Folks, help me. I’m growing benumbed. The assholery is ceaseless and seemingly infinite, and I’m just one dude howling in the wilderness. Well, not the wilderness, really. I hate camping. But I’m still howling, damn it. Mostly in my pajamas.
Donald Trump’s capacity for dickishness is boundless, and it’s just so hard to keep up sometimes.
The latest? His administration has succeeded in loosening testing standards across the country because — MAGA?
CNN:
A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN.
"It's coming from the top down," the official said of the
new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person.
Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.
Now, that alone might be enough for me to spew every lunch from circa 1975 to present (did I really eat that many candy corns?), but that’s not all. The administration decided on this change while Dr. Anthony Fauci was literally knocked out and unable to protest.
JAKE TAPPER: “You just spoke with Dr. Fauci, who’s on that task force. What did he have to tell you?”
DR. SANJAY GUPTA: “Well, you know, so this task force meeting where this apparently was discussed was last Thursday, so I was asking Dr. Fauci about this, and he said this. I’m going to read this because I want to make sure I get this right. He said, ‘I was under general anesthesia in the operating room last Thursday, was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding these new testing recommendations.’ He went on to say, ‘I’m concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worry they will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is.’ So, Jake, he wasn’t part of the deliberations or discussions, and this is a problem. Right, because [Trump administration testing czar] Adm. [Brett] Giroir was just asked about this on a briefing and he said Dr. Fauci signed off on this. He wasn’t part of these discussions, he was in the operating room for one thing. But also he doesn’t agree with this in the sense that he thinks this might give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic transmission is no big deal. It is a big deal. We can talk about that. But this is worrisome. I mean, this is a clear schism, a clear difference. We heard one thing from Adm. Giroir on the task force and now we’re hearing something different from Dr. Anthony Fauci.”
We know Donald Trump wants nothing more than (the appearance of) normality while he goes on his fall unreality tour. We know he’s asked health officials to “slow the testing down.” We’ve heard reports that Jared Kushner proposed a nationwide testing plan that was ultimately aborted, in part because blue states were being hit the hardest at the time.
So it’s hardly a leap to think that Donald Trump forced the CDC to adopt looser testing standards so the number of COVID-19 cases would appear to be lower, thus helping Trump with his reelection campaign.
So you see why I’m growing just a bit numb? How much evil can we tolerate before this is all over?
That said, it’s no time to be discouraged.
Onward!
In Joe we trust.
Help make him (and all of us) proud.
“This guy is a natural. Sometimes I laugh so hard I cry." — Bette Midler on Aldous J. Pennyfarthing, via Twitter. Find out what made dear Bette break up. Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its boffo sequels Dear Pr*sident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are now available for a song! Click those links, yo!
