A Capitol Idea

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said -- "In regard to the Capitol, we’re in the process of determining exactly what precautions, if any, to take at the Capitol to protect those who work here and visit here,”

I don't understand.  Six days ago, Trump told everyone that there were only 15 cases of the coronavirus in the United States, that they would go down to five cases in a couple days, then down to maybe two in a few more days, and then in a matter of days there would be no more cases of the coronavirus, which would be totally gone like by some "miracle."  

So, why in the world in Mitch McConnell making contingency plans for the U.S. Capitol??  Doesn't he believe the leader of his party?  The leader of the country?!  He hasn't criticized Trump's comments, hasn't yet said how wrong-headed or dangerous they are.  So, he seems to be okay with them.  Yet he's making precautionary plans for protecting the people who work and visit the Capitol?  What gives.

Oh, sure, there are now more than 100 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., which according to my abacus is more than 15.  And more than the miracle zero we're supposed to be at by now.  And yes, there are now six reported deaths due to the coronavirus, which is six more than when Trump said it was all under control.  And when financial adviser Larry Kudlow said it all was locked down airtight, or...well, at least almost airtight.

But Mitch McConnell hasn't said that any of those pesky numbers bothered him for seeming to contradict Trump, so it makes now sense that he'd be worried about the U.S. Capitol.

Yesterday, in response to something I wrote -- that included chiding Trump for getting the gender wrong of the first person who died of the coronavirus in the U.S. -- someone wrote to me, "This isn’t the time for political shit. Besides, the Cdc [sic] apologized for telling him the wrong gender."

I explained, that, no, she was wrong, the time for "political shit" was long before this, that it was in 2018 when Trump actually closed the Pandemic Response unit. And when he quite literally cut $15 BILLION from CDC infectious disease prevention. The Republican claim that Democrats shouldn't make this about politics -- and about "political shit" -- wore off long ago.  And long ago means as far back as 2018 because the Pandemic unit isn't just a cute name for a group of people with neatly-packed HAZMAT suits waiting around to be needed until they could leap up with a call for action -- something Trump himself almost-literally suggested with he said he closed it down because he was a businessman and didn't like to pay people to do nothing, and they could be called back when needed.  In actual reality, the Pandemic Response unit spent its days working with nations around the world and coordinated efforts with other medical units, scientists and politicians to study outbreaks of viruses so that they could be prepared and get ahead of any pandemic before it happened and the could stop it!

By the way, as for the CDC "apologizing, we have no idea what the CDC actually told Trump. Given how we've seen him operate regularly for three years, he's lost all credibility, and it's just as likely they told him absolutely correctly what the gender of the first victim was, but he screwed up and had them apologize so he wouldn't look bad. Just like when he had screwed up about the path of Hurricane Dorian and then used a sharpie to extend its fictitious path.  People are "apologizing" for their supposed mistake to Trump all the time.  It's funny how that seems to happen.

At this point, I'm tired of Trump screwing up, Republicans covering for him and everyone else always being told that "it isn't time for..." [fill in the blank]. The time to get things right is before they happen, to prevent the problems Trump keeps making.

And if you have to start making contingency plans for protecting the health of people at the United States Capitol, you ought to at least have the important public decency during a health crisis to point out that when the president said that there wouldn't even be a problem in mere days, he perhaps wasn't correct.
He closed the Pandemic Response Unit! He cut $15 BILLION from the CDC!!