The President seems more vigorous while fighting COVID than his ostensibly infection-free opponent, who called another "lid" at 9:15am this weekend.
“Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea that presidents should isolate themselves from the citizenry for safety’s sake.”
* * *
Nor will it soon be forgotten that Trump hatred reached its creepy crescendo when the man became gravely ill.As Trump said from his Walter Reed office suite:
I was given that alternative, stay in the White House, lock yourself in, don’t ever leave. Don’t even go to the oval office, just stay upstairs and enjoy it. Don’t see people, don’t talk to people.… This is the United States. This is the greatest country in the world. This is the most powerful country in the world. I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs and totally safe.… We have to confront problems, as a leader, you have to confront problems. There’s never been a great leader that would have done that.
Meanwhile, for all the cackling about karmic retribution against a political enemy, it remains unclear how useful lockdowns are in bending the virus transmission curve, especially considering their catastrophic cost.
A propos lockdowns and isolations, etc, Gottlieb and Levin had an uproar in their knickers as they wrote in the WSJ about the alleged foolishness and risk-taking of Trump, et al., as they seemingly were so unserious about Wuhan Virus risks. The money quote, for me, in their piece was this:
ReplyDeleteFor months, some of them [Trump and his "inner circle"] condoned nonchalance about the virus, mocking precautions such as wearing masks as marks of weakness and dismissing public-health concerns as overwrought.
Disregard the distorted characterization of the behavior of "some of them;" what Gottlieb and Levin ignore of those "months" is the empirical demonstration of the low likelihood of getting a Wuhan Virus infection serious enough to be noticed, even in a high-contact, high traffic, high-interaction environment.
On second thought, accept their mischaracterization: that nonchalance emphasizes the low likelihood. Trump's been righter than wronger on a lot of things, even if he does have trouble articulating the underlying reasons.
And supposedly, Trump is being discharged at 1830 EST today.
That does raise the question in my truly ignorant mind: what's the status of Melania--the press is ignoring her (which may be to her benefit), but do Trump and the Mrs have to stay isolated from each other, too, for the duration of these 14-ish days?
Eric Hines
I get the NYT daily email in the mornings. Today's was quite special.
ReplyDelete"Trump leaves the hospital, but only briefly. He is taking a medicine used in severe cases. And many Americans are wondering why pandemic rules don’t apply to everyone."
The first line references his visit to the protests, which they made a big deal about being horribly unsafe. The second is a lie. And the third is hilarious after a whole summer of unenforced rules with regard to BLM and LBTGQ protests, multiple funeral events for George Floyd and John Lewis, the ongoing RBG state funeral (in violation of Jewish traditions), etc., etc.
Try this: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/10/tom-bevan-cnn-wins.php
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there's this: https://babylonbee.com/news/donald-the-orange-returns-triumphantly-as-donald-the-white
ReplyDelete