Shifty Criminals

In an Opinion Piece  in the New York Times Paul Krugman says:

Look, I can understand why Donald Trump and his minions turned a blind eye to the coronavirus back in February. There were already good reasons to believe that a serious pandemic was on its way, and minimizing the risk was deeply irresponsible. But at the time there was at least a possibility that things wouldn’t be too bad, and from a cynical point of view it made some sense for an administration that wanted to tout a growing economy to engage in happy talk rather than deal with the problem.

But that was four months and 120,000 dead Americans ago. What’s the point of keeping up the pretense?

I mean, what was the purpose of having Vice President Mike Pence put his name to an Op-Ed article declaring that there won’t be a second wave of infections? Nobody in their right mind imagines that Pence is an objective source of epidemiological information. And Larry Kudlow, the administration’s top economist, may have negative credibility: if he says something, it’s almost surely wrong. Why have him, of all people, assure the nation that a second wave isn’t coming?

Actual epidemiologists don’t think that the rising number of new cases is just an artifact of more testing. Two months ago, estimates of Rt, the number of people infected by each already-infected person, were below 1 for most states, meaning that the pandemic appeared to be fading away. But now they’re well above 1 for much of the country. Rt in Florida, for example, has gone from 0.81 in mid-April to 1.39 now.

I don’t know why any sane person would reasonably believe anything that someone from the Trump Administration said. They’re all pathological liars, spinning obviously fraudulent tales for their loser supporters. I mean, anyone who would support a morally bankrupt asshole like Trump and his minions, has to be on their way to hell if God holds to his promise in the Bible. To the supporters of the Devil, read Matthew 24:6 and know you’ve chosen mammon.