by Greg Mayer
We received the mailer below last Friday. It is transparently mendacious.
As everyone knows, Anthony Fauci has not, and has never made a political endorsement; and the statement he made in March is not about Donald Trump. The other three statements range from partly true to patently false. But of course, the major thrust is the apparent endorsement of Trump by Fauci, and thus on that ground alone, the people who put this out are liars. Who are they?
Yes, it’s the Republican Party of Wisconsin. No surprises there. But it was too late to influence me. I’d already voted!
The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population and 25% of deaths from Covid-19 (and that’s an undercount). Nuff said.
This is an unfair take. That’s not to exucuse the dishonest ad by the Trump campaign, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
The deaths are largely the result of moves at the state level, but even if we take your correlation as causation at the national level, we see a very interesting strong correlation between Romance language speaking countries and covid deaths. The USA (with the 5th largest Spanish speaking population in the world) is just ahead of Mexico in 10th spot for most deaths per capita. The rest of the nations in the top 10 are Spanish, French, or Portuguese speaking nations.
Are you sure that correlation means causation?
“The deaths are largely the result of moves at the state level . . . .”
Let’s not forget self-absorbed, irresponsible moves at the individual level.
True, although Americans are wearing masks more than us Canadians, so you could be worse.
And most of those moves at the state level were blessed or blasted by Trump in the direction of more deaths. I guess your commenting name, “Questioning the Data”, is more of a joke than I thought at first.
Tell me more.
Trump didn’t treat the pandemic as a national disaster, failing to free up federal money and assistance to be distributed to the states as should happen in natural and economic disasters. He often made a point of the pandemic being something the states should deal with and told them explicitly they shouldn’t expect the federal government to help. He left it to states to compete with each other to get testing and PPE supplies. When his administration did get involved in distribution, they made a point of helping pro-Trump states over the others. Instead of lowering prices and distributing these things fairly, the states competing with each other created chaos and drove up prices. Trump encouraged states to stop wearing masks and “open up”. Most of those with Republican governors obliged because they feared Trump’s ire or wanted to curry favor with him and his base. He insulted those with Democrat governors who only wanted to protect their own people. I’m sure there’s more but that’s a good start.
Interesting. Thanks. Sounds very similar to here in Canada. Provinces are the ones who set rules and such and the feds are responsible for international travel. That’s why we see a massive difference in death count between provinces. Quebec screwed up royally, which is why they have most of the deaths.
Similarly, NY, NJ, and Massachusetts account for 42% of the deaths in the US for the same reasons Quebec accounts for so many deaths in Canada.
I guess what you’re saying is that if federal government had taken more a role then those high death count states could have been curtailed significantly.
Quebec didn’t “screw up royally”. They got hit early, like NY, when many visitors from France spread COVID. Furthermore, the reason you see higher numbers in Ontario and Quebec is because those provinces have the highest population densities in Canada. Toronto is Canada’s biggest city; why would anyone be surprised COVID numbers are higher there?
And the Canadian federal government has taken big action. They were the ones that issued the benefits that allowed people to stay home :CERB, CRB, CRSB, CRCB, Mortgage payment deferral, tax receive for those with disabilities, the elderly, a boost for people looking after kids, a boost to student loans, boosts to several indigenous funds, tax breaks and borrowing for businesses, including the Canada Wage Subsidy which allowed people to keep their staff on the payroll (and these aren’t all of them). You can read about them here: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/economic-response-plan.html
The Feds let the provinces determine how they were going to handle things at the local level and that included their own subsidies and even at the more precise level, the province allowed municipalities and cities to pass bylaws around masks and such (I think the provinces should have done this but ok).
So, no, it wasn’t all up to the provinces to take care of business. This is totally different than the US.
We are doing poorly, by any standard. And aren’t supposed to be the world leader in all things like technology, medical advances, etc.?
Mark R is simply pointing this out (we are doing poorly), contrary to the BS in the advertisement.
What other standard should be applied (other that per capita case and death rates), and why?
Trump has fumbled this horribly. No one can honestly doubt this.
– He calls it a hoax
– He blames China (still does)
– He refuses to show an example by wearing a mask (or any other sensible measures — until finally forced to)
– He tries to downplay the seriousness (lying about it)
– He tries to slow down testing
– He intentionally politicizes a medical and epidemiological issue because, to his thin-skinned narcissism, anything that reflects negatively on him is a personal attack
COVID-19 was Trump’s WWII moment. His chance to show what a great leader he is. His chance to impress the US public; and, if nothing else, ensure his reelection.
All he could do is whine about how it was unfair, not his fault, fake news, the “Kung Flu”, the governors’ fault, the democrats fault, it would have been even worse if Biden were in office, in fact it IS Biden’s fault, or Clinton’s, or Obama’s fault …
The most memorable line from the Trump Administration: “No, I don’t take responsibility at all!” (DJT, 13-Mar-2020).
Sometimes he tells the truth, by accident.
Congratulations. With trenchant analysis such as this, you qualify for appointment to the White House Coronavirus Taskforce.
The question we should be asking is, how many deaths would there be in Hillary Clinton were president?
199,999? 300,000? 0?
*if* Clinton were president.
A bloody lot less because she wouldn’t have lost the pandemic ‘playbook’ compiled by the Obama administration.
It would be hard to find any government that has behaved more incompetently and obstructively then Trump’s.
Here’s how I look at it. The USA has 220,000 deaths due to COVID19. I saw Joe Biden claim you could have another 200,000 by the end of the year. If true, it’s almost exactly the same number of Americans as was killed by World War Two.
Donald Trump has already presided over about 50% of the deaths in WW2 but in a single year.
Greg shows his cattitude 😙
Thanks, Dom!
GCM
Love the mask and the post!
That mask bears a canny resemblance to the Ceiling Cat. How apropos.
Well done, Greg! And: Nice mask! 🙂
Thanks!
GCM
Trump lies continuously even on his good days. When desperate the lies come faster and they become relentless. What I do not understand about Fauci is why he did not give Trump the finger long ago. Especially now after Trump has called him names and yet used him in this way. Fauci will always be back as soon as the clown is gone.
Trump is now acting like a cornered rabid dog.
I’ve never seen such outrageous lying from the
GOP.
I posit that Anthony Fauci feels a powerful, genuine responsibility to remain “in the breach” to help the American people and the world (a sentiment so foreign to Trump I doubt he can mentally compass it) to the best of his ability until the COVID crisis abates.
Trump’s antics are small sh!t for him. And history will treat Trump and Fauci very differently.
Well, Fauci will be front and center soon as Trump is out the door. Of course he may not know that Trump is for sure losing this election. I know that but he doesn’t?
I’m not saying ANYTHING for sure right now.
My son said last night, “there’s no way Trump can win” and I shushed him. (I have no superstitions but habits die hard.)
The most I will say is that I am cautiously optimistic. Which I am.
It’s all about overwhelming democratic turn-out. That’s the only way to keep election results out of the courts. And the turnout so far has been pretty overwhelming. Regardless, I am anxious.
With you, 100%! 🙂
We got a similar mailer. I quipped to friends that you could take the Fauci quote as the campaign intended – as expressing support for Trump’s actions – and thereby understand why the president of the United States might call him an idiot. OK, strained…
Indeed – great mask!
Oops, that was a reply to Dom at #2.
I live in the DFW area. It seems that everyday I receive at least one campaign flyer in the mail.
First of all, I already voted.
Second, on whom do these fliers actually work? I don’t trust what’s printed on them. I immediately toss them all in the recycle bin, regardless of the party.
Third, if the USPS can handle all these campaign fliers, they can damn sure handle ballots!
“Second, on whom do these fliers actually work?”
One or two Trump fliers I’ve received have a garish cartoon on them. What juvenilized (infantilized?) psychological mindset responds affirmatively to them? Apparently not a few, asI reasonably gather that the Trump campaign has done its market research.
BTW, has anyone received repeated, mildly-haranguing mailers from the http://www.centerforvoterinformation.org? They repeatedly pressed me to vote absentee mail, always making sure to pat me on the head for being an “Above Average” voter, but reminding me in bold letters that whether I vote is a public record. A la Hitch, I don’t like being talked to in that tone of voice. I see it as an attempt to embarrass. One can get off their mailing list by EMAILING them. (So that they can have access to one via that mode, eh?)
As I assume they can access public voting records as often as they wish, they can soon enough see that I voted the first day of early voting, and then send another mailer telling me what a good boy I am.
This outfit is not universally loved:
http://www.propublica.org/article/a-nonprofit-with-ties-to-democrats-is-sending-out-millions-of-ballot-applications-election-officials-wish-it-would-stop
I got two fliers from CVI. I read them an tossed them.
I understand the reason for the push.
The GOP is doing everything in their power to try to strop people from voting. Every single effort of theirs is aimed at making it harder for people to vote. I wonder why?
The Cult of Death survives solely on the basis of dishonesty. And the credulity of the Republican electorate.
The dishonest ad isn’t just on flyers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54504096
Not only dishonest ads, but insidiously dishonest.
Trump is emitting the scent of desperation.
According to the BBC News a minute ago, 67m Americans have already voted. In Michigan, a million have voted, four times the number at the same time in 2016. The Beeb suggests this is massively to the Dems’ advantage.
Some cautious optimism justified, maybe…
Voters come-out when thy want change, not the status quo. So, it looks good for Biden.
Fortunately, WI, MI, and PA all have Dem governors.
I’m not sure if this is a bit salty for this locale, but the name of your mask should be “eating pussy.”
hehehehehe
I kill me!
D.A., NYC
Maybe (if anybody hasn’t voted already – most people I know have)…. Dr. F. should SPECTACULARLY RESIGN in protest – at a full court press, in protest of… well you know.
He can always come back when Biden wins or if Biden doesn’t (gawd ‘elp us!) Faucci will always have a platform regardless.
D.A. NYC