Trump is trying to sell the story that the pandemic is all but over.

[MineralMan]

That, however, won't wash. People will know better than that. Local media will continue to cover the COVID-19 story as it affects local communities, and the national media will continue to cover it, as well.

Only FOX News and Trump's moron base will believe him.

Trump is trying to "wash his hands" of this thing.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Excess Deaths show there is under-counting. Esp Florida where it is state policy to undercount. . nt

[MineralMan]

4. There will be much under-counting in this epidemic.

That's the reason we're not doing extensive testing, really. The federal government, led by Trump, doesn't want those numbers out there. Trump doesn't want real statistics on the disease, because they would hurt him politically.

Here's the thing, though: Trump is wrong about the entire thing. The truth will destroy him, as his policies lead to a rising death toll for the disease.

[pandr32]

62. +1

[RKP5637]

5. The FL governor is working hard to catch up with NYC. n/t

[Magoo48]

50. Florida and Texas are obviously full of bullshit.

With a few states reporting fairly honestly, it’s easy to calculate who is full of shit. That said, real stupid is gonna remain really stupid.

[RKP5637]

2. These drinks of bleach on the rocks are great!

[Takket]

3. Last step...

[Initech]

8. Lemon scented or new Berry Blast flavor?

[RKP5637]

12. I'll try the new Berry Blast flavor, please! Sounds good! n/t

[denem]

32. Breaking: Connoisseur's Orange-Tangerine edition

exclusive to the White House Shop.

[RKP5637]

35. Now that, looks really really good! And promoted by the Orange Man! Who could go wrong! n/t

[denem]

41. But wait there's more. The $2,800 vintage comes complete

with a free gift.

[lagomorph777]

51. Does that come in a double-wide, for the Orange One himself?

[EarnestPutz]

53. Laughed at that one.

[lagomorph777]

46. I prefer the texture of the Splash-less variety.

Goes down so smoothly.

But my favorite disinfectant so far is ethanol. I like the side-effects.

[RKP5637]

49. Yeah, I like the kick ethanol gives you!!! n/t

[Initech]

6. Yup, the episode is over and it's on to next week's wacky adventure!

Now to haul ass to Lollapalooza!

[MineralMan]

10. Problem is that it's not over at all. Trump can't make it so.

He thinks he can blow smoke (and light) up people's arses. He can't. The truth will out, as more and more people experience the grief of losing someone they love to the virus.

He's taking a risky gamble, and it's one with the odds heavily against him.

[LuckyLib]

65. The September second wave will seal his fate.

[Maeve]

7. That is SO going to come back and bite him

[MineralMan]

11. Exactly.

[hatrack]

9. Oh, yeah, at 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 deaths per day, that'll work . . .

[MineralMan]

13. Soon, he'll probably try a major distracting action.

I don't know what, though.

[hatrack]

15. Tee-Vee War - a timeless American classic!

Things go BOOM on the tee-vee as we blow up Teh Evul real goodlike!!

Take that, terrorist/socialist/communist/libtard/feminazi!

[Mariana]

64. Could be this is it:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 12304 of title 10, United States Code, and having determined that it is necessary to augment the regular Armed Forces of the United States for a named operational mission, specifically the “Enhanced Department of Defense Counternarcotic Operation in the Western Hemisphere,” I hereby order as follows:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-ordering-selected-reserve-armed-forces-active-duty/

[SoonerPride]

14. That dog won't hunt

You can't ignore 75,000 dead

You can't ignore 100,000 dead

You can't ignore 150,000 dead

You can't ignore 250,000 dead

The bodies will pile up by election day and there is nowhere to hide them

Pretending they don't exist won't work.

[mopinko]

16. some things cant be spun.

[maxrandb]

20. Somehow, it was spun

That this fucking moron should even be within 1,000,000,000 miles of the oval office.

[MineralMan]

18. You're right.

And, if people stop doing all the things they've been doing to protect themselves and others, the death toll will increase at an accelerating rate. It slowed down, due to all of the cautionary actions. If those stop, it will rapidly increase.

[Solly Mack]

17. I agree.

He is rearview mirroring it. Kushner more or less declared mission accomplished. And we all know how that worked out when Shrub did it.

More death. Years and years of bad. The "mission" was not completed. Nothing of value was accomplished. Just a bullshit, feel-good phrase meant to shape a narrative.

[MineralMan]

22. Yes. He's using Kushner as his lead man on this.

[Brother Mythos]

19. The people who will really believe that are beyond redemption.

The same goes for those who won't believe it, but will say that they do.

[world wide wally]

21. And the governors follow him like so many lemmings

[MineralMan]

23. Some of them, anyway.

There are several states with Governors who will do whatever he wants. Others will never do what he wants.

[bucolic_frolic]

24. Straight out of Corporate PR Crisis Management: Deny, deflect, distract, disavow

Catching the virus is not an immediate threat to anyone because you won't know you're sick for a week!!

[MineralMan]

26. Straight out of old-school PR Crisis Management, anyhow.

COVID-19 doesn't kill most people who catch it. Just a small percentage. However, its impact is huge, since everyone will soon know someone who died from it. Trump doesn't recognize that factor, because he cares for nobody but himself. A lot of powerful people have that blind spot.

A lot of people are being very careful about following guidelines designed to protect themselves. Trump's claque, however, eschews such precautions. Because of that, they will be among the first to fall. Trump is going to learn that his arrogance and lack of concern is going to kill a higher percentage of his supporters than those who do not support him.

Trump is a stupid, stupid man.

[Stuart G]

25. Trump cannot sell SH*T.

...As you said..." it won't wash, .... "people know better than that"

Trump's selling days are over. No one will buy anything or any ideas from him. Trump has set a standard for #1 Liar, that will never be surpassed. Trump can try, but his career as a salesman is over. (except to some very, very stupid people, and they will buy anything from anyone)

[MineralMan]

27. I tend to agree with you.

[not fooled]

58. Yep, and

his con artistry ever worked only on a certain percentage of the population--those susceptible to hucksters or who for whatever reason wanted to believe his B.S.

Now he's faced with trying to con the entire electorate after they've seen his incompetence and malfeasance. Won't work in a fair election--his only hope is that the GOPee working with putin manage to steal enough votes.

[IronLionZion]

28. And the second wave will be fake news?

Interesting to see how they spin it hitting the red states that opened earliest.

[MineralMan]

30. Well, it will be called fake news, no doubt.

Problem is that this disease will have an impact on a large segment of the population by the time a vaccine or truly effective treatments are widely available.

On a local basis, it will be news everywhere. That will make it news nationally, as well, as more and more people keep dying.

Trump is misreading this and doing so very badly. He thinks everything is business as usual, when it's really very, very unusual indeed. COVID-19 is a global game-changer, and Trump will not see the changes coming, as usual.

[c-rational]

29. I say we follow the example of the people in Italy. They were hit hard with deaths and are now

demanding answers (the newscasters last night did not say they were out for blood yet). The Dumpster tried to play this penny wise and pound foolish, i.e. no testing hoping it would go away. As we learn more about how the rest of this world dealt with the virus, my hope is Americans will also demand answers as to how the greatest country on the planet got caught so flatfooted.

[MineralMan]

31. The USA is a big, unwieldy nation.

We don't react as quickly as smaller nations do. There's a lag. However, we're about to come up against reality hard pretty soon. It won't be pretty for those currently in power, I suspect.

[NewJeffCT]

33. In states with Republican governors

news of additional outbreaks will be vigorously suppressed - especially in swing states like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona. If an outbreak happens in a blue state and/or a state with a republican governor (Hogan in MD), Trump and the RW echo chamber will blast them for doing a lousy job.

[MineralMan]

34. I don't think stories related to this can be effectively suppressed.

I truly don't. I'm sure that will be tried, but it will fail.

[NewJeffCT]

59. They've been ordering that cause of death

not be reported or investigated in Florida. Some newspapers are trying to dig into the story, but I'm not aware of a mass rebellion from hospitals and other medical centers in Florida about this.

Then, DeSantis goes on air with Trump and brags about how well Florida is doing.

[Johnny2X2X]

36. Yup

Could see this coming a mile away. They're ready to claim victory when tens of thousands of Americans will die in the coming weeks at minimum.

[MineralMan]

39. Exactly. It won't work, though, in Trump's favor.

This is bigger than he recognizes. He might be able to fool himself, but we're out here living it.

[marble falls]

37. I know of over 61,000 plus their families and friends who might beg to differ w/Donnie Two Scoops.

[MineralMan]

38. Yes, and there will be many more to come.

Before long, everyone will know or be related to someone who has died or been very seriously ill with COVID-19.

That can't be covered up by anyone. Trump doesn't know that, though. He has zero empathy with anyone. He feels nothing.

[marble falls]

40. That's the sad truth of it. I can hear traffic again from the main road and its not a good sign.

[MineralMan]

42. Yes. I'm noticing more traffic on local roads.

I haven't been out on the Interstates, though, since this started.

I have to go out shortly to gas up the car and pick up a couple of things. I'll see how things look while I'm out.

People are venturing out again, I think. They're getting fatigued with the isolation. Here in Minnesota, we're sort of used to that in the winter months, but now that things are warming up, cabin fever is setting in.

I'm planning to keep right on isolating, though, and practicing maximum caution when I must venture out.

[marble falls]

47. Kinda looks like the model for the period just before second wave of the Great Flu Pandemic ...

I'm beginning to enter our third month. My student painters want to look at restarting our classes, but I don't think that even in masks and gloves it sounds like a good idea. They're mostly even older than me.

I need to see another month with no second wave to even consider it seriously. I'm not sure or little neck of the woods has even had a complete first wave, yet. We've had eight cases, no deaths in the first two months but we've had two more in the last week or so - one from the Burger King drive through window and one from the Starbucks counter.

We've been lucky and I am gambler enough to know there is no sort of luck one can count on.

[MineralMan]

54. Well, I'm back from my gas and cigarette run.

Traffic is still very light here in the northeastern corner of St. Paul, MN. However going home, I saw a funeral procession traveling the opposite way. I didn't know they were having actual funerals here, but I counted about 25 cars full of mourners. Not a good thing.

[marble falls]

60. And also probably not for the guest of honor at the funeral, either, but for different reasons.

[iluvtennis]

43. April 2nd, a little over 5,000 deaths in US due to CV-19. April 30th: 61,000+ dead.

That's a 12-fold/1200% increase in the number of people who were on this earth in January and are no longer here.

Let that sink in.



(For 70 days - trump did nothing to mitigation the coronovirus)

[MineralMan]

55. Yes, and it's going to keep rising.

Many areas that were slow to become infected are now heading for their peaks. It's way to early to start relaxing precautions, I believe.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

44. People will also still know people getting sick and dying

No amount (or lack) of media coverage will be able to stop that. When more and more people see less and less of their friends, family members, etc. getting sick with COVID and/or dying from it, they'll know that this is blowing over. Not before.

[Marrah_Goodman]

45. he thinks because the number of deaths in NY is coming down that it's all better now

The idiot is to stupid to realize the numbers are coming down BECAUSE we are closed down. Frankly, no matter what he says, I don 't see the North East opening anytime soon.

[Skittles]

48. I keep hearing sirens

with more people at home there is less crime and less traffic so why are there more sirens

[MineralMan]

56. There have been three paramedic trucks with fire trucks

pass by my house in a residential area of St. Paul in the past two weeks. That's way more than usual.

[wiggs]

52. GOP silence and complicity tells me that they see a way through all of this. Russia,

Ukraine, Saudis, pandemic, caging of children, emoluments, incompetence, corruption, payoffs, treachery...they think, along with a fair number of americans, that none of this matters as along as they control the headlines, history books, narrative, campaign money, who votes and who doesn't, the DOJ, SCOTUS, senate, the reins (and reigns) of government, war footing, etc etc.

I don't doubt they have a plan...not that Trump has the ability to come up with something on his own but he has the world's oligarchs at his disposal as well as the Senate and its majority leader. And they have advisors even more dastardly than Karl Rove. They know how to use Trump's only talents: fluffing himself up without regard to the truth, avoiding shame, and pissing on everyone else.

If the GOP leaders really didn't think they will survive this I'm sure they would have bailed by now, publicly.

[gab13by13]

57. In another couple weeks,

Georgia, Florida, and Texas are going to be in a world of hurt. They didn't test, they are not ready to test for ant-bodies or ready to contact trace. Plus, 25% of Texans have no health insurance.

[McKim]

61. The Fed Ordered 100K Body Bags

The Fed ordered 100K Body Bags recently and it shows they CAN plan ahead and they recognize the scale of the coming wave......this is all to get the stock market up so the very wealth can get in to recoup losses and then get out fast!

[iluvtennis]

66. It's just disgusting that the Feds can order body bags, but not PPE and swabs for testing.

[BarbD]

63. Let's not forget the powerful wealthy that are benefiting

and moving the Faux conspiracy theories forward.