Once again, the state data on current COVID-19 hospitalizations is unstable. CA, SC, and TX have all posted notices stating their hosp. data is incomplete because of the HHS changeover. We’ve maintained the freeze on their hospitalization data again. More on that tomorrow.
In other words, the Trump administration's determination to shift data from the CDC to the Department of Health and Human Services is doing just what we feared: making it harder to understand the full scope of the pandemic's devastation.
The official death count is nearing 150,000. We know there are more, simply because we have what they call "excess deaths" on the books.
And since Donald Trump's poll numbers are down, he needs distractions. One of his go-to distractions is race.
Sure enough, Trump indicated he won't show up in person to pay his respects to the deceased Member of Congress and civil rights hero John Lewis. Possible explanations abound, including that Lewis was a vocal critic of Trump, but one sure effect of the decision is to signal to his racist followers that Trump just doesn't give a flip about Lewis.
But that's petty stuff for Trump. His new line is that he's gonna protect the suburbs from "those people." By all accounts the United States would be better off if we distributed affordable housing more broadly. I won't go into it. But Trump?
That's right. "Those people" are a threat. You'll be "bothered." You'd have "crime." And by the way, the AFFH is not an Obama rule. It goes back to 1968.
Prominent Trumpians couldn't wait to pile on to the racism distraction wagon. Senator Tom Cotton described American slavery as a "necessary evil." And Trump evangelical Eric Metaxas, who sure enough knows better, tweeted that Jesus was white--and therefore white supremacy can't be a problem.
It's easy to pass off Trumpism as a clown show. Jealous that the Washington Nationals invited Dr. Anthony Fauci to toss the Opening Day first pitch, Trump announced that he'd had to decline the Yankees offer to do the same.
(Remember, Trump was roundly booed when he showed up for a Washington game last year.)
Trump had not been invited. He is scheduled to throw the first pitch at a game in August.
So you might be tempted to write all off as tomfoolery. But remember: Tom Cotton went to Harvard. Eric Metaxas went to Yale. And there's a totalitarian playbook about how to help your guy. They make mistakes, but when you see coordinating messages, guess what?
They're coordinating messages.
They're coordinating messages.
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