Contributors

Thursday, July 02, 2020

Who'd a Thunk?

Two weeks later, the chickens have gone to the hospital to roost:
Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate, announced on Twitter on Thursday that he had been hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Mr. Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, learned Monday that he had tested positive, was hospitalized Wednesday, and on Thursday “was resting comfortably in an Atlanta-area hospital,” according to a statement posted on his Twitter account.

Mr. Cain attended Mr. Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20. A few hours before the event, the Trump campaign disclosed that six staff members who had been working on the rally had tested positive for the virus during a routine screening. Two members of the Secret Service also tested positive there, people familiar with the matter said.

In a video on his website, Mr. Cain described the rally and he said he had worn a mask while in groups of people. But he also posted photographs of himself on social media that showed him without a mask and surrounded by people in the arena.

“People were concerned, because of the media, about whether or not this was going to turn into another uptick in number of cases of Covid-19,” Mr. Cain said in the video.
Are Republicans congenitally stupid?

The media aren't responsible for your Covid infection, Herman. You are, for running around the country pretending that everything is hunky dory.

Defeating the coronavirus should really be easy, and we could have done it if someone other than that idiot Trump was president. New Zealand did it. Most Asian countries are doing far better than we are. Even France is. The EU has banned travel from the United States because Trump has totally blown it.

If we had clamped down really hard for three weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, then controlled all entry into the country, it really would have burned itself out. But not like magic. Like science. Quarantine with rigorous testing and contact tracing is the only way to stop the spread of the virus.

But no. Trump had to pretend it would go away magically. Then have press conferences every day for a month, blabbering about injecting bleach and shining UV light inside your lungs.

Then he wanted to open the country up by Easter. Now he's blaming the record number of cases and hospitalizations, mostly in Florida, Arizona, California and Texas, on too much testing.

Today Florida reported more than 10,000 new cases, 325 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. Testing didn't put those people in the hospital or kill them.

So what should we do? Those four states should be quarantined, at a minimum. Their airports should be closed for all but essential travel because they are huge vectors of infection.

But to really stop this pandemic we'd have to take real action, by shutting down the country again. That, of course, would require a federal response. But Trump is a coward, afraid of looking like a pussy.

If he was really a tough guy he would say:
You know, I was wrong. I totally blew this. I was afraid the numbers would make reelection impossible. But it's too late for that now. I know I'm gonna lose in November, and I deserve to lose. I might as well put America first and save some lives. So we closing the country down again, for the entire month of July. If everyone but the people who provide essential services stays home, we can beat this thing.

When the stay-at-home order is lifted, I will resign the office of the presidency. I'm directing my people to begin vetting candidates to replace Mike Pence when he takes my place on August the first.
Thank you, and God bless America.
On August 2nd Pence can pardon Trump and he can shuffle off to Mar a Lago, hit the golf course with his buddies, contract the coronavirus, and spend his last days in a Miami ICU, writhing in agony, rasping, "I can't breathe..."

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