DELUSION, DERISION OR BOTH?

Trump, in a WSJ interview June 16^th said, ”….testing for Covid-19 was overrated and allowed for the possibility that some Americans wore facial coverings, not as a preventive measures, but as a way to signal disapproval of him.”  Duh

The White house task force has been absent while states struggle with outbreaks.  The last briefing was 53 days ago.  CNN had a program on the Covid-19 and invited Dr. Fauci, who was directed by the White House not to attend the televised event..  The CDC was directed not to speak to the media about the virus.  

Dr. Fauci had a podcast interview on the science of covid-19, which was very enlightening.  He said,  “One of the problems we face in the United States is that unfortunately there is an anti-science bias.  They just don’t believe science, and they don’t believe authority. So when they see someone up in the White House, which has an air of authority to it, who’s talking about science, that there are some people who just don’t believe that—and that’s unfortunate because you know, science is truth.”

The President talks of the pandemic as if he is out of touch with reality when speaking of miniscule numbers of cases and he uses terms that downplay the severity of the pandemic.  In order to divert, Trump attempted to compare the MEARS outbreak (that was never a pandemic and killed only 12,000 people) to Covid-19 killing 120,000 to date.  This was a distraction so he can say “look over there, it went away!”  All this rhetoric, with a surge in cases across the country and twenty states seeing an increase in cases since re-opening. When asked about health and safety at the rally, the White House Press Secretary said “masks are optional.” Good luck!

There may be only a 2-month window in which the antibodies are effective, after an asymptomatic person has tested positive and no other major symptoms have developed. Therefore, a vaccine that depends on someone getting antibodies after they’ve had virus and feel home free, would mean one needs a vaccine every 2 months, if this is true?

Studies show where masks were worn by 90-100% of the individuals, like in South Korea and Hong Kong, the numbers of cases are significantly lower and cases there are on the decline.  The United States, with its lack of leadership and hodge-podge 50 state solution will end up killing ourselves, for vanity of the president.  We must be kidding ourselves, with only 50% of the population wearing the masks in public.   If we had we all worn masks in January, the virus would be gone.

As Dr. Fauci stated, the worst kind of a public health threat is a closed space with cheering and chanting crowds, which would act like a petri dish.  Does Trump want a super spreader event?  Is that his goal? 

Does he want to prove public health experts wrong? Does Trump hate the experts so much and feel the need to get even with the health care community by acting like a big baby, because they have made him look silly with chlorine, lights, and hydroxychloroquine?

Mike Pence said a few days ago said that the state of Oklahoma had flattened the curve on the virus. His statement was patently false.  They are currently in a dramatic upward spike in cases.  I only hope the crowds at the rally all wear masks.

DACA REBUKE

The decision by the Supreme Court is a blow to the end the run the Republicans have attempted, so they weren’t tarnished with what they thought the Supremes would do for them.  Sorry Charlie, they did not take the bait.

This week the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to have the Deferred Action for Childhood arrival or DACA declared invalid. What is DACA?

“Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States, after being brought to the country as children, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the U.S. To be eligible for the program, recipients cannot have felonies or serious misdemeanors on their records. DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients. The policy was an executive branch memorandum, and was announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012.” -Wikipedia

Obama tried to position these individuals for a path to citizenship, but were thwarted by the Republicans in the Senate.  So Obama, to protect the children from immediate deportation, had to issue an executive order.

 Trump’s opinion on immigration is fueled by the xenophobic advisor Stephen Miller.  Mr. Miller believes that anyone who comes to this country as an immigrant must be deported.  Not quite that bad, however he has had all immigration in 2020 halted, using the virus as an excuse.  The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has recently quit taking applications for citizenship under Trump’s direction.

Trump and Mr. Miller have longed to eliminate DACA and vehemently opposed the DREAM act.  The one obstacle was the popularity of the program, in gallop polls the range of approval for the program ranged from 80-90% and included over 50% Republicans.  This created a problem of optics for the Chief Executive. So what does he do?  He turns to the judiciary where everything Trump eventually lands. 

Trump then must have hypothetically said to himself; “This is a no win. I want to eliminate the program because Obama made it! However, it’s popular, soooooo I’m cornered. Who do I trust to get me out of a mess? The courts and Mr. Barr?”  Trump has no concept of the benefit of immigration. And as I have written about previously, even Ronald Reagan recognized that without immigrants, we are in a race to the bottom. As can be seen with white supremacy, and “the party of stupid” (quoting Bobby Jindal). 

Trump had the authority and desire to pull out of the DACA program the same way it was created. The Justices in the majority opinion, rejecting the Trump administrations request to terminate the program, instead saw what Trump was doing. The justices basically said, “if you want it done, do it yourself and don’t come to us to do your work so you and make us look bad, you know all too well how to screw yourself and make yourself look bad so go ahead and do it again.”

It’s not been a good week for Trump and the Supreme Court this week, it’s like the court doesn’t like him.  First the LGBTQ decision upholding Title 10 giving the groups equal protections, then it was the Sanctuary cities ruling, and now the DACA decision.  Perhaps Trump should quit, since he doesn’t seem to ever get his way with the Supremes.  No Baby Love.