get scant help from the government. That situation is made worse by the growing influence of Shiite Iran, thousands of whose fighters have joined Iraq’s security forces. There are also reports that ISIS militants are going underground, preparing for guerrilla warfare, suicide attacks, and car bombs.
Christians and other religious minorities count on Western governments not only to help fund the reconstruction but also to insist that both Baghdad and Kurdistan guarantee security.
Christians are at risk — yet again — of becoming collateral damage of the Sunni–Shiite battle for control of Iraq and the larger region.The issues affecting the region are complex and constantly evolving. 
Christians and other religious minorities count on the Western governments — and the U.S. in particular —not only to help fund the reconstruction of the Nineveh Plains but also to use their power and influence to get both Baghdad and Kurdistan to guarantee the security of all minorities and to ensure their equality of citizenship, including their property rights and freedom of worship.

The West must help because, if a significant number of Christians do not return to the Nineveh Plains very soon, and the power vacuum persists into 2018, the hopes for an enduring renaissance of Christianity in Iraq may be dashed forever.

A Roman Catholic woman responds to Donald Trump

"Trump has significantly damaged the GOP, as he confirms Hispanics’ suspicions that the Republican party is fully embracing a strong anti-immigration — and perhaps anti-immigrant — policy...," Alexandra DeSanctis National Review

Roman Catholics, especially women (me among them), are appalled by Donald Trump's anti-immigration and bigotry driven rhetoric. He sounds dangerously like the warning by Niemöller, at least to me*.

Dear Donald Trump (and vicariously this message extends to your limited number of surrogates including Kellyanne Conway aka Cruella di Vil),

As a practicing Roman Catholic woman, I want to chime in about your lack of support from my religious voter demographic.  

We can't support Donald Trump or Governor Mike Pence while knowing how our faith is based on building bridges with all other religious groups.  All are welcome into our Roman Catholic communities without regard for any segregating demographic and especially not exclusive to those with particular immigrant status. In other words, Roman Catholics can't abide by Donald Trump's opposition to immigration reform and his support for mass expulsion of immigrants.

Likewise, with Governor Mike Pence, who claims to be a former Roman Catholic, now an Evangelical Christian. No practicing Christian turns anyone away from the Gospel, based on their race, ethnicity, social status, religious affiliation or immigrant status.
Governor Mike Pence isn't speaking like a Christian when he supports the exclusive and harmful social policies spewed by Donald Trump.

The National Review reports:
Polls show Donald Trump is struggling to appeal to Catholic voters, a longtime swing demographic. A central theme of this year’s presidential election has been Donald Trump’s failure to capture the support of key voting groups such as women, African Americans, and Hispanics. Now, he's also losing by an unrecoverable margin in another key voting bloc, one that has swung between the two major political parties for over half a century: Catholics. A poll from the Public Religion Research Institute shows Trump trailing Clinton among Catholic voters by 23 points, 55–32. Meanwhile, a Washington Post-ABC News poll from early August has Trump down by 27 points, 61–34. Neither of these statistics is promising for the Republican nominee, especially given the central role Catholic voters historically have played in presidential elections. In fact, Catholics account for around one-quarter of the overall electorate, and they are typically split about evenly between the Republican and Democratic parties. The majority of Catholics have supported the winning presidential candidate in nearly every election since 1948, the most recent exception being in 2000, when they narrowly swung for Al Gore over George W. Bush.

The Catholic voting bloc is rightly described as a swing group, but obviously not every Catholic voter is up for grabs in every election cycle. Among Catholics, certain subgroups tend to vote in a more predictable way; white, conservative Catholics usually vote Republican, while white liberal Catholics and Hispanic Catholics almost always vote Democrat. It is the Catholic moderates, the largest plurality among Catholic voters at about 33 percent, who account for much of the group’s swinging between parties.

While Trump’s strong anti-immigration stances have contributed to his problems with Catholic voters, particularly Hispanics, this alone does not explain the huge decline in Trump’s Catholic support. 

The PRC reports that Hispanic Catholics already have been largely supporting Democrats, at least since 2000, likely due to the Republican party’s immigration policy. Nor can Trump’s shaky support for the pro-life cause and uninspiring stances on religious liberty and same-sex marriage be held solely to blame. 

According to the PRC, most Catholics have other areas of concern. This year, their top five issues of concern are, in order of importance: The economy, terrorism, health care, immigration, and foreign policy. Abortion and “treatment of LGBT people” (a somewhat ambiguous category) rank at the very bottom of the 14 issues under consideration. Additionally, white Catholic moderates tend to align more closely with liberal Catholics than conservative Catholics on social issues.

In other words, it seems plausible that Trump’s lack of Catholic support is the result of voters abandoning him on both sides of the spectrum: moderates swinging in the liberal direction toward Hillary as the result of his “toxic” rhetoric, and conservatives avoiding him for fear that he is not a real conservative. 

Nevetheless, Catholic discontent isn't limited to Trump. The PRC reports that 57 percent of Catholics as a whole, 53 percent of Hispanic Catholics, and 59 percent of white Catholics are dissatisfied with both major-party candidates. That the majority of Catholics support Clinton seems to be the product of their much stronger dislike for Trump, rather than of any great affinity for Clinton per se.

This enormous rise in Catholic support for the Democratic nominee over the Republican indicates another area in which Trump has significantly damaged the GOP, as he confirms Hispanics’ suspicions that the Republican party is fully embracing a strong anti-immigration — and perhaps anti-immigrant — policy, and his rhetoric affirms liberal Catholics’ belief that the GOP tolerates “bigotry.” It is worth remembering that the Republican party secured a majority of the Catholic vote as recently as 2004, and Mitt Romney lost it by only two percentage points in 2012.

Given Catholics’ dissatisfaction with Clinton in this election cycle, one wonders whether a different GOP nominee — perhaps a fellow Catholic such as Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio — might have galvanized historic Catholic support. 

For now, however, it is not to be. — 

Alexandra DeSanctis is a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at the National Review Institute. 

* First They Came Pastor Niemöller (1892-1984)might help explain the Catholic opposition to Donald Trump:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Christians and Donald Trump - Jesus and the Pharisees

All Americans must express outrage about a potential Donald Trump candidacy for President of the United States! Christians, especially, should rise up in protest to a possible leader who preaches hate, bigotry and expresses misogyny.

In fact, Christians who support Donald Trump are ignoring the teachings of Jesus when he spoke about the Pharisees in MATTHEW 23:  
Jesus Condemns the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law of Moses
23 Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
2 The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are experts in the Law of Moses. 3 So obey everything they teach you, but don’t do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else.

Likewise, Christians who claim to be followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ but who somehow fall victim to Donald Trump's hate messaging with violence and mysogyny attached, are the very same class of people as the Pharisees described in Mathew 23.

In The National Review- an article to help explain this Christian hypocrisy:

by DAVID FRENCH March 14, 2016 5:25 PM @DAVIDAFRENCH 

Believe it or not, Donald Trump — the walking Planned Parenthood commercial who incites violence, celebrates adultery, and lies habitually — still has prominent Christian defenders, men and women who twist reason and logic to the breaking point in the quest to defend the indefensible. 

Case in point: Jerry Falwell Jr. Last week, the Liberty Champion — a student-run newspaper at Liberty University, where Fallwell is president — interviewed the Evangelical leader and asked him about his support for Trump. In the middle of his extended remarks, Falwell turned his attention to Christian criticism of his endorsement: It is sad to see Christians attacking other Christians because they don’t support the same candidate or the candidate who they believe is the most righteous. . . . God called King David a man after God’s own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer. . . . You have to choose the leader that would make the best king or president and not necessarily someone who would be a good pastor. 

King David was repentent and he still received justice from God

To mention King David in the same breath as Donald Trump is to insult our theological intelligence. Yes, David did terrible things — among them, committing adultery and sending his mistress’s husband to die in war — but God imposed terrible punishment — a punishment that cost David his son and ultimately plunged his nation into civil war. The punishment endured even as David repented, wholeheartedly. He began Psalm 51, with these immortal words: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! And while God forgave David — as he forgives us today — He did not spare David from the cost of disobedience. Ultimately, David’s story is a story of both the awful consequences of sin and God’s mercy in response to true repetence.  

And Donald Trump? Trump will bring us sin without repentance and consequence without the mercy. Trump isn’t remorseful about his affairs (among his many other sins), he brags about them. In his book, The Art of the Comeback, Trump said, “If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller,” In Think Big and Kick Ass (It’s not exactly the Psalms, but let’s not split hairs), he said “Beautiful, famous, successful, married — I’ve had them all, secretly, the world’s biggest names.”

When Frank Luntz asked Trump if he had ever asked God for forgiveness, he responded: "I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so . . . I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t."

Lest anyone think Falwell is alone, the list of Christian celebrities who’ve either endorsed Trump or showered him with praise is long and growing longer. The most infamous recent endorser is Ben Carson, who ran his campaign around the theme, “Heal, Inspire, and Revive.” But Carson referred to the “will of the people” when endorsing Trump, and declared there were “two different Donald Trumps” — the “one you see on the stage” and “the one who is very cerebral.” RELATED: Being Presidential Is Not in Trump’s DNA Mike Huckabee has been a consistent and prominent Trump apologist, saying Sunday, that Trump was leading a “peaceful overthrow” of the government and that “he has been the Teddy Roosevelt who’s charging up San Juan Hill and there is no retreat.” Huckabee (along with Rick Santorum) famously appeared with Trump at a debate-night rally in Iowa that he staged while skipping the GOP debate, and he’s defended Trump from charges that he’s racist and pro-abortion. Dallas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress — who attacked Mitt Romney as a member of a “cult” — appeared and prayed at Trump events in Iowa, saying he would not have done so “if [he] did not believe that Mr. Trump could be a very effective President of the United States.”

Regardless, of the repentence issue....Donald Trump is bringing out the worst of the modern day Pharisees in our nation's Christians. Our nation created laws so as not to support any particular religion! In fact, the Constitution was written to eliminate the influence of any theological influence. Nevertheless, Christians should know better.....they should not behave like the Pharisees in Matthew 23.