https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/us-coronavirus-death-toll-washington-state

This man is sick. EVERYTHING is about him. This was supposed to be news conference on the subject of the virus and the government’s response to it. It wasn’t. Just more of Trump’s self-centered blather, bragging and insults.

The topper is his view that 3500 people should have to stay on that Princess cruise ship because HE is not to blame and HE doesn’t need them to make him look bad by being included in the count of the infected. Good grief. Never mind their plight and the danger of staying there. What a jerk. Even Mike Pence had enough to tell the media that they would be evacuated to safety with appropriate screening and quarantine.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/05/judge-slams-bill-barr-122449?te=1&nl=david-leonhardt&emc=edit_ty_20200306&campaign_id=39&instance_id=16538&segment_id=21941&user_id=45fc4046d933a4a135ed01d747c3bd8c&regi_id=1894992420200306

It was pretty obvious to everyone except Trumpers that Barr was hiding the nature and extent of the Mueller report’s findings and that the redactions in the released version of it were fishy. Now this judge – appointed by George W. Bush – is calling Barr on the carpet for his dishonesty and demanding answers. This was predicted by the House Managers – the truth WILL come out.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-falsely-blames-obama-admin-hurting-rollout-coronavirus/story?id=69410162

This is a variant on the continuous lie that Trump’s trashing of regulations has been a boon to this country. It is also part of the obvious pattern – blame someone else when you fail.

In this case, he takes his regulation reliever lie a step further by claiming to have trashed Obama regulations that did not exist. Anything rather than accept the fact that “the buck stops here.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/05/coronavirus-trump-disputes-world-health-organization-death-rate/4961519002/

It is impossible to find the lower limit of Trump’s stupidity. Knowing almost nothing on a subject never deters him. He literally does not know when to shut up.

The death rate in question is for those diagnosed with the virus. Cases that are so mild that the victim just toughs it out at home or -OMG – at work without a diagnosis, are not part of the equation. Duh!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/politics/taliban-airstrikes-afghanistan-us/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Five+Things&utm_campaign=812eae0b76-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_04_08_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6da287d761-812eae0b76-92736569

Trump played again?

Photo Shows Pence Team Trying To Pray Away Coronavirus

Private prayer is fine and cannot hurt, but Vice President Pence dragging government employees and scientists into his display of sanctimonious religiosity is cringe-worthy. IMHO. Of course, a good part of Trump’s base eats this stuff up so that is probably the point. Otherwise, why release photos.

The article contains many links to the evidence supporting the idea that Mr. Pence is a very poor choice for this very important role.

Let me end with a prayer – Heaven help us.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

John’s Hopkins is keeping this map up-to-date. There are now 86 cases in the United States and they are spread far and wide. Most of them can still be traced to travel in affected areas but some “community” cases are beginning to appear. Map can be scaled and scrolled. Worth bookmarking if the numbers keep growing.

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/vp-nw-odu-swatting-20200226-aipjmud6rfd5xae7lexddcszky-story.html?utm_campaign=top-headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pilotonline.com

If some “liberal” or Sanders supporter had been doing such things there would be a lot of discussion of “leftist” violence from some of you. So, it would be wrong of me to say that this deplorable White Supremacist conservative terrorist is typical of Trump supporters. Wouldn’t it? Of course, it would.

Trump has just spoken from the White House on a matter of grave importance – the looming coronavirus pandemic saying . . .

“Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low . . .” and that we will soon have a vaccination for it. Those are lies. The administration has done virtually nothing but gut the CDC and the NIH, the risk is very severe and there will not be any vaccinations for at least 18 months.

It would be good if we had a President that people could believe – especially when so many lives are at risk – but Trump has lied so many times on so many subjects that trusting his word has become foolish.

The cherry on top of this sundae of dishonesty and incompetence is that we now have Mike Pence in charge of coordinating the government’s response. Good grief. As a reminder, Mike Pence is a dummy – a science-denying religious zealot whose political rise was fueled by his role spewing nonsense on talk radio. Heaven help us.

https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/dont-confuse-changes-federal-health-spending-national-health-spending

Tip of the hat to Bobrsmith for pointing me to this work on Medicare-for-all done by the Urban Institute. They have studied several Medicare-for-all options.

One plan can be called the Cadillac Plan. It would be far more generous than current Medicare. It would cover dental, hearing, vision and long term care that Medicare does not cover. It would eliminate premiums and co-pays. And, it would cover every person living in this country bringing in 25.6 million legal residents and 10.8 undocumented residents. This Cadillac plan would increase National spending by $7 Trillion over 10 years increasing it from $52 Trillion to $59 Trillion.

They also worked with a Chevy plan. This would essentially extend current Medicare benefits, premiums and co-pays to all people legally resident in this country. Even though this plan covers 25.6 million people with no coverage currently it will REDUCE National spending by $2 Trillion over those ten years.