For a man who has spent nearly two decades finding a way to say increasingly off the wall stuff, his latest go-to riff to excuse himself and Americans into believing that things are not that bad in the United States has been tried, rebutted, tried, rebutted, tried, ignored, tried, and tried, and tried.

You know it by heart. The only reason that the United States is seeing skyrocketing numbers of positive cases it that we’re leading the world in testing. We might be leading the world in the total number of tests – maybe – but that’s not the operative number. The number is testing per capita, and on that score, we’re getting our asses kicked by the standards set by any other modern nation.

Moreover, the total number of cases tested matters far less than the number of critically ill people showing up at hospitals in Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Birmingham, and now Jackson Mississippi – the sunbelt. There is very little hospital space (if any) for critically ill patients, our staff is being ground to dust, critical supplies are running short.

You know if you only test half the pregnant women, you only get half the babies born. It’s true. Math and Science don’t lie. https://t.co/knoQywGvYE

— YS (@NYinLA2121) July 13, 2020

I am no public health specialist, medical statistician, nor epidemiologist. When I see the percentage of positive tests rising (Florida), hospital beds full (Houston, Jackson), and death rates now slowly rising again, Trump can throw his damn test numbers away. This is the man who yelled “Slow the testing down please!” only to have his staff say he was kidding, and when asked he said he doesn’t kid. No, he thinks the fewer the tests the better and if people are lying in a bed on a ventilator fighting for their lives throughout the sunbelt (where everyone is inside, watch out north), the testing because near meaningless.

But this man doesn’t care. He cares about his election hopes, he cares about convincing Americans that rising cases mean nothing, he wants that gaw-damned economy in a “V-Shaped” recovery, which isn’t going to happen when people are in fear.

This is so obvious that he’s gotten criticism from his own White House (off record, of course) and even luke warm IQ journalists of the type here can figure out exactly what he’s doing. Kids must be in school, businesses must kick along as if nothing has happened, so he can claim he’s part of the American recovery, the transition to greatness.

What Trump has never figured out is that there will be no greatness until the disease is under control. He has half-assed stuff all his life and is counting upon his ability to do it again.

Some thoughts:

The sniffing is increasingly daily.

— OutspokenArtist (@outspokenartist) July 13, 2020

We noticed

You have nailed GOP logic perfectly.

— Shochu Patriot (@Shochu_Patriot) July 13, 2020

Yep. From trickle down to institutionalizing poverty. They always find a way to exempt themselves from responsibility:

Message for the Stable Genius:

If you cut cases in half, then the mortality rate immediately increases by 100%. And then if you cut those cases in half again, the mortality rate goes up 400%!!

— mblcta1 (@mblcta1) July 13, 2020

Math understood by my 12 year old.

This man’s sheer ignorance coupled with stupidity is breathtaking

— Susan Tinkle (@TinkleInk) July 13, 2020

It is either he believes it and keeps repeating it, or he really believes this is bullshit but he can fool the MAGA heads. So hard to tell and it can go either way.

****

Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @Miciak