TRUST ME, WE'VE GOT THIS COVERED

'don't worry, we've got everything under control.' 

as the number of infected with the coronavirus continues to grow in countries around the world, we received a 'comforting' tweet from our fearless leader and 'stable jenius' telling us "CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling coronavirus,..." crediting the order to close "...borders to certain parts of the world.", which to me is slightly confusing since we only share borders with canada and mexico and to my knowledge those borders remain open.  in a later tweet he decides to place the blame for the two day nearly 2000 point drop in the markets on "Low Ratings Fake News...doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus (sp) look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible...USA in great shape."  he also tries to say that, while the covid19 is serious, you're more likely to die from the flu.  but, once again, his information is faulty.  the fact is the fatality rate of the flu is only 0.1% while that of the coronavirus is between 2 and 4% in the city where it first appeared.  maybe it's just me, but it's not very comforting, not to mention leaderly (it is too a word!), to fudge death statistics just to make yourself look good

so, while trying to sound reassuring and in charge and saying the cdc was doing a "GREAT job", he apparently is managing to find another target for his anger in order to spread around the blame involving 'his' cdc while ignoring anything that might indicate any responsibility on his part, which meant  taking his cue from no less than medal of freedom awardee and noted ass-kisser, rush 'pass the oxy' limbaugh.  after the cdc warned that the spread of the virus in this country was a 'not-if-but-when' situation and people should prepare themselves for possible school and business shutdowns,  rush decided to push a few more buttons by expressing a new and incendiary conspiracy theory in order to spread the flames.  it seems dr. nancy messonnier, director of the cdc's national center for immunization and respiratory diseases (ncird), the person who expressed that evaluation, just happens to be the sister of former deputy attorney general and associate of robert mueller (yes, THAT robert mueller), rod rosenstein, insinuating that,  because of that relationship, she's working on behalf of 'the deep state' in order to crash the markets in an attempt to unseat lord dampnut, destroy his claims of 'a great economy' and upset his chances for re-election.

while praising his own efforts to control the spread of the virus, his proposed budget for 2021 shows a slightly different scenario in the pipeline.  though not expected to pass the democratic-controlled house, the budget seems designed to hamstring the functioning of the cdc.  as it is, it cuts 16% from the department's funding and a 10% decrease in the funding for the department of health and human services.  it also calls for a $65 million dollar reduction in the funding to the world health organization, a 40% total, plus an additional 34% for other global health programs.  $50 million would also be cut from his pandemic preparedness operations.  it must be noted at this time that the 'pandemic response team' was an executive branch team responsible for coordinating any response to a pandemic but was eliminated in 2018.  beginning with the firing of tom bossert, who had been calling for "a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics and biological attacks.", rear admiral timothy ziemer left his leadership position one month later and then the entire team was disbanded and never replaced.  knowing all this i can only wonder what would make anyone think that anybody is in control.

JUST IN:

remember when donny criticized then-president obama when, in 2014, he appointed an 'ebola czar' who had no experience in medicine or disease control?  he called it "A TOTAL JOKE".  this may come back to haunt him since he's just appointed mike pence, someone with no medical qualifications, to lead his battle against covid19.  good idea, putting a man with a questionable record on healthcare.  from his days as governor of indiana, one thing he was noted for was dragging his feet on a needle exchange program designed to prevent the spread of aids/hiv among drug users.  that delay resulted in an increase of 200 cases in a community of less than 24,000 by the time he relented.  since then he has worked tirelessly to advance the fight to overturn the affordable care act, something that, if successful, could end up denying coverage to millions.  so, yeah, he really cares about health. 

after the obama bashing he indulged in back in 2014, one might wonder what he was thinking doing the exact same thing in 2020, but then one would have to give him credit for actually thinking.  you need to look no further than the reason he's used before:  the need to pander to the part of his base that believes as pence and mother believe:  that prayer is the answer to everything, the cure for all men's ills and the foundation of our country and it's laws.  one can rightly assume that eventually...sooner rather than later...he will address the issue, and eschewing the findings of the science community that actually knows what they're talking about and before a crowd of like believers, he will declare that 'prayer is the answer'.  other religious 'pundits'*, like jim 'god says buy my potato slop' bakker and paula 'i have been to heaven' white, have already declared the virus is god's retribution  for everything, from acceptance of gays and same-sex marriage to the promotion of abortion and infanticide (abortion of the already born, for those not entirely familiar with pro-life-speak) to schools not starting their day with the pledge of allegiance and a prayer (but only one to the straight, white christian god.  the others are already going to hell, so why bother), and mikey and mother must lead the flag-and-cross throng.

what it all boils down to is donny seems anxious to see this 'little problem' just go away, because if it drags on for too long it will surely be reflected in the november election.  by whatever means, fudging statistics or passing the blame (saying it's the fault of the last guy or just another product of 'fake news') to making up ridiculous conspiracy theories because anything is worth it when it comes to protecting his golden (mango-tinted) legacy.

after all, it's what matters most.  well, that and making money.

*NOTE:  the word 'pundit' comes from the sanskrit meaning 'learned one'.  when referring to people like bakker and white, and for that matter anyone sitting on the fox couch of fools or elsewhere on that channel, they should never, EVER, be called a 'pundit'.  'bloviating bag of shit'?  'opinionated prick'?  while not 'politically correct' and using words unfit for more sensitive ears, they deserve to called for what they are.  to be fair, there are some on the left who don't deserve the 'title', either, but their nicknames would tend to be far less harsh.